rearrangin' teh furniture

Hai thare. I will warn you up front: this post is gonna be HUGE, cuz I just cleaned my room and took pics of everything so you guys can see what it looks like when it's clean.

Gaaaaaaahh, these blasted pics show up in the WEIRDEST order. Anyhoo, here's the first thing you see when you enter my room (to the left.) I'm actually not allowed in that closet cuz Mommie keeps secret stuffs in thare, but I am allowed to stick posters on the door. Corkboards make me happeh. And don't even ask about the bunny in the apron and bonnet.

Moar corkboards, yayz! You probably recognize most of the art up there.

My dry-erase board just got updated with some fresh drawings from my finished sketchbook the other day. Just thought I'd share. And yeah, that is the complete piano score of Pooh's Grand Adventure I bought at Luyben's. Booyah.

The zoomed-out-ed-ness. That framed art on the wall there was not done by me. It was a prize I won in this writing contest I did ages ago. My story was good enough to have a scene illustrated by a proffesional children's picture book artist. So I own the characters in the painting (Gideon, Theo and the skinny robber), but not the painting itself.

Oh yess, I am quite enamored wid ze weighted keyboard. *huggles it*

Here are the bookshelves next to my desk. Yes, I know that one whole entire precious shelf is stuffed full of stuffed animals, but that's because I love those guys and there's nowhere else for them to live. Ten points if you can spot B.O.B. (Bartholomew Odiferous Blibbertythwidget) the Stuffed E. coli! A somewhat close-up of my desk, which is actually more of a dumping ground/art studio. Please 'scuse the mess.

And finally, the famous desk itself, in all its cluttered glory. Interesting things to note are my laptop, whom I've finally gotten around to christening Daedalus, my parents' former scanner, called You Stupid Pile Of Fossilized Dark-Age Machinery, and the didrake Wyrm and Wyvern standing guard over my beloved Gaelic-English dictionary.

Here be monst- I mean, my bed. I actually made it for once. *happy sigh* I love my coverlet. It matches my room. The dolphin wind chime Mommie got me in Parksville. There was this cute little garden shop there and we just happened to stop in after lunch while we were down there for a piano competition. They had this other green set of chimes that I really liked, but the dolphins got me.

I got this awesome faery mobile kit for Christmas a long time ago. Hearthsong rocks, by the way, but anyway, I decided to hang this from my fan when I got the dolphin chime and used up the hook in the ceiling.

Here's a slighly better pic. Can you tell that they're dancing in a spiral? It looks really cool if you blow on them from below.

Speaking of faeries (whoops, these next few showed up in the wrong order. Ah well...)

...WINGSES!!

I haz waaay too many necklaces. But mi madre is a genius to think of hangin' 'em up so they don't get all tangly.

Dresses and skirts and so on. And scarves, but those are kinda irrelevant just now (it's like a hundred zillion degrees outside.) Can you tell I'm a skirt person?

Mah counter. It's like marbled with this really purdy aqua color that didn't show up AT ALL in the pic. Snarl. And yes, I have three jewelry boxes. And YES, one of them has a pink ballerina on it. What're YOU starin' at?

How can you not love the color purple after seeing this room? Mommie and I spent the better part of an afternoon sticking those sticker-decal things to the ceiling, but I think it was worth it.

The dolls on my dresser (most of them were my grandma's; all the Japanese ones, including the orange wooden one that's hiding behind the bowl of fortune-cookie fortunes... and the blonde china doll was a present from my grandma.) I love that purple candle, by the way. It makes my room smell like purple. XD Plus... you know, fire.

The stuffs on top of some of my cabinets; picture frames, little plastic 3-D pirate ships, a spinning magnetic version of the cosmos, etc.

*sings* These are a few of my fa-vor-ite books... I have so many...

And here's a close-up... (that yellow book stand is excellent for featuring my current favorite.) Gotta love the dragon bookends.

The Portal, plus some other poster my mom got me for my birthday. Waterfalls are cool. And there's my brilliant satellite-atomic clock that's never wrong and tells the time, date, indoor temperature, outdoor temperature and moon phase. I heart my clock.

This stained-glass angel thingy was from one of those awesome stained-glass coloring books. I colored her with markers and taped her to my window. Her dress used to be green and blue before it got all faded by the sun. Sigh. Oh well.

This epically special box was a rather expensive souvenir from Madeira Beach, Florida. I saw it in one of those cute little beach/curio shops and fell in instant love.

That little rock formation behind the mermaid is actually a pin in disguise. If you pull it out, the box unlocks and you can open it. I love puzzle boxes.

When I bought this, the mermaid wasn't wearing much. I drew a bikini top on her with Sharpie.

*falls over*

Dash it, I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of my gerbils! Their cage (ech. What a horrible word.) Their... living quarters are in my room, but I forgot to take a picture. Blast.

Must... go... sleeeep...

Commander Ki... *yaawn*

Teen... Titans...

*snore*

I dunno... what do YOU think it is?

It's actually me trying out my new colored pencils I bought at the art store the other day. The black one's not new (and now it's about two inches long, lol.) Does it boggle your mind? Mine's boggled. Oh, this is the first page of my scary new sketchbook, by the way.

Almost done with the coloring on the Epic Brain Fart II. If I don't have it done by the time I go to Lady Arin's this Sunday, I'll just finish it at her house.

*zips about squeeing* LADY ARIN!!!

