anarchemitis

As of today this DeviantArt account is no longer being used. If you were interested in my most recent works, it'll come back and you can google to find it. I hope you all have enjoyed my art and that it brings a little bit of joy into your lives. It certainly has brought joy to my life in creating it, and I am glad for all the ways in which My Little Pony has changed my life, and DeviantArt has facilitated my creative powers.

I lied in my last journal entry. There's lots of happy things to report on, but I guess I wasn't thinking about them. I've got a roof over my head, a comfortable bed, tasty food, and friends who are froods.

I'm still dabbling with some creative endeavors, but they're slow going. Looking back on some of my old content, it seems my crazily large creative ambitions haven't dissipated even since I was 12. Odd how things change, and at the same time things don't change.

So there's a reason why I've been exceptionally quiet over the past few months and will continue to do so in the coming months hence.

I've been enrolled at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and I'm pursuing an Engineering degree.
Since the workload amounts to approximately 50-60 hours of study every week, I will have no time for ponies or other like-art, as much as I would like to.

I want to say there's good news but I can't say I have anything really positive to report right now :/

Once again I've bee given the honor of being spotlighted/mentioned/something-or-othered by those fine fellows at Equestria Daily.
Jolly good. At this point I should probably make it clear that while I do like suggestions, I am not fond of requests. I know that's kind of weird, but the main reason is that I am extremely picky and usually annoyed with people's Original Characters. Call me paranoid. Or Ishmael.

So the main suggestions I liked which I received last month were "Moar Shining Armor and Cadence" and "Ship Princess Celestia with Shadowfax". I think I can guarantee at least one of those will happen some time in the near future. Feel free to suggest more things. Except shipping all the things.

Now I'd like to reply a bit to Equestria Daily: I am very thankful for their kind words in saying I make detailed things according to the show's style. The principle of this is because I want to pay homage to how the show inspired us all. The high level of detail also owes its existence to a quote I found, about the author Ernest Hemmingway:

If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.

The most important thing in a picture is the subject which it is trying to convey. An emotion? An action? A memory?
The most important things in the subject are the characters. What are their actions and reactions? How does what's happening make them feel?

I answer these questions as I make the pictures, thinking why each character is present and what they're supposed to symbolize, both in a 'factual' or physical sense, and in a metaphorical or subtextual way. This even comes to play in the number of characters in each scene, or how many objects are framing them, or what they're standing on. I don't talk about it because I know that if I did it right, people will 'feel' these things coming through the image, and not even need to express it. Feelings like New life, when in the Ultrasound picture, a small sprout peeks out of the loam in a window-side plant pot behind Cadence. Or how (in my headcanon) Trixie has befriended Twilight Sparkle, and this is evidenced by how they hang out together on the stands at the Sisterhooves Social.

There's also the zen-sort of feel that comes from making the art. I 'trace' my vectors using slapdash collages of character poses and expressions I want to use, and then color them properly. I do this with Photoshop, which makes object strokes quite easy, but means that I must manually draw a separate layer to taper or terminate loose tips. Why it's calming is because I try to do this with as few pen-tool control points as possible. You'd be amazed at how much of almost everything you see on these pictures is only made with 3- or 4-point vector objects.

Now in regards to subject matter, some people expand off in new directions and inflect their own genius or ideas into the mix. That's fine as long as no one is getting hurt, I suppose. Space, time, swords, crossovers and what-have-you. But I've never liked violence or inappro-pro romance because those things don't mix, in my mind. It's like making a chainsaw out of gummi-bears. It's funny for the first few minutes, but it loses its charm once you want to cut down a tree or pick the wood out of the candy so you can eat it. What I mean is I think the longevity of the gory or hanky-panky My Little Pony 'art' is extremely short. Even shorter than the fandom-contemporary state of My Little Pony art as it stands. Such flash-in-the-pan appeal isn't worth my time or attention, so I never bother with it.

I've been tagged twice by
And I ain't knowin' why

Rules: You can tell a lot about someone by the music they listen to.
Hit shuffle on your iPod/iTunes/media player and write the first ten songs.
Next pass it on to ten people!
(Note: I don't expect you to tag 10 people if you don't know that many.)

