Long day at the polls, but relatively easy, too. It was a lovely space this time, and fabulous weather, and I got to do some writing planning, plus watched some Merlin.

This is the piece I did in the studio art class that just finished up today. She's a new incarnation of Sofia the Clockwork Engineer, and I think that this version of her is a character in the story I'm writing.


This is the 2009 Heritage Society Quilt Committee offering, called "The View from My Hammock". My mom did five, count 'em, five of the squares. Mom is awesome. I got a credit because I did some drafting and designing. I did not sew any of this quilt, though!

Wow, I haven't even had the chance to read my gift and the reveals are already up for Founders Gifts.

I drew The Duellist (PG), and will take the time to post it properly on the art comm and IJ shortly.

Been working on this since 2x03 aired, but there are no spoilers unless you want to see them.

Title: Chasing a Dream
Artist:zephre
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters: Morgana/Merlin
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Medium: photoshop


(image at art journal)

Title: Embrace
Artist: zephre
Rating: PG
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters: Merlin/Arthur
Notes: For the Merlin/Arthur Hug Meme


(image at the drawing comm)

Had a lovely crafty evening with Kim last night.  Found some fantastic Halloween accessories at Michael's that will make wonderful not-quite-so-tiny shrines, and achieved a significant amount on the quilt.
The quilting portion of the project is finished. Now I have only the binding and final touches before it is ready to send.  Yay!

I am so busy, in all aspects of my life, and it's funny the way that everything just gets more complicated. Luckily I have a really great workplace and a lot of resources for keeping my head above water.
There's a small list of urgent tasks I need to do in the next few days, but things have been made much easier by canceling some of my almost-scheduled out-of-town plans for this month and next.  Except for the RenFaire, there is now nothing on my plate requiring a large travel investment until the holiday season.

And plenty of time for crafty decompression.
(I hope!)

Title: Star Trek Love #1
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Characters: Spock, Uhura


art over here

So I got tired of running across random Uhura-bashing or Spock/Uhura-bashing, or defenses against same, and fought back the only way I know how: I committed art. (Seriously, not remotely my ST:XI preferred ship, but not something I want to sink, either.  I have become amazingly free-for-all love-fest in my pairings for both Trek and Merlin, of late.)

The line art is over at my art comm:
Work-safe, Rated PG, Spock/Uhura

And the full-color version is on the way.

Yes, I am also working on big bang art, still. Everything will be done on time. 

Title: Snapshot for Alice, 2018
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Characters: Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy
Summary: Every so often, Luna drags Draco out of the university to play tourist in Berlin, and sends the photos to her goddaughter at Hogwarts.  Part of the Far Away as Moonshine universe.
Artist's Notes: Black and white sketch version.  NOW with color version! They're at the Berliner Dom.



( image below cut )

I think I need to make blogging a daily habit, although I'm using Twitter a lot more now that it's part of my job.

Yesterday I went to get a new glasses prescription.  I had forgotten that optometry takes three zillion more hours than my regular doctor. They did all kinds of things that I don't think I've ever had done before, like dye drops to check pressure and various scopes to peer into the depths. The guy doing the exam was very nice and willing to chat and joke about the various machines, which is always nice. I like a doctor (well, in this case a student) who is willing to explain things. He dilated my eyes, which takes about a half hour to process in itself. 

So while I was sitting around letting my pupils grow, another student came in and asked me to take part in her research project - it would be very brief, non-invasive, and I could do it while I was dilating.  So I said sure, and went and looked inside a big box at some glowy lights, telling her when they changed color. Then my student doc and the supervising doc took turns peering into my eyes again, and at the end of the exam they said, "Your astigmatism is gone."  Hey, cool.  Turns out that if I don't wear contact lenses for two years, my lenses/corneas/whatever don't warp as much. No mention was made of whether warps in the soul bounce back, too. Fun times.

