It's not often that an artist's music really makes me gush. I like a lot of music, but rarely am I overwhelmed by someone's tracks. Goldfish is one of the exceptions.



I'm not sure if this is true across the country, but I went to see Watchmen this week and they had an ad prior to the movie for the new Kia Soul. The car's ugly, but the song that was playing for the spot was goddamn amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxYyvwQxBdw

There's two songs for the commercial, but this one's "Fort Knox," by Goldfish. Now, I love electronic, and I love funk, so this South African duo's music is so intoxicatingly addictive to me that I went ahead and bought the whole album that "Fort Knox" is on, "Perceptions of Pacha". Unfortunately, there's no single download option for the song, but in all honesty the whole album is just as good, worth every penny of 10 bucks (I recommend "Hold Tight" and "Just For Tonight"). If you want it, you can pick it up at their official site.

http://www.goldfishlive.com/

Also, yes, this song will be going onto the Ultimate Driving Playlist (which is turning out to be really difficult to organize). :)

I've been lurking forever, it seems. Last piece I uploaded was 4 months ago, yeesh!

I've been super involved in art, but all of the non-furry variety, along with a lot of software training and handling of other things; I haven't even had time to update my personal website, it's overwhelming sometimes!

Fortunately, I landed a job (to be divulged in an artwork, but I think it's awesome), and am moving tomorrow for sunny Cali-for-ni-ay! It's gonna be damn crazy this coming week for me...

So I apologize for going unheard and unseen for almost half a year, but there's been a lot of stuff to take care of for me. I've seen lots of great work from the people I've been watching, and I thank you all for your faves and watches since I last posted. Hopefully things will settle down soon so I can put some new work up, but for now you'll just have to hang out a bit longer - stay tuned. :)

That's right! In the past, I've only done full-color, $200+ commissions. I know those haven't exactly been affordable for everyone, and I've wanted to deliver some of my work on a cheaper basis. With a few other things cleared up, I'd like to get back to doing some work for you lovely folks; when it comes to art, furry may be relatively cheap, but it's a supportive community that, for my experience, has been interesting. So on with the technical stuff!

Black & White Sketch/Drawing: $20 (single subject)/$35 (two subjects)
Examples:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1057967/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/693673/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/672619/

Digital Coloring: +$30
("Rough" color; $30 can be added after the above payment)
Examples:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/879682/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/404992/
http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/gallery/daborr.jpg (non-furry)

How to get one:
1. Reply to this post that you're interested.
2. Send a note to me here on FA, or an email to the address (preferable) below.
3. Give your character description, info, picture links, anything you think is relevant. Include your email address.
4. Payments should be sent via Paypal to clockwork[at]clockwork-epoch.com

Notes:
- Sketches will be handled in order of payment!
- I'll do nudity, erotica, and things of a suggestive nature. You know, tasteful stuff. Besides, 1-character sketches are gonna be pretty lonely porn. :3 (If you're unsure, email me, you won't lose a potential slot)
- Like all other commissions I handle, the below slots will be finished before I accept any more commissions.

1. Torakhan (Completed: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1191624/)
2. zsisron (Completed: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1191610/)
3. Rikoshi (Completed: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1205731/)
4. JFswift (Paid)

Don't usually do memes, but I love music ones, and since I'm still working on the Ultimate Playlist between all the other crap I'm doing, this'll do! (format copied from korrok)

Top 10 Albums. The basic rules are:
1) The bands don't have to be insanely popular.
2) The albums don't have to go in order of how good they are. Just list what you like.
3) Also, make sure to list one of each, since this is only a Top 10 list.



1. The Refreshments - Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big & Buzzy
When I list "Western Rock" in my profile, this is the band I'm talking about more than any other. Hailing from Tempe, Arizona, the Refreshments have a sound that infuses rock and alternative with a large dose of Mexican flair. Their song "Mexico" is probably my favorite song ever. The link is actually an old AMV I did about 6 years ago to Trigun using footage from the first DVD out of 8 (I only had the one). Someone else posted it, how do people still have this stuff?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3BCe4gk-Lo - Mexico

2. Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers - Americano!
Alas, the Refreshments are no more. Fortunately, the vocalist (Roger Clyne) and drummer (PH Naffa) regrouped with a member of the Gin Blossoms and another from Dead Hot Workshop (another Tempe band). It's a similar sound, with a slightly lighter country-ish GinBlossom-y feel. The title track for the album is amazing, a subtle commentary on American behavior. Don't know what's with the crazy video, but the audio in the link is the album version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdwjxsspQ84 - Americano!

