Battlecry Wolf turns 30

I have improved at drawing wolves.
Of course, an online step-by-step tutorial helped...

Locke and her mongoose

8x8 journal page for the artist known as Locke, of her character, Locke. Now, Locke has an interesting history that I shall not go into, except to say that I have no idea if I coloured her tail the right colour and the mongoose is mainly here because Locke, the artist, designed this rather cute critter and I wanted to include it. Also, after drawing the sketchwork I realised that Locke looked rather young, but I was too happy with how she looked to change that, and decided that this is young Locke, playing with her weapon, which my husband says looks like a klingon weapon. I have no idea, but it was one of the sample images that Locke (the artist) showed me.

Anyhow, observe, my plan to draw more humans.
Because practise makes better...

The Enchanted Forest - Inked Stage

At present I am hosting a swap with the theme "The Enchanted Forest". Now, it has become traditional for me to send out additional cards to players, particularly those that send a bonus hostess card for me. This means generally for swaps I host I shall create around a dozen cards. Not usually too much problem, but this theme had foxed me a bit - especially coupled with the fact that I am rather enjoying working on larger pieces this year.

And thus I decided to create 9 cards as parts of a single image:

The black lines are not currently a part of the image, but do show approximately where the outlines of each card will be. From looking at this, I think the bat one needs something to balance it on the bottom right, and thus will remedy that.

Now, for the story behind this piece...
Well, there isn't one, not really - but ages and ages ago I particupated in a swap entitled "the Deep Dark Woods" which was an awesome theme but rather spoiled for me by the fact that the Host never sent out returns and therefore must have kept all the cards. Anyhow, for that I created a series of images - a witch's house, a giant spider, a strange gliding creature and some giant sundews. Some of these images were inspired by those cards, although the gliding creature has been replaced with a pair of grimalkyn. Which is interesting, because I thought my Grim was unique in his world. Oh well! Not sure what the deerlike creature is. Or the lizard-gryphon.

If anyone wishes to make up a story about a little anthro-mouse that lives in a gingerbread house and has befriened all the wild animals (including giant katydids), please let me know.

I shall post more up here as I begin colouring it.

Victorian Wolf

Designed for a Mad Hatter's/Victorian Tea Party.

Art Dump

It's been a while since I updated - but that does not necessarily mean I've been slack with the artistry. Although, admittedly, I have a bit! This is not so much a "daily art blog" as a "every few day's art blog". Anyhow, in between baking muffins for my co-workers, spending time with my husband and the extended family and working, I have achieved a bit of art. Most of it for the Pick-a-theme that finishes now in the middle of January - yay for extensions!

This one called for two Goddesses - the Goddess of the Moon and the Goddess of Fortune:

A tree:


And the theme Gypsy/Bohemian. since the last was for Icekat, who has a number of feline furry characters anyhow, Idid not think she'd mind if I drew Titus, with a wig on, in a gypsy costume.
Okay, so he maybe does look a wee bit too girly.


And lastly - a guitar:

In praise of Kindle... and a few more Furries

Two saturdays ago, my husband decided to go out and do a little shopping. I said to him: "bring me back something nice." He asked, "what would you like?" and I cannot remember what I answered, but I was thinking - like a chocolate chai, or maybe a bit of cake or something. So, imagine my surprise when he walks in an hour or so later and says "here, I bought you a kindle." We had been discussing ebooks for a while, and I had specified an interest in receiving one for Christmas. So, I guess Christmas came early (and I now have to get an extra special present for him ^^).

Anyway, after downloading several self-published works and playing around with it for a bit, I decided to transfer my stories onto it. I haven't got them in mobi form - well, only one, the one that you can buy from Amazon, the others I translated into pdf and transferred across. And began reading them. I was a short way in when I realised there is something really nifty you can do with the kindle 3g - you can add footnotes. So, I began editting my story as I read it. This is an excellent use for a kindle - because I have difficulty reading my stories on the computer - too many distractions for a start, and I hate the idea of using so much paper to print it out. So, now I've highlighted all the errors (over 100 in all) and can go through and fix them up.

I have discovered one problem with my Kindle though. When walking and reading, I pay less attention to what is going on around me than when I read a normal book - I think because I don't have to worry about the pages flapping in the wind, or phyiscally turn the pages. And therefore I am more likely to get run over - or given that this is Christchurch, trip over on a broken piece of footpath and hurt myself.

Anyhow, to all of you writers, I highly recommend a Kindle - you can't edit directly on it - but you can mark the errors you find, and even "share" them (whether this emails to you or puts it on Facebook, I don't know - I haven't played with that yet).

This means that "Lemurs: A Saga"* will eventually be available on Ebook.

And now for some art:

Daniel Galbraith, Teknomage and musician. Abigail's father. Here in the Galbraith Clan colours.


Kataryna Lemusu, Abigail's mother. She died before Abigail was conceived. It's a long story (and one which is partly written and online, here although you don't get the good bits, cos I never got that far, sorry).


