Well, a little year-end status report seems appropriate.

Way back in December 2007/January 2008 I thought I'd have a stab at writing a poem a week throughout the year. I made it to half the total, 26. You can read them here. That total includes some I'm genuinely proud of, such as the sonnets (Railing is my favourite; here are some kitties too) and Wefty's little apology/self-hatred/guilt trip/mourning poem (I don't care that it met with general apathy and criticism; I'm proud of it), as well as some lighter ones I wrote to amuse colleagues and others.

Plenty about dogs, too. A late favourite of mine is Country Road Meeting... not exactly light, but definitely enjoyable to write, and hell, I find it funny.

What did surprise me, and is one reason I'm laid-back about the poetry target, is that I suddenly started artsing again. I honestly never expected to use my Wacom tablet for anything serious again, after going through a particularly horrible time of hating my 'art'—and this was serious; I can't tell you how severely without scaring you—and generally thinking I'd never make another visual thing. I can't explain why I was able to pick up the stylus again, or why I did so, but it's been fun. The first thing I painted was a giant crow made of insects, which won me pictures of Weft as a furry in return. (It's impossible to explain to those not in the know how incredibly funny this is.) I laid into some huge projects, too, including a parrot, an elf (half) and a grandmother.

Other artwork included owl, dog with furry (I like this one a lot, probably because of the boar piglet), red panda (I should definitely do more of those), dog jumping, dog-in-costume, Egyptian wolf, sketch wolf, inky-style sceptical demon and human (warning: human).

Here also are some (sort of) kitties for you cat-loving epic(fail)ures.

A lot later in 2008, we set a deadline for "the end of the year" to start our epic Profusion project, formerly the 'Great War', which we've now retitled to 'The Twine Wars' to make it a little more distinctive. And all right, I left it until the last minute, and yes, technically it was 2009 in NZ already, but nevertheless, for readers in any time zone west of Finland's, the very first Twine Wars posting did indeed go up before the end of the year.

Which is nice, very nice. My major characters aren't yet in play this early in the storyline, but I can already tell I'm going to have fun with Paraskive Taxidies ("parra-skeevuh tax-ee-dee-ess"), my viewpoint character for this region, who is also one of my comparatively rare female characters.

If Weft would stop cuddling Sweetoff and get in character, I have prequel short stories to write for both of them, long before they met. I might even have yet another stab at drawing one or the other of them, too.

I'm also fatass again after going nuts over the holidays (sigh), but that is soooo temporary. Diet starts tomorrow. Well, technically today by now, but I'm finishing this can of lychees before bed, because DUDE LYCHEES. OM NOM NOM.

A late appearance in the Christmas piccy stakes, entered after the closing date through the power of rampant favouritism. (Hey, I made the rules, I interpret the rules.)

Hrian headshot (600×800, 100KB)

Hrian is a plain grey Canis lupus, at least for part of the time. The colours on this went a lot more red and blue than I intended, making him look more Mexican (see what I mean?). I ran with it and offered the recipient an alternative desaturated version, but he preferred the original.

I might take another shot at this... Oh, and I kinda like the sketch, possibly even more than the finished article, so there it is.

Did half of my gift picture for Cerhn. Watched the first third of King Kong (the '00s remake) on the video recorder. That has been the extent of my billable time today.

Well, except for finishing The Wiz Biz, one of the books I asked Slen to buy me for Xmas. He got me the two sequels, too. These are titles I've had my eye on for some time, suspecting (correctly, it turns out) that they'll mirror some of my thinking with my worldbuilding and generally give me ideas. The first was ok as a fantasy novel; it's a little (well, a LOT) clichéd in both the worldbuilding and the freckled redheaded love interest, but that doesn't matter: the central thesis is what I was after.

I don't need to do anything with the ideas straight away, so I don't need to rush through reading all the titles before working out my introductory post with one very attractive greying-blonde middle-aged voks, Paraskive. But I can start thinking at the back of my mind about the similarities and differences between Wiz's system of magic and my magic system...