3. SynSUN - Phoenix
SynSUN stands for "Synthetic Sunshine", and one of the only goa/psytrance artists I like. Songs that aren't repetitive, and even have hints of narrative. Songs like "Mami" have a completely massive sound with good bass, others like "Phoenix" and "Ride the Sky" are intense and driving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSdbF-UlxJs - Mami (sans a cappella opening and truncated)

4. Supreme Beings of Leisure - Supreme Beings of Leisure
I LOVE this group, sort of a nouveau-riche, film noir chillout music. Surprisingly, their song "Never the Same" actually makes an appearance in a commercial currently on air, for Johnnie Walker (it's on YouTube). I originally got hooked on Supreme Beings because of their appearance of "Under the Gun" on the Animatrix, in the "A Detective Story" episode. Perfect film noir song. The female vocalist has an utterly sexy voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVzydCz03RM - Under the Gun

5. Propellerheads - Decksanddrumsandrockandroll
Big beat! Another group that made an appearance in a Matrix film, "Spybreak!" was the song playing during the lobby gunfight in the original. Fantastic album all around, great pacing, driving beats and fun songs. Really hard to pick a song to show, but I settled on this one for the jazz infusion and phenomenal voice of Shirley Bassey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE_1tCasi_Q - History Repeating

6. Cattywompus - Gospel Hymns & Original Sins
Cattywompus' music hearkens back to the folksy rock of the 60s and 70s, bands like Creedence, Gram Parsons, and the Allman Brothers (and the opening song of Firefly). An example that music of this caliber is still being created, which I love. I don't think I need to say much more about them, since their first album is free for download and streaming on their website. "The Soldier" is probably my favorite off the album, along with the backwoods-sounding "Elizabeth Rose".
http://www.cattymusic.com/ - Gospel Hymns & Original Sins Full Album

7. Cake - Motorcade of Generosity
Probably the most mainstream band on my list, I adore every single one of Cake's songs from every album they've done. I'm an utter syncopation whore, and all their songs have some degree of syncopation in them. Combined with clever and quirky lyrics, and a sound that I can listen to no matter my mood, and I'm in aural heaven. REALLY difficult to pick just a single song to sample, but many people know Cake anyway. This one cracks me up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEG2YMAQgs - Rock 'n Roll Lifestyle

8. Goose - Bring It On
Sometimes I listen to a band and hear them later in a commercial (a la Supreme Beings in the aforementioned Johnnie Walker and Goldfrapp for the LG Chocolate), and other times I find a great artist as a result of their music being used in a commercial. Such is the case with Goose, as they slip into the latest Mitsubishi Lancer commercial with their song "Bring It On", title track of their newest album. Great big sound across the whole album, I luvvit and can't get the songs out of my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4EvE92yoRg - Black Gloves

9. Glossary - The Better Angels of Our Nature
Ah, Alternative. Not alternative as it's defined now, no; the classic 90s style, one of my favorite genres. A new band, Glossary has a sound much like Wilco, Matchbox 20, and the Counting Crows. "Almsgiver" has a good Mississippi riverboat feel, so it vibes with me excellently, and lyrics in a lot of their songs, like "Gasoline Soaked Heart" are very touching and reflective. Their first album, The Better Angels of Our Nature is free to download in MP3 or AAC format.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EnBEG3JyXo - Almsgiver (Live)
http://www.glossary.us/ - Download the album

10. Cowboy Mouth - Voodoo Shoppe
Originally hailing from New Orleans, this group's latest album Voodoo Shoppe contains a fantastic Cajun-infused song called "Home" about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ("The Ninth Ward's disappeared, the Treme's overflowed, it's Dante's Inferno in the Superdome").

Cowboy Mouth has a distinct mold-breaking rock sound, and the unique, powerful voice of Fred LeBlanc makes it all the better. Their New Orleans roots really shows throughout their music. Most well-known for their radio tracks "Jenny Says" and "Easy", they mostly do loud, brash songs, the kind that get you pumping your fist in the air, but their more tender songs like "God Makes the Rain" and "The Avenue" are hauntingly beautiful. Another band I can listen to damn well every song they have, and I am DAMN surprised that more people don't know of Cowboy Mouth.
http://www.last.fm/music/Cowboy+Mouth/_/Easy - Easy

(Note: This post has been sparked by seeing two LJ posts on my friends list right next to each other that embody the spirit of what I talk about. No, it's not attacking artists - it's attacking bad web design, and artists seem particularly prone to creating this specific breed of it.)

Can someone explain to me why some of the biggest and most prolific perpetrators of horrible web design these days are the first people who should bloody know better? Artists, I have a simple request:


STOP FLASHTURBATING.


