Looks like it's an early morning commission call this time. The first one to note me will be the one I take.


-DETAILS-
The price is $25 and you'll get something like this as far as quality.

The work consist of one character and no background other than some colour or gradient.

Extra characters are $7 each (max 3).

Fancy painted backgrounds are an additional $10 charge.

The work is all high res digital so you can print out the commission yourself.

If you do want an actual pencil and paper drawing which includes the rough drawing(s), cleanup and glossy print the cost is an additional $40 plus actual shipping costs.

Okay, so that's it. I'll update this to say when a commission has been taken.

Good luck ^_^

-UPDATE-

The call has been answered! But don't worry, I'll put another one out soon enough. I gotta pay for this 3DS some how ^_^

Hey everyone out there! Just putting out a surprise commission call! Previous times I've taken too many commissions only to result in horrible wait times. I now do them one at a time via calls like this. The first one to note me will be the one I take.


-DETAILS-
The price is $25 and you'll get something like this as far as quality.

The work consist of one character and no background other than some colour or gradient.

Extra characters are $7 each (max 3).

Fancy painted backgrounds are an additional $10 charge.

The work is all high res digital so you can print out the commission yourself.

If you do want an actual pencil and paper drawing which includes the rough drawing(s), cleanup and glossy print the cost is an additional $40 plus actual shipping costs.

Okay, so that's it. I'll update this to say when a commission has been taken.

Good luck ^_^

-UPDATE-

The call has been answered! But don't worry, I'll put another one out soon enough. I gotta pay for this 3DS some how ^_^

I picked mine up this morning. I was up at 6 am (thanks to my dog) so I figured, heck, I'm up, I might as well go and get one. I was going to wait a bit until funds where better, but my wife said that I should go and get it. I'm rocking a red DS Phat that can hold a charge for about a day... I guess I'm due.

I picked up the blue one and some Street Fighter 4. I haven't played it much to be honest. I've been too busy trying out the AR games which are tons of fun. I hope they put out more of these cards as they're lots of fun to play and cool to show friends. My daughter was totally amazed. ^_^

Lots of people have been saying that their eyes feel tired and such after playing, but I seem to be okay. I didn't feel tired... well... no more than usual.

Anyone else pick one up or are going to pick one up? If so, which games?

So I’m doing my usual art rounds on the internet and I come across an ad for this program called Pose Studio. It’s some sort of 3D character poser for artists and it looks pretty damn awesome! I’m currently downloading a demo, at least I hope it’s a demo. If you’re interested in seeing the program in action here’s a clip.

I wonder if you can change the size and/or weight of the character or if that’s all you get. Even so, that’s a pretty sweet deal. It’s currently only available in Japanese an I have no idea what it costs. All I know that the English side of the company site doesn't have it listed with the other products. Suck… I hope they localize it, I’m sure there are artists over here that would find this very useful.

Quick, I need someone to help me pick the winners for my work Oscar pool. I don't really watch movies so if anyone can help me, that would be great. ^_^

Are you a picky eater? Now when I say picky, I don't mean there's a few foods that you don't care for. We all have those, no one is expected to like everything. I mean, picky in a way that you've eliminated whole food groups. I think I can honestly sit here and say that I know more adult picky eater then kids. Full grown adults that refuse... REFUSE to eat any fruit and veggies. I always ask why, and I generally get told... I just don't like them. Seriously? My kids know about eating healthy and eat a whole vast assortment of fruits and vegetables, so how did these people (pretty much all male) get to this point in their life refusing to eat a whole food group?

Picky eaters are a peeve of mine. I feel like they're acting like children (sorry if I'm stepping on toes here). I'm reminded of a show called Eataholics (Freaky Eaters). It deals with people that have extreme food aversion and helps them conquer these issues. It's a great show and you feel really happy for the people by the end of the episode because they're totally working towards personal goal. Eating a proper meal with their family.

I'm not a picky eater. I have foods that I don't care for. Creamed corn, brussels sprouts, shrimp... but I don't drop food groups. I ask questions to try and understand this level food aversion, but I don't think I ever will. I'd love to talk some sense in to these people (friends and family) to try and make them understand the importance of eating properly. I don't think that will happen ether and If I'm not careful I'll just push them away.

This past weekend we went to visit my Dad and Step Mom for Christmas. Yup, that's right... Christmas. We had a great time, ate good food and I got a new pair of gloves and a cast iron pot, which we where very excited about. What did you do this past weekend?

