Started migrating to Weasyl and am going to see how I like it:
https://www.weasyl.com/~crowbar

I also can be found on Tumblr
Art blog: http://crowbar-art.tumblr.com/
Nature/Photography blog: http://phainopepla.tumblr.com/

Going to start posting more at all these places once the movie I'm on ends and I'm not living at work.

Been sort of absent on here for a while. My excuse is life has really hit me with a lot the past couple months and I've sort of locked myself away from being remotely social on the internet. A lot has changed for me and it hasn't been easy but I know its all for the better.
Since August I've been working on a REALLY REALLY BIG movie, its been the biggest point in my career to date and I feel really lucky to have been involved in such an amazing project. I can't say what it is just yet but when I can I won't be shutting up about it, I've done a ton of work on it and can't wait to see things I've made on the big screen next November. Its pretty much consumed my life the past few months though, and whatever free time I've had I've spent hiking/rockhounding with my best friend out in the desert. I haven't had much time for personal art at all. Its a shame because I moved a couple months ago to a new place and actually have a nice garage to work in but all my equipment is in a big pile in the corner unpacked. :(
Plan to change all that in 2014 though. The movie is wrapping up and the next project I'm on won't be quite as intense and I'll have more time to work on my own art. I plan on getting my etsy store up at some point and start offering painted resin jewelry for sale. Its something I've planned and talked about for a while and I need to stop slacking and make it happen. I'm going to try and have a wide variety of products. Also going to be dabbling in fursuit making a bit more. I've started an American Kestrel suit for myself that's going to be disgustingly cute. I plan to sell falcon resin blanks from the sculpt I'm making for it. Other goals include learning more lapidary and cleaning/articulating animal skeletons for the nature center I work at. Its going to be a busy year for art for me and I plan to share more of it here. :)

Sooo... it looks like I am going to San Diego Comic-con after all! I was planning on going until my professional registration got screwed up earlier in the year, I didn't want to pay for a ticket so I gave up and figured I'd try again next year. Well my coworker/good friend/now boyfriend is super awesome and invited me to use his guest pass for a day or two. I couldn't pass that up so I will be at Comic-con this year! I've heard its crazy, I can't wait to see for myself. ;)
I will also be debuting my crow partial suit! This will be my first time wearing it in public, aside from wearing the head on Halloween briefly, and my first time wearing a costume at a convention since 2008. I'm so excited/nervous! The wings aren't finished though, I'll be sewing all night finishing them...

Con meme! Since I've always wanted to do one:

Where are you staying?
At my boyfriend's family's place in Escondido.

What day are you getting there?
Driving up Wednesday night, I'll be at the con Thursday and Friday, and leaving Friday night since I have work the next day. :p

Who will you be with?
My boyfriend, his sister and maybe a couple other of my friends from work.

Do you do free art?
No, this is my one day of not having to work on art so I'm enjoying it.

Do you do trades?
I won't have any of my product on me but if I like your art and you like mine maybe we can do a trade later.

Do you do commissions?
At this time no. My professional freelance jobs is consuming my life at the moment.

What are your limits to drawing?
I don't draw much, but if I do its probably only birds.

What is your gender?
Female.

How old are you?
23, not 16 despite popular belief.

Can I talk to you?
Sure! I may be running around like a crazy person so I might not be able to talk long. Unless we're in a long ass line and bored.

Can I touch you?
Please don't, nothing more than a handshake. Hugs only for good friends I know irl.

Can I hang out with you?
If you want to, though I might not want to for too long.

How can I find you?
You will not find me at this con if its as batshit insane as I hear it is. Though if you do see a short chick with glasses and a coyote skull pin on her hat wearing an Avatar: The Last Airbender shirt that could be me. And if you see a giant crow in a skirt hanging around the best Borderlands 2 Salvador ever that's my boyfriend and I.

Can I buy you drinks?
No, not drinking at this event.

Can I hug or snuggle with you?
Chances are my boyfriend will be doing this so there's no room for you.

How tall are you?
5'1

Are you nice?
If catch me when I'm still full of energy and excited I am, if its the later half of the day and I'm tired and hungry I will not be pleasant to be around. But I like talking with people, especially about birds and making molds and stuff.

Can I stalk you?
If you can find me... ;)

How long are you going?
Thursday and Friday.

Do you have an artist table?
No, I didn't even know I was going at all until a few days ago.

Do you like parties?
Sometimes, though I won't be partying at this con.

If I see you, how should I get your attention?
Yell "Olivia!" or "Crowbar!" I also answer to "Oh look a *insert bird name here*"

Where will you be most of the time during the day/s?
No idea, I'm just winging it and seeing what happens when I get there. I'm mostly going just to see what its like so I can be better prepared for next year.

