Okies. I like this one, a lot. It was a lot of work, I know it’s not perfect. I’ll see about fixing some portions tomorrow when I’m more awake. 

Do me a favour and view it full sized here. There’s no way the one above does it justice. Hope everyone has a fantastic night!

Bleh. I was trying too hard today and it shows. I know her eyes are completely off, when I started I had not planned on putting the bits of fire and fairy around her fingers, so I had her looking off in the distant at something. The origional isn’t even worth linking, it’s bigger and her eyes are more noticeable. I have spring and summer left, I’ll have to wait until I’m in a better mood though I think. Feeling slightly stressed about life and I had wanted to try to relax with some art.

Absolutely amazing sunset tonight. Taken with my Olympus E-410, you can see the full version of it on my DeviantART site here. I love sunsets like this. They make me think about life and just be thankful for everything that I have. I’m not sure if things are how I thought they would be when I look back on it, but I know I’m exceptionally lucky. I have great friends, a caring family, and despite the bumps that come along I know I’m a good person. 

Have a great weekend folks.

Full version is of course better, thinking of doing some seasonal elves and this one is winter. I haven’t gotten the hang of doing too much post work yet, it’s a slow process. Having fun though, what better way to spend a Friday morning. 

There are a few things I can see wrong with the image, and I had really hopped to get working on some spell particles, but with the snow in the background I didn’t want the image to become busy. We’ll have to see how the other seasons turn out.

Keeping out of trouble on a typical Friday by doing more artwork.. the full version can be seen on my deviantART site if you’re interested.. the smaller version doesn’t do it justice. It started out as an image of Silhouette (coercer) but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with it so instead it came out as this. Can’t complain I suppose.

Didn’t get a chance to game tonight, but I did play some Vanguard earlier in the day and managed to hit level 9 in diplomacy. More about that tomorrow though.

I logged into EQ2 as well today, though just briefly to check sales (which were far and few between, though I can’t exactly complain as I don’t have much for sale). I was contemplating leveling Stargrace (who has been neglected for quite some time now) to 80 and to have her join the other 80’s I have, but the thought of RoK quest grinding just made me log out. Maybe another day. 

In the mean time, my latest bit of artwork. It’s titled ‘Reaching Beyond’ and I added a frame and some text to the final version of it, didn’t want it to be any larger then it already is though for this post. It looks way better in it’s original dimensions. If you’re keen on seeing it let me know. 

I hope everyone has a fantastic end-of-week no matter where you are.

I know, I felt the shiver too as hell froze over. Looking at my Xfire profile, I had to chuckle. On the weekends I typically have a lot of hours in game and my Xfire profile hovers around 70-89 hours a week. Of course a lot of that time is spent AFK while I do other things, or just chattering while I run other programs. While I’m working on art projects I try (some times unsuccessfully) to close down all other programs, and keep my chat programs to a minimum because I’ll just get distracted and not get anything done.

Anyhow. Since I’ve been spending far more time doing 3D rendering then anything else lately, Xfire dropped from 89 hours to 50. It was at 48 yesterday but I played a little bit last night.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with it (as is obvious by the post) and don’t get me wrong, I’m still in Eq2 as well. In fact today I think I’m going to finally get my miniature replica of the Temple of Life, as well as finish those harvesting quests for guild halls and we’ll see what else comes along. Sorry to those who are not interested in reading about anything aside from my gaming experiences, but I typically do try to keep them at a minimum. If you’re interested in looking at the detail work from the picture above, check out this image here. LOTS of details that you can’t really see in the over all picture (especially since it’s re-sized for this site). Anyhow. Enjoy!

P.S. Yes, Openendge, that one’s for you

For once, I did not spend the evening gaming. I know, I almost thought hell froze over too. Instead I spent it lost in DAZ Studio - a 3D rendering program that I’ve been (slowly) trying to teach to myself. Tonight was the first night I actually felt like I ‘completed’ an image, instead of just worked on portions trying to learn the program. I know, there are lots of issues, the floor especially.

The image was rendered in DAZ Studio, and then post work was done in Photoshop CS2, no doubt I’ll be linking my DeviantART gallery here some to show off random bits. I realize it’s not the greatest, but hey everyone needs a hobby (or two or three).

A shameless plug for some of my art work I’ve got over at DeviantART. Who says all I do is game! This Christmas I was given my first ever SLR digital camera, an Olympus E-410, and I love it. I’m typically a pen and ink sort of artist as is apparent by some of my earlier pieces, but recently switched away from traditional art to delve more into photography. I’m still meandering my way through the phone book sized manual, but am having a blast with it in the mean time.

Ideally, I’d like the bit of code up above to go into one of my side bars in my wordpress template, but I use widgets, and have no idea how to go about that. I’m not a web designer, though it’s always one of those ‘things’ I’d love to teach myself. Speaking of teaching myself - I’ll be (hopefully) getting into HDR and tone mapping here in photography shortly. Should lead to some interesting pictures.