Saturday, December 08, 2007

Say Hi to Jess

I've been meaning to post this for a long time but I had spent too much time downloading stuff via bittorrent. That's my little doggie being all cute like she always does. To think that only today she was having a nutty half hour over a glass of water!



Doesn't she look adorable though?

I'm thinking about...taking a break from fanart so I can concentrate on drawings like this, because I get much more kick out of drawing things from life than copying the same cartoon picture over 100 times. Having said that though I've to make more Duckula images to replace some of those on my fansite that are rusting a bit, and I have concept art for a rather mental SpongeBob SquarePants/Crystal Maze parody to finish.

And to be honest, I don't give a shit if I don't get so many comments on my original art on DeviantART. It's a good thing actually, most of what flows into my inbox is quite retarded, especially on my old Mario fanart.

Cheerio.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Holy Rhino Daily Dev!

Remember the painting of the Rhino priest I showed you earlier? Well, the other day this very pic earned me a Daily Deviation at DeviantART, meaning that along with a number of others, it was featured by a gallery director [in this case, by one of the two directors for the Anthro gallery] for a whole day. Man was I ever thrilled by it, it shot my spirits so high I could barely type into my Livejournal because I was shaking! I got a shedload of favourites flooding my inbox as a result, and well, I don't know what else to say about it.

I always wanted a Daily Dev someday or another, and every day I looked and looked to see if I got one. And it's a good thing I got one on one of my anthro pieces, because it shows that those are just as appreciated by many people as my fanart. Maybe I should do more stuff to do with anthros and animals more often!

Anyway, for good measure I shall post some oekaki work I did a few weeks back.



Wednesday, October 03, 2007

My hips don't lie...

This pretty much sums up how I've been feeling recently. For about two weeks now I've been having this dull ache in my right hip and it worsens whenever I move around. I've tried having hot baths and using freeze gel, and I've tried to rest, but nothing seems to work so far, so I guess I'll have to suffer it for the time being. I could really use a hot water bottle right now. [Art was done in a friend's oekaki].

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Blackpool 2007

Last week I travelled to the north west of England to have a short holiday in Blackpool, one of the most popular seaside resorts in the United Kingdom, well known for its long line of dazzling illuminations and being home to one of the country's tallest towers.

We left home in the morning on Monday, and were on the road for over six hours driving nearly 300 miles, including the time when we had a flat tyre and stopping twice to have a few snacks and going to the toilet etc. By evening, we finally arrived in our caravan park which was about six more miles from the actual town. After we unpacked and set ourselves up for the next few nights, we had a look around in the town, had a meal in a chippy [which I hate because chips and egg are the only 'vegetarian' things to eat, nothing healthy at all], and mucked around in arcades and the Central pier, where I could see the sun setting into the sea... I can't tell you how beautiful that was.

As it got darker, the lights were coming on, so we then drove up to see them again. Since we were constantly on the move, I had to take some video clips with my camera. The whole line of illuminations was a never-ending five miles long, and had various themes such as sirens, small characters and even Doctor Who, not to mention a giant disco ball and some road side displays. It was pretty cool to see those first hand, I must say! By the time we went back to Fleetwood, it was night time, so we stopped at an ASDA store for a few bits and went back to the caravan.

The next day, after a lengthy wait at a garage while some new tyres were being fitted into our car, we went to Blackpool Zoo, were we got to see several animals such as orang-utans, giant tortoises, capybaras [they're like giant guinea pigs], tigers, lizards, monkeys and parrots, the latter of which were being displayed at a special time which we sat through at one point. There was also another part called Amazonia which was like a walk through dome where all these squirrel monkeys were roaming free and jumping everywhere. It was a good thing I brought two SD cards, because I almost thought that I had no room left on the first one I used!

Despite almost being harassed by some kind of black and white goose for my lunch, we had a great day out there.

Wednesday was even more epic - we went most of it in the Pleasure Beach, where me and my mum went on most of the white knuckle rides except for Bling, including the all mighty Big One. Now, I have to admit, I was nervous when I went on this one, but it was such an awesome ride down a 230ft height! Other great rides included InFusion, Space Invaders and Valhalla, which was one of the best water rides I've been on, and I don't even like water ones!

After all that, my dad dragged me into a steak house which I didn't want to eat at, but fortunately they had a vegeburger that wasn't that bad. This was followed by yet another drive up and down the illuminations area much later at night when the sky was pitch black and you could see them a lot better.

The next day started with a good visit to the Blackpool Tower, a rather posh looking place which started with an aquarium, and had a massive ballroom that reminded me of Moulin Rouge. It was just so beautiful in there, what with all the red and gold designs and a guy playing on a wurlitzer organ.

But the bit that really made the day was when me and my mum went up the lift and into the top of the tower - while my mum was shitting herself scared, I was amazed by how I could see the whole of Blackpool from up there! Sadly the weather wasn't that great that day, and my camera's battery kept going flat whenever I wanted to take a good shot, but that's not to say I didn't take any pictures from that high up at all.

