Do you still think that way about me now?

Can anyone give me some advice on an alternative image hosting site to Photobucket? I don't upload or use images a lot but I was just in my Photobucket a few minutes ago and unholy HELL, the adverts are BEYOND obnoxious!!! I'm usually very good at ignoring adverts - in fact, I never notice them - but THIS, oh, THIS. It was impossible!!! GRAHHH!!!

This was the first article I found through Google: https://www.lifewire.com/free-image-hosting-sites-3486329 If anyone can advise me about what these sites are like to use, I'd be grateful. I'm kinda thinking of going with Google Photos because I already have that app on my phone.

...Ok, LJ, what's the craic with loading up, only to vanish? I can see the content while the page is loading but the minute that bar hits 100%: poof! White screen. It seems the only way to stop it is to stab at a command as quickly as possible, such as "Post new entry". But when I try to read my friends list, I'm not pressing any commands, just scrolling through, so it vanishes >:(. If this is how the Russians are going to play it, I'm gonna get pissed...

Does anyone else feel queasy when they hear Elle Goulding's "Love Me Like You Do" or Beyonce's "Crazy In Love", because of their connection to a certain half-century-long spectrum of an intermediate achromatic colour? I really liked "Crazy In Love", and I know that if it had been released without the abovementioned association, I would have liked the creepy/slowed-down edit even more. (I have a thing for creepy "love" songs; the only Justin Timberlake songs I can stand are "Cry Me A River" and "What Goes Around".) "Love Me...", I can't be sure about, since it has never been unconnected with the variety of ashen tones, but my suspicion is that I would have thought of it as an ok tune: not one that would grab my attention but I might sing along unconsciously to the chorus.

I haven't read the books; I wasn't interested in them before they went OMGPublishingphenomenon! and after hearing complaints of bad writing and unease over the central characters, I was even less interested. On the principle of that non-interest, I will not be seeing the movies, either. So it's really disturbing to find that it is damaging my enjoyment of media which I am interested in!

Damnit. I was going to post a whole string of Sketchy Sundays but Photobucket is being a complete div and I can't copy/paste any of the image links!!! DX< So here are the direct links instead:

Week 43: http://s23.photobucket.com/user/rhondacrockett/media/Sketchy%20Sundays/SketchySunday43_zps23be01cb.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6

Every time I draw a guy's lips, they always come out so damn girly. Mind you, the guy in the reference had very girly lips to start with.

Week 44: http://s23.photobucket.com/user/rhondacrockett/media/Sketchy%20Sundays/SketchySunday44_zpsdf20bea2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5

Studies in preparation for a... certain something *mysterious thing is mysterious*

Why is it, that when I go looking for references for certain poses, I can never find exactly what I want? I think I need to hire a pair of life-models to pose for me.

Week 45: Ok, so there is a bit of this which might possibly be considered NSFW, I can't decide. There's no genitalia on show and the atmosphere is sweet rather than sexy, but they are both naked, so I'm erring on the side of caution.

The most definitely SFW stuff first: http://s23.photobucket.com/user/rhondacrockett/media/Sketchy%20Sundays/SketchySunday45SFW_zps9e945262.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

I am well aware that the hand in the hair is grossly out of proportion to the head. I have learned my lesson: if drawing a hand holding something, sketch in that something first before sketching the hand!

And then the I-don't-think-it-is-but-others-might NSFW: http://s23.photobucket.com/user/rhondacrockett/media/Sketchy%20Sundays/SketchySunday45possNSFW_zps35bf89bd.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

I think this may be the cutest thing I've drawn ever. It gives me the warm fuzzies every time I look at it (:) I know he's missing a thumb, btw; unfortunately, I didn't notice it until after I had stuck a piece of sellotape over it, trying to repair a rip in the page, so I couldn't correct it >:(

And with all pieces for Week 45 together: http://s23.photobucket.com/user/rhondacrockett/media/Sketchy%20Sundays/SketchySunday45_zps20fc8050.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4

Week 46: http://s23.photobucket.com/user/rhondacrockett/media/Sketchy%20Sundays/SketchySunday46_zps7926f5a1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

You know the trouble with working from references? You end up wanting to do references all the time, and not actually making up stuff yourself. So I tried to avoid references for a while... and it turned out all pathetic *sigh*

Week 47: http://s23.photobucket.com/user/rhondacrockett/media/Sketchy%20Sundays/SketchySunday47_zps661e210c.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

The ear studies are not all from reference; I was playing around, seeing if I could make it up, while at the same time surreptitiously studying the ears of my sister, my dad, the people on TV...

Ok, so Rhonda was a bit silly last week and turned over two pages in her doodle diary instead of just the one - and then didn't notice what had happened until the end of the week (>.<) So last week's doodles appear on the pages for this week. In light of this, I've decided to hold off and put up both weeks' worth as one post next Sunday.

