questions and answers, again

[egypturnash]

I'm just a little black rain-cloud
hovering over the honey-tree
I'm just a little black rain-cloud
pay no
attention
to me...

I did this a bit more than a year ago; far fewer people were perusing this diary then. So I think I'll do it again. For a limited but unspecified time, I will answer any and all questions about myself posed as comments to this entry.

I reserve the right to answer them in a nonsensical manner, or to evade the question if I feel it's going into places I'd prefer not to travel, but I will attempt to make my evasions amusing, and possibly even to contain a nugget of truth.

I'm curious to see what people may be curious about regarding myself.

Comments

[oceacat.livejournal.com]

What should I be able to glean about you from your "human" icon?

[protocat.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I had a cute question originally, until I reread it and thought it'd be considered rude. So I removed it. A better question, I suppose would be..

If you could pick one work of art (be it illustrated, painted, music, film, comic, writing or what have you) and live in it for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I suppose that sounds rather survey-ish, but you're actually someone I'd ask that of.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Certainly not that Aphex Twin album. It's not one of the ones I have, so I don't know if it's one that'd be worth living in.

Serious answer later, when I get home. Work is not quite the place for deep thought.

Call me self centered

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

If you even remember it, what was your first impression of me when I was trying to return your lost badge to you at FC? ('cus MAN did you act slightly spooked)
It is just you are one of the very few 'not introduced by a friend' folk I kinda know.

[ghostangel.livejournal.com]

Do you like your job? And how did you get into it? :) *had to ask* :X

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

What size breasts would you like to have?

[arikla.livejournal.com]

What inspired the current style you use for your digital works? Just have to ask... its not a style I often see.

[jenwolf.livejournal.com]

Do you really have 75% more hot squishy monkey sex?

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

When applied to a post or a response, it usually means that I'm talking about me in the real world, with less of the assorted masks of online characters. But it can also indicate the somewhat reserved attitude inherent in the image.

Mostly it's something like what I really am: skinny, Western European descent (Italian/French/German), androgynous, prone to peculiar hair colors, emotionally detatched, wears glasses.. At the time I did the image it's cut from, my hair was its natural black, except for a streak I'd bleached and dyed down the left side. (My glasses are smaller now, too.)

Re: Call me self centered

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

My impression was 'Who the hell was that?!?' because I barely saw you and you didn't stick around and introduce yourself in the slightest! And I think you came up quietly behind me, too.

You did spook me. I'm always a little paranoid about Random People Met At A Furry Con, because some of them are, well... furries. With all the bad connotations that can carry. And I'm generally asocial with people I don't know. Also, I think I'd just gotten into the con, and was, thus, generally confused - switching from the mask I have to wear in RL to the one I can wear at cons, while in a very crowded dealer's room full of people.

It was only the last day of the con, I think, that I managed to dredge up enough of the brief mental image to decide that, yes, it was Paka's girlfriend who had given me my dropped badge the first day.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Most of the time. It could be better; I'm currently kinda stuck in non-drawing support roles, but still, I make cartoons, which is a dream that's been somewhere in the back of my head since I was aware of cartoons. I could get paid a lot more, but on the other hand it's a hell of a lot better than flipping burgers.

I got into it via connections.

My animation school room-mate had managed to get an internship at Spümcø, that his dedication and diligence transformed into an actual paid position. Time passed. Then they were working on a Flash game, and needed someone who could program it; I ended up being this person, though I had to learn Flash from scratch to do it!

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

A- or B-cup, I think.

Enough to clearly be there, but not enough to dominate my figure and my life.

[electricgecko.livejournal.com]

So. What about names?

Are you eventually going to change your name to Peg/Peggy? Tack an 'a' onto your given name? Become Egypt Urnash? Pick something else entirely?

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

The most significant influence is the tool I use for it: Illustrator itself. My initial work with AI involved inking my drawings in the real world and scanning that, then working beneath that in AI. Yes, I had a copy of Streamline, but I'd spent too much time obsessively tweaking its output for Flash cartoons at work; I decided I'd prefer the contrast of sleek pure shapes and unabashedly physical edges. (You can really see this going on in my older stuff, like this picture of Silverblue.) This was pretty much an adaptation of my previous workflow in Deluxe Paint on the Amiga - draw, ink, scan, fill.

