First on the list of journaling. Dear lord, I've been dead on here for almost three weeks! How did this happen? Anyone who left a comment, journal, art, or whatever will get replies and comments when I find the time, but there will be replies and comments! When I find the time...

Second on the list. My new love. Corel Painter. Where have you been all my life?!? The blending, oh the blending! Skin now looks like skin! Hair looks...wrong, so I think I might stick to photoshop for that. But Painter and I, we shall have a great deal of fun together.

I'm taking a digital art course at school and the put painter on my comp, but I've had a number of bad experiences with Painter so I didn't do much experimenting with it. Now we're starting to use the program and I decided, "hey, what the heck, I'll paint some random stuff" and now I love the program to death. Well...not entirely. It's a love/hate relationship. Corel Painter likes hiding my brush bar, selection tools, layers, and colour wheel randomly and putting them places I can't get them back from. So I have to restart the program and reload all the pallets at 'default'. Also, it doesn't like running for longer than 30 minutes and if it does run longer than that, there's a high chance of it randomly shutting down.

Oh, I almost forgot. Writer plug time!

Read this woman's rants. They're brilliant. Really. They are so helpful for writing, especially fantasy but many of them can be applied to other things too. Sadly, it's no longer updated, but there are over four years of articles to slog through, so you shouldn't get bored too easily.

limyaael.livejournal.com
limyaael.insanejournal.com
(She stopped updating her livejournal account in 2007, so the insane journal has some from 2008, up until she stopped updating all together)

Go forth and write. Or draw, for that matter.
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Book review time!

Book to be viewed: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

Well, ok, this really isn't much of a 'review'...more of a conversation about the book...with myself...but anyone else can join in!

I finally picked up A Game of Thrones, which has been hanging around my bookshelf for about a year or so when I finally read enough people praising the book's name to drag myself to read it to find out what the fuss was all about. (Turns out, I actually own the first three, possibly four, if I can find the fourth so there will be a number of discussion/reviews about this)

First of all, insane. This book is INSANE. People die, animals die, ideas die, things just die. There's a lot of death and dissapoinment, but worth reading even if a little depressing. Certainly an excellent book to study for learning how to kill characters off.

Characters I like:

Eddard Stark: He has one huge ass moral compass, something I can kind of relate to, though I pray I never have the problems he has to face. Often, I sympathized with him throughout the book, though sometimes...I couldn't help but mentally scream "Open your eyes, you fool!" SPOILER: Now that I look back, there was a bit of foreshadowing for his fate, even in the very beginning. I think I knew what was coming before it happened.

Sandor Clegane: I like the Hound. He's such a sympathetic character. He's one of those people who, because he looks scary and cruel, is forced to act scary and cruel even though, deep down, he isn't.

Khal Drogo: Though he only ever said one word in the Common Tongue, he was still very likable. Mean mostly because that's how his culture is but also unexpectedly sweet. I was very sad at the end of the book.

Characters whose heads I look forward to being mounted on the Red Keep's Walls:

Joffrey: Oooooo, I hate him. Vile little self-centered, merciless, gutless cretin. I look forward to his decapitation sooo much.

Viserys: Sadly, a little late on the beheading part, but I still hate him so. What a spoiled brat. Oh, and a little crazy. Though, I'm not so sure he deserved what was coming for him. It was a little...strange.

Everything else:
Oddly, though a great many people say they hate her, I don't hate Cersai Lannister. Sure, she's cruel, Sure she's conniving, and sure she's backstabbing, but you can't completely blame her. She was married to a man she didn't love who was in love with a dead woman he had never met. She never really could match up to that no matter how hard she tried.
Tyrion Lannister is...either hated or loved by me, depending on his mood. He's entertaining with his sense of humor but he has one hell of a mean streak. Another character who was forced to become what he is but still...sometimes it's a little jarring.

Did anyone know they're making an HBO tv series of A Game of Thrones!?! I just looked up a character listing to see how to spell Viserys' name and apparently they're turing this into a tv series. This will be...interesting...

If anyone wants to share their thoughts on this, go ahead. I'm happy to discuss.

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I said it would stay open, I never said it would stay in the same journal space. New little edit; if more than 15 people want to be featured on here, I can add more spaces. It isn't entirely limited to just 15.

There are fifteen spaces for artist's names. The first fourteen people to comment here will get one of the numbers for their name, a short description of their work, and a few choice featured art. When I put your name up here, you have to do one thing: Make one of these journal memes for yourself, with my name in the 1. slot because I made you do this.

