So, there is a pact... and it states that i have to go to EF this year. Which is great, because i really want to... it'll just be pricy :P

The con itself probably won't be a whole lot more expensive than cons in general... it will at least be in the same ballpark ...but the flights to Germany (and Wales afterward, or wherever zebrataur flies into and out of ...i don't know if Wales even has any major airports ...maybe it'd be Liverpool, England.) will be like a quick series of wallet kidney-punches followed by a boot to the crotch. Travel costs will be more than $1000, so yeah.
I'll probably have to book the flights before anthrocon this year, since that's only a month before EF... but at least Anthrocon sales will help me recover the funds. I still have money in my savings from last Anthrocon's sales, which is pretty phenomenal. XD
I suspect i might have to take a few commissions over the next few months though in order to afford the plane tickets.


Anyhow, those plans will develop over time. Still a long way to go!


In other related news, i've been really inspired lately to attempt making a new 'fursuit'... on those nights when my muse doesn't feel like drawing, i ponder this instead. I have some really great construction ideas and methods for how to pull it off... it's a much different sort of thing than my Oryx, and will require some new skills to be learned.
I say 'fursuit' that way in this case because it will actually only have a little bit of fur... probably only 15% or so will be furred (mostly the head and shoulders) ...the rest of the body will be a lycra/spandex type bodysuit on which i can attach things and wear clothing and costume pieces over.

I've been wanting to do a suit like this for a while, and i was thinking it'd end up being an okapi, since they have such short fur and appear smooth - but in light of my new character design, i think i will make it a SINE instead. As soon as i started drawing her i knew i wanted to make it into a costume. The idea could be done badly... however, i am pretty confident that my attention to detail and abilities will make it good instead. When i get this inspired about something i kind of obsess over it, and i basically put my mind to it as they say. And when that happens, i can do pretty much anything. Being obsessed with it is the biggest prerequisite :P

In case you don't watch my art on FurAffinity, this is the design i'm talking about:
( SINE reference sheet, cut for size. )
The grey 'skin' is naked, without any fur. So this character would be ideal for that type of costume.

The biggest advantage of this i think is that i wouldn't have to go through the trouble of sewing a fursuit and tailoring it endlessly and then still not being completely satisfied with the fit - because the suit will conform to my body, and i can paint it and decorate it as needed.
The biggest hurdle will be learning how to cast silicone, because for this i'll have to develop much better padding. Foam padding works under fur, because the fur hides the details of the shape and smooths it out - but for such a close fitting bodysuit as this foam underneath would be obvious and it would just look clunky and ugly. Silicone would move a lot more in unison with the body too, such as when my hip bends. It would be better at flexing instead of just folding.
Casting silicone pads will work much better, and it will be a useful skill to have anyway. I'll also be able to do the nose, lips, and membranes around the eyes that way too, for a super realistic look.
I've already got lots of ideas for how to pull this suit off, and though the materials will cost a decent amount of money, i'm pretty sure once i have them all i'll be able to do it!

Also i'm going to do an articulated jaw... there's no excuse not to this time!

I think this will be a lot of fun. I might do the head first, since it will be easy... minus those silicone parts i mentioned. And i'll have to wait to fur it until i have the fur... At least i won't have to spend much on fur this time, hah! But the bodysuit and silicone will more than negate that little bit of savings. :c

So, someone on FA drew Eraserhead fanart because they hated the film and felt so sorry for the [admittedly somewhat cute] mutated baby thing... and so i thought to myself "EC, you've known about this movie for ages, being that you love David Lynch's other films... but you've never seen it! What gives? Why not check youtube?" ...So i did just that, and there it was!

Anyway, to keep a short story short, i watched it... and goddamn, it's amazing. David Lynch is a man of true artistic genius!
Some of the stuff in Eraserhead actually reminded me a little of things in Mulholland Dr, even though there's almost 25 years between the two films. Mulholland Dr. is my favourite Lynch film, i think...
The man is a master of making ordinary things really disturbing. He plays with that sense that something is not quite right...

Anyhow, i grabbed a couple of my dvds and made some potatoes (mashed potatoes with corn, spinach, and lots of pepper! fucking excellent)
Mullholland Dr. and Blue Velvet, hmmm, which one first... *weighs the options*

Blue Velvet is not nearly as fucked up, so maybe i'll watch that first.

