Those are supposed to be stripes on his wings, not some sort of bizarre highlighting system. Haha.

I do love zombie dragons :-)
Right Click ---- View Image to see Full Size


I'm still at Ikasucon this weekend. This will be the first show in several years that we're going to leave in the red. We didn't even break even, let alone cover our hotel expenses. I feel a little bit upset, as the convention staff we talked to promised an attendance that was larger (though still quite small at 1300-1500) then what really happened (700ish? They're rather elusive when you ask how many people actually came.) the problem with this attendance is that between three nights of hotel expenses, our table and badge expenses, gas, and food, not to mention restocking what was sold (when we sell something, only a small amount of it is actually profit. We have to restock the item for the next show, so if we sell a $17 pillow, we really only "made" $6, as the pillow itself cost us $11 to make.) we are going to end up a couple hundred in the hole.

I'm glad I don't do conventions for a living, but still, it's pretty discouraging. Staff really needs to be more honest with artists and dealers about what attendance they've had in the past and expect for the future. Many of us make our convention choices based on attendance... because it usually directly correlates with what we will do in sales. We EXPECTED this to be a break-even or make-next-to-nothing after expenses based on the low attendance figures of 1300-1500, but wanted to come anyway because working artists alleys at conventions is fun! When you end up in the red due to misinformation... it's problematic.

Oh well. Live and learn I suppose!

On the positive side, the environment, our artist alley neighbors, the staff, and the people I have met have all been very nice. I did have fun this weekend.

Leopard dragon, haha. He/She was sorta long the same lines as tiger dragon, so I decided to keep the big cat markings



In less fun news, both of my computers are down. The laptop has been sent off to some third party repair place, and the desktop cannot load windows. I talked to Gateway about the desktop, and they told me that the errors I was encountering meant I needed to use their utility to burn repair discs that would wipe the system and make the computer as it was when i got it from them. I did so, and it didn't work. To boot, it didn't work AND now windows doesn't have all its files, and the discs I burned can only be launched FROM the gateway utility inside windows.

All in all, its a ridiculously stupid utility. Every computer should come with boot discs or at least the vista discs and driver discs so you can wipe it yourself.

I had to pay $25 for my boot discs to be sent via snail mail. They will arrive in 3-8 business days, but I don't think they're going to get here before Ikasucon this weekend. Fortunately Alex bailed me out again, and I finished this dragon on and am now typing from his spare 5 year old laptop. All my illustrations are due very very soon, and I can't have downtime right now.

Anyway, I may be online less frequently and there will be no streams for a time. My apologies. When my laptop gets back from the shop OR I receive my boot discs, I should be able to resume as per usual.

All of my website work and World of Warcraft my addiction are on my desktop, so in a way having it down has actually been very good for making me productive. Those that watch my streams know that I'm a nocturnal creature, and in the wee hours of the morning there's not much to do at this point BUT listen to audio books and draw! I finished the 10th and am halfway through the most current Dresden Files audio books. I forgot how entertaining they are. Harry is just about the best.

Some sketch stuff that will probably go nowhere, haha. It was fun to take a quick break from the massive amount of dragons I have to draw. These are pretty rough and have lots of anatomy issues. D=

I finally finished the darned background on the mermaid dragon image :-) It still leaves something to be desired, but I'm calling this one done.


A random dragon spot illustration I inked and colored up last night. The original sketch for this was about a year old, so the legs and feet are a little bit simplistic (something I've been trying to correct this last year). Eb says it looks like a toucan! :-) I agree, haha.

And we go from rainbow dragon to pastel dragon!


LJ Icon Version:

I will begin streaming in a half hour or so here. Working on monster kisses background + lighting.



----------------------------------------------------

I'm offering 1/2 - 1/3 price dragon commissions.

( A new piece of art + HUGE explanation on what these commissions are and what they entail inside. )

Commission Slots

Dragon Head Shot: $15 (Full! Thank you!)
1. Miranda: Complete!
Clean drawing. Approved.
Final Artwork. Approved.
2. Toxicneon: Complete!
Clean drawing. Approved.
Final Artwork. Approved.

Dragon Full Body: $30 (Full! Thank you!)
1. Zenedai: Complete!
Rough drawing. Pose approved.
Clean drawing. Drawing approved.
Finished Artwork. Approved.
2. Lady of Dragons: Complete!
Clean drawing. Redo in progress.
Redo of drawing + Inking. Approved.
Finished Artwork.

Dragon Expressions 8-10: $60 (Full! Thank you!)
1. Anya: Payment received, thank you! Sketching.
Description/Design Talkies.
Even More Description/Design Talkies.
Further Description/Design Talkies.
Expressionless Dragon Head + Color Test.

THIS IS SO CUTE. If you've got the bandwidth, do yourself a favor and watch it in HD.


Apparently this is footage from E3 last year that was just recently leaked, but was never really intended to be viewed. The child in particular seems unfinished, missing final textures. But wow, the creature is like whoa!

I really enjoyed Ico and Shadow of the Collosus. Based on this video alone, I'm taking a guess that this game will be a mix of the two, which is just fine by me. I hope it is maybe a game that has solving puzzles with a stupid partner (ico) and navigating huge landscapes with lots of creature climbing and holding on like Shadow. :-) ...though I bet the creature will die on the end. It's covered in arrows. I wonder if the point of the game is to guide the creature along as you runaway with it so it's not killed by the adults? Who knows?

The creature is so cute. I want one. A giant fluffy monster to ride around was my favorite childhood daydream, haha. I'm hoping they're going to have some fresher footage of this available this coming E3. =D

I also finished the demon lady a couple days ago. I was trying a different style of face but I think it just ended up looking fugly. The cheekbone is too low but I really don't feel like saving this piece, haha. Ah well. Live and learn :-)



The PC cam software search really hasn't gone anywhere. I tried installing Manycam and it gave me a trojan that took the better part of three hours to fully remove.

Daylight savings got me, so I'll be streaming at 2:15PM EST today instead of 1.

Ustream is a site that allows me to stream my desktop to you so you can watch me "live" (there's a 15 second delay from the time I actually make movements, haha) and ask Photoshop questions. You can tell if I'm streaming if the little graphic above says "Online". I'm pretty good about swapping it in and out. If it says "Offline" chances are good that I'm offline. Go figure.

Here's the final image from the last few ustreams.


I will be doing another ustream at 1:00PM EST today. Stop on by if you'd like to watch me draw!

Some of you may have been there on ustream to witness that trainwreck that was this image's creation process... Next time I'll try better to plan ahead D=

This is still pretty WIP. The sketch near the top is theoretically a bunch of fire... Akiri originally wanted the Firelord to be very "phoenix" with lots of feathers, but I sorta wimped out on the original in an attempt to keep it very dragon... as the idea was a fire dragon god. Well, now it has more of a beak and some bird-taloned front limbs. I hope to keep his fun little fire aura, but we'll see how it works out. Original Firelord here:

( Art back here. )