Since it's something to occupy my boredom and distract from doodles, more meme'ness, stolen from

1. Do I have a distinct style of drawing?
2. If so, what exactly is it that defines my "style"?
3. Would you say my art usually follows a 'theme'?
4. Is there anything I really need to improve on or change?
5. Does my style (if I have one) remind you of/look like the style of anyone else?
6. Judging from whatever art of mine that you've seen, what do you think I do the best at?
7. What do you think I suck at?

And remember, I'm taking commissions, $20, love you long time. :D ( I may just turn myself into an absolute whore yet)

So a month ago, I launched this insane idea, to fund raise $8,000 by doing 400 $20 sketch commissions, to get myself out of debt and into school.

A month later, and I'm at 2.5%, which, is a lot better than I had expected. It's more money than I had when I started. I'm noticing though, now that the initial rush is over that, well there's not really anything else coming in. I've only got a few commissions left to finish, and after that, I'm done what I've amassed.

So I'm curious about hearing from people, what might be causing you to pause and hold onto your money, or do you even know that I'm offering pencil commissions for $20? Is it the lack of concrete detail about what the extras at the end of the road will be?

I'd like to hear thoughts from other people about this.

Yes, I want your money, I don't just want to take it though, I want to deliver something worth that $20. So I really am curious about how I can make this whole process easier and more enticing.

You heard me,

Cross dressing, not all that unusual. People do it for a whole boat load of reasons.

I'm wondering what people would say if they saw a guy as masculine (ie muscular/stocky, etc) as Brick James in a dress? >.>

To the people who are waiting for their commissions, never fear, they are coming.

I've been out dating, trying to bring someone into my life. (Most recently though I've been combating food poisoning) and I've come to realize, that strangely, I don't want someone in my life as bad as I thought. Sure it's nice to socialize and have fun with friends.

But after spending a lot of time with people, I've found that I get seriously annoyed that they're taking up so much of my time that I'm not getting nearly enough art done. (For my personal preferences anyways) If I do spend as much time as I like to on a daily basis working on art, I find that I'm neglecting them, which I don't find fair for them.

Just strange to realize that after pining to have a companion in my life, that I don't actually want one, yet, possibly if ever.

Strange and confusing.

Original journal: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/335840

So, I've finally bulldozed through enough of life to start sitting down and spitting out art more regularly. I've even modified the banner, yay 0.5% of the way there.

Really I want to thank people, as there are approximately 10 more pending details. Far more than I anticipated. Since things are actually starting to take off, I wanted to officially open things up for suggestions about how to better reward people for their generosity and participation beyond a piece of art.

So here's what I have so far;

 xilimyth suggested that I just run with any particular commission that caught my eye, going as far as I see fit. This is a really good one, as I ordered an Artograph lightbox the other week with what I had gathered from the first round of commissions.

I'm going to be doing a lot of practicing with my muchly neglected micron/copic pens, so the possibility of getting real inks is going to be pretty decent. I've also got a huge box of pencil crayons, so there's possibility of that as well.

Potential ideas:

Giant poster of everyone's character/avatar who participated (maybe even available as an actual poster)

Compiled archive/CD/book of all 400 commissions. Sort of a memorial thing, just a collection of all the pieces, commentary, notes, some written thoughts, some tutorials.

For those interested, if you're willing to pay the cost of S&H, I'll mail the original with a certificate of authenticity (something that at least looks official) confirming the piece's authenticity, which one it was of the 400 and a bunch of other useless information. But hey if you want to own a piece of history, this is one way to go about it :D

That's all I have for now, suggest ideas here, I'm looking for them. Let other people know as well! The more the better :D

Stolen from  P_2_D who stole it from DA

A : Easy to fall in love with.
B : You like people.
C : You are really silly.
D : one in a million.
E : Great in bed.
F : You are dead sexy.
G : You never let people tell you what to do.
H : You are Quirky.
I : Great in bed.
J : People Adore you
K : You're wild and crazy.
L : Unbelievably great in bed.
M : best kisser ever.
N : You like to drink.
O : Crazy
P : You are popular with all types of people.
Q : You are a hypocrite.
S : You love to drink
R : Fucking crazy.
T : You're loyal to those you love.
U : You really like to chill.
V : You are not judgmental.
W : You are very broad minded.
X : You never let people tell you what to do.
Y : best boy/girl friend any one can ask for.
Z : Always ready.

