deviantART: by:cerena

Omnom subscrip? EDIT-- THANK YOU!!!

*cerena — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:18:33 PST

I have a week left. I need moar subscrip! Please help me out? I'm poor as a little churchmouse right now, and it'll look kindof stupid for me to have these CSS tuts up without a subscription myself or the ability to test things... ;D

- First people to give me a 3month or more subscription will get a waist-up portrait, experimental CG.

- First people to give me a 1year or more subscription will get a (full-body portrait OR couple waist-up portrait) AND a bust portrait, experimental CG.

--
[edit]
To these people:
- 3 month subscription (and previous subscrips )
- 3 month subscription
- 3 month subscription (YOU MAH GURLLL and I missed you, where you been dawg?)
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Art forthcoming!
--

That's prettymuch it. It'll be open to the first three or so people to do it. I will add more detail per the amount of the subscrip. Please note me to let me know you're givin me somethin, or comment, or what have you. Anything's fair game (original characters, anthro, fanart, avatars, whathaveyou) within my usual rules.

And commissions are still open, just getting my stupid ass organised. Yup.

LOVELOVE HOMG,

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: open! <3

Is anybody out there...?

*cerena — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:43:12 PST

I need more homies on twitter. ;D Please follow me? <3 And holler at me so I follow you back!

I'm spending this next couple weeks getting my online portfolios all cleaned up and functional (my website, particularly), getting caught up on all commission requests, and generally revamping my life. Things are too stagnant again. But lots of art still on my compy comp, so I'll be posting up something new EVERY DAY if I can manage it!! OMG RALLY? NO WAI. Yes wai.

I need to be networking. I can has friends? You want can has be friends with me???? Invite your friends and we'll have a big old party, and one of these nights I'll take requests on livestream. ;D

No, but really, watch this space for livestream updates, and watch my twitter--I'll announce when I'm drawing and I've gotten to the point where I'm fast enough to do some freebies for my fave folks. ;3 Youknowwhoyouare, and if you don't, then you'd better just become one of my faves, now hadn't you?

OH OH OH AND:
- a waist-up full color portrait to the next folks who buy me a deviantart subscription. I'll add detail/legs if it's a longer subscription. ;D Iamsopoor! And mine runs out this sooper soon.

LOVELOVE HOMG,

(answer in comment!)
- Do you have an online portfolio? Several? Share!! Also share your favourites.
- What is one cultural or newsworthy event from the 1980s that you are really connected with, for whatever reasons?
- Concept of digital presence: Twitter, blogs, Facebook, mySpace, YouTube, Tumblr... discuss!!!

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: open! <3

About damn time...

*cerena — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:06:04 PDT

Hey ya'll! Sorry for going AWOL again... schoolyear started and as usual, things got pretty wild. Here's all my updates in a big ol block for you, though, and people who have NO INTEREST IN MY LAME LIFE can just skip the cut. ;D

I'm in my last semester at university, so it's been very stressful trying to figure out WHATIAMGONNADOWITHMYLIFE all at once here... this is my first semester of my sixth year, for various reasons, so I should have it figured out by now, but don't. I have alot of interests, like art, yes, but also mostly with my writing and music. I have these great pipedreams right now about running off and joining a band. ;D Pipedreams are my avoidance behavior? Anyway, because I transferred a couple times, took "time off" but still took a full load of classes, I basically have enough credits for a masters, but I'm having to apply them to a BA degree instead because my university is SUCHABIGDEAL they won't give me an honorary masters. Oh well. So it's been weird preparing for graduation in December... my dad even asked about a plane ticket the other day and it was a woah wakeup call. I feel like I've been in college forever now, but I'm totally ready for life outside, which is why this last semester seems more like a joke than anything (not to mention I'm only taking writing classes, and many of them are repeat courses for lack of anything else to take). Yeah, so that's a bit of a stress that keeps me from arting right now. @_@ Not to mention the millions of writing assignments.

I have been working on commissions, and that's the other reason I've been silent here... I really want to finish this large couple piece for Kerrin that I've been working on FOREVER (she is SO patient, thank God), so I can finish up the rest of the RL commissions too. I've been finishing commissions this whole time, actually, but I am waiting to post them until I finish the couple piece, just out of my own warped concept of fairness? No one cares if I post the other stuff I'm sure, but I just want her to know she's the priority right now... So I have a ton of stuff to post, I'm just sitting on it temporarily. Plus, I think people are tired of me. So does it matter if I post regularly? (this may be my mental demons talking hurr)

Meantime, I've been having some relationship drama too. Fun times! But none of that here. I've also been drawing like a fiend, mostly naked ladies, whoooo anatomy, and now I'm actually getting kindof concerned with male figures too, so that'll be... weird. ;D Don't you expect me to draw really girly guys in light of my obsession with ladies? All mine are coming out potbellied and furry lately, though. ;D

Anyway, I am hoping to get a bit more organized (clean my apartment, get caught up on some schoolwork), and then do some more livestream colouring sessions, especially on this large commission which might explain more of my detailing process? Don't know. Maybe someone will find it helpful.

Not much else to say right now... as a reminder I don't have time for pro-bono work right now (haha, couldn't you tell?), but commissions are still basically open for forms. I have to double check on a few I have received in the meantime and get details down, so thanks to Nikaze and Dorei Kitten and any others for ya'll's interest and support of me. <3 I'll be back on track soooooon! I cleaned apartment yesterday, so things are looking up.

SO much love for you guys... you have no idea.

(answer in comment!)
- How many times/ or have you / transferred schools or majors if you are in college?
- What is your favourite animation studio?? (Disney, Dreamworks, Pixar, independents, ...?)

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ |

I am moving out of my apartment right now... one I have lived in for three years now and will miss dreadfully. @_@ My car and Vespa died, so I had to rent a Uhaul pickup to get around for a bit (and move things), and life is pretty crazy for the next week. So.... that is why I'm a bit flighty right now. Thanks to the people who sent in commission requests, and I'll have yer sketches soon!

Lots of hectic love,

UPDATE:
:3 All moved in, yay! And I'm mostly finished with my Disney girls, so back to your regularly scheduled commissions now. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you this. ("Disney made one movie, and they've been tracing it ever since.") Awwww sad but true. @_@

(answer in comment!)
- What's your best car dying story?
- HCwDB --- Enjoy. Discuss. ;D

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: open! <3

I CAN HAS DRAW U PRITTY THINGS?!

*cerena — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:28:26 PDT

Well, I have one more painting to finish, but I am open for commission forms! :3 If you are interested in helping a poor artist out, and getting some bitchin illustration in return, please drop me a note or an email? I can has draw u pretty things?!

All the commission info can be found in my journal page in the sidebar.

Please help me buy moar ramens! X3

Meantime, anyone interested in some ustream/livestream drawin from me? Watchin me paint or what have you? I has a cam, I just don't use it properly/enough. Or another tutorial perhaps? (Not as terrible as my CSS III, haha?) Hokaygonow.

*** UPDATE - I recorded a little test stream while I was broadcasting. It is just one of the little princesses, nothing special, but video is up for those who missed it, visit my Ustream. I always announce when I am broadcasting via my twitter, and I will try to record some things for playback later.

Love!!!

(answer in comment!)
- What else should I offer? (Character sheets, for instance?)
- Do you feel like your summer has been productive? What does ' productive' even mean?
- What are the six things you can't live without?

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: open! <3

CSS III is finished and this mouse needs batteries

*cerena — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:24:30 PDT

Oh holy crap.

Two more commissions and then I open my arms for new ones. All the info is in my main journal section on the side of my journal entries, woohoo. Will have a pricelist up shortly.

Yell at me about CSS stuff in the comments on the third part--hopefully I can answer most tweaking issues. @_@ The tutorial is visually kind of awful from not really having a clue how to put all that information in a good format. Rockon. EDIT: PLEASE try it out and tell me the parts that need explaining better? I'm pretty unconfident that the third part is explained enough.

*flees*

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: opening soon -- INFO in my journal --

With Apologies to Jessie Jackson...

*cerena — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:48:40 PDT

NGHHHHH!

Bad stuff went down--I am back in Texas for a while. I SORTOF have my equipment. So I will mostly be accomplishing things.

Here's the list:
- Kerrin couple
- Prismatic couple
- CSS Tutorial Part III

Preeeeettymuch those are my projects. Soon as you see those things posted I'm gonna open up for commissions, and I hope you guys will take pity on me, cause I'll work really hard on em and I'm kindof jonesing for ramen-money at this point (iamsopoor). Are people getting pissed that it's taking me this long on the tutorial? I think my colours are pretty cool these days but I'm still stuck behind the inflation artists and all fanart. I still feel like I'm all strugglin' in obscurity for unknown reasons. Probably just the anxiety talking!!

Anyway... yeah. I want everyone to know how much I appreciate every single comment, every fave, every view. Means so much to me, and makes me feel much less isolated in times of distress like this.

Lots of love, LOTS OF IT HOMG--

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: opening soon -- INFO in my journal --

Prozac in the punch??

*cerena — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:02:10 PDT

Man, I can't keep waiting so long to update, can I?

Not much going on, except that I'm all finished up with commissions! @_@ So that means I'll be opening commissions in the next couple weeks. I am considering offering up some CSS commissions as well (AFTER I get Part III of the tut done), whatever pays the bills, man, I gotta get off this ramen diet.

But I'm also out of school for summer. I have one summer incomplete to work on for a couple weeks late May, but otherwise it means a very productive summer, I hope! I had to replace my old monitor, which finally breathed its last breaths, so I'll probably need some commissions to help with that one, haha. But it's pretty and the colour reproduction should be much better on it (less orange crap in my arts). I made Dean's List (yay) and have finished every requirement (but the incomplete)... so WashU's just... paying for me to go to school next semester and take whatever I want. If I can get INTO the classes I want, that'll be sooper. I'm submitting poetry to magazines now, we'll see what happens. I've been working on a sequence surrounding Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, but LET'S BE HONEST no one here is remotely interested. <3 It was over some of my classmates' heads, too.

Meantime, pipe-dreaming of dude ranches and internships...

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: opening soon

(answer in comment!)
- Interested in commissions? (Shameless, I know.)
- How did classes go? Taking summer classes, or taking the summer off?
- Believe in Astrology?

More to come, more to come...

*cerena — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:49:27 PDT

Thanks for the textures, guys! Great finds!

I have been working hard on commissions, and making lots of headway, so I may have a somewhat clean slate, soon! I also have been working on CSS Tut Part III, and perhaps at some point I'll get some other walkthroughs of pics going. I feel like I'm still weirdly under the radar, though... *frown* Oh, and I am having an auction on Gaia, right now. :3 Right hurr.

Anyway, I am also gonna open up commissions again soon. If you have any requests on what kinds of things I should be offering, feel free to let me know! I hope everyone is having an awesome March, and a beautiful April on the horizon!

Lotsa love!

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: opening soon

I CAN HAS TEXTURES NAO? <3

*cerena — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 04:38:16 PST

Show me some of YOUR favourite textures/resources! I'm on the texture-prowl!! Post up your favourites in the comments on this entry so I can have some new textures to sink mah teeth into! I may have to feature the person who gives me the best ones, depending on the response. X3

Meantime, a better update is on the way. But I'm just working on school and art this next week, nothin' special! Hopefully CSS tutorial though, mwahaha. It's coming along nicely.

Lotsa love ALWAYS!,

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: currently closed

harder, better, faster... (edit)

*cerena — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:01:32 PST

Well, I've been working on art like crazy. I'm WELL AWARE that the CSS tutorial needs to be finished, and I promise to do it as soon as I possibly can. Meantime, hurr is a new layout, and there are new layouts in most of my folders now too. I am still tweaking and adding to it. It's very simple just now.

**EDIT** Please go check out the commissions =holyfox6894 is offering---she is going through a very difficult time right now and needs money to help with her pregnancy, since her family will not support her other than to have the pregnancy terminated. No one should ever have to face that kind of choice from their family. And she does some really great work, besides.

Lotsa love,

@Twitter | @GaiaOnline | @LJ | @Webcam | @Sketchblog
Commissions: currently closed

Preliminary update, yo.

*cerena — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:32:21 PST

PHEW! That was a long time to hold my breath, yo!

Okay, so, not much here, just noting a preliminary update. I'm going to be revamping much of my page to try and take advantage of the new features, so hopefully that's in the works. God only knows, with me.

I was very successful last semester, gradewise, so I'm on the right track with my time at least. I'm hoping I can finish things in a more timely fashion this semester, for art.

And here's all the places you can find me/stalk me/check out my lame life/live vicariously:

@Twitter

@LJ

@Webcam

@Sketchblog

@GaiaOnline

I wish I had more friends to follow on Twitter... I'm having fun uploading pics from my phone. And I usually try to do some kind of drawing/painting tutorials on my webcam, and when I do those I twitter that they are starting, so if you are interested watch my twitter feed for updates.

Again, better updates, prettier ones, soon.

Love ALWAYS,

(comment and answer!)
- Did you make resolutions for 2009? What were they? Will you keep them?
- Where did you go for the holidays?
- Do you like the new beta testing page features? (I may or may not utilize them, I wondered what people thought.)

