Well, the animation bit sounds like it could be fun, but I imagine that would get overwhelming very quickly if you end up getting an influx of commissions. I think your t-shirt idea would be a more manageable way to go.

My commissions, when I price 'em higher, rarely get a flux of clients. (Thank goodness?) But if I offered them at a convention, that may be different….

Things to consider. Thanks, as always! <3

is it an indie project or a huge AAAAAAA thing? :D

comissions aweesome, nut me poor long time

Suuuuuper indie. We have a handful of potential investors, but we're not going to get it off the ground with anything less than a 10million USD offer.

I didn't even know we were talking about such numbers.

Shows you what I know. Stupid work! Graghaghaghhh

In this case, "work" hereby represents my day-job, and all the concomitant chaos thereunto.

Indeed! She said she'd laugh and walk away if someone offered 5 million. 15 is her current aim.

Let it not be said that our Manager is not ambitious.

*Fine print: This instance is, of course, in the event of being bought out by means of studio or other house. It's not really applicable if we go the route of tons of different donors.

What Asterion said but also if you paint each frame, people still might not take that into consideration of the price. Since painting each frame in your style and watching the strokes during animation so it doesn't look like its siezuring will be a pain, take a long time and be a pricy for people. It would totally be SICK and worth it though for anyone willing to dish out the cash, I think the icons would look totally killer. http://vimeo.com/2074812#at=0 <- you'd like that, thats what i headcannon your icons looking like with your awesome painting ability. yay for shirts!

also, you know me and kev got your back when you need help!

Thanks for the headcannoning! I can only hope to do something as cool (but in five-ish frames!)

RE: shirts:
I was considering doing three designs, and having us each pick an animal, martial art style, and haiku. That would be siiiiiick!

Sounds awesome to me!

Rad! Once I get off my butt I'll note you guys with info.

Awesome, can't wait!

I'd buy a shirt. Kickstart this thing :P

Also, I'm rather curious on the Dowry business. Don't get me wrong, we'll do anything for the one we love, but I thought this practice was only alive in foreign countries. I know in Afghanistan this is one of the reasons why many males go unmarried; they simply can't gather enough money to afford a good dowry, which tells the parents that the suitor probably wouldn't give their daughter the quality of life they'd want for her. As a result, men in some provinces there end up 'relieving themselves' with each-other. But its not gay. Apparently. Or so a Turk attempted to explain to me. O.o

How did this come about? How did you find out and react to it? Feel free to ignore me if this is too personal. Its just very interesting because I've never actually interacted with someone in your situation.

All true about the Middle-East guy/guy thing. Guys holding hands over there has no real connotation to it.

As for me, my [for-all-intensive-purposes] wife grew up in Ghana, and with that came the responsibility of accepting dowry. When I heard it would consist of things to further our lives together I completely supported the idea, but the African generalization I made is that the people are very relaxed about time and plan details inversely to Americans, while still being legalistic about their beliefs. That dichotomy I found to be extremely taxing. The wedding itself was called a "transaction", an "exchange", and other less savory words. I wasn't allowed to speak until the very end of it, and when I did speak, I was the only one to express any vows. When I say this marriage was Biblical, I mean it was super Old Testament all up ins. Great food, nice people, but I was even asked for more money as I was leaving, even after the dowry was completed. It had good moments, but the whole thing left a bitter taste in my mouth. Some facets Americans could learn to adapt from Africans (like the importance of family, cooking, and quality time), but as a whole I anticipate years before I'm able to integrate myself into that culture without flipping out.

By my wife's side of the family, I'm married. By my side of the family, I'm only engaged. It feels like I'm married, so I just consider myself married. Literally bought this woman as my property anyway, so why not get the title, too? :P

Nothing is too personal for me to disclose. I'm an open book, and will share anything if I think it will help someone else. Thanks for asking!

Also, loved seeing your suit at AC! Didn't get to compliment you in person.

Thanks! I had a blast. It was my first time suiting ever. There was just so much positive energy all over the place. If you could see into the mask, I was grinning about as much as the suit itself.

Very interesting on the family situation. I've worked with 3 people from Ghana, and I would tend to agree that they have a very different world view. Much more family centered. One would take leave for every one of his children's birthdays, which I thought was pretty amazing. He'd pull just that child out of school for the day and he, his wife, and the kid would spend all day at a theme park or zoo, whatever their kid wanted. Then, they'd celebrate together, the grandmother having cooked all day, and the siblings having helped when they got home. Tony was super fun to work with, his stories were just nuts. Illhave to ask him a bit about weddings over there. He flys his family, including his mother and sister back home every year. That'd break the effing bank heh.

The only static we ever had was when he asked why I wear my wedding ring on the wrong hand. It was difficult for him to reconcile his religious views on homosexuality with how he felt about me as a person. Very strange to see a database architect with two masters degrees maintain his religious views like that. Most of us computer science types are less inclined to rely on faith, even if they are religious. It took a few weeks, buthe eventually realized I'm still human and that I was neither going to accost him nor get emotional over the situation.

How did your fiancé feel about the dowry situation? Can I ask how you two met? Seems quite a clash of cultures!

I would likely be all over that animation business.

Also, we need to make the Mesmer bit happen. Yes.

I thought dowries were illegal...

Hahahahaha!

Wait, what? Why would they be?

Because like you mentioned up there, it's kind of like buying a wife. I just remember reading, and it was I think about India where dowries along with the caste system had been made illegal, although they are still in practice. I guess I just assumed that paying the bride's family for what seems to be the right to marry wouldn't be illegal here.
Also, I could totally be reading this all wrong or my memory could even be inventing things.

In India (and most of Asia) the family pays the man to take the woman off of her hands. But in Africa the woman is viewed as a huge blessing, and therefore needs to be purchased in exchange for goods.

Even though the sum of money wasn't huge, it did take a ton out of me, especially since I had to buy engagement rings and move into a new apartment. One of the only reasons I could afford it was my commission queue after Anthrocon.

Clarification: I spent less on my entire dowry than the majority of people spend on engagement rings, so the thought of my financial sacrifice is through that lens.

Ah, okay. I guess I was imagining it to be some real hefty sum of money.

It's all relative, though. For some, two months of salary, she's going to need a wagon to carry the ring in, but most are much more reasonable. Hell, one of my friends literally proposed with a replica, albeit a great one, of the One Ring from Tolkien. The symbolism in the engagement ring is supposed to show in a very real way that the guy really means it. I'm not so sure about the symbolism behind on ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them, but come to think of it, they did just buy a very handsome cave together.

The ring we used in the ceremony was a junk metal ring. She and I can't justify buying expensive things as a symbol for something intangible. But we did purchase two rings from this guy, and the total price was under 600USD! What a deal that guy is!

If you keep the animations pretty simple, they would look pretty sweet with your mark making style, (now it's making me think of old Keith Haring art being animated with all those expressive lines)
Think you would find it rewarding seeing your work in motion!

When you mentioned animation in your style, the first thing to come up to my memory bank was Alex Petrov's animation. Here is one of his films called The Mermaid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MpAr3rcEg0 I think it will be really nice to see you works with your style animated, it be a challenge tho :).

A shirt with your works even if it isn't furry would be sweet.

Man a lot of things are happening in everyone's life recently hope things go well and all :)

Also man its good to hear you are AD-ing a video game. I hope i get a chance to help design something someday for tv or games or wat ev hehe.

What animals are you planning on putting on the shirts besides Kelly? I'd be really interested in any shirts with your art, but my favorite animals would make me click the buy button hard enough to break my computer.

Currently, I was thinking of three designs:
Kelly as a kickboxer, Gold snub nosed monkeys as Wing-Chun fighters, and I wanted to use a blind African animal as a judoku (perhaps a honeybadger, despite the popculture reference).

- That sounds amazing. It will be a blast for you to get out and go for it, but I would say you should charge per hour because it can be a huge time sink. Just be wary, give it a test shot and see how it works for you to develop yourself. If you need some tips, I'm always here with resources and personal experience. I got join.me a click away.


- Swag I will purchase myself. And force my bro to purchase too. If it's good quality, which I trust you will have, I think I'd buy a set if you ever make different T-shirts or designs.


- Ah man, juggling between every aspect of life must mean you're kind of on edge or just filled with so many things going on at once. I hope they're forgiving enough to understand! I'm just starting to finish my own commissions, haha.

- Oof, so I guess the entire ritual/wedding wasn't as ceremonially fun as you thought it would be? I'm sorry to hear it was so stressful to get everything stringed together.

- I learned from Money-Ball with Brad Pitt, the best way to fire someone is a hot to the head instead of the chest. Be quick about it, and offer the options up. Now, I'm not sure if it really works or not, but I figure that's what I would want to be told instead of spending time in anxiety trying to figure out what's going on. Just the quick and easy is all. I hear it hurts like mad though, being the one to fire someone. Hope you have the cajones to do it more in the future!

- Overall man, you're going through a lot of shit. I hope you don't implode. It's very exciting to hear what's going on right now and in the future. You definitely are living life to it's maximum range at least!

New Idea for Commissions:
Being a former animation and motion graphics guy, this appeals to me. Just know, that if you have not tried animation before, it can be hell, especially if you are going for a painterly effect on fur. Getting fur and hair to look right from every angle always gave me issues. I highly advise looking at animal videos and animation via Youtube or the BBC Motion Gallery before committing to this concept. I always kept a massive video reference gallery on my spare machine, ripping them via Fraps rather than downloading to avoid download detection. Once I got the ref. I wanted with Fraps, I could then break the video down frame-by-frame for study. For me, it was a great way to study motion, light and fur/hair. I also invested in a cheap video camera and spent hours filming myself to get all the poses I wanted. If you have not figured it out yet, animation is very time consuming and often maddening if you want to achieve realism.

As far as shirts are concerned, I am not big on furry clothes, myself. However, if you did go with the Honey Badger, I would certainly link the shirt to my Mustelids group and if it was badass enough, I might buy one myself. Honey badger shirts are very popular right now, but most of them suck...

Concerning your commissions:
It's good to see that you are back in business. I had a second interview with a company on Monday and hopefully I can snag that position. I should know within two weeks and should I get the position, we can continue talks about that concept of mine. It has been rather frustrating out here in Boston as far as jobs are concerned. I have received more interviews/cold-calls in two months than I had ever received in the 28 years that I have lived in Columbus, but so far, no offers. Here is to hoping that I find something soon.

Concerning my personal life:
I have worked with many people from Ghana. They are... very religious... They always seemed to want to talk to me about God, a subject, which as a homosexual and filthy heathen, I avoid like the plague. Trust me, I truly understand how hard it must be to deal with the extremely religious coming from a liberal arts background.