sigune | Old and New

Happy New Year all! I hope you had a great start... Mine included a set of five paint brushes, squee! :D

I'm a bit late with my first entry for 2007, but then I am slow always, so I am just being characteristic; besides, I never make New Year's resolutions, so why pretend that I have changed ;P?

The Old

Below is my review of 2006 in terms of art, as I posted nothing more than a paltry two drabbles on the fic front. - Wait, scratch that: there was the gigantic (well, it's nothing compared to what

valis2 gets up to, but still) opus consisting of the

pr_snape and

pr_brynhild journals, but somehow they don't seem to count quite as much as archive-posted stuff would, and I tend to forget about it. Um. Still: art.

2006
1) Art I posted: some 20 images, I think, and a large part of them in the last few months – not counting some eight pages of the comic which haven’t been posted yet.

2) My favorite:
That’s always hard to say. No matter how flawed they may be, I have a certain fondness for every single one of my pictures. But for the purpose of this meme, let me pick this one:
Troubled Sleep

How I love Snape sleeping… :-)

3) My best:
Again, this is very hard to determine, especially of my own stuff. Suggestions are welcome; in fact I always love to hear what other people, less biased than myself, think my best work. (Please do comment!)
My pick, ever so slightly random:
Looking at the Stars

4) Art most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Intimacy

This drawing is really close to my heart. I got very little reaction to it, though it was very long in the making, I worked hard to get it right, and I am ultimately very happy with it. Maybe it is on account of the OFC. Fortunately the picture’s recipient was very enthusiastic about it, and that is really the most important (and rather heart-warming) thing :D.

5) Most fun art:
Next Time, Choose Treat

The fun bit wasn’t just in the subject (though I just love poking fun at dear Severus), but also in my rediscovery of colour pencils. I thoroughly enjoyed making this card.

6) Sexiest art:
Jewels

Sexy isn’t really my cup of tea, at least not in the naked bits or steamy action department. Still, I like to think that several of my drawings have a contained, subdued sort of sexiness, and this one is probably (one of) the most obvious example.

7) Most popular:
Sleeping Ugly

This became an unexpected hit. I posted it in several places at LJ, so I suppose it’s not surprising that I got more reactions than usual, but the trend continued at deviantART, so it really is my success picture of 2006 :D.

8) "Holy Crap, that's wrong, even for you" drawing:
I’m sorry to be such a bore, but I don’t think I have one, actually… When something looks very wrong (and that’s in the technique, not the subject department – ...yes, I know :P) I simply don’t post it.

9) Most controversial drawing:
Eileen Prince Gave Birth to a Murderer

I got quite a few hostile reactions to this one, from people who were shocked by the picture’s title. Kind souls jumped to my defence and pointed out that these are not my words, but Harry’s, from the last chapter of Half-Blood Prince. As for the shock value, that was totally intended. I drew the picture because Harry’s words shocked me, too.

10) Art I'm most proud of:
The comic! :D This is the first time ever that I actually finished a story in comic-form, hence the pride. On the picture front, there is also
Two Slytherins

I may change my mind when its novelty wears off, but I’m inordinately pleased with this one.

11) Biggest disappointment:
Tonks and Lupin on a Couch

This was meant to be fab, and I was very happy with the drawing, which for my practice is really rather complex and turned out surprisingly well. Sadly, I botched the colours. I feel very frustrated about that.

12) Biggest surprise:
Pink Pansy

With this picture I surprised myself: it accidentally turned into something decent. I had been struggling with this pose for a while in sketches, and started to draw it quite casually on cheap paper because I was itching to try my new watercolour pencils. What was supposed to be a scrap ended up being a nice picture with good skin tones and just the effect I had been hoping for.

Paper Chains

This is where I was surprised by reviewers :D. The picture went up at

romancingwizard and turned out to get the most comments I ever got at that comm. I never expected people to like it so much.

In general, it was a great surprise for me to discover how much people like my black and white art. Black and white isn’t very popular as a rule; I know that in comics, for example, it is considered commercial suicide. But of the four people for whom I have been (or still am) doing pictures, three have specifically asked for b/w, and several others have commented favourably on my use of inks specifically. Hee.

13) Hardest to draw:
Night Counsel

OOoooOOOhh how I cursed that one. I’m still angry with it for being such a pain in the backside.

14) Picture I want remembered:
Looking at the Stars

…I suppose :D.

15) Goals for next year:
I want to get to understand more about colour, learn about the use of watercolour, and obviously I want to grow as an artist. (Who wouldn’t?)

The New

Because I like to start with a clean slate from time to time, and because the start of a new year is as good an occasion as any, I would like to declare a (de)friending amnesty. If you have friended me at some point during the past year but are no longer sure why you did so, then please go ahead and defriend me.

On my end of the line, I think it might be a good thing to trim my flist a bit because, although I often do no more than lurk, I do try to keep up with what everybody is writing. That is becoming harder and harder as the list grows, and so I thought I would remove a few people who have never made themselves known or otherwise sought contact. If you are one of those, and feel it would be a grievous loss to disappear from my flist (I think the only thing you'd miss out on is, like, news about my cat *g*), then please leave an alarm message below.

For the relatively new who have only a very foggy idea about the person in whose lair they have landed, there is a slightly adapted friending thingy below the cut:

WHO AM I?
Name: Sigune
Age: 27
Location: Continental Europe
Astrological Sign: Libra (not that it matters)

HARRY POTTER STUFF
My favourite HP book: Order of the Phoenix
My favourite characters: Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore
Least favourite character: Lucius Malfoy comes to mind...
Ships, OTP: I read both het and slash, but I am not very passionate about any ship at all; only the canon ones are a fact of life. I find it much easier to name the ships I cannot stand (predictably, most of them involve Snape), but in view of the preferences of a rather astounding number of my flisties it is probably better to hold my tongue on the subject ;). Let me just say, YAY for genfic!
House affiliation: as one of

a_t_rain's icons says, "zero ambition, utter coward, lazy as hell - Ravenclaw by default" ;P. I should add as extra justification that I am very bookish.
The first HP quote you remember right now: "There is no need to call me Sir, Professor."
What I do in the fandom: I draw pictures and write fic, though the last has been a bit problematic lately.
Peculiarities: I hate to disappoint, but I have no other journal in which I post porn. There is no such thing as

sigune porn, either written or drawn; don't go looking for it. I find myself in the strange position of not being interested in the stuff per se, while not disapproving of people who are. The only way my interest is kindled is when the stuff is perpetrated by artists whose gen work and style I already admire to such an extent that I'll lap up anything they serve me :-).

OTHER FANDOM
Other fandoms: euh... Oscar Wilde?
Favourite characters: Herod, Basil Hallward, Mrs Erlynne, Mabel Chiltern...
Ships: Shakespeare/Willie Hughes :)
Fandom interests: academia *g*

GENERAL
Why would you want me on your flist? er... Because you like to look at pictures, read my sparse meta, know whether I'm writing any fic?
My journaling habits: My fandom stuff is open to everybody. The scarce entries about my personal life (and that of my cat, *ahem*) are flocked.