All things scruffy, all the time

About Scruffy

The alchoholic, petrified, purple feline alter ego of Jenn Embree; writer, artist, designer, and internet junkie.

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Even if you're on the right track,
you'll get run over if you just
stand there.
Mark Twain

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Portfolio Upate

So, I finally updated my portfolio. I added some more digital paintings, and a lot of school projects (at least, those that I wasn’t completely ashamed of). I’m going to try and enable comments on the new portfolio I have going if anyone wants to give me any feed back (always looking for that.

As for school, it’s going along as usual. Still waiting for my student loan, which god willing will arrive in my bank account by the end of the month (and that would really help with the whole rent thing I usually do then). Like everyone I’m short of cash, made worse by the fact that I’m going to school and I loath my part time job (and by ‘part time’ I mean 30 hours a week…). I just keep telling myself ‘Three and a half more months and you’ll never have to work in a call centre ever again’. Sometimes it makes me feel better, other times….
I know I’m doing the right thing, but staying focused recently has been difficult. I’m trying to get back into the grove, step up the work I’m handing in as opposed to living with whatever crap I can pull out of my ass at the last minute. I know I can be better.

*sigh*

These are all sentences that look familiar. But maybe this time it’ll change.

I’m back (sorta)

Hi, all, just popping in to make an update. There’s going to be some changes to the site soon, as I update everything now that I’ve got some web design classes under my belt. We’re starting to get into flash now and I’m loving it (not nearly as intimidating as I thought). I FINALLY update N:Bi, which was long over do, but I’ve had a lot of school work (matching with working 30 hours a week) so finding time for my own stuff has been difficult. I’ve included a little show below of my latest work, and expect a massive upgrade of the portfolio section. That’s about it for now, everything else is just the same old gripe about monies and not having any time for anything (even though I could easily solve that by not constantly procrastinating.

Progress Examples

For those of you too lazy to waltze over to my DA page, you can see a few of my latest design attempts below. I’ll be updating the gallery soon (as well as FIXING the gallery, it’ve let it sit like that for a deplorably long time…) but ’soon’ really translates into ‘god knows when’ with me. It might just happen with the pasties for now. Anywho, I’d like to add that all of the below examples are available as prints if anyone wants to help a starving artist!


Progress

So, I’m about a month and a half into my Design program and I have to say I’m loving it. Like, a lot. Like, I’ve never been so sure of my life choices before. The next step of course is to get enough free time so that I can really focus on what I’m doing and hand in the quality I’d like to produce. Nex step of course is to start producing a new portfolio (a lot of the stuff I have here is old and not up to my current level). If any of you watch me on DA, you’ll see some of my latest attempts, which are…shall we say indicative of a learning curve. Not wholly satisfied yet, but it’s coming. I’ll post some here later, but I have a feeling this page is gonna get redesigned soon anyway (yes, it’s that time again!). I’m gonna play with the CSS, and next semester we start Flash, which is a good 60% of the reason I’m taking this course. In the meantime I just found a new apartment that couldn’t be more convenient and it only $10 more, which has me very excited. All in all things are good. Had a bad week but I’m recovering. We’ll see how it goes.

Oh, and if anyone is dying to see what I’ve done so far and is too lazy to go to DA, just let me know and I’ll post them here.

Updates

I had no idea I’d let this blog sit for so long. It’s not that nothing has happened in two months so much as….well, I’ll be honest, I’m in a rut. But for once I’ve managed to do something about it. I’m going back to school.

And I don’t mean in the ’some time in the future when I’ve got th money and the free time’, I mean in two weeks. Why? Well, let’s be honest, I’m never going to have all that much free time–we’re adults, we traded our free time for working ‘personal growth’ exercises (or in my case random bouts of alchoholism) and money isn’t going to come until I get a better job–which isn’t going to come until I get more schooling. So, time the bit the bullet, accept the debt increase, and get ‘er done.

Of course, the debt won’t go up that much, such is the glory of community collage after university. The bills just aren’t comparable. I’ve actually got it worked out that I should have most of my tuition paid off by the time I graduate, and since I’m going into a field with lots of job opportunities and my course involves a work term, I’m looking at a much better start than with my BA.

I’m studying Graphic and Print Design, which will give me a lot of the technical knowledge I haven’t acquired on my own. As my Argosy peeps will attest, if I can do this sort of thing for 20-30 hours a week (mostly pushed into 2 days) for no money, surely to god I’ll do it on a regular schedule on a salary. And not hating what I do for a living is pretty damn high on my list of life goals.

Which is not so say that I’m rejecting my writing side. Far from it. I’ve finally started writing the story that’s been in my head since high school. Of course it’s changed a lot over time, but I’ve gotten a good start. I spent a lot of time trying to decide if it should be a graphic novel or just prose, when eventually it came to me–do both. An ambitious but very rewarding medium for creation, at least if you’re someone like me that has to have it all.

We’ll just have to wait and see how all this pans out. Certainly you can expect to see more art here (actually, it should be noted that the portfolio does get periodically updated with no notice here, the same with the links section), and I may start a journal of sorts of how my story progresses–outlines and character sheets, that sort of thing.

New links, and not the best start to the day…

I’ve added a bunch of new links, a few more web comics and a new section for artists that really inspire me. Definitely worth checking out if you’ve got the time.

