~ikdomik

Hello everybody! I got back yesterday from my four-day band trip. It was really great! I had a lot of fun, tons more than last year. ^^ Things are easing up a bit too. I'm trying contacts (which are wonderful) and getting to paint the big griffin rockband poster. I've caught up on most of my homework, other than the eight pages I'd missed from Thursday and Friday, plus the stuff I didn't do last Wednesday, and the assignment he gave us today... o_o (The one teacher I didn't get homework to do ahead of time... sigh.) Besides that, dentist tomorrow, flute festival done (which went pretty well), etc. (Oh wait -- forgot to mention the two jazz bands I'm in (drumset in one, piano in other) plus the concert bands (flute) will have a year end concert soon... not quite off the hook yet!)

Aaaanywaaay, I've decided to offer some more free sketches, though with slightly different rules. (You return a sketch, and don't have to offer 10 free sketches).

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So, for those who are interested, I'll write a little "diary" of my band trip. (Also for myself, since I'd like to remember it. )

May 8, 2008, Thursday:

Long drive to the Rockies. Eleven hours. We left the school at 9:00 am-ish. I was on Bus A, one of the big luxury buses. It was a really interesting drive... When we left, it was about 10 - 18 degrees Celsius. As we drove, it began raining. Later, I began to see snow in the fields. After that, the rain turned to wet snow. The wet snow turned to a blizzard, and by the time we were in the mountains, it was practically a white-out!

We watched movies on the bus. (August Rush, Enchanted, etc.) I managed to snatch a two seats to myself (barely!) by bullying one of my friends to sit somewhere else, lol! (I'm not really mean, she ended up getting her own seat, too. I wanted to try and sleep - which I didn't, by the way.)

We arrived in Banff, and it was like entering a winter-wonderland. We checked into the hotel. It was insane! Stairs EVERYWHERE. And really slow elevators that some boys screwed with so they would hit the button at each level and you'd never get anywhere. I go up four floors of stairs (as the building is in the mountains) with my heavy bags, and then walk through a hallway to the next building, and up another two floors! We all certainly got a work out, I'll give it that!

(The power went out that night... and stayed out until noon the next day! Augh.)

I also was really disappointed that we had no microwaves in our rooms. I had brought a bunch of microwave popcorn, and one of my roommates had some movies (there wasn’t even a VCR or DVD player! Nooo!) so that idea went flat. Oh well.

I also discovered how to make collect calls on the pay phones. (Oh wow Isabella, you’re so SMART. Phfft, not! ) So I called home, and then on the way back to my room I realized that it was 5 minute past the curfew. Ironically, I encountered my band teacher in the hallway. He had known I was going to use the phone, so he just pretended he was “angry” by looking at his watch and at me. I then told him my roommate, who had also called home, was coming up in the elevator he was waiting for, and therefore, I escaped while he talked to her. Hahaha...

May 9, 2008, Friday:

We go for breakfast around 9:00 am at the hotel, and then right away after we had instrument clinics right in the hotel rooms until lunch. After lunch (build your own sub), we all regrouped and had a concert band clinic. (The older band students and choir meanwhile did similar stuff at different times.) After that, we were able to go shopping in Banff. I bought some jewellery, and some earrings for my mom's Mother's Day gift. (Stuff is very overpriced there, because the amount of tourists is absolutely surprising!) After out supper (lasagne) we went to the hot springs, which were quite nice. I had been looking so forward to throwing snowballs (it was outdoors), but the snow had almost all melted!

Also, randomly (hopefully it doesn't insult someone), two of my friends had an "Asian Safari", as they called it. o.O Since there were a lot of tourists in Banff, they decided that whoever could get the most pictures of Asians, in the most funny and discreet ways, without them noticing, would win. o_o Some others and me were appalled, though it was somewhat amusing when the people realized they were having a lot of cameras strangely pointed in their general direction...