We then went around the shopping centre getting some bits for ourselves and for our family. I bought myself a plush of Plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants from a shop called Who, which to my astonishment had a life-sized Rayman statue on the upstairs floor. It wasn't for sale, but I really didn't think I'd ever see one, certainly not in Blackpool anyway. I also got the second season of SpongeBob on DVD, and a DVD of the entire Sonic SatAM cartoon from their HMV. I'm surprised I still have some money left after all the other crap and spent it on!

We left Blackpool the next morning, and drove for yet another six hours, coming back home in the late afternoon. I thought it was a great holiday, we got to do all those things in such a short time, and it was a whole new experience for us all. I can't imagine what this blog would say if we had gone to Great Yarmouth instead this year.

We're in talks of going to Spain next year, where my sister is currently at.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Some more sighing

Guess what, I'm in a bit of a rut again. Since I got my old tablet working again, I've been wondering, do I really need to get a Wacom yet? Don't get me wrong, the old one is a dodgy old thing, but it still works and serves me well. I can remember when I first got it I couldn't draw on it at all! Trust me, you don't wanna see the first pictures I did in them. Ever.

I did a bit more tidying up in my other wardrobe recently and found more sketchbook type paper. There's the thing about me, whenever I'm out shopping, I always buy stuff like sketchbooks, pads and pencils even though I don't really need them, which is why I have so much stuff that could last me well into the next decade or two.

There was quite a few things I needed more than all that stuff, such as a new pair of non-in-ear headphones [I wanted to avoid using the shitty iPod in-ear ones whenever I could because my ears are infected again and they make it worse. That reminds me, I've got to get some new medicine for that], a new microphone and some new ink cartridges.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Artsies!

I've been on such a creative flow since I got the old tab working again, I thought I might have took some time to do some art in it. It gets just a little dodgy at times, but hopefully it'll last me for long enough, considering that it's a 4 year old Aiptek Hyperpen 6000.
Hello back to you Berk.

It's supposed to be Simba of Lion King fame, but gone quite horrible wrong ;D

Fishie! Man, either GIMP's brushes suck or I suck as CGing.

The latter I spent the most time on, since I was trying out the ink tool, which, with the right tweaking, proved to be more effective than using the brush. Thing is though, it's really difficult, and there are times where you have to flip and rotate the picture just to ink with the tab more comfortably. But as they say, practice makes perfect!

Monday, August 06, 2007

Good news everyone

Today I was cleaning out my wardrobe, when I found my old tablet, and I thought, maybe if I tried to install it again it might start working again. So I went looking for the software discs, but for some reason, every time I put both discs in, the computer kept crashing, and I tried to use CD recovery programs to get the setup out. I got very impatient after about 3/4 hours, so I went to see if there was somewhere on the net where I could find a set up, and much to my luck, I did. And even better after a little tweaking and changing of batteries, it works! Even in GIMP, where it previously used to bugger up on the old computer!

So there, I'm happy, but I'm still saving up to get a wacom, for when this old tablet dies again. Damn, I'm on a creative flow now, and it's close to my bedtime.

Monday, July 09, 2007

And again

I had yet another bit of palava in the last weekend. On Friday, I was just doing my usual business with my PC, when all of a sudden the screen went black, yet the machine was still on. I thought the CRT monitor had blown again, as it was only going into standby mode. Luckily my dad's mate came over later that evening, and he had a look before telling me that the graphics card had blown.

The next day, my dad took it over to his mate's house for a further look, and sadly, the PC was rendered unusable, so I had to go without it for most of the weekend. Not only that, the folks were away for the weekend too, so I had my sister come to "look after me". She ordered us all some pizza and I just spent the evening up in my room playing Paper Mario on the Gamecube.

Yesterday evening though, I was given this new PC that I'm using right now. It's not as good in terms of physical specs as my old one [lack of SD port, half the hard disk space I had], but overall it's a better PC than I thought it'd be. It's also a good thing I have my external hard drive where I keep most of my files, so all isn't lost... It also came with a flatscreen monitor which has a whole lot of USB ports in.

So what am I doing now? Well, I've got to see if we can get a new line of ink cartridges for my printer which seems to have buggered for some reason.

Oh, and have you heard the new songs by Nightwish yet? Now, although my favourite album by the band is most definitely Oceanborn, I'm really excited for this upcoming album, which is one of many things I'm looking forward to in September. I like the new singer's voice [seriously, I would had absolutely fumed if they had chosen Lady Angelica as once rumoured], and the music is sounding as great as ever, so what's to complain about it?

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Finally did something original...

And by that, I mean not a copyrighted character.

There's loads here that I need to work on in future, but I'm proud of the fact that I can pull such an artwork off. This comes from a number of drawings I've done of anthropomorphic animals which were derived from a book about animals I love to look at everytime I go round my nan's. It's just that the way the animals have been depicted that make me imagine something human about them, like this creature called an olm - makes me think of a jazz musician for some reason - and some bird called an umbrella bird that makes me think of Elvis. If anything though, I just HAVE to make a picture of a cock-of-the-rock, which is basically a bird that looks like it has an orange segment on its head, not to mention how funny its name is.