Encapsulating your entire website in a Flash file is not trendy, or hip, or slick. It's aggravating, disruptive, and stifling. I do not want to click an obtusely placed little "Next" button, or one that's almost hidden (I'm looking at you, Android), to page through your sequential gallery just to get to one of the few interesting pieces you have. Stop that. I want to see all your work at once, and I goddamn want to be able to click on any of your pieces that pique my interest.

A smooth-animated loading bar for every blasted image IS NOT GOOD DESIGN. I really don't need to know that holy shit, the second picture in your gallery of evil clowns is at 75%. It is maddeningly unhelpful and utterly useless. You want to do something cool with Flash? Learn some ActionScript and PRELOAD the next 3 images while I look at 1. Don't make me sit there spending more time looking at a loading animation than at all of your artwork.

Flash is not a good way to secure your images. You shouldn't be securing your images in the first place on the web if you're an artist - that likely sounds odd and inflammatory to many of us who get "ripped off". As any artist living in the modern world, you honestly should be embracing the spirit of the exchange of ideas. You have a piece of work that inspires me? I'd like to save it to my hard drive so that I can look back at it when I need inspiration. Unfortunately, I can't right-click-save-as, because you're too paranoid about it being ripped off or used in some derivative work that has just as much artistic merit (in terms of copyright fair use, not tracing). "I must protect my IP, just like a Fortune 500 company, because I am an important artiste!" Where did you go to school, Dartmouth College of Business?

You want to use Flash in your website? Good! It's an amazing animation tool and can really punch up a site's design. But use it to augment your site, not to be your site. Good web design is more than just the aesthetic - truth be told, the aesthetic of a website is the LAST decision one should make on a site's design.

Flash is an atrocious tool for designing a whole website. Most of us graduated with art degrees - what is the one thing we artists learn in school? That everyone is different, everyone has their own style. Locking in a human being to a single particularly small font is bad. Creating a design that has no real intuitive interface is a gross mishandling of the web technology (a term I found today while researching this - "Mystery Meat Navigation" ). Don't hide your links in tiny fonts and cryptic symbols splattered throughout the screen like your URL was the victim of a shotgun enema. For the love of god, don't make a dialup user download a 4 or 5 megabyte file just to view your website, artwork not included (and as an addendum, don't save your JPEGs at Maximum quality because you feel like every pixel says something about you as an artist - this is the web, fer chrissakes, optimize your images).

The big question in all of this is thus: Do you want people to look at your artwork or not? Do you want your work to be accessible? Is the website being pretty actually more important than your work being within 2 clicks of the main index page?

My fellow artists, I implore you to reconsider your website's design if you are a member of the above group. Yes, Flash may be pretty, Flash may help you fully realize the site you want to design in this Web-2.0 era, but ultimately your websites fail because they fly in the face of what the web should be, and what you've been taught as an artist (or should have been). Your site can be artistic and aesthetic without becoming a monstrosity of bloat and confusion.

Please. Stop encouraging a renaissance of banality. We are artists; we should lead the way in showing not just what the web is capable of, but in showing how the web can be for everyone. Your website is merely a vehicle for your artwork. Don't make your artwork an afterthought of your website.


Incomplete List of Offenders:
http://www.manipulator.com/
http://www.christiansparrow.com/
http://www.matthewmahon.com/
http://danielbergeron.com/
http://www.androidjones.com/
http://changchung.wemade.com/
http://www.jonathanyuen.com/
http://www.testemale-photos.com/

Taking a moment away from working to post a little thinking on the playlist. I currently have 126 tracks in the driving playlist, for a total of 8 hours, 27 minutes of non-repeating playtime. Good so far, and I'm not through everyone's suggestions yet!

I think I'm going to make a maximum playlist of 500 songs. If the playlist ever were to go over that, then I think interested parties with the idea would voice their opinions for the "worst" songs to be replaced. All the same, replaced songs would be kept on a "Retired" list.

Speaking of individual lists, as I've been putting this thing together I've been faced with some tough decisions, and they've really made me understand that many people have many different tastes by way of genre. For one, I don't really care for country music, nor most metal, but there are undoubtedly people who do (certainly the metal one, as many people have suggested songs that fall outside of my tastes but are suitable candidates - I'm trying very hard to adhere to my guidelines for song selection!).

My tentative solution is to publish the list sectioned off by "similar" genre, which can be added on to a "Core/Must have" list of tracks that would fit on one or two audio CDs, which would be a sampling of all tracks (so a person could trim the Core down to a single CD to suit their tastes).

