People, people. What can I say? Thank you. The support, the flood of kudos and watches that have followed my debut on DA has been overwhelming. It just keeps coming!! And I am hard-pressed to keep up with it. January and February promise to be months thick with work. While that's awesome (oh how I love to pay bills) it means I'm likely to fall even further behind on my due DA diligence (as well as my blog, email, and being social in general). I hope you'll forgive my silence. It doesn't reflect on you in any way. It's all me.

2008 holds great promise; the opportunity to push my skills and imagination in ways I've not tried, or have left fallow for too long. I'm excited. There will be new work soon, more good old stuff too, and your comments, crits and observations are always welcome. Thank you for visiting my little neck of the Cyberwoods!

Last but not least: Happy New Year!

Thinktankstudios.com

Oh Good Gawd Y'all! ThinkTank Studios is at long last UPDATED. This is the first update in nearly five years, and includes things that aren't here to boot. All thanks to the most amazing Iiji Eisbar, my houseguest and web dominatrix! She's beaten my web site into submission and is likely going to take that puppy through some serious paces in the months to come. She's a saint. Shower her with love, she deserves it! Were it not for her, who knows how much longer you'd have to wait for an update!

~iiji

Extra, extra! Ant's first official Blog post! Read all about it! Extra, extra!

[link]

#wesurvived


My first long-term girlfriend's family lived in central Oregon, and we'd go down there from Seattle periodically to visit. You know how there are moments when your viewpoint is irrevocably changed? The first time you broke a bone or burned yourself, for instance. Such events grant you an awareness that's sharp as a razor, even if only for a little bit. Such was my experience, visiting her parents, after she told me she'd been molested by one of her mother's brothers. She told her folks about it when she was about 21, and they'd immediately dismissed it as impossible.

Her abuser had told her they wouldn't believe her.

I could never look at them the same way again.

When I think back on it, fully a quarter of my friends, male and female, have suffered either sexual or physical abuse, or both. If you wonder why, as I did, part of the answer is in what I just wrote. Guilt can cause us to do terrible things. It can make us deaf to someone's pain. Denial breeds silence, which breeds more hurt. This is a crime, but apathy's worse. If you know someone who's been abused, let them know you give a damn. At least do that much. Encourage them to seek help if the damage is pulling them under.

Check out the link above and consider joining if you're a victim, too. Strength in numbers isn't a tired cliche. It's a fact.

Hey everybody!

Thank you for all the suggestions regarding Bloated Nose, my soon-to-be-a-regular-thing Blog. I've grabbed all of those ideas and placed them in a file I'll pull from as needed. Things you'll be sure to see (or rather, read):

1. Art Techniques
2. Sources of Inspiration
3. Stuff Not To Do (relating to 1)
4. Travellin' Man blogs for when I go on voyages worth mentioning (Magic tournaments will be a given)
5. Babbles about Natural Media
5. Babbles about Digital Media
5. What I've learned from my own Screw-Ups
7. Art's Relationship with History (because that interests me)
9. Art and the Artist's Role in Society (because that interests me even more)
11teen. Art and Psychology (see above!)
84: Whatever Else comes to Mind

It won't be daily. That much I know, because I know myself, and I know what I've got to do around here. I plan on making it weekly, since that's a goal I can safely hit. Expect updates to either side of the weekend, starting with this one (that is, check Monday).

Now I'm off to start my day. Happy Friday to the whole bleeding lot of you!

Okay folks. I've been told a blog is a good thing to have, so in the spirit of creativity (with a little grumbling) I have planted my flag in Bloggish soil. Here she be:

[link]

It's the Anthony Waters Blog of Bloat! Now here's what you can help me with. You know about blogs; I read a few but I'm a blog newborn when it comes to doing one. I'd like your input. What would you want me to write about? What makes for an interesting blog, to you? What makes for a boring blog? What are the things that keep you coming back to certain folks? And are there specific blogs you'd recommend?

Fill me in, you DA geniuses. I need learnin'.

Hey everyone,

I give a big shout-out to all those who gave me comments, favorites and watches! Thank you, one and all. You know how to make a guy feel welcome.

I'll be posting more on a semi-regular basis, old stuff and new. Keep checking back!

ant

I have sworn up and down over the years that I'd never, ever get a Deviant Art account. Well, spank me with a chainsaw. Here I am. There goes conviction. And the world just keeps on rotating anyway.

I am a freelance concept artist presently based in Orange County, California, USA, Earth, Milky Way. I've been a professional artist for 15 years, which is a little scary so I try not to think about it. Instead I design creatures, landscapes and architecture, races, cultures and whatever else a client might need. My work tends to lean towards the dark end of the pool. I have been called a weirdo and consider that a compliment. Weird is what I do. Weirdest of all? Weird has kept a roof over my head.

It's just, y'know, weird how that works.

I've got two dogs I love dearly, and a circle of friends whom I also love, and then there's sunshine, Kurosawa, sushi, sake and Wahoo's.

Quit reading this, the art's much more interesting anyway. Go look at it and enjoy.