Death By Cute

2011-06-25T01:45:00.001-07:00

Alright. F@%!#%$ leechers, leeching my images.

On the other hand, someone sent me nice traffic.
Well... yay?

Cute Things

2011-06-25T00:24:00.001-07:00

I believe I'm going to reinvent this blog as a location to simply post cute things, because I find so many of them on the Internet. Don't worry, the wallpapers won't go away. This may also be turned into a Wordpress website - we'll see.

New Horror Wallpaper

2009-05-31T10:11:00.001-07:00

Added a new horror wallpaper, you can find it in the Horror section.

New Fantasy Wallpaper - 'The Healer'

2009-05-25T20:06:00.000-07:00

Click here to check it out!

New Holiday Wallpaper

2008-12-13T19:31:00.001-08:00

The new holiday wallpaper in the fantasy series is now up. Check out the Fighter wallpaper in the Holiday section!

New Icons/Avatars

2008-12-08T18:33:00.001-08:00

I just put up some new holiday icons and avatars based off of the Mechapumpkin and Sorceress wallpapers. You can head over to the Holiday Icons page to look at and download them.

Later this week, I will also post some nice snowflake icons/avatars and wallpapers, as well as the next themed wallpaper on the Holiday Fantasy Wallpapers series, so either subscribe to this blog or keep checking back.

Enjoy!

New Wallpaper - Holiday Sorceress

2008-12-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

I've just posted a new wallpaper for Dec. 1st, a holiday-themed fantasy wallpaper in the Fantasy section:

Click here to check it out! I hope you enjoy it. It's a continuation of the holiday Fantasy series from last year (if you'll recall the holiday-themed elven wizard) and there'll be more all through this month and January, a wallpaper for each traditional fantasy class. I hope you enjoy them!

New Wallpaper

2008-11-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the last Halloween wallpaper. It's only a month late, right? Well, I spent a lot of October moving up north - and then had some problems with the computer overheating, eventually solved by removing a large furball from my CPU fan. I can't be angry with Bunbun, though... shedding all over everything is just her way of expressing love.

Anyway, so here it is, the Mecha Pumpkin Cat-girl halloween wallpaper:

Head over to the Holiday Wallpapers section to download it. It's also available in cell-phone-friendly resolutions!

The next few wallpapers will be winter holiday wallpapers, along with a few greeting cards, so I hope you're looking forward to December as much as I am.

Update

2008-11-17T13:26:00.001-08:00

My computer finally arrived (I had to ship it) but I won't have an internet connection on that PC until my router arrives.

It should be today or tomorrow, but this is an older DSL setup so I'm not sure how easy it will be to configure. I guess we'll see!

Back.

2008-11-08T03:54:00.000-08:00

I dissappeared for a while and haven't been able to post the Halloween wallpaper I did. That's because I've moved to Chicago and didn't have access to my computer while it was being shipped - between packing up and shipping, I didn't have time to finish and post the wallpaper. So - here I am, on a borrowed computer. I've had my computer shipped up here, but won't have access to it until tomorrow. I guess you're getting the Halloween wallpaper a bit late.

Little Witch

2008-09-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

New Halloween wallpaper up - yes, another 'cute' one.

It's over in the Holiday section - go check it out.

There'll be a few more up over the next few weeks, and I promise that not all of them will be so 'cute'.

OM NOM NOM

2008-09-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

As you recall, I posted the kitten wallpaper a while ago -- yesterday, anyway. Well, I think it was.

Anyway, somebody has helpfully contributed this:

As a friend commented: it feels like 1999 all over again!

Thanks, Mike.

Prints

2008-09-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

A friend referred me to a potentially better online venue, especially for prints. I've converted the "Tropical Dragons" wallpaper to a print available for purchase at Zazzle:

Tropical Dragons by deathbycute
Get Poster printing Done at www.Zazzle.com

"Halloween Kittens and a Punkin'" is also available as a print:

Halloween Kittens and a Punkin'
by

deathbycute

Large format Poster printing From zazzle.com

It seems like I can only do them in ginormous "portfolio" size, which I suppose is o.k. - after all, the prints only cost $9.95 each, and they're fairly large (15"x 11" in the case of the kittens).

I haven't fully explored the gallery possibilities, but it seems as if there are some potentially powerful tools - like the RSS feed and a few other things.

Kitten Mug

2008-09-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

I love coffee and my mother collects coffee-mugs, so I know there are probably other coffee-mug collectors out there.

To that end, I've plastered the latest Halloween image on a coffee mug, which you can find here in the Deathbycute.com online store.

It will only be up until the end of October, when it will get switched out for either a Thanksgiving mug (I'm not so gung-ho on Thanksgiving, so I'm not sure) or a Christmas mug. I'd keep them all up at once but I doubt that a Halloween mug will sell very well in January, and a free Cafepress store can only have one of each type of product up at a time.

There's been at least one request for a dragon-themed something, but the dragon images I have right now require a little editing before they'll be available. I may make some prints available later on.

Still thinking about a photo section - not sure if it's really worthwhile, since it runs against the theme of this site, unless I manage to take some really interesting photographs.

More Halloween wallpapers to come in the upcoming weeks.

Kittens & 'Punkins

2008-09-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

I'm getting started on these early this year. There's a new Halloween wallpaper available in the Holiday Wallpapers section (yes, it works now):

Check it out!

