H-holy hell, mum's Thai Green is more like Sol Black in spice rating this evening. Yowza.

I got to do actual work today - by which I mean writing and inserting and editing things in actual books - and it was quite marvellous. I'd missed it. Unfortunately, what I was editing... er, was not grand in quality, and is rather longer than I have time to fix at present. But that is what all the other versions of this product are for.

I still don't know what I'm drawing tomorrow! This is a problem! I know what I want to draw/am meant to be drawing, but I can't really draw it while Vinseth is not... actually... Vinseth in my head. An illustration of my quandary. The one on the left doesn't even look like Arjun Rampal!

Well, neither does the one on the right. But it's closer to the Vinseth in my head. T_T

orz orz orz /wrists

So, yes, I don't, sakjdfjsadj. That's all.

Original || Comment ||

So today I found out that my supervisor is going to work on something else. And I am going to be in charge of the people who start in one and two weeks respectively. ;A; C-can I cry now? So, um, kind of... worried about that. But I'm sure it will all be fine. Or at least, I will continue to tell myself this until I make it so. Ahaha. D:

In other news, my boss was serious about the commission, so I'll start work on that tonight. I'm doing a t-shirt design for a band he's friends with. Their music is actually really nice, so this is quite awesome, and the photos I was given of the band are so FULL OF ENERGY that it's destined to be a really fun design. :D I may be distracted into drawing Ciorrnaich approximately five million times, but that's what happens when you put him in the same headspace as awesome music.

On the subject of which: I love apparently random dances more than anyone reasonably should.

Oh, and I got a free t-shirt today. It is immense and tent-like and this is okay. :D Free pajamas!

Just finishing the third box set of the Granada series, and I have to say, there may actually be nothing better than Watson pistol-whipping folk.

Unless it is Mrs Hudson. Because that woman. She is so much love.



I just want to say: until the mood crash, today was really pretty excellent. Afterward, it all skidded pretty rapidly downhill, but I'm feeling in much better spirits after a bath and a long night on my own, in my own space.

I bought far too many things today. But now that I reflect on my purchases with a little more sanity, I think they will all be worth it.

(Particularly the Holmes soundtrack that will be in the post to me by the end of August.)

[EDIT] And also, just so we're clear on the kind of sdfjah today held: it was fabulous, it really was, I was soaring, I was watching Chira draw commissions, and then she started on Sanga and I lost all coherence, which was fine.

Then I accidentally copy-pasted an explanation of Sanga into the work social channel.

AHAHAHAHA. HAHA. HA. orz

[EDIT] So that everyone can see: Chira drew me Sanga looking MANLY FINE.

Hiru spent the entire time this was being drawn bitching and moaning that it wasn't right, he wasn't right, what the hell did I think I was doing having him commissioned anyway--

Which culminated in this.

I don't know what the hell is so wrong about the first one, but okay, honey. Whatever you say.

So: Just about to start streaming: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/produdfctititty

Today: Felix Harrowgate, of Doctrine of Labyrinths.

[EDIT] I think we can all safely say that my painting method is based entirely on, "Oh, right, I should do that thi-- oh, right, and tha-- but this is more important right no-- but then again--"

So because it was Tuesday, I was a zombie for the first half of the day. XD I just don't deal with them, even when they can be misconstrued as Fridays. One day I'll work out why that is. Got a fair bit done today despite obvious handicap of Tuesdayitis, and came home this evening inspired to draw like a demon because Chira was on Ustream all day. (Seriously, the woman is a MACHINE. ♥)

So I came home and figured out Ustream properly, and my 'show' such as it will be will be here. You just missed about three hours of me drawing the base composition for a massive fuckoff huge wallpaper for my work monitors, since their powers combined make it kind of hard to wallpaper with my normal video game/anime fare.

Tomorrow I'm either visiting the grandparents again (because Oopee can leave hospital soon!) or sitting around drawing, writing, and watching Sherlock Holmes. I could kind of keep going right now, but it's probably not a good idea to set myself up for staying awake working on stuff all night. XD My hands need a rest, if nothing else.

This is not meant to happen when I try to draw Auberon.

Oh, and apparently the Reeve in my head drinks frilly cocktails for the hell of it. (Possibly he let Cait place his order.)

Dear Tina,

Because I love you.

Dear Everyone Else,

Eyeball warning.

Love,
Rave.

