Hi!

It turns out that I'm really groovin' on the whole ink-over-Colerase-pencil, throw in Col-Erase for spot color.

I'm still adjusting to stuff at my day job, and I wanted to open up stuff like that for commissions - I figure I can still tackle up to 10 slots comfortably. Cost is $20/single figure, plus $10 per additional figure (or vehicle).

Since the site's about to be down, please email me about this at JonServal at aol dot com!

Okay, maybe you've seen this before. Bill Watterson, the guy behind Calvin and Hobbes, gave this big long commencement speech at his alma mater. It's a pretty encouraging commencement speech as those things go, and you can find it here. http://www.ankitsrivastava.net/tcho.....kenyon-speech/

But! While I was looking for the speech, I ran into this collection of his less well known stuff. This is awesome! http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cbillart.html

Please note me or email me at JonServal[at]aol.com if you're interested.

Pencils are $12/initial character +$6/additional character
Inks are $24/initial character + $12/additional character

Hi!

Just wanted to remind y'all that I'm still very much open for doing commissions. Pencils are $10, inks are $20 for the first character (additional characters are half cost). Please email or note me here! Email is JonServal at aol dot com, and I prefer that as it makes it easier to "flag" messages.

I was thinking of drawing out some creatures to offer up as adoptibles - mostly quadripeds. Would people be interested in that?

And, check this out - it's okay to move your paper around while inking. Whoa. I never realized that before a whole batch of people said so and I noticed it in videos. Let's just say that I learn really slowly. Anyway, turning your paper to make inking easier, is awesome!

Heya! That was actually pretty fun, it's a lot faster for me than doing full color stuff (ideally I'd like to complete each of these within a week), and I'd like to do a few more of these guys.

Pencils are $12 for a single character, +$6 per additional character.

Inks are $24 for a single character, +$12 per additional character.

Please note me or email me a rough character description, what you'd like them to be doing, etc. Humans and ferals are fine; portraying vehicles is a lot of fun, even though I don't do it so often; nearly all content is fine; I ask that you please avoid nonconsensual situations, kids, or portrayals of the German armed forces around WWII.

I'd prefer that you email requests to JonServal at aol dot com, because that lets me flag customer email more easily, and it gives me a return address for your completed artwork -- I feel more comfortable letting you chose whether to post it publicly.

Thanks!

Okay, so if they wind up making a sequel to Pacific Rim, it'll probably take place at least partly in Japan, right?

And a major plot point would probably be the technology that lets the jaeger pilots synch up their brain activity, right?

Therefore the sequel would be Pacific Rim II; Tokyo Drift.

You're welcome.

Darth Yutyrannus; the largest Sith lord discovered to have feathers.

(I figure, if any audience can get into a Star Wars/dinosaur joke, it'd be furries.)

Hey, I was kinda thinking about going, because it's a big local event, and it'll be a lot of costumes and people hanging out. But it'll also be crowded, probably hot, and noisy, so I don't want to go if I'm by myself.

There are a lot of NorCal folks around and even though I often don't feel like I really belong in this fandom, this is a lot more in my comfort zone than asking around on FetLife where I feel even more like a weird alien.

Anyone going?

Would you want company?

I was listening to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring which means I was doodling Stegosaurus and Kaprosuchus and all sorts of awesome stuff and went to look up reference for Stygimoloch spinifer. Wikipedia's article referenced Jack Horner's TED Talk in Vancouver during which he talks about using histology to prove that a whole batch of dinosaurs best known from the Hell Creek Formation are actually juveniles - Stygimoloch is one example!

You can check it out at http://youtu.be/xYbMXzBwpIo

I am available for up to 30 pencil drawings. I'm far more comfortable with traditional media, so that's how I'd be doing them.

Each drawing will feature a single character - human, anthro, feral, cartoon, paleoart, you name it - can be in any pose you want - this includes adult poses and implications - and no revisions are included. These will cost $10 apiece (and may be provided inked at $20) and my goal is to complete each one within a week of accepting the job. I am trying to figure out how productive I can be on this.