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - I seriously have had to recolor twice. It'll be worth it.
CSS Tutorial Part III

Commission Status:: Closed for now.

OMG I keep forgetting to update. Or rather, I keep starting and abandoning my journals, because... what do I have to say that's interesting, seriously?

School is crazy, life is crazy. I'm almost done with this semester, but I've got a 20-page paper on Native American blood quantums (and thus the continued existence of cultural genocide alive and well in the US) for Anthropology, which is actually going to be really fabulous if I can get off my butt and finish it. I finished and turned in my second fiction story for the semester, and it might have turned out alright after all, so that's good. I'm so far behind in Hindi I'm not sure if I should even bother trying to catch up, but whatever, I'm plugging along! I shall have to write my whole entry in Hindi one of these times... yeah right! Annnnd poetry continues to be a source of constant hilarity... in that ironic, sardonic, awful kind of way! But I'm surviving!

I actually have been sketching up a storm, working on commissions secretly in the night. I had some stuff to post this weekend, but I always forgot to take my files with me... so maybe I'll still post it today. I think it's pretty, so take a look.

I miss my deviantart friends. I haven't been in the chats for months. It's a superbummer. I really adore you guys, you know?

As for life... I ended up going down to Texas a little while ago, reconnected with an old friend (the butterfly who has recurred in my gallery for years)... and now I'm kinda in this weird love triangle. DRAMA DRAMA!!! But I'll get through it, and hopefully the boys will, too. @_@ The boys, the boys! I also lost a TON of weight... I went from a size 8/10 to a size 0 (2 is too big, fer serious, it's crazy) in about three months. I have no idea how it happened, but I still look pretty good, so I'm not gonna complain. Just means I have to go buy a new wardrobe, cause none of my stuff fits. That's the thing I've been saving up for all this time, though, so I'm set in that regard at least. Ramen monies... maybe not so much!

Anyway, back to Hindi. Muchee hindi nahi padna pasand hai, kyonki hindi mushkil hai! Haha, I hope that was remotely right.

Stressed, but still hurr! Missin' you guys!

(comment and answer!)
- How are exams and work going for you? What do you wish you had more time for?
- Languages you like/have learned/wish to learn. Discuss.
- What kind of color scheme/texture/composition direction should I examine in my work in the future? Any ideas, lol?

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.

Just a quick update between massive amounts of freaking out and homework. I have been working very slowly and infrequently on commissions just now, as school has gotten pretty crazy (it comes in waves). I should be through the thick of it today, and be able to have some weekend time to chill and art it up. Anyway, for those still waiting on CSS tutorials, it's on my to-do, haha. And for commissioners: OMG thanks for your patience. And for Street Team... to be quite frank I may not even have the resources to do physical Street Team stuff anyway--the list is HUGE, way bigger than I ever intended, and it's all out-of-pocket for printing materials, and I'm becoming a poorer and poorer student, heh! The recession is hitting my family pretty hard.

That being said, I will be able to do more stuff with the Street Team website as soon as some hectic school stuff is over and I finish up some website/pieces on commission.

I need ramen monies, lol.

I may post up a journal here in a few days about the Obama '08 campaign (which I heartily support). Of course it is a hope for further dicussion. Meantime... finished my Hindi homework (singular oblique form... just about the most nonsensical grammatical construct I've seen)(and I keep flipping back to Japanese sentence structure/grammar/vocabulary... I think in terms of Japanese structure first, guh!), and now it is time for some poetry homework. > I h8t my poetry class, for serious.

Lots of anxious ,

(comment and answer!)
- What is your favourite class this semester? Your least favourite?
- The American Education System, triumphs and flaws. Discuss.
- What is the class you would most like to take (but for whatever reason you can't seen to get it into your schedule or requirements)?

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - I seriously have had to recolor twice. It'll be worth it.
CSS Tutorial Part III

Commission Status:: Closed for now.

...

the odious eye fad.... [rant]

*cerena — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:55:02 PDT

I don't get it. It's like the cheapest form of photomanipulation on this site. And people eat it up... because originality is just so overrated. Yeah. Oh, wait you did a series of them based on the sevendeadlysins/elements/fantasycreatures/colors? WOW, you are just SUCH an inventive, creative, original person.

Take a look at their galleries, too, the eyemanippers. Some have multiple pieces almost exactly alike in their featured galleries. It really shows versatility, lawl. Frankly, there is often a lack of originality in the popular photomanipulation gallery in general (for instance black haired women in vinyl dresses in some mystical foggy old ruins landscape with red apples... yawn!). Eyes are something everyone connects with, to be sure. That's kindof like saying everyone connects to porn. Cheap thrills.

No, I won't apologize. It's cheap, it's easy, and IT HAS BEEN DONE TO DEATH (try searching for "eye" in the photomanip section on any day of the week). You aren't a talented CGer for doing them, no matter how clean they are. Sorry guys, but I spent about two hours trying one myself (with not so clean stock, having not photomanip'd in years) and it ended up looking the same as all the others. It's not rocket science to do them. No real talent required. Yes, it took you a while to isolate the elements and put it all together and make it clean. How does this make it a unique or compelling concept? Don't get me wrong: it's totally okay to have the same thing over and over in your gallery, because you just like doing that style/type etc. But no, you can't act like the eye things are still original in any way shape or form, and the fact these people defend it as such is just... laughable. Oh, sometimes someone does something pretty unique... haven't seen that in about two years of watching this pithy, hackneyed eye fad. I don't take you seriously as an artist if the majority of your gallery is eyemanips. That's mass production, not art. Since DA is sortof turning into Photobucket, no problem, but let's at least keep our terms straight here.

I always laugh when the people who do eyemaips claim to paint, too (uhhh... where is that in your gallery then?). Some people have an inflated sense of grandeur on this site, truly.

Hard truths, -

(comment and answer!)
- Would you rather: be popular on deviantart for consistent mediocrity OR live in obscurity and improve your craft? (either is okay! just curious)
- Photomanipulation trends/tired routines. Discuss.
- If you could instantly know how to work brilliantly with one art media (and no others), what would it be? (Sculpture, CG, Glassblowing...)

Sunday (21st) is my birfday. But I think it will be like every other day this year. I am turning 22, which I guess is not so exciting a number, and I have work and some APO stuff that day... but nothing fun planned, and I don't think anyone is sending anything. My birthday does tend to come during a very busy time in the year... but I can't lie and say I'm not sad about it, cause I kinda am. Oh well, life is like this. Maybe I will wear a party hat on my webcam that day haha, or maybe I will celebrate next week altogether (when I can plan something). Anyway... happy birfday to me, I guess. ^3^; And happy Deviant Appreciation day, a little late, but I hope all my fave deviants (i.e. you reading this) know I appreciate ya!

*edit* Dave is going to plan something, my mom will take me out, too. So now I will at least not be alone!

Birfday and appreciation ,

P.S. - I am looking for really good textures resources. Tutorials and stock. Post if you know of some I don't have already (check my "resources" in my faves, and I know about most of the websites out there, but if you have an image you really use alot for texture?), much obliged!!!
(comment and answer!)
- Would you rather: on vacation, go to a foreign country OR stay in your own country?
- The past coming back to haunt us. Discuss.
- What did you do for Deviant Appreciation Day / your birfday this year?

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - I seriously have had to recolor twice. It'll be worth it.
CSS Tutorial Part III

Commission Status:: Closed for now. Commissions will be available for signups at Otakon!

Well, not much to update with at this time, except a new layout and a link to my webcam, which is live a good portion of the day, mostly. I have figured out how to record my Photoshop AND my drawing progress (and mah fayce), so I do that at some point each day if I remember. Otherwise it's just me puttering around my room, my cat, and occasionally friends who appear on there. Check it out, tell me what you think. It's also linked in my navigation pane below, which I redid and will be tweaking. You can also follow me on twitter.

I am working on CSS tutorial stuff (I'm never sure how much to put in the tutorial, as I want ya'll to be able to create your own stuff, but it's very complex to try to explain the coding in a short, interesting way...), and on commissions (*sigh*) and on school. Am taking Hindi, Physical Anthropology History, and several writing and music classes, so while it isn't a horrid semester it's still looking pretty busy!

Lots of as always.

(comment and answer!)
- Would you rather: be amazingly talented at one thing OR be above average in ten things?
- Google's effects on human memory (in general). Discuss.
- What do you think of the layout?

`loish tagged me, so I'm indulging. Go check her out if you haven't already (like if you've been living under a rock for two years). I have to write 8 secrets about me. HMMMM. I do hope they don't have to be terribly interesting.

1. I sometimes suspect myself of multiple personalities. Not really, but I do feel I am living a very dual life--the person that likes being at home and working on creative things all day and the person that must go out and meet new people and be exciting. These two lives coexist in a symbiotic fashion, but they are still fairly distinct and problematic when people only know about one and not the other.

2. I don't think I get along well with women at all, but I wish I did! I have always wanted a really close female friend, but cattiness and weird non-communication usually get in the way.

3. I sometimes make up entire stories when I think they'll be funny, or add on to existing stories. Or I take stories that happened to someone else and tell them like they're mine. Never important stuff, but sometimes they are very elaborate stories! It usually only happens when I am out, like in bars and stuff... so I figure it's harmless. ;D But I also have enough true stories that I would never really need to elaborate. @_@

4. I have terrible work ethic. I procrastinate like nobody's business, and I tend to flake out from anxiety. It used to be really bad, so that I wasn't even doing well in school, but now it's mostly procrastinating till the very last possible moment I can get it done in. I am working on this one.

5. I didn't go to art school because I considered it a waste of money. I am still on the fence about this one, actually.

6. My dad's side of the family is from Oregon, so I visit there every year. I went to high school in Texas, and grew up in Missouri and Florida, so I've never lived in Oregon. But I'm pretty obsessed with the place, and plan to go to grad school there if I can manage it. I will eat seafood like every day. *luvs food of the sea*

7. I am the queen of weird random hobbies. Things I have had as hobbies in my life include: geology, sailing, equestrian, juggling, fly fishing, beading and jewelry, origami, singing, writing, the venusian arts, mythology, tennis, fashion design, marketing, computer programming, web design, archaeology, balloon animals... A friend of mine was getting ready for a party with me and brought out the balloons and I was like "Oh, yeah, I used to do balloon animals and facepainting," and he was like "Is there anything you haven't done?" Yeah, tons. But it's always fun to pull out the random hobbies at parties.

8. I have always wanted to be a dancer. I still do. I'm pretty sure at 21 I'm too old to start. But I love choreography, and I've just always wished I'd be able to do it. The few times I asked about classes the studios usually didn't take this kind of student for that kind of class, blah blah, no starting classes in this... Very discouraging. But I've always wanted to do that and tumbling. Guess I gotta settle for art and music?

And I tag...

home again home again jiggity jig

*cerena — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:34:51 PDT

Back from Baltimore at last! Ready and raring to get to these last commissions. I've got some stuff going down at Gaia, but depending on how I do with commissions this season I may shut that down altogether. Right now I am purchasing my schoolbooks, getting business organised, and relaxing as much as possible before the start of a new term back at my university. Shall update this when I get the energy to say more!

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - I seriously have had to recolor twice. It'll be worth it.
CSS Tutorial Part III

Commission Status:: Closed until I can write up more info about them, and while working with individual clients.

I'm going to Otakon todaaaaay. Okay, actually, I'm going to Baltimore today, and Saturday I'll be at Ota. I'm not really sure what happened with my table. I'm rolling with "I paid for it, who cares." But if =VemberJudgement gets in trouble he should probably note me and let me know, so I can give the table-woman a piece of my mind when I get up there. But if anyone still wants a last minute table when I get there, you can come find me.

SO! I will be walking around Otakon briefly on Saturday and Sunday, so if you want to say 'hi' to me, come see me! I'm gonna try to go get some kind of business card cut or something last minute... as in now... @_@

But if you want to come see me, and you don't see me Saturday and are panicked or something, send me a comment here and I'll holler at you my location on Sunday. XD It's SOOPERSECRET. Not really. But if you're in the Baltimore/Annapolis area over this weekend or the next few days after, PLEASE yell at me in some way. Especially if you are 21+. I need drinksplz!

Meantime, commissions will be closed until after I get back from Ota, still, and until I finish the last few I have overdue. I may or may not open commissions after that. Depends on the response I get (I am NOT KIDDING. I just won't do them otherwise, so if you've been waiting, maybe speak up). We'll deal with that later.

I'm a disaster.

However will you recognize me at Otakon? Shit, I have no idea. I'm not even together enough to have gotten a costume prepped. I will be wearing a caffiene molecule shirt in Navy (or a red shirt) and this skirt from the top left (blue and red plaids etc) on Saturday. Or I'll try to. If I feel like it. XD I'll update this section before we go, not that I expect anyone to be there AND want to see me. XD But if I see you I'll give you a couple postcard prints or something. I think I can have some of that ready.