Alright. I'm not scared for the world to know my ear things.
1: Court Begins Blue Note Scale - Metamorphosis Jazz Band, Turnabout Jazz Soul
2: Sæglópur - Sigur Ros, Takk...
3: Graveyard - Ren & Stimpy Production Music Vol. 1
4: Bagetelle in A minor 'Fur Elise', Ludwig v. Beethoven
5: dixie by McMANGOS
6: Suite for Cello No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009 by J.S. Bach
7: Hayom Kadosh - Christopher Tin, Calling All Dawns
8: Run - Hillsong
9: The Journey Home - Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Ace Combat 5 Official Soundtrack
10: Farwell to Lorien - Howard Shore, Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

Well I guess that's a minor taste of my variety of interests.

Second tag:
How much am I worth?

Natural hair color:
[ ] Black - $100
[ ] Red - $75
[ ] Blonde - $50
[x] Brown - $15 
[ ] Other - $10

Eye Color:
[x] Green - $200
[ ] Hazel -$100
[ ] Blue - $50
[ ] Brown - $15
[ ] Other - $10

Height:
[ ] Over 7' - $200
[x] 6'8" to 7' - $175
[ ] 6'0" to 6'7" - $150
[ ] 5'5" to 5'11" - $75 
[ ] 4'9" to 5'4" - $50 
[ ] Under 4'9 - $105

Age:
[ ] 41 to 50 - $150
[ ] 31 to 40 - $100
[ ] 26 to 30 - $75
[x] 21 to 25 - $50
[ ] 19 to 20 - $25
[ ] 0 to 18 - $100

Birth Order:
[ ] Twins (or more) - $300 
[ ] Only Child - $250 
[ ] First Born - $300
[ ] Second Born - $150
[ ] Middle Child - $100
[ ] Last Born - $200
[x] Third Born - $100
[ ] Fourth Born - $100
[ ] Fifth Born - $375

Drink?:
[ ] No - $400 
[ ] Only holidays - $250
[x] Sometimes - $215 
[ ] YES - $200
[ ] Only weekends - $300
[ ] Every other day - $50
[ ] Once a day - $15
[ ] I live from the bottle - $10

Vision:
[ ] perfect vision - $300 
[ ] Have glasses/contacts but don't wear them - $200 
[ ] No correction - $100
[x] Glasses - $50 
[ ] Contacts - $50

Family's Car Color(s):
[ ] White - $2,000 
[ ] Maroon - $800
[ ] Gold - $700
[ ] Grey - $600 
[ ] Blue  - $900
[ ] Pink - $475
[ ] Black - $450 
[ ] Red - $400
[ ] Green- $350
[ ] Silver $300
[ ] Purple- $250
[ ] Metallic - $200
[ ] Yellow - $100
[ ] Primer - $75
[x] Tan- $20
[ ] Rusted - $15
[ ] No Car - $0

Shoe Size:
[x] Over 13 - $300
[ ] 12 1/2 to 13 - $250
[ ] 11 to 12 - $700
[ ] 10.5 - $650
[ ] 7 to 10 - $600 
[ ] Under 7 - $550

Favorite Colors: 
[x] Green - $750
[x] Black - $600 
[x] Red - $800 
[x] Yellow - $415
[x] Brown - $50
[x] Purple - $225 
[x] White - $400
[x] Aqua - $350
[x] Orange - $300
[x] Blue - $300 
[x] Pink - $100
[x] Other - $50

I find beauty in all colors. And you didn't say I had to choose only one!

Did you use a calculator to add it all up?:
[ ] Yes - $0
[ ] On Some - $120
[x] No - $1000

How many people are you going to tag?:
[ ] Over 61 - $250,000
[ ] 51 - 60 - $100,000
[ ] 41 - 50 - $50,000
[ ] 31 - 40 - $10,000
[ ] 21 - 30 - $5,000
[ ]11 - 20 - $1,000 
[x] 1 - 10 - $500 

Total: $6575

I tag anyone who reads this.