Spent a sunny Saturday doing some digital illustration.

Comments and Blethering: I've been trying to work out a simplified version of Tyler's Northern Mockingbird wing design (a more detailed rough is on the art page), think I might have cracked it here. This started out with the intention to show his balled-up fists, then meandered into trying some Andrew Loomis-style anatomy skeletons because I've been reading through his reference books, before turning into basically a big picture of wings and smugface Ty. Materials used: My beat-up old Wacom tablet, Alias Sketchbook Pro with the medium ink brush.

The rough base sketch.

And of course, in my typical style, this has all been a complex way of procrastinating from editing this gentleman's story. So I suppose I should get back to that.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Got some news today that rocked the boat much more than I wanted it to, and now I feel very metaphorically seasick.
As a result, blog posts may drop for the next few months, but right now I'm distracting myself by sketching. And by 'sketching' I mean 'auto-piloting to the same head tilted 3/4' that I tend to draw when I'm not sure what to draw. I spiced it up with inverted lighting, limited colours and BLOOD. So despite the laziness, this was fun.

And now back to drinking tea and writing, I think.

Oh, and here's a song to lighten the mood.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Another piece of fanart today - this is Grey from Inhuman, a brilliant sci-fi webcomic you can read over here. It's all drawn traditionally in marker-pen, and looks stunning.

The artist had what seemed like a crazy New Years week, so I thought I'd draw them a little something.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

I've updated two pages on the site - there's now a page for my current writing project, my YA paranormal novel "Rebel Against Heaven". (This project was previously going under the working title "Saint"). Once I'm finished polishing it to a shine and had it vastly improved by the critical eyes of brilliant beta readers, I'll update the page to be less vague.

Also, even though drawing isn't my strong point I like to doodle my characters in between writing. I've updated the page for R.A.H. art which I'll update occasionally - the images are included below as well.

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Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Shiny New Feature: You can now leave comments on posts using your Facebook, Twitter or OpenID account.

Three new "The Network" character sketches have been added to the gallery...

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A quick explanation on what they're about...

• The topless guy is Alex, the young programmer who created the virtual reality game The Network. He has a long list of mental issues including anorexia, which leads him to covering areas like his chest and stomach in bandages to create a slimmer outline when wearing clothes. He's also severely depressed, and when he's not taking suicidal risks he's flipping between self-hatred and a vicious rage. Great guy to have in charge of the world's biggest MMORPG, right?
• The one with two characters in it shows DT, the Network's youngest moderator in her cat-girl avatar, and hacker Muvo in his modified demon avatar. These two have a rough start in the first book, but with the game's owner acting a bit crazy, a moderator could use a hacker as a safety net, and a hacker can always use someone on the inside.
• Then there's DT on her own, looking a bit annoyed. She's a weapons-master character, which means she can come up with any kind of weapon to suit her tactics, but she's weaker with each weapon than a specialist would be and has poor strength and defense. The dark swirly business means she's about to yank a weapon out of mid-air, and that messy scribble in her left hand is a cable for connecting into the game's admin control panel and accessing her various order-keeping tools (like a big hammer).

Easter went by fast. Now I've gt dinner to make, and the clocks are ticking down to work in the morning. Have a good night!

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

I was in the process of jazzing up FK with some plug-ins when I found an automatic wordpress update plugin. Itw worked like a charm, and now everything's working smoother than ever, complete with a new backend. The admin layout is a lot brighter and fun to use, this makes me happy. :3

Now, this blog has been neglected of late, but I'm working on sorting that. Look out for fun things like this in the future:

- Life updates. My boyfriend and I move in to our own house on my birthday, the second of October, which along with the workload requiredb to afford this is sucking up a lot of my time.

- Writing updates. New short stories are underway, including a new one you can read over at the forum.

- Art updates. I'm still drawing, I just don't have scanning time.

- Reviews. Books, movies, games, anything really... I'll be working on developing my critical abilities.

- Essays. I'm still in two minds about this, haha, it reminds me a bit of school, but I should be attempting some essays.

- Site updates. UG's overhaul is still not completely finished - I need to sort out issues with spam on the blog and news, for instance.

- Merch updates. I will eventually get round to designing new products from Punk Ethic. Where I will get the funds to create these projects is another question entirely.

- Creation of a 'member's club'. This is more complex, and still under construction, but I'm working on unifying membes via a feature called E.Maree's Army. It might involve premium forum status or access, early viewing of sample book chapters, exclusive wallpapers and other such goodies.

How I'm supposed to do this with SMF, WordPress and a normal HTML/CSS site is a good question. xD

...Fun times.

Also, if anyone reading this and is proficient in WordPress design, I'm looking for some help integrating the blog into the main site's layout. Give me a buzz at emaree@used-goods.net =]

Thanks for reading.

E.Maree

xoxo

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com