Wish the weather here would better itself...

Friday, June 15, 2007

Life I guess...

I can't say that I've had anything truly exciting happen to me in the past couple of months. So I think I'll make a low down:

The job. I work as a retail assistant at a charity shop, the PDSA [People's Dispensary for Sick Animals], where I spend about two hours either changing over clothes - that means taking them off the rails, replacing their tags with a new date on them, and taking them back again - sorting through donation bags having to throw anything that's in poor condition, and steaming, which is like ironing but it's like a hoover with an iron at the end.

The only catch is that I don't get paid for it, as for all voluntary jobs. Luckily it's only down the road and a ten minute walk away, so I don't need to take the bus there and back. The people I work with treat me fairly, we can all get free snacks and drinks, we can even buy stuff we find in the sort before they get put out on sale, so what's to complain about? Well, I can't seem to feel the difference for me yet. Of course I'm getting more exercise by walking, and when I want to I can take a walk in the park, but all in all I still end up sitting here on this PC for hours on end, so I don't know if two hours is enough for me or not. But I guess any time I spend there is experience, which is what I'm aiming for.

Next thing is art. So yeah, I've had another commission and I made a new piece of fanart of The Trap Door that I submitted to DeviantART today, but other than that I don't seem to draw much other than silly little doodles. The other day I tried to do some oil painting, but all I seemed to do was just smudge paint all over the piece of canvas and getting everything dirty at the same time, hands included. Perhaps I need to study more, like the local park for example. I love it there, from the bridge and brook to the view at the top of the hill. Running down it with the dog like I did some time ago was thrilling, oh why can't I be bothered to do that on a regular basis? One day, I need to take my art supplies to the park and actually get recordings of it. Feck only knows how that would help me in terms of both my artistry and my health.

Lastly, last month I finally got to stay for a night round my sister's flat in Westcliff. Though I felt withdrawn from not having internet, it was brilliant to get away from the humdrum that goes on back at home. So that night, we spent it watching telly mostly, from stuff that's on Virgin TV On Demand or my DVDs that I brought over. The next day my sister took me to the shopping centre in Southend, where I bought a couple of Tria Markers for real cheap in an art store that's just as heavenly as Hobbycraft, and that's before something funny happened. On our way home to her flat, we stopped at a bagel shop where this nutty woman looked at me and said "Have you seen Happy Feet?" She also kept saying to the shop owners things like "What part of Israel have you been too?" and "Do you have desserts here?"...oh gawd, we just wanted to finish our bagels and get the hell out of there. It was a fun day nonetheless, and it's time like that I feel I'm at my happiest.

Before I go to bed, I must tell another funny yet embarrassing story. I was at work on Tuesday where I was tagging clothes, when one of them fell down. Clothes that fall down piss me off, so I bent down to pick it up, and my favourite jeans had ripped a massive hole! God this was so embarrassing, I had to keep my arse covered so that nobody could see it. Since I work in a charity shop, I could easily buy a new pair for just 49p, so that was what I had to do. The thing about jeans is that most of them have legs that are too long for me. I loved those jeans I had, because they fitted me well, though not perfectly since my arse is too big for them now. Something tells me that I have to cut down on the candy.

I'll leave you with a small illustration.

God I love Stoppit & Tidyup.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Welcome to my crib!

Everyone once in a while, I like to tidy up my bedroom, because well, seeing so much shit all over the place just isn't very nice at all. So without furtherado, I show you my nice [well, almost] clean bedroom!

This is where I spend up to 90% of my waking time. I forgot to tidy up around there, as my desktop usually gets really messy with glasses, wires, discs, candy wrappers and my sister's make up wipes. Oh and there's my new guitar, and my sister's old CD player that she gave me. All too often will you hear songs by Enya and Lesiem playing out loud on this, hehehe!

This is where I keep some of my junk, like DVDs, CDs and SpongeBob products. I've been collecting SpongeBob things for about 4 years now, and it's hard to fund out where to keep it all! Underneath this shelf is my printer, scanner and my games consoles [PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast and Mega Drive].

Recently I was given this desk where I shove most of my art materials onto now, along with this nice lamp I got for my birthday. It's a bit narrow at the top, but it's big enough to hold an A4 piece of paper I guess. I'll tell you something though, it's better than doing drawings on the floor like I used to. I also stuck all my watercolour paintings on this wall for inspiration and decoration.

And here's a close up of the desk. It's pretty damn nice to keep all your tools, books and that in place, and man does that lamp make such a difference?

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Cowabunga!

OK, I admit. In recent days I've been rather obsessed with the heroes in a halfshell, the Ninja Turtles. It was the painful neurotic type of obsession, the kind that makes me feel miserable and find it hard to keep my feelings in without spilling it all over the Internet. When I simply can't get the image[s] out of my head. But what was bugging me most was whether or not I should pay nearly £7 to see the new TMNT movie in the cinema.

