(no subject)

Headache blissfully gone.

Yesterday was our last gaming session for a month, and it was great fun. I arted... worked on inking the nekked woman with wings picture... and am very, very happy with the progress.

I also finished another ink piece for Portrait Adoption Saturday night. Fun piece, with big waterfalls, leather fringe, twisty, crystal-bearing trees, hills and lots of dots. Dots!

I really, desperately, need to work more in color.

Off to put up adoption work and slog through EMG submissions. And maybe get some EMG up too? I dunno, we'll see how much work ends up on my desk today. Could be a slow one! *crosses fingers*

Mostly Harry Potter

Alrighty. Got two new pieces up over at PA. (Much easier to post than new EMG storefront stuff.) Still have more work to get up, but I wanted some freshness on the main page. Also worked a bit on the Making Stuff pt 2 article and actually got some drafting done, too.

Time for coffee to get me through 'til lunch.

(coffee-ates)

I've been reading the Harry Potter books. Becca had a stack of them for Isaac when he's old enough to read them, and I decided I'd cruise through them for fun.

They read like badly edited fanfic. Fun, frivolous, quite silly, plot holes conveniently filled with magical devices, characters that are often (but not always) flat but entertaining, DRAMA and MAYHEM and BAD GUYS. Did I mention the bad editing? I think that's what bothers me most. I mean, honestly, as popular as these books are, you'd think an editor with a spine would say 'this scene doesn't work, get rid of it' and 'since when does Ron threaten to punch people with so little provocation?' and 'keeping folks in character doesn't mean they don't have any other catch-phrase' and 'why the hell would Hogwart's teachers go to a place crowded with Hogwart's students and gossip secretively about The Student in a voice loud enough to be heard from a nearby table?' and 'Don't you have a better plot device than having Harry learn *everything* by overhearing people talk about him?' Geez, that's used so often you'd start to think he's a pervy little eavesdropper. And clean up some of the awkward phrasing, too. They're good, but they could be a lot better, that's what gets me. Cute books, I'm entertained, but I'm surely not impressed. Catie's Right Angles is much better.

I can totally see the appeal for fanfic writers, though... tons of offshoot ideas and again, it's a *fun* setting.

Oh and does anyone else think Harry feels like Buckaroo Bonzai? Next thing you know he'll start a boy band.

Say what you mean, and when you're mean...

Three artists cleared out of the submissions queue. Two of 'em new, with all their accompanying baggage. I gripe, but really, I love new artists. If I didn't, I'd keep EMG small and exclusive and uptight and invitation only. I adore finding new talents and giving them a chance to sell their work on cool products. It's the next best thing to chocolate. And maybe Coke. I love the happy thank you emails, even if I don't answer 'em that week. Or month. Gah... stupid inbox. Wrote many emails today, too.

I'm forever feeling like I've said something dumb or unnecessarily cruel, which is part of my slowness with email ad submissions. If I *think* about what I want to say, and do a couple of drafts, it usually comes out right. If I just write quickly, it sometimes comes out right, and sometimes comes out something I really, super regret.

( more on the point )

( less on the point )