I kind of wish i had Dune... it's nothing like his surrealist head-trips, but it's epic and amazing anyway.



Also, i'm totally going to cover that song in Eraserhead. It's so perfect for DHD... and it's simple enough that i could probably actually decipher the chords.



EDIT: huh, Jack Nance is in Blue Velvet, too. (The guy in Eraserhead) I'll have to look for him. *looks at IMDB* Huh, and he was in Dune, Lost Highway, and Twin Peaks too XD I guess he and Lynch must get along well!

So maybe i'm a huge dork, but whenever i hear people talking about that new google phone i lol because of the name. Just who's idea was that, anyway? XD

I've been juggling design elements for a while, trying to figure out how to make this the most awesome it can be, and i think i've settled.
Most of this is a scan of my in-progress drawing (including the top text, which is printed and pasted on) but the bottom text and icons i added in PS right now to get a feel for placement. I'll print them out and glue them on next time i work on this, then go about finishing the drawing.

Anyhow, i want to make propaganda posters... this design process is totally fun!

This is really interesting to read.
I happened across the story by chance looking for references (working on an art experiment) and now i'm hooked on reading it instead. But that's okay.


"When the tank destroyer near us made a direct hit, the crew would let out a cheer we took to mean they were celebrating the accuracy of their gunnery, not the act of destroying the enemy. Could there possibly be a positive emotion in killing someone, even your wartime adversary? Or, was the excitement of the hunt so great its culmination in hitting a target produced a feeling of joy? Was the feeling some form of revenge for something that had happened earlier in the war? Did the fact they were some distance from the target have anything to do with it? Certainly, a bomber crew had less feelings about dropping a load of bombs on a heavily-populated city from fifteen thousand feet than an infantry man did in shooting a lone enemy soldier up close and watching the expression on his face before he fell."

Generally if i have words in a song i write them after the music is created, or partly created. Usually the words are inspired by the music and not the other way around (Though not always)
Anyhow, in case anyone cares to know, this segment is what i had looping in my headphones for the last hour (was it an hour? might have been longer, wasn't keeping track) while i wrote the verses of my previous entry.

If a piece of music has a feeling embedded within it, whether it;s one that i project or not, i enjoy riding it for a while... becoming intimately familiar. The words come easier that way.

I really like this segment of music, but i'm not sure what to do with it or how to make it fit into something else. I've actually been struggling with it off and on for a while. It's a pretty thick snake to wrestle... Ah well, i'm sure when the right opportunity comes along to meld it into a greater whole, i'll know.

outside in the lightless fallow
waiting in the darkest night
embracing every dying moment
waiting for the morning to come

it clutches screams to its blackhole bosom
like tiny birds locked in a cage
some of the anguishes die fettered on the perch
and by breaths of libertine breeze some soar free

through

a high window cracked
or a door left ajar
whisper those echoes now when all's gone still
waiting for the morning to come

concrete coloured by time
unthinkably precise
a geometry to segregate fading todays from tomorrows
and dividing deaths from life

outside in the darkest crucible
waiting in the lightless night
holding close the passing hours
waiting for our moments to die

letting go of hope with the advent of the rising sun
no more waiting, now the morning has come.



EDIT: And i'll refrain from making another entry, i know no one gives a crap about poetry anyway... I seem to be in a writing mode, this is rare.

birth comes at the beginning of the day
the sun shines, the summer's green, and all is bright
and all the world is filled with love

loss comes sometime around noon
when innocence dies
and then the world is greyed with sorrow

sunset heralds the descent of ending
it comes to clip the wings of lofty things like aspiration
and then dive tandem to a dreamless sleep

when the light is gone, as empty as a corpse's eyes
regrets bedeck the pall of night
and all the world is filled with nothing
evermore

Ugh, so sick... i shouldn't be here (at work) i just want to sleep and not spread the plague to people.
Despite being ceramic tiles, the floor in the backroom feels SO good udner my back. But people keep interrupting my downtime, ugh. I think i'm developing a conditioned animosity toward the beeper that goes off when someone comes in the store. Soon you'll be able to ring a bell and i'll foam at the mouth!

There's so little work to do here tonight, i could get aso much art done, but man, when you feel shitty it's not easy doing stuff. I wonder what my temperature is.
I have to fnish the last colourjob for the vore set by january 4th. I hope i feel better when i get up today, because i have to hustle! Not getting much done on it now, that's for sure.