So, there'd be a "Core" list, and then "Addon Genre" lists, sort of a make-your-own sublist of the full list. Addons would be lumped together, like "Ska/Big Band," "Country/Western," and of course everything electronic would be composed into one list, from trance to trip-hop (maybe one separation). It's all kind of up in the air, but that's what I'm going with at the moment, I think it makes the list a little more flexible and accessible for people who don't want pick-and-choose their songs, so they can get their "I like everything from this genre" part of the list plopped right down without any work.



AND NOW, THREE SPOILERS:
(stop reading if you don't want any)

1) The most requested song thusfar, Muse's contribution is "Knights of Cydonia".
2) Making an appearance in a (so far) slim genre, the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (I've found more furries that listen to this group than anywhere else) rips some awesome instrumental solos, perfect for late-night city driving, in "Guts for Saxophone".
3) And for a little touch of Vegas, Junkie XL pops up on the playlist with his remix of Elvis' "A Little Less Conversation".

...but I haven't posted much here. I actually got a freelance gig doing character designs for a game proposal. It's much squee! But the first character's quite complex and it's taken me these last 3 weeks or so since I was last posting here to get towards the end of this design.

Tons of development, and now I'm getting to two final colors. I feel so immensely slow, but the client's been satisfied and happy with my work and contact. If the fellow has me do another character, I sincerely hope it's something much easier to work through. I so wish I had a 9-to-5 at an actual development studio, at home there's too many distractions even when I AM focused.

Really, I guess I'm not too slow. Full character design should run about 2 weeks, and I'm nearing the end of week 4, with just colors left. So I guess I'm not that bad.

Anyway, with that, I've been trashed the last few weeks, that project's taken up quite a bit of time and 99% of my art capabilities. I've done a few doodles here and there, but it's been like... 1 sketch a week, pretty paltry, and all atrocious. I wish I was more prolific and could just shoot artwork out of my nose. It's probably my one great hindrance at this point.

I need to get to painting something green fer somebody. I'd actually love to do that today, but I wanna finish this first color for the proposal.

(Crossposted from my LiveJournal)
Hokai, so, I wanna build a playlist for myself. But I am a firm believer that no matter how much music I have, there's always SOMETHING out there that I'd love to listen to, I just have to hear it. So I'm enlisting assistance from you all!

The Task: Create the Ultimate Driving Playlist.
The Format: MP3s, loaded onto a 1-2GB flash drive (maybe larger if there's a lot of comments, but I'm not expecting that).
The Guidelines:

1. Only one song per artist. This playlist must be varied! It's gonna be hard to select just one AC/DC and one Queen song, but this is a limit that I feel is the only way to assure one-hit wonders get just as much playtime as the superstars.

2. Each song should have a true "driving" beat. These songs aren't for lounging, they aren't for lookin' pretty, they aren't for picking up chicks. No, these songs are for driving. The beat should move you, urge you faster, more, quicken the reflexes, floor the accelerator, and get your adrenaline pumping!

3. Each song should force an uncontrollable reaction in your seat. Whether it's drumming on the steering wheel, pounding on the dashboard, thumping your palm against the ceiling, or any manner of bodily writhing and in-seat dancing (a la Rush Hour), right down to singing out loud, every song on this playlist should evoke a reaction from even the most stoic drivers and passengers. If the song couldn't get Jesus tapping his foot in spite of himself, it doesn't belong on here!

4. Every song should be air-guitar-able and/or drummable. I know that there are some kickass electronic songs. You're welcome to suggest some, and I'll be putting a few on here, but seriously, if #3 is going to be all-inclusive, then we have to allow for our Guitar Hero brethren to get their fix away from their consoles. If you have a song that doesn't fit this rule, it better be like, a fucking anthem of its genre.

5. All songs should be upbeat and/or kick your ass. How can I put this... I don't want that particular brand of song. A lot of pop music today has intrinsic anger, depression, and angst schlepped right into it, down to the essence of the guitar chords. I'm not going to name any names, but if the song's singing about punching your parents in the face, it better be because you're drinking at an Irish pub, not because they took your allowance away and don't like your girlfriend.

Got a song or two in mind? Fire away, leave a comment! Tell your friends to visit and comment too! I want a BIG ASS PLAYLIST. The kind that when you put it in for a roadtrip, you know you won't have to put in a new CD until your backseat driver's stopped to pee at their third rest stop and you're on your 6th frappacino and second pack of cigs (and if you do neither, use your imagination).

I have to ask this, because it varies so wildly in furry. What makes the price for a commission "too much"? I've heard numbers as low as $25 for full-color, and as astronomical as "no limits".

