watsup and I are proud to announce our first collaborative pay project, the Transformational Geographic!

Many months in the making, this magazine delves deeply into dragon-girl lore. The 22-page PDF magazine features an 8 page written magazine article with 10 high quality images and several sketches, and a 14 page transformation comic.

For ages 18+ only!
Total size 200mb
Cost $12

Pick it up here: www.e-junkie.com/shop/product/509714.php


This is only the second pay comic I've worked on (the first one, Polymorph, can be found here ) and I am super excited! If the reception is good enough I might just be able to start doing art full time, and boy, that would be living the dream :D


So please check it out! And let us know how you like it- feedback is always appreciated.

If anyone is headed there later this week, maybe we'll bump into each other!

Hi there!


Who hasn't made a journal in over a year? :D This guy ->

Why, you are asking, is LN suddenly compelled to compose one?


Woo, I'm on a podcast! If you want to hear this dork ramble on about transformation themes and art, check out this link:

Changing Times Transformation Podcast Season 2 Episode 9


If you're interested in the TF genre it's well worth listening to the other episodes in the series too. Kudos to  pesimist for joining us and thanks a ton to  cheasydino for putting it all together and inviting me to speak on Changing Times!


Also if you're headed to Furnal Equinox this year keep an eye out - we might cross paths! Hope you guys are well,

-LN

It's finally in print! 2 years in the making, the full-length novel (418 pages!) authored by  vixyyfox featuring 22 original illustrations by me is now available in paperback!


☛ Publisher's Page

☞ Amazon Page


See this journal for the publisher's announcement! If you're a fan of history, aviation, or furry writing this is a must-read. It'd make a great holiday gift too... just sayin' ;)

*so happy*

Hey guys! Just to show I'm still alive and kicking, I thought I'd post a question to the art aficionados of the community: apart from DA and the like, where do you go for your favorite textures?

Here are a few sites that I've stumbled on in the past with nifty high res textures:

Shadowhouse Creations
Lost and Taken


For those wondering where I've been, mainly it's involved juggling work and school- that potent combo that's been the downfall of much of our generation's free time! It's not my intent to leave the fandom anytime soon, but for the time being I will have to put at least the community aspect of the fandom on hiatus for a while. I'll keep drawing whenever a free hour or two presents though to keep my little toe in the furry pool!

In the meantime, have a look at these! There's been some cute new takes on Flat Stanley lately:
Tiny Batman
Tiny Stormtroopers

Well look at that! Now that FA's back up, I can finally let you guys know that the book's finished!

 vixyyfox has been writing Reach for the Sky for - gosh, over a year now? - and I've been trying my best to keep up, producing illustrations that (hopefully!) complement her fine prose.

Well the third and final part of the series has finally been released on Amazon! If you've been following the story so far, the last installment covers the climactic moments of the Battle of Britain and brings resolution to the wartime exploits of Archie, Locke, Henry and all the dramatis personae, all with a healthy helping of Vixyy's trademark magical realism. Check it out to see how it ends! Plus you can see what all I've been drawing these past few months (in what little time I've had available to draw, at least ^^; )

And if you haven't been following the story, and are at all interested in wartime stories of the Battle of Britain, this might be a good time to start! Vixyy said she is running a promotion, so for a little while the first part of the series will be on super-sale. Here are the links:


Reach for the Sky, Part 1

Reach for the Sky, Part 2

Reach for the Sky, Part 3


Hope you guys are having a good holiday season! Suffice to say that things have been busy for me these last few months (even moreso with Christmas just around the corner), but all is well, and 2014 is shaping up to be exciting and eventful. A full time job, a new college degree, another dig season, and even a love interest (to be played by Doris Day in the movie, I'm told)... who knew revolving around the sun could be so action-packed?!

Wishing you all a Happy Chrismahannukwanzakaa!

Just a quick question for you experts out there: anybody have a suggestion for a reasonable but semi-modern laptop? The one I have is starting to get a little long in the tooth and I was thinking about upgrading. Then I might actually be able to draw efficiently while away from my main workstation!

