Incidents and accidents

‘Warning: This will be a long post! In order, this post will cover: Christmas, New Year’s, Atari’s Birthday Dinner, Art, School and finally Finances. I’m sorry again for being gone for so long! I meant to update on Christmas, but John and I were out of state. I meant to update on January 1st, but I uploaded photos from the New Year’s party and then had to run out before I could post. Then the rest of the week has been a mad scary dash for school.

On Christmas Eve, John and I went down to see his mother. I think she spent more on me that John spent on me, and I KNOW she spent more on me that I spent on him. It’s a little unnerving. I’m careful with other people’s money, and I hate feeling like I’m taking any happiness away from anyone. Spending money on myself makes me happy. I didn’t like a pair of pants she got me, so I exchanged it for a dress that I fell in love with. A dress! Can you believe it? It’s a little red and black strapless thing that screams Summer. Anyway, so then John and I went up to see my mother in NC on Christmas day. It was nice to see her and see my brother again. She got me a new cell phone. The number is still the same though. The phone is awesome because I can download ringers and games onto it (if I had any time). Jared got me some lavender bath stuff and some assorted candy. The lavender bath stuff makes me mucho happy. I used to have some as a kid, and I forgot how much I love lavender. We slept there that night on a horribly cold air mattress on the floor in her guest room, then drove back. I spent the day after working on cleaning up my wreck of an apartment and the commissions.
New Year’s was quite nice, but a little more quiet than I was expecting. John and I went down to Atlanta to Atari’s (the same guy that throws the kick-ass costume parties). It was a little less well attended than the last one, but that served to make it better, in a toned-down sort of way. It was a really normal party until someone decided that strip twister was a good idea. Yeah… The way it works is just like normal twister, but if you fall you take off an article of clothing. After little debate, I decided to play as well. I’m horribly bad at twister, and predictably, I lost. I lost my top and bra, but I couldn’t go any further south because it was ‘that time of the month’ for me. Grrr. Because of that as well, I was not drinking (mess up your belly). So we drove home sober and un-naked, but you can see the photos in the Parties album.
Then drove back down the day after for Atari’s Birthday dinner, in which we invade an Outback in Atlanta somewhere with 40 people. It was much fun. Once again, I had to order from the kiddie menu because I don’t like anything on the real menu. Stuck with my norm, chicken tenders. It was very funny molesting the wait staff there. They were less than pleased. John and I left because I had to get to work early the next day, but I somehow thought it would be a good idea to drive into downtown Atlanta and take pictures instead of going to bed (mistake!). I got some great photos (which will be up on everyday beautiful as I have time) though, so I was glad for that at least.
At some point in there, I finished Atari’s commission, which you may be able to see on Schlock Horror at some point. I also finished Earth for Heather and Water for Cliff, both of which I am very pleased with. I also got totally sick of the layout for Midnight Confessions, so I chucked it and re-designed it with something that works a little better for me. It’s less fancy, but much less of a pain-in-the-ass to update when I DO have new work. This also brings me to the end of my requested artwork, because no one else has asked for anything! So, I’m still taking commissions, for anyone that’s still wondering. I’ve really liked these, because I get to do more things that I would have normally thought of.
On a new topic: I’M BACK IN SCHOOL!!! That’s right, I can finally quit bitching about my lack of an education and do something about it! It all happened so fast that it still hasn’t hit me yet. I’m sure it will tomorrow as I am sitting is class. I’m taking College Algebra (eeek!), Intro to Sociology (whee!), and Intro to Early Childhood Education (whee!). I’m still quite apprehensive, but I think I’ll make it. I’m two days late though, which so will not make a nice impression in class. I never got a letter telling me when registration was, and it turns out that it was three days ago! Shit! So it was a mad dash to get registered and in the right classes, then to get it all paid for, etc… I have the Pell Grant because my income is so low, but it doesn’t pay for anything BUT tuition, which means I have to get a private loan from somewhere else to make up for the time I’ll be losing from work. John’s dad will be co-signing a loan for me so I won’t have to worry about money at all, which will be quite nice. I’m very excited about that part.

