Be kind Rewind
Welcome to the new face of Chosen Art. That's right, the place has gotten a new look after almost two years with the same layout. As you can see, this layout is all about the Browncoats. Wonder why? Well, first the obvious reason - I am a Browncoat. The second, on Wednesday September 30th it will be the four year anniversary of "Serenity" hitting a theater near.. everyone! It was the day all Browncoats - fans, cast and crew, stood up and said:
So to honor the fact that the crew of Serenity had another flight, I dedicate this layout to them. As you can see, the entire layout is influenced by all things Firefly. You have the header, which features a very popular effect - reload the site and and find out what it is ;). It is also formed the same way that most screens aboard the ship, specifically the bridge, is formed.
All buttons around the site has a touch of light in them to give you the illusion of metal and that they're actual buttons. And if you look real close, you'll find a part of the "Blue Sun" logo hiding around here. And to finish it all off, all fonts used (except the "regular" text) connects to the movie in every way possible. You have the "Fruity Oaty Bar" font and the somewhat sneaky font that turns up everywhere in the movie, just check it out yourself ;) And to top it all off, you have the font with the same tagline from the official posters: You Can't Stop The Signal. Because, lets face it people, you can't! :)
So what comes with this update? Well, how about 8 new pieces? You've got posters, wallpapers and clean manips (which have now been very heavily tagged due to thieves thinking it's fun to cut and paste). So I hope you find some fun in those. The Buffy wallpaper is based on a fanfic that has sucked me in completely and I suggest you read it too! It's a Btvs/SPN crossover (of course), and you will realize that the two posters also relates to this fic. It's actually thanks to this fanfic that I'm even doing this - the layout, the new art, all of it. Ava inspired the hell out of me and what could I do but serve my muse? ;D I also added a whole bunch of lyrics by Christian Kane. The man has some seriously inspiring lyrics so I suggest you check 'em out and get with the art (and fics!) ;)
There is more to come, I have awards to add and I do have more art lying around, waiting to be posted, but since I don't create as much as I used to, I'm holding off a little so you have something to look forward to (and also to make sure the site doesn't die completely!).
Tracy over at Shadow of Reflection awarded Chosen Art her SOTM and me as her AOTM for August. A big hug went to her as soon as I found out, the girl is just made of pure awesome! I haven't been very active since the beginning of the year so to be awarded as an artist of the month felt very special, not to mention that she awarded Chosen Art, which has been near dead on numerous occasions and it has been circling the drain for a while (I contemplated for a while to actually just close shop and move on). So this meant so much to me! Check out the award and what she had to say as to why she chose me :)
August 2009's Artist/Site of the Month award goes to the incredibly talented Dana.
Dana...what can I say about her that proabably hasn't already been said a million times?
Back when I first created my website nearly five years ago (when it was simply an odd little thing), she was one of the first artists I came across. I have watched her artistic ability grow TREMENDOUSLY since then, espeically her manipulations. Dana has a very different type of art domain from others I have seen. Her art site, Chosen Art, is so fun to search through. My favorite pieces of hers are her spectacular manipulations. She's the type of person that makes you enjoy her art even if you are not a fan of the particular fandom or ship, it's that well done and creative. I always find myself eager to see her newest work.
She also has other sites on her domain. One of particular interest to many fanartists these days is Roadhouse, the land of transcripts from various shows. It's such a great resource and shows that she cares enough for the rest of us to provide us with such a time consuming resource. Pretty as a Picture also shares the domain, her image site that allows us all the opportunity to see great high resolution photos of our favorite celebrities, TV shows, movies, and more.
Finally, Dana is one of the most dedicated people I have seen fight against those evil art thieves and the sespool of thieves that is Fanpop. In recent weeks, she took time out of her life to gather up hundreds of stolen pieces from various artists and report them. That is something that I, as an artist, and many more of us across the Internet appreciate more than we can even tell.
And so, I present this award (illustrating the ship we all know she adores), to Dana.
Thanks again sweetie, this meant the world to me!! *squishes Tracy* :D That's about it for this update (but it should be enough, don't get greedy kids! ;)), but keep in mind that I will be back very soon! :) Until then:
Believe it or not, but here is an update. As the site celebrates 5 years online this month I thought it was a good idea to give it a new look for the occasion. Also a good way to show that the site's been updated. ;) I've added a total of 10 pieces from different kinds of fanart styles. They speak mostly for themselves so I won't add much thought to them.