I'd be looking for something that could smoothly run Manga Studio 5, ArcGIS, Civilization V and Europa Universalis IV. Because really, what more does one need in life? :P Beyond that I don't think I have a need for any other bells and whistles.

Any suggestions???

[EDIT] Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! I think I've got plenty to go on now :D

I didn't choose the dig life. The dig life chose me Bl

Another summer, another exciting season digging in Turkey! We made a lot of progress excavating the mound this year, which is to say we moved a lot of dirt- much of which is still ingrained into my pores :P There wasn't much in the way of remarkable artifacts this year - a few small intact jars and a nice bull's head figurine was all - but we did uncover some nifty architecture! I got assigned to the Iron Age trench and in addition to the usual pitception (one pit cutting into another cutting into another @_@) we found what appeared to be some circular structures:

So Many Circles

The plaster lining appears to have been for drainage and the burned circle would have been where organic construction material (wood, canvas, who knows) burned. The folks in the next trench down ran into some very well-preserved mud bricks that comprised some exterior structures and the Hittite casemate city walls (see 'em in the balk?):

Hittite Casemate Wall

...one wall of which included another infant pot burial like the one we found last year. On the subject of burials, we also stumbled on a middle-aged Byzantine lady buried right in the middle of town. 10 years of finding no human remains, and now four burials in two seasons - what are the odds?

Byzantine Burial

The other surprise this year was discovering a stone circle sitting right under our noses. One of our team was out on a walk not far from the mound and realized he was standing amidst one of the ancient calendar/compass structures. It's at least 4,000 years old, probably much older, and one of very few documented in our region:

Stone Circle
(the stones in the field are the circle, and that's our mound in the background)

Off site it was another typical summer in the Middle of Nowhere, Turkey. This year's subsidized crop was wheat and the whole Anatolian plateau was one large, waving amber field. The cows were being herded east this year so we couldn't set our clocks by when they came home, but there were three flocks of sheep in town which provided no end of bleats and bell clanking. We had the usual crises like the electric going out and the water pump breaking, but on the whole the amenities were nicer than last year. Still waiting for the day we get sit down toilets though!

I finally went to a kuafor for an authentic Turkish haircut experience. Apparently you don't tell the barber what kind of haircut you want; the barber decides the haircut you need, and generally it looks like something out of an 80's high school flick. For just $8 you get the full treatment: 2 shaves with a straight razor, a mud facial, an open flame to your ear hairs, and much much more! It was, uhhh... unforgettable :P

Off the top of my head I can't think of any other remarkable news! Just back now and glad to be back in the land of sit down toilets. How've your guys' summers been?

Thanks to a shipping error I am now currently overstocked on art, and I am passing the savings onto YOU! Let the mini-art dump commence~

Wow, it feels like weeks since I last sat at my computer x_x I've actually managed to scrape together 15 minutes here today! Though I haven't had much time at the PC, I was able to sneak in an hour here and there to doodle on the laptop over the last few months. I'll take this time to finally upload what I've got!

Um... lessee. Not much newsworthy other than increasing responsibilities at work, visits from relatives, a few mini-trips, continued distractions from The Internet and a short jaunt to Turkey in the works to participate in this year's dig season. Keeping fingers crossed the demonstrations quiet down by mid-July :S

How is everyone else doing?

...but instead I tried to ford the river. As a result, last month I completely fell off the wagon! Broke an axle too, and I think Jebediah caught cholera. Knew I shoulda rested another week at Chimney Rock. [/oregon.exe]

So lately there've been some Major Life Changes (positive ones, don't worry!) that have totally thrown me for a loop! It feels like it's been ages since I've been online, much less doodle. Fortunately this last weekend at Furnal Equinox dove me right back into the community: as a first-time con-goer, it was quite an experience! Fun, surreal, and unforgettable are words that come to mind :3