Well, so far I’ve had three requests for drawings. Fire was the first, and is done. Atari has requested a pair of lounging cigarette-girl zombie women for his web site. Those two have to wait though, until he gets his hard drive back up. Amanda has requested a PSME Alice, but she’ll be set in Wonderland. I know what I’ll do for her though. She’ll be in a rose garden with a flamingo tucked under her arm. Amanda has requested that I use photos with the drawings, so Alice will be drawn, but the roses will be a photo. The Alice will probably look a bit more anime (larger eyes) than I normally do, just to get the PSME idea across. I want to include some really colorful and magical butterflies too.
I am so excited about the Air and Water drawings. I’m just hoping someone will ask for them so I get to do them soon. I also want to do Day and Night. I’m very excited over the Alice picture, and the Schlockettes will prove to be quite a challenge, since I’ve never done the zombie thing. I think I’ll keep doing the commission thing even after I’ve gotten my camera. I used to hate it, but doing this has already given me the opportunity to do some drawings that I wouldn’t normally do. It’s really proving to be interesting, as well as an exercise in art.

I went to see my mom this weekend. She lives a bit more north than here, so the drive in the rain wasn’t fun at all. I dragged John with me too, because my car is having steering problems. It may have a power steering fluid leak, or it could be my deflated tire, or it could be something much worse. I’m scared that my car will die, or the axle will suddenly pop off the underside of my car and go sailing down the road without me. Anyway, she has a new camera that she was playing around with. She got a few of me (the rest of which are in the Me album in the gallery). She even got one of me sleeping on the couch with my mouth hanging open while John did his homework.
I’ve also decided that I’m goign to do Arwen this year for Halloween. I’m either doing the Angel Dress, the Library and Bridge dress, or the Requiem Dress. I wanted to do the Dream Dress, but it would have been too cold, and the Blood Red Dress would have killed me on work. I just have to find some decent ears and an evenstar pendant. I’m letting my hair grow out as well, so my October it’ll be about waist length. It should be long enough to do Arwen very nicely if I make it wavy. The October after this one is going to be a Geisha (yes, I’m a dork for planning out my costumes, but I love costumes!), so if anyone has a long Kimono lying about that they’d like to get rid of, let me know.

Well, the first on the way to raising enough money to purchase the Canon Powershot S400 is finished. After days of pounding my head on the background, Fire has come to full life and “luscious color”. I’ve given her to her purchaser, and he’s quite happy with her. As always, I was really worried that he’d like her, but Cliff had assured me that Fire is perfect. As another shameless plug for my art site, Midnight Confessions, you can go see what else I have up. If you’re attached to one of the pictures already there and want to buy it and it’s movie, then you can e-mail me for it. She’s again drawn in OpenCanvas, but only BJ gets the movie for her. If you want your own, e-mail or AIM me. As the days go by and the commissions roll in (yeah right), you’ll be able to see the money meter go up on the right. Again, my goal is $500 to get the camera and accessories(because my current one is crapping out on me).

Well, I was thinking.. Maybe my dear readers would help me raise money for a new camera. You’ll notice I said ‘raise’ and not ‘give me’. Anyway, here’s my idea: I was thinking that for a little fee, I’d do a drawing for you. Only you, of whatever you want. This means that as a customer, you’d be basically commissioning work from me, and that the final product would be yours. This also means that it’d be the only one of said subject ever made. You’d get the digital picture, the OpenCanvas movie, and access to a store on cafepress that you could order anything out of. For example, if you chose ‘Fire’ from my list below, you’d get a drawing of ‘Fire” as I see her (think back to my four seasons), and that no one else would get a drawing of ‘Fire’ or the address to that cafepress store. You could either order in black and white for $15 - $25, or color for $35 - $50. I figure if I can get 10 people at $50 each, I can afford to get the high end Canon that I want and keep it for the next three years. You could either give me a subject, or pick from the list of currently in my head, below. The only rules are as follows: 1, No men. I’m terrible with them right now and I’d never be happy with one. 2. No sex. I refuse to draw sex. If you want hentai, I will charge extra.

Demoness or cat woman, lots of flowing hair!
Fire
Earth
Air
Water
Day
Night
Dusk
Dawn
Sisters

So, does anyone think this is a good idea or is willing to participate?

I just wanted to give everyone another heads-up about my newest work over at Midnight Confessions. It’s YET another girl with wings. I’m sure you’re just shocked out of your pants. I really love this one. She’s very warm toned, which is out of my usual realm. I had a rough time with her gold shirt. The shirt got colored three times, and drawn twice. I just wasn’t happy with it. She also has bubblegum pink hair! I have no idea why I love pink hair so much. It’s just so cool. I really love the colors of the wings on her as well. That semi-opal color is hard to do, but evry nice looking. I drew her in proportion, mostly, except for her HUGE breasts. I don’t know how that happened, but I liked it. She’s again drawn in OpenCanvas, so you can watch the movie her being drawn if you want to download it.

