2PhatGeeks.com

Open for Commissions

General Information:
Character portrait/Busts (from the shoulders up.)
Digital art. Your image will be a .jpeg sent to you upon payment.

Portrait examples for you to preview:
[Dryad]
[Corry]
[Jodiah Ayreg]
[Horam JakChar]

Contacting me for Commissions:
E-mail: elf_fu@2phatgeeks.com
Details regarding commission will be confined to e-mails. Do not contact me via messenger to discuss details, please! I do not want to lose any important information!

Sizes and Prices:
800×600 uncolored no background = 5$ via paypal.
800×600 colored/painted no background = 15$ via paypal

1000×1000 uncolored no background = 10$
1000×1000 colored no background = 35$

Larger commissions/backgrounds available upon request, price to be discussed at time of commission.

Payment Accepted:

50% of commission rate is required in advance and is non refundable.

Remaining 50% due upon completion.

If after 14 days after completion you are not satisfied, do not hesitate to contact me and I will be more than happy to refund your 50% of remaining commission.

Information you MUST provide:
As much detail as possible, as specifically as possible. If I am drawing your character, I need the obvious–eye color, hair color, build, etc. But don’t be afraid to delve into it. Tell me about how they smile, the shape of their face, if their eyes are oval of round and so on and so forth. The more detail you give me, the better I can draw your character how you see them, the more satisfied you will be with the commission. Works out pretty good, right?

If you have a reference photo or an image of someone who generally shares similar features with your character, please feel free to share it with me. Alternatively, if your character looks like Angelina Jolie (actress used as example,) let me know too.

Color images are more expensive due to the fact they almost always take me far longer and some times come out looking a little different than their original sketch.

Should you have ANY questions or comments do not hesitate to contact me at elf_fu@2phatgeeks.com,

Thank you so much, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Trying Again.

Guess what chicken butt by =EpicureanPoetry on deviantART
Okay, so that’s just a place holder name until I (if I) ever get this done.

Picked up drawing again just for a role playing character I have. Generally, the best way for me to represent my character is to draw them. But usually my own self doubt gets in the way (see: last drow image.)

INSPIRATION: The very talented Shalom. She had the perfect face.

IF ANYONE HAS any suggestions on how to draw curly hair, I will love you forever and even call you George :s

The sun is setting in my garden.

I think the world needs to appreciate sunflowers just a little more. Sure, roses are beautiful and delicate and pretty smelling–I agree. But there is something about the sunflower that is just as enchanting. Maybe it is my secret love affair with the color yellow, particularily rich, bright, gold-like shades of it. Or maybe because in a secret past life I was some sort of sun worshipper with a garden full of them. Either way, I think sunflowers rock.

My mother in-law planted two of the giant monsterously huge sunflowers smack daub in the middle of our garden. They grew remarkably fast and bloomed as speedy as they grew. I am sad, however. It seems like as fast as they bloom, turning their little yellow cheery petals to the sun, they begin to whither and wilt.

One of the two is already stuck half way in permanent, cordial half bow to the rising sun, as if saying his good-byes at his final curtain call.

Zombies

BLITEOTW
Blog Like its the End of the World Day.

When sparks fly.

Some of you might already know that I’m a member of Payperpost.com. Payperpost.com is a company which connects bloggers and advertisers together, helping both sides make a little pocket change. Bloggers get paid to review websites and promote products, advertisers…well, they get advertised.

Some time ago, the company behind Payperpost decided to come out with SocialSpark. On the surface, SocialSpark appears to be exactly what Payperpost is. Advertisers and fellow bloggers can pay you to review and write about products and sites. But that’s just the surface, SocialSpark is a vast improvement on Payperpost’s original idea.

The focus has turned greatly toward building and creating a sense of community within users. User’s can comment on profiles, visit blogs through profiles, see recent posts from blogs, thumb up and give props to their favorite users, send private messaging and so, so, so much more.

Here, I’ve chosen to link to my own personal profile on SocialSpark to give you a taste of what things look like: SocialSpark: MPence.

As a PPP blogger, I really dig the new 2.0 look to it as well.

The only cons between Socialspark and Payperpost that I can see is the difference of Terms of Use. If you are a member of Payperpost and getting away with more risqué blog writings that may include strong language or adult subjects, SocialSpark is not as accepting. If you co-blog with some one, co-authors blogs are not accepted by SSpark as they are with PPP.

I am a member of SocialSpark, despite the fact that 2phatgeeks is ineligible for taking any opportunities and I remain a member because I think the tools SocialSpark offer can still create a great sense of fellowship with your brethren bloggers. SSpark offers us chances to connect and get to know one another giving a greater sense of ‘net family that PPP sometimes misses.

Obviously, the one thing I can’t tell you about SSpark is payments, whether they are on time or reliable. However, if you look at member numbers I am sure that’s a positive in that direction.