Oh, here's a link to this awesome adorable dress-up game I found on devART, by the way: http://cleoannie.deviantart.com/art/the-Super-Dress-Up-Game-II-47999842 It's so cuuute. I love all the hair. *pets*

Gotta go pack!
Commander Kip
TEEN TITANS! ("Raven!" "Robin!" "Starfire!" "DUDE!!")
Normal is overrated!

Aaaand the winners are...

... Teams Movie Carlisle, Kartik, Book Farid, and Thaelen! DUM-DA-DA-DUUUUM!!! I'm kinda surprised so many people voted on my Thaelen, but... he is pretty awesome, after all. *pets hair*

Gaah, it's so unfair that all the coolest guys I know aren't even REAL. *sigh* So darn depressing.

I just finished 'Many Waters' by Madeline L'Engle and wanted to recommend it to you guys. It is fascinating. There are dudes with wings. *makes squeeface* Everybody go read it!

Commander Kip
TEEN TITANS! (I think it's... awesome... the way you... shoot starbolts? And it's really cool... how... you're like... the strongest girl ever?)
Normal is overrated!

Epic Brain Fart the II

Whoa. FINALLY done with this ridiculous thing. I can't even look at it straight... *is dizzy* So... much... stuff...

And now I get to color it. *dies* Nah, it'll be fun. Hopefully, it'll be a little easier to look at in color. Mebbeh.

I'd like to draw your attention to a few specific areas before I dive into the coloring. The first would be that AWESOME hand coming out the portal at the top. I used my own hand for reference and it actually looks like a hand and everything. *squeeface* Also, Croakr came out really cute (dominating the upper middle of the page there.) I like his eyes. He kinda looks like Kipin's doggie, but bigger and shaggier and... with wings. XD There is a raggant under the third arch that came out cute too (the little baby rhinocerous with wings), from the book 100 Cupboards. That alien with the horns in the lower left corner is aaaall miiiiine. His name is Drexel and he pwns you all. And lastly, the little old lady with the wacky hair in the other lower corner? Guess who that is. *is about ready to burst* IT'S MORWYN!!! I love how she came out! Just like she looks in my head!! Gaah, I love her! *dies happily* Feel free to comment and ask questions, and I will explain what I can. More details when it's all colored and prettyful.

*examines handses* Ha, you should see the side of my right hand. It's like, solid graphite right now and has been for a few weeks, ever since I started this pic. Lol.

Teen Titans (c) Glen wotsisface
the Raggant (c) the dude who wrote Cupboards
the Batman symbol (c) DC comics (right?)
everything Portals related, Drexel, the Narwhal, and the random fae girl (c) MOI. Steal them and DIE, mortals. Muaa.

Commander Kip
TEEN TITANS! (Evil beware. We have waffles!)
Normal is overrated!

Back. Off.

Heh, I love how Robin talks in periods. X) This is actually from a bigger page of TT sketches, but not all of them are done/appropriate for small children, so I just cut this one out so y'all could see it, yo.

Used several different screenshots while referencing Robin. His hair a SUCH a pain to draw, and his mouth. *snarly face* It's so funny - he's almost always making that face in the show. It seems like he's always upset/stressed/furious about something or other. And he talks in a growl most of the time. And periods. *glomps him*

Right. The story behind this is that Slade was resurrected by Trigon or sumthin' and was sent to deliver a message to Raven (in the episode Prophesy), which involved setting an entire industrial district on fire... but anyway, when he showed up, Raven went all glowy and got these wicked cool red marks all over her, and ended up looking like that. *points* Or... sorta like that. Robin, of course, got way overprotective and started yelling (snarling, actually) at Slade and demanding to know why he was going after Raven, which cracked me up and totally proved my theory. RobRae fo-evah, booyah! Yeah, Prophesy was an awesome episode. Lots and lotsa fiyaah. That whole entire story arc, really, was like the awesomest evah.

Drop me a comment if you wanna see the 'not-appropriate-for-small-children' sketch and I'll email it to you. It's Robin and Raven and it turned out really cute. I just... don't wanna post it up here for the ENTIRE world to see, y'know?

Oh yeah, Teen Titans (c) that one dude... Glen wotsisface... gaah. Don't remember.

Commander Kip
Normal is overrated!

Pipe Organ Encounter, year one

Awright, Kipin finally got her stuff together so she could do her POE post.

Before we begin, you must know that POE stands for Pipe Organ Encounter, and it is epic fun.

If you make this picture big, you can see Kipin's organ teacher. She's the gray-haired ninja in the middle of the back row there. She was so sweet. *huggles* We got to go to all these different churches and hear the organs being played. Sometimes, we got to play them ourselves. XD There were a bunch of awesome stained glass windows like this one:

And this one:

And this:

As I have probably already mentioned, we got to crawl through a couple organs, which was the coolest thing ever and totally made me want to spend the night in an organ someday. Our tour guide person showed us all the different pipes:

This monster is the organ in the Auditorium at Community of Christ. It. Is. Enormous.

Mind-bogglingly. Enormous.

The tallest pipe is like forty feet high. That's like taller than my flippin' house. And there's FOUR RANKS of keyboard plus pedals in the console. *falls over in awe*

We got to walk through this awesome tunnel thing to get from the Auditorium to the Temple, where the other monster organ is. I got to practice my Gollum voice. (Up, up, up the stairs we go, and then through... the tunnel!) There were a lot of stairs, but we went down them, not up.

Anyway. When we got there, we looked at all the cool art they had. This was a piece of the doorway:

And this was the inside of the spired ceiling (which will totally make you dizzy if you stare at it too long):

And we saw some totally awesome artwork on our way in, such as this 3-D tapestry doodad that looks like this:

from the front, and like this:

from the side. You can tell it's like three separate pieces. Epicness indeed.

And look at this tree!!!!

It's so beautiful! *cries*

I wish I could make something like that.

Oh, I got to hang out with Amzi's friend, which I might have mentioned in an earlier post, and we talked story stuff and I drew her characters. Plus we went to Luyben's on the last day and bought sheet music! It was so much fun! I felt like a kid in a candy store. I found the easy sheet music to my favorite Winnie the Pooh movie, which totally surprised me, since I thought they only made sheet music for boring things like... I dunno... boring things. But they had all sorts of awesomeness like the complete Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End score, and the Mission: Impossible theme song (which my friend bought so she could play it for her brother) and Star Wars and Star Trek and a bunch of different Disney movies and and and... it was so awesome and overwhelming! *falls over* I got the Pooh Bear and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Happily enough, the arrangements are hard, but not too hard to sightread with only minimal difficulty. Into the West is in there! So I can accompany myself when I sing. Specialness abounds.

Waow. I don't think I've ever put so many pictures in one post before. Tee hee hee. Expect a few more of these monster posts... I still haven't showed you guys the pics from St. Louis, or space camp, or choir tour...

Commander Kip

TEEN TITANS! (Wakey wakey, tofu eggs and bakey...)

Normal is overrated!

pretty hair

It must have been Tenebrae after all. I'd recognize that funky coloration anywhere. I was doing this while on the phone with Lady Arin, so there's no highlights and no shading, but I still love how he came out! I am getting better at hair, believe it or not. Finally! It took some seriously wacked-out coloring jobs and long hours of staring at DeviantART geniousness to figure it out. Somewhat. Ahem.

*squees* Look at his ear! X3

For everybody's information, I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice a few weeks ago, and Mom watched all three versions of the movie with me. There was an old BBC producion that was about five hours, and another that was six hours (Colin Firth!!) and the new Hollywood one with Kiera Knightly. I can't really pick a favorite; there were good things and not-so-good things about all of them. I will say that Colin Firth plays an AWESOME Darcy. He pines ever so beautifully. Anyway, I was impressed with all three of them. Great music in the last one. And Kiera does such a nice Elizabeth. Very dicey. *approving nod*

Kipin's padre finally got her internet up and happy (it was an IP address problem or some such nonsence... everything read zero point zero point zero across the flippin' board), so she will be seen in virtual public more often now (hopefully.) At least, more than the last week or so. Gaach, there is nothing more annoying than a botched Internet connection!

Commander Kip the happy to be back
TEEN TITANS! (Yeah. More yelling is definately gonna stop all the yelling...)
Normal is overrated!

Tenebrae

Awright, dudes and dudesses, say hello to Tenebrae. That's him. *points* Nassty ssmeary dissproportionate picture. *sigh* Ah well. Tenebrae was another mental accident. He has no story and exists solely as wing and hair practice. He has four wings, see? And dark skin and very long hair... with which Kipin got a little carried away in the full body pic. *wince* Anway, I love how the chibi came out. X3 Chibis are so cute.



And I'm not really sure who this is....

... but he does have very pretty hair. And awesome ears. I drew him in my math textbook in the space where a proof was supposed to go. Oops. Anyway, I liked how his hair came out. That little dark speck near the top of his head is a shred of pencil eraser that somehow found its way into the scanner bed. Ignore it, if you please.

Gaah, can't wait to see Lady Arin again! *bounces around* We are gonna take too many pictures, I already know. Can't waaaait!

Commander Kip

TEEN TITANS! (A couch potato with a souped-up remote. I'm... petrified.)

Normal is overrated!

doodle dump

LADY ARIN'S COMING BACK!!! *capers madly* I'm so excited! Epic squeeface!

Ahem. *regains composure* After seeing this awesome tutorial: http://driany.deviantart.com/art/Wings-Tutorial-in-english-D-56115411 , I decided to try it out. In my keyboard theory notebook. *cheeze* Yess, I did. Which explains the... staff lines. XD And this was to make sure I could open my math test prep booklet and instantly know it was mine:

Raven pwns you all.

And this is what happens when I get bored during geometry lectures. It's Kasha's head, by the by.

And a full-body shot (sort of...):

And this is Memory, a character from Tales of Castle O'Konnor. She has these awesome blue-and-purple wings that I have not yet had the occasion to draw. But I can tell you - they're cool.

Um, yeah, excuse the geometry diagrams. *smites geometry* It wants us dead, preciouss! It's out to get us! *grovels pitifully* Take it off usss... Anyway, Memory is another member of the Draconian Council/Circle that I've already told you about. She's rather a lower-cast member, since she's a humanoid creature (some sort of angel thing, perhaps?) and I don't quite know what part she has in the plot as of yet... but she's so cool that she will definately make an appearance or two. I had no room for her mouth, in case you were wondering.

Once I get more pics off my camera, I might do a post on all the camps I did this year. A relatively short one, perhaps.

Commander Kip

TEEN TITANS! (...and I was like, 'Ooh! Pie!')

Normal is overrated!

Morwyn's House

My brain hurts. DIE, MATH PREP, DIE!!