Wow! What’s up with all the posts lately? I have NO idea where all of these are coming from!
I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up about my newest work over at Midnight Confessions. It’s another girl with wings. Surprise. I’m not all that impressed with this one, but since everyone always loves the ones I dislike, everyone should really enjoy this one. She’s again drawn in OpenCanvas, so you can watch the movie her being drawn if you want to download it. Linux users have a good reason not to grab a copy of OC (because it doesn’t work in Linux unless you WINE it like Larry did), but the rest of you have no excuse. Who wouldn’t want to see a picture draw itself on the screen? It’s just so cool!

Well, the Sexy July Halloween wasn’t a flop, as Atari had feared. I think there were about 50 people there through the night. Some costumes were great, others had been done very last minute. Everyone I know of had a great time though. There was a plethora of pirates, which surprised me. There’s never been and overriding theme to any of the costume at these parties before. I had a great time, but since I didn’t drink (been having tummy problems all week), I have no interesting ‘I was drunk and…’ stories to tell. I do hope this party becomes a tradition, because I have many more warm-weather costumes I want to make. This wasn’t much different than the normal Halloween party except that I wasn’t freezing the whole time. I did get a LOT of compliments on my costume though. Seems everyone really liked it. Everyone was more surprised that I’d made this whole thing myself with just fabric glue. One day I’ll learn to sew. John’s costume was hit too, but he ditched the geta halfway through the party. Seems (surprise!) that they’re really hard to walk in. All in all, I was very glad to see everyone again, and I even met some new people! You can see the entire party costume gallery here.

Also, I just finished another drawing. This one was mostly for practice of hair and clothing folds, so I drew a girl (of course) in a petticoated dress with long, flowing hair. Her hair is red, surprise. I think she turned out rather well, and since she was done in OpenCanvas, there’s a movie of her being drawn as well. Anyone that hasn’t gotten OpenCanvas yet should! They creators have made it so it installs itself from an exe file, so there’s no more messing with the massive zip files. I just adore this program, especially now that I know mostly how to use it. It’s just so cool watching the picture draw itself on screen!

Well, I’ve been working on some pictures recently, and I was finally able to get them all up, and the page updated! There are four new color drawings, and four new greyscale drawings. You can see them all at Midnight Confessions. I also have a new OpenCanvas movie up as well, because I got back into it. It’s just such a fucking awesome program. It’s a movie of the dark horned girl with the wings, in case you’re interested. Also, the actual OpenCanvas program has gotten VERY easy to install now, so go get it!
Edit: For those of you that didn’t read my previous rantings on opencanvas, it’s a graphics program similar to Photoshop. the difference is that opencanvas records all of the on-screen actions (drawing, coloring) into a movie file that people can watch with the program. The things just draws itself. I love it.

It’s Spring! Or, rather, it will be in about 5.5 hours. That means that Midnight Confessions will undergo another transformation. That’s right, Winter will give way to Spring at 12am EST on the 20th. Tonight at midnight. I’m frankly shocked with it’s success. Earlier today, I had my 100th visitor. I now have links from seven different wonderful art pages, and I’ve been requested twice for cafepress shirts for the four seasons. There are a few things that have yet to be added or that I have added since it went up. I did add a guest book and a (blushes shamefully) paypal donation button. I have to add the cafepress shops and an updates page, so that people will know when new drawings go up.
I have three more web sites to do at some point, but after those are done (maybe a day each), then I have more drawings in my head to get done and up. I keep wanting to do some hentai stuff, but I’m not too sure if it’s something I want to get into. My mother has also asked me for some more work to put up in her house. More fishes and fairies.
So, anyway.. Spring goes up tonight at midnight. Come back and see the new Season!

Okay, for those of you who have been waiting for the 16th, it’s here! My art site is now live. Thanks go to:

Larry for helping me code and automate about half of it, and getting colors to work.
Megan, for suggesting a time and date for me. I needed a goal to work towards.
John, for helping keep me sane and not complaining too much about the stink in my kitchen.
Quigley, for helping me to laugh when I wanted to tear out my hair.

That’s enough. I feel like I’m giving some award speech. Uhg. Anyway, time is now for all of you to go visit the new site! Keep in mind that the seasons change according to the solstices here in America. It’s still winter here for another 5 days or so. And now, the link you’ve all been waiting for (that is, if you care): Midnight Confessions. PLEASE, tell me what you think.