deviantART: by:Chronophontes

A new "Old Lover"

=Chronophontes — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:46:59 PST

Hello, Giovanna!

Being the Mouse Clicker to a family of characters is a little like being the daddy of a family - I don't believe in favoring one over another, and I try not to. But once in a while a character just fascinates me too much. I thought of putting this off until Christmas...then of putting it off until Thanksgiving...then I just gave up. Here she is!

Pandora's mature and lovely Mamma has a name, at last! ...AND her own dA account as well: _{Hey, go give her a big Buon Giorno hug...}

Giovanna is Italian American, a native of Naples. (In honor of our Neapolitan friend ~Lord-Crios). She was born in Naples, some time in the early 1950s, and spent some of her childhood there - apparently enough to acquire some Neapolitan street-smarts, which paid off handsomely for her as an older girl and teenager growing up in the urban U.S. of the 60s and 70s - a time when the American crime rate was approaching its maximum.

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Fictional or virtual characters have two kinds of background. There's their history in their own world - I just told you that part. Then there's their history in this world - the story of their creation. Most people other than the author and the most devoted fans presumably don't care about that - but you're all artists, right? and many of you have your own characters, so I hope you can relate to the following.

Daughter Pandora existed on my hard drive long before we came to dA - since late 2000, to be exact [link] . Even before that ancient date, I had been working on the character who eventually became Pandora. Those "Pre-Pandoras" weren't quite memorable enough to become permanent OCs, but I always liked them.

That meant that a few months ago, when Pandora expressed interest in her family, there was a nice collection of almost-ready-made family members - female characters who looked a lot like Pandora but were definitely not identical. Older sisters Phyllis and Phoebe [link] are two of those; the "young" Mamma in [link] is another.

Then Pandora wanted me to show her with her mamma, as they both look today. That meant creating an older version of Mamma. I won't go into all the technical details of "aging morphs" and other methods of making a 3D character look older - I'll just hope you enjoy the result!

As you see her in her latest images, Giovanna is not simply an age-enhanced version of a Poser figure from 2000; I've modernized her in some ways. She has the advanced Victoria 4.2 body (2008) combined with her original Poser 4 "Posette" face (1999 or so - with age enhancements, of course).

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So that's about her appearance. As a Chronophontian, she is not just a face and body - there's a PERSON behind those, with a personality! - but since I'm a visual artist and not a novelist, I don't need to systematically create personalities for my characters. They "just grow". So when Giovanna first appeared in [link] and [link] , she had hardly any personality at all. And of course she is still developing - in response to various situations ... and also in response to viewers' suggestions. (Thanks especially to ~LadyRavenlocke, who pointed out that "you can see a little of Pandora's spark in her mother" - a wonderful and very, very helpful observation!)

Then there's me. I've always liked women "my own age" - which means that at 60, I can find a woman in her late fifties every bit as attractive as a younger one. (I hope you can too! ) Meanwhile, as her personality evolves, Giovanna also seems to be attracted to men in her own age bracket...and in Chronophontia, that means the Mouse Clicker .

And another thing: the mother of brash, assertively sexy Pandora is not likely to be a du...

Old lovers

=Chronophontes — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:48:19 PDT

OR La chanson des vieux amants... _{A dazzlingly lovely song by Jacques Brel, sung by Judy Collins back in the 60s...}

(...and various other thoughts on getting older...another ramble, so read this only if you're in a patient mood...or "feeling your age" yourself!)

Not that it's an issue for the great majority of us...but guess what, it does happen! (And GUESS WHAT, it's a lot better than you might think! )

I just turned 60 - don't know whether that means I'm already an "old lover" or (per my grandfather) that I will be, in another 15 years. (He used to say, at least once a year, "In 15 years I'll be old.")

Then there was my uncle: once upon a time when he was in his eighties, I answered a remark of his with, "I'm 43 - I'm not a kid anymore." He just looked at me...and looked at me...and finally smiled...and replied: "I am."

Nevertheless, the jump in the "tens digit" from age 59 (which seems to have lasted long enough) starts me thinking about stuff. Plus, I just sent off a note to a lady who is all of 32 (which, to some of you, is OLD!!!!!) reassuring her that REAL beauty does not fade, even if PRETTINESS sometimes does.

well, hey, real beauty DOESN'T fade. Even prettiness doesn't ALWAYS fade, though let's face it, sometimes it does. I just tried experimenting with a portrait of a lady who must be at least in her mid to late fifties [link] - granted, it takes some genetic luck to age quite as cutely as Pandora's Mamma has done.

Pandora's Mamma: Not just luck, caro mio. I DO take care of myself. Not like SOME of us our age...

The whole point of this journal is to repeat something I said to that nervous lady of newly 32, and I'm going to tell this to my girlfriend Janet too! (she's MY age):

At 60, my girlfriend and I move slower than we would have done long ago, but our LOVE is all the deeper.

Yup, it works that way. _{And FURTHERMORE, orgasms feel JUST as good, even if us males don't have QUITE so many of them at this age. Plus we can hold on longer...hey dude, didja ever come too soon for your lady? Get older!}

OK, all of this stuff means that I gotta say some more about sex!

Fwiw, any patience I feel toward ascetics and sex-haters of any age, is merely humane - hey, they're people too, in their way! God loves them TOO, IN SPITE of their deficiency, not BECAUSE of it.

I still post renders of some VERY sexy ladies. They are younger than I am, to be sure, because even I am not immune to the stereotype that young = sexually attractive. I appreciate women my own age...but hey, I appreciate women of ALL ages. I love the story of the 19th century archaeologist (wish I could remember his name) who died at 105 when he crashed his buggy after turning to look at a pretty girl. Hope I die that way!

I have recently wondered about the question of the Chronophontians getting older. For a long time I simply assumed that time does not pass in Chronophontia, and the ladies do not get physically older. But now Natasha has a baby on the way, and over the next six months or so (she started in July) her appearance is going to change. Then she'll have a baby, who will grow from infant to toddler to preschooler to...whatever, however long I keep rendering Chronophontians!

Not that I anticipate being 90 in the year 2039 and having a gallery full of late-middle-aged Chronophontians running around naked and being late-middle-aged sexy. (Plus Natasha's 29-year-old daughter presumably running around naked, presumably with more general success.) Let's face it, I have no idea what will happen between now and then. I don't even assume that I'll live that long!

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Clubs

That's the title of a book by the 1930s American linguist, Benjamin Lee Whorf. It's also what this ramble is about.

(Why do I give a @#$%^&? Because I love language and languages, and it's an eternal frustration to me that I've never mastered any except my own.)

One of the things about the Chronophontians that never ceases to fascinate me is that they are not all monolingual English speakers like I am. In fact, only one of them is...

all-American ME!!!!

Natasha is Russian, Jeannine is French (though not by any means a stereotypical French person), Euthanasia is Transylvanian (Romanian + Hungarian with a little German thrown in), and Shirley, though basically American by adoption, has been around for several thousand years and assures me that her native language is Etruscan. As for the non-core Chronophontians: Lisette, Jeannine's little sister, is French; Alyosha is Russian; and I'm not sure about anybody else's nationality, except that Nikita the Mouse, despite the Russian name Natasha gave him, hails from the New York/New Jersey waterfront - at least to judge by his very (regional) American accent. (Think of a countertenor Humphrey Bogart.)

