http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:Blacklightlara&section=today deviantART RSS for by:Blacklightlara en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:29:48 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/14138936/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/14138936/ Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:53:20 PDT
If you could see my work over the past couple of months, it'd be a clean, renovated, empty house. My mom is moving from the house where I grew up, that she's lived in for over 28 years. She's adjusting well, and my brothers and I are each finding neat odds and ends that I thought were gone, but my big brother, especially, and I have been neck-deep and using up all our free time on this.

My younger brother is back in town now, and the last part of the work is to sort through the garage. My big brother is literally the only living man on Earth who can tell what's trash and what's treasure in there. Which basically lets me off the hook until it's time to mop.

Ikasucon wraps up this weekend, and I'm getting that familiar "Oh $#!%, Sugoi Con needs to be pulled together" itch. Every department usually works on their own stuff up until this point, and from now till the con is when we need to start coordinating each others' efforts and filling in the gaps. I'm usually the communication hub that makes sure the right people don't just wait for each other to call, and several people told me they missed me doing that last year, when I didn't join the staff.

I took some pictures of the second Kaylee costume, but my camera lens had fingerprints on it and they looked hazy. I plan to take more before she outgrows the costume. I promise, it looks so much cuter on the baby now that she's got hair!

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/13749540/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/13749540/ Sun, 15 Jul 2007 21:17:02 PDT
]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/11024608/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/11024608/ Mon, 11 Dec 2006 05:05:30 PST
Here's the details:

[link]

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/10118669/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/10118669/ Tue, 19 Sep 2006 04:49:34 PDT Drawing Marathons from Around the World

To all interested. The 11th World Wide SketchCrawl is September 23rd 2006 !

But what is a "SketchCrawl"?
In short, roughly every 3 months we put a call out to people around the world to join in, put pen to paper on a given day for as long as they can (be it 20 minutes or 8 hours) drawing, sketching, journaling about their day and what's around them. For a day, slow down, look around you, see ... and draw or write. Record your day. No specific level of skill is expected ! Anyone is welcome.

How to participate.
We set up a forum where to seek and organize meetings with artists from your area. You can participate in SketchCrawl on your own or with a group of friends. I usually meet groups of artists in San Francisco, where I live. The forums and the Flickr SketchCrawl group also serve as gathering and sharing place after the drawing marathon day. The idea behind this is to get the great feeling of drawing with and at the same time as peoples from all walks of life and from all corners of the world; and ultimately by sharing the day's sketches and photos on Flickr and the SketchCrawl forums, to see places and details from corners of the world we might not see at all in our life time !

The history of it.
We put out a call for the first World Wide SkethCrawl on November 21st 2004, we've done 10 drawing marathons since and people from all over the world have joined in and shared their drawings. On one occasion we also raised funds for the Pakistani Earthquake relief effort. And we plan to seek more of this kind of opportunities in the future. There's nothing like sharing drawing and also make a small difference in the world.

The SketchCrawl blog.
We have a communal SketchCrawl blog for which we are looking for contributors. We are very happy to accept posts from anyone who might want to contribute sketches or thoughts about drawing, materials and inspiration. One more space to share.
[link]

The organizers.
I (Enrico Casarosa) started SketchCrawl in 2004 and have organized and spread the word about SketchCrawling since. I am currently a storyboard artist at Pixar Animation Studios. I've worked in the industry for more than ten years and been publishing comics and artbooks in my spare time. Ronnie del Carmen is a legend in the animation industry, currently a Head of Story at Pixar, in his prestigious career he has worked for the Batman Animated show, Dreamworks animation and many others amazing projects. Ronnie is my partner in crime in publishing books and now also in SketchCrawling around the world.

So take this chance to dust off that old sketchbook of yours or take out of the wrapper that nice new Moleskine you bought. Saturday September 23rd is around the corner, obviously the more the merrier. So feel free to spread the word in any way you can. That's what is amazing about the internet. We've also tried and spread the word in another few ways: we have made t-shirts and stickers.
[link]
If you plan to have a big group of "crawlers" shoot me an email, I'll be happy to send some stickers.

Many thanks for your time !

Enrico Casarosa



Here's a few Links to SketchCrawl information on the web.

