putting in a word or two

Okay, so I actually do have some art to show you, but wouldn't you know it, my internet's down on my laptop again. YET A-FREAKING-GAIN. Es RIDICULO. Muy ridiculo. Uff. Anyway, I can't get to the art from here (dad's computer), but I'm just popping to tell you that I started public school (!!) two weeks ago, and I haven't even had time to check my email since. IB really does eat your life. I have NEVER EVER that busy before. Evah. Thank heavens, my mom took me out of the program and now I'll just be taking four classes - art, Spanish 5, History of the Americas and choir. Not so bad. I can do math, science and English at HOME. And now I'll have time to practice the piano and get myself ready for Yamaha... meep... nervous. But anyway, I'm only going to be on during the weekends now, so don't freak out when you don't see me during the week anymore.

I have a brilliant idea for another faerie door, but that probably won't happen until Thanksgiving Break or somewhere around there, because I'm trying to finish my other Nerf gun mod in time for the bro's birthday, and that'll be most of my free time right there. Plus I'm still working on Erimon Hill, and brainstorming like fury on the new steampunk thingy. Also, I want to redo my room. It's not that I don't like the cool color palate anymore; it's that I discovered steampunk. Which, you know, changes everything. So my mom and I found me a new floor lamp, to replace my ugly dented white one, and a new bedside lamp, to replace the one she confiscated for the office, and a new awesome clock, to replace the boring ugly atomic one. All the metallic silver is slowly leaching out of my room, lol. Everything's gonna be bronze and copper and gold now. It's gonna be awesome.

If I can get the pics on my flash drive, I'll try to post my more recent art before school starts back up on Monday. And I'll also try to visit you OYAN people Monday when class gets out. If I can get someone to drive me over thare. We shall see.

Commander Kip who never knew the meaning of "busy" until now
I used the dull edge, you barking git.
Normal is overrated!

Erimon Hill things

I'm back from the Dells, people, and lemme tell you: the food is atrocious up there. Nice river though.

The many faces of Andra. Some of them not so flattering. Lol. Check out the scar, dudes. Scars rock. This stinking picture refused to cooperate. I've been drawing it for months now. Sorry about the blood and the stabbing, and the disproportions, but I like their hair, okay? So leave me alone. I KNOW their heads are enormous! Oh, and those stripy things on Fable's back are supposed to be scars. This was before I knew how to draw scars. Oh, and also, there was supposed to be a wall there behind Andra, for her to fall into, but it was a curved wall, and it eluded me. So no.

That stupid bracer-thing on Fable's arm gave me no end of trouble, but I like both of their expressions and Fable's sword/sheath. There, I'm done. I never wanna see this thing again.

Wrote five or six pages on the Showdown last night. I think I'm finally unstuck! Woot!... except that school starts tomorrow and is just waiting to eat my free time... blast it all...

Commander Kip

Run around. Make noise. Bite people who are not me.

Normal is overrated!

providing a distraction

so that the Commander can pack for Wisconsin in peace. Have a look.

http://commanderkip.deviantart.com/gallery/#Steampunk-Parody

Oh good, you're back. Is your brain still attached? Excellent. Lady Arin, you REALLY should get yourself a DeviantART account. Just saying.

See you next weekend.

Commander Kip
I know Kung Fu!
Normal is overrated!

Self Portrait the First (and some other junk)

As you can imagine, this took forever. I LOVE MORWYN'S HAAAAAIR.
Me: Morning, Peter. What's up?

Peter: Eh, the usual. Morwyn?

Morwyn: I'm fine, thanks for asking. How go things below?

Kaden: Faaaaantastic. Thaelen continues to be oblivious.

Thaelen: *oblivious angsting and flashbacking*

Broga: Ooh, shiny Fae boy. Shineeee.

Nath: Why am I holding this? Uh, Kip?

Lizby: Quit 'oldin' it then an' 'elp me 'old th' piano! Th' blarsted thing'll break me back!

Irk: That's cuz I'm sitting on it, duh...

It is actually done. I left my charries black and white on purpose. (And Peter, obviously, even though he isn't mine.) The assignment was to draw what you're like when nobody's watching, or in other words, yourself by yourself. Well. I'm never by myself, on account of all the silly people in my head. By the way, this BARELY fit on the scanner glass.