This journal will stay open until all the spaces are filled.


1. Oreramar, a member of the NeonDragonArt forums and she who led me to this idea, is a fantasy artists whose work centers around people, dragons, fairies, and anthros done mostly digitally, but with a few traditional works as well. My personal favorites in her gallery are her pottery pieces, which I think wonderful and adorable. Here are a few of my favorites in her gallery: Inner Dragon, Fairy Thief, Just for Fun, and The Dragon Mug, which I adore.

2. Java, who I met on MangaRevolution, does excellent digital work that is heavily influenced by anime/manga that's really enchanting to look at. Her work is often undeniably cute and brings a smile to my face. Here are a few of my favorites from her gallery: Kiareri trade color, Daughter of the Nile, Chiubi, and Angel parents.

3. Yubria, whose cartoon-art style I adore and whose humor is just wonderful. I love her style and how she pulls off character expression is often delightful and hilarious. She has that incredible ability to draw horses. My favorites from her gallery are are The Orc King, Legacy of a Legend, iDragon, and Clueless, which has to be my favorite of the lot.

4. An old friend of mine who I've just found on here! She's an anime/manga artist who's currently working on producing a manga of her own (which I can't wait to read). Her work is often very cute and makes me smile. I've enjoyed watching her work develop from what I remember. My favorites from her gallery are Greal-nii, Something's Different, and The Sunrise Girl.

5. Toshema is a fantasy artist whose work I admire greatly. She leans toward bright and shocking colours that are excellently balanced and not overwhelming. There are many dragons in her gallery, which make me happy, along with a variety of other fantastical beasts, an interesting style of people, and gorgeous backgrounds. My favorites from her gallery are Lost Land of the Ancients, Spade, and The Dragon Lord.

6. Another old friend that I found on here (actually, she found me). Wolftwins is an anthro and animal artist whose talents at drawing furry things I do admire. She works mostly in traditional but her digital is still a treat to see. My favorites from her gallery are: dragon, Set ya soul on fire, and don't worry dawn.

7. He had one of these journal memes going too, so we traded! He's an anime/manga influenced artist with an intriguing style that I like. He works in pencil and, when in colour, digital. And his characters are so friggin' cute! I love them! Some of my favorites from his gallery are: Akiiiii, MangoMango, and Draguns.

8. Stormwing, another friend from the NDA forums, is a fantasy and anthro artist and a writer. Her characters are memorable and very intriguing and her story world is engrossing even though it's still on the drawing board. She also has a fun sense of humor that shows up in her art and that elusive skill of drawing horses with riders. Some of my favorites from her gallery are: Once A Dragon Artist... (I adore her dragons' style), I've heard it's painless, and Highwaymen (both still make me smile every time I look at them ). Oh, almost forgot! Here's a piece of writing by her too: Silver and Sickles

9. Runner333 is a photographer and animal/anthro artist. His photography is what I really enjoy as it is wonderful stocks, beautiful landscapes, and, in osme cases, is rather amusing. My favorites from his gallery are on and on and on and...,Stained Glass 1, and Legally High, which I just find funny.

10. Mokinzi is a wonderfully talented traditional artist with an interesting and eerie style (which I enjoy very, very much). Her work has a creepy and alien cast to it but is also inventive and creative. My favorites from her gallery are The Trompafloraphant, Do fish go to heaven?, and Colour Queen.

11. Varethane has a fascinating style and gorgeous digital painting work that I just love to death. Her work is diverse, but always has a fantastical element to it, including long, pointy ears (yee!). My favorites from her gallery (and I have a lot) are Finch, Grasp of Decay, and Verge. Varethane is also the artist of Chirault, a very entertaining and wonderfully illustrated comic. (Yes, this is shameless promotion and advertisement)

12. Another artist from the NDA Forum Boards, jwindjackal is an aspiring artist with a great many genre interests. His art is both traditional pencil and digital work. He has a few dragons and critters in his gallery (which I love, some are very creative) and a number of humanoid characters from various places. Personally, I enjoy watching his art improve. My favorites from his gallery are Blue Pheonix, Tree, and Aragog (As I am a fan of HP).

13. Space Open, leave a comment and it's yours!

14. Space Open, leave a comment and it's yours!

15. Space Open, leave a comment and it's yours!

There's still space people! Comment, comment, comment!

THERE'S ONLY THREE SPACES LEFT! COME ON PEOPLE, COMMENT!