Please, no cub art, Wehrmacht, or gore requests.

I will need a rough character description (some height information, general build, species, clothes/armor/whatever, that sort of thing). Please note me here or email me at JonServal at aol dot com.

***************

Please do note or email me if you've asked me for artwork in the past! Things have been really hectic and I worry that I missed stuff.

Okay, sometimes I draw feeeeeelth. And it's a lot of fun but it's not my main focus.

Like, if you sat me down with a cup of coffee and a sketchpad and went hey, draw whatever you want, I'm a lot more likely to draw you dwarven champions fighting death knights or something like that, rather than people gettin' it on.

The thing is I think this might mean I miss some audience stuff. People who really dig furry porn might just think of me as a guy who does clean art, and people who really dig clean art might not necessarily like "whoa they're doing what with a cabbage?" art.

So, gentle readers, would y'all like it if I made a separate identity for adult themed art?

Similarly, would you prefer it if I made a separate account to post commissions?

Okay, so we have "Christmas in July" right? And Christmas is one of the most miserable holidays ever invented, having it squat on four months is a lot without adding to it.

Going by the five-months-prior metric, it stands to reason that if there's Christmas in July, there should be Halloween in May. Halloween is a 'way better holiday anyway.

And May's almost over.

Here are some songs to get you in the completely inappropriate holiday spirit!

"Mysterious Mose" - http://youtu.be/q2rjEUpmzow

"Don't Go in the Basement" - http://youtu.be/N0Z6SOlWbds

"Underground" - http://youtu.be/4BU-t9McBns

"Old Man of the Mountain" - http://youtu.be/XLKTjIh4ySE

"T'aint No Sin" - http://youtu.be/nq69ioCrX9U

I'm thinking of opening commissions up again.

What would you like most available? What I've been thinking about includes;

* quick turnaround commissions. These would be pencils at $15 each, with no revisions and a set turnaround time of probably 1-3 days.

* specific theme commissions. I don't have a price range in mind, but would focus on a general theme (Africa, WWII "nose art," transformations, whatever). Again, I'm thinking that these would be pencils or at most inks rather than trying to do something involved and time consuming.

* specific species commissions. Somewhat similar. I'd basically have a slightly cheaper rate for tackling characters who are what I feel like drawing. Either pencils or possibly inks, maybe even color. You know; either your character as a hyena for $10, or being willing to draw up any and all dinosaur types for $15, or whatever.

* your character in a group shot thing. I've seen people pull this one of successfully with big group scenes like orgies or raves. The final product would be more involved but hey...

* just more of my usual thing where I am available to do anything from pencil drawings of a single character to big group scenes in full color.

I'm probably going to open commissions soon so watch this space if you're interested!

Meanwhile, I wanted to point out a couple of weird things I've run into - these are probably not going to blow the world open for you or completely redefine your style, but they were really useful discoveries for me, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure these out. I figure maybe it might help someone else.

1. You don't need to hold your pencil really close to the tip. In fact, you don't "have" to hold your pencil any one place.

Ever hammered nails? A hammer's basically a lever arm, so if you hold it further down the handle, that means every time you hit, there's a lot more force and effect. When you hold a hammer closer to the head, that's good for precision, carefully making sure that you're tapping your nail into the right place. A pencil is the same sort of lever arm. Hold it further out from the point and you can make big sweeping strokes with the point or the side, and it's great for defining form loosely on paper. Hold your pencil closer to the point, and you've got a lot of really fiddly control which you can use to tack down smaller stuff like facial features. And you can mix and match what you're doing too. The Art Cops will not come drag you off for improper pencil use.

2. The eraser isn't there to fix mistakes. It's there so you can see what you're doing.

If you have any perfectionistic tendencies at all there's this temptation to make sure you use your eraser to fix everything which looks off, immediately. I can be really perfectionistic, so I can get really bogged down in carefully erasing and correcting and erasing and correcting and erasing and correcting. It's really easy for me to lose track of what I actually want when I'm being really careful about every mistake.

