Hello!
I was back home a couple of days earlier since I managed to hurt my ankle while away... It's healing fast though, and now I can easily climb stairs again, so I finally re-gained full access to my computer.. yay 8D
This won't last much though, because I need to format it and reinstall the OS... something that scares the hell out of me everytime @_@ so wish me good luck!
Hope to be full operative again soon, will reply at your email and notes asap!


Cheers
Serena

Because I feel I have the right to brag about how beautiful they are ♥♥

Not a "To-do" list, because I already know what I have to do... *sigh*
So, it means that this will have to wait until I'm done with my actual works...
Damn you inspiration, y u no there when I have time for you?!

ok, let's see...

Animals series
Always about my "Inavesu" characters, sadly, I'm still missing one of the Embodiments, it will be soo lame of me doing this without the poor Elias :°°DD.. will need to work on his character design sometime soon u__ù... now I even have Elias' character design, so yay!
I've already decided all of them, but I'm still missing one, guess who? Vehnas'. Messirama :°D... yeah, I changed my mind on a couple of things...
Any suggestion? (Lion, tiger, owl/crow, bear and snake are already taken!)

Instruments series
Because of reasons!
It should include transverse flute, pan pipe, gu zheng, rebab/cello (or something similar I'll make up to fit my story setting) and doumbek. Guess the characters and win a cookie (not only Inavesu's)

"She who changes with seasons" - remake of an old illustration of Dalarna
"Keepsakes: the Knife, the Pendant and the Ring" - illustration concept
"The Pact" - follow up of the Inavesu's story from where I left it in the "Till next time" picture, and that will connect with the "Defiance" piece.
"You only have to ask" - illustration concept
"The girl of the crows" - a short prose  about Vehnas' last days of life DONE - "Crows don't care"
"Confessions" series - short prose about Inavesu's characters, written in their POV



Not sure if I'll ever manage to do all the things I mentioned, but one can dream :°D

This is an idea I had in mind for a while now, and today I finally decided to give it a try. Read further if you want to know what this is about!

You sketch, I draw

How it works?
To enter the project all you need to do is a sketch of an illustration you'd like me to do.
It can be about anything: your characters, my characters, someone else's characters, your sister, your dog, a robot, your sister's robot. Anything.
It may contain all the elements you want, it can be whatever you like, just, it hasn't to be a finished drawing: it has to be a rough, a preliminary sketch.
Then what?
When the project will be over, I'll pick the sketch I like the most among the ones submitted and I'll finish it in my own style and at the best of my abilities. Easy peasy, right?
What's the deal?
- To enter you have to be already one of my watchers and possibly have previously shown some interest for my works (interest not directly correlated with the idea of having a free drawing from me).
- Everything you want to include in the illustration must be in the sketch you're submitting. While a description of the scene/drawing in the artist comment is extremely welcome and encouraged, any element which is not in the sketch will be ignored (it means that if you say "there should be a ship in the background" but in the sketch there's no ship, there is no ship at all!).
- Only one entry per person. You can change it before the deadline though.
- The final illustration will feature OF COURSE the subject portrayed in the chosen sketch, with no variation whatsoever. So, if the winning sketch features an OC, it will be about that OC, with all the credits given to its owner and basic stuff.
- I'm not going to choose the sketch basing merely on the skill level of the entrant, but also on the subject/composition/general idea of the picture (mut mostly, my tastes XD), so, the more "creative", the more the chances I'd say.
- The final illustration will be done based on the chosen sketch but will probably not be exactly the same, so, if you're not comfortable with the idea of me working on your sketch to create an illustration with my style, please don't enter, because it wouldn't have any sense XD.
Any specific for the sketch?
Digital/traditional, doesn't matter, as long as it fits in the A4 size. No colours. No shading required (unless you're including a given light source in the composition, in that case, go ahead!). It doesn't have to be a new work, so if you want to enter with a sketch you already have, feel free to! (But remember that I won't accept any written correction to the sketch, if it needs updates you'll have to do it on the sketch itself!).
When and how?
You can submit your sketches until the 16 June (two months from now) by posting a link to your entry in this journal.
Then, I'll probably take my time to do the final illustration, so, if you're not patient, please don't bother entering :°D
What if I have a question?
Ask!


So, whaddaya say?

Entries

- Let me know if your work isn't in there!!

So have a picture of a baby sugar glider instead!



as =Mavrosh said, baby sugar gliders make everyone smile

:thumb295440717:
oh cool!
Front page is always full of (not so) hidden treasures!

So, I decided to give another try and sent another report, just in case... I even added some animation, to show how lines overlap almost exactly in more than 70% of the drawing (except for the fact that, of course, my characters became her characters).
Just as before, it didn't seem to work, so I'd say that the question is closed for me. Maybe the problem is just me afterall.

Thank you very much for your support, everyone. Still, I'd like to say that I have almost anything against this person.. I mean, aside from tracing artworks from other people to create her artworks what is she doing? Killing puppies? Of course not.
Yes, it's annoying, especially since she keeps saying that she didn't think she was doing anything wrong even after the zillionth time an artist complain with her for using their artwork.
But as long as this is allowed and not stopped by the site itself, who am I to complain?

