If you've read any of my journal entries or Watch my gallery, you know that, for the past couple of years, I've been participating in a massive OC tournament known as the Samurai Duelers' League, hosted by . Not any more, though.

As of this month, I've retired my character, Tao from the League. I've been considering it for a while now, and now I've officially done it.

There are several reasons that led to my decision to retire my OC, the main one being that there are other art projects I'd like to pursue (such as the 100 Pictures Challenge), and when I receive an SDL challenge, it takes up an enormous amount of time and effort, to the point that I have little time to do anything else. The other reason, however, is because I frankly became tired of (what seems to me, at least) arbitrary judging. I simply don't know what the judges are looking for any more. I've lost in the past for lack of character interaction (meaning, there wasn't much dialogue). Seriously, lack of character interaction??? It's a FIGHT. How much character interaction is there supposed to be between two characters who are trying to beat each other down and will probably never meet again?

I'm really not bitter. I just got tired of trying to guess what the judges are looking for. And gradually, it dawned on me that, what I think is important in an OC battle does not tally with what the judges think is important. And that's completely fine; I can hardly expect the world to agree with me. But in the end, I chose to retire because I don't want to change my storytelling style to suit other people's standards.

And so, I also drew my OCs Tao and Tai for my 6000 pageview sketch, since I don't know when I'll be drawing them again. I may write a story about them yet, though I doubt it.

In any case, thanks for all the pageviews! I'm glad people like my silly drawings. ^_^
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100 Pictures Challenge
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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The usual miscellaneous info:
-Commissions? Yes. Free? No. I don't have much time to draw what I want to draw, let alone what other people want me to draw, so I do ask for a small fee (donations go in the cup by the piano). But I will do chibi art and character sketches for about $5 each, so please note or email me if you're interested.

-Want to use my art for something? Sure! Just ASK before you take, please. I've been asked if people can use my pictures for avatars, school projects, story illustrations, etc. The answer is almost always yes, provided I don't sense you're trying to scam me (and this has happened several times... people trying to scam me, that is, not the actual scamming. I usually put a stop to it before that happens). If I find my pictures being used anywhere without my permission, I can and will go super-saiyan Master Chief on you, especially now that Food Network is no longer showing Iron Chef and I have nothing to look forward to on Tuesdays, which makes me grumpy.

zomg so when will I update next? Tune in next time and we'll find out!