We've hit our cap, so no more donations are needed! Thank you, and we'll have the Draw on Friday!

And now the donation post for the One Card Draw on Friday afternoon for a two hour window!

If you have no money and are eager to see the One Card Draw happen, advertise to your Friends... they'll be able to participate even if they don't donate, so you have nothing to lose!

Notes:
• You may not donate less than $1!

• People who contribute will get a card, guaranteed, even if they miss the One Card Draw post. Be sure to tell me your LJ name so I can get you your card—leave it as a comment on this post. This is important, as your email addresses aren't always obvious. Also, sponsors will get free shipping in the US (or a discount if outside) if they choose to buy a Balance Card painting... this is my thank-you to you for making this possible for the community. :)

• You must have Paypal to donate... sorry about that. Snail-mailed micropayments don't seem to work so well. You should be able to use a credit card through Paypal, though.

• Once I hit the cap, I'll edit this post—no more donations will be counted. That means I'm not going to do extra hours because people have sent more than the amount, and I won't pull guaranteed cards for people who come in after we hit that mark. You can send money after that, but it won't be counted toward anything. Please double-check this entry before donating! There are no refunds!

• Remember, you don't need to donate to get your card drawn. You just have to comment on the community-sponsored One Card Draw. The point of this exercise is that everyone gets to join in, and people who can afford it and feel like helping out can do something nice for the community.

Without further ado, the button:


The Balance Cards.

Tags: balance cards, donations, one card draw

Cradle Illustration

You asked... and when I jokingly mentioned getting enough donation money to do a sketch for it, arielstarshadow obliged. You can blame her and hyanan for this, then. Hee!

Tags: art, donations
Current Mood: amused/hurried

Act 3, "Methods"
Burn-out • Hubris • Cradle • Passion • Calling


And we have now completed Act 2 of the Admonishments, which means it's time for a patron call!

In our next Act, entitled "Methods," many of your questions are answered: What is Shame's staff like? Why is Shame necessary? How are minors Corrected and is Shame ever involved? What's it like to be a fathrikedi? Where's the porn? And most importantly, how was Shame chosen for his job and who is allowed to Correct him? (Okay, so some of you might want to switch the last two around...)

The illustration for this segment is entitled "Sunny Days," and there's a piece of it above. In it, you'll see why I was griping about Ai-Naidari spines. It's also borderline not-work-safe, in that it contains nudity. I didn't do this for ratings, honest!

On a serious note, I really like this act. I think it shows the character as a character, and not necessarily as an omniscient shadow in people's lives. Once we're done with Act 3, we'll be over halfway through the collection; this breath-pause leads us into the last two acts with a better perspective on Shame, Kherishdar and Correction as a whole. I think you're going to enjoy it.

If I get ten donations (amount ≥ $1), I'll upload some extras... in this case, the full sketch for the illustration, which is significantly cropped in the final piece, and the failed version of the composition and my reason for discarding it.

Finally, you can use this post to tell me what other crimes, sins or mistakes you'd like to see handled. Some things already planned include suicide, sociopathy, addiction, another form of child abuse, theft and lying... so anything but those!

The Admonishments of Kherishdar

Tags: donations, the admonishments of kherishdar
Current Mood: amused

Has it already been four weeks into this project? Goodness...! I've enjoyed writing The Admonishments of Kherishdar a great deal, even if they're harder for me than the Aphorisms. If you've enjoyed them so far, consider becoming a patron by tossing me a dollar or two!

This call is to continue funding the stories, and to do the first illustration, tentatively entitled "Collapse," for which I have linked a tiny teaser above. I've learned my lesson... I am definitely doing these paintings before I finish writing the stories! Your donation gets you listed on the website and in the chapbook as a Patron, sponsors the posting of more stories and makes possible a scan of this picture, to be linked here and on the website.

To all those who have already donated, thank you! I hope I will continue to entertain you.


Stardancer Home.

Tags: art, donations, new publishing paradigms, writing
Current Mood: sleepy

      These are not my stories. If I had my way, you would never see them. I have read your books. I have walked unseen through your streets. You call my empire rigid and unforgiving, but you visit the most unspeakable cruelties on those who violate your unwritten laws. You speak of the value of the individual, yet your society casually disposes of those it considers unsalvageable. You speak of redemption and redeem no one.

      You call our ways unkind. But your kindness is torture.

      I am the altar upon which society sacrifices its murderers, its thieves, its wayward spirits. I am their Correction... or their destruction. I serve Shame. Without me, there is no Civilization.

      These stories are anonymous offerings left by souls in their most vulnerable moments. Read them with respect.

Starting in February, The Admonishments of Kherishdar tells twenty-five stories of the redemption of Ai-Naidar at the hands of Shame, in their own words. A new story will be posted with each $15 donation. At the end of the twenty-five story run, the Admonishments will be collected into a hard copy volume, companion to the stories of the Calligrapher.