And this is Lady Rivenwick, one of Nocturn's henchwomen from the crazy new story idea. She can haz osm gluvzes.

And I was bored during Driver's Ex and Melian and Thingol ended up glaring at each other over a two-page spread in my notebook. Except, Melian had a really weird nose, so you just get Thingol. Happy birthday, it's for you. I finished the Silmarillion, by the way, and it is rather depressing. Everybody dies. Except Elrond and Galadriel and Celeborn. No, srsly. You have to feel really bad for the sons of Feanor.

Mom and Spud and I saw The Sorcerer's Apprentice down at the Legends the other day. I liked it mostly, but the ending bothered me a bit. It just felt too easy, you know? Like the good guys didn't have to work hard enough, or they didn't recieve enough mortal injuries or go through enough emotional trauma. I sat there and reworked the ending in my head during the car ride home, lol... but I have to say, Nicholas Cage looks pretty awesome with stringy hair and a scruffy beard. He was born to play a thousand-year-old sorcerer. In my opinion.

I'll try to do the FATP post before I leave for Wisconsin on the 8th, buuuut... no promises. Thanks for the poking, guys.

Commander Kip

"Wait... how'd you know my name?" "BECAUSE I CAN READ MINDS!... It's on your backpack."

Normal is overrated!

the grand abode of the grand Lady Arin

We had a ripping time. We always do, don't we, Milady? (Back me up, woman. Ack cough. Just kidding.) We watched Shakespeare in Love, which is rated R but very very good, and parts of A Room with a View, which is also good and has some scenes that are super awkward and laugh-aloud hilarious all at once. We read a lot of fanfiction. We talked boys. FOR HOURS. We took more than five hundred pictures over the course of three and a half days. And we dressed up and stuff. And there were GUNS involved. Observe. Sepia is fun. Ooh, look, windeeeeeee...

We took some in color too. Lady Arin had glitter all over her face and neck at this point, which, to my knowledge, still hasn't come out of her scalp. Oh, and I got her soaking wet too. We had the best hosefight in the history of the world. I lost, and she made me water my hair and then fling it around a lot. It was okay though, cuz it was about a bazillion degrees out thare.

I love that property. SO MUCH GREEEEEN. See the faerie path?

And lookit, I painted mah feetses. While the Lady was reading some Harry Potter fanfiction to me and I had nothing better to do. I did one of her legs too. Just cuz it was there, you know.

And I discovered this song, called The Labyrinth Waltz, by Kim Robertson, thanks to the Lady.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m17GXHGxd4Y

Doesn't it make you think of faeries dancing in a hidden hall, kind of slow and solemn? I think it's the most lovely, heart-wrenching, haunted melody THAT WILL BE PERFECT FOR THAELEN AND ANABETH, once she starts dying of the Blight and all. Gah.

And this one, called Ferry Me Across the Water, by the same artist, is also lovely. But I don't love it QUITE as much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msmnNPLlglA

Also, I discovered that home-grown garden tomatoes do not offend me as much as I though.

ALSO, there was this little yellow finch-bird thing that came 'round and tapped on all the windows every morning to wake us up while I was there. We ended up naming him Erazmus. I kinda wanted to take him home with me, but he seemed pretty happy where he was. XD

So there's that stuff out of the way. I'm terribly unmotivated to do the FATP post, cuz it will be long and strenuous and I'll have to go through and find the pictures with no one's faces in them. So. Somebody had better poke me with a stick and get me moving. Or it'll never be done.

Commander Kip who actually made some HEADWAY on Chapter Twelve last night. That fight scene is being a beast.

*outraged British accent* Ouch, you're treading on me!

Normal is overrated!

GIMME TWO SECONDS

KAY I'M DONE NOW.

Commander Kip

Normal is overrated!

things that ought to be mentioned - for realz this tiem

Observe: the condensed version of my summer so faaar.

