A group of my friends booked a really nice Hilton about 20 min away from the convention. There is food within walking distance, and wifi. They still have spots for 2-3 people left (I believe you would share a queen sized bed with someone else) and it's pretty much all girls (so if you're a girl, you don't have to share with a guy or anything) - and it's approximately $130 total for 4 nights starting from Day 0 (which is really cheap!).

I can personally vouch for their integrity, though the rooms may be chaotic since they're cosplayers! But, if you need a room for AX 2013 [link] , do send a note to ~Velveteen-Violinist! You can get more details from her!

Side note: Yes I'll be going to AX again this year; will post table number when I get 'em!

Thank you all so much for all the awesome and ridiculously nice bday wishes! I love you guys and absolutely cherish all of your support.

and some amazing gift art I've received that deserve to be featured!



and from some AT's and SS's

Hey guys! long time no see - sorry for disappearing, life sorta sucked me into a black hole and didn't spit me out since Dec. > < Haven't checked dA for awhile; I'm really really sorry for all the stuff I'm late on OTL;; A quick update about my life - battled art block for quite a long time and general post-grad listlessness; I was sucked into taking care of my 80+ grandmother for almost 2 months, and then had to deal with some more family and real life crap for awhile, and now my cousin's wedding. I'll check through notes and stuff soon - sorrysorry

--

Sorry for being late on my commissions > <
I am taking whatever free time I can get in between to finish obligations. I didn't want to post anything when I was still like, all over the place, but now I'm pretty sure I've overcome my art block and I'm jumping back into things again.  I'll be submitting some of the things I've been working on soon. Let me know if you want an update - if your commish is still in the sketch stage, and you want a refund, please note me! Otherwise, I PROMISE, YOU'LL SEE IT SOON!

Ignoring that my page has been overrun by Nutella for the moment...
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is an INCREDIBLY fun approach to novel writing where all participants write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. TODAY, ladies-n-gents, is the first day. You win NaNoWriMo by, well, reaching your 50,000 word goal by the last day of November. The best part is, a zillion people are also trying to do this same, so you have companions to help you as you suffer through the month! Reaching the goal (or failing) is entirely based on the honor system, and it works.

I've never learned so much about writing than I did when I completed my first NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo isn't just for writers - anyone who wants to participate, whatever your day job/night job - can do so! You can sign up mentally or, if you want to join the "official" NaNoWriMo community, you can do so here: [link] and read up about the wonderful/terrible month of November where all us participants turn into masochists (as well as get awesome prep talks from published authors!). If you win, you also get a coupon to receive up to 5 free physical copies of your NaNoWriMo book! Awesome, right? :"D (here are the other things you can get: [link])

ANYWAY-- if I'm not convincing, do click play on this video:



I'm participating this year and would be HAPPY to word war with anyone/get partners to kick each other into writing/and more.

Great (and active) dA groups relating to NaNoWriMo you can join:

Soon, you will realize that there are two types of NaNoWriMoers- the "by-the-seat-of-your-pants" writers and the "obsessive-compulsive-planners." Personally, I've always been the latter, but this year, I have decided to (gasp) be the former.

I don't know the plot, I don't know the characters, I don't know ANYTHING about what I'm going to be writing about or where I'm headed. All I know is how I want to write it. (And that it'll probably be fantasy.)

So anyhow, please, if you're interested, join me on this great journey of pulling your hair out, running around like a headless chicken, and having the best time of your life.

The funeral was on Wednesday.

A young man in his twenties stepped out of one of the black limousines parked at the front gate of Arbist Hill Cemetery.

He looked out of place.

It was not his age, though he was certainly the most youthful of the attendees, which is to say politely, that he looked at least two generations removed from the rest. It was not his umbrella, which he had carried out of the car and through the black iron gate, despite the lack of any rain in the vicinity and up to thirty-three miles from the cemetery. It was not his smile, which could have been a great reason since Christian, post-twentieth-century funeral proceedings in The Great American Southwest meant people actually did mournful revisiting of could-have-beens and should-have-beens instead of enjoying nice autumnal weather patterns.

