Hey ya all.

Sadly suffering from a very annoying art block right now. Not the lack of ideas or the will to do something but more the "energy" for it.
I hope this will pass some time soon but there may be fewer new sketches this month.

MAY YOUR NEW YEAR ROCK AND BE AWESSOOOOMMMMEE *airguitar solo*

Hey ya all.


This is just a short explanation why I sometimes have problems with streaming times.

I sadly suffer from sleeping rhythm issues, always had but they got worse from the mid 2000s onwards, somewhat coinciding with my first major depressive breakdown too.
Well in a way my internal clock works more on a 25 - 26 hour day. What makes it a bit worse is that it's not necessarily a constant sliding. At times I can keep a relatively stable sleep and wake time for a week, then BOOM, it suddenly shifts for 2 - 3 hours.

Sadly that has a bad effect on my streaming times. The last week from this posting I streamed multiple times at a good time for both viewers in my and the American time zones since I was up from between 3pm to 6am my time. But now just a week later I wake up at 2am and likely head to sleep at 5pm which isn't really good for any zone.
That's what also makes arranging streams kind difficult.

This also isn't really fixable, I did try medication or forcing myself to go to sleep at a certain time but that just doesn't work for me. For one I already have problems falling sleep, even when I'm dead tired it takes me on average half an hour to an hour to fall asleep. Laying down when I'm not tired at all means no chance.
Second, if I take sleeping medication it just makes me fall asleep earlier but not wake up earlier... and afterwards I don't feel rested at all.

These issues kinda run in my family, for some even worse than for me.

Luckily I don't have too many obligations to show up at aside the occasional appointments but you can see how that makes regular streaming a bit of a pain.


I will still try to stream more, both commission streams and casual ones since they really help with my motivation, but there will still be times where I simply can't show.

I'll also re-open my commission Skype account some time again, that should make arranging streams and private streams a little easier. Similarly when screen sharing function of Discord finally goes public I will be able to use that.

Hey ya all.

I decided that in addition to my Dropbox (found here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bnf22l3u.....3y-qQxvua?dl=0 ) I also mirror my sketch collection on my Google Drive, both as a backup and to make it a bit more accessible.

The Google Drive link can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B.....zRrQ3FJQ1VEZms

Unlike my Dropbox this will only get updated monthly instead of every time there is a new sketch.

I was asked if I could repost this Journal. While the subject matter does not affect me personally it would do many people I care for.

"Today they're going to try to push through, in secret, a bill to repeal the ACA. Nothing they've pointed out so far would give better healthcare to you or me, and if they're doing it in secret, there's nothing good about it. The number to call is this: 202-224-3121"

Original Journal https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=279334

Hey everyone. This is just a quick "technical" journal for everyone interested in a private 1 on 1 stream.

Since you can't really do private ones on Picarto aside not announcing it (which still means quite a few people pop in, which I don't mind, hope ya have fun ^..^) I'll have to use a bit of a work around.

Skype is a good option here as it has relatively good "low bitrate" options for screen sharing and isn't too much a resource hog.
For that I think I will dust off my old commission Skype account.

For those on Discord, I can also use that as soon as the video chat features is implemented which is supposed to come this year. Note, I don't really use Discord yet so don't ask for contact data just yet .

And yea, other streams will still be on Picarto

PS: I did use "Join.me" before but I hate it. It ALWAYS makes my stuff stutter and always outputs at a high bitrate which just doesn't work well with my connection.

Whow, Pi-day for 33 times already.

Just a short and sweet one.

I wish you ALL a happy new year, much luck and joy in your future ^..^
A huge thanks to everyone as well, to all my friends, to my fans who enjoy my art, to my patrons for supporting me and to every artist who gave me joy and inspiration throughout the year and hopefully all the years to come.

And the same time I hope I will continue to give you joy as well.

Here's to 2017

Hi ya all.

First of all, nothing to worry about, the public sketch folder will stay where it is and will not be restricted or "paywalled" in any way.

Now the only change I'm making is regarding commissioned sketches.
As you may know I'm very open to people using my art for practice, altering it, using it as bases for tracing or even reposting as long as you made clear what you did and, if possible, give credit to where you got it from.
However since I do have commissioned sketches in there as well containing other people's OCs or simply art they don't want tempered with I'll add a 'COM' in front of those and will be moved to a "commissions" subfolder at the end of the month (only if there is a significant amount though, one or two will remain in the monthly main folder). Those will be off limits for the aforementioned things but all others are free to go.


