Man, I've Been Neglecting My Tumblr.

reblogging to my art tumblr, since photography counts for that sorta thing. Sorry for the redundancy.

So, on our daily walk to the McDonalds today, my brother and I took a detour through the waterfowl park, and came across not one, but two geese in the middle of the path, each with a little bundle of baby goslings. I apologize for the picture quality, but all I had on me was my iPod touch, and nothing to brace it on. Also: we didn’t want to get too close, since geese can be very protective, territorial, and irritable. We stood around for at least twenty minutes, and they held up any foot traffic coming through. Every now and then, one of the adults would stand up straight, stretch their neck upward, look around, and hiss at anything they didn’t like the look of. After a time, one bundle of goslings made their way across the path, one at a time, and snuggled in with the other bundle. Occasionally, one of the adults would check out the little ones, and get jumped on, or pick through the grass looking for edibles. Not gonna lie, it was pretty adorable.

We didn’t see any ducklings, but did spot plenty of ducks swimming around in pairs, so you know they’re on the way. X3

Suggestions for Art to Livestream?

After two months of going without, I'm finally getting set up with internet service at home (no more mooching off of various fast-food establishments and public libraries with free wi-fi!).

First thing I plan to doing is Livestreams of art stuff. However, Perceptionality is a B/W, traditional-media comic, and the only digital work required is clean-up, typesetting, and graphic design elements. Not particularly fun to watch, I wouldn't think.

So: If anyone has suggestions or requests, let me hear 'em! I'll draw whichever ones seem like the most fun or interesting. Once I'm set up for the livestreamin's (hopefully not more than a couple of days from now), y'all can watch me clean and colour the stuff. And listen to me ramble about stuff non-stop. There will probably be music too. I guess.

I won't be drawing extreme violence or porn (though I will draw tasteful nudity) but aside from that, anything goes. I'm not kidding. Fan art, OC's, art styles ranging from anime to realistic to pre-raphaelite, sci-fi or fantasy or modern day, scenery and backgrounds are cool, whatever you can think of.

(This is gonna be a catastrophe, I just know it.)

(...I'm okay with that: should be fun)

Deregulation strikes again.

“Free market” capitalism does NOT care about raging forest fires, it does not care about endangering firefighters, it does not care about people dying due to lack of healthcare insurance. Unregulated capatilism cares only about making profits, apparently at any and all costs.

So it's my birthday. I drew myself a gift for it.

It's lazy, but I feel like being lazy right now. No jubilant celebrations or anything, just a quiet day to myself.

'Nother charcoal drawing. WhiteFox likes snow. WhiteFox likes snow very much. Also, I am apparently one of those select few who has the right kind of face for tea-shades, so I consider myself lucky there.

I don't really draw my avatar all that often... I'm not really sure how to define him. I don't think of him as a fictional character, persona, or mascot. He represents me, but I don't think of him as being me. I guess he's like the visual component of a pen-name.

I don't like this drawing as much as the one I previously posted, probably because I didn't get to define the planes of the face or neck. Course, when you're matte white, there's not a lot you can do. I did play around with using unblended strokes to add definition to the hair and beard, and it was an informative exercise, but it doesn't carry a whole lot of visual impact.

Still... I like it. 

You're a Superstar

I was reading up on stellar nucleosynthesis today... turns out, any chemical elements other than hydrogen, helium, and lithium are created by the immense heat and pressure in the heart of a sun. Elements heavier than nickle are only created by type-II supernovae. Which means that trace quantities of your body were made in the death of a massive star. A heavenly body that was 8 to 50 times the mass of our sun, and one to ten billion years old. You have some of that inside you. I like to think that's a pretty big deal.

Hey, look. I drew some keywork 'cuz I was bored. Then I inked it, really really badly.

True story.

I might do more of these, they're good practice. Straight lines aren't exactly my strong point.

On paper, this is 12 cm across... just under five inches. I really should be able to manage one about half as big, we'll see how that turns out.

For Jasper, my OC, I chose a specific breed: Irish Sport Horse, aka Irish Hunter. I'd consider that the equivalent of picking a race.

This was very closely related to his personality and character concept, not to mention his physical build and appearance (though, I didn't realize until later that I'd made him Irish and gave him a green coat).

His swooshy forelock was inspired by Superman's iconic curl of hair. I wanted give him a sort of hunky-dreamy sort of look. The ponytail and black ribbon bow was inspired by 18th-century hairstyles (Think Will Turner or Lieutennant Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean).

I actually did draw Jasper as a human at one point... I really should dig that pic up, I liked how it came out.

Hey guys

I’m just wondering, do you people with like pony characters make up the specific way your character would look if it was a human- like hair styles, race, etc.

I mean like

do you decide on the race your characters

do you decide on the body type

i mean whut.

