Portrait of Me by Lemanntim

For some reason I love to collect portraits of myself drawn by different artists.  I've been amassing them over the past 10 years.  The other day, I discovered the amazing art of Lemanntim on deviantART.  She had posted the cutest illustration for a children's book and I started watching/following her gallery.  She had the most awesome portraits as well.  I noticed that she was currently taking commissions.  I had to have her draw a picture for my collection.  Here is the fantastic result.

It puts me in mind of the children's books my babysitter used to read me and my sister when we were little.  Most of those books were from the 60's and 70's because they belonged to her children.  I love Lemanntim's unique style of coloring.  I do believe that this is my favorite portrait in my collection thus far.  

My First Adoptables

Adoptables are characters that an artist designs and sells or auctions off.  The person who buys them then has the rights to that character.  I just happened to see a couple of really cute adoptables in my deviantWATCH feed and I had to have them.  Both have tails that reminded me of an opossum (my favorite animal).  Adopt-Mii is the artist who designed both characters.  They are super cute and I can't wait to draw them in my own style.  I may even make them into plushies eventually.

I think the first one is my favorite.  I've named the second one "Penny Possum," but I haven't named the first one yet.  What would you name her?  I think she's a mouse.  

Pixel Therapy

Starting this afternoon and into the evening, things were rough for me.  At times I was depressed and at times I was numb.  I had 2 or 3 good days prior to today and I thought the worst was over.  I guess I started worrying once I heard that things were going to get worse and we were going to have a "Pearl Harbor/911" moment with regard to the pandemic.  I had to keep my mind off of the madness, but I didn't feel like crafting or doing traditional drawings.  I have the program, PikoPixel, on my computer so I thought I'd play around with it.  I browsed the free icon bases on deviantART and found several that I liked.  Here are 3 of my favorite icons that I made today.  They are all in my likeness since I love doing self portraits.  It's not due to vanity by any means.  I just think I make a good character.  =P

The base for this first one was created by ChibiPancake on deviantART.  Keep in mind that I'm a total novice at this and I'm still learning.  Shading is not one of my strong suits.  

The next base is by Sody-Pop on dA.  I had to make at least one COVID-19 related pixel.

Finally, I made a whole body pixel icon with a base by fuwaffy on dA.  

I made 3 other pixel icons, but these are my favorites.  Making these icons really lifted my spirits.  I feel so much better than I did earlier.  I did make one from scratch today: a bottle of hand sanitizer.

If you'd like to see more of my art, you can see it on my deviantART page.  

deviantART - 1, kiddo - 0

In case you didn't notice, I finally got a response from dA and I updated my original post here.  Since then, I have not heard back from anyone at dA.  The fat shaming thread is still going strong.  The disturbing thing is that no one is standing up against the OP (original poster).  I haven't posted in the thread because I know anything that I say will just be mocked.  Then I will get mad and go off on a swearing spree.  I tend to have a short fuse when it comes to trolls and ignorant people.  So I am admitting defeat.  I hate doing so, but at this point I think I've done all that one person can do.  I'm just disgusted that in this day and age certain groups of people are still being attacked because they are different.  I'm also disgusted that people who are charged with protecting these groups do nothing to ensure that they are treated fairly.  I feel that since dA runs the site, they should make sure that all their patrons feel welcome in all areas of the site and that they aren't discriminated against by any of their other members.   

deviantART Doesn't Care About Fat Shaming UPDATED

The other day, I was browsing the deviantART forums, which is really never a good idea because it always results in me getting royally pissed off. I ran across a thread titled "Fat Grotesque Pigs." I was appalled at the hate that was spewing from the OP (original poster). It was as if they thought overweight people were barely human. What bothered me even more was that people were jumping in and supporting the OP's hateful rhetoric. The OP was a huge bully to those who disagreed with them. I was truly shocked that in the year 2020 people are still behaving like Neanderthals. I was too angry to comment on the thread, but did report the thread to dA's Help Desk on 3/2/2020. I checked back on 3/4/2020 and the thread was still going strong. I filed another complaint the same day. Today is 3/7/2020, and no one has replied to the tickets I submitted with the Help Desk and the thread is still up. It hasn't been updated in 2 days, but why is it even still open?


 By allowing this thread to remain open and grow, dA is essentially promoting fat shaming and bullying. They have been made aware of the problem at least twice by me and have refused to do anything about it. They are allowing a group of people to be subjected to discrimination by members of their site. In the meantime, moderators have shut down a couple of threads: one because someone was bashing dA and another because someone said something about strangling someone with a mandolin string. I believe the fat shaming thread is far more dangerous than the latter mentioned thread as it could have serious ramifications on one's self esteem which could possibly lead to psychiatric issues or self harm. I stated this in my tickets to the Help Desk, but dA obviously doesn't care. This both infuriates and saddens me. I guess I've done all I can do at this point. I'll let Karma sort out the rest.

Addendum: 3/16/2020
I finally got a canned response from dA today.  The email was informing me of general guidelines on how to handle someone bullying you online.  Totally had nothing to do with my complaint since I wasn't involved in the thread.  I replied as follows:

My point, which may have not been clear because I was angry at the time, was that the thread is degrading and dehumanizing to a section of the human population.  If they were calling a specific race, gender, or sex disgusting, you would have stopped it.  You are essentially promoting fat shaming by leaving this up.  It shows that dA doesn't care when people bully fat people just because they weigh more than someone else.  FTR I wasn't involved in the thread discussion, so most of your email to me didn't apply to me.  I just saw the thread post and found it offensive.  It demoralizes a whole section of the Earth's population and you guys, frankly, look like jerks because you're allowing it to happen on your forum.  That was my point.  

