Rat Creature's Journal

Everyone and their pet tribble did this, so of course I filled out the Star Trek Reboot Meme too.

( large image behind the cut )

...how to explain this, but after reading kass' story Zygote, I felt compelled to draw a quick comment doodle for it. (John/Rodney in an SGA/Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex* (but were afraid to ask) fusion)

Fandom: DC Comics
Characters/Pairings: Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
Media used: acrylic paint
Rating/warnings: G, none
Notes/comments: I tried the scratching thing again, and unlike in my previous try with Robin I used this time only acrylics rather than supposedly water resistant ink. It was slightly harder to scratch (it sometimes sort of chipped?), but at least it didn't dissolve when I painted over it. Additionally this time I remembered to scan the lineart and b/w scratched only inbetween stage in case something went wrong again after all. But I had no mishaps this time. \o/
Preview:
( the finished image, a hi-res detail and two in-between stages are behind the cut )

Fandom: DC Comics
Characters/Pairings: Robin III (Tim Drake)
Media used: mixed media (ink, acrylic paint, chalk pastels, razor blade)
Rating/warnings: G, none
Notes/comments: This turned out rather more mixed media than planned, due to me trying to salvage the image from the completely blotched state that was the result of a supposedly water-resistant ink being quite soluble in specific circumstances after all. So it looks rather different from what I imaged, and not nearly as nice as a promising pre-blotch inbetween state did (which I unfortunately didn't scan), that had more texture and scratched gradients, but the black ink dissolved when I tried adding the color highlights and thus the ink ran into them. Also as usual the scanner didn't actually scan the colors as they are on the paper, though I tried to correct it as best as I could to compensate for that piece of color blind crap. Um, well, I usually try not talk this much about everything that went wrong (it doesn't give a good audience bias) but this was a very frustrating evening, and I can't help the venting.
Preview:
( the image is behind the cut )

( Terminator + gardening for ilyena-sylph )

( Snape vs. Deathstroke for katarik )

( SGA + steampunk for telesilla )

Also, are people getting shyer when it comes to prompting?

Does anyone on my f-list speak French and could tell me why this LJ entry has one of my HP drawings hotlinked? (It's one of illustrations I did for Beth's In From the Cold.) I noticed this a couple of days ago when I looked at my website referrer logs. Unfortunately my webhost doesn't let me disable hotlinking in the usual ways you see in anti-hotlinking tutorials, and so I tend to just ignore the occasional random hotlinking from outside fandom (usually it's some jerk that includes my stuff in their "ew, someone draws superheroes gay" lulz, so there's no hope of fixing that) but this seems to be from within fandom, and somehow that makes it different for me. So two days ago I commented there and asked the poster in English to not hotlink my artwork, but it had no effect so far, and they posted in their LJ after this time, so presumably it's not a matter of internet absence over some prolonged holiday break or something. Sigh.

From what I gather the entry seems to be some sort of meta fiction in which the poster talks to the characters about a WIP and the poster is using my art as some sort of story illustration? But I'm not sure. (Gah, why has all my French knowledge vanished? I guess that happens when you don't use a language for a decade.) Anyway if it's used as fiction illustration it would be doubly annoying, because I drew this specifically for Beth's story, and don't really want to see it with random fanfic, meta or otherwise. Also, it's just rude to hotlink.

I guess I could move the file, but that would mean fixing links in at least four places (my own website, LJ, IJ, and my art blog), and that is annoying. The profile has messaging enabled so I could try that on top of my comment, or would that come across as nagging and I should just give more time? OTOH it can't take two days to get an LJ entry edited.

Anyway, this makes me cranky. I'm not even mentioned by name or got a link in the entry, so besides my sig on the art there's no credit given either, nor any way for me to hear if people who see my art there like it. *disgruntled*

First, the sticksandsnark challenge entries have been posted. So there's lots of good Rodney and Teyla stuff. This year's masterlist is here. In particular I want to point you towards Your Mouth As Some Surprise by Siriaeve (Rodney/Teyla, 9,400 words), which is an awesome story with Rodney and Teyla stranded in a Pegasus monastery for a while. It's my favorite of the entries I've read so far. Also check out Astrid's gorgeous drawing.