Sketchawhat ?
[link]

The first SketchCrawl I tried in the summer of 2004.
[link]

The first World Wide SketchCrawl on November 2004.
[link]

The Flickr SketchCrawl group
[link]

The SketchCrawl forums where you can see past and current SketchCrawls.
[link]

My blog
[link]

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9992402/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9992402/ Wed, 06 Sep 2006 19:29:10 PDT
Gail Simone wrote this letter. If you are or know any of Lea's fans, please spread the word:

Early this morning, the Texas home of award-winning writer/artist Lea Hernandez, my friend and co-creator of the graphic novel Killer Princesses, caught fire and burned. Half her house is now gone, and the rest is smoke-damaged. In addition, she lost at least six of her family's beloved pets, two dogs and four cats. If you knew Lea, you'd know how devastating that is.

She's lost a great deal of her family's possessions, including irreplaceable art. She doesn't yet know the full accounting of what's been lost at this time.

Most know Lea as the brilliant creator of such works as Rumble Girls and Cathedral Child. She drew the Marvel Mangaverse Punisher book, and has drawn for Transmetropolitan, among many other accomplishments. She is also the co-founder and original editor for Girl-a-Matic, one of the most important venues for female-friendly comics created to date.

She's also my friend, and it's entirely possible I wouldn't have a career in comics if she hadn't asked me to write Killer Princesses for her to draw.

And finally, Lea is one of the last great firebrand hellraisers in comics.

Lea has two (wonderful, amazing) special needs children and right now they need a place to stay and some clothes to wear. More than that, they need some help, and fast, in the form of donations to her PayPal account. Lea's a proud person so I'm going to ask for her. This is important, and a great chance to do a wonderful thing for a creator who has consistently enriched this industry we all love so much. Please, take a moment and send whatever you can to Lea's PayPal account and help make this time a little bit less painful for someone who would do the same for you if the positions were reversed.

If you're a retailer, I ask that you set up a donations jar. If you're a creator, I ask you to think of how devastating this would be to your career and donate what you can. If you're a reader, I'm asking you to take a moment and hit the PayPal link. You'll be doing something heroic and you'll feel great about it, I promise.

Read what Lea had to post on a neighbor's computer while wearing her pajamas at Livejournal.com/users/divalea.

Donate (PLEASE) to her PayPal account at divalea@gmail.com.

Finally, if I understand the story correctly (as told to me by Lea's good friend and current Girl-a-matic editor), it was Lea's daughter hearing the smoke alarm that allowed the family to get out in time, so for God's sake, do everyone you love a favor and CHECK YOUR SMOKE ALARMS.

Thank you so much for helping. Really, any amount you can send will make a difference. That's all I can say.

And also, if you have a blog or a myspace account, please spread this around as best you can. Every little bit will help and every eye that sees this might be someone who donates.

Sincerely and gratefully,
Gail Simone

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9934357/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9934357/ Fri, 01 Sep 2006 20:29:04 PDT
FAVOURITES:
Favorite Color: cobalt-glass blue
Favorite Food: Snow crab legs
Favorite Movie: I don't know. Let's say PotC.
Favorite Sport: Running
Favorite Day of the Week: Friday
Favorite Season: Fall
Favorite Ice Cream: Bubblegum

CURRENTS:
Current Mood: Waiting to get to sleep
Current Clothes: Blue jeans, sky-blue sleeveless t-shirt with a fairy on it.
Current Desktop: Anime-style mermaid
Current Time: 11:06pm
Current Surroundings: Computer room (small bedroom)
Current Annoyance: Early morning tomorrow
Current Thoughts: Sleep.

FIRSTS:
First Best Friend: Beth Whitney
First Crush: John Clark
First Movie: Star Wars
First Lie: no idea.
First Music: Disney's Robin Hood, I guess.

LASTS:
Last Drink: Water
Last Crush: Jeremey
Last Phone Call: Mom
Last CD played: L'arc en Ciel, the one with "Blurry Eyes"

HAVE YOU EVER:
Have you ever dated one of your best friends: Married 'im
Have you ever broken the law: Yes
Have you ever been arrested: No
Have you ever been on TV: In '95, when Otakon was small, a Japanese film crew filmed the costume contest and I was cosplaying Ukyou. A friend showed us a videotape of the news segment later. I couldn't understand it because it was in Japanese.
Have you ever kissed someone you don't know: Yes

THINGS:
5 things you are good at: Sewing, dealing with people, daydreaming, cutting my own hair, drawing (although I don't much)
4 things you done today: Organized the changing table, bought groceries for a breakfast casserole, worked, played with the baby.
3 things you can hear right now: The PC cooling system, a car outside, the baby's breathing.
1 thing you do when you are bored: read web sites.