Well, i was going to go and see Avatar again, and drag my mom along...
But there are relatives visiting from Maryland, and stuff... so now i'm going to go and see Avatar again with a family katamari ball including a mom, a step-father, an aunt and uncle, two cousins, and a grandmother.
:o

I hope everyone will enjoy it! And i hope they're not late, it will be hard to hold that many seats, heh.

I should probably take a nap first. I'll be dead tired by 6pm if i don't. ;_;

This is what i have to put up with OH GOD WHYYY

D:

It's NSFW... and NSFL, too. (not safe for life)



Anyway, everyone knows i like vore, and that is why i go to that site... but man, some of the stuff that people post there is like, yeah, that. There is not enough eyebleach


...

Also, Avatar is the most beautiful thing i've ever seen, btw. In case anyone wanted a followup to my last entry. Soooo amazing!

.

..

...

....

.....

AVATAR DAY :o

oh god... it's going to be a long day, and i'm going to be exhausted by 3:30 or whenever it is i get home... but i'll be up north at the IMAX theatre at 11am to try and get a good seat for the noon showing, and holy crap, i know it's going to be awesome. :D
I saved a prickly pear Syzmo* for the occasion so hopefully i won't nod off during the film. That would be lame.
Blue people with tails, fuuuuck yeah.

* A delicious organic energy drink that is a perfect size to conceal in my jacket! And also the perfect size to be refreshing yet not of quantity enough to make me have to get up and go to the bathroom (and thus miss anything) heh.

I haven't been this excited about seeing a film in a while... District 9 was close, but not quite the same level. ...am i susceptible to hype? I dunno... i think even if there was no hype i would still be pretty damn excited.
I know that once i visit Pandora through the immersion of moviegoing i'm not going to want to return. That's how beautiful worlds are...

Also, it's an amusing contrast that the other Pandora i've been visiting lately is [almost literally] a garbage heap. Such an ugly place! The New Haven on that Pandora actually makes New Haven Connecticut look nice, lol. Not an easy thing.
(Been playing Borderlands.)

HAVE YOU HUGGED YOUR HYENA TODAY?
:B




...I need an icon for this. ...And some sleep! oh god

Oh golly, what's happened to me :O

(pardon the awful anatomy, this was like, a 15 minute sketch.)








...I wish FA was working. goddamn >.

I've been compiling a super list of songs that would be awesome for fursuit dancing (I have this plan, see...) and anyway, i can't help but include this song on it
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers, and Queers

...Though i wonder if it would offend people XD
It's a fun song. And it can be very furry >.> Whether in a good way or not is up to interpretation. But hey, people need a sense of humour.

Anyhow, i dunno if it'll be in the final cut, since it's rough around the edges (the distorted drum beat isn't the best for this porpoise.) But we'll see.

I didn't know Soft Cell did anything new(er) after their brief reign and then break-up in the early 80s... but apparently they got back together and made an album in 2002, which actually sounds pretty good.
I stumbled across this video on youtube, and i quite like it!



According to a friend on AIM i showed this to, Marc Almond "looks like a gay eminem with cancer" in this video. I couldn't help but crack up at that XD ...but yeah. I like this song and video.

I think... that incessantly barking puppies are in fact more obnoxious, piercing, and painful to bear than wailing human babies. And that's quite a feat >.< Ugh. It could be a form of torture.

So i went to MFF, and then came back. It was a fun trip! It was cool traveling with friends instead of by myself, made the flights more bearable. Dealing cut into my free time, of course - but i think i broke even with trip costs, maybe with a few bucks left over. Only fursuited once though. :-/ I need to get better and more confident so i can go out on my own and not need a fellow suiter for company.
Now i'm thinking about doing FC, even though i wasn't going to before... but man, waiting all the way until late june for another con (AC) is like... a long time. The first half of the year is pretty much the void of conventioneering, seems like most cons are in late summer and autumn.

Got lots of art stuff to do, including finishing up my contribution to the folio collab with DarkNatasha, she wants to have it ready to debut at FC. I have to do two more pieces - or rather... do one more new one and colour one of the older ones. I've also actually taken a few commissions over the last couple months... slowly working on my motivation problems, i think i've made headway, just have to be careful not to take on too much work and get overwhelmed.
The vore exchange has helped, i think. Drawing things that aren't what i'd normally draw... with deadlines...
This round i get to draw a funky looking bird person. That'll be a first!