Second, because compiling lists is a great way to procrastinate while still giving yourself the illusion of accomplishing something, I posted yet another SGA thematic list, this time of all SGA wingfic I could find. I also listed some art, but it's not yet nearly as comprehensive for that, because I don't bookmark fanart as much. As usual if you know of stuff I missed, please link me. I've also updated several of my other SGA thematic lists recently.

Third, I did not actually forget about the results of my previous "what should I draw" poll from a while ago. The results when I last checked were a three-way draw between the SGA/Avatar fusion option, the gothic/steampunkish SGA mad scientist AU, and the Dresden Files illustration. Of these I have the clearest idea about the SGA/Avatar fusion, so I've decided to go with that first, and draw Ronon as Firebender. I'm just (unsurprisingly) kind of slow making actual progress on this (and procrastinating via thematic list compilation, as seen above). Anyway, this is my public commitment to that project, still following my theory that public statements about WIPs might help in overcoming my lazy inertia.

With my last drawing committing to a fanart WIP in public to overcome my inertia seems to have worked, so I thought I'd try it again. Only I haven't started any of my other ideas yet, though I have some very preliminary, scattered scribbles for a couple, and have mulled over others for a while. Anyway, I thought I'd ask which of these ideas I should pick next (there is a poll below, but some of the descriptions for my ideas were too long for poll fields, so had to do that separately):

• the next portrait in my SGA/Avatar fusion series which was supposed to be a set but never got past Teyla as a Waterbender. Options would be Ronon as Firebender, John as Airbender, or Rodney as Earthbender
• Bug!John
• John as Athosian
• a sort of gothic/steampunkish SGA AU idea I have, in which the Wraith experiments are somehow more technological (like Frankenstein) and Rodney is sort of a mad scientist, or maybe Carson and Rodney working together. The problem with this is that I like the creepy steampunk science idea, but am not really clear what underlying scenario would work
• drawing a canon scene from the Dresden Files books, possibilities would be Dresden calling Erlking or riding the dinosaur (from Dead Beat), the ritual preparation, with Dresden kneeling (from Proven Guilty), Dresden and Ramirez preparing for battle, or the scene with Dresden and Michael fighting the baboon monsters at Union station (from Small Favor)
• a canon illustration Elemental Magic series, from early in Earth Magic, Zanja by fire light reading her cards
• an injured Daredevil, possibly in a Catholic church

You can comment or vote in this poll (though as usual with these things, there's no guarantee that I really stick to the poll results, or even produce anything):
(The poll is only at my LJ, because I can't do polls here, you can vote there or just comment here.)

Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: a diricawl
Media used: pencil, fine liner pen with waterproof indian ink, black tea, GIMP
Rating/warnings: G, none
Notes/comments: This is the third in my magical creatures series, a diricawl encyclopedia plate this time, showcasing their escape method. The crosshatching in this took me forever. Okay, a couple of hours, but it felt like forever. Also, after I had already drawn that predator cat, it occurred to me that HP canon says they come from Mauritius, so there wouldn't have been any cats. Oops. OTOH maybe some magical cat preyed on them, I mean, why would they have developed the vanishing thing otherwise? Without enemies they would really been like the dodo I think. Anyway: *handwave*

Preview:
( the image and a high resolution detail are behind the cut )

Two months of the year over, and I have yet to finish any fanart. This is very dissatisfying. It's not that I don't have ideas or time, but more that my mood and motivation have sucked like a black hole recently. :(

That I tend to browse news sites to procrastinate probably doesn't help this, seeing how these usually put me in the mind frame to hide under a blanket in a miserable ball of anxiety and dread. (At the very least I got to stop reading business news. Case in point, last night I dreamed about a ton of squalid discount stores opening in some former luxury hotel, followed by a rain of fire from the sky. My subconscious has not heard of "subtle".) And of course not finishing or posting anything only makes me feel worse in a downward spiral.

