I Approve Of This Trend

For some time now there's been a trend towards beautiful women providing me with sexy pictures of themselves in order for me to use them as reference images for my artwork, either via e-mailing them to me or providing me with links to online albums in which the pictures appear.
It's a trend I heartily approve of, and I hope it's one that conitnues.
One such woman has been the always lovely Nadia, whose image you've seen here many times.  Another, more recent addition to the ranks of beautiful women sending me pictures is the also lovely Stella, a friend of Naida's.
Below is the resultant artwork from one of the pictures Stella has sent me:

From a photo by Natalya Slastnova

I'm very pleased with this one, with, I think, good reason, given how much work I put into it.  Of course, it took me a lot longer than it really needed to because I avoided working on it for a significant period of time.  Well, I avoided working on the non-Stella part of it.  The central image of Stella herself was, of course, something I was more than happy to work on.  It was all of the stuff around her that I was avoiding.
Still, I felt that it needed to be there, adding to the whole "sexy clutter" effect of the image, so I knew it had to be done eventually.
And now it is, and, happily, Stella is very pleased with the results as well.

Surf's Up

Here's the always-lovely Nadia enjoying the water while we enjoy the view:

Late (Or Really Early) Holiday Cheer

On Christmas I sent a holiday-themed picture to the always lovely Nadia.
Given that, unlike me, most people have lives, it took her a while to get back to me.
I don't like to post pictures I've done of people until I've gotten a response, so here, almost a month later, is the picture in question:



On a less cheerful note, last week when we had a bit of an ice storm I ended up skidding my way into a curb when I was going in to work. Initially it didn't appear to have done any damage, but some time later I started noticing an odd noise when I was driving, though I didn't notice any issues with how it handled. So I thought that maybe it was just my imagination, or it was something that had been there all along and I was just now noticing it. Still, I really didn't like the sound of it.
I'd taken today off to go out and do some of what I call "weekday stuff" and brought my car in to the dealership to get it checked out.
Turns out I wrecked the hub and bearing on one of the wheels. Fortunately, it won't take long to fix, though I'll probably end up paying the costs upfront and getting reimbursed by my insurance, since I just now filed the claim after finding out about the damage. I didn't want to file a claim if there wasn't anything actually wrong with it, after all.
As an added bonus, I seem to be getting sick. Heaviness in the chest with a cough, a headache and runny nose, and shortness of breath. In fact, just carrying the box o' stuff I got from Costco (going to Costco falls under the heading of "weekday stuff") from the rental car to my door left me gasping for air.
I'll probably go to the doctor tomorrow if I'm not feeling any better.

Someone Finally Got Around To Drawing Something

...and that someone was me:



In the vernacular of the Internet, "Lovely Nadia is lovely."

Distraction

For anyone out there who doesn't know, my mom had a heart attack over the weekend, and is currently in ICU until she's strong enough to have bypass surgery.
...yeah.
I'm flying to MIchigan tomorrow to be there, but as it stands right now, they're saying it's optimistic to think that she'll be up for the surgery even by Monday (it was originally scheduled for this Friday).
Needless to say, the past few days have been pretty shitty, with the waiting being one of the worst parts. Not the worst part; the fact that my mom had a heart attack at all is the worst part.
In any case, while I sit here going nuts, I've needed to find something to keep me distracted.
And what could serve as a better distraction than the always-lovely Nadia?

New Nadia Picture

What can I say about this new picture of the always-lovely Nadia...



...that it doesn't say for itself?

Ethereal

Here's my latest picture of the lovely Nadia looking angelic and ethereal, or as I put it in the e-mail to her "inhumanly beautiful, and I mean that in the best way possible."

The Only Way I Can Spend A Day With A Beautiful Woman

Today is the lovely Nadia's birthday - being a gentleman, I have no idea which birthday - so I presented her with the following present:



I spent most of yesterday working on it, trying to make sure I finished it in time for today, and making sure it looked as good as I could possibly make it.
Besides, I don't have any other means by which I can spend my Saturdays with a beautiful woman.
As for how well I succeeded in making it look as good as I possibly could, well, I'll let you be the judge, but I will mention that Nadia herself LOVED it.
So, once again, Happy Birthday, Nadia!
Friday was Scott's birthday, and while I did post the traditional Scott: Birthday graphic on his wall, I didn't mention it here, but only because I didn't post anything on Friday. I gave him his presents, which were swag from the con - a signed Amanda Conner Power Girl print and a signed Adam Hughes sketchbook - weeks ago, as I was too impatient to wait.
I also joined him, Stacy, and others at Jamie and Casey's house for cake - or rather, cheesecake - on Friday night.
Anyway, I'm sure he'll also happily accept the picture above as a belated bonus gift.

It Was Worth It

After I did this picture, I ended up getting in touch with the lovely lady named Nadia who appeared in the original photo, and have since been working on new paintings using photos she has kindly provided me.
The first one can be seen below:



I'm not entirely happy with this one - which is in no way a slight against Nadia - as the shadows in the original kind of washed out the details of her face, and I was forced to try to compensate using my questionable talents. Still, it's not bad, and is worth sharing, I think.
However, I felt like I had something to make up for when I approached the next painting, so I devoted a lot of time and a lot of effort into making it as perfect as possible:


(From a photo by April Belle Photos)

I think I did okay, and that the effort was worth it. How about you?

I Had To Do It (So I Did)

While browsing photo sites online, I stumbled upon the galleries of April Belle Photos. There were a bunch of great photos, but one of them in particular made me think, "I have to draw this."



So I did, and the result is above.
It really was a great photo of a really beautiful woman, so me wanting to draw it was pretty much a no-brainer.
Check out her galleries - though be advised that some of the photos are NSFWish; there are also pictures of pets, if, unlike me, that's your thing - and, if you live in the area, hire her to take photos for you (or your pets).
You can also go to her page on Facebook and become a fan (like I did).
(If you go to her Facebook page, you can see where she posted a copy of this picture and you can "Like" it and thereby drive up my Facebook...er...credits? Karma? Okay, so it probably won't do anything tangible for me, or for you, for that matter, but it will feed my ego and give you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. And who doesn't like having a warm, fuzzy feeling inside? You don't? Oh.)