OYAN Workshop of 2010 equals legendary win. The only thing wrong with it is that it should have been longer. Mr. and Mrs. S (see below) hosted the event, and did an awesome job of it. People were in costume, and I'd post a pic of the pirate gear I wore, but all the pics have my face in them. Perhaps I'll try to blur it out of one of them. Perhaps. Anyway, I was an elf pirate and was very sad to discover that you had to choose whether you were on the pirate team or the ninja team, and putting down 'I support the Alliance' didn't fly. Sniff. And since I was wearing pirate stuff, I had to put down pirate. There was a real-live ninja in attendance though:

So we listened to Mr. S talk for a while, then there was this awesome comedy improv team from Greenleaf who did about a bazillion hilarious theater games, and we all died laughing, and then afterward, some of us (Liese, Trucano, Brentalope and I) discovered this awesome little playground thing across the parking lot, so we hung out there for about an hour and were epic togethah. Then the next morning, we listened to Mr. S talk some more, and had to RUN through a torrential downpour over to the cafeteria for lunch, and got soaked to the marrow, and almost got washed away down the five-inch-deep river that used to be the sidewalk, and it was awesome. And we RAN the entire way, most of us in costume, with our shoes squelching wonderfully all the while. Then we ate food. Then we ran back, but it wasn't raining anymore so it wasn't near as much fun. Then we got into little groups (Extremely Wooly Mammoths ftw) and critiqued the first four pages of each other's adventure novels, which was awesome cuz I got to see what everyone else was writing about. Plus, Pippin and another girl from the Brighton class were in my group, which was even more awesome. Plus we had Mrs. S. Which out-awesome'd all other previous awesomenesses to boot. And then Sharpie's novel introduced me to steampunk, which over-out-awesome'd things all over again. Thank you, Sharps. So then we stuffed a bunch of people into my mom's minivan and caravan'd over to the nearest ice cream place, ordered in British accents, sat in a line on the sidewalk behind the building and took turns reading Snuffle's PUBLISHED! novel aloud. And got lotsa strange looks from the passers-by. It was hilarious. Then we went to the site of the first-ever OYAN class for the reunion, and there were so many potato chips I thought I was going to drown in them, and there were swordfights, and many pictures, and epic amounts of glompadge all around. And a juggling show. And the biggest, most complicated game of ninja you ever played. All in all, probably two of the most mythically awesome days of my entire life, or something like that. And then he took out his bazooka and - yeah, never mind. Next.

This picture is from the Taekwondo camp I worked earlier this summer, and those strange teenage boys are two of my co-workers, believe it or not, being extremely unproffessional and dancing/singing Party in the USA. Do you pity me? You should. I find this picture terribly amusing, by the way.

Before I had a chance to catch my breath after the OYAN awesomeness, I was shipped off to Hutchinson for Level Three of the Future Astronaut Training Program, also called FATP. And that was also epic, but since I don't have all the pics off my camera yet, there's just this shot of the actual for-real International Space Station Mission Control Center. We were there, baby. RIGHT THERE. It was flippin' awesome. More on this later, cuz there's a bunch of pics I wanna showya.

Off to Lady Arin's house in a few days, where the Internet is shaky at best, so I might not see you till Saturday. Dunno yet. SOEXCITED though... I don't get myself over there enough...

Commander Kip

Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.

Normal is overrated!

the blasted new story idea is taking over my brain

I just need to get this pile of names and facts out of my lap so I can do the real post I was trying to do.

Kay. Deep breath. The main character of my developing story idea: Lizbet 'Lizby' Fain, an almost-orphan who lives with her insane younger brother and a bunch of other mentally unstable kids in a warehouse in the industrial quadrant of the planet Rebellion. She has a grueling, low-pay job as a dockhand-slash-mechanic at one of the many freighting skyports, where she loads and unloads cargo from the steamships and generally picks up heavy stuff. Hence the funky metal performance-enhancement rigs on her arms. Removable, of course. Dude, imagine if she couldn't take them off... that would be just weird. AHAHAHAAA. I crack myself up. Can you tell I just discovered steampunk? Lawl yess. I mean, gunpowder... parasol... haberdashery... really? Do I sense a trend here? Why yes, I believe I do. Oh, Rebellion is a dying planet by the way, cuz the stupid humans are totally pumping all the life out of it and turning everything into coal to run all the steam engines with (yess, I went and looked up how steam engines work because I hate to get my facts wrong.) Stupid humans. *swats the lot of them* Oh, and the planet is actually a sentient being in disguise. So it can like, talk to certain people and stuff. Only a few certain people. And those people generally wind up insane cuz they hear these creepy voices in their heads all the time. Ahahaaaa. Insert evil cackle here. And did I mention the fact that some people are trying to save Rebellion by developing clean, highly efficient organic technology that also happens to be extremely illegal because the government doesn't want people to know about the deteriorating condition of the planet and just keep churning out coal at suicidal rates? Whoa yes.