[03] Fanfiction Posters
[01] Manipulation: Buffy á la CSI: Las Vegas
[01] Fanart: John's Journal
[05] Wallpapers: Whedonverse, Buffy/SPN, Firefly
For a more descriptive explanation on the "John's Journal" piece, visit the BtVS/SPN section. The manip was made because a friend of mine enjoys putting Buffy and Nick Stokes of CSI: LV together. The wallpapers are pretty self-explainatory, except perhaps the second one (only one in color). It's based upon the Kelly Clarkson song "Addicted" and it's from Buffy's POV. Kind of depressing but that's how things are these days, depressing.
Thanks to all the taggers comments and Easter gifts. I've gone through all affiliates and fixed linkes that's been changed and removed 12 affiliates who's sites are either out of commission (dead link) or haven't been updated in 1-2 years.
Quick update w/out explanations.
- 49 Supernatural Multiple Characters Icons
- 12 Supernatural Character Icons
- 08 SN/BtVS Fanfic Based Icons
- 02 Text Icons
- 12 SN/BtVS Dean/Buffy Icons
- 01 BtVS Conversations with dead people wallpaper
- 01 BtVS/SN wallpaper
- 01 Buffy Summers Wallpaper
- 01 Dean Winchester Wallpaper
- 02 Fanfic Posters
5 awards won for various graphics. All added to the awards section.
IF YOU CONTINUE TO STEAL MY MANIPULATIONS I WILL NOT HESITATE TO SHUT DOWN THAT PART OF THE SITE!
RESPECT THE TERMS OF USE AND RESPECT THE WORK THAT THIS SITE CONTAINS!
I ALWAYS find out if you've stolen from me, even if it takes months since the theft, in the end - I'll know and your ass will be grass! So show some goddamn respect for the work that I and other artists do!
Another two new sections has been added to the site. I've begun making posters and wallpapers focusing on fanfictions and thought they should have their own spaces on the site to not confuse you guys about what the art is about :) The posters has also been nominated for best Fanart at the Crossing Over Awards. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Also, a big thanks to whoever nominated me! :)
Two new wallpapers, as mentioned above. One based upon the fanfic series "The Law of Club and Fang" by Ava, and one based upon the fic "What We Cannot Have" by Kaye. There's also a new manipulation featuring Sam and Buffy which was created specifically for the "What We Cannot Have" poster, and one manipulation featuring Buffy. I've also added the three posters I've made so far for fanfiction.
A new tutorial has been added to the site. It's located under the photoshop tutorials and is focused upon manipulations. This isn't a "how to" guide but it contains so many tips and tricks that one should definitely keep in mind when making manips.
A winner for the Artist and Site of the Month Award has been announced, big congrats to Marilyne @ Shadow of the Day. Check out the interview I did with her and find out exactly what makes her artistic side tick and what artist she dreams of being for a day.
The news has also been updated!
And so we've entered a new year. Time just slips away from us, doesn't it?
Click image for original size ;)
I've also cleaned up the affies section a little more, removed another two affies who's stopped updating 3 years ago and one who's closed its doors.
The news has also been updated and I've chosen a new winner of the Site of the Month and Artist of the Month Award. Keep a lookout in the featured section to find out who it is! :)
It's been almost four months since my last update. Don't I just suck? Hopefully next year will be better in terms of keeping up with my affies and keeping this site as up to date as possible.
As you can see, a new layout has shown up. I figured it was time for a new look. The other one hung around almost all of 2008 so I thought a breath of fresh air was needed with this update. So not only is there a new layout, but I've worked a little with the drop down menu above this section *points up*. I've divided up the graphics and sorted wallpapers and diverse graphics to different menues. That way you know what you're looking for. I've also opened a new section for all of my manipulations. I've made so many now that I feel they need their own home here at Chosen Art. With this update I have a total of 43 manipulations online. However I actually have more than that on my HD but some aren't finished and others aren't available for me right now as I'm not at home with my big computer. But expect more manips soon! :)
The affiliation section has gotten a big change. I've removed over 20 affies who's either closed their sites, stopped caring two years ago or they contained viruses and I'm not one who wants that to inflict my visitors computers (I know the pain it brings *sigh*). These affies with viruses will of course be put back on the list as soon as they take care of their issues. They were removed this time around since these viruses has hung around their sites for quite some time. Other affies who's moved or renamed their sites during 2008 have been updated and are now looking right again :)
This update brings 19 new manipulations. Some of them showed up in this years calendar and some of them have been seen around my journal. However the full body manip of Sam is completely new and have only been seen by the exclusive members of the sistersite to Chosen Art. Which brings me to just that part of this update.
A few months ago I opened Chosen Art on livejournal as well, however this part of Chosen Art is a bit different than the website. Through that community I release my manipulations to the members for use in their own fanart with my full blessing and without tags.
