deviantART: by:melem

DD?

~melem — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:11:56 PDT

Daily Deviation

I logged onto my DA thinking I had gotten my Visitors number off by a thousand. Then realized that maybe it actually had jumped that much when the Messages log was swamped. That's right, I remember the visitor count. I'm trying very hard to respond to all the comments and thanking people for the 's and 's but there are hundreds now when I'm used to responding to twos and threes. >< But I will try to get to all of you! Thank you for watching my gallery and suggesting something out of it for a Daily Deviation.

All this had me looking into the various lists of things people look at on DA, particularly the list of popular art on the site. People really like nude women, boys kissing and small versions of anime characters. It's a snap shot of extremes: Something for Men/Something for Women and Pervy/"Innocent."

Other stuff that happened today: I got a Scholarship, my back hurts like the Dickens cause its been hunched over the laptop writing 'Thank You's, and the dish-washer still needs to be emptied. It's a Playboy's life for me. Or, rather Playgirl... is here a Playgirl?

I will be attending Sheridan this year to finally get me some art skillz and training. Hopefully I can practice enough to make a decent portfolio and apply to Animation, either at Sheridan or Emily Carr. Does anyone know of any other reputable animation schools?

Writing seems to be an important skill if one is interested in pursuing a career in the arts, so I'm practicing up. I'm thinking of posting some writing exercises and you guys can 'yay' or 'nay'. What do you think?

Etsy Merchandise!

You can buy my Sailor Moon keychains at my Etsy store now! They are super purdy and individually handmade, right down to the packaging. They are $8.25 US and you can find them at [link] I also have Pride and Prejudice keychains; how can you resist? I'll have images of them up soon. I have three pairs of them left. They are $15 for two.

If you see anything in my gallery and want a print of it PM me. Also, all buttons -This includes my D. Grey Man, Vampire Knight and Howl's Moving Castle collections.- are $2 for one and $5 for 3. ALL SHIPPING IS $3.

- Texas
- Law & Order
- Suikoden: Teikreis
- Flavoured Water

dWarped Journal CSS is based on the Warped template design by Six Shooter Media. It's avaliable here at deviantArt under the Creative Commons Attribution v2.5.

Artist Table

~melem — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:41:53 PDT

Convention Table Space!

'Sup guys! I've been busy arranging a table in the Vendors room at the upcoming convention, Animethon. If there are any artists who are interested in selling your work and don't want work under their Artist Alley ticket system, you can apply here. You'll be sharing 22 feet of tables with a group of other super-cool, supportive artists. We'll be taking on ten artists in total, so you can have a little over 2 feet for $40 or over 4 feet for $80. We have four spaces left, so shimmy over a PM or message the journal if your interested.

I'm planning on making more keychains for the upcoming con: a Sailor Moon set and a Pride and Prejudice couple. XD I might not sell a lot of the latter but If anything, those will be for me and my other literary-nerd friends. Also, Space Cat may get some love, I'd like to draw a few, large, concept pics with him for prints.

Done Like Dinner

All our spaces at the table are filled! *punches the air* The merry band consists of some pretty shweet aritsts: and myself.

- Texas
- Law & Order
- Suikoden: Teikreis
- Flavoured Water

dWarped Journal CSS is based on the Warped template design by Six Shooter Media. It's avaliable here at deviantArt under the Creative Commons Attribution v2.5.

Commissions

~melem — Sun, 03 May 2009 04:20:13 PDT

Commissions Are GO!

I am currently open for commissions!

Commission Stipulations:

I reserve the right to decline any commission request without question.

I reserve the right to include any commission done in natural medium or otherwise that is not to be sent in my portfolio.

I reserve the right to display commissioned pieces on my site(s) or DeviantART gallery. If you've requested an original character of yours, credit to you will be noted accordingly; if you have a problem with this rule for whatever reason, please speak to me, IÂm flexible.

I reserve the right to adjust pricing on a requested piece accordingly.

Once a piece is commissioned, you may use it as you please, it is now youÂre property, for layouts and whatever, without being required to link me back or credit, though itÂs always appreciated, it isnÂt mandatory. (HOWEVER, YOU MAY NOT CLAIM THE PIECE AS YOUR OWN! I still reserve the rights to the artwork, you may not make money off of it. If you are looking for something to redistribute or resell at conventions and such, speak to me.)