The indomitable  kraken was kind enough to be my wing man for what was his first convention as well. I don't know what I would have done without his great sense of humor and excellent company! We took it pretty easy, mainly trying to wrap our minds around everything going on around us XD We attended some panels, browsed the dealers' den, and mainly just chilled and sketched and watched con-goers of all types parade past. There were times when it was tough to keep a straight face :P

But the highlight, hands-down, was getting to catch the TF podcast. Not only was it a thoughtful discussion, but afterward one thing led to another and eight really cool people (and me!) went for dinner, then had a mini art-jam late into the night (after they'd danced their moves at the rave). Getting to meet, hang out and then doodle with so many other talented artists whom I've been a fan of for so long was amazing and unforgettable. Definitely the takeaway con experience :3 If you're reading this, thanks so much guys!

That's it in a nutshell! My schedule's still all kinds of wonky so I'm not sure if and when I'll get back to my earlier levels of productivity, but as much fun as I had at the convention, I'll definitely be around ; ) Poorly responsive for a while perhaps - but around!

Hey, were any others of you guys at FE that we might have crossed paths?

Hey guys! First off, happy 2013 to everybody - hope you all had fun over the holidays :D

With the new year I thought I would finally lay out a clear and organized policy on how to get art from me. I never imagined I would need one (it's immensely flattering there's so much interest ^^; )! So here's the plan:

At some point this year I'm planning on opening a commission lottery. Here's how I think it will work: I will announce that I am accepting commissions for x amount of time, inviting people to submit a summary of their idea, references and the type of commission they want drawn (sketch, inks, full color, etc.). One commission idea per person, to be fair! Once enough entries have accumulated I will close for new ideas, give a number to all those entries that I'd be up for drawing, then pick one at random and do that commission. When it's done I will pick another random number, etc., finishing as many as I can, sequentially, until the commission period is over. If the system works out well, after a break I may try and repeat the process! Hopefully this will provide a fair way for folks to get art from me without this slowpoke artist getting overwhelmed ^^;

Again, I am not taking commissions yet :3 At some point I will try to come up with prices and a TOS to get the ball rolling. In the meantime there's still a month or two's worth of queue to get through, so I'll keep at it and let you know when I'm ready to try this whole pen-for-hire thing ;)

That's all! All the best, everyone :) Carry on~

How was everyone's holiday? Was Santa generous this year?

So three individuals in the last 24 hours independently mentioned they were getting a little concerned that I've been getting a little carried away lately. You may have noticed productivity's at an all time high! Well, that's because I have been arting non-stop during all my free time XD There have been a flood of great art opportunities lately. While drawing them all is probably great practice and has been plenty of fun, it's also been causing me to neglect my social responsibilities, sleep, and kinda starting to burn me out!

So this is more a note to myself than to you guys, but it's worth broadcasting: I have GOT to learn to say "No" more often. There is an endless sea of great ideas out there and I wish I could draw every one of them. I want to draw every one of them! But the sad fact is, at 8-20 hours a picture, I can't come even close :( My brain keeps throwing that logic aside though and before I know it I say "Cool idea, sure!" and end up with a queue of commitments a mile long!

Fundamentally I need to come up with a fair, structured and limited policy toward doing art for others, not just to be clearer to you guys about how to get art from me, but also to restrict myself from committing to more than I can handle. I will try to come up with something solid - likely lottery-based - for the new year, but for now, just to be clear, I am:

-CLOSED for requests
-CLOSED for commissions

Not that I've ever really been open for either per se, but somehow they keep weaseling their way in x_x I'll wrap up the current queue I've got and then hopefully retain the self restraint to take a break for a little, refresh and unwind.

So if you ask for art and I cannot accept, please don't be offended! I get the feeling there are a lot of folks out there now who would like art from me, and I'm flattered immensely! But I'm just not in a position to make it happen right now. Likewise - and this is not targeted at anyone in particular - I respectfully ask, please don't be an enabler and persuade me into saying yes XD Similarly if I express interest in an idea, this does not mean yes!!! I absolutely hate to let anyone down, but may have to learn to if I am going to take back some measure of control of my free time. Thanks everyone for your understanding!



