Mixed Flavours

PS:

2012-09-03T23:09:05Z

Looks like I never officially said that I'm over on tumblr these days.

Friday Questionable Content

2011-05-07T03:54:23Z

Trying to finish up a couple old pics...

Vampire action! Couldn't manage to get the biting right though.

Boy-in-a-skirt! And loving it.

Maya & Benedict

2011-04-19T19:15:02Z

I set up a deviantArt account! But I can't post porn there, so have a pic.

Coloring practice. I am...way out of practice.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAMLETMACHINE

2011-03-26T18:22:59Z

Happy birthday to hamlet_machine, a great friend as well as an artist and storyteller I hold in high esteem.

Land of 'Faerie' with extra vowels

2011-03-01T00:30:08Z

Random doodling turned up this fay guy who floats around, teases lost wayfarers, and is a little bit on fire sometimes.

Cannot Resist Book Meme

2011-02-17T00:29:29Z

Via schumers,

The rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

Here are books that I think about, years after reading, and know I will read again. I couldn't think of 15 off the top of my head, but some of the ones I did think of are series in which I cannot distinguish one book from another, which brings it to more than fifteen if you count them all. Whoops.

Cyteen (and its continuation, Regenesis) by C. J. Cherryh came first to mind because I was pondering it just yesterday. I've been slowly going through the Cherryh canon for years now, and these include the strongest example of one of my favorite scifi themes: what it means to be human and to make choices. Also, the characters and their relationships are quite fascinating.

The Princess and the Goblins by George MacDonald was one of the early novels read to me. My dad, who lived in Germany during my childhood, mailed me cassette recordings of himself reading aloud, and I listened to them over and over again. I never had a paper copy of the book, but I have reread it several times on Project Gutenberg. Even as an adult, it is quite charming.

Diaspora by Greg Egan is one that I only read more recently, but I have thought about it so much since then that it belongs on this list. Mainly the ending, and Yatima and Paolo's choices when faced with infinity.

With Distress, Greg Egan gets a second book on my list. One of the first books I read that dealt explicitly with the question of the defining humanity.

Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman was my favorite book for a long time and I frequently recall the jokes and tropes.

The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany is an exploration of the beauty and terror of magic. Everything a fairy tale should be.

The Borrowers by Mary Norton is another childhood book (and series) that I remember fondly and am often reminded of when I lose small things.

Master & Commander by Patrick O'Brian got me reading outside of the SF&F shelves. Also has some lovely characterization and turns of phrase.

The Chronicles of Amber series may not be Zelazny's best work, but it is his most iconic. Great swashbuckling adventure, and for a while I pulled from it when I needed to come up with names on the fly (hence, 'Benedict').

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is on this list because I still make towel jokes.

I only recently read Factotum, a young adult fantasy novel by D. M. Cornish, but, man, I am so in love with this world and characters. I have been thinking about Lady Europe and her exploits quite a lot.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-15T02:54:28Z

Happy Valentine's Day!

Trying to come up with taglines that were robo-lover-themed but not too creepy got me thinking about Cyteen. If you are interested in a serious exploration of that kind of thing (genetically tailored clone companions, in this case), I highly recommend it.

Did some inking

2011-02-06T04:12:26Z

Here's this thing again.

Hourly Comics Day

2011-02-03T03:31:08Z

Monster Blood Style Self-Portrait

2011-01-21T03:38:57Z

Hmm, I'm not sure if I'll do any more work on this.

I highly recommend the Monster Blood Tattoo novels by D. M. Cornish: an immersive world, wonderful heroes (many of them female!), and charming illustrations and appendices. Here is a self-indulgent self-portait, dressed in the style of a pistoleer from a Calendar enclave. In the world of MBT, people make careers of fighting monsters. And they wear ridiculous headgear.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to produce more finished works. (Any would be a nice change!) Pictures with a background or color or tight rendering.

In which there is a Florian sandwich

2010-12-23T02:22:26Z

Whoops, I'm supposed to be packing right now. Inked and scanned some stuff instead.

Actually, just one makeout. But first a dude in distress! With new pen from Kendra <3

And now, pushy Florian.

Happy Holidays!

ETA: Forgot one

A post-eclair scene. Pencils for this were in the last post, I think.

quarter century

2010-12-10T01:43:55Z

You guys, you guys, THESE MUST BE SHARED. wensleydale and hamlet_machine have sent me such gorgeous images.

I will cut this one because it might fog up your screen...

Thank you so much! I hope you don't mind me posting these <3

Sketchbook Dump

2010-12-05T16:38:54Z

Before you click any cut text, I should warn you that these tend toward smutty.

