Back again for my quarterly report!

Wow, has it really been THAT long since I submitted anything to DeviantArt? Time's just FLOWN for me the past few months- got that job I mentioned in the last entry, and it's completely awesome, but my very first assignment put me on the road to head up a major project. Since early September, I've basically been living in hotel rooms for three to four nights a week, and I haven't found one yet that is as conducive to the creative process as my own home. It's mostly wrapped up at the moment- a few odds and ends left to do, but I've gotta wait for a different contractor to do their thing before I can finish my work up, and it won't take long once it's ready. So hey, good a time as any to get back into the drawing thing, right?

And I HAVE been drawing in the meantime- it's always surprising to me just how much a man's skills can deteriorate after a few months of unproductivity. I've been getting back into the habit by sketching for the Giant Project, mainly (looks like that's gonna get pushed back to next year, though), but more importantly, I'm trying to empty out my increasingly-inappropriately-named Current Projects folder. Aside from the Giant Project, there are only four more items in there- and I'll be starting on one of them soon as this Journal entry's done .

I uploaded the last one I finished and posted about it at my LiveJournal, but once again, it's something that wouldn't survive ten minutes here at DeviantArt. It's a request pic for a dear anonymous friend of mine and features Dawn and Zoey from the most recent Pokemon anime arc, and you can read all about it over here:

Greetings from Snowpoint City

Click the stamp for the main feature, but be warned- it might make you feel a little dirty :3.

In the meantime, I've uploaded a couple more recent pics to my Scrapbook- they're both drawings for other friends, but rest assured, the next pic's all me. I realized that, if I can get it done in time, I can use it to mark a fairly auspicious occasion, so I'm hoping to knock it right on out- stay tuned!

Seriously, man, you still alive, or what?

Man, yeah, I'm still around- y'know, it's just been one of those months is all. A couple of those months, and possibly a few, in fact! Let's see what's been goin' on...

WORK: I've gone from having next to nothing to do at work to spending eight to ten hours a day trying to keep multiple projects under control. It's amazing to me how it always seems to work out this way- you line up what you think will be a nice, six-month stretch of relatively easy work; suddenly, some projects start lagging behind, others have their schedules radically accelerated, and the next thing you know, six months of light work has turned into two hours of workin' your ass off.

Still, I'm nowhere near as busy as I was LAST year- basically from February '08 to around January of this year, it was EXTREMELY rare for me to work less than ten hours a day, and uncommon for me to work less than six days a week. Nah, after that, this current workload is practically playtime.

Which is why I find myself entertaining a new job offer! It's actually more or less a done deal at this point- I've got all my forms in, and I've been told I'm a full-time employee, but I haven't received my first assignment yet. Still, the upshot is that I'll be getting a 20% raise plus benefits to do essentially what I've been doing for the past few years. Can't argue with that !

LIFE: I got tired of being pudgy and decided to slim down a bit. Now, I've never been DISGUSTINGLY OVERWEIGHT or anything, but I could probably stand to lose a few pounds, so starting in late July, I essentially cut significant portions of fast food, soda and general crap out of my diet and started walking and jogging on an alternating-days schedule. As of this typing, I've managed to drop 25 pounds! Makes me wonder what I could do if I actually got SERIOUS about it .

I'll also be heading up to Toronto in about a month- gotta go drop in on the woman and hang around for a week or so . I'm seriously counting the hours! There aren't enough, considering that we're still trying to come up with an itinerary. Any of you folks reading this Toronto locals, by chance? Any recommendations for fun places a dorky couple could spend an hour or two ?

ART: Well hell, this is what y'all REALLY wanna know about, isn't it ? Work continues on the SUPER PROJECT; don't have anything to show on it just yet, and probably won't for a good long while. If you generally like the stuff in my gallery, though, I think you'll find it worth the wait.

To be completely honest, though, from April to about a month ago, I wasn't working on anything at ALL. I'd sketch a bit for the super project, but nothing really serious.

Around the beginning of July, though, I realized I hadn't dug through my Projects folder in a while. I opened up "Current Projects"- the folder in which I keep all the concepts for pics I have a pretty concrete idea for- and was AMAZED to see stuff in there that was six, eight, ten months old- even some stuff that was well over a YEAR old!

So I decided it'd be a good thing to try and clear as much of that stuff out by the end of the year as I could.

The good news is that, so far, I'm doing pretty well- just put the finishing touches on the second Current Project I've finished! The BAD news is... well, if I tried to post either of them at DeviantArt, they'd probably get yanked down in short order. The even BADDER news is that the project I just finished is part of a collaboration that probably won't go live for another month or so, so I can't really show it to you yet. Shame, too, 'cause it actually WAS one of those departures from Peach 'n' Daisy stuff I've been talking about doing for the past few years!

Still, I posted the first picture I finished up at my LiveJournal- you can read the entry here:

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Basically, it's a picture I did for , who has done sprite versions of some of my Peach 'n' Daisy pics in the past. He sent me a spritesheet full of the works he'd based off my stuff, and on it was a sprite he'd done of the Princesses being menaced by giant Nipper plants. I figured that after all his hard work, it'd be nice to return the favor, and the rest is history, all contained in that post.

So that's two pictures down, and not counting the Super Project and a folder that contains reference material for a series I'll hopefully be starting soon, there are four more projects to go- all of them suitable for posting at DeviantArt. So maybe I'll have some new stuff up in here before too long!

We can hope!

Coming this weekend, in all likelihood! It's been an eventful month and I have much to report, but I'm hoping to wrap one of those events up by Sunday night. See y'all then!

THE DRAGON_HEART620 VIRUS IS STILL A FUCKIN' HOAX

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QUIT SENDING ME CHAIN-NOTES PLEASE AND THANK YOU

Still alive! Took an emergency vacation to the mountains at the beginning of the month, spent all last week hangin' out with the girlfriend during her week-long vacation, and my birthday's on Wednesday, so get me something nice.

Currently working on my largest, maddest project yet. Probably still won't be done for another month. Will try and upload preview pics as they become available, at least.

BACK TO WORK, ALLA YAS.