Regular commissions are NOT to be used for book illustrations, covers or any other publishing that depicts your work OR for any project you may hope to profit from (whether you make a profit or not). They cover non-commercial use ONLY. You may not make prints of my work to sell. I still hold legal rights to the art, commissioning me means agreeing to these terms. This includes but is not limited to: Book illustrations, game illustrations/concepts and so forth. If you wish to have me illustrate something like this, or use my art in a commercial project it will fall under specialty commissions and must be discussed with me before the commission is started, the rights to the image will be included in the price for you to use as you please. You must specify if this is the case, failure to do so may result in legal action. I also offer discounts to images ordered in bulk for these projects. I will generally charge twice the price of a regular commission and will be determined on a case by case basis, most book covers won't fall under $300. For art books (that you've commissioned the piece to appear in) I require a mention in the very back of the book (or wherever you might setup your credits, or for sites on the credits section of the site under the name of M. A. Allen for my work. Standard credits for novel covers apply.

If requested in natural medium, should something happen to it during the shipping of the piece, I am not responsible.

I will not begin the piece until I have received payment, once I have received payment, I will continue to update you on the production of the piece, all pieces are begun and finished in the order that I receive payment. I will only accept so many commissions at once.

All commissions are non refundable.

Will Draw...:

Original Characters (yours, mine or otherwise. If you request a character that does not belong to you or myself, you are required to obtain permission from the creator and provide me with a way of contacting them so I can confirm their permission. I reserve the right to deny any request of one of my original characters without question.

Fan Art (fan art of a character from any fully copyrighted series, copyright to the original creators of the character will be displayed on the picture itself, at the bottom, near my signature.)

Shoujo and Shounen Anime/Manga Style.

Semi Realism/Realism (special conditions apply.)

Shounen-ai/Shoujo-ai.

Yaoi/Yuri/Hentai (this one will cost you.)

Chibis

Anthro (but, for the love of Zeus, not sexy Furries!)

Japanese and American styles.

All of the above subjects are available in all Mediums. If you wish to request a subject not listed above or below, please feel free to ask. Again, I reserve the right to deny any request without question.

Price Estimates:

All of the following pricings are rough estimates of what each commission might cost you. Prices may vary depending on subject matter, detail, size, medium, etc.
All prices listed in American dollars.

Sketch (600x700 - 750x800):

Bust Shot: $8

Waist Up: $13

Full Body: $18

Leftovers 4 Sale

~melem — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:52:42 PDT

Animethon Leftovers

I have some leftover merchandise from the convention I attended last week, so please buy some if you are interested... even if you aren't interested! XD

How to Buy

Please PM me with the header 'GOODIES!' and list which items you want and how many of each. Then I will confirm if I have any left in stock and ask for your mailing address. I will send you the item AFTER I have received payment. I'm using PayPal and there is a $3.00 shipping fee.

Buttons!

Howl's Moving Castle: Sophie & Heen, Howl & Calcifer

Vampire Knight: Zero, Yuki, Kaname

D. Grey-Man: Allen, Lavi, Kanda

$2.00 each / $5.00 for a set of three / $11.00 for the lot

Lanyards!

D. Grey-Man: Allen, Lavi, Kanda

$3.00 each / $7.00 for the set

Keychains!

These are all double sided with either shiney stars or crosses.

$6.00 each / $10.00 for two / $13 for the Series set

Naruto: Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke

Death Note: Light, L, Near

Trinity Blood: Abel, Tres, Esther

Bookmarks!

$2.00 each

Naruto: Sasuke

Paper Child!

These can either interact with you or can be paired with each other... or cross the series' together!

$3.00 each / $5.00 for two

Naruto: Naruto, Sasuke

Death Note: L, Light

I Love Those Who Love Me!

Peanut Butter Angsting Time

~melem — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:41:44 PDT

Don't just , people! Comment!

