well, to make a long story short, they were AWESOME. the whole family went on a trip to Kenya... one week Safari and one week Beach Timez! (because poor spelling is kewl)
I'll be uploading some photos as soon as we went through all of them and I find the ones that are actually done by me. most of the time, the camera was hogged by my sister ~squirrellove - I suggest you go to her account in a few day's time if you want to see moar. also I might upload some stuff into my scraps... we'll see.

Africa certainly has left a powerful impression on me... full of beautiful people, intense colors, incredible countryside and elegant animals, hot air, radiant smiles in the faces of people that don't make more than 1,50€ a day to support themselves, a wife and the kids... moonrise over the ocean, brilliantly colored birds, people that dance to express, not to impress.
swimming in an ocean that was so warm the air outside felt cold when you got out.
watching a pair of cheetahs cleaning each other just 4 metres away from our jeep.
photos, photos, photos.
watching a giraffe kick out and gallop away - apparently in slow-motion. yes. giraffes move in slow-mo.
my brother futzing around with his video camera. our ranger-guide fellow listening to british soccer results.
and then the poverty. the litter next to the roads of less well-cared-for villages, the cows of the massai tribes that are not much more than just skin and bones, the savannah littered with skeletons, the remains of one and a half years of draught.
dancing in the warm rain with my sister while others watch in astonishment.
having a random street vendor guy confess everlasting love to a person of which he knew only that she has white skin and the money to have holidays in Kenya - me. later I jumped into the hotel's pool, which was off-limits to anyone not hotel staff to hide my angry tears. now I find it funny, in a sad way.
trying to explain the concept of ice and snow to the janitor while it was pouring rain outside.
making friends with the waiters, the cooks, the security personnel, simply because we were a family that laughed about as much as the natives do and took an interest in their lives behind their jobs. getting double helpings of pancakes for breakfast because the pancake maker liked us.

definitly a fantastic two weeks I hope I won't ever forget.

hooooly whoa what a sentimental first section! anyway, on to the lighter stuff.

HOLY SHIT 25,000 PAGEVIEWS.

anyway: as you know by now, I have a new pc. and thus, a new monitor. with new settings. so I need your help to see if the settings I have are okay or not? my new ID pic was made on the new pc and "Nightfall" was touched up to not be ugly on here as well, everything else on the old one. can you see any major differences and if yes, which ones do you like better? I need teamwork here, because everybody is likely to have different settings anyway.

now that that is out of the way...
NEW YEAR 2010!!! The Chance To Make Everything Better!
only I won't. not everying, at least. but, lucky for you, the only new years resolutions I have are made especially for art. (I've just experienced that it doesn't make any difference for me to have resolutions in real life... )
alright let's go! here are my 5 things I need to focus on this year:

Clothing! different fashion styles for my different OCs, work on folds and shades and textures!
Animals! just... animals. not quite so heavy on the human aspect of things in 2010, please.
Backgrounds! well, backgrounds and landscapes, actually. I want to at least have one landscape-only pic in my gallery by the time the next year rolls in.
Poses! experimentation! would like to try foreshortening, weird angles, action poses vs posed-looking stuff vs stuff that looks like taken with a cellphone, ect and so forth. (argh what am I getting myself into)
and finally, Composition! just... thinking the comp. through, with preliminary sketches, references, more prelim sketches, color schemes, including backgrounds and animals and poses and fabrics, of course. just trying to think the setting of at least the "big" pictures through before I start, not just letting everything happen at random.

whoa. impressive.
and for those wondering, I'll give you two more points....
Moar Comicks
finish the Fashion Design Challenge.

And that's about as much as I can bring myself to.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Since dA already has so many art features I decided to try something different. (btw - often music is better than the attached vids. got it? )

I'm going to be away for the next 2 weeks, you know, christmas with teh family and all that jazz in remote lands without internet connection. the usual. so, I'm gonna end this year with the upload of a new ID for 2010 and this lil journal.

I wish you all Happy Holidays, whatever you are celebrating, and get safely into the New Year! I love you all, and will see you in the new decade!


and maybe I'll come back home and find the 25 000 mark crossed? who knows.

Since dA already has so many art features I decided to try something different. also, if I link a video, you don't have to watch that. mostly the music is better than the video.

the winner is "that girl we've never heard of before", aka Kaley! Here's a little preview for those actually interested... [link]
See? now you know her.

well, it happened. it was bound to happen, and that it took as long as it did rather surprised me anyway, seeing as my old laptop was dropped 3metres off a balcony onto ice on asphalt. anticipating the third anniversary of said occurrence, it decided to fizzle and die on me. thankfully, I'd been expecting that and had all my stuff carefully saved on the ever faithful external harddrive, so no all too painful losses. I've already bought a new one and am going to have it set up in the course of the next few days, hopefully. (a laptop AND all the christmas gifts? my purse is practically screaming in agony!)
I would like for all of us to have a moment in memory of Old Laptop. It served well and diligently, with a lot of personality and perks to make life with it more interesting... farewell, friend.

.
..
...
OKAY MOMENT OVER!!!
New Laptop is sony and actually has working USB drives!!! HELL YEAH!

hm, I was pretty sure I had something else to say here, too... not new year resolutions, those will be done in the new year, duh. uhm, whaaaat was it... oh right!
I will be off and away without internet access from the 22nd to the 4th of the new year. yes I know you will all miss me dreadfully and will most likely start crying at the announcement of such a long period of absence from yours truly, but here, have a hanky and dry your eyes. and maybe have a cookie.

