Yeah ok, it's been a while. The whole tooth thing took a whole month before I was able to eat on that side of my mouth again. The gums are still sensitive where the tooth used to be, and now the teeth on the other side of my mouth are starting to act up. What's new. If there is a divine creator, I think he/she really messed up on the whole tooth thing. They just don't work. They have no staying power and they're way too painful.

So what's been up in the past month? Work has picked up a little, thank goodness. I was starting to get behind on my bills again and I HATE that. Can you believe it's almost been a year since I started working? And I still sit here and wonder how I got so lucky. I really do love my job. I can sleep until late afternoon, work when I want, and my boss is totally cool with it. I still owe you, Erin.

Last week my neice Brandi came to stay with my parents for a week, since she's on vacation from college. My sister apparently wanted Brandi out of her hair for a while. She lasted exactly 5 days at Mom's before Mom called Shari and said "We're bringing her back early". My parents couldn't take it, they're just getting too old. Brandi is the neice with aspergers syndrome (autistic). She's 21, but she acts like 10. In many ways she's really confusing to me. She goes to college and she gets good grades, but at the same time she can't drive a car, she's delusional (always says she's related to royalty, she's NOT), and she'll never be able to live alone. She can't even cross the street alone because it "upsets" her. We're starting to think she won't be able to hold a job either. I feel so bad because she gets shuffled around in our family and no one really wants her with them for a long time. She has personality quirks that just drive you nuts. Like she'll just stand over you while you're at the computer and make comments about what you're doing, then just continue to stand there and watch you. She argues with you about everything. You can't talk realistically with her because she's not grounded in reality. She'll say things like she's gonna be a famous actress and live in LA, and if you question her on how she plans to do that, she'll just insist it will happen. She talks and talks and talks and my parents are just too old to put up with her. When they told her they were bringing her back a few days early she started to cry and locked herself in the bedroom, then refused to talk to them for the rest of the day. I just feel so bad for her, and I worry what her future will hold. Apparently when she got home today, my sister Shari told her that she wouldn't be going back to college because there's no reason for her to, she'll never hold a job, and they don't have the money to pay for it anyways. Brandi got on the phone to my parents crying about it. That just breaks my heart. But at the same time I don't want her living here with me and Deni. I have enough to take care of. Is that terrible of me?? What's gonna happen to her when my sister gets older?? Apparently Florida doesn't consider Asperger's to be a handicap so she can't get disability. What she really needs is to live in some kind of assisted living place where there are other people like her, but my sister says she can't find anything like that. ::sigh::

Saturday is Deni's birthday and I got her an iPod touch. She loves it, she's even named it "Beloved". I'm glad I can make her happy with stuff, she deserves to be spoiled. Saturday we are having a small little get together for Deni and Andrew's birthdays. Andrew's is on the 21st and he'll be *5*. I can't believe he's growing up so fast. He's all boy, that one. All puppy dogs, video games, skinned knees, skateboards... he's so cute.

The people that were living next door to us, between my parents and my house moved out, and Heather, Chris, and the boy have moved in there. So now we're on all 3 lots... muuhahahaha. Soon we will own the whole street!! (err... dirt road...lol). The boy has discovered he can come over here anytime and he'll run over just to tell us this or that, then run back out again. He's getting so independent.

Project Runway starts next month and I'm so excited. I can stop my sneaking around cheating with the Fashion Show. It's a cheap knock off of Project Runway, but I've been going without, so to speak, so I have to get it somewhere! I hate how Kelly Rowland just sucks up to everything Mizrahi says, and I used to like Mizrahi, but I don't after seeing him on this show. Just something about his personality grates on my nerves.

Well this entry has been all over the place but hey, at least it's an entry.

Ta for now.

Ellen Million Graphics

Calendars, calendars - so very, very close to finished with the first! I want to get it uploaded this hour.

I think the Torn World post today will be excerpts from a story I scratched...

Nothing else of note...

Art and Authoring

Here is part one of some raven sketches I owed moonvoice.


They refused to stay still for long!

Home and Health

I wore my Superman shirt to work today and totally lived up to it. By noon, I had completely caught up, did some drafting that landed on my desk and updated all of the paid orders on the website and fixed some other stuff. I got the rest of the day and tomorrow off. HOOYEAH.

Planning

Sooooo close to finished with this calendar. Upload it, wire in a phone, movie with Jake tonight, and some yummy seafood, and tomorrow off from the dayjob! Yeah!

ETA: New phone jack now wired in! There was a bad moment involving 'page not found' where I was sure I had killed the Internet, but a reset of the modem and router fixed it!

I have been working on this pretty much all day with episodes of Futurama playing on my Mac while I paint on my Cintiq.


So here they are Jeepers and Creepers:


The original Creepers which was in fact the very first Purrsnickety


He was inspired by my cat Kahlua:


Three down 5 more of the original cast to go.

I have new art! Whoo! ^_^

After a two-month hiatus, I'm back to painting and I gotta admit I had a lot of fun with this one...I did her in two days and usually it takes me a week or so to finish a piece.

She was inspired by liam-stock's "Black Magic" contest on DeviantArt.



I love how she turned out - I've been wanting to do a painting with red and turquoise for a long time and I'm glad I got the chance to do it with this. She makes a kick-ass wallpaper! *grin*

Now to see if I can keep this arting steak up and move on to another painting. :)

Yesterday I finished painting Jeepers in my new painting. I like how he turned out and this is the look he will have in the graphic novel. Here is a before and after shot.


Original painting


Graphic novel re imagining


I hope to have Creepers complete some time tomorrow and then I will have to move them to the circus poster and do some photo manipulation. Everything should be done by Saturday.

I am pretty busy. My Macbook pro came yesterday and I need to set everything up on it as well as do some printing for Connecticon. I have orders to get together and a house to clean as we are getting a house guest from this evening until sometime Monday. Otakon is this weekend and friends are coming into town wanting to go out to dinner and the like. Johnnie and I want to do some things around the house and are going to be having steamed crabs Saturday. They are SO expensive this year this will be the first and only time for the summer I think. Which is OK by me.

Last night we went to See Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It was really good though some things were added and removed that I thought was kind of odd. The effects and everything were amazing and I think they just get better with every movie. Johnnie wants to go and see it again so we may. There are a few movies I would like to see in the theater coming up so we may not. I have really been looking forward to "9" for some time and can't wait for September.

I am getting ready to paint live in a few min for an hour or so, check it out : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ash-evans-painting-whimsy

Well, these are 5 of my many faves. Typing in "James Browne" didn't call up the artist, but the Godfather of Soul, or he would have been in this list. I love so many artists, who can pick only 5?

I have super not so fun headache from hell. :( I've been on 2k mg  of amoxicillin a day for the past 5 days and its not helping at ALL. This morning I was stumbling around the house like a drunk person, problem being there was no alcohol involved. :/

Back to the doctor tomorrow. Damn I'm expensive!!!!! I've been on antibiotics 6 out of the 7 months of this year we've had so far. :(

I think my lymph node is going to explode.

I'm going to go find some hot tea with honey while I go to help mummy to paint her kitchen today. Should be fun. I'm hoping to get back to my ghostly pinup soon though....


also... anyone here besides Gwynn and I heard of Yulecon? www.yulecon.com

Hi everyone!

Finally back home in Florida! It has been a BUSY summer. But luckily I am always painting no matter what state or country I am in! So tonight I have a new original painting - actually TWO new original paintings - FRAMED together and starting at one penny!

The new painting(s) are called "Sisters of Light and Dark" - two beautiful small portrait paintings of two sisters - one fair haired and one dark haired - despite their surface similarity, you can be sure that their personalities may be quite different..... Matt has popped these two together into one single "double window" Victorian frame - oval cutouts - looks phenomenal! These are ORIGINAL acrylic paintings on masonite panels (not prints!). The ornate wood frame really brings the two together. Of course you get both paintings together (as they're framed that way, lol). And guess what? Bidding starts at ONE PENNY with no reserve! "Sisters of Light and Dark" is up for a 7-day auction ending the evening of Wednesday, July 22nd at 7:14PM Central Time, and you can see the Sisters here:



Sisters of Light and Dark - ORIGINAL FRAMED - 13"x9"

To see all of my currently available original paintings, click below:

Jasmine's Original Paintings

Okay! New T-shirts! Also - I must add - Zazzle is currently running a free shipping promo anywhere on the planted with NO minimum. Just enter the code enter JUNESHIPFREE for free shipping anywhere on the planet, with no minimum order! ALL MY SHIRTS ARE AVAILABLE IN BABY SIZES UP TO 6X ADULTS! You can also select them in ANY style (such as hoodie, tanktop, t-shirt, baby onesie, etc.) and ANY colour - just be sure to click on the "Select a Different Shirt Style" link by the sizing options - customize it just how you like it! Again - this is true for ALL my shirts. Even if it shows an XS female wearing that painting on a black shirt, you can still go to "Select a Different Shirt Size" and get in in a size 6X Men's white T-Shirt, makes no difference.

