Guys, it's SUPER WEIRD being in a fandom where the primary medium is visual. I've never been great at finding a person's likeness in my art, but at least it was easy enough in HP to just say "hey, that's what I think Snape looks like in the books!" That isn't the case for Once. If I can't make my people look at least a little like the actors, nobody's going to know who they are.

So I've been sketching from IMDB photos and chloris's truly magnificent episode picspam, trying to get a feel for the faces I'm going to be distilling into my style as time goes on.

I'm not fully satisfied with any of these, but I can tell I'm getting a little more familiar with them.

Title: Test sketch #1 - Belle
Artist: twilightsorcery
Characters: Belle
Rating: G
Artist's notes: My first try turned out way too generic. She looks pretty, but not in a very Belle-ish way. I like the hair, though!



( Worksafe art below the cut )


Title: Test sketch #2 - Belle
Artist: twilightsorcery
Characters: Belle
Rating: G
Artist's notes: The second try looks like Belle, hurray! The lines aren't strong enough to be a good template for my lineart, but it's a start.



( Worksafe art below the cut )


Title: Test sketch #3 - Lacey
Artist: twilightsorcery
Characters: Lacey
Rating: G
Artist's notes: Now for the tricky part -- same face, different character. I think the easiest way to distinguish Lacey from Belle is going to be her hair. This was was a *huge* pain in the butt to get right. I must have erased her mouth ten times and her right eye twenty.



( Worksafe art below the cut )

Title: Test sketch #4 - Gold
Artist: twilightsorcery
Characters: Gold
Rating: G
Artist's notes: And then, every so often, it just comes out beautifully without me even trying. It's probably because Robert Carlyle has the best nose of all time.



( Worksafe art below the cut )

Title: Test sketch #5 - Rumple
Artist: twilightsorcery
Characters: Rumplestiltskin
Rating: G
Artist's notes: So of course, my art mojo decided that was enough, and it was going to take a break. After that breathlessly easy one, I got this, which I still hate (it's the teeth; blargh). Clearly I'm going to need some practice to get Rumple looking like himself.



( Worksafe art below the cut )

Back to the drawing board (sketchbook, whatever!) with me! Sooner or later I'll nail down how I want them to look, then I'll get to repeat the process with Regina. I've got a nice finished piece all planned out in my head for her, but I've got a little breathing room because I want to do my Can't Take The Sky illustrations first.

Originally posted at dreamwidth.

My scroll: * * *

Title: Games
Characters/Pairing: Harry/Draco
Word Count: 294
Rating: R
Warnings: wanking, voyeurism and frottage
Challenge: Day 19
Author's Notes: Not beta-ed.
( Games )

Cue the cheesy 70's song...

Title: Laughter in the Rain
Pairing: Severus/Sirius
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Challenge: Prompt: A day without laughter is a day wasted. Day 19 at hp_may_madness
Summary: Shmoopy, very, very shmoopy.

( Read more... )

Happy Birthday today to

k8bnimble/k8bnimble!

and

montana_dan!

Many happy returns! ♥

Femme slash doesn't get nearly enough love (says me who never does it myself, what can I say I like my smut with nuts) and I would be remiss if I didn't rec this lovely entry by twilightsorcery this month on daily_deviant. It's a short, four panel story that has a really, unique film noir feel to it. I especially love the last panel. Go check it out and leave the artist some love!

Title: Revenge, Sweet and Sour
Media: Photoshop
Characters/Pairings: Pansy/Astoria (implied Draco/Pansy, Draco/Astoria, Pansy/OMC)
Rating: R
Kinks/Themes Chosen: heterosexuality
Other Warnings: infidelity, somewhat tongue-in-cheek interpretation of the prompt
Artist's Notes: For lunalovepotter I started this long ago based on your KK prompt, which included, among other things, Pansy/Astoria, lingerie, cigarettes, adultery, a sexy/angsty tone, and a hot & heavy encounter at a low-rent hotel room. I hope you like it!

Trying to catch up on some earlier prompts I wanted to do but missed, hope that's all right.

Title: Too Drunk To F**k
Pairing: Severus/Sirius
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, sloppy drunk Severus
Challenge: Kink: drunk sex (well almost drunk sex, the spirit is willing but the flesh is inebriated and floppy) day 11
Summary: He should have stopped at his third glass of firewhiskey

( Read more... )

According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo is going to buy Tumblr. Here's the link I saw at NPR.

TBH, I can't fathom how that could be a good thing but I suppose we shall see.

Thoughts?