In other news,  lunacatta is doing "Binding of Isaac" style icons like this one - she's taking commissions for those if anyone's interested!

Shortly after I posted Frost's and my collaborative gryphon TF Idly Falling Feathers, we got a comment out of the blue from Professor Awesome (I love that handle XD) asking to contribute to the series.


Well contribute this artist has, and my jaw dropped at the production value and scale of the comic that's begun! Check it out here:


http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9175211/


To boot this artist is incredibly talented and he's just returned to FA from a lengthy hiatus. Be sure to give Professor Awesome a warm welcome back, and stay tuned for the rest of the series!

Customs was kind enough to let me back into the country and it is indeed good to be back! A lot was waiting for me on my return:

A. They'd taken my desk and assigned me a totally new job in a new department at work
B. A small mountain of chores to catch up on
C. This @_@ (*finally surrenders*)
D. The latest part in  vixyyfox's 'Reach for the Sky' series (go grab it!)

Once I get caught up and back into the swing of things there'll be time for art anew. I'm really looking forward to drawing again! It's been too long.


For those of you wondering how the archaeological dig went, it went really well! We had more trenches open at once this season than ever before so we were able to move a lot of dirt. Being a multi-occupation site (i.e. civilizations built their towns on top of their predecessors' settlements) that meant uncovering a little bit of everything.

Up in the Byzantine level we stumbled onto a trove of great artifacts apparently just haphazardly thrown into a corner of a room. These included several decorated bronze crosses, censers and a pair of swords. Our Byzantine specialist, though she does not claim to be an expert on medieval arms, thinks that the sword may in fact be a Western blade and possible evidence of Norman presence at our site in the 11th century. Yep, the same Normans who invaded England that same century. History has recorded their activity as crusaders and mercenaries in the Mediterranean but (until now, possibly) there has been no evidence of their presence in the part of Anatolia where we worked.

In the Early Iron Age we found a patch of melted clay that upon excavation turned out to be a perfect mold of a leather waterskin. Most likely it burned in situ leaving the imprint. That was pretty cool since no artifacts made of biological material have survived for three thousand years in this part of the world.

In Hittite levels we found a 5 foot thick casemate wall and an immaculate stamp seal inscribed with a gryphon - one of the top 5 artifacts ever found on the site, everyone agreed. Both are evidence that the Hittite town was fairly important in its time.

And down in the stone age trenches we found a possible kiln and several pot burials, and lots more questions than answers.

So that's the dig in a nutshell! I also did some travel around Greece, Turkey and Italy too, but that's another story :) Hope everybody had a great summer too!

(grand expedition soundtrack)


Come Thursday I will be off to Turkey to play in the dirt again (via small detours in Greece and Italy going and returning, respectively)! We'll be digging on a mound inhabited from the Stone Age all the way up through Byzantine times, about 4 hours east of Ankara. Unfortunately that is smack dab in the Middle of Nowhere, so I'll be living in a tent with no internets for a while >_< Once a week we'll make the trip to the nearest town to partake of a local internet cafe, but if folks are looking over my shoulder I don't know if I'll be able to peek at FA. So just in case, let's plan on me being on hiatus for duration!

Hope everybody has a wonderful summer, and see you all in two months!


Napoleon out

Yesterday for Father's Day we went down to the Larz Anderson museum in Boston for a German car show, and low and behold they had a Messerschmitt! But it looked just a little different from its aerial predecessors :P One of these little guys:



It's like a cockpit on wheels!!! After the war Messerschmitt was forbidden to build aircraft, so it and Heinkel both evidently went into the micro-mini automotive business. The model we saw was a KR200. These things look so fun! I want one now real bad ;_; *puppy dog eyes*




Also,  fernin brought a certain World of Tanks mod to my attention :3


Anything about this look familiar?


Okay, all reservations about MLP aside, if this little doodle had anything to do with inspiring the mod I would be:
A. Flattered
B. Cracking Up
C. All of the Above
D. A Jar of Almonds



Guess that's enough for this journal ^^; Will announce some big travel news next week!

