It's meeeeee...

Well, time to explain my disappearance.  I had final projects due, and we're not out of the woods yet because exams are up. And it's that awkward moment when you realize you skipped half your semester so you can finish writing your research papers. Wait, what do you mean that never happened to you and you don't know what I'm talking about?

I meant to post something right after I got my papers written, but there wasn't much time for anything except for my NPC ref and the prompt. And in between that I got a worse-than-usual headache from eyestrain and was encouraged to stay off the laptop.  I still occasionally get some pain my right eye for some reason, so I'm thinking of investing in one of those anti-glare screens.  Until then I'll be cutting back on my laptop time.

The good news is I do have a few deviations I want to upload soon.  There's two sketchdumps that are almost ready, one featuring failed deviations from two years ago, and another with art that's more up-to-date.  I also have some previously mentioned fanart that's as finished as it'll ever be, and I went on a pencil on paper sketching binge due to my recent laptop abstinence. I don't have a scanner now, so I've been taking pictures of my base sketches and uploading them onto my laptop instead.  It's working alright so far, but I'm concerned about how the face recognition function on my camera insists that the shoulders I draw are really faces.

And guess what? I got tagged for a meme but I haven't done it until now. SORRY. It's so late it has a Valentine's day question...

Tagged by: ~LilithEsper

1. How do you know me? From Real Life or DA and where?

From real life.  We went to grade/high school together.  I think I can best describe your personality as being incredibly-scarily alike to an archetypal shoujo heroine.  And I suppose that would make me the archetypal quiet girl/runner up love interest for every harem ever.

2. What's your main for type of medium?

Pencil, paper, tablet and Photoshop/Sai.  For a while I skipped the whole pencil-paper thing and drew everything digitally.  But then I realized my sense of depth is off when I do that. (My sense of depth isn't perfect in the first place, and I'm not being self-deprecating.) Because my tablet pen doesn't draw directly to my canvas, I feel a step removed from the whole process, so I'm trying to get my pencil sketches back into my drawings now.

3. Craziest thing you have ever seen in real life >_>

Well, I know I've seen some crazy things before.  But I can't think of anything very interesting at the moment.  There was that one time I was walking between classes and a guy in a cow suit tried to give me a pamphlet, but I didn't take it so I'm not sure what it was about.

How about this: when I went to the Philippines with my family back when I was fourteen, we went hiking up one of the many mountains there.  There were groups of people staying around the base of it and looking out for dumb tourists like us. (They had very charming stories about little girls who tripped down the mountain path and cracked their heads open on the rocks.) Out of them, this kid went along with us, sort of walking ahead and swatting at the grass with a stick to "clear our way."  As anyone who's had to climb a long flight of steps knows, walking uphill gets very tiring very fast.  So we're lumbering up this path made up of thin sheets of stone (and wondering "Hm, I wonder if that little girl fell here"), and this kid is skipping ahead of us like it's nobody's business.  So I'm thinking, "Okay he's probably done this a lot.  But he's bound to tire out eventually." But NO. He keeps going, happy as a clam.  When we saw one of the rest stations, my then very weary sisters and I looked at each other and said a feeble "We did it," like bedraggled, dying Doras.  Then the kid's face lights up and he says "Dora!" (He spoke a little English) and breaks out into song. So not only is he a little kid, he's a little kid singing Dora the Explorer songs and kicking my ass at mountain hiking. Once we reached the top (okay, it was the rest stations), we were all sweaty and cursing ourselves for being too stupid to bring a drink up.  We thought we'd take a jeep back down, but the kid said he'd get us something at one of the stations down below, and he ran back down the mountain.  

I swear, there's some superhuman kids being raised in that country, goddamn.

And that's my story about being a stupid wimpy tourist.

4. Do you poop?

LADIES DO NOT DEFECATE IN AN UNSEEMINGLY MANNER. We convert unwanted body waste into perfumey smells and tears shed in hysteria.

5. What is your most cherished possession?

A really shallow answer, but it's my laptop. All my work is on there.  If it ever crashes, I'll rip every hair from my body in an inconsolable RAEG.

I better back up my files now.

6. What is the song you wish to have played when you die?

Pachebel's Canon. Because that's what you usually play when you're getting married. *rimshot* (I'm not sure why people play it at weddings –I always thought it sounded melancholy.  Pretty, but melancholy. And yes, I like it.  Give me a hand-knit sweater, a few cats, and call me Old Lady Enoch, why dont'ca?) But seriously, I don't know.

7. Do you like My Little Pony Friendship is Magic?

Ah, one of the most sensitive questions you can ask a person. It's right next to questions about God and abortion and politics.

Yes, but I don't think it's for the same reason as everyone else.  I think it's a good cartoon, but not AMAZING.  I'm not too wild about how the ponies are drawn, and the storylines aren't really new –it's not revolutionary in that way. But it's fun.  It's having fun being a cartoon.  Which is (surprisingly) rare for a girl's cartoon.  When I was a tween, [whoops, long introspective ahead] I don't think the people marketing the "girly" toy/cartoon lines believed we were paying attention to the shows. I could go for hours about them selling us teenagerhood because they couldn't comprehend girls being interested in anything else, but mostly, I think there's this weird idea floating around that young girls don't like cartoons and fantasy.  They like "real" things, like combing each other's hair at slumber parties and dressing up dolls. So these toy lines made slumber party toys and thinly veiled cash-in cartoons to promote them. Hey corporate suits, I'm sorry if a girl laughed at you once at recess because you were running around with a stick playing "knights", but we're not really like that.  We played "knights" once too.

Ponies still has a toy line to support, but the show isn't self-conscious about trying to pull in a girl audience. It's self aware, there are fantasy elements, there's self-deprecating slapstick.  I can't remember a tween franchise I grew up with where it was okay to laugh at the good girls.  You'll never see a piano dropping on Barbie's head.

I hope cartoons marketed for girls will drop pretensions about what girls want to see on television.  I hope Ponies isn't where it ends. Probably not, because fans hold FIM on such a high pedestal, which is kind of a shame. Girls are a legitimate audience for cartoons and I'm afraid the brony phenomenon might take some focus away from that. /introspective

And fans saying Ponies isn't a girl's cartoon, shut up. It's a girl's cartoon. And you like it.  And that shouldn't matter.

And back to your regularly scheduled frivolity!

8. Dude looks like a lady~!

Hey, leave Henry Pietro out of this!

9. (since it's so damn close) what do you think of valentines day?

It's worth it just to see things like this: [link]

10. why do you watch me? do you love me~?

I want you, I need you, but there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you.

Now don't be sad

'Cause two out of three ain't bad. (Hey, I can quote classic songs too!)

Just kidding! I miss you please let me stay at your cool crib in Toronto again I swear I won't get my cooties everywhere HHHRRGHHH!

Welp, that's it for now.  I promise I'll post less insulting deviations than my PaG prompt sometime soon.