New Wallpaper

2008-09-04T22:00:00.001-07:00

New wallpaper up in the "Cute" section - Piles of Stars:

Check it out.

Yeah, I've realized that the Fantasy section has started taking over a little bit. I'm working on a series of holiday wallpapers, but the majority of the Halloween ones will not be Fantasy.

Party Games

2008-09-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

This is sort of a continuation of the last post - "things that make Hana happy".

I talk about video games a lot. Ever since I moved, I haven't been around my old friends and haven't socialized much. This is sad. However, I was thinking about when Crystel and I used to throw "game parties", which are essentially parties where you play video games. It made me miss throwing game parties, which I wish I could do but isn't feasible where I currently live for various reasons.

Obviously, a large part of a game party is... the party games. Granted, your game selection shouldn't be the only thing that determines how much fun your party-goers have, but it can have a big impact. I always try to have a little bit of something for everybody - the people who like shooters, the strategists, the button-mashers, the trivia-fiends, and the people who aren't necessarily "hard-core" gamers (or really gamers at all), or just like silly random party games.

I've seen lists of party games online and I don't know if I agree with them all, but here are a few that tend to go down really well at parties I throw:

Console Games:
Mario Party - Any iterations of this game are going to go over well at most parties. Mario Party 8 is the newest... this is a series that consistently gets good reviews, and few people hate it (unlike Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, which some people do harbor a hatred for), so it's a pretty safe party selection.
Super Smash Bros. - Another party staple.
Mario Kart - Ditto.
HALO - You'll see this at most college parties. Mixing up regular matches with variant rules like Zombie Halo can be really fun.
Dance Dance Revolution - pretty fun, but only two people can play at once.
Guitar Hero - ditto.
Buzz! Trivia games - Some of my friends are trivia fiends, so a good party trivia game is a must-have for any game party. Buzz! The Mega Quiz is for PS2, and I believe that Buzz! TV is being released later this month for PS3 as well. Both have gotten good reviews. You can play a little online flash version here.

Computer Games:
Unreal Tournament III, Warcraft and Starcraft - Classic LAN party games. Warcraft III is one of my favorite games of all time.

Rats!

2008-09-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

More antics in my household, things are interesting. Haven't been updating much due to a few bizarre occurrences:
- More viruses, which has been a problem since we've moved and I don't understand why.
- All of the toilets in the house backed up into the bathtubs. It was taken care of by our landlord within a day.
- We have a small furry resident that we didn't know about, and other members of the household are completely freaked out by him. Unfortunately, this is just part of living in Florida. I keep reminding them that it's a rat, not the Terminator, and he isn't going to kill them in their sleep or leap from the shadows to shank them in the back. We got a rat zapper to kill the little buggers - I say buggers, because where there's one, there's always more. Mom is incredibly enthusiastic about the
(alright, say this in the awesome echoey TV superhero voice):

"RAT... ZAPPER... ULTRA!!!"

...that we ordered, and anxiously awaits its shipment. She checked them all out and it was the best one. I just think it looks really cool. Of course, it would look cooler with a dead rat in it, so it stops peeing all over the place.

For the "omg that's horrible" people, this isn't a cuddly pet rat. I'd like to state that I love pet rats, they're fuzzy and cute and very intelligent. I knew some people had two pet rats named Nourishing and Dangerous Bean, and they were awesome pets.

To clarify, this is a cuddly baby pet rat.

And this is a roof rat, found in Florida - more specifically, in my bathroom.

This thing, after having seen it personally, is not fuzzy and cute. It eats garbage. It gnawed through a bag of nasty, noxious garbage that smelled like Bigfoot's underwear and consumed part of the contents. It also pees all over my bathroom.

Something Interesting For Once

2008-08-29T08:22:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. A relative's computer came down with the worst strain of Vundo that I've dealt with before, I've been trying to clean it up because she doesn't want to reformat. Needless to say, it was a nightmare.

Nonetheless, a combination of root-kit trojan removers, Avast's pre-boot scanner, the judicious use of a registry editor, about ten pots of coffee and a six-pack of beer have obliterated all traces of it from her computer system. Let's hope it stays that way.

Forget about that, though - that's depressing.

I realize that I never talk about much that's interesting in this blog and it's bound to drive people away. So I'll talk about things I'm excited about.

Obviously, games. Wrath of the Lich King will be coming out soon and everybody is going nuts over it. I've seen the trailers and I admit that I'm excited, too. I stopped playing World of Warcraft a while back, partly due to the cost and partly because it eats up so much time - but I may start when WotLC comes out. I just started playing Warcraft III again earlier this summer and it reminded me exactly how much I loved World of Warcraft. I know why I quit (after all, you're here at this website, which only exists and is updated because I gave up my WoW habit...) From what I've gathered - rumors about the beta and such - it is likely to be "ZOMG amazing".

On the other hand, I really miss playing with my brother, my friends, and my old guild mates (I miss you guys...). Sometimes WoW is the closest you can come to hanging out in-person with distant friends. I usually wind up dropping the game once I get to max level simply because end-game raids don't interest me all that much. Call me a n00b if you will, but I really prefer questing and the sense of accomplishment that comes with leveling up. It means I end up with alt-itus (a zillion different alternate characters on various servers). Gear doesn't fascinate me all that much, beyond the fact that it makes things easier to kill. WotLC will mean that, once again, I get to level up by questing.