(Drafted before I posted the prev entry, delayed until I was sure the recipient had seen the picture.)

Eye candy first! Here is Mai (800×600, 63Kb)

Not much to say about this one. I wasn't kidding when I remarked to Ree that she's about the only person in the world for whom I would possibly consent to draw a Japanese¹ World of Darkness² catgirl³...

I'm still getting used to the new admin interface in WP 2.7. The "write post" screen feels more cramped in its default-ish layout, but I'm already loving being able to hide such things as the useless 'post slug' field (I just use numbers; I hate wordy URLs. They smack of shameless SEO and are untidy), and to drag my less-used options somewhere out of the way.

I think I'll rearrange it further to get it down to two columns, so I'll have a bigger text entry field. The "Media" field is calling me to take a look into its eyes post stupid audio or video entries. Maybe...

edit: Hang on. I'm mighty angry that wpuntexturize has disappeared. I loathe WP's auto curly quote behaviour, and the only replacement I've found that works requires you to add a custom field to every post. I'll try reinstalling wpuntexturize and see if it works... (edit2: Seems to, after I edited it manually to add ellipsis to its array of things to un-replace. Why they don't let you turn the loathesome texturize behaviour off in the first place is a mystery to me. WordPress fail.)

¹ (Note for new readers and silly literalists: I don't really have a beef with Japan or the Japanese. I know next to nothing about Japan - except, naturally, for a good bit about Shinto and Buddhism, which goes with the job. No, my beef is with the good people of Wapan... who also know pretty little about the Japanese, but that doesn't stop them.)

² (Another note for new readers: I definitely do, however, have a beef with White Wolf. GTFO of my mythology.)

³ "This isn't kawaii AT ALL!"

I've done two of the three Christmas-pressie pictures I agreed to do. I'm not sure the recipient of the first has seen it yet (check your inbox, MissyRee!), so I won't show that one yet; so here's the second, drawn tonight.

This one needs a little explanation: it's from a sketch done by a friend, and it's a tattoo design, hence the stark blackness. In fact, I was influenced by the brushy/pennish/inky look that Anke does a lot of. All I did was draw out my friend's design while tweaking the lines a little to try to get the effect he wants (sarky demon. The best kind), which is why it's not signed.

Ves's tattoo design (smaller than the version I sent him)

I call him Sinistral McLopsypants.

SMALL version of dad's birthday picture. The full thing is A4 sized at 300dpi, so absolutely massive on a screen.

Finished and sent to him at 23:58 last night, so still technically his birthday...

Right, he's seen it now so I can post this. He kinda seemed to like it, sort of. And told me about some other painting of her that she's just got in the last few weeks, that one by a friend from some museum.

By the way, you have about a day left to request a free cute animal or machine picture for Christmas, if you're so inclined.

If you are, the post about it was about 8 days ago. At least you can make the token effort to find and read it. ;)

Work Christmas lunch yesterday, at a place in Castlefield called The Ox. It was tasty, the place was not crowded and the service was good. Also, apple and melon J₂O is too delicious (albeit a bit too sweet) and should be banned.

So. BBC Backstage/GeekUp party on Saturday at the Pitcher and Piano in Deansgate Locks. A great deal of fun. I helped out with BBCish stuff for a few minutes, but I was really there as a guest and had a good time. There were drinks paid for by Cubic Garden (yay!) and food laid on by the Beeb. There was a Wii that a room full of geeks couldn't get working properly (oh how I LOLd) and a Skype/Twitter link-up to London, where the other Backstage bash was happening simultaneously.

We were also invaded by Santas in the form of a fancy dress charity pub crawl.

edit: Pictures here. I don't see any of me, thank dog.

