I've been approached several times about why I delete artwork from my galleries - at one point I even went so far to "abuse" my administrative rights in another gallery and deleted every single image I had uploaded over the course of a couple years via my superbutton-of-administration. BOOM, gone. Today I cleaned my gallery yet again and a lot of artwork I've drawn for others (Free Friday) went BOOM. I have saved all artworks, so if you actually miss four Free Friday request, mail me, I'll send you the web-version. It amazes me that people actually get angry when I do my "spring-cleaning" - in some cases I understand that reaction, though, so I'd like to point out that I do not delete the artworks because I do not like you. I think every artist no matter the talent or success will understand the feeling "urgh, why did I paint that, it sucks, I'll need to delete it eventually!" and that is partially the reason why I delete artworks from time to time. The other reason is that I believe that somehow these artworks hold me back. Perhaps it's a bit bizarre thinking on my part ... I have enjoyed painting Free Friday art, I have enjoyed uploading artwork, I still enjoy painting yaddayadda... but a while it was more important to upload for uploads sake. The need to finish a painting was greater than progressing and creating things that made me happy was what drove me to paint as I thought, if I only keep on painting than something will happen, all I need to do is to turn into a regularly painting person and everything will be alright. I got rather unhappy that way and so I tried to invest more time into my artwork, started rendering again for rendering sakes and even if I didn't get to that magical place we all like to touch while painting, it helped me realize that forcing myself to work in ways that I'm not hardwired to do won't help me get better at life or drawing. I'm still trying to find out what I really want to do, I only have a vague idea of what I want to be in say... 12 months from now or so but I think I have a rather decent understanding of what absolutely do NOT want. So, as I already said, deleting artwork I've drawn for others as a gift or even as a commission is in no way meant to hurt or offend others, rather I hope that this is just another step on the right path and better art.

I have plans, I have something to focus on, I still owe people artwork and I promised to help with commissioned artwork, I'll continue painting, but sometimes I just want to go back to my artcave, lock the door behind me and try to work things out the way I think it works best for me. There will be new artworks for sure and soon! The Witcher 2 is keeping me busy with moar fanart, I have my personal projects to work on, so I'm in no way closing galleries or something like that. I'm just streamlining so to speak

If you'd like to see regular uploads with sketches and such, see my tumblr account for more: ninjafrosch.tumblr.com

This is my first time with the Naturama Project lead by Mutabi, I'm excited . Give money to a good cause (in my case - Bats!) and get a commissioned artwork drawn by of your pet or your OC. All information can be found on the website of the project itself: [link]

*********
(text stolen from )

The Naturama Project 2013

We are looking for artists to project the nature- we are looking for you!

Do you like wolves, tigers, birds of prey, otters, snow leopards, pets, ocean animals, wild bees or bats?

Do you draw your own artwork and would you like to make a contribution to protect our beautiful nature?

Yes?
If so the international "Naturama project 2013" is your chance to become an active part in
saving those animals by doing a commission for the good cause.
We start again with the «Naturama» Project, that assemble artists, to draw for saving the nature!
This time there won't be a complicated assinging-rounds. The artists will chose a request for a picture of their choice directly and work it out.
Apart from that our art raffle at the end of the «Naturama» Project is new.
Every customer get the chance to win an special prize in addition to their commissioned artwork!
You as artist join Naturama, search a customer for a commission of your choice and the money,
you get will be collected and totally donated for environmental saving projects:
[link] .

In the course of the project, participating artists are offering a commissioned picture in order to draw it for a fixed amount.
The gained amount will be collected and subsequently, giving to different Nature Conservation Organisations.
No money will be kept by the Naturama project. ALL money will be transferred to:
WWF for wolves
WWF for tigers
Wildpark Lüneburger Heide for birds of prey, snow leopards and otters
Hamburger Tierschutzverein von 1841 e.V. for pets
Greenpeace for animals of the ocean
NABU Rügen for wild bees
and
B.U.N.D. for bats!
[link]

It is so easy to support us:
Just draw as you do as artist like those: [link]
or advertise us with those free banners: [link]

2012 about 87 artists and free donators from different nations donated all in all 3.006 Euro for nature!  [link]

2013 allready over 84 artists agreed to join us like: TaniDaReal, BloodhoundOmega, DreamAndNightmare, Mjoellnir, Steel,
Shalimar and many many more
– so now it is your turn!

For questions and participation please contact Naturama here: info@naturama-projekt.org

Best greetings, your Mutabi!

It's kinda late, but I'm on Livestream for a bit.

[link]

Thank you very much for helping all those she stole from + me out. The artthief was removed from Facebook and I've recieved a message from Facebook stating just that, so she didn't delete her account out of her own accord. All posts involving her are gone, too.

