Coming to your inboxes a little later than I would've wanted, but it's finally here!

NOTE: These features are reboot of the original series of newsletters started by me and *Lareth way back in 2007, with help from our friends *Iardacil and *SylwiaS, which ended in 2011 with its #189 edition Best of... weekly photomanip features #189

Being recently returned to a more regular visits status here on dA, I figured what better to showcase the new talent that has invaded the photomanipulations gallery than to reboot this series?! So here it is, back, once again, designed to shine a light on talented artists who deserve your attention.

I will always choose 15 manips from the week that passed. The criteria for selection is simple. They have to present creativity, polished technique and overall good quality. The kind you know when you see them, because they're just eye-catching.

This weekend I'm bringing it back. You may be asking yourself what I'm on about. I'm talking about the Best of... weekly photomanip features, a long standing series of news articles from back in the day that me and the lovely *Iardacil, *Lareth and ~SylwiaS, with help from =ImaginaryRosse and *Behana, used to work on.

I see so many promising young artists and potentially sensational photomanipulations get overlooked when more established artists take the more views and preferential first page spots on browsing, while I'm generally sifting through pages upon pages and finding these gems. So I figured this was a good time for a reboot, so come this weekend, be it Saturday or Sunday, look for the fresh 2013 version of this featured series

Firstly it brings some hopefully useful stock! I recently updated my stock account ~frozenstocks with 2 new backgrounds and 2 tubes. It's not a lot but the most I could find ready to post as stock from my archive. Bear with me while I sort the mess that is my personal resources folder



I'm also making a promise to myself (and you, people who for some odd reason are still following me after being rather absent) to be more active. Both art-wise and on dA. I'm making it my mission to have (at least) a new piece every month and regularly check my messages at least once a week. Luckily I'm no longer as backlogged as I used to be, down from thousands to couple hundreds of messages! Which took hours upon hours and day after day to sort through so I refuse to let it pile up again. I don't have the heart to just delete and not respond when you are all gracious enough to leave me comment

Anyways have to cut this journal entry short, I'm needed for New Year's Eve prep.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

As part of Renderosity's Daily Deals all through December, my resources store is now on sale 50% off for the next 24h!

You can find anything from brushes, to background to Photoshop Styles and tubes, as well as 3D texture sets and merchant resource textures! Lots of variety and items to choose from. You'll find a small sample of what's in there below

   
   
   
   

and a lot more! VISIT STORE HERE

Also the Advent Calendar at PNGTubes is a few short days from ending. Don't miss an opportunity to grab freebies worth almost 100$ for the small price of placing a 12.50$ order! More info HERE

As you may have noticed, I'm making a slow comeback to being a full-time deviant. Still have 2k messages to sort through, but with a little perseverence (and free time) I hope to be done with them by Monday morning.

I'd like to express my gratitude to those who still kept me in their watchlists while I was missing in action and to those who continued to fav my work in my time away. Greatly appreciated

Also excuse my spamming your inboxes, but I have so much art, both personal and commissioned to show you all. I may have been absent from Deviantart but working with Photoshop on a daily basis like before. But I'm taking it slow, 1-2 creations at a time to give everyone a chance to see. Comments & critiques always appreciated, as well as favs.

There's also plenty of stock sitting unused that I will soon by uploading to my stock account ~frozenstocks but I'm making the message backlog a priority before I start the stock uploads. Got backgrounds, brushes, tubes, textures, everything you guys requested in the poll that is (still) on my frontpage.

Got a big contest planned, with software for prizes included, but I'd like to hold off on it until I'm back here regularly and the holidays have passed for most to be able to enter, as well as me taking the time to come up with a really good theme.

Oh and lastly, since the topic title said "Deviant for 6 years", yes, it's true, last week Oct. 27 marked 6 years since I first joined Deviantart! A perfect opportunity for celebration and a reason to make a promise to myself to stay more active. I sure miss the wonderful community here

Because it's that time of year where everyone shares gifts, here is my gift to you.
4 new premade backgrounds I posted on my stock account



Happy Holidays!

Christmas hasn't been this eventful in years, and I'm not kidding!

Woke up this morning to find a note from *jagged-eye letting me know I'd placed 1st in the Umbrella Contest with my entry.