I've gotten my act together and collected all the beautiful gifts I've gotten during 2008 as well as awards Chosen Art has won and added them to the gift and award sections. Thanks to all of you for your beautiful gifts. *hugs everyone* I'm sorry I've sucked in the posting department! *hangs head*
Speaking of awards. Chosen Art and the Christmas Calendar of 2008 has been named Site of the Month for January 2009 by Poisoned Kiss. *hugs Kiera* Thanks so much sweetie!!
Takes me ages between updates, but don't worry, the site is not going anywhere. I just have a lot going on and my domain suffers the repricusions of that. Thanks to everyone who's commented, you guys are really sweet and the reason I keep going in fanart despite all the theft that is slowly killing me and my muse..
I am proud to say that Chosen Art is the official sponsor of the AFA 2009. Through that you will be getting news on what's going on and important highlights around the awards. Stay tuned!
I have finally decided to give Supernatural its own section. I've been doing a lot of art for this show for a while now and it didn't feel like it was just another "misc" section of my art anymore. It will of course now also make life much easier when you're looking for that show in art here. I have also completely abandonded making wallpapers in 1024x768. I've grown passed it over the course of spring and summer and am now only making art in 1920x1200 sizes. One of the reasons for this is that I want to be able to use my own work on my desktop, and my resolution is that size.. yeah, got a big screen ;)
A lot of work is being added today. A total of 14 wallpapers. The majority is focused on the crossover of Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but there is quite a few pure Supernatural pieces as well.
Total Addition Count
[04] Supernatural wallpapers
[10] Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural wallpapers
The thoughts of the pieces
#1 - Hunters
This is a completely new wallpaper, seeing light today as a matter of fact. Buffy is a manipulated picture to match the spirit of "Supernatural". A Slayer is after all a hunter as well, so it felt fitting to use this title. The idea behind it is a basic promo piece of the three. I loved the idea of Buffy using handguns and riffles which is why she's holding those weapons instead of your basic stake.
#2 - Broken Hallelujah
Made for a challenge at a forum. This piece is on a dark theme, and relates to the season 3 finale of Supernatural. Basically this is Dean's grave, located in a distant forest somewhere, and Buffy mourns the loss of him. The red color symbolizes the blood that was spilled when he died. The weapons kind of symbolizes that with his death, weapons were laid down and left cold, perhaps never to be picked up again. I used this body for Buffy because I liked the contrast of her sitting in a beautiful gown, grieving and broken, by his grave. It makes it surreal and plays on the strings of "this isn't real", "this isn't happening".
I have actually written a one-shot fic based on this wallpaper. It has the same name and is very dark and rather depressing but people say it's good, so if you want more depth to this piece, check out the fanfiction.
#3 - The Feel Of You
I wanted to do something more daring but still keep it to a tastefull level and not go all out and kill myself and you guys ;) It actually all started when I ran into the body Buffy's wearing. Believe it or not, but that's Britney Spears.. Yeah.. never thought I'd work with that woman *grin* What I liked about this pic was the pose and the fact that her body matches Sarah's in terms of body size and breast size (smg isn't a very big chested woman so it would look weird with a body that was!). After deciding on that pic I tried hunting down a body for Dean, which I finally found with James Marsden. Unfortunately he's got hair on his chest which we all know Jensen doesn't, but lets ignore that detail, shall we? :)
I wanted to bring out the lovers in this piece and still keep it soft and viewable. After about 2 hours search I ended up using lyrics by Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan, which I felt were a perfect fit. The original manips are in black and white, which I think worked in the wallpapers favoure and I could use filters and such to bring out this soft orange glow. I also added make-up on Buffy because she didn't have much.. or well she did but it was in very light colors and it took away from the type of attitude I needed from her in this pic, so I put some in there and personally I think it turned out pretty good :)
#4 - Am I Insane?
Ok, this one really didn't come out as I had planned and I'm far from happy with the final result. Basically it was a play on the Btvs episode "normal again" where Buffy is infected by a demon and suddenly finds herself in a mental institution where slayers, keys, witches, demons and vampires doesn't exist, and her mother is alive and together with her father. They never did move to Sunnydale either. What I wanted to pull out here instead of the world of buffy was the world of supernatural. She's still been infected by the demon and everything but here she's battling the fact of slayers and hunters not existing. Where Dean and Sam doesn't exist. The idea was soo much better than I'm explaining and the wallpaper really doesn't do it justice.. but anyway, there you have it.
#5 - Search for a Warrior
This is a piece that relates to the season 3 finale of Supernatural. After the death of Dean, Sam finds out about the greatest warrior alive and seeks her out for help to fight the things hiding in the darkness. This is a NON-shippery piece!
