i has drawtiemz



Friend portraits. From topleft clockwise: the_z, tim_almasy, nockergeek, evildennis <-- who is evil.

First, GYROMANCER!!! A puzzle game/RPG, two of my favorite game formats together. Wheee~

I was working through vaccination ache in my arm yesterday. It had me pretty exhausted. Flu vaccines always hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel much better today, though. I managed to get some commission art done, but nothing fancy for sketch-a-day. I'll be sure to post something later.

Last night we finished HBO's "John Adams". It was fantastic. Why couldn't my history lessons been this engaging in school? I think I would have scored higher grades for sure rather than daydreaming.

Andi and Yaya made the cutest tree ornaments out of cardboard egg carton shells yesterday! Andi's very proud of them and I offered them to mom since we have a surplus of ornaments for our little tree already x_x We'll be living together soon, so they'll find their way back soon enough.

Tonight is anime night. I'm looking forward to hanging out with da gaiz.

Last night I had another post-apocalyptic dream during which I was in charge (again) of a group of people trying to survive whatever threat befell them. This time, we had to hide a combo tv/radio receiver that was tuned to a frequency the robot overlords wouldn't be able to detect.( Read more... )

So, we started our holiday shopping for this Christmas last year and we've resumed shopping at a good clip. I'm feeling very accomplished. Over the weekend, we got 2 more recipients out of the way and I finished another this morning. I'm stupidly excited about Black Friday, though I see many stores putting on good sales in hopes of spreading out the holiday spending a bit. Not a bad idea for anyone, really, but I hope it doesn't cut into the really good deals. (or the gimmes like the free mp3 player at Old Navy last year) If the weather isn't complete crap, I plan on being out there at 3-4am again! Bargain hunting is a full contact sport!

Also, thinking ahead for the holidays, I've started my baking. This will save me a lot of hassle through December (cookies freeze very well!). Now, if I can just stop taste testing these things...

Today:
walked the dog
vacuumed the carpet
washed dishes
baked pigs in blankets
baked 4 dozen pb cookies
baked 1 loaf of bread (bread machine did all the work)
got one more gift

I'm feeling pretty damn accomplished today.
( cut for personal reference )

Still need to get my Yuletart on paper. I'm waiting for some customers to contact me back. I hate to be caught in the middle of one project with a rush on another x_x

Boring stuff last night. Uninspired. Tired. Pig, kitty, bitch.
The Z

As a child, I collected unicorns.

Now I just sit back and appreciate them from afar.

As a child, the primate house was one of my favorite features in the zoo.

I still like monkey butts.

Spent time with adults last night at evildennis's house. We had an impromptu potluck dinner with the donation of a huge pot of spaghetti and meatballs and xvolph bringing over Dunkies. Dennis pitched in with peas and garlic bread. I forgot to sample his brownies! D'oh!

There was an interesting little incident with an alarm going off next door. The next door neighbors weren't around, but they did have an ADT home security plaque in the front of their house, so even if an alarm was to go off, ADT should have been alerted. No one showed up for about half an hour until finally Dennis called the police. They arrived just after the neighbor got home. Poor lady already had a rough day. Now she had to live with the reassurance that her alarm just went off and her security monitors didn't even notice it. Oh joy! Way to make it worth her money. I hope she gets things straightened out there. They expect it was a short, but still... you pay for security and you just get more paranoia.

Andi was a doll last night. She loves Dennis' house and enjoys performing for people. She got a little pestery near the end there and cornered xvolph with toddler question chain. All in all, though, I think she had a great time. She certainly fell asleep quickly enough. She really enjoys spending time with the big kids.

And so does daddy too, I suspect. He got to trog out with tim_almasy in the basement and assemble their little plastic toys. Upstairs, everyone was shopping for new Rock Band songs. In typical Z fashion, I crashed out early, content to let others have fun.