And let me just say... Otakon is kindof bs. I mean, I was trying to get the table ready, would have been great if I hadn't gone on about a million trips, but at this point I'm just going to walk around, and Otakon is bs! It's the most boring place on earth to be when you've jumped the shark on your anime indulgence. SO not interested in most anime anymore. Why I'm subjecting myself to the crazed, unwashed, costumed masses at Ota... it was an excuse to get more seafood in Annapolis? I'll roll with that.

***EDIT 2: Haha, I just reread my little mini anime rant. Man, I was TO'd right then. Nahh, I really am still interested in some anime. Just probably not the obsessive, crazy fanatical kind, ya know? I'm more of a connosouir or something... love Slayers and Ranma still, have a harder time watching something when someone is gushing to me about it. XD But ya'll get that, right? Haha, I can't dislike anime that much--it's practically all I draw these days! Anyway, please excuse my drunken mutterings.***

*** Went to Ota on Saturday. I SOMEHOW convinced them to let me have my table (THAT I ACTUALLY PAID FOR)... somehow. And since I had JACK SH*T to show for it, I just put my business cards out and started doing free sketches. SO. If anyone's at Ota, and they haven't gotten free sketches from me, come by my table tomorrow at 11 onward and I'll sketch you out. Or I'll just say hi. I got business cards printed, but that's PRETTYMUCH it. So... yeah. Come see me! I'm in the Artist's Alley at table L13? Or... something. I'm over near the secret exit. *** /edit

Love and misery,

So since I'm an effing tool, and since I had much more to do with my family this summer than I expected, I'm left with almost nothing prepared for Otakon, and it's less than a week away.

I'm insane for being so laaazy up til this point. I've been recovering from stress. Meantime, does anyone need an artist's table? I know some people may have stuff already prepared from other cons (or could be super industrious over the next five days like I know I can't be!), so it might work out for someone. Anyway, the fee is $75. Note me ASAP if you are interested!

I will still be going to Otakon, and would love to say hi to people there (and give out some street team stuff if any street peeps are there, and now I can actually focus on street team!). Comment if you'll be there, yo!

Love and loopy,

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - I seriously have had to recolor twice. It'll be worth it.
CSS Tutorial Part III

Commission Status:: Closed for now. Commissions will be available for signups at Otakon!

Guh.

So I've been on a few more little trips lately, all very successful, but time-consuming! I have had no time to work on everything I have to do, and Otakon is looming around the corner. So I'm freaking out only a little.

Went back home after my trip to Oneida, and then I immediately had to get back on a plane, as my dad wanted me to come spend time with him for a bit. We go to Oregon every year, so I flew down to my hometown in Tehas, got some serious catharsis out of the way (hooray for the karma gods and their wily ways), and then we started driving. Went to Leadville, CO, met up with the state geologist there and learned about rocks and mining. Went to Kamas, UT, met up with the director of the fish hatchery there, learned all about trout and whirling disease (a truly deadly disease raging through the native trout populations). My dad has some really cool colleagues. Anyway, now we're in Oregon at last, at our family reunion, and it's been really nice to take a break and see everyone up here. I'll be back home on the 24th, so after that I'll be busting my butt in a flurry of productivity, with any luck.

At that time I thought I'd update this journal with info about my table at Ota, and what I'm selling. It won't be much, and I probably won't even make back my table fee, but I hope I can meet some cool people and get some commissions. I'll be offering commissions at Ota, so if you're in the Maryland area around the 8th you should come get some art lovin. I may not take any more commissions until after the Ota commissions are done. Also I have to finish up the ones I still owe before the convention, so I may not get to the third part of the journal tutorial, but I'll do my best! Ooh, we're trying to get street team stuff out before Ota too (since we'll probably be using y'all as guinea pigs for our prints), so that'll be great. I hope no one changed their address on me, but oh well!

Thanks, always, to the amazing watchers and commenters and favouritours (like a sabatour?) who help me keep going with this whole art thing. I consider myself a writer, so it's been really amazing to have come this far in such a short time once I actually focused on art for a bit. Thanks, guys, for all your support!

Lots of .

(comment and answer!)
- Would you rather: live in the 1950s OR live in the desert? (and do you have any other better would you rathers? XD)
- Obamaba (doot doo do do do). Discuss.
- How do you defeat procrastination?

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - I seriously have had to recolor twice. It'll be worth it.

I don't often do memes... and I really should, because otherwise I might not update every week! So here's a meme I ganked from =heatherkat that struck my fancy, and might give insight into how I think about my artwork... for you and for me!

Updates on everything after the meme!

1. What do you like about your style?
I'm not sure what my "style" constitutes right now, line-wise. Certainly there are elements I've developed consistency with (ears!), but I'm usually experimenting with whatever I'm drawing at the time, and as a result I don't end up with a consistent style. I have... several styles that I've been developing, and I like them all for different reasons. But colour-wise I've been working towards my signature saturated color-palatte, but enhancing and maturing it with grungey-grainy sentiments and experimental color palettes. I think it's obvious how much I love color, though, and so I'm proud that shows throughout my gallery.

2. Which is the most popular deviation in your gallery? Why do you think people like it so much? What do YOU like about it?

Her deviation with the most comments is OMG, yer liek, EMO -heart- with 1,069 comments, and it is also her most favourited, with 1,834 favourites. Her most viewed deviation is OMG, yer liek, EMO -heart- with 82,908 views.
Yeeahhh. Well... I think people like this one because they either identify with it in some way (by having seen something similar, or having BEEN something similar), or because they see it as satire (which can make sense), or because it made them laugh. Which is incredible, really, because I spent about three hours on it on a whim in 2005, and it snuck up on me in popularity. It just keeps getting views, and favourites, and comments, every day, and that means a lot to me in the way of being something so many can identify with. I just like my characters. Steven was born in that picture, and while the real Steven turned out to be very different, MY Steven became something so much more creative and lasting. (I still wish I got as much attention in the rest of my work, tho! Wouldn't THAT be nice!)

3. Pick one of your least popular deviations. What are the things you like about it, despite the lack of popularity?

Meh... I just have always liked this one. It's a weird style, and the colouring method combined with it to make something really cool. It's an emotional piece, but it's also just a piece I really liked when it was finished. And ever since.

4. Which is your favorite picture, concept- or idea-wise? Would you ever revisit this idea and try to make a new picture based on it again?
Well, I kindof did that already with Bananaphone and Revisited. But I suppose the one I would revisiting would be to do a series based on this one:

5. Do you have a favorite quickie? What do you like about it?

Haha, I just love the face on this one. Reminds me of Kate Bosworth. I've been doing more of these lately (posting soon).

6. Do you have a favorite piece that involved tons of time and effort?
...

approaching critical mass...!

*cerena — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:00:20 PDT

Oh my GOD it's been too long since I updated.

So things in my life are getting pretty crazily hectic. Rather, I'm living in a very laid-back, relaxed, lazy way, and things that are time-sensitive are approaching, and now I'm nervous. I have several commissions I seriously need to finish up (and which are taking extra long because I'm having a hard time dealing with the 50% I drew a hella-long-time ago when I sucked... or something), I have a juggling festival poster I have to design and finish in the next week or less, I have a website to revamp for work, the final part of the CSS tutorial to finish (I know, I know!), I have about a million things I have to finish for Otakon and Gaia, and WHAT THE FUCK it's ALMOST JULY?! What the hell happened to June?! @_@

And my dad's visiting right now (YAY) and then I have to go to the reservation on the 4th of July (BOO), and then it's almost August already. I still haven't finished picking and registering for classes for this fall (final year woohoo) and generally getting my shit together. I'll reserve tomorrow night to freak out.

Anyway... that's... what's up, yo! Working on commissions, and then after this I don't know if I'll be opening up commissions again right away, depending on what's going on with Ota. I might have commissions available there. And oh my GOD News Hour with Jim Lehrer always makes me so agitated about America!

Anyway, more worthwhile updates later!

***Will update with new questions next time, promise***

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - I seriously have had to recolor twice. It'll be worth it.
Gaia bribe commish 3 - Sketched. Inking.

Commission Status:: Closed for now.

I want to meet some really amazing boy with dark feathered hair and punk sentiments. Someone hip and frantic. And who draws that way, too.

I was really enjoying *RYE-BREAD's work today, and thinking that. Haha, that's weird, isn't it? But I think many artists feel that way, sometimes. I am secretly a little in love with many people I barely know, that way, or at least I wish I loved them. I see them walking on the street, with their long striped scarves and upturned trench-collars, and I want to know them. I want to be the kind of girl they "dig" and write songs about, the girl they meet in dark gritty hookah bars and draw portraits of on napkins. Or they draw really imaginative heart-rendered-on-papers, fresh and with some short, rebellious phrase illuminating their meaning. I want dazed and disoriented, and hazy and hellbent, attitude-laden. Lord, or muse, find me someone tragically hip...!

Haha, someone who thinks to write "9teen" about their age.

But I wouldn't measure up, more like. And dreaming suits me fine.

I mean to do something more worthwhile with this journal in a day or two, but I wanted to share that with you. I shall have to update it again before I feel too silly and take this down.

Who are your hip avante-garde artists? Post some here for me to look at, yo!

What specific little quirks do you dream of in your compatriot?

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - NNNNGHH.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - I seriously have had to recolor twice. It'll be worth it.
~dancesneakattack's tattoo!
Gaia bribe commish 1
Gaia bribe commish 3 - Sketched. Inking.

Commission Status:: Closed for now.

I'm serious. Deviantart isn't Photobucket, and it isn't Googleimages, either.

Another kind soul, ~bekah1984, sent me a note about my emo picture being uploaded to Tokyopop. I was pretty disturbed when I couldn't find any sort of easy way to report the image being stolen. Even IMVU or whatever has something easy to report people uploading stuff they shouldn't. For Tokyopop I think I have to make an account or something, and YEAH BUDDY I'm not doing that. Bullcrap. I emailed the webmaster.

It's a picture I did five years ago, and it still gets attention more than the rest of my gallery combined. And that's cool, except that for every nice, sweet person who comments or faves on it, there's like two more waiting in the shadows, downloading it and posting it places. I did my best to keep from watermarking it, I HATE what watermarks do to my work, but I eventually gave in and watermarked several of my pieces. I'm about to go back and watermark some more. I just... don't understand what goes on in people's minds. They know they're doing it. They have some little twinge of worry that they'll get caught, or that they're doing something they shouldn't, when they click that "submit" button. But they do it anyway. What kind of people is the world mostly composed of? I don't want to lose the faith I have in my fellow man, but this kind of thing really is a setback.

Here's the thing: My work is copyrighted. *I* am trying to sell prints and do the best I can with my talent. I work my ass off every single day trying to improve my artwork. I'm not one of those artists who just posts the same old thing day after day, and I'm not an artist who is satisfied with so-so. I'm busting my ass to improve, and all I get, day in and day out, are people who want to use me for my talent or my techniques (along with some really amazing people who are genuine and kind). I get people who want me to draw free pictures of them, or who want to use my art for their own purposes without purchasing it from me. People DO pay for artwork that I draw. It's called commissions. And those people get to do whatever they want with the artwork they purchase, outside of commercial use. Commercial commissions are different story, and those I take with care and caution for what they'll be used for. The reason people pay me for it, is because I only get so many hours a day to work on art for free--I have rent to pay, medical bills, a rather precocious young cat who has vet bills... I need to pay for things too.

I'm retaining creative control over my pictures because *I* am the one who spent three hours trying to get the lineart right, and *I* am the one who spent the last SEVEN FUCKING YEARS of my life learning how to draw and colour digitally, learning techniques, basically teaching myself to do what I do. And for someone to skip all that process and just take the end result, to just jack whatever they want... that's like stealing a car. Or a laptop. You're stealing something that someone has worked VERY HARD to EARN (sometimes not, but it's still their belonging), and by doing so you are belittling their struggle as well as being a complete asshole and hurting other people. It's not a hard concept: don't fucking steal. And yet these kids, grownups, they all still do it. Whatever, you want to shoplift, I have no bone with you. Big corporations suck. Stick it to the man! But don't stick it to the starving artists, the small-business owners, the people just trying to get by. You are taking the joy out of something they are fighting against all odds to do, and frankly it's bad karma. Art isn't a car, or a laptop. But it's something people put their soul into, or at least I do, and it feels like having my laptop stolen when people post my shit without asking. It actually makes me WEARY.

To everyone who has been supportive of me, and to all newcomers: PLEASE let me know when you see my artwork being posted without my consent. If it is a commission, and the commissioner is posting it, that's alright (though I prefer people to SAY they didn't do the artwork), and I usually list the person in the description of the image. If I've given people permission to post, I either list it in the description or they do, but even so you should still report things to me. I know whether or not it's okay for them to post, but I won't know that they've posted it if they're doing it illegally, so I need all the help I can get in this department. Rule of thumb is that I probably don't know about it, but if I do it doesn't cost a thing to find out.

**** You guys are awesome to me, and you totally cheered me up. Thanks so much for your support--it really helps me keep going on the dark days. I love you guys!****
I had another entry written, but it was too depressing, so I deleted it. Instead, here's a new one, hopefully a little more upbeat... but probably not. **Go listen to LM.C's Bell the Cat (video is in my livejournal) and it'll cheer you right up afterward. Or at least make you want to go knock someone's lights out with a smile on your face! Uh... that's not weird at all...