Despite their wildly varied origins, I "hear" all of them in English.

Natasha, Jeannine, and Lisette "speak" to me with distinctive accents - and their English tends to be "correct" second-language English rather than the slangy, fully comfortable English of a native speaker. OTOH, Euthie, who never learned any English at all, "speaks" to me in slangy (not to say occasionally quite vulgar) American.

My theory is that Natasha, Jeannine and Lisette have learned excellent English - as a second language. And as a courtesy to their "medium" (me), they communicate with me in their very best English - complete with accent. OTOH, Euthie, who never wasted time on foreign languages, thinks in her own mix of Romanian and Hungarian - and it comes out to monolingual me in American.

This leads to the "reality" issue.

From a narrow, reductionist, materialist point of view, the Chronophontians are purely and simply and MERELY figments of Thomas Ahlswede's imagination.

Sure, they ARE figments of my imagination. But there is nothing MERE about them.

They are PEOPLE. They have their lives, which I strive to represent and present and celebrate for you (and for myself too, of course.) When I say my prayers, I pray for them just as I pray for my kids - though, to be sure, my kids come first.

Fiction writers will understand immediately: a good character has his/her own take on things, and will communicate it very effectively. If your character doesn't want to do something, she damn well WON'T do it. And you will feel like a fool insisting.

The Chronophontians are like that. They are PEOPLE. They provide the ideas; I'm just "A. Mouse Clicker." As a person brought up in the (basically materialist) tradition of science, I sometimes let slip that "they aren't real"...but I get quickly corrected on that!

Yer damn tootin. Where does he get off with that IDIOT notion?

Not that A. Mouse Clicker doesn't have power. Hey, folks, I click the mouse...or I don't! If I don't like an idea suggested by one of the girls, the mouse doesn't get clicked.

Isn't there some way to make him automatic?

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Clubs

Summer was too @#$%^& short. My classes start tomorrow. Standing up and talking in class, of course - but also prepping, writing handouts, grading homework, advising, going to meetings, etc. etc. etc. ad inf. ad naus. ... but I'll be doing as much at dA as I can!

And at his other site too!

Now, a mini-review of Poser 8!

Overall I'm highly pleased. In stark contrast to Poser 6 and 7, it works (almost) right away! I've installed it on three machines since Friday, and had problems with each one, no surprise...different problems on each machine...but in each case, it does what I want it to do within hours rather than months.

That's a contrast, because although Poser 6 and 7 installed and ran smoothly, there were problems that made them unusable for me until the first service release came out. Applause to Smith Micro!

(More specifically, if anyone is curious: Poser 6's animation palette was unacceptably slow before SR1, and OpenGL didn't work for me at all. In Poser 7, OpenGL "worked", but there were bizarre distortions in the previews.)

Also, as with another person who was having trouble with P8, Smith Micro responded VERY promptly. (My problem was trivial, my bad. I was using the wrong serial number. )

The interface looks different from previous Posers. From the little I know of DAZ|Studio, Poser has aimed for some of DAZ's look and feel. But it's still very much the traditional Poser interface, so I was able to use it almost immediately. I'll probably be discovering minor differences for months to come, but they are minor. Some are annoying, but most are improvements.

So, 4-1/2 stars for Poser 8!

Let's keep these features for a little longer:

~CheerBearsFan

=PetraR123

Time for some new features!

~CheerBearsFan

=PetraR123

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A look at my gallery stats will show that summer, especially July and August, have been peak times for me. They have been this summer too, but not entirely at dA.

At least one of the Chronophontians has always chafed at certain restrictions that dA has always maintained (quite reasonably IMO).

Reasonably, huh? Well, we knew this dude was a wimp...

Now, I like erotic material. ("Porn", folks.) My personal rule has nothing to do with whether there is penetration or bodily fluids or etc. ad inf. ad naus. - I happen to think those things are excellent and beautiful. I draw the line at consent. You will never see serious violence - rape or other - in this gallery, even hinted at, unless it is clearly about to be foiled before it starts to happen. However, some people (including the powers that be) see the thing more mechanically than I do.

Specifically, dA is not a "porn" site, whatever that means...whatever it means to the U.S. government, under whose jurisdiction dA survives. "Porn", for dA's purposes, is defined fairly precisely in the FAQ ( [link] ).

Our dear Pandora is not the first deviant to find this restriction objectionable. (Not to mention that there are problems of interpretation - some pieces get away with it while others are unfairly discriminated against. I agree that there is injustice, but I'm an old man with a lifetime behind me of learning to suffer fools lightly. And the dA admins are a damn sight less foolish than some that I've suffered lightly!)

In any case, Tom (me) is the one who does the mouse clicking around here! If dA says it's porn, or some admin (if only under pressure from one of the more obnoxious people who sneak into dA) is significantly likely to say it's porn, I won't...

Workflow

=Chronophontes — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:36:28 PDT

(inspired by a nice technical question by ~defense2 [link] )

I'm always impressed when 3D artists talk about elaborate workflows: a little in Maya, a little in 3DS Max, a little in Blender, a little in Lightwave, a little in Vue, a little in Poser or DAZ|Studio, and THEN, just maybe, a little postwork in Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. I'm always impressed with what they say, and usually impressed with what they achieve.

I do it in Poser 7 and Photoshop. Period. And sometimes the simplicity shows.

I don't know if I could cope with that complexity! A common refrain among people with elaborate workflows is how long it takes...and my little workflow takes ME long enough!

Part of it is laziness. I've been using Poser since Poser 4 back around 2000, and Photoshop for three or four years, so I know those two tools very well. I used to do my postwork in Paint Shop Pro, but I got good at Photoshop simply from having to teach it! - and found that it had a few very useful features that PSP didn't have. (Mainly the "liquify" filter, for simple warping to smooth odd corners or to repair those awful Victoria 4 shoulder and hip joints.)

OTOH, though I have access to both Photoshop 7 and CS3, I still use 7 for most of my postwork - whatever new goodies CS3 has, I haven't found a "need" for them yet. I have (oldish versions of) 3DS Max and Bryce, but have never bothered to get good at them.

And even after nine years working with Poser, there are big areas I haven't even begun to explore. I've played a little with IBL (image based lighting) and ambient occlusion - I've seen some folks get awesome lighting effects with those, but mine are still not worth the trouble. And one that frankly embarrasses me: I've never yet written a Python script for Poser, and I'm a professional programmer! Oh well...someday. (True Kinky Confession for the day.)

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Let's keep these features for a little longer:

~HerrVorragend

~eqlovelace

...and a runnerup! (for my 30,000-pageviews kiriban)

I took my time about making it official, partly because I was out of town for a while, and partly because _NOBODY noted me with a screen shot. A couple of people did report, though, and I know and trust both of them. So, herewith:

~Lord-Crios

and

*AngelFyre32
(oops, I already featured you, Tonya - but here are a couple more from my faves

They are both figuring out what they would like for their prizes - the results will appear (hopefully!) pretty soon.

Meanwhile, here are a couple more new features!

~HerrVorragend

Micha was one of my first "fans". I used his stock in [link] and [link] ; he looked and liked what he saw, not only those pieces but some others. His support has been really valuable, especially when I was getting started. Viele Danke, Micha!