I can tell you that I have written four sponsored posts (this one makes it five as it pends) for PPP, haven’t had them rejected and they have never been late with payment. If SSpark is as alike as PPP, I imagine they are as prompt there as they are with Payperpost.  Customer service from Izea, the company behind both sites had been prompt, polite and to the point whenever I have had contact with them or questions.

Most of the good things I could say about Payperpost and SocialSpark have been covered in my first foray into paid blogging, but I’d like to reiterate that I’ve really enjoyed my time so far with both sites.

In spite of the fact that I am, of course, getting paid to write this article– I wholly recommend them to anyone looking to practice their writing skills and make a little cash on the sides. I’m not writing this just because someone is paying me too, I’m writing it because I believe in what I am saying and I like the company. Try it out, tell them elf_fu sentcha. I bet you won’t be disappointed.

Color me Obsessed.

I have always held a deep affection for bright or rich colors. My husband sees in blue, red, or green while I see in royal blue, rose red and forest greens. I say there are thousands of different greens, he says green is green is green, some light, some dark.

It’s funny how men and women generally see or consider color so differently. Some of us women folk have four color receptors in our eyes instead of the standard three, so we really do see things differently!

I do believe that color influences, subtly, our moods. I always think of yellow as daisies, dandelions and summer sun, thus the color always brings me happier memories. Blue carried with it the smell of Nova Scotia sea-salt, endless waves, reflection on sun warmed rocks while the water crested on the shore and yes, on occasion, sadness.

Brown is warm things; worn out old boots and homespun sweaters, maybe floppy slippers and the color of earth. Comfort.

I love red too! Bold, bright, vivid, passionate, anger–and then the softer side of red has become my favorite later in life: pink. Pink reminds me of innocence, little girls, cliche-but-happy-princess and soft, soft things.

What are your favorite colors? What emotions do they evoke in you? Do you surround yourself in a soothing color, or happy color, or comforting color where you spend the most time?

Kumwhats? Kumquats!

You may remember my recent posts asking which camera I should choose. Shawn decided on the EOS Digital Rebel XTi.

Well, it arrived on Monday and since then, I have been taking pictures of the most random crap around our house, evar!

The cat. The cat eating. The cat sleeping. The cat washing herself and eating and sleeping, and of course, licking her butt fastidiously. Cats are, after all, dainty and polite little creatures. Pictures of my garden, of the basil growing in it, of the dill just flowering, pictures of the cat in the garden through the just flowering dill. I took a few pictures of the sad and lonely single red cayenne pepper growing in the garden as well as one of Shawn’s feet, my feet, cement on the porch, the dog, the kitchen floor the–well. You get the point.

Out of all of them, however, I think one photo may have actually turned out better than all of the rest so far. This shot of our neighbors kumquat tree came out pretty awesome for me. I did use a circular polarizing filter to take it and I did, of course, adjust layers and sharpness in adobe photoshop. But to me, this image holds so much greater quality as well as promise than most of the images I’ve been taking with the S700.

This image represents a whole new level to my brand new love affair with my camera. More and more lately, I have been looking at things…I have been really looking. The color of something, the shape of it, the way the light frames around it or across it–the expressions on faces, the curve of hands, even the dirt on the carpet becomes a potential picture in the ‘camera’ inside my head. I’ve begun to look at things in my mind as what I think it would appear as if in a photo.

I’ve gotta finally admit it. My messy, amazing, wonderful life turns into something absolutely amazing and beautiful. Even the worn spots on my desk could, if taken right, make an amazing texture photo.

I hope some day that I’ll be able to show the world this and I hope that they’ll feel the same way too.

Camera gurus, geeks, freaks, artists and lovers: I need your help.

First Question, Pretend time with me. The backdrop:

Your minimum spending price is 550$, your maximum (including tax) you can afford is 800$. And, you can ONLY buy it from Dell–which camera do you purchase from them and why?

Second question: The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT Silver 8. Does anyone own one? What’s it like? What’s the response time? The LCD? How’s it feel in the hand? What’s your impression of it? Was it worth buying for you?

EDIT: We’re looking at the EVOLT E-510 Black 10 MP Digital SLR Camera by Olympus as well. Anyone want to share their experiences with that as well?

EDIT 2: And we’re also looking at the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi SLR Camera. Thoughts? Opinions?

Third Question: All restrictions aside but the above price range, would you recommend something different than your answer for question number one? If so, what would that be?

The reason I ask is because Shawn’s the most magnificent man alive and is willing to spend this much on me and a camera and I really haven’t a clue what to purchase next after the FujiFilm S700.

Halp.

(God I am so excited!)

Morning Magic.

During most early Florida mornings, dew forms on the sleepy shapes all around us. Our chilli pepper red Saturn and the two-tone gray rocks of our front garden, on the door and across still blades of vibrant green grass.

