I am again opened for small commissions (chibi icons, normal/animated icons, conbadges, vector characters etc.). YES I NEED THAT NEWLY RELEASED 25CM SUICUNE PLUSH

Chibi smiley avatars: 7 USD each
The buyer will receive transparent PNG or/and GIF files of the finished avatar in requested sizes (up to 300x300). You'll pay after you confirm the sketch.

Examples:



Painted icons: static 15 USD, animated 20 USD
Examples:



Vector artwork:
Head/bust (icon/badge): Lineart 7 USD, Flat-colored 10 USD, shaded 15 USD

Full body: Lineart 10 USD, Flat-colored 15 USD, shaded 20 USD.
Examples:



All prices are per character. I accept PayPal payment. Note me if interested, thank you!

Yep, it's finally here. I passed the (zoological) Master's Exams today. I really, REALLY didn't know how Fire and Alpine salamanders reproduce and I am ashamed like never X__X Yet still, though I would have kicked myself out of the exams...(or, well... give myself at least "3"), I still got "2 - very good"!

Now it's time for celebration!

*dances*

Here's a little something about the exam itself:
I was asked about human ectoparasites (kind of knew this), hagfishes (Myxini; I didn't know how they use their single nostrils to pump water into their branchiae), behaviorism, water mammals (where the hell dugongs and manatees live? BTW this was the first time ever I saw the whalebones. They are FURRY!! ^^), monogamy in primates (a question repeated many times....gets boring eventually) and finally the almost-fatal viviparity in amphibians. When we were late for about 10 minutes and some of the examiners started to complain because they also wanted to have a lunch today, the chairman asked me some final questions about evolution; What are the positives of sexual reproduction (I knew all the negatives... but a positive? O.o Maybe if I wasn't asexual I would have remembered the other way round...) and scenarios of speciation (I was dead from the amphibians already and I couldn't remember the terms- allopatry, sympatry etc. if my life depended on it. But when I was told the terms, I assigned them to the right scenarios. Brain can play hard sometimes XD).

Now it only takes few months till the degree ceremony and you may call me "Mgr. Akela Taka"!! :-D


And this is the whole story. Anyways, I hope that I will have more time for art this year. I would really love to finally return to the "real art", and instead of doing just other people's characters as trades or commissions, I will, once again, draw from my heart. I was so very inspired during past days... ^^

EDIT:

I have enough respondents now! Thank you all very much for your participation! Later on, we'll test other groups of animals, so I will let you know when I need your help again. I will also post the results of this work once everything is done!


-----

I'm looking for volunteers to join our science project: We study how human aesthetic feelings affect animal conservation, and how humans of all nations differ (or alas are not different at all) in such preferences.

What I'm asking you to do is very simple and takes only few minutes. A set of 190 pictures of all existing non-passerine birds (some songbirds included) is being tested right now. Here's a quick summary:


Register on a given website, answering some personal questions; but everything being fully anonymous
Watch series of 32 picture thumbnails before scoring itself to get the idea about diversity of the full set
Score this 32 picture series with numbers 1-5 (1 being the most beautiful) according to your personal preferences and likes
Repeat the process of watching thumbnails and scoring pictures of 32 until all 190 birds are scored

If you are interested to help us, please comment here or send me a note. Either way, I'll note you the website address and access password. I'll be very grateful to get as many respondents as possible!

If you could spread this to your friends or families, or journals, again, that would be very much appreciated.


And now a little advertisement Here's a list of our publications of similar projects:
<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VDY-4NVK1VR-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=1443ce0990c4b1326f9123908a3811da" target="_blank">Noah's Ark is full of common species attractive to humans: The case of boid snakes in zoos
We all Appreciate the Same Animals: Cross-Cultural Comparison of Human Aesthetic Preferences for Snake Species in Papua New Guinea and Europe
Are Animals In Zoos Rather Conspicuous Than Endangered?

I've changed my icon temporarily to join ~Jaole in the fight! Click here for more info: [link]
The template: [link]

Come and join our side!! ^__^

There are lots of 11-years old n00bs (that is children who know nothing about copyright but want to create a website of their own) that keep stealing pictures from DeviantArt or Google, posting it on their blogs, editing with their names on etc. If they ever link the source, it's another such blog with stolen picture (because, of course, their fellow n00bs need to get the credit for stealing the pictures first).

Even though I know this is just a child's play, I am being tired of how much this has spread lately. I keep reporting my own pictures (and they go down immediately once I report them), but it irritates me how selfish such thieves usually are (not all of them, of course, some even apologize - but usually just to me, but then keep stealing foreign artist's artwork again). Often they turn out on me as how they "used to like my pictures" but now hate them...
One girl even stole my nickname and now has a blog under my name full of stolen pictures.

Sometimes, these people even "roleplay" me... once I got a message from person I didn't know, she said that we talked back then on a website I have never visited. Then I understood it wasn't me who she was talking to, but somebody who claimed to be me.

I've decided to stop this, or at least a little bit slow it down. I'm willing to report each and every blog that contains stolen pictures drawn by you fellow artists, as long as I can find the originals (which is not usually very hard - these people keep stealing always the same pictures anyways... Khaosdog's, Wildspiritwolf's, Goldenwolf's etc...). All I need is your expression that you disallow the use of your pictures for such purposes, like editing and not linking them back, or disallow posting them AT ALL. If you can write such statement somewhere I can link to, possibly into this journal (or even give me link to your website where such statement is), I will report the people myself. I know this won't stop the thievery, but I hope that this will at least annoy the thieves enough to finally learn the manners.

Here are sample links of the blogs. If you find your picture there and want to put it down, please, write it in here. Thank you!

On the other hand, if you are OK with your artwork being used this way, please tell me. I won't hunt down websites that contain your pictures.

[link] [link]
[link]
[link] [link]
[link]
[link] (TaniDaReal's Pictures signed by "Merrow"...)
[link] (JC's pictures here)
[link] (lots of Okami stolen pictures here, including 's)
[link]
[link]

etc.... I could go on...