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Edit:
I swore I wouldn't do a painting as detailed as 'Captured' for quite a while and would first let my hand recover. I lasted 2 days.
[link]
My newest WIP, an entry for Winterdreamer's contest (yep another contest I couldn't resist entering). I will probably upload more WIPs, like I did with Captured.
For now, please help me improve the painting? *puppy eyes*

Oooh and my birthday is coming up <3 It's next saturday.

And I went to Paris friday. It was awesome ^__^ Even though it rained the entire time. Lol I was the only one with an umbrella there so I could laugh at everyone getting wet. I had so much fun with my school friends Tijmen and Leon. And with my French teacher ^^ Have been to all the nice places, too.
....and it's no longer just my hand, that is dead. After being awake for 44 hours, everything feels rather dead xD
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Hey, everyone. It's been a while *swt*
It took a comment from ~themarchhare235 to make me realize I really should update this journal again.

I have been thinking, while I was taking a shower today [well, yeah. What does one do in a shower but think and sing?] ... I realized how much my life has changed in the past six years. For the better, I might add. And only then, I realized as well, how much of that I actually owe to *Saimain. You can ignore what I am about to write, I just feel like posting it somewhere, and that somewhere appears to be my journal.

Six years ago, when I was ten, was the time I seriously started drawing. I always loved drawing, but I remember always thinking that it looked like crap and really was not worth the time I put into it. One day, I was on the internet, though, and I came across Meadowhaven, *Saimain's website. I remember looking through her entire gallery, with only one thought on my mind: 'I wish I could draw like that'. I was just ten, but it was then, I decided that I wanted to do something in my life that had to do with art.
Now, I realize that that might not be that easy, but the wish is still there. I still draw almost every day, the way I have since I came across Adele's website, nearly six years ago.

The first three years of art, I did not even improve that much. Actually, that improvement only happened once I became a member of deviantART. For this, I owe you all. Thank you, for inspiring me and helping me become a better artist.
I found deviantART originally, surprise surprise, through *Saimain again, though it was ~Liliath who convinced me to actually join. They were the first two persons I devwatched. The third was *Tanael, who has become just as much a source of inspiration as Adele has, but for almost three years, she has also been one of the most amazing friends I could ever have wished for and every time I think of the fact that she's coming from Canada to the Netherlands to see me next summer, I feel as if I am glowing with happiness.

From that moment on, deviantART became sort of a part of my life, just as much as art is. I met many wonderful friends through this site, including *Winterdreamer, *Ponytail, *mesai and *RavenFeatherAngel, but also many, many others. They encouraged me, helped me and just kept me going, still do, whatever happens.

When today, I opened the photoshop file of my current WIP 'Captured', I suddenly realized how far I have come with my art in only six years.
[link] This is what I drew only two years ago.
[link] And look, my first digitally coloured work! o_o
And finally, this [link] is what I do now.
I feel proud, somehow, of what I have achieved in such a short period.
But also, I feel thankful, because I cannot help but think what would have happened, had I never come across Meadowhaven. Would I have never found deviantART? Never even have started drawing at all? Never came to know the great friends I now have?

That is, Adele, why Captured is, apart from a contest entry, a 'thank you' gift as well. You might not even know it, but your art and writing has meant the start of a new life for me, one I can not even imagine not having. Without my art, I would be a completely different person.

So.
Thank you.






And also, I wish to thank ~Aleid, ~Erensheep, ~Aislin-Sedai, ~Liliath and ~Aelin-Miresse. I loves you <3