Happy in Yellow

Recently I discovered an amazing textile artist from Australia on deviantART. Her name is Sarah Neale. She creates art out of canvas, fabric, and different fibers. Here is my favorite:

Kate

Sarah just opened up an Etsy shop called Happy in Yellow. You can find Kate and some colorful, adorable bears at Happy in Yellow. Make sure and check out Happy in Yellow on Etsy and on deviantART.

Sloth Quilt Square

My friend Dana Wilson is currently organizing an event on deviantART called "A World of Friends." She is collecting artwork from fellow deviants in order to make a collective quilt. I'm really stoked about my contribution to this event. I love the little sloth I designed, and I'm planning on making another to frame for my room. I may even make some for my Etsy shop.

Anyone on deviantART may join this event. You can find more information on "A World of Friends" HERE. If you're not a deviantART member, it's free and easy to join up, so what's stopping you?

What I've Been Working On

This year has been pretty busy for me. I've gotten several custom orders for plushies and that's what I spend the majority of my time doing these days. Here are a few of the custom orders that I've done this year.

"Imagination Movers"

Snape from "Harry Potter"

Pirate Captain

Pink Turtle

Purple Turtle

Adipose Baby from "Dr. Who"

Donna Noble from "Dr. Who"

David Tennant from "Dr. Who"

 

Those are just a few of the things I've been working on this year (these within the past month).  If you're ever curious as to what I'm up to,  you can always visit my deviantART profile.  If you'd like to place an order for a custom plushie, you can either e-mail me or contact me in my Etsy shop.

What I've Been Up To

I think I may have mentioned that I was in a bit of a crafting slump about a week ago. I had so many projects to do, but just no motivation to make anything. Not being able to create led me to become very depressed and I just didn't see an end in sight. I'm happy to report that the slump is over, and I'm crafting again! I'm not working at the furious pace I had been for several months, and that's probably a good thing because I believe that's what led to my burnout. Emotionally, I feel happy lately and I'm very optimistic about life. I've not felt this way for . . . well I really can't remember feeling this way. I've made some positive changes in my personal life and I'm moving forward. I also have a second job interview for a position with a company that I really really want. I'm very hopeful about my prospects as I have many years of experience doing this type of work. On to what I've been making recently.

I procured several rolls of fleece remnants from the remnant basket at Hobby Lobby recently. I'd never really worked with fleece before, but enjoyed making plushies out of it simply because it's so soft and snuggly. I ran across a tutorial on deviantART the other day about how to make fleece hats. It looked simple enough, so I drew a similar pattern to the one the artist used (I don't have easy access to a printer so I just drew the pattern free hand). Due to my hands-on learning style, it's difficult for me to follow written tutorials. I just really have to do the whole trial and error method when creating. So I did what I thought would work, and hand sewed my first felt hat! It came out a little wonky because my pattern wasn't accurate. I decided to add bunny ears and a kawaii face to it. Here is the finished product.

I did a little more research on the pattern because I wanted to make one for my friend, Ruby, to send her as a part of the Kawaii Swap we're participating in on Cut Out + Keep.  I found a pattern somewhere on the web that was made by using all these metric measurements.  Since I'm horrible at following directions and doing Math, it took me a little while to draw up the pattern, but I finally did it!  This time the hat came out more uniform.  I made a duck because that's Ruby's favorite animal.

I wasn't lazy this go around, so I added a brim to make it look finished.  It took me all day because again I only sew by hand, but I'm very pleased with the results.  I've still got one or two more projects to do for this swap, but I've not settled on an idea or ideas yet.

I have so much more on my list of things to do!  Since I lost about a week and a half due to my slump; I'm behind.  I have two t-shirts to stencil, an ornament swap to work on (I have one of six completed), a pair of earrings to make, and a blog feature to write.  I'm trying my best not to become overwhelmed, especially with the job interview coming up tomorrow.  I guess it's off to work on my list now!

In My Own Little World

Just a drawing I did showing some of my favorite things. I used three different programs to make it: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and GIMP. It's my favorite drawing I've done so far.

Yeti

Ariel and Sebastian

Cute Duck Plushie

I made this using a free downloadable pattern found HERE. Isn't she cute?

Etch A Sketch Appliqued Bag for Allie

Power Up Appliqued Bag

Finished Wicketos Plushie

I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

Wicketos Plushie--Work In Progress

I am currently working on a Wicketos plushie for my friend 5chmee on deviantART. I've already made three plushies for him as part of a few art trades: one his character, Wicket, and two of his character, Reap. This particular plushie is quite daunting as it is his character Wicket depicting 5chmee's favorite video game character, Kratos. Here is my reference picture (5chmee's artwork).

I have a feeling that this one is going to take me a while! I'll post a picture of the finished product once I'm done.

Adventure Time!!!

This is a picture of Finn I drew from my favorite cartoon, "Adventure Time." If you haven't seen this cartoon, you should really tune into Cartoon Network and watch!

My New Boing Avatar on dA!!!

I just received my new Boing avatar that I commissioned from Kiki-Myaki! I'm super excited about it as I'm an avatar whore, I adore pixel art, and I'm a big fan of Kiki's work! You can't see it here, but the avatar boings up and down. You should really check out Kiki-Myaki's profile on deviantART. She's fabulous!!!

Happy Meal

This is a picture I drew for a contest on deviantART. The drawing below, "My Wish for the Future," won a 3 month premium subscription on dA! I was so thrilled and honored to win!