Most often at this early, you’ve no doubt just left your sheets for bed, showered and are readied for work. The linens on your bed still warm from deep sleep, the pillows still indented with your slumber-filled head. It’s when you’re in between your front door and car door, maybe your coffee is in hand or your keys and you’re still forcing bleary eyes open–the zinging of bustling cars hurrying off to work the grind behind you–that you notice it.

Despite all the jangling noise of car horns, engines revved, brakes squealing? There’s this invisible blanket that still remains over the earth this early in the morning, a covering for a world still half-dreaming, and perhaps that blanket is the very dew you see shivering on the hood of your car.

Getting into your car in these dewy Florida mornings can be like stepping into another world. When you shut the door, you leave the harsh cadence of sunrise rush hour traffic behind you. It becomes muted, background static to the mini-world of the inside of your car. All the windows have been covered by condensation. Little droplets splattered all over glass which reflect to you the glorious colors of the sun behind miniature palm trees. Maybe you press your brow to the glass for a split second just to watch all the hundreds of small mirror worlds reflected to you in the morning dew.

Maybe, for just a moment, magic exists for you before the hustle of everyday muscles through.

Don’t put your dreams on a shelf.

Three years ago, give or take a few days, my husband Shawn took me on a spring vacation and made one of my dreams come true.

Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, I was a little girl predisposed to dreaming about the cliché princess’ and there’s no place better for a princess-at-heart than Disney, in Orlando, Florida.

The problem then, of course, was that I lived thousands of miles away. The dream and the chance to realize it was extremely remote. Even after I had met and married Shawn, we simply couldn’t afford to visit Disney until one dreary, cold and rainy early spring weekend.

The weather was the furthest thing from my mind as we were driving underneath the bright, multi-colored sign with the worlds that made my heart skip a beat: The Magic Kingdom. Everywhere I looked, against the gray day a rainbow of every color possible sprinkled a lack-luster morning with the iconic symbol of the castle looming in my sights as we made quick time from parking lot to the river boat.

To say that I felt a little like a kid again right at that second as water sluiced against the white hull of the boat that took you from parking lot to the Magic Kingdom is a lot like saying the Pope may be a little Catholic. I felt my eyes begin to take on the stupefied, wide-eyed childish wonder at every thing I saw.

It was cold. It was ridiculously cold for a day in Florida, spring or not. I couldn’t feel my cheeks (which were curved upward permanently in Disney sugar coated excitement), my nose, or any of the ten fingers I was wriggling about in a poor, twenty six year old’s rendition of ecstatic puppy-wriggling excitement. We hadn’t planned for the rain and had forgotten our raincoats. Lucky for us, Disney supplied these plastic ponchos with happy little Mickey’s all over them so that I could run from one end of The World of Tomorrow to the other cackling with glee.

I was beside myself, and I wasn’t disappointed with anything. Not once—not even for a split second.

Now, some times I hear mumblings from unhappy little mouseketeers—Disney really is just a tourist trap, Disney isn’t that great, Disney is a horrible giant splash of marketing and isn’t what it used to be….And to those grumpy dwarves, I say take a flying leap from the top of the Swiss Family Robinson tree.

It’s an amusement park, of course it’s a brilliant splash of marketing, that’s how they make the money that delivers a one-of-a-kind experience to you. But, I can tell you with assurance and good authority that Disney is beyond freaking awesome at doing exactly what it promises to do: making your dreams come true. Everything around you is most likely for sale—but Disney isn’t cramming it down your throat and twisting your arm to buy that pink and blue Tinkerbelle hat with sparkles on it. Ahem. It’s there, but it’s not screaming. The Magic Kingdom is absolutely serious about making sure your dream remains true.

Next spring? We’re going again. I’ve been carefully, studiously preparing by letting myself get wound up at odd hours of the day, responding to half of what Shawn asks me with a hearty, “DISNEY!”

“Hun, have you seen my work shirt?”
“DISNEY!”
“Mel, do you know where I put the keys I—“
“DISNEY!”
“Are you excited about going to—“
“DISNEY!”

If you’re thinking about visiting Orlando, Florida to finally make that dream come true and visit the happiest place on earth, I recommend it. I recommend it so hard.

Don’t put it off until it’s too late. Start thinking about booking a dream vacation and follow through. You can even start with Trusted Tours & Attractions which can assist you with things to do in Orlando, Florida. And if you have enough time, there are a million other things for you to see in Orlando. Book a few sight seeing tours and visit Sea World, Discovery Cove, Medieval Times, Arabian Nights and just downtown Orlando in itself is a plethora of sights and memories awaiting to happen. While you’re in Orlando and thinking about branching out even more in an adventurous spirit, I suggest Miami and visiting the Miami Seaquarium.

Sign up for Trusted Tours & Attractions newsletter while you’re visiting and checking out their site, just for signing up you’ll be entered to win a handheld GPS before the offer ends on April 10th of this year.

Don’t let your dreams get muddled up in bills, the kids, and work. Take the time to make a memory that will last a life time. I did, and I can’t wait to do it again.

DISNEY!