So today it would seem to be my birthday. Yay me! I made it though another year making my official age 34. Good grief I'm getting old... o_O which means I've been doing this for 10 years or so. I think, I'll have to remember my earliest pic on the subject.

Now I usually go off on a tail of how I'm afraid to die and so forth, but I'll keep that for another post for now. Today, I'll be all about how my day went. I woke up this morning and my wife gave me a sleepy kiss and a happy birthday before I took off for work. I decided to shave that morning so I look my best for the day of my birth, but that seemed to put me behind just enough for me to miss my bus. Crap. Oh well, I caught my back up bus and was still to work on time. Then I decided to head on off to Starbucks to get my free birthday drink (thanks to registering my Starbucks card). But apparently, I was supposed to get something in the mail, a coupon of sorts, so I could get said drink. I did not receive one. But the nice lady behind the counter gave me a free tea for my troubles. Which works fine for me since I don't drink coffee.

So things where looking up. I get back to the office to set up my new Summer Time Peaches figure and I find that one of my dear friends at work bought me some presents, and that's putting it lightly! I got a Dracula figure from Castlevania, a Resident Evil 5 art book, Udon's Art of Capcom 2 book and The Art of Star Wars book. Then I was told that I'd would be taken out for lunch today. Holy crap! Things where TOTALLY looking up!

Then I ran out and got a free buttermilk biscuit sandwich from McDonalds. ^_^

The progressed pretty well after that. I did work, went out to lunch with a few co-workers and then got a ride home with my family (I usually take the bus). I got home an my kids surprised me with some homemade birthday cake and a HUGE birthday cookie too (yay!), plus homemade cards too to go with my presents. Which where two of the Futurama movies, No More Hero's on Wii plus a little set of Mario character figurines. We then had Popeye's chicken for dinner. A new franchise opened up close buy and... well... I don't think we'll be going back. Yeah, feel'n kinda gross now. Ugh...

So over all, it was a pretty good birthday (except for the chicken). Yup, pretty good indeed. Now if you'll excuse me... I'm going to go throw up.

Bye ^_^

I've put up a bunch of photos of my new Summer Time Peaches figure. Take a wander over if you're interested in seeing them ^_^

There is a post on my vacation to Walt Disney World on my blog. I was going to post it else where but it has a ton of pictures and wouldn't make much sense with out them.

Just letting you know in case anyone is interested.

^_^

Me: Hey guys.

You: Hey Joe. Haven't heard from you since New Year. How things?

Me: How's things? Well... let me tell you...

Christmas was crazy busy. On Christmas day, after presents, I didn't sit down all day. ALL DAY! Lots of fun, but very tiring . Everyone enjoyed their gifts, which is good because my wife and I where a little stressed about it. But it all came out good in the end. I also got a slew of games for the DS and a few for the Wii too. After that we trucked it back down home for Christmas with the in-laws. Other then the smoky house (both are heavy smokers but they do it out side when we're down) a fun time was had by all... until New Years.

We came back home only find out the kids got a stomach flu and they puked and crapped their way in to the New Year. Every night for 5 nights they threw up (several times). I've never done so much laundry in such a short amount of time in my life. To top it off, my Mom was up visiting us at this time. I felt so bad that she was here while all that went on. I know it's not the kids fault, they didn't try to get sick. I just know that if I was staying at someones home and their kids started to puke buckets, I'd want to be gone on the next thing smoking. Oh well, she understood and said it was all okay.

My Mom being up here also presented a problem. No smutty drawings for me. No smutty surfing ether. But she was up here for a very good reason. She agreed to watch our beagle while we went to Disney World. She was so kind to do that for us. Otherwise, we'd have to kennel the dog and I don't think he'd care for that since we'd be gone for a week. So we very much appreciated her coming up.

So how was Disney? Well, I'll make that another post since there's lots to tell and pictures to share. But I will say this, when we where the... my kids got ANOTHER stomach bug. They got it during the last few days and totally puked and crapped their way back to Canada. My son puked in the airport alone around 8 or 10 times. So when we got back home my Mom had to experience my kids throwing up again for a few days. Sigh...

So after all that my kids are better now... no wait. They actually (as of this writing) have the flu and high fevers and a little bit of puke. Out of the past 30 days or so, my kids have been sick for about 15 of them. I hope this is the last of it for a long while.