I'm leaving for San Francisco on Wednesday, and starting my packing this weekend. I'm beyond worrying about costume pieces, now.  I have a hat, that will have to do. My art is printed but not yet in the frames. I need to run a final back-up of my data before traveling with the laptop.

This is the extremely busy and stressful time at the office, and with the con just past and the one coming up I am not in a good place to be worried or stressful about fandom stuff. It's just not worth it. So I'm skimming most things, concentrating on getting back into a creative mode so I can do my art, and not worrying about anything but getting to Azkatraz and meeting all the cool folks I hang out with online.

In other fandom news, by the way, I've suddenly become completely addicted to fanfic in the new Star Trek 'verse. Mostly Kirk/McCoy. This has not been exactly my cup of tea in the past, but it's entirely too much fun now. I very much like most of the fics' take on Uhura, in any pairing. She's a mad genius. Also, I've noticed that fandom seems to have taken a huge shine to Sulu/Chekov, of which I really can do nothing but approve, right? My question is, why is there no love for Scotty, in any verse? Show me the Scotty fic, folks.

ApolloCon went well, and the post-mortem is in progress, and I am up to my ears in paperwork.
I also have less than two weeks to get myself together for Azkatraz.
I've ordered postcards for the meetups and general promotion. I've gotten the prints of my Gallery art, and may print up some more postcards or business cards with those images.
I have boxes everywhere in my apartment, and no sign of getting rid of all of them anytime soon, but I do need to do some cleaning and organizing here. 

General To-Do List: ( cut to spare the f-list )

[OMG, Colin Morgan and Bradley James are teh adorable, sigh. -- ok, back to work now]

Time to get off my butt and go to the store before the day is totally gone.

I've had a rather bad several days, interrupted by some really great stuff.
Been doing art, building furniture, being very depressed, having a great time at work, going to various meetings, being depressed again, calling therapists and doctors, and re-arranging my living quarters.
I got to go to the ancestral home for Mom's birthday on Sunday to play Ticket to Ride: Europe with Mom, my aunt, the scion and Hillary. And then on Tuesday Dad and I went to IKEA for dinner and to pick up the table I wanted. Mom came over yesterday to help me put it together, along with the laptop table and task chair that I'm using now for the computer. It's so much easier to do stuff with a workstation that lets me keep a good posture. Typing on the laptop on the coffee table just was not a winning situation.
Due to my two bouts of severe sorrow, I got behind on my art commitments, so I'm working tonight on finishing the last overdue one.
I'm also watching a DVD that isn't Merlin. Ha, ha, ha, I know.  I've watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Real Genius, and now I'm watching the really awesome episodes of Season 3 of Babylon 5.

OMG my love for Andreas Katsulas as G'kar just swells my heart to bursting.  God, what brilliance. Such a good show... such a loss.
Ok, moment over.

Now I'm having some dessert (angel food cake with strawberries) as a reward for finishing the line art for this overdue piece - with my fanart style, when the line art is final, the piece is 60% done.
Tomorrow I'm home from work, so I'll be finishing up some other obligations, including data entry, and more furniture arranging plus the disposal of all the styrofoam and cardboard.

I'm really having a lot of trouble with my GI stuff - Mom says I need to give myself more credit for dealing with a chronic health problem as well as I have, mostly.  It just got really frustrating for a few days - with all the other stresses, then feeling like I was unable to eat just was a bit of the last straw.  I've got to rethink my habits.  One great thing is that my Wellness Counseling at work has been going really well, including keeping a food diary. That will hopefully help once I can do a bit of analysis. Only another few weeks before I get back in to the gastroenterologist.

Mom's been encouraging me to meditate, and it kind of sort of maybe helps. And I should really do a tarot reading or something. What's all that stuff for if not to offer guidance in times of stress?

Oh, and bonus - despite the stress and stuff, I am happy to say that I still have fingernails.

Now it's back to the drawing board, or in this case the brilliant Wacom tablet.