#6 - Winchester and Summers
This is a kind of simple wallpaper. I wanted to make a promotional type of wall and I love working with light, and I've fallen in love with B/W pics as well. This is the first time I've used a pic of SMG as Buffy with dark hair. I'm not a fan of using that but here it worked in terms of pose and the pic of Jensen really did look perfect to have SMG leaning up against him. Another deciding factor is that they both look "dangerous" in their expressions and it was a mature pic of SMG unlike the promos where she looks much younger than Jensen's SN promos. The text below their names is a quote by Buffy from season 7.
#7 - Out Of This World
This is a concept piece I've been working on for a long long time. I've never been able to execute it properly and I have never really been sure of HOW to make it. But then suddenly it hit me and things started to fall into place. This is definitely one of the most time consuming wallpapers I've done of this couple, so far.
The basic idea is that what if Buffy never did come back to life after season 5 but instead she stayed dead, and her and Dean having met some time before her death? When Dean died, what if he in fact didn't go to hell but instead was granted access to heaven, where Buffy was waiting for him? The text is from Bush "out of this world" and I felt it really worked with the idea I had from the get go. That when Dean died, he went into the arms of Buffy, who remembers him from her life on earth years before. The gate is pretty self-explanatory don't you think? Buffy is waiting for him on the steps to heaven as he's walking towards her and well, heaven.. and the light behind her is of course heaven and peace for them both.
Buffy is a manipulation, and so is the kiss image to your right. The background is compiled of two or three stocks. (can't remember if it's two or three ;))
#8 - The Apocalypse - Death Scene
This wallpaper is a part of the "The Apocalypse" wallpaper series I've been doing, and this is from another scene in the "movie", or at least parts of two or three scenes to bind together the story behind the caps. The wording are both a quote from the movie (originally from Supernatural) spoken by Dean: "What am I supposed to do?", and the other that isn't all that clear to read is a quote by Stephen King that I felt fitted these two so well. I mentioned this quote a week or two ago on my lj, which is why it was so fresh in my mind: "Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not. Time takes it all, time bears it away, and in the end there is only darkness. Sometimes we find others in that darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again." I would suggest taking a look at the wallpaper for a while because there are details hidden that might not catch your eye at first glance.
#9 - The Apocalypse - Connection
Another wallpaper featuring a scene from "The Apocalypse". This time it's when Buffy contacts Dean to tell him "Together we can save lives" and he responds "I'm on my way". The wall is very dirty and grungy in its look, which is exactly what I was going for. This is not a bright and sunny moment, but a dark one that will lead to death and despair.
#10 - The Apocalypse - Start of the Apocalypse
This is yet another wallpaper from "The Apocalypse". This is where things are beginning to move towards the end as we all know it. It's the start of the apocalypse and it begins with the cloud of demons coming for our heroes, because they know it's their biggest threat. This is just outside the Summers Home. Dean is by the car, getting supplies and when the attack comes, it hits Buffy, throwing her across the hallway from the door where she stood watching the cloud coming closer.
#11 - Late Goodbye
For Dean, it's all a late goodbye and his life is with his car. This is just a "basic" piece focusing on Dean, the feelings written in his face and the car he drives to leave it all behind. It's hard to explain exactly my thoughts behind this one, but it's based a lot on the lyrics to "Late Goodbye" by Poets of the Fall. So listen to that, and check out the wallpaper and you'll most likely catch the thoughts I was having when making this.
#12 - Dean Winchester
This is a pretty dark and grungy piece but it felt fitting considering the point of the piece and the lyrics used in it. The lyrics are from Michelle Dockrey's "Mal's Song" which is in reality about Mal Reynolds of Firefly, but this text fits Dean in every aspect of it's meaning. Mal and Dean isn't so different, even if they're miles apart in the verse.
Dean has been through so much over the years, all the while being a human and kind of an anti-hero, even though there's Champion written all over him. His family is everything and there's no limit of what he does for them, including selling his own soul. He knows what's out there and he's not afraid to go out and fight it with every breath of his being. That is what makes him a hero and a force to be reckoned with.
I changed one word in the lyrics to make it work for Dean, so instead of "sky" I went with "wheel". And when you listen to this song, you could pretty much just change ship to car, Serenity to Impala, and sky to road... Then you have Dean Winchester.
#13 - Sam Winchester
A very basic piece made for Jared's birthday to celebrate both him and his work as Sam. I've been wanting to work with this shoot of him for as long as I can remember. When I sat down I finally got hit with how I was to go about showing him from his best angle and make this more than "just" a promo piece. I love his eyes in these pics so accentuating them was the thought behind it all! :)
#14 - Dead but pretty
I had this as my header on my lj a while back and after changing layouts I decided to turn the header into a wallpaper. It's very basic, but using a line from Buffy's "Prophecy Girl" as it just felt so fitting. Afterall, both of them have been dead at one point on the show (some more than others ;)).
