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)

I got a clean bill of health yesterday, and got a shot in each arm (flu, tetanus).

Ran by Spec's to get cookies and cheese and found a few other things to try. My food experiments have been kind of eh lately. Sometimes they work out, more often they leave me feeling gross for the rest of the day.

Also, been watching Avatar: the Last Airbender Book 2, which tends to make me very emotional. Between Appa and Aang I just cry at the drop of a hat in this book (In the next book, it's Zuko and Hiro that make me cry the most), but luckily Sokka is there to bring me back with a smile.

Time to go run some more errands, and hopefully reclaim my Firefly DVDs. By the time I get home, I should be able to find Merlin's latest episode, too.

I still haven't finished the quilt.  Argh. Soon, though.  Soon.

Dad and I went to see Star Trek on the IMAX. It was pretty hilarious. I noticed lots of details I'd missed the last (10) time(s) I saw it.

Have now been mostly spoiled for the first episode of Series 2 of Merlin but I find I don't mind so much. Not sure if that will continue for the entire run, but what with having to wait two weeks for any opportunity to see it, a bit of spoilery speculation is fun.

Still running deadlines, and now I'm also pinch-hitting, which is fine but more deadlines. I thought I'd get to work on tiny shrines this weekend, but it's so not happening. Time to get some time-management going.

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...

So my Mom told me she followed the link from my LJ to sign the petition at racebending.com about the whitewashed casting of the Avatar: the Last Airbender movie.
Is that everybody now?  Go sign it!

Also, the TV and DVD player are both installed and working beautifully, and MY GOD Colin Morgan is adorable when his face is a foot tall in my living room.  ;)

Now all I have to do is actually build my IKEA furniture.
And finish my art before deadline.

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 is just a quick update for those following the drama on the Personal filter (and as always, if you want off a filter, just drop me a comment).

Everything is ok, I have lots of apartment leads and one, maybe two viewings lined up for today.
Things are progressing. Work continues to be awesome, so at least that's one place where nothing is falling apart.  It's getting busier, but that's really ok.
I signed up for ten more weeks of watercolor class.
GI meds have not made any real dent in the problem, so it's probably back to the drawing board. I expect a call from the nurse later today to discuss it.
Dad has been out of town this week, which is sad because we miss him, but it also means that I got dibs on the DVD player so it's been all Merlin, all the time.  w00t!  (I know, I know, I am so silly when I get deep into a new fandom. At least the art has been fun.)
Have not been sewing lately, but that really needs to change. Quilt now probably solid with cat hair, despite being covered up with crinkly paper.  Whoever said that cats avoid lying on things that make noise has never met our cat.
Have been largely avoiding LJ and SFF flaps online, but am not unaware of them. I find myself gaping in disbelief a lot, but I've also found some really excellent new folks to read. 
Also, have been reading real books. In the middle of Alexandria, finished Lackey's The Fairy Godmother, and have made a start on Privilege of the Sword.
Umm...  I think that's a pretty good summary.

So, you know, don't worry too much.  Big thank yous to the folks who have been helping me out on this long-distance. You know who you are. I love you guys.

The new DVD player works. Setting it region-free was easy. Mom and Dad got very snarky at my beloved Merlin.
Luckily I've watched all the episodes at least twice already (but never so smoothly or with such high quality video) so I didn't miss anything while explaining the whole "Camelot High" and "Magical Renaissance Festival" stories.

Yay.
Second half of Series 1 (And Robin Hood Series 1) are en route.

Title: Knight & Sorcerer
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Characters: Arthur Pendragon, Merlin (it's only kinda slashy if you squint)
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Medium: Corel Painter
Summary: They're plotting something. Again.
Artist Notes: This is half an exercise in portraiture and half an exercise in Corel Painter. I am still not sure I am using its tools very well, but I'm getting better.  It's very weird drawing for a fandom in which actors' likenesses are the canon. Buh.



( full image under cut )

If you want to see if I got the likenesses remotely close, and aren't a fan, lo: http://www.bbc.co.uk/merlin/

*takes a deep breath and just posts.*

This is what happens when I watch web TV before bed with the Snupin chatroom...

I dreamed that I was in a beautiful antique bookstore with Colin Morgan, Bradley James, and Emma Watson.  (Presumably my dream-self had been de-aged for the adventure.) We were drinking red wine and playing a Latin word game which for some reason involved a lot of standing up and walking around to rearrange words on the wall. Or possibly to write them on the wall in light, I am still not entirely sure how the words got up there. Luckily for my slightly inebriated dream-self, Bradley seemed willing to be leaned upon an awful lot. (And having not seen any DVD extras yet, I suppose really I was hanging out with their characters, but in a British bookstore. Except that Emma was obviously Emma, not Hermione.)
Anyway. It was really quite vivid and odd, and sadly there was no dragon in the cellar. I think that every good antique bookstore should have a dragon in the cellar.

As for Merlin, I watched the next two episodes before bed and while continuing the general snark, I thoroughly enjoyed them.  I do wonder what Morgana does all day besides get dressed, pose dramatically by windows, mouth off to her guardian, or annoy Arthur.  Surely she must have some occupation?

And for those who have watched the show, ( spoilers for Episode 1.03: The Mark of Nimueh )

This show is so cute, I can't stand it.