-

J : People Adore you
K : You're wild and crazy.
R : Fucking crazy.
O : Crazy
S : You love to drink
S : You love to drink

I wonder if iced tea counts as drinking o.O

The 400 Project!

Heheh, now that I've gotten your attention with big, bolded letters, to the meat of this topic. This is a project I've been batting around inside of my head for a few weeks now.

The idea is simple, to do 400 pencils commissions at $20 a pop. Now you might ask yourself why? That's a very good question to ask indeed.

I have a Visa, that's at $8,000 (and slowly growing thanks to interest) that I would dearly love to clear up. The whole military thing might not work out for me since it's looking like I'm +/-10% deaf in my left ear (surprise the Canadian Armed Forces are exempt from the Equal Employment Opportunities act).

400 of these $20 pencils commissions equals that magic number $8,000. It's something I'm pretty much addicted to doing, and people get art out of the deal. Also I'd be tracking everyone (who wishes to be tracked) and this could play out into something like a life long discount on future commissions from me ^^; (I'm still working this idea out)

Now I don't just want to take an 'easy' way out of clearing up this $8,000 credit card (yay house renovations ;-; ) the main reason is that I want to clear up my credit record so I can get student loans at better rates. If the military doesn't work out, I'm looking at the better part of $30,000 total in student loans to get the MA's I want.

So where does that leave us? Free for all, $20 sketch commissions, first come, first served basis, although I make no guarantees about accepting every single one. Sometimes my heart's just not in it, sometimes it's content I'm not comfortable drawing. I will let you know if it's accepted or not.

Payment methods are paypal and mailed forms of payment.

E-mail the commission requests to: kaelross[at]gmail.com or send a note to my FA account.

$20, it gets you decent quality (in my own biased opinion) art and it's for a good cause (yay higher education )

--

P.S.  xilimyth made an awesome suggestion that I'm rather keen on; quite simply, any of these commissions that I get, I might go further than pencil work for whatever reasons, and there won't be any obligations to pay any extra. So your $20 commission could very well come back with inks, digital shading or color as well!

Simple as that. 4 spots, first come, first served to those who can guarantee payment (preferably paypal, or a money order sent out) by the end of this week (Payment sent by March 21/2008)

$20 Sketch, Example:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1145955/
$30 Inked, Example:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1153810/
$40 Colored, Example:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1145396/

Keep the descriptions short (point form preferably), reference images are greatly appreciated, and at least a basic idea of the scene/setting, etc.

Send your commission details (and payment method, if you're using paypal, the email address for your paypal account so I can better track payments) to kaelross@gmail.com. If you get one of the four available commissions, I will provide you with details on how to get a payment to me.

I'll cut right to the point, reading is a great pass time. It's something that's horribly, terribly under appreciated in the community.

You're all probably familiar with the 'greats' of writing, even if you haven't read any of their stuff, Stephen King, George Orwell, Dan Brown. All those people who manage to put together stories so well that they literally suck you in.

Ever been in one of those conversations, where people are talking about someone, or some group, and how they knew them and knew of their work long before they became famous? Well here's your chance to acquaint yourself with the work of one such person who is going to go far.

His pen name is  Kusanagi and I swear, you won't regret checking out some of his stuff. He has a very light writing style that you can practically fall into, and the guy has one of the greatest senses of humor I've ever seen, and he puts it to great use in his short stories.

So do yourself a favor, check out his stuff, and feed his ego. Like artists, writers need feedback and criticism as well.

Don't stop there, help promote other writers, and if you really like his stuff, share it!

So it would seem, that after almost 5 years of faithful service, as a gaming device, precision art tool, and generic make my life amazingly easy, my logitech mx510 mouse has finally died.