Here's one I actually finished and inked up nice, to start.

gah, this has been on the to-do list so long orz

So, somehow looking at an awesome historic houseboat on display at the San Francisco Maritime Park got us plotting a little story about a dude and a tentacle monster who are together in what I assure you is a gentle and committed long term relationship.

wensleydale and I had a dirty drawing marathon for our Thanksgiving holiday. We pulled character names and prompts out of an actual hat to keep the drawings going.

Wendy and Selene, I think this must have been 'bite.'

Wendy and Selene, continued.

Oh wait, this one's older. May as well post it here anyhow.

Another old one. That's all just custard. Eclairs can be very messy, mhmm.

Wendy, Selene, & Edmund - car.

Florian - kneesocks.

Benedict & Florian - kiss/fight.

Nik & Luc - wallsex.

Florian & Edmund - leather.

Edmund & Benedict - assgrab?

Wendy & Selene - desperate.

Benedict & Edmund - closet.

Nik & Luc - dirtytalk.

The End - For Now

y-con & urban hiking

2010-11-04T01:38:27Z

We met so many fabulous people and picked up so many lovely comics and this long weekend was really TOO FUCKING AWESOME to fit into this entry, but I will try to sum up!

FRIDAY

Wensleydale and I arrived in the afternoon. We met up with Hamlet and Thisbe, and our brave band of tourventurers took on the city! We walked along Embarcadero from the Ferry Building to Ghirardelli Square. Highlights included floral-flavored macarons from Miette, views of the bridges and Coit Tower, and the sea lions with their symphany of grunts and barks. Then we ~~trudged~~ marched up Russian Hill, peered down Lombard Street, and caught our breath on a cablecar ride downtown. With a little smartphone magic, Thisbe lead us on a quest for dining and we had the first of several delicious vegan meals.

SATURDAY

Con-day! Still on Eastern time, Wen and I were up early for a walk to pick up breakfast and tea. Treats from the Royal Donut Shop were clearly fit food for the day of the Crown Royale debut! I'm so glad I got to come and meet some of the other contributors! You guys were all so sweet and welcoming and <3 <3 <3

The Fan Market had badass comics corridor with banjocatbanjo, kiwimangoodness, fawnfawn, agentagnes, C. Lijewski, and hamlet_machine across from schumers, steam_pilot, and queenvera. We also got to meet Emirain in the Dealer's Room, and then went to an inspiring panel on making comics by JAB, Agnes, and Christina.

Since I have yet to unpack, I'm going to cut this entry short and just post maps of some of the walking we did on Monday, our final day.

MONDAY (14.5 miles!)

Palace of Fine Arts pilgrimage, on advice from just about everybody.

Mission and dinner with Agnes, whom I have admired since I found Y!Gallery (fangirl moment!), with detour around Giants fans.

PS: Oh my god SO MANY COMICS XD! I am unpacking very slowly.

y-con omg!

2010-10-26T00:56:44Z

This weekend Wen and I are traveling to San Francisco (our first time!) and will be attending Yaoi-Con! I'm really excited about the chance to meet more of you fabulous people in person! And I'll get to see Crown Royale in print! I've posted a little about that over here. I will try to start rationing my exclamation points but I AM SO PSYCHED. We have already made a list of bakeries and chocolatiers to hit up in our explorations, yesss.

Featuring: Sexy Loincloth

2010-10-16T00:27:10Z

Here's a whole bunch of sketches and crap! Mostly from the smutty sketchbook, so mostly not worksafe except for this:

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The scrawling in the margins is their special abilities: Can Sleep Anywhere, and Can Drink Anyone Under The Table.

Same dudes:

And then the boys from the Crown Royale comic, for HM.

Homage to HM's old devID.

I have been abusing my multipencil.

Wen and I had a drink-and-draw last weekend. We started our evening with some epic entertainment: Masters of the Universe (Dolph Lundgren & Courtney Cox). You may notice an influence.

I tried to keep the drawings quicker and looser than my usual, not get bogged down, stop using colored lead to draw a million awkward layers, etc. Here, I scanned everything:

Developed a sudden interest in boys in skirts.

Final drawing.

September Recap

2010-10-03T17:18:32Z

It's October! Man, this year has been hurtling by. Anyhow, that means it's time to collect drawings from September.

First, a few dirty doodles that never got posted.

After laying out the sketch on this one, I realized I'd already drawn the same picture before orz orz and not even any improvement.

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And now the pics from the sketchblog. People, places, the beginnings of my bishounen army.

I have that bad habit of never drawing backgrounds, so I've started working on observation drawings.

Tree at a bus stop.

Lunch break.

Lunch break, another day.

DC has beautiful old row houses everywhere.

Not lunch break, but the same park.

I can't remember what sparked it, but wensleydale and I came up with Prettyboy Army as a drawing theme.

Barista, a medic type.

Brawler.

Ninjar.

Um, Kevin Barnes? Bard.

Foot fighter.

Incubus.

And some other stuff!

fanart of Wen's ~*UNICORNELLA*~

Tristan being small.