Thinking about all of that good stuff has put me in a much better mood. Hope it brightened up your day, too. Here's wishing everyone a few months of anticipation and sweet dreams of sugarplums and undead armies.

Creepy Cat Wants You

2008-08-26T05:22:00.000-07:00

...for breakfast.

Now available in the horror section.

Impending Updates

2008-08-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

I've got some new wallpapers, but they don't really fit in any existing section. I'll be updating the wallpapers section to include a 'photos' section.

New Wallpaper

2008-08-18T14:33:00.001-07:00

There's a fierce new wallpaper available in the Fantasy section. Go check it out!

New Tutorials

2008-08-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Two new tutorials up!

For those of you who'd like to emulate a cell-shaded effect (all the rage on the Internet these days), head over to the Mock Cell-Shading Digital Paint Tutorial. It focuses on using GIMP, but the techniques are still perfectly applicable to Photoshop.

There's a much simpler tutorial on using the Scissors (magnetic lasso) tool and Paths tool to create selections in GIMP here.

New Dragon Icons

2008-08-13T06:10:00.001-07:00

If you head over here, you'll discover some new fantasy dragon icons I've created from the new wallpaper posted yesterday. Available in all of the usual resolutions, and 50x50 unwatermarked for Yahoo! Answers users. Enjoy!

New Wallpaper

2008-08-12T05:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay.

The power surge that knocked out the power source on another computer must have also gotten to my monitor. The monitor already had issues, they just became worse and worse over the past few days. I had to stop working on the wallpaper and basically go out and buy a new monitor. I've switched from a CRT to an LCD, so far so good.

Here's the new wallpaper, click the thumbnail to view the full sized (1440x900) image. Other resolutions will be available and the new wallpaper will go up in the Fantasy section as soon as I've finished resizing and watermarking the images.

The subject matter - dragons, waterfall, flowers... three things I like. I hope you like them, too.

Fuzzy Goggles

2008-08-07T02:25:00.000-07:00

I created these at James' (from badideasonline.net) request:

Unfortunately, aside from being fuzzy, the goggles do nothing.
The idea wasn't so much a 'request' as an ill-fated off-hand remark -- however, now that I've created them (and am mailing them), I fully expect him to wear them. I also have superglue and a thin layer of fake fur all over my hands, the feeling is bizarre.

Alright, I'm a little behind on the latest wallpaper update, because my computer has been chugging on the Photoshop file. I've been working at a higher resolution than I normally do, for various reasons, and the computer does not appreciate it.
I've taken to playing quick games of Solitaire while I wait for the image to load, a layer to be created, layers to be merged, et cetera. Incidentally, I've discovered that I suck at Solitaire.

In any case, I'm nearly done with it. Here's a small preview:

As long as my computer cooperates and I continue to suck at Solitaire, it'll probably be finished tonight/tomorrow, I'll post an update.

Another Tutorial - How to Prepare for a High School Portfolio Review

2008-08-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

I have written up another tutorial in response to something that somebody asked on Yahoo! Answers. My answer didn't fit in the answer field, so I've typed it up here.

I would like to stress that I am NOT a teacher, and I'm not trying to stand in for one. I'm just trying to provide a bit of advice to a high school kid who's concerned about how to prepare for her impending portfolio review.

This tutorial was originally posted in this blog entry, but then I realized how incredibly LONG it was. Wall o' text, indeed. I chopped it up for easy digestion, and placed it in my tutorials section - you can read it here.

Unrelated to anything

2008-07-30T01:15:00.000-07:00

This thing is awesome. Just look at that thing. Imagine... you narrowly escape from a pack of wolves. You think you're safe, then suddenly...

CRABS DESCEND FROM THE TREES.

I know that's not how it works, but it was still awesome in my mind.

Sculpture

2008-07-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

Krystal sent me some photographs of the finished, full-size version of the Piano Monster sculpture I designed a little bit over a year ago. It was part of a student project during my senior year, and one of two student sculptures to actually get built. I didn't sculpt it myself, and I'm currently double-checking with Krystal about whom I should to give credit to for the actual sculpture. I wasn't involved in the sculpting process itself, as I was in another city - out of necessity. I'm thrilled with how it turned out, though. The silver sculpture in the background of the third picture, "Birth of Rock", was designed by another student involved in the project. Both sculptures are located in the Heavy Metal Graveyard at the Hard Rock Theme Park in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Moving

2008-07-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

Almost done moving from crappy old apt. to a nicer house. Yeah, a house. I'll have a lot more work-space, and an actual bed, rather than sleeping on the couch/floor. A vast improvement!

I've got some more content to put up, but the hard drives, chips, and disks containing it are in the new house. We're trying to get the internet hooked up right now.

Unfortunately, I have yet to see any photographs of the sculpture that I designed. This is pretty dissappointing. I may have to drive up to South Carolina soon and take photographs, myself. The main thing stopping me has been finances - it's not a cheap trip, but the cost of airfare is about equal to the cost of gas, and if I drive then I don't have to deal with the TSA. My brother is "randomly" pulled out of line at the airport EVERY SINGLE TIME we fly, and it's a huge hassle. It's not his fault that he looks so suspiciously "Eastern European" - it's just our ancestry.