Tears is in this story! His real name is Tarren Hawkes, and he's several years younger than I thought. But he's still crazy and still missing his thumbs and still has a wonky haircut, so it's still HIM. The insane brother's name is Hickory Fain, called Hex, and he looks nothing like his sister and is one of those certain people who's gone funny because of the voices of Rebellion in his head. Then there's some other crazy-orphan people: Meena and Mandis Redlock, who are sisters; Jaxter Torrington, who likes to steal stuff; Ben Lander, who is schizophrenic; Zaraia Greencastle, who comes from another planet, and Silence, who can't talk and therefore can't tell anyone her name. Then there's Jonathan Brackolt, an old gentleman who knew Lizby and Hickory's grandfather and is developing a cruiser that runs entirely on oxygen (or something); Ivy Dale, who is their mother and still alive but quite insane; Mahogany Gabbs, who is called Mag and runs freighters at the skyport where Lizby works; Symon Hopper, Lizby's overseer and something of a bad guy; Thomas Fain, the long-dead grandfather; and Rebellion itself, which is a planet and only sort of counts. Then the bad guys, who all work for the government and are too numerous to list off, and the head of the organization, whose identity is so secret that no one's ever heard his name and he is known only as Nocturn. (I wanted to name him Miasma, but I have the feeling one of Brentalope's villains already has that name. Now I can't remember, of course. Meh.) The government people know about Rebellion's sentience and their job is to hunt down anyone who can hear his voices, but they have to do it without alarming the masses, so they set up mental institutions and test all the insane people that come through, hunting for the Voices, as they call them. The Voices are 'liquidized' and all the others just kind of hang out. Therein lies the beauty of abandoned warehouses in the industrial district, see? No one ever looks there. Usually. *smirk smirk*

Kay. There, I think I'm done. I think.

Commander Kip
Then he took out his bazooka and killed King George.
Normal is overrated!

things that ought to be mentioned - the asylum edition

Which are: I am dead. Just for your information. Deader than dukes. Blargh. akf;edkjfhdfihiehjadh the inside of my brain looks like that right now. Which is why s;ojwnkcv nothing that comes out of it is making any s;lkjfiwhal sense and is therefore not worth posting. kehadsfkjh;hwahajfjjkd poke poke. SEMICOLONSEMICOLONSEMICOLON.

Yeah. I'm working on some stuff, but nothing's coming out how I want and it might be awhile before I find the time to dig my scanner out from under the towering pile of heavily modded Nerf guns, hammers, screwdrivers, giant plastic gears, old watches, even older newspapers and faux leather it is currently buried under, in order to post things, you know.

WATERMELON.

So no, I did not see Lara Croft: Tomb Raider the other night and no, I did not find it slightly cheesy and ridiculous and no, we are not speaking in opposites today, my preciouss. Not in the least. But I want my room to look like the Arctic temple thingy with the giant mechanical model of the solar system and the cute litte moats and stuff, cuz that would be beyawnd awesome. No one knows what I'm talking about? Psh, what else is new.

GUNPOWDER. PARASOLE. HABERDASHERY.

The random refuses to go away.

Hey, guess what? I haz new story idea and I'm afraid to write it for fear I'll go insane. Cuz it's full of insane people. They're allovertheplace. Oh, that reminds me - I haz piksher. Jussasecond. You know what? I'll put it in the sane post that's bound to follow this one, then delete this one so I don't ruin anyone's brain. Sound fair? Good. I shall return.

Commander Kip
Are you kidding? I kill you for a Klondike bar.
Normal is overrated! aodfiaehwehrifhaiufhbdfc

enough procrastinating already

I finally sat down and drew this. I've been wanting to do it for ages. So yeah, you know who these people are. Peter Pan in Scarlet: go read it NAOW. Peter in Hook's second-best coat and Wendy in her pirate-flag dress. And her daughter's ballet slippers, lol. I had fun doing them. Don't even think about looking at their feet, by the way.

