I got the job, ladies and gents! Yippee! Today was my first day of work, and I gotta tell ya, it was pretty damn sweet. The job is basically this: Photograph the abstract metal art pieces and sculptures, edit the photos so that they look spectacular, and prepare the eBay listings for them. The main goal that the studio is aiming for is to make the images look as close as possible to how the pieces look in real life. A lot of times, people will see the images and think that it has blue or orange when it really doesn’t; it’s simply a light reflecting the wrong color onto the piece. My job is to correct old images and take new photos with the correct lighting and camera settings for the best final result. I spent the majority of the day taking photos, which is like heaven for me, since I love doing that anyway!

One of the nicest things about the job is that I get paid on Tuesdays. That means next week on Tuesday, I’ll be getting my first paycheck, which is so desperately needed right now, even if it will only be about $240 for Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. I work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 to 5. I’m so excited! Hopefully now, with the money coming in from the two book covers, and this job, I can finally fix my DAMN CAR! LOL. Until then, my wonderful hubby Audi is driving me to and from work.

Tomorrow, my parents are coming up to visit my family in West Palm Beach, and Audi is gonna drive me over there so I can spend some time with all of them. Later on in the evening, I’m going to the movies with the neighbors to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. Audi’s really not in the mood to see it, but he said that if I wanted to go with them, that it would be cool. Heh. What a party pooper! ;D

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for now. Still waiting for a final confirmation from Random House, and planning on enjoying my weekend before *giggle* going back to work on Monday! XD

Ciao!

Art, Audi, Entertainment, Family, Friends, Fun, Job, Life alice in wonderland, Art, Audi, car, Family, studio, work

So I was contacted by Random House Australia, and they’re going to be printing Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ “The Shapeshifters” in Australia/New Zealand. They want to use my work “Dirige” for their covers as well! Hooray!! I’m so happy and excited.

I called the art gallery/business I visited last week, and it seems they still haven’t filled the position. So, here’s to hoping they call me up! *crosses fingers* I’m still looking around at other potential jobs, since I don’t want to hang all my hopes on just one location.

On Sunday, I went down to Miami to spend some time with my parents and my best friend Chris. Sunday night we went to the movies to see ‘Shutter Island’. It was pretty intense. It’s the kind of movie that you need a really strong stomach to watch. I don’t mean in the sense of gore or bloodshed, but some of the subject matter is just… wow… like a punch in the face. I thought it was really great, though. The story was definitely unique and gripping. Now, I’m even more interested in buying the novel it was based on to see what might have been edited in the film.

Right now, the hubby is over at our friend’s house helping her out, since she is very pregnant and has a busted ankle. I would have gone with him, but I just wanted to enjoy being home today. I’ll be going over there tomorrow.

Anyway, I must continue my commission work. Ciao!

Art, Audi, Family, Friends, Fun, Job, Life Art, book cover, chris, Job, miami, shutter island

Yes, yes I am lonely. Why? Cuz my hubby has been away at his dad’s house for the last few days and I want him back. Now, preferably. Thankfully, he just called me and let me know he’s on his way. Yay! While I do enjoy having the bed to myself, I do miss having him in the bed with me. Awww. How romantic. =P

I’ve got some great news. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and her agent seemed very happy with the book cover, and after fixing just a few minor things, I’ve sent off the (hopefully) final revision. Wee! I’m so excited. Plus, I’m so grateful because we really needed this money. Things are getting tougher every day.

I’ve sent out a BUNCH of resumes and job applications in the last few days, but I’m most excited about this one job in particular. An artist with a studio literally down the street from my apartment needs someone to work in-house with digital photography, Photoshop, event planning, etc. I am planning on going down there tomorrow and dropping off a resume in person to accompany the one I sent via e-mail. I am really hoping that they haven’t gotten someone to fill in the position already. It pays $10/hour, which is excellent considering right now I’m making $0/hour. Haha.

I’ve also entered a contest on deviantart.com being held by a OOAK (One of A Kind) miniature and figurine sculptor. The premise of the contest is to use a photo in her gallery of her dolls and create a digital work with it (meaning a photomanip, digital painting, mixed media, etc). You can see my entry here: Fairytale. I REALLY hope I win, because the prize is either a custom doll, or the cash equivalent once she sells it on eBay. To be honest, I’d rather have the money since I could definitely use it more. Thankfully, the lovely lady holding the contest is understanding of this, and said that if the winner prefers the money, that it would be totally fine. Here’s to hoping I win! *crosses fingers again*

Still busting my butt on those commissions. The hardest part is actually finding the stock. The three ladies I have left to do commissions for had A LOT of demands for their works, so it’s taking longer to finish them. *sigh* But, that’s OK. I don’t mind a challenge.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Now, just gotta wait for my hubby to come home. Ciao!