But since AI8 didn't have transparency yet, I found myself frequently turning the ink layer off and on to get to points sitting beneath the ink line. And I decided I really liked the solid colors without the constraining lines. I started experimenting, and eventually had the courage to just jettison outlines entirely.

Other influences include Frank Miller's 'Sin City', especially when he'd do a story with one color tipped in; Mike Mignola's 'Hellboy', and the old Fleischer cartoons. I just love that rubber-hose stuff. There's a lot of technical problems with it, but there's a sheer joy in the process that I find irresistable. Bruce Timm's sleek designs for the Batman cartoon are also a definite influence. Not so much the later more geometric ones where he started to be influenced by Glen Murikami, just the mind-boggling first season. I let myself be influenced by Kirsten Ulve a little until I realized she was ultra-popular and a hell of a lot of other people were trying to draw like her. There might be a little Mary Blair as inspiration for solid, no-outline shapes; I haven't really warmed to her work, but it's something you will get exposed to if you hang around Spümcø for any length of time.

(And speaking of that place, I really can't tell how much of an influence John K. has been on me. I know I've picked up stuff from there, but I really can't tell any more, as I've also learned a lot of basics there.)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I am in the portion of Mac users that drags the average down. I haven't had sex, hot squishy monkey or otherwise, in several years.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Probably, it would have to be some sort of post-scarcity ultra-tech science fiction story. I'd like to live for a very very long time. I'd like to not have to work constantly just to keep a roof over my head.

Or maybe Aphex Twin's SAWII, because those soundscapes are so complex.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I'm still turning that over, to be honest. I haven't reached a decision. Peg and Peggy are inexplicably short for 'Margaret', which I don't think is a name that fits me. Neither is 'Paula'.

I do like the sound of 'Egypt Urnash'. It's right on the border of being too stagey and fake, though... I might also prefer to keep my original last name, and it doesn't sound too good with 'Egypt Urnash' as first and middle. But an anagram of 'Peganthyrus' is just too fraught with Personal Significance to just discard out of hand.

So maybe 'something else entirely' is in order; something not too out of place for someone born in the beginning of the seventies.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

I am very sorry for not introducing myself. At that time the only contact we had was some very one sided reading of your journal off Paka's friends page, so I didn't expect you to recognize me even if I said my name. Knowing how artists can be swamped in the furry community, I backed off fast when you were spooked/shy.

But I recognized you based on dragon self portraits, the idea of a girl made out of spare boy parts (or a boy made out of spare girl parts), purple hair and some past angsting from you about your non-existant weight peeve. You are umm distinctive (in a good way).

[403.livejournal.com]

If you suddenly didn't have to maintain your physical self (no requirement for food/shelter/etc.) what would you do with the time that freed up?

How do you manage to draw while in a moving vehicle?

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Assuming that I don't need to worry about a place to keep all my stuff, too? I mean, I have a lot of stuff.

I'll assume a sugar daddy paying for the rent and power and whatnot needed for my stuff to have a home for the rest of this. And for other neccesities like new books. *grin*

So. First I would slouch around and not do anything useful for at least a week solid - muck, web browse, video game, read. But after a week or so, experience tells me that I would have my fill of slacking off, and start actually making stuff. Probably, I would start really shaping that comic I keep threatening to do, and start drawing it.

---

As to the art in a moving vehicle? Well, it helps that I don't get carsick or anything like that.

My drawing methods tend to involve working from the shoulder, not from the wrist; this means broader, more sweeping motions, that are not affected by little bumps. For details, I do sometimes have trouble with the bus' bounciness; I've learnt to wait for a light or bus stop when I want to precisely place a line.

In college, I knew a friend who would ink on the bus. With Rapidographs. In a fairly touchy and detailed Japanese-influenced style.