That's it. You wanted an update and there you have it. I have a lot more work needed on the site but right now, this was my focus.
The news have finally been updated. I have also finally replaced Bre's old affiliation button from Infinite Illusion for Primordial Souls. Of course, she's still a part of the family :)
Wow, has it been forever since I updated or what? Long story short for my absence: my computer broke down and I lost all ability to do any kind of work related to my sites. But now it's finally back online, and so am I! :D I will be doing another update soon to fix affiliates, and other things around the site, this time around I'm basically just adding new artwork, which I hope will satisfy you anyway ;) The menu has gotten a new addition - Btvs & SN. I've been obsessing over Dean and Buffy for months and I've finally put together a single page part of the site for this crossover ship. You'll find both all the wallpapers, and a whole bunch clean manipulations I've done of the couple so far that has been released for you guys :)
Total Addition Count
[23] Supernatural Icons
[20] Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural icons
[01] Supernatural Wallpaper: 3x16 No Rest For The Wicked
[02] Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural wallpapers
[20] Dean/Buffy clean manipulations
Last night I got the news that Heath Ledger had passed away. My thoughts and heart goes out to his family and his baby girl Matilda Rose.
On a day like this two years ago, Heath Ledger was an Oscar nominee. On Tuesday, the 28-year-old leading man was found dead in a Manhattan apartment, possibly due to a drug overdose. Ledger was discovered naked in bed, surrounded by prescription sleeping pills. A New York City police spokesperson said there was �no obvious sign of suicide.�
Ledger�s housekeeper made the find at about 3:30 p.m. ET, three and a half hours after the actor was last seen alive, police said. Police confirmed another particular of the still-developing story: Namely, that the housekeeper had gone into the bedroom to alert Ledger that his masseuse had arrived for an afternoon appointment. The housekeeper and masseuse attempted CPR, but he was already dead.�We are all deeply saddened and shocked by this accident,� the actor�s publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said in a statement. �This is an extremely difficult time for his loved ones and we are asking the media to please respect the family�s privacy and avoid speculation until the facts are known.�
A police source told E! News that while the department didn�t know if Ledger owned the apartment he was found in, the apartment was his residence.
An autopsy is planned for Wednesday, according to the city�s medical examiner.
�I had such great hope for him,� Ledger�s Patriot father Mel Gibson told E! News. �He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.�
Ledger�s death came one week to the day that Brad Renfro, the child star of The Client, and acclaimed indie actor, was found dead in his Los Angeles home. Although the 25-year-old Renfro had a long history of drug troubles, the cause of death in his case remains unconfirmed. Ledger and Renfro�s names, coincidentally, were linked in a 1999 New York Times article on young Hollywood. (�Young actors like Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro and Barry Watson [then of 7th Heaven fame]�actors whose names may hardly be recognized by adults,� the paper noted in a discussion of the new generation�s spiraling asking prices.)
Ledger�s death also came within hours of this year�s Oscar nominations press conference. While he wasn�t considered a contender, he did costar in the Oscar-nominated Bob Dylan tale, I�m Not There. Ledger was one of a half-dozen actors, along with Best Supporting Actress candidate Cate Blanchett, to play a version of the legendary singer-songwriter.
Ledger, whose tutelage as a Hollywood star came working alongside the likes of Gibson and Billy Bob Thornton, was primed for a box-office breakthrough this coming summer as a star in upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. In it, Ledger plays the unhinged Joker to Christian Bale�s controlled Caped Crusader.
Shooting on The Dark Knight, the sequel to 2005�s Batman Begins, is complete. The movie is due out July 18.
According to his credit page at the Internet Movie Database, Ledger last worked on the Terry Gilliam fantasy, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a planned 2009 release that is described as being in the filming stage. In 2000, another Gilliam movie, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, was shut down, and never completed, when, among other production troubles, the director�s leading man, French actor Jean Rochefort, suffered debilitating back trouble.
In the course of a Hollywood career that looked to be a long one, but ended up lasting just about a decade, Ledger arguably will be best remembered as the emotionally tormented gay rancher opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Ang Lee�s groundbreaking drama, Brokeback Mountain. In January 2006, the role earned him what would be his first and last Oscar nomination. Ledger lost the Best Actor award that year to Capote�s Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Brokeback producer James Schamus hailed Ledger as �a courageous actor, and a great soul.�
�He gave us the gift of sharing his fearless and beautiful love�of his craft, and of all who worked with him�for which all of us will be eternally grateful,� said Schamus, who is also the CEO of Focus Features.