~eqlovelace

My 30,000 pageviews mark is coming up fast (just three to five days at the present rate) - and I missed giving a kiriban at 20,000, so I want to make it up!

The prize will be a render, on a subject of your choice, containing at least one Chronophontian (your choice) plus optionally a non-Chronophontian character of your choice.

Subject matter and other details may need to be negotiated, depending on what you want.

Just make a screen shot (alt-Print Screen) of my home page, put it in your scraps, and note me with a link. The pageview count closest to 30,000 wins!

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It's not time to replace these features quite yet...

*AngelFyre32

=exploringeve

~AmyWeaving

I've been a member of since its foundation - a noncontributing member until lately. Been wrapped up in too much other stuff. (How good an excuse that is, I'll let you judge.)

A @#$%^& excuse. He hasn't posted anything with me in it since he went on this tutorial binge.

As a teacher, by inclination as well as by profession, I enjoy sharing my knowledge and I believe in sharing it. I'll refrain from a rant about "secret techniques" except to remark that if secret techniques are what set you apart from the lesser breeds, then welcome to the lesser breeds. Oh hell, I can't resist a little brag about the time some photographer showed off one of his secret techniques in a before-and-after pair...I thought about how proud he was of his secret, and how sad it would be for me to post my reverse-engineered duplicate of it. Never did post it, and never will. The man is a good artist, for reasons having nothing at all to do with any secrets he keeps.

Well anyway. Now that I've had some time, I took the plunge and wrote one of the many tutorials I've felt ought to be written. Having done that, I felt all the sharper need for more - and having written one, it was easier to write more. So I finally wrote five. That should be plenty for now , though I'm sure there will be more eventually.

My latest set of features are still here - they've only been up a few days and it is much too soon to remove or replace them. So keep reading and go show these folks some love!

*AngelFyre32

=exploringeve

Nothing exciting to report - and that's something exciting in itself.

School's been out for three weeks now! I had been scheduled to teach a summer course, but it got canceled. I'll miss the money, but oh do I welcome the free time!! Once again, I look forward to some productive summer months.

Meanwhile, it's been way too long since I've featured anybody. So here are some of my own faves from people whose work I especially enjoy:

*AngelFyre32

=exploringeve

~AmyWeaving

Updating

=Chronophontes — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:10:53 PDT

Wow, we're in the news! [link] - Featured by =The-Heart
Thank you, =The-Heart!

We've also been featured by at [link] - thank you, Tash!

I'll be offline for a week, but back Friday May 1, and will try to get caught up then. Have a great week, everyone!

We love you all!!!!

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Clubs

Virtual friends

2 years

=Chronophontes — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:30:53 PDT

Wow, we're in the news! [link] - Featured by =The-Heart
Thank you, =The-Heart!

We've also been featured by at [link] - thank you, Tash!

Actually my second anniversary was three days ago. So what, it's been a busy spring break. The main thing I want to say is:

Thanks, Everybody!!

for watching, faving, commenting, and generally supporting the Chronophontians.

Especially the nice comments.

And the sexy ones!

And the intelligent ones.

And the nasty ones.

Hey, we appreciate all of 'em.

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Clubs

Virtual friends

Wow, we're in the news! [link] - Featured by =The-Heart
Thank you, =The-Heart!

We've also been featured by at [link] - thank you, Tash!

It looks like a lot of people are getting the same spam I'm getting - unfortunately I was fooled the first time and clicked on it, so some of you may be getting it "from" me now - I guess just flag it as spam, because that sure isn't me telling you to check out some supposedly awesome blog!

I've seen it suggested that you change your password if you've clicked on one of those links, because it could steal information. Sounds wise - I just did.
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An idea I wandered onto in *krystalynn03's journal, and thought I'd pass it on:

Are you "seasonal"? Seasonal Affective Disorder and its milder version, "winter blues", are pretty common in cold-winter climates (or, probably more to the point, short-winter-daylight climates), and it affects some of our artistic productivity.

I haven't looked at anybody's stats except my own yet, but mine are very seasonal. In fact my "by month" bar graph shows a dramatic cycle. This past January I submitted a "big" 13 pieces - that's up from 8 in January '08 (and all of 4 in February '08), but down from 34 last July.

Recently I was looking at an Australian photographer's gallery (unfortunately I forget who, and didn't put him on my watch list so I can't go back and get exact info) - I was struck by the fact that MANY of his posts were dated January and February, the southern summer, and not very many at all from July and August, his winter. Of course, this may have been seasonal in more than one way: he works mostly with nude models, and I can sure understand their reluctance to take off their clothes outdoors in the winter!

Of course there can be other factors too. As a teacher, I get at least part of the summer off (all of it if I don't manage to get a summer teaching assignment) and can work on my art almost full time. But I think it's largely the climate.

It's probably coincidence that also last winter, I did a lot of animations, which take longer...

Like my ballet animation. You've been "working" on that for almost a year now, dear.

...and my current to-do list also includes quite a few animations...

Our dressups! Get yer ass in gear, boy!

...Oh well. Tomorrow is St. Groundhog's Day Punxsutawney Phil, the World's Most Famous Groundhog, will poke his head up into the air of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania - and if he sees his shadow, that means six more weeks of winter. In Punxsutawney, that is. Where I live, it means spring will arrive rather later in April than it would otherwise. (I'm, um, mildly curious about how long it takes farther north, say, north Ontario or Alaska. Not curious enough to move there and find out, though!)

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Clubs

Gonna count my blessings (well, a few of them) out loud:

- I have a really good life generally.

It hasn't always been good. People my age (and even a little younger) sometimes like to gripe about Angsty (read: whiney) Teenagers. OK, old timers, how many of you were happy carefree teenagers?

... ... ...

...Yup, about as many as I thought.

A lot of young people fool you by putting a very brave face on it. Back when I was one of them, I thought all of my contemporaries were happy and carefree. (As well as stupid.) Occasionally one of those happy carefree folks would commit suicide. Guess I was wrong.

What I could not have predicted, though, and what I would not have believed if some old codger had told me back then, is that it DOES get better. For instance, if I talk to imaginary people nowadays, and somebody thinks I'm crazy, hey cool, THEY think I'M crazy! And if the imaginary people talk back to me (and oh, some of them use colorful language!) and somebody thinks I'm crazy, well, I can just sic my imaginary people on them and see how they like it.

Lemme at 'em!

More specifically, I've had a great experience at dA. Besides having lots of fun and getting to share it with lots of people, there are some bad things that haven't happened to me:

- Nobody has stolen my work, that I know of.

I don't think it would bother me terribly to see something of mine in Photobucket. (How about: "Amazing talent! If only it were yours.") It would bother me more if somebody was making money off it - then I might go looking for a good nasty lawyer. Finally, I've read one or two horror stories about thieves who not only claimed the work as their own, but claimed it right back at the real creator, and threatened to sue THEM. (And some people think I'M crazy!) I don't know if I'd still be mad when I finally stopped laughing.

- I haven't received a visit from the Porn Police crowd.

This is less likely to happen to some of us than getting our work stolen, but given my own predilections, I see it often enough. I keep wondering when somebody's going to decide that the world needs to be protected from my work too. In fact, over the years I've gathered a delicious little collection of candy-coated stilettos to wield when they do - but better if I don't have to use them. (Especially the part about deciding which one.)
Belay the candy coating, hon. Lemme at 'em!

- More generally, I've received very few negative comments, and no hostile ones. Constructive critiques don't count. The only comments I've disliked were presumably meant as compliments - the "hey wow nice boobs" kind of thing.
What's to dislike? At least one of us around here DOES have nice boobs.

And others around here have nice personalities.
And best of all, one of us has BOTH.

We're getting off the subject.
Plenty has been said ON the subject.

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Clubs

Hopes and prayers for peace and joy to all of you, of all beliefs and non-beliefs! Especially those for whom this season is a difficult or painful one.

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Clubs

Virtual friends

Find out all about them at [link] !

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

And the winner is...

=Chronophontes — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:00:01 PST

Um, nobody, apparently.

20,197 pageviews, the last time I looked, and nobody's claimed the prize!

As if that was going to stop US.

OK - instead of a kiriban, just lots of to our watchers, favers, commenters (almost everything has been positive!!)

AND - the only category that will fit into a journal page any more - the wonderful stockers whose work I've used:

Kiriban time coming up!

My 20,000th pageview is getting imminent. The Chronophontians would like to do a request for the winner!

"Would like to"! Says WHO?

Says ME. If the winner picks you, you're drafted, hon.

Make a screenshot of my home page, with the number of pageviews. Put it in your Scraps and note me. The closest one to 20,000 wins!

Keep in mind that what the Chronophontians do probably won't exactly match your vision. In particular, as you can see from my gallery, I'm not into violence or horror, or anything too seriously dark. Anything far outside the Chronophontian Zone will need, um, further discussion.

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Thanks to for this excuse to talk about one of my favorite people

1. What does your deviantart name mean and why did you join this site?

a. It's Greek for "Killer of Time". My daughter ran across it a few years ago, spelled "Kronifontes". I liked it better than the handle I'd been using, "Dr. Hack" - that name seems to attract all the wrong sort of people

b. To be able to see the "mature content" pics . Once I started looking at those, I started seeing much more, and quickly became addicted - not just to the MC pieces, though they will always be a big part of it

2. What fandom were you obsessed with when you joined and what are you into now?

I've never been a "fan" by temperament. I like lots of things, but none of them obsessively. (Except Praseela, and she's not here.)

3. How many watchers do you have now?

160. Up until a month or so ago, I watched more than I was watched.

4. Name 4 of your favorite artists on dA.

Only 4???? Oh well, here's a try:

Those are my four most faved. In many cases, my admiration for somebody's art is very hard to separate from my liking for the person.

There are also some artists that I like a lot but whose work is just a little too hardcore for me to be comfortable putting in my favs.

5. Do you comment, fav, or both?

I find it easy to fav, hard to comment. I try to comment more, because many folks are vocal that they dislike favs without comments. As far as receiving, I like both, but favs better!

6. Do you participate in clubs' contests here on dA?

Sure. But I've only won one, and that was because my entry was the only one that actually met the contest requirements

7. What is your most popular deviation?

A vexed tale. "Mirage-Ibara sketch 2" [link] is my most faved, but I'm a lot more proud of the next most faved, "Tabletop" [link]

A newly "official" Chronophontian

=Chronophontes — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:58:01 PDT

She blundered into Chronophontia over a year ago [link] , and for some reason has never been able to stay away very long. Since summer she's been with us more and more. (No wonder things have been stressful lately.) Somehow, in spite of her best efforts, I think we love her...And now it's her own season!

So let's welcome Euthanasia the Vampire!

Oh, shut up.

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Clubs

Virtual friends

A bunch of birthday stuff

=Chronophontes — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:00:55 PDT

Something's been happening lately that has greatly deepened my appreciation of friends and watchers. The last piece I posted, "Dinner music" [link] , somehow didn't get into my gallery. It's on my front page, and it's in the Digital Art > 3-Dimensional Art > Characters > Groups gallery [link] , but as far as I know it isn't in my watchers' watch pages. So you probably don't know that I posted a new piece just a couple of days ago! And it's been limping along with about a quarter as many views as I would have expected by now (and no comments or favs ) So now I know just how very valuable it is to be watched!

I haven't complained to dA yet, partly because it isn't that big a deal, and partly because the above comparison is kind of interesting. If "Dinner music" persists in not showing up in my gallery or your watch list, I'll eventually say something.

Update 15 October: Just deleted and resubmitted it. Everything seems to be OK now.

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OK, it's my birthday...plus I haven't posted a new journal for over a month now...plus lots of things!

Mainly, THANK YOU all for an amazing year and a half at dA!

The good news is also the bad news. While still not exactly a dA superstar, I've become popular enough that it's not practical to list everyone individually.

So Thank You, Friends and Watchers! (repeat 146 times)

and Thank You, all who have faved my work!! (repeat 361 times)

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One more extremely important category of people to thank: STOCKERS. This is a little more manageable - I only "have" about 30 so far - and also may be useful to any of you who like my work enough to want to emulate it.

Here are the stockers whose work I've used primarily in scenes:

The meme from my last journal [link] , continued

1. Choose a few of your own characters. Five at the most.
2. Make them answer the following questions.
3. Tag three, and they do this too.

The four of us got tagged at the end of the previous journal. Now it's time for us to do our duty:

Jeannine , Nikita the Mouse , Euthanasia the Vampire , and Tom the Mouse Clicker .

How Old Are You?
Tom: 58.
Jeannine: 97 or 16 months, whichever is more convenient.
Nikita: Mice Forever!
Euthanasia: What? I'm dead.

What's Your Height?
Tom: 5'11".
Jeannine: A perfect 170 centimeters.
Nikita: One inch at the shoulder.
Euthanasia: Above all this @#$%^&.

Do You Have Any Bad Habits?
Euthanasia: All of them.
Tom: Procrastination, when I get around to it.
Jeannine: Lecturing people about algebraic topology.
Nikita: Lemon vodka! _{but I learned it from Tashie...}

Are You A Virgin?
Tom: Got two kids...I don't think so.
Nikita: Are there virgin mice?
Jeannine: None of your business.
Euthanasia: Yes.

Who's Your Mate/Spouse?
Tom: Janet-Marie, the belle of Ohio!
Jeannine: Fred...who dances divinely and dresses even better _{Now if he could only fix the car...}
Nikita: Oh now what was her name...?
Euthanasia: Hee hee hee...ya wanna?

What's Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?
Nikita: All of them.
Tom: Mackinac Island Fudge.
Jeannine: French vanilla, of course.
Euthanasia: AB Positive.

Have You Killed Anyone?
Jeannine: No, of course not.
Tom: Not that I know of.
Nikita: Let me get back to you on that.
Euthanasia: I'm a vampire, idiot. Does that suggest anything?

Do You Hate Anyone?
Tom: Nope.
Nikita: What, me hate?
Jeannine: I get QUITE annoyed with certain individuals, but no, I don't hate them.
Euthanasia: Everybody.

Do You Love Anyone?
Jeannine: Yes.
Nikita: Well, Tashie of course ...but don't tell her.
Tom: How long a list am I allowed to make?
Euthanasia: Did you really ask that question?

What Is Your Job?
Tom: Teaching computer science.
Jeannine: Enlightening the world.
Nikita: Eating cheese.
Euthanasia: Drinking blood.

