So a lot of my characters pages are outdated--not only in art as my style has changed but also in content. The most notable that I need to update are the ones from here and here. The characters in Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass had some developments, and the clothing of the characters from the Princess Arisias Mystery series has changed. The older pages will be kept up (I won't delete them), and you will be able to see them in the "old pages" place.
And I have newer pages which will stay mostly the same, such as the one for The Haunted Sketchbook characters and a new page for a series I am working on (and going to be doing during NaNoWriMo this November) called The Heist of Dorian Gray.
There might be slight modifications on the Haunted Sketchbook page (that is, minor ones to Ferdinand's profile), but the most that will be done will be adding new characters into those pages, as I have not put Edith Porter's profile on the Haunted Sketchbook character page yet. And Iam working to make profiles for the other characters from The Heist of Dorian Gray, as I have only put Dorian's character sheet up.
Since I did not do this before, I will also be adding a section to the characters from Arisias's story page, including the gods and goddesses. Because the gods and goddesses are recurring characters on this blog, I thought making their own pages for them would make sense. And it would also make learning about the god characters easier if they had pages. For example, if you didn't know who Karleon or Salissah was, you could look them up.
In terms of how quickly the changes will happen, I mostly have the new page ready for Felix Moore, though I am still working on Matilda's, so Felix's profile is likely to be one of the first to be changed.
Also, this is a minor change, but its one you're likely to notice quickly:
(the header that is soon to be changed)
The header for my blog will be updated since my art style changed. I have no idea what I will change it to yet, but it will follow the story that Arcasia (the blog's mascot) is experiencing, moving her a step forward in her adventures. (You can see my previous headers here.)
Anyway, those are my updates. These are big changes, and I didn't want you to be confused, or wonder where the past character sheets went. My next post will be my usual style of post.
Hello everyone, I have some very important updates to tell you:
Email subscription updates-
Since Feedburner went away, and I don't know how long my feed on that will continue to function, I decided to switch to follow.it. So, if any of you were subscribed via email to my blog before and get a message that says "Please confirm your subscription" know that this from me. The name may be "Advemture1359" or "Adventure Awaits" given that I claimed both feeds for my doll blog and this one. In either case, if you get an email from follow.it, know that it not spam.
This is what the new follow by email widget looks like:
If you're already subscribed or want to subscribe, you can go enter your email into the box on the sidebar
I'm also working on a way to import the emails of people who are subscribed to this blog into the new service, since Follow.it does allow you to do this. However, I may end up waiting to do that until the feed completely stops working. (Just so you don't get two notifications at the same time, because that would be very annoying).
If you, too, are a blogger on Blogspot.com who needs an email subscription service for your blog in place of Feedburner, I recommend checking out this post by Jen Ryland. It helped me find Follow.It, and if you need to decide what service to use, I found the article to be really helpful.
Page updates-
The Meet the Character pages are very outdated, and I don't have a lot of pages for the newer stories or characters. So, I am updating those, and so far I have pages for Phoenix, Oak, Sebastian, Elm, Riona, and Celtiere.
I also now have a FAQ page. So if you have any questions about this blog or my art that I haven't answered, please ask in the comments.
“Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul of both hope and fear” — Mary Shelley, Frankenstein.
Hello everyone, so the reason why I have not been responding to comments or blogging, was due to the fact that I was in the middle of a tornado. Because of this I lost power and internet. The power came back after ten days but the internet was gone for three weeks. Everything and everyone was fine after the tornado, but it was still scary. I have been doing yoga and mediation so hopefully that will calm down the stress that I have been feeling and am still feeling. Yoga and mediation have been really helpful for me in that way many times before. So maybe in the midsts of all this chaos I will obtain inner peace.
If the fear of COVID-19 is making you stressed, or something else is, I recommend doing whatever calms you down. Also I have something included later in the post that might help.
My old camera before it broke
One of the things that happened during the tornado was that my camera got broken and the lens wouldn’t open. So I had to switch to a different camera (using the same memory card). The new camera has very odd dates. For example it labels new pictures as being from 1980, 1970, or 1979. (It doesn't know that it is 2020.) So, apparently it thinks this is the seventies or eighties. Maybe the camera reset to the start date for Epoch time, which is January 1st 1970 (equal to zero in Epoch time). Also it is a possibility that the camera will get to “negative dates” and I might be able to put it at a time longer ago than 1970. Since I am posting updates about the tornado, I had to mention it since I found it rather funny.
While dealing with no internet, I read some very neat books: Monkey, The Graveyard Book (graphic novel version, though I do intend to read the novel version soon), and the first book of the tetralogy The Journey to the West. This has been very inspiring for my own writing, given that the setting for the Silver Key has some asian influences.
(Image from GoodReads, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100237.Monkey)
The main character of the abridged version of The Journey to the West, called Monkey, is Sun Wukong (The Monkey King). He is a really light hearted and happy character, who desires to live forever. (And cheats death to do so, along with eating and taking several other things that made him immortal even though he is already immortal). I felt like he was a character I needed at the moment. He is an optimistic trickster who can shape-shift and wants to live forever, and kind of caused a little havoc. And, I felt like the book in general was one that I had been looking for in the Fantasy genre, for some time. It completely fit all the things I had been looking for. (Also the series it is one book longer than Lord of the Rings which is a bonus). Anyway, Monkey is a bright, happy, mischievous, character to read about when times are rough and sometimes sad. So it was a very uplifting book to read during this stressful time.