In the end, I did, just today. And it was such a BRILLIANT movie. I couldn't stop moving around in excitement, the animation was just stunning. And to think that I wasn't that big of a TMNT fan throughout my childhood [personally, I thought that the new version looked awful, I tried to watch it but just couldn't]. As for the old series, well you know what 80's cartoons are like being horribly animated and inconsistant at points, but it was more bearable. What I do find fascinating though is the difference between the original intro and the UK version of it [I live in a country where it was known as HERO turtles at the time] - oh man, the edits! They're hilarious!

Man, feels good to have watched A movie after about 1 and a half years. It's damn expensive though, that's the thing, but it's nice to treat myself to something special every once in a while. I'm gonna be shouting shit like "Cowabunga dude!" for the next week now! Either that or what me and my sister used to sing over the old theme tune - "Heroes in a halfshell, PEEL-A-PEEL!"

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Art dump numero uno

Man I haven't posted any art, drawings or whatever in like, forever since my last commission. So yesterday, I suddenly had a boom of ideas and tried to draw some of them down... some of them however... these two I've done of my "fish-sona" have got to be the scariest things I've ever drawn.

Summary of my new job. I hope no-one in the library saw this one.

Um...OK...what?

Well, here's a less scary, un-inked picture of the Robo meditating while listening to Lesiem albums..."Wherever I go, wherever you are, the peace that you bring has lifted me so far and now I see, its a miracle..."

"WILL YOU START THE FANS PLEASE?" I can watch the Crystal Maze in the kitchen now that we've got a Virgin Media box in there ;)

Straight after drawing Richard O'Brian and his crystals, I looked at a few jars that were next to the telly. Guess which one's which.

Also drawn were a few new Rayman and James Pond fanarts which I might post next time. Or colour them. Whatever I feel like doing. God it feels so good to be drawing again.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

One week without my internets

Man what a palava that last week was. I've been without home Internet for an entire week and I had to pay £1 a pop on one of those computers in McDonalds. They're awful - they have no mouse so you have to literally poke the touchscreen just to get it to scroll, and the metal "keyboard" is a surefire way to break one's fingers. You can't even cut and paste or print, save or basically do anything apart from going on the Internet.

Thankfully, I got my broken modem plug replaced today thanks to someone from Virgin Media who came round and put a new digibox into the kitchen. Oh I missed real internet so much!

Anyway, while I was away I did loads of different things. I finally got to see my sister's flat after a trip to Ikea, I've had an interview at a PDSA charity shop and got a trial to start, and I turned to the golden age of 20. I had a lovely birthday on Wednesday...

Me, mum, my sisters and Carla's boyfriend all went to London for shopping and stuff. I wanted to look in Forbidden Planet first, which took us about an hour just to find and I didn't even buy anything from there. Then we took a bus over to Harrods to meet Dean the boyfriend's sister, and that's where I bought a Mr Krabs plush in the toy department, along with pissing about with display toys.

Lastly I had a good look in Virgin Megastores and HMV for a bunch of CDs I wanted, but only came out with two - Lesiem's Auracle and Enya's Day Without Rain, which made good use of the gift voucher Danielle got me. I also opened up to a new SpongeBob bag and socks, a Once Upon the Forest DVD [used to love that film as a kid], and a nice new 160GB external harddrive. Cool eh?

As for art, well at first I didn't do much, felt rather uninspired. But yesterday I bought some new dip pens and nibs and an A6 sketchbook [for whenever I go out]. I wasn't too happy with the former at first and I ended up breaking the feeder on one of them, but I soon got used to one of them. So far the one I like best is slightly better than my 4-year-old calligraphy one.

I also finished a commission while I was away, which will be on DeviantART shortly.

Friday, March 23, 2007

A new hope maybe...?

The other day, my sister came home and stayed for the night. The next morning, she gave me the suggestion that I try apply for some local voluntary positions in places like libraries and chairty shops. So I joined a site called Do It, and sent my profile there to a few jobs.

The next day, I got a letter from the PDSA. It came with a guide to what voluntary jobs are on offer, and an enrolment form which I've yet to fully complete [just need two references]. I really hope I get this, for so many reasons - the PDSA charity shop I want to work in is only down the road, so that's a great opportunity to get a good morning walk more often; I need the work experience, and most importantly, to get out of this house! I can't stand doing nothing but be trapped in here.

Of course I can't keep all my hopes up, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I've also got another commission! Thankfully I won't have to ship this one, as it's going to be CG'd. When I went to ship my last commission I had to pay £6 for a recorded delivery! I must remind myself to update my commission info at DeviantART.

One more thing, I'm into a new band! They're called Lesiem, and by god it's amazing stuff! Can't seem to find the Mystic Spirit Voices album in the local mall yet though, but I might be lucky in London. Who knows, I might be able to bag hard copies of Lunatica and Delain albums while I'm at it. Oh, and I wanna get Within Temptation's new album as well.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

I'm cold...

I don't know how I've become like this, but I seem to get really cold so easily, despite being clad in one of the warmest pyjamas I have, and having socks on. I do have a radiator right next to me, but I don't have it on in case it gets too hot in here. And I can barely be arsed to put my dressing gown on. So yeah, I'm kinda bringing this on myself, but who do I get so cold in the first place? It's March already and it's supposed to be getting warmer.

