Apologies for the recent inactivity; up until the 18th of December I was busybusybusy with university work, and since the semester ended I've been taking a break to have some time to myself. The inactivity is going to continue for just over another week too - as of Monday, I will be in Finland for 7 days. I'm hoping to get lots of great photos taken while I'm over there, so I will hopefully be updating this when I get back.

So until then, merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you all

I now have an account on Tumblr!

Of all the blogging platforms I've tried, this one is definitely my favourite. It's far easier and much more fun to use, as it's more interactive than others I've been on before, and I've been wanting a new blog again anyway.

So! If any of you happen to have Tumblr as well, you can [view mine here] and maybe even follow it - I'll be happy to follow you back. I update it more often than I update this journal on here, just in case you're actually interested in what I get up to away from dA

My wrist microdermal shots have been featured!
Body Piercings on tumblr have included Procedure in their blog on November 2^nd, which was consequently reblogged by a few others on tumblr too. Thanks guys!
The rest of the blog is definitely worth taking a look at if you're interested in body modification, and I saw quite a few other deviants on there while browsing. It's kind of inspired me to take more shots of my other piercings, as some of them belonging to others on the blog have been presented beautifully, so there may be more self-portraits appearing in my gallery in the near future.

Lastly and unfortunately, journal features will be more irregular than they have been, simply because my memory is poor and I won't always remember to post new ones at set intervals, haha. That and I have university work to be doing on top of personal side projects, and I have to set priorities. So, as my last weekly feature, here are some gorgeous and adorable kitties!

Not much has happened lately, really. My student loan finally came through which I'm so pleased about, so I'm now making proper costume plans for Halloween as I've got a decent enough budget for one. It's very likely that there will be photos of it to come if I remember to take any or if they turn out how I hope, so fingers crossed!

This morning's 'Visual Literacy' lecture was an interesting one. We were originally supposed to be looking at lino cutting and printing, but the shop on campus hadn't received their order of new pieces of lino yet, so we had to completely change our plans. So instead, our tutor disappeared for a few minutes, and came back with A1 sheets of paper and brand new boxes of wax crayons, and we drew each other in practice for a different project we have ongoing. I'd completely forgotten until this point just how great wax crayons are, especially working at that size, and I also discovered that I'm not as terrible at observational portraits as I thought I was. It just goes to show that when things don't go the way you intended, it doesn't necessarily mean you can't get anything good out of it.

Lastly, for this week's feature I've been looking at photography, and I found these beautiful deviations in the 'recently submitted' area of the photography section. Go check them out and give them the love they deserve!

I've gotten back into my photography recently and it's been going well, so I guess that's what I'll be uploading to my gallery now. I'll still be submitting tutorials when I get the ideas for them, though I'm actually kind of stuck as to what I'm going to do for my next one; any thoughts?

I've also decided to opt-in on the whole 'journal feature' thing, simply because I want to share my favourites with anyone else who takes an interest, and feature those who produce really outstanding work. So, here goes my first feature!

Below are some works of portrait artists that I chose for their outstanding use of colour, execution of materials, imagination and originality. If you've not checked them out already, do so now - you won't be disappointed.