No, none of those things made him out of place.

Perhaps it was his eyes. A humanist might declare that they were like a blind person's, the palest of blue and experiencing something entirely different from "the rest of us." A poet might look into them and claim he had no soul, none at all, and no one should be convinced otherwise. A woman might say that they represented the tragic mysteriousness of a man far removed from his time. A psychiatrist once did look at them and shrug.

The young man, having remembered that sunglasses helped, donned a pair of Cartier's. They did help, a little, and it was a sunny day.

He hoisted his umbrella over his head as he joined the line of very serious, very bowed, funeral attendees, all of whom did not have the presence of mind to notice his physical eccentricities. Instead, they noted his umbrella and most of them wrote it off as grief but all of them were too polite to point out the lack of physical rain in the vicinity and up to thirty-three miles.

If they had, they might have been told that elsewhere, it was raining.

Elsewhere was not the mortal plane.

===

And to those who I've gotten an opinion on this before- don't worry, I don't count this prologue as part of my NaNoWriMo word-count.

[HAIR] Platinum blond.
[EYES] Pale blue, like a blind person's, though he is not actually blind. Has very thick/ropy/pink scar on the right side of his face, especially around the eye.
[AGE] Early 20s (doesn't really keep track)
[GENDER] Male
[HEIGHT] 5' 10"
[BIRTHDATE] Unknown; Celebrates it at New Years.
[QUOTE] "Sic transit gloria mundi." So passes away earthly glory.

[OCCUPATION] (Officially) Archbishop of the Diocese of Venoa - address as "Your Grace"; administratively the Patriarch-in-Waiting

[PERSONALITY TRAITS] Gentle, absent-minded, scholarly, prideful || Cowardly, selfish, pessimistic, weary.

[ACCESSORIES]

• Earrings: He wears a cross earring on his left ear. It used to be a part of the rosary his mother had, but he took apart the necklace and reforged it into a earring in honor of her. (Right ear is a simple men's hoop earring with a cross etched on, like this: [link])
• Rosary: When he first achieved the status of full Priest, Emriel gifted him this rosary. It is very dear to him.
• Silver signet ring: He wears it on the little finger of his left hand. It is his official ring for sending letters and approving documents of the branch of the Church he serves.
• Bible: A remnant of his acolyte days, it is a very old and worn, but very precious to him. One of the first gifts he received from Emriel.

[STORY]

• Lusien di'Conti, 3rd son, womanizer, and all-around useless man was his father. He had disgraced his family name because, unlike other bastards, Ilien had been born under the roofs of the di'Conti's main residence. And thus, he must be acknowledged under Lorencia tradition-- not as a true son, no, but taken into the family as a child with the family's blood. Lusien's indiscretion would be the cause of much of his son's childhood suffering.


• Though he was taught his letters with the rest of his legitimate cousins, Ilien was treated like a whipping boy by his tutors and shunned by the rest of his family. He found no solace in his mother, Reniza, who became a depressed drunk and soon committed suicide by hanging herself from the rafters of their shack. Ilien was only six.


• He ran into one of the churches in town, and knelt at the altar, praying for his mother's soul, for he had been told that those who took their own life would burn in the fires of hell. Despair overtaking him, the six year old recalled an ancient myth and offered his right eye to God in hopes of preventing his mother's fate. Secretly, however, he wished to forget his childhood and for a new life away from the di'Conti family. He was given a choice - a new life or his mother's safe conduct to Heaven. To his shame, his heart wanted the former. He got both. But he did not know that it was not God who had responded to his prayer.


• Half mad from pain and blood loss, Ilien fainted at the altar to be discovered by the kindly Emriel di Luca, a humble deacon living in the church. Emriel took him in as a son and an acolyte of the Church. Ilien absolutely adored his new guardian, so much so that he rejected the di'Conti name and fashioned himself as the adopted son of Emriel, Ilien d'Emriel. Not long after, Emriel received summons from the Pope—he was to head the creation of a new Diocese in Venoa as the Patriarch. Of course, Ilien left with Emriel to take up their new task in Venoa. There, Ilien began a blessed life with his beloved new father.


