Soooo... who has an excessively busty lady I could borrow for a bit? :D

Time for some random thoughts and observations about the Ruby Jubilee pictures that I failed to mention on the pictures themselves. Let's get this show on the road!


Buckcake

I couldn't quite figure out how to draw her hand while holding the phone, so I figured I'd google "person using phone". Turns out that phones are not used in this manner anymore.

Not sure whether anyone got the Ghastly Ghastly reference. If they did, nobody mentioned it. Also, nobody got grossed out by the fact it was "Grandma's old-fashioned buckcake"! I will need to try harder the next time :D


Down under

Tried a different approach to colouring for this one. Usually I add shadows; here I added highlights. It really helped sell the "sunny beach" effect, I think.

Also, a bottomless version of this one exists!


Suit up

She was only supposed to have added the "naked" part, but it sorta looks like she added the "trespassers will get cake" part as well. It works fine either way, though.


Consideration

I knew from the moment I decided to draw something for Astrofenn that I wanted to draw her in a bikini. I just didn't know how to make it birthday-related. And then the idea for Suit up popped into my mind and this one just clicked into place as well!

This one is also a great example of how not to do scenes, as the image makes no sense unless you've seen Suit up as well >.>


Debate

It was initially intended to be just one image, but I drew the angel and devil with so much detail that they just ended up looking weird when scaled down in the original image. Therefore the scene got split even further. I really need to plan ahead a bit more.


Kitty cake

It's quite interesting to see how much more involved people's characters have gotten over the years. Most "oldtimers" have very simple colour-schemes in comparison those nowadays. It does make them easier to colour, though :D


Cake kitty

There's always been this rule about not showing nudity for Valyncia. There is no such rule for Valerie, though. That just makes it all the more fun to apply said rule to her as well, though :D


Roll of the dice

I completely forgot that I was going to add some kind of skill-description going: "Liony perception - You see nothing. Don't even bother rolling the die." I got distracted by colouring the rest, though x.@


Tough climb

That tree in the background actually was more work than expected. At first I was just going to doodle one in photoshop, but it just wouldn't come out right x.@


Distraction

Once again intended as a corner-piece in the original image, but I forgot to leave an appropriate space for said corner-piece to occupy, so it got its own image instead. It probably would've suffered the same issue as the Debate one above, anyhow.


Boozebs

When asked what state of dress they should be in, the answer was "all over the place". That was good, as I had yet to draw Janet in clothes and I wasn't planning on starting that any time soon. Likewise for Dawn, just the other way around! Nobody even mentioned Sara's outfit, though :(


Iiiinteresting

I had exactly one request for a drawing for another person. You lot aren't very altruistic, you know ;)


Waiting

Woooo, those colours. Took me a while to find a non-white/non-black colour for her outfit that worked well with her particular complexion. This was actually the second picture I drew of her, as I drew Receiving first (and I mean "first", as it was the very first Ruby Jubilee pic I did >.>).


Receiving

Normally I'm not one to really draw myself with other people's characters. Given that he's effectively me, it just feels like taking advantage of said characters. Since this was for my birthday, though, I figured I'd make an exception. Turns out I may have misinterpreted the words "And have Your sona there receiving a very delightful gift :)" a little, though. Woops ^^;


Ride

Anal scenes are tricky. You either end up with close-ups of penis-going-into-ass, which I didn't want to do as I had done nothing but close-ups so far. Or most of one of the characters is obscured, which is no fun either. Or you end up looking at the back of one of the characters. I opted for that one in the end as Stush-butt is good butt and she's more than busty enough for some good sideboob too :D


Aftermath

Nope... no idea how Natalie managed to lose her skirt. I'm just surprised she's still wearing her top!


Conclusion

All in all, it was good fun doing this. Will I do it again? Well, not sure. It does swallow up a lot of time. Then again, I'm usually drawing other people's characters anyhow, and this ensured a nice variety of people/situations.

It's my birthday and I'm turning 40 today! And while looking through some oooold art yesterday, we found stuff from around 2000, but I'm pretty sure I was looking at furry naughtiness before then, so I'm guessing half of those 40 have been spent in or near the fandom!

The Ruby Jubilee will be continuing in a moment. Have a look at my gallery if you haven't. If you left a suggestion, you should probably be seeing it before the end of the day :)

Aaaanyhow... cake for everyone!

