Yesterday I saw that I had my 4000th watcher and as I imagined an assembly of 4000 people all there to see me I was humbled and awed.  You guys are great, you really are.  You inspire me to keep moving and keep striving.  I can't believe I am about to break 100,000 views.  I kid you not- I had only 19,000 two years ago.  It has been an explosion and I am honored that you guys have found me worthy to watch as I grow and improve as an artist.  So yes, I am still alive and working harder than I have ever worked before.  Work has picked up so much I have had little time to do personal projects and what commercial works I do have have been under non-disclosure but I can't wait to show you guys some of the concept art I have been working on.  It has been a blast!  I truly have found my calling in life being an artist.  These last few months have been hard but I have never felt so fulfilled!  

Speaking of which, I just got my copy of Exotique 7 two days ago and I am patiently waiting to open it Christmas Day.  When I submitted my walkthrough I heard back from them and they told me it was the best walkthrough they had ever received.  This is Ballistic Publishing folks!  To say I was happy would be an understatement.  By the way, if you go on their website now you will see a lovely new section of the bottom talking about the walkthroughs and they call me a master artist!  ~_~  I was so giddy when I saw that.  [link] you guys want an in-depth explanation of what I do and the purposes behind it I highly recommend watching this tutorial.  I wish I had time to do more.  

There has been soooo much going on in life, not just work.  For those of you who recall, I was working on a costume for my husband for DragonCon last year.  I finished it in time for Halloween thanks to the pestering of my husband, but it nearly did me in because he only gave me two weeks notice.  I had to freaking sculpt body armor.  Then people kept punching him in the chest because they thought it was some store bought armor when in fact it was made of paperclay.   Thank goodness for the resin coating I gave it for strength.  It was so dang hard, I simply must show it off here.  That is if I can get the pictures to show up:



It's nice to pick up sculpting tools every now and then, but it was so stressful I could use a long hiatus before attempting it again.  I wish I was as motivated as my brother and his wife who come up with new costumes every convention.  I did however have time to turn my baby into a moogle for halloween!



And I didn't have time to make myself anything for Halloween so I threw on a Japanese dress I had bought at a ren fair for something like $10, threw on some eye lashes, and took a fan.  Don't ask me what I am really supposed to be, because I don't really know.  It was a last minute decision.  I tried clown makeup at first.  It looked awful up close.  The second time I just used some concealer over my whole face.  It looked much better.  And yes, my arms and legs are really that pale and my hair that dark.  




And since then I have moved, been in several performances including Handel's Messiah (which I only had like a week to learn the entire 200 page score), and had to get my husband's parents house ready for them to move back in (we had been house sitting).  

Tomorrow is my 5th year anniversary, and then there is Christmas, and then the welcome home party for the in-laws, and then... JANUARY!  Ah blissful peaceful laid back January, you cannot come soon enough!

So that's what's been up.  I'll be writting a blog entry soon to talk about some of the amazing resources I have found lately so stay tuned!

Greetings greetings my minions I mean uh... followers...  

I wanted to put a plug in for my new art website ashleywalters.net- [link] .  Bookmark it if you can as that is where I will put a lot of my resources in the future.  I've been talking to a friend about putting together tutorial videos (she knows how to do all the production on them) and I am looking into doing some live streams.  

I've got some art floating around on an ImagineFX DVD but I don't know which issue.  I think it's issue 69 or 70.  Anyone know for sure?  I tried looking at the local store and they didn't have it so I want to know the issue number so I can buy it online.

And just so ya know, I have entered some pieces in Exotique 7.  I'm crossing my fingers that I will have at least something get through.  I can't tell you how stoked I would be to have such a lovely book on my shelf.

And just so you people know, I am available for concept work but I don't work for free.  I've had a couple of people ask and then laugh at me for wanting pay, but I am a serious artist and I need to eat.    I mean, is it so out of the ordinary to ask pay for labor?  I mean really?

Anyway, I am on conceptart.org and I put up a sketchbook recently if you guys want to say hi and get a sneak peek on some stuff I may not post here:

[link]

And I forgot to add, have you guys heard of skin graft?  I just discovered their stuff and it absolutely amazing!  I am thinking of doing some paintings inspired by their style.  [link]

And I would just like to say thanks for being there for me guys.  It means a lot to have all my helpful watchers and I hope you have enjoyed watching my transformation here in the past year.  It has been an incredible journey.  I try to comment whenever someone posts on my profile and usually check out other people's profiles.  If I didn't get to your comment, know that I read it and thank you.  I am to the point where I can't say thanks for every message, I'm up to 12000 in my message center again (time to clean them out).  Lazy excuse I know, but thanks again.

Awesome underexposed art:



Peace!