Boy Or A Girl?
Jeannine: Oh, I'm quite sure I am.
Nikita: Um, I'm a mouse.
Tom: Well, I used to be a boy. I'm not a girl yet though.
Euthanasia: Who the @#$%^& wants to know?

What Do You Do To Relax?
Nikita: Cheese, lemon vodka, and Tashie.
Jeannine: Algebraic topology!
Tom: I write stuff like this.
Euthanasia: I lay back with a tall glass of blood.

Any hidden talents no one knows about you?
Nikita: I can talk, dummy!
Jeannine: I have a marvelous sense of humour.
Tom: I'm actually very serious. I must be, because my students don't laugh at my jokes.
Euthanasia: Come closer and I'll show you.

What Do You Think Of Your Creator?
Tom: He or she must be cool to have created me.

Meme time again!

=Chronophontes — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:31:10 PDT

I got tagged again, by . I was kinda looking at this meme anyway though...

1. Choose a few of your own characters. Five at the most.
2. Make them answer the following questions.
3. Tag three, and they do this too.

Characters I chose: Natasha , Shirley , Pandora

How Old Are You?
Natasha: I'm not sure...not as old as Tom, I think.
Pandora: I was born seven years ago at age 25. I'm still age 25. Go figure.
Shirley: What a question! Fairies don't have an age.

What's Your Height?
Pandora: Tall enough to see over the fence.
Natasha: 160 centimeters...let's see, that's about 5'3".
Shirley: Now, or five minutes from now?

Do You Have Any Bad Habits?
Shirley: I don't think so...
Natasha: Oh, I hope not! I do like lemon vodka though.
Pandora: If it's a habit of mine, it's a good one.

Are You A Virgin?
Natasha: Sometimes I think it would be nice to be one.
Shirley: Nah, honey, it's no fun at all.
Pandora: Wow, Shirley, you can remember THAT long ago?

Who's Your Mate/Spouse?
Natasha: Alyosha - he's so sweet...
Shirley: Forrest the Faun, as long as he behaves.
Pandora: Let's see...Bimster the Beefy Beach Bim...for starters. The line forms over there.

What's Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?
Shirley: GOLDEN vanilla.
Natasha: Anything pink.
Pandora: Glenlivet. Not many places have it though.

Have You Killed Anyone?
Natasha: Oh no, never!!!
Shirley: Not even with kindness, hon?
Pandora: The line forms over there.

Do You Hate Anyone?
Natasha: Of course not.
Shirley: Me neither, though I've considered making some exceptions.
Pandora: Only dumb questions, not the dumb questioners.

Do You Love Anyone?
Natasha: Everyone!
Pandora: Everyone and everyTHING, except the commercials.
Shirley: Everyone...even fools, sometimes.

What Is Your Job?
Shirley: Coloring leaves.
Natasha: Being nice!
Pandora: Pleasing everybody. You can't do it, but I can!

Boy Or A Girl?
Shirley: Yes.
Natasha: I'm a girl I hope that answers the question!
Pandora: Who, me? Check it out at [link] .

What Do You Do To Relax?
Natasha: Sit back with Nikita the Mouse and some lemon vodka.
Shirley: Curl up with the leaves of a good book.
Pandora:

Any hidden talents no one knows about you?
Shirley:

About the Chronophontians, again

=Chronophontes — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:48:33 PST

Thank you all for 15,000 pageviews!!
The next big celebration will be at 20,000, so keep viewing!

This is Edition #3 of a journal from last August and January '08 - Chronophontia doesn't grow fast, but it grows. I figured it was time for an "official" update.

I believe strongly in giving credit, not just for resources from dA but others too (such as Poser figures and props). OTOH, I don't want to clutter up every one of my Artist's Comments with repetitious credit info for things that keep reappearing (like somebody's hair, for instance). So this journal will be "once and for all", at least until it gets updated again.

MBTI and Enneagram are personality type theories - see [link] for a little more info, and if that doesn't help, which it probably won't, ask me!

--------

Pandora
Body: DAZ Victoria 4. Head: MayaDoll by StudioMaya [link] .
Hair: 3Dream Egypt Hair [link] .
Skin:V4 Standard texture and "Peppi" texture by Mintworks [link] , with some mods, including a tattoo by Angel Michael (link??).
Jewelry: "Choaker" (sic) and "Ear Pearls" - she's been wearing these for years, and I have not been able to track them down at all.

"Birth": 11/29/2000, 6:15 p.m.
Sign: Sagittarius (pretty good fit, though Aries might be a little better)
MBTI type: ESTP
Enneagram type: 7 "hedonist" (with a strong 8 "the boss" wing)
Native language: Midwestern American

Shirley
Body: DAZ Victoria 4. Head: DAZ Victoria 2.
Hair: DAZ April Sylphiad Hair.
Skin: standard DAZ V2 and V4 textures, with mods of course.
Wings: Faery Wings by Sharkey [link] .
Jewelry: whatcha talkin about?

"Birth": 2/23/03, 6:30 p.m.
Sign: Pisces? (I tend to think Aquarius, which is possible)
MBTI type: INTP
Enneagram type: 5 "observer"
Native language: Etruscan

Natasha
Body: DAZ Aiko 4. Head: DAZ Aiko 3.
Hair: Moko Hair by Yamato [link] (though he doesn't seem to carry it any more).
Skin: DAZ Charlie V4 by Morris and Cantros, and A3 AlleyCat by renapd [link] .
Jewelry: "Neckless Cross" (sic) by ????

"Birth": 4/17/06, 9:34 p.m.
Sign: Aries (?? no way!...a classic Pisces)
MBTI type: ISFP/INFP
Enneagram type: 9 "dreamer"
Native language: Russian

Jeannine
Body: DAZ Victoria 4.
Hair: 3Dream Egypt Hair (like Pandora's) with some morphs of my own.
Skin: standard DAZ V4 texture, with a tattoo by me
Jewelry: like Shirley's.

"Birth": 5/16/07, 9:57 a.m....

Another cool meme - Characters!

=Chronophontes — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:05:26 PDT

Got this from *bear48 who got it from various other places...

What if your character became real?

This is gonna be a LONG one, because I've got to do it at least four times! OK, here we go:

character meme #1 - Shirley:

1) How would Shirley react if she suddenly appeared in your house?
Nice place - could use a little decorating though. Good thing I'm here.

2) How would you react if she suddenly appeared in your house?
Hi Shirley!

3) What would your girlfriend say if she saw your character in the house?
Hi Shirley! _{He's safe with you...}

_{I won't contradict you.}

4) Where would you take your character on her first day of reality?
Hartwick Pines (a state park in northern Michigan). Fairies usually enjoy it - virgin pine forest!

5) Let's say you are there, and someone there began to harass you and your character. What would you do?
Ya gonna mess with THIS? _{pulls out her magic wand...}

Aw, I thought Hartwick Pines turned everybody nice!

6) If your character became lost in your town would you try to find her?
Fairies get lost?

7) Let's say its just you and your character at home alone, how would you pass the time?
Affectionately, I'm sure.

8) Pretend your character came across her weakness. What would you do to help her?
Hmm, I don't know. Weakness is not Shirley's long suit.