Did you know I have an autographed (in person) copy of Neromancer by William Gibson? He's a very tall man. For those not in the know, he's the one who coined the phrase 'cyber space'. His book was so popular amongst nerds in the 70's that they created computers around Gibson's vision of what they could be. Way coolio. I also met Seth MacFarlane at an awards show he was hosting; he was nice enough to pose in a pic with yours truly. He told me he feels more like a producer than an entertainer... strange. Also, I've recently taken up Hip Hop Dancing so watch out for my crazy feet of fury! Well that was some of the highlights of my past year; let's hope it won't take me another year to write the next journal entry. One issue that has been plaguing me for a while is how fast people around here produce pictures; or rather is it my slowness? How do you guys do it?! When a picture finally does get finished I also ways have such high hopes for it, only to have those hopes dashed on the rocks of mass indifference. (Woe is me!) Seriously, 5 people comment and maybe 10 people fav. I know I'm not the hottest talent in DevArt (by a mile) but I am presumptuous enough to think some of my pics may be of a higher quality than some of the stuff that gets faved a couple hundred times. What am I doing wrong? Do I not do enough fan art? Peeps complain they don't look like the series when I do. When do you know if your time hasn't come yet or you're just deluding yourself into thinking you have talent? I used to watch American Idol, so I know people like that are out there! Do y'all have the same insecurities? Tell it all to ol' Mel so I know I ain't alone in this.
P.S. What the heck is a Meme?

I Love Those Who Love Me!

~melem — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:18:13 PDT

And He saw that it was good.

Sorry, I'm drawing blanks here coming up with Journal titles 0_o The Journal needs updating though... and for the record I hate that pinky in 'Animethon Contest' *twitches* I'm hoping to finish another picture for the contest, keep your toes crossed. There is a Fiction Writing course at my University that gets inundated with submissions every year but only 25 students get in; I chickened out last year but this year I finally put together some vaguely coherent sentences and submitted them. If you've never written fictional narrative prose before in your life how can you learn if, in order to take classes, you must already be better than most people? Why is there Raspberry Jam under my fingernails? XD Any who, I have another question for y'all: Why is it highly sexualized pictures of young girls are majorly popular on DA? You draw, or photograph, boobs and bum and the picture is faved like crazy. Soft core porn is not art *cough abuse of Artistic Nude category cough*; I don't care how snazzy your comeback is for that. Why can't a naked picture of an old man or woman in repose be submitted and faved like there's no tomorrow? And drawing unnaturally large breasts on little girls and/or having them touching each other up is mucho creepy. Even scantily clad pictures of women show a major lack of imagination -_- So if I fill up my gallery with BoysLove, Fan Art, naked nubile little girls and Jack Sparrow does that mean I will be the most uber popular Deviant on the web? Devious, for sure, in the wrong way. -_-

Spreading the Love

::6 Things::

~melem — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:32:00 PST

I got tagged by so I must expose some embarrassing secrets about myself. The game is to expose 6 of your neurotic tendencies. After being tagged you need to make some instructions for 6 new victims so they know what to do. Write a journal entry explaining the rules of this tag operation and at the end chose your 6 next targets. Now lets get to the scandalous parts!

1) I have a strange superstitious side. I don't believe in the black cat, ladder and salt stuff, but the last time I saw a sizable murder of crows Eastern North America's electricity went out a day later -_- I'll pass by something (a poster or some garbage on the street) and my mind will make up weird what-if stories that if I don't go back to check out that poster or pickup that piece'o garbage something bad will happen. Or a situation will come up that if only I had that plastic spoon!

2) Things must be fair and even. If I notice that I've tapped my left foot 3 times I have to tap three times with my right foot.

3) I enjoy making out patterns while staring at bathroom tiles.

4) I've been a big fan of Gerard Butler for about 7 years now. Who's psyched for 300? That would be me!

5) Sometimes I have a hard time ending conversations with people because I don't want them to feel like they're disinteresting... a lot of people just need to talk.

6) I can't stand people who yawn without covering their mouths. It is most low class, disgusting, inconsiderate... ughhhh

Now I tag:
If you guys have already done this you're off tha hook! XD

Spreading the Love

Summertime Comic

~melem — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:09:50 PST

'Twas busy this past month with finals and so I have been neglecting DA. But you guys get a big update! You get to download my very first (and probably last) comic... ever XP It's the first part and the other two were planned out but it was always intended to end on the first because of the large workload. This comic was made for my Popular Literature class, and I'm hoping the teacher will be merciful and give a reasonable mark ;_; I'm also playing around with my Journal, so give a shout out if you like it ^^ There are now two sections to my watch list, the 'Spreading the Love' section are those people who I've friended and have friended me back. 'Too Cool for School' is for the rest of the super talented artists I watch (I know you guys want to friend me too! ) Please don't get upset if your icon isn't up yet, I've probably forgotten loads of people, sorry ;_;

