Weekly Check In #7

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Late edition again?

Between work, ToC, raiding and those scraps of social live, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even posted art this week, blah. Anyway.

Health

I wish food guides would point out that any major diatiary changes causes your intestines to declare Blitzkrieg on your arse. And that different changes have different side-effects.

I’ve looked. Most don’t. I’ve grumbled.

And I’ve learned the hard way that there are some things I should not eat: In particular, Any kind of oils. Which is annoying, because now the only salad-dressing I’ve left to eat is Balsamico.

Not a happy camper.

Art

I haven’t done any art but ToC-pages this week and still haven’t finished the pages for September. Oh, there isn’t much left to do and they’ll be done this weekend latest, but it’s still a little bit annoying I missed my own deadline. And things will only get harder now, since chapter one will be done mid-October – and I haven’t done any artwork for Chapter two at all.

Which means, I have to squeeze in some time to layout that chapter SOMEWHERE in September, between finishing at least sixteen pages of chapter one.

Things are worth it though. I’ve learned heaps about colouring and layout, even if it’s full of beginner’s error. I can see how my art improves from page to page. And I finally know enough about layouts that I can do a conscious effort in improving them, even if I’m still limited to “fuck around and hope it turns out okay” with my colouring style.

It’s this learning process that keeps me glued to my art even when things go frustrating.

Other Stuff

My bank fucked up with the result that the ATM ate my debit card for “security reasons”. The teller couldn’t apologize enough, but it didn’t change the fact that I now am limited to cash till they finally get around to sent me a new one. Annoying. I hate having lots of cash on hand, so I’ve been using it alot. I miss it.

In better news: Metroid Other M will be in the stores on Friday. :D

…

On second thought, the ToC pages might NOT get done this weekend.

Filed in Weekly Rituals | | Permalink | Comments (0)

[WoW] Wishes, Coins and the Dalaran fountain

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Dalaran Fountain

So… There’s that butt-ugly fountain in Dalaran in which you can fish. It’s probably just there to entertain people waiting for their raids to start, but you have a chance to fish up coins with wishes of major and minor lore-characters of WoW.  I like reading those coins. Many are funny, some are injokes and others are heartbreaking, especially if you know a little about the lore of the games1.

And since catching all those also give achivements, Samus has found herself fishing in that damn fountain more than she’d like – So much that I actually started to thinking about what my own characters2 would write on their coins, were they able to throw one in.

And what’s a blog for if not for sharing random brain-farts?

Samus, tankadin:
May Silvermoon be restored to all its glory one day.

Chally the bow-pewpew:
For the autumn woods and my loyal companions: May we have a long, good hunt.

Rhii the tanking cow:
 I wish people would stop staring at me.

Dela the Deathnugget:
Learn, move and never forget. I WILL find peace.

Desie the banker:
Money, my dear! MWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!

Nette the lock:
I want a better pony. NOAW.

Dandra the troll-priestie:
 By the Loas, stop STANDING IN FIRE, DAMNIT!

Cass the druid:
Does Malfurion Stormrage lose his antlers when the winter comes?

Aulell, the spacegoat:
I’d like our pilots to get better at piloting. I’m still dizzy from that crash.

What would you write on a wish-coin?

Footnotes:

  1. Blizzard developement team, bless their money-grubbing little hearts, knows very well that the success in a game lays in attention to details. ↩
  2. Being a roleplayer is a disease for which DEATH is the only cure. ↩
Filed in Adventures in Azeroth | | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Raw Sketch] Siendes and Mona

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Sketch of Siendes & Mona

Siendes & Mona - Raw Sketch

Remember when I’ve told you that I work in iterations?

This particular picture is a great example of how the very first iteration looks. Mona’s eyes and mouth are skewed, her arm isn’t right, the her neckline’s off – among others problems. Things like this are common in my sketches, it’s not as if I’d get it right on the first time.

But what I DID get down – and that’s the actually important part – is their facial expressions (I especially love Siendes) and body language. The idea has been finalized and the rest is window dressing. The foundation is laid.

It’s unlikely I continue to work on this picture, but if I would the next step would be to construct the anatomy of the torsos and heads right and look for references if necessary. That’s when I start redrawing things over and over until they’re either to my liking or piss me off so much I refuse to work any further on them. ;)

Filed in Dancing with the Muse, On Traces of Chaos, Yay, art! | | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weekly Check In #6

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Thing with those kind of weekly rituals is that they tend to grow more and more eleborate over time. On the other hand, they’re incredibly comforting.

Well, at least I think so.

Health

I’ve lost enough weight that my trousers start to get loose. Yay! Plus I’ve hit the 12pound lost mark a few weeks ago and didn’t even realize. It appears weightloss is much easier if you don’t focus like mad on it – My habbits changed and that’s the mainpoint. I still eat everything I have at home, though. But that’s easily fixed by only storing cat food at home.

An interesting observation: The largest drops in my weights happen when I’ve got two or three days of happily stuffing myself – provided I eat lean all the time otherwise.

Art

Traces of Chaos is boiling down to be a race between me and the weekly updates from my buffer. I like having a buffer. I do not like the fact it runs out. But the updates are in the queue up to mid-September and I plan to finish out September this week.

Thinking in two weeks chunks seems to be the way to go for me.

I do realized I have to let go off the not-ToC ideas for now, though. It’s hard. Ideas are a dime a dozen and as plentiful as sand on the beach1, but my reflex is still to hold on each single one. That’s impossible! If I try my mind gets dragged in a hundred different directions at once, which makes it kind off hard to actually focus. Still, letting go of them is still hard for me.

Other Stuff

My parents’ 30th wedding anniversy was this weekend. They still hold hands and tease the crap out of each other. It’s great – and it makes me a little bit envious, too. I wish I’d somebody to care about like they care about each other.

Our ten-man raids working on hardmodes now. I doubt that’ll happen for long – there are a few people who still need their Kingslayer-title because they had to sit out in our final kill – but the interest in hardmodes is definitivly there, especially in the core group of our rag-tag2 raid. That makes me happy.

Samus actually got a Drenai-counterpart on a German RPG Server now. I’m looking forward to see the life on the other side with her – which is why I’m going for Loremaster on her, too. Unlike my Horde-alts who’re spoiled rotten by my relativly rich main, my Drenai-pally is very have-not: No heirlooms, no bags, no gold – nothing but the support of a level 1 Dwarf auctioneer 3 to sell off the stuff she collects while leveling.

Leveling the hard way is fun, though.

Footnotes:

  1. This is why I find it hysterical if people come to me with “I have an idea and you should create it” – I’ve got enough ideas to last me ten lifetimes myself, don’t burden me with yours! ↩
  2. Is ragtag still applicable? We DID take down the lichking and slowly we’re actually getting something that resembles discipline and attendance in our Tuesday raids. ↩
  3. I actually had to sent my little dwarf seed money for the Auctionhouse fees. Which is hard when you’re still scrounging for copper. Ooops. Luckely small eggs sell well. ↩
Filed in Weekly Rituals | | Permalink | Comments (10)

[inks] Chalcara

Monday, August 16th, 2010

[inks] Chalcara

The inks of Chally. Yay! :D

The sketch!

Filed in On Traces of Chaos, Yay, art! | | Permalink | Comments (6)