I recently quit my job working graveyard shift at a local store because of the increasing crime rate in the area. It's not that Venice itself isn't incredibly safe, so much as that the surrounding cities lately are getting to be sort of... not. It means I'll be working on art full-time and piecing together an income from several different art-related sources - however, lately, it's been more and more feasible for me to actually DO that. The new house also has a tiled area in the garage where I can put down a drop-cloth and easel - so I will actually be able to paint.

The comic series I've been plugging away at is nearing completion, and starting to resemble something like an actual comic-book rather than a pile of scribbles. I'll be printing it in the conventional manner - however, I may also offer it digitally, mainly because I know that if it gains any sort of readership somebody is just going to scan it and put up a torrent anyway. Issue 1 won't be available for a month or two, as I've still got some issues to work out with the FontForge software and its immense hatred of Windows. FontForge wasn't originally meant to run on Windows, so this is understandable. It requires me to use Cygwin and do some command-line mumbo jumbo, which drives me up the wall, so I may cave and just letter the comic on my Linux machine, saving myself a bit of grief. I may capitalize on the situation and do a tutorial on using FontForge in Windows, but this all depends on whether or not I toss the computer out the window first.

Change of Location

2008-06-11T03:55:00.000-07:00

In case you hadn't noticed, I've switched from posting on my own webspace to hosting this blog on Blogger.

Since 80% of the time, Blogger seems absolutely incapable of posting anything via FTP to my server space, I've moved over here. I've gotten tired of waiting for two hours for a post to "take". At least this way, I know that when I update the blog, I won't have to sit and fight with it in order to get it to post.

Developments

2008-06-11T03:17:00.000-07:00

There's something awesome I'd like to post on here, but I can't until I can get ahold of the people involved. It involves a project I worked on while still in college. More about that later, assuming I can get ahold of anyone.

I've also recently posted a Provider Profile on iFreelance.com. Go and check it out, if you're curious.

Updates

2008-05-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

Converted several existing wallpapers to cell-phone and psp resolutions. You'll find them mostly in the Girls and Horror sections. No completely new stuff up this week, unfortunately.

T-Shirts

2008-05-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

I added a new wallpaper to the Fantasy section, as well as a new Fantasy icon. The Online Store is also up and running, for the most part.

I will do additional tweaks to the website (it still needs them) and continue working on a cell/PDA portal, but for the most part the focus will be converting existing wallpapers to cell phone/PDA resolutions, and putting up new content.

Revamp 99% Complete

2008-04-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

I hope you like the new look of the site.

It took surprisingly little time to put together. The superficial improvements are part of it, but I've changed quite a few nuts and bolts as well.

You'll see more small edits over the next few weeks, and maybe some rearrangements. Some of the Wallpaper/Icon sections may be combined, and a new category added; I may re-add the "Skins" section as a subcategory of Templates. Quizzes and Books will eventually be added, as well.

However, the bulk of what will be going on in the immediate future is a cell/portable mirror, which I will be adding around the middle of next week (probably Tuesday). It may not be pretty at first, as I do not have a TON of experience with designing something "pretty" for portable/hand-held devices. I have designed working websites for hand-held devices (none of which are currently up on the 'net) but making something that looks nice without choking your phone or driving your phone bill up into the stratosphere is another thing.

Cell phone wallpapers will still become available over the next week or so, whether or not the site gets launched before the middle of next week. There will also be a few new icons and wallpapers going up. I know there isn't enough content on the site, and I'm trying to rectify that matter.

The "merchandise" section currently goes to an "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" page, but hopefully, within the next month, it will lead to an online store.

Enjoy, everyone... and stay cheerful.

Impending Updates

2008-04-25T17:59:00.002-07:00

Over the course of the next week or so, the website may have intermittent periods of downtime as I work on an overhaul. I'm still debating how much to change the physical appearance, but I will be doing a lot of work on the back end - optimizing code, and the like. I will also be adding mirrors for people using PDAs, cell phones, and other portable devices, as well as adding wallpapers in smaller resolutions for people using such devices.

I'll also be finishing up a few images/quizzes that have been languishing on my hard drive, and possibly setting up an online store for T-shirts and such. This section will be added on in the revamp, although there may not be much up at first.

I've also finished the third rough draft of the comic I'm working on and plan on releasing the first issue some time around July or August. It will probably be done in a Print on Demand format. I'll post more about that as the project nears completion.

Impending

2008-04-25T17:59:00.001-07:00

Not Dead Yet

2008-04-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

Mike and I didn't finish the Holiday quiz, because unfortunately holidays happened. However, we're still working on it, and plan on posting it in July. Christmas in July, har har. Actually, most of it is done, I just need to finish the illustrations which are unfortunately on a hard drive that I can't access at the moment.

I'm currently researching publishers for the comic I've been working on, hoping to print it - it's not the webcomic (which went nowhere, precisely because the one I am currently working on captured my interest so completely). It's a horror comic about a vampire hunter, and I've been aiming for a sort of Kill Bill-meets-Interview With the Vampire feel, while maybe channeling a bit of Highlander.

Problem is, weighing the options - proposals to established publishers, self-publishing, Publish on Demand, etc. - is tricky. There are a lot of review sites out there. Some of the reviews seem reputable, some of them... not so much.
I'm on draft #3, which is essentially a readable (but nearly final) rough draft, which I've been floating by people who, to me, represent different kinds of readers. What I have left to do is essentially a few edits (based on feedback from the readers and the other writer) before I polish the pencils and start inking and lettering.

Apologies

2007-12-17T17:29:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the silence. I got a little burnt out, and needed a short break. After all, I don't technically get paid for doing this ;-)

Back on the subject of wallpapers - some are nearly done, and going to go up soon. I suppose I will also release a slew of wallpaper-based icons when they do. I haven't really been getting out and advertising the website, but people keep coming, which is encouraging. Deathbycute.com is a tiny website without a lot of traffic, but hopefully I can change that.

However, on that topic -
Winter holidays are coming up. Hanukkah and Christmas are prevalent in this area of the world, but if you would like to request something for your own winter holiday - real or fictional - all you need to do is ask.

It has gotten surprisingly cold in this region of Florida, although not quite cold enough to snow, but the cold is refreshing.

As usual, if you have requests for wallpapers, icons, software or game skins, please comment in the blog or shoot me an email. I'll see what I can do.

Update - Christmas Wallpaper

2007-12-03T04:45:00.000-08:00

The first fantasy-themed Christmas wallpaper is up: a festive elven wizard. He doesn't have a name or D20 stat sheet yet, but I'm working on it :-) I may post those later, just for kicks. For now, enjoy him as a cool wallpaper - you'll find him in the Fantasy section.

There will be several more wallpapers, which I will be producing as fast as I can, and which may be converted into fantasy Christmas icons as well. Keep checking back.

Impending Updates and the Career Front

2007-11-30T03:47:00.000-08:00

I'm working on some of the fairy wallpapers as well as a set of Christmas-themed fantasy wallpapers. These tie into another quiz, which is, of course, a way of getting the word out about the website.

I'm currently working on monetizing my website and blogs, since finding a steady job is turning out to be... difficult. Even the newspaper job listings in the Venice Gondolier and Venice Herald-Tribune are not materializing.

The economy in cities like Venice and nearby Sarasota depend, to a large extent, on "Season" - that is, Tourist Season. Unfortunately, with the state that the economy is in, the tourists just aren't showing up. Four restaurants closed in Venice recently, which obviously isn't helping the job market.

There are waitressing jobs in Sarasota, but I can't drive 20 miles to work every day - not with the price of gas lately. It makes me wish that Florida had better public transportation systems.

The "other" job hunt - the long-term one - isn't going so well, either.

I've done the usual - spamming resumes, etc. It's not enough to be passive, I can't just post my resume places and expect employers to pound down the door - on the other hand, it doesn't hurt to post it as many places as possible. Searches in places like CareerBuilder, Creative Hotlist, and Monster.com are as much a part of the war as passively posting my resume on them. They're excellent resources, and if you're looking for a job you need to use every option at your disposal. Anyone seriously looking for a job can't afford to pass them up.

At one point I found an international listing of game companies, A-Z, got frustrated, and started applying to them in alphabetical order. I'd gotten to G, passing up the companies that obviously wouldn't hire me or the ones that weren't a good fit (the website was completely in Japanese, or they produced only interfaces for medical software... why are they in a listing for game companies?), when I got sort of frustrated.

The crux of the matter is that without the right connections willing to help you, genuine entry-level positions aren't necessarily easy to find. Most public listings are for Mid-level or Senior something or other, with 5 years of experience in Underwater Basket Weaving (or a similar skill). I've even offered to work for free - unfortunately, I am no longer in college. I'd still probably do an unpaid internship for the lulz.

New Quiz

2007-11-28T01:19:00.003-08:00

A new avatar personality quiz, for the quiz fiends out there.

Which Christmas Avatar Are You?

Holiday Light Kitty

Are you tangled up in the Christmas lights again?! You are lighthearted and sweet, if a little bit mischievous... your idea of the perfect gift is the gift of laughter!

You can find this icon and more at http://www.deathbycute.com
Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Christmas Icons

2007-11-27T03:42:00.000-08:00

A new batch of Christmas and Holiday themed icons is up! There are 12 new icons, with a few stragglers still to come! I'm also working on a Christmas-themed quiz, for you quiz junkies out there.

2007-11-24T00:46:00.001-08:00

Which Cute Fairy Are You?

Flower-child Fairy

Spreading peace and love. Spiritual, earthy, and a little unrealistic.
Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

I'm currently uploading all of the new fairy avatars to the website. There are also a few avatars not featured in the quiz, as well, including some Christmas ones. I hope you enjoy them. :-)

Update

2007-11-22T01:44:00.003-08:00

I've updated the Girls section - I've fixed the broken wallpaper links and added a new wallpaper.

December

2007-11-21T13:14:00.001-08:00

I will be adding Christmas and Hannukah-themed icons and wallpapers to the Deathbycute website within the next week or so. If you're gearing up for December festivities, remember to check back!

Wallpaper and Icon Updates

2007-11-21T05:53:00.001-08:00

I've added new wallpapers to the "Girls" and "Fantasy" sections, and added some new fairy icons to the Icons page. Another "Girls" wallpaper as well as a fairy wallpaper or two will go up within a few days. If there are any icons or wallpapers you would particularly like to see, please comment and let me know. :-D

Art Show

2007-11-17T13:18:00.001-08:00

Last night, I went to a pretty amazing art show.

