Brain Flotsam V2.007

Even though I have tags like wow, I am constructing a Master List as so many other folks have. 

Wow, this is a long long long list. When appropriate, I have clustered by pairing rather than listing by date.

( semi-organized list of stuff )

For the record, my art is ok to use for icons with proper attribution.

Title: Discovery
Artist: zephre
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur
Medium: Photoshop
Content Notes: none
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavor.
Artist's Notes: There's a story to this one.... [Story and Art under cut.] Drawn for m_frantic for merlin_holidays.




( story and art under cut )

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/499492.html. comments posted to original post.

Reveal from snape_lupin's Snupin Santa holiday fest.

Title: Wolfsbane Potion
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Snape, Lupin
Content Notes: genderbending
Description: The latest advertisement for Snape's Wolfsbane Potion, featuring the Professor and her favorite werewolf. Drawn for busaikko for Snupin Santa, for her request of an Art Nouveau piece in the style of Alphonse Mucha.


( full image under cut )

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/499205.html. comments posted to original post.

So I retweeted the following:

Jaye: I am now trying to ship train lines. Thanks

me: LOL, you're welcome! i think I ship W/7 myself.

me: unless they don't exist anymore.

Jaye: Nono, that'd be great

The 7 is pining for its lost love

me: awww. man, the h/c potential there.

Jaye: I think the shuttle would make a great rebound fuck

Yet another sentence I never thought I'd type

me: aw, man. the shuttle really gets around, though.

Jaye: maybe the transit museum sells train condoms

me: ... they probably do.

Jaye: ah, yes: http://secondavenuesagas.com/2007/01/08/condoms-a-la-nyc-subways/

me: I love this town!

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/498963.html. comments posted to original post.

No, Tony!  Don't do it! This is a BAD IDEA. LOL.

(Marvel Comics Event: Avengers vs. X-Men poster by Adi Granov)

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/498913.html. comments posted to original post.

Which isn't really true, I just was terribly busy this holiday season - work was crazy, then I was out and about all the freakin' time, so when I was home I didn't really want to do anything but read Avengers and Iron Man comics. (I love my Marvel Digital Subscription!)
I haven't really been doing anything creative, but I have been making plans.

Right now I'm in the lovely suburbs of Philadelphia, in the Great Valley area. My goddaughter and her parents are hosting me for a week of craftiness, cooking, game-playing, and reading excellent books. (Maya just got started on the Chronicles of Narnia, and is reading A Wrinkle in Time.) I have two volumes of the adventures of my beloved Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in my luggage, but I'm mostly rereading Iron Man fanfiction (Civil War fix-it fics - so schmoopy.)

I have been keeping up with a few fests, but not in any big way - I'll have to catch up when I get home.

So, quick fandom / genre-related hits:

• Finished S4 of Merlin, loved it. Beautiful visuals, excellent acting, and the problematic parts were not sufficient to keep me from loving it.


• Doctor Who Christmas Special - really enjoyed it. This was an amazing episode. Had a really good time with it.


• Got my parents watching my Marvel Cinematic Universe Collection. \o/ (I ♥ Phil Coulson!)


• Christmas was pretty awesome - it's not really my holiday anymore, but we have a secular gift-exchange at our house since my dad likes giving us things. He apparently ransacked the BBC store for me this year - Merlin action figures and Doctor Who gear all over. We were really cute about making sure the various animals gave people gifts, too. And all five of us actually spent a good portion of the evening together and we GOT ALONG and it was beautiful. Dinner and a round of Ticket to Ride: Europe made for a fantastic family fest.


• Watched Super 8 with Sam and Keet last night, and it was really awesome. Sam described it as "The Goonies if JJ Abrams had directed," (more lens flare!). I thought that was pretty accurate. Maybe the Goonies + E.T. It surprised me, how much I really enjoyed it. It was nothing at all what I was expecting. So, yay!


• I found the elusive Iron Man / Captain America Annual 1998 in an anthology in a comics store here in King of Prussia, so I know it exists now. I did not buy the anthology (too big, too expensive - I'm an all-carry-on traveler this trip), but I will look for it or order it when I get home. \o/

I am looking forward to a New Year's season full of jigsaw puzzles (a tradition), board games (\o/), and bonus Cheesemas! Yay Cheesemas!
At some point I'll post photos, when I get them off my phone.

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/498531.html. comments posted to original post.

So, I read my favorite fairy tale aloud to my computer.