I feel like I get better results when I think of my eraser as something I can use to see what I'm doing. Clunky gesture and contour lines might be really useful for me, so I don't always want to blow them away because they look weird on my drawing. Sometimes a line in the wrong place is really useful, because then I know it's wrong - if it's still hanging out on my page, I'm less likely to go "aha, I'll put a line right down here!" A few too many attempts to figure out where that cheekbone ends or how long that arm is, though, and I gotta go in with the eraser. But I can always figure out positioning first before erasing the stuff which didn't work -- not so much because it's a mistake, but it gets in the way of seeing what I'm doing. And just because I reach for the eraser doesn't mean I have to go in and get all those lines off my page. I can use it to lighten lines up, so it's easier to tack down what I think looks right.

Hope this helps at some level!

1. What is your natural hair color?
Brownish-red. Except for my beard hairs which have decided that I'm a blond redhead with brown hair going white.

2. Where was your ID pic taken?
Which ID? I made the one here, years ago.

3. What's your middle name?
Hamish.

4. Your current relationship status?
Increasingly worried and inept?

5. Honestly, does your crush like you back?
I hope so.

6. What is your current mood?
Pensive. I think I'm in between things in my life and I don't know when they're going to really change or whether that change will be for the better.

7. What's the color of your underwear?
Medium blue with little stylized beard/mustachioed/glasses faces.

8. What is one thing that makes you happy?
Outside of wearing patterned boxer shorts? Looking at awesome artwork.

9. Who was the last person you cuddled with?
Pepper. She's the little black and white kitty you can see in the Scraps directory. Not exactly a person?

10. If you could go back in time, and change something what would it be?
Al Gore wins the 2000 election and takes office. Or wage increases scale with cost of living since the 80s. Something like that.

11. If you MUST be an animal for ONE day?
Wolverine. Because I'm the best there is at what I does, an' what I does best is grow stubble rather than a decent beard.

12. Ever had a near death experience?
Yes.

13. Something you do a lot?
Drink coffee!

14. What's the name of the song stuck in your head right now?
"The Avengers," Alan Silvestri

15. Who did you copy and paste this from?
GH-Mongo

16. Name someone with the same b-day as you?
Jacques-Yves Cousteau

17. When was the last time you cried?
About a week back, I dunno. Usually I don't keep such careful tabs on this stuff.

18. Have you ever sang in front of a large audience?
No, though I have a little stage experience.

19. If you could have one super power what would it be?
At-will-no-limitations-shapechanging

20. What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Facial features

21. What's your biggest secret?
I see what you did there. It's not that easy.

22. What's your favorite color?
Green

23. When was the last time you lied?
Sometime earlier this week, probably. I dunno.

24. Do you still watch kiddy movies or TV shows?
Yes

25. What are you eating or drinking at the moment?
The last thing I ate was a Moon Pie.

26. What's your favorite smell?
Rain in forests

27. If you could describe life in one word what would it be?
Unexpected

28. When was the last time you gave/received a hug?
Earlier this evening

29. Have you ever been kissed in the rain?
Yes

30. What are you thinking about right now?
That last question, combined with the "Kaneda" track from Akira, has me thinking about Shadowrun

31. What should you be doing?
Making aaaaht!

32. What was the last thing that made you upset?
A poll that 1/3rd of my fellow citizens think this country needs a state religion. Hint; it's not my religion.

33. Do you like working in the yard?
Eh.

34. If you could have any last name in the world, what would you want?
Osenov. Or possibly the last name I publish under.

35. Name 5 things in your closet:
Patterned boxer shorts. Old "Dragon" magazines. Old sketchpads. A boken. Clothes hangers.