Masha, Dustin, and Matt are friends of mine. I recently met Masha and Dustin, but Matt has been a friend for years. We were drinking coffee and repairing our lap-tops over at Big E's, which is between Ringling and New College, and Masha came up to us and told us that Mike Pukac was having a show in downtown Sarasota and we should stop by and check it out. We had to finish repairing our laptops (they were in 50 pieces) but said we'd drop by once we were done. We actually wound up having to give Masha a ride because her other friend's car broke down.

In any case, I was expecting what I tend to run into at art shows - artwork that is very interesting, and very good, but doesn't necessarily speak to me beyond "Hey, that's a good composition and this person is a great artist". That's not what happened, and I'm very glad.

Mike's paintings are gorgeous. Some paintings are powerful, others are pretty, but these were gorgeous. I love art, but I'm not normally the sort to rant and rave about it... everyone has their moments, though. The vivid colors, iridescence, and dreamlike quality of the paintings are amazing. It was difficult to keep from reaching out and seeing if my hands would enter that world, like dipping your hands in the water in a puddle; I wanted to swim in them. He is experimental with his paint, but he backs that up with a lot of skill. If you get a chance to see some of his paintings in person, seize it, because photographs and scans are never going to do it justice.

During the past few weeks, I've been discussing arrangements with a friend of mine in Palm Bay - I've been planning on going over there to do a series of paintings. The apartment here doesn't have the space, and since I'm currently crashing with my mother, who is a neat freak, I don't know if either of us could deal with the stress of the inevitable explosion of canvas and acrylic paint. The show I went to last night was certainly an inspiration, a testament to how vivid a painting can be. I'm not quite the master and can't come close, but it's enough to know that it's possible.

Website Update

2007-11-16T10:37:00.001-08:00

I have updated the Horror section of the Wallpapers area of the Deathbycute website. There may be more updates later today, possibly in the Science Fiction section, and I am currently working on a dragon wallpaper for the Fantasy section. I will also be working on a new Myspace template. It has been suggested that a Panda themed Ebay template might be appreciated, so I may offer that as well. Those things will probably go up tomorrow.

I suppose I have been neglecting Skins, although I've been trying to figure out a method for making iTunes skins that doesn't give me a migraine.

Concepts

2007-11-15T16:09:00.001-08:00

My apologies, empty space, for the silence.

I've been working on a concept painting for MechaLord, which has been taking up my spare time. That, and trying to publicize deathbycute.com.

In any case, the Mechalord image should make a nice science fiction wallpaper, if Josh is kind enough to let me post it here. I've struggled with it a bit - metal, fire, and rain are a volatile combination to try to paint, especially where the rain hits the fire.

I've been surfing around Yahoo! Answers, as well... and working on my alternate blog, Ghosts on my Heels, which is an online dream-journal. I will be leaving Venice and staying with a friend in Palm Bay in order to work on a series of canvas paintings related to this project. I don't feel that the digital medium is appropriate for such a personal subject.

Ever since I graduated from college, I've been hemorrhaging art. I suppose part of it is the fear that I will stop producing art altogether. Seems like it was an unfounded fear, after all.

Small Sources of Joy / Dead Ipod Shuffle

2007-11-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

I figured I'd post this here since most of the people who poke around my wallpaper website (of whom there are not many, at the moment) will generally be inclined toward multimedia, and likely own an ipod.

My ipod shuffle has gotten a little iffy lately, but I manage to keep it working... barely, I suspect. It's about 2.5 years old, has been worked like a dog the whole time (I rode the bus a LOT in college), and doesn't seem happy about it. Anyway, today, I got the blinking lights of doom again. Those lights bring with them a sinking feeling, as my shuffle is a small but reliable source of joy in life. It has gotten a little bit less reliable lately, although Apple's reset utility had saved the day once before, so I figured it would work again.

I used it again, to no avail. I continued to get the 'disk not found' error. I'd read somewhere (another blog?) that perhaps you could only use the reset utility once, which I assumed to be the case. However, in a fit of maddened clicking, I discovered something that the reset instructions failed to mention - you have to shut the shuffle off for a few seconds in order for it to properly reset.

d'oh.

I'm not sure if that was a second time only type deal, a special case with my shuffle just being weird, or what - I don't remember it being an issue the first time.

In any case, the shuffle works again.

Deductive Reasoning

2007-11-11T05:17:00.001-08:00

I have a pet rabbit named Bunbun. Yes, she was originally named after the Sluggy Freelance character.

She's a 7 year old grey lop, getting a little old (some of her grey spots are going white) but still full of all kinds of trouble.

For reference - Bunbun's pen is currently in storage in Orlando. It was too big to bring with me in my initial move to Venice. Her pen is her territory, and the rest of the house is human territory, especially the bedroom, which is mine. Everyone generally respects that, even cats, upon whom Bun lays the smack down if they get too uppity. When I live alone, Bunbun gets to roam freely around the house, with the exception of "no-no" rooms she knows she is not allowed in, like the kitchen. Rabbits are stubborn, but they aren't stupid. I would say that Bunbun is about as smart as a sort of dumb dog and she is capable of learning simple commands and rules like "don't go in the kitchen". Other things are harder to work with because you can dampen but can't really override certain instincts, such as digging and chewing. She has been taught not to dig at and chew on carpet, but it has taken YEARS.