Just wanted to let folks know that the first part of the series I've been helping illustrate, "Reach for the Sky" by Vixyy Fox, has been posted to Amazon!


LINK


The package includes the first 7 stories in the series, all wonderful reads, as well as the pictures I've done to date - including a few not posted here ;) More stories and pictures to come!

As always, a thousand thanks to  ant for his indomitable stag ace and to  Vixyyfox for bringing Lt. Corn's many adventures in the Battle of Britain to us :D

This morning I loaded up the internet and was instantly bowled over out of my chair. No, they didn't figure out how to make a 3d NO U guy pop out of the monitor - but check this out:



http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7734028/


Is that not unbelievable!?!?


Last month  greywolf26 had asked if he could commission a followup to Cretaceoufication, but goodness, this goes way beyond following up @_@ The sheer scale of it is mind boggling!



Mad props (oder vielen Dank!) to  vader-san for pulling off such an epic piece! The lovely Ladysaurs are absolutely gorgeous, especially what with the way each one is designed, textured and shaded with so much individual care and attention. And don't get me started on all the stuff in the background ^^ So much incredible detail! I'm probably gonna burn out my retinas sitting close enough to the screen to see it all, hah!



Daresay I owe Greywolf26 big now, too (I don't even want to know how much it must have cost XP). Thanks so much for commissioning this! It absolutely blew me away.


Just... wow. If you're not already watching  vader-san go doo eet nao!

Best martial arts film I've seen in years.

My jaw hung slack in amazement pretty much through the whole thing. 101min of almost nonstop in-your-face action. If the Chinese perfected fighting as a choreographic art, the Indonesians in this film added to it a level of brutality that reminds the viewer that it's not really meant to be pretty, it's meant to be deadly. So yeah, it's pretty vicious, but in a

D8

...

that was AWESOME!


kind of way :3 Great soundtrack too. If you're in the mood for an unpretentious, unapologetic action flick (and if it's playing near you) check it out!


Also, F5 for new icon! First time I've changed it in years. If you guys forget who I am I'll change it back ;)

LIFE STATUS UPDATE: The beat goes on.

Good news everyone! I lucked out at an antique store over the weekend and managed to get some VCTC's (Very Cool Things for Cheap)!

But unfortunately I'm not entirely sure what they mean @_@ Who's up for a round of Decipher That Thing?


First up, we have what looks to be a German postcard from a Pionier Battalion sent on Aug. 30, 1917. Now normally I'm always up for translating Deutsch, but this one is layered in a second, nearly unbreakable code: cursive handwriting *shivers* I'm having a tough time even making out the words to translate them, but if anyone else wants to give it a shot, please go for it! It'd be fascinating to know what he had to say.

German WWI Postcard
Closeup of Text

*UPDATE* Seems the letter is to a girl, Minna, in Berlin, and the soldier, in an engineer unit, is saying he received a letter of hers and is wishing her well. Not much else of note here, though even so it provides us a brief glimpse into life on the front. I hope he and Minna were able to reunite after the war! Many thanks to a friend's cousin for translating this ^_^


Next: you'd think a very distinct emblem of a white Calla Lily on a red shield would be easy to find on teh interwebs. Turns out, not so much! It's on a pith helmet with Victoria Regina buttons attached, so it's bound to be late nineteenth century. Any British folks or 19th cent. buffs out there know what that insignia might belong to?

Victorian Pith Helmet
Emblem Closeup

*UPDATE* Fenchurch prompted me to expand my search, and all the pieces fell together - turns out it's not English at all XD It's a US M1881 sun helmet, and I was able to figure out from a mark in the liner that it was made between between 1888 and 1925 by 'The M.C. Lilley and Co.' of 27 to 45 West Gay Street (*snicker*) Columbus, Ohio, which is apparently now quite famous for its sword regalia. This particular helmet was made for the fraternal order Knights of Pythias - that's who the Calla Lily emblem belongs to - so that explains why it's in such good shape :3 Seems they have lodges in Canada too, which is the only explanation I can come up with for the VR (Victoria Regina) buttons on the side, haha! So there ya go, a very cool 1888-1900 American-by-way-of-Canada civilian dress helmet!