The Ruby Jubilee has started!

In the coming days, I will be posting all the stuff drawn in response to Tick tock and The end is nigh!. Mind you, it's not quite my birthday yet (not until monday), but I figured I'd spread out the pictures a bit. Doesn't help that I'm likely to be out and about for most of monday anyhow :P

And yes, technically the term "ruby jubilee" is for 40th anniversaries, but it'll function just as well for 40th birthdays.

Gah! I keep forgetting to mention that, after a mere seven months or so, I finally finished up colouring of the Silver Dunes series I drew for Sailoranna's birthday last year.

Invitation
Loophole
Compromise
Consideration
Postcard

Enjoy!

It is now 40 minutes past midnight (bit more even), making this the 28th of May. That means it's officially my birthday now! Everyone have some cake, drink and be merry!

As for me... I'll be back in the morning as old people need their sleep!

I usually scale my images such that they fit neatly on my screen. That size is generally 200-300 pixels lower than the maximum size that Furaffinity allows by default (and yes, I know that by re-uploading you can go bigger). My screen isn't exactly the biggest in the world, though, so I'm curious: would you guys prefer if I stuck closer to the limits instead? Or just keep doing what I'm doing?

For the sake of comparison, I uploaded Introducing Dawn at the full 1280 pixel height. A similar picture at my usual height would be Jenny Bundy.

I'm both bored and tired of having my previous journal at the top, so let's see whether I can fix those situations. Since I can't think of anything more interesting, let's go for another round of:

Ask me (or my character) anything!

P.S. This includes Dawn. Gotta figure out what she's about somehow, anyhow :p

Bah...

Only the slightest nudge seems enough to either set me off on a cantankerous rant or to cause me to retreat in myself so I can sulk and stew in my annoyance. And as if that wasn't bad enough, more often than not, it involves stuff that's either not in the least bit important or is even completely hypothetical. And at that point, the irrationality of it all of course annoys me in turn, so I end up annoyed with myself about being unnecessarily annoyed.

And yes, I'm aware of the irony of going on a rant about going on a rant...

Unfinished ideas. Unfinished drawings. Unfinished inking. Unfinished colouring. Unfinished coding. Unfinished stories. Unfinished emails. Unfinished house. Unfinished garden. Unfinished list, most likely.

So much left unfinished...

Just a note to anyone who might've saved the image already. I re-uploaded a slightly adjusted version of Knobbly to fix some anatomical inaccuracies.

Had my (by now yearly) MRI scan a while back and got the results today. It appears my cholesteatoma has not made a recurrence on either side. Woot. Now let's hope it stays that way.

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you have a lovely weekend with good food and good company!

Also, cheers to ClarryGoldstein for drawing Carbon in a fetching christmas outfit: Carbon Christmas Stocking Sprawl :)

Last year I drew Franks with benefits. But as time passed I grew less and less happy about that series. Let's be honest; it doesn't violate the letter of the 'law' (no naughty bits visible, after all), but it sure had its way with the spirit of it. I've taken the Rayne we know and love and 'skewed' her to fit my designs. I don't like that.

Moving on to this year. I drew Rayne's naughty bits! So much for the letter of the 'law'! Yet I feel far better about this series. There certainly has been enough sexual tension between her and Trevor that, given the right circumstances, she would be tempted to give him nosebleed-material... or at least, that's the feeling I have. Time will tell, of course, but I suspect I can still look back on these in a year and be content with them.

For the first time in 10 years or so I visited Eurofurence again and damn, it has grown. Back in 'my day' the attendance was in the hundreds, but apparently they hit 2400+ this year. Not to mention that the hotel is decked out all over with banners, flags, and posters. It certainly was quite a different experience. Berlin is a lot less scenic than Nuremberg (though the hotel was certainly less of an up-hill climb too), but I guess we have WW2 to blame for that.

I'm not going to do a day-by-day, because that'd require too much brainpower, but I did have the opportunity to introduce Sailoranna to panels and shows this time; apparently he always just hung out in the artist's lounge at other cons. Not that we didn't do that either, mind you, as already evidenced by femtoAmpere and Ethriol, both of whom I've had the opportunity to talk to in the lounge. Wouldn't have minded meeting some more people, but I'm not quite that outgoing, unfortunately.