Art, Audi, Job, Life, Love Art, Audi, book cover, Job, studio

So, I was wondering why so few people were commenting on my blogs, and I believe I found out the reason why. I had it set so that you had to be logged in to comment, which is really dumb because some people don’t have a blog of their own… So yea, hopefully now I will get more comments. Sorry, folks!

I came home from visiting the family on Sunday, and my hubby bought this huge pizza at Walmart for us to eat. Let me tell you, that thing is a monstrosity, but at a killer 8 bucks, it’s worth it. We had pizza for two days. If you wanna check it out, it’s MarketPlace’s 16″ pizzas.

I finished a mixed media piece last night that I am really proud of. You can see it here. I actually made it specifically so that I could enter it in Ballistic Publishing’s Call for Entries for their next publication, Exposé 8. I’m planning on making maybe one or two more to accompany the 6 I have already sent in. It’s funny, because I received an email (that was sent twice, btw) from the man who organizes the publication, and at the end it said, “Consider this a personal invitation to submit to our books.” I was like, “Whoa… maybe I should submit something, then!” Past experiences dictates that none of my shit will be chosen, since it seems they are much more interested in digital paintings and 3D renders, but we’ll see. Maybe this year will be different! (Hooray for being so frickin’ optimistic)

INTERMISSION

Right now I’m at my cousin’s house. She called me up a few hours ago saying she was really sick and needed to go to the hospital. Her mom, who lives with her, would take her, but neither of them wanted to leave my cousin’s kids at the house with just my grandmother. So, I had my hubby drop me off at her house, so that her mom could drive her over there and I could watch the kids. Finally, they’re all fast asleep. I’ve called my aunt several times, and it seems like my cousin is going to be fine, thank goodness.

I’m watching Adult Swim to pass the time, since I’m the only night owl in the house. Most likely I’ll just have to wait for the hubby to come pick me up. Heh.

Anyway, I’m pretty much done, so… ciao!

Family, Fun, Life Art, ballistic publishing, cousin, hospital, pizza, walmart

Oh boy, life has been hella interesting lately. My computer caught a nasty virus. Long story short, I ended up having to just salvage all my important files and wiping the hard drive to install Windows XP again. Much thanks to my amazing and wonderful Audi for helping me out. I LOVE YOU, BEBE!

Now, while the situation might sound really bad, I think it might have been a blessing in disguise. I basically got a brand new computer out of the deal. Sure, I have to now re-download and re-install a lot of programs that I lost, but none of my photos or files were lost. I am now going to be EXTRA careful on the interwebz.

The only downside is that I didn’t have a computer for about a week, so I lost a lot of precious time that could have been spent working on my commissions. I’m right back in the groove now, though, and I’ve been working on the group shot. It’s almost done, actually. Right now I am in the process of finishing up the details. The hair has been the most aggravating part, but I have a feeling they are all really going to love it. Sorry, ladies!!

I’ve applied to work at Publix and at Gamestop. Both are pretty much in walking distance, so if I get a job at either, I’ll at least be earning a steady income. I’m going over to my cousin’s house tomorrow, and she said she’d print out the Job Application Form for Gamestop. I’m mostly visiting though for my grandmother. She’s been missing me a lot and has been asking when I’ll be able to pass by again. Awww. Hehe. So, I’m sure she’ll be very happy to see me tomorrow.

Ohh! And I played the demo for Bayonetta. HOLY MOLY!! That game is the very definition of the word EPIC. Now, I REALLY want to get a job just so I can have enough money to buy the game. Haha. So nice to see I have my priorities straight, huh? Forget the light bill and the rent and food… THE GAME. Haha. I’m nuts, huh?

Anyway, I am off to work on those commissions some mo’. Ciao!

Art, Audi, Family, Job Art, Audi, Bayonetta, commissions, computer, virus

I can’t think of a title, so… that’s the best I got.

So we’re in the new year, whoop-dee-doo. Same shit, different year, I say. It’s becoming harder and harder to get a job, especially where I live. It doesn’t help that my car is still out of commission until I fix it. Thankfully, my uncle came by the other day and checked out my car. He found what the problem was… an over $100 problem. I’m hoping that our friend who works at an auto parts place can get the part for cheaper. Once we get that, the car should be good as new.

