Ohhh, Season 4 of Lost...just now starting it. Watching things while drawing is awesome.

But before I get to work. Within the next few days I am going to have many things for sale. Mostly prints, but also some super rare and very hard to find Bestiary cards. If you don't know about them, well, I'll link to more information later.

I guess I don't anything else of interest to say other than I have been working to improve my art more than usual. Right now I am focusing on composition. I have been studying a book on it, looking at N.C. Wyeth's work, discussing what to look for an how to implement what I have learned into my own work. I have a difficult time seeing the right elements. I know in my head what to do, I know all the various suggestions and rules of thumb and rules of third and phi.

I just can't seem to use them in way that looks right, not forced, or even good. Hm.

No one ever said this art thing was easy. Sally forth.

My best friend Jennifer Miller, or  nambroth just got herself a gallery here. She is one of my top 5 favorite artists. If you like my work at all, then you will love hers. I recently made a post advertising her jewelry for sale, but now she is taking real media commissions. She works blazingly fast and all her work is full of color, light, elegance, and beauty as well as a hearty helping of soul and emotion.

A more complete gallery is on DA: http://nambroth.deviantart.com/gallery/

Her originals are here:http://featherdust.critter.net/originalshtml/

And her commission prices are here:http://www.furaffinity.net/user/info/nambroth/

So! Go look at her gallery, maybe give her a watch, and check out her commissions prices. Maybe buy stuff from her cause dammit she deserves it.

I really love this fandom.

There is a lot that bothers me within the fandom, but there is a lot in life overall that bothers me.

I'm making an ok living working for a lot of you, and I don't draw porn. Thanks for that. Thanks a lot. :3

Califur was wonderful. I thank all of you who came by and said hello or nabbed something from me. If you were there, I am sure you know the usual complaints about the hotel. However, none of this was detrimental to my con experience. I got work done, I got to try some new boozes courtesy Timberwolf and Crimson Fox, and I got to hang out with Timber, Crimson, his girl Noma who I had the pleasure to meet, Kilojara, Kishor, Aanfang, Haski, Balaa and Dark Natasha. Small groups, great fun. Huge thanks to Panth who brought delicious margaritas to me while I worked.

I am leaving again in a little while to trek out into the wilderness. I will be, for the most part, without internet for a week. All my current work is coming with me, I will have power to my laptop. I'm going to hunt for extinct animals, maybe bring some back. :P

Hope you all take care.

Howdy all you people who read this!

Tonight I'm heading to the hotel where Califur is held. As I have said in recent submissions, I love the theme and I look forward to any artwork or costumes that are steampunk.

I will be sharing a table with Thornwolf. I will have the usual hodgepodge of custom sketches and badges available. I have a lot of really nice prints, including some 13 by 19 watercolor paper prints. They look so perdy.

I will also have Micheal Bergey's two books, New Coyote and the sequel Coyote Season signed by the good doctor. They are hard cover and wonderful, wonderful books. They make me laugh.

A brief summary of New Coyote: The old Coyote of legend is reborn in today's world with no memories of who he really is. He thinks he is the result of some genetic experiments that resulted in an over large, talking, and of course, handsome coyote. As the story progresses, he learns more about himself and then the crazy stuff happens, Demons, Spirit Pups, Werewolves, Magic and Science, romance and love, and explosions! Coyote Season picks up where New Coyote left of, and that's all i will say except that the CIA are involved.

So come by! Feel free to just look, introduce yourself, chat, and so on. :D

My good friend and phenomenal artist Nambroth, someone I hope you are all familiar with, has new jewelry up and for sale on her website.

Her work is amazing: Silver wire dances around flashing multicolor gems, usually labrodorite, but also in unique bits of dragon skin turqoise, sodalite, ammonite, faceted quartz, and calming jade, and more! The pendants are unique, each given its own thought and composition that complements the individual stone's innate beauty. The pieces are very organic and otherworldly.