I guess I just don't feel at my best these days. I really miss my older sister since I hadn't heard from her in almost a month, I had a PMT triggered tantrum the other week because I couldn't get home in time to tape Harry Hill [which I did in the end thanks to a repeat], and I've barely been able to go out since if I ever get a £20 note it's spent faster than I can type the next paragraph.

While I did manage to get that Ducktales DVD at last, within the past two weeks I decided to try herbal tea. First I had a go at green tea, which is pretty much like normal tea but without the milk and sugar. Then last Friday I tried nettle tea. Not bad actually, but it does taste strange. It's supposed to have iron in along with loads of other nutrients, since my mum thinks I get anaemia. I haven't noticed any of the benefits kicking in yet though...maybe it's to keep drinking it more or perhaps not using boiling hot water. I would have thought it'd be expensive, but I got my box of 25 for just £1.05, not bad at all!

I really feel the need to take a good long break from computing, but what will I do within the time? Everything on the internet just annoys or upsets me and I feel so snappy and miserable. Life outside the internet is so boring because I have no job and I'm barely given any chores to do, neither do I have much money to take myself somewhere a bit nice than Romford. I guess that's what happens when you live on a maximum of £20 a month in benefits since I can't find a job that's suitable for me.

Ugh, and I feel a headache coming on now...

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Keep on Spinnin'!

So much for my Youtube rant when I find things like this.



You've probably seen me go on and on about this all the time, but here's why.

I can think of about three times when this whole ITV schools on 4 thing used to scare the complete shit out of me. First was when I was just a wee girl in infant school, aged about 6 - so the class I was in were sent to the main hall one day to watch Time for Maths, which was an equally scary CGI programme which was set in a farm. I can remember a scene from this which involved a spider so bloody clearly!

But what else I can remember clearly was when I first saw the "ITV" rotomotion...everything from the music to its plain 3D creepiness had me trying to avert my entire face, but it was only when the clock came on...I actually screamed and tried to run out of school! I only made it through half the corridor when I was caught by a teacher, taken back to the hall and then made to watch the programme.

Act 2 took place a year later, when I started year 3, and they still had tapes they recorded within the time ITV Schools on 4 had run. This time, we were taken to an upstairs room and made to watch what I think was Believe it or Not - well, it was definately a programme about religions, since I can definately remember it being about Sihks. And you know what happened? The 3D clock came on, and yes, I freaked out again. My teacher even rewinded it to see if it was that I was reacting so badly to. I spent the rest of the lesson with my eyes closed and ears plugged. God knows what my teachers must have made of both these "incidents".

After Easter in that year - 1994 - I had to be sent to another school, where I had to be in the special unit for since my old school couldn't figure out why I was being such a retard with everything, not just ITV schools. Act 3 actually didn't involve the CGI graphics, as they were long gone by the time I moved into that school. But the memory I kept still caused silliness when we were made to watch school programmes.

Instead of the roto and the clock, there was just a picture of what the programme was going to be about [in this case, Ancient Egypt], and a simple number countdown. Thinking that the clock would still appear, I just simply couldn't stand to watch the TV, so I was sent to a table where I did the same eyes-closed ears-blocked thing as I did last time. Not only did that kept me in late after the day ended, it also costed me a trip to the British Museum.

Later I was then finally reassured when I actually tolerated an episode of Science Start Here, and saw no sign of the dreaded CGI.

It's funny when you think of one thing so differently now than when you were a kid. Mind you, I didn't like anything 3D when I was little - I didn't like the Herbs, Morph, Huxley Pig and lots of other things that were 3D. Nowadays I just laugh it off and watch it like it doesn't scare me at all.

And another thing - I know why it is now, but back at the time I used to wonder why in bleeding hell there was a huge ITV thing on Channel 4! This whole thing is almost 20 years old now, and to celebrate, I'm planning to make a remix of Just a Minute, the song that was used in the clock. Because I'm uncool like that.

And to reassure myself, I wasn't the only one.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Traditional Toolkit!

Better make this one as quickly as I humanly can, it's really late here...

This past week as been nothing but dog walks, tidying up and laughing at Britney's head. But I've been wanting to do this for a long time now.

Well, I have to come down to this and say that in recent times I've become such a traditionalist. It was only when I realised that I had LOADS of watercolour paint left anf I thought, why not use it?

So I pulled out my camera and took a few shots. I must warn that this will be an image heavy post, so dial-up users brace yourselves!

Well, here's most of it. Markers, paints, pencils and all other bits and pieces are kept here.

The rest is kept in here - oil paints, Karisma pencils, a couple of pallettes and a box of spare Copic markers.
Here's where I keep all my sketchbooks and pads. I tend to buy a lot of them over time, and I get though them so quickly drawing all kinds of crap in. I usually get either A4 or A5, but I happen to like 10x7 inch ones best now. Just the right size.