:< I never actually realized just how attached I was to this thing, sad to see it dead now ;-;

It's infinitely easier to draw males of any sorts or varieties, than it is women.

While this is ostensibly directly stemming from the fact I own a male body and can use it whenever, I feel the odd compulsion to question just how secure my sexuality is.

That is all for late night ramblings.

While I was talking with a friend and his parents, it slipped out that I'm an artist and that I often get overburdened doing art for others.

Now let me tell you something, you don't disagree with a man who weighs almost double your 170lb weight and is a wrestling coach.

So I've got two of the last freebie projects done. Two more to go, and well, for everyone else, I'm sorry if I've forgotten, but if you haven't paid cash, participated in a trade, or done something, chances are, it's not happening, I'm tired of just giving my time out to others.

So yeah :D Life moves on!

P.S. Commissions are possibly re-opening in the near future. My practicing with pencils on real paper has been paying off in spades @.@

Of what to do with my life finally;

I'm joining the Canadian Armed Forces.

That is all, hopefully I'll be entirely caught up on art in the next few weeks now that I'm breaking out of this depression.

1. Are you single or taken?
Single :<

2. Chocolate or flowers?
Chocolate, it's edible :D

3. Will you do anything special for Valentines Day?
I'm gonna buy a cake, and eat it all to myself.

4.Do you like anyone?
I honestly don't know o.O

5. Were you dating anyone last Valentines?
Hahah, no, I was addicted to WoW.. Does that count?

6. What would be your dream Valentines date?
Chocolate, and cuddling.

7. Do you make a big deal about Valentines?
What can I make a deal about? 50% off? :D

8. Have you ever had a secret admirer?
I draw furry porn, I'm pretty sure that's a yes by default.

9. Would you ever write someone a love letter?
I did... Once... And we just don't talk about that anymore.

10. Do you believe in Cupid?
If by cupid you mean, warm, curvy body types, then yes.

11. Do your parents give you presents on Valentines?
No.

12. Do you still send out Valentines cards?
Hahah, I never did once.

13. Do you like candy hearts?
There are good ones, and bad ones.

15. Is Valentines depressing?
Not really, no. I've got my pencils, and my sketchbook and my faithful ruler!

16. How do you feel about PDA?
I want some.

17. How is your love life?
Well, Palmella Handerson and I, frequently engage in parties with our good friend Astroglide.

18. Have you ever been dumped on Valentines?
Nope.

19. How many roses would you want?
Yay?

20. Will you have a boyfriend/girlfriend next Valenitnes?
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe.

Heya folks,

A touch morose, I've just been grasping with what I could best call an emotional relapse. One of those days when you're single, when you miss that special someone so much it hurts. Then your mind wanders and it gets worse when all the memories rise up to the surface, the good times, and then how your own calloused selfishness bled the relationship dry of anything meaningful.

Somedays, being an asshole really sucks.

This isn't so much of a ranting journal, just getting stuff off of my mind and letting people know what's happened to me.

- Been keeping up with my 2 sketches a day resolution, definitely far more comfier with pencils and pens, and making improvements. Also thinking more, just need to kick my laziness/PC game/internet addiction to devote even more time to art.

- Figured out my finances (again, yay in debt until I'm 105 years old, as my mother would say, I'll be eating cat food)

- Rented out my spare room to a friend I've known for a while and his fiancee. My friend, wasn't a problem, she-bitch, however was. Between the two of them (simply because I can't discern exactly who did what) my house was trashed (no physical damage thank god) most of my food was eaten, neither went to work or actively sought out jobs (this has changed, my friend has gotten a job).

Now the same day I was going to serve these two their eviction notices, to get them the hell out of my house, she-bitch dumps my friend, and runs off. Talk about a two for one whammy of awesome. Friend's rebounded, his life is suddenly back on track and on the way to getting better (instead of worse) and things around the house have greatly improved.