36. Do you act different around your crush?
Yes? Maybe?

37. When was the last time you slept with a stuffed animal?
Years and years ago.

38. How many times do you take a shower a week?
7-10.

39. Do you brush your teeth everyday?
Yes

40. Have you ever said something stupid in front of your crush?
Yes

41. Have you ever watched a hockey game?
No, actually.

42. Do you lie about your age?
No. But I try to avoid mentioning it, I'm pretty embarrassed by my age.

43. Ever been jealous about something stupid?
Oh hell yeah.

44. Do you pick your nose
Not tellin'. Maybe that's my secret?

45. What's the one food you hate?
The weird one is Jell-O. Everyone likes Jell-O, right? I don't.

46. What's the one junk food you cant live without?
Doughnuts of various sorts. I don't need them regularly, but I'd be sad if all the doughnuts in the world vanished like in Fat Men from Outer Space.

47. How old were you when you found out Santa was fake?
Did not grow up in a family that did Christmas.

48. Have you ever blown your nose and looked inside the napkin?
Uh, yes. What's with the nasal fixation in this meme?

49. Describe your favourite underwear you have?
Man, I seriously wish the robot boxers hadn't worn out. The tiki mask boxers are probably my current fave.

50. Did you lie in any of these questions?
Nope.

So among other things lately, I've been looking through Shadowline, by Iain McCaig - an unusual book by a really awesome artist. There's this chunk in there where the book veers off into drawing exercises, and McCaig voices the opinion that all kids draw - and then about when they're 10 or so they hit this spot where they get discouraged that it's not brilliant, and they either give up or keep going.

I've read a similar thing in an interview with a Disney artist (around 10-12 or so, kids get discouraged and a lot of us stop drawing). And that's certainly true of my experience - the short story is that I basically got told I couldn't draw and had no business doing it, and the ultra-hyper-macho nature of my public schools didn't help either. Drawing became something I never really thought about seriously again until after college and I still feel like I'm playing catch-up to be honest.

So my questions for y'all are;

* If you can remember back that far, was there a point when you were around 10-12ish, where you were really discouraged about your art and may have given up on it?

* If you were one of those kids who felt really bad about your drawings but kept on drawing (or painting) anyway, do you remember much about what kept you pushing on?

Found this in Sublimate's journal! (awesome artist. Check them out?)

Anyways, music! So much more fun than unpopular opinions. Oh man this probably seriously dates me and I'm stupid ashamed about how old I am. Oh well, let's keep going.

1. Your favorite song
Probably "Across the Universe" by the Beatles, or the Patti Smith cover of "Within You Without You."

2. Your least favorite song
"O Holy Night" is ridiculously smug and pompous, and you get to hear it several million times every year.

3. A song that makes you happy
"The Rainbow Connection" actually.

4. A song that makes you sad
"Nightswimming" by REM. On good days I can listen to it without wanting to cry!

5. A song that reminds you of someone.
"Nightswimming" by REM.

6. A song that reminds you of somewhere.
"Here There and Everywhere" and "Nowhere Man" both remind me of Ann Arbor. Most Rage Against the Machine songs remind me of Seattle.

7. Song that reminds you of a certain event.
"Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden. Not a specific smoke break, but I'll always associate it with smoke breaks while working in food services, and weirdly that makes it a happy memory.

8. A song you know all the words to.
Lots! Like you can remember all the lyrics to most Ramones songs. Hm. Traditional song, "Twa Corbies."

9. A song you can dance to
"One Step Beyond" by Madness pretty much always gets me moving somehow.

10. A song that makes you fall asleep
I can't think of anything off hand.

11. Song from your favorite band
"Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue."

12. Song from a band you hate
I don't think I hate anyone enough to also remember their music.

13. A song that is guilty pleasure
Not sure how that might work. Possibly "Professor Booty." Maybe "Sigfried's Death and Funeral March" since German national monomyth has some pretty bad associations for a lot of people.

14. A Song no one would expect you to love
Wow, another not sure how that might work. "Namaste" by The Beastie Boys. The Check Your Head album. It's a great song, I don't think people would expect me to love it because I don't think many people know about it in the first place. http://youtu.be/8CjKAWyOb74

15. A song that describes you
"Dumb" by Nirvana. In some nastier moments "Starve" by Rollins Band. In a good mood "Inhale Exhale" by Rollins Band.

16. Song you used to love but now hate
I can't honestly think of anything.

17. A song you hear on the radio
For a while you couldn't get away from "Seven Nation Army" or "Somebody That I Used to Know," both of which are good songs, but they kinda stop being so good after the 8000th time. That's how radio always works and always will; they find something okay (usually not the group or album's best song), and play it over and over until I'd rather swap the channel than hear something I know I like.

18. Song you wish you heard on the radio
Anything by Marcy Playground other than "Sex and Candy." It's like the only song they did which ever got radio play.

19. Song from favorite album
It's hard to pick a favorite album. I dunno, "For the Benefit of Mister Kite."

20. A song you listen to when you are angry
"Let's Lynch the Landlord," Dead Kennedys.

21. A song you listen to when you are sad.
"Today" by The Smashing Pumpkins. http://youtu.be/XAZn_dxI9nA

22. A song you want to play at your wedding
No idea. None. I kinda wasn't figuring I'd get married.

23. A song you want to play at your funeral
"Pretty Penny" by Stone Temple Pilots. I love this thing so much. http://youtu.be/c3z0W81xTMA

24. A song that makes you laugh
The "Goldfinger" theme. http://youtu.be/MagCoUYvIXE just is really funny to me. He loves only gold! Only gold! Only gooooooooooooooooooooo *gasp* oooooooooold!

25. A song you can play on the instrument
I can play hand drums! Um. I guess there's not much I can't play along to?

26. A song you wish you could play
The cello bits to the Dvorak cello concerto.

27. A song that makes you feel guilty.
Uh whut?

28. Song from your childhood
"867-5309 (Jenny)," by Tommy Tutone. I don't remember childhood very well and for whatever reason I associate the song with riding a bicycle, which definitely places it as a "kid at the time" song. It's a good song though, check it out; http://youtu.be/nrHQRgWXJK4

29. Favorite song this time last year
Not entirely sure of exact timing, but probably "Mishto!" by Gogol Bordello

I don't know if I want to be negative, but I feel like interacting with people, you know?

1. A selection of television programs you do not care for.
I don't have a TV and don't get to watch much TV anymore. What little I've seen of "The Big Bang Theory" makes me cringe. And I hate police dramas whenever exposed - they're always all pompous self-righteousness, and honestly if they had a police drama which was all nerding out about autopsies that would be so awesome.

2. A selection of musical artists you do not care for.
Andrew Lloyd Weber. Just not interested in these giant high-rated dramataculars. Just for whatever reason, I'll dig operas like Aida or Il Trovatore or Abduction from a Sergalio, and then I have exactly no interest in what theoretically isn't that different.

3. A selection of celebrities you couldn't care less about.
The British royal family. I'm sure they're quite lovely rich people with no perspective at all, which is quite different from me needing to be vitally interested in their weddings and pregnancies. By the way, King Richard III's body turning up under a car park does not count as "I've no interest in hearing about the royals."

4. A hobby you “don’t get”.
Golf.

5. A habit you find disgusting.
Having really huge strollers. It really rubs me wrong.

6. Something in school you really liked doing that everyone else bitched over.
Actually the closest I get is hanging around in the school library. It was this neat place when I was in HS, and nobody else ever seemed to get into it as much as I did.

7. Your favorite household chore.
Laundry, now that there's a machine actually in the house. It's nice to be able to just go "okay, well, I could use more shirts - boom. An hour later I have shirts air-drying."

8. Popular video games that make you go “meh”.
The games are probably cool, but it makes me feel weird and out of place when there's something like the Assassin's Creed or GTA games which have become common cultural knowledge in a lot of groups.

9. PC or MAC?
I honestly don't get arguing that, outside of the obvious virus argument. I've used both and I think I missed the chunk of time where Photoshop for PC was clunky compared to the Mac version.

10. A sport you don’t like, for whatever reason.
Football. As a kid I was supposed to really love team sports especially football, and only when I got older did I discover that I love watching basketball and soccer games. So I was willing to give football another chance, and honestly? I think it's really slow-moving. How do people stay interested for long enough to have opinions?

11. A sport you really like, for whatever reason.
Fencing! I love watching fencing whenever that's an option. I wish I could afford to just get a school membership and get to fence again.

12. Television programs you love but have gotten shit for liking.
I dunno - again no TV - Beavis and Butthead? Spongebob Squarepants?

13. Musical artists you love but have gotten shit for liking.
People diss classical music, but a lot of it is seriously worth a listen-through. And some artists I really like, like Tom Waits or Tori Amos, drive people nuts.

14. A hobby you have/find interesting that other people bother you over/make fun of.
Model railroading. I don't know if people actively diss that, but I think it's seriously cool, and it has this rep as being dorky. Tabletop RPGs still get kind of ridiculed at a level that they honestly don't merit.

15. A habit you have that other people bug you over.
Um, I still smoke cigarettes now and then. It's not like I'm going to find out you have asthma and intentionally start puffing away right next to you.

16. Something in school you hating doing and it felt like everyone else loved.
Pep rallies. I hated them and as soon as I could figure out how to avoid them I did. I spent a lot of my puberty feeling like an alien from The Planet of Weird Teenagers Who Actually Don't Love Being in High School.

17. The household chore that makes you want to shoot your own face off.
Cleaning the cat-box. Oh man. I swear more stuff comes out of the cat than goes in. She's only 8 lbs worth of senior citizen kitty, how does she manage to make that much poop?

18. A selection of video games that you enjoy that perhaps you really shouldn't.
I um, actually really don't play games. It's sort of something I kinda want to fix.

19. A celebrity crush that maybe even you don’t understand.
I don't think I really know enough about celebrities to know who a lot of people crush on.

20. Free rant on whatever grinds your gears at the moment.
I'm going to mostly avoid politics, but I think it's impossible to quite do so. But, I really don't like some of the atmosphere around where I live now, in the Bay Area. Housing prices are steep, gas is steep, and of course we're in the USA so of course not everyone has access to medical care, we're still in this nasty recession and so on. But we're still a community - not everyone here is an entrepreneur or works for a Fortune 500 company or is paid well for their coding skills - and it feels like things are continually being priced steeper and steeper every day. And both local and national mass media seem to contribute to that - the guys at the top of the pyramid are some sort of amazing culture heroes, screw the rest of the pyramid, oh hey, the Giants won the Series again so shut up and stop thinking about anything else that might be going on. I think if I fit in better I wouldn't feel quite so shut out by all this prosperity, prosperity worship and justification; I really feel out of place sometimes.

Oh wow. I was looking at this awesome Tumblr today and it pointed me towards http://artists.pixelovely.com/pract.....igure-drawing/ - you can basically run yourself through a batch of life drawing exercise. This is seriously one of the coolest things I've seen online lately and that's including the color photos of fin-de-siecle Paris. SO FREAKING COOL!

... the dumb idea. I know that an okay number of horse fans in furry actually own horses or ride. I think it would be seriously awesome if someone used "The Imperial March" as the background music for riding at a slow trot at a horse show of some sort. Probably on a black or dark bay. I'm just sayin'.

This is a bit late for it, but I was wondering if anyone wanted to meet up at Further Confusion and sit around drawing for a bit?

I was thinking that the best time would be Sunday afternoon maybe - just as a social thing to do towards the end of the con. 2 pm maybe? Just go to the Creator's Lounge area and hang out there?


edit;
OK! It looks like tentatively my schedule is 2 PM on Sunday, heading to the Creator's Lounge and cranking art. There are other times I'll probably show up there - but this is the 'hey, maybe I can get a group of people I don't know together, and we can do stuff' idea.