Ok....Now it's your turn.

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9860739/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9860739/ Sat, 26 Aug 2006 10:39:30 PDT
I'm probably just irritated because my own budget is incredibly tight lately, but explain again the logic of buying a $250 purse with a lifetime warranty when you already know you'll replace it next season?! That's too much money to carry around *in* a purse, let alone to pay for one!

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9705784/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9705784/ Sat, 12 Aug 2006 19:10:23 PDT
New format on DA and Dita's posting pictures, but still reminding the mods she doesn't like it.

This'll take some time to adjust to. Can we edit our comments now, or do they still want people to be able to nit-pick each other's dumb little arguments?

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9336476/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9336476/ Mon, 10 Jul 2006 20:00:35 PDT

In honor of your birthday, I'm posting five good links from my bookmarks. I hope you haven't seen too many of these before!

[link]
The Drawing Board forum. I think you have to register and log in to see the drawings, but you've just *got* to see what people come up with. In the "Drawing Jam" section they have a set of reference photos every month. It helps to use Firefox.

[link]
Some great little CG pieces. Check out "Botlets" and "Spiderweb".

[link]
Michel Gagne's "Prelude to Eden". This is just plain cool.

[link]
Greg Weisman has been answering behind-the-scenes questions about the "Gargoyles" cartoon for years now. Try "Browse the Archives" for some great background. For instance, did you know that Broadway is Hudson's son?

[link]
A decent page about gryphons.

Happy Birthday!!

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9272678/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9272678/ Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:38:38 PDT
It's 6pm, cloudy but still full daylight, the 1950's windows on my house gave up the ghost a long time ago (the *weighted ropes* on them break all the time), and I just spent 3 hours getting my baby to sleep. Will you PLEASE save the noisy fireworks for night, after I've got her in her room away from the street?!

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9172747/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9172747/ Sat, 24 Jun 2006 20:34:43 PDT [link]

This is the film Richard Williams has been working on for three decades. Cartoon Brew can give you much more information (www.cartoonbrew.com). Richard Williams was the director of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", and wrote a great textbook on animation movement (which I have).

I'm watching it, and it is a fantastic example of how precise, fluid and lifelike hand-drawn animation can be. It's got some really interesting perspective changes, and they really tried to capture the unusual 2-D effects of real tapestries in that region.

However, the story is pretty flat, and the characters are one-dimensional to say the least. I don't understand how they can put such loving attention into making some of the backgrounds look like real Persian art, yet not even try to give the characters Arabic names. The princess is actually named "Yum-Yum". What the hell?

The full version is around on BitTorrent or YouTube. I linked to the YouTube version. See what you think.

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9087199/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9087199/ Fri, 16 Jun 2006 12:51:22 PDT

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9012487/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/9012487/ Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:50:29 PDT [link]

Yes, I just now heard this, and I know, it was announced back in November.

Anne McCaffrey relaxed her rules for fanworks relating to her books about the Dragonriders of Pern. Due to the possibility of copyright infringement and probably the realization that fanworks are great advertising, she's reduced the trouble it used to take to be sure fanwork was in keeping with the intended vision of the books.

I'm glad - They're great books, and I can see them inspiring people. The trouble it used to take to get approved was infamous and must have put off a lot of fans. I understand the rules were put in place in the early days of the Web, when there were a lot of hysterical predictions about books becoming obsolete.

What do you think?

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8981844/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8981844/ Mon, 05 Jun 2006 19:22:39 PDT
]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8943058/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8943058/ Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:44:46 PDT
]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8823098/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8823098/ Sat, 20 May 2006 06:28:17 PDT
But that night, she got hysterical. Her left leg was red and swollen from one of the shots. It must have hurt, because she finally calmed down with a warm bath and some numbing cream I put on her thighs where she had the injections. It was adult cream that they gave me after the birth, but as long as I only use it for one night, it should be okay.

She's better this morning. It's scary because there are horror stories about babies reacting badly to the DPT vaccine.

