The Epson Photo Stylus 830. This thing is really, really sexy, which is a pretty strange thing to say about a printer. But I swear that this thing looks unaccountably seductive, and I still feel, looking at it, the urge to embrace and kiss more than that to actually print with it. Kudos to the designer and the Epson people. Not only am I getting astounding prints from it, I need no longer run to the usual shops where I get my printing done, with their variable services and results. (I could tell a dozen horror stories of my experiences there.) The printing from the Epson is absolutely dotless and flawless, and with their line of acid-free and lightfast papers I'll be even more sure of the longevity and quality of my prints. Those letter-sized anyway. If I print larger I will be still using a printing service instead. On my last visit to the print shops, I was told inkjet printing was only available for large formats.

My Elfwood page got an update. That page is a bit neglected at times because human moderators have to process these updates, and I like to help keep their workload manageable. (They've got 14689 SFF artists on the site at the latest count.) This page of mine has also been around since early 1997, so it is the oldest page I have that's still on the Net. Some of the art is just as old, but when some pieces are popular, I keep them on there, weeding cautiously when I need to take old pictures off to make way for the new.

When my update request was processed this time, I was pleasantly surprised that the painting of my hamsters:

will be featured as one of the moderators' choices in a couple of days. I think getting mod's choice on Elfwood is the first time it's happened for me (or possibly the first time I've been told of it) and of course I'm very pleased—hundreds of new pictures must go onto that site every day, and it's really getting harder and harder to stand out!

One of the other new additions to that page is a portion of the sketch for Lament, the painting I'm currently working on. For the past two days I've only been working on the sky, the largest portion of it, and with watercolors, it's a heart-stopping experience pouring the colors on sometimes, because you never completely know when and if watercolors are going to do exactly what you want, especially with large washes that take more time. It is always a chancy and scary thing especially with the third or fourth wash over an area—I never know if the paint's going to mess up, so another corrective layer is needed, or if the new wash will mess the colors of layers below!

But I've been asking the good spirits for luck and help with this painting (this picture is of them), and even after the fourth wash, the sky is breathtakingly dramatic and free of problems. I can't describe the highs I'm getting from how well this is going so far.

Currently listening to:
Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head

Currently reading:
Brian Jacques' Redwall

Currently working on:
Lament, watercolors, 12" x 16"