All right, so I'm leaving on Monday for my third year of the Future Astronaut Training Program, which means I'll be going to Houston, yaay! So excited. I get to push all the important buttons. WOOT. So anyway, I won't be anywhere near an Internet connection until the following weekend, so don't freak when I disappear. I'll try to remember to take pictures.

OYAN workshop was mythic win, by the way. I gotta see if I can find any pictures that don't have my face in them. Lol.

Commander Kip
Got the ------! Er, pardon my Martian, ma'am.
Normal is overrated!

Ekklesia...

... was awesome. If you didn't go see it, then shame on yuu. The COSTUMES, gaah, it was awesome. This charrie was my favorite. Her name is Sabra and she's this demon-possessed slave girl who can see the future. Or something. So her two nasty owners make her tell people's fortunes in the Philippi marketplace, and she's hating life because she hears all these voices in her head and can't make them shut up, and then one of the disciples chases the demons out and Sabra's all like 'wut...' and then she can't see the future any more. The actress who played her did an outstanding job of being demon-possessed. I'm glad I had my sketchbook handy while I was there, cuz there was no way I was going to remember what she was wearing if I waited till I got home. Plus, that evening I somehow hurt my face and Mom had to drive me to the chiropractor, who said I'd managed to pull my sternocleidomastoid, which was messing up my face. So then he pinched my neck for a while and I felt better. Sigh. I love my chiropractor. He has some serious skills.

So yeah, that was that day. XD The sketch was actually an assignment for my SME art class I'm taking in the fall (public school, gaaaaah!) We're supposed to keep a notebook full of everything for the next two years - like, seriously everything - ticket stubs, gum wrappers, trash, string, photos, food spills, sketches, book reviews, lists of things, art critiques, random crap - EVERYTHING. The book's called 'iBrain', and it is totally the best assignment in the history of the world. So much fun. I've already taped a bunch of ice cream sample spoons in mine. I love it.

I'm taking a temporary time-out from Chapter Twelve in order to finish reworking the first four pages of Chapter One in time for the OYAN workshop... tomorrow. O.o Better go deal with that.

Also, I'm reading Much Ado About Nothing and it is hilarious. Yeah, you heard right. Shakespeare. Is. HILARIOUS.

Commander Kip
It's the polar stinkin' ice cap.
Normal is overrated!

more green

Because green is yummeh.

This here is mah baby Thalassaneldrisorca. Or Thalassa for short. Doesn't she look fine in her summer frock? XD She has quite a few battle scars, but I love her anyway. Best climbing tree evar. It's like a whole nother world up there.

I can't think of a single thing prettier than a nice frothy mass of maple leaves with the sun lighting them up from behind.

Some lovely contrast here.

Hey, lookit, cotton candy! *reaches for* *isn't QUITE tall enough*

*sigh*

What are these called - bleeding hearts? Barbaric name for such an elegant flower, don't you think?

Mah yaaard. It's not as epic as Lady Arin's, but I love it.

Why hallo thare.

RANDOM RAMEN!! *wants to go watch Naruto now* *but won't, because the OYAN workshop is tomorrow and Kipin hasn't edited her first four pages yet, OR finished Chapter Twelve, OR written Chapter Thirteen, or anything*

I'm tired this week. Taekwondo camp. Twenty sugar-crazed children. Seven teenage instructors. One cardboard box full of plastic collapsible lightsabers. EQUALS INSANITY. And lots of spilled Koolaid.

Awright, off to do something productive naow.

Commander Kip

"What is the matter with you? Do you even HAVE opposable thumbs?" "Most of the time..."

Normal is overrated!

another assortment, w0ot

Again. Yes.

I saw Avatar again last night and couldn't resist the urge. Those stinking Na'vi are too much fun to draw. Oh, and I forgot the stripes. Oh well. Captain Holly Short, take two! Much better now. I had a good time with her gun.

Blasted liney paper. *smites*

Okay, lemme introduce Xandria to you guys. She's one of the weird people from that weird story idea with the dead person, remember I told you about that? Yeah, she's from there. I love her cuz she wears strange clothes. XD

Closeup of the ponytail shot.

Different outfits I could put her in... her arms are REALLY short on the last one...