Anyway, I thought I'd try mentioning a fanart project in public for added pressure, because some sort of commitment to stuff sometimes works to overcome my sloth. So: I have actually started working on the next picture of my HP series of magical creatures, a diricawl because that got a vote in the poll I did, and I already drew the redcap that was the only option with two votes. (It turns out not many people have an opinion on which HP magical creature I ought to draw next.)

So far I just have the basic idea for the scene, and some rough sketches. The plan is to draw a diricawl as it looks at the puff of feathers that is in the place of another one that has just vanished, and some predator or predator's eyes visible in the undergrowth in the background. And like the rest of the series in done in ink as book illustration.

Now I just hope the public commitment works...

Fandom: Sandman
Characters/Pairings: Morpheus, Matthew
Media used: pencil drawing, inked with fine liner pens, acrylic paint
Rating/warnings: G, none
Notes/comments: This was my Yuletart gift for Rasetsunyo. Besides Morpheus and Matthew, Rasetsunyo mentioned in the requests (for another, non-Sandman fandom) the Egyptian pantheon, and also liking crossovers. This isn't really a crossover with the other fandom, but I thought it would still work to mix Morpheus into in one of the classic scenes of the Egyptian afterlife, i.e. the Weighing of the Heart. So there's Anubis weighing the heart against the feather of truth, Thoth keeping the records, and Ammit (the crocodile/lion/hippo mix demon) waiting to eat the unworthy hearts. I decided to show the waiting soul as Ba with a bird body and human head. I'm not sure why Morpheus is there, but I figured that the Egyptians connected their afterlife underworld to the night and to the journey of the sun might be good enough for this Endless to show up there.
Preview:
( Somehow Morpheus and Matthew ended up in the Egyptian afterlife. Image and high resolution details are behind the cut. )

January
a dragon (original fantasy art)
February
Iskierka's hatching (Temeraire fanart)
illustration for Beth's In From the Cold (Snape/Shacklebolt, HP fanart)
a Sarah Connor ratcreature icon
March
illustration for Trinityofone's Dæmonology (SGA/His Dark Materials fanart)
April
Junkie!Roy (DCU fanart)
May
Sheppard & Steampunk!Puddlejumper (SGA fanart, done for the paintedspires fest)
Bowtruckle (HP fanart)
Teyla as Waterbender (SGA/Avatar: The Last Airbender fanart, done for the paintedspires fest)
June
Nothing. :(
July
Nothing. :(
August
Nothing. :(
September
a tentacle rape and a steampunk ratcreature icon
various drawbles based on prompts, some fannish, some not
October
a Linus ratcreature icon
November
John Sheppard Halloween '75 (SGA fanart, done for the paintedspires Halloween challenge)
Matthew sketch (DCU fanart)
Red Cap (HP fanart)
some doodles (an US election themed doodle, a werewolf, a dinosaur with a raygun, a baby cthulhu, a monster, a vengeful teddy bear)
a Minbari ratcreature icon and a nitpicking ratcreature icon
December
some sketches based on prompts (Travolta!furry, steampunk!Batmobile, dragons, Sheppard, 'cheese eats mouse')
Merlin and Arthur ratcreature icons
Christmas doodle (SGA/Merlin/Numb3rs fanart)
and finally the not yet revealed Yuletart art.

There was a sad lack of any art production for several months in summer, however overall I posted more fanart than in 2007, especially when just counting the fully fledged art. Also I started using acrylic paint to color, and found it much easier (and more error tolerant) than my sad attempts to use watercolors ages ago. And while messy and somewhat time intensive, I think my attempts with that look better than my digital coloring.

I tried doing this meme where you list your favorite work, your most surprising work and so on, but I couldn't come up with any answers for half the things, so I gave up.