Paint, masking fluid, a Nutella jar used as a water jar, and white ink. I have black ink as well which isn't shown here. The pallete below is the latest addition to the toolkit. Personally I don't really like tubes that much, so I decided to use the paint in "pan" style...

Pens, pencils and erasers are kept in this little tin. This could do with sorting out big time, since I shoved all kinds of pens in there, however old and worn out they are. You can also see a few plastic rulars and a cutting mat, which is obviously more durable than cardboard.

Brushes now, and as with the pens, I keep an assortment - meaning old and worn to brand spanking new ones. I use old ones to mix paint and apply masking fluid on.

These are Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, and in the tin are gouache paints. I hardly ever use the gouaches, and I've barely touched the pencils in forever. They're such a bitch to sharpen, now I remember why I sharpened them with a knife rather than a sharpener!

I just LOVE these - Copic markers. I've used these for about a year now and they're perhaps one of the best types of traditional tool I've ever used! Shame they're so expensive and hard to get hold of! I have to take a train ride to one shop I know that sells them. There's also one Kurecolor too which I used to be able to get locally. They can be just as good as Copic, but not many colours are available.

Now here's all the random crap I keep. I really should get rid of some of this, since I don't even use it. It just ranges from crappy old oil pastels [oil pastels a few of my artistic mortal enemies along with charcoal] and a toy water pistol.

And here's the rest - curve rulers, sharpeners, knifes, scissors, adhesives and the rest of the bunch are kept in here.

Of course, just because I have tons of art materials there it doesn't mean I've stopped using Photoshop! That's one of my more important tools for when I need to do stuff like colour adjusting, colouring, inking and cleaning.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Youtube is getting on my wick...

So yeah, I'm a Youtube user. I go round looking for free cartoons and other bits of TV other have uploaded to watch, might add to favourites, and probably give a comment on occasion.

Of course, Youtube are heavily backed up by third parties such as Viacom, so they are rampant on the removal of copyrighted material almost as soon as it's uploaded. I myself have uploaded copyrighted material many months ago, but for a number of completely different reasons I wish I hadn't!

It all started back in March when I first joined, and after a while I just uploaded a bunch of random crap. It was only when I got a copy of Rayman: The Animated series on DVD from a French seller on Ebay in April last year when I decided to upload all four episodes. Much later I was asked to upload several Count Duckula episodes by a friend, and that's where the troubles started.

In July 2006 11 videos containing Duckula episode parts were flagged. From then on I decided not to upload anything to Youtube again, but that didn't stop the subscribers coming in. As of now I have 57 subscribers, some of which are rather empty in everything. I'm guessing all they expect of me is more Duckula episodes, or perhaps more Rayman content. Either way, I'm not uploading them there. Disabling comments and bulletins won't be enough.

I keep getting asked to send episodes to people I don't even know through email - and they don't get to me just from Youtube, they come from MSN Messenger as well. It just takes too much of my time to upload the same file over and over again to different people via Yousendit. Plus I'm not on the best connection out there, so my upload rate is crap to no end.

Of course I'm a bittorrent user, but I occasionally use that for series I might not be able to get on DVD anywhere, such as Animals of Farthing Wood and Harry Hill's TV Burp. When I do get DVDs, say of Count Duckula, I'm most likely to replace the downloaded episodes with the legit ones that I can rip from them. That doesn't mean I fully support piracy though.

What I don't support is the sale of copied CDs and DVDs, which in the long run may ruin the CD and DVD playing systems they're run on. But then so can legits, but not as badly. I think this is because they make the system work much harder than legit ones - I should know because I used to play pirated games on my Dreamcast an awful lot in the past few years, and in the long run they wore my console out and I had to get a new one, so I'm no longer playing pirates on it.

Shame I said that, because I once had to buy a set of burned DVDs of the Detectives on eBay for my dad. Thankfully they were of good quality for TV rips, but that's not always the case. Most of the junk they sell on ebay could be of really poor quality and are not worth buying, even if it's that one series you loved so dearly. With downloads however if they're not up to your standards, all you need to do is press Shift and Delete.

Piracy is such a hard issue for me to talk about. So let's just say that if I was asked to say if I supported it, my answer would be yes and no. I can't wait for CD and DVD recycling banks to come locally...

Back to Youtube, well I've been thinking for a long time about whether to close my account or not. I think I will anytime soon now.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Five years younger

Oh I wish I could actually look like I'm about to hit my 20s. And to have an ID. Because today I went out shopping with my mum, and I was about to buy a copy of Look Around You 2 in HMV after seeing that I could actually afford it now. However when I got to the till, I was asked for ID. So basically that clerk must have thought that I was under 15 years old! I had to get my mum to pay for it then, and so at least I have the DVD now.

I feel embarrassed. I really don't like looking like I'm 14. I'm 4'11'' tall, have a babyface and I wear bright, child-sized clothing, while hating to wear jewelry and make up. Therefore, I must be about 5 years younger than I actually am. It was OK when I was last asked for my age when I tried to buy a South Park video way back in 2000, when I was actually 12 going onto 13. But not now.