What/where will you be eating?
I have no idea, hope to have some tasty meals during all the madness.

Can I look in your sketchbook?
I won't have it with me probably.

Can I draw in your sketchbook?
If you find some sort of paper and draw me something I won't object.

Can I take your picture?
If I am a bird then please do. Only friends can take my pic out of costume.

What are you bringing to the con?
Myself, crow partial, and money to buy stupid things.

What's your goal(s) for the con this year?
Just experience this crazy thing everyone always talks about. Though I do want to wear my crow costume for the first time, see some cool stuff, network with industry professionals a bit, buy nerdy shit, hang out with friends, spend quality time with my guy.

I'm so excited for this. I haven't been this excited for a convention since Anime Expo 2007.

2013 has been a roller coaster of a year for me. I've been working two jobs, will have to make the very difficult decision between my two career paths, had a messy breakup with my boyfriend of 4+ years, somehow keep finding myself in strange romantic situations, went on some crazy adventures, might have to move soon and am starting my own business. There's been a lot of stress but deep down I know all these changes are for the best.

The freelance model shop job I've been on the past six months ends at the end of this month which will finally leave me with time to pursue my personal business project. I've been talking about selling cast resin on jewelry on etsy for the past year and a half and now I'm going to get off my ass and finally do it. I'm going to be selling small (approx. 1inch) animal charms sculpted, molded, cast and painted by myself. I've got three sculpts finished in various stages of production and a handful in progress. I'll be offering a variety of finishes: solid colored cast resin, faux metal finish, fully painted and the option for custom paint jobs. Still figuring out the prices but they'll probably range from $5 - $30. I'm considering starting a kickstarter for this possibly so I can raise money to get tools and equipment that would help me be more efficient.

One of the main things holding me back from starting my etsy store is choosing a name. I have a really hard time with this kind of thing and am picky as hell. My current name I'm thinking of going with is Crowbar Art but I'm still not sure if I want to commit to that. I want the name to sound unique and professional but also be pretty broad since I'm hoping to eventually expand this business into doing models, replicas and museum exhibits someday. So thoughts and advice are welcome because I'm driving myself nuts trying to settle on something.

Anyway, I'll try and post more often than every six months on here.

Its been 5 months since my last journal? Holy shit, I need to stop being so quiet...

I've been pretty busy these past few months for both good and bad reasons. Most notable being I've got two awesome new jobs.
First is for the main model shop I work for. They do this super secret awesome project every year that is 6 months of awesome. This will be my 4th year on it and I've got more responsibility than ever, I'll probably be running the casting department and be one of the lead painters. Its pretty chaotic and stressful but also the most fun ever. I get to work with some of the most talented people ever who also happen to be some of my best friends. Its one big happy party of people making awesome shit. I wish I could share what I do on these projects, its some of my best work.
Second job is I got hired part time by the nature center I've volunteered at the past three years. Its extremely rare that they hire and when they do its hard to get in. Despite being busy with my other job I knew I'd be an idiot to let this pass me by so I went for it. Well I ended up being one of the highest scoring people, probably because I've been doing the job free for 3 years, and was hired. I'm still going through the slow county hiring process but I'm pretty much in. I now get paid to work with birds and teach people about them. They're also potentially giving me my own shed to expand the specimen department I run. I'm fucking stoked!
So I'm going to be working weekdays at the model shop and weekends at the nature center. I'm pretty much never going to have a day off, at least for six months until my model shop job ends. Its going to be tough but these are my two favorite things and I'm so lucky to be able to get paid to do what I love. I still really want to get my etsy shop up and sell things, I've got a lot in the works, but I won't be able to do too much mass production until June.
Despite how busy I'm going to be, I'll try and be less quiet on here and post cool projects I'm allowed to share, and maybe pics and stories about the critters I work with.

I'm so awful about posting journals and uploading stuff. I need to stop being a hermit and share all the weird stuff I make with the world.
The past five months I was busy as fuck at the model shop I work at. The project I was on had an impossible deadline and I pretty much was living at work. Needless to say it was an awesome experience and I learned a lot, not to mention I got to work with so many awesome and talented people. Unfortunately that project ended and I'm back to job hunting once more. I had an interview at another shop yesterday that went well and hopefully will lead to more work. Yay freelance...
In between jobs my goal is to try and make cool things to sell. I really want to get into mass production with my reptile replicas, I have a lot in my freezer and so many ideas. I just need to get my home shop in working order and buy a crapton of silicone and resin. And I need to work on getting my crow suit done before Halloween. I've been stumped on it for a while due to figuring out all the electronic stuff I'm putting in it. It will be worth it in the end.
In addition to that I'm going to make an effort to learn to do digital stuff for my job. I got an intuos 4 tablet earlier this week and now have no excuse not to learn. I've been playing around with photoshop a bit but still don't know what the heck I'm doing.
Anyway, I'll make an effort to not be so shy and be more active here.