Need to do some more for Otakon... Haven't even registered yet, still. Obviously I don't want to lose the money I spent on the table, but I'm getting pretty discouraged about my artwork. Nothing new.

Deviantart has a way of wearing you down over time. It seems like formula is praised over creativity. I have to keep reminding myself that the popular section isn't a measure of art, nor are the DDs really, but more a measure of whether or not you fed the masses what they wanted or whether or not a particular GD likes your work (or a measure of talent pouring our your ass like sunshine in some cases). My anthro stuff isn't likely to get that kind of distinction--too cutesy for our current GDs I'm thinking. I should obviously be drawing more wolves, but eff that, I'm here for me, and for ya'll, and wolves have been done to death.

Still... it's discouraging seeing the stuff that gets so much attention. Wouldn't be as big a deal if that didn't translate into commissions, prints... quite a bit of money that gets thrown around here. Makes you think your stuff isn't as worthwhile if people are more willing to spend money on other stuff, favourites aside. Oh well, I'm just not going to worry about it. It's still saddening, though. I'll just assume my particular audience is very picky and very poor. XD Which is like me, so that's actually kinda cool.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programs. I need to finish up the CSS Tutorial and the Street Team stuff, but I'm just so burnt out on people taking what they want and leaving me with nothing. Or being completely pretentious because they're getting the pageviews (I thought 60K was pretty respectable, but apparently I was wrong?). Ugh, this entry turned out just as depressing as the last one. I'll post up a new journal entry, with a new journal layout, soon. This is just to let you know I'm still alive.

Thanks to all who have been commenting and faving and watching lately, especially =kchuu, =Rose-Rayne and *mylovelyghost. Hopefully I'll get out of this rut soon. I'm also thinking of giving my journal over to nasty rants ala *luniara, but I haven't quite gotten to that point yet. We'll see.

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- Would you ever get a tattoo (or have you)? What kind?
- "Literature" on Deviantart (or lack thereof). Discuss.
- Would you rather: be popular OR be smart? (no inbetween!)

I have pac man chasing dots around my ankle. And haha, "literature." Haha...

Oh my GOD I am finally done with this semester. I had like five or six papers due right at the end now, and I don't want to think about Hammurabi or Herrick or heteroduplicity for another three weeks at least!

I get to work full time on commissions now, too!

I feel I should apologize for some of the crazy stuff I've been posting lately, haha, I have a really weird dry sense of humor sometimes. I'm not doing stuff maliciously, I'm just trying to provide a commentary of some kind. We've been studying the satirists of the 17th century in English Literature, so I'm playing with some ideas that way. It comes from a dissatisfaction with the apparent audience response on here... I just have my own opinions about art, and my own opinions about what constitutes an artist. I always felt like artists pushed themselves to improve and expand constantly, but I may be wrong. Anyway, I'm just mixing it up a little bit.

I'm also going to be posting up some fanarts, some anthros, just trying to get stuff ready for Otakon. @_@ I still have to register, shoot! Well, we'll see how that goes.

Yayyyy, I wonder how long I should wait before posting a new journal layout! I love this one so much, but I've got so many cool ideas. Gotta update Street Team this weekend, too!

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- What is your favourite/most frequented category on deviantart?
- lol Hammurabi, Herrick, heteroduplicity! Discuss.
- Would you rather: be able to breathe underwater OR be able to turn pennies into cupcakes?

I just feel like the cupcakes thing would be more useful...

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Recolouring
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - *twist*
~nayrb's chibi fursona - finishing
~dancesneakattack's tattoo! - mrrrrr
Gaia bribe commish 1 - Sk...

lol i thought it was funny

*cerena — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:05:31 PDT

Let me just say, the amount of lagging going on is just staggering (front page-wise). It would be really awesome if this website worked well for longer than a week. Someone needs to spend all that money from advertising on some really good new servers or something. Or just delete all the crap people upload when they confuse deviantart with photobucket. WTF guys. I am sooper serial.

Anyway, I can't upload the second part of the CSS Tutorial until the lag goes away, my business ethics won't allow it. But rest assured that it is completed and forthcoming! I got sick enough of the last layout that I uploaded this one early, but it gives me a good opportunity to test stuff.

I won't be worth much of anything in the way of commissions and obligations until I'm done with exams (Tuesday) and done with being really horribly sick (Who the hell knows when). I've had strep throat for the past week, and I'm likely going to be experiencing the ugh-i-ness for the next week as well. Lots of fluids and bed rest for me.

I know it's a tired subject, but since I'm journaling anyway (and again, since no one reads this)(I'm cool with that. Look at the pretty pictures! XD), what the heck is up with people using this site to post macros? I see so much stuff with 60 favourites where the 'artist' says "not mine, I just thought it was funny." If it isn't yours, WHY ARE YOU POSTING IT AS ARTWORK? The only solution I can think of for this crap is either more restrictions on new members (having to enter an address or something, or stricter policies on uploading copyrighted content or something), or forcing people to go through a tutorial of some sort (this is art. This is NOT. This is yours. This is NOT YOURS.)... but the overall solution is to A) kill off all the stupid people (ala Jonathan Swift they would make an excellent soup base), or B) get the media or world-at-large to start giving a damn about internet ettiquette (haha, like that'll happen), and what constitutes "free." I guess people feel that if they can googleimages something, it's theirs to use and do with as they please?

The end result is: I've been working my ass off for six years, constantly pushing my techniques and style, and no one gives a shit. They would rather shove something someone thought was funny to the fore. I mean, I push myself for my own improvement, so I'm going to keep drawing whether people like it or not. But it's enough to discourage someone from posting stuff. :\ But enough of you guys are ABSOLUTELY wonderful to me, that it always makes me zen out about that stuff and just keep posting. I figure someday I'll make it to the big time (XD) and if not, I'm meeting some pretty amazing people along the way.

As such, I'm trying to give back as much as possible. I'm still really paranoid that it'll bite me in the ass, though, that people will just take advantage and not even a thank-you. Some of that goes on in my gaia thread these days, people come in and get a freebie and are super nice while doing it, and the moment I post their freebie I never see them again. Maybe it's just indicative of a greater problem with our society's priorities. We don't really value individual genius as much as we used to, do we?

I digress. But it's interesting to think about. (The anthropologist in me always comes out with stuff like this, haha.)

I hope you all like the new layout! I'm pretty happy with it, but now that the tutorial is almost done I get to start going hog-wild. I'd been planning several different themes for a while, so start watching my journal for some cool new themes if you're interested.

** Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I'm working on incorporating them. It's hard picking stuff that'll go with every monitor. :3

Special thanks to everyone who has posted to answer questions. It really makes me feel like I'm connecting with people. Bolsters my spirit and all that. Love for all of you!!!

This weeks questions for you to answer via...

rhino vs. baby round 3

*cerena — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:36:13 PDT

Holla, friends!

I had to take Mei-Ling down. I'm getting really sick of the massive lagging happening right when I upload something. I don't really care about the front page at all (pfft, like I'm ever gonna have a thousand faves anyway! Not that it necessarily has anything to do with actual art sometimes...), but it's really nice when people take the time to fave and then other people see it when they are browsing back through the pages, new people who haven't seen my work before. You've all heard the speech before, but this is for those of you just tuning in. So Mei will be back as soon as the lagging stops, and I apologize SO MUCH to the people who already faved/commented. You are by NO MEANS expected to fave it again, I really appreciated all the people who did and they live on in my heart. XD

In other news, I've been finishing (FINISHING!) commissions this week! I'm very excited to post all of them. Also, exams are going on right now, and it's very hectic in my personal life that way, so... I may be scarce, or flighty. I apologize! I should get some time after school is done (two weeks) to sit down and answer the 1738 messages that have piled up. I tried deleting all the faves (figured I would answer the watches and comments instead) messages, but they just kindof cropped back up again while I wasn't watching. So... yes. I never want to be one of those inaccessible artists (which is one reason I created the street team), life is just getting the upper hand right now. At least I'm still drawing.

My Gaia shoppe is doing well, too, but is closed till I finish up my current round of commissions.

No one answered my questions last time! They must not have been good enough. I tried harder this time. Haha, do you guys even still like me??? XD I love you guys! - Ceri

CAN HAS QUESTIONS FOR YOU??

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- Why does blood taste like pennies?
- Would you rather: have Bill Gates tied up in your basement or have Nicole Kidman tied up in your basement?
- the show Weeds. Discuss.

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Colouring. (recolouring)
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - what is WRONG WITH ME
~nayrb's chibi fursona - So... close!

final street team entry

*cerena — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:25:29 PDT

Last one in this journal, that is!

Before anyone freaks out, I'm not breaking down the street team! I made an account specifically to handle street team stuff, because it gets pretty confusing in my inbox.

All street team members, please the club to receive updates and to be listed as a member.

From now on I will handle all street team stuff from that account, so send all questions there via note. ALL NEW MEMBER APPLICATIONS will have to go through that account!!

So what news?

Street Team stuff is getting revamped as I'm typing. I will be working diligently to get stuff out, so I don't have to feel like such a louse anymore! I promise you guys stuff months ago, I assure you I feel terrible that life seems to have gotten in the way. I promise to make it up to ya'll, though. Please go check out the new account and let me know if there are any deviations you'd like to see turned into Street Team stuff. I would also like for people to be able to submit their own fanarts/colouring/promotional materials directly to the club, so that's in the works.

I do not need people to resend me information at this time, I'm going to do my best to synthesize the lists I have, but if I'm missing anyone you'll be able to correct me when I post the list to the journal of the club.

I've also figured out shipping overseas, and will do my level best to accomodate. :3 I have to pay out of pocket for all the printing and shipping of this stuff, and I never expected the amount of members that I suspect we have right now... so I'm doing my best to cope. X3

And everyone should go post comments on the club's journal, so we can all get to know one another!

Thanks, guys, for your continued support! for all.

CAN HAS QUESTIONS FOR YOU??

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- Describe to me your perfect sandwhich.
- Would you rather: be the ruler of an island of living toy army soldiers or be the ruler of an island of channers?

(Turkey and American and mustard and mayo, and maybe pickles. And living toy army soldiers, obviously, because... obviously.)

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Colouring. (recolouring)

I've been watching so much South Park lately. It's a pretty awesome way to spend an evening. Scrubs is in there, too.

Right now it looks like I have a table at Otakon! Gotta send in money, but we got a table reservation. I'm not sure if I need 6 feet all to myself or not, yet. XD But this means I'll be doing lots of fanart and print materials in preparation, as well as =VemberJudgement's Alley Cat Blues project. Neat.

Still finishing up commissions. I do a little bit each day... I've been really depressed lately, so it's hard. :\ Meantime I'm posting some poetry nonsense. :3 I want everyone to know that I am not a comment nazi, and I like all kinds of comments, even really simple ones. *HINT HINT LULZ* Haha, just kidding. But I was hearing stuff about people who don't like "i really like it" comments... and yes, I like getting critiques, too, but not everyone has time or energy for that kind of thing. I'm just happy when I get to share my work with people. *blah blah blah*

I need suggestions for good fandoms to cover. I'm looking to do some more unusual fandoms, either obscure or classic anime (Lupin III, maybe Cowboy Beebop or something), and particularly pop culture TV shows (South Park, Tila Tequila?!). Still doing theme girls, and chibis, and STREET TEAM (AUGH I AM SO AWFUL A PERSON WITH ALL MY PROJECTS) and all will be finished at some point.

Super sketch meme has to wait until I'm caught up. You understand. @_@ Only so much one person can do at a time. The awesome news is that I might pull straight As this semester. Bitchin'.

- C

CAN HAS QUESTIONS FOR YOU??

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- See above regarding fandoms? Suggest something!
- Would you rather: have no legs or have no arms?
- South Park pairings. (Your favourite, weird ones...) Discuss.

Please no one say Joan of Arcadia. Also, no legs, no arms, but super Charles Xavier mind powers? Ooooh.

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Colouring. (recolouring)
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - what is WRONG WITH ME
~nayrb's chibi fursona - So... close!
~dancesneakattack's tattoo! - must... resize... fayce.
Gaia bribe commish 1 - Sketched. Colouring
Gaia bribe commish 2 - Sketching.

Anyone else hideously tired of them?

I haven't used the customize feature yet, but I guess I'm going to use it now. That's just ridiculous. Because it's not like you can really get an objective view of whether or not the photography is what people are responding to, or just the bajingo. (In case you haven't watched Scrubs, I'm borrowing Elliot Reid's word for a vagina) Although the bajingo I was confronted with today was very well shot (good lighting), I can't help but notice the focus and the fact it was pierced. @_@ I'm not questioning the art. I just think there should be art sites devoted to that kind of artwork, maybe... I don't know. I just don't like being flashed every time I come to this site. I'm doing the cutomize thing as we speak, though, so we'll see how that works.

