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Aah... I've kinda ignored this place for a while since I have a lot of things waiting to be uploaded, and the system for uploading is a major PITA...

I'll do a mega-dump tomorrow, unless I get angry at the uploading system again... meanwhile you could check my FA gallery which I update atleast somewhat regularly: [link]

*headkeyboard*

Sorry, I've been kinda down, busy, uninspired and tired lately, so I didn't really feel like worrying about the internet, as I've had to move, help relatives, and just generally worry about everything, so I kinda disappeared...

I'm not really interested in giving a huge wall of text as for what happened, and I've not drawn very much either so no flooding of inbox, and unfortunately I haven't had time to draw things that I owe and so on, but hopefully I can get some of them done this weekend, but I'm not promising anything. I'll get them done eventually though, so don't worry, I've marked everything overdue up, I just need to find the right moodset and time to do them, don't want to half-ass them, especially after all the wait.

So that's that, I'm still not 100% back, but I'll be around...

You know, I realised keeping track of the participants chronologically is pointless as this is random... so whatever (it's also happening for two sites, so there you go)

1. Remylee
2. Gatekat
3. RJthefox
4. Azokero
5. mpanther
6. Norvilion
7. Dajinn
8. Treble
9. Kyle-the-dragon
10. Lobosabio
11. Cyanide-217
12. KSchnee
13. M-fox
14. Lonemecha
15. Roxor128
16. Foxfencer
17. Lt-raphael-comet
18. Voidrunners
19. Stevenroy
20. LionheartAU

and the winning numbers courtesy of random.org: 5, 18, 1

so congratulations mpanther, Voidrunners and Remylee. I'll get in contact with you shortly.

as for the rest of you, better luck next time

Well, I figured I could hand out a couple of traditional sketch requests at random due to my activities in the summer permitting that, so here's the deal:
You have until June 16th 10pm GMT to indicate your willingness to participate, and you will be assigned a number in chronological order. Once the time limit is reached, I will use random.org to generate 3 numbers, and whoever those happen to be will win a free traditionally drawn request. Just know that if you try to cheat, I'll immediately disqualify you, so no alternate accounts. Also due to that I unfortunately won't accept anyone whose account was created after this journal.

Do keep in mind that the requests will follow the same guidelines as my commissions, and if you don't like that, well, tough luck.
Also preferably request something that I won't need much reference for, or if I do, it must be 100% worksafe or else you're going to have to find another character to be portrayed. In addition to above, species I won't need to carry around references for are better, so Foxes are a safe choice, Cats, Rabbits and Canines are ok, Mice/Rats so-so, and anything else depends on what it is. Depending on character difficulty you might get one or two characters in the drawing, so consider that.


Well, if this works out well, and I get enough commissions, I might do more of these... and speaking of commissions, they will be open for the entire summer, starting now until the end of August unless I mention otherwise.

I'll be honest with you here, i'm not that great at communicating with others, be it text or talk, so if I don't reply in any way, it is most often due to my mind getting stuck in a loop around one matter, or sidetracking so long that I lose focus on what I was going for in the first place. That, coupled with the fact I'm not the most initiative kinda guy has led to several problematic situtations that I've somehow managed to get on with eventually.

I guess I better start at the beginning... My father is a former architect and worked with cellphone OSes until until some time ago, and my mother was a doctor, but also a good drawer from what I hear, so I guess those are some of the reasons I've got where I'm now...
Anyway, my early childhood was fairly ordinary and somewhat uneventful, being the only child in the family, and not having any nearby like-aged cousins. I had a loving grandmother whom I still visit whenever I can, as I now live closer to her than before.
The first years at school were not so great, though... I was the weird kid, and got around half the boys in the same class to bully me, and I got in quite a bit of trouble then, even several detentions due to going after them. Still, it was not all bad, I had a very good friend I spent the days with, and some other friends who were ok.

I was at the first school for until the beginning of the 6th grade, and I was 12 at the time, autumn 1999, and I had a millenium I probably will never forget...
The reason I ended in that school was due to moving to another town, and so I didn't have any way of contacting my old friends again. That was not the only thing, as around the time we had finished moving, my mother went missing, and turned up only half-a-year later, having committed suicide.

It's still not an easy subject and probably never will be, but at the time it was rather devastating, having to get used to new surroundings, trying to build a new social network, and losing my mother was very hard, and it reflected in my behaviour quite a bit. I got aggressive. I also couldn't really get inside the already formed circles of friends so I was left alone.
However school went on, I started getting fairly good grades, but I wasn't happy. At any point, I could explode to the mildest provocation, and eventually that got enough attention from the school staff to get me into regular meetings with the school counselor. I went to those for about a year or so... and I guess they helped a bit, but not that much really.
Anyway, by the time I was done with the 9th grade, and moved on to college, I had been getting solid 10s from mathematics, physics and chemistry, but during the college it started declining... mostly due to the fact homework wasn't being checked anymore. You see, I'm not good at not having deadlines... if I have freedom to do something, I generally tend not to, and I can't really help it, I just need a clear frame work things in and they go smoothly.

And that's why things went how they did after college... I finished college with fairly poor grades by the end, and had an almost year until my army service started, so I tried to get a university spot, as I didn't really know what to do next... and got a chemistry student's spot at the Helsinki University. However, I skipped the first year due to having to go to army, but I didn't manage to get any work or anything in the meantime... so I was just kinda there.
Then the army service turned out to be a 9 month service, and since I started at January, I ended up missing all the starting courses, and I didn't even have an appartment yet... looking for one took one more month, and so it was November by the time I finally got started with everything.
However, I told you I wasn't the best person at communicating, and I am in fact slightly afraid of talking to others... preventing me from seeking advice from the university staff or other students, and I was too ashamed of myself to ask for help from my father, so time went on... for one and a half year to be exact, until everything came crashing down about a month ago.


Now things are starting to be sorted out, and I have a mild anti-depression medication that will hopefully help in getting myself back to my feet, and I also have a fairly good idea what I'm going to do... too bad my application to an art school bounced, but next time, next time... For sure I won't be continuing chemistry at the university, but if I can keep my spot I could switch to IT/computers, and see if that'll be any help in my artistic ambitions. And if that don't add up, I guess I could just hightail it back to my father and help in putting the house in a sellable condition, so I'm not in a hopeless situtation, even though I've screwed up a lot of things...


Artistic ambitions... cripes, it's still hard thinking of my drawings as art, but I guess I should try and start, as my father has said I shouldn't be too humble.

Oh well, now I've got that out.

So... I'll get on with the comment replies at some point, and start colouring some of the drawings I did recently in due time. Right now though, I'm not going to take any commissions, maybe next week, then I'll finally take care of the two prizes that I owe.



PS: I'm posting this journal here later since for some reason DA has been acting up on me lately.