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 )

I have this unfinished WIP that was really close to my heart - and still is, in its way, and I'm wondering now whether or not to finish it.  It's a one-shot featuring Harry and  Luna, in my Far Away as Moonshine ''verse, which I love to pieces despite the extreme rarepair-ness of it.  :P

I also have a bunch of prompts to fulfill for my now-defunct but still inspiring table on Luna.
Haven't been feeling the writing bug lately, but now that my ApolloCon stress is mostly done for the year, and I'm gearing up for Azkatraz, HP is back on the brain. (And I just can't do fic for Merlin yet. It took me years to work up to it in HP, maybe someday.)

To write, or not to write? Maybe I'll just keep drawing...

And oh crap, officially less than two weeks to the Con and I need to frame my art for the Gallery and Auction!
And print postcards... And test my DVD cable... And move all the pr0n off the  laptop that's traveling with me.  Yeep.

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.


( full image under cut )

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.

Also, I posted a bunch of art here the other day because I'd forgotten to add it to this journal.  Reveals for a couple exchanges and my contribution to LJ's hump_day_smut for the last few months.

Title: Adoration
Artist: zephre
Rating: PG
Characters: Lily Evans, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin
Notes: drawn for karasu_hime for the hp_art_xchange's Monochromatic theme

( image under cut )

Title: Queen's Champion
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters/Pairings: Morgana/Gwen
Notes: an illustration based on the fic Songs of Things We Can But Hope by suaine

( image under cut )

From the drapery_snarco fest:
Title: By His Words a Gryffindor
Artist: zephre
Pairing: Snape/Draco/Harry
Medium: photoshop
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Artistic depiction of fictional characters in fictional situations. All individuals are over 18.
Warnings: none.
Prompt: "Happy is he who dares courageously to defend what he loves." --Ovid
Artist Notes: This one is a bit of a departure for me, but I'm enjoying the experiment. Harry's head is a fun place.

( image under cut )

Title: Multiple Exposure
Artist: zephre
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Severus Snape/Hermione Granger
Summary: A romance in four frames.
Notes: drawn for savine_snape in wizard_love 2009

( image under cut )

Title: After Azkaban
Artist: zephre
Characters: Remus Lupin/Severus Snape
Rating: NC-17
Notes: for hump_day_smut's Style of a Famous Artist theme. I did Egon Schiele. Badly.

( image under cut )

Title: With my body, I thee worship
Artist: zephre
Characters: Bill Weasley/Fleur DelaCour Weasley
Rating: R
Notes: for hump_day_smut's Pregnancy theme.

( image under cut )

Title: Samhain
Artist: zephre
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Grey Lady, Bloody Baron
Medium: Photoshop
Notes: for hump_day_smut's Ghosts theme, January 2009

( image under cut )

Title: Luna is a Harsh Mistress
Artist: zephre
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, Neville Longbottom
Warning: bondage
Medium: Photoshop
Notes: for hump_day_smut's Luna theme, January 2009

( image under cut )

This week we started experimenting with the printing press at the Art League, using clear acetate and watercolor paper.


And after I did my run on the press, I didn't feel inspired to add watercolor to the pieces so I did a new one.

I finished the painting from last week, which was an exercise in color.
This is Donna at the Lexington Avenue N train platform, based on a photo I took in 2005, before we both moved to Houston. This has a touch of prismacolor in it from when I was trying to even up the lines and shapes, but it's mostly free brush over light graphite outlines.  Next time I do something like this I may actually block out the letters with a resist first. But it's groovy despite the shaky typography.


And then I did a quick still life, as that was the class for today. I think it still needs something, maybe a bolder hand with the lavender background, or some highlights or somethnig, but on the whole I'm very pleased.


Next week we're supposed to try prints. Fun!

Well, it's official. I'm a Snitch.
In true comic timing, my tablet pen has given up the ghost.  I decided to use the excuse to update my entire Intuos set up. The new one is in the mail.
I am in intimidating company, so I shall have to give some thought to how best to use my time to get some really compelling work done for the team.


2009 SNARRY GAMES - Team Snitch vs. Team Cauldron!

I love going to see movies with my parents. They are a riot.
( slightly spoilery riot within )

Also, there was a preview for G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra and I squealed in excitement in the first three seconds, which made everybody look at me funny. Sorry, but I recognized it immediately by the menacing Christopher Eccleston surrounded by evil types. Yay!

Mom did comment that so many of the movies we saw previews for were dark and violent. I was horrified by the preview for the new Tarantino film, and the ones for Transformers and Terminator both involved a bit of robot apocalypse so they were also really dark. Terminator moreso than Transformers in terms of actually being almost always dark and dreary with guts and explosions, but... can we maybe make a few good SF movies that aren't marketed solely to video gamers?

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.

Catching this journal up...

( mid-trip report, April 30 )

and a Readers' Studio report:
( it's a wow sort of weekend, May 2 )

The finish of the Readers' Studio was great, and then yesterday I got to see Michelle and Andy and Milo and Vic and Ali for dinner, then E and I played the first half of a cutthroat game of Super Deluxe Double Scrabble, which has twice the tiles and a bigger board featuring QUADRUPLE letter and word scores. w00t!

Ok, I'm going to see how much of this I can get typed before my battery warning goes.

Yesterday a huge storm front started through southeast Texas, and it was still here this morning.  Parts of west Houston were so badly flooded that school was cancelled and people (like my dad) were told to work from home. Mom and I braved the rain at 5:30 am anyhow to go to the airport.
I arrived in good time at the gate, where we were told that we were delayed because our pilots were in Austin and couldn't take off because of the weather in Houston.
My 7:56am flight ended up taking off just after 9am.
So I arrived in Newark late, and made a plan with E that I would just hang out in Union Square to wait for her because there was no way I'd get to her place by 2pm. It was 1:30pm when I got off the plane, and at about 2:15 the NJ Transit train I was on heading for Manhattan stopped at Secaucus Junction. And sat. And sat. And then the conductor got on the speakers and told us we were delayed because there was a huge brushfire blocking the tunnel to Manhattan.  NO trains were getting through in either direction until the fire was under control.
At this point I am really regretting not getting something to eat at EWR, so I ate one of my emergency protein bars. Thanks fro that tip, Mom!
Well, I sat in the train for almost an hour before they told us the train was officially terminated and the whole lot of us went to transfer to an NJT to Hoboken to get the PATH train, which was nowthe only way to get to Manhattan.  On the train to Hoboken we can see the smoke from what really looks like a HUGE fire over the ridge, and there are at least three fire department helicopters in the sky.
So we took that train, then the PATH, and it was crazy but orderly and we didn't have to pay extra. I got above ground in Manhattan at 6th Ave and 14th Street a little after 4pm. I stopped to get a mechanical pencil, go to the restroom, and pick up something to eat.
Now I am sitting in some dappled shade in Union Square where there is free wireless (I <3 NY) eating a goat cheese salad from Whole Foods Market and wondering if I should take off my shoes and socks.  It's hot! And I have a tiny bit of battery conserved but not enough to do anything of substance except post this.
So I will.  :)

Hello, Fandom.
I hope I've gotten all my looming deadlines in because I am miles from my tablet... soon to be 1800 miles!
I'll be in New York City for the next week - Tuesday to Tuesday. 
The Tarot Reader's Studio is Beltane Weekend, plus there shall be much social time with friends far and near, including visiting from Australia. Yay! Glee! Wahoo!

I'll likely not be out of electronic contact, but it all will depend on the ready availability of computers and/or wireless.

Coming in May, I hope: finishing the unfinished fanart in the archives.  Plus of course the next set of deadlines. Fun times, indeed.