For the most part though, when I live with roommates, Bunbun lives in a pen, which she understands she is supposed to stay in. It's pretty much voluntary, since the walls of the pen are only about 2 feet high, but as long as you designate it as 'hers' and the area she is supposed to stay in, and she has plenty of entertainment, she will stay put. The pen's about half the size of the livingroom, so it's not like she's being confined to a tiny cage, and when the household has other pets or household members who are not as dedicated to rabbit safety in it, it's safer for her to stay in the pen.

Anyway, I can't let Bun have full run of the apartment, since I'm currently staying with relatives, but I couldn't make her live in her cage, since it's basically a glorified potty. I've tried taking the cage away but she actually likes it and refuses to go to the bathroom anywhere else. Last time I tried to give her a litter box, she turned it upside-down and wore it as a hat.

Her makeshift pen is her cage pushed up against an entertainment center that's set at a right angle to one of the walls in the corner. It creates a 4 foot gap between the shelf and the wall, and the shelf's about 5 feet long. It's not a huge pen, but it's temporary, and safer than having her run around the house, which is full of cords and dangerous things. The catch is that the shelf is an entertainment center, and has an opening in it about 2 feet off the ground that you can rest a television set in.

Bunbun has a large cardboard box with a hole cut in the side that functions like a doghouse. She also has a shoe box to throw around and play with. Well, this morning she shoved the box up against the back of the shelf and the shoe box up against the box, creating stairs. She hopped up her makeshift stairway into the opening, where she sat looking like she was so proud of herself she was going to burst. Victory thus achieved, she did not do the logical thing and escape. Instead, she started throwing things from her cage out of the opening, which caused such a racket that my mother ran into the livingroom to see what the hell was going on. Realizing she'd been caught, Bunbun leapt back into her pen and hid in her box. I guess she assumed she was in trouble. Of course, instead of punishing her, Mom gave her a treat for being ingenious enough to come up with the box scheme. In retrospect, this could explain why my brother and I are currently so demented.
I've plugged up the opening with a few heavy boxes, and Bun is sulking in the corner.

Busy Work

2007-11-08T05:26:00.000-08:00

I recently (as in, today) relaunched a comic that dates back... years.

It's never been a popular comic, or even a good comic, but it's nice to have the sort of distance from a project that only age and occasional failure (and even more occasional success) can bring. I've got new comic ideas, better ones, etc., but itwould be nice to drive the nail in the coffin of this one. I don't plan on making it any more coherent than it ever was in the first place - just more readable.
You can check it out here.
The reason I've hosted it on DD is because at the moment I don't feel like messing around with the php necessary to run a comic website. I got enough of that with pobocks, and the last time the script melted down and barfed all over the internet, I'd had it. Then Drunk Duck went down for the second time that year, and that was it. They didn't have a mass-update tool for free accounts, and there were over 100 pages of the comic, and I realized the comic itself kind of sucked - and that was it for P.O. Bocks.

Once upon a time, I produced a page a day for the comic. Which may explain the iffy quality of some of the earlier pages. I plan on going back to the page-a-day, come hell or high water, because in a masochistic way, I enjoyed doing it. It was like feeding twigs to a fire, watering a plant, watching a favorite pet grow. Finished artwork always brings with it an immense sense of accomplishment, no matter how small the piece may be, which is something I am addicted to.
But life gets in the way sometimes - particularly, college coursework and the need to pay bills. I got stuck on the plot, people didn't particularly enjoy the comic, I realized the story itself was hopeless, and I stopped drawing.

I plan on revamping many of the original comic pages. They won't be entirely redrawn, but they will be redone. The story will be a little more coherent, but not too coherent, because I enjoyed the freewheeling spirit of the original comic, no matter how terrible the comic itself may have been. Ultimately, the plot was a lot like a little kid spinning around in the front yard and screaming, but I've realized that's sort of fine by me, even if the inevitable conclusion is the literary equivalent of falling over and puking.

I have realized how much I miss drawing comics. Actually, drawing in general. My degree is animation-related, since I wound up becoming interested enough in animation to change my major. The Art: animation program at UCF was in flux at that point in time, but they were starting up a Digital Media: animation program. I found that I enjoyed the environment that the Visual Language program offered, in particular the experience of working on teams with other students. The companionship, input, and spirit of collaboration made otherwise daunting tasks manageable, and things that could have been pretty horrible weren't so bad in the long run. Unfortunately, the irony of being in animation was that I didn't get to draw very much, which was pretty miserable. My coursework and schedule were also demanding, so I didn't have any time to draw on my own.

Having come to this realization, I'm re-assessing how I want to proceed in life. Everybody and their brother wants to be a concept artist, but I've realized that I'll be unhappy with most tasks that don't involve a certain amount of painting. Thankfully, I enjoy painting textures a great deal, so you may start seeing game skins and the like popping up here. Nouri in particular has asked for a set of skins that I think most people would actually enjoy.