I still haven't installed AdBlock on my computer which means some YouTube videos come with ads. I'll put up with the ones where you can close the ad after 5 seconds, not the ones you can't close.

Zoosk is this dating site whose YouTube ads feature a tagline about listening to your heart, so the ad has this woman sitting on a couch while this animated stuffed toy heart talks her into signing up for a date. Within those first five seconds, the dialogue is something like "Liz! Meet Brad!"

It so happens that one of the catchiest tracks on Bombay the Hard Way is "Ganges-a-Go-Go" - which is a bit of really memorable dialogue coupled with an incredibly catchy old Bollywood song, "Somebody to Love." The dialogue is something like "Hi, man! Meet Bara." "Hi Bara! By the way, this is Kristina." "Hi!" Cue incredibly catchy song. (Available at http://youtu.be/3ICAd5rRUwA)

Which means that "Liz! Meet Brad!" keeps getting me derailed from my music choices in favor of playing "Ganges-a-Go-Go" again.

So hey, it looked fun.

Fell in love? Oh, all the damn time! I think the first time was 17 or so.

Lost your virginity? 23. Yeah, I know. Ooooold.

Lost someone close to you? 8-10 or so?

Consumed alcohol? 12 in religious context. 18 in "woo, Milwaukee's Best is about all we can afford, but look it's beer!" context.

Received a kiss? 20.

Went to the hospital? 5, if you mean for really serious nearly-dying variety stuff.

Had a broken heart? All the damn time. I dunno, 8-10 or so? Whenever parents tell kids that no, they can't have a cat.

Lost a pet? This last year. Miss my kitty.

Got arrested? Actually not yet. Here I was pretty sure that helping the Occupy Oakland guys tear down those fences would get me arrested at least, but hey.

Broke a bone? Probably several times actually, but nothing I'm sure about.

Got a boyfriend or girlfriend? 20.

Went to a concert? Dragged along by parents to Cultural Stuff, I don't even remember. Actual attending a concert on my own? The late, great Ravi Shankar, at 18.

Met someone famous? Met Jack Horner at 16ish. I think you probably have to be particular varieties of real dweeb to consider that famous.

Got in a car wreck? Oh, about 10 years back in Seattle.

Dyed your hair? Still haven't.

Flew on an airplane? 10

Went to another state? 2 or so. Basically Army brat so.

Got a tattoo? Not yet!

Had a piercing? Not yet!

Smoked pot? Well, that's illegal, y'know. But if I were to have done such a horrible illegal action as smoking an innocuous drug and doing society wrecking actions like giggling and eating too much fried food, it would have been sometime in the last decade. Theoretically.

Smoked a cigarette? 23. I still smoke very very irregularly.

Went to Disney Land or World? 7?

Had A Long term relationship? Within the last decade, yeah.

Dated somebody of another race? Depending on whether you consider me white (having an origin in the indigenous people of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa) or not, everyone I date is a different race. Technically 18. Uh, does it matter? Hello, guys, it's 2012.

Passed out from drinking? Not yet.

Were dumped? Ugh, 26. Let's not dwell on this.

Meanwhile, just in case anyone wants; commissions are still open! Please email me at JonServal at aol dot com if you're interested. Again, I'd love to get in a few more black and white commissions before the con.

So commissions are still open! Please email me at JonServal at aol dot com if you're interested - I'd love to get in a few more black and white commissions before the convention.

Meanwhile, here's that meme!

1. Will you be attending? Yes, thankfully! I'm pretty stoked about this.

2. Staying at: Marriott

3. Arrival and Departure: Stayin' for the whole convention!

4. Mode of transportation: Probably limited to bus rides.

5. Rooming with: Aerys, Hulex, Shnellz, and Ben.

6. Con Plans: Attend art panels. Look at absolutely gorgeous artwork by other people and try to figure out how they did it. Flail around lat some of the dances. Hopefully get to see my old friends again and meet new people. Hopefully do some sketches for people, and make enough to cover burritos. I know where there's a seriously good burrito place near the con.