Hi there. XD Sorry this scanned so light. I can barely see it... *snarl*... Anyway, it's Morwyn's house. I love Morwyn! She's so short and no-nonsense and awesome. And she has crazy white hair. I'm gonna draw a pic of her soon. So this is her little round house, which is normally invisible. It's on a pillar thingy that comes up out of the ground on a bunch of levers and pulleys. She has a back door, but it's down some long twisty tunnel and it hardly ever gets used. There's an echo chamber in the pine grove beside the house that you shout into in order to ask Morwyn to open the door. Not many people know about the chamber (just Kaelo, Gwilan, Croakr, and a few others) because Morwyn doesn't normally do visitors. She's a bit of a recluse and a total pack rat. Seriously, you should see the inside of her house. It's like packed with random stuffs. Here's a snip of Chapter... Three, maybe? Yeah, where Kaelo, Gwilan and Ellian are just getting to Morwyn's house. Morwyn is such fun to write. She trails off in the middle of sentences and sneezes a lot. *happy sigh* I luvz me mah Morwyn indeed.


They scraped the mud and loam off their shoes with a prickly little ball of... something Morwyn kept for that purpose, then stooped to avoid banging their heads on the low door frame and entered Morwyn's dwelling. Inside, the ceiling was just high enough for Kaelo to stand upright. Ellian stood for a moment, Morwyn's booming voice ringing in her ears, to take in the small circular room. There were three windows with cheery green shutters that let in plenty of light. Straight across from the front door was a curtain of green glass leaves crafted to look like hanging vines. Behind the curtain was another doorway. Every inch of the wall that was not taken up by a window or a door was hidden by floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stacked high with books and other items. In the middle of the room stood a heavy square table made of dark polished wood. Stacks of parchment paper and multiple quill pens littered the table, and a short stool sat beside it. The quirkiest thing about the room, Ellian noticed, was that the wooden floor was almost buried beneath a clutter of arbitrary objects - books, scrolls, measuring implements, boots, articles of clothing, dishes, musical instruments and various other things that Ellian didn't even recognize.

Morwyn, Kaelo and Gwilan waded through the minefield of clutter like it wasn't even there, making their way to the table in the center of the room. Ellian followed a bit more cautiously as Morwyn chattered ceaselessly about how long it had been since she had seen the boys and how much they'd grown and so on. "I remember when young Gwil first brought you out here, Kaelo, you were just a little snip of a thing, no more than five aurons, and the both of you had just snuck away from the King's scouting party! Whoo boy, was your father mad! I heard tell that he steamed and stewed for nigh on a week once he got you back. And look at you now, coming up on fourteen and a right young gentlemen; Gwilan too, my word! You were such a squatty little child, I wasn't sure if you were ever going to grow..." Guffawing loudly, she fished an enormous spellbook out from under the paper scattered across the table and heaved it open, scattering dust everywhere. "Whoops, ACHOO! Sorry about that, kids, my housekeeping skills aren't what they used to be..."

"What housekeeping skills?" Kaelo joked, taking in the overflowing room with a wide gesture. "You didn't have any housekeeping skills to begin with, Morwyn dear."

"'S roigh'," Gwilan agreed with a gusty sneeze. "WHAACHOO! Beggin' yer pard'n, Morwyn, y' ain' never got no 'ousekeepin' skills, no 'fence."

"Did I say I was planning on taking any? No, I did not. Now, let me see here... where was that bit I wanted you to read..." Morwyn flipped the pages of the spellbook, causing another minor dust storm. "ACHOO! ACHOO! Ah, here it is. Gather round, youngsters, and read this page here while I see what I can find."


Yeah. Sorry it's so long... but I didn't give you the whole chapter, so be glad and make merry! Just kidding. But that chapter is really long, though it's not as long as Chapter Four. That one holds the current record for longest chapter. I'm still in the middle of Chapter Five, for those of you who care. XD 'Ave a noice day. *tips hat* I love Gwilan's accent.

Commander Kip who is wondering why Blogger made her type that whole fragment out instead of just copying and pasting like normal RAWR
TEEN TITANS! (Maybe you didn't get the memo, Robin, but... you and me can't fly!)
Normal is overrated!

the fortress of Terabithia

Another fossil. Seriously, LOOK at it. I can't believe I was as proud of it as I was when it was first drawn. Yep. That's crayon. Crayon only. And I thought the Bridge to Terabithia movie was very well done. The ending always makes me sniffle. I like that actress. She does a great job. So yeah, this was back when I was obsessed with tree houses, obviously, and since the fortress was in a tree in the movie, I thought it was the coolest. Whatever was I thinking with the shield? It ruined it, preciouss! Eat it raaaw! (Just kidding.) Oh, I remember why I was so fond of this; I loved how I drew the tree. It took me forever cuz I did nearly-individual leaves. Can you imagine? *dies*

No more relics for a while, I promise. See, this is what happens when I go through my old art. Stuff pops up and I'm like, Oh yeah, I was so proud of this way back when. *sporfle snort cackle* And now I look at it and go, I drew that? Naaaw. Surely not. XD

Commander Kip
TEEN TITANS! (Not Moe, not Moe! *flails wildly*)
Normal is overrated!

a typical Thea moment

Look what I found near the front of my sketchbook (back before I could draw...) I thought this was endearing enough to warrant its own post. There happened to be a box of broken crayons sitting a little too close to my left hand when I saw this, and since it wasn't shaded or colored or even decently cleaned up, I took the crayons to it with a fury. Hence the ensuing crappiness.