9) Okay, your character's arch nemesis came to battle her. What would happen?
She'd wave her wand and turn Ms. Nemesis's axe into a bass guitar. [link]

10) Yay! Your character wins! What would she do to celebrate?
Turn Ms. Nemesis over to Pandora for guitar lessons. [link]

11) Alright, time for your character to go back to her world. How would you say goodbye?
Haul out the camera and take some photos! Then a big party. Or maybe the other way around. Then back to #7 for as much time as we had left.

character meme #2 - Natasha:

1) How would Natasha react if she suddenly appeared in your house?
Oh Nikita, I don't think we're in Chronophontia any more!

2) How would you react if she suddenly appeared in your house?

I've been featured! by in his journal [link] . Thanks, Bear!

Could one not say, I've been featured?

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One of the nice things about being a teacher is having the summer off, if you can afford it - and having been a teacher for a while, I can afford it. So I hope to be VERY productive for the next couple of months! _{...cross fingers...}

---------

My daughter Erika has been at dA longer than I have! - since July '06. She'd mentioned to me once or twice that she had a dA account - but she never used it until recently. But she's started posting some of her work now. I'd love for you to go say hi to her! ~eqlovelace

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Clubs

Virtual friends

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

And the winner is...

=Chronophontes — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:11:33 PDT
(kinda belatedly - I've been less active lately)

=LAgraphics

has received the 10K kiriban prize, a 3 month subscription!

LAgraphics is also an excellent artist, well worth looking at, who really gets away from the stereotypes that populate so much of the 3D corner of dA. Here are a couple I have faved:

"Magic" "I wanna walk away"

Again, Congratulations, =LAgraphics!
------------------------------

Another bit of news: "Mirage-Ibara sketch 2" [link] has pulled into first place as my most popular deviation. It's a fan piece for *JessicaElwood, who is popular with a great many people besides me, so its popularity is not totally surprising - what continues to blow me away is that it's way ahead of the full size version "Jessica's Mirage and Ibara" [link] . I've asked people - still no answer...

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My daughter Erika

Clubs

(Everybody know what a kiriban is? (Lots of hands go up, but not all.) Loosely, it's a prize for hitting a specified number. Wiktionary: [link] )

Well anyway, my 10,000 pageview mark is coming up, presumably some time in April. I'm especially excited about this one! I'd like to offer something creative, but as with many of us, my to-do list is long and growing, so I'm considering more mundane options as well.

What kind of prize would you like? Please vote in the poll [link] .

I won't be bound by the poll results; it will partly depend on what I can do in a reasonable amount of time. So you may want a render but have to be satisfied with a sub, or want a new character but have to be satisfied with a mere Chronophontian -

MERE!?!?!?! AND how could anybody not be satisfied with ME?

OTOH, I may be flexible, especially if the vote is close! _{Or if Pandora gets too close with that fork...}

To enter:
(1) link to my page at or near 10,000 pageviews. (The nearest number wins; in a tie, 10,001 beats 9,999.)
(2) make a screenshot (alt-print screen) and post it to your Scraps.
(3) note me with a link to the screenshot.

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Clubs: :clubS

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

I guess we're all mudkips today...

=Chronophontes — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:59:45 PDT
If I knew more about mudkips I might be ...for now, I've managed to achieve a sort of brave chuckle, heh heh heh...

My first thought was "Oh @#$%^&, somebody's infected dA". My second thought was, of course, it's April Fools day - but who ever said an April Fools prank was necessarily innocent? Maybe it's still infected! Finally, when nothing worse seemed to be happening, I started to relax...

Yeah, it's kinda cute, and it's nothing if not, um, consistent!...but I also kinda look forward to April 2 and being ME again...

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Clubs: :clubS

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

10K coming up - kiriban!

=Chronophontes — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:29:42 PDT
..back to this one after my brief rant about dA's mudkip adventure.

(just got 5,177 hits on "mudkip", expressing a pretty full range of attitudes...)

----------------------------------------------------

(Everybody know what a kiriban is? (Lots of hands go up, but not all.) Loosely, it's a prize for hitting a specified number. Wiktionary: [link] )

Well anyway, my 10,000 pageview mark is coming up, presumably some time in April. I'm especially excited about this one! I'd like to offer something creative, but as with many of us, my to-do list is long and growing, so I'm considering more mundane options as well.

What kind of prize would you like? Please vote in the poll [link] .

I won't be bound by the poll results; it will partly depend on what I can do in a reasonable amount of time. So you may want a render but have to be satisfied with a sub, or want a new character but have to be satisfied with a mere Chronophontian -

MERE!?!?!?! AND how could anybody not be satisfied with ME?

OTOH, I may be flexible, especially if the vote is close! _{Or if Pandora gets too close with that fork...}

To enter:
(1) link to my page at or near 10,000 pageviews. (The nearest number wins; in a tie, 10,001 beats 9,999.)
(2) make a screenshot (alt-print screen) and post it to your Scraps.
(3) note me with a link to the screenshot.

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Clubs: :clubS

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

A year at dA

=Chronophontes — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:35:11 PST
News 3/4/08: "The Recital" [link] has been featured by =whitebuffalo57 in his journal [link] . Thanks, Cliff!

And 3/16/08: "Cyrano" [link] has been featured by *Paintedonmysoul in her journal [link] . Thanks, Charlie!

----------------------------------------------------

Wow, a year ago today I was the new kid in town! Now I feel like a veteran.

Everybody's got their "first day" story. Here's mine, fwiw.

I was sitting in a hotel room at my laptop, exploring Renderosity, and noticed that one of the Freestuff providers mentioned they had more items "at DeviantArt". No link or anything, but I was curious, so I opened up [link] and started stepping through the galleries. I was observant enough to see that you could search by category, but if you've been here long enough to be reading this, you'll know what an exercise in futility it is, even to step through a single category from start to finish.

Meanwhile I was running into all these Mature Content filters, and getting more and more curious about just what might be behind them, hmmm? I was going to have to join to find out.

So I joined. Filled out my profile and everything - most of what I put there the first time is still there, I don't change that fast. I didn't imagine that Shell of Choice was a "required field", but might as well do it in style!

Lurked for a month, looking at lots and lots of deviations, and eventually posted some of my own. And who would imagine, a year later I'm still doing it!

Also, today was 8,000 pageviews - I'll wait for 10,000 to make a special event of it, but meanwhile, Thanks again, all of you!

A pleasant puzzle:

Just before Christmas, I made a couple of drafts ( [link] and [link] ) of a render for *JessicaElwood for a trade we had been talking about. I put them in my scraps for her to look at, and pretty much stopped thinking about them.

Then suddenly a few days ago, people started faving one of them [link] . Now this little sketch in my scraps appears on its way to becoming one of my most popular pieces, even after posting a full-size version [link] . My number 1 reaction is, thanks to all of you!! - and my number 2 reaction is to wonder what happened. Not so much why, that's easy: Jessica is one of dA's superstars, with good reason, and any halfway good piece of fan art (which this is, in a way) can ride some distance on those very capacious coattails, if people know it's there. But how did so many people find it, so fast and after such a long time?

Oh well, the bottom line is I don't mind a bit!

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Clubs:
=Chronophontes — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:54:56 PST
News 3/4/08: "The Recital" [link] has been featured by =whitebuffalo57 in his journal [link] . Thanks, Cliff!