My problem is that I get backlogged by promising too many things to too many people. Right now is a bad time to relaunch PO/Wizard Party, but it represents the ultimate project that I never finished. My goal is to finish it quickly, within a certain range of quality, so I can finally strike it off my list. But amongst other things, I currently owe Josh banner art, and Austin badge art, as well as various miscellaneous personal projects. I've dedicated time to the website in the hope that I can scrape up some extra cash with it, since times are lean and waitressing slowly drives me batty over a period of time. I enjoy the people, actually, it's just that all you have to show for yourself at the end of the night is cash. Money. Money comes and goes, and it's not enough for me - there's no lasting indication of your efforts. You pay your bills with it, and all that you have left is sore feet and the nagging, compulsive need to wipe your kitchen counter every five minutes.

Blog^2

2007-11-06T05:04:00.001-08:00

I just posted a new Myspace template. I'm hoping to feed this site content as I go through my artwork and convert it into wallpapers, skins, and various other things. Requests are welcome, of course. I'll be working on the usual Hana fare - cat-girls, dragons, magical cities, what-have-you. I'm planning on putting up some Ebay auction templates and iTunes skins once I get the chance. If you've just stumbled onto the DeathByCute website, and have anything in particular in mind, drop me a line. I'll do game skins and textures, too, as long as what you want doesn't involve a massive and prolonged effort (you'll have to pay for that). Keep in mind, you might have to wait a little bit. SecondLife is another issue - I'll probably require Lindens for doing anything in Secondlife, due to the fact that uploading anything to SL costs money. If you want concept work done, send me an email with info about your project. I'm currently working on a volunteer project called MechaLord, so I may or may not be able to produce anything immediately.

I'll be moving my personal blog over here from Livejournal.com. I'm not abandoning Livejournal, it's just that if I have stuff to say related to art, news, etc., I may as well say it here.

Just got my most recent rash of resume rejections, but I suppose that's par for the course. Means I'll have to send out another few dozen and pray. In the meantime, I'm listening to Manowar and feeling epic. Nothing makes you more feel like getting up and going out to fight again than songs about Odin kicking peoples' asses. On the other hand, it also gives me the urge to run outside, screaming and swinging an axe, and go on a rampage across the countryside. It is possible that I've been listening to too MUCH Manowar. All I really know is that by now, I am quite sure that I was born with a heart of steel.

Also, on a side note, I have discovered the sole purpose of the water slides at Typhoon Lagoon: if you do the Manowar scream sliding down, and manage to maintain the scream properly, it will carry across most of the park.

Speaking of epic, I've been running a Dungeons and Dragons game for my brother and his friends. It runs every Sunday, and I'll be uploading recordings of the sessions so people can listen in. My friend Thomas was very excited by the prospect of editing and mixing the audio recordings, which takes a lot of weight off my shoulders so I can focus on the really important parts of the campaign - you know, decorating the webpage and painting character portraits.

Kidding. Actually, I care a lot about the players having fun. I felt horrible since I had to cancel the most recent meeting - the one everybody actually was going to show up to - because I was ill. In my personal defense, I was in no condition to run a coherent game, and nobody would have had fun. It was disappointing because I know they look forward to the games, and my little bro is currently DM-in-training. I think he may plan on converting their characters over to the Warcraft tabletop setting when he takes over, which will definitely be interesting to watch.

Speaking of which, I recently got back into World of Warcraft, this after getting back into Warcraft3, except most of the guild I'm in on Stormrage (The Cute Fuzzy Meow) apparently picked up and left for another server. I think Brighteyes may have quit altogether. I've taken to mostly playing Horde on Onyxia, because I can't quite seem to stomach the servers that my brother frequents.
I've also been a bit irritated at not being able to find Warcraft2 anywhere. The game is pretty much unavailable, and when I played it it was on a friend's computer, so I basically can't get ahold of it legally. I wish they'd release a Battle Chest with all of the Warcraft games bundled up together... Warcraft 1 and 2 would possibly require an emulator to run, except for my deep, dark secret - the Pentium 1 locked up in my cabinet.

Yes, I still have a Pentium 1. Its name is Bob, and I keep it for playing old games. The hard drive is unreliable, but everything else works ok, including the ancient TDK burner. As long as I don't try to store too much data on it and back my games up fanatically, I can play plenty of older stuff that doesn't run quite right on new, fast computers. Fallout, Interstate '76, etc. I've considered dropping a newer, bigger hard drive in, except honestly - why?

First Post

2007-11-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

This is the first post I've made to the DeathByCute website blog. I suppose that means that it's technically a test. If you see it up here - woo hoo, it worked!

As a side note, I've discovered by accident that there's a livejournal user who shares the same name. To clarify: I am not this person.

With that out of the way...

Welcome to the DBC website. I'm your friendly neighborhood artist, Rihana. I hope to build it into a solid source for free wallpapers, icons, myspace/blogger templates, skins, simple starter-web page templates, and other things. I will update it with tutorials and other interesting tidbits. Please visit on a regular basis - I love painting more than anything in the world, and much of what I do will probably wind up here. If you have a specific request, please, by all means email me. I am busy with other projects (volunteer concept artist, con badges, etc) so be patient - if it's not something quick like an icon, it could take a little while. No requests for copyrighted material, please. I won't be posting any fan-art to this website, but you may luck out and find some in my personal gallery.

Although comments are currently turned off, I'll be allowing comments in future blogs - however, if I start getting overrun with bots - especially ones posting inappropriate spam - I will have to turn them off.
Please don't post links to anything inappropriate, illegal, or pornographic.