That will be all ^..^

For all who didn't know about it, the folder can be found right here and I post a monthly update to my gallery:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bnf22l3u.....3y-qQxvua?dl=0

Hey everyone.

I plan to maybe finally do another quicky commission stream later today.

I plan to start about 18:00 my time which is about 4 hours from now.

I will toss an announcement up when I start to be on the look out for it.


The "rules" will be, doing rough sketches (10€ base price) and will restrict it to single pictures (no sequences) with 2 characters max.
I will possibly take a break in between so people from other time zones can get in too, the 18:00 local slot is about noon East Coast US so a bit early for them.

-REMOVED-

Was informed this is not allowed under Paterons guidelines.

Just a heads up, there seems to be Skype hacks making the round lately.

If you get a message that's just a link starting with "https : // www . linkedin.com / slink?code=" DO NOT CLICK, message the sender back immediately letting them know their account may have been hijacked and that they should do a virus scan immediately.

Well I am a bit late to the party but wanted to give my opinion and a few thoughts on it.

Very first thing:



!!!SPOILERS!!!
!!!SPOILERS!!!
!!!SPOILERS!!!
!!!SPOILERS!!!
!!!SPOILERS!!!
!!!SPOILERS!!!
!!!SPOILERS!!!



To get the big personal elephant out of the room first, yea I am disappointed that they wimped out and didn't make Karai's snake form permanent, making her a shapeshifter instead.

Now to the main main points though:


For the most I really like the show, the art style is great, the humor is nice and it does try to go somewhat more serious while not being completely grim-dark, it does retain jokes and chuckles.

But there is something that leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, and that is that at times it tries to be too harmless.
There's no blood to be shown ever and “never say die” is in full force (with the exception of critters and a few kraang).
They could have committed a little more towards the more serious side, not by going fully dark and brutal but by being slightly more willing to show actual damage done.


Then there are OP characters, first and foremost Shredder and Splinter.

Splinter burns me the most on that one. They tried too much to make him the “awesome kickass teacher” and went way too far.
I can fully understand making him more capable of fighting but he is essentially unbeatable.
In the 80s series Splinter was a lot more frail and his mutation actually held him back. But he could still teach the Turtles all he knows and acted way more as a mentor. It was understandable why he couldn't fight alongside them.
But here there seriously is no reason why he wouldn't go out and help since he alone is way more powerful than all four Turtles together. If he got off his ass and followed along they could have taken out the Shredder easily.
So basically it' “too much of a good thing”, trying to make splinter capable they ended up making him overpowered and make it very grating why he doesn't help out more.

Shredder is more excusable with being so OP since he is supposed to be the human big bad and has always been.
Here the issue too is though that he's essentially unbeatable.
From my understanding it was originally a lot more that the Turtles couldn't take Shredder on 1v1, but all four of them together had the upper hand (thus also his need for minions). Here once again they stand pretty much no chance against him.


Then there's Mikey... to make it short, given and clutching the idiot ball far too often.


Lastly there is the plot decay of the late third and early fourth season. There's hope the the new episodes of season 4 will pick up a bit again though so not saying too much on that yet.


That's my thoughts on the show so far.
If you'd like to discuss the points I'd gladly hear it.

Just a quick summary.

Really sweet ^..^


Felt motivated, it was fun, made some money (which I didn't plan on but it just happened ^..^) and actually slept really well afterwards.

I'll probably do those streams more often now, be it for my own work or for the quicky sketch commissions.


For future reference if you are interested in some, the quality is about like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zxurfdxqa.....elly1.png?dl=0

A quick sketch would be 10€ (currently around 11.20 USD, subject to change) for a single image, and an additional 8€ per extra frame or character.

Of course all of those CAN later be upgraded into proper linework like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1vnz95wfe.....izzy2.png?dl=0

This linework is normally 25€, so if you already bought the 10€ sketch it'd be 15E to upgrade to proper lines.
Whether I'll do them during a livestream event or not is subject to change but they can exist on the bench at least.


