I shall squish you and you shall be mine!

As promised pics from the little babies. The second shows actually the two I get (out of three).
I want to squish those! I'm already "weee!"ing every time I look at the pics. 6 more weeks to go till they can start destroying the appartement >_<
and I still have no idea who's a tomcat and who's a girl.
Up from the pics I stick to grey-male, red-female but normally it's vici-versa.

What do you think? Male, female?

How much costs 1 hour of your life?

I started a poll on Deviantart which is quite interesting for me and maybe also for others.

How much would you pay for a commission (you can still vote here )?

First of all: I usually take commissions but only if I:

1. can do it (realistically spoken, when somebody requests a human character OR a whole city concept I rather say: "Better go to person XY..." ... yes, I am one of those lazy butts who don't take every offer).

2. it's interesting (ever did something that bored you a lot? ... see... )

3. the settled price is reasonable

4. of course... if I have time. It doesn't make sense if you're loaded with work and are not able to finish anything (which is why I canceled one children's book yesterday... crap, crap, crap!)

which leads me to the result of the poll....

631 deviants said i never requested commissions and never will

546 deviants said 11-25 dollar

478 deviants said 1-10 dollar

251 deviants said 26-50 dollar

92 deviants said 50- 100 dollar

23 deviants said over 250

20 deviants said over 100

As you can see a lot of people won't commish something rather *okay* paid. I won't say nobody should work for 10 bucks but the 10 bucks include a lot of hours -probably- and I wonder who acutally DOES work for that. 

Positive: 2041 people WOULD consider paying for an illustration which is more than I even considered. The 631 stated (sometimes) that they draw on their own or simply can't afford it OR aren't  interested in commissions at all.

What do you think? Does it reflect the normal habit of people?

why the title? Because some people honestly think that work can be done in 2-3 hours (which is kinda... silly) and I always say: " You actually pay for x hours of their lives... so how much is this person worth?" I guess nobody wants to be worth 10 bucks (even if the Dollar-Euro conversion is better atm. Thanks to Greece :D -> it *does* have some good points for me...).

Anne

Jellydance

huh... neon!

Feel like i have ants in my pants... I keep staring on my phone waiting for a phone call from my publisher. Argggg.... arggg! Argg! Cross your fingers for me.

I really wanted to post the "adventures of having a broken car in the middle of nowhere on a Saturday" but I guess the title says all...

Confuzzle

unfinished because I am not that patient today and because fur needs ages and because I already regret choosing a detailed fur... rahhh

adding nose and eyes...

adding details to the eye for a less creepy look...

starting with fur... zommmg...

... for those who wonder, it's the nasty hair brush from this pack. (be aware of the possibilty that your computer dies every ten seconds while using those...)

... and because I am close to kill the critter (lack of patience on my side) I stop now and hope I finish it next week....

Sleepyhead

I really should do cleaner sketches... digitally. o_o hnnn

and the color sketch....

Honey, we gonna be parents! Soon!

... yesterday after work I got a phone call from my mum. I've been waiting for that special one for MONTHS.
Standing next to ugly shirts in an overcrowded store those news made my day.

So I rushed home and called Ty -too excited to wait.
"Ty, we gonna be parents soon. One baby has grey hair and the other one looks like a caramel candy!"
"Uh... "
"The CATS. I got phoned that the baby kittehs are one week old!"
"Ah.. cats!"

Omg! Kiki died in December and after 16 years *with* cat I am kinda scared how it is with two cats in an appartement. Baby cats! I never really thought about all the stuff you have to think of since I got Kiki when I was 8 and with 8 you don't really care about all those things you have to think of as a grown up.

In 7 weeks we will pick those little critters up and hopefully everything will be okay. Of course that means a lot of photos of little baby cats with totally dumb comments like "Aww, look at the tongue!" ("ten seconds before she bit meeee....")
I don't even know if it's gonna be two girls, one boy and one girl or two boys. We really wanted two girls but I guess some higher powers won't grant my wish which leads me to the other wish that the boy will be gay O_o

I already had two girl's names: Trunchi and Tretel (Tretel means "Treadle" like in milk treading) based on "Hansel and Gretel". When I said we might gonna have one or two boys Ty literally screamed: "Sir Ritchfield!" into the phone.
Sir Ritchfiled is a character of "Three Bags Full" ("Glennkill") and it's connected to a series of jokes we had for ages. So one might end up being called Sir Ritchfield. I hope we don't have to explain the name since the explanation will be totally ridiculous and stupid.

And now cross your fingers that everything works out fine and no drama happens and we gonna get those little "real life chubbies" in seven weeks.

Weee!