Personally, I try to be a professional with my commissions. My last patron himself said he was shocked that I actually asked for MORE information, especially information about his character beyond just physical characteristics and looks. To me, that is how I am supposed to do my job. If I don't get into a character, then I can't know that character well enough to create a work of art about them.

Being a professional also includes at least semi-professional pricing, however. I have to be realistic, and there are generally-accepted "norms" in the concept design world. I'm handling a set of character designs for a game proposal for a client right now; a grand total of 2 colors and 3-4 black-and-whites for $750 total. I gave my prices to the client ($250 color, $75 B&W), and he readily accepted without hesitation. This doesn't include the pre-vis designing and concepting the actual character; he's gotten 6 sheets for free, basically, of me working through the entire character concept to get an idea for how she should look.

In furry, I think there are a lot of people who would say 75 dollars for a black-and-white drawing is far and away too excessive, but is it? Looking at it from a purely utilitarian point of view of work-per-hour, $75 would be:

15 hours @ $5/hr
7.5 hours @ $10/hr
5 hours @ $15/hr

Professional concept artists can be paid $20 or more per hour, and that's for us low-level new artists. I hope for about $200 on a full-color commission, with a complete background. Considering about 40 hours on average for a commission from me (and no, I never figure in the time where I'm staring at the page), I'm working for 5 bucks an hour. To anyone that has looked at my auctions before, I usually start them at $65, with no reserve. That means that if there were only one bid, I'd practically be working for pennies.

This isn't to say I'm trying to make this out as some sort of living. I don't expect to, nor ever will. But I do feel that there is a need to acknowledge that there are artists who, while they may charge a lot, do everything they can to give you your money's worth.

In terms of my work, there's more that goes into a commission from me.
1) I communicate extensively with my clients. I'm big on email contact.
2) I ask for more information, story, background, character traits and personality - these are all of tantamount importance to me.
3) I do test sketches, and they give a green light before I put the first dab of color onto the page.
4) I will research things that I have little knowledge of (such as CWolfCW's commission, where I needed to research samurai clothing and symbols) in an effort to be accurate.
5) I redraw and fix drawings to a position that they are happy with. They're in an executive position, in essence, an Art Director for their commission.
6) I send in-progress shots of the artwork so that they can see the colors and image as it's taking shape, as well as know that I'm diligently working for them.

And even after all that, I will still go the extra mile to make sure that they are a satisfied patron, someone who feels they got their money's worth. To date, of my 5 commissions, every person has been delighted with not only the final product, but also my promptness, conduct, and work ethic. While hard to pin a number on, there is considerable effort put into things beyond just the final piece of art one gets, at least from me.

I think, on some level, I want to justify my charging $200-$250 for a full-color commission. I wish I could get more sometimes, because I honestly feel I put in more than that amount of work into a commission; but I have always let the market (read: fandom) decide how much my work is worth. You people are the reason I offer commissions at all, instead of just drawing for myself, and I want to make sure that the people who buy art from me feel like they are being treated fairly. At the same time, I want that respect and understanding reciprocated.

I've noticed the reasoning, "For that price, you could get 10 commissions from artists A-F, that's just a stupid price!" We aren't washing machines, or pairs of shoes, or laserjet printers. We are all different and unique in style, form, and approach. Even though you could get 10 from other artists for the same, can you be sure all ten of the others' work merits that same amount spread around?

In this post-modern era, people don't want to hear it, but in furry there are disparate skill levels between given artists; with non-abstract art it is far easier to quantify an artist's skill in a medium. This is not a carte blanche reason for an artist to be demeaning and belittling to others; to me, a greater-skilled artist should feel obligated to help those struggling to improve; and those people should listen to the artist. On the same subject, an artist whose skill is praised does not have free reign to charge an overtly excessive amount. This whole paragraph reflects a manner of respect to one another. Who knows how attainable that is, but I myself at least work towards this.

So, what is a fair price for a commission? Are all of us artists created equal and one should expect the same prices from all of us? Do our names matter; and should our name recognition alone be a reason to hate us? Do our attitudes, work ethic, and behavior matter in consideration of how "good" we are, or is it simply our artwork that matters and the artist is secondary? Should artists taking furry commissions relegate themselves to lower prices at the community's behest, or should they adhere to a figure they feel is proper, and/or let that same community decide where they stand?

Link this around if you feel it worth sharing. Talk, and reply; I want to know what you think.

Doctor took off the stitch tape and clipped the ends of the ends of the internal stitches, then sent me on my merry way on Tuesday. I still have some mild tenderness and discomfort when I breathe deeply, but really I'm doing much better. Appreciate how it feels to have nothing wrong, folks, for events like these make the banality of normal life seem like heaven.

