Ah, the holidays...such a magical time of year...a time for peace, joy, and good will to all.

BAH HUMBUG!!!!

I guess maybe it's because I'm getting older, but for whatever reason, I'm just not as into the holidays as I used to be. The gift giving, the houses decorated in lights, the Christmas music, the holiday TV specials...it all just doesn't do anything for me anymore. Don't misunderstand, I still look forward to all of the above, just not as much. I suppose that, in the process of growing up, the childhood anticipation that usually came along with the season was lost somehow. Maybe it's also the recent events in my life that have eaten away at my holiday spirit. Who knows?

To end my rant on a happy note, this year is not quite as bad as years past. My guy friend that I have written about a few times before, the one who tends to be a jerk, has been surprisingly non-jerklike in the last few days, which always puts me in a brighter mood. My goal is to get him to do something Christmas-y with me, like come over for a holiday party or take me to go see Christmas in the Oaks over at City Park. Unfortunately, he has no car at the moment. The lack of transportation puts a damper on things, but hey, there's still 19 days until Christmas as I'm writing this, so the Universe still has time to make some adjustments. At least he's calling me a little more often than usual.

On to art matters...speaking of my guy friend, he may have an art project for me. His sister is redecorating her bedroom, and she may be interested in a mural. Their family is from the Bay Islands of Honduras, so she may request something tropical, which is right up my alley.

I get to do something I like and get paid for it??? *GASP!*

Other requests are coming in too. My mother's friend has asked me to do an oil painting, a seascape with a lighthouse similar to the one I've posted in my dA gallery. My grandmother's friend also wants me to do another oil painting of her son's house.

More stuff that I'm getting paid for? *GASP AGAIN!*

As for my own projects, I can't seem to sketch out anything that I'm happy with for my Jimmy Buffett book illustrations, so I'm going to walk away from it for a while. I've decided to take a different route and draw some interpretations of his song lyrics. The same goes for the Monkees fanart that I mentioned...I can't seem to draw a portrait or even a caricature that do any of them justice.

In case you haven't guessed, I've toyed with the idea of starting a club in which members are challenged to visually interpret song lyrics. Does something like that already exist on dA? It's a thought...

Finally, I have a question: Does anyone know how to make and post a tutorial? I've been promising to make a Prismacolor tutorial, but I just don't know how. Please help me!

Well, that's it and I'm done. Until next time...

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Since my list of watchers was getting large, I'll be keeping those in a separate journal, which I will update accordingly. In the meantime...

These are the clubs that I'm in: