Okay, so technically - techincally - I skipped a day, but you know what? It's only an hour after midnight, so this counts as a thing of the day.

I tried doing concept art for more of the not-so-tiny stories, but the only one I got anywhere with was Cupid and Psyche. I tried to make them look vaguely like they stepped off some Greek pottery only, you know, clothed. Unsure if I succeeded. Whatever. I've been staring at this picture for about thirteen hours straight. I have no objectivity anymore.

I don't usually draw or create art that's personal or meaningful, I more go for "is it pretty?" I also used to draw self-portraits a lot but I hadn't done one since shortly after high school so... that's new-ish.

I guess what this came down to is, I started this last night when I spent all weekend in that purely adolescent feeling of generalized anger at the world, and at myself, and navel-gazing, and feeling sullen - the kind of feeling, in short, that not only defines adolescence but that you pray to dear God stays in adolescence. So, why not revert to my adolescent practice of drawing vaguely melancholy self-portraits to deal with my angst?

The thing is, I'm not a particularly balanced person, which I know makes me sound crazy. What I mean is, I tend to fluctuate between extremes or fixate on obsessions. And I get extremely impassioned about these things, which can make me difficult to live with. Which means that, in order not to be a complete asshole, I need to at least endeavor to not let my relatively short-lived passions get the best of me, which I also have to balance with how much I let people in on my ever-fluctuating whims.

...isn't re-visiting your teenaged years always fun?

I had a free day today, so I decided to in and color a character who'd been bouncing around in my head for a while that's somewhere in between the Shadow collab and Creation collab. It was sort of this idea of a cloaked/shadow being with a mask that was the creator of the shadows, or their mother goddess.

I would like to note that I am aware of the following two things; a) this is shamelessly derivative of Japanese woodcuts (which is probably my favorite subgenre of art and, to some extent, all of my work is shamelessly derivative of) and b) my patterning on the "cloak" got a little sloppy towards the botom because my hand got really, really tired. Don't judge me. You try drawing consistent scallops for forty-five minutes. Harder than it sounds.

Lately I've seen a lot of Japan/tsunami awareness on hitRECord (and the internet in general), and a lot of artists putting up pieces inspired by it with little links at the bottom to donate. Which, don't get me wrong, I think is totally amazing, but I sort of wonder why no one's doing that for all the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, especially in Libya.

I mean, part of me gets it. We, as humans, like problems we can fix. We like feeling like we can make a difference in things. With Japan, there are concrete things you can do to help improve people's lives. In Libya (and Bahrain, and Yemen, and Iran, etc, etc, etc.), there isn't a lot anyone can do. It's messy and what's more, it's political. People don't like to rally behind political causes, people like to ban together on stuff they all agree on, like "earthquakes are really bad". No one disagrees that earthquakes that huge are a problem, or thinks that the Red Cross sucks, and if they do, they're probably not the kind of person you want to talk to, anyway. But people disagree about what to do with all this turmoil in the Middle East because all the solutions are, let's face it, crappy. We can argue over which way might minimize the crapiness, but when you get down to it, it sucks. And people, understandably, hate that.

I don't know, though. I understand the aversion, and the weariness, and the urge to just close your eyes, plug your ears, and turn away. Some days, I have to do that myself. But I still think, even if you check in just once a week to see what's changed, it's important, and something worth sparing thought for or spreading awareness of.

And thus concludes my preaching while simultaneously fulfilling my topical art quota for the next year.

I love all the onesies coming out that are taking old favorite art, but I think new babies deserve new designs. I wanted this to be unisex, though I'm pretty sure it just ended up looking girly. But it's hitRECord colors! Well, hitRECord colors with a hefty dose of white.

Attention, everyone! My ability to draw has returned!!! It made a ten-day hiatus that led to a lot of once-full erasers disintingrating into nothingness, crumpled wasted paper, and headaches in general. Celebrate with me, okay? This is a personal victory.

I really wanted to draw more of Cupid and Psyche because it was so much fun the first time, but damn, they did not want to cooperate. Like, okay, there are three times (count 'em, three!) in the story in which one of them is asleep/incapacitated and the other watches over them lovingly. Great scenes to draw, right? Wrong. I have three different sheets of paper that are all barely held together because they have been erased and abused so much. They did not want to work with me. So instead, have Psyche ascending from Hades after getting some of Persephone's beauty in a box. Which she then stupidly opens (have we learned nothing from Pandora? Damn, girl) and nearly dies, but Cupid saves her and tells his mom to cool it and stop being the mother-in-law from hell, and everyone lives happily ever after, the end.

I have attempted to source everyone who's been putting work towards this story, but if I missed you, I'm sorry. There are a whole lotta people to source.

A little ode to pets, because, well, why not.

I actually managed to put this together in a day, which... sort of surprised me, since I've never made a movie before. I suppose I'll just have to do this again.

Jesus motherflipping cripes on a snowboard, this did not want to encode to the site. A million thanks to thesherbethead for getting online an helping me not punch things. <3

As per Joe's request, the SXSW check-signing video, edited snappily. Though may I just say, in the future, hitRECorders, when you are going to post something exciting, please don't do it at 4 AM. Some of us are insomniacs and ignoring the dulcet tones of our laptops going you know you want to open your video editing software... come on.... sleep is for losers... is very difficult.

It's a good thing I love you all no matter what. <3

Some stock footage of me putting on (and taking off) my makeup. Use how you like.

(See, LizSmalls, I do wear makeup! Sometimes!)