7. How can I find you? I'm not especially obvious in a crowd. Texting me is probably the best way to make sure to get in touch, so note me here or email me (JonServal at aol dot com)

10. Will you be fursuiting? If so, what suit? It's unlikely. I have a partial from 'way back when, but since I have to haul my stuff on the bus, it's probably not going to happen.

11. Will you be going to parties? I hope so!

13. Smoke? Sure! Uh, what happened to question 12?

14. Drink? Heck yeah.

16. Can I hug you? Probably, but please ask first in case.

17. Can I talk to you? Please do! I love company.

18. Will you be at any panels? Sure! I'm not sure which yet.

19. Can I touch you? Well, that depends on what "can I touch you" means. If I like you enough, a heavy makeout session is seriously welcome. If I don't know you that well, chances of a heavy makeout session are kinda low.

20. Can I buy you drinks? Dude, free boo... I mean, please ask first.

21. How old are you? Too damn old.

24. Are you nice? Wow, that's pretty subjective, isn't it? I'd rather you decided what you thought of that one.

26. How tall? 5'9"

27. Can I take pictures of you? Sure!

28. Will you get anything commissioned? Possibly. I'm trying to be careful about money.

29. How can I get your attention? Text me, or walk up and ask?

30. Can I ask you to dance at the raves? Yes, please do!

So I finally got to see The Hobbit. I liked some things; I really liked some things; I didn't like some other things, but there wasn't anything I completely hated; and they pulled a revamp of something pretty ridiculously fundamental to Middle Earth, which means it's territory so dorky that most people won't notice or have an opinion.

One minor thing that impressed me, lost among the sea of beautiful matte paintings, gorgeous sets, amazing costumes, and brilliant CGI?

Well... those ponies aren't. I know that the actors aren't little people, so the dwarves' ponies are something shortish and stockier that can carry a full grown adult. I'm guessing some sort of cob, wearing some sort of costume (the credits mention this!), which is why the heads and jawlines don't look very ponylike despite the shaggy bodies. Those are still some impressively well-trained horses. Any of the horsey types in the audience got an opinion about all this?

....................................................
Meanwhile I am still trying to rifle up more commissions, so please do let me know if you're interested!

* No current limit on how many commissions I'm taking
* Pencil drawings of single characters, $10 each, paid upon completion
* $25 for an inked drawing, paid upon completion
* $35 for simply flat shaded or grayscale drawings, paid on completion
* $40 for a cell shaded drawing, half up front
* $45 for a fully painted drawing with line work, half up front.
* Additional figures or details for extra charge, which is negotiable.
* General or adult themed

Here's what I'll need from you;

* A brief description of the desired character (species, hair style if applicable, general fur color, clothing choice if any, general build)
* Any activity you'd really like?
* Email those details to me at JonServal at aol dot com (my general email) so that I can flag it and have a return email address.
* No revisions for pencil or ink work, please. What you see is what you get.

Hi!

So, I'm feeling a little more confident, and there's more time opening up. And look what's in the mail! It's a bill from the ER.

Needless to say, I'm going to see what I can negotiate with them.

While I'm doing that, I wanted to take on board more commissions to help pay for whatever the cost winds up being. Here's what I'm offering;

* No current limit on how many commissions I'm taking
* Pencil drawings of single characters, $10 each, paid upon completion
* $25 for an inked drawing, paid upon completion
* $35 for simply flat shaded or grayscale drawings, paid on completion
* $40 for a cell shaded drawing, half up front
* $45 for a fully painted drawing with line work, half up front.
* Additional figures or details for extra charge, which is negotiable.
* General or adult themed

Here's what I'll need from you;

* A brief description of the desired character (species, hair style if applicable, general fur color, clothing choice if any, general build)
* Any activity you'd really like?
* Email those details to me at JonServal at aol dot com (my general email) so that I can flag it and have a return email address.
* No revisions for pencil or ink work, please. What you see is what you get.

Thanks for your attention!