Irk, mah faery. Looking decidedly unlike herself. *shrug* I was bored with algebra.

Another faery boy. His name is Gremlin, but he'd rather be called Chase. Strange child. *swats* I was trying out a different style of face on him.

Jace Wayland. With little floofy wings, because I say so. Cocky little angel boy. EVERYBODY go read Mortal Instruments, cuz Jace is way hotter than Edward Cullen. He acts like a human being and everything. And his eyes are prettier too. Just saying.

Okay, I'll stop spamming you guys now. Better stuff on the way. *cackles in anticipation*

Commander Kip

"How will I know if he chooses me?" "He will try to kill you." Meep.

Normal is overrated!

the Nobchild

I know, this really doesn't fit under the label 'faerie doors', but... close enough. Whatevz.

It's Fizzy's graduation present. His name is Nob. XD

That was fun. I might do more of these. Provided I can find some more heads, lol. I've been cannibalizing the first batch of faeries I made a billion years ago and stealing all their heads and bodies. I had a very strange sense of color scheme back then... *shakes head and shudders* I used to think blue, pink and yellow went well together. Gaack.

In other news; Mom, Brennie and I had a Charlie's Angels marathon the other night. Saw both movies one after the other. It was... fun? Hehe... pretty dorky, but fun. I need a little dork-age in my life every now and then. I kinda wanna draw Madison now, something dark and blood-splattery with swirlie hair and symbolic wings and stiletto heels and guns and boobs and stuff. HA. As if I have time for THAT. What? Madison was cool. Despite her rebellious evilness.

Hey, you're never gonna believe this. (Seriously, sit down. This might be kind of a shock.) I, Commander Kipin M. Rakshana of the Order Reborn, hath finally completed Chapter Eleven of Erimon Hill. TAKE THAT, FABLE. *smites* I was up till two in the morning again, and my brain sort of died on the last paragraph, but it was waaay worth it. Cuz now I get to write the fun part! Fun for me, not really for anyone else. Most especially Nath. Ye be warned - I am about to be incredibly mean to him. MUAAAAA.

Commander Kip

"I have something you'll never have." "What's that?" "Friends."

Normal is overrated!

an assortment

Seriously, none of these are in any way related. Whatsoever.

I had a crack at Farid from the Inkworld trilogy. Meh... better than my previous attempts, certainly, but he looks so short here. Why can I never make people's legs long enough? Some random Eigon that happened while my computer was droning at me about the quadratic formula. He looks a bit confused, doesn't he? I like how his tattoos came out.

Went to hear a gorgeous baroque concert last night that my parents were playing in. The cathedral was as gorgeous as the music. There were these awesome purple stained-glass windows and little curly bits and bobs and statues all over the place. I had to draw pieces of it. Yeah, I epically botched the perspective on that window alcove, but whatever. That's not the point.

Randomly colored this, since I was sick last week and school was sort of over. All I had left was Spanish presentations, which I coughed my way through quite miserably (habia sangre por todos partes blaargh ack choke) but other than that... I was feeling home free. And I missed the fetal pig dissection, ta-ha. *is pleased with self*

This looks loads better in real life. Meh. I do so enjoy those colors together.

Don't look at me like that. I happen to adore this pairing. And what else am I supposed to do when the two of them show up in the margins of my algebra 2 textbook?

If you don't know who this is, then there is something wrong with your brain, and I shall be forced to do surgery on it with the business end of mah orc cleaver thingy. *pat pat* Kidding. It's Orochimaru, the awesomest creeper evar. Seriously, he's like indestructable. Sorry, guys, I am in extreme Naruto overload over here.

And this is Ratter, another new charrie of mine. He's somewhere in his mid-teens, has awesome dark curly hair, and is a pirate! *squeeface* His job is to keep the vermin out of the provisions on Captain Calamity's ship. Too bad that's pretty much impossible (hence all the scars.) He gets kicked around a lot... but he always comes out of it grinning. I luvz him. Yeah, I realize his anatomy is ridiculously skewed and his hand looks like a blob, but I'm mighty pleased with the expression on his face, so I'm keeping him.

Now, about that piano practice I was supposed to be doing... *sidles out of the room wearing a guilty don't-eat-me expression*

Commander Kip

Gotta get dat protein in dere.

Normal is overrated!