Commissions are closed for price restructuring. Probably have the new prices decided Monday night.

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Commission Info: [link]
Commission Status: CLOSED
Commission Slots: 0/3

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Working on pictures. Will say more later. For now, new chapter is up at the place where new chapters are.

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Commission Info: [link]
Commission Status: Open
Commission Slots: 0/3

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1. See Tangled
2. D'aww like crazy
3. Manage to come out the other end WITHOUT a hair fetish

Everything went better than expected.jpg

But seriously, go see it if you haven't. I know the ads made it look like a terrible Shrek ripoff but it's actually not. It's a great Classic Disney movie with some of the worst, misaligned marketing Disney has ever done.

(And no I won't be fanarting it. I'm much to lazy to shade all that hair and not lazy enough to NOT do it.)

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Commission Info: [link]
Commission Status: Open
Commission Slots: 0/3

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Got a new CPU fan. It's not as loud as the old one so naturally I am not sure if it's going to be as effective but so far I think that it's doing its job as well. Or maybe that pound of dust I cleaned out yesterday was the source of the noise and I had just gotten used to it?

Either way, we're going back down to code orange, people.

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Commission Info: [link]
Commission Status: Open
Commission Slots: 0/3

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As promised, chapter is up. [link] No art for it though, sorry.

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Commission Info: [link]
Commission Status: Open
Commission Slots: 0/3

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Remember Miss Mars? I routinely plug it here. I just uploaded a bunch of art that I was probably going to delete anyway to the official home of Miss Mars, Outer Heaven, the forum of Bastion Works. Here is a link to the front of the forum.

[link]

Obviously you'd need to register to comment and stuff, and and I would appreciate it if the place was a little more active. I routinely try to post some stuff there that's not available on DA, and this is one of those times. So like, give the place a visit, okay?


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Commission Info: [link]
Commission Status: Open
Commission Slots: 1/3

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Commission Status: Open

Okay, given the feedback I got when looking into this, I'm going to try taking commissions for a while. Here are the guidelines:

Pricing and examples can be found here: [link]

1. I accept payments via paypal. It's fastest and easier to keep track that way. Paypal service charges are the responsibility of the customer, i.e. you.

2. I generally insist on sticking to the sort of things that are on my DA page. This means:
   No vore
   No nudity/porn Having said that, borderline fanservice is something I can discuss at least.
   No Visibly underage characters (especially not in adult situations)
   No Overly graphic violence.

In addition, I reserve the right to refuse business on a case by case basis. I generally try to shy away from girls that too huge, because it's next to impossible to get them done well in a reasonable amount of time. I'm also retired from anthro art, I wouldn't bother trying to ask for it.  I can draw normal stuff, FYI, or at least try to; it's just that no one asks me to.

I know this sounds unreasonable, but believe me, the more into a picture I am on a conceptual level, the faster and better my work is going to be. But, the bottom line is that I take on requests on a case by a case basis. So run the idea by me regardless. Don't assume I'll say no out of hand.

3. Request commissions via a NOTE. Not an email, not a message on the front of my page, not over AIM. Once I reply accepting the commission request, you'll have 24 hours to pay up before I start. Obviously, the sooner I'm paid, the sooner I start.

4. BE AS SPECIFIC AND AS DESCRIPTIVE AS POSSIBLE WHEN ASKING FOR COMMISSIONS. Whether it's fanart or something of your own design, reference images are always a plus. Also be sure to specify whether or not you want the finish piece posted on my DA page.
Unless instructed to the contrary, commissions will automatically be posted online upon completion.


5. Payment comes before product. After I accept a commission, and am paid for it, I will begin work on it as soon as possible. Please be patient. I typically respond one way or the other within 72 hours of payment. If I hit a snag in the process or it's a particularly complex request, I will give you regular status updates until completion. Generally, commissions are done in the order they are received. However, I may work on more than one if I am waiting to hear back on a status update from someone higher up on the list. Overall I think I'm pretty fast, all things considered. I've never taken more than around two weeks on a commission yet.

6. All transactions are final. NO REFUNDS.

I've been asked a few times if I take commissions. The answer has consistently been a resounding "No." But I do like the idea of having money, and could exchange it for various goods and services.