All told, she-bitch cost me about $1800 :(

- And I started off 2008 with my third official mononucleosis infection (I'm one of those rare people that was born incapable of developing immunity to crap like this)

- Have a second job (yay 70 hour work weeks) but this means I can get things like my Visa and my bills cleared up a lot sooner, which means less stress!

There was about 30-40 images pulled from my gallery/scraps, nothing but bad memories and mistakes. No account hacking or what not. Just took down stuff I didn't want up any longer. Probably not the end of it either.

Moo :p

So the past few months have definitely been interesting. Like I mentioned in a previous journal, it's looking like I'll be hitting off 2008 with a clean slate art wise.

Set a simple goal for myself, two sketches a day minimum, one in the morning, one in the afternoon.

I've set two themes to follow for the year, so that I always have something to work on and towards.

The first is a webcomic I've been collaborating with  Kusanagi for the better part of th is year now, called 'Shotgun Opera'. He's a great writer and I consider myself lucky to have him writing the script and plot, I just need to get my ass into gear and start illustrating. Should be far more fruitful,  aliasi got me Artrage 2 as an early xmas gift, and that program makes me squee.

The second, is going to be an ongoing writing/art portfolio project, simply called the 'Mushiko Agenda' or something similar. It's basically going to be related works from the perspective of my character, Mirelle, going over the many successes, failures, quirks, perks, flaws and neat things about Mushiko. I've had the bad ass evil Mega corp around for like 7 years now, I might as well start committing canon to their cause.

Wrapping up my thoughts here, I am looking at resuming commissions, just my problem right now is, I'm still working out my work flow. One major problem I have, is I value my time, I can't honestly sit down and work on a drawing project that I don't have much interest in, for what amounts to $2 or so an hour. Most people I ask wouldn't work a dayjob for that little, I figure why should I? I'm not going to impose a flat rate of $12 an hour (what I make currently), I am however, contemplating 4 auctions per month, 2 sketch/ink pieces, 1 traditional digital colorized piece and 1 digital painting style. Let the people decide what they want to pay for a commission.

Any comments, concerns, opinions, post em here. Just don't be surprised if I don't agree. :)


P.S. I have discovered the ultimate solution to relationship troubles, a sock puppet! /sarcasm

Hiya folks,

I'm actually starting to wrap up most of my outstanding projects (believe it or not, I have an alternate alias on the interwebs) so between that art and this art, I'm almost caught up, aiming to start 2008 with a clean slate!

I feel that I've reached the limits of what I can get out of opencanvas 1.11b when it comes to finer details.

As an example, my latest posted piece (censored and work safe) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/932722/

I find the max resolution and max DPI are severely restricting what I can push for detail and it drives me crazy.

I'm looking for a more intuitive, professional program to work with. Something that emulates real media (pencils, real paint brushes, paints of varying types). I've heard about things like the latest Corel Painter, but before I go and drop my privately stashed budget of $500 on a piece of software, I'm looking for recommendations.

Criteria
-Versatile DPI/Resolution sizes, I would like to start working at actual 8x11.5" sizes with DPI in the 100-300 range, and larger, I have had a fascination with posters for a while.
-Intuitive tool set, I hate photoshop, I've had the chance to try it out on my friend's laptop and it's too technical for me. I'm not averse to learning a new program, but having to remember multiple different presets to achieve the effect of an acrylics loaded paintbrush, is not my idea of fun.
- Multiple color profile support (I live right down the street from an actual professional and discrete printing shop. They support all color profiles, so this is something else I'd like to explore, they also do poster printing up to 60"x60" :D)

I will not download, steal, pirate or otherwise accept copies unless you can prove it's legitimate. Yes I agree they're ridiculously overpriced, but I'm just looking for suggestions on what kind of software to branch out to next from my faithful oc1.11b.

Thanks for your time.

 ninjapuppy rocks.

With the power of the internets combined, I get fed and make porn!

Thanks for reading folks.

Heya folks, this going to be one of those longer, somewhat philosophical journals. So if you're a fan of tl;dr, you might just want to skip onwards.

