all made up with nowhere to go

I did a twenty minute art I'm really proud of! It almost didn't happen, but I was dicking around with my phone, taking pictures of myself for reference, and saw one I liked and thought, "I will draw from this, now!" since I already had an idea. I didn't expect anything to come from it.

Except that this appeared:

( pic under here )

That's an in-progress pic - the full thing's going up on my art blog tomorrow, because I scanned that sucker and it's available on my redbubble shop on stuff. (Which, yeah, if you click that link, you can see the full thing anyway)

Mum took one look at it and said, "He doesn't look happy." I told her that he's not meant to. I'm going to do a bigger version on A3 paper, and I think I might change his expression slightly. Maybe.

~

Had a flying visit with my sister in law and nephew on Monday. My nephew continues to be the most adorable thing on the planet.

I need to go and see them for a longer visit sometime very soon.

~

I seemed to have stalled on The Scorpio Races, and that's annoying me. I am enjoying it, I just don't feel like I can concentrate on it. *pulls face*

So I did really well with making weekly recaps of what's been posted on my tumblr for anyone who wasn't on there, didn't I?

WHERE HAS THIS YEAR GONE.

Anyway, I'm going to do a catch up, starting now. Some of what I posted was reblogs of old stuff that I still like, so I won't link that here. Just the new stuff.

Some of which is this way!

( Read more... )

I cannot even compose music, and yet on Wednesday I bought a pad of manuscript paper (it's double-sided!) In my defence, I sort of want to say, "well I can copy scores to it and use it in art!" but I don't think even I believe that, let alone anyone else.

I also bought Teach Yourself: Complete French (sadly without the CD, but eh) because it was £3 instead of 18. I don't have an actual French book like that, I suppose because I did all my French learning at school, and didn't think I'd need one in later life (I think I thought I'd retain it perfectly in spite of barely having conversed in it since leaving school. Man, past me was an idiot). (That said, I do have a textbook I, uh, forgot to return when I finished my A-Levels. It has the most awesome verb tables in the back, and I have no idea where it is).

I would like to stop buying random things that cost small amounts of money and try to save for a new scanner instead. My old one is not broken, but it is SO ANCIENT that no amount of trickery can get it to work in Linux. I have not been able to use one for eighteen months now, and it's driving me nuts.

(I still want Dragon Age: Inquisition, though, but it's not essential to my job - THAT SAID. Man, EVERY TIME I see DA:I Alistair, I legit stop breathing because dang he has grown up somewhat has he not (example .gif). I keep expecting it to be someone else and nope, it's the gosh darned king of Ferelden* and actually wow. I'll shut up now).

*Well, I assume he's king in that gif because his armour looks so flipping shiny. I could be wrong, though since I don't know context and please don't give it because SPOILERS. Unless you want to tell me how old he's supposed to be because apparently he's NINETEEN in Origins and I did not know that until literally a week ago. According to the DA wiki and my shitty maths, he's thirty-one?? OK REALLY SHUTTING UP NOW.

(GOSH DANG WHY. SEVERAL NAILS BEING HIT RIGHT ON THEIR HEADS HERE I DID NOT EXPECT THIS CAN YOU TELL).

RIGHT. UM. YES.

I've been drawing a lot over the past few days! I've been redrawing little doodles as bigger pictures for prints and stuff. I'm going to have to photograph them until I acquire a scanner, which is a slight hassle, but at least I've got a DSLR and a tripod to do it with. I'm going to post them to tumblr, and mirror here, because ruuger asked if I'd thought about hotlinking images from there and you know what? I had not. So I'm going to attempt to do that, because I know not all of you guys are on tumblr or even follow me there. And then I'm going to make an account on a print on demand site, and then you can buy things from me if you want to! YAAAAY.

Right. I'm going to shut up for reals now and go and sit in the corner. Or something.

~ Want to reblog aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the things. Well, all the Mass Effect things, anyway.

~ Currently drawing a child scared by an unseen horror. I seem to be developing a penchant for this kind of thing.

...I'm pretty sure I know what that says about me and my feels towards children...

~ I am 31 years and 3 months old and yesterday I fainted for the first time in my life! It hurt! Our hallway floor is very hard (I always knew that, though (it's concrete under there!), but encountering it back (and head) first confirmed it).

I don't think it was anything to worry about, either low blood sugar, or I hyperventilated (or a combo of the both). It was a surprise, anyway, although I am proud I have got to this age and haven't fainted before now (I had a near-miss once, in a recording studio. This was kind of like that, except not).

~ My bag that I spent better part of a week wrangling with is now in the store (here. It's £30 (GBP, obvs.) and slightly higher in dollars because $49 looked like a weird amount. So if you want it cheaper, you know what to do ;)

I bought some more of the same yarn in a different colourway yesterday for making another one (and I've seen it worked up and it looks AMAZING), so I can start on that at some point (current projects are some shell stitch wrist warmers, and a tea cosy, and some other bits and pieces).

~ In conclusion: spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacccccccccccceeeeeeeeeee boyfriendddddddddddddddd!

Hmm.

Still playing Nocturne off and on - finally finished The Obelisk; can't remember where I am supposed to go next, so am arsing about in the Amala Network, supposedly looking for Isamu (I suspect a wild goose chase is afoot).