I potentially found a table for Otakon, so I'm very excited. I'm looking to be working on a project with =VemberJudgement called Alley Cats Blues, a little anthro novel I might illustrate. I'm totally excited for it, but it means I probably can't accept very many commissions for a while. We shall see. It also means I shall be posting lots of stuff for that, and have lots of prints for sale at Ota. Ya'll will come see me, right? Just to see if I'm capable of drawing cat anthros consistently? XD

Not much else to say. Finishing up commissions, I finished one tutorial and part of the CSS tutorial (it's gonna be long because it's a long process I guess. ). Found out about shipping street team stuff to Europe, and I think it might be doable, so thanks for everyone's patience. I should be posting lots more stuff this weekend and onward.

Anyway, thanks again for being so great and answering the weekly questions, guys!! I'm just so glad I met so many wonderful people here on deviantart. Haha, round of applause for you. I think this weekend I may post up the "comment and get a free sketch" meme, so watch for that. And I'm on some weird Beetlejuice kick again. @_@

- C

CAN HAS QUESTIONS FOR YOU??

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- I still need some moar themes for my girls (my favourites so far have been magician, steampunk...)
- Would you rather: be able to stop time when you slept or never need to do laundry?
- Beetlejuice and Lydia as a couple. Discuss.

I would get so much WORK done that way... but I hate doing laundry......

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Colouring. (recolouring)
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - colour colour colour

EDIT 2: Glitches gone yet? Oh well. I need moar cute girl suggestions!!!

Okay, so the sitewide glitch seems to have passed. I'll keep my eye on Devi and see if she shows up this time. Do you like her? She's my favourite. I need more theme suggestions, so please comment and give me ideas! (Thanks to for the magician suggestion!!)

So, I'm working on an english paper here at skool, and then I finish that and my poetry journal and I am HOME FREE FOR SPRING BREAK! So I'll be finishing and posting all the commissions (on a roll here), and then finishing up the commissions I need to sketch, and then I might do some free sketches for you guys, like a meme where you post and I sketch for you. I will edit this post later with more info, but for now... yay, spring break.

I hope you all like the new series, and I really want to feature some of your suggestions in the future character designs! Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback lately--you guys are really great to me, and so I want to do sketch memes and stuff to pay you back for your kindness. And street team stuff is going out this week too!

I've been talking to some folks about tagging along with them at Otakon, so let's hope it pans out. If it does I'll have part of a table with some prints and some stickers and merch. I'm going to finish up the Pirates of the Caribbean chibis, some anime chibis, and then "Hot Anime Bitchez." Hope you all can come and see me!!! Let me know if you'll be going to Ota, so I can be sure to see you there.

Overly concerned with duality and love in Shakespeare's sonnets,
- Ceri

Comment plz? - QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED!!

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- I am doing a set of themed girls (Stella is the first in the series). Suggest a theme!!!
- What are some questions I should include in my FAQ?

So far I already have Devi (East Indian theme) and RÃ©my/Mirabelle/Marcelle (Circus theme) and Stella (emo/candy theme).

Please comment with your answers, and help me out! :3

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Colouring. (recolouring)
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - colour colour colour
~nayrb's chibi fursona - Colouring. lookssogood

So I found out my deviations are not showing up on the front pages regardless of favourites. So... until they get that resolved, it doesn't really do me any good to keep posting things.

EDIT 2: Some sort of site-wide glitch? I'm not seeing any mention of it in the helpdesk updates. I'm going to consider my problem part of that larger glitch for now, though. So I may reupload Stella once this is cleared up, or maybe not. Might just upload the next girl and move on.

EDIT: I need to make this more clear. I'm not actually complaining about the fair exposure system at all. I literally have a bug affecting my account that makes my artwork not show up at all in the browsing sections (or at least Stella didn't). It's a fixable bug I assume, because I was told to contact the helpdesk. This rant is just explaining why I am most upset about the bug.

I don't want to be misunderstood here: I do not equate deviation popularity with artistic merit, but if 40 of you are taking the time to favourite my latest deviation, at least some of you are doing so in order to help it move up in the front page rankings, because you feel it deserves more exposure. I feel that way too, but ultimately you, my watchers and viewers, are the ones who decide on that front. So if 40 of you like a piece enough to favourite it, the piece gets more exposure, allowing people who have never seen my art before to discover it. That's how I discover many of my favourite artists. It's a part of deviant life, really.

The "fair exposure" system that has been implemented merely changes the weight of favourites across categories. So if you are viewing all digital media, the new system changes the order based on the subcategories involved and their "weight." So if drawings are more numerous, maybe those require more favourites to "beat out" paintings. That's my understanding anyway. However, within a category without subcategories (Manga/Anime > Digital Media > Paintings), if you browse that category by popular deviation, all the deviations are listed in order of favourites, just like before. But when I looked in that category for Stella today, she was nowhere to be found. Just didn't show up at all. I browsed the entire category for the last 24 hours, and no dice. So you all are taking the time to favourite (which is nice, because that puts it in your collections so you can look at it quickly, etc, but also helps to give the piece more exposure), and it's really not achieving everything it's supposed to.

I'm not upset, in other words, about my stuff not being a Daily Top Fave or whatever. I'm upset because I don't even get a SHOT. (I don't get to show my art to new users browsing the popular section--if I made friends who liked my art enough to favourite, I should be allowed to have the benefits of that)

This wouldn't be as big a deal for me (since deviantart is not real life) except that I've already invested actual money in the site. I have a subscription (have for several years) that people have purchased for me (thanks guys), I have a prints account AND I've purchased adCast time in the past. So I already have put money into the system. And if I treat this as a marketing opportunity and a business, which many artists here do for commissions and the like, I need to protect that investment. Mom's a businesswoman, so she raised me to think this way I guess. But it's no less valid. It's also a big deal because you all are taking the time to comment and fave and support me. And I love you all for it.

I don't feel it's wrong for me to treat deviantart partially like a business, though. Many artists are doing that (`loish, *Nashya, *sayda), and I am still taking the time to interact and try to better the community. So... yeah. EFF THAT! XD

So... I have stuff to post. But I'm going to wait to hear back from the helpdesk about it. I talked with people in #help in dAmn, and they said to report it with a trouble ticket. So now I wait. This. Sucks.

I'm thinking my next article will be on the fair exposure system (explaining it a little better) or on adCast, or both. Oh, and ~nayrb's chibi is turning out beautifully. I never expected it to look this good.

MUCH - Ceri

the land of race car ya-yas

*cerena — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:47:43 PDT

Edit: Mwaha, I should be finish with my commissions before the end of the week. Mmmm new colouring methods, yay. Thanks again for all the support guys! Expect posts (and street team website posts) this weekend onward!

Hey all. I have a few images I have finished, but I'm waiting a little bit to post them. I have a new character in one of them, and so far the rest is some stuff I've been doing on Gaia. I'm very disappointed in myself for colouring the new character at such a low resolution, because while it's easier and quicker that way to colour my sketches, it's not good for printing, and the picture came out way better than expected. That should teach me.

I am trying to apply to two workshops this week for writing, in poetry and prose, so expect to see some more poetry submissions here. I don't think I have the courage to submit my prose. Anyway, life is pretty hectic for me right now. Better updates will end up in my LJ.

Commissions

I am still working hard on commissions. Rest assured the reason it takes a long time is because I want to do the best possible job on it. I've also decided I will probably NOT be taking on commissions after this round, except on a case-by-case basis, because I need to devote more time to my writing and schoolwork right now. Another reason this round of commissions is taking me FEREVER is because I refuse to let school be second priority, so midterms et al are becoming quite stressful. I will be posting up the commissions soon with any luck, however, as my spring break is coming up.

Street Team

Spring break will be a really good time to finish up stuff for sending, but expect another couple wallpapers / some extra goodies on the site by then as well. The boyfriend is on spring break right now, so he told me he would work on getting packages together. So far the packages include a couple stickers (and a bunch of smaller ones), two small prints and one large print. I'm going to see if there's anything else I can come up with in the meantime, but add business cards in there and that's basically what's happening. I am trying to make it as nice as I can afford. Sorry for taking so long!!

Tutorials

I am working on the journal tutorial, but I didn't take screencaps while I was making it, so I will either have to make a NEW header image from scratch and take screencaps, or I will have to try to approximate the process again so that the final result won't be QUITE like my journal, but will be close. Any preferences on that??? Also, I wrote a new article here about choosing the right graphics tablet. It's just a brief thing, but I tried to make it fairly informative. I am thinking I will start writing articles like this one on techniques and digital tools, etc.

Comment plz? - QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED!!

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- What kinds of art would do you think I should focus on for a time? (Pick a deviation from my gallery of a style you'd like to see more of)
- Are there any other tutorials you would like to see? (other than OC coloring)
I also need some questions to answer in an FAQ about my work, so please post any questions you think I should include! I really want more feedback on this section than I've been getting.

Please comment with your answers, and help me out! :3

I really felt I needed a new journal layout, so I spent most of the day on this one. There's obviously a heavy influence from `loish--but I didn't use any of her code, and I did all the images from scratch. I used much more in the way of transparent .pngs than the original code called for, so that I could get the textured background to work well. All in all I'm pretty proud of the result. This way I can probably just rotate in colors and headers but keep the same image.

Would anyone be interested in a tutorial on how I did it? I was thinking it would be simple enough to make, and I can even go into how I did the header image (well... how I edited it).

Comment plz?

This weeks questions for you to answer via comment form:
- Should I make a tutorial of the journal process?
- Are there any other tutorials you would like to see? (other than OC coloring)
- What are some female anime characters to include in an upcoming series?

Please comment with your answers, and help me out! :3

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Colouring.
*jkrolak's Indian fairy - Colouring.
:devnaryb:'s chibi fursona - Colouring.
~dancesneakattack's tattoo! - Scanning.

Commission Status:: Closed for now.

Journal CSS modified from here.

Those Who Think They Can Not Trying

*cerena — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:36:28 PST

I always thought that would be my collection title, if I ever managed to publish some stuff. :3

News

I am still hard at work, as always. My room is deteriorating at such a rate so as to render it completely impossible to reach my desk, but still I slave away most nights here. Why am I not progressing as fast as I could be? I keep retracing my steps to be honest. I am experimenting, however, with new methods in photoshop, with lower DPIs (if you want print quality, you pay for print quality, has to be my new motto, because Gaia Gold != real money). And so on regular commissions my DPI is slowing me down somewhat, so that it'll be nice as a print. Whatever, blah blah.

Street Team

When I head to the library today, I will set up the street team club. I will send out notes to everyone I can find, so we can get better organised. I hate to have to go through some of the process again, but if I don't get organised I may miss some people, and that would be dreadful. So watch for that, please. Hopefully I can manage the list I have right now, but new members will have to go through that club, or I can't keep doing commissions here, too!

And get out there and spread the word about any of the new submission that you like! If you want any of them made into backgrounds and posted to the street team website, send me a note!!!

Featured

If you haven't seen some of these, shame on you!

Thanks everyone!

For your continued support! Get out there and interact! :3 I'm hanging out usually in #AnimeArtists, #DigitalMedia, or #IAmAnthro! :3 Come chat with me!

- Ceri

Commissions

Current List

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Colouring.
's Indian fairy - Colouring.
:iconNaryb:'s chibi fursona - Colouring.
's tattoo! - Scanning.

Commission Status

closed temporarily

Stampage

Bleh!

It's one of those mornings, man, and it's a losing battle against my own emotional fortitude. Sucks. I feel extremely dissatisfied with my art, with my apartment, with my schoolwork, with life... Sucks hard. Trying to push through it, but I feel I am having a hard time connecting with anyone. It's the depression talking, I know, AND NO ONE EVER ANSWERS THE "INTERACT" QUESTIONS I POAST IN HURRRR! :sob:

Street Team

More movement has initiated on Street Team. I "hired" my boyfriend to help me organise the current list and get mailing labels printed, etc. I still don't have word on mailing internationally (I'm so sorry to the kids in the UK and elsewhere!), but I will hopefully revamp the website soon with some printables I've been working on. Stickers are scattered around my room, but I've tested them on a few of my notebooks, and they aren't UV protected or anything but they're still pretty freaking cool (if I do say so myself). They're just printed with my Kodak printer on sticker paper, but they turned out so awesome nonetheless. Everyone stares at my folders in class--I know they are superjealous. Lawl.

So that's in the works. Don't give up on me yet? I'm taking a long time to get to stuff in my list of things-to-do, but I'm doing that so I don't have to go AWOL without warning. It's better I'm slow than on hiatus, right? Murrrrr.

Literature

I've been posting much poetry lately, I know. I felt like some of the poems I posted early on were getting some nice feedback, so I decided to start posting the stuff I am doing in my poetry class this semester. I really appreciate everyone who took the time to read what I posted, and the lovely comments/critiques I got. I was actually surprised--I thought there wasn't a very strong literature appreciation or community here, but I was dead wrong! There are some fantastic writers, tucked into corners here and there, and I'm extremely excited to get to see all of them in time.