As for me, besides the fact that I got woken up on my day off to the fire alarm (which apparently goes off anytime the power turns off …or flickers briefly as the case may be), and then a hornet decided to join me in the shower, and it went from being so hot yesterday I was sweating just sitting around and now after walking my dog I can barely feel my hands, the days is looking up. I think it’s going to be one of those days where I get a lot of random little things done, like finally getting my wall planer organized, finalizing my living room furniture, and getting some art done. Hopefully I’ll be updating here soon with some results!

Portfolio and Doujinshi Update

Well, as those of you who read my Naruto doujinshi have already noticed I have updated with the first chapter of Volume (Christ, how did I let it get this far? Now I can’t stop…), which you can read here. No flashy first page this time but the last page ain’t bad (if you can ignore the blatant fan-service).

Also, I’ve updated my portfolio–if you keep up with my DA page there will be some repeats but there’s also a tone of images added to the ’sketch Dump’ section, some I might rework later. Thought I’d update since I’m about to start looking for a new job in earnest again now that I’m settled (mostly) in my new apartment and suddenly have an extra two hours a day that I used to spend sitting on a bus.

My, my…

I really haven’t been abusing this soap box as much as I should (or have).  Well, maybe that’s a good thing for some of you as I am prone to ramble. However I feel inspired to produce an update on my situation. Also, I would like to submit a disclaimer before you proceed–my current writing is heavily coloured by my role as a contact center agent who has to write emails in a profusely apologetic manner and am to be extremely all encompassing (to prevent accusations of withhold information) in my replies. Concurrently I’ve been re-reading a lot of Anne McCaffry as of late, who’s prose has a definite style which I adore. Essentially if it seems like I’m writing in a manner that is strange, it’s because I can’t help it.

As for my life at the moment I have finally succeeded in securing a lease until the end of December on a wonderful one bedroom located with in (not entirely easy) walking distance to work.It’s veryconveniently priced, spacey and with excellent light with what has so far proven to be a very accommodating. The area is also rife with dogs, which is fortuitous (that’s a word that doesn’t get enough use these day, honestly). The only issue is that I must wait for the beginning of May before I can more in. The result is an increasing discontent with my daily 3 hour bus commute.

I’ve also sent of my computer (who shall hence forth be known as ‘Gigiboo’) to be repaired upon discovering that Future Shop did indeed have a record of my overpriced warranty. The result is that I will spend 8-10 days without Gigiboo, a trauma which makes me die a little inside every time I think about it.

Emotionally lately I’ve noticed a rather prevalent schizophrenia in my behavior, fluctuating between extreme cheerfulness (especially with the slowly improving weather, my poor body hasn’t received this much vitamin D in months) and absolute annoyance with everything that lives and has the misfortune to communicate with me. This is a rather obnoxious state of being when you’re a call center rep. For now I’ve attempted to focus on the happier side of my emotions while thinking up some sort of non-computer related project to occupy me for the next week and a half. Expect to see a perforation of sketches at that time.

Also, check out my latest print:
Hunting the Red Swan by =scruffykitty on deviantART

Oopse…

Disapeared again! Sorry folks, I haven’t had much to post here lately since I was putting most of my energy into updating my Naruto Doujinshi. I’ve finished the final chapter in volume one, updated the website (and by “updated” i mean added more options than an outdated links page and an option to view the doujin) AND there’s a contest going on. check out the main page if you want to participate.

 Now that that’s done it’s taken quite a bit out of me. Match that with being screwed over several times when trying to get aparment (like when people say they’re going to meet you to view the place and then just not being there and telling you later that they’ve already rented the place out, etc, and see last post for the most extreme example to date) has left me feeling a bit depressed. I had this creative surge a while ago which seems to be absent. I’m not so cranky today, and I’ve got two possible places lined up, so keep your fingers crossed for me if you’re reading and you care.

GA!!! and…random productivity

So, I really, really thought I had finally found an apartment, and it was as perfect as one can expect, but that fell through. Largely becuase my potential landlord and the guy that actually owns the property (who lives in another part of the country, of course) are complete clusterfucks and told me two weeks ago that I had a room and they’d let me know when my ref checked out so i could move in immediately, and then when I finally got a hold of them yesterday they told me that “uh…actually we might be selling the place and we don’t know if we want two dogs and blah blah blah we were gonna let you know at the end of Feb.” WHAT?!! Jesus, some people make me so mad I can barely see straight. And since I stopped looking for two weeks (’cause I thought I had a place) all the other leads I had have gone cold and I’m at square one. This has been going on since November and it’s really, really pissing me off. And my poor puppy is not handling me being out of the house for 12 hours straight (only 8 of those are me working, the rest is spent on the bus and god forbid I want to go anywheres on the way) and has started tearing apart every bag of garbage she finds. If i had my own place I could puppy-proof it, but my dad’s house is basically torn apart and filled with boxes of my stuff, his stuff, my dead grandparents stuff, my brothers stuff…you get the idea.

*sigh*

On another note, I’ve been very productive with my Naruto doujinishi; if I continue at my current rate I should have it finished by the end of next week (this chapter, I mean, not the whole thing, that’ll take years).
However, today I forgot my pens, and so can’t work on it at work like I’ve been doing. I did of course bring a pad of paper. I’ve had an original story in the back of my mind for some time, with some fairly well developed characters and some ideas I’d love to explore. Yet I’ve never really sat down and tried to peice through an outline before. Well, a few hours later and I have over three pages done, and more coming. The damn thing seems to be writing itself. Of course, now I have to decide whether I want to write it or draw it…or maybe both? Hmm…must put by brain to work on that one….