You have seen the privileges of Kherishdar in The Aphorisms. Now you will know the duties.

Stardancer Home.

Tags: ai-naidar, donations, new publishing paradigms, the admonishments of kherishdar

My brain is offline, seriously, and I am way behind... but I managed to kick a couple of commissions out of the house today and I printed out the Aphorisms to edit them. Since I'm not capable of coherence, though (I am not editing, I note; I know better than to do so in this state), instead I will ask your help:

If you contributed money to the Aphorisms project and want your name listed, please make sure you're listed here and that your name is correct. That is the list that's going in the back of the book and I absolutely want to make sure everyone who is supposed to be on it is on it.

I think I've gotten everyone, but the baby kind of disordered me and my book-keeping. So please help me out and double-check to make sure you're there if you sent me a donation.

If you're not there, you can comment here, or you can send me email (haikujaguar at gmail should be fine).

Thank you!


Stardancer Home.

Tags: donations, new publishing paradigms, the aphorisms of kherishdar
Current Mood: brain-dead

All twelve of them! And so, as a way to break my block on the Aphorisms illustrations, I started work on Willow. hyanan kindly came over and bounced the baby so I could paint in peace for a couple of hours (ask chlorophyta, I haven't been able to get out of the house at all this week... blah!).


Your brushes at work! I uncapped three of them to start on the background. You can see my painting board, palette, some drawing books and my container of salt (which elusivetiger got for me when I proved incapable of properly using the real salt container, to my constant chagrin). There's a kirin, also. Because, well, you know. I can't not have a kirin around.

The background is being layered over and over with salt and six colors: Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine, Dioxazine Purple, Quinacridone Violet and Payne's Gray. For those who are curious. :)


I hadn't used my large palette in months. When I took the top off, the first thing I thought was, "Eee! Must clean!" Which I did. But wow, it's so nice to work on big mixing areas again...! My little palette is not even a quarter the size of this thing.


And here's the $31 brush you all helped sponsor. It doesn't look like much, but trust me, it's huge for a sable round!


And progress on the painting, with the new #4 brush next to it. For reference, the $31 brush is a #10! As the astute might notice, from the orientation in these photos, I am right-handed.

The entry on brushes in general is in the works, but I thought I would share my Squee! with you about the brushes. Thanks to your kind sponsorship, two-thirds of the bill was completely knocked out. And this piece will be the one on the thank-you postcard for the people who sent me art supply money (or a complete brush, as floorlamps did).

Onward!


Stardancer Home.

Tags: art, donations, photos
Current Mood: squee!

transdraconis just said to me (and I quote): MAKE BRUSH POAST. So... um, yeah. To replace my fraying brushes, I went and bought 10 brushes... an 11th in a size I don't own to do the Willow project, and a 12th because the manufacturer just released a new style of long-handled brush and I want to experiment with it. In my experience, long handles in brushes function like a good pommel on a sword... it's a balance issue.

But anyway, captainq started this one by sending a brush donation, and several of you chimed in that you'd like to help. After consulting with soldiergrrrl, I've decided that those of you who donate toward the brush purchase will get a thank-you postcard featuring the first painting I complete with those new brushes, which will probably go out in the new year. Plus, I have already committed to doing the 'what's the big deal about good brushes' post.

So for those of you who want to toss in a dollar, here's the button!

Sponsor Some Brushes!

Tags: art, donations
Current Mood: compelled by dragons O_O

Funny story about the brushes: I dreamed that I'd gone and bought replacements for my fraying ones, along with a passel of other rather boring dreams about not paying enough attention to the baby and buying groceries and (yes) leveling my WoW druid. When I get stressed my dreams become prosaic. But anyway, when I woke up, the baby was fine, there still were no groceries and my druid was still disappointingly the same level as before I went to sleep.

But I had a sizable bill for the brushes in my inbox.

The Internet has made sleep-walking far more dangerous a proposition than it used to be. -_-

Anyway, captainq has taken a chunk out of that bill with his kind cover donation, which is much appreciated since I replaced almost my entire working set (ten of the eleven). The $31 comment is that I didn't buy the size 10 (yes, that's one brush being $31, and that's... *checks* half off). I didn't get it because I didn't realize how large my next non-Aphorism painting is going to be. I can make do with the size 8, it's just going to take MAD SKILLZ. And while I no longer fail my MAD SKILLZ roll as often, when I do it's usually on a sheet of $3 paper, so I get the feeling the odds are stacked against me....

But, um... since several of you have asked about brush sponsorship, I don't know what to do? You could help defray the incoming ten if you wish... or aim for the single size 10!

(That project?


Willow, the Moon and the Night

...yes. Finally! So many of you asked!)


Stardancer Home.

Tags: art, donations
Current Mood: eep!
Current Music: Nirvana - Something in the Way