Commissions

I'm slowly plowing through. I'm much further along on everything, but I'm doing it all at once, so I'll have to post a huge dump of deviations at some point. ~nayrb's is inked and has base colors on it (and I'm actually *thinking* about lighting for once!), *jkrolak's looks beautiful so far, but I'm still not satisfied. It's taking me much longer than anticipated because I'm second-guessing myself on it. Silly, right? But the skin tones look really great, which is what I wanted most of all for the piece. I'm still getting up the nerve to finish Moldred's stuff (because do I owe him another commission after this? I really hope not, but I'm pretty sure I do.... demmit). And I need to go through my folders for the other stuff. Rockus.

New commissions may be opened up in a couple weeks. I want to get everything finished first, so my turnaround time will be much better next time I take stuff on.

Other stuff

I have a shoppe open on Gaia. I'm only taking one slot by bribe, and the bribe process ends today, so I doubt any of you even have an account, let alone will click this and offer a bribe, but I might as well post it anyway. You all can see my thread-makin-skills-of-an-artist.

Thanks for listening. Or not...
as always - Ceri

Commissions

Current List

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - Colouring.

You all remember how Senra was Ryo0oki? Like, Ryo0oki got b*nned for making alternate accounts to up her favourites, and then later Ramy introduced his girlfriend "Senra", and everyone knew it was Ryo0oki, but no one could prove it?

Interestingly enough, I had seen many of the pieces of artwork Senra was posting at an anime convention that summer. I was surprised, because I knew Ryo0oki was the one at the convention (she had another piece of her original character, Ryo. I did a commission for her a couple years back of hat same character.). Ryo0oki was selling Senra's recent work? Nope. Ryo0oki WAS Senra. And I was pissed off.

I work really hard on my art, and I very rarely get enough recognition for it. My goal is to be able to do regular commissions through deviantart, but I never get enough response. I've been taking a more active role in self-promotion with the street team, but for a year I watched Ryo0oki skyrocket through multiple accounts.

I immediately did some research. Why would Senra now be allowed on deviantart? Was Ryo0oki's ban permanent? The answers were well hidden, but Ryo0oki was permanently banned, and was thus not allowed to ever create another account on deviantart (Thank you Deviantart FAQ!). So I filed a report, and did more research.

As I expected, my report came back quickly, with the response indicating that this was all possibly true, but there needed to be evidence to back up the claim before the staff could take action. This was exactly what I expected, and by then I had the evidence in hand. (It was SO Phoenix Wright)

Ryo0oki had a livejournal account, and a sheezyart account, and a deviantart account. Her profile page linked to her sheezyart account (as a way for her fans to follow her after the ban?). The sheezyart account linked to the livejournal under the Ryo0oki name. The trail almost went cold! But no, the livejournal had, as its last entry, a link to a new livejournal account (name withheld). But here it became tricky. I had to link the art Senra was posting back to Ryo0oki, but I didn't have pictures from the convention.

But the new livejournal account had a lineart, beautiful lineart, posted in with new pictures and sketches. One of the sketches was an old Ryo0oki picture, and the lineart was one from a Senra finished work. Because getting the lineart that neatly out of a finished, flattened jpeg would be impossible, this somewhat proved Senra was Ryo0oki, new and improved. I sent my research back to the deviantart staff, and POOF! There went Senra. The response I received was simple: "[That was exactly what we needed.]"

Two questions arise:
1) Why did I pursue the matter to the end?
- As an artist who works hard, I have a problem with Ryo0oki's claim to fame. Over 200 accounts? That's just extreme. But I could understand Ryo0oki's desire to be a part of this community again. I love this place, it's an artist's paradise--as much as we hate the uphill climb for recognition, the popularity debates, the favourites system, these things still push us to continue improving, continue posting, to try to connect with others. But Ramy getting online and posting a journal promoting Senra, so that the entire FANBASE could latch RIGHT BACK ON, so she never had to work for any popularity the second time around either... that crossed a line with me. Plus, she wasn't very nice to me at the convention. >:3

2) Why am I posting this here?
- Enough of the outcry has died down, so I think I'm safe discussing the events in a calm, rational manner. No one really discussed much of Ryo0oki's ban, or Senra's, so there has been much speculation, and most of it is wrong. I have a piece of the puzzle, and I think it should be okay for me to let everyone in on it. I think if people know what happened, they can be careful in their own futures. There are still discussions about popularity, Senra, Ramy, Amuria... and I want to offer up what I know about it. This honesty allows you, the reader, to let go of some misconceptions about the deviantart Staff, whom I will defend until the bitter end:

---Senra was not banned because of an IP ban. Senra was banned because of user awareness. Moderators be everywhere at once, which is why there is a "report" button on each deviation. Moderators depend on community involvement in order to help make deviantart a good place....

Prints and Schtuff lovelovelove

*cerena — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:43:56 PST

HOMG Prints?!

By snooping around my own gallery, I discovered I had sold a print. (And that I had wishes on several others!)

That's right. My VERY FIRST sale. AND it was a really badass one, too. 18" x 24", Bananaphone. HOMG I'm SO happy. Whoever bought it, I love you soooo damn much. And I would love to hear how the quality is. So if you bought the print, comment and tell me how you like it. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you read this, let me know how it looks at that size, because I'm dying to know.

That being said, I would tooootally love to sell a few more prints! I like the idea of my art on someone else's wall, makin' them happy to see it. So...

Are there any other deviations you would like to see made into prints?

News

So in other news, I am still slowly making my way through my commissions. I'm doing a little bit of each at any one time so I don't go crazy staring at one thing for a long time, and my colouring kindof improved again overnight, so I'm having to go back and edit a bit on some I've already done. Currently *jkrolak's Nalini is the top priority, and ~nayrb and *TiltedHaloPs44 have been inked and are ready to be coloured. As for ~dancesneakattack, know that I am cleaning tomorrow and will find that sketch come hell or high water. It's a pretty cute one, too. Other than that and Moldred's, I am working on some commissions on Gaia. I will be opening up an art shop there, but a very expensive and scarce art shop. After I get all that taken care of, and get some more work done on my portfolio, I will open up commissions again. All of the current commissions listed have been paid for in full, so now is a good time to close.

Street Team

One of these weekends when I have a spare moment (because there are literally NONE right now), I will be setting up a seperate club account for the street team, just to make things easier for everyone. That way, you can post coloured versions of linearts, or art for the street team, all that jazz, right in the club. Plus I can have a seperate inbox for street team applications, which is good, because my inbox is COMPLETELY full right now with them. I have to wade through and REconsolidate the list for about the fiftieth time. PLEASE know that I have no forgotten you all for a moment, and that I'm working really hard on some new ideas for content I can send in your care packages. I'm so sorry for taking so long on this, but life is getting the better of me. Do know that I really do appreciate all the help ya'll have been giving me, and your packages are going to be really super cool when I finally send them out (nothing but the best!). Oh, and the website is supposed to be revamped soon, but I may have to do it myself. :3

Meantime, buy moar prints! Let me know which new ones you want me to add! I don't know how to make fanart into prints (pretty sure you CAN'T), but if anyone knows a loophole, let me know. :3

Interact!

What is your favourite anime series/character?

Comment with your answers!

Much much - C

Commissions

Current List

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - inked. Colouring.
's Indian fairy - inked. Colouring.
:iconNaryb:'s...

Nectar and Ambrosia

*cerena — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:28:42 PST

So I'm still in the process of getting my house back together after getting back from all these trips. Saffron's back from the kennel and adjusting marvelously--she comes in every single morning, chirps, and then crawls next to my face for a good cuddle. This is altogether pleasant when she decides to do it at 11AM. But the inappropriate 6AM cuddle-wakeups have to stop.

Anyway, I'm ONLY working on commissions at this time. If I post anything else, it will either be something I'm doing as a quickie, a warmup, or to test a technique (really don't like too much experimentation on some of these commissions, because they're very intricate), or it'll be part of my project that has been ongoing for a long time: Nectar and Ambrosia.

Nectar and Ambrosia is the webcomic I keep referring to. I took it down some years ago, because the first pages are REALLY embarrassing, and I just need to redo the whole series. You've seen some various pictures of the characters in my gallery, no doubt, and I sincerely don't see myself revamping the current pages until I get my act together re: storyline and re-learning how to draw comic-style... but I'm going to go ahead and post the comic pages, one or two a day, so I can catch ya'll up on the storyline. After the old pages are posted, I will hopefully get new pages done. I figured it was better to post this up now rather than wait for the website to be finished, since I'm currently doing web design as a job now, and might never get around to it, frankly.

So there will be new pages up daily. That much I can do, since most of them are already done, and are probably... six years old? So please be kind with your comments. This also gives you a way to see how my art has improved over time. Some of the first pages of this were probably done in 2001.

So I hope you all like the new project. YES YES YES Street Team stuff is being mailed soon. I had to use some of the stickers for another project, so I just have to spend a day printing more stuff up again. After that I have to reorganize the list of those who have joined, because there are addresses everywhere. After this I'm going to set up another way to sign up, because I can't do everything through my inbox here. Maybe I should set up a club for it???

Okay, love you all!!!

- Ceri

P.S. 1000 messages, officially. God, I'm terrible. But my roommates are coming home, and I start school on Monday, so I have to get some stuff in order before I worry too much.

Commissions

Current List

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - inked. Colouring.
's Indian fairy - inked. Colouring.
:iconNaryb:'s chibi fursona - inked! Colouring.
- inked! Colouring.
's tattoo! - sketching

But my room is ice cold, because we had to turn off the heat when I left for the holidays. Here are the things to keep in mind:

1) Very difficult to type with icy hands, so short message!

2) I have been doing MUCH WORK on commissions and tutorials, so YES, those are on the way!!!

3) I have to mail stuff out tomorrow for my bills, so I might just pick up all the envelopes for street team while I am ouuuut. The stickers have been tested, and while they are certainly not waterproof, they are still surprisingly durable for the material I used. So that's underway.

4) I have a total of 909 messages right now. I have ONLY been responding to immediate questions, so if I haven't responded, just be patient a little longer, as that's on my to-do list. Also, it will take me a long time to get through them, as I try to be as personal as possible, and I go from most recent to the earliest, because that's just the way it's set up I guess. So if it seems like it took me a month to respond to you... I'm really sorry! You all know you can always note me with urgent stuff--I have stayed on top of those at least!

5) I did fairly well in my classes last semester, but this semester looks to be just as much hell.

6) Oh my FREAKING god this room is cold.

7) OH GOD GO GO GO GO GO to see Sweeney Todd. Effing fantastic. Expect fanart, when or if I ever get to draw for myself again. XD

Love love love, and a Happy New Year to all you sweeties,
- Ceri

P.S. - While I may not respond quickly, I have been reading most of the comments left to me, and they make me feel warm and fuzzy in this holiday season. Thank you for your continued support--you all are amazing, and I shall try to do more giftarts for you soon.

P.P.S. - Updates to the Street Team Website in the next week or so, so keep checking it!!!

P.P.P.S. <3 - I will be going to Otakon this year!! I'm so excited. Davies (boyfriend) and I will be going as Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett, so I need to know:

1) Is there anyone who will also be going to Otakon?
2) Is there any interest in me having a table or some prints available for sale?
3) What are some things I should be working on, art-wise, in preparation? Characters, fandoms, etc that I should make some pieces of to include in any art-related sale endeavors at Ota?

Much obliged, as always!

Stampage

dWarped Journal CSS modified off of FayrenPickpocket's usage.

Mwaha.

*cerena — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:51:48 PST

I'm alive! Triumphant return shall ensue! I've got tons of stuff to work on an post, and alllllllll the time in the world since exams are over. Thought I'd drop a temporary note to let ya'll know, and to thank you all for your continued support during my prolonged scarcity.

I love you all!

<3 - Ceri

P.S.
400 pageviews today? What happened, and who do I thank???

P.P.S. Street Team stuff is happening as we speak! It's a Street Team day for me today, and I'm getting all that stuff organized so I can send you stuff (hopefully) in time for Christmas!

Commissions

Current List

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - inked. Colouring.
's Indian fairy - inked. Colouring.
:iconNaryb:'s chibi fursona - inking
- inking
's tattoo! - sketching
(anyone I missed????)

Self-art

Elizabeth Swann chibi - inked. colouring
Disney thing - inked, colouring
Drinky drinky - inked, colouring
Naruto chibi - inking
Subject chibis - sketching
Colouring Tutorial - still workin'.

Stampage

dWarped Journal CSS modified off of

< /br>
OMG I'm back!

Sorry that took so long. I'm hoping this doesn't become a total trend. I might not be totally on top of things constantly, at least until the end of the semester, but I'm prettymuch over the hump in some of my hardest classes. When I say "I'm trying to get into grad school", I'm not APPLYING right now. I'm just saying that I have to get pretty good grades these last few semesters so I can get into a good grad school when I do apply.

So yay! I'm currently working full-tilt on commissions right now, but I have a few cute pieces that should come up. I'm also working on my kiriban! 50,000!!!!! OMG! I can't believe it.

50K - THANK YOU!!!

