Ramblings of the Reymonkey

A day late, and the make up was a little shoddier on actual Halloween because I didn’t have much time after work. Used some hair gel that turned my hair into a solid hard helmet-y mass, but at least it washed out easy. Finally got the spine plackets on the vestback, made a fake pocket square, and fixed the hatband on my new hat. Then we all just hung around watching Silent Hill and gave out candy to the total of three groups that came to the door. Anyways, our new roomies have a proper Halloween cat and he hung out with us.

Now that my Spine costume is totally complete, I have nothing to do while wearing it.

( Photos under the cut... )

Had a pretty awesome birthday, and spent most of the day at the Celtic Festival. I didn't go do the full medieval garb and carry my sword this year, but I did encounter a swordmaker from North Carolina who I want to keep in mind... for someday when I'm rich. Beautiful work though, just breathtaking. What also amuses me is I came home and brought up his website, www.scotiametalwork.com and his ancestral home is Eileen Donan castle, which is the one used in all the Highlander films. He had some nice basket hilt swords, and he custom makes them, which is kind of what I'm left handed, which means ordinary basket hilt weapons are made backwards for me. There's a few out there that can kind of be used either hand, but not the nice ones.
Anyways, it was a good day, I got to do some fencing, and found out I'm really out of shape for it now. :P While we were waiting in line for it, there was a little kid maybe two or three years old who got to fence (The foils are not sharp, and they wear masks), and he was... enthusiastic. We almost got hit ourselves a few times, standing outside the ropes, because he'd back up and swing the foil over his shoulder and take a running charge yelling 'hi-yah!'His name was Charlie, which we know because his father o the sidelines was yelling helpful things, like to be careful how he waved it around near the ropes, and to shake hands with the man and thank him after. It was very cute. But man that kid was spunky. Then later, when I was fencing, they came back. I distinctly heard the man running the fencing thing groaning quietly, 'Oh no, not Charlie again...' LOL Poor guy. I have to admire him for letting kids beat him up with a fencing foil all day.
We had the foster girl with us, who also fenced and proclaimed I'd already shown her how, because I gave her a few pointers on how to hold a broadsword when she was looking at my sword collection, months ago. I tried to explain it wasn't the same thing...
There were also some troubadours and I made the mistake of mentioning Bridgie and I used to sing in the choir, and they made us sing with them. ;)
( A few pictures )
More pics on my facebook.

Things with my grandmother are... painful, and slow. We've had a heart attack scare that turned out to not actually be a heart attack. The hospital patches her up, sends her back to their nursing facility, who effs things up, and then she ends up back in the hospital again. This has happened several times. Every time I start to breathe again, I get another crisis phone call. She's dying by inches, and it's painful on her and family. Not much I can do...

Trying to keep up with here, but obviously I fell down on the sketch a day postings. I haven't been sketching as much as I meant to, but that doesn't mean I haven't been drawing at all. Life's just been busy. The router is a dream come true though, now that it's up and running. How did we live so long with only one comp online? Froggy got spayed last week, they told us to let her take it easy a few days, and by the next day she was trying to get us to play fetch and jumping on Squeaks and trying to climb things. I'm not sure she even realizes by now that anything happened, cat memory is short and she's sure not paying any attention to the stitches.

Under the cut below is the commission for mephron which I intended to spend today inking. I started that last night and got most of the background done, but then I spent the first half of today in bed with a terrible headache, and I've spent the afternoon catching up on stuff on DA and whatnot. My head's still feeling pretty funky. It's this damn allergy, and I know what it's an allergy to, and I just don't know what to do about it. It's not fair to complain, but it's not really fair either that I have to spend most of the next day recovering when I spend any significant amount of time with the in-laws... I seem to be okay going over there for dinner, but last night I ended up watching an episode of Bones in the back room with Bridgie's mother, and that was just asking for trouble I guess. I like her, I just can't take the smoke.

Anyways, a couple of sketches... ( Read more... )

That's all I've got for now. That and a poke with a stick to people who haven't done the meme I tagged for...

So the funeral derailed life a little, and I took a break, but sketching again. This is my OC Chaz Walters for RP with The Shadow. She's so 80's!
( In His Shadow )

This is a cheat, but I think I mentioned a collaborative comic project with Bridgie's NaNoWriMo story. She did the pencils, here, and I did the inks, but give me a break, inking takes time!
( cover pencils and inks )

I'll try to do real sketching tomorrow.

This is from placeboweek and if anyone else wants questions, post here and I'll try to come up with something.