I've actually been crocheting like mad recently (apart from the last two days), and I've had bad insomnia for going on three weeks (since before my last period - I'm now halfway through my cycle, so it won't let up now). I am intending to go and see the doctor about it, because it's ridiculous now. Yesterday and today I've been waking up at early AM, and then not falling back asleep for going on two hours.

I tried to nap during the day today and failed but. The weird thing is, I don't feel so tired right now. Although by rights, I should feel wrecked.

WTF I DON'T EVEN.

~*~

Had a social life! Went out to a friend's 40th birthday party last night (technically I was gate crashing because he didn't invite me, Jackie did, but he didn't tell me to get lost when he saw I was there, either. So).

I had a pretty good time, and didn't feel too much like a fish out of water, which I usually do when I'm in a room full of people I don't know (and I didn't panic being in a room full of people! \o/ )

I also took a sketchbook, started doodling when I got a little bored, drew an angel, and two of the women who were there told me it was gorgeous c:

(I should have scanned it, but I am lazy and full of insomnia)

Sketchdump times!

Assorted pics, including Persona 2 fanart (zero spoilers!), and a huge scribble which may make the entire thing unsuitable for dial-up users?

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Comments, crits, whatever welcome as usual.

~*~

In other news, I finished that thing I started the other day! \o/ Now I just have to figure out how to take a decent picture of it *sigh*

Aw man, as if it's two months since I last did a sketch dump! (Although to be fair, there was nearly a month where I didn't post anything at all, so...)

( 14 pics; some original, some fanart )

~*~

As always, comments and/or crits are welcome, even if all you want to say is, "Oh, I like that!" (or even, "Ugh, that's terrible!")

( subject line context - The Windmills of Your Mind )

This song used to freak me out when I was a kid, specifically because of the subject line.

~*~

In unrelated news, playing Mass Effect better. Finally got past the bit on Feros that had been bugging me by basically mowing the geth down with the Mako. It was hilarious. I also did a bit I didn't even know was possible, which was helping out the colonists (and it made me feel happy because last time I was all, "whut?", and I didn't even know you could help them).

Geth stalkers are nearly as annoying as Husks (because they won't stay still and let me kill them).

Aw man, Kaidan was awesome before I got wiped out at one point. He nearly took down a geth armature all by himself. This is a thing that has a regular attack that is a one hit kill, no matter how strong you are.

And then I died horribly, so it didn't matter *sigh*.

This is the most addictive game I've found in a while. And to think, I wasn't going to ever play it! OMG WAT.

~*~

Still drawing. Need to scan some more of it before Friday (maybe tomorrow!) since I only have one piece of drew-it-in-5-minutes fanart (I do have bad doodles of my Shepard (who, by the way, is now called Guinevere*), but they're awaiting digital inking, and...there are no low-res versions. There could be, but the world doesn't want to see them. Trust me. (Because I can fix things with digital inking. I could redraw/retransfer/whatever, but I've had a skinful of that recently).

~*~

I should probably end this entry here, since I have bog all else to say.

~*~

*Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to call her Jennifer again, but...I tried and tried to think of another girl name I like, and there aren't many. So here I am, being pretty unoriginal...

Beware, this entry contains art by yours truly that is approximately 20 years old (so I would've been about 11 or 12 at the time I made it). It will probably make your eyeballs bleed. Or make you laugh because it is truly awful. And it is, TRULY AWFUL.

But part of the point of this post is so you can point me back here when I am having one of those moments where I'm convinced I can't actually draw and/or paint.

(I don't know why I put my sig on these, because seriously, who on earth would want to steal them?)

( you can blame messiah_noire for this one ;) )

~*~

Spent the day backing up and sorting out my computer. And drawing! Lots and lots of drawing!

Including this:

Nightmare Trees

Obviously I am still not past crappy gradient backgrounds. Sigh.

Let's start with something I was talking about last night, eh? Here's a self-portrait that I drew earlier today. I used a photo of myself from 2007 (so I'm about 26 in that pic), and it doesn't really look like the photo, and it doesn't really look like me. Although my lips do kinda look like that, and my nose is that pointy from that angle.

I'm going to have another go, although not using that photo (because the angle is hella awkward - I've got my head tipped away from the camera).

It kept me amused for an hour or so, anyway.

On a related note, I read a thing on the internet last night that explained why some people might give drawn people too long noses. Apparently it is because of learning to draw manga style, and when you switch to another style, you over compensate on the noses, and they end up taking up too much of the face. I believed it, for about 18 hours.

Then today I checked all the drawings I have on my PC from before ever trying to draw like that and you know what? Every. Single. Person. Their noses were too long*. Then I found a photo of myself where my nose looks disproportionately long, and I thought, "You know what? I'm going back to my previous theory!" (Which is that you draw what you know. Who do you see the most in your life? Yourself).

*You can't even say that I learnt it from observing manga because when I was fifteen and I was learning to draw, I was literally one of about three people in my entire school year who knew what manga was. I'd even go as far to say not even that much was published over here back then. Oh, the dim and distant days of 1996...

~*~

I watched X-Men this afternoon, too. I think I need an icon that says, "Hey, I saved your life!" "No, you didn't."

Because she didn't and, as we all know by now (right?), I think Wolverine is awesome.

(I might have to make that, 'cause I'm bored on the internet, and I like making icons. So).

I think I may have actually spent the entire film staring at Famke Janssen, but she is so very lovely, so it was worth it.