.figure drawing...

Last night was semi-Illustration Academy drawing, which I've been sorely missing. It shows in my drawing - everything is a little out of proportion and overworked, but it's been at least six months since I worked with a live model so that's not exactly surprising.
What was surprising, or maybe just unexpected, was an interaction with someone in the room.
Older gentleman, sitting to my left. Ignored me initially, as you do in a live drawing situation - we're here to draw, not make friends - aside from commenting on the number of pastels that were in the room, and I responded with a quip about John converting everyone sooner or later.  We did the 3minute and 5 minute pose, and finally got into the first 20 minute pose.

And he looks over at my completed drawing, and makes a comment about how good he thinks it is. "Thanks!' I respond, because I'm working hard on being better at taking compliments at face value. And he asks if I'm a student, which amuses me because yes I am a student in that life-long learner sort of way, but I'm pretty sure he's referring to "In School" which I haven't been in 14 years, so "No, not for a long time."
And I go to the bathroom.
And when I come back and sit down he lets me know that I'm making him self conscious about his own work - and I'm not sure if it was a skill thing, or an age thing, or a gender thing - but I found myself reassuring him that the only person he needed to worry about was himself because he was the only person he was in competition with.
And then he ignored me for the rest of the night, aside from some more grumbling about being an old pencil guy in a room full of pastels, which was fine.
Yes, please just let me draw in peace.

.gallery scam.

These were originally supposed to be submissions for a gallery show, and then I did a bunch of math.

The show is fairly open - any piece can be submitted, so long as it is flat, and 6" square. Easy enough. The submission fee, per piece, is 35$, which is a little high. Apparently this is to cover the cost of framing, except they keep your "framing fee" whether your piece gets in or not. Assuming you submit the max number of pieces, for the greater chance of showing at all, you're already 140$ in the hole, not counting any materials you used to create your work. After submission, if your piece does not get in, you do not get that fee back. Worst case scenario, none of your work is chosen, and you just spent 140$ on someone elses frames.
Next worst case scenario, one piece gets in. The gallery is also taking 50% of all sales. That's high - all of the galleries I've worked with have taken 30-40%. This is on top of your entry fee. So if you price your one piece at 300$, you make 10$ (150$ for the gallery, 150$ for you, but you already spend 140$ on frames). Minus shipping if you're not local to that gallery. And a 6" square piece is going to have to be pretty spectacular to sell for 300$.
Assuming best case scenario and all 4 pieces get in, you need to factor 70$ starting price just to cover the framing (35$ to the gallery, 35$ to you which you already spent on the frame). Any money tacked on after that has to be thought of in halves, so if you would like 50$ for your piece, you need to add 100$ onto the price. Already your piece is pricing at 170$. which is still really high for a piece that is only 6" square. You're close to 5$ per square inch at that point, and that is a rate for artists who probably don't need to submit to juried shows anymore.
The best part is that you have to decide your price at the same time as you're writing your 140$ check to the gallery, so you don't even know what your financial hole is going to be yet. But the gallery will let you keep the frames for any pieces that don't sell, which totally makes up for it.

This is not a gallery show. This is a scam to rip off artists and sell frames.

I'll be selling my pieces, framed, on my etsy store instead.
60$.
They'll be listed tomorrow for any interested parties, along with some customized Field Notes.

.things that happened this week.

• Princess Leia dancing!

 (and some TARDIS dancing, and Kat & McCoy)

...and then dancing tried to kill me. By which I mean I bruised myself spectacularly doing that dance, and skinned most of the skin off the tops of both my feet. I'm pretty sure you can watch it happen in the video.

• Lots of sleep. ZOMG the sleeping. Then I finally figured out why I've been so much more extra tired recently. And this is why we can't have nice things.

• Then I cut the shit out of my finger. Trying to sharpen a pencil with an exact-o. Translation: I did a dip-shit thing. There was lots of blood. I am now covered in band-aids. And bruises. Because this is what I do best.

• Then I was going to go see my friend Tyson's art show, but instead I took a gig in Warrensburg, but then that didn't work out either...

Instead there was introducing a friend to Who and ALL THE FEELS!

.boycott tuesday.

...because somebody had to...

.i should have gone into advertising.

I was in Orlando for work for the last several days and was stuck eating all of my meals at a mall which was awesome let me tell you all about it - three days of mall salads, which around day three my body roundly rejected all of.
By the time we got to the airport yesterday I was glucose deprived and probably crazy and devoured half a bag of Swedish fish, which got me wondering about the history of Swedish Fish, which got me searching, which eventually led me to this:

And that about made my week.

.Draw Things Challenge - Fail.