I've been crazy busy with work the past few weeks and its only going to get busier. The model shop I work for does this awesome project every year that requires a ton of work but is the most fun ever. This is my third year working on it and I've been promoted to doing some sculpting, which is a BIG deal. And I'm also going to be the primary mold-maker which means I get to make 30+ molds and cast 50+ parts out of each of those molds. Aside from that I also get to paint THOUSANDS of parts getting intricate paint jobs. I'll be covered in paint/silicone/resin/clay/foam for the next 4 or 5 months... I love my job. I wish I could post pictures of what I'm working on because its so AWESOME. Darn non-disclosure agreements... =(
I don't have as much time to work on my personal projects like reptile replica work now. I come home and usually just want to relax, not spend the last few hours of the day doing what I've been doing at work for 8-10 hours already. But I'm still planning on making more awesome stuff soon including little resin charms of birds and eventually other animals. I made bird ornaments for some of my coworkers and family as a test run and they came out great. I'll post pictures soon. I'm also attempting to get a crow partial made before Califur in June. I made a resin blank and wore it on Halloween but haven't foamed and furred it yet. I need to get it done so I can run around and be a dumb bird.

So many awesome projects to do... no time to do them...

After hearing about someone chilling a live snake to mold I just wanted to confirm that I do not mold anything that is not already dead and has died of natural causes. The reptiles I have molded either drowned in my pool, were roadkill, were sick and died despite efforts to save them or were found dead and brought to me. I love reptiles and would never harm one just for my work.
Chilling a live reptile to mold is something that hasn't even crossed my mind before.. because its too horrible to do to any living thing just for a mold. I made a life cast of my face not too long ago and it was an unpleasant experience, something I wouldn't want to put anything non human through. I also can't see getting good results from a live reptile. I spend a long time getting my reptiles in the right pose as well taking the time to clay up undercuts and prepare the specimen for molding. The specimen is in and out of the freezer for a good couple hours while I just get it ready to mold. Having to rush to get a live reptile in and out of the mold would result in a less than perfect mold and sloppy castings.
My main intent with molding reptiles is for educational purposes. I volunteer at a nature center and use a variety of live and dead reptiles for educational programs. Reptiles are misunderstood by the general public, especially rattlesnakes, and I want to do what I can to prevent as many needless snake deaths as possible. Some people are scared of live reptiles and seeing my cast ones helps them realize they're not scary. I've been trying to obtain all the common native reptiles in my area to mold and so far have had pretty good luck obtaining already dead specimens just by having people keep an eye out for me. One idiot I work with accused me of killing lizards to mold and I flipped my shit and told him if I had no problem killing reptiles to mold I would have gone out, collected and killed all the ones I wanted a long time ago. I'm proud to say I've obtained all my specimens without harming them myself.

I need to update my journal more often. =P
I've been working on getting a decent workspace set up so I can start doing more mold-making/casting. Most of my previous work has been done during downtime at the place I work but when we're busy I can't work on personal projects there as much. So I've been investing in proper equipment the past few months so I can work at home. So far I've obtained a pressure pot, scale, made a vacuum chamber (that hasn't imploded yet), and today I bought a huge ass industrial compressor from one of my coworkers. A disk sander is next on my list and I'd love to build a vac-u-form table but I'll have to wait as I've already spent way too much on tools lately.
Working at a shop that has EVERYTHING has really spoiled me.

Finally admitted to being a furry and got an account here. I'm going to try and start having an active online gallery again, I haven't posted anything I've done in three years since I abandoned deviantart. Unfortunately most of what I've done the past three years has been for the model shop I work for and I'm not really allowed to post anyway. However I have a handful of side projects I've been working on.

Most of my work is of the 3-Dimensional variety, sculptures, models, props and costuming. I have a measly AA degree in art but got an internship at this place: http://www.gmdfx.com where I was later employed as a mold maker/painter. I really love mold making and want to mold everything... particularly dead reptiles. I've been working on creating a side business making reptile replicas and already have a few museums interested in my work. I'm stoked since doing museum work is my dream job.
I do volunteer work at my local nature center working with reptiles and birds of prey and teaching the public about how awesome they are. I am an obsessive birder and am out with Audubon almost every weekend stalking things with feathers. Corvids are my favorite. I also collect dead things and like incorporating them into the wildlife education programs I do.
I've been into anthropomorphic animals my whole life and discovered the furry fandom a few years ago but am just now deciding to get involved.