Spreading the Love

Too Cool for School

but you can all pretend it's yours too! XD In conversations with Sarah she told me she likes dairy produce, and since mice seem to pop up in my pictures these days it seemed like a good fit. She also likes Egypt so the Eye of Rah and an ankh are in his costume, with the gold tubing on his shoulder directly influenced by my love of TatoomCity. I also went back to look at Saka from Kapolo Klub pictures since that is where most of what I know about skin colouring was learnt from; to see if I could change up my current technique. Hip's Don't Lie and Maneater were played many times during the creation of this picture. Why is it that the song will go on about love or whatever and then when the rapper gets his solo he goes on about something totally different like... owning a boat or his sexual prowess with the ladies? 0_o I've also started watching MuchMusic lately and every video they play seems to be about sex or highly sexualizing the singers. I feel like I'm watching a soft-core porn channel... I feel so dirty! The new Beyonce and Jay-Z video is so hilarious I have to watch it every time, because it's ridiculously terrible XD She's rolling in the grass then rolling in the sand, now she's changed her out-fit.. Oh look she's changed again, and again, zippity do presto change-o! Now she's doing some demented version of the Egyptian; searching for something in the swamps... and now voguing on a Victorian sofa. I think she did all her own choreography; so now I know there IS something she can't do. Like me with proper punctuation and grammar XD

Update mah People

~melem — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:26:17 PDT

Well, I'm listening to fairly repetitive music repetitively so that means I'm focusing on finishing a new picture. Something about 'Call on Me' and the new Madonna cd that zones me out, LoL! And Gnarles Barkley's Crazy is on my playlist as well... but that's a real song so I don't know why he's there 0_o I have a convention to work in this Saturday and Sunday so I'm furiously (one big procastinator right here, so you can imagine what 'furiously' looks like on me) finnishing a picture started a few months back and never bothered to complete. Must have more pictures for prints! I usually have 3 or 5 new pictures a year which is pathetic -_- On a better note I won a month subscription to DA for my entry in Kingdom Hearts contest, so 'woot' for me (as 's dad would say XD) and one hundred and two 'Thank You''s to Shadow Lotus for liking the picture. So stay tuned for a new picture either on Friday, Saturday or Monday... or Cheeseday. Indeed, Cheeseday is the best day to accomplish anything XD

Contest Time!

~melem — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:59:37 PDT

If you haven't already voted for anyone in *ShadowLotus2's KH2 Contest

Vote for me? I would seriously appreciate it! *crosses fingers* I can't give you anything in return... I can't give you anything but love!

Please write "Number '39' by melem" in a comment on this journal entry - [link]

Goodness knows I'd love you for it!!

Passing Angst 0_o

~melem — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 23:42:51 PDT

A big "Hello!" to the spectacularly small amount of people who will visit my DA page. I really shouldn't be surprised by my total anonimity here at DA; I don't post very often and I write few comments, however I am going to try and change that a little now that school is over. Yet I can't get over the crazy amount of people that will 'favorite' yet another photograph of some person's cat looking stupidly into the camera and a maximum of 7 people will go out of their way to comment on one of my pictures. It's not very conductive to me submitting more works. But maybe I really do suck that much 0_o I hardly ever practise and my subject matter is totally uninspired because I'm afraid that I'll start something I'll completely fail at even though I've slaved over it many sleepless nights! Because it takes me soooo retardedly long at making just one picture -_- Anyway I would like to make a proper journal entry with people's icons and lists... yep those are the main things you find in Journal entries on DA. But I can't get pictures to properly appear! *angst* There is a lot of angsting in this Journal entry, yep yep. I suppose I'm just a little frustrated, nothing that won't pass though ^^

It is very late

~melem — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 03:41:34 PST

Like the subject says, it is very late, and I should be sleeping. But I think my parents have given up on my odd sleeping partterns ^^ As long as I go to school I'm fine I guess ^^ I looked up Aalice's deviant page when I read on her website that someone stole her art. So I hopped on over to Deviant art to see what foul play was afoot. Fortunately it was resolved and all was well again in the hundred acre wood... I mean Deviant Art 0_o I remembered that I had signed up here a long time ago and now I've resolved to update and add some pictures... compaired to the one picture I had up before today -_- Hope my art work is deviant enough you guys ^^