This is less of an animation and more of a slideshow storyboard of what I'd like the animation to become. If there's anyone out there who understands Flash enough to make this into something pretty, I'd pretty much love you forever.

Literally, any excuse to show off my gerbils, I will take. This is what a gerbil day looks like, only gerbils have about three mini-days in one normal day.

As promised, a video to The Morning Hollows' In the Rain. It's not a great work of cinematic genius, but I did change out of my pajamas and actually put on a little bit of makeup in order to film this, which makes it, at the very least, a major personal achievement.

Holy cheeseballs, this counts as officially the hardest I have worked on a RECord-of-the-day, but it's worth it because it is all one giant valentine for my darling Sarah. (The metaphorest one - there are a lot of Sarahs floating around.)

Sarah has been ten billion times more amazing to me than I even remotely deserve. My very first big RECord she hearted and left an encouraging comment immediately, she puts up with all my insecurities and 4 AM e-mails (OH MY GOD SARAH, WHAT AM I DOING, I THINK I'M DOING EVERYTHING WRONG, I'M NOT REALLY A CREATIVE PERSON AT ALL, I SHOULD JUST SHUT OFF MY INTERNET FOR THE GOOD OF EVERYONE, WHY DOES NO ONE LOVE ME) and points me in the directions I should go. I'd been e-mailing her some ideas for lyrics, hoping to coax a tune out of her, when I realized, hey, she put up the Hibernate, Hermit guitar, I like that tune, why don't I co-opt it? And Sarah, because she is magnificent, not only gave me her blessing, but lent me her lovely voice for the harmonies at the end.

I'm not terribly thrilled with the quality of my vocals, here, but I did the best I could with my voice (which was in a bad mood today) and my recording system (which is crappy regardless of what day I use it).

New lyrics are below. And I love you, Sarahpants. <3

Sometimes I feel rough
Like I’m nothing someone would want
Sometimes I feel lost
Like I’ve called and no one’s come
Where’s that love I’m told I’ll find?
Cause you’re always on my mind

There are things I should tell you, some things you should know
Before you take me on
There’s a reason just you and nobody else
Wanted me before

I’m messy, argumentative, and weak
I don’t think before I speak
I wish I was more wonderful for you
You deserve more than me, you do

You don’t need to be perfect, just be you - that’s fine
Crooked man of mine
So where are you, lover,
Where have you gone?
These years have been long

I’ve got flaws and you’ve got cracks
But I’ll always love you back
So just take me, I’ll take you
Us together, imperfect two

Sometimes I feel rough
Like I’m nothing someone would want
Sometimes I feel lost
Like I’ve called and  no one’s come
Where’s that love I’m told I’ll find?
Cause you’re always on my mind

Hoorah, continuing my resolution to record something every day! I am unsure how long this will last, but the fact that it lasted three days is already two days longer than I thought it would, so there you go.

I took piano for ten years as a kid. I was never particularly skilled or unskilled, it was just a fun hobby. But that still makes me lightyears better than I am on any other instrument. I realized, as I was going through my old piano music a couple of weekends ago, that while I may be utterly unabe to write music, I can still play stuff.  And what's more, most of what I learned to play is super-duper old, which makes it public domain. Or at least, it is as far as my google-fu tells me.

So this is Autumn by Samuel Maykapar. Enjoy, remix, do your thing, let me know if you like this, because I've got about eight other pieces I put sticky notes next to for future recording.

Actually, let's be honest, even if no one says anything, I'll probably just put them up here eventually anyway.

And hey, while we're at it, the tune I came up with while I was writing the short story that doesn't really go with the words!

Okay, fair warning - I have never thought up a tune to anything in my life, and there is always the chance I stole it from somewhere I can't remember. For which I apologize. Also, the tune is the same for all of the verses. I think it could be made interesting/less repetitive with some instruments in the background, but my instrumental ability is pretty nil.

For this take I just recorded Joe's verses from the original - I'd be happy to record any other verses that decide to get added or re-record over a backing track or what have you, this is just a rough draft.

...and now I'm going to post this before I chicken out.

I got an idea in my head for a melody based on the words Joe put up last night. It's pretty simple, and I have some ideas to jazz it up (and a .zip file of resources to do so) here. Think of this as just an appetizer.

The second I heard amferraro's new song, I was like oh my god I have to sing this right now. And then I spent an hour writing response lyrics. amferraro was kind enough to upload just the guitar parts, so here is my (probably not as good) alternate take.

Also, I should just tell you, my microphone can't handle high notes. It's a really crappy microphone. Let's pretend it's not a bug, you guys. It's a feature. Adds, uh, atmosphere. Or something.

New Lyrics:

I keep you close to me when we walk
'Cause you love my voice, darling, when I talk
Between our hands there's no ticking clock
And no secrets that we keep

Remember when we were bold and young?
How when we kissed, oh the stars they sung
A promise on the tip of my tongue
But I was too choked up to speak

But oh, darling I'd never go if you weren't there to long for
My darling, I'd never fly if you weren't there to call for

I need time, but I'll return one day
And still love you more than words can say
You know me, I do things my way
I've got a stubborn disposition

Before I go, let's lay in bed
Watch the lights dance around your head
We don't talk, you just hum instead
You know I've always liked musicians

Oh, darling I'd never go if you weren't there to long for
And my darling, I'd never fly if you weren't there to call for

Oh, darling I'd never go if you weren't there to long for
And my darling, I'd never fly if you weren't there to call for