Well, these days I'm doing a heck of a lot better. Mentally, physically, and economically - although things are still tight, I've been making enough to get by and I started a new job. I'm really liking it so far. I've been more social and spending a lot of time painting and drawing. Overall things are looking up!

character portraits are now $30 each. I'm excited about my next upload. It's not finished yet.

-TC

Hi folks!

As you can see I've been doing portrait commissions. It's been going so well that I think I could open the door to other sorts of commissions, since I can't afford to be picky. I need to make rent, and I have 10 days. :/ It's down to the wire, but I'm feeling so good and capable these days that I'm not worried and I know I'll be able to do it. I also just got a new day job, so I know next month will be infinitely easier.

• I can do painted 100x100 avatars of your original character for $10.

• I can do portrait sketches for $10 or full body for $15

• I can do full painted portraits for $40 or smaller for $30 or even smaller for $20 - three sizes, three different levels of finish

• I'm open to any offers for illustrations, logos, borders, lettering (I swear I can do it)... hit me up!

some examples of what I've been up to:




YEAAAAHHHH so. hire me.

-TC

Ugh, that title is so weak. Maybe I'll think of something cooler by the time I'm done writing this.



So now that I have my tablet back I'm going to be working on a series of digital character portraits. This effort is part fundraising for myself, part getting back into the saddle, so by ordering, you're really helping me out in two ways. Why portraits? Well, because they're fun and I love doing them.

I'm going to be doing things a little differently this time, so please bear with me if you're interested. Here's the scoop.

* I work best when I'm painting your own original fantasy, scifi, and other fictional characters. For the time being I'm not soliciting realistic portraits of real people.
* You can provide me with any kind of reference you have handy. Visuals are best but I can work from a written description.
* I will be doing these commissions one at a time, paypal'd in advance. Can't take a check or money orders this time, sorry!
* I can't really tell what the response will be to this offer, but I want to warn that I may not be able to get to everybody, if there are a lot of orders.
* I'm shooting for each portrait to be around $30 - $50. It will depend on the level of complexity of your character. (Please note that my prices have dropped considerably. Thanks, RECESSION.)
* Tips are always appreciated as I am waaaay more of a starving artist now than I used to be. So if you tip me, I will spend longer on your painting, and probably write you a love letter or something.

How to order:

* Send me a note with the title "2013 Commission".
* Include the name of your character, and provide visual references or a thorough written description. If you want, tell me a little about your character - with an idea of their personality I can do a better portrait. Please also include your email address and name.
* I will respond, we'll banter, etc. and decide on a price. I'll send you my paypal info, receive your payment, and then get my portraiture on.
* When I'm done you'll receive the hi-res file. I personally feel like this is as good as having an original, because no one else has the big file, so you're the only one who can print it out properly.


Like I said, I'm going to be doing these one after another. I will not start a new portrait until I finish the last. If I take your payment, you can be assured that's the only thing I'm working on until it's done.

I'm sure this is unprofessional to say, but momma needs to make rent. If you want to hire me for something else, like a bigger illustration, don't hesitate to ask.

Cheers!

-TC

That's the title

Set 50 years in the future from the T:U game date, this game will tackle a new kind of social upheaval: the disintegration of class boundaries, the struggles of a newly integrated society, economic strife, border conflicts, the meaning of life, mysterious enormous beasts that suddenly started showing up everywhere, giant cracks in reality out of which pour millions of hungry ghosts, labor laws, school rivalries, love, hate, and all the messy in-between stuff.

This is still in development phase. If you were part of T:U and would like to participate in R&D with me, please email me at mx.ivycave@gmail.com with Thorns in the subject line.

----


I need money So I am going to be taking one commission at a time, in traditional media. Pencils, maybe watercolors. I will post a sample very soon with details. For this time, since I'm just getting back into working, I want to focus on character portraits. If a traditional media drawing of your character sounds good to you, it would be helpful to me if you'd post indicating your potential interest. It's been a while since I did commissions (2 years?) so I'm starting out doing only one at a time. The good news is this means I'll be posting stuff again soon.