• After Ilien was promoted to Priesthood, his rise in the ranks of the Church turned phenomenal. Soon, and unheard of in one so young of age, he was considered the best candidate for the Patriarchy of Venoa. Around this time, the di'Conti family began to recognize Ilien's influence and finally offered to acknowledge him as a true di'Conti. Ilien refused their missive (with pleasure).


• Ilien's meteoric rise in the ranks created quite a stir and many jealous tongues began wagging against him. Some claimed that he was an agent cursed by the Devil, that everything he touched appeared charmed... when it was hiding evil. Some said he was a coward and easily manipulated by the "darker" forces, that he was not at all as intelligent or well-spoken as rumor claimed. Rather, a shadowed puppet-master held the strings, constantly feeding him the right words to say, the right things to do.


• CURRENT: Many continue to fear him and his influence across the country. He seemed so young, yet to be so connected! He must not be allowed to rise any further.


• TBC...

[MISC. QUIRKS]

• Right-handed when writing, uses left hand for everything else. (Probably born left-handed and forced to learn to write with right hand.)
• Practically blind in scarred eye, near-sighted in the other.
• Can snuff out candles with his thumb and forefinger.
• Can peel an apple in one long continuous peel (and without cutting himself). Can make apple bunnies :"D [link]
• Enjoys whistling, humming, and dabbling in organ music.

[MISC. FACTS]

• It is traditional in Lorencia for priests to cover one of their arms and hands completely (whichever their dominant hand/or the one they use to pray, hold communion, touch the Bible, touch their rosaries) because that is the arm that serves God. Thus, Ilien's alb has a maniple-like sleeve on the left side
• His entire outfit is derivative of traditional liturgical vestment worn by Catholic priests - with alb, girdle/cincture, maniple and stole. He will gain a chasuble once he ascends to Patriarch.
• Lorencia and the di'Contis were inspired by Italy and the de'Medicis.

• By me:

• To me:

Sorry, tired, will do more later ><

So I think I finally cleared my over900 backlog of replies/reading etc. (though I haven't gone through the 1400 backlog of comments yet). Sorry if I haven't responded to them for so long (and now I can't cause it would be super awkward...), and so sorry for my lack of activity/responses. I miss you guys a lot!! And I'm such an AWFUL RPer, I deserve to rot in the RP dungeon of hell forever and forever. But I finally got through reading all of them and being touched again by all your nice comments, and the ones from my friends (you know who you are >w<), so thank you all again and again! I miss dA a lot but I'm still trying to figure out what I am gonna do with my life @__@;

And I've been keeping busy planning my personal art book. I'll probably make a poll about it soon. I'm considering using kickstarter for it but they take a lot (10% o_o!) so I'm not totally sure yet. There will probably be goodies/rewards for pre-ordering (like exclusive brush packs and high-res wallpapers) since I really need capital in order to make it ; ; so far, including the 3 guest artists, it's turning out to be around 60 pages.

I've been having lots of fun sketching your chars! I know I posted the journal "sketching day 5" many days ago, but I thought that maybe once a week might be better for you guys, less posting, and I'll just pick people from that journal for the rest of the week since I couldn't get to everyone who inspired me. I'll probably sketch a few more before sunday and send out the notes >w< I'm really happy about all the response!

And finally, I've been super busy this month and last month everyday editing and working on a corporate contract for some artwork.  Even though it's really frustrating and I don't quite like the style, I think I learned a lot from the experience. Plus, the game will be coming out on mobile phones soon (apple and android) and it's free to play the beginning/trial, so I'll advertise it when it comes out! >w<

Anyway, I rarely post these life-ish-updates, so you get cookies for reading through this WALL OF TEXT LOL;;

TLDR; Hope everyone is doing good >w< I'm open to conversation/whatever in the comments :"D

Everyday (or every other day, or on any day I feel like), when I go to sleep, I will make a journal. "Sketching Game Day 1/2/3/etc"

When I wake up the next day, I will take ONE sketch request as a warm up. (Okay, maybe even two.) It can be anything from fanart (Iron Man) to OCs to Gaia avatars. I AM RUSTY. IT MIGHT LOOK LIKE SH*T. Or it might look like: [link]

All you have to do is post a reference link of ONE character with ONE comment on that journal before I get up. Do not give me a gazillion characters to choose from. Just one.