Mix that in my my laptop getting sick and it makes for a wonderful first month. Yup, my laptop got a nasty virus and I had to reformat the main partition. Thankfully I was able to save everything but with this being the second time in a year I've had to do this... I think I might invest in a external HD.

I also feel bad because I've yet to draw anything. I've got no messy new years pic to show, I missed on doing a cute bunny pic for the Chinese new year (heck! I still have the rough one I didn't finish from last years Year of the Tiger) or anything at all really. I'm feeling rusty to say the least.

Things might have been stressful, but there where good moments too. Christmas, Disney and such where great memories. And in the world of games, the 3DS has been announced for a March release date so that makes me happy. I'm going to try and and save up as much as I can for it too so that means I'll be taking commissions soon. I'll put the call out in the next few days so be ready.

It'll ether be on the blog, DA, IB, or FA and I'll take only one at a time. Not like last time which ended up horrible. One digital only commission (but we can talk details if need be) seem to work with me. I've done some tests and it seems to work the best so that everyone is happy. That and I can do them MUCH faster.

Well I think that's it for me. How's your new year been?

Sorry I haven't been around much. Christmas was crazy busy this year... I'll make a longer post about that later.

But for right now, just a quick one to get opinions about the kinds of pics they'd like to see more or less of this new year.

Discuss!

... and with that, another Movember is almost gone. What's that you say? What's Movember? Well, Movember is the month where men all over the world grow mustaches (or mo-staches) in order to raise money for prostate cancer. This year I joined the ranks and grew quite a stache to my surprise. Most, including myself, didn't think I could grow one as wild and untamed as I did. It turned me in to a wild beast of a man.

Truth be told though... I can't stand this thing! It's diving me nuts and my wife won't kiss me with it. She said it's like kissing her Dad. I can't wait to shave it tonight and go back to normal. But I'll do it all again next year. It's a good thing to raise awareness of.

How many of you men out there have a mo-stache? Doesn't it drive you crazy? o_O

During the end of a game systems life you’ll generally get the most fantastic looking games. Developers will have found all the secrets and tricks hidden with in the console and so treat us to wondrous eye candy. It’s a win, win. The Nintendo DS is in this era of games what with the 3DS just around the corner and one of the treats of the season to be held is Sola to Robo. Sola to Robo is an adventure RPG set in the world of Tails Concerto. Scratch that… it’s actually the spiritual successor to Tails Concerto. So much so that some of the characters from that game make cameos in this title, including Alicia Priss.

Game play seems pretty typical for an action RPG, only your main character, Red Savarin, rides around in an open cockpit mech. You get out to flip switches and other such tasks. The story has you on a set of floating islands where there are cat people and dog people. Robots are used to help with getting jobs done, hence the mech you ride. You’re set out to retrieve a package in an air ship, but you come across a medallion instead. Enemy ships show up and all hell breaks loose. During your escape, you come across a cat girl named Elh Melizee. You take her with you and travel the islands in your airship base that is piloted by you little sister and mechanic Chocolat Gelato.

The game is being known as “that furry rpg” in the game circles, and with it comes negative furry comments and such. Which is a shame because the game as a whole is probably one, of if not the finest developed DS games I’ve ever seen. No question. The amount of concept art and marketing that has gone in to this title is astounding. Namco-Bandai actually set out to break a world record by airing 100 different commercials of the game. I’m not sure if they actually broke a record though. Dragon Magazine (a light novel magazine in Japan) printed a prequel called Red Data Children which takes place 7 years before the games story and sets everything up. On top of that, if you preordered the game, you got the game (duh), a soundtrack CD, an art book filled with concepts from the game and “Prelude disc” DVD.

The concept art is really something to see. They’ve designed just about everything you could imagine. From the way lead goes in to a pencil, mail boxes, native fruits and veggies, to location illustrations, forms of transportation, how tails fit though clothing and everything in between. I’ve shown all the images I can find at my blog for you to drool over. It’s absolutely marvelous and makes me jealous that I’ve yet to be on a project that goes in to this much detail with it’s world. Then again, this project has been in development for about 3 years now so I can see how they’ve had the time to make it as rich as possible.