Anyway, thanks again to everyone who joined, for those who missed it I will very likely do more down the line. ^..^

Hey everyone.

As you may have noticed I have been on a rather expended break from commissions. I do plan to end it some time, hopefully soon, again, though for a time at least with limitations.

Lately doing anything over sketch level has been rather taxing for me. In fact I have been doing a ton of sketches but hardly did any refining, I kinda refer to that as my "create phase".

Now that would largely reflect onto my commissions as well.
To the disappointment of many I'd have to put a stop to doing coloring and shading work for some time at least and make refined drawings such as these:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18434672/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18113387/

Or at max doing flat/BW coloring with very simple shading like these:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19513491/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19835155/


Now when I would start is still an open question but hopefully I can get my act back together soon.



Speaking of sketches, I do plan on publishing them somewhere as well. I currently have my roughs in a dropbox which is good for updating them but not necessarily the best thing since there isn't a good file sorting system.
I honestly was playing with the thought of making access to my roughs folder a Patreon perk but I'd much rather everyone being able to check them. If anyone knows a good way where I can share them please let me know.

Hey ya all.

I'm glad to say things are slowly starting to improve a bit, the good weather is raising my mood, inspiration is slowly flowing again and I'm finally getting along with some well needed (and often delayed) renovations to my room.
All in all I feel a lot more positive in the last few days ^..^

What it means for commissions still has to wait a little but I might be able to get back to it in a while. When I do I'll have to do a more strict moderation on it so things don't get out of hand again though.


Speaking of inspiration before here's something I wanted to mention for a while.

You may or may not recall me making a journal about people being free to use my art for their own purposes, if not you can find the journal here http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3935701/

In short I am very much OK with my art being used for whatever you like including alterations and tracing as long as you make clear what you did and don't claim ownership.

But this gets me to the point of the topic as many artists DON'T share that attitude, in fact a few get really angry even if you just replicate a pose.

One thing for me is that a lot of art I see, be it poses, topics, body shapes, character designs, they inspire me a LOT, I often end up creating something similar looking.
For example my character “Jessica” http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16867090/ is very inspired by “Snips” http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14111937/ as drawn by  spottythecheetah.

One thing that always worms itself into my mind however is if I make someone angry. I know I shouldn't worry about this too much really but I am the “careful” type in this feeling guilt quite easily.

I'd really like to hear it from other artists what they think about the whole thing too, are you OK with people being inspired in such a way?

The recent survival mode seems to add some great needs for survival, including rebalancing the odds by making everything more vulnerable to damage, which is a great way to do it.
There is one small issue though, your reduced carry weight and inability to fast travel (legitimately that is, there are still tricks around it from what I read). Now this wouldn't be much of an issue in the game itself, you just have to manage what you carry better. But the problem is one of the games components, settlement building.

The big point about it is, you still have to carry everything for settlement building on your own.

I already made a suggestion on the Fallout reddit what could solve this, having designated dropoff points for your stuff which is then automatically converted into materials for settlements and dropped off into a connected one and scavenger troops that scour secured areas for resources.
If you want to read up on the post itself and some more details check the link to it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/commen.....venger_troops/

The main point this brings up is that you need to do everything yourself which would normally be expected of a whole team of people. In some games this is fine as you do get superhuman space and carrying capacity such as in minecraft, or you can finish tasks in an extremely short time.
However this does somewhat stand in the way of games attempting realism and more sim like aspects.
If crafting something takes time and you need to a lot of it be able to assign this job to others.
If you need a lot of a certain material see if you can assign others to gather it or have a way for it to be delivered to your location.
If there are several fields to tent be able to give that job to others, to FO4s credit you can do that at least and assign transport BETWEEN settlements.

This is something developers need to think about, if there is a limiting factor in your game also consider what could realistically and practically done about it.


For all Critical Flaw articles check the blog for it here:
http://criticalflaw.blogspot.de/

This is an issue that has largely plagued open world games and, while it has gotten better, still kinda does. That the game worlds feel somewhat devoid of life.

In the real world you often have many small animals around you, birds flying about and chirping, insects buzzing, rusting in the grass and brushes and the like.
In many games however those are absent or relegated to predetermined events. Due to this, the game world feels a lot more sterile than it should be.