The artshow was nice this year, but most of it didn't really catch my attention, except for two oil-paintings (I'm just a tail to you and The spirit of wholesale carrot trading) that I ended up blowing my budget on. I still feel like I got a bargain on them, though, and I honestly don't understand how I ended up being the only one bidding on them. Ah well, their loss and my fortune.

The art-auction was a sight to see as well, though the prices were all over the place. A giant toblerone bar (4kg or so) went for €500,- if I recall correctly, but one of the banners only for a fraction of that. There was one banner I was sorta interested in, but my budget was limited after buying the two paintings and it the price already my intended maximum bid in about 10 seconds. Ah well, at least I got a signed print of that one, so I do still sorta have it... just smaller.

The most amusing bit about the art-action was Oncle Kage pointing out that someone had done a €126,- bid on a pic (with a €1,- increment), insisting that we couldn't possibly let that person win that picture. So one guy in the audience bid €130,- and then everything was silent. Kage commented that the other guy probably didn't dare speak up now, but as it turns out, he already had, because when asked for his bid-number, the €130,- guy went "I'm the guy on the bidsheet!".

The pawpet show was awesome as well. It's certainly not a puppet-show for kids, though, as many "fucks" were mentioned and the main-character certainly had no issues with casual sex (mostly implied, but there was that one blowjob scene... EF-goers will know what I'm talking about :P). The soundtrack is great too and I'm glad we went back to stand in line for it after a late-night dinner in one of th hotel's restaurants (the queue hadn't even shortened throughout the whole dinner).

The trips there and back were a bit long (particularly with a one-hour detour on the way back), but all-in-all it was a smooth ride that went pretty much as planned. There are certainly worse ways than travelling by train, as you do have the opportunity to stretch your legs a bit and it's certainly less exhausting than driving there. The public transit in Berlin takes a bit to get used to, too, but fortunately I had done some preparation beforehand, so we arrived at the hotel pretty much at the time I had predicted.

Overall, it was a great con and I'm happy I got the opportunity to attend it :)

well... tomorrow morning, that is... lemme know if you're attending as well. Maybe we can meet up and do some doodling or some such!

Also, if you manage to find Sailoranna, you will probably have found me as well.

In about a week-and-a-half I'll be attending Eurofurence 22, either in tow of or towing along a Sailoranna. Who knows, maybe I'll meet some of you there!

Yup, it's that time again! I'm curious what you guys think of my artwork and to make it a bit easier, I've thought up some categories I'm curious about:

Content - Is what I've been drawing lately relevant to your interests? Anything you want to see more? less? different?
Style - Is how I've been drawing my stuff to your liking? How's my anatomy? My backgrounds?
Colouring - How's my colouring? Style? Colour-choice?

Except for one, that's all the birthday pics I received. The last one'd require rather much censor-lion, so I'm likely not going to post that. Thanks again, Sailoranna, for the lovely pics and the inspiration that came from them ^^

Jeez... a birthday? again?! But I've only had one last year! Anyhow, it appears I've done my 38th lap around the sun today, so it's time to celebrate with cake and such! Cake for everyone!

I... fucking... suck...

I seem utterly and completely incapable of actually finishing anything, ever. Either I simply won't get started or, if I do, I'll hit some small snag, give up and forget about it. I then get distracted by other shit only to repeat the process.

In a little less than a month it'll be my birthday, the fourth one since I moved into my own house, which also roughly marks my three year anniversary in this house (moved a few weeks before my birthday). I still have bare lightbulbs hanging in the livingroom; I still have a massive crt tv that my neighbour was going to throw out. The backyard is still a barren piece of dirt without even a fence around it. But hey, I finally managed to pick out curtains for the livingroom after a mere three years, so at least I've got that going for me.

Remember Trevor's game? See that "Originally I had intended these pics to be a set for a strip poker game" in there? I haven't done shit about that since. I know how to do it... I know I can do it. I'm just not fucking doing it.

We can go further back, though: Retrospection and future intentions. I quote: "As such, I have the intention of trying my hand at a few browser-based games, among which a rewrite of Esagashi. For now, that's all the detail I have, but I'll be sure to keep you all up to date once I get to work on this.". Well, here's your update: it doesn't seem like it'll ever fucking happen. Once again I know what to do and how to do it. It's just... not... happening.

