I Got An Early Christmas Present... A Set Of Charcoal Pencils And Sticks, And A Pad Of Paper Suitable

My third second birthday

Whelp: those of you who’ve known me for a while are aware that three years ago yesterday, (Nov. 28), on my daily walk from my apartment to the McDonalds where I would sit and draw all day, I suffered a stroke. Today I got to meet the ambulance crew who picked me up, and I found out a few interesting things:

That thing you see in all the hospital dramas+crime shows where the paramedics shine a little flashlight into someone’s eye and use the dilation reaction to check for concussion? They really do actually do that. Relevant to me because I’m been blind in my right eye (Nothing to do with the stroke, had a bout of Diabetic retinopathy some 10 years ago now: that’s a whole ‘nother story), and as a result my right eye is permanently dilated, so i’ve always been a little paranoid that someone would do the flashlight thing and incorrectly assume I’d had a concussion due to the resulting lack of response in that eye. Wasn’t a problem when they picked me up three years ago, but I need to get an updated Medic Alert pendant. X3

You know how people will complain about having to wait like 45 minutes for an ambulance? Chances are, quite often, that’s probably because the ambulance has to drive out from the next town over. An ambulance centre covers an entire region, not just one metropolitan area. When I had my stroke, the ambulance centre was literally about a block away, so they got there in a matter of minutes. (Stroke of Luck #1).

When it happened, I had been walking down the street, someone saw me keel over on a lawn, and called 911... stroke of luck #2: If I had stayed at home that day, no one would have found me till my brother got home from work several hours later... if whoever had made the call hadn’t seen me keel over, but rather had simply seen me lying there, they might have assumed I was just passed out drunk on the lawn or something. For that matter, I’m lucky they decided to call an ambulance at all.

Second thing I found out on my visit: once the ambulance crew drops you off at the hospital, they don’t hear anything about what happens to you after that. I would have thought that one of the major payoffs to being an ambulance crew member is the satisfaction of helping to save peoples lives, but once the hospital takes you in (if you make it there, that is), doctor patient confidentiality takes over, and the ambulance team doesn’t hear anything unless it makes the papers... which it usually doesn’t, unless the news is bad, which, all too often, it is.

So, when I showed up to meet the guys who’d scraped me off somebodys lawn and spent 45 minutes trying to resuscitate  me right there on the street (keep in mind: 10 minutes without oxygen is long enough to cause brain death, tho CPR will keep the air pumping into your system, so, stroke of luck #3, I’m really lucky they got to me so quickly and didn’t just give up and call it after 20 or 30 mins), they were pretty happy to see me up and about, hale and hearty.

Details of the Stroke itself below the break.

Anyway: once I landed in the hospital, They thought I’d suffered a heart attack, and treated me as such (technically a correct assumption, since the stroke had immediately caused a heart attack). Stroke of Luck #4: everything they did in the first 24 hours to treat me was the exact same thing they would have done if they’d known at the time that it had been a stroke.

So: after a bit of time in the hospital (and notifying my parents et al), the cardiologist, Stroke of luck #4, asked the staff Neurologist, who wasn’t even supposed to be in that day, #4.1, and asked him to take a look at me. The neurologist saw something on my EKG chart that he had heard about at a conference he’d been to that very weekend, which suggested that I’d suffered a stroke rather than simply a heart attack, #4.2

Anyway, after that all got straightened out, I went through 2 months of rehab in the hospital (Including daily physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy). Stroke of Luck #5, I had an amazing team of people taking care of me (Including, coincidentally, no less than 5 therapists/doctors named Michelle, and I think a nurse or two as well). Turns out, my town has basically the best rehab team/facilities in the region. Stroke of Luck #6, the costs for whole thing, top to bottom, from the ambulance ride, to the therapy and hospital stay itself, to the bucketload of pills I was proscribed, down to the gas my parents burn driving me to and from doctors appointments, is totally covered by Canadian social assistance, since I’m on medical disability (Have been since even before the stroke: my diabetes and ADD make a very nasty combination).

So, that was three years ago... during the 2 months in the hospital I did very little drawing, and virtually no writing, and my skills basically rusted away to almost nothing nor does it help that apparently I suffer a neurological right side neglect, which has an interesting impact on my drawing (i’ll draw a figure that looks pretty decent overall, but their left side will look like I phoned it in... interiestingly, not the right side of the drawing, the figures right side). I’ve basically spent the last three years trying to regain my prior skill, and there’s a loooot of rust to brush off for the 10 years of independent study and practice I’ve done in comic art and writing. (when I dedicate my entire life to something, I don’t take half measures).

The hospital stay did have one side benefit; with a whole team of nurses handling my blood tests, insulin shots, and meal records (none of which I was ever able to manage on my own). The diabetic specialists were able to sort out a management system for my diabetes as a whole! I was first diagnosed as diabetic when I was 6, 27 years ago now. Back then the insulins available weren’t nearly as effective as what they have now, so I was never able to keep my management on track. Bad management meant bad blood sugar levels, which was painfully discouraging, so I sort of just let my management as a whole slide. Since I wasn’t getting tests regularly or keeping records, my specialists couldn’t even advise me without any data to work with. Which only made my blod sugar levels worse. But,  over the course of my hospital stay, the nurses handled all my tests/shots/pills. With that information, the specialists sorted out a management plan, which I’m happy to say has working quite well for me these days. I’ve been doing pretty well following it. Every stormcloud has a silver lightning.

At any rate: I ramble. Back to the sketchbook for me.