NO WAIT you can only have the cookie if you've voted in the poll right over there *points to the right side of the screen* there, you see? two of the chars are tied, and we can't have that!
I'll give you 2 more days to reach a final conclusion, clear?
alright. here's the cookie.

Since dA already has so many art features I decided to try something different. also, if I link a video, you don't have to watch that. mostly the music is better than the video.

hey everyone... remember a certain little outburst I had 3 months ago? yeah, I thought not.
and I quote:


yyyeah. that's actually... all I have to say for the moment.

Since dA already has so many art features I decided to try something different. also, if I link a video, you don't have to watch that. mostly the music is better than the video.
double feature today!

4 years deviantART. well. quite honestly, I don't really know what to say. I mean, last year I did a sentimental rant of epic proportions, which I'm pretty certain I'm not gonna do today, so, that's one option less.

The deviantART SURVEY

1) What is your deviant-name and what does it mean?
Rusty was an OC I was developing at the time, situated in my Treasure Planet fandom and, looking back, something of a alter-ego-mary-sueish thing. and after seeing that ~rusty already existed (as dead account), I was too lazy to think of a more original name and stuck the 1 in front. otherwise you might have gotten to know me as rustydiamond. ah, hindsight.

2) Why did you join this site?
immersed in Treasure Planet fandom, I came across *dolphy, my absolute IDOL back then. I just wanted to stalk her more efficiantly. The art thing was a sidenote.

3) What fandom were you obsessed with when you joined?
lol, see previous questions

4) Were any of the fandoms you have currently brought about by this site?
let's see... Avatar, first and foremost. which gave way into Bleach and Naruto, which got me into mangas and anime in general.

5) Look into your stats. What is your:
- most Favorited Deviation: (no surprises there)
- most Viewed Deviation: same.
- most Commented Deviation: same.

6) How many watchers do you have at this moment?
108, minus a few banned and some clubs. wait... when the HELL did I get 100 watchers?!?

7) First ever watcher?
that'd be *magmanorn. ah mag, remember the good old days?

8) How many pageviews do you have at this moment?
.... 23 745. omg.

9) What is your artist's title shown beneath your "status"?
DA Addict.

10) What is your most "meaningful" work?
actually, I tend to keep my feeling out of my art. or, let's say... any emopics fell prey to a gallery cleaning. so at the moment, the deviation with the most feeling incorporated into it is . and that's not even art as I'd call it! anyway, I've got something "deep" on mind, for when I actually have the skills to pull it off.

11) Best COMPLETED piece you ever did?
or , I'd say. "Nightfall" certainly has the best coloring I've ever done, but "Skater Casual" is a) completly done by me and b) just is, in my opinion, my best work up to now.

12) work that took longest?
totally again!

13) DA artist who has influenced you the most?
oof. that's... hard to say. I owe so much to so many people I couldn't possibly list them all! there really are quite a few, all in phases when I tried to imitate them best as possible, got better and moved on to the next awesome artist.

14) What is currently the most fun and the easiest thing to draw?
people.

15) Your first ever giftart and first ever giftart received:
first giftart recieved: "Rusty Planet", from ~Moitessier. it's been deleted from his gallery though...
first giftart made: , for . d'aww. nostalgia. I used to draw horses all the time.

16) How many clubs are you in?
nine.

17) How long have you been here?
happy fourth dA birthday me!

18) Are you on any other art sites?
nah. why would I? dA's all I need

19) Can you remember the old DA layout?
oh yeah. I like this one a LOT better, and the new features just keep on coming!

20) Are you still as passionate about art/poetry/prose as when you joined this site?
that's... difficult to say. I admit I spend less time online as I did back when I joined, but I've gotten much more passionate about art in general. I fav less, but put more thought into what I do fav and comment and simply am a lot more picky about what does or does not make its way into my fav box.

21) Do you have more than one account on deviantART?
yup. I've got my beading account and one that I'm planning on using as bot for my chatroom. (the link to that is up thar under the journal title)

22) Do you know anyone from here in real life?
of course! , and I hope to add some more of you to that list sometime in the future!

23) Are you only active in the art department or do you use the community sectors (chat, forums, news ect) as well?
mostly art. I used to have a forum phase, but now I just check by there now and then, the same with the news articles, official and non-official. as for chat... I have a few rooms I will turn up in, but I don't browse there widely.

24) Have there been any changes in your art style/theme/ect in your gallery in the past?
I've... gotten... better? no seriously, that's a funny question. hm... I started off my gallery with a series of fantasy critters in colored pencil. I've meandered away from that to preferring to draw people over animals, and using digital media. also lately I've brushed up my background skills, or so I like to think, and I've developed some OCs that I intend to keep using and developing further. oh, and the art memes. and the comics. can't forget those. it's really time I did another one, I think... a comic, I mean.

25) Any last words?
THANK YOU ALL for making my stay here so enjoyable and fun! I owe you so much, I don't know what to say. I guess I'll just keep making art, ne?


and that was it for this little tag. I think it summed up 4 years of deviantART quite nicely. all in all, this site and the people on it have become an important piece of my life, and I never regret signing up here.

Since dA already has so many art features I decided to try something different. also, if I link a video, you don't have to watch that. mostly the music is better than the video.
double feature today!