By the way - I have an insurance. I could hire a laywer should I need one and since I live in Berlin, finding one is a matter of a few phonecalls and a short trip with Berlin's excellent public transit. Just saying

:thumb309200986:

[link]

Still don't know how to navigate the site, but yeah... I haz a tumblr.

A little early, but since won't be spending the holidays at home, I wish you merry christmas in advance. It was a rather turbulent year and I hope for some peace and quiet during the last days of 2012. Thank you for sticking around

Since my trusty personal random number generator wasn't available, I had to use a tool and said tool chose:



Thank you for participating

As for fanart: YES! I'd love to see fanarts of my steampunk characters or my old dragon characters - I really don't mind of you give them a try and leave a link. Just don't use the art for prints or something similar. I wish, I had new art to show, but I'm busy with xmas and such

My own subscription will run out in 3 months and I've gotten attached to the way things are, so I'll be getting a new one. DA currently offers a give 1 get one for free deal - I'd love to see some fanart, but the deadline is the 16th, so that's quite unacceptable. Not that I wouldn't mind seeing fanart of my characters *nudgenudge*.

Here is the deal:

I don't want to give the subscription to a random and possibly inactive user from my watchlist, so please leave a comment in my journal and +fave it. Tomorrow after I get home from work, I'll choose a random person who'll get one year subscription for free. (human error are no reason for complaints)

So, get to writing comments, fave it and good luck!

Thank you again for the kind words, I do feel better and I'm working hard to stay that way so that my life has some measure of healthy stability.

More artwork is on the way and I hope to continue working on my little Steampunk project again soonish.

This is very, very difficult for me, I've been thinking it through, but now I feel I have to make a decision.

I've been putting this off for a long time trying to fix that problem on my own or by hoping it would somehow just go away. It doesn't. Instead it got worse and it's started to affect my life, my work - again. The last time this has happened was in early to mid 2010 when I pretty much disappeared into World of Warcraft. The game wasn't the problem, then it was my solution. It helped me through a difficult time and after some months I could work again on my own stuff. Surely things could not get any worse, those were my thoughts then. Well, I was wrong. Earlier this year something major happened which gradually made me face the exact same situation
again. I haven't painted anything in the past weeks, except for trying to finally finish commissioned artwork.

It doesn't work. I will contact my clients and talk to them about the commissioned artwork and until I feel that I have found a way to deal with this situation I won't take on an commissioned artwork on my own.

I'm really sorry.

I am getting help and I'm working hard on "fixing" this problem, but it will take time and I don't think that stretching what little resources I have left at the moment will help me at all. It hurts to admit this, but that's the way it's been and I'm fed up with this mess. I will not talk about it, all I can say is: I'm not doing this because I'm a lazy person or I don't want to face consequences. It's the opposite, working on commissioned paintings wasn't work, it was... well... it's what I wanted to do. Working on something creative and seeing it come to life, wether it's some character for a TV-Spot, a cover for a novel or a game, some private art for a person's birthday - being part of that is just as awesome as working on my own projects. And
I want to go back to that, just not half-heartedly, but with a new perspective and no fear of relapsing into the state I'm currently in.

I hope to be painting again soon...

When I checked my notes this morning I found out that my account was enabled to sell through the premium-program which was announced today. You can read about it here:[link]

Personally I have mixed feelings about this. Of course getting revenue via Deviantart is great! not a problem with that. Deviantart has been about "being open and free" for the past years and I'd hate to see that go. Another problem is the availability of ressources all over the net. It will be interesting to see how this service works out, that's for sure.

Will I be using the service? 20 minutes into the program, so that's hard to say. I don't think any of my brushes or tutorial or linearts are commercial material, my PSDs are useless too as I work on one layer most of the time. The only premium-product I can think of to sell is my webcomic and that's still in the works.

I hope premium services add to the professional side of Devaintart. We will wait and see, right?

Things I'm currently working on

- Commissions (I know, so slow)
- character sheets for Steampunk Detective
- Merchandise for Connichi in september (including hopefully two new prints, the Fruit-Thief mug, ACEOs and whatever I can come up with in the next two months)
- homepage
- Leafdancer calendar (just finished the scribbles, I think it will be a VERY cute calendar!)

Things I still need to do

- regular sketchbook
- better portfolio
- order the mug! The printing service people who printed my Fruit-Thief mug are very friendly and dedicated people, so I know I will get the best prints for Connichi! I guess it was a stroke of luck, so I'll be sticking with them from now on.


Plans for the rest of the year

Finish all that above and begin working on Steampunk Detective. I'm not sure if I'll be able to draw the first chapter of Steampunk Detective this year, but progress on the comic is fine for now. SD will not be a regular webcomic, instead I'll release chapters of aprox. 5 - 10 pages with each update along with additional artwork. The first comic will be 68 pages (already scribbled) in total + cover. This means waiting between updates, but I can't guarantee regular one-page updates every week with my current... lifestyle. As soon as I have more artwork to show, I'll let you know the storydetails. So far it's been a lot of fun working on the comic and I hope you'll like it - despite the lack of dragons, haha.

I got my mug today and I have a couple of good news! *squeeeee*

1. Although I do need to sharpen the file a bit more, all the details are clearly visible. Even my signature stands out and I was sure that it would smear or turn to mush.

2. The colors turned rather grey, but it can be fixed with color-adjustment.

3. The mug itself is fairly neutral in design with a big handle.

4. I can't believe how cute the dragon looks on the mug itself. Righthanded people will get the dragons head, lefthanded people will see the cheeky tail and the fruits.

All in all - not too bad. I'll fix the file and order another one from the printing service, hopefully I can order the mugs right then and there. In the meanwhile there is still my printshop here at DA.

I'll be livestreaming at around 8 pm.

[link]

1.
Random Avengers wearing their signature colors

2.
Bloodelf Paladin

3.
Diablo

Thank you for your requests. I'll get to it when I get home and maybe I'll livestream a little. The lineart for the Dragon Mug is also done, so I'll put those contacts to the test hehe.

I did it again - I totaled my glasses... and yet I can see. The nice people at Fielman gave me a pair of contacts. After wearing glasses for over 30 years I can see myself in the mirror without wearing glasses. I can't tell you how awesome this is. My eyesight with contacts is not 100%, my eyes are that bad - but I have about 70 - 80% sight in my left eye and nearly 90% in my right. Without glasses. I feel so naked. And it's great. I had to bite my tongue on way to the office or else I would have screamed all the way to the 6th floor. The downside to that is, that I have to pay for the replacement glass, a replacement pair and the contacts. What little money I had saved will go to paying for that, not awesome. Well, what can you do - I have to wear my glasses in the shower or else I can't see a thing and I broke my glasses right AFTER I took them off to shampoo my hair and that's when I missed the shower head, that tumbled down and hit my glasses. Bullseye.

I can see what I type. I. can. see.

Actually I had meant to call Free Friday off, but with the contacts it should be possible to draw.

Don't forget the free art-requests - [link]

I wrote a blog about Anatomy, it's going to be a personal review about books and other ressources. check it out, leave comments etc
[link]

I haven't done any free art lately - mostly because I'm really busy, but I'd like to offer 3 slots anyway.

Rules:

1. Limited to the following fandoms:

- World of Warcraft
- Assassins Creed
- Diablo
- Avengers

2. Max two characters
Either include a short story/description of what I should draw or leave a link to the armory/character sheet

3. Post in my journal to be eligible to win one of the three slots.

4. I'll bug to draw the lucky three on friday, so be nice to her

yeah.. pfff.. I saw it. And yawned. What a boring and uninspired movie. I've never seen the soap this is based on nor have I heard of it - it made me think of Addams Family minus the oddities that made them so popular. Actually Dark Shadows had all the ingridients for a fun movie, instead it's just plain weird and awkward without the fun. The only joke that made me smile was "ugliest woman I've ever seen" and even that got old after repeating it.

Rent it on video if you feel you have to see it, but save the money now.

I don't think it's Burtons fault, his style shines through - while not the best, but the script is a disaster. Seth Grahame-Smith - never heard of the man - wrote the script. Some of his works include: Saving Dick, Deadliest Crotch and a movie about a boy with... big genitals. Yup. Apparently he is the man you got to if you need flat "bro-jokes" and this is something that doesn't go well with someone like Burton. Seth Grahame-Smith will be responsible for Beetlejuice 2. Producer and screenwriter. I weep for my childhood.

I'll not join in with the name-change craze. Not that I actually like my nickname, but it's been with me for so long that I'd have difficulties identifying with another one, so it'll stay around until I have good reason to change it. I created another account for fun-stuff, scraps and drawings which I feel do not belong in my gallery. Honestly, I don't know if I have the energy to maintain two galleries, but I've felt the need to seperate my scribbles, comics and other funstuff from my "serious" gallery for so long so I'd like to test it. This'll mean that I'll delete some stuff from my original account or that'll I'll move it to the new account.

This is the new account:



Engelszorn will be around for more polished works - not neccessarily finished paintings. Skizzenmonster is a junk-account so to speak. Maybe you'll even find fat, glittering, winged unicorns with tiaras in that gallery! or fanart, or freak-accidents. Or something