Title: Letting Bygones be Bygones
Author: alisanne
Rating: PG
Word count: 100 x 3
Characters/pairings: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson
Challenge: Written for dracoharry100/dracoharry100's prompt #298: Never
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.
Beta: lilyseyes
Authors Notes: Part twenty-three in my H/D Eighth Year Series. Time to wrap this up soon, I think...
The other parts so far are Roommate From Hell, An Informed Decision, The Oncoming Storm, Making Choices, Honourable Actions, Feast or Famine, Disaster Averted, An Open Mind, Case Closed, Risky Business, Just Reward, Universal Contentment, Getting an Education, Professional Consultation, Covering the Essentials, Merciful Success, The Art of Healing, A Proper Distraction, Long Enough, A Special Place, In Consideration, A Fragile Peace, and Doing Their Best.

( Letting Bygones be Bygones )

Both on Daily Deviant:

Sheela na Leviosa by didodikali, Harry/Hermione, NC-17.

Why rec'd: I just love their cute arseholes!!! LOL! And Harry's hand holding his foot! And the FUN they're having! It's just happy-making, this.


Revenge, Sweet and Sour by twilightsorcery, Pansy/Astoria, R.

Why rec'd: Is blistering hotness enough? No? Then how about some angst, a short but powerful storyline, and some GORGEOUS craft?

The anonymous master list is up at hp_beholder and reveals are coming on Saturday the 25th. Anyone want to take a stab at which entry is mine? I'll give one clue--it's not art. ;)

Also, let me point to my gift one last time if you haven't read it. Run With the Pack Sirius Black/Aberforth Dumbledore, R, ~5700. To paraphrase several of the comments, you may not have ever considered this pairing before but by the end you'll wonder why not because it makes perfect sense.

I'm still terribly, desperately behind reading there myself and hopefully this week I can at least go through and read some of the shorter ones I meant to get to before reveals.

As usual, if you already know which is mine, you can't play. If anyone manages to guess, hmm, I'll think of a super prize for you because I do believe it's a bit tricky.

Comments are screened. Good luck!

Title: Revenge, Sweet and Sour
Artist: twilightsorcery
Media: Photoshop
Characters: Pansy/Astoria (implied Draco/Pansy, Draco/Astoria, Pansy/OMC)
Rating: R
Warnings: infidelity, smoking
Artist's notes: This is my terribly, terribly late Kinky Kristmas art for lunalovepotter! The prompt included, among other things, Pansy/Astoria, lingerie, cigarettes, adultery, a sexy/angsty tone, and a hot & heavy encounter at a low-rent hotel room. Despite the fact that this art caused me more trouble than any other piece I've ever done, I'm really happy with the result.
Art preview:



NSFW art at DD -->

Originally posted at dreamwidth.

Title: In the Aftermath
Author: Leela (leela_cat)
Beta: @aislinntlc
Pairing: Adam Lambert/Brad Bell
Rating: PG-13
Content and/or Warnings: * Date rape drugs, no rape *
Word Count: ~5,630
Summary: When his control is stolen from him, Adam reaches out for help and finds something he thought he'd lost years ago.
A/N: Written for @TechnicolorNina, who bid on and won one of my charity water auctions. And, yeah, just like all my other stories, this one also ended up a lot more than the 1k minimum mentioned in the auction post.

( In the Aftermath )

.

Title: Imperative
Author: Leela (leela_cat)
Pairing/Characters: Adam Lambert/Tommy Joe Ratliff
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 6x100
Content/Warning(s): Werewolves
Author's notes: Written for glam_100, prompt #084: howl. Many thanks to @aislinntlc for the preread.

( Imperative )

.

Finishing this one. Sorry for the low key ending but since it's a slice of life there really wasn't too many other ways to end it.

( Read more... )

Title: Cicatrix
Characters/Pairing: Neville/Charlie
Word Count: 480
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Scars, oral sex, facial, snowballing
Challenge: Day 18 prompt face shot.
Author's Notes: Not beta-ed.
( Cicatrix )

My scroll: * * *

So, I posted this morning that I was giving up on the ongoing story since I feel incredibly burnt out and that the readers have pretty much given up on it. Looking at 100 pages from down here at page 7 makes it look like an insurmountable task.

But then a bunch of people posted that they were sorry to see it end there and of course I started reconsidering and now I'm not sure what I'm doing. I hate being indecisive.

The problem with committing to working on it is not so much working on it at the moment, it's working on it when I'm up to page 50, the story is at it's most depressing (Severus is slumped in a church pew out of desperation and Padfoot is snowbound in a cave in the Forbidden Forest), comments are scant, and I'm ready to throw my pencil at wall due to the subpar art.

