This evening the lovely alisanne was in town, so we met up for dinner and tea and much chatter of fandom and other topics.  It was quite a nice time. 
Now I must prepare for my weekend adventure in Austin, plus try to make some progress on my art coming due.

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.

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.



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This is actually not so much a report as a Yay! Photos! post, with occasional commentary. That link goes to my Flickr set, which will in turn sometimes sync up to the Azkatraz Flickr Pool.
Here's my Mug Shot:

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I've forgotten the LJ usernames of half the people I met already, but if anybody wants to pop in and remind me, feel free!

I'm home!
Azkatraz was amazing, I had a lovely time, met tons of great people.
It was interesting to see how relationships online and in person differed- there were some folks that I totally clicked with that I did not expect to, given online personas. Just the way things roll. :)
Next year, I am totally getting a fancy bound sketchbook, I felt like such a heel without a book for people to sign and sketch in. Feels like I missed a great opportunity there, but I look forward to seeing the stuff everybody else got when they get the chance to scan them.
I saw quite a bit of San Francisco for such a short trip with a con in the middle. Photos to come, when I get the chance to upload.
For now, it's back to the grindstone of crazy, with due dates and meetings and all kinds of shit hitting various fans. I hope the office didn't implode without me. I hope the class I want to take didn't fill already. ;)
I think for now it's time to get myself semi-unpacked, clean off the bed, and read fanfic until I completely konk out.

I expect a friending frenzy to follow v. shortly all over LJ. Can't wait.

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.

I'm planning to put four of my Tarot cards in a frame for display at the Azkatraz Dungeon of Art, but I'm having trouble deciding which ones.
At first, I was going to use the Aces, because I love them, but then I thought perhaps some of the book characters would be better, and more fitting to the con theme (Hanged Man, for instance?).
So now I can't decide.

Anybody have any ideas?  Here's a link to the cards I've done:
http://zephre.insanejournal.com/tag/art:+hp+tarot

If I don't do the Aces, I thought perhaps The Lovers, Death, The Hanged Man, and Temperance?

Or perhaps somebody else has a card they really think is excellent that I'm not remembering...

Please do comment if you know the work.

Title: Flowers
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Character/Pairing: Luna Lovegood
A/N: for hp art100 table prompt: fragile


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Last night I finished watching the first season of Merlin. This morning's weird dream was unrelated to the show. It was actually about my family and home improvement. And definitely weird. But it was definitely a festival of television last night, with a marathon viewing of the last few episodes.
Thank goodness for the interwebs, I say!
Such a fun show. Merlin is a doll. It's too bad I find doing TV-based fanarts so intimidating. Perhaps some of my friends can convince me to give it a try anyway. Portraiture is something I'm good at, right?

Got a meeting today and I'll probably pop into a discount store on my way home, then it's a weekend of arts and crafts!
I really want to finish the original illo I've been plugging away at since the New Year, and I have some character portraits I hope to squeeze in before the exchange deadlines loom.
I think one of my goals for 2009, now that I'm part of a weekly art posting community (not that I need to pick every single week), will have to be being a bit more choosy in my exchange sign-ups. I do want to have time to do more tarot cards and more original or other-fandom stuffs.

Ah, my files have done copying.  Time to get ready to go!

Look what my friend Keet made for me!
He's keeping Luna company on my office desk now.

:D

Title: Chapter 11: The Bribe
Artist:  zephre
Rating:  G
Characters:  Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin
Medium:  Adobe Photoshop
Summary: Remus shows the Trio the latest Daily Prophet and fills them in on the changes since Death Eaters took over the Ministry.
Artist's Notes: for hp_art_project. Illustration for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Chapter 11: The Bribe.



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Yeah, yeah, more Harry Potter art.

Artist: zephre
Title:  Never Hers
Characters: Luna Lovegood, Ron Weasley, Lavender Brown
Rating: PG
Media used: Photoshop
Challenge: Unrequited Love on hp_fringeart
Concrit?:  Sure
Warnings: none
Notes/comments:  quick evening drawble for the prompt "Never" on hp_art100.



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Title: Narcissa Malfoy
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Medium: Photoshop
Notes: This is my response to the publicity photos of Narcissa released by WB in advance of the Half-Blood Prince film. The image is an homage to the illustrations of Alphonse Mucha.




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Title: "Mad-Eye Moody"
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Characters: Mad-Eye Moody, Draco Malfoy, Trio
Summary: "[Professor Moody]'s wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing."  - Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, p.204, American hardcover edition.
Artist's Notes: illustration for the hp_art_project

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I'm sure everyone I know will be terribly amused to know that I have signed up for a holiday fan art exchange which has only one non-negotiable content rule: No Harry Potter.

Title:  Anniversary
Artist:zephre
Rating: PG
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Severus Snape/Remus Lupin
Summary: Severus's father is probably rolling in his grave...
Medium: Photoshop, tablet
Prompt: lupin_snape's Autumn Theme
Notes: I'm too happy with this one to leave it off LJ. Now Mom can see it. ;) The Autumn challenge was issued last night, and I was frustrated with a different project, so this is the result of my stress-relief sketching. Yay!
Also, have had cemeteries on the brain. When next I am in New York, I am absolutely spending a day at the Green-Wood.




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I finished this a little while ago, and the recipient just got it in the mail, so here are the photos.
The center piece is an illustration from the fanfiction named on the quilt, and it features some choice quotes from the piece free-motion quilted into it.




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More photos at my Craft Projects Flickr Set

Title: Key 6: The Lovers
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Characters: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger
Medium: photoshop
Summary: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger stand in a colonnade overlooking the Scottish hills.
This card represents Choice, Dilemma, Union, Love, and Providence.




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