Thank you all SO much for you continued support. I can't believe I hit this milestone already... I thought this day would never come. I'm extremely excited, and I really do love every single pageview I get, because I love sharing my work with people. I love connecting with people on this site, and I want to continue to entertain you all and provide a cool forum of sorts, too. Again, if you all ever have any questions (specific questions, please) about an art technique I've used, feel free to leave a comment asking about it, and I will be only too happy to respond. For more general art tips, I've put out a couple tutorials already, and I am working on a newer one currently. So thank you for bringing me so much love and growth (I have learned more about art on this website than I ever did in school), and here's to next 50,000 hits!

51515 Kiriban???

I do want to do a little kiriban, since the 50K came in my hiatus period. So!

Whoever takes a screencap of my page with the "51515" pageviews will get a kiriban picture! You can pick one FANART (not original) character, and I will do a picture of it, in oekaki or a daily opencanvas type. The character can be from any fandom (movies, books, disney, tv shows).

Sound good? Super.

Updates

I am working on fixing street team stuff! The website is getting revamped by a street team member, there will be more content, and there's also going to be a section with images so you can make your own content for me upload on the site! So watch for that, and packages will be going out soon with any luck. I have a little extra time right now to get some of that done. I'm hoping I can get some sort of Xmas card to send out, too.

Expect to see lots of commissions being posted, and I will also be considering opening up some bust commissions for Christmas, but I need to know if people would be interested in purchasing them (probably $15-$20 a commission).

- C

Interact!

Answer me this: If I opened up some $15-$20 bust commissions, would you be interested? Post your reply in comment form!

Street Team Signup--FREE STUFF

The street team is still available for signups! All the information is here: [link]

It works like this:

1) Sign up by commenting on this journal entry. [link] Be sure to read the rules!
2) Recei...

-- TEMPORARY HIATUS --

*cerena — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:32:21 PDT

< /br>

Everything is on hold right now. If I post something, it's for my own sanity. Everything is on complete lock down until I can get my head above water in my own life. I've been cutting out stickers and printing stuff out for street team, and I'll get those mailed out if I get a tiny bit of free time, but otherwise everything is on hold. If that doesn't jive with you, I don't know what to tell you, but I have to take care of things in my life before I can worry about my art. I'm sorry this seems to come at an inopportune time, but that's just how it happened.

I'll likely see you all in about a week, once I'm not drowning. Trying to get into grad school, so this just has to be.

- Ceri

Stampage

dWarped Journal CSS modified off of FayrenPickpocket's usage.

I don't get what ya'll are sayin

*cerena — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:05:47 PDT

--- Half the time in my messages I get comments where people are continuing a past conversation, and I've gotten about twenty comments since then, so I don't remember what we were even talking about. Plus half of you people don't really type anything resembling english anyway. Just kidding. Kindof.

The point is that I'm trying to stay on top of my messages, and I try to comment back to EVERYONE who faves or comments, so if I leave you a message like "Thanks for the fave!" weird replies like "oh, i don't really like your art, i just liked that one pic" really confuse and annoy me. Replies like "No prob" I can deal with. But I try to comment back everyone, and I take a look at everyone's art while I'm at it, because I want to give you all the same courtesy and respect you have given me.

Updates!

Anyway, this is just a quick post to let you all know that I'm having some real-life issues (Skool) that are interrupting your regularly scheduled artwhoring. Here are the effects:
1. Street Team delays
2. Art delays
3. Commission delays

Interact!

I'm making an FAQ. What are some questions you'd like answered? Answer by commenting in this journal!

Street Team News

I'm working on getting out the physical stuff. I'm REALLY SORRY, guys, but SO MANY people responded that I'm having a hard time reconciling all the addresses (since people tended to send about twenty notes REPLYING to my initial reply, which just ends up making me wade through stuff later), and getting stuff printed. So!

So the Physical Street Team mailings are delayed about a week. I'll get them out Saturday if I can manage it. International mailings might possibly be slightly more delayed (like a few days).

Street Team Homework: PLEASE try to read over the note I sent out about how to promote, and start enacting some of that stuff. Thanks so much!!!

The website however, is up, and I'll be adding to it probably tonight or tomorrow. I'm going to add a section for making your own backgrounds, etc. I am toying also with the idea of making the street team a group to promote certain other artists as well, but I can't think of what the criteria would be for being selected into that group, so it doesn't seem to work well.

Art & Commission News

Personal art is being delayed by the need to focus on the Street Team and school. Commissions will be less affected, as they take priority over personal art for the time being. However, if you have a commission from me, and you see me posting personal art before yours is done and posted, it's because of two things: 1) I might just be burnt out on working on commissions, so I finish up a past project of personal stuff just to finish something and feel accomplished; 2) I am working on a quick personal project or a continuous project in order to warm up for colouring on a commission. So either way, the commissions are getting more time spent on them than personal art.

Street Team Signup--FREE STUFF

The street team is still available for signups! All the information is here: [link]

It works like this:

1) Sign up by commenting on this journal entry. [link] Be sure to read the rules!
2) Receive promotional materials and free stuff from me
3) Promote my artwork
4) Epic win.

Commissions

I'm a tumor I'm a tumor... oh oh oh

*cerena — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:14:14 PDT

THANKS!!!

First, I want to give a HUUUUUGE "THANK YOU" to everyone who watched and favourited me, everyone who came to visit my page, and especially to everyone who joined the street team. The outpouring of support during my adCast campaign was awesome, and I really think the campaign was way worth the money, because I got to see everyone's art and I got to make lots of friends. Thank you so much, and I hope you continue to come visit my page and support my artwork. I really appreciate every single favourite I get.

Interact!

I'm making an FAQ. What are some questions you'd like answered? Answer by commenting in this journal!

Street Team--FREE STUFF

The street team is still available for signups! All the information is here: [link]

It works like this:

1) Sign up by commenting on this journal entry. [link] Be sure to read the rules!
2) Receive promotional materials and free stuff from me
3) Promote my artwork
4) Epic win.

Street Team News

I'm consolidating the list today (I have to get my file updated to reflect all the new signups), and the website is ALMOST up and running. I have to take care of the password bit and also add some more content. I will send out a note tonight with the website and password, as well as some ideas for promoting.

This is based on the HONOR SYSTEM.

Please do not share the password with others--signing up for the street team is free, so all it does is hurt me by sharing the password. It is easy enough for your friends to join the street team, so please encourage them to do so!

Please encourage others to join the street team!

Packages will be sent out on Monday. PLEASE understand that it will take me a little extra time to figure out how to send stuff internationally, so I may end up having to delay the physical aspect of the street team for international stuff for a little bit. All packages will come with instructions on how to promote in the best way.

Other News

Life is pretty hectic right now. Between juggling club stuff, bartending school, regular school and commissions, I barely have time to even think. I tried to be sure to comment back to everyone who favourited or watched, etc, and I tried to type out MOST of them myself, but it eventually got to be too much. I can promise I looked at everyone's page, though. I'm just workin' hard, so expect more work soon!

Commissions

Current List

Moldred's million and a half'd pic - inked. Colouring.
's Indian fairy - inking
:iconNaryb:'s chibi fursona - sketching
- sketching

FREE STUFF??? -- Street Team Info

*cerena — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:27:42 PDT

(We have a stamp now!!)

If you clicked on my AdCast Ad, THANK YOU! Please take a look at the street team!!

I am starting a street team to promote my artwork. I need to turn this into a bit of an operation, since I can't seem to figure out income any other way, timewise. A street team is a grass-rootsy type of organization created to promote an artist or event. They're usually used with musical artists, but I figure this works just as well.

This street team pertains MAINLY to deviantart. Please keep that in mind!

You sign up for my street team, you get

FREE STUFF

. Yeah. That's right. And all you have to do is tell people about me and promote me as much as you can. But you have to

READ THE RULES.

How It Works

1) Sign up by commenting on this journal entry. (see the form below)
2) Decide which type of street team member you'd like to be (digital or physical)
3) Receive promotional materials and free stuff from me
4) Promote my artwork
5) Epic win.

That's it! This is a trial run, so please bear with me. I'm still figuring this out.

Digital or Physical?

Physical street team members will send me their address via a note or email, and I'll add you to my mailing list. ALL THIS DOES is that I send you some materials once, and maybe a refill should you ask for it. I will not divulge your information to ANYONE, and I may in fact delete it after I send you the goods. I will send stuff in a manilla envelope that is decorated with my crazy awesome drawingness. Physical street team gets a print or two as a thank you for being part of the street team. If you are on this part of the team, run around sticking stickers everywhere, posting flyers, and handing out business cards when you get the chance. Promotional street team will receive:
- access to the digital street team website AND
- stickers, postcards, business cards, and promotional materials
- a print or two. On Kodak paper

Digital street team means you don't need to give me your address, and everything is done digitally. I will send you to a password protected website with printable versions of promotional materials, and some goodies for members (like wallpapers, sketches, linearts). Digital street team will receive:
- access to the digital street team website with promotional materials available for printouts, icons, wallpapers, sketches, linearts, etc.
- my undying gratitude?

Both teams are expected to help with getting the word out on deviantart and the world beyond (not too far beyond!!!) while STILL FOLLOWING THE RULES of the website! Both teams come with the responsibility of helping me with promotion and not exploiting my generosity!!!

Remember: You are expected to promote my artwork, but still follow the rules of this website, or you might get in trouble with administration!

The Form

Comment with the following:

Name (or screenname):
Physical or Digital?:
Favourite Deviation of Ceri's?:

If you want to be on the physical street team, simply note me with a name and address to send materials to. You can use a P.O. Box or any other type of mailing address.

Rules

1) Please keep most of your promotion to the deviantart website. The physical street team will have guidelines sent in the promotional packaging.

2) Please promote me in a way that follows deviantart'...

Want... Heavy... BRAINS

*cerena — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:25:56 PDT

I may or may not have been playing too much Big Brain Academy lately.

News

So things have been going well. I'm trying to shoot out about three more pieces for tomorrow, but I most likely won't get done with them in time. I wanted to try to bolster what I had showing of my gallery with nicer pictures, but I'll likely only get one more done tonight, and the one I did for Katherdante I'm not totally happy with! But I do think it came out well, I just haven't gotten used to what the coloured version looked like compared to the non. Plus, the lineart was hella-thick, which I had a hard time with. Must look into better inking methods now that my hands are shaking again.

*yamiza finished my commission, and it looks phenomenal. Seriously, she captured Lyselle perfectly. I love it love it.

Meantime...

My Work

Emo Series

Journal

For birfday wishes, I say thank you! I got some nice pressies for my birfday. If you started on a present or something, and still haven't sent it, be sure to send me a comment in this journal about it, so I can post it here with the rest:

Birthday Pressies

All in all it was a really excellent birfday, and I can't thank ya'll enough for the help on that front! Thanks for making my 21st really special.

Interact!

I'm thinking of posting up an F.A.Q. -- So, what questions should I answer? Ask me some questions in my journal that you are interested in me answering!

Art News

I won't be posting anything likely for another week, except sketches and little daily things. This is because I'm working on a stockpile of stuff right now. I'm sorry I have to do it, but I'm going to purchase another adcast campaign, and I need to have stuff to submit during that time. So I should have a TON of art on the way. However! I will not be waiting to send people's commissions to them--which I'm working on as I type. I'm going to send the commissions to the owners as soon as I finish them, and post them sometime next week or weekend.

Commissions

Current List

's second pic - inked. Colouring.
Moldred's million and a half'd pic - inked. Colouring.
's Indian fairy - inking
:iconNaryb:'s chibi fursona - sketching
- sketching
's tattoo! - sketching

Self-art

Birfday?!

That's right! It's my birfday next week. I'm turning 21, HOMFG, and I'm very very excited. But I never get any pressies for my birfday, and I was hoping I could persuade someone to draw me a quick birfie pressie? Of my original characters? PREEEASSE? XD I talk strangely when excited. And I never get artwork of my original characters.

I'm going out to dinner with my close friends, and my boyfriend is paying for my bartending school as his present to me, which is just... amazing. Like wow. So I'll be able to get the job I really want. We're having a crazy awesome party, and I'll finally be able to buy the booze myself! HOMG. Liek wow. So to top my day off, if you draw me some artwork, upload it to devart, and send me the link either by note or by commenting on my userpage below.

Anyway, these are my original characters, with links to some deviations of them:

1. Steven! - my imaginary emo boyfriend. Emo, but also perturbed by my constant pursuit of him and his poorly-tuned-guitar. - [link] [link] [link] [link]
2. Cerifox! - my fursona. She's quirky. She has a curliecue at the end of her tail, and her tail lengthens and shortens to suit the picture's composition. [link] [link] [link] [link]
3. Lyselle - a satyr. She's bitchy, and a bitch. - [link] [link] [link] [link]
4. Heartspeak! - my my little ponysona. She only speaks in emoticons, and is a pegasus. - [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]

OMG if someone drew one for me, I'd be soooo happy. It's my 21st birfie, so I want it to be really special (unlike my 16th. ). And I would of course feature all my pressies here. And maybe draw some "Thank you art" or do something special in return. If there's time. So many commissions to do right now, I'm'a going crazy trying to get it all done. But it's coming along, so I'll be posting some commissions for a bit before I can get back to my own art, or old stuff while I'm warming up.

Birthday Pressies

Thank you!!!!

