TRG's Journal-O-Fun!

It can be taken as a friendship or a pairing picture, and I have to say that I'm pretty proud of how smexy my shirtless Naruto looks.  So please take a look at the picture under the cut!  (I might make an alternate Gaara instead of Sakura in there too, I was just in the mood for NaruSaku)

Click here for the link to the picture.  [link]

Kids, don't write fluffy, romantic tentacle porn stories for tentacle monster porn contests.  The people who run them obviously don't want their tentacle porn to be cute, fluffy, romantic, or anything else but some hardcore shit.  Why did I waste hours writing about tentacles?  I even had it posted up here on my journal for a while, but decided (as soon as I was able) to take it down.  I hope none of you read it.  I don't think I'm ever going to attempt anything with tentacles ever, ever again.

Also, I have been reading a plethora of Stephenie Meyers, therefore I have adopted her description-lacking, dialogue-heavy, storytelling style.  I don't like it.  *tosses Stephenie Meyer out of my head*  I am liking The Host though.  I finally got around to reading it and am enjoying it so far.  (And when I say "read" I mean "listen" because I am reading audiobooks so I can draw and be productive while enjoying some literature).

I have to recommend this video for all you GaaNaru fans out there.  It is really cute and well done, and though I usually don't like the ones with the fanart, this one rocked so much that I had to not only fave it, but share it with others.( here it is... )

I've been tinkering with the Pentel Aquash Watercolor pens.  I like them a lot.  Basically they are like a customizable marker type thing.  You mix your own water based inks and paints and they work kind of like a marker.  I love them for skintones.  The jury is still out on me doing an entire pieces with them. 

Aquash watercolor pen looks like (see picture below).  They are a newly popular and cheap version of the watercolor pens imported from Japan.  They work the same, and they have a nylon tip that feels a lot like the copic brush tips.  Their cost is $5 each (though I just bought 20 for $3.50 each at hobbylobby's online store since they were on sale).  The imported version costs $17 each plus shipping.  Both are made in Japan by Pentel.  There are a few other versions, but I like this one the best.  You can find them at Hobby Lobby.  You can find a different brand at Michaels in their watercolor department.
 

And to make this uncut post extra annoying, here is the first picture I colored with my Aquashes.  It is still WIP.  I'm going to go through and finish inking (no, it isn't finished, I didn't do anything but a quick line) and then some more shadows with watercolor pencils and then I'll blend them with waterfilled (no color added) aquash pen.  Click [here] to see it larger.

Beth's Business LJ:  reeves_id

I decided to make a professional journal where fanart will be scarce, tutorials and techniques will be blogged about, and I can finally let my inner-photoshop geek run wild.  If you want to see my finished illustrations and work with less posts about my personal life, then I advise you to watch that one (you can watch both if you like).  There will be absolutely no personal posts there, so if I annoy you with my whining at times, it is a better journal to watch me from.

I will not crosspost between my journals (unless it is something really important and relevant to both, which would be rare); so if you watch both of them, you won't neccessarily get the information I put up twice.  Don't feel like you have to add it to your flist, but I did want you all to know about it.

What you will find:
 + art tutorials
 + finished art illustrations
 + convention updates
 + book and tutorial recommendations
 + selling posts for items (though sometimes I will crosspost those here)

What you will not find:
 + fanfiction (there will be no fiction there, period)
 + fanart WIPs (though here might be other WIPs there)
 + anything about my personal life
 + fun links (those stay here)

I finally scanned my NaruGaa lineart, but not in time to get it colored before the convention.  I'll have to do that next week when I get back from Tulsa, Oklahoma. 


And finally, since everyone loves Sailor Moon, here she is, in lineart WIP version.  Any request on which Sailor I should do next (I'll eventually do them all)?

Edit: since the links were messed up (stupid LJ), I posted this again in hopes that some of you that were frustrated the first time will enjoy it this time.

As I've been working on stuff and listening to NPR.  I wanted to re-listen to Stephen Colbert's Fresh Air interview (found here) and searched "Colbert" on the NPR website and this is what it listed first,  "Fan Fiction Writers Face Nonfiction Legal Hurdles" which was a surprise (apparently there is a lot of Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert porn out there).  I was delighted to find that it was by one of my favorite contributors to Morning Edition and All Things Considered.  You should all give it a listen if you like fanfiction, because it definitely cracked me up. 

[link to the story about a NPR correspondent's take on fan fiction]

And I really think everyone should give the Colbert Fresh Air piece a listen.  it is forty-five minutes long, but it is really insightful and funny.

Well I've had a million and a half things to do all month, and I haven't gotten any of them done.  I went to go post stuff for Naruto and Gaara Fanday and realized, "Oh, I restored my computer at the beginning of the month, the fics are backed up on my pindrive."

Let's just say they weren't on the six I found.  I know I backed them up somewhere, but I'm not sure where.  One pindrive is still mysteriously missing, and I'm thinking my one-shots were on that one.  I liked one of the fics, even though it was cheesetastic, the other one might not see the light of day (or the wonders of the internets).  XD  I'll have to find them soon. 

I also had a cute chibi drawing of Gaara and Naruto that I was going to scan in until I realized that I didn't have my stupid scanner installed on my computer since the restore, and the pile/mess in my room has blocked access to the darn thing anyway.  So I exhaustedly sighed at my computer last night and thought, "Screw it, I'm going to bed."  I slept fourteen hours, called in sick to work because I felt like shit and haven't called in sick to this job for...oh I think January was the last time.  I haven't really taken any time off of it this year, so I thought one day wouldn't hurt.

I have so much I want to journal about (Avatar, more cute drawings I need to scan in, life stuff, art stuff), but I can't find the motivation to do it.  I have no motivation to even be on the internet, it just seems like a chore (I've been online a total of three times in the last two weeks).  I do believe hiatus is calling to me, and it sounds so nice. Edit: every time I get the urge to go on hiatus, the internet sucks me back in.  Meh.  Stupid NPR, I blame it.