(Image from Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Graveyard-Book-Graphic-Novel/dp/0062194828)
As for The Graveyard Book, I loved that it focused on ghosts that were protecting the main character, and even I love that he had ghosts as adopted parents. It was a happy but sometimes bittersweet book. And I can’t wait to read the novel version of it, as the book was very comforting for a time like this. The novel will be fun to read, as I love Gaiman’s writing style.
I also should add that I missed making a post for my blog's anniversary, which was on March 9th. I really wanted to make one and now the date has passed. I do intend make one though, even though there is very little time left in March. I want to make two posts on both my blogs for their anniversaries, even if it is very belated or not even in the month of March.
In the future, hopefully after the epidemic of the coronavirus calms down, and when it would be sensible to visit a hospital, I hope to visit those who were harmed by the tornado in my area and the people who lost their belongings. I have a project going which is for those who were hit by natural disasters all over the world. I hope to give customized dolls to children (and maybe even teenagers) who lost their belongings due to the tornado. That’s why I am glad that I worked on the doll project and got dolls for it before the tornado. Because now once everything calms down I will be able to give dolls to people who really need them. If you want to know more about it, I am going to be posting updates on it onmy doll blog.
Though my house survived (even though it is a little damaged), it can be really sad to think about the people who lost their homes (and belongings) because of it. And even to think of the birds and squirrels who lost their trees, because several trees fell down during that time. Though I probably should mention on a happier note that two birds decided to make a nest in a grill that no longer works, which I find neat because now they are completely protected from rain and cats and other dangers. Because of the destruction it caused, I have a desire to help both people and animals who had their homes destroyed by the tornado whether it be through making things for them or even helping people emotionally through my creative work.
I was also stressed at different times, and instead of writing new posts I decided to edit and post things which had been written before COVID-19 became an issue and the tornado struck. Such as my post about editing my novel, and the new updated about page. (Also I just wanted to say, thank you to Kat for leaving such a sweet comment on the new about page, it really brightened my day).
For those who are feeling overwhelmed by COVID-19, or are dealing with COVID-19 and a natural disaster, I think mediation is good to do. I’ve suggested it to those around me and it’s helped (and I’d like to thank my yoga instructor for teaching it to me). Anyway, I thought why not put it out there, in case anyone needs it? Here it is:
Prema = Love, and you close your eyes and sit down somewhere and chant this out loud you can chant it about 3-10 times or more if needed.
Shanti = peace, and you can chant it as many times as the other one.
I feel like this is one of the most important ones as of right now, because the translation means “may all beings be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words and actions of my own life contribute in some way to happiness and freedom for all.” I feel like this is something very important and needed at the moment. If you want something to follow for chanting along, I recommend this video:
You can do it on your own or you can do it with someone else. If mediation helps you (it doesn’t always work for everyone), I recommend doing it. It might help you calm down. It’s helped me. It really doesn’t matter what religion you are, or if you have no religion. Yoga and mediation can sometimes be really useful. And I know that for some, mediation and yoga are not accessible, so that is why I am putting this out here so that those who need it can find it.
I did manage to do some writing while having no power or internet (writing short stories and even editing one that I had written before, and animating in between). But at some points I still found it hard to focus. When we got power I did also manage to film a Shakespeare soliloquy (I won’t say which one it is, but all I can say is that it is from Romeo and Juliet, and that I play Romeo in it). I still need to film one more thing for it, but I have the most important part already filmed, which is Romeo’s part. It felt so good to play him and it made me feel so much better. But given that there is broken glass where I filmed, it might take a little cleaning before I can finish filming the last thing I need, edit it, upload it to YouTube, and post it on my blog. Once there is no broken glass I hope to film a contemporary monologue or monologues as well, when I find the props I need. And maybe I will even act out two scenes from Doctor Who or Star Trek, once I memorize the lines. This will also give me a chance to learn more green screen skills such as playing more than one character.
(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley#/media/File:RothwellMaryShelley.jpg)
What I try to keep in mind during this time is that Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein didn’t give up or stop writing when the world felt like it was collapsing around her. She kept doing it, she kept on going. And if we can, I think we should all be a little like Mary Shelley and pour our sadness, fears, and anxieties into our creative work.
————————————————————————————— How about you? How are things going for you? Have you been reading any good books recently? If so then I would love to hear about it in the comments! :)
Even though I just did a drawing post I thought I would do some drawings in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
Here are the drawings:
A drawing of the characters from one of my favorite movies, Hidden Figures.
I love how it turned out.
A drawing of Rosa Parks, I had to look at a picture of the real Rosa Parks to draw it and I like how it turned out.
A drawing of Melody. Normally I would have posted this on my doll blog,
but I thought I should post it here. I like the way she turned out, especially her hair.
And finally...in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. I drew a picture of him.
I really like the way he turned out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Which drawing is your favorite? And I hope you have a Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!:) Love,
Quinley
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to say that I won't be able to post for a little while...
but when I am able to post, I will try to respond to the comments from my previous posts
(Thursday drawings, and Happy Birthday Bilbo and Frodo ...) And this one.
-Quinley