Many thanks to you guys for taking a glance :D Everyone who thinks old things are cool, raise your hand!

Yep, two very talented authors have each recently posted an e-book on Amazon, which for 1 or 2 more days are downloadable completely for free!


 vixyyfox: Improbable, Never Impossible
Vixyy just launched her e-book venture with this hefty (>150 pages!) compilation of some of her best works. From short vignettes through the eyes of children to longer pieces through the eyes of military servicefurs, I guarantee you'll find something in here that will bring a smile to your face.

 lupuskanar: Changes
Gene's first e-book, 'Changes,' will be right up your alley if you're a fan of TF. And I know there have got to be some  teamtfer's here, heh! The very first story is a fleshed out account of how humanity becomes... um... furrinity? It's good stuff, and one of those rare pieces that actually sets up the anthro environment we tend to take for granted in subsequent tales. There are also several other stories that really show off Gene's storytelling abilities. Well worth downloading!


These are the best bargains on the web right now - if you like anthro stories, go pick them up! And if you like them a lot be sure to leave a review for the authors to let them and others know just how much you enjoyed their work!

</sales pitch>

...and Love the Bomb.

Alright, love's probably not the right word ;) But as the 'new message' count approaches the big 30k (less than a hundred away!), I'm finally willing to admit that the nuke button is beginning to have the look of necessity about it. Back when I joined FA I had a lot more time to dedicate to browsing and commenting, but nowadays between work, art and travel I just can't seem to keep up! So when I return from this trip in a couple weeks methinks I will take the plunge and start from a clean slate. I'll also have to speed up how I go through submissions going forward; probably won't be able to comment with the frequency I used to, lest things back up again @_@ Many apologies to friends and fellow artists for having fallen so far behind! Hopefully after the reset I'll be better able to keep up with all things FA :)

In the meantime, wishing you all a good start to 2012 - see you in a few weeks!


(To clarify, in case this was tl;dr: I am NOT nuking my gallery, just the subs in my inbox! This is just a PSA to all those folks whose galleries I've frequented but haven't been able to keep up with of late ^^; Carry on!)

Hey guys! I've got a question for you: is anyone very familiar with Geographical Information Systems (GIS)? Much as I enjoy geography and maps, I was giving some thought to learning more about the subject. There's so much software out there, though... Is one program better than another for archaeological work? Sales/marketing? The oil/energy industry or field of geology? There are a couple of the opportunities where I might be able to apply GIS, so if you guys have any suggestions I'm all ears!


Also, in case anybody's wondering I haven't been on the computer much since my tablet gave out last week :( *plays taps* Without drawing, I've found myself doing strange things - reading, cleaning, being studious & productive - it's quite disconcerting! Hopefully Wacom tech support will get back to me soon so I know if I need to send it in for repairs or just get a new one. Once that's done I can zone in front of the monitor again and draw new art, hooray!

Hope all is well with everybody!

Well, I'm back from out West and slowly catching up on FA news! Submission-wise I'm still hopelessly behind of course x_x As always, many apologies to anyone I'm watching whose work I'm not up to date on! I'll get there eventually... hopefully... maybe ;_;

But anyway, something I saw on the trip got me wondering: what's the funniest thing you've seen a wild animal do?

We just had a hilarious bison encounter, as one is bound to have in Yellowstone. It was dusk at Old Faithful, and dozens of tourists (including myself) were watching the geyser's last eruption before dark. Little did we know that while we were distracted, all 'ooo'ing and 'ahh'ing, a bison had wandered onto the grounds behind us. Well apparently he decided that the grass must be greener on the other side of the wall of people; so he parted the sea of surprised tourists and strolled right in front of Old Faithful, where he promptly parked it and grazed. If you ask me, I think he was just jealous that the photographers were taking pics of the geyser and not him ;) (Bison are very vain, you know!) So we obliged!

Any of you guys have any wild animal stories you want to share?