So what just happened, in case you can't tell (I can't, and I'm the one who drew it), Science just did something stupid and freaked Thea out, and she tripped over that keyboard there and fell on her butt. The reason there are random pieces of electronic equitment lying around would be... Science's fault. Technomancer, remember? (Heh, probably not. Sometimes, I can't even remember. Haven't touched Portals in quite a while now.) Anyhoo, the expression on her face was meant to be one of fearful surprise, not a puppy-dog pout. Ah well. I console myself with the useful knowledge that I could use some work on my facial expressions. But I do like how her hair came out. That was just the color I was going for.

Can you tell I didn't have a ruler nearby? Perspective slays me. *is slain*


On a completely different subject: OMG OMG MY TATOOS CAME AND THEY'RE SO COOOL! *dies happily* Plus there was a handwritten card from Miss Laini with one of her awesome Ladies on it. Epicness. Thanks, Miss Laini!

Commander Kip who REALLY doesn't like wasps. I swear, they come into my ROOM and stalk me. If that is not stalker behavior, then what is, I ask you? The only thing that would make them even more stalker-ish is if they had binoculars to watch me dress in the morning. Yeesh.
TEEN TITANS! (The revolution will not be televised, lol.)
Normal is overrated!

awesome Raven quotes

*dies laughing* Sorry, I know most of you probably don't care, but this amuses me. Endlessly. I was re-scanning some things I drew a while ago, and was just thinking how hilarious it would be if I were to take this picture of Raven and put some of her quotes up with it. She is so very quotable. If you can't read the text, click on the image to make it beeeeger, kay?

Awright, I'm done now. ;) I've been on such a Teen Titans kick these last few days, it's not even funny. Well, it is actually, that's what makes it so good... but anyway, mah brother and I were discussing plot twists the other night, and we were up till like one in the morning, arguing over whether it was Batman or the city government that provided funding for Titans Tower... it was hilarious. 'Specially cuz he claims he doesn't like Teen Titans. Psh. I know better.

Commander Kip the Temporarily Obsessed
Dude, I am not on the menu!
Normal is overrated!

The Way it was Meant to Be

I just now realize how crooked that border is. *coughcoughSTUPIDSCANNERcough* And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what OUGHT to have happened at the end of a certain book that shall remain nameless at the moment, since some of us *coughErikacough* haven't read it yet. Ahem! Something seems to be stuck in my throat.

Anyway, it's supposed to be Bobby and Loor, from the Pendragon series. (I own none of it, everything copyright D.J. MacHale, and all that legal jabber...) I've been working on this one on and off for the entire month of June. Just got it done on the bus at organ camp, finally! Then I touched up the shading back at home and chucked it in the scanner. Oh yeah, forgot to tell you - I have my own scanner now! *zips about squeeing* Ah, happy day! It's not new, and it's not a combination scanner/faxer/printer/copying machine, but it does what I need it to do, so I'm happy. Dad found it in the back of the office closet, all by itself and collecting dust bunnies, so he installed a driver on my laptop and hooked it up. *squeeface* I is very happy with it. This means I don't have to use Mom's computer to scan stuff anymore!

By the way, Loor's taller than Bobby because she's standing on something (I decided.) I totally drew her like that on purpose. And look, my hair-drawing skills are improving! And look... SHADING!

Only three more pages in my sketchbook. Nearly time for another epic brain fart, I think. Let's make it a tradition. Every time Kipin fills up a sketchbook, the second-to-last page will be reserved for an Epic Brain Fart. Sound like fun?

Commander Kip
I speak German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian and Sanskrit. Do you have ANYTHING I can read?
Normal is overrated!

Darkside

Aow. My hand hurts. No, not from the lineart. From the coloring:

Aaaow! *nurses aching handses* Do not be alarmed, I don't normally draw dark stuff like this... but it was one of those things where you have this image in your head that won't leave you alone until you get it out. That sort of thing. That right there was just two days' work. *pant pant* Aaaand the scanner ate the smoothness of my lovely pencils, blast it! Plus it put some really weird lines through the face in the back. Rawr. *snarly face*

Speaking of snarly faces, you wanna know the story behind this one? It only loosely relates to my Teen Titans fanfic. That's Raven in the front, in case you haven't recognized her yet, and her demonic side, Rage, in the back (the one with all the eyes.) There are a couple of instances in my fic when Rage takes control of Raven's mind and makes her blow stuff up. Raven doesn't appreciate that much, smirk smirk. I'm so mean to the poor girl.

Happy Fourth of July! *bang bang bang* Explosions, whee!

Commander Kip

Normal is overrated!

Untitled stuffs

So my friend from organ camp told me about this particular activity - name decorating. Fun fun! I won't give you the whole 'you take, I smite' speech, you know I invented all these. So anyway, these are all characters from Gylfie's and my story we started. It's completely in the planning stage, but I totally love the characters I put in it, so I write about them on my own on occasion. Kress and Lutha came out the best, methinks...

Yay for short posts!

Commander Kip
I speak German, Latin, Romanian, Ancient Sumerian and Sanscrit. Do you have ANYTHING I can read?
Normal is overrated!

Captain Calamity

Hey, have you guys seen the good Captain yet? Guess not. XD I heart Captain Calamity. She's one of my IUW characters, and an awesome one at that. She is the captain of the pirate vessel Sordid Sea'orse, wears bright cool colors and shiny boots. Shiiiiny. And usually she has a hat, but since Kipin can't draw hats, she must have temporarily lost it. Also, my mother says she looks like a dude, cuz her neck is too thick. But she's wearing a corset, for the sake of Azar! So she's a girl, kay? Learn it. *wink*

Look at the nonsensical rigging. *sporfle* If you follow all the lines, they don't really connect anything. Lol. Mayhap I'll get some sailboat anatomy lessons from me padre, so next time I draw a ship, it'll make sense. Ah well. It looks cool, anyway. And yes, the Captain is kinda floating in space there, but if I drew deck under her boots, the rigging looked skewed. So she floats.

Colored pencil and graphite and hairspray, just like always. Nothing new there. Oh, and the Captain is mine. If you steal the Captain, I WILL EAT YOUR FACE. You have been warned.

Now for some little newsy bits. I'm not going out of town anymore this summer, so I should be here... consistently-ish. Pipe Organ Encounter was awesome. I got to crawl through the Temple organ at Community of Christ. There were all these little skinny ladders and catwalks and hundreds and hundreds of pipes. It. Was. Epic. So that was fun. Plus I got to meet a friend of Amzi's that I'd seen before at piano competitions but never really talked to. She proved to be a delightful young lady (yes, dahling, you know who you are) who writes and speaks in accents like I do. Yay! She let me draw her cool character and his giant eagle. Once Blogger decides to cooperate and load the blasted thing, I'll post them.

Commander Kip who's finally back!
I am a high-entropy individual. BEWARE.
Normal is overrated!

Happy Belated Father's Day!

Hehehe, look. Dad's name is Robin. Get it? *sporfle sporfle sporfle*

I like the gray streaks. They make me laugh. He actually has streaks like those in his hair. It's hilarious.

Oops. Look at his tiny little feet. *sheepish glance at Padre* They aren't really that small... I was just working without a reference, and steel-toed footwear is very difficult to draw... so. Yeah.

Happy Belated Father's Day!

Commander Kip who's finally BACK from all her camps and stuff HUZZAH!
I am a high-entropy individual. BEWARE.
Normal is overrated!

RAWR sez the kitteh

Look, it's Kasha! Pendragon PWNS you all. Wow, I've been doing so much fanart lately. Anyhoo, this is Kasha, the feisty jungle cat Traveler from Eelong. She. Is. Awesome. I was so sad when she died! Good thing McHale brings her back later.

I drew this at camp between briefings and simulators and other activities, so excuse any mistakes. I know, all three of the heads off to the side look like completely different kitties, but I was in a hurry and not really paying attention. Plus, perspective kicks my butt AND I have very little practice with feline anatomy. Sigh. At least I like how the full body shot came out, and her Traveler ring on the chain there.

*flees back into the abyss*

Commander Kip
Normal is overrated!

The Power of Four fanfic

*dashes in, lugging suitcase and out of breath* Well, that was EXHAUSTING. But fun. Falcon shuttle mission: Hubble capture, successfully complete! (Darn this joystick...) And I officially passed level two of the Future Astronaut Training Program, or FATP. Wut naow.

Anyway, I finished this AGATB fanfic this morning. Sorry to say, it has nothing to do with Kartik. Unfortunately. But that actually wasn't the point of my writing it. Read it first and then I'll explain.

The Power of Four
A Great and Terrible Beauty fanfic
Disclaimer: I'm not Libba Bray and therefore don't own any of this stuff.


“Girls,” begins Mrs. Nightwing, “the classroom on the second floor is being cleaned today, so any classes you have there are relocated to the fifth room on the third floor. Upper class girls shall proceed to that room directly after luncheon for a free study period. Any questions?”

“No, Mrs. Nightwing,” we chorus at our headmistress. It’s a rhetorical question, really; we’re not expected to have questions. We hear and obey in all things. That is our wont.

I shall have none of it. I have a secret, a powerful secret that sets me apart from the tittering girls around me. I can control my own fate.

In the seat beside me, Felicity Worthington gazes imperiously at nothing in particular. I know she is not paying attention in the slightest, but were Mrs. Nightwing to call on her, she would have an intelligent answer cooked up in a second. I find myself wishing I had even a fraction of her wit.

On my other side, Ann Bradshaw is still chewing a mouthful of biscuit. Her lank brown hair hangs, sadly unattractive, in her eyes. Her plate is empty, unlike my own, which is still graced with a portion of biscuit and a smattering of gravy.

Beautiful Pippa Cross stifles a ladylike yawn across the table from us. She is feigning disinterest, or more accurately, she is portraying her disinterest politely and flawlessly. None of us are engaged in the headmistress’s speech. The severe woman continues to prattle on at the head of the dining table as we, the students, sit quietly and pretend to listen to her.

After an eternity of blather, Mrs. Nightwing finally says, “Now, ladies, kindly run along to your classes. Good afternoon.”

We rise from the table and parrot back, “Good afternoon, Mrs. Nightwing!”

Felicity, Pippa, Ann and I converge in the hall. “Well, that was exceedingly dull,” Felicity says, tossing her blonde hair. “If we had assembly every morning, I know I should die.”

“And I should die with you,” Pippa moans, sidestepping a gaggle of skinny young girls. “I was honestly afraid I was going to fall asleep in my plate.”

I take Pippa’s arm as we make our way down the hallway to our classroom. “Oh, Pip, you are incapable of such rudeness. Now, I, on the other hand…”

Ann smiles tentatively at the joke.

Pippa pretends not to be amused. “Gemma Doyle, you are such a hideous girl.” She’s frowning, but her violet eyes sparkle with mischief. “You shall do no such thing, or risk bringing shame and dishonor upon the spotless reputation of Spence!” As she speaks, the frown is slowly replaced by a wicked smile.

We burst into delighted laughter. Pippa has just very cleverly insulted our school, and we enjoy the feeling of being naughty. I think briefly of the burned-out East Wing, and the horrors that occurred there, but only briefly. The dangers of the realms seem far away and insignificant at the moment.


The fifth classroom on the third floor of the academy is in a state of neglect. The desks are old and scarred. There is a fine coat of dust over everything. A neat row of windows, placed too high on the wall for us to see out, let in adequate sunlight. In one corner is a dusty pianoforte, its keys yellow with age.

We file into the room, carrying books and papers to study. Pippa makes straight for the pianoforte, depositing her books on a nearby desk. We follow her and cluster around the instrument as she perches on the ornate bench.

Felicity is smiling like a conspirator. “Give us a song, Pip. A nice, cheery Irish tune.”

Pippa removes her gloves and places them on the bench beside her. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly. Not in a school, Fee! I shall be expelled!”

“Come on, then,” we prod. “Please, Pippa, give us a jig!”

“If you play, we will dance,” Felicity says with an enticing lilt in her voice. Ann throws a terrified glance at me and whispers, “We will?”

“Felicity will,” I whisper back, “And I will. Won’t you?”

Behind us, the other girls file into the room and sit demurely at their desks to study their sums and French. Pippa deliberates. “Oh, I really shouldn’t. It isn’t ladylike, and we shall be found out by Mrs. Nightwing for sure!”

Felicity leans close to Pippa and murmurs in her ear. Pippa shakes her head at first, then relents. “Oh, all right, but if we all get turned out of Spence, I don’t want to hear a word about it.”

She places her dainty fingers on the keys and begins playing a lively jig. True to her word, Felicity picks up her skirts higher than is necessary and makes complicated movements with her feet. Ann and I join in a moment later, ignoring the dirty glances we’re getting from the other girls.

The hideous Cecily Temple bustles up to us, nose wrinkled in distaste and outrage. “Stop that racket this instant!” she shrills, her voice shooting up a few octaves higher than normal. “Pippa Cross, get away from that horrid instrument! Miss Worthington, drop your skirts at once, I can see your ankles!” I fear she might have a heart attack and faint at the very thought.

Felicity stops twirling as Pippa’s hands falter to a stop. Ann and I back away from Felicity. It is wise to give her a bit of space when that particular gleam is in her eyes. She’s about to do something extremely cruel, rude or scandalous, by the look of it.

“And who, may I ask,” she says to Cecily, venom dripping from every word, “made the grave mistake of putting you in charge? Whoever it was deserves to be flogged soundly and made to eat cold liver at every meal for a year and a half.”

Cecily’s face twists into a smile that is more of a sneer. Elizabeth and Martha, her minions, step up to flank her, one on either side. “Why, my dear Miss Worthington, Mrs. Nightwing did. At luncheon this afternoon, do you not remember? She put me in charge of presiding over the free study period and asked that Elizabeth and Martha assist me. Surely you were paying attention? I am in charge here, and you all must do exactly as I say.”

Ann is wearing her favorite emotionless mask. Pippa twists her gloves in worried hands, her violet gaze fixed on Felicity, who is practically growling at Cecily like a dog. “I shall never answer to the likes of you,” she spits, her fists balled up at her sides.

“There now, no call for that,” Elizabeth says nervously, trying to prevent the inevitable brawl. “We are ladies, after all.”

Martha agrees with her, of course. “Really, I can’t imagine where Miss Cross learned that vulgar tune. It’s Irish, isn’t it?” Crinkling up her nose prissily, she continues, “And besides, the other girls are trying to study. You ought to think of them instead of yourselves. No one appreciates the noise.”

Ha. Noise. She thinks we are making ‘noise’. I nearly feel sorry for her. “That was not noise,” I say, stepping forward to address the three pit bulls. “That was music. What you three are making is ‘noise’. And no, I’m afraid no one appreciates it at all. So sorry to inform you that your voices are beautiful to your own ears only.”

Cecily bristles as the other two wilt. “Gemma Doyle!” she screeches, her face going scarlet. “I shall report you to Mrs. Nightwing! Such hideous behavior from all of you!”

“Do your worst,” Felicity retorts, and spins away from the furious Cecily. “You shan’t ruin our fun. Come, Gemma, Ann.” She motions to Pip. “Play on, darling! We’ll have our jig if we get beheaded for it!”

Slowly at first, Pippa starts again. The notes leap merrily from the pianoforte as Felicity bounds up on a desk and begins to dance. Cecily shrills for her to get down, shaking with rage. Felicity ignores her and spins gracefully in a circle, her skirts swirling around her. I clamber onto an unoccupied desk and dance, laughing and enjoying the spectacle we are making out of ourselves. With a moment of hesitation, Ann moves closer to the pianoforte and sings the words to the jig. Her voice and Pippa’s music drown out the shrill squawking of Cecily and her friends.

I notice that every girl in the room is staring at us. Then, suddenly, one student pushes her French book off her desk, picks up her skirts, and dances, her heels thumping the wooden desktop in rhythm. Felicity grins at me, her pale hair streaming out around her. Another girl joins the dance, then another and another. The room is a happy confusion of whirling bodies and clacking shoes. The jig changes key and Ann goes with it, singing out the chorus with cheerful gusto. Cecily’s face contorts, and she flees the room with her followers, sobbing loudly and thoroughly humiliated.

