Those of you in the DA equine community, or who watch Pookins, will know what I'm talking about. For the rest of you, my most sincere appologies. Feel free to delete this journal at once.

In a nutshell, there is drama, people are angry, shocked, hurt, leaving, etc etc etc... Because aparently Nessis traced. Oh the horror!!!!! Since everyone seems to be so appaled and militant about this, I thought it best to explain a little about my own artwork, in case anyone would like to take a stab at me. (Although, I don't flatter myself that I am near as popular as Nessis or some of the other equine artists.)

Ok, kiddies. In some of my - I feel - better works, like all of my Chairen pieces:



and a few of my HARPG related work:



I use a technique called "image transfer"... or something like that

In this process, I look for magazine pictures or calenders with horses in them. When I find a pose that looks promising, I use a ruler and a pen to draw guide lines - usually to show where the belly curves up to meet the legs, which way the head is turned, how far the rump rises before falling down to the back. I then take out a piece of regular computer paper, and transfer these guide lines as closely as I can. From these lines (usually no more than six, sometimes ten if another horse is in the image) I draw another figure, which very closely resembles the one from the magazine. Most of my drawings feature unicorns and pegasus, so I doctor the sketch to add horns, wings, etc.

I then erase the guide lines and finish the image, adding individual feathers, and background stuff, before going on to color. The results usually turn out quite well, although I'm still quite bad at shading white equines.

If this shocks and angers people, I can't help your opinion. I would like to say that I learned this technique from my high school 2-D art teacher, and also re-learned it in college, under a woman with 50 years of experience in the arts, both teaching and in creating her own work.

As such, I consider this technique to be a valid form of creativity. Perhaps I should have stated which calender or magazine I took the image from, but I have been ripping up horsy mags and calenders for years, either to put in scrapbooks or to sticky-tack them to my walls. There is no way of knowing where some of my works come from.

If anyone is so self-righteous as to not be able to let this go, I am sorry for you. You make un-watch or friend me at your leisure. For my part, no amount of flaming, nasty comments, or ugly journal responses will make me leave this community. So if you're one of those people who takes pleasure out of chasing others off of this site, je desole.. Here's a quarter, call someone who cares.

I hope this journal doesn't leave everyone with a bitter taste in their mouth. I seek to share my own way of creating. For those of you who would like to try image transfering, I recommend it. It shows you a lot about anatomy. In my other work:



Which is NOT image-transfered, but drawn free-hand, I owe a great deal of my technique to how often I have practiced, both in free-hand and image-transfer. This site is about art, yes. But it should also be about learning - learning new techniques, new styles, new perspectives and ideals. Destroying is easy, creating is hard. We need all the encouragement and help we can get.

I would like to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving, or a happy "Lets take all of this native, untouched, un-managed land and exploit it, while shuffling the indigenous population to reservations" Day - depending on your stance on such things. Life is full of too much bitterness, my darlings. We must take joy and happiness where we can.

All my love,

Mary