The challenge this month was "Self Portrait with Beastie" which sounded fun and awesome and I had a few ideas but I never once got enywhere even close to drawing any of them out at all.
Or sketching.
Or anything.
So chatting with my husband (who runs things) two hours after all the entries were due I suddenly remembered that I had done a "Self Portrait with Beastie" about a week before the challenge was called.
And completely forgot about it.
Because my brain has been working so well lately.

So I had a piece, and basically forgot to send it in. Like a genius.

Also I made some more fan art/jewelry this week, and just in case you thought Doctor Who was my only Fandom, think again!

Angel Grace Pendant's - via Supernatural

.what to do when you find yourself caught at a bellydance show.

A friend pointed me in the direction of a blog post the other day in which the author was freaking out (half for real, half for satire) about what was she supposed to do when a bellydancer came up to her table at this restaurant she and her friends had started going to recently. Included in her what-seemed-to-be-alcohol-fueled soliloquy were some suppositions about where bellydancers come from, why they dance in restaurants at all, and at least three comparisons to strippers.
Specifically - are bellydancers the people who failed out of stripper school?

That last was almost too stupid to respond to, but that's a big almost since we bellydancers hear it all the time.
So for the last time people (I wish...) - bellydancers do not take their clothes off during bellydance performances! And if you see someone who you think is a bellydancer doing so - she's not a bellydancer, she a stripper (or possibly a burlesque performer, which is also a very different thing from the other two. Also, you're probably only going to see strippers in strip clubs, or possibly bachelor parties if you have very nice friends who want to spend a lot of money*).
You see how they're called different things? 
IT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE DIFFERENT THINGS.
I know it's a difficult concept for some people, but if I went around selling people oranges and handing them apples I'd get some really bizarre side glances and more than a few comments about how I must be either crazy or stupid to have confused the two (also more than a few demands for refunds). Meanwhile if you hire a bellydancer for a private party hoping she's going to be taking her costume off - you are going to be SO disappointed I promise you.

Apples and Oranges - both fruit, but clearly only one is taking it's top off.

Now back to the main question - what do you do if you're eating at a restaurant and a bellydancer comes up to your table?

• Are you supposed to watch her dance? Yes! But only if you want to. If she's making you uncomfortable just ignore her - trust me, we're all adults and we can handle the rejection.
• If you do watch her, where are you supposed to look? Look where you want to. Seriously. We are completely aware that our hips are doing bizarre things in time to the music and that might attract your gaze. Basically that's intentional. We are trained professional entertainers. We expect you to look at us, look at what we're doing - I mean, check out the costuming: it's all colorful and spangly and jingly, clearly created to attract attention and show off particular sections of the body and the movements it's moving.
• Is she trying to make you feel uncomfortable in your own skin by showing off so much of hers? No. That's just silly.
• Are you suppose to give her money? If you want to - it's not required but it's certainly appreciated. If you appreciate what she's doing and want her to dance near your table more - go ahead and hand her some money, or clap along with the music, or just smile. If you want to pay her to go away, hand her some money and very purposefully turn back to talking to your friends. If she's making you super uncomfortable and you don't want her around at all - once again, just ignore her. We're professionals, we can handle the rejection. We're not asking you out on a date. Also, your dancer will ususally let you know how to hand her the money - whether it be body tipping, tipping in hand or in a basket; just pay attention, if you're doing it wrong she'll let you know.
• Is the dancer trying to make moves on your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse/child/whatever? No. Seriously, just no.

I could go over all the bits about years of training, the exorbitant cost of costuming, the hours of prep time for each individual gig - but that's boring.

In short, if you see a bellydancer and want to watch her, for goodness sake watch her. If you see a bellydancer and you are uninterested or uncomfortable, turn away and do something else. It's not that difficult.

You're welcome.

* And lets not confuse strippers with burlesque performers either - also very different things. In fact, if you're confused by any of this you had probably go take some bellydance classes and some burlesque dance classes and then go visit a strip club (or take strip dance classes if you can find them). You will first of all gain an invaluable amount of appreciation for how much work goes into each of these very different dance forms, as well as some much needed self confidence.
** I use she as a default only because I'm a female bellydancer, and in no way am I intending to discount or ignore the many wonderful and beautiful male bellydancers circulating the world - I love you all so much!

.in case you hadn't heard already.

It's looking very much like Saroyan is going out of business forever. If you haven't got a pair of these zills in your bag already and have been postponing ordering them I highly suggest you snatch some up from some of the vendors who still have them in stock.
As of yesterday (when I ordered my own back-up-pair) missbellydance.com had several selections still available. I didn't look beyond that.
Good luck.

.freezing fog.

It is disgusting outside.

Seriously.
And what the hell is freezing fog?

And this is part of why I don't plan on leaving the house for a week after Saturday.

.I don't think that means what you think that means.

...and then while driving home today I saw this billboard and my brain exploded.