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

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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.

**edit: all slots taken, thanks guys

--

I need to make a quick buck. and I mean quick. So as much as I thought I would never say this again.. I've decided to take a few dA commissions

Three, to be exact!

1. taken
2. taken
3. taken

I'm offering painted character portraits at $25 each. This is $10 off the price I used to offer.

recent examples of my character portrait work: [link] [link] [link] [link]

I need the money by tomorrow to pay for a few leftover things for my art final. This is basically allowing me to graduate college So I will appreciate anyone who can help out, fast.

I can only take three commissions. Slots will be assigned on a first-pay, first-serve basis. Please don't send payment until I've confirmed that you got one of the slots. Also, please don't ask for one of the slots if you can't pay right away.

I can paint men, women, kids, old people, non-humans to some extent, etc.

If you would like to commission me, please send a note with a picture reference of your character (no vague descriptions please) and your name and email address. I'll reply with my paypal account name and I'll confirm you as soon as I receive payment.

Here's hoping all goes as planned...*crosses fingers*

I'm so close to graduation I can taste it! And I am getting very nostalgic about school. I feel like I squandered a lot of my time here. I could have been making more friends and enjoying myself...instead, I bogged myself down with work and stress and made things more difficult than I had to. Seriously, I went to a grand total of like 10 parties in 5 years, and had issues signing up for classes EVERY semester

But I don't regret it, because I am happy with my body of work, even though I'll never be fully satisfied with myself. Looking through the things I produced over the last few years, I was able to find a lot of stuff to include in my book (with a few tweaks). Even though I didn't have the typical college experience, I think I did a good job in the end.

When I started out, I was so sure I would HAVE to go into fine art. When I finally let go of that pressure I began to explore aesthetics purely for aesthetics' sake, and I got into commercial art just for the love of finishing and polishing work. Somewhere along the way, completely by accident, I managed to find my own voice. I discovered what I was really passionate about and my work reflected it eventually. I didn't have to go looking for myself or anything...it just happened naturally.

So I just now realized that, basically...compiling my book made me realize what strong connections all my pieces have to each other in spirit and style. It was something I hadn't even noticed until now. And it feels good to see that, finally

I truly believe everyone has something important to say and art is just one language we use to get that stuff out in the open. It's not bad to be interested in the technical side of art because it's like becoming fluent. You don't expect babies to write poetry when they're learning the difference between hat and cat.

I can't believe I've almost been on this site for 6 years! dA has seen me through my entire artistic career. I remember when I first posted a thread on the forums exclaiming happily that I got into art school. (I also remember some people telling me to shut up and stop posting dumb topics. hehe) My earliest works are seriously horrifying to behold, which is why I hid most of them, but I might post some later for your amusement.

On the lighter side of the news, *AbigailLarson and I are going to work on a collaboration to commemorate our graduation

I'm going to be live streaming a painting session tonight starting at 7:30 EST. I'm trying out this livestream thing so hopefully it won't be as slow as last time! There's a 50 viewer limit, sorry. I doubt I'll hit it anyway, because not many people have the patience to sit and watch me fiddle with paint for hours on end.

[link] <- this is the link to the page. hope it works! This is my first time using livestream. I'll be happy to take any questions over twitter during/after the broadcast. My twitter handle is "thundercake".

If you'd like to listen to the same radio station I'll be listening to while painting, my channel is [link] .

If you can't catch the beginning of the broadcast, you can still pop in anytime and say hi!

Just sayin'.