Fandom: SGA/Merlin/Numb3rs
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Merlin, Arthur Pendragon, Don Eppes, Charlie Eppes
Media used: pencil drawing
Rating/warnings: G, Christmas themes?
Notes/comments: I felt like trying something cartoon-style that didn't involve big-nosed creatures, so I picked my currently favorite fandoms and forced the poor characters into a Christmas card... *G*
Preview:
( image behind the cut )

After years in fandom I finally got my very first anti-slash flame. It kind of feels like a milestone, because I've never before been flamed for artwork that I recall (only trolled in discussion posts). Though I guess it's not surprising, considering how non-prolific I am. Also not actually drawing slash all that often.

Anyway the flame is such classic too, all capslock and typos with profanity accusing me of disrespecting the characters (as far as I can gather amidst the typos and incoherency). Though I guess I can't actually take full credit, as it was for my illustration of Lucy's Nightwing/Superman story Secrets. *waves* I'm almost tempted to let it out of the moderation queue (it came via my wordpress fanart blog) to commemorate the occasion, but not quite.

I was in the mood to look at some fanart and decided to browse deviantArt, also wondering whether it might be good as another place to post my stuff. So I just went to the site, and previously I've always followed links to an artist or a picture, and I wasn't too thrilled with the site design then, but on that level it works okay. But how does anyone cope with this site design on a more general level? Or is it just me? It drives me crazy. Though I guess you get used to everything eventually, right?

Of course it could be worse. DA has at least general categories, and fanart is separate (though it would help if the individual fandoms were separated more as well but I guess it's because it's more general use, not just fandom), and there is a search engine, but I still find DA hard to use. For example I found out that the group accounts I have seen linked actually don't exist officially in the site's infrastructure. That I learned from the FAQ after I had been looking like for ten minutes or so to find a section for group galleries (I thought it might be easier to find fandoms that way), and was completely baffled. Apparently they exist unofficially through more than one person using an account somehow. At least that explains why these groups aren't more common. I expect it must be rather nightmarish from a maintenance and security standpoint for group owners to have to share the main password and not have different right levels or something like that.

Still, those of you more familiar with the site, do you recommend getting an account there? Is the function where you watch artists userfriendly? Does posting stuff there reach a different audience than LJ or is more of a wash? I mean, I'd cope with obnoxious interfaces for the potential of even a small amount of extra feedback. *g* Any opinions on the site?

Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters/Pairings: a red cap
Media used: pencil, fine liner pen with waterproof indian ink, black tea, GIMP
Rating/warnings: G, none
Notes/comments: Some time ago I drew a bowtruckle supposed to look like an excerpt from an old book about magical creatures from the HP universe. I wanted to do more in this style and did a poll which creature I ought to draw next. The red cap got two votes, all others either zero or one (it wasn't a popular poll, heh), so here it is. Admittedly my turn around time isn't exactly fast. I also have to give credit to amelia_eve for suggesting a title for this imaginary work, because I couldn't come up with anything, and she commented with several options in the bowtruckle post.

Preview:
( the image and a high resolution detail are behind the cut )

I'm not a fiction writer, so obviously I'm not doing any NaNoWriMo things like many of my f-list, but I've decided to set myself the goal to update at least once every day during November. Also, that if I can't come up with any interesting stuff to post, I'll just inflict a random doodle on the internet at large. That has the added advantage of motivating me to draw semi-regularly, something which I unfortunately tend to fail at.

Fandom: DCU (Sandman)
Characters/Pairings: Matthew the raven
Media used: pencil drawing
Rating/warnings: G, none
Notes/comments: Even though I thought of Matthew while drawing this, it could be just as well some random raven -- I mean, I didn't include anything Dreaming specific. Unfortunately it also isn't a very good sketch: something about the proportions isn't right between the body and the head, I think, but it is the first time I've tried drawing a raven that I recall, so taking that into account it did turn out *that* bad. I also tried to figure out flying ones, so there are a couple smaller odd birds that may or may not look like ravens too. Anyway, I have very little shame when it comes to posting slightly misshapen results. (No drawer-art here... *g*)
Preview:
( the image is behind the cut )

Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard
Media used: pencil drawing
Rating/warnings: G, none
Notes/comments: I did this for the Painted Spires Halloween challenge. While it isn't Halloween anymore where I am, it still is elsewhere, so I hope this still counts as October posting too...

