AJSwitz

I haven't updated my journal in about a year. Ouch. Been busy, what can I say?

Artwork has been a little slow to come recently. I only had one drawing class last quarter, and my only art class this quarter is for digital art (haven't produced much, though). In the meantime, I've been painting butts. There's really no reason for it other than butts are pretty awesome. And they're fun to paint. Not to mention I like using watercolors to create soft female forms. It's fortunate that my roommate doesn't mind; I've got my artwork up on the walls and even taped to the ceiling light. (We don't use it anyway; lamps and the window are the lights of choice.) Hopefully I will soon have the time and the patience to do some male butt paintings.

I've been missing working at the movie theater lately. Not just the people, but the way things were when I first started out there. I was just another high school kid trying to work hard and impress my GM, bubbly all the time, and an efficient worker. Replace bubbly with grumpy and that's where I was in December. Hopefully I can lighten up a bit when summer's here.

Speaking of jobs, I did some work back in January for an individual. Haven't received any payment in a little over a month, and I haven't heard from the person in a couple of weeks. I've been reluctant to send a nagging email, but it's not because of nervousness. Every time I try to write the message, it sounds bossy, rude, and insulting. Once I manage to convey the same message in a more civil tone, hopefully I can get this taken care of so it'll stop bothering me.

The best news of all: SPRING BREAK! Starts tomorrow. Just have to finish editing a paper and go to class tomorrow, then I get to fly home again. It's kind of a big deal. Before I went home for winter break a couple months ago, I hadn't been in an airplane since the 90's. So this will be the second time I've flown by myself in this century. As long as it's still impossible for me to accidentally get on the wrong plane, I'll be fine. I cheered when we hit some turbulence last time, and I hope there's more this trip.

One week to be home and not work... Oof, that sounds really good.

I probably have way more stuff to upload than I can think of right now, but classes have been keeping me pretty busy. I've got some requests I'm still working on, as well as my class projects and my personal work. I've been going back to my writing lately, too. Now that I've passed my block, I can keep going!

While I was trying to think of a name for my novel (the one I've been working on the longest, and it still has no title), I started imagining when it's published. I'd tried coming up with a cover design before, but without a title, that seemed like a wasted effort. Well, I've been churning out possible titles all week, and just yesterday I thought of an idea for the cover. I'll be doing a black and white version while I plan it out, and then I'll do a full painting if I like it. Hope you're looking forward to it!

A day late, but all the same, I wish everyone a happy holiday season! The general lack of uploads is due to me being a workaholic, owning both Dragon Age games, and I just got Skyrim. I have a commission on Gaia I should work on, but I am waiting on some feedback. Otherwise, I'm super obsessed with dragons and mages at the moment (gee, I wonder why!) so I may upload a few doodles of the sort.

I do have a request! I'm looking into dragon jewelry, so if anyone has any ideas of cool places to look (or cool people to commission!), please let me know! And I'm also working on designing a quill tattoo for my shoulder blade. Any ideas are welcome!

So, counting down the last five days until I move into my dorm. Very excited! That's been the reason why I haven't been adding really anything lately. Once I start classes, we'll see how much time I can devote to new pictures. Mostly I've been writing and packing, and I'm having trouble putting Photoshop CS5 on my laptop. I may use CS3 since I have that on a disc, but I really don't want to downgrade. ><

The last painting I uploaded is the first in a little mini-series I'm doing to illustrate my novel. So far Ruby has been done, and I've sketched out Mylo but I'm working on his costume. Keyn is being even more difficult in his sketching, but I will prevail!

So, for anyone interested in how life's going for me, here's an update! I got my second round of braces off a few weeks ago, so hurray for a perfectly straight smile (again)! And just a few days ago I had my wisdom teeth removed. It's not fun having to take teeny bites of soft food, but the worst part is I can't laugh or smile. It's awful! I love laughing, and I love people who make me laugh, but it currently threatens to rip my stitches open.

As much as I want to continue painting, I've had to relocate all of my painting things. I used to have half a table at my disposal (a large dining room table, mind you), but my brother took over the other half, then piled his projects ON TOP of my paintings. So, I moved my paint to the floor and had to use what was left of the table to finish my graduation thank-you cards. Now the entire table is covered with his stuff, and my paint is packed up. I have a few more weeks before I leave for college, so hopefully I can break out the paint and keep producing art! Otherwise, my uploads may be slow, sparse, and limited to photography.

And, in keeping with my dislike for medication, I'm quite proud of not taking Vicodin! One Advil and my prescribed penicillin is enough; I can muscle through the pain. It's only temporary, after all.