I’ve been lurking throughout the darkest corners of deviantART for quite some time now and I’ve only just recently come to appreciate its versatility and the HUGE mass of talent that lies among its pages. Apparently I’ve been a “deviant” for over a year and my page has remained fairly bare until now. I’ve spent most of my time blogging on GameSpot (I love me my video games!), but I’m surprised I never thought to post anything here. Therefore, this first journal entry shall serve as my debut. Since I’m a new person posting a bunch of my stuff in a web-community full of people I don’t know, I generally would write some sort of introduction here. However, I’m not sure where to start, or what to include, so I suppose I’ll just fill in blanks as I go along if anyone is so absolutely curious.

My name is Bill B******* (everyone always wonders where my handle comes from, so now you know). I'm 28 and I consider myself "getting old." I work for a local university in NJ as a Public Safety officer. I hate my job, but considering any other things I could be doing, it’s completely bearable. Besides, it’s paying my way through my 3rd iteration of college, so I’m essentially using my job to acquire job training to find another job. I’ve studied quite a few things since I started out in college, but after being inspired by some articles from Arthur St. Antoine of Motor Trend magazine, I’ve finally settled on journalism & writing. On the domestic side of things, I’m a month into my 3rd year of marriage to my girlfriend of 5 years and I couldn't be happier about it, contrary to anti-marriage warnings from single/divorced friends & family. We also have 3 children, all furry and feline. They don’t look much like me, but they’re cute, so we keep them around anyway. I'm pretty much just your average guy at home. I suppose marriage does that to people. I don't mind it much... being boring that is. Sometimes happiness comes from simple comfort and complacency.

My drawings here are basically posted scans of my recent, but sporadic, doodlings. Ryoko and Kiyone were done as I sat in a painfully boring and useless class about 8 years ago. Strangely, I still think they represent the pinnacle of my drawing ability, since they were done mostly from memory, with details sketched in after consulting a few references at home. I’ve been fascinated with anime for as long as I can remember, so I’m naturally attracted to the style for drawing my friends as well. “Jodi” is my latest drawing and I played around with some anime styling cues from characters I’d seen, but the hardest part is merging the idea with a picture of a real person. Imagination was never my strong suit, so I fear this may be a perpetual problem.

My most recent posts are of another friend of mine. I had made a mediocre sketch a long time ago that I wasn’t really happy with, but it didn’t warrant starting all over again. I figured it had potential, so I recently imported it to Photoshop and I worked on it from time-to-time whenever I got bored. I’m actually pretty happy with the results. I moved the hair on her left shoulder to behind her back, but somehow I’m not sure that it works the way I intended, either. I don’t think I’ve done too badly for a random dude without classes or practice, but I have a lot to learn. Still, my favorite part is the lips. I actually borrowed the style from Kim-Possible and I really like how it turned out. She’s not particular to grinning, so the demure little smile fit her well.

At any rate, I think I’ve rattled off a decent synopsis of myself here. Criticism is warmly welcomed here, as long as it’s intelligent and constructive. I’ve always enjoyed sketching here-and-there, but I rarely have the time and the desire at the same time. I’m sure I would be much happier with my work if it had a little more education and direction behind it, but I suppose I’m slowly getting better the more I see and the more I practice. One item I need to acquire next for my journey is a Wacom pad, though. Any suggestions for a poor person trying to acquire one?

-B² out