A small test you can make is turning off the games music, if it suddenly feels to silent and lifeless you know that there isn't enough ambient noise and things happening to make it work without it.

Adding animals would improve this a lot. Having flies and other insects buzz about, crickets jumping when you walk through higher grass, seeing small lizards and squirrels scurry about, spiders crawl over dungeon walls, birds flying about... All these would greatly enhance the atmosphere.
And similarly this would reinforce the opposite. Suddenly coming into an area that is dead silent and devoid of life adds to a great creep factor.

Now the main issue often brought up with it is resources and development time. Adding small animals take processing power, modeling them and adding sounds takes time to develop.
However for open world games this should have a much higher priority as the game world feeling alive and interactive. Only developing the mere minimum needed to make the world work has the effect of leaving it somewhat dead.

Another issue that is mentioned is “what would you do with those animals”. Here's the thing, you wouldn't necessarily do anything with them aside ones large enough to actually interact with. They would largely be there for the atmosphere. Nor would they all simply attack you.
Not every creature in the world has to be there to be used or to attack you. They could still react aggressive when cornered or be killed for a few drops but otherwise they would simply be “there”. After all, nobody would complain about the grass simply being there, even though that could even be used for some purposes.

As a few side notes.
-Small animals would do with relatively low poly models from a distance and only change to more high definition details when up close.
-Larger bugs can be a very simple model and small ones like flies simply sprites.
-Most small animals would simply flee unless you lure them so their AI would not need to be too great.
-Some small creatures would attack such as snakes, scorpion and larger spiders making high grass more dangerous but would be prevented by wearing boots.
-They would not need preset spawn spots but simply an area defined spawn rate and areas where they can spawn (grass, forest, water...). The game doesn't need to track them so they can simply be despawned and respawned when an area is changed.
-Some small insects could become a danger when swarmed such as bees and ants, for that a swarm could simply be a lingering area effect.


EDIT: As a little example check this video of Unreal which has some good ambient sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc_dGJxQC60



For all Critical Flaw articles check the blog for it here:
http://criticalflaw.blogspot.de/

Hey everyone.

As you know Commissions are currently going slow for me, I did take a few but still those aren't moving too fast.

Partially this is because things aren't going to well mentally right now. Focusing is difficult and I can just about get my own art done. Especially the coloring and shading one which take quite some time and effort to do.
Generally Commissions feel like a burden at the moment, but the same time not doing any feels like I'm disappointing everyone.

I just want to say I'm sorry if I haven't gotten to yours and for active ones going slow. Maybe I'd just need to outright say I need a break but it feels like that would be unfair as well. I'd want to get some of the material done but may need to call it quits for a while at least.

Something I wanted to address for a while now.
First off, don't worry, I'm not bashing anyone's preferences or say they're a horrible person (that's what anonymous PM's are for )

My thing here is that I am somewhat on “bad terms” with those kinks due to a few things and wanted to open a bit of a discussion while the same time explain my stance.

To make my main issue the first point, I don't like things that essentially come out to “death”, now please hear me out on this one.

I know a lot of people into Vore say “it's not really death, it's just ambiguous” or “they are fine afterwards”. But let's be honest, a lot of Vore that includes digestion and absorption IS themed around it.
Again I am not blaming or insulting people for it, I have my share of odd kinks. My main issue here is that the entire range of the term Vore is pretty broad somewhat muddled. It includes anything from swallowing, unbirthing, anal insertion, insertion into other body openings or absorption.
And while there is the term “Soft Vore” that is pretty ill defined in its own. Some take it as “nobody is killed” while others just take it as “there is no gore or violence, but death/absorption/digestion is still allowed”.
I personally have no problem and actually an affinity for it if it just means “Body imprisonment”, being trapped in someone else's body. But that's rarely where it's left or it's “left ambiguous” which in my case just sparks “dead, just not saying it outright”.

On Macro there's again the divide, I have nothing against Macro itself, sometimes big characters can be fun. What I have a problem with is the Rampaging and “Oh I'm huge, time to destroy everything around me” attitude.
That one again often comes out to the death and killing aspect and that it seems like macro characters so often seem to have a god complex, some even to the point of getting mad when someone dares to draw a character bigger then theirs. Kinda reminds me of a discussion in a Yahoo Group from way back when someone essentially asked why so many macros have to rampage and the basic reply was “that's the entire fun of it”.