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8634423/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8634423/ Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:58:26 PDT
Dammit, this means waiting til tomorrow to finish. Every bit of work seems to get done at a snail's pace on this house.

And, yes, I must be old. I'm griping about housework online.

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8597924/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8597924/ Thu, 27 Apr 2006 02:04:21 PDT
"The common situation is for a deviant to create a submission, such as a signature, in which they do all of the work but they make the error of including a rendered image from a video game or a portion of an anime screenshot.

Since these types of submissions are considered a violation of our copyright policies it is eventually removed by one of the C&E administrators and this is where the common misunderstanding creeps in."

My Yuri avatar was from a screenshot, and the Shampoo and Ukyou avatars were taken from official artwork too. So, rather than have the mods remove them when they find them, I'll take them down myself. No biggie.

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8553037/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8553037/ Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:52:47 PDT
1) I don't like pineapple. J thinks that's weird because I usually like sweet foods, but no. I think it's weird that he doesn't like mint.

2) I have memorized the first scene of Disney's Robin Hood. "You know Rob, we're takin' too many chances." etc. We had a record with the songs and little bits of the dialogue when I was growing up. The song for The Hamster Dance came from that movie.

3) At my cube at work, I've got: A Hallmark ornament of Stitch as Elvis, a seashell from my great-aunt, three Autobot figures (Jazz, Wheeljack, and Ironhide), family photos, and an Ah! My Goddess pencil board.

4) I've cosplayed as Ukyou from Ranma 1/2, Chun-Li from Street Fighter, and Eve from Megazone 2 3.

5) I avoid brand-name clothes if at all possible, unless *maybe* it's a good deal. In high school, the tension was terrible between my parents and I wasn't about to make things harder by demanding expensive clothes to fit in, not to mention let people I didn't like tell me how to dress. It's made me more resourceful, so it turned out well in the end.

6) Every couple of years or so, I get on a kick about something or other. I've been into painting jean jackets, kites, stained glass, and right now I have two good ideas for plushies. I never seem to take the interest very far, but I usually learn a lot. Since I've gotten to know that, I can just have fun thinking about it instead of trying to make it into The Magic Cinderella Lottery Ticket that I'll make a living at instead of slogging through customer service.

Who should I tag?

Hakuji - you're it! ]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8419997/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8419997/ Sun, 09 Apr 2006 20:42:03 PDT
-a winter coat I'd forgotten about

-that "wanted sign" of J & me dressed as Wild West people

-an unused 18x12 sketchpad (Great! I apparently collect blank sketchpads! )

-a set of lug wrenches J's been looking for

-a photo of myself from high school (Jeez, I looked good and didn't realize it.)

-an autographed photo of Megadeth, back when I was in their fan club. That makes two I own. The other one is a better photo.

-a synopsis of a Ranma 1/2 episode from the *very* early days of Anime-UC, when Dana Weaver was in charge. Craig Mercer was running Anime-C in a game shop somewhere, Clyde Adams III had the best trading list in town, and Ranma wasn't subbed yet, so you needed a synopsis to follow the story. Now, a good, accurate dub of Nausicaa has aired on two basic cable networks, after a butcher job in the '80's and years of fansub word-of-mouth. We all made that happen.


]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8129523/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/8129523/ Sat, 11 Mar 2006 09:57:08 PST
[link]

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/7800532/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/7800532/ Sat, 04 Feb 2006 14:37:34 PST
]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/7587783/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/7587783/ Thu, 12 Jan 2006 21:31:26 PST
We got home Wednesday evening, and I've been too busy with her to get out the word before today. I'll post pictures ASAP, though! If you see this, please spread the word, okay?

]]> ~Blacklightlara http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/7188277/ http://Blacklightlara.deviantart.com/journal/7188277/ Wed, 30 Nov 2005 18:23:37 PST
* Design-a-Gargoyle and win a free DVD!

Buena Vista Home Entertainment is sponsoring online contests to promote the coming Season 2-Part 1 Gargoyles DVD. Gargoyles News Central is being sent three copies to give out as free prizes. The theme of this contest is simple - design your own gargoyle or gargoyle beast, and describe it in writing and/or artwork. Entries will be judged based on creativity, focusing on the novelty, functionality, and overall look of the design. Go here for details.

[link]

The deadline is Dec. 9th at midnight.

]]> ~Blacklightlara