After I pick (I will tell you if you're picked), I will sketch it out traditionally using pencil (maybe pen sometimes) and paper that very day.

Then I delete the journal and all the requests. (So each new day is a "new" journal)

At the end of the week, I will scan in all the sketches and send a digital file to the owner of every request.

If you like your sketch so much you want the physical copy you can note me "Physical Copy" and send me a flat $25 through Paypal when I reply, and I will ship you the physical original sketch, which will be signed and dated and the only one in the world ;D

Sometimes, my journals will have requirements for the poster, such as: "Long haired males only!" or "elves pl0x" or even "Must be willing to pay $5 for me to sketch something" (most likely on weekends when I will dreadfully not be happy to do work)

• NO couples, porn, explicit, racist, anything I don't feel like, changing the sketch cause I got some detail of your character wrong.


• YES to: friends' chars, any race, mobs, mecha, unicorn rainbows, whatever your can come up with.


• Repeating the same requests on consecutive journals (if you were not chosen) are welcome. I open WAY TOO MANY references every day because they're all very interesting but I don't have time to go through and draw all of them that day, so you have a better chance if you keep trying.


• If you have been picked, you cannot post again for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, you can try your luck again, but it CANNOT be the same character.


• The sketch may be anything from headshot to full body. You are not allowed to request what you want and you are not allowed to complain when you get it...since it's FREE.


• FRIENDS ARE WELCOME TO POST though please don't feel insulted if I don't pick your char. It's all about what I feel like that moment of that morning. NO ONE is allowed to complain about favoritism. This isn't a democracy or a lottery.


• Accept that randomness and experimentation will happen, IN ABUNDANCE.


• Break any, I'll disqualify you or stop the requests all together.

1. Can I use this idea? Feel free to do your own!

2. How do I know I am picked? I note all the winners daily.

3. I go to sleep before the journal was up and I am usually late to comment on the journal! Don't worry, I click on every comment before I decide. You only need to post before I start clicking (it will say on the journal when I'm awake and picking.

And finally,

Don't post character links on this journal.

1. *Sakura-Pumpkin
2. *LaneChan
3. ~Remanoir
4. ~Jadegreenjr
5. ~eight0fhearts
6. ~Hama-S
7. *Iviernu
8. *AnemoneInTheSky
9. ~TalliHoo
10. *Sugar-Thief
11. *blanket-walrus
12. *YumeNouveau
13. *CrimsonMallard
14. ~Yashy
15. ~bunnychii
16. ~SICKBRUCE
17. ~Illycia

omg, first day of AM2 done |D so exhausted from long drive. I want to say: if you told me you were gonna drop by my table, YOU BETTER COME SEE ME! Don't be scared or intimidated or whatever. I would love to be friends ok <3


I'm attending a con for the first time EVER. I can't even begin to describe how lost I am feeling right now haha. Totally doesn't help that I won't just be a wanderer/attendee, I'll be tabling as well, so I'm scrambling to get prints and other stuff ready.

I will be sharing a table with the lovely for AM2 (website: [link]) which is between June 15th and 17th.

The prints I will be selling will be the fanart stuff you see in my gallery right now (I haven't had time to draw any more), and possibly other goodies that I have not posted yet. x3

Despite having lived in Southern California most of my life, I have never gone to Anime Expo Los Angeles or San Diego Comic Con, so this year I will be attending the former with a table in AA as well! >u<

The awesome will be flying to my house a week early and we will have lots of fun doing touristy things like going to Disneyland 8D

We are tabling together at AX and will be there bright and early every day.

If you google this phrase, my dA comes up...along with the several twitter/facebook sites who have reblogged/reposted my artwork and attributing it to "Leporidae Mortis." This is certainly my fault for trying to be clever as I put that under "Real Name" on my dA profile (it's been removed now).