1. Any big art projects planned for this year?
Apart from this sketch a day thing? Because that's big. As art-oriented as I am, I'm very bad at just sketching. I draw nearly everything with a finished work in mind. This is because I have a catalogue of finished artwork that sits in my head, all the time. Some of these images of finished pieces have been in my head for more than ten years. Not many, but a few. I know what medium they need to be, and I do not forget them ever. I've never tried counting how many are in the list, because it might scare me into gibbering in a corner somewhere eating pencils. Soooo... the sketch a day thing, at the least, and I'm always whittling away at that list in my head.
But! Bridgie is converting her NaNovel into comic book format and storyboarding it, and we're intending for me to do the art, so we'll see if that flies. That would be big. I'm supposed to set up the website for it too. I'll keep you guys posted.
2. What's your favorite restaurant?
I'm pretty simple, Arby's and Subway are good everyday type favorites. There is this amazing Japanese place I haven't been to in forever though. It's hibachi on one side, and sushi on the other, and expensive on both sides. Plus you really need a good group for hibachi.
3. Who is your favorite Whose Line Is It Anyway? cast member?
I've always really liked Ryan Stiles, or maybe it's just that it cracks me up that he looks a little like Shad, but what I really like is Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie together because they have this unspoken communication that makes things really work, and makes it all the funnier when it misses. (Aaaaaaa tern? An arctic tern?) So does the two-headed monster of comedy work?
I used to want to be a comedian, from as young as I can remember to about the beginning of high school, so I tend to really analyze performances and why they work or don't.
4. What animal would you consider getting as a pet (aside from the ones you already have)?
We're down to just cats at the moment, as my fishtank is sitting upstairs empty of all but gravel and piratical decorations. I keep meaning to get it running again and maybe try cichlids. I think oscars look neat. We've talked about maybe getting a ball python someday. I like snakes and lizards and always wanted one as a kid, but after having a boyfriend with a Savannah Monitor lizard I've decided if I ever have a lizard it has to be a vegetarian kind like a beardie or iguana. I don't mind the live feeding in the least, that's cool to watch, but it's so damn expensive. You either have to always be buying feeders, or have a breeding pit, and then that can attract pests. Too much trouble. I guess that doesn't bode well for the ball python idea either.
5. Who would win in the following fight: pirates vs. monkeys
Oh man! That's a tough one... are the monkeys ninjas? Because one of the pictures on the mental list is of ninja monkeys.
I'd have to say if we're going for realism, probably the monkeys because they're more agile and squirrelly and faster. It's hard to catch this little scrambling thing if you're reeling around on a peg leg with only one eye or something, too. ;D

( and on to the sketch of the day... )

That's all I got for today...

Not such a great start for the sketch project, since I didn't post any art yesterday. Just for that I'll do a twofer. It's hard pushing myself to this though, I just hit a brick wall on the one I was working on. Argh. Anyway!

( arts )

Thanks to all those who wished me happy birthday! We've been major busy lately, which is part of why I haven't posted much. When I say busy, I'm talking about chauffeuring a friend's teenager to and from school and getting him fed, and sleeping over at their house, which meant I had no computer access. Also chauffeuring Bridgie to and from different classes and seeing a helpful 'free therapist' who turned out to be an annoyed doctor who told me, and I quite, 'you've been unemployed. You should be depressed.' and then stood there giving me this look of 'what do you want me to do about it?' Then she, and this should come as no surprise, wrote me a prescription for pills that make me feel like a zombie much of the day, which is really great when I spend my days driving other people all the heck over the place.

But hey! Speaking of zombies! We did have a good time on my birthday! Literally the day before, we found out Richmond has a zombie walk. This is the fifth one, and I'm not sure how we never heard of it until now. Next year I want to be in it. It. Was. Awesome.
I took a lot of photos.
The fun thing about zombies, you see, is that they're not just the walking dead, they're often the walking dead with a theme! There are some damn creative people in this town.

( Cut for a bajillion photos of awesome. )

The very start of the parade was heralded by one guy with a couple minor injuries, stagger-running up the street yelling to us to run because there were zombies coming. Next came a bloodied guy with a lead pipe, and a couple of resistance fighters with loud capguns. We followed after the end of the parade (They were easy to follow, because they literally left a trail of bloody footprints and sometimes bits of intestine/skin on the sidewalk), and at about the halfway point were protesters with signs like 'we are not a snack. I got my best photos when we ended up against a light pole at a crosswalk. Here the zombie crowd would get stopped up and have to wait for the lights to change, while groaning things like 'traaafffiiiiic!' and 'Doooon't waaaaalk!' There was another guy beside me with a camera, so a lot of zombies helpfully posed for us both while waiting to cross the street.
Next year, I'm doing the zombie walk.

Feeling a little better this afternoon, partly because the appointment we had this evening got moved. I also just got Squeaks back from the vet, and not only did she NOT have an abscessed tooth, but they also way overestimated the bill when they showed it to me this morning. First it looked like it was going to cost $50 more than the original 'highest' estimate, and then this afternoon when I picked her up, they told me it cost several hundred less. The vet came out and talked to me a while, and said there was major plaque and tartar and gingivitis, huge chunks, but then the teeth underneath were solid. She's got a clean bill of health and we talked about her 'geriatric senior' status, and how siamese mixes tend to live longer. She said Squeaks didn't even take anesthesia like a senior cat, and woke up feisty. The care sheet said she might have little appetite tonight and not to worry. When I let her out of the carrier, she immediately went to where her food bowl sits and demanded to be fed right the hell then and there. She's got a nice little shaved spot on her leg from the IV, but otherwise you wouldn't know she's been to the vet.

Color me relieved. To make things better, the recycling people have heard through Bridgie's dad about the finances situation, and are rushing my payment process. This is awesome of them, and more than I expected. The other bright shiny moment of the day is I got the printed copies of the coloring book today. I'll try to sort 'em all out and send off copies this weekend.

( The bleh... )

Edited for cute happies. ( Have some Froggy photos. )