May 10, 2008, Saturday:

We woke up at the same time and went for breakfast. After that, the same drill with clinics (lunch=tacos) and concert band practice. (Though for the clinics we had no flute instructor... all the instrument sections were on their own to practice. Which was a bad idea, because some people who don't even care about being in band just sat around and did nothing. ) After that, we went up the side of the mountain little four-people pods (gondola) and I got some really amazing pictures! (I should post some later... my goodness, we were sooo high!). Once at the top we were able to climbed a walkway to get to the top of a look-out point. Extraordinary! I love the mountains.

After supper (chicken fingers and fries) that evening, we went to the movies and bowling. I chose the movies since I'm not too hot at bowling. A bunch of us saw Ironman, which was actually surprisingly good! I would recommend it. (I bought a medium pop and popcorn, and a bag of M&M's for $12.00! Thievery! (The pop and candy were for a friend, who paid me back, but still... ridiculous prices. ):< )

May 11, 2008, Sunday:

We woke up really early to get onto the road right away. We had all packed last night, so things were good. I was lucky to get some sleep on the trip, considering many tried to pull all-nighters. Actually, our group probably was the quietest, because I deliberately went with quiet people. I like my sleep. We had to be in our rooms at 10:30 pm, and lights out at 11:00.

Anyway, the drive back was uneventful. Though the weather had been quite nice during the trip, it rained again on the way back, too. Watched 27 Dresses and some of Blades of Glory. Stopped only once for lunch. Too bad a lot of us seemed to have some sort of stomach flu. My roommate had been throwing up the previous day, as was one other person. Several, including me, had stomach aches! D: I was a bit better by the time I got home, though. Speculation had it that the food went bad during the power outage. I don't know what to think, though.

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I'll be very surprised if you read through all that, as it is not necessary, since I'm recounting for my own benefit. But coolio if you did! I had a lot of fun! Having a bunch of friends and a really great band teacher always helps. :3

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Original Character Meme: [link] (Do it now!)

References:

My dragon character, Suhlana: [link]

My human mage character, Amedius: [link]

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: : Ten Free Sketches : : (Yes, again!)

I'm posting the free sketches again. There's still two I didn't do from before because of no subject... I guess I'll just make a random sketch for you both. 8D

I Have Changed the Rules:

The first 10 people who comment on this journal will get a sketch, free. However, in return, you must do a sketch for me in return, of one of my characters. Just keep in mind that a sketch is not an overly involved picture, containing only a single character, and no background. That's all I would expect in return, too! Not a scribble, byt the way... just had to put that out there, in case.

*You can see some character references above in this journal. This weekend I will probably post a few new ones as well!

: : Ten Free Sketches : :

1. - - An OC
2. - -Arleen
3. -
4. -
5. -
6. -
7. -
8. -
9. -
10. -

Sketches from before:
1. - (Need Subject/In Making)
2. - (Need Subject/In Making)

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::Recent Watchers::


Thank you so much!!!

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: : Currently Working On : :

+Gift Art for
+Some New Character References
+Free Sketches (Doing more!)
+Trade with 20%
+Art Trade with : Done; [link] Tutorial: [link] (Waiting for her half.)

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: : News : :

->Art Trades:
I love to do art trades with people! I will accept anyone who will strive to put in the same amount of effort as me (such as doing just line art, or adding simple shading, backgrounds, colour, etc.) Send me a note or comment on the journal and we can discuss it!

->Requests:
Though I would prefer an actual art trade, I sometimes have enough free time to do requests for people as well. Send me a note or comment on the journal and we can discuss it; if I am otherwise occupied with other things, however, it might have to wait or be refused. I can only do so much, with school and other things.

->Tutorial Requests: (Closed, though you can mention one if you want.)
If you have a tutorial request, just note me. It would be the most logical to request something you've seen done in one of the pictures in my gallery, but I can try my best. (And only if I have time.)

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: : My Tutorials : :

->”Guardian of the Gates” Colouring Style Tutorial: [link]
->Dragon Speedpaint: [link]
->Dark Trees: [link]
**Requested Tutorials**
I'll do these when I get time.
->Hand Tutorial