Maybe I've just watched the Peanuts Halloween special too often, but I couldn't help but think that at some point John must have dressed up as WW I Flying Ace for Halloween just like Snoopy. So here's a pencil sketch of John Sheppard on Halloween 1975, as he's going trick-or-treating.
Preview:
( the image and a high resolution detail are behind the cut )

First, some art comm linkage (even though I suspect most interested people will already know of these):

Yuletart, a multi-fandom art exchange, has started with the nomination process for this year's fandoms. For the next couple of days only the participants from last year can suggest fandoms for this year, but soon it'll open up to new participants. Since I suggested fandoms I guess that'll mean I'm going to do a holiday exchange again this year. Meep.

Also, Paintedspires recently got an overhaul and reopened as an SGA flash art community. The first challenge has been posted, and you should all join or at least watch.

In less happy news ( rat health update )

When I was drawing my latest piece, i.e. the SGA/Avatar fusion with Teyla as Waterbender, I was reminded again why I'm rather reluctant to try drawing fanart for tv/movie fandoms, my recent forays into SGA notwithstanding: I have a hard time with character-likeness if the character has to look like a real person.

Because my style of drawing is more comic/illustration-like than truly realist, e.g. that I like to have lineart, it needs a certain amount of simplification in facial features. Which then presents the problem of how to get there from the starting point of a realistic and fully rendered face. (Not that I can do realistic portraits, but in theory I mean.)

The first thing that usually comes to mind for trying to get a handle on how a character looks is to start with a photo of the character's actor or a screenshot of the character, and then somehow simplify from there. The reasoning is that after all basing your art on a decent photo works well enough for realistic character portraits in fanart, which are often recognizably based on promo pics and such. Yet this approach is somewhat hazardous as anyone who has seen a bad tv comic, one where the artist visibly just traced screenshots, can attest to. It's the phenomenon that in its extreme is lineart that you could even actually map over a screenshot and the lines "fit," yet if you look at the lineart alone it doesn't really look like the character at all.

The problem is of course in the nature of lineart. If you have ever tried to trace a photo, you've run into the problem that there aren't really any "lines", so usually you tend pick mostly the "high contrast borders" with a bit of abstract knowledge of how the form of the thing is thrown in. And this works okay if you have say the contrast of a leg against a bright background, but much less for things like facial features. And it is not merely distortions due to a specific photo, i.e. that depending on the light and angle your best guess for lines may not emphasize the really prominent features, but put stress on the wrong parts. It's that any reduction of photos to lines with a face makes it a caricature, even if you don't add intentional "distortions," simply because having just one line where there used to be color gradients introduces emphasis, and likeness decreases if you put that emphasis "wrong", i.e. not on the recognizable, outstanding features.

In theory this is not much of a problem, after all the goal all along is to draw the character, not to trace photos, and you just have to adjust your degree of caricature to compensate for the reduction of rendering, that is to figure out which facial features of said person deviate from the average proportion, the mean of facial features in a way, and exaggerate. I've read that even computers can do this with algorithms based on photos and make caricatures of people.

The problem I'm having is that so many actors are pretty people. See, I'm not that good with faces. It's one thing to spot how someone differs from "average" if they have huge ears (think all the Prince Charles caricatures), or a big nose, or a very distinct skull shape, but humans tend to find regular, even features more attractive, so tv characters are hard to figure out. It's not that there are no differences, obviously I recognize these people when I see them (well for the most part anyway, like I said, I'm not that good at memorizing faces), but I have no idea which features are the ones standing out most to me on a conscious level with faces like that.

I think it would be really cool if one of those caricature algorithms was made into a webtoy somewhere, and I could just give it a photo and it would warp the features to point out how it differs from the average face. Then, even though my style doesn't need outright caricature, I could use those hints for more subtle exaggeration suited for my purposes.

I guess I just wish some technology could help make up for my lack of talent/practice in character portrayal/caricature. *sigh*