Greetings.

So, I post artworks on here and someone takes them and trace them at their leisure.
They don't ask, they don't tell. They answer to the comments received thanking for the compliments and saying how they worked hard on their drawing and other (pathetic) stuff.

I ask for DeviantArt help and I get the middle finger because the someone in question did such a good work in tracing them that now they're definitely different artworks.
Coincidental.
My ass.
Fuck that I didn't submit my works into the stock category, which is exactly how they are used like...
If it doesn't make any difference why creating the stock category in first place? Looks like everyone can do anything here!

The question is, how should this encourage me in posting works here?
Should I start tracing off other people's artworks aswell? I mean, I would save a lot of time and wouldn't care much if someone else stole from me at that point...
Hey, it could be the right way to live a full and happy DeviantArt experience!



And before someone decides to annoy me with the usual nonsense stuff like "you can't copyright a pose" and similar: educate yourself.
That's not what we're talking about.
Art Theft, Tracing, and Referencing: A Guide

How is everyone going?
Just wanted to write something down, even though I really have no relevant news to share atm... yeah, still waiting for spring to bring me some good mood instead of the usual pollen allergy X°D (which makes me realize I really should clean my backyard sometimes o.o'...)

Feeling rather sentimental lately (read "emotionally unstable" ), I really can't help but overreact at the feedback I'm receiving on my latest personal works ... what can I say, I will probably never thank you enough not only for being so lenient with my obsessions, but also for *aiding and abetting* them so much :°D
And speaking of obsessions and abetting, I just need to share with you a couple of beautiful things I received from some friends, dedicated to Istaaz and Vehnas after the Doll picture...
Songs!
The first was suggested me by Brandy (whose DA nick I do not know D°: forgive me dear!)
Not my genre, so I probably would have never heard of it if it wasn't for her ...

beautiful song + me being emotionally unstable = forever cry

The other one was sent to me by ~Menestrella
It's sung in Italian (and I get it's from an anime soundtrack, "Wolf's Rain"), but in the video there are both original and English translated lyrics...
Not only it's creepy and beautiful at the same time, but also, as ~Menestrella said, now I can't help but imagining Vehnas' voice exactly like that...




And to conclude my sentimental parade...

which just reminded me of my HUGE love for cellos. I have a lot of characters able to play instruments, but right now I think I need someone who can play cello just for the sake of drawing someone playing a cello. Seriously, it's of vital importance U____U.
VITAL.

*cough*


Also, seeing Vehnas drawn by another artist: check!
:thumb291803767:
I mean, I will never be brave enough to ask someone to draw him, not even for a paid commission :°D so the fact that someone would decide to draw him out of the blue (and of their own free will!!) just makes me melt inside a little.


ok, I'v rambled enough for today, so I'll just leave you with an image of my latest work in progress, which I hope to finish and post soon (but I know will be postponed because I have little time D°: *sigh*)




My best wishes to you all

So, looks like my March Hare is back...
I must admit I really wasn't expecting it, as I felt kinda happy lately... but March Hares are not supposed to make any sense, so I don't think I have any right to complain.

Instead, I'll just send a huge thank you to all those people that make me feel special everyday when I really shouldn't have any reason to: thank you for the messages, the notes, the emails, the nonsense, the fun chats; thank you for believing with me in something that doesn't even exist, thank you for the support. Really.

I'll be back and *art* on there again, hopefully sooner than I expect, but now... I have an undesired guest to take care of.

Because today it's his birthday and I have no will to draw anything for him, soo....

Yes, that's mostly for the records you know XD journals are perfect for this kind of things!

In response of a sudden realization, I decided to split in a definitive way the various storylines I use as subject of my illustrations...
Even though "Animae" is indeed the main story I originally started working on, some less important aspects of its setting have lately obsessed me become too complex to be just considered "background information"... It's confusing, not to mention that they hardly have anything to do with the main plot, except for the fact that they are part of the same universe and maybe share a character or two...
So, this morning I felt very industrious (read: I was too lazy to start drawing as I was supposed to), and finally made a couple of changes in my galleries, where now the illustrations are organized following the three different storylines I mainly talk about ATM:
Animae: the oldest and most spammed in the past 4 years (whose main plot is still unknown to everyone, in spite of that!) , with Rhistel, Elyon and the other fooks
Sywyn's related: under the name of "Windrider's Steps", where I'll post all the random stories regarding Sywyn's life before being involved in Animae's plot (considering how he is kinda a side-character in Animae I probably worked too much on him >_>...)
and "Inavesu - The Timeless": the plot regarding the Embodiments, the folks to whom I sometimes inaccurately address as "gods"  of the Animae's pantheon (but have quite nothing to do with the traditional idea of gods at all). Here I'll keep updating the stories of Messirama (before and also while being involved in Animae's plot), Istaaz, Dalarna, Vehans and the others I hardly talk about (because yes, I can be longwinded even while omitting huge parts of stories, that's a gift!).

