Benalene

Good news! I have been taking more pictures! But my scanner sucks under linux, so once I get it hooked up to a mac or windows, I will try to upload some pictures. I really need to find a professional scanner. There are several drum scanners in the city, but they are expensive. Probably worth it, though. I believe there is also a darkroom with an 8x10 enlarger that I have been meaning to give a shot.

Other than that, not much going on.

Look for another update in about a year!

(hopefully not...)

I need to find a way to make the human form more interesting for me to learn. Animals, especially the mammalian kind, have always fascinated me, and drawing them has always been fun and for the most part easy. Drawing the human form is like pulling teeth! I don't know what it is. I have anatomy books and tons of reference photos saved on my hard drive, but when I sit down to really study and practice drawing the form, I just go blank. My hand stiffens up. My eyes glaze over. I mean, I can draw the human form *ok*, but it just doesn't *feel* right. It doesn't have the substance that I see in some other artist's galleries. I know I could be really good at it, if I can just find some way to make it more interesting for me.

Do any other artists have this problem? Maybe not with the human form, but something else?

I am coming up on 10,000 page views, and am considering doing a small kiriban for it. So be watching for it!

I feel inspiration and motivation slowly coming back from their long hiatus. I am feeling more creative than I have in a long time. Which is good! I still have some commissions to finish up! I think it has taken me so long to do them because I just have not been feeling up to it, and if I do art when I am not in the mood, then it sucks. However, I am reminded of the book Dune, where Paul is not in the "mood" for fighting and Gurney teaches him a lesson. Sometimes, it doesn't matter if you are not in the mood, if your life depends on it, you better get in the mood quick!

For all you artists that get paid through PayPal, do you just suck up the fees that they charge, or do you ask the commissioner to cover them? Just wondering. I found a nifty PayPay fee calculator, which makes it easy to see how much PayPal takes in fees. For all you people who commission other artists, would you be willing to cover those fees? Or should we just take those fees into consideration when we charge a price?

That being said, I am open to commissions and trades right now.

Gosh, when did my page views shoot up?

Still working on commissions for a couple of game developers.

I am open for commissions or trades.

Simple lines drawings like Eastern Armor and Japanese Print are $25 per character.

A simple colored image like Rat Okami or Paint Horse is $40-$50.

All of these are with no backgrounds, though, if you want a background, I will give you a good price, because I really need the practice .

Took some pinhole pictures this weekend. I have really missed doing them. I am going to try to force myself to take at least one picture a week, and develop once a month. So I should be uploading something fairly regularly.

I need to do a cleanup of my gallery. I am reorganizing and re-prioritizing my art, and I want my gallery to reflect that. I am also just getting tired of all the random crap in my gallery.

I am currently open for trades and commissions.