I’ve been really active on deviantart.com lately, and I recently received Senior status. Senior status is given to those artists on the site who have given a lot back to other artists, have created exceptional work, or have just been a driving force and powerful influence in the community. I was shocked and honored to have gotten it. However, every positive is balanced with a negative, it seems. I entered a contest run by the site’s staff for the new videogame that’s coming out soon, Darksiders: Your Last Days. I was quite disappointed with the entries that were chosen. In fact, I was completely dumbstruck. Some of the entries had almost nothing to do with the actual theme, or were poorly done, or could have been replaced with MUCH stronger entries. Even my hubby, who is brutally honest… even to the point that he says things sometimes that hurt my feelings, agreed with me. Whatever, is all I can say.

I just finished another commission recently, and I’ll be uploading it to my website soon. It came out pretty damn cool, considering I used all my own stock and painted a lot of it.

I’m still hungry, so I’m gonna go get a late night snack. Ciao.

Art, Life, Rants Art, commission, contest, darksiders, new year

My car is pretty much kaput until I can take it to a mechanic. And since I don’t really have the funds for a mechanic, it’s basically sitting out in front of my apartment, collecting bird poop and falling leaves. Hooray. The problem with it is that it accelerates on its own. After much research through forums and websites, it turns out the problem could be one of many things; the fuel injector is malfunctioning and giving too much power, or the Cruise Control is stuck, or a vacuum hose is leaking, etc etc etc… All I know is, I’m not a frigging mechanic.

I’ve been doing some cheap commissions lately, since we really kind of needed some income badly. I don’t regret turning down that job with Olan Mills, because I know I would have HATED getting up just to go stand at the front of K-Mart to convince people to buy photos. No thanks. Let the little old lady who’s retired and bored and had her interview right before mine have THAT job. So, basically, here’s how the commission prices go:

Commissions for <b>$5</b>:
- Photo retouching (Using a photo of you, your friend(s), or a loved one and making it look professionally taken; Image MUST BE High-Res.)

Commissions for <b>$10</b>:
- Portraits (Using a photo of you, your friend(s), or a loved one and making it special; Image MUST BE High-Res)
- Digital Art Piece (A simple digital work in a style of your choosing; dark, surreal, fantasy, etc…)
- Tattoo Designs (If you’ve got an idea for a tattoo, I’ll draw it out for you.)

Commissions for <b>$15-$20</b>:
- Uber Portraits (Using a photo of you, your friend(s), or a loved one and making it extra special; Image MUST BE High-Res)
- Specialized Digital Art Piece (A work based off of your own personal idea or concept, done in my style)

So, if anyone’s interested, just email me at neugotisch(a)hotmail.com. I’ve added three of my latest commissions to my website, in case anyone is interested in seeing what kind of results you’ll be getting.

As far as personal stuff, things are fine. I’m going to be heading down to Miami for Christmas, and I hope that these last few days of the year are kind to both me and Audi (as well as everyone else, of course).  I seriously can’t believe a DECADE is so close to ending. Cripes, where does the time go?

Anyway, I guess that’s all for now. Ciao.

Art, Audi, Family, Friends, Life Art, Audi, christmas, commissions

Yea, I know normally it said the other way around, but that’s the order it happened in for me. So, the car is kaput, until I can figure out how to fix the ignition. It gets stuck every time I try to start the car, and there’s no way to even check it or move it or ANYTHING. *sigh* It’s frustrating. I was thinking of asking my neighbor to look at it, since his girlfriend told me he’s good with cars. We’ll see.

However, Dustin called me and told me that he got the OK from the boss for me to work remotely from home. Yay! So, right now he’s in the process of getting the server up to par so that I can access it from my home computer. He hasn’t called me yet, so we’ll see what happens with that.

I got what I wanted from the Fantasyana Publishing magazine, a written agreement. So, now I’m REALLY trying to get all the necessary permissions so that I can send my artwork to them.  So far, I’ve gotten all the OK’s for 3 of the 6 I submitted, and there’s only about 5 or 6 people I’m waiting on. It looks like I won’t be able to submit Battle for Heaven, since Jesper-stock @ deviantart.com is gone completely. There’s no way to contact him. I searched through Google and Yahoo and nada. So, that really sucks. Hopefully, the rest of the people will contact me ASAP.

In extremely new news, (meaning it happened just moments ago), we called the company we bought the TV wall mount from to explain that it wouldn’t work for us. Our wall studs are 24″ apart dead center, and the mount was misleading on the website. It said it could fit on studs that are 24″ apart dead center, but it’s only 22″ long! They ended up giving us a free upgrade to the model we actually needed, and all we have to do is send back the one we ordered. Woot! I love when companies treat their customers right!

Anyway, back to hunting these people down. LOL. Hopefully, I can get all this done SOON! Ciao!

Art, Entertainment, Job, Life Art, magazine, tv