Now, it's back to looking for a job. Time to solicit Blizzard for a rejection letter!

So, I'm recovered enough to recount the sequence of events:

1. Friday, the 13th, I was going to go to bed at about 4:00 AM. Just as I was getting ready, I started having localized pain in my abdomen. I've had these feelings before, they last a couple hours, then go away (I knew the cause). This one, however, was different, and was sharp and throbbing.

2. I staved off the pain without painkillers for 3 hours, 'til I finally woke my parents up. Mum and I were shortly out the door and headed to the emergency room the next town over.

3. Arrived to a very quiet emergency room, and was quickly whisked to a room. Blood pressure taken, blood drawn (new to me), an IV, quick medical history and description of symptoms.

4. Was given a dose of Propofol, and was finally able to relax. Never been high before. Told my mother I was bi while under the influence. Amazingly, she wasn't phased in the slightest.

5. Doctor listened to my symptoms again. Nurse took me down the hall for an ultrasound. Wheeled back and given a dose of morphine.

6. Doctor returns, reports I have gallstones, that one is probably causing a blockage and the pain, and it would be a simple matter of removing my gallbladder. He goes to call our family doctor, who sends us up to the Missouri Baptist in the city. Mum's a bit suspicious as I am apparently getting the surgery done that day and not being rescheduled for a later date.

7. Ambulance picks me up. It's very odd, having people just cart you around on a stretcher to and fro from place to place. Hour ride and we arrive at MBMC.

8. I'm taken to a room, nurses come and go, asking questions, making sure I'm comfortable. I end up struggling with one of those bizarre hospital gowns, and finally get settled.

9. Orderly comes with another stretcher. Black guy named English, which I found awesome for some reason. Wheels me down to surgery.

10. I'm bumped up in the list, and this creates some confusion. It's finally understood that I am NOT getting an appendectomy like the other guy, but a laparoscopic-cholystectomy (I'm about 15 years younger than the average, hence the confusion).

11. I'm given a cocktail, wheeled into surgery, and everything goes black as soon as I get moved to the table. I fade in and out of consciousness after everything, finally waking up in a recovery room - fortunately, a private room.



Wee! So now my liver is missing its bestest pal, and I've got 4 small incisions on my bellah. Discharged the next day with little pain, though I have a lot of discomfort and weakness; yesterday I finally had enough strength and focus to lift a pencil to draw. Turns out the excessive pain was not just from a stone, but my gallbladder was also infected! Yay! I got a bottle of Vicodin, and antibiotics - 7 pills cost 80 friggin' dollars, what the hell.

Followup's Tuesday, hopefully everything is alright. Then it'll just come down to seeing how much all this is going to cost. Insurance is good, I just hope everything clears and I don't get screwed. ;_;

An inquiry from a second potential employer. The recruiter at the studio liked what she saw, and requested samples of my 3D and texture work. The downside: I don't really HAVE any samples. The upside: I'm a little more encouraged now, the first potential job that came my way wasn't a fluke (though it didn't pan out).

So! About 8 months ago I had started a retexture for the Arcanist set in World of Warcraft, but then Blizzard patched the game so custom textures couldn't be loaded, so I stopped it after only two textures were completed. Even though it wasn't my model, and I had a guide to work from for the original textures, I figured that was the best place to start. So here, have some pics!

Flat textures:
http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/Rand.....w_textures.jpg

Set applied to a Draenei:
http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/Rand.....re_draenei.jpg

Set applied to an Orc:
http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/Rand.....ompare_orc.jpg

Set applied to a Tauren:
http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/Rand.....are_tauren.jpg

Set applied to a Gnome:
http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/Rand.....pare_gnome.jpg

I won't get the job, but it was fun and challenging doing these.

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In other news, I've worked up something silly and got it approved, but I won't share any details yet (only with my buddypals in my IRC channel, mwah). You'll all find out soon enough!

After badgering her butt for quite some time, a dear dear friend is finally on FA. Lorelei is another post-college artist; she's mostly a metalsmith, but does some beautiful artwork (mostly females, sorry fagz), and makes adorable comics and panels involving herself and her friends.

Her style is off-the-cuff and whimsical, and can be about anything from sandwiches to sex. Go check out the first few samples she's posted, and if they give you a chuckle or you like the style, encourage her to post more with a nice inviting watch!

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/lorelei/

A few people have made it known that, while they love my work, my full-color full-on commissions are too expensive for them (and honestly, I think I do them pretty cheap, all things considered). I wouldn't mind actually having commissions I can blow through without investing 40+ hours into them, while still delighting people with my work.