Ledger�s other key credits included: The Patriot, the 2000 Revolutionary War epic in which he played Gibson�s son; 10 Things I Hate About You, the 1999 teen-skewed version of Shakespeare�s The Taming of the Shrew that made stars of him and Julia Stiles; and Monster�s Ball, the raw 2001 drama in which he played Thornton�s jail-warden son, who in a shocking moment, kills himself.
With Brokeback costar Michelle Williams, Ledger was the father of a daughter, Matilda Rose, now 2. Ledger and Williams, who were together for about three years, ended their romantic relationship last year.
Before connecting with Williams, Ledger had a long relationship with fellow Aussie Naomi Watts. They paired up after meeting on the set of the Down Under outlaw flick Ned Kelly.
Born April 4, 1979, Ledger was a teen actor in his native country, working there in several movies and TV series, including the cult-favorite Roar, which ran on Fox during the summer of 1997.
In 10 Things�, Ledger distinguished himself from the Can�t Hardly Wait pack with a fierce performance as Padua High�s Kat tamer. His then-wild mane of hair didn�t hurt, either.
By 2001, before his 22nd birthday, Ledger was the stand-alone star in the new-wave chivalry adventure, A Knight�s Tale.
Though the Oscar nomination and The Dark Knight role meant Ledger would, and could, be a name-above-the-title star, Ledger frequently took roles in off-the-radar movies such as I�m Not There, 2005�s Lords of Dogtown and 2006�s Candy, an Australian movie about junkies.
�It was just grueling subject matter, and some of the most grueling scenes ever,� Ledger said of the latter movie to the BBC Website.
In the same interview, Ledger admitted he wasn�t much of a planner when it came to his career.
�As long as it scares me, as long as it�s something new, as long as I get to scare other people�,� Ledger said. �I don�t know, as long as I get to evolve and grow as an actor and as a person, that�s the stuff I�m after.�
Source: E Online
Wow, this last week has been a hell in my life. The internet got shutdown to only browsing due to trace of trojans. Turned out it was my computer (there's three computers, one server and one external harddrive on this net) that was the reason for shutdown. All week I've been struggeling to get ridd of all trojans and at one point I even thought my computer had died because it stopped working. It wouldn't continue its boot up when I started it up. Finally after over a weeks work, last night the last trace of trojans was removed and my computer is now officially healthy. The net has been turned back on and that's why I'm finally back to update this place!
Because of this whole debacle I will not be announcing a new AASOTM for January as half the month has pretty much passed now. So keep an eye out for the winner of February instead when January is over. :)
A MAJOR thank you to all of you who has commented since the last update, both on the new layout and the new pieces. You guys are the greatest and it brought a smile to my face everyday during the crap with the trojans. Big plugs goes to the following people:
TC | Bre | Lady Manson | Marie | June | Matthew | [ erin nicole ] | Risa | Signe | Quee | Amy | Wicca_Jaz | debbiefm | AnMarie
No new arts with this update for obvious reasons. But I am having some inspiration so new arts are on their way :)
Well, as you all can see a new layout has emerged. I thought it was time for a color change and header change. The holidays are over and we've entered a new year. Also, I had grown rather tired of the red, been a round for some months now ;) I hope you enjoy this new layout. The header is a complete manipulation (except Sarah) and took a whole lot of time but in the end I think it turned out pretty good :)
WALLPAPERS
Got a whole bunch of new wallpapers. I sneaked in most of these in the last days of december but thought they should get some attention in this update. I've been trying out a little of Amber of Reflections style with re-using images between 2-4 times in a piece. It has been an interesting thing to try out and still keep my own style in the mix, but seems I managed to accomplish that, even in Amber's eyes :)
I have also added the Supernatural/Btvs wallpaper to the crossover section. All of my affiliates can pick this one up as your christmas gift, was the thought behind it when I had it on christmas eve in the calendar.
I've also made a manipulation between Sarah and the new Summer Glau poster for "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles". I got the brilliant idea of turning it into a BuffyBot piece and I think it turned out pretty damn good. Took buckloads of time to get together, much more complicated than I had planned because it was hard to find a pic of Sarah where she has her head turned the same way and when I finally did find a pic - it was black and white. I entered it into a challenge at BuffyForums as well, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there :)
SITE
I just want to thank all of you who sent me such beautiful christmas gifts. I'm in the process of uploading them and they should show up with the next update :) I loved all of them so thank you very much. Also a big thank you to all of you who has commented during the calendar and since my last update. You guys are the sweetest!
I have decided to start using a splash page. Basically it's me being a little lazy with the recoding after december but also because.. well, why not? :)
I am also working on finding a new Artist and Site of the Month for January, which I hope to have up with the next update as well. Much love to all of you!