Hi folks, how's it going?

I've moved into my new home, and can't wait to begin work again. Some of you may be aware that I was running a coffee shop. The shop was (very recently, like since my last journal) forced to close. I'm very sad about it, but it does afford me more time to work on my own projects, and it is nice not to be at the point of exhaustion every day...weird, though, to go from working 70+ hours a week to nothing.

The news I have for you today has been struggling to burst out of me for weeks. I've been working on a SEQUEL for Thorns: Uprising! Thorns was always a multiple-universe setting, so a game set in the future would allow T:U to continue unabated. This would not be the same game rehashed in a different era. I want to encourage more in-depth writing, more prose, poetry, letter-writing, etc; players will have more opportunity to develop their characters' stories and build their profiles. We'd also have a much bigger, better organized art section - you could be a player and do nothing but draw peoples' characters, if you want. The idea is a fully immersive world, with tons of different ways to participate. Hopefully this is something I can really kick into gear this summer.

I was so touched by the dedication of Thorns players, and how hard they worked after my absence to keep it going, that I felt a major resurgence in passion for the project. It's my biggest single work, and I am reinvigorated with new ideas. Dark, scary, timey-wimey ideas. Big beautiful fun ideas with polka dots. Little ideas that look big and big ideas that look little.

Game name announcement and more details to follow.

Thanks for watching!

-thundercake

click for full text

Check out these amazing posters.
Have you ever seen anything so amazing?
No, you have not.
So buy one now.
Buy one and rejoice.
Buy one, and love yourself again.
You are nothing without one of these posters.
Nothing.

This message has been brought to you by boxed wine.

I was reminded of this place's existence by ~Miss-Arsonist

OK so life updates: I'm single for the first time in 10 years, I'm moving to Seattle next month, I have barely been painting at all, I am working as a graphic artist and web designer for a software company, I had an absolutely terrible year, I came back to 24,683 messages and I'm not going to answer any of them.

Sorry I know, I'm the worst :/

3 portrait commissions are available from $50-$100 each, depending on the level of detail you're looking for.

Sketch portraits with quick color are available for $25. I don't have any recent examples, but they're basically like rougher portrait paintings.

I'll take the first three people that can pay. After that, I'm going to start a queue. If anyone's interested I can try to live stream my work again. It's been a while.

If you've previously contacted me about commissions and did not receive an answer, I will try to get back to you soon. Sorry for the delay.

I'm going through some enormous changes in my life right now. To be brief, I made the very difficult and painful decision to leave my partner of 7 years. This along with my medical recovery means things are pretty nuts at the moment.

I won't be taking any new work until I finish up my current jobs, but I'm going to need to make some extra money so I will be opening up dA commissions very soon, with a flat price list like I had before. Never thought I'd be doing that again

Anyway, believe it or not, I'm doing all right. I wish I could turn off comments on this entry because I really don't want to receive any condolences. While this is a scary time in my life, I know I did the right thing and I have no regrets.

Hi folks Just a quick update explaining how I'm handling portrait commissions.

I've been dealing with some health issues lately, and my endurance was going up and down sporadically. I've been unwilling to keep a "queue" as I used to, so what I'm doing is taking commissions as they come in, finishing them and then handling the next one, but not taking any money in advance because I would have no way of knowing if I could get everything done before the holidays are over.

Anyway, if you've sent me a note and I have not yet replied, it's because I want to keep them marked and in order so I don't forget about them. I will reply right away if I have the chance to take your commission.

As it stands, there are only 9 days left before Christmas, and I may be able to fit in a rush order or two before then. I'll do my best.

Happy holidays!

For Christmastime I am offering high-quality painted character portraits or real-people portraits.

Due to the unpredictability of my schedule, I can only take on one project at a time, but I will post up here when they are available again.