The Enchanted Pig, a Romanian Tale (24 minutes)
from Andrew Lang's The Red Fairy Book

I first read this story in Cricket Magazine, with what were very likely some significant edits, and I fell in love with the illustrations and the fantastic adventuress heroine who wears out three pairs of iron shoes and blunts a steel staff while wandering the world, first pregnant and then with an infant. I mean, seriously - she must be made of STEEL.

If you want to just listen, it's also on my tumblr.
And I just tried this thing:

You guys, today was awesome! Things went right! I didn't have screw-ups to deal with at work, or meetings that went pear-shaped and made me look like a moron. My project progressed REALLY WELL, I got a lot done, and I got pastries during a field trip with my officemate.
[Ok, and this is going to be meaningless for anybody who doesn't do web stuff, but I totally feel like I get a gold star for threading my way through 6 nested CSS files and the associated ASP.NET templates to figure out how to make all the necessary changes to the home page so that they don't break the interior page layouts. Go me! It feels really good to be crunching the website guts around after so long just doing minor cosmetic touches to the existing layout.]

I didn't have to comfort myself with wine and pizza and Iron Man movies after getting ridiculously depressing news. I had a couple of really good conversations, a nice dinner out with my parents, scored some great produce at the Farmers' Market, and have a coffee date to look forward to later.

I'm role-playing in a small way again, which is awesome. I went back to yoga yesterday and did probably 70% of the class to my utmost, and plan to keep going back until I am more flexible (and have lost enough weight to successfully do child's pose? Well, we'll see). Next class: probably Thursday.
In general I feel optimistic and excited and full of energy.

After the last two weeks of craziness, it felt SO GOOD to have a good day! Yay!
(For the record, Thanksgiving was awesome, too.)

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/498162.html. comments posted to original post.

Title: Calandra, Masterweaver of Pern
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Fandom: Dragonriders of Pern
Characters: Masterweaver Calandra and gold Vashti
Notes: Portrait of a character I played for years on Dragonsfire MOO.



( full image under cut )

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/497739.html. comments posted to original post.

Anne McCaffrey has died. It's a sad day for the science fiction and fantasy community. She was a powerhouse of the genre, helping to pave the way for generations of women creators after her. She also created some very popular worlds, including the Dragonriders of Pern.

I started playing Pern rpgs online in MOOs in 1997, when I was in college. Through those games, I met some of my closest friends, friends I now consider family. I cannot thank Anne enough for not only creating that world, but for encouraging people to populate it themselves, through rpgs like I played, or cosplay.

I probably can't finish these tonight, but since I was in a Pern mood, reminiscing, I went back and looked at some old log files, and sketched the first two characters I played at Dragonsfire MOO.

( Calandra, a Weaver of Pern, with her gold firelizard, Vashti )

( Zephre, rider of green Miyoth )

I played some other great characters, some of whom I've already drawn. Perhaps one day I'll have a whole portfolio of alter egos from Pern.

Seriously, Dragonsfire MOO people (you know who you are), I am so so so thankful everyday to have you in my life, even long-distance. You've all made a big difference, and I'm really happy that we all liked Anne's world so much we tried to live in it.

Fly high and free, Anne. Thanks.

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/497596.html. comments posted to original post.

Title: Size Matters Not
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Fandom: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, if anything
Characters: A couple of awesome gnomes
Notes: There was a prompt on an art community to create characters that were AD&D style non-humans in modern world jobs. I decided to make a couple of gnomes into cute, punkish, tattooed Vespa mechanics. Because that would be totally awesome. (Thus the apparent weird scale issues. For a size chart of AD&D character races, see here (site warns for nudity).)


( full image under cut )

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/497333.html. comments posted to original post.

So I finally watched Jane Eyre, the film with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. I have had a shit week, and today was especially full of things going wrong, so it was lovely to relax with dinner and wine and this movie.

And then I made art, in the moment after the movie when this scene was just stuck in my head.

Title: Don't Go, Jane
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Fandom: Jane Eyre, 2011 film and book
Characters: Jane, Mr. Rochester


( full image under cut )

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/496984.html. comments posted to original post.

Futility
Wilfred Owen

Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved,—still warm,—too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?





A heartfelt thank you to all who serve, in the hopes that there will come a future when none need serve at all.

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/496657.html. comments posted to original post.

So... I need some outside eyes on my art for this Harry Potter exchange.
I don't want to say too much about it because it's an anon fest, of course, but it's rated G and only peripherally connected to canon. Basically I'd like somebody to take a look and tell me if it makes sense. And, you know, let me know if you see an extra arm or something.

Anybody?

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/496618.html. comments posted to original post.

So today Mom and Aunt Marlene and I spent the day seeing approximately 85% of the Exhibition floor and about 10% of the vendors at the Festival. Very exciting.
Mom and I return tomorrow for the Vendor Extravaganza!