So will this game come to our shores? Maybe… maybe not. There was a demo of the game made done in French for a Tokyo expo in France and the Australian ratings board has rated it. But, no one really knows for sure. Also, it’s a DSi enhanced game, so those of us with a regular DS can’t play it. That is until we fork over the cash for a 3DS. I would assume that it can play DSi games. I really hope that it finds a publisher over here. It has over 80 quests, tons of characters to interact with and… well… heck, any game that has this much work put in to it deserves to be played. I know I’ll be hoping.

Watch the trailer here

So yesterday I mentioned the censorship in porn that exists in Japan. In adult movies, manga, illustrations... pretty much everything visual, peoples genitals mush be censored out. Why? It's hard to say, I've found articles and such stating that this came about during the 1800's as an attempt gain more government control though the media. Some say that it came about after the second World War and the occupation of America and western ideas. From what I can tell, the law still exists. It's quite real and latest person to get fined for it was Suwa Yuuji in 2004 for his manga Misshitsu.

Well, this new piece of news is sure to shake things up even more. Earlier this year a ban was brought forth to the Japanese Government to ban loli material (virtual youths). The ban was proposed by the "Clean Government Party" and from pressure form other domestic Governments. Many predominant manga artists stepped up and cited that this ban was going to be restricting freedom of expression for artists in Japan and, due to the description of the bill, would have to ban such shows like Evangelion. The Government back peddled and bill failed... twice. But it's back now baby... and it's doing a much wider sweep of porn then before.

This new bill covers illegal sexual acts like rape, groping, BDSM, voyeurism and under age sexual activity. Now, from what I can tell, it's not a ban but a restriction of sales of games, manga and anime that have these things within. It should be noted that this bill doesn't cover film or novels. So the manga version of Japanese literary classic “The Tale of Genji” where a young girl is raised as a sex slave would fall under the bill but the original novel it comes from would not.

With this third attempt, the party hopes to finally win and bring the loli arts to a close. Artists plus the anime, manga and game industry in Japan is nervous as this would bring down the hammer on their freedom of expression.

I wonder if the Japanese get tired or annoyed that they have to censor all their porn? I mean, they seem to have quite the variety of it from tame to extreme in both real and drawn versions. I wonder what the artists think after they've done an awesomely naughty pic on to mosaic the good parts? Do directors of porn get frustrated when they have to keep the parts that people want to see covered up?

I think living in Japan would be awesome.. I think looking at porn in Japan would be annoying. >_<

So a few weeks ago I put out a call for the new all digital commissions that I wanted to test out. It seemed to go pretty well. Things got done quickly and easily and the commissioner received three web versions of their picture. Three print sized versions where also sent out and the PSD will be sent too as soon as I find a way to send it. It's friggin huge, but it does have the multiple concept thumb nails that they got to choose from, the rough drawing and the paint layers.

Yay! This made me quite happy. I was able to deliver art faster and more content at the same price then I had been before ($30). It's a win, win. It would seem that just taking on one at a time is the winning number.

Last time the call went out at DeviantArt. Next time it will be in a different location like my blog, Fur Affinity, who knows. Just letting everyone have opportunities to take part in the commissions.

This past weekend I took my kids to the Santa Claus parade in my town. I walked away wondering where the heck Christmas went. During the parade I saw a whole troop of Star Wars cosplayers (stormtroopers, Luke, Vader, sand people, even some Death Star bean operators), Gene Simmons “The Demon” (yeah, the whole KISS costume), Ecto-1, The Blues Brothers, goth chicks doing fire tricks and some heavy metal band playing rock tunes on a float. o_O

These are the parade memories my kids are going to have. Where are the elves? Where’s the reindeer? Geez!

At least there was a Santa Claus at the end.

So I'm sure that every one knows my love of games by now. If not... for shame...

But my question today is what are you playing (if you're playing anything)?

I'll go first.

I'm currently playing Minecraft on my lunchtimes at work. Tons of fun. It's hard to explain why... it's just better if you try it for yourself.

I'm playing Rocket Slime on DS while I take a break from Disgaea DS.

I'm playing Twilight Princess on Wii. It was actually the first game I ever bought for the system and I've yet to play it. o_O

I'm also playing Super Mario Galaxy (Luigi levels) with my kids.