Wow, guys. Thanks so much for the outpouring of support! I purchased an adCast campaign about two months ago, and since they took forever to process it, they upgraded it a bit for me, but I'd completely forgotten I'd even ordered the silly thing when all the hits arrived! I tried to comment on everyone's pages who watched me--I couldn't handle doing that and the faves too, since most of them overlapped. I also tried to reply to as many comments as I could, so thank you so much, all of you!

I'm a little bummed, though, because all my adcast hits were used up in like one day, so now I'm out a bit of money for one day of interest! And half that day I couldn't even submit anything cause DA was down!! BOOO!

So all I can ask

is that you continue to look at my gallery, and if you can promote me in any way you can manage (journals, leaving my stuff in your favourites box for more than a day, word of mouth), I'd really appreciate it. I'm trying to pay off a bunch of bills for school and my sick kitten (she's black, precious, and has upper resperatory problems), so I'm trying to get as much of the word out about my art as I can, since that's really the only skill I have.

I've still got two commissions slots open, first come first serve, so send a note my way if you're interested. The prices are here: [link]

10 people meme

I got tagged by to do this, SO!

The first 10 people to comment

will be featured. I will pick three deviations I particularly like of yours, and I will feature them here, as well as explain why I like them / critique them. So comment in this journal, and the first ten people will be featured!

1.
- - I love these characters together!
- - Nice colour combinations. Pink and Blue are choice.
- - Lots of dynamic in this, with the pose and expression. Definitely a direction you should take your art!

2.
- This one immediately stood out to me--and it should, it's your featured. Love the stark lines--reminds me of the cut-papers I've done. This technique really shows off your ability to think with your art, you've rendered the shadows very well, and borders are love, because they help to direct the eye!
-

Journal

I figured I'd gank this from and give it a shot.

BY THE WAY, if you haven't seen 's art, she's fantastic. I'm waiting for her to send me linearts for a collabzorz! She also tagged me (wtf?), so I'll do that one next, I promise!

10 things (probably obvious) about my art!

I. I have shaky hands! So I don't do my lineart on the computer anymore. I'm trying to get back into it, but it's taking a while (and lots of calm-me-down pills). Ever since I took this medication back in my first year of college, my hands have been shaky like I have effin' palsy. Sucks! So I do my lineart in traditional media, scan it in... all the method is in my lineart tutorial: [link]

II. I hate anime. I know! I SUCK! But I really do hate drawing it. It ate my style for lunch a while back, and I can't get rid of it. Lately, though, I've decided just to relax about it and enjoy myself, since I DO like cute things. But I've been drawing solely realism in class in order to try to fix it. I have a newer style that isn't anime, more mainstream cartoon, but no one ever notices. [link]

III. I loooove bright colours! The more saturation, the better! I should probably work on doing some less saturated pieces, or at least varying the saturation within a piece, but last year I discovered the effect if I maintain saturation within a piece, and fell in lurrrve. So watch out, eyes!

IV. I'm not BAD at backgrounds per se, I've just been out of the habit of doing them for so long that I never feel like I know what the hell I'm doing. I've been working on including more background-y stuff, but I want to be able to paint the backgrounds without lineart, and I'm having issues. Need more planning, I think.

V. I heart characters. I love OCs. I love getting to interpret other people's ideas for their perfect character in the stories in their heads. But I can't afford to spend time on doing giftarts anymore, since all my artworks take so much damn time as it is. SO COMMISSION ME, lawl! XD So I can do what I lliiiiiike.

VI. I like putting cool or weird phrases or pictures on people's shirts in my drawings. You gotta pay attention, though, because sometimes my brain goes out the window and figuring out what I was getting at is hard. Like this one: [link] (the shirt is probably my fav part)

VII. I never officially learned to draw hands. I know the theory, and I know how to block them out properly, but I never DO it. So I keep drawing fingers till it looks okay. Probably should stop that...

VIII. My shading does always make sense. Because I just shade whereever I feel like sometimes instead of picking a light source. BOOOOO.

IX. I start with the eyes when I'm drawing. Well... I block out the character using circles and lines, and THEN I start with the eyes, and then I end up having to modify the body proportions to match, because my circle head only includes the eyes and nose and not the mouth, the way I use it, so my heads always get bigg...

Senra=Ryo0oki, har har.

*cerena — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:47:43 PDT

It was about time someone reported her.

Anywayyyy....

Not much going on with me right now, other than skool. I've got a couple commissions to finish, which I will list here. If you contacted me and aren't on the list, yell at me and let me know!

Instead of bitching about school, I will outline my art plans currently. I'm going to be finishing up the PoTC series of chibis (I've got Elizabeth lineart, and I've got to start drawing the rest, demmit), and I'll probably be doing some of my "favourite anime characters" as well as some "purely fanbase characters". Sorry, guys, but it's humorous to me, and I think I might as well try my hand at a character I don't actually know well. So if you see me posting Naruto fanart, consider me to be a sell-out and whatever and just know that I don't actually watch the series, but I appreciate some of my friends' completely zealous natures about it. So I'm giving them birfie presents and the like.

Meantime, I've got a bunch of Cerifox chibis coming up (sorry, kids, but I tend to draw them for my boyfriend), and also a bunch of chibis of SPECIAL CHARACTERS.

I've got a Steven pic I should be uploading very soon. Lookout for it, because it might just be the most disgustingly adorable thing you've ever seen. Annnd you might hate it. Whatever.

I'm doing mainly chibis in my own art right now, because they're easy, fast, I can spend more time colouring on them than drawing (which I like)... and because I have yet to see how far I can get with them. I feel like I'm really developing it right now. But I will have several fullbodies coming up via commissions.

Again, if you want to commission me, I only have a couple slots left! Send those notes, guys!

Current List

Untitled Steven

's second pic - sketched

Moldred's million and a half'd pic

's Indian fairy - sketched

Beachcombing with Ninjas

Bandana Cerifox

Elizabeth Swann chibi

Commission prices can be found here.
-------------------------------------------------------

Sketchblog | Gmail | Cam

They see me rollin', on my segway...

*cerena — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:35:53 PDT

Commissions are still open, of course, but none have taken advantage of them, which is saddening, to me. I'm so ready to draw a bunch of new chibis of characters I've never seen before, but unless I'm getting paid for it I literally don't have the time, what with my internship and getting life and my apartment in order before I have to vacate again.

I went to Otakon with my boyfriend this past weekend, and saw lots of cool stuff that was somewhat inspiring. I saw Ryo0oki there, and was reminded that while she was very sweet to me back when I was commissioned by her on Gaia, she's a very different person now. I feel like we all grow up in different directions, and sometimes it's sad seeing people go down paths you know you can never follow, even if you weren't exactly friends.

I feel like I need a DS to be a gamer. So I suppose that's something I'll work toward with my bartending monies. I'm going to be a bartender come September, and it's going to be completely fabulous, so there. Paying off my credit card is top priority (has to be done before December), but then I'm hoping to stockpile everything.

I started working on a new novel that shouldn't be nearly as much of a project as my last. The problem is that there's no way I'm waiting for November to knock this one out, so I'm going my seperate way from National Novel Writing Month. I love the contest, and think it's dynamite for really getting fire under your ass, but I've gone my seperate way--I plan on doing this FOR A LIVING, so I needn't conform to rules right now in my growth stages. Except grammar rules, stylistic rules, and the "don't-be-as-dumb-as-Chris-Paolini" rules I always try to adhere to.

For anyone who loves Eragon... you'll get yours once I finish the picture that goes along with my own sentiments. XD

Meantime, I'm back from out of the country, so again, if anyone wants to commission me, just send me a note or email.

And as always, thank you for all the love and support I've gotten. And I apologize for being so snarky about my OMG yer liek Emo Heart pic, but guys... it's old. It's cute, but it's old, so let's all check out the other things I've moved on to, shall we? XD I don't want to be known for ONE picture I did years ago. That's making me into a hasbeen way before my time!

As always, lots of love
- Ceri

Commission Status: Open. [link]

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

Sketchblog | Gmail | Cam

Commissions, yo! <333

*cerena — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:33:37 PDT

Alright! I'm opening up commissions. I still have about three more to finish, but I should be done with those in the next two days. Rockon.

I'm listing here some base prices. These are base prices only, and once you send me all the information about the commission you're looking for, I'll be able to quote you a final price based on the amount of time it'll take.

- single character; bust shot; simple colours background - $20 (example does not have real lineart)
- single character; waist-up; simple colours background - $45
- single character; fullbody; simple colours background - $75
- two characters, bust shot (shoulders up); simple colours back - $30
- two characters, waist-up; simple colours back - $85
- two characters, fullbody; simple colours back - $125

- single character, bust shot; full background (painted or graphic) - $35
- two characters, bust shot; full background (painted or graphic) - $50
- single character; waist-up; full background (painted or graphic design) - $100
- two characters; waist-up; full background (painted or graphic design) - $175
- single character; fullbody; " " - $160 (example is a chibi)
- two characters; fullbody; " " - $225 (example background is a bit half-assed!)

- single character, fullbody, flat colours - $35 (tends to look best with sketched lines instead of black lineart)
- two characters, fullbody, flat colours - $65

Special: CHIBIS
- single chibi, fullbody, CGed with simple background - $40
- two chibis, fullbody, CGed with simple background - $65
- <[link]">single chibi, fullbody, CGed with graphic background - $60
- two chibis, fullbody, CGed with graphic background - $85

_{* There is only a slight discount on adding a second character because I like my characters to interact well compositionally, and that means more time in planning and execution. So you're better off that way.

* Backgrounds are expensive because they take lots of time. However, graphic design backgrounds will be cheaper than painted backgrounds, always, so these prices are the BASE price for a PAINTED background. I always cut breaks on graphic backgrounds, because they take far less time.

* These are for images will full lineart drawn in pen. The cost for really clean sketches coloured in instead of actual lineart is also discounted significantly.

* Complexity for painting characters varies. If you want a really painterly look, specify this and a bit extra will be added on to your quote.

* High resolution images are available, and cost extra. However, whichever option you choose, the image will be at least 300 DPI and a suitable size to print with, at no extra charge.}

That's it! If you would like to commission me, please let me know by sending me a note, or by emailing me at cerenacat(at)gmail(dot)com.

Lots of love,
- Ceri

This, too, is sacred.

*cerena — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:13:54 PDT

So I have my prints subscription, so that commission has been taken.

As for other commissions, I need to finish up some that I'm working on right now, so I'm currently not going to open up any slots until next week. At that time, look for specialized slots and really good deals.

Also, if anyone is interested in prints of some of my fanart, let me know (BY COMMENTING IN THIS JOURNAL, please) and I will see what I can do to make prints available by shipping them myself. This includes the new Pirates chibi set among others. I will also be making stickers and patches available in the near future.

Thanks!
- Ceri

Current Work List:
- Moldred commish
- Katherdante commish sketch
- Beach party pic
- Steven pic 1 inks
- Elizabeth Sparrow
- NA Cards pic
- Steven chibi inks
- Lyselle chibi inks
- Will Turner sketch
- Final Fantasy sketches prep

Art
Current Status: Cloooosed at this time.

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Sketchblog | Gmail | Cam

Again, not enough saliva. [Commission offer]

*cerena — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:27:49 PDT

I need a prints subscription! SO. I'm offering up this great deal for you.

In exchange for one 12-months premium prints subscription (you can access it on the services page and enter my deviantart name)....

- one waist-up single-character full CG simple background portrait.

You will receive two digital copies of the portrait--one large copy suitable for printing and one more manageable sized print.

This is FIRST COME FIRST SERVE. The first person to note me about this will have the opportunity for the commission.

The character is anything goes, within reason. Will draw artistic nudes (and sexy artistic nudes as well), also.

Let me know!

- C

Current Work List:
- Jack Sparrow
- Moldred commish
- Katherdante commish sketch
- Beach party pic
- Steven pic 1 inks
- Elizabeth Sparrow
- NA Cards pic
- Steven chibi inks
- Lyselle chibi inks

Art
Current Status: Cloooosed.

-------------------------------------------------------
Sketchblog | Gmail | Cam

Downhill is completely relative, you know.

*cerena — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:32:42 PDT

So I got my subscriptions! Yay! Ya'll are AMAZING.

- a 1-month from Thank you so much!!! I really appreciate it!
- a 1-year from GRACIAS OMG OMG. yay.

Annnnnd still waiting to hear back from TiltedHalo.

So finals are next week, I've got a crazy amount to do, but after that I'm in the clear. I'll be hanging around the Lou' all summer, working (hopefully at Sephora), and writing. I decided to forgo writing workshops this summer. I think I need a break from having to do things all the time. So, thanks to continued support from ya'll, I'll keep drawing. I don't think I'm capable of stopping, honestly. I tried, for a little while. But I always doodle in the margins of my notebooks. I seem to be incapable of drawing Jacob and me, which may be for the best. I don't know. Bleh.

Meantime, I have NO REQUESTS so far for drawings. Come on, ya'll. Give me something to have a little faith in?

- Ceri

Art
Current Status: Cloooosed.

-------------------------------------------------------
Sketchblog | Gmail | Cam