Why - hello there <3

   I'm here to dust off this blog and show you the way to something that will be keeping me occupied during November. It's called "NaNoWriMo" - which is a month long novel writing initiative where I'm crazy enough to challenge myself to write 50,000 words. In one month. And, no, I have NOT gotten into Mother's sherry.

  http://www.tumblr.com/blog/stephskilescreations  -  My tumblr blog and the home to my daily .. tri-weekly .. updates. The story - a coming of age story about a pair of siblings who discover that there are timelines outside of their own. Drama ensues and lives are in danger - and, all in all, it'll be a fun read (and a fun month!) So - please - JOIN ME as I dive down this muddy rabbit hole into madness.

 "They cared for me during the dark times. Never questioned me, never judged me. They were just... kind. I owe them. I have a duty."

       ~The Doctor, The Name of the Doctor - Doctor Who Season 7

Walk of Life

Attention! Something important!

....

Listening to some classic Billie Piper ^_^ So excited for the 50th Doctor Who special!!

....

You may now return to your regular life.

That is all. 

One More Time ... With Feeling.

 And now for something about my art ...

  For those of you that follow my art, I'm currently (well - about to) look into other ways of promoting my art. As much as I love creating these fun pieces of art - Momma needs money. I have a cat to feed and studen loans to pay off. And, frankly, that's not happening. Along with the issue I addressed in my previous blog post, I also have the inability to imagine things taking a long time. As my friends - if I say I'll be there at 5:30 ... it will be more like 5:45. I get up in the morning thinking, "Surely, I can get ready in an hour!" Uh - no, you idiot. You can't. You know why - because you insist on having the t.v. on while getting ready. Oh, and you mess too much with your hair. Me: "B-but ... I have to have something on to put me in a good mood for the day. And .. my hair's a mess - even after spending 20 minutes on it." EXACTLY. Oh, and you have a pixie cut! IT SHOULDN'T TAKE THAT LONG!

  ....
 
  You get the point ... hopefully. So, I started offering my art online as a way to make some much needed money down the road. So far, that's not happening. Really - AT ALL. So, I'm scoping the landscape (while I'm flying - see previous post) and checking out other ways to get this baby going. I don't doubt my work - I just doubt my marketing abilities. I also don't doubt selling work online. It's more accessible and potentially successful than any gallery stuff I could do here in West Virginia. I believe this can work - I just have to figure out how. I'm considering doing a small "con" next year and possibly getting some of my digital work printed and matted for potential selling. I'm also going to look into possibly finding some illustration work online ... somewhere. I possibly have a couple of murals in the works ...

  And that, friends, is where I stand. So, please excuse the construction, per say, as I experiment with different sites and ways of posting. Also, of course, any suggestions from my lovely friends and fans is always appreciated. ^_^ Sites I can visit, convention advice, ways I can promote .. I'm really open to anything - besides selling myself or making packs with any glowey, "I'm going to eat your soul" beings. I really do love doing the art I do - stuff fueled with cultural and geeky refrences - and want to keep doing it. I just need to find some way to make it semi-profitable.

  And, I swear, this blog will begin is normal, geeky broadcast possibly as soon as tomorrow. Promise ;)

  Stay shiny,
     -Steph <3 <3

My Fly-About

  I've recently let a lot of things go ...

  Not that I'm slacking. Quite the contrary. I've just been focusing myself on other aspects of my being. While I desperately need a better paying job, instead of job searching - I've been doing illustrations for ... myself, basically. Well, they were created because I was inspired and I thought they would sell in some form, right? Wrong. I'm proud of my work, don't get me wrong - just flabbergasted at how hard it is to sell a piece of art. Instead of writing for this blog, I've been writing in general. Stories, you know. I have a couple in the works that I hope to, some day out in the horizon, turn into bonafide novels. Instead of working on more stuff for my storyboarding portfolio, I've been, well, doing everything I just mentioned.

  I often look at myself, now, and say "Giving up again, are we? Repeating your mistakes of 7 years ago, yes?" (7 years ago being when I graduated from art college and decided not to touch a paintbrush or drawing pencil for 3 years. Chyeah, I know.) I have a very strong and powerful fight or flight syndrome. I will fight for something until I'm literally sick of it. And in that sickness, if I don't look back and see some sort of accomplishment, I run to something else. "Surely this will be what takes me to the next stage of life!" I cry, as I jump from animation to storyboarding, wanting to be an artist to not wanting anything to do with an art career, painting back to storyboarding, and storyboarding to illustration and writing. I even do this with smaller aspects of my life - like eating salads for months and then decide that I don't want salads anymore because I haven't lost 20 pounds while eating them.

  So, here I am, blogging when I should be job searching. Thinking of the story I'm writing when I should be doing storyboards - because, that's what I want to do, right? Move to San Francisco and work as a storyboard artist for Pixar or Dreamworks? Right?!

  I'm ... not so sure.

  And that should freak me out - but, most of the time, I find an odd kind of peace with it. My future is open and I could do a myriad of things, and if I'm open to that - then that's okay. It doesn't mean that I've given up on becoming a storyboarder in California or even an artist that's well respected through my home state. It means that if life takes me in another direction that what I dreamed (I mean, we ALL can't work at Pixar, right? There are limitations to how many story artists they have on staff, I'm sure), that I can live with that and possibly be the better for it.

  This post turned into something completely different than what I had planned when I hit "New Blog Entry" on my browser, but - there it is. So, please excuse me if I miss days (weeks .. sorry ..) of blogging or, if you know that I applied for 6 months straight to storyboard positions everywhere, if you ask me "So, have you heard anything yet?" and I reply "Well, I haven't really applied anywhere in a while ..." Because, right now, I'm out flying around the landscape. It may be a short flight or a long one. I may come back to where I was, I may migrate to another land for a season, or I may move to a different climate all together. Just know that wherever I'm flying or wherever I land - that I'm happy, for the most part.

   And also remember that I'm only 29 ... and that I still have a good twenty more years to figure this stuff out.

   Thank you <3 <3