Looks like I'll have to stop wearing kids clothes and look out for really small more grown-up clothes I guess. Maybe then my fat arse won't ruin them.

Next post: I'll be showing you my toolkit! I.e the kind of things I use for my artwork.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Blah...

Last night was one of the worst ever. Most likely my fault though because I was up until about 2AM finishing my commission painting. I have an art trade to get through as well, along with stuff for my Duckula fansite which still isn't complete yet, so it's best I work on these come the next week. Not too much though at one time though, unless I want to feel totally out of myself again.

Well I've been trying to take nasties off my mind by purchasing more DVDs than I ever did - just within this week I got "SpongeBob SquarePants: the first season boxset" [I've been wondering where in this country I could get a copy of that] from ASDA for £12, and in HMV I got lucky with Stoppit & Tidyup. Got kinda pissed when I went in Virgin and saw that The Trap Door was £8.99 when I paid £20 for my copy in HMV! Ah well. I'm gonna try and nab some comedy shows on DVD, like Look Around You and Big Train. And perhaps a few Dreamcast games while I'm at it.

My copy of Rayman 2 on Dreamcast has somehow stopped working, the console won't pick it up or anything. I even tried a boot CD but it still wouldn't work [I can't really play some of the pirate games I have anyway because my TV doesn't support 60MHz]. At least I have the PS2 version though, while that one seems more complete the graphics aren't as crisp as the Dreamcast one.

I also found a bunch of moth maggots on my wall as I was taking some of my sister's posters down...I've had these little pests infesting my room for about 2 years now. In fact, they've been infesting the whole household! I hate having to kill them but I have no choice really if I want to get rid of them.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Snow

Yesterday we had quite a blanket of snow.


Above here is a rather rubbish attempt at joining a panoramic of nearby park which I went down yesterday morning to take some snow shots. Snow really doesn't last long in this part of the country, so I thought I'd might as well go and make the most of it while my other was away. Trouble is though while there were some things I really wanted to photograph, my camera had run out of battery.

So I ended up walking over the place hoping for the camera to gain a little bit of energy back. I then stopped and looked over at the brook under the bridge, watching its gentle flow below me. After that, my camera was still flat so I decided to go to the empty basketball course and build a snow Duckula [see my Duckula blog for more on that]. Oh boy. As I didn't have gloves on my hands were so cold that I couldn't turn my front door key to open the front door.

I'm surprised that I didn't get ill after all this.

Oh, and I got another commission the other day.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Whoo-hoo!

I got my first commission today. Ever. I'm so happy! And guess what, it's not FANART! This is most an exciting new challenge for me.

Otherwise, last night I decided to sort everything to do with all my games, DVDs, CDs etc out. While I was doing that, I got out my old Dreamcast. Tell the truth I have two - one broke down so I had to get another. But believe it or not, after at least two years of being stuck in that dusty old wardrobe, it still works! All I'd probably need now is a nice new packet of button cell batteries for the Dreamcast's VMU so I can play Chao Adventure.

Yes, that's right, I've been playing Sonic Adventure again, for the first time in several years. Putting the disc in the console feels just like it's Christmas 1999 again. I used to play this so much I even managed to get all 130 emblems. I used to think I was such a hardcore gamer because of that, and getting millions of points in one round of Columns. Nowadays it's not so much like that. Hell, I even died on the first level of Sonic Adventure while playing it yesterday!

So many memories...and I've yet to start all over with Rayman 1 on PSOne! It's funny how we use things a lot when we first buy them and then leave them to collect dust on a shelf.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Changes and that

First off, if anyone out here's got me in their RSS, sorry about the crazy posting. I've decided to merge my personal blog [Robocoddess] into this one, so I can post both personal stuff and art here. That eventually meant the termination of Robocoddess sadly. I've decided to look into this layout's code as well and changed a few colours, fancy stuff may follow soon.

Far as the real life is concerned, well my sister and her boyfriend came down for the weekend, because tomorrow she's turning 21. It was my mother's birthday yesterday, so what better time to celebrate? Well it wasn't much more than a not-so-posh buffet thing. Didn't eat much other than the cake. And for some reason, I was eating pineapple when my tounge went all tingly and horrible...kind of worse than what tomatoes do. I'm still feeling it a tiny little bit. Man, never reacted this badly to pineapple before!

Friday, January 12, 2007

First art of 2007

Allow me to show you the first major fan artwork I made in 2007.

This is based on the 1987 CMTB cartoon "Stoppit and Tidyup", something I couldn't really remember seeing until very recently. After watching all of this and the studio's previous work, "The Trap Door" [I bought the DVD yesterday], I actually like this a little bit more. For something that looks like 'cutout' animation I thought it was very well animated. I love the weird voices as well, especially Tidyup's [well, if you call those 'voices' that is], along side Terry Wogan being the narrator.

This artwork made use of my gouache paints which I hadn't touched in more than two years, along with my usual watercolours and black and white ink. Also used Karisma pencils for the outlines. Might not look so 'official' here because I made it from memory in my sister's room, and man did it give me a backache or what? Took me a total of four hours.