So I hung out with GeekUpprs and had free non-alcohol cocktails (Apple Mint, MMMM) and life was good. I sneaked my GeekUp Secret Santa gift/s in and left them by the food, anticipating that this would get them found quickly. The main gift was a picture of the recipient being mauled by Gemma's polecat, which apparently really happened. I found the details in the GeekUp archives. (I do my research, you see.) I didn't go over and introduce myself, but I saw the picture being passed around to general amusement, along with the little rhyme I wrote for the tag. I had help laminating these beforehand, which was a wise precaution. Plastic-wrapped is good when alcohol and free food are flowing.

Speaking of free food, yes, the diet is on hold and I am back in the grip of Brute Hunger. :-/ Have already bounced back up to 80kg. I must carry on the rest of this week as though I'm still on the sachets/green veg regime, or, knowing too well the raging animal that's under my skin, I'll just balloon. And that would be shit. Very, very shit. Because, to be honest, I like being less fat. I like it a lot.

My Secret Santa also gave me my gift on Saturday night, anonymously delivered in a jiffy bag by one of the employees. It is a Diet Coke bottle top and a roll of Mentos. XD If you don't know what happens when you put Mentos in Diet Coke, YouTube it.

Also, my hair is now short again. A bit shorter than I'd intended, even. That doesn't matter. It'll grow back - all too fast, no doubt.

What else? Finishing off birthday present for father. Almost all other presents are done. It's just the ones coming from overseas that I've still to receive and wrap.

I read somewhere that happiness is contagious, so take this! Ker-pow, right in the kisser!

I now fit a 36 waist comfortably. (Even smaller, if I hadn't inherited my figure from my father's side.)

I have a beautifully-wrapped present on the desk next to me, ready to send to the Laaaaahndoners. It contains dark chocolate ginger (grandmother's fave) and something-coated crystallised pineapple from health food shop, plus slices of fruit cakes and some posh crisps from the posh bak'ry along Oxford Road, in a nest of shredded letters and bank statements for protection. Classy.

I'm acing work just now, dropping good ideas left right and centre and generally making pages nicer whenever I touch 'em.

I've made a good start on the thing for dad, found an absolutely perfect public domain photo I can use for reference for the back part, and I still have lots of time, including this weekend, to finish it.

Speaking of this weekend, Backstage/GeekUp party on Saturday. Then Multiplatform team christmas lunch on Monday and Religion team christmas lunch on Tuesday. Also, I might go along to the Drupal UG this Thursday... although I haven't played with my installation at all, not even upgraded to 6.

I've had two responses so far to my offer of free piccies. Sadly both from kitty lovers, but what can you do... ;)

Life is pretty good. And I've just remembered I forgot to take my meds this morning, so it isn't even the chemicals talking.

I just joined the GeekUp secret santa thingy. Much fun.

You can guess roughly what my gift's likely to be. It's a £5 suggested value and I typically spend 2+ hours on a piece of gift art, not counting the sneaky research I do beforehand, so it's great value for my victim recipient.

I'm a lot less comfortable with receiving presents than with giving, actually! I'm not sure why. I think my profile's clear enough: "I like daft things, gadgetty things and things pertaining to dogs, red pandas or pangolins. Home-made things like mix CDs are cool. Comestibles would need to be suitable for a veggie non-caffeine non-alcohol drinker."

I think I officially weigh less than I ever have in my adult life. My BMI is heading downwards and parts of me are shrinking. I think I'm also thinner than I managed on the last diet, judging by belt tightness, and although it's disheartening to realise that I'd gained girth in the interim even though my weight was holding constant, goshdarn it's good to need new trousers again. I also don't have any of the horrible mystery symptoms I had after coming off the diet last time, which suggests either that eating green veg and popping B12 this time around is being helpful for my health or that those symptoms weren't connected to the diet in the first place.

In other random news, I have discovered the joys of microwaveable wheat bags, which I like much more than microwaveable gel packs—although my feet have their own appreciation of the latter. The recent weather hasn't been as cold as that two-day freeze snap at the beginning of December. It's mainly grey and drizzly. Over the weekend I caught some winter sun for my solar-charged watch and then put it under a full-spectrum bulb for the evening, with the result that it's back on high battery instead of medium. I miss having a large windowsill at work that caught the afternoon sun!

