So yes, besides my DA account, I've also got this new account at FA. I was chatting with my longtime on-line friend WinterWinstar, and he urged me to create an account here as well. I would get more response here, and the culture here was a lot more open-minded. Swayed by the prospect of more response, here I am.

Now Tranquil Winter was done WAY back in the beginning of March. Almost directly after finishing and posting this piece, I figured it was time to start on a birthday picture for fellow FA artist Chalo. As the art of also-fellow-FA-artist Jesonite served as a muse for me during the creation of Tranquil Winter - and I seriously wanted to somehow come into contact with him as well, his art is just plain sexy - and his birthday was conveniently close to Chalo's as well, I figured I could proverbially "swat two flies with one strike". So began my newest creation...

... Not knowing the extent of which this picture and all of its challenges I'd chose to put into it would haunt me. Being fairly new with perspective and how the anatomy would be displayed from any certain point of view, I knew I had my job cut out for me. Despite earlier advice to not overdo it, I just went for it. The concept was to have Vixy and Ann Marie in an action shot at Paraiso beach volleyball. The first attempt went, hideously, hideously wrong, to the point I don't want to remember or be remembered about it. Second attempt was loads better, with anatomy I could generally agree with.

Then came the bitch: I was drawing each character on a SEPARATE SHEET, using different horizons. Big. Freaking. Mistake when you're going to compile them. Shrinking and enlarging both characters only brought about further frustrations, as the resulting composition was either way off, or kneeslapping hilarious. After about three weeks of toying - consider the fact that during those weeks I was generally sleeping badly, I feel sorry for my colleagues, my mind was just that occupied with it; yes, I'm a freaking psycho - out of sheer frustration, I scrapped the concept, threw the sketches away... And started over... With a new, less taxing concept.

Then came Chalo's birthday. I missed it.

Bummed with the failure to meet "the deadline", I settled myself for being done before Jesonite's, a scant 11 days after Chalo's birthday. Anyway, the rendition of the first character went quite smoothly. Point of views, angles, it looked about right. Then I went and MADE THE SAME F*CKING MISTAKE of putting the second character on a separate sheet. By some fluke it managed to look good in combination with the first sheet, so sigh of relief. With a few minor adjustments the most important part of the picture was done, and the rest - frame, background, etc. - would be smooth sailing.

Then came Jesonite's birthday. I missed it.

There are not enough expletives to express the overwhelming frustration I felt at that time. My image as lousy planner has yet again been firmly established. Two days after the fact I've decided to just show them the preview sketch. The forthcoming feedback I got from them was more than enough to make my day. Heck, all that was missing was Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the background as I danced up and down my room, happy as a fairy.

Embarassing acts of euphoria aside, the acknowledgement, admittedly, was what I needed to mellow the freak out, and just work on it. As you'll see below I'm just done sketching the whole thing and it's ready to be traced, inked and pencil shaded (which is another truckload of cowdung I'm going to have to dump quite soon, but we'll see how that comes along). So hang in there guys, I'm still very much busy with... I'm just such a lousy, lousy planner...

Status "Now THAT Is A Present":
Sketch: 100%
Trace: 100%
Ink: 100%
Shading: 1% (this is going to be a real b!tch)

Why does it look like I still got so much to do?

CM ~

PS: Check their art out, while I hopelessly try to pick up something that is commonly referred to as "speed". They've got some mad skills going on.

PS2 (no, not the console).: How do you insert text - and icon links into journal entries and comments? Can somebody tell me this?