Kiriban: 8758

Sorry I've been quite the last couple months. It's been rather quiet. It'll be quiet for a little longer, at least until Christmas. I've been having issues with my scanner and I really don't want to deal with things until I get it replaced, which will be around Christmas time (yep, I know exactly what I'm getting for Christmas).

But that doesn't mean I won't be creative. I plan to come up with plenty of art to be scanned in once the year ends. I'm in two Secret Santas, will be working on Overhill, and hopefully getting a bunch of other stuff done. I will also be working, as in a regular day job that pays. Yes! So glad to have that going for me.

And that's about it. Happy holidays, everyone! I hope they're good ones.

Kiriban: 8758

Well, the feature trade didn't work out. No matter, I've been wanting to do a feature for a while now.


The featured artist this turn around is , which is actually a studio of artists working on one project, namely Requiem Mask. Requiem Mask is a comic about the Phantom of Opera, aka Eric, as a ghost in the modern day and his opportunity to find love. It's definitely a dramedy, with equal measures of humor and heartbreak within. And another plus for this series is its taking inspiration more from the actual Leroux novel instead of the numerous derivatives that most people are familiar with -- though there are some nods to Phantom inspired works. Yes, that means Christine is blonde, Eric is pretty much a walking corpse, and they have Daroga, aka the Turk (I swear, outside of the 1925 film, I've yet to see anything that features him!). It's a fun read. So go check out *iron-gibbet and start reading the comic.

Following =elfgrove's lead, in turn inspired by =ladydove7: [link]

Here's the dealie:

1) The first 10 people who comment asking to participate in this trade will have 3 of their best works from their gallery featured in a journal. I will be choosing which 3 works that will be featured from each person's gallery. I will be running the feature on Friday, the 2nd, so get your comments in soon! (You must have art in your gallery to participate.)

2) In return, you will post a journal featuring 3 of my best works of your choosing!

3) Love and art is spread to the masses

Let the sharing begin!

This is kinda overdue, but no time like the present to get this done. Dragon*Con was overall fun. I got there on Thursday and managed to miss most of the badge drama and had a pretty quick line, all things considered. Most of it was spent with friends or wandering around. You can see a selection of my photos in my Flickr photostream:[link] . There was a lot of steampunk this year, so it was kind of overwhelming, but a lot of them were really well made. Also, a number of various other costumes and characters, of varying degrees of skill. Many I didn't get photos of were pretty fun and quirky (like on Monday I passed a teen with the Geico money on his head and a boombox with 80s music playing).

I went to three panels and participated in one contest. The first panel was one on comic book inking, which was very informative and probably my favorite. There were three panelists, but I only caught the names of two: Rodney Ramos and Nathan Massengill (*massengill). I enjoyed talking briefly with Massengill after the panel about some of the pluses that has come from the webcomics boom and some mechanical tools to consider. You can check out his dA gallery to see some of the work he has done. The second panel was on citizen science, a movement where everyday people are able to add to scientific information as well as going through and interpreting some of it, the sum result being a much faster turnover on projects that would be either time consuming or impossible if confined to traditional professional and academic people and resources (i.e. the astronomy grad student having to go through thousands and thousands of data points, a task that'd take years, versus the six months it took giving the same data, with some training, to a few hundred or thousand volunteers using some down time to look at it). The projects are far ranging, from birdhouse cams to recording flower blooming times to identifying galaxy types. There are plenty of examples, including Galaxy Zoo and Project FeederWatch. Worth a look at. The last panel was the one that I least enjoyed, the Dark Side of Fairy Tales or something. Pretty much was looking at the darker, non-Bowlderized stories, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I guess I was expecting more of a discussion of elements of the stories, maybe looking at things like magic and fairies. It touched on it, but seemed more of discussion of appreciation of the darker stories versus their lighter, cleaner versions (me, I appreciate the need for both).

Other than that, spent a lot of time hanging with my friends and catching up a bit. Got some info about personal stuff that I often miss because I don't keep up with my friends all that well (I need to work on that). Saturday I met up with some fellow Concept Art forum members for chance to draw and talk. That was fun, if a bit awkward because I was possibly the least professional artist there. Sunday I intended to meet with :devmordormaster:, but I woke up with a sore throat and was in bed for most of the day. This is why I don't have any individual photos of myself in costume right now. I was well enough late that afternoon to go to the Steampunk Fairy Tale photo shoot and do a little bit of walking around. I got to meet Peter Beagle again, and we hit it off with our shared appreciation of competent copy-editors.

That's about it. I look forward to next year.

Kiriban: 8758

It's kinda hard to believe that Dragon*Con is just around the corner, just a little over three weeks. I'm about two-thirds of the way done with my steampunk Red Riding Hood costume. Remember this? It's mostly the same, except the pants have been switched out with a riding skirt. =elfgrove, ~WalkwithoutRhythm and I will be meeting up with our friends and others in our steampunk fairytale group for pictures and stuff Sunday (tentatively). Come drop by.

I'll also be there for whole weekend. I know a few acquaintances from the CA.org board are looking to get together at some point, possibly Saturday, to meet in person and do some sketches. If you're interested in possibly hooking up, feel free to note me and I'll send you my contact info.

And expect a few images of my costume and my friends after the con.

Laters!