So here's some questions. Let's say I hypothetically started offering commissions.

1. How much interest would there be?
2. How much can I get away with charging you guys before you decide it's way too expensive?
3. (This may affect pricing.) How badly would I regret the decision thanks to an inbox filled with the most disgusting and/or creatively bankrupt sorts of requests that made me stop taking requests for free ?

So...it took a freaking year, but the next installment of the story I co-write with , Miss Mars, is out on his site, Bastion Works. This is the first one we're putting on his site, and fitting enough, the first chapter of the next "season". There is also art in the proper places.

Now then, onto the links.
[link] -- The BW forum, Outer Heaven. You can find the chapter there, as well as the newer miss mars art that I have put up for the occasion.

[link] -- This here would be the art gallery. The new art is mirrored here as well, and there's some reposted guest art that's been up elsewhere for a while.

Luckily, the wait between chapters should not be as bad from here on out. I should mention that commentary and lavishing us with praise definitely encourages the creative process. But, either way, I hope those of you that have been waiting, and even those that have not and are new to this little project of ours, will read and enjoy.

Being made to advertise once more in an attempt to stir up some activity. Open challenge for writers on BW forum. Also, a chance to see how much fun I am having with a tablet.

Either way, if words are your preferred weapon of choice, might want to think about penning something: [link]

Got a Wacom Bamboo. It might be a little small, but for $70, we'll see if I can make use of it without having to scale up to the next (and much more expensive) size.

You should totally buy 's book, Ghost Story. It's a pregnancy-fetish flavored novel, and easily one of the best things he's written. Since some of you say that you'd rather have an actual book than read off of a screen. Well, now you've got both choices.

[link]

Seriously though, at the risk of sounding like Jay Sherman, go buy his book. It's so good that I totally fanarted it.

Going to work on contest prizes this week, so like, there's that. But on a different note, I would like to pose an inquiry.

One of the reasons I don't finish nearly as many things as I should is because I'm starting to want each picture to be unique. I have tons of sketches of poses that just don't work out and get scrapped, and only a few manage to keep my affections long enough to reach completion. As a result, when I see the same pictures over and over, it kind of bugs me. I'm not talking about artists that are repetitive, so much as those that use bases.

So like, what is the general consensus on these bases? While it's true that you can't copyright a pose, where is the line drawn between this and tracing?

For example.

Pregnant girl relaxing on couch, legs crossed, often with an aluminum can on one arm.
How many of THOSE have we seen? I actually did the research. Did you guys know that picture is from an H-Game?

How about all the times we've seen this one by XRation? [link]

Or this one by Littleletty? [link]

I have no idea why I'm even complaining, really. Probably just as a means of procrastination.  But I have to ask. I notice some of you guys faving what is essentially the same picture dozens upon dozens of times. Why is that? Haven't you noticed, and if you have, why doesn't this strike you as being kind of a weird thing to do?

Contest Over! Judging over!

It was REALLY close, and a lot of awesome artists showed up to enter. Judging it was pretty hard but I think I've decided. And, if not, too late. I've posted this and I'm sticking to it!
First Place: [link] by Shadowpencil
Second Place: [link] by Sandworm
Third Place: [link] by Shydude

But seriously. Everyone did great, and this was a tough call all around. There's like, a 5 way tie for 4th place. Definitely have to run more contests in the future. For now, winners should like, send me a note pertaining to their prize requests.

Once again, great work all! See you next bat time, next bat channel!

Hey kids! Your Uncle Saburo has decided to unseal the ninth gate of his personal hell in order to try and write something ridiculously long. For the past few months I've been typing away in an attempt to rival my writing counterpart . The end result is something under the working title of "Super", which, as the name might imply, is about a comic book superhero that is rather profoundly with child. As you would expect from me.

Thing is, when I'm in writer mode, my drawing ability drops significantly, and I've been unable to visualize a rather important part of the superheroic aesthetic. So I'm doing what all great men do when they hit a snag. I'm going to try and get someone else do it for me!

Long story short, true believers. SaburoX is holding a design contest.