Flashcat- inking for nerds

Inking can be pretty annoying. And even more if you need those lines shiny perfect for a huge image. It might not happen that often but ink+ eps-option= whoazzaaaa!!!
The stalker kitteh was inked in FLASH. Some people might scream: Ewww! But trust me if you have some pratice it's fine. I used it for my magazine work and a lot graphics for the agency and I will use it as often as possible.
---> click here to see which tool to use <----

Take the brush and click on "Use Pressure" (bottom). This is important to... well, actually *use* the pressure sensitive pen of a graphic tablet (without a gt the whole thing is pretty useless).

Flash might be a bit tricky and sometimes it cuts away lines but you always have a strg+z and that should do.

Cheers!

Moleskine passion - the best ever!

was the first one I bought and the only thing I *loved* and which is filled on every single page. Which I never did. Like 10 old sketch-books are in my studio room but not a single one is as fully doodled as this one.

I have the Sketchbook mole as well but the surface is too smooth for my taste. It's good if you want to do scribbles but in the watercolor book everything looks better. It's like daily soap (sketchbook) compared to movie (watercolor).
The biggest problem is that those little critters are always shrinkwrapped and of course that means no peeking in. Umph!

Sketchbook:
-good for scribbles (i use a H-pencil...mechanical 0.3 Lamy one)
- good for copic sketches
- good for inks (pens look odd, real ink looks good... have to upload that sketch next time)


Watercolor:
- good for scribbles (you should put on varnish orhairspray though.. highly recommended!)
- good for copic sketches
- excellent for watercolor-ink-pencil-tombow-you get what i mean -sketches
- ... add more awesome details yourself

So 72 pages are mostly filled. With: project sketches, notes, tests, comics, doodles, Sir Bogard, surprisingly many full color sketches and and and...

color sketch... i can't show the whole thing because it's a concept o_O

the original stalker kitteh sketch

thumb pose sketches .. i did a lot of those and they helped a lot to find the perfect final pose although it might look a bit weird.


... and so i ordered two new watercolor moles. One as "Chubbible II" and one normal for practice sketches (which i really need, my light setting sucks :( ).

Amazon lowered the price btw. I can't remember how much it cost at Boesner but the regular price is something around 16- 16,50 Euro. Now it's something around 14,50 I think and if you want to try one: do it now. :)

And because it's Sunday and I still have a bunch of sketches to do I shall stop and shall work and shall NOT enjoy the sunny weather. umph.

oh my god.. why?!

... I am so stupid... why did I even think about the possibility that this ice cream book would have recipes with less than 1 million calories?! *faint*

Because I am in a poor painting mode today... something about my next favourite hobby next to reading: making a mess out of the kitchen and wondering why it's clean the next day :3

What I am talking about is this:



If you click on the book you'll be on the amazon page (German). Yes, it leads to amazon... folks, this book costs only 7 Euro and if you're not afraid of millions of calories this book is worth every cent. IF you're afraid of those calories: The sorbets are *okay* I've seen worse recipes.


So Ty wanted ice-cream for the week-end and I decided megalomaniacally for "Vanilla Superfudge". For those who don't know: It's those sticky heavy chocolate brownies half-baked chopped into vanilla ice-cream. BAD NASTY STUFF!
And since I still have not such a good feeling for cup measurements we ended up having TONS of the cream base. Urgg...

Anybody wants to come over and gobble down a huge bowl of Vanilla Superfudge?
o____O I should stop doing ice-cream. This will be my grave for sure.

are you...

... and active reader?
or am I talking to myself o_o

Sometimes I think you want something more interesting (which is kinda complicated because most things atm are in hush-hush-mode).

priceless

(oh my god, i hate the new formatting tools. it's odd! why blogger? whyyyy?)

transparent foil: 1.75 Euro (Crea Pop matte or something alike)

templates you can make out of it: tons

time you save for other things: priceless!

um.. a bit complicated to take pics of a white template on white background with zero sunlight. :/ *hmph*

okay, so mainly the biggest problem with sketches is that i really need those for everything and mostly i do a thumb-sketch before doing the final clean sketch that will be scanned and my base for the digital work.

problem: Call me stupid but i really stick to the height x width proportion and if it's not correct in my thumb i mess it up in my final sketch as well. So I came up with the idea of doing a template and thanks to my awesome bf who has everything in the depts of our monster-pax (for all ikea nerds: 3,5 meters, 70 cm deep and I hate-love it) I got a thick matte foil we seemed to have for ages. I printed out my original template in the correct size and since the foil is transparent the rest is easy. Mark the edges, cut with scissors, done.

If anybody starts making annoying sounds: guys, this one is really priceless. I know everybody tends to measure or take print outs for storyboards, daily comics or do it freehand, but a template is GOLD.

It takes some time to do one and I would suggest a thin, strong matte foil (mine measures.. .uh... 0.3 mm if I measured correctly) because you can still cut it with scissors and it's flexible enough to have a long life option.