Let her leave. I care not. I am happy to dance an Irish jig on an old scarred desk in a dusty schoolroom. It is another brand of magic. Perhaps the wood is scarred from the boots of another generation of schoolgirls. Girls who broke away from what was normal and acceptable and danced. Danced for their freedom. Danced for their own enjoyment. Danced for the sheer pleasure of dancing.

The magic of the realms is a beautiful thing. But there is another kind of magic, one that anyone can have. It is called life. There is magic in everything, if only we take the time to find it.


There. Sorry about the length. *cringe* It's long, I know, and seemingly pointless. Well. The point is, something like this happened at to my school friends and I at lunch one day. There was a function going on in the gym where we usually eat, so we were relocated to this other room that happened to have an old piano in it. Hannaliese was playing us her gorgeous arrangement of the Carol of the Bells and we got in trouble with the lunch monitors, who called her pretty music, 'noise'. That made me mad. But we didn't actually argue with them or start dancing jigs on the lunch tables. I just thought that was what those four girls would have done. So there, lunch ladies!

Now I gotta go re-pack... *dashes away*
Commander Kip the exhausted... *pant pant*
I am a high-entropy individual. BEWARE.
Normal is overrated!

Draith in COLOR ZOMG

What is it with me and posting in the middle of the night? Gaah... anyway.

I finally got up the nerve to color this lineart (remember Draith Darkling?) on the bus en route to Omaha. It's not easy, coloring in a moving vehicle. They pencil points get away from you. But I tried, and I actually like how he came out. HIGHTLIGHTS!
Dang it, looks as though I managed to chop off one edge of his wing with my nonexistent scanning madskillz. Ah well... I love his wings! And his horns. His hair is supposed to be just a bit lighter than that. Like I said, the pencil I was using got away from me. If you look closely, you can see his awesome red eyes. XD

Now I'm really leaving for two weeks. I swear. Seriously. 'Bye! *dashes away to pack*

Commander Kip
I am a high-entropy individual. BEWARE.
Normal is overrated!

Conception Abbey sketchies

Sorry, I'm actually not dead, contrary to popular belief... hate to disappoint you. XD Just kidding. I'm back with a vengeance!
My choir tour stopped at Conception Abbey on our way to Omaha. We sang a concert in the basilica there, and I sketched in my notebook because my sketchbook was still on the bus.
Oh. My. Word. The basilica was amazing! It had this huge vaulted ceiling that tripled our tone, and an awesome organ, and these gorgeous pictures on the ceiling and walls, and beautiful stained glass windows all over the place. It was the coolest. And there were all sorts of curious Catholic-church props and stuff we don't have in Village Prez. I spent like twenty minutes after the concert just gawking at everything. Fascinating. Oh, plus, there were real live monks walking around, with black robes and long beards and bald heads and sandals and everything. And I think they were all wearing glasses too. A few of them came to hear the concert. It. Was. Awesome.

So the Saint Gabriel statue was out front of the basilica, up near the roof, and I really liked his wings and the drapery of his clothing, so I sketched him down in my fragmentation notebook. And two of the windows we saw that were way too cool not to draw. One of them looked like fish scales. It was pretty sweet stuff. Oh, and the actual statue did have a face, but I chose not to draw it. Nothing ruins a perfectly good sketch like a botched face, right?

Leaving town YET AGAIN on Sunday, for astronaut training camp this time. Four hours down to Hutch. Yayz. Fun. (Not really. But the camp is gonna be awesome.) Then I'm home for exactly one day before I take off again for POE organ camp. On the one day that I'm home, I get to practice my Bach like mad. *sarcastic grin* Goodie. So... don't expect to see too much of Kipin in the next two weeks. See you when I get back!

Commander Kip
I am a high-entropy individual. BEWARE.
Normal is overrated!

some costume designs for Portals

Ha. These actually managed to show up in the right order. Wut naow?

This is a really light scan of the Inkmaster's robe. All that text on the page just says stuff about the Inks and the robe's design. You can't see in the pic, but the sleeves, neck and hem of the robe are embroidered with silver runes. Oh, and the robe shrinks or grows to fit the Inkmaster. One size fits all. And that thing at the bottom is supposed to be the belt that holds the Tools. Yes, I fail. Oh well.

This is Anabeth's martial arts robe (the one she wears in Irlica, not in class at home.) The symbol near the top is the Irlican insignia, a broken sword in a circle. The same symbol is on Anabeth's headband.

At the bottom is a brief description of the auronia plant and its uses. Fun fun fun. Absolutely no use to anyone but me. I love being an author. XD

Saabra wears this ensemble when traveling. The high collar indicates royalty. The collar and sleeves are made out of this really awesome gauzy material that only the royal family can afford. I like the sandals, hee.

I think I've mentioned how much I love that weapon. I LOVE THAT WEAPON. I want one!

Thaelen's awesome cloak, which I think I shall steal from him someday. This has been sitting around unfinished for so long, it was getting dusty. But I rescued it.

His little harp came out perdy. And I luvz me those knives. *huggles Thaelen* Sigh. Too bad he's not real. I wants to play with his hair.

Oh, I might have mentioned that my invisible friend, Winnie Watermark, is modelling this stuff for me. Thank you, Winnie. *pat pat*

Working on my book review! My mom's making me write it like an essay (blaargh) but it'll still hopefully read like a review. Hopefully.

Commander Kip the Suddenly Obsessed with Batman... where did this come from?!

Muaa. *wrings hands evilly*

Normal is overrated!