I just "finished" a massive work-related project I have been working on since around February-March of 2009, give or take a few months.

If you've ever been curious about the world of Valenth, Leupaks, or anything else I ramble about at length here, there's never been a better time to find out--

The Official ValenthWiki is now online!

If you have a chance, please have a look and tell me what you think/what pages you'd like to see on it next; I have seriously been absolutely KILLING myself on this thing (ask my friends about my current sleeping pattern, or lack thereof, since about Thanksgiving when I swore I was "finishing it" every night for the better part of two weeks...), and I'd love to hear any feedback or requests you might have!

Or any silly typos you may have found. I've been up for 21 hours straight working on it, so it's bound to happen.

Have fun, and keep an eye out--once I've slept for the entire month of January, I've got some new art to upload!

Here I go, rambling again.

I'm just thinking about how many different things I've researched over the past few months just for Valenth.
Anatomy, biology, history, costumes, flags, erm... diseases... I could probably go on for days.
And it really makes me love my job that much more, you know? It's worldbuilding, but at the same time I get to share it with tons of other people and keep a roof over my head.

It's an amazing feeling, and it's why I tend to be so busy; when you do something you love for a living, work doesn't really feel like work so much as something you want to do to the best of your ability.

A labor of love, yeah-- that's what it is.

This has really been an awesome year for me; I've been part of Agoge for five years now, and I've gone from a frankly retarded and hardly skilled artkid straight out of high school doing volunteer work for Subeta to... well, I hesitate to call myself a professional illustrator, since I feel I have a way to go before I hit that level of skill and consistency that I believe deserves such a title, but it's my job now.

I suppose if I was to say anything to aspiring artists and hopefuls looking for their creative niche, it's to never stop looking and never give up-- and don't be an idiot like I have for the past few years and isolate yourself, either.
Even if other artists' work blows you out of the water and makes you feel like you'll never get there, shove those feelings aside, study and practice everything you can find and everything that interests you, and find excuses to study everything that doesn't.

I was curious, and dug up some of my oldest art I could find the other day, just for comparison's sake.

If you study and practice you will get better.

Good luck...
and remember, don't give up for anything or anyone.


OR I WILL FUCKING CUT YOU.



Merry/Happy (Insert Holiday Here) and Happy New Year!

...AND THE DEER IS A CAR.

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I am going to nap for a bit before I lose any more brian* cells. :C




*typo retained for comedic effect

Snow has never been quite as amazing to me as it is right now.

... is why all these kids are so eager to hurl themselves bodily at PatchTogether to have toys made of their silly personal characters/fursonas/etc.

I think the site's flippin' awesome, and a really cool way to get people into the vinyl toy scene, for sure.
But c'mon-- am I the only one who was like... thirteen and beating my face against all the clay/sculpey/etc I could get my hands on to try and figure out how to make my own? *

You better believe I'd love to have a set of Valenth toys, for myself and to offer players.

But I'm not going to gather up my posse and try to voteflood myself a win against popular opinion (the entire point of the site!)/try to sell those unfamiliar designs to the general public-- that'd be silly.

I'm going to learn how to mold my own, sculpt them, and make small batches by hand myself.
I really think it's a shame that PT's becoming this big fad thing in spite of what it's obviously meant to be (see: NOT YOUR PERSONAL TOY FACTORY).


C'mon, you lot! Leave it to the people who are really interested in toy design-- if you want a custom toy, learn to sculpt, or find a toy at your local shop and experiment with modding! It's great fun, and you can have something unique and special just for you!


*and everyone goes "Wait, so where are all these sculptures then, Deo?"
I'm sitting on a couple leupak prototypes that I've made in the past months-- I'm going to resculpt it again once or twice more before I try molding it, since I've learned a few tricks and I want to make sure it's perfect before I even consider selling it to anyone.

As for modded toys-- pester me if you're curious; I know I have photos of my recent ones somewhere.