CONTEST RULES

Your Mission, should you choose to accept it, is to design a maternity costume for an (obviously) pregnant superwoman. There are a few caveats:

- Costume must use blue as a primary color. You can have as many secondary or tertiary colors as you want, but blue has to be the main one. This is because she's a legacy hero in the same vein as Flash or Green Lanterns, and blue is sort of her family color, so to speak.

- Costume has to incorporate her symbol [link] . It can be in any color you want, and you can even redesign it to doll it up a little. But, you just can't do superhero without a recognizable emblem.

-Costume must include a mask. Again, pretty self explanatory. She has a secret identity. The exact design and shape of the mask, as well as how much facial coverage it has, etc, is up to you. Domino masks are okay, as are full facial dealies.

Here are the essentials of the character:

Name: Valiant (III)
Alter ego: Valerie Vanessa Vaughn
Known Aliases: Valley Girl
Abilities: Superhuman strength, stamina, invulnerability, and flight
Team affiliations: The Vanguardians
Known Relatives: Valiant II (Father), The Valkyrie (Mother)

Here are some last minute tips:

- Simplicity/Iconography. Think of Superman, or Batman, or Spidey or Captain America. Their costumes are pretty simple, right? It's not just because simple looks for superheroes are easier to draw. It's also that simplicity helps with making them more recognizable.

-Naturally, I'll be the first to celebrate the utterly blatant fanservice that comic books are filled with, but the less stripperific the better. Obviously, if it were just a matter of thinking up a normal costume and then cutting the belly out, I'd have done that and we wouldn't be here now, right?

And now, for the part you're all probably interested in more than the actual rules:

The Prizes*

First Place - Obviously, it'd be what's featured in the story. But, I'll also toss in a free request, inked and colored. I'll also be drawing your winning entry in my style to make some art for the story.

Second Place - Free request. Inked, but no colors.

Third Place - Free request, pencil sketch type quality.

*Art requests would still be from my standard repertoire of subject matters.


Now then, I'm going to set the deadline for say, a month from today. So that means that entries have to be in by July 24th 2009 Just hit me up with a link or something. Not going to bother checking my email box for a dozen things.


You know what? Let's go ahead and put the entries here:

[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] [link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link]
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
[link] by
Additional entries here: [link]


CONTEST ENDS IN 4 HOURS. Time to get in those last minute entries if you're interested!

Mainly just putting up a new journal or something to disperse rumors of my untimely demise. New art of all sorts, both normal and strange, is on the horizon. Hopefully I can do some crazy work in Photoshop this weekend and have a big rush ready for July 4th.

Also, I routinely change my tagline just to see if people notice, and I've just realized that I should have been keeping a list. Has anyone been keeping track? I remember using:

'Has Died of Dysentery'
'Is Disrespectful to Dirt'
'Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla'
'Does it for the Lulz'
'Is Far Too Busy Being Delicious'
and 'Vermicious Knid'

But I'm sure there have been more in between those.

Okay, I've tried being nice. I've tried being fair. And hell, I've tried being the guiding light that teaches right from wrong. My efforts have been to no avail, and so now I'm just going to have to name names and be done with it.

The following people are on my proverbial shitlist:

hottie2
megarob15
sprk-77 -- EDIT: Now dodging a DA ban as  BigBelliesClub. (How long until he gets tired of making new accounts?)
mangareader345 (formerly known as animefan232)
pregmanna

These people have been barred from registry at PG-13 and blocked from my page. Both these actions have been done for very good reasons, with a great deal of time and effort expended in attempts to curtail negative behaviors that, quite frankly, shouldn't have been necessary. Please respect this decision and don't aid them in circumventing their barring, or else I will have no choice but to do the same thing to you. I am always keeping a vigilant eye to make sure of this. Do not test me.

I've actually NOT blocked these people until now because I kept arguing that maybe if someone just asked them to directly stop they'd get the message, but clearly they'd rather be selfish or just ignore the reprimands. Frankly, a lot of the other talented artists and writers in this genre of art have already decided to give up and block these people. Now I'm doing the same.