To be honest, this week's pictures are crappy. After the high detail of week 18, I had no enthusiasm for anything; hell, there's one day where all I've drawn are wriggly lines!!!

Another 'meh' week. Ever feel like a day needs to be longer than 24 hours, so you can fit in everything you need/want to do properly? Yeah, that's my life at the minute. I really need to sort out my time management...

Anyway, the only one I'm happy with is Wednesday - and I just noticed that her arms are on backwards (>.<). Also, the proportions of her shoulders and hips are weird.

Decided to do something a little different this week...




Instead of a different doodle/sketch for each day, I did two big ones. Monday to Wednesday, I worked on the warrior woman, then Thursday to Saturday, I worked on the archery man. I tried to do the whole sketch-a-series-of-shapes-and-then-draw-on-top-of-them thing that art instruction books are always telling you to do. I've never liked doing it; there's so much erasing to be done afterwards which always dirties the page. :/ But I understand the concept, that it allows you to see where the best line is so you don't make an even bigger mess. And with these larger pictures I wanted to get it right.

Remind me never EVER to draw forward-facing feet again! -_-' Normally when I want a reference, I take a quick look at myself - like, with the archer's fist on the bow, I made a fist myself and turned it round to face me, so I could see how the knuckles, fingers and thumb worked. But you can't look at your own feet face-on, not without a full-length mirror, which we don't have. After trying to work it out in my head, I gave up and did a Google image search. Even then, finding a reference was difficult; most pictures of feet are either from the top or the side. I'm still not sure if the warrior looks like she has her feet flat to the ground or like she's standing on tiptoe.

The archer suffered the most from eraser-smear; the bow, the arrow, the body armour and the hands were all clustered together and when I made an error on one, I inevitably ended rubbing out parts of the others.

As for the colouring, I have some really crappy colouring pencils that barely give any colour at all and foolishly decided to use them because I didn't want to obsure the pencil lines with too-bright colour. :S

Here are some close-ups of particular details:

According to the new stats on my home page, my LJ is at number 1 003 632 in the Top LJ blogs list.

...Really? I didn't think I was that popular. I expected to be down at the two-and-a-half million mark at the very best.

***

Yesterday I listened to a man demanding to get an ice-cream for 45p. The sign displaying the prices was supposed to read £1.45, but the £1 bit had dropped off or been removed. Technically, yes, the stand had to sell him the ice cream for 45p, since that was what the sign said, even if it was incorrect. But the man banged on so much about "this is my right," "I know my rights," that I got thoroughly sick of him. It was an ice cream; that's not a right, it's a privilege - an extremely rare privilege, which he only has access to because he happened to be born in the right culture at the right time.

He got his ice cream eventually - for a long time the guy manning the stand couldn't believe that he was being serious about the whole thing - and it was only after I had walked away that I realised that what I should have done was to walk up the counter and slap down a pound coin myself. And if the man wittered on any more about his "rights", I should have told him, "You also have the right to remain silent. Please exercise that right."

...I hate only knowing what I should have done after the whole thing is over.

Grrrrr. Trying to get information - calendar notes, to be precise - from an old mobile/cell phone. I have the sim in, I have the battery charged, but the damn thing just will - NOT - turn - on!!!

So, the snow I was talking about earlier thawed before I could take pictures...

But then, on 13 December, it snowed again! And snowed and snowed, and then froze and kept freezing...

Basically Britain/Ireland/a whole chunk of Europe is buried in snow and the coldest weather I have EVER experienced. The lowest I noticed on my car temperature gauge was -15.5 degrees Celsius - which, for all you folks working in Fahrenheit, is 4.1 degrees (at least, according to the internet convertor I just found on Google. Our house is dripping with icicles. ICICLES - a couple of feet long. I have never seen icicles of any length in real life before. Our dogs and cats are being kept inside the house at night.

I have pictures this time. Unfortunately, they can only be uploaded to one PC in the house - which is currently refusing to connect to the internet *cries* (There is only one PC in the house - the rest are Apple Macs and the software for the camera is not compatible with Macs *sighs*) Don't worry, I'm getting my more computer-savvy brothers on the problem.

So, CHRISTMAS! :D This was my last day of work before Christmas. We have tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday off as public holidays, I'm back in for Wednesday through to Friday, 3rd of January is another public holiday and then I'm off from the 4th to 7th January.

The office Christmas party got cancelled because of the snow. There was supposed to be over twenty going; only nine made it to the venue. I was one of the absentees. From the chat of the others about last year's party, it could have been fun. But they've promised to rescheduled for January/February time.

I have bought all the presents I'm giving (I hope - I'm relying on other people getting stuff on my behalf). And... that's pretty much all I have to say right now...