I know, not a big contest, no huge prizelist to get me so overjoyed, but I haven't taken part in competitions in well over a year and felt I kind of lost my touch. This win simply restored my confidence in what I do.

Then this afternoon, in between Christmas preparations, I come to my desk, load deviantart only to find a message congratulating me for my recent DD. I couldn't believe it at first so I went to the DDs page to check, to find my latest posted art piece Santa's List featured thanks to =dhikssy and `WDWParksGal.



This same piece, last year, won me the Wacom Intuos 4 I am currently using to make art, so all around a very dear piece that now became even more special.

I've got my amazing boyfriend ~Sinister-DarkHorse flying in from Canada for the holidays, so this year it's definitely going to be a happy holidays season for me!

I will be away until the 2nd week of January, so I'm wishing you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah,  Happy whatever else people are celebrating around the world at this time or year and a Happy New Year! Here's to a big, better 2012! (and no, we're not going to die )

As a limited time offer, you will find my Renderosity Store on sale 45% off for the next 24 hours!
Prices go as low as 2.75$, so be sure to grab any resources at a discounted price while you can.
The store includes a variety of backgrounds, brushes and textures I created for artists like myself, as well as merchant resources for 3D texturers!

Below you will find a small portion of what you can find in the store:









To visit the store, follow this link [link]

This is not another one of those "Boohoo I'm leaving forever" type of journals. Drama was never something that appealed to me and I was never one to start. Yet in a short timespan I found people trying to start it with me and that's one extra ounce of stress I don't need. I found my sale backgrounds redistributed as stock with minor alterations. I've had my work rejected in a group because I was suspected of "stealing" the image, while all along I had a collaboration project with the models in the image. I was told I should place direct links to stocks for a piece that doesn't use any. I was told to put links to stock I paid for, while it defeats the purpose of me paying for it and the license to use without link backs. Am I getting somewhere here?!

All in all I am not going anywhere. This is still a part of my portfolio and I'm going to start treating it as such alone, putting the community that seems to be now turning on me aside. I will continue to submit work here but I'm not going to make it my main priority to post here first. I may disable comments since it's unlikely I'll get to them soon. Not when it makes me feel like this just logging on thinking of what other new creative ways people may find to start something with me. I don't need that.

For those that want to stay in touch, feel free to send me a note. I will continue to check those regularly and I can be found on my Twitter, Facebook and e-mail address if anyone needs me.

The fate of my stock account hangs in the balance as of now, I've seen it misused one too many times and am considering shutting it down. I suggest you go to ~frozenstocks and grab what you need while you still can. If it comes to it, I may leave a couple up and mark them as unrestricted. We'll see.

Hey everyone! With being so absent for the most part I don't even know if there are any watchers left to be reading this journal entry lol Oh well, still I thought I'd at least give an occasional update.

I know I made a promise to stay more active, but life just keeps getting in the way of that! It's a little frustrating to be honest and if days would be 48h hours long instead, or more, then I'd have enough time for everything. I'm already running on 4-5 hours of sleep and any less and I'd be getting myself a one-way ticket to the hospital most likely. Ack, enough whining already. It could be worse. I managed so far with what little time I had. will continue to do so.

So, me, what I've been up to lately. I've recently returned from the capital, where I went to a Hadouken and Pendulum concert. It was amazing And with that visit to Bucharest I had the pleasure of meeting again with ~dianora and ~Meyra , as well as meeting ~shrekutza ~redenchantress and ~randomstarlight for the first. They're all really sweet, lovely girls and I'm glad I had the chance to spend an afternoon with them before returning home.

Other than that I've mostly been busy with commissioned work, got a book deals lined up as well as work for photographers and models, and updating my store over at Renderosity and PNGTubes.
Speaking of PNGTubes, it's my b'day in a week so for the month of July I am offering a special gift package to those that shop for resources through the store. As it happens, it's also the 1 year anniversary since the store was founded, so there's an extra "bag of goodies" for every order of  at least 12.50$.

Oh and lastly, I've set up a Facebook page so if you like my work, please hit the "Like" button here please [link]
I will be posting sneak previews to upcoming artwork, sampled commission work, scrapped artwork and many other things there.

Oh yeah and my sub is gone, so bye bye journal template. Do any of you know of any photomanipulation contests on dA at the moment?