Pretty much what the title says. I love creating, and I love winter, so I'm holding an art contest about creating your own creature, race, monster, or whatever that's specially adapted to bitterly cold climes. Here's the rules and criteria, broken down:


~ Can be any sort of living thing, from a monster, to some sort of feral animal, to a mythical humanoid race. Use your imagination!
~ Cannot simply be a hybrid of two or more things. e.g. don't combine a polar bear and a ptarmigan and call it done. Put thought and creativity to your unique creation! You can however, use specialized adaptations that arctic animals may have to help inspire your own creature.
~ Must be your own work.
~ How this race or creature was able to adapt to the cold is up to you, be it evolution, the result of a prolonged science experiment, supernatural causes, or any other combination you can think of.
~ Can be either art, or writing, or a combination of the two. If I get enough writing entries, I'll judge them separately from the art entries.
~ Have fun dammit!

Criteria I'll be looking for:

~ Must be an original creation of yours made especially for this contest; don't simply "winterize" an existing character, and don't submit a creature or concept you've already done.
~ I'll be judging on how thorough, interesting and well-thought out it is; the art itself is secondary to the concept. Naturally though, the more effort you spend on the product is going to improve your chances.
~ Nothing that would require an Adult tag, please.
~ As stated earlier, can either be visual art, writing, or a combination of the two. Can be a sort of reference to the creature, an image of the creature or race in its natural habitat with accompanied text, etc.

1st place gets either a detailed inked greyscale picture of one or two characters w/ partial background, or a detailed colored picture of whatever they want w/ partial background, and two icons. (these icons will be 100x100 and 150x150, mind you).

2nd place gets either the detailed inked greyscale or colored picture of one character (whichever one 1st place doesn't choose), and an icon.

3rd place gets a one character detailed sketch.

Note: the subject of the prize can also be the creature you created.

Deadline is New Year's Eve, at midnight in EST.

Either comment on this journal with your entry, or note me instead. If you need anything clarified or have a question where I didn't address it here, make sure to ask! I really want to see what you guys come up with!


Hope thats everything. Happy creating! Make sure to spread the word to anyone that you'd think would be interested in this!

Coming to terms with one's own mediocrity, as well as the realization you really don't have a friend in the world who is on your side, is a bitter pill to take.

Happy Hallowe'en everyone...




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I know I have a paltry amount of watchers, and less still that actually read my journals, but I'm giving this a try anyway. My boyfriend is a self-taught writer of fair skill, and I want him to get more exposure and feedback on his work, and even if you can't lend a comment or two, I highly suggest at least giving him links to resources or even clubs on here so he can expand his skills. His specialty is poetry, and he also writes horror and dark fiction; for those of you that like to read, he's well worth it.

Since we're on the topic of writing, I'd also like to direct you to the page of a good friend . He's also self-taught, and wanting to get into the writing business more thoroughly. He writes mostly science-fiction and cyberpunk-esque stuff, and just like my boyfriend I'm sure he'd really appreciate critique and feedback as well. Checking out both of these guys' pages would be really ace, and I'd be forever grateful to you guys.

Nothing all that new on my front, other than me getting a desktop. Finally. In the future I'll be using this for digital art, but until I get me a proper tablet, it'll have to wait.

Merry Fall, and an even more merry up-and-coming Samhain.

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Posting this as my main commission info, from pricing to the themes I do. If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to throw me a note.


What I will do in a commission:
~Anything of the Fantasy or Sci-Fi genre.
~Humans/humanoids. Its a specialty of mine.
~Tattoo designs
~Anthropomorphs, be they were-animals, monsters, murry furries, and anything in between.
~Animals, species of your own creation, monsters, etc.
~Original characters
~Artistic nudes and tasteful pinups. This can include things like solo artistic bondage pictures and whatnot, but if I have to label it Adult, I won't do it.
~Anything else not expressly forbidden in the list of what I won't do. Read below:

Things I will NOT do:
~Pornography.
~Anime.
~Extreme gore, although blood is fine.
~Copyrighted styles/characters/fanart, i.e. Pokemon, Sonic, etc.
~An extension of the one above: I don't do overtly cartoony characters, mainly because it just isn't my style.
~SPARKLEDOGS aka 'They-who-must-not-be-named.'
~I have the right to refuse to do a commission that is overtly weird (weird being rather flexible here) or goes against my standards as an artist.

Pricing (these are rough guidelines. If you have an idea for something that does not fall under these categories, note me and we can discuss details):

~Icons (100x100 and 150x150)-$1. These are full-color deals too, mind you.
~Character sketch busts-$2. Ex: [link]
~Full-figure sketches (w/out backgrounds)-$5-7, depending on complexity. Ex: [link] and [link]
~Inked work w/out or very minimal color-$7-10, depending on complexity. Ex: [link] and [link]
~Tattoo designs-Prices vary widely, depending on what you want. Ex: [link] and [link]
~Full color with partial background-$15 (I don't have an example of this currently).
~Full color with full background-$20-28, depending on complexity. Ex: [link]

All of my work is done in traditional media. If you want the original sent to you, I ask for two dollars extra for shipping. Small things like icons and busts I don't mail, however.

I currently only accept payments via PayPal. My email is topazthunder@sbcglobal.net

Thank you very much for your time and consideration, and once again, if interested or want me to clarify anything, note me.

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For my absence, that is. Had a visitor for the past week, ( ) 21st birthday came and went, and now its back to harsh life and reality. Nothing to see here, move along, move along.


Clubs and other organizations I'm in: