vantid

HELLO

I wanted to let folks watching here that I am super duper active on Twitter, @vantidart, and a little less so on Tumblr as vantid.

On Twitter, I try to post mostly art, works in progress, and photos of the natural world that surrounds me.

Tumblr is a place for more finished pieces and rare reblogs of art or messages I feel are important.

That's about that! Thanks for watching me here, there, or anywhere! I really appreciate it. <3

I've been rather inactive on DA the last year or two. I was overwhelmed by the number of submissions in my inbox and could never browse them all. I finally unwatched most of the Groups and that has helped cut down the volume to an easily manageable trickle of delightful artwork. I know I am missing out on some really cool art in the groups, but I miss everything when there are suddenly over a thousand deviations and I don't have time to browse them all.

I also haven't been uploading as much of my work. I was away from DA so much that when I did come back, the upload interface was always different. Whyyyyy. It makes me feel like an old lady who can't figure out why her computer won't turn on because it's unplugged. Even posting journals confuses me. Journal portal, what?? Featured? Featured where?

I've been keeping very busy! I have some exciting news to share as well as several cool commission, personal projects, and the ever wonderful Werewolf Calendar. In the meantime, I started up an Etsy store!  Right now I have prints, which I make myself on my awesome giclee printer. I will be listing several originals next month, so watch the store for availability!
ETSY: www.etsy.com/people/etherealdr…

Howdy!

I've had a lot of interest in my coloured pencil badges recently, and I've been quoting them at $100.

This is too low for the amount of time I dump into these badges. I love working on them, truly. But I have to stop taking them at this price. However, I know there are folks who have been wanting them and I'd like to give everyone who does a chance to get them at this price.

Until the end of February, I will be accepting 3 by 4 inch badges in coloured pencil for $100, plus shipping. After Texas Furry Fiesta and the end of the month, they will no longer be available for this price! I do not know how much I will charge for colored pencil badges in the future.

These take a while, so patience is required. I don't foresee getting to any badges taken now before late spring or early summer at the earliest.

SO! If you would like to place an order, please send me an email vantid at gmail (preferred), or a note here on DA. Paypal preferred, address is also my gmail address. Shipping is four dollars.

I accidentally deleted my old icon, so I have a new one for the first time in six years. Ammonite kusamono yeaaaahh.

Hey look a new journal. How are you people.

I just came in from the snow, my jeans frozen stiff over two layers of warm jammies, my neck entangled in a damp nest of scarves and camera cord. I made myself some earl grey tea from the Czech Republic with sugar (although I prefer agave nectar) and soy milk. I'm much warmer now. My fingers are nimble again, nimbl eenough to type without too many typos. Hmm! Maybe not.

The last three days have been somethin', I tell you what. There have been excessive birds in the last few days, but that makes me pretty happy. Saturday I saw a fine presentation from Neil Rettig, an Emmy award winning National Geographic cinematographer who flies a harpy eagle. He brought his eagle, a male named Cal, to the presentaion and talked about harpies and answered many questions. I was too shy to ask any myself but perhaps sometime in the future, he isn't too far from one of haunts.

Unfortunately my camera isn't stellar, now am I that great with a camera, so most of my photos were hash. Here are some that came out all right.
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/harpe… I caught someone else's flash.
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/harpy… Gorgeous bird!
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/herg.…
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/slurp…

Sunday I walked some property my friends will own soon. Eighty acres of gorgeous land, some of it full of corn, the rest full of trees and rocky bluffs and a trout stream. It's infested with birds: turkeys, kingfishers, bald eagles, hawks, crows, and the usual assortment of other passerines. There is beaver sign near the stream, and lots of delicious deers running around too. The snow was just crusty enough to fool you into thinking you weren't going to break through and then flump, knee deep. Rocky the beauceron puppy had a good time romping around but towards the end of the walk even he was tired.
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/strea…
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/barn.…
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/snowp…
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/bluff…

And today was full of more snow trudging in even deeper snow while trying to flush rabbits. We were hawking (falconry with a hawk)! I think five buns were flushed but only one was caught and then slipped away. It was good exercise for both the hawk and the humans, even if it wasn't a successful catch. Oh well, the hawk still gets to eat.

dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/baile… This is Bailey.
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/food4… He is a juvenile red tail hawk.
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/trax.… He's kinda dumb.
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/atcha… But cool to watch anyway.
dl.dropbox.com/u/1629405/lope.… We saw a fox out in the field, runnin around and peeing on stuff, giving us a wary glance ever few strides. My zoom isn't great.

And now I have to work on stuff with deadlines and why is there a convention in a few days and then after that more deadlines and...well, I will be relaxing a bit in the redwoods with the wolfmutts again, like every year. After that I have even more stuff I would like to do, it just depends on stuff and things. Oi!

This journal is excessive. Good job if you made it this far! :>