To see all my shirts and other Zazzle stuff, visit my Zazzle store here

Or individually, some of my favourite new shirts....

Here is my new "Three Witchy Sisters" on Shirts

Now here is my "Still Life with a Mermaid" painting on a shirt! (I know, sounds like and odd choice but makes a great shirt!)

There are DOZENS of other T-shirts (again, all are available for all sizes & genders and ages in all colours!) - just go here and click on "T-Shirts" on the left hand navigational bar!

Enjoy!

Until next time...

-Jasmine

create custom t-shirts at Zazzle

Not because I'm not busy enough, but because when I set down an arbitrary date to start something, by GOD, I'd better make that arbitrary date:

One of the unique quirks about Torn World is that it offers the opportunity for isolated creature and cultural development, only recently brought together in our timeline. This means that we have the opportunity to create plants and animals that have adapted to very different climates and situations. We've got a big planet to populate, and we want to see your ideas!

Our first contest is: Torn World Flora Contest
Deadline: 15 August, 2009

This contest will serve several purposes! It collects entries for our contributors wiki, rewards exceptional work and will be a chance for interested contributors to weigh in on the plants that will become an important part of our world.

Torn World is a collaborative project. To that end, we are encouraging writing and artwork collaborative submissions. When a writer and an artist collaborate on an entry, if it wins in either the artwork or writing category, both collaborators get the complete prize package. Entries must be submitted as written entries accompanied by artwork, though it will be judged independently for writing and for artwork. Can't find an artist to illustrate your awesome idea? Ask here in the forums for a volunteer!

The prizes will be a papercraft copy of "Cloud on the Mountain" by Elizabeth Barrette and $5.00 in Torn World credits for artwork and an 8.5 x 11 inch print of "Bad Snowy" by Ellen Million and $5.00 in Torn World credits for writing.

All plants can be land or sea-based - Torn World has a large salt-water ocean that suffered the same time bubble affects that the dry land did. They can be based in any kind of climate that you stipulate, but their unique characteristics should reflect some kind of adaptation to their surroundings (particular features attract a particular kind of pollinator or keep grazers away, thick, leafless plants hold water in a desert, etc.). If we have not yet established the kind of climate you need, we can probably add it!

The winning entries will be shown publicly at the site as part of the background information, and will be featured in our networking updates.

All entries must be actual Torn World wiki entries, and to that end, must meet our usual submission requirements and quality standards. All entrants must be registered contributors at the Torn World site. All entries which are approved by Ellen will be added to our canon background material, and will be shown to our contributors as source material in our wiki, with proper attribution. Approved submissions will qualify the entrants as public contributors and allow them to collect credits at the site. All approved submissions will awarded 10 points of karma. (Each entrant will get 10 karma, in cases of collaboration.) Pieces which do are not accepted to the site will receive information about why they were rejected. The contributors will have the option of making edits and resubmitting them for canon after the contest is over.

Entries must contain the following information:

Common Name(s):
Description:
Habitat: (climate? range?)
Propagation: (seed? bulb? root spread? pollination requirements?)
Use: (edible? medicinal?)
Lore: (superstitions? 'royal' ties?)

Send this information in the body of an email to: contests@tornworld.net with the text in the body of the email and the artwork as a .jpg attachment in RBG format measuring 800 pixels on the long side. Use the subjectline: Torn World Flora Contest

Artwork can be any media. How weird can your submissions be? As odd as you can explain. Each weird feature needs an evolutionary reason to be there, and the plant as a whole must be functional. They may NOT incorporate features that violate established or implied laws of physics, biology, etc.

After the deadline, all work will be posted anonymously for registered contributors only. All entries are subject to private contributors-only comment (future contests may be reviewed only by the canon board, instead of by all contributors, but that board is not put together yet). For this contest, Ellen will be making all approvals to canon and awarding the final prizes.

Ellen and Ellen's immediate family are not permitted to enter this contest.

Questions, comments and requests for collaborators are welcome in reply to this post.

This time I got Dumbledore.  I downloaded one of the official WPs and tweaked it.  I wish they had one of Luna.


ACCIO MYSPACE!!!

Well, between the excitement of getting a puppy and the fun of getting a gaming laptop with Sims 3 and Oblivion, I just haven't been doing any art in the past couple of months. I have several pieces in various stages of completion, but as usual, I've passed all those by and started something brand new.

Liam-stock on Deviant Art is holding a Black Magic contest and she's got some great stock...I couldn't resist starting a painting for this contest. Here's a little sneak peak...