*bear48 and =kamikazekayti did this, and they're cool people, so I'm gonna do it too!
----------------------------------------------------

RULES:
1) Answer the questions below
2) Take each answer and type it into dA search box
3) Take a deviation from the first page of results (may use ' popular' or 'newest' ) and post thumb (for subscribers) or link (non-subscribers).
4) You can't copy the persons answers who posted this before you

1. The age you will be on your next birthday: 59 by ...This guy was right after a manga of a cute girl on the search page...so why? He just looks more interesting.

2. A place you'd like to travel: Xinjiang by ...Chinese Central Asia. Not actually very Chinese - the people are mostly Muslims and their language is close to Turkish.

3. Your favorite place: well, um, home... by ...hey, this is one of my favs already!

4. Your favorite object: any good book by ...and it's waiting for me to write something in it!

5. Favorite food: Mabo Tofu by ...well, this mentions "mabo" and it mentions "tofu"...

6. Your favorite animal: cats by ...ooh yeah, being cute but like real cats too.

7. Your favorite color: (one of them anyway) purple by ...I'm old enough I don't need to be macho any more.

Some of this is technical - credits many of which I somehow never gave but really ought to. (Any or all of these may change - and then change back again.) The rest is, well, the sort of undisciplined ramble that will try your patience, for sure!
----------------------------------------------------

I've always enjoyed "personality type" theories, and I think sometimes they've even helped me in dealing with real people. As the Chronophontians develop and emerge, I can't resist classifying them - though they are no more bound to their "types" than real people! They will be what they will be.

My attitude about astrology is mixed. In my experience with real people, it sometimes fits dramatically well, sometimes dramatically badly, but most of the time it's a not-half-bad approximation. So I don't take it quite seriously, but I don't feel comfortable brushing it off as nonsense. I've included both literal "birth signs" and my own opinion when another sign seems to fit the personality better.

The "Birth" date is the date/time of the oldest file I have with that character in it. That's inevitably approximate, since the files took a few days to create.

If you are an astrologer and would like to do their horoscopes, I'd love to see them! All birth places are Mt. Pleasant, MI, USA, 43.6N, 84.8W.

The other types (MBTI and Enneagram) are based on my own familiarity with those systems - I just chose what seemed to me to fit best. Ask me if you'd like clarification on either or both of those.

Pandora
Body:DAZ Victoria 4. Head: MayaDoll by StudioMaya [link] .
Hair: 3Dream Egypt Hair [link] .
Skin: "Peppi" texture by Mintworks [link] with some mods, including a tattoo by Angel Michael (link??).
Jewelry: "Choaker" (sic) and "Ear Pearls" - she's been wearing these for years, and I have not been able to track them down at all.

"Birth": 11/29/2000, 6:15 p.m.
Sign: Sagittarius (I think Aries fits better, but...)
MBTI type: ESTP
Enneagram type: 7 "hedonist" (with a strong 8 "the boss" wing)

Shirley
Body: DAZ Victoria 4. Head: DAZ Victoria 2.
Hair: Sylphiad Hair from DAZ .
Skin: standard DAZ V2 and V4 textures, with mods of course.
Wings: Faery Wings by Sharkey [link] .
Jewelry: whatcha talkin about?

"Birth": 2/23/03, 6:30 p.m.
Sign: Pisces? (I tend to think Aquarius, which is possible)
MBTI type: INTP
Enneagram type: 5 "observer"

Natasha
Body:DAZ Aiko 4. Head: DAZ Aiko 3.
Hair: Moko Hair by Yamato [link] (though he doesn't seem to carry it any more).
Skin: A3 All...

Merry Christmas!

=Chronophontes — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 13:34:58 PST
Christmas giving is for real people...but I couldn't ignore my beloved virtual people. So, let me introduce four new "deviants":

_{hmm...I have no idea if dA has a policy about fictional members. We'll see...}

Hopes and prayers for peace and joy to all of you, of all beliefs! Especially those for whom this season is a difficult or painful one.

----------------------------------------------------

Excellent artists you probably haven't seen

It's been a while since I've featured anybody (July 28 - wow). I've "discovered" a lot more artists since then, so it's feature time again!

Some of these folks are new, some are veterans; all, IMO, deserve more attention than they've received. (Though some of them are moving pretty fast.)

*Bruce1i

~little-billie

*nellylynn

~SmithArt

*sylverwolfe

~propschick

~mysticmorning

Thanks, dA

=Chronophontes — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:23:04 PST
There is something fun about bitching. Even I do it sometimes

Especially when I click on something and my screen lights up YOUR CONNECTION HAS BEEN RESET ... Try Again.

If I were at dA because I had to be, I'd be happy when it was down! What an excuse to go and goof off!

However, most of the time when I'm on dA, I am goofing off, and when I'm away from it, doing the stuff I have to do, I can't wait to get back.

* I've made friends around the world

* Seen magnificent art by lots of people

* ...and zillions of pieces that even when they aren't quite magnificent, I love them

* Been inspired to create lots of art myself, that I never imagined I had in me.

You don't! WE created them, you just recorded them.

Hey ladies, if it weren't for dA, nobody would see you but me (and probably not very often either).
OK...Thank you, dA!

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Got to brag a little: "Madonna and Child" [link] has been featured by *bear48 [link] . Thanks, Bear!

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Clubs:

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

btw, there's also a category, deviantART Related > Journal CSS, with ideas and materials.

#100

=Chronophontes — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 00:18:18 PDT
Wow, I just noticed that The unicycle team is the 100th piece in my gallery...

So it's time for another big THANK YOU to all my dA friends, watchers, favers, pageviewers, gallery viewers...and especially to the dA admins and volunteers for providing this wonderful creative environment.

My first post was on April 11 of this year, a little more than six months ago. I had no idea I could be so prolific! In my oil-painting days (early 70s to early 80s) I produced about seven or eight paintings, total. Before that (actually overlapping with it, from say 1969 to 1975) I produced about twenty paintings in "psychedelic" dayglo poster paint. (Some of them are still on my walls.) Poser is obviously easier to work with...but a more basic difference is that the ideas just keep coming - thanks again to all of you!!!

Now that I think about it, I'd especially like to thank the great stock artists whose work I've used - and whose work, much more often than not, has been the source of my ideas:

An unexpected tarot

=Chronophontes — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 14:09:16 PDT
I clicked on the "male" button when I took the test...but ya know, I don't mind this a bit...

You are The Empress
Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight.

YouÂ mayÂ beÂ goodÂ atÂ home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

well...scratch that about home decorating. Most of my furniture came from yard sales.
Thanks to *fairyfreakster and ~starlightpainter for finding this!

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Clubs:

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

What goes around...

=Chronophontes — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 20:39:50 PDT
...has come around, to me. To make a short story long:

I have been tagged! (Twice in three days!)

To free myself I must:

1. post these rules
2. each person tagged must post 8 random (hopefully interesting) facts about themselves
3. tags should write a journal of these facts
4. at the end of the post 8 more bloggers are tagged and named
5. go to their page and leave a comment telling them that they're tagged.