Aeturnis Christie, a female mage with a powerful singing voice.

Jacques Moufette, Scavenger and apparently swashbuckling. Although I cannot recall whether he actually swashed any buckles in the story. Still, he makes a handsome swordsman. If you like 'em furry and potentially smelly...

* title suggestions welcome, puns encouraged. I've so far contemplated "Lore of the Ringtails" and have been referring to it as "Epic Lemur Novel" but have decided that "Lemurs: A Saga" has a good ring to it. OR maybe a good ringtail to it. I'll shut up now.

Scavengers of the Deadlands

In 2003, I participated in NaNoWriMo and wrote a novel entitled "Scavengers of the Deadlands". I "won" NaNo, and went on to write 95,000 words before stopping about 5,000 words before the end. I do not know why. The story had problems, but I just kind of abandoned it.

I feel bad about this.

Anyhow, the characters have stuck with me, and when the theme "Aristocratic Animal People" came up in AFA, I decided it was time to reinvent them. Coupling this with my recent interest in Steampunk, I decided upon a Victorian theme for their attire.

So here are four of the cast:

This unusual looking lass is Abigail Delilah Galbraith. She is the daughter of Daniel Galbraith and Kataryna Lemusu, my original Furry pairing. This means that she is in fact a lemur/wolf. Following in her father's footsteps, she became a student at Tirra Inle, University of Magick. Until she was captured by pirate slavers.

And this is Kameryn Grey. He's a grey/bat-eared fox hybrid. He was taken as a slave at the age of 8 and acquired by Captain Morgan - wherein he became a Scavenger. It is his job to explore the desolate deadlands in search of relics of the lost civilization, which are then sold to collectors.

Captain James Morgan is the captain of the pirate ship, Sanguine Star, which deal in artifacts and also in slaves. He is a tiger with the golden tabby colouration.

Luka is a numbat, with no known surname. She was raised in an Orphanage until she caused trouble, wherein she fell in with the wrong crowd. When they dissolved, she roamed alone until Captain Morgan found her and took her on as his mistress. She is a pyromaniac and somewhat crazy.

I think the fact that I have hardly drawn at all in the last month has actually improved my art, and these are certainly the best furries I have drawn in... well, maybe ever.

Now to ressurect this story.

The Furrae Tarot

This Set was completed in 2009. Seventy-seven cards in total.

Major Arcana
will compile into one image soon

Minor Arcana
The Cups

The Wands

The Swords

The Pentacles

A Moovallous ATC

But not really, just because I like puns.
Yes, I know. I'm sick.

Here's my rendition of Ship-wreck's fursona:

I hope she likes her, she's not so good at responding to emails...

Lemur Antoinette

Because we haven't had any art up here for a while, here's a "Marie Antoinette" ATC I rustled up for Amerasu.

Furry Bard ATCs

Well... I am too exhausted to write tonight, and thus my wordcount remains unchanged from last night. Today was spent instead drawing. I thought I'd share with you a couple of my recent ATCs. I'm not making as many ATCs anymore, since I prefer the size of postcards. But as I'm still active in some of the online swaps, I've got to come through with those.

These two are for the themes : A dog in Shakespearean clothing and a cat in Mediavel garb. I elected to ressurect two of the minor characters of my Furritasia stories/world.

I would like to introduce you to:

Julius Lowe is the vocalist of the folk-doom-metal band Aeternity. His species is Lycaon, aka African Wild dog.

Dimitri is a pallas cat tinker-bard who travels the countryside in his little covered wagon. His companions are a magpie-jay called "Rumour" and a llama called "Babe".

Art Dump

I have had issues with my recent pieces. Both a combination of lack-of-inspiration and lack-of-skill at the particular subject.

So here we have, first off, my rendition of Kuchiki Byakuya, a character from Bleach. Drawn for a lass in Macedonia whom I hope likes him despite the fact that I can't draw anime to save myself:

Although I do feel that for a human character, I didn't do too terrible a job. It's a bit... blah, however.

Now for another couple of blah pieces. I'm not sure if it is because I've drawn these characters on several occasions already or because I overdid the furry thing back in the early part of this century, but being required to draw not one but two seperate anthro felines failed to inspire me. I hope it doesn't show too much in the pieces, although it possibly explains why they are quite similar in pose:

Misty Kitty is taking the stage in "Rock Idol" - a fictional Reality TV show and Icekat with his overindulgence of piercings is enjoying a chocolate milkshake.

And finally, a piece I did some time ago but forgot to upload:

This is Sniff, Sniff was an (anamatronic) Alsatian dog that used to appear on television with his human, Constable Keith. Together, they would teach us children about such things as Stranger Danger and Not to Play with Fire and otherwise keep ourselves safe. This particular card was made for a wee lass in Sri Lanka. Her father was supposed to be sending me a photo of their dog (so I could draw it), but never did, however I managed to get a description of her - and decided Sniff looked enough like her to engage the daughter's attention. She liked it ^^ I got a sweet note back via her father.