Florian following Benedict everywhere.

July/August Roundup

2010-09-19T04:58:59Z

An overdue post, here's a collection of the drawings I managed to post at the 'daily' sketchblog during July and August.

Housemate at piano.

self-portrait, crayon

self-portrait, looking at dirty pictures on the internets

Something in color?! Crayon.

Little elf person that gets littler each time I draw them.

Europe from Monster Blood Tattoo needs a much longer poking-and-electrocuting-people stick, but I ran out of page.

Suspicious Tristan.

Absolutely-not-convinced Tristan.

Metrorail derp

Hats make everything better.

Headsets make everything worse.

Cupcakes do not last long. Also, PSA: best cupcakes in the DC area are at Baked & Wired in Georgetown.

SPX & oM

2010-09-16T02:28:26Z

I had a magical weekend! hamlet_machine came for a visit! There was much walking and talking and eating and drawing. And we all checked out SPX together!

SPX was really inspiring. So many comics! I saw pollums, and picked up The Legend of Hardcore Dan by joshpm, and got a lot of random minicomics. Of particular note was VIS, which I am excited to see more of available online. I also got this awesome print from Emma Rochon. Fuck yeah!

And then Monday, Wen and I got cupcakes! Baked and Wired still has the best cupcakes in DC. And you can sit by the canal to eat them :3

And then Tuesday, OF MONTREAL WITH OPENER BY JANELLE MONAE AT THE NINE THIRTY CLUB FUCK YEAH. Janelle's set was really lively and I enjoyed all the scifi touches. And then of Montreal! It was quite spectacular. Kevin Barnes had 4.5 costume changes, and only one of his outfits involved pants. "Enemy Gene" is my favorite on False Priest but they kicked in this enormous throbbing bass that made me feel like my body was being crushed. But then they rocked out with "She's a Rejector" and the awesome was restored! Later on they played For Our Elegant Caste which I also love. WE CAN DO IT SOFTCORE IF YOU WANT BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW I TAKE IT BOTH WAYS. The set finished with a cover of Thriller, and then they played more covers jamming with the Wondaland Arts Society.

Here's a pic someone took at the Monday night show:

The concert ended with A BIG GROUP HUG.

Today's pic

2010-09-07T04:24:01Z

I should get in the habit of posting here more often, so here's something not quite sketchblog-appropriate.

A Small Picspam

2010-09-05T21:27:28Z

I am well on my way to achieving my goal for today: doing absolutely nothing!

With that in mind, here's my take on that Top 5 Hot Celebrities thing that's been going around.

LADIES
Katee Sackhoff . St Vincent . Brigitte Lin . Michelle Rodriguez . Natalie Portman

DUDES
Kevin Barnes . Antonio Banderas . Jensen Ackles . Misha Collins . Jude Law

DEEP THOUGHTS
Somewhat contradictorily, I find both confidence and vulnerability attractive. But I always find full lips attractive.

Two pics!

2010-09-04T03:34:02Z

First up, Hamlet's lovely ladies in a lusty embrace.

Which has been half-finished forevar but, as I am just about to fill the sketchbook, I finally revisited.

And now some lads in a compromising position.

Inspired by musings with wensleydale on how cute the shorts/kneesocks combo can be.

My, my, you busted me like a Robocop

2010-08-10T17:51:55Z

I recently watched Robocop with wensleydale and morgainlefay. The guy they cast as Robocop has the prettiest mouth. I felt compelled to draw a little tribute:

Also, wensleydale and I have been busy working on our submission for royalecomics. Accompanying drink of choice: Crown Royal whisky of course. Here's a little warmup sketch:

And every post is better with gifs

June Output

2010-07-11T01:37:29Z

Here's a collection of June's sketchblog posts.

Let's start with the life-drawing. Old friends and new housemates:

It is challenging to draw someone who is looking up at you and down at their paper while they are also drawing you. I think I captured the energy of the moment :p

National Zoo. I love reptiles. Not so crazy about the humans who yell and bang on the glass.

And the other drawings:

A well-accessorized sea-monster.

Decided to draw lefthanded here

& here

And drew this after watching the Watership Down movie. Not related to it, but man that was an intense movie D:

Here's a couple random doodles of the dudes that'll be in the comic wensleydale and I are working on for royalecomics:

&

Boy + Tentacles

2010-07-01T19:34:01Z

Developed a sudden fascination with the tentacles-from-offstage trope, after an offhand drawing prompt from wensleydale.

The one where Florian works on a ship and is too tired to be in the mood.

The TENTACLES WTF version.

The 'Florian appreciates all sorts of attention' variation. Also the 'I'm so bored looking at job listings I must start doodling' one.

And the one where Florian will do anything for attention. Put a little more effort into inking it. [sidenote: is anyone interested in babbling about pens?]