Thus said, what will change from now on?
Of course, nothing. I said that, it was just for the records

Yes, I owe you at least three minutes of your life now

Love
Serena

Why yes, I'm late with this, but seriously, I didn't realize I did have some resolutions until... now.

Few days ago it was my eighth DA birthday... geez, it's really A LOT I browse those pages o__o kinda hard to believe it passed so much since I first joined and had absolutely no clue about what I was doing...
So, I had a look at my works from the past two-three years, as I'm used to every now and then, and again, what I saw was boring... possibly even more boring than usual.
Even though I was very concerned about depicting what I felt, I really didn't care about HOW I was doing it.
I learnt that I could fix minor mistakes in Photoshop instead of being careful while drawing.
I learnt that I could use a brush instead of actually drawing that little detail few will notice.
I learnt that I could past a texture instead of drawing my own patterns and creating my own effects with the tools I had.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like it was super-easy to do drawings that way, they still took me time and efforts... The problem is, I always though that my drawings would have lived on the web only.
What I have now is a bunch of printing paper sheets with drawings I will never feel like showing to someone, because they weren't meant to be finished on paper. Because they had their completion in an editing program.
Awesome.
And here it comes the "but a drawing can be good no matter how it's achieved!"...
Well, yes, I surely agree with this opinion, yet I realized it's not what I want for my pictures.
Unless I want to go digital from the start with a piece, I want to have drawings I can look at and say "heh, it's better on the paper, too bad the scanner/photo killed it. I will show you the original as soon as I can." I want drawing I can frame and put on my wall.

I started thinking this way last summer to tell the truth, yet, I kept falling in the digital trap every now and then, so, this will be one of my new year art resolutions:

1-  Finish every traditional picture at my very best before scanning it, no matter how much it will take. The only digital thing I shall put on them is my watermark.
2- Work with reference pictures everytime I can instead of just guessing things. Back guessing when I'll be done learning (never?).
3- Work more on bigger formats and...
4- ...not get bored by bigger format drawings before finishing them o.o (eew)

also, for the sake of my mental sanity (which is not very much), I'll try to fight the impulse of showing the drawings here on DA before I have finished them... this won't mean I'll stop posting sketches or walkthroughs, I'll just keep using Tumblr for this as I first planned...

Thus said, I'll go back working on things I should not be working on right now, but first....

...a little advertise
One of my DA pal, would like to do some art-trades.
She's not into drawing, but she'd like to offer handmade-customized fascinators in exchange for art, you may look her creations at ~MelodysMillinery
If you're interested, contact her at her main account, here's the link to her journal [link]


Cheers
Serena

...a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Have wonderful holidays everyone

It's been almost two years since my last comment-for-feature journal, and since right now I'm not using this account so much due to my lack of artistic activity, I thought about.... posting other people's art in it 8D
So....

How it works...

While the event is open, leave a comment in this journal with a link or thumb of the work of yours you'd like to see featured ^^ (just one please); if you want, you may include a link to a deviation you like done by another deviant as well and it will be included in the feature.

Anyone can join, no need to be my watcher or anything, and you can participate even if you were already suggested by someone.

I know I'm not being very active lately, I'm not in the mood and I'm really trying hard to stay away from my computer, but since I needed to write this down, here I am again...

I received a couple of days ago a message from my DA pal *Adielle, which is going through a quite difficult situation... among the helluva lot of problems she's dealing with there's the financial one, and that's why, among all the other things, she's taking unlimited commissions right now on DA, in order to try and get back to her feet.
I've been one of her customer in the past and I like her works very much, so, if you're looking for someone to commission, I definitely feel like suggesting you to take a look to her works and info journal:



She offers various commission formats, and her prices range from 5 to 50 dollars, easily meeting every necessity and possibility: here's the journal with all the commissions info.
Also, if you want to know more about her and her situation, here's the link to her journal -> [link]


Thank you for your attention, wish you all the best
Stay brave, Danielle

Serena

Nothing really interesting to say actually, after the journal of a couple of months ago I let the palsy subject die as I really didn't want to bother you with the argument more than I did already, but since a lot of people asked me how I was going I thought an update was needed!
Right now I almost recovered all my muscle functions (finally ) only a couple of them are still sleeping, but they're muscles I discovered only because of the physiotherapy :°D so I hardly use them anyway... another month and they'll be fine too most probably, I only need to keep exercising them (which means making weird face to the mirror for ten minutes a day XD)
Thank you to all the people who noted me and gave me support you've been awesome


About the delay, I'm actually forcing me to the computer right now to write down this journal, I really don't have any will to be here =____=  but I wanted at least let you know that I'll be absconded for a while.. my mate finally have a sort of vacation, just few days, but at least he will be home from work for some time, and I'm going to try and spend more time outside since when I'm alone I hardly go out >___> (right now I'm waiting to go to the swimming pool with ~LadyDeddelit, it will be like, the first summer-related thing I do since last year!! DX)

I have a note backlog, I received them and I will answer them, please be patient
Booked commissions will be done just as planned, don't worry!
Thank you for all your messages on my works, I know I hardly answer to them but I always read them all >.<

Aside from that, I wish you happy vacation, hope you're enjoying your summer