Okay, your turn. ^_^

No, not me. A middle school teacher in Meridian (Idaho?) has been pleat guilty to possessing "visual representations of child sex abuse". From details I can find (which are few) the teacher possessed some 70+ images of naughty cartoon images on his computer, most of which where of the Simpsons, and other youthful cartoon characters. An investigation began when it was discovered he was sharing these on peer to peer networks.

Now as I looked around it was stated that he had cleaning programs that deleted child porn on his computer and was actually being investigated for possession of child porn. What the reports do though is fuzz the line on actual child porn (which he should go to jail for) and cartoon porn he had downloaded. So I still don't know if he really had illegal images on his computer.

Anyway, the guy had to resign his job and could be fined $250,000 and go to prison for 10 YEARS! For having naughty cartoons on his computer! Frig, I travel to toon smut sites and I've seen lots of dirty Simpsons ads for other smut sites. Right there for everyone to see! I also found out that a few years a go Hustler printed a picture of Lisa giving oral sex (I have to confirm that though).

The whole things sounds fishy to me. Thoughts?

Source

Okay, looks like all the commissions I've had to do for the last while are done and sent. Yay!

I'd like to apologize to everyone that had to wait stupid long times for their pictures and for everyone being so very patient. When I put out the call for commissions a few years back, I took on way too many. Far to many then I could handle. I was able to get out the first few with no problems. But then I fell behind and then it fell apart. So I am so very sorry for the wait that everyone had for their art. I'm not in the business of ripping people off.

If anyone is still waiting for a commission that I have forgotten, please, please, PLEASE note me and let me know and the problem will be corrected.

Now then, this is not a call for new commissions.... yet. I will put it out there that I think I'll be doing them differently in the future. I will only be taking one at a time, because I obviously can't handle more then that. I think I will also only be doing digital commissions. This way people won't have to wait for art to come in the mail. If people do want actual physical art though, I'm not opposed to doing that for a small amount extra. I will totally send people a high res version and the PSD if they so want that too. I think this will help to get art done and in the peoples hands that much faster.

So when will I take commissions? Not sure. Maybe next month, maybe in the new year. Not sure yet. I will make a post saying when though so stay tuned. ^_^

If I had to pick one thing that I need to improve on it would be hair. I feel like I draw the same hair all the time. It really bugs me that I can't think of other hair styles to draw up. I know, I know... there is a whole google out there for me to search and get ref from. I just seem to draw my favorite kinds of styles rather then branch out. I think I need to maybe do some doodles to during the day on blank heads to try out new things.

If I had to pick a second one, it would be breasts. I don't feel that the ones I draw look soft or squishy enough. Nor do they have the weight that real boobs have. Some thing else to work on I guess.

What do you need to improve on?

I'm siting here trying to get star ranks on all the cups and I'm about ready to throw the game out the window. I've actually made it to the 150cc cups but have hit the wall. During the races I'm slammed with POW blocks, blue shells, and lighting bolts CONSTANTLY!! I'm not even safe from green shells, which might as well be red shells with the aim the computer has. To top things off, when I get hit, every kart that passes me will bump in to me causing me to get pushed off the track. I've never played a Mario Kart that was so unforgiving!

I'm not the kind to back down from a good challenge. In fact, I love things that make me think and tackle them from another angle to try and win, but this feels unfair to me. I'm not even trying to get triple star ranks. I just want a least one star so I can unlock the last bike, and character. GRRRR!!!!!

What really grinds my teeth is that I play on line and others with triple star ranks and I wonder "What the hell am I doing wrong?!!" o_O

Any tips?

I had to do a system recovery of my laptop. I saved everything (I hope) except my bookmarks. I totally forgot about them.

Now they're gone...

I is sad. T_T

During my 10th anniversary with my wife we went to see Rock of Ages in Toronto. It's a Canadian cast musical show of the same show that plays in New York. It's biggest draw is that all the music in the show is from the 80's. The glam rock era of the 80's. Now I was born in 1977, so I was only 8 by 1985, but I totally remember rocking out to Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Extreme and so on. Ahh, the memories and totally an awesome show so run out and see it. I highly, HIGHLY recommend it.

Also, just the other day I was listening to the radio in the van and Guns n Roses, Paradise City came on. I was like "Oh yeah!" so I turned it up and felt like I was a teenager again. Even my daughter sang along with it. ^_^

I don't listen to new music too much. I mostly listen to things I grew up with. I guess it makes me feel young again. I like to remember the fun times I had while listening to music.

What music brings out the memories in you?