Believe it or not, the CMTB cartoon I remember most is "Bump the Elephant". I can never get over that theme tune, so I'll be leaving while singing it in a retarded manner.

Ooow....

My ears are literally on fire. It's no fun being a music fan and having earphones constantly plugged in each day therefore causing ear infections. I've been getting these in both ears for almost two years now. It's funny, ever since my right one became deaf it's been more prone to getting infected than it did before then.

The weather here's been rather mad too. Yesterday I went down to town to get presents and cards for my mother and sister, whose birthdays are within the next 4 days. The wind was terrible, and the second I walked out of the door, I yelled "Jesus Christ!" while rain was splashing all over me. Still, I got to the bus stop, and it was a good thing I had enough pound coins! The bus fares have shot up to two pounds now, and on my way home I went on the wrong bus! Gah!

Well it's still very windy out there right now. A surefire way to keep me from sleeping, along with both my parents having televisions on.

The next week should be slightly different, what with all the birthdays and all. I hope my sister likes the card I drew for her before Christmas.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Things

I think I can hear my dog crying again.

My little mutt had her womb and ovaries removed on Friday, and at times she has to wear one of those cone collars...well, she doesn't even like having ANY collar on, let alone a veterinary one. All she does when she wears it is cry for the attention to have it taken off. She only has to wear it for eight days from now.

Man...if anything, I could really do with a total rearrangement in my room, now that I have it for my own. I have SO much stuff - CDs, games, VHSs, DVDs, books and magazines etc - yet I just don't know where to put it all! For the moment I've shoved all my VHSs under my bed, moved my little table nearer to the window where the lightbulb actually is, and made just a start in cleaning up my wardrobe. I'd love to have a nice new working desk to make my artwork on, and maybe some more shelves to store all my old sketchbooks in.

Oh I've been listening to Enya an awful lot in recent days. It's such beautiful music I couldn't leave my iPod alone, hehehe. I bought the Watermark album last week - the one with the ever classic Orinoco Flow - but the Memory of Trees album which a friend sent me on Christmas Day is my absolute favourite, next to the Celts which I downloaded. I just love the haunting vocals and the ambience, and how they're sung in all kinds of languages [including made-up ones]. Makes a change to the heavy symphonic metal I used to listen to I suppose.

I'm after a number of DVDs as well, such as Trap Door, SpongeBob SquarePants season 2, and Look Around You 2, and looking forward to the future releases of Ducktales and Count Duckula season 2.

I'm hungry. I'd whip myself a nice spring onion sandwich, but I used my last one!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Mmm....

Today I had the weirdest drink ever. It was a mix of celery, lime, cucumber and orange. Apple and cucumber I've tried once before, which I actually really liked, but this one didn't deliver the good. Celery just doesn't taste good as a vegetable, let alone a juice. Good job I only bought a small one this time...

While we're still on about fruit and veg, I tried a rather sexy one last weekend - a dragon fruit. I was in Tescos walking around and I saw one and thought "I've heard about these, but never have I seen one in a shop before". It was bright pink with green...flappy leaf things, but costed £1.89, but I bought it anyway. When I got home and cut it up, the rim was the brightest magenta pink I've ever seen in a fruit! As for the inside, it's white with lots of tiny black seeds. Tasted like kiwi, but less acidic.

You know, ever since I got my iPod nano for Christmas, which I love very, VERY much, I've been trying to fill it up to the brim as much as I could. That meant buying AND downloading Enya albums, digging through the MP3s on my PC and going through all my collection of old trance CDs. I ended up with nearly 400 tracks so far, ranging from my Nightwish collection to a bunch of videogame music I downloaded somewhere, such as that from Maple Story and the Neverhood. I miss both games. Maple Story I uninstalled because I absolutely HATE its community, and the Neverhood actually stopped working for me. Oh well.

Oh I've been listening to Enya WAY too much lately. As in, at almost all times, including when I go to bed and try to get to sleep by listening to it. It's such nice music I couldn't get enough of it since Christmas...

Monday, January 01, 2007

Wow, 2007 already

Really and truly I should be updating this more. There was hardly anything worth noting here throughout 2006, so hopefully this year will be more interesting.

Changed the colours to that of the Count Duckula blog so this one can go alongside as a sort of "general life" blog. Of course I have Livejournal and Deviantart, but there I just make short ramblings, hehe. Perhaps now that I know quite a bit of CSS and HMTL I should go and really pimp them all up.

Well today I seem to look more ill than everybody else here, and I haven't even touched just one drop of alcohol! Mind, it's only because I was up till about half past three last night and I ended up waking almost two hours ago. Sucks to be StaceyW I suppose. Those "disco lights" and the loud music downstairs were doing my head right in.

I think in recent times my body and mind have spiralled out of control, and really and truly I should do something about it. Getting to sleep is literally a nightmare in itself and my skin is so sensitive that a cold matress feels really damp. Not to mention how I sometimes keep feeling like I'm going to die of posioning, such as my mouth drying up, headaches and shivering really bad.

See you later. My body awaits a new cold.