I am so tired.
Here, have an exceptional and amazing Yin Yang quilt. SO BEAUTIFUL.




More photos in the set.
And more to come tomorrow! :)

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/496148.html. comments posted to original post.

So today I took my darling wee Lila the Blue Prius in for repairs after work, as her keys were low on battery and her innards were doing strange things with dashboard lights. I have woefully abused her, I admit, and owe her some touch-up paint on the dents, but she is my beloved Lila and I do want her to be healthy and safe. So Mom picked me up and I went on my merry way assuming that I would be out of there later that evening.
Hahaha.
Turns out the technician leaves relatively early, so nobody had even started the diagnostics when I checked in again just before the closed for the night. So I didn't get to take Lila home. They will do the repair checking tomorrow and let me know if I will get her back home then. Getting back to my apartment was easy - Mom could give me a ride home - the difficulty was, of course, with the whole work thing.
Luckily for me, I have some really great coworkers who live in the neighborhood and I was able to arrange a carpool to the office for tomorrow.

While I was waiting for the call about my car that never actually came, I used my mom's phone to call customer service about the way Nefertem has been acting up. He was such a beautiful phone when he arrived, then he updated and he's been a flake and irritable. Well, turned out that he got some bad code in the firmware update, so I had to roll him back to the Factory Defaults. That's right, all my ringtones, all my apps, all my custom anythings - GONE. Goodbye, Nefertem, hello Nefertem 2.0. Now he should work again, but I am just scratching the surface of my customization re-do.

After that, I was able to address my other pressing need, that of a costume for the party on Saturday. I took my inspiration from Take Back Halloween's Goddesses section, and aimed for Athena. Across the freeway from the dealership there was a Party City, so I popped in and grabbed some sale items, one of which was a plastic centurion-esque helmet with a red crest. The guy at the register, calling for a price check, had some difficulty getting the folks in the back to identify the piece, until he said, "It's got this red stuff on the top, looks like a broom." Then they got it. I LOLed.
With that broom-helmet, the plastic shield, and the genuine wooden souvenir spear from the Philippines that Mom and Dad let me borrow, I am fully armed as a goddess. I'll be using fabric from various sources for the gown, and I have a wee plushie owl in a mortarboard that will be perfect for the finishing touch. Wise owl, indeed, he graduated! Hee. I can't wait to try putting it all together.

In other news, I am still planning to do Nanowrimo, and fiddling around with various ideas for work during the month. On Sunday we have a writers' group write-in for which I will be finishing my piece for my crit group, then I will be focusing on the Nano novel.
I got some great ideas for my merlin_holidays project this past week, from parental units and coworkers (how awesome is it that I can discuss fandom with both? So awesome.), so I am feeling much better about that even though I have yet to start preliminary lines. Having the idea is really helpful. Snupin Santa is moving along, I think, although when I start laying in the color it will be really challenging. I really want to get it right. :)
And my reverse big bang rough draft is rough, but done. I'm tabling it for now, since I'll have a few more weeks after my other deadlines to make it beautiful.

In conclusion,


This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/495772.html. comments posted to original post.

Title: By the Lake
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Fandom: Merlin
Characters: Gwaine, Elena
Notes: Drawn for hermette, a scene from her excellent gwaine_quest fic, Made Glorious Summer, a Regency AU.


( full image under cut )

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/495430.html. comments posted to original post.

Last night's productivity party was awesome. I took my graphite lines for the Awesome Ladies of Science Series #1: Astrid Farnsworth, and did this:



Obviously the background needs more work, but I'm pretty pleased. The lettering will hopefully look like embossed brass, so it'll be a nice goldenrod contrast to the purple-black room and pink lightning. If you can't see, the text quotes XKCD: "Stand back, I'm going to try science."

I'd like this to be only the first of a series that includes both fictional and nonfictional awesome ladies of science. I've got quite a line-up now thanks to helpful fans and friends.

The other one is me, working in a coffeehouse with wonky lighting, thus the awkward posture.

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/495229.html. comments posted to original post.

So, Bradley James was so impressive in this latest episode of Merlin. (Colin was, too. And Tony. Good grief.) But man, Bradley. Amazing.
( spoilers )

Also, I made art for it, speed painting for the camelot_fleet spoiler party.
It's rated PG, mostly for angst.
( header and art )

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/495079.html. comments posted to original post.

Doctor Who: not quite sure what that was.
( spoilers )

Merlin: SO EPIC. Loved it.
( spoilers )

This entry was originally posted at http://zephre.dreamwidth.org/494610.html. comments posted to original post.