Let me put the myth to rest. Leporidae Mortis is a latin phrase my roommate and I came up with in a spur of the moment after taking a year of latin and a bit too eager to exercise our new-found limited vocabulary. Leporidae is the Family name for over 60 species of rabbits and hares. Mortis is the declined (conjugated; genitive) form of mors, "death." Essentially, the phrase means, Rabbit of Death; sound familiar?

(P.S. I would also really appreciate it if people at least notified me when they repost my stuff and/or followed copyright law . ): ...on the other hand, I wouldn't get funny surprises like this...)

I'm sorry it took me this long orz. Finals week has been murdering me by slow torture.
@_@ I didn't even realize how many people commented so it took forever to make the list lol orz

Without further ado, the winner is..

I didn't expect so many happy birthdays from so many people. Even though I had to spend my day doing finals week for uni, the wonderful comments really made me feel better even though I wasn't out celebrating. Though there isn't much to celebrate, I swear everything goes downhill after you turn 21- /shot

I will definitely reply to every single one, but since the comments disappear from my inbox after replying, I wanted to do something nice for all the well-wishers (including the ones that dropped by MSN!).

Thus..

I'm gonna make a list of everyone who took the time to send me a heartfelt birthday wish before the posting of this journal and randomly pick one person to do art for using random.org.
Yep that's right, you get art!

I'll update this journal tomorrow morning with the winner when I'm less tired.

I'm really happy to share the news with you guys that my senior honors thesis was accepted and I will be graduating with distinction this May! I have never been so relieved, haha!

I totally squealed when I saw it - plus the whole 3k jump in messages (ohgod;;; ) thank you so much $Moonbeam13 who also featured my first DD, Empress: [link] which was given back in August.

I'm really really really happy because this also gives the image - which I designed for the #Kingdom-Carousel Art Book a chance to help advertise it. We will donate 100% of the profits to St. Jude's Children's Hospital, a place where no child is ever denied expensive treatment because of the family's inability to pay.

The book will have A4 sized high quality paper, packaged in its own beautifully designed, gold-filigreed box. It will feature over 100 pages of new and unreleased art from over 100 artists from all over dA.

You can see previews of the amazing art here: [link] or participate in the poster giveaway here:

Pre-Order today! [link]

and watch the group for updates!

Even if you can't pre-order it, please spread the word! The more interest we can generate about this art book project, the more money we can raise for the charity!

We thank all of you for your support!

Update3: Thank you for joining me! Please don't take everything I said/wrote 100% seriously - I break my own rules sometimes - learn it, then change it!
If you wish to rewatch most of the stream, the video can be found here: [link]
If you want the PSD file and notepad text, layers are labeled, but fairly scattered, you can dl it here: [link]

===

Hi everyone,

Recently, upon request by a friend, I did live streaming on Join.me and taught a 1.5 hr session on "semi-realism" face structure (generic/my style). I am absolutely not an expert and in fact have loads and loads to learn, but I guess I am more experienced than some people at coloring faces and blocking in structures.

It seemed that a couple other friends were interested in this as well so I am planning another one. It was going to be private, but I thought maybe some of you might be interested as well. >u<

You do not need to know Photoshop or how to shade very well. I will be going over basics like lighting and shadow and how those work. I will teach how to do lighting/color on a face (which areas that are light/dark), eyes, nose, mouth structures, and anatomy corrections on the existing art that have realism/anatomy mistakes. Remember that I will be working on the very generic popularized realism face (not anime!), like this: [link], and teaching basic coloring strategies, so it's up to you to learn more yourself/add your own twist to it.

The session will be tomorrow, Tuesday, beginning around 10 PM EST (GMT -5). The link to the join me will be posted on this journal tomorrow.

I will take questions after every "section" and at the end.

Please comment if you plan on coming, and if anyone wants to volunteer their realism attempts for critique, link me your drawing in the comments. I can go over your drawing and shade over/redraw areas that are problematic, and correct any common mistakes, during the session.

(Please be nice; I am volunteering time out of my day to share this with strangers, so if you don't like the way I do things, don't join!)