Eight random facts about me:

1. In kindergarten I thought right was left. The kids facing me on the other side of the circle pointed to my left, so I pointed that way too.
2. I once jokingly asked a coworker if he had a semiautomatic in his violin case. He did.
3. I teach computer science, but my undergraduate degree is in history.
4. I once got reprimanded for using one of my dA characters in a lecture, fully clothed. Her T-shirt was too sexy for somebody.
5. My dA characters talk, and so do my stuffed animals. (Cokie Koala says ^{G'day, everybody!})
6. I created my first Poser character in 2001...OMG, she's only six! Will I get banned?
7. My favorite TV show is...is..._{c'mon, Tom, think of something since 1970}...um...Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl?
8. How can a fact be random AND interesting? (Ummm, I'm wearing a red T-shirt and blue jeans. Now THAT's random.)

Summoned...subpoenaed...conscripted...is there no escape?
Sure, dummy. Break the rules.

Half of the people I had thought of tagging have already been tagged by somebody else. (This thing is pandemic.) Two of them have tagged me. The rest are people I like for reasons other than their sense of humor.

So, I tag... the first eight volunteers!

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Clubs:

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

2000 pageviews!

=Chronophontes — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:51:26 PDT
Somebody with excellent taste paid me visit #2000 in the middle of the American night (morning in Europe, afternoon in Asia, evening in Australia/NZ). So I'm not sure who you are (and I might not know anyway, since that Recent Visitors display is pretty flaky) but thanks!

A big THANK YOU!!! to the growing number of you who have faved my work:

(20) (8) (7) (6) (5) (5) (4) (4) (3) (3) (3) (3) (2) (2) (2) (2) by *a3onart

by *bossie-boots

by ~popeyewong

by ~Simidae

Just a sampling from my own favs. See for yourself!

These folks are GOOD and deserve your support, at least as much as I do

I've noticed some others (mostly but not all in the 3D galleries) and will feature them from time to time. Not quite a Daily Deviation, but it's something.

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Here's an exciting contest by a dear friend, , in collaboration with . I'll be there...you too?

has permission to display any of my deviations.

The CSS for this journal was created with the help of the CSS Test at [link] . Thanks, Icyworlds!

1000 pageviews

=Chronophontes — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:18:43 PDT
Views and favs feel good

Many thanks to those of you who have faved my work:

(7) (6) (5) (3) (3) (3) (2)

...

The trouble with tranquillity?

=Chronophontes — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:09:00 PDT
Life in Chronophontia is like life in any paradise. You know all about it, right? Uneventful (not to say *boring*) except when there's a render to pose for. Other 3D artists at dA are creating exciting adventures and dramatic scenes...meanwhile what have we got here? A bunch of happy women running around, sometimes with clothes on. What we need is an Adventure!

How about goblins trying to kidnap Natasha -

Oh no, not again! Why me?

OK, not Natasha. Any volunteers?

Me, me, me! I heard those goblin dudes are studs, as long as you don't look at their ugly faces.

No, Pandora, I know what you're thinking. Not here.

Not even with a concealed weapon?

ESPECIALLY not with a concealed weapon. And where would you conceal it, anyway?

I'll wear boots.

Pageviews

=Chronophontes — Thu, 24 May 2007 15:49:31 PDT
...500 of them

I started out thinking that the pageview game was silly. Now I'd say "it depends". In any case, wow is it addictive!

It would be nice to have a huge number of favs, but one advantage of a small number is that I can thank you all individually:

(3) (3)

...and thanks also to my friends/watchers:

Special thanks to and , who welcomed me back in March; to and , among many others, for ideas...

Thanks, Piers

=Chronophontes — Thu, 03 May 2007 12:45:40 PDT
...with a little help from the Chronophontes ladies.

First of all, if you are a Piers Anthony fan who came here looking for authenticity, sorry. These are not Xanth characters, they're Chronophontes characters playing.

This series is a tribute, I hope, to the genius of Piers Anthony, author of (at last count) 29 Xanth novels, as well as a bunch of others. Some of you know them already -

Pandora: The rest of you can start NOW.

...They contain hundreds of characters ranging from human to totally nonhuman. The in-between ones (a few of them, anyway) are who we celebrate here.

The Chronophonteuses were generally enthusiastic, and the rendering went well, apart from a few uncomfortable moments.

For instance, I'm not sure Natasha has quite forgiven me yet for putting her next to a male goblin =)" title=">=) (Devil)" /> even though I removed him immediately as soon as the render was done. (I really did. I'm that way about "my" characters.)

And NOBODY was willing to pose as an Ogress. Pandora was mildly intrigued with the idea, enough so to toss out a few ogre-ish couplets along the lines of "You yammer, me hammer!" But when it came to actually posing as a character notorious for being dumb and ugly, among other virtues, there were no volunteers, oddly enough - and even with virtual models my powers of persuasion were insufficient.

On the other hand, several of the ladies were thrilled with the idea of being Nymphs. I had to give up on this one, though, because nymphs only get really interesting around Fauns (who chase them and occasionally catch them, with predictably delightful results). A faun, in full nymph-chasing form, extends well beyond dA's terms of service - in other words, even a Mature Content filter isn't enough to cover him.

There was also a bit of artistic disagreement. Although the Xanth novels can be wonderfully risque, the human and humanoid characters mostly DO wear clothes. Plus, I kind of wanted to post at least SOMETHING without a mature content filter. Pandora, however, had her own ideas about that. I explained that the series was supposed to be a tribute, not a travesty; she countered that that depends on what you mean by a tribute. Well, the disagreement stopped short of mutiny, but I did overhear her later whispering to the others something about slipping some outtakes into the next series. We'll see...maybe.

Pictures & words

=Chronophontes — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:17:48 PDT
I was doing some renders with Pandora. I'd been looking a lot at Glamour and Fashion and, of course, Artistic Nude, so I was thinking along the lines of a conventional photo shoot - less interesting as "3D" material than the usual fantasy or quasi-anime, but then Pandora isn't a fantasy or anime character.

Well, like any good character, Pandora took over. She has something to say, and hell and high water aren't going to stop her from saying it.

Pandora: Helen Highwater better not even TRY.

As the dialog developed, it occurred to me that it was kind of like a comic strip - it *could* be done in a series of frames, with talk balloons, and all that. But that just wasn't going to work. I wasn't sure why -

Pandora: Let me tell 'em why. It's simple. I am not a @#%^&* comic strip character! I am a MODEL.

OK, thanks for clarifying, Pandora. Well, it just wasn't going to work. Talk balloons, in particular, seemed almost like a contamination. In any case, I'd never seen them used decently in combination with 3D graphics.

(So I did a little exploring here at dA, and actually found a good one - by Gustvoc, see my favs. And there may be others. Still though, I didn't want to do that to Pandora, not that she'd let me.)

Pandora: Yer damn tootin I wouldn't.

On the other hand, keeping the dialog completely separate in the Artists' Comments seems awkward.

Pandora: Why? I'm an artist too. Put my comments where they belong, silly.

Now that P. has found her voice, she will probably be doing a lot of the talking. (Her virtual friends probably will too.) Not in talk balloons though. If you have any ideas for a better way, please tell me about them!

dev time!

=Chronophontes — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:09:19 PDT
Time to post some pics!

Some Poser renders, and a couple of photos. The renders are my "Art", the photos are perhaps best described as "picture taking" - but, I hope, not bad picture taking.