Just two days and I am back again with a new update. Must be the calendar that is forcing me to work more online than I do the other 11 months out of the year ;) Been so glad to have my computer back that I have actually made SIX new wallpapers. Yes, you read right, six new walls. And all done in one day. Talk about a major hit from the muse, which I loved :)
I've been going through the seasons of every show I have under graphics and I realised there wasn't much in Buffy's season one. This season has never been a favorite of mine which pretty much showed through the lack of art for it. So I thought maybe I should do some work on it and the funniest thing, my muse agreed. Ended up with 4 from the episode "Prophecy Girl" and one from "Nightmares". More indepth talk about them follows below :)
WALLPAPERS
The four walls from Prophecy girl just pretty much depicts different scenes from the episode, I just wanted to bring them out and play a little with them. Two of them is almost never used in art so it was loads of fun working with them because I didn't have anything in my mind about others thoughts on these scenes when they worked on them. The first one with Xander and Willow was fun to make because I love that moment when we first think he's asking her out and such and then we find out it's just practice for Buffy, which is why I added a faint pic of her in the lower right corner with the very hard to read text "ok, I'm done practicing. Where's Buffy?".
The second is a scene I completely love and one of the best in the entire season. When she pulls out that stake and smiles and the vamps smile just disappears and he knows he's in trouble. I know this scene has been arted a lot before so it was a big challenge to try and make something new of it, but I think it turned out pretty good :) I tried playing off on her smile and the fact that he knows he's in trouble when she smiles.
The third peace is just me having fun. It's not a scene that is very memorable and just something you just walk past when watching the show but when I was going through parts of the episode it just cracked me up how Giles is so preoccupied with the prophecy of her death that he misses her usual rant and her current "distress" regarding her nails. Makes me think of Grease 2 at the bowling ally "I don't wanna break my nails" *cracks up* :D
The fourth one is when Buffy walks into the library about to tell Giles about the blood in the sink in the bathroom and find Giles and Angel talking in his office about the prophecy which tells that Buffy will face the Master tomorrow night and she will die. I wanted to keep the focus on Buffy in this piece, and try to keep the illusion of her looking into the office from outside the library, and seeing them talk about this. That's why I blurred Giles and Angel a bit to help the eyes to immedietly focus on Buffy and stay there. The colors are of course naturally dark due to the horrible subject they're discussing in the office and try to lift out Buffy from the shadows and keep the horrified look on her face. I added in the cross and Buffy's body on the bottom as foreshadow of what's to come later in the episode and also to underline the quote. (and it was great spacefiller ;))
The last one from this episode depicts the moment when Buffy has dressed herself in the gown her mother gave her for prom. It's a beautiful moment and the last one where she is just a girl and a last moment of peace in her life before she walks to her death.. I put in very dark and grungy colors and effects as to bring out the shadow that lay over her and the darkness that is to come.
This last one is from the episode "Nightmares" and shows the very first scene in the episode. Also a scene almost never used and it's one of my favorite ones. Not that watching the Master try to kill her in her dreams is what makes me like it, but the whole buildup of the scene, when she walks down into his lair with pigtails and she looks like an ordinary 16 years old girl and then she brings up her stake and suddenly she's a Slayer on a hunt for evil that lies beneath us. I just wanted to bring out the darkness that she is hunted by and what crawls in it trying to kill her, the one born to fight them.
That's it for this update, hope you like the new art :D
Been a few days (or 10 to be exact ;)) since my last update. Got three new wallpapers to add today, two which is also todays gift in the calendar and one made for a challenge on one of the forums I frequent. I gotta start with a big thank you to my visitors first. I am amazed to see how many people are visiting and enjoying this years calendar, it has never been this popular - and never had so many cheaters ;) So a big thank you and I hope you have enjoyed the calendar so far.
In other news - I'm not at home, haven't been for a good long while but I have now gotten hold of my own computer and got it here so that I can fully work with graphics and not be restricted by sucky screens and people nagging me to give up the computer 'cause I'm hogging it too much ;) And it feels good to be able to sit down, use my own mouse, which is a bit different in formation than the regular ones and use my graphic tablet which I have missed loads.. not to mention my big ass widescreen! (24", pretty good screen non?) :D
WALLPAPERS
The first one is a Buffy wall which actually shows her as anything but alive. This picture of SMG made me think of her having fallen victim to a rabbid vampire who not only drained her blood but was rather sloppy about it and got blood stains everywhere (ok, sounds silly and not exactly what I thought when making it, the blood stains are more a fact of having fought back hard but unevitably loosing), the sparkling light is her soul leaving her body which I underlined by writing out the words "the soul" with a font I'm rather addicted to these days (BIG thanks again to Zugma for helping me find it!).