Onwards though,

Recently, in spat of depression, I've been doing a lot of thinking, a lot of studying, a lot of reading. I've been immersing myself without pause, to try and better understand not only myself, but art in and of itself, and what it means to me.

I picked up a book recently, 'Rollback' by Robert J. Sawyer, it appeared as a series in a science magazine last year. While the book is science fiction in the truest sense, approaching a very realistic 'problem', it's not so much the context of the book that grabbed my attention, but some of the content. In the book, one of the main characters visits a museum, and through an inner monologue, remarks that technology, in regards to digitally retouched or completely digital art, is 'supplementing patience for genuine manual skill.'

Now this struck a chord with me, being relatively new and quite frankly still very 'immature' when it comes to being artistically skilled, but having invested five years learning things on my own, I really started to think.

Comparing time and results between art I do traditionally (I do keep quite a few sketchbooks and muck with traditional media) and what I do entirely digitally, I myself can somewhat understand the statement. Personally, on my level, I do spend longer to complete a piece of art that's purely digital, because I know I have the freedom to change things without leaving artifacts and flaws behind.

But that's where things start to get blurry for myself, I still go through the same workflow, I just find that I exercise more freedom with methods (which tools I use) and principles (color theory, perspective, etc etc) when working digitally, because I don't have to worry about eventually ruining the paper by erasing too much.

I honestly think, this is the situation the inner monologue was aimed at, the crux of patience versus a 'higher level of skill'. The arguement is entirely subjective, highly biased, as neither side is fixed or without different interpretation.

Here's what I'd like to ask others: Do you think that the digital technologies have allowed those with a greater level of patience to perform as well or better than 'artists' who via which ever means have 'better skills'?

Please I'd like to know what others think, and if you could point others to the journal, I'd really like to get as many people thinking about this.

Well, this is pretty much the six month point since March or so where it's gotten more and more difficult to draw.

Happens to everyone who arts.

I just need to get out of it. None of the old tricks are working and my skills have rapidly gone to hell.


Gonna try and get something done.

- Yes, it's been an episode of depression. Yes I'm still working through it.

Well, it's good news all around, second job is finally starting to kick out more hours. Yay happy wallet, except this means that I'm more than likely going to be doing 6 day work weeks, and 12-14 hour days quite often.

Glee.

It's also that point of the year where a lot of people are looking for new arrangements after semester one. Between two jobs and renters, I'll finally be on my way to clawing my way out of debt.

To quote GLaDOS: Still alive

So yeah, I'm being irresponsible. I'm posting personal information on teh interspheres.

I'm looking to just hook up with furs in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

I'm damn bored and I want to get out of my house XD

I don't bite, I shower, and I can bring along my drawing kit to draw if there are any other furry artists and want to sketch/trade and what not.

B:

Edit: Seriously, is there any place where I can search for local furries? o.O

Being creative, to me, is one part creating, and one part solving. One way to look at art, is you're trying to problem solve exactly how to present something, what method (ie perspective, proportion. etc, all that shit)s on and so forth.

Some days, my brain is just so bleh.

Today is one of those days. It seems whatever amount of progress I make on this comic that's been devouring my life, by the time I get further down the line by a page or few, they just seem entirely different.

I wish I had a scanner so I could show my writer what I mean D: It gets so annoying not to have a working scanner and to get caught up in these artistic blocks.

Also, I'm doing that whole 'pruning' my contact list thing. Seems pretty much 9 out of 10 people only talk to me when it's porn related :D

You people know who you are, you add me, make small talk, and eventually it's all about the porn, you don't talk to me unless you're in the mood for it, or want it, or I've just posted something and you've got a problem/want for it.

For everyone else, you also know who you are, many <3s and cuddles, you inspire me, you keep me company, I just wish I had more people like you XD

For the record, go to https://www.macrophile.com , yes it's a fetish site for macros and what not, get an account and apply for adult status (recommended, not so much for the porn or community) but to check out a member known as Kusanagi there, he's a well talented writer who could use some attention and some luv. Check out the story Connections. :3