She's about 60% done and I hope to finish her this weekend. It'll be nice to have new art and maybe it'll help get me back in the groove! :)

Ellen Million Graphics

Got the ink for the thirsty printer, so I have a pile of orders to work on again. A serious pile. O.o

(No rest for the wicked, though - I'm behind at the dayjob and scrambling badly. Today's post is brief by necessity.)

Torn World Post will be on a housing of the snow unicorn riders.

Art and Authoring

Working on this piece right now:


My goal here was to imply a color without actually using any color. Success? Any critiques at this stage?

Home and Health

It's raining! Still wickedly smokey, and breathing is a chore, but yay, rain! It's not so horrendously, oppressively hot, at least.

Planning

Work, work, work. A major bad day at the office put serious clamps on my 'get it done' attitude yesterday and I'm way behind at work, on business, on emails, just everything. CATCH UP is my goal for the day.

So I have been working on more character designs for the website for my upcoming graphic novel. I am sure I am doing everything ass backwards in doing the site first and the graphic novel second but it seems to me that if you don't have a website these days you aren't worth much. I am doing the whole site myself for the first time in a long time. I have a very particular vision for it and I hope it all comes together. People who have seen the new Chitters are very excited about the novel and there are a lot of people interested in it. This could very well be a very big deal when all is said and done. No I am not abandoning my art for a career in comics unless like Stan Lee thinks I am a genius and they throw suitcases of money at me or something...

I have been painting this one live so it may not be new to you but it could be:


Jeepers and Creepers are brothers so they are together on their poster as jugglers. I will be working on this more today as Jeepers is almost done. I have a house guest coming tomorrow to stay with us for Otakon. I am NOT making an appearance at Otakon this year. I was not able to secure a table and the whole process is a total mess if you ask me. You have to keep an insanely close eye on when space opens up and I am WAY too busy to obsess about this one show. It always happens in May when I am doing other shows too. Better luck next year I guess.

So since I am having a guest I am spending a good bit of the day tiding up around the house. I just cleaned off my computer desk (I am a stacker deal with it) and I have a 17 lb cat napping on the clean glass. Living in a house with multiple people/kids/cats is an exercise in futility when it comes to tidiness. Add an artist and a frazzled engineer and just be lucky there isn't a taken apart engine in the livingroom and a half grouted mosaic in the kitchen.

I will be doing some more art soon I just wanted to get at least another Purrsnickety concept out before I did something else. This on is a two for one so I can feel less guilt about making something else. I am going to be experimenting in traditional mediums again soon and I have all sorts of things planned.

My laptop died and I had to buy a Macbook Pro, it should come today!! I am hoping to get it all set up in time for me to go to Harry Potter this evening. Johnnie got tickets online and I am really excited to go and see it though I know the ending of this one is going to be so sad!!

Because I want to pay off my Macbook ASAP I will be having some auctions and things of Original art and sketches later this week so stay tuned.

Have a good one everyone!!

For thesilverlight

A pin up i am working with at the moment..

( Walk right in, sit right down! )

We're home in Florida!

Been about a MONTH since we were here last. So much to do, yardwork/housework/utility bills to get caugh up on, etc.

Today also we're picking up a cat from the vet. "Tigrillo" we've been calling her - she's a feral cat that has lived in the alley behind our house for the past half year or so. A VERY emaciated (weighed in at 5 lbs for an adult cat!) silver tabby-like thing. We finally trapped her after a receiving a warning notification about a local rabid raccoon by our house. So about a month ago we took her in the trap to the vet to get spayed & vaccinated. Lo and behold (being a WILD feral cat) she bit a vet tech right BEFORE getting vaccinated and they had to keep her in Florida State Rabies Quarantine for the past few weeks. She's healthy though, and they've since spayed & de-wormed her, so now we're going to pick her up and take her home.

We're going to try to acclimate her for indoor living (as this area is NOT safe for outdoor cats - too many other wild animals, alligators, etc.) and try to tame her as an indoor cat. Our current cat (Mama Wolf) was also a feral rescue, as was our little Quan-Yin of years past. So we're used to little wildcats. Hopefully she won't be tooooo much more trouble (she's already racked up $1000s in vet bills and I've never even touched her or petted her once, lol), and maybe someday she'll be a sweetie like Quan-Yin was or Mama Wolf is today.

I'll keep you all updated!

I finally made a page for Lily. This is part of my Toyland website at: Toyland. Click the thumbnail to go to her page:

Lily