dragonflare92

I know that hardly any people will actually see this, but I felt like making a journal anyway to explain my absence here.  
For the past year or so I've kind of lost the inspiration to do anything, including art.  It's been a crazy year in college, battling with that constant apathy, but it's summer now and I am hoping to wake myself back up and start doing things again.  Including art!  I finally got a tablet and an art program that work together, so I hope I'll be able to upload more than sketches now.  

Well, that's my short little message.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a billion art pieces in my notes to catch up with!  

I know that hardly any people will actually see this, but I felt like making a journal anyway to explain my absence here.  
For the past year or so I've kind of lost the inspiration to do anything, including art.  It's been a crazy year in college, battling with that constant apathy, but it's summer now and I am hoping to wake myself back up and start doing things again.  Including art!  I finally got a tablet and an art program that work together, so I hope I'll be able to upload more than sketches now.  

Well, that's my short little message.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a billion art pieces in my notes to catch up with!  

I got tagged by
the rules:

Each tagged person must post 10 things about themselves on their journal.
You have to choose and tag 10 people and post their icons on the same journal.
Go to their pages and tell them you tagged them.
No tag backs
No cheating in the tagging section about "you are tagged if you read this." You legitimately have to tag ten people.

Well ten things about me:
1.  I am going to start my 2nd year at college in September!
2.  I am an animal nerd; I can watch animals for hours on end and never get tired of it!  (I'm studying biology at college  ^.^)
3.  I've volunteered at a wildlife rehabilitation center for several years, usually cleaning but sometimes helping with animal care.  (We get mostly birds of prey there.  Here's a link:  www.bluemountainwildlife.org/i…)
4.  I love to draw but I do not plan on being a professional artist.
5.  I am a very quiet and shy person, although I will open up more when I know someone better (or when I'm on the internet; it's easier to be social online).
6.  I used to have pet rats.  (And I really wish I could have them again!)
7.  I have somewhat of an addiction to playing video games.  
8.  I know how to play the violin and the piano (although I'm better at piano).
9.  I love to read when I get the time, especially fantasy and some science fiction.
10.  I like to do archery every now and then.

I figured I'd do this just because it's kind of fun.  Have a barrage of random facts!  I'm not going to actually tag anyone (because I hardly know anyone on deviantart at the moment).  If anyone wants to do this, go for it; if not, no problem.  

Once I straighten out commission info I'll put up another journal for it.

I apologize for the lack of pictures here.  I have plenty of ideas and sketches lying around, but no way to finish them.  My tablet doesn't work with the new Mac that my dad decided that we had to have for some reason, and the only art program I can get on my laptop, GIMP, doesn't seem to want to work with my tablet.  Without my tablet I have no way to work with my drawings online; I can't outline without it, and I'm not very good at outlining by hand.

I realize that my drawings are not all that spectacular and that I have a significant lack of resources to fix that.  However, I'm out of college for summer and feel like I need to get out and do something.  So, I've returned to pondering an idea that I've been entertaining for a while:  doing commissions.  I need money.  I think most everybody can sympathize with this.  I'm a college student searching for a job whose parents who are really starting to feel the strain of having to pay for my college education.  I really want a source of money to contribute.  People always say to look to your "strengths" or "interests" when looking for a job or money.  Well, the only interest of mine that I can apply to that is art.  I'm not a professional artist by any means, nor do I ever really plan to be, but I enjoy drawing an creating a lot.  I do it just about everyday.  So, I'm going to see if I can turn that into a much needed source of money.

I have no idea if anyone would be willing to pay for art by me, but I'm going to put the idea out there so I can figure out how this might work.  I can't really find any good tips on how to start on this, so any pointers are much appreciated.

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Here's what I have figured at the moment (Subject to A LOT of change):

Subjects- I'll draw just about anything, excluding humans.  I can attempt humanoid things and humans if you want, but I must warn you, I need a lot of practice on humans.

Prices- I'm making prices as dirt cheap as possible for now, because I have never attempted to sell my art before and I have no idea how much people would be willing to pay for it.  I will probably be taking money through the mail unless I can figure pay-pal out.

Sketch (Basic pencil sketch)- $1

Outlined Sketch (Pencil sketch outlined and cleaned up)- $1

Colored Sketch (Pencil sketch cleaned up and colored; no outline)- $1

Additionally, I might add on to prices based on the complexity of the picture asked for:

Full-body picture- Add $5  (Full body pictures take a lot of time and work for me to get right, whereas half-body or head shots are more natural to me)

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So, I will continue to think about an refine this.  I know hardly anyone will read this, but to those who do, any input on how to improve this would be great.  Are the prices about right?  Should I wait to sell my art?  Am I forgetting something?

If anyone is actually interested in commissioning me now () send me a message and I'll try to work out specifics with you.

So ends my super-long journal!  Hopefully I'll find a solution to my tablet/art program problems soon, so I can post things regularly and maybe get this idea really going!

Due to my old computer crashing, and other "fun" things like that, my art is probably going to be postponed until I can get things straightened out.    It frustrates me, because I had lots of new stuff I was going to work on and put up.  But, I can't at the moment.  My new computer apparently doesn't like the copy of Photoshop that my dad has, so I have GIMP instead.  Unfortunately, my tablet doesn't like GIMP, because it won't work on it.    Besides this, I don't really have a scanner available at the moment...

So, until I hunt down a scanner and an art program that works with my tablet, my art probably won't be updated.  Hardly anyone will read this, I know, but I put it up for those who do watch me or like my stuff and wonder why I'm not posting anything new.