We have 3 friends accounted for in shopping! I have an idea for Shawna and Dennis that I just need to put in to effect. Everyone else needs to post ideas or you're getting a fat lump of giftcertificate! Dreidel Best Buy cards for everyone >:o

There are some songs that just worm in to your brain and you can't shake them out. This is one of them! Backyardigans isn't such another preschool show. It has some really good production value with mo' capture and great songs. I couldn't find a good video pertaining to this song, unfortunately :/

Posted by request here are a few Christmas ideas for me:

• video camcorder -- nothing top of the line. I just want to record tiny movies.


• external harddrive or thumbdrive -- need some portable memories


• cool socks -- I'm tired of plain white socks. I don't need toe socks, but I would like socks with neat patterns, animals, words on them. No specific colors.


• Tentacles -- squid, octopuses, nautilus, cuttlefish... art or jewelry pertaining to those is awesome


• fanart -- Art (especially framed) of my favorite characters is always appreciated. This year, Death the Kid from Soul Eater, Butz (Dissidia version), Vossler are near the top of my list. Others include Zidane (FF9), Yoh (Shaman King), Lei Lei/Hsien-Ko (Vampire Hunter/Darkstalkers), Ohno (Genshiken), Zangetsu, Akon, and Orihime (Bleach), Gilgamesh (FFmumblemumble), Treble (FFT-OC), corgis, Ranma, Breath of Fire, Yuri (Tales of Vesperia), pink haired anime girls (epecialy with ram horns!)


• Canson sketch cards


• Music CDs -- Dresden Dolls, later Ben Folds stuff, Boston, Simon and Garfunkel


• Gift Certificats to Hobby Lobby or DickBlick.com


• Pot holder, oven mits, kitchen towels, hot pads (especially those silicon ones!)


• Grill press -- the sort you put on top of meat in a pan


• New silverware/utensil organizer (I'm so boring)


• rugs


• New house

If I think of more, I may add to this list.

Edit: Things for Andromeda if you're looking...

She wears size 3T-4T clothing, 2T-3T pants, size 9 toddler shoes. She favors purple, brown, pink, blue, and yellow

Her favorite characters right now are: Yo Gabba Gabba (Muno, Brobee, DJ Lance), Mickey Mouse, Blue's Clues, Olivia, Max and Ruby, Lightning McQueen and Mater (PIXAR Cars)

Storybooks are always good, especially with animals.

She's beginning to like simple games like memory, Candyland, Connect Four.

Preschool computer learning CDs are good for her. She's already capable of navigating with a mouse and she can recognize some simple words.

To get anything personalized her name is Andromeda or Andi.

Please no more plush animals and she doesn't like baby dolls.

She does love sports toys, cars, simple puzzles, pull toys, art/craft related, little people/animals, and chocobos.

Two year old.

I'm sometimes surprised at the things I find myself saying and can get away with now that I have a toddler. Things like, "No, honey. I just want your panties, but thanks for helping."

In any other context, I just don't think that would work.

Genshiken is a great series. Anyone who has been a manga/anime fan for a while should check it out. You may find something in common with one (or if the geek is strong in you) all of the characters. What tickles me about the series particularly is that I can pretty much draw a correlation between each main character to one of my friends. That makes this a series particularly close to my heart. Also, Ohno has huge titties and is a cosplay nut. Oguie is a grumpy little artist/closet yaoi fan. *sigh* It's almost embarrassing.

Here's some Sasahara/Madarame love for you.



It's an actual featured pairing!
uh---sorta.

Just a page of random. Little bit of study, some character development, OCs...



Top left character is a yet unamed samurai OC of tim_almasy. Heehee, hawaaian shirt ♥ Clockwise from that: Tolly, Virgo, chibis of Virgo, Bass, and Treble. Virgo is taking the giant pair to go feed the homeless. She is fond of giving away their food to the needy.

Weekend's coming up fast. Whoosh!

This is the final illustration in the "Sinful Woman" series that I finished yesterday.

It was her faith that saved her.
And he said unto her, "Your sins are forgiven." Luke 7:48

I have two commissions behind this, but otherwise, back to your regularly-scheduled Sketch-a-day! Thanks for all the comments on these paintings. It was a stressful deadline and I'm frustrated I had to rush the pictures, but I'm glad they were so well-received.