Again it is nothing against the kinks themselves or those who like them, this is mostly just what I have issues with. Most boils down to that Kinks and Death simply don't mix for me, and ambiguous implied is still enough to make it an issue.
I'd personally like it if for Vore at least the terms were defined better as there is some material I could “like” if it didn't ride that edge so much.

Hey everyone, this is just a quick journal to say sorry it sometimes takes me a while to get to new notes and about the yet unread notes.

Most relate to commissions, sadly things are still rather slow there. I still have a few overdue (paid) ones to work off and I hope to establish a more stable rhythm to do them afterwards. Right now things are a bit "clusterfucky" sadly which adds to the delays.

Mach 14th, the final frontier... no wait, it's my birthday ^..^

Giving a little shoutout to help  aubrin out a little.

He's taking commissions for some extra income, so every little bit of extra attention helps.

Have a look over his gallery and if you like his style and assortment of material consider giving him a shout about a commission ^..^

Well here's a little problem.

I have been accused of stealing a character design.

 overlai.returns commented here
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16.....#cid:105216479
Saying that the design for Sam is stolen from him, specifically meaning his character Lotus.


The thing is, I did reference Overlai and Lotus in the very first time I posted a pic of Sam over a year ago here:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/15325631/
And I did say how her design is VERY inspired by Lotus.
I did want to contact Overlai about it too, the problem here was though, at the time he had already deactivated his old account and left no contact info so I had no idea where I could.

Well since I have been drawing Sam for over a year I thought it was OK, until now that is.

I have not been hit with a takedown notice or anything, just that one comment.


The reason why I don't reply personally to him is that he instantly blocked me so I obviously can't.

This journal is not to start any kind of war or accuse, I just hope I can reach Overlai through this, if someone could link this to him maybe, and clear up the situation.

I will say one thing though, I will not take down any pics I did of Sam or seize drawing her, all I aim for here is to possibly defuse the situation.


EDIT: I do please ask to stay civilly on this one, I only made the Journal to get in contact with him, someone already linked the journal in his shouts sections which is more than enough. Please DO NOT spam or attack him on that, I do want to solve this peacefully.

I know I'm kinda late to the party and a lot has already been said about Undertale.
I was gifted the game a few days ago and gotta say, I loved it. It made me happy, made me sad and did leave a small hole in my heart I wish could be filled (one that this comic does very well illustrate HEAVY SPOILER http://dreemurr-reborn.tumblr.com/ ).


Though it also filled a hole that was there for a long time, one that was illustrated well by something in the past.
Roll back a few years to TES 4: Oblivion. This is a small spoiler for a side mission but not gigantic.
In one of the mages guild quests you have to help the local guild house leader who lost her pendant. Without it she's overwhelmed by "psychic energy" so to say which slowly drives her mad. To help her she sends you to find an identical one in her family tomb.
As it turns out once you find it a member of the guild had stolen the original one and hid it. He did plan to hide it until she resigned from her position and then arrange that it's found again. He did not do that to go up in rank himself or even to become guild leader, he was way too far down the ladder for it to be any real use. What he wanted was simply to get her to resign since he saw her as unfit as leader, being so dependent on an easily lost item made her vulnerable, and him pulling that stunt did show just that.

And here's the thing... I AGREED with him. Not with his methods but with his reasoning. Nobody listened to his objections until now and there was truth to his concerns as well.
I would have told him to confess what he did, to explain his reasons and I would have offered to stand with him. To accept a punishment but not face being expelled or shunned and that his concerns ARE true.

... but no... all you can do is kill him...
No reasoning, no just punch him till he falls on his ass and then slap some sense into him, not even able to lie to the guild leader and protect him under his promise of betterment. Just kill him.


That points out the hole very well that Undertale managed to fill to a degree.
To show mercy, and to not be treated like a little kid or a moron for it. And that it was your choice.

Even if in the choice between mercy and killing is in a way not as "deep", the pure fact that it "lets" you and what it ultimately means is what gives that little fulfillment.


Well that was all I really had to say on that. I don't want to gush about Undertale that much, I think everyone heard that to no end already. This is just the little bit that really meant something to me ^..^