The second depicts the moment when Buffy and Angel "consume" their relationship, and make love. I did this one for a lyrics challenge and the words "I look deeply into your eyes, I smell your hair, caress your thighs. Now we'll make love by fire light, A blaze so high it lights the night." really got me thinking right of the bat on this moment on the show. I've always loved the closeup sequence in innocence where we hear them (or Joss and his co-worker ;)) breathing and you don't see too much but you see a little and well, that scene has always gotten to me in some way (and I'm not talking in a sexual way here so don't get any ideas ;)) and I just knew that was the scene to use for these lyrics.
The third is from the episode "The Gift" and is pretty self explainatory. It features the moment when Spike tells Buffy that he knows that he's a monster and he knows that she'll never love him but that she treats him like a man and that means the world to him. I've always loved this moment (yes, as a bangel I still enjoy my spuffy!) but never gotten around to making any art about it. Went through my season archives today and realised that I should get some season 5 in there and this one came to mind along with that thought. I hated working on it because I felt I couldn't get the right colors (started over about 4 times) or it just got way over exposed. In the end I think it turned out pretty good, looks rather simple and I wanted it that way to really focus on what this scene was about, not that it was simple but I wanted the focus to be on Spike and the text, and that's why there's not a real face-close up on Buffy.
That's it for this update, and big hugs and thanx to my taggers! (now you have some new art to look at Kate! ;))
So we've finally entered december. As you can see the calendar has gone online and already after just one day online it's gotten a lot of visits and been recieved very positively. Already Bones has made an apperance as well as Supernatural. Who knows what tomorrow holds? (well I do but.. ;)) Also, the calendar will be updated approximately 6PM CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME everyday.
I have a new Artist and Site of the Month. This time it is Bre from Infinite Illusion who has the honor. I catched up with her a week ago and told her the good news and got myself an interview with her. Take a little time and read it because it's definitly worth your time. She's one cool gal and amazing artist! :)
Two new graphics, one from Supernatural (which I've forgotten to post earlier *grins*) and one Bones wallpaper (the first one!!) which was also the first gift in the calendar this year.
Hay guys, been a while since my last update. Been busy IRL and kinda tired of my computer so no updates. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, this update isn't a big one. I have no new art to show off because I haven't made any (kinda logical ;)) but I do have some new news posted in the community news section right next to this box. I'd also like to thank all of you who sent me a halloween gift. They were all lovely! :D Also, thanks to Ariel and Amber for the lovely Thanksgiving gifts as well.
As you all know, christmas is coming. We'll be entering december soon and with it comes the annual christmas calendar. Now I know I have a lot of new visitors and affiliates, and I have a feeling a lot of you missed it last year. Well, buckle up folks - it's time for the 2007 Christmas Calendar. And if you know what this means, be sure to visit Chosen Art on December 1st, because that's the first day of the calendar and the series of gifts I'll be handing out. Also, a new SAAOTM will be announced in december along with another fab interview. Don't miss out on the good stuff people! :)
Affiliates
Got two new affiliates as well, be sure to check them out!
Wow, been a few days since my last update. Haven't been home much so it's been hard keeping track on things and finding time. I was supposed to have done this update last weekend, as many of my new affiliates know, but stuff came up and I hit the road and Chosen Art was left untouched in the dust. But now I'm back and I'm bad.. or uhm.. that's how the saying goes I think. Either way, I'm back.
And what a start it's been for the new layout. Everyone has been so nice and so sweet commenting their hearts about about it and giving me such sweet tags. Love you guys and I'm so happy to see that my mission was accomplished - to make Chosen Art one of a kind in the fanart community and make people remember this place :) I'm really happy about the little news box I've added. It's a bit hard finding news but it still fun to have and it helps people to notice other sites and what's going on with them! :)
Awards
Before I continue this update I just HAVE to say that LINE ROCKS! The woman gave Chosen Art the october Site of the Month! I love this award and it's such an honor!
SOTM MOTIVATION: The site not only holds Dana's amazing and extensive art portfolio but it's also full of amazing artist's resources including free layouts, textures and stock images. I have loved and admired this site for so long and I absolutely adore Dana's art. She has such a unique style, a way of making her pieces radiant and interesting, her coloring is fantastic and she makes her art come to life in a way I admire so much. Just recently Dana made a whole revamp of her site and now it's just even more gorgeous than ever! I am just in awe and that is why Chosen Art is this month's Site of the Month.
BIG HUGS AND THANK YOU FOR THIS!! *hugs Line*
I also won an award in a challenge over at BuffyForums. Check it out here.
Jesika over at Dark Days has also made one of my icons the icon of the week (15-21/10). Thank you hun! *hugs* :D
Wallpapers and graphics
Got two new wallpapers, and I've also decided to add the DVD covers I did last year for Supernatural Season 1, Veronica Mars