The Sleeper's Den

These were done over the weekend, when it wasn't quite so hot :-). Today I did indeed get my ten degrees less, by the way, so there will be more comic tomorrow.

Anyhow: have some Snape, Dumbledore and Avery. Please excuse the garish colours - they are what happens when I get my hands on markers :/. Clearly I have no talent for working with markers at all. I have very few colours too, which is why Dumbledore is wearing pink and lilac. Hum.

( Wizards )

First off, this is for _grainne_, to thank her for the rose she gave me on Valentine's Day :-).



*smooches _grainne_*

As you can see, I still haven't given up on watercolour painting yet, though I don't seem to be able to paint anything decent except small and simple pictures like the one above. Mind you, I love small and simple pictures, but - I'd like to be able to do something more complex too! That said, I think I should really start working on my sumi-e, because that style of painting probably suits me better than more Western approaches, and I might be able to achieve some success there if I study enough...

In any case, I am struggling on with my watercolours. Because I have trouble mixing colours, I got myself a new (well, second-hand) book that seemed really interesting in the sense that it proposes a completely different approach to colour than the ones I had read so far. The book is called Making Color Sing and was written by Jeanne Dobie. She has all sorts of things to say that are much too advanced for me, but the basics I can understand :-). First off, Dobie uses a basic palette that centres around four colours that are normally deemed completely optional: Rose Madder Genuine, Aureolin Yellow, Cobalt Blue and Viridian. She favours them because they are pure pigments and very transparent. The colours you get when you mix them are still luminous, even the greys. Only - well, these colours aren't very lightfast, so some artists say that Dobie is insane recommending them :P. Well, I don't much care. My paintings aren't on display, so my Rose Madder Genuine isn't going to fade any time soon. I'll remember the lightfastness issue if anyone should ever commission a painting from me - but seeing how amateurish I still am, I think I still have quite a lot of time to worry about replacement colours ;-).

Anyway: the picture above, as the one below the cut, have both been painted with Dobie's basic colours.



( If You Are Prepared )

Concrit & good advice are very welcome!

You know, maybe I'll give up ficcing after all. I have reached an all-time low, tormented by the fact that canon contains so many stupid twists that my poor brain doesn't know how to base something decent on this junk. I mean - it is impossible to stick to Potter canon for the simple reason that it contradicts itself, so if you go by one bit, it doesn't gel with another. And the irony is that though Rowling can get away with it, I sort of can't.

Below is a problem I have with Snape's timeline. Any theories that can help me make sense of it and ease the terrible pain in my brain will be very, very much appreciated.

( *sigh* )

I had a story brewing since ... June, I think - my first funny tale (mind you, it's still a Sigune story so please don't expect to roll over the floor laughing), which to my mind was quite an event. For two months or more I struggled, would you believe it, with the ending alone :-). BUT now it's finally ready and posted at no less than three archives at once - a bit of an overreaction, I guess... However, the Sycophant Hex mods were the quickest to validate it, so if you don't want to wait for FA (where I made it into Riddikulus, *at last*!) or Mugglenet (where it is supposed to support poor ailing Gryffindor House), you can read it at Occlumency. Oh, and it's dedicated to Steph, who hopefully won't find that a cause for embarrassment... *grins*

Monkey Business
Some animals are just not meant to be pets. A tale of friendship, choices and many, many familiars.

Situated before HBP.
Rating: my usual PG
Genres: Humor, Friendship
Characters: Brynhild Bromley (sorry - she just keeps popping in), Albus Dumbledore, and Severus Snape of course.