And quite serious about this. If you want to get on my good side, you can't hang with them. If I catch you acting like them, you'll have earned a much deserved block and ban just like they did.

Chapter 13 of Miss Mars, Better the Devil You Know, is up at PG-13. Find it here: [link]

This marks the end of Miss Mars Season One, and the story's tenure on PG-13. There's also art up in the Miss Mars Gallery at Bastion Works, here: [link]

I've cleared out my entire stockpile of art to mark this momentous occasion.

So, be sure to vote, comment, and Stay tuned for Season 2 on Bastion Works!

Once Upon a Time there was a Witch.

The art teacher I had in elementary school must have just had a grudge against me or something. Despite being in a class of twenty and having her for five years, she'd refuse to pronounce my name right, send me to detention at the drop of a hat, and constantly lost the homework I turned in. She went out of her way to make me miserable and to make passing difficult.

The end result was that I ended up doing a bunch of assignments twice. I worked double the required amount and got an A each year anyway. I somehow ended up being known of the best artists in my grade. It wasn't even a title I wanted. I just cared about not failing. I didn't want to let her win.

Then, Once Upon Another Time, there was a Soldier.

My second was in high school, which was kind of a shitty time anyway, but he made it...interesting. I had the guy for two years. The first year he was a really difficult task master. He'd point out some minuscule flaw in the work. He'd make us go outside in the middle of winter to draw the trees, and the if branches weren't like what they looked like? We had to draw it over.

We weren't allowed to fix the flaw. That was it. We just had to start from scratch on a fresh sheet. We weren't allowed to use erasers. He said erasers were for mistakes, and that they screwed up the picture, and if we wanted to pass we wouldn't make them. And, for the time, I hated his guts so damn much.

As much as I'd hated him in the first year, I got to see where he was coming from in the second. I guess he was like the insane drill sergeant from every war movie ever.

When I got promoted to his advanced course I suddenly saw why people told me to take his course, because he did a complete 180. He passed just about everything, since by then we'd apparently learned the fundamentals. Instead of giving us super exact assignments, on the first day, he said "If you're here it means you don't need me to tell you what to do anymore. So get to work, see you on Friday." And then we could do whatever we wanted. It was like that for the entire semester.

He didn't pull his punches, but when I got out of his boot camp, I was far stronger than when I'd went in.

Then, Once Upon The Final Time, there was a Scholar.

Then, in college. The guy, I shit you not, looked exactly like Santa Claus. Acted like him to. He was easy going, fair handed. I only had him for the one semester in the summer, but I learned a lot from him. He that focused purely on the technical side of drawing. By now I'd been at it for two decades, but damned if he didn't show me all sorts of new tricks and techniques.

Yet, he started at level zero. Very basic stuff like how to do squares and cubes and how to sketch things out before giving them emphasis. How to build lots of dexterity in a little amount of time. Shapes and arcs and the additive and subtractive drawing systems. Really, it was like learning the fundamentals over again.

Put a lot of names to things that I didn't know had names. He taught us how there was science in art, beauty in math and math in beauty.

So, yeah. Those were my three art teachers. None of them had really easy classes, but honestly, if they were easy A's, I'd never have learned as much as I did.

Once Upon A Now, there is Me.

The Witch taught me to train my will.
The Soldier taught me to train my eye.
The Scholar taught me to train my mind.

I can be an asshole, yes. I can be overly critical. But (unless you really, really piss me off somehow), the things I say are probably out of...well, not love, but they're in an attempt to be constructive. My words aren't out of spite. That's what I'm trying to say. When it comes to drawing, I was taught that brutal honesty and a little prickishness goes much further to impart wisdom than a gold star. That the sharpest swords are forged in the hottest flames.

And they all, hopefully, lived happily ever after.

I get the whole planned obsolescence thing, but the fact of the matter is that I can't afford a new version of photoshop. Nor can I afford to have my desktop out of commission from downloading a warez version (I just managed to fully clean it, but lost CS2 in the process).

Not to mention, I hate having three versions of a program just to use brushes. So, my question to all you out there on the internets. Is there any way to take a brush file from a more recent version of photoshop and make it compatible with version 7?