Steal This Rant

Alright, so, a friend of mine (Flux Chord) is getting trolled because he allegedly copied another artists work. As reprehensible as I find plagiarism and theft, quite frankly these people have no idea what they're talking about. It's a disgrace to allegations.

Here's how this whole thing went down... Flux Chord used a piece of art drawn by CandyClops as reference for the pose of two characters (in an amorous situation. I'm not gonna link either of the images or the artists tumblrs, because I have a pretty strict SFW policy). On the one hand, he only used the ref to draw a couple of sticks and circles before continuing on independently. On the other hand, he did not credit the original artist when the work was posted. CandyClops' followers... not Candy, mind you, the followers... have since been directing some very inappropriate and unwarranted comments at Flux. Here's the thing... this can barely be considered theft. Sticks and circles, people. There's a big difference between using reference, and tracing something. I've taken a good close look at both images, and I highly doubt that it was traced. Are the two poses very similar? Yes, they are. And I don't see what the problem is.  Before we start slinging mud about unoriginality, let's not forget that, well, they're My Little Ponies. Their designs were inspired by a cartoon show. CandyClops' work was inspired by another artist, just as much as Flux's was. Fan art is kind of like that. Furthermore, it's an extremely generic posture. There are probably hundreds artists that have used it. It's practically a stock pose. So, again, I don't think CandyClops' followers really have any high ground in that regard either. If it were a distinctive or iconic pose that CandyClops was known for, I could understand being upset. This pose is downright ubiquitous, everyone uses it. Is it cheating? I really don't think so. I use real life photos as reference all the time. It's a fundamental element of how you learn to draw: do studies till you're familiar with the subject, and then you can draw without refs. What's that? That's different because I use a photo, while Flux was using another artist's work? Well, I hate to break this to you, but Flux wouldn't be the first. You see, "copying from the masters" is a standard learning exercise. And I don't mean drawing some sticks and circles, I mean copying famous paintings and drawings verbatim. They did it in Renaissance Europe, they did it in ancient Japan, and they're still doing it today. Now... Flux didn't give credit. That's rude, totally not cool. Let's be honest, though, this was a faux pas. A minor oversight, which was quickly redacted. Hardly an infraction of the Artist’s Ten Commandments, or one of the Seven Deadly Artist’s Sins. Let's face it, plagiarism is reprehensible but I honestly think this was just an innocent mistake. Wanna know why? Okay, let's take a minute to look at why people plagiarize or steal art. Unwarranted reputation, for one. Artists generally steal work to make themselves look better than they actually are. I've known Flux since he first started getting into art, though, and I've never known him to take any such shortcuts to fame. The guy is constantly working hard to improve his abilities, and I've never once seen him cheat before. That's the main reason why I really think that using CandyClops' work as reference was nothing more than educational experience, rather than theft. Tracing is a really lazy way to make art, and that's one of the major reasons why plagiarized work is so contemptible. I've compared the two drawings, and Flux definitely wasn't tracing... no question there. He wasn't being lazy, either: the sticks-and-circles stage takes the least amount of effort, it's all the inking and coloring afterwards that's a pain. Profit's another motivation for such things... except that Flux wasn't drawing a commission. He isn't even taking commissions, so it's not like he's trying to attract undeserved clients. Well, there's always popularity... make yourself look better to attract followers. Except that if Flux was trying to attract followers, he'd have a lot more R#34 in his Tumblr and a lot less story-driven comics. Plus, that'd be Discorded Whooves and Derpy in the artwork, or Luna and one of the Royal Guards, or... well, you get the idea. His and his girlfriend’s OCs, on the other hand? Yea- no. That's not what I call pandering to an audience. (By the way: the OC's are married adults, making this some of the least illicit R#34 in the fandom I've ever seen) So, what is this really? Flux used some artwork for reference, and didn't credit the original artist. When objections were raised he took it down immediately, fully admitted to his mistake, and made an apology (sounds pretty responsible to me). Which CandyClops accepted. That's right: the matter has been settled between the two artists. What's the deal then? Why is Flux getting hounded (and his girlfriend too, for that matter)? The trolls smell blood in the water, that's what. This is harassment and nothing else, and any moral high-ground is just a pretense to spew forth vulgarities and abuse. It takes very little spin to make Flux look like a villain in this situation, making him an easy target for slander, but there's really no substance behind any of it. Seriously. There's actual plagiarism going on all the time, and people are twisting the subject like this to get a few desperate jollies by making life miserable for a legitimate artist? Is this supposed to come off as some kind of white-knighting attempt, or act of social justice? I don't think so. Like I said: this just gives allegations a bad name.

First real piece of MLP fan art I've done.

Ideas are like demons. They can't be ignored, and they can't be destroyed. The only way to get rid of them is to exorcise them. In my case, by drawing.

I don't know why people picture muses as smexy babes in flimsy drapery.