As I said, some people might find this entry annoying. I didn't invent the wheel but I save a lot of time for the rest of my work. :D

And working with a ruler when you're in the metro is a bit complicated. The template fits easily into the back-pouch of the Moleskine (thanks for inventing that pouch... it's so useful).

Seven days after the whole sickness thing started: I can SMELL again. Wow! But coffee still tastes weird :( Crap!

:( unhappy(cat)

Working with bronchitis sucks. I complain a lot when I have a flue or a running nose but when you think you're climbing a mountain while painting it's even worse.
Anyways, thanks to my brilliant bf I got a wonderful new tool which will be shown off as soon as I find my cam (and breath again).

Sir Bogard Steps

of course I mostly forgot to make screenshots. >_> mostly 1 layer painting with the brush I listed in an older post.

Step 1: digitalizing the sketch
Step 2: painting the basic colors and shapes
Step 3: starting to paint details and shadow/ light

Step 4: starting to paint the goggles and the eyes

Step 5: adding more details and sharpening the edges

Step 6: Realizing my light setting is crap, starting to repaint the whole thing...happens always *sigh* (thanks to Dani for the optical hints)

Step 7: realizing the foot looks weird... repainting it in an even weirder manner... and just imagining that it's the reason why he wants to fly....

Blending the whole thing with brush in "burn" mode. sir Bogard still looks really relaxed.

Done... I guess.

me and google... me mostly going "whoa spooky"

Ty had the wonderful idea to implement google analytics.
Honestly.. for somebody who's a bit scared of facebook, studi.vz (studi-vz??), linkedin, myspace and -- add here what I don't know -- this is REALLY scary.
You can read what I do (or mostly what I would love to say but can't >.> ) and i can see... where you come from, what browser you use and after how many seconds you get bored.

Which is.. after ten seconds.
How long does it take to read an entry? Gods.. this whole thing makes me totally paranoiac and weird thoughts keep poppin into my head.
What google analytics gives you is a blatant analysis of your fails, watchers and readers, your habits, my habits, your love with firefox and that you seem to own DSL. It tells you where you fail, where you win and when your readers had some good time.
Your good time is mostly around midnight, 9:00 (got to work, eh?),16:00 and 21:00 o'clock btw. Feels like google got you? Well, me too :/

Obviously google analytics can't tell you and me when we need to pee, when we lament about something and when we feel good or bad. THANKS GOD!

So when we shut down the computer we might not be able to communicate but at least we know that we get some privacy back and because it's late and although tomorrow is Wednesday -which is my home office day (weeee!)- I will sleep now and google will stay outside.

Good night, we might see each other.. .around 9:00 I guess. o_o

What do you think about google analytics? Useful or scary?

I mostly finished my dog pic and will upload the inbetween steps tomorrow. As promised :)

Sir Bogard

... was absolutely positive about the fact that his royalty can fly.

I thought about painting a ridiculous dachshund (in German "Dackel" or..."Wiener") and seeing so many Dackel at the moment made it even worse.
Anybody interested in the steps? (Photoshop)

my book-addiction

... just made me order three new ones. honestly i have no idea how you can surive without an EC card AND no Amazon. Thanks god, amazon is still my best buddy when i want to get books.
The crappiest feeling is when you stand in a book-store and can't buy the one and only your soon to be favourite 4-hours-not-a-minute-longer lasting book you just found. ARGGG!!!

It happened last week and i was so frustrated that I was even more angry when the nice You-sure-you-don't-have-finanical-problems-person in my bank told me that of course my new EC card will take two more weeks. And all because the retarted guy from my last appointment forget to delete three old zombie cards still walking aroud in the bank system (but not in my pocket). One good reason to switch the bank and to make a mass-order online.

For those who really want to read good reviews and are interested in some gems follow the white rabbit.

My Top 5 (of all I have and i have... a lot):
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks Of Nature
How not to be popular (honestly, read it, the book is AWESOME)
The Gargoyle
Colors: a natural history of the palette (it's lovely how the author manages to zone out every 1,5 pages)
Kitchen

books I just read (cropped list because I couldn't remember all and some in German):
The Splendour Falls (if you mentally delete the last 100 pages it's good and you'll love Rhys)
Beautiful Creatures
A Great And Terrible Beauty (that one was okay but i 100%ly won't re-read it)
The Thornthwaite Inheritance (too short :((... )
Rubinrot
Smaragdgrün
---add tons of comics here... of course... after a book fair... i couldn't resist---
Fragile Eternity, Ink Exchange & Wicked Lovely (last one is still unread but I already peeked in)
and some more...

looking forward to read:
Shiver
An Abundance of Katherines
Intertwined
... i just hope those books will be good >.<

Nata is visiting me on Monday. I bet she's abusing me as her private library again. And since I know she's gonna read this: Honey, only the paperback. And you have to bring my babies back.

Anne

Ps. Anybody read some of the books I mentioned?