That's what I worry about since abandoning something mid-way is a total chump move and I can't say with certainty I would be able to see it through.

So I dunno. I'm tempted to erase the first start and start from scratch but my more rational mind is telling me I'm a nut who needs to quit while they're ahead.

Happy Birthday today to

absynthedrinker/absynthedrinker!

the lovely

felaine/felaine/felaine!



gryffindorj!



tigresslilly!

and to

eloquent_toast!

Many happy returns, all!

The talented sionna_raven made a cross-stitch of my Christmas in Paris art card:



I love it, go check it out!

Title: Conference Agenda
Author: alisanne
Pairing: Severus Snape/Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Challenge: Written for snape100/snape100/snape100's prompt #482: Snape and Conferences.
Word Count: 100 x 9
Warnings: None
Beta: lilyseyes
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

( Conference Agenda )

Meant to post this last night but sleep got the better of me.

Day 17, another bullet proof kink

Title: Acquired Taste part 2
Pairing: Severus/Sirius
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Rimming, explicit nudity
Challenge: Kink: first time day 17 at hp_may_madness
Summary: A heartwarming short story about a not so young man's first rim job. In other words, pointless smut.

This week has been a total bitch and lately I've been finding mental relief in going to the nature reserve by my house and just walking the paths until I'm worn out. It's most definitely been a good thing for my mental state and I'll be going to get my fishing license next week so I can have an excuse to duck out of the house at twilight and hit the river.

Been seeing a lot of this on my walks.( Read more... )


We are awash in turtles. Every marginally flat surface sticking out of the lake is crammed full of them sunning themselves. Tons of babies too. So cute, they look like little wind up toys.

I'm definitely feeling much better than I did this morning. Thanks to those who responded to my last post, you've given me something to think about and I already feel like I should rethink my decision. I don't know. Right now I'm just going to do what I do and see what happens.

ETA: *grumps* Well, a lot of the comments on this post is making me have second thoughts if not giving me the motivation to put nose to the grindstone. Wish there was a way to do this quickly, it's the time investment that's giving me the willies. It's gonna take months!

After giving it a lot of thought I've decided to cancel the end of "Sirius & Severus" arc due to lack of interest. I had planned to try to work on it when the mood struck me and just post large chunks of the story twice a week but it doesn't seem to be working out. It's bad for my momentum.

Fandom is not what it was a year ago and my incentive for working on a 90+ page story is gone. These days, if a comic installment garners 3 comments I consider it a success and honestly, I can't see myself pushing through the lack of reader interest to get a long work done. I've come to realize the audience is my muse, strange but absolutely true.

I'm going to add a couple of pages to the end of the original "Sirius & Severus" arc in order to give the story some finality and end it on the note I had wanted to originally before I decided to extend the story to include the HBP and DH stuff.

Thank you to everyone who followed the original series and it's follow up. The first one was one of the most fun things I've ever done and that was completely due to the people who followed it daily and ushered it along some nights keeping me up until 3am to get the next page out.

This is not a "goodbye cruel fandom" post by any stretch. I have no intention of leaving, of no longer drawing, or deleting my body of work. I'll be around, probably as much as ever since I'm modding a comm. and I still love HP and my guys as much as ever. I'll be the one putting up the chairs and turning out the lights after everyone else has gone.

Thanks again to everyone who's been following along and sorry for dropping the arc. I tried and I'm very sorry not to do it because there were a few scenes I was really looking forward to showing you, but like I said, interest is just not there anymore and I don't see it coming back any time soon. Without the readers there's no point to going on with it.

Or maybe I'm just fantastically burnt out.

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to my partner in crime, gryffindorj!

I've written two wee Teddy/James fics for your entertainment.

For something with a pinch of angst, try this:

Title: Stay
Pairing: Teddy/James
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~670
Content: Wee bit o'angst
Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to JKR.
A/N: Unbeta'd. You asked me to riff off Never Gonna Leave This Bed by Maroon 5 and this was my attempt. LOL Happy birthday, darling.

If you prefer unrepentant smut, then I'd recommend this:

Title: Reunited (and it feels so good)
Pairing: Teddy/James
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~2160
Content: Oral, 69, anal
Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to JKR.
A/N: Thanks to sdk and train_tracks for their help. Written for my dearest friend, gryffindorj, for her birthday! Hope it's a good one, love. ♥ Title shamelessly stolen from Peaches & Herb. Ah, 1978! A very good year. ;)

I believe I also owe you some baseball tickets and booze in just under six weeks. Counting the days, love. <3