I've been mulling over the potential of offering a sort of rolling 10-slot queue for sketch commissions. Nothing fancy, just line drawings, maybe a lucky person would get a dash of color for free ('cause I like the character or the idea), and no mailing involved - I'd instead most likely send a high-res TIFF for a quality print-out, but since it would be just a drawing I don't want to be encumbered with having to line up shipping (and possibly printing the color ones) for every person. Most of us reside here in good old cyberspace anyway, so prints are usually a secondary thing - a reason I make them optional in my commissions.

A couple questions arise, though. First off is, who would be interested? If I'm going to do this queue idea, I'd like to know that I have a solid number of patrons who would love to get ahold of a piece from me, without having to pay much. Lots of people are doing these too, which may lessen interest.

Second question that comes to mind after that - what's a fair price? I like to let the people who want my work decide what it's worth to them - a reason I've done my Furbid auctions the way I have. It's important to me that people feel they're getting work appropriate to the cost, while at the same time I'm not feeling gypped.

My foremost solution right now, if this were to pan out, would be to do the sketch for a fixed amount; then, if someone were to actually want more detail put into it - such as extensive jewelry or clothing, or elaborate markings, then work for a flat hourly rate to a secondary stage of completion. However, I've not done this before, so I really don't know if that sounds feasible to people who don't live inside my mind! :D

Sooooo, that's aboot it I think. I need some help deciding, because I'm not just gonna throw this out there and not have anything come of it - that'd be depressing. O_o If anyone is wondering, I'd probably start this AFTER AC, unless there was someone who really wanted one of these commissions done before it.

(RITTS' HAIR NEEDS MORE EPILEPSY, KTHXBAI)

I'm not sure many people care what I've been up to for the last three or four days, but I suppose this is half my art, I'll share the other half with all you lovely people!

In my ongoing quest to find a job in the games industry (qq), I decided that the first site I put up in May was tawdry, dull, and amateurish. So I took it upon myself to do a totally new website, with new graphics, and even put up all my recent stuff - ironically, it's all new too.

I challenged myself to build the new site without tables. That's right boys 'n girls, the new clockwork.epoch has no tables whatsoever. Okay, so to most of you that's not really relevant, but damn am I proud to be free of the burden of tables, and I'm glad to be making full use of CSS.

I added Lightbox to my gallery, which I feel makes it much more professional. It's so sexy, but you'll need to have JavaScript enabled to see it in action. The site's XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1 compliant, so any browser that adheres to the W3C standards (Firefox, Opera, Safari, and yes, even IE to an extent) will render the pages correctly. Well, almost...

TO YOU INTERNET EXPLORER 6 PEOPLE: I used PNGs in the site designs. JPEGs are crap, and I'm an artist, so I'ma steel sum ur bandwidth kthxbai. That said, IE7 does display PNGs with transparency; IE6 does not. However, I implemented a nifty little JavaScript that cajoles IE6 into reading the alpha channel correctly on non-background PNGs; so if your IE blocks the script, allow it through and the site will look a wee bit better.

It doesn't render PNGs properly, Lightbox might act screwy, but at least the layout works properly in ALL browsers I tested - thank god for standards. Screw IE, seriously. Use Firefox or Opera people, for your own good!

Head on over and tell me how it is. And check out some non-furry art, ohgasp!

http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/

Edit: I can't bear to go against good web design and leave a 250KB PNG24 image embedded in any web page, so i turned the main header image into a JPEG. A PNG8 isn't quite good enough with transparency, but a JPEG will have to do.

If this journal post gets out of hand, I'll remove it. I'm trying to ascertain some sort of consensus from people, not start a flamewar, so I won't have people deriding each other; please behave. My question is, what makes a particular word or phrase offensive or derogatory?

In this case, the general phrase is "(object/action/event) is gay." "Gay" is meant to be synonymous with "lame." Originally this slang arose from the social outlook on the GBLT community, but that was also 20-30 years ago. Today defendants say the phrase has deprecated into what is a harmless state. In opposition are others who believe it still has those connotations.

I think it would be agreed that there's a line between what is offensive and what is not, and it is there that I wonder where that line is, and if it is static or dynamic. Further, at this point in time there seems to be a definite separation between "political correctness" and a violent backlash to PC language, making this subject especially volatile to people of my age, the 20s, who may sit on either side depending on any number of factors.

So far, two gay men, and myself, a bisexual, uphold that the word and phrase does not contain that meaning anymore. One straight woman and one gay man contend that it does, and is still offensive. So, my thoughts...