'Nother charcoal drawing. WhiteFox likes snow. WhiteFox likes snow very much. Also, I am apparently one of those select few who has the right kind of face for tea-shades, so I consider myself lucky there.

I don't really draw my avatar all that often... I'm not really sure how to define him. I don't think of him as a fictional character, persona, or mascot. He represents me, but I don't think of him as being me. I guess he's like the visual component of a pen-name.

I don't like this drawing as much as the one I previously posted, probably because I didn't get to define the planes of the face or neck. Course, when you're matte white, there's not a lot you can do. I did play around with using unblended strokes to add definition to the hair and beard, and it was an informative exercise, but it doesn't carry a whole lot of visual impact.

Still... I like it. 

Gift for a friend. I hope he likes it.

This is the best... Otter, you are the best ever.

Drawlloween/inktober day 20. I had this idea and was in the midst of drawing it when I realize the theme was skull. Greatest coincidence. Special character featured ;)

Hi have you herad from brian recenty? I think your frinds with him right Im worryed about him and trying ro find out if hes ok

Sorry, anon: I know a couple of people named Brian, online and irl... Could you be more specific?

Livestream is Streaming Lively

WhiteFox Art Studio: Come on in, everyone's welcome.

Chat rules:

Be polite, be civil.

If there's a problem in the chat, bring it up with me or a mod.

Posting of links is allowed, as long as they're personal (ie: your tumblr, dA, or FimFic page), or relevant to the conversation.

Stream is mostly SFW: no R#34, no graphic violence. Other than that, I don't object to people discussing mature subjects, there may be some blood or nudity in the art I work on, and I'll be very surprised if I go the whole night without saying a few bad words.

Discussion is encouraged, arguing is not. If you want to share your opinions, by all means do so... do not rant endlessly, shout down others, or get your panties in a bunch. Listen as much as you talk.

Roleplaying is fine, as long as you aren't obnoxious about it. Chatting in-character is okay: inane slap-fights, zaney madcap antics, and inappropriate displays of affection can get annoying if they're taken too far.

This list of rules is not comprehensive. If I say something is not allowed, it's not allowed.

What's on the schedule?

Purely digital painting and drawing. Which I've never done very much of, so it should be hilarious watching my epic flails. Bluey suggested doing some urban scenery, so I'll probably be trying some of that.

Perceptionality character art.

Scanning, editing, and colouring of an Unplanned Adventure Comic page.

I might be taking a few requests, on an "if I feel like doing it" basis. If I can get my web cam set up with a minimum of fuss, I'll stream the traditional media part. Or something

Art critique and commentary: if you have work you'd like feedback on, or there's a particular subject you wanna hear me talk about, go ahead and ask. I'll see what I can say about it.

During breaks, I may be putting on a movie or something. Probably R.E.D., we'll see.

I may sing a little bit.

Well! I think that's everything, so let's get this trainwreck started!

So it's my birthday. I drew myself a gift for it.

It's lazy, but I feel like being lazy right now. No jubilant celebrations or anything, just a quiet day to myself.

Here we have two of Syzygys pals from way back in the war: Cerbearursus, the three headed Grizzly, and Russel, the black bull, who is not black in this image because inking and rendering digitally would be way too much work... there’s a story behind Russles name, which I may tell at some point or another. We’ll see. I’m pretty sure I could do a whole webcomic of just these guys and Syz sitting together around a campfire telling war stories.

Funfact; I scribbled each of these guys in like five/ten minutes apiece, if that, and have never been able to draw either of them ever again. I didn’t even have refs for bulls or bears at the time (and it shows). Sometimes, magic just sort of happens, all by itself,  somewhere between the page and the pencil, and you spend the rest of your life trying to recapture it. They’re far from flawless, but even so, I dunno... I just like how they came out.

These pics are particularly messy: construction lines all over the place... you can still see most of the box I used to block in Cerbear. See why I don’t normally post my pencil drawings?

For Jasper, my OC, I chose a specific breed: Irish Sport Horse, aka Irish Hunter. I'd consider that the equivalent of picking a race.

This was very closely related to his personality and character concept, not to mention his physical build and appearance (though, I didn't realize until later that I'd made him Irish and gave him a green coat).

His swooshy forelock was inspired by Superman's iconic curl of hair. I wanted give him a sort of hunky-dreamy sort of look. The ponytail and black ribbon bow was inspired by 18th-century hairstyles (Think Will Turner or Lieutennant Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean).

I actually did draw Jasper as a human at one point... I really should dig that pic up, I liked how it came out.

Hey guys

I’m just wondering, do you people with like pony characters make up the specific way your character would look if it was a human- like hair styles, race, etc.

I mean like

do you decide on the race your characters

do you decide on the body type

i mean whut.

Portrait I drew this afternoon. It started out as a warmup, but turned into a little exercise. When I draw, I'm usually very sketchy. When I want to do something with a little more finish, I do a moderately-sketchy drawing, and ink it as neatly as I'm able. It's a bad habit, and one I've been trying to correct for... well, years now. So I tried to get things as neat as I could reasonably manage.

Came out okay... better than my usual, at least. If I'd been sensible, I would have used something softer than an H2. 

This is Caleb, pilot of an interplanetary courier shuttle. It's a bit of a hotrod: all engines and reactor, minimal cargo and passenger capacity. His parents operate a large mining operation in an asteroid field but he wants to prove his competence before taking over the family business, so he's taking some time to make it on his own and earn a reputation. Fielders are big on that sort of thing.

I freakin' love Huskies. 

I just noticed that I forgot to add some black around his right eye. Blorg.