P.S. - Yes, Sanga means it when he says he loves your eyes. Yes, this is the other way Sanga could have chosen to express his love for Hiru. And yes, there is a reason that eye is green. ;) We're ignoring the fact that actually it would be a multi-faceted eye so it'd probably actually end up segmented goop all over Sanga's hand.

---

And no, Hiru is not sure whether that is hot or alarming. XD

(And no, I'm probably not finishing this.)

Because apparently I paint when I'm watching Supernatural.

Also, I would give people money to convince Hiru to wear pants at this point. :| WHAT IS UP, PRETTYWINGS.

[EDIT] Okay, so watching the Bloody Mary episode of SPN when I am home alone and sleep in a room with a wall to wall mirror was maybe not the BEST of plans. XD Fail, Rave. Fail.

I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome Israel Folau is. :'D

[EDIT] Not worth devARTing, so here's the spoils of the game: first half yielded Kir and Landre; second half, Rook, Balfour and Adamo... but Kir and Adamo looked like crap! So, here: ( Have the other three. )

(paraphrased)

ME: I understand why I can't draw Dee.
ME: I have been drawing Xolotl too much and they have very similar hairstyles.
KATY: Huh. Xolotl cosplaying Dee would be epic.
ME: ...YES.

This can only end in tears. (Xolotl's.)

Typically, Dee actually looks more like himself when reverse-cosplaying Xolotl. XD Bastard.

[EDIT]

And then, three seconds after it occurred to me that both Tetsu and Auberon had horns, Aundin pounced on fluffy!Tetsu and refused to let go.

.......... *leaves her head to its own devices*

Like the idiot child, idiot parent relationship in Japan, there is also the idiot sibling relationship, which is what I have with Gina and Connor.

Today we did French knitting, and went to the park, and this, guys, is Gina copying what I drew:

( She is like Kate Beaton meets Picasso, at five. )

These are the first two images of Xolotl that ever there were: the one that makes my icon, and the fullbody I sketched to get the idea down, which later morphed to something altogether more froggeraptor.

This is the colour study I just did for him, probably no more than a year later. And admittedly the first two were more concept sketches than anything, but, well, so is this. And I can't shake a feeling of smug satisfaction.

Or the urge to pet Xolotl's inner thighs.

But that is neither here nor there. >_>;

The people in this suburb and their fucking car alarms. *puts head in hands*

Woke up a lot last night. Once, my hands were curled around a dreamed N64 controller. I do remember a Zelda dream in which I was in the castle for its collapse, but sdfjdhjafsd.

[EDIT] Mmmnsfjsdhf, must win this contesttttstastsaetsdf. Will need to recruit folk to click &stars;+ though. |D; Alas.

This game looks AWESOME. I'm totally d/ling a demo. 8D

I thought I'd set my alarm to half eight, but after I'd turned it off and lazed around for an indeterminate length of time it was only twenty-five past, so. Uh. No idea.

I know I have to do things today but I don't really feel like moving, let alone being productive. Also, I'm ... well, not scared of starting work tomorrow, but aware that it's there and determinedly not thinking too hard about it.

In other news, I have... well, five days, actually, to hit 105 on stepstepjump. I am currently at 73. The math here is not good. Which means I should try to draw a fuckload today, but I kind of want to write. Then again, every time I sit down to do so I feel paralysed and have to go do something else, so I suspect it is one of those things that I have to sidle up to, write down a sentence as if it has no connection to anything else, and then come back ten minutes later and write a different one. Because apparently I can't take the pressure of putting these things together any more. What if they do not fit. Etc. The only way to fix this is by drabbling with greater frequency, but my hands aren't really strong enough and I'm sodding useless with prompts at the moment, although Swinburne is slowly helping me with that. I really liked the one I gave to ignite last night.

For the time being, I should decide on clothes, I suppose. And have a shower. Meh.

[EDIT] MEH FEELINGS GONE. YES, I JUST BURST INTO TEARS AT THIS TRAILER. OH MY GOD GUYS IT LOOKS SO AMAZING.

It's probably a sign of true OCD that I just spend forty-five minutes combing through Bear's twitter feed and trying to connect her twitterings to the conversations she was having with other authors. |D; Whoops.

I think when I get my hands back I need to put in some serious time on my touch-typing. I'm typing at a decent speed now until I get lazy, and if I don't think about it too hard I don't have to look at the keyboard, but I'm certainly not at my 80-90 WPM just yet. :< Which is probably just as well, but it's still annoying to have to slows your thoughts to your typing/handwriting speed.

