FINALLY!

YES....it's true! I finally finished the commission piece that I was working on. Phew! When I accepted the piece I was relatively free, then I became buried under work. Enough excuses though....here it is, "The Release:"

and a close up:

I was commissioned to do this piece by an awesome lady named Charity as a gift for her friend Stephanie in BC. Soooooo....Stephanie, if you happen to read this blog, here she is! She's all yours! I'll be shipping her off to you asap. Hope you like it! :)

Also, check out my new obsession....ahahhaa....the Ottawa police department have set up a google map type of application which lets you track crime in the different areas of the city.

Check it out!

Now, as you know, we are preparing to move back to Ottawa in January. Even though we've lived there before, there are many areas of the city that we don't know anything about. I've been checking the ads everyday for homes to rent...and well, there have been lots of times when a place looked like a good deal, but I wasn't sure what the neighbourhood was like. Well....ahahahha....now I just have to type in the address of the potential rental and viola.....CRIME STATS! Hahahahha! Yep....I think I need to use my time more wisely! All joking aside, I think this is a great tool to have available to the public, as long as you don't live too literally to the stats and start being afraid of any and every area that has had a little "crime bubble" above it. Anyway, I thought it was a pretty neat tool. Crime free(ish??) neighbourhood....here we come! :)

It's Official!

Come January, the famdamily and I will be residents of Ottawa again. I have accepted a position at Fuel Industries as an Illustrator!! I will be working on AllGirlArcade, a game site especially for girls! Fuel is getting ready to launch Spark City, a MMO(massively multiplayer online) game world where the girls can create their own little worlds! One thing that the girls can do in Spark City is buy and furnish their own apartments with gems that they accumulate through playing games on AllGirlArcade. The girls can also buy clothes, gifts, accessories and even travel tickets for other destinations with their gems! I think this is such an awesome idea to have a FREE world for the girls to play. I know that my youngest sister was really into an online MMO for a year or so and my parents probably spent hundreds of dollars over that year buying credits just so she could interact in that world. AllGirlArcade allows the kids to take control of their own experience by allowing them to gain "credit" through playing games! How awesome is that!??

So, over the last few weeks, I've been working on furniture packs that will be available to "buy" to furnish apartments in Spark City! I've been having a lot of fun with it. I have my own account on AllGirlArcade and I am going to play my butt off so I can furnish my apartment with one of the furniture packs I created! Hahahhaha! Can anyone say GEEEKKK!!!!?? Hahahha! I will also be creating new clothes, hairstyles, accessories and so on as I work on this project. It's a girly girls dream! Hehehehe!

If you have a spare moment, a daughter or little sister...go check out AllGirlArcade! I'm not just being biased because I work on it, it really is a fantastic site full of well thought out and beautifully presented games, FREE games, for little girls. Wish something like this was available when I was a weee whippersnapper! :P

Here's a peek:

Yikes!

Soooo much going on! First off, it's looking like our family will more than likely be relocating back to Ottawa, Ontario in the next few months. I have been in talks with a company there about a position and I am hoping to have everything solidified with them over the next few days. Once I do, I will fill you in a bit more on the company and what I will be working on.

In the meantime, I have been busy working on a commission piece, one that I should have had finished by now...(Sorry Charity!!!) but I have been a bit wrapped up with a contract that I had and trying to get this whole move sorted out. I HATE moving...it's such a pain in the BUTT! In fact, this will be the 3rd year in a row that we're moving right around the Christmas season! Uuuuggghhh! We moved from Ottawa to NB in early December 2006 right before our daughter Avie was born, then we moved to our current house last January, noooowwww...it looks like we will be on the move again come January! Let's all keep our fingers crossed that we will not be repeating this trend NEXT holiday season! BAHUMBUG! Hahahahhaa!

I also worked on a few small character design jobs for some flash games over the last couple of weeks. The first set is very appropriate for the season....cutesy Halloween characters:

The next set of characters was for a Suspect game...they're not overly complicated or spectacular, but they're fun! Check out these goofy mugs!

Funtimes! Well, it's time to get back at it for the day! Be back soooon...ahahha....hopefully it won't be another MONTH before the next post!