HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Hooray!! 2009 is upon us. I thought 2008 would never end. What a crappy year that was. BUT a new year means a new start and I'm all for new starts.

So to wrap up 2008 and move into 2009 I'm going to load up the final covers from 2008.



So my computer is on it's last legs. I think it may have a bug in it somewhere. I don't know. It's just SOOOOOOO slow these days. I know I need to get a new hard drive as mine is VERY small apparently. Still I don't think this should be affecting my working speed. Again. I don't know. All I do know is that people can seem to run a plethora of programmes at once and I'm lucky to run Photoshop and Outlook without the thing grinding to a halt.

I have the option to upgrade it (again) but I'm thinking it might be time to replace this old beast. I'm also considering changing over to an Apple Mac. I believe I can run my PC programmes on a MAC with a bridge programme. I'll have to suss this out with my Computer guy first though. I hope I can do that. I can't afford to be buying Creative Suite again!

Lusty Goddess'

Well, it finally happened. Wednesday I went to finish the Christmas shopping. I get paid on a Wednesday, you see. Anyway, I was so good. I picked up only what was needed as I knew that I had to do the groceries before I went home. So there I am at the grocery checkout and how unusual, the groceries cost more than what I have in my account. Yes, this is quite normal for me. However to save embarrassment I ususally whip out the Mastercard and pay with that. Well, yes you guessed it. This time there was no money available on the Mastercard, I had no extra cash in my wallet (again, not unusual) so I then had to find $84 worth of groceries to hand back. What a bloody nuisance! I really needed the majority of the things that I had to hand back. I don't know how everyone else in the world is finding the finances these days, but christ! $100 does not go very far *sigh*.

I'm so annoyed with myself for letting the Mastercard get away from me like that. I purposely have a low limit because I know how quickly it can build up and I am thankful for that small mercy. So, it seems I've already spent my next couple of Cover cheques LOL! Nothing like getting some enjoyment out of your hard earned cash, eh?

Anyway, enough of my whining ;) 'cause another two covers have been released over at TEB.

Tribute for the Goddess by Brynn Paulin. This was probably my first real attempt at replacing a model's face. The model with the hair didn't look quite innocent enough, but I'm really happy with how this worked :D I mucked around a bit and was able to re-create a water effect by using textures and motion filters, then added some cloud & lightning brushes for the background. The guy I really liked, except for the lighting, however, I managed to make it look like it belonged there by tinting the background to match the aqua lighting. A couple of hair brushes for him and we were complete! I think this was the second draft. The first had a full body shot of the Goddess. She was holding a flower but I had to paint that out because it was irrelevant to the storyline.

Unholy Lust by Iona Blair. This cover went through a few drafts, trying to get the right feel. I had troubles getting this one for some reason. But that's it. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, the covers don't come together as easily as you'd like. This could possibly be why I've just done the dark background & swirl brushes. I did like the couple though, and was quite intent on using them. Still, all in all it's not too bad ;)