I've pulled the keyboard stay off my desk so I can swap my keyboard and tablet over depending on which I'm using the most - saves me from straining forward to reach Soel, and this way I'll be forced to sit straight. I'll need a foot rest and a slightly higher chair before it's perfect but these things can be arranged.r

Of course, now that I'm comfy with my drawing set-up I can't work out what I want to draw, but oh well.

---

Having decided to work on my DoL header... if you're standing in green light, are your shadows red? Where are Tina and Lauryn when I need them. XD; Seriously, guys, I need a better painting education. (Not that I'm anywhere near painting it, really, but fsahjskd. I'm still tweaking Mildmay's face; this is just post flip-and-discover-all-your-lines-are-tilting-wildly.)

Apparently I like G&T. Who knew.

[EDIT] Fuck horses, I say. Fuck them. Also fuck: centaurs, fauns, horns, torsos, and trying to link the hips of a human to the collarbone of a horse. Fuck it all. D:<

(Ciorrnaich, mummy loves you very much, except when she is trying to draw you, especially at strange angles, and especially dancing, which is a shame as you do a lot of it.)

[EDIT] sjhdfjhdfgjhf TINA WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE READING PETSHOP TONIGHT NOW I AM HERE LISTENING TO MY PETSHOP PLAYLIST AND I CANNOT GO TO SLEEP AND I'M TOO TIRED TO WRITE ANYTHING SJDHD.

All I can do is lie here in mild hysteria over my love for Papa D. T____T <3

One day I will remember which days of the week my webcomics update on, and at what times, so that I do not just spend half the day visiting them in futile hope.

Watched the first series of Black Books this afternoon while I sketched - basically just lining Sketch 20.2 from stepstepjump. I felt like writing - feel like writing - feel like working things out and getting things down, but every time I go to pick up pencil and paper I just feel vaguely sick and panicky, and also my hands hurt.

This means I have not been writing for Too Long. Writing really is like exercising; if you let it go too long, you just feel daunted and unfit and flobbly and you feel like there's no point even starting. Even though there is.

With this in mind, tomorrow I'm going to walk to New Farm Park, read Breakfast at Tiffany's, and then walk back, purely to time how long it takes for tomorrow night. I'm assuming if I leave the house at six I'll arrive with time to spare, but it is very hot and I don't want to arrive sweaty and disgusting, so I may let that slide.

In other news, I love Xolotl and drawing Xolotl. He is Entirely Too Much Fun. I think he needs a plot outside getting pregnant to a centaur, because I have a feeling there is a lot more to this world, later, that is totally unrelated to, well, everything. So there might be like. Five books. That are a series only in the way that Nightrunner is a series. Only even less than that because sometimes the same characters won't be involved. (Yes, guys, there might be books without Hiru. I KNOW YOU ARE AS SHOCKED AS I AM.)

Can you tell my head is all every which way? Good.

I am hungry, and I have to wait until mum gets home from her date because she said she would bring me Chinese.

...I love drawing Xolotl. :3 I wish I could colour him properly like I did in this icon. I know I have watercolours somewhere but I remember the last time I watercoloured and, um, there's no need for a repeat of that, really. >>

[EDIT] Look at this. :D

Now imagine from the back of your head, simultaneously:
SKEFF: Huh. Well, I never thought gears could look that pretty, but it's worthless as a charm.
TOL: *disgust* What would you do that for...? They're not doing anything...

There's no satisfying them. Incidentally, here is the rest of that drawing I started three days ago.

There is little more to say about this show other than:
1) I appreciate its use of metaphor, even as I laugh at its utter lack of subtlety re. the social justice regime, and
2) I will never be able to think any variation of the phrase "destinies entwined" without thinking of gay sex ever again.

Another historically inaccurate and bizarrely compelling teenage drama from the BBC. XD

(No, really. You don't get much gayer than moaning someone's name, hastily followed by faster, in your sleep, in episode four.)

[EDIT] I forgot about the finger thing. XD

[EDIT] I sketched this (NOT WORKSAFE) while watching the show. The entire picture is crap but I am SO FUCKING PROUD of Thom's hand and arm. (That is meant to be Thom and Rook, by the way; I know you won't have been able to tell from the actual picture. XD) Seriously. Hand! Wrist! What happened there, brain! You were working really nicely for a minute! Hurrah, the BBC!