So for weeks now I have been working in small increments to get a grip on Corel Painter (ok, months, but weeks in the case of this particular piece) in order to make some art in a different style.
This is an illustration for a fic in the BBC's Merlin universe, and I've used pre-Raphaelite inspiration, mainly Lawrence Alma-Tadema, especially for Gwen and Merlin, which some viewers may recognize.
I wouldn't say I was pleased with it, exactly, although I feel that it's an improvement over some of my previous Merlin attempts.  I do love Gwen here, though.
Now I'd best get back to working on the deadlines and commission.

Title: "We have wine."
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Characters: Merlin, Gwen, Morgana, Arthur
Medium: Painter with Photoshop touchup.
Summary: An illustration from the Arthur/Merlin fic, Awash with Love by burkesl17. Merlin climbs to the top of the castle to discover Gwen, Morgana, and Arthur sharing wine and lamenting their situation.
Notes: A not-so-subtle homage to Lawrence Alma-Tadema and the pre-Raphaelites.


Here be the art...

Yesterday started early, picking up Kim right after breakfast to run around leaving Con fliers all over the neighborhood.  We got around to several spots, and then met my parents and Mark at Crescent City Beignets for lunch.  Mmm, seafood gumbo.
After lunch my parents and I met up at the Progressive Coalition's house party fundraiser for three City Council candidates running on progressive platforms.  It was a pretty interesting gathering, and I was able to stay to hear all three candidates speak before heading out for my ConCom meeting.
ConCom meeting went pretty well. We're getting closer to the big day, so things are very intense. Scheduling is getting tight and a much larger portion of my free time than I expected has been dedicated to Con stuff.  (Not a problem, but as this is my first year I'm still getting into the feel of it, gauging the job.)
After the meeting, several of us went to dinner at Sewadee Thai, and I had some yummy Squid Delight, which also served as a great breakfast today. 
Then I went home to put up my leftovers and stash my paperwork. I got picked up later for a lovely and fun game night in the neighborhood, so yay. I had a really grand time and they introduced me to Fluxx, a card game I had never heard of but really enjoyed. I'll have to get myself some edition of Ticket to Ride to bring for play another time.

I slept in this morning, and now I'm trying to get some more drawing done. My deadlines loom.
Also, despite several library books waiting in the wings that I have started but not finished, I'm rereading Lirael and Abhorsen by Garth Nix. So much for new stuff.
(Also, good grief how much do I adore the soundtrack to Merlin? When will they release the music from the later episodes?  It's really amazing.)

Here I am at my lunch break, thinking that I have not been doing much blogging lately.
Things have been happening, thoughts have been thunk, writing has not really happened but a lot of art has gotten done...

I've been calling on my parents a lot for help with the apartment, arranging and unpacking and such. I have some stuff from IKEA that hasn't yet come out of the box - perhaps I should have that Flat Pack Party after all.
I think that this evening I shall go buy a television at last, and maybe put some books away.

Lately I've had lots of meetings and Meet-ups and a seemingly overwhelming amount of volunteer commitments, mostly online. How did I end up working on two back-to-back cons? Urgh.
I haven't got a costume for any of them, either. Although I may go shopping for something to wear to the dances, at least. 
I'm test-running some less-demanding-than-Adobe art software on my Mini, so that I won't have to lug Ginevra and all of her expensive software to San Francisco for the art demo I'm supposed to do. Does anybody out there use openCanvas regularly?  Got any good tips? Tutorials?

Other randomness:
Read The Graveyard Book, and it was excellent. Haven't yet managed to finish any of the other books I took from the library. Rereading the Enchanted Forest Chronicles omnibus instead.
Ran through the entirety of Avatar: The Last Airbender again. The finale chokes me up, man. Beautiful stuff. I may need to get DVDs.
Still re-watching Merlin, too. I'm easy.
Really, really wish I had Ghostbusters  on DVD.
I've made a lot of grilled cheese lately.  Also used almost every pan I own. Now I just need to make cookies (or pizza) and I think I will have used all possible kitchen tools at least once.
Have made minor progress on the current quilt, but won't really get far until the sewing table stops being the "put everything down here when you come inside" table. Working on it.
Been keeping a better food diary for the past few days, along with a general journal. I've stopped trying to separate everything and am just keeping everything in one book now. This combined with regular check-in with the Wellness Counselor at Rice should help me get a better handle on things. I hope.