Tonight I hope to get the last of my Xmas shopping done, along with the bulk of the remaining wrapping, provided that I can find some non-horrible paper (I'm thinking gold and green this year, but not holly, because I use the same paper for birthdays too. Abstract stripes or squares are far nicer anyway).

I will be spending every evening this week fighting my recalcitrant Graphire III to get somebody's present finished off, and then, providing some things I've ordered online get here in time, I'll have Christmas done, dusted and wrapped. How disgustingly organised!

So, to celebrate this, here's an offer. Would you like a picture from me for Christmas? Ask me before... let's say the 18th December 2008, British time for the sake of argument, and I'll give it a shot. I will draw anything you like, as long as it's either a non-humanoid animal or a machine. It will be a quick picture—probably something like this, which took me two and a half hours—and may or may not include background or props. Obviously, if it's not something for which I can find reference photos on the web, give me as much information as possible, preferably including picture links if you have any. Let me know if it's intended as a gift for someone else.

Terms and conditions: One picture per body. Open potentially to anyone. I'll show your picture off as I please afterwards. You can do whatever you want with it too, as long as you credit me as the artist. If a huge horde of randomers starts asking me for stuff, I'll give priority to the people I know. I'll do my best to make good on this offer but no guarantees. I'm doing this for fun and generosity, so don't abuse the spirit of the offer.

Because I can't resist it when someone mentions Anubis. Another for the Jack forum art exchange.

Treads-the-Path (800×453, 95KB)

I took "treads the path" literally (Deed name? White Wolf does NOT exist in my world.) and wondered what sort of 'path' an Egyptian werewolf might tread...

I'm growing to like Photobucket's tagging. It lets you add URLs.

Featuring Green, a dragon.

Reclining Green (800×600, 133KB)

For reference, her body (disregarding the neck, etc) is as big as this bullock.

(Oh, and the dog isn't a self-insert. That would be an Irish Wolfhound up to trouble. This is a spaniel cross.)

These are NOT final, but are approaching how he should look.

Weft sketches #1 with shading, trying to show how steeply his face narrows, going from the back to the front. I'm finding it impossible to get the sharp corners, the width (at the back) AND the femininity into his chin/jaw all at once.

Ideally he should look older and more battered. His middle-agedness is mostly visible in the skin texture because his species doesn't wrinkle much, meaning it's hellish to portray. I can't go for jowls because he's kept thin and very fit. I suppose I'll probably cheat by adding small wrinkles as well as sink the eyes in and go for general hangdog (well, hangkitty) demeanour. I don't know. Ideas welcomed!

Note to self: their skulls are SO wide that the "neck as wide as head" thing really can't apply here. Make it narrower; about as wide as the skull'd be if it didn't expand after birth?

Sketching this evening.

Weft eye reference (current as of today's date)
800×600, 94KB

I'm the very last person who should be trying to draw inhuman faces, because I am congenitally, clinically, registered disabilityishly unaware of what a human face looks like. ;) Weft's features are meant to look both feminine and alien. Have I hit those? Feedback welcomed.

He has huge eyes and an extremely wide skull. He's both angular and feminine. It gives actual artists trouble, so no wonder I've never managed to set him down to my satisfaction. Getting closer, maybe...

(Thanks are due to Angelina Jolie's makeup artist and a bunch of cats on Flickr.)

Google has a bunch of LIFE Magazine photographs, including these handsome pangolin shots.

As far as I can tell, they're just for prettyness; I can't see any licensing information or usage terms.

The character sketch I've owed a mate at work for a while. Warning: is human.

He's meant to be 40–50 (Agincourt era, so I went for the upper end of the range), and he had to be bearded.

1.5 hours and done. Easy. I needn't have been so scared of this, after all. From photo references, of course!

edit: Mon 12:34 The recipient really likes it. Woo!