I want to do more with this, but it was so late last night when I began that my brain just went phbbbbtscribble. This arose from chat on FFMUX about, well plainly, genderswapping our characters and how it might impact them behaviorally and socially. Ashe would be the most impacted, no doubt. Reks, not pictured here, the least. Basch and Vossler would remain the same, essentially, with a few social elements tweaked. Overall, it would be a fine formula for a harem comedy.



I kept Ashe in the skirt for lulz, though I think if I re-drew this, I'd give her shorts like the boys have. Vossler would have a battleskirt instead and I'd give Basch very short shorts. The potholder has to stay, though. Basch was easy to redesign because he has that fabulous undershirt. A frontal shot would show she!Basch has bigger boobs than She!Voss.

Anyway, I got something on paper. I'll play with it more later because I definitely want to include Reks. Reks' little sister Vaan can be the hyper schoolgirl with a bully Penelo at her side :3

I took a break from art yesterday as chores were piling up and family was missing me. Indulged myself in MUX through the afternoon. Man, I needed the mental break! Finished this one today:



The men at dinner react to Jesus' story about the debt collector.

Jesus: Who do you think he loved more?

Simon: The one most indebted to him, I suppose.

Jesus: You assume correctly...

A scene of Gilgamesh and Butz re-uniting for the first time in the Converged world. Both are characters from Final Fantasy V (though Gilgamesh spans several games). This is non-edited, taken directly from MUX rp. Happy reading.

( Gilgamesh... you've shrunk! )

...poor Junon will never be the same.

This illustrates the other side of the debt collector with the two indentured men. For narrative purposes, I wanted to show his face. I was going to have him tearing up their records of debt, but I thought that might seem too hokey and literal. I was going to have the men celebrating, but thought that was better suited to children's books. In the end, it might be a little too subtle and static, but that may be helped with the voice over narration.

Missed posting my progress on my painting yesterday due to being busy. I'm still working on the painting, though. I'll post when I'm done.

I was even too exhausted last night to do any sketches to post in its stead x_x I hit 9 o'clock and just teetered over ded.

More soon.

Two men in debt plead their case before the collector.

Andromeda still isn't much happier with this arrangement of me working in the morning. She is currently climbing on me.

My deadline was extended a bit. Phew! Anyway, here's the second picture. Not as tight as the first, but I still need to work quickly to allow time for revisions.



Alabaster vial with the oil to anoint his feet and such.

I really like this biblical story because it isn't a resplendent, holy light, angelic choir sort of story. This woman is wretched and unloved and she absolutely humiliates herself in front of a crowd just to demonstrate her love for Jesus. This is not a pretty picture. I wanted it to be raw and ugly and emotional.

Also, one amusing little part of this picture was trying to make it look anything but erotic. Every time I drew her kissing his feet, it just didn't look right to me. I wanted more anguish and desperation :/

For this sketchvember entry, enjoy the first in the series of illustrations for church based on the story of Jesus and the Sinful Woman:

A Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to a meal. In those days it was considered an achievement to entertain an itinerant teacher with a meal after the Sabbath. It seems that Simon saw Jesus as such an itinerant teacher. In response to Simon's request Jesus became his guest and arrived at his place for the meal. Then, abruptly, a woman known to the town as a sinful lady had entered in while crying at the same time. Then, she approached Jesus from behind to the place of his feet and she wet his feet with her tears, then she wiped them with her hair, and then she kissed his feet and began to anoint them with oil.

-- From http://www.j-e-s-u-s.org/english/2003/e030202.htm

I went through three different sketches for this before I settled on this one. My deadline is at the end of the week for 5-10 illustrations. That's a tough production schedule, but I'm going to do my best. Bo's on vacation this week and he's a little upset that I'll be working through it, but I don't get many opportunities to do art for church messages this way and it's my favorite way of serving the church.

I also got a surprise commission from Naka-kon this morning. I'm really excited about it. November's going to be a busy art month for me after all!