Her work sells quickly, so check out her website to see just what I am talking about> I try to buy them when I can, and I am not much a of a jewelry person.

http://featherdust.critter.net/jewelryhtml/

Even if you aren't in a buying mood, it's a lot of fun to look. The rest of her website is full of wonderful fantasy art, so take a look around there as well. :3

I am a bit disappointed that I cannot draw the dead opossum. I worked on it for a little while today, inside the house due to the cold, but sadly, there were too many fleas in the fur and flies coming out of the mouth to concentrate. Since the place I am at is not my house, I didn't want to introduce fleas to the dog, and the flies are just annoying, laying eggs and everything.

So tomorrow means digging a hole and burying/cairning him for a few months for a nice skull. I will try to keep the feet if I can. :D

Edit: More on this whole messing with dead things later.

I decided to give FurBuy a bit of a try, it's current activity reminds me of Furbid several years ago, when I made my first sale in the fandom. That was exciting! As back then, I am always grateful to the folks who support my attempt at making art my living...Over a year so far, and going strong! I am not including my time as an artist with a wonderful company that hired me on for a while, but as an independent freelance artist.

Anyway, Furbuy! I was a bit confused to pick up the listing procedure, but I think everything is right. Here is the link: http://www.furbuy.com/seller/vantid.html

A few originals, and a couple prints right now. Nothing new, yet.

As always, other originals and prints can be found here: http://vantid.artspots.com/originals and http://vantid.artspots.com/prints

In other news, I've been rearranging my friend's house for her. We picked up a beater of a dresser and put all th art supplies in it, and tomorrow we will finish cleaning up and then roll around on the nice clean carpet. At least, I will roll around. I'm the rolling around kinda gal. It's been a blast arranging the pelts/ skulls, dead birds and incense around the place with books on art, apper, and pencils making me wanna quite cleaning and get to work. And MAN do I have a lot of work to do!

OH and bonus for today: Found a dead possum. Gotta check its stats out, see if it's for skinning or for burying. Either way, it's fit for drawing.

I got a package from my folks today with some neat stuff in it, like loose gemstones for my macaroni arting pleasure (meaning I glue them to pictures). Enclosed was a letter from Mom saying the following:

"I have a a request. Will you draw an avatar for me? I think that if I were an imaginary animal, I would be a cardinal fox gryphon. Can you draw that?"

I pretty much exploded, and I am not sure from which emotion.

2/28/05

I gave him a bubble bath once i got home, then took him out for a long walk in the sunshine and breeze. I fed him every treat i could possibly find, including his lamb lung. I fed him his cans of venison, duck, and rabbit. I gave him as much bottled water as he would drink, then polished it off with a cadbury egg. He really enjoyed the cadbury egg. We then went to bed and i held him while he began to fall asleep. As soon as he relaxed, another seizure hit, but i held him close, ignoring the urine soaking into my bed. It's ok, I'm leaving next Saturday and that bed nor any of the bedding is going with me.

24 total seizures before he finally went. The vet made it easier, she really supported my decision, didn't rush it. She gave him a chew to eat while she sedated him. He went to sleep with something in his mouth. Do you know how typical that was of him? He would have a toy in his mouth, bonk it against my feet, and if i ignored him, he would lay his head down and fall asleep with the toy still in his jaws. So cute.

I told him, before he went down, that I would see him later."


Has it only been three years?

It seems like the things I love the most are always taken away from me, usually by my own carelessness and never ending faults. When life was terrible, my constant was with me. My dearest friend, my Wibble Face.

Right now I'm watching a dog with many of your most wonderful attributes stare at his own reflection, with The rope....get the rope, Sammy! dangling from his mouth, and I remember your face with That's right boy! The rope! Give it here. Grrr! Grrrr! dangling from his muzzle. That same look of "Here! Take it and throw it! No, let's tug'" and this dog doesn't understand the tears on my face.

I still sit up in a panic when I hear a dog thrashing. When I see them running in their sleep, I get that same, Oh God no, not another one Please not another one.

Its not a another one. Samson, you are dead. If I am lucky, I will never have to sit, helpless and afraid, while someone I love thrashes and screams, with vacant eyes and contorted face.

This year, I eat a Cadbury egg in your memory. I gave you chocolate and rabbit and anything you wanted to eat today, three years ago. I couldn't see you, I was blind with grief and lack of sleep. But I could feel you. And I held you tight, until I felt your heart slow and stop, until your ears grew cold. You had just turned 5 years old.

You got the rope! Good boy!

Why do people ask if it's ok to watch artists?

Sorry for the confusion in my last post! I wasn't thinking about Eurofurence. XD

The con is over for most everyone now, I think. I left Sunday evening and arrived home to a driveway covered in ice and snow at 5 am. Yay! Really, it is amusing to me. I like to keep cheerful that way.

My cheerfulness just miiiiiight be caused by the con itself. This was my most successful con. I can now afford to purchase my first vehicle.

I didn't do anything fun, though which is sad, but it made for less take home work. I stayed up till 5 or 6 am each night enjoying good company while working on art. This years commissioned work came out nicer than any other, I think.

If you got work from me, I would love a scan of it!

Saturday I had a martini with Seigewolf right before the art show closed and after that I had a beer with Kayotae (the porter from the local Tied House....very nice). Thank you both.

Thank you to every who came by my table to talk! I'm so so so happy to have had the chats I did have with folks and people who took my business cards (my first ever!) and bought work from me.

I'd like to thank:

Tugrik. Thank you for generosity and help with emergency prints. You saved my bacon.

Lawdog and Smokepaw: Table minions of GOLD. They did everything we asked of them without compliant and helped us when we didn't know we needed it. Thank you guys.

Today has been a recouperating day for me. Tomorrow works starts again.

Yanno what? I'm happy.

I am going to be at FC! I will be at table 66 with Thornwolf and I will have art in the art show. Do come by and visit me!

Some of you may have noticed me mention the ArtSpots print service before, but I don't know if I've actually talked about ArtSpots.

I love ArtSpots. Yes, it is quality controlled, which means that artists are screened for quality. The easiest and bluntest way to say it is: You have to be good enough by their standards to get in, which is very similar to most situations in real life when it comes to art.

It has a sister site called JaxPad where anyone can post art.

I love ArtSpots because of the quality control, it's clean art that I can link to from anywhere. You can offer affordable high quality prints, or have special limited run prints made and matted by the prints service. You can also set up originals for sale so you always have a page sitting around with stuff for sale that anyone can browse through. The commissions slots are really useful for organizing your work for yourself or for others to see. Paid accounts have even more perks that are useful for the working artist!

Right now the front page is set to random winter themed images. I think that's really neat.

The forums are a great place to go an learn and play art games. There is a sketchbook forum set up for you to post your sketches and show your progress as an artist or just show folks works in progress and concept art.

Oh, what else. There's more, I just can't think of it. Just go see the site and enjoy the company of folks who are there just to help out.

http://www.artspots.com/

http://www.jaxpad.com/

If you dont like looking at or joining the sites, why not? I have to admit I like more folks over that way cause increased traffic means a possible increase in sales.

:3

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I have a sketch journal on Livejournal.

If you decide to look, or watch, please be aware of what I say on the profile page:

The journal is image heavy, never cut, and rarely explained. It's a place to dump work that isn't shown other places. It also serves to document my own artistic life such as dry spells, ideas, and progression of skill.

Some days I go back through it and think I haven't come very far at all.

http://okulahari.livejournal.com/


Thank you to everyone who has commissioned me lately, you've helped more than you can ever know. I've enjoyed working with you all.

My art woes, they keep on keepin' on.

I accidently deleted all versions of my tanuki piece. All the Riffs, Tiffs, and Jpegs.

I thought I had them in one folder, only I didn't.

Oops.

Luckily i have a Tiff in my email. Thank goodness for gmail, ey?

I've been making some Okami pieces to try and sell and I had just finished the ink wash of one. It is on this lovely soft handmade paper, impossible to sketch and erase on, so freehand inking is really a must. Anyway, it was done, and I went to remove the paper from the book...

And it wrinkled badly in the center. I didn't know it was gonna do that!!!

I'm pressing it to hopefully smooth it out, but I know it won't be the same now. Uncool, man. Uncool.

Lesson learned.

I'm closing commissions for a while after Nov. 1st. I won't be open again until around Christmas, or even after, and my prices may go up.


Please see here for prices and examples: http://vantid.livejournal.com/251170.html

Or see my latest posts her on FA for examples of recent work. :>

Thank you everyone who has been vsiting and leaving comments! Feel free to ask me anything about art, I will do my best to answer.

Be well!

Hey guys,

I have one print available of Sunflight. It's a giant giclee that is just gorgeous. I don't have the dimensions on hand right now, but I am offering it here on FA first. It's 100 dollars since it's a limited edition awesome uber print of power.

I guess it's hard to explain without seeing it in person how nice thise print is, but trust me, it's worth the money. I have one that I am keeping because it is damaged, and I still love it.

I guess the only folks who can vouch for this piece are the folks who saw it at RainFurrest, and Oh, I dunno, Mr. Furryskibum. :>

This is the piece btw: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/712721/

Just, yanno, lemme know. First come first server and so on. I have on one more somewhere, so I have 2 left, but only one for sale.

Don't look on FA in a coffee shop with the whole town's kids out trick or treating among the shops...and while the shop's owner is taking a photo of you. O_O;

The con is OVER. I want to thank everyone who made it wonderful for me.

I have never worked so hard! I stayed up until 7 am after Saturday's close. Sunday is such a blur. X3 As soon as I got back to Wicked Sairah's, I crashed and slept around 17 hours.

I had a wonderful time, and I met many neat people, made some new firends (I hope!), and exercised my artistic stamina.

Everyone was wonderful, and I want to huge thank you to anyone who came by and said hello. I hope to you see again sometime.

It's time to pack up the campsite and head on out to RainFurrest. Stopping at the case de Wicked Sairah to mat stuff (THANK YOU), and I guess hang out for a it before it's tme to head out to Seatac.

I'l have several things in the Artshow, as well as a few originals for sale at my table. Drat that I left one of my original folios in storage! I will also be offering sketchbook commissions of various qualities, badge commissions, and digital badge commissions for delivery after the con, New Coyote books, and a few other thises and thatses. If you go, stop by!

Back to work.

"The internet is for yiff
So grab your fox and double dock
For Yiff! Yiff! Yiff!"

Or "insert your cocks", whichever rhyme scheme you want.

There is so much nicely done porn out there in furryland these days. Color theory,good composition, realistic textures...more and more out of folks who normally I wouldn't associate with drawing porn.

But HEY the more the merrier right? (right!)

Looks like I am making it out to RainFurrest after all! Hopefully I will have a table next to Balaalicious and will have prints from the Artspots folks and originals from...well, me I guess, mostly small stuff, maybe one big piece. What critter should it be? It looks like pumas are the mascot of the event. A cougar in a Washington rainforest with shiney glowy things? Or a wolf? Or...what?

Right after that is Dragon*Con, where I will have some collaboration pieces between myself and Nambroth.

And then, right after that, it's back to Southern California, where I will help with some work with Stone Brewery.

Do YOU drink Arrogant Bastard?

Sooooo there's this Rainfurrest convention coming up, and i was thinking of going. Only problem is I lack the dosh for the table registration. You know how it is.

So, would anyone care for some digital sketch commissions? They will be done in Photoshop, just drawings of your character or pet or whathaveyou, done as fast as I can make them. I only want enough to make registration, which is 60 dollars. So, I can either take two (2) 30 dollar sketches, or one 60 dollar sketch that looks more like a drawing with more details.

Examples: http://www.furaffinity.net/full/283797/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/45510207/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/43490577/

Any beer is colored for freeeeee!

Send me a note or an email or comment here. I will get back with anyone interested tomorrow.