One nice thing about the premium membership stuffs is that i can edit and customize the page here a little.  I get the impression you still can't change the background colors (i coulda swore there was a way to do that, but whatever, it's not a huge deal).  Need to work on interconnecting this and my PIXIV stuff via my Fredart page.  

oh wait, there it is, at the bottom of this very page.  Journal Skin.  Doh.

When i poked at my email this morning i saw that someone had given me a Deviant Premium Membership account for a year.  It was given anonymously, so i don't know who to thank specifically, but thank you   It is something i think i will actually be able to use, my experience here at dA has been pretty good so far.   

So, thank you for the Christmas give, anon DA person, and a Merry Christmas and happy holidays and whatnot to everyone.  Here's to looking forward to a much more interesting (content filled and productive) new year as well

fredrin

Hey folks,

someone commented on the Kimiko AJWB2M image that they'd love to buy a poster of the image... not realizing that the posters have been available in the MegaGear store for a few weeks now.  Duh.  ; I guess it would help if i like, yknow, told everyone.  Here's a link: [link]

I'm sure that over the years most people who've done MT fanart, in particular those that have either sent me a link or given me original drawings or printouts at conventions and such, have often wondered if i even look at them because i've never put together any sort of MT Fanart repository to collect and share the voluminous amount of stuff out there. Truth is, i DO look - i look at everything that i come across, but almost never know exactly how to reply.  Even for works I really like (trust me, I have seen a LOT of awesome) I am hesitant to say so.  Why is this?

The reason, i think, mostly has to do with the fact that i don't want to discourage ANYONE in their artistic efforts.  I feel like i have a responsibility to respond to everything, not just the ones i that really grab me.  There has always been so much, i feel like i'd be slighting people if i just responded to some and not all.  Also, i know i don't really have the gift of critique - you know what a good critique is like, it's supportive but also helpful and constructive.  When you have such a cross section of work from people who really struggle with drawing to people who are so good it makes me want to stick both my useless hands in a food processor, it takes a real gift to be able to comment constructively on such a broad range of skills.

That said, i probably am just have always over thought things.  I'm positive that there are fans who were really disappointed by the general lack of response from me, and that's not good either.  />_<  

So, here i am putzing around on DA, and now i have the option to fav things and comment within the community here.  I've decided to err on the side of just going ahead and commenting and faving things i like or want to comment on and to stop worrying so much about it.  Maybe that will help me get some momentum on actually getting around to showing off some of the more incredible work that has crossed my desk over the years.

Oh, one other problem that i worry about. there are some pretty awesome MT fanart works here on DA, but i worry about going back TOO far because i know that it's not unusual for someone to have been a big fan of MT back in 2007 but be absolutely disgusted with it now ;  

Ah, screw it, whatever.  I think too much.

Geh... i just updated my old website [link] which requires me to add and edit .txt files with data and stuff on the artwork in question, make two (or three) different thumbnails in photoshop, manually put in the size of the image, upload everything and hope i got it all right...

Things like uploading images here or at Pixiv or, well, even wordpress, is easier than the PHP monstrosity that i cobbled together back in 2000 (shudder)

I've been experimenting with color a lot more recently, which is a good thing i think.  I'll only start to worry if i find myself wanting to color MT comics. I will make sure that i kill THAT idea long before it ever takes shape in my head.

One trouble with drawing, painting, creating, whatever, is that i (im not sure if others have this trouble) get into habits about how i create stuff, and it's really hard to experiment and break out of techniques that you know more-or-less work.  Being an 'additive' artist (i build my lines from shadows to some sort of collective whole based on building the lines over the course of the drawing, not by single strokes that are the finished line) and someone who works in a kind of analogue of wireframing rather than solids (i define the outlines of things to create a sense of mass more than using solid ares of color and building/subtracting from those) it's hard to challenge my creative workings without the result looking... generally horrible ;;

anyways, been so damn busy lately trying to get things printed and getting orders out the door that i've had trouble sitting and drawing well.  That will change once i get all this stuff out the door.

Hey folks,

Months ago i finally geared myself up to start posting artwork to two sites in addition to my fredart site (which i really need to get on the stick and update to make it easier to post).  I knew i'd probably step away from it for a while as i got cranking on finishing up MT volume 6... yeah, that was a lot more work than i anticipated, so i'm sorry i've been away so long.  

Anyways, i have a few sketches from last night that i'm posting today - one of Saeko, the other is an odd experimental piece that shows some definite FSc influence ;

Now i have to look over the notes and msgs and other things... ugh.

I need to get back to work on the comic, but i thought i'd post a sketch first.  I do most of my drawing on the computer these days, but i still do a lot of fiddling around on paper.  You just can't beat the undo button that photoshop has, not to mention layers and...

I'm sure most of you are probably aware of this, but i fairly regularly work on the comic and other things live on Justin TV.  The broadcast resolution is the same as my screen resolution, so it's a fairly decent look at my rather inept ways of drawing stuff.  There is no set schedule, but if you follow my twitter feed i usually announce when i'm broadcasting stuff. Just a little bit left of the last panel in the next comic to, i'll be working on that in a few minutes or so.

[link]

(also, don't forget to check out the three new art shirts available in our store - I actually print these myself using a DTG printer (it's like a big, heavily modified large format inkjet printer). [link] for supporting MT.  I'll post some more sketches this afternoon.

thank you very much for all the adds and follows.  Hopefully you will find the artwork stuffs i add here to be worth watching. ;

Ok, blabbed the existence of my dA page to the twitterverse and whatnot.  I still think i might need my head examined about that...

Y'know, i've had a Deviant account here for ages... i can't even remember how long.  Well, since i'm going through my galleries of unposted art and trying to put it up properly now, i might as well coordinate doing it here as well ;