And a bit closer to the present again: I've known how I wanted to continue the camping trip within an hour of seeing the last installment. I still have to get started on it.

Ever wondered why I don't do commissions? In some small part because I get completely stressed when haggling over prices and such, but for the most part it's because I simply don't trust myself to actually fucking finish stuff. Better to not have anyone relying on that... that way I will only disappoint myself when I yet again not finish something.

Well, at least I managed to finish this journal whining about my inability to finish something. Guess when it comes to complaining, I'm just peachy on getting things done...


P.S. Closed for comments as I'm not looking for sympathy or advice; in my current mood I don't trust my own reactions to either. I just needed to vent.

Just saw that my last surgery update was still my topmost post. Time to change it. I'm a bit tired, a bit bored and a complete slacker art-wise. I'll go to bed early for the first, play some minecraft for the second and for the third I'm wondering what you guys think I should draw.

Soooo... whaddayawanna see? (other than the next camping trip, of course)

And I'm back again. It's been a while since I last woke up that urghly after surgery (think only the first time was comparable). Unfortunately that was because it took a bit longer than intended, so it's not all good news this time around.

Seems that the cholesteatoma affected both the hammer and anvil bones and both had to be removed. The stirrup bone is okay, fortunately, which should make it possible to add a prosthesis at a later time that should restore a fair portion of my hearing. Though I'll likely get a hearing aid until the prosthesis goes in (they'll be waiting to see whether the cholesteatoma returns first). Either way, at the moment it's probably best to stay to my left if you talk to me.

But hey... at least I can now say that I have four less bones in my body than the average human (already got a prosthesis on the other side).

Well, I'm off for surgery again. Should be the last one this year, at least, if not in total (one can hope). Should be back by tomorrow!

In the meantime, ask me or my characters inappropriate questions so I have something to do tomorrow :P

First of all: happy new year! May you all have a great 2016 ahead!

Back to 2015, though.

Art

In the past year, I posted 43 images and 2 scraps, including stuff like:

- 15 birthday pictures: though good fun, I'm inclined to go a bit easier on these from now on; or at least, take a different approach to them. Long series of pictures tend to get a bit stressy and toward the end of them, I tend to get a bit of a burn-out where I don't do anything art-related for the following weeks. Of course, knowing me, I'm just going to ignore my intentions, so only time will tell.

- 5 camping trips: I really should get a bit faster at this. Particularly the last one took ages, though I partly blame a bunch of birthdays for that. At this rate, they'll just barely be back from the trip in time for the heat death of the universe. I'm not saying I want it to end quickly, mind you. It's been good fun so far and particularly Natalie is having some character-development at the moment :)

- Exactly 1 image involving only my own characters... and that to invite other characters to join in some experimentation. To be honest, I'm not sure whether I'm altruistic and just want to draw others or whether I'm egocentric and just want to be praised for drawing others. Possibly a bit of both. I highly doubt I will stop drawing others, but I really should focus a bit more on my own character's development as well.

- 2 experiments: YCH and Test-subjects. I rather like these and am certainly inclined to do further stuff like this, though I doubt I'll just do a repeat of previous experiments. This reminds me, btw, that I still have some test-subjects to finish (yes yes, I said I'd do one pic, but I can't even take myself seriously anymore on remarks like that >.>).


Coding

I've been a complete and utter slacker here. For years now I've been meaning to create a new version of Esagashi (for those who still remember it) and I still haven't done so. Also, Trevor's game had been intended for an online (strip-)poker game that I never continued on. I'm very annoyed with myself on this and really need to find a way to get productive on this.


Real life

Not much going there. Still single. Still have bare lightbulbs hanging in various spots in the house. Still no curtains other than in my bedroom. Still have a garden in need of a fence, plants and a lawn. Definitely should do something about some of these points this year, at least.

The major changes of pace were a couple of surgeries I had; not particularly entertaining but unfortunately unavoidable if I don't want to end up with bigger issues in the long run. For those curious what's going on, this particular comic explains it better than I could. I'm scheduled for another one on the 7th, which should be the last one for this year at least. Now let's hope it doesn't return, making this the last one as well.


Conclusion

All in all: not a great year, not a bad year. Just the usual, really.