I can paint my fingernails on the bus, too.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

My reflexive reaxtion to surprise is to hide. And you backed off so quickly that I really had no impression of the person who'd found my badge, besides that they were someone I didn't know who was reading my LJ closely enough to guess at me from the sideways bits of self-description!

I don't really get swamped at furry cons, partially because I don't advertise myself, and partially because my work doesn't seem to appeal to as wide a segment of the fandom as other people's art does. That pesky 'doesn't draw nudity' thing has something to do with it. As well as, now, that 'mostly quit drawing furries' thing...

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

Egypt Urnash would be a way badass thing to have on your driver's license. :D

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

If you could have a couple of exceedingly bizarre costumes made for recreational purposes, (cons, clubs, exotic dancing, scaring relatives, etc) and a sky's-the-limit budget, what would you get? :D

[ilthuain.livejournal.com]

Would you consider joining a cult if it was 'one of those cool cults'?

[oceacat.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply. I am very interested in the use of icons and have particularly enjoyed yours since discovering your journal. The image it's cut from is even more intriguing and I appreciate that you shared it as a part of your reply.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Oh. One other important factor: I'm horribly nearsighted. When I take off my glasses, I see a world of colored blobs with unfocused edges. I can only see detail at about aix inches from my face. While I've never made a conscious effort to render this in my art, it's sure to have had influence at some level.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

No.

I reflexively insist on sensible explanations for things I am told, and have absolutely no respect for capricious orders from those in authority - if someone tells me "Do this" and there's no obvious reason it needs to be done, my response is likely to be "Why?". And "because I say so" is not an acceptable answer.

Also, I have no hunger for the solace of a Divine Plan Guiding My Life. If there is one, it's been somewhat malign so far.

My religious and hierarchical drives are pretty much non-existant.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

er, six inches. Sometimes I really wish LJ would let you edit comments.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Rowr!
Purr. Yum.
Yeep!
On the left.

Maybe something more intricate and textural, too. That's just off the top of my head, and from my bookmarks. (Except for the Charles Addams drawing; I scanned that from my library.) I'm confident I could pull off a wide variety of gothy looks, especially if I stopped spending so damn much time out under the sun...

[draca-serpens.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering...what is your real name? I'm so used to calling you Peggy that I've begun to think your real name is Margaret...unless it is...

[mutleyjames.livejournal.com]

What is your proudest accomplishment to date? Feel free to boast, please.

[electricgecko.livejournal.com]

Heh... I'm in the process of changing my official signature from a scribble of my name to my cool [at] symbol. THAT will be a badass thing to have on my drivers' license, once I bother to get a new license with that sig instead of my old one. :D

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

um.

The VCL Sieve, I think. *sigh*

I suppose I could be proud of managing to get out of New Orleans and into animation, but that's become a fairly routine thing now. It's what I do.

So many other things are far more superior, but incomplete. If I get off my scaly black butt and get going on that comic, that will certainly be one of my proudest accomplishment.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Also, something along the lines of the first sketch in this entry might be fun. Frilly and huge and enveloping.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I'll usually respond to 'Peggy' in real life.

My real name is something I've reflexively guarded for at least a decade starting with the ettiquite of alias BBSs back before the Internet. So I'll simply say that it's not Margaret, and that if you read the other questions carefully, you'll be able to deduce what it is. In fact, if you go read the older instance of this, you'll find it out there in plain sight in one response.

Reflexive evasion!

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

You could abstract it a little more.
It also anagrams to 'Urn yg Pet Ash' (I'm sure YG means 'of' in some weird language)
So... Take the name of the first pet you had that died. ;)

[mutleyjames.livejournal.com]

A bit subtler than I expected, but more real, I suppose.
I couldn't really answer that question satisfactorily myself either, which I suppose is why I threw it your way....

Also, the Sieve is fantastic - makes me proud to know ya in the virtual sense...

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I think I feel another question lurking behind that one, but you'll have to drag it up into the light if you want it answered.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

That would be "Nosy". A gerbil. Hey, I was five or six when I named it.