Is an offensive or derogatory nature inherent to a word, or is a word given such power by the people who hear it?
Does time play a factor in deciding such a nature?
Can a charged word be derogatory to an object, or is it simply derogatory because other human beings are within earshot? In the latter's case, is it still derogatory, or merely offensive?
Is a person's personality and biographical history important to deciding a word's offensiveness, and also of the "offensiveness line"?
Does this 'offensiveness line' move, or is it static?
Depending on the above, is it correct to limit everyone for the sake of one side?

All tough questions, but my sticking point is the last, and I think the most overlooked by people who have kneejerk reactions to "offensive" language. Ultimately for me, it isn't the word that bothers me, but a simple principle I live by: to limit and restrict is to harm, to stifle, and to kill.

Issues like this make me think of the "offensive" art, poetry, music, and humor of contemporary time, and how much of it would be gone if creativity were restrained in such a way as is wanted to restrain our language. And how language itself is made more colorful by questionable words. The thought of any force threatening the creative flow of an artist, a musician, or anyone, weighs heavily on my mind.

Such words and phrases may offend people's sensibilities and sense of morality - even I am made uncomfortable by some. But is the greater crime to morality, creativity, and humanity to suffocate the voices, or to free them?

Every time I look at Sparth's artwork, I see something new to aspire to. His work is just amazing, at this point in time he's one of the few artists that I can look at and just be amazed by every single thing in any particular piece. There's something in his style, execution, and presentation that's just so captivating and fresh.

Things I need to learn, things non-technical:

1) I need to be more decisive with mark and line.
2) I need to remind myself that often, the simplest action is the most beautiful.
3) I must paint like one possessed.
4) Faster. Always faster.
5) And I need to loosen up on my commissions.

I'm deathly afraid of people, especially in this fandom, not liking the work I like to do, in the fashion I like to do it. I feel I'm drifting into a mold that I have never fit into, in a vain attempt to appease some idea of what people around here look for.

Although they are for money, a current commission is making me realize that if I can't enjoy the paid work I'm doing, I shouldn't do it. An odd realization, considering financial need, but if I cannot strive, learn, and enjoy during the process, it would hurt me far more than any refund. And hurt those who commission me, though they may not know it.

World of Warcraft entry, the cool people are

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that way

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Gawd I'm a slackass sometimes. Burning Crusade released....2 weeks ago? And my old guild rerolled on a brand new server that started on the midnight release. Fucking insaaaaaane. Having given it a breather since October, the game's sucked me back in, though partially because we've got a leveling crew of 5-7 people who just instance the crap out of ourselves.

So I've devoted little time to work. I HAVE worked, but not on furry stuff so much, mostly on GUI design, and slacked off majorly the last few days (was a little bit behind in the levels, but got back up to 48 with 'em last night). But there's a bit of time now while we wait on our bur drood to show up for starting Maraudon runs, sooooooooo...... I'm gonna try to be productive.

The other night I was bored with the work I'm engaged in, but I still felt an artistic drive. Calorath was working on coloring this risque lineart of Nduli's, and as we talked about color themes I kind of got drawn into it, so I decided to color my own.

I'm leery to start putting art of a sexual nature on my account. Kind of in between on the subject, as I think sex isn't something that needs to be covered up or denied, but I want to keep the 250+ people watching my account happy with the content. I don't do such work often, but I do like to once in awhile. Usually my work of this nature's the more tasteful-leaning. I'm battling with the idea, if anyone watching me wants to add their opinion I'm all ears.

This I don't want to post either way I decide, mostly because it's not entirely my work. But I do still like it, and I figure posting it to my journal is a good way to let people see it, without bombarding those who don't with a thumbnail in plain view. Sexual content follows, don't click if you need to protect your virgin eyes.

Synthia
http://www.clockwork-epoch.com/Rand.....it/Synthia.jpg

Nduli's FA: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/nduli
Calorath's FA: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/calorath

Holy babyjeebus! I'm overwhelmed!

Thanks to everyone who gave me watches and comments just on my first piece! I'm absolutely thrilled at the response "Rebirth" got. I hope everyone enjoys my second piece, and I will sincerely try to deliver work of the same quality or better as time goes on. Now I get to go through all of these watches and look at what everyone else is working on!

Last week, at about the same time I posted "Rebirth," I put an auction up on Furbid. I just wanted to slide it in while things were quiet, but due to the great response here I figure I'll direct anyone who cares' attention to it. It's down to about 48 hours remaining, so feel free to bid if you like my work!

http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auctio......pl?item=23351

Once again I'd like to thank everyone. I've got a few non-furry things I want to work on, but I should have another piece of work up soon!