The price will depend on what is requested. However, character portraits will always be cheaper than real-people portraits because it is harder to get a likeness when you're working with real folks in photos. I specialize in fantasy, sci-fi and steampunk humanoid characters. Anthro characters are more challenging for me but I will still accept those jobs.



Please note me if you're interested

I have a new website! And here it is!

Because dA is my dumping ground, I will eventually be uploading a bunch of new stuff from this summer. But if you're impatient, a lot of it is up on the site right now.

For the record, I know there are lots of problems with the site's loading times and coding...I made it in about 2 days from start to finish, in order to impress some people

So how have you been, dA? I've been away from you so long.

I've been working on a webcomic.

It's about elves.

More to come.

Hi

I won't go into why I've been avoiding the internet, and I'm not strictly "back" yet but I'm probably on the way back. I've been feeling pretty down this summer due to various things, but a remote possibility has loomed on the horizon and I'm feeling positive for the first time in ages.

Anyway, I have some work from this summer that I want to put up sometime. It's mostly portraits and commission jobs, but I've also been working on a painting series that I may talk more about later.

Commissions are currently closed because I reeeeally can't take any more pressure right now. If I owe you something right now and you're concerned because it's taking a while to get done, I seriously apologize - I lost my portable hard drive and my laptop just got stolen yesterday (car thieves, grrrr) so it's possible that I've misplaced a few work files. Please drop me a line if you're worried. I'll try to push everything out soon.

Sorry for not responding to notes. Stuff going on. Can't really talk about it.

I'm starting to take preorders for commissions. I still have commissions in my queue, but I'm going to be taking on new jobs by the end of the month, so if you want something, now is the time to let me know.

I feel like trying to paint an anthro thing today. Something furry. Anyone have a character they'd like to request for a free portrait?

I will need picture reference(s)! Also please don't spam me with a bunch of links.. one or two characters per person would be preferable. I'm only going to be painting one or two, and I'll choose based on which designs I feel like working with.

My lucky number is 23, and now I am finally 23, an age I have wanted to reach for 23 years!

All my life I feel like the number 23 has been following me! It's showed up in a ton of street addresses where I've lived, phone numbers, locker combinations, random assigned numbers, etc. they even made a movie about it with Jim Carrey (and don't think I am not SUING!)

I don't want to jinx anything, but all my life I've had a feeling this was going to be my lucky year. It's no small coincidence that I will end up graduating college in the same month I turn 23, or that Nick and I are finally ready to start a new life together in a different place. My toes are tingling with excitement!

Thank you guys so much for everything.. I love dA, even though I pretend not to in public

Frank Frazetta, an incredibly influential fantasy artist, died of a stroke today. I've been looking sadly at my Frazetta poster ever since learning about his death; it was partially his art that got me interested in the swords and sorcery genre in the first place.

Love him or hate him, you can't deny the man had a serious and lasting impact on the illustration world. To fantasy artists he was like.. the equivalent of Norman Rockwell. Definitely a pro, always recognizable and imitated so often that his uniqueness is continually undervalued. Although it might seem silly to use the word subtle to describe his work, I always felt like his paintings had a certain poetic subtlety to them, like behind all the musculature and beefy hero guys there was a quiet little story being told with light and dust and mottled colors.

Frank will never really die, because his art inspired and influenced so many people. He immortalized himself.. not just by the art he put out, but for the impressions he made on people, the story he was telling with his work. He has influenced me a lot over the years and I owe him a debt for that.

Some of you might already know this, but I have an artist page up on facebook.

[link]

It'll be easier to keep up with me post-graduation on there.. facebook is slowly winning over twitter for me. I think it's that twitter is too disorganized. If I watch more than like 10 people, I can't keep up with tweets. They pile up to an insane degree.

(My twitter is here. Not that it's worth anything really. )

In other news, I have some FIERCE shoes for graduation. I may even post a picture of myself, if all goes well and I don't fall on my face. O_o

uhg I'm sick today.