And that's enough for now. Lunch break is well over, and I have things to do.

This week we started experimenting with the printing press at the Art League, using clear acetate and watercolor paper.


And after I did my run on the press, I didn't feel inspired to add watercolor to the pieces so I did a new one.

This weekend I cleaned and rearranged with my parents' help, and it went really well.  I'm still debating how best to arrange the things I have, but now almost every box has been opened and its contents put someplace.
Today I cooked for the first time - serious cooking, I mean, not just heating water for tea. I made rice noodles in chicken broth with Quorn nuggets, bell pepper, snow peas, mushrooms, and bean sprouts.  There is a big bowl of leftovers in the fridge.
I also made a big list of cooking items it would be helpful to own.  :) 
Now I have eaten, cleaned up the kitchen, and am watching the last epic hilarious battle scene from Van Helsing.
I have lots of art deadlines that I need to get moving on, so that's my plan next. I have one piece almost finished, and the composition of another in my head. I hope to get the one finished and the other sketched tonight.

On the down side, when I came out of the grocery store after work, my car had a massive crack across one third of the windshield from the passenger side. It wasn't even that hot out, but the sun was beating down.  I'm kind of pissed off about it, not that I actually have direction for my anger - these things happen when one owns a car.  I'll have to see how long I can drive with it, and if it gets any worse I'll have to have the windshield replaced.

I finished the painting from last week, which was an exercise in color.
This is Donna at the Lexington Avenue N train platform, based on a photo I took in 2005, before we both moved to Houston. This has a touch of prismacolor in it from when I was trying to even up the lines and shapes, but it's mostly free brush over light graphite outlines.  Next time I do something like this I may actually block out the letters with a resist first. But it's groovy despite the shaky typography.


And then I did a quick still life, as that was the class for today. I think it still needs something, maybe a bolder hand with the lavender background, or some highlights or somethnig, but on the whole I'm very pleased.


Next week we're supposed to try prints. Fun!

Two events today with my parents:

The 2009 Art Car Parade was wonderful, but very very hot.  There was a great little breeze that eased it occasionally, but it was really just hot. The cars were fantastic, our neighbors were great, and it was a fun time. Behold, the two bunny slipper cars:

See more (to the tune of almost 300 photos!) at my Flickr Set.

And Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul at the MFAH. This exhibit was so moving, I almost cried several times, and I definitely went into paroxysms of joy over several pieces.  Not just the photos and stories about the war-torn land full of archaeological excavations that have been abandoned (and the Bamiyan Buddhas, damn), but the glorious artifacts themselves - amazing and beautiful works the like of which I have very rarely seen.
One Roman medallion in particular made me go back for second and third looks, it was so delicately beautiful, a tiny infant Eros with the most beatific expression, embracing a butterfly Psyche.  And three ivory table legs in the shape of voluptuous and elaborately dressed Indian women. And the most amazing thing of all, a drinking vessel of Roman glass, painting with figures in inks that retained all the brightness and cartoon-vividness of a souvenir McDonald's glass, I swear. Unbelievable. Then came the room full of burial gold from nomads of the Steppes, and my art inspiration just went into overdrive. I may have to spend some quality time with some textile history books to envision the full beauty of the garb they must have worn.
It is incredible what was saved, and just imagining the scope of things that must have been lost, whether to looting or destruction, boggles the mind. The exhibit holds a tragedy and a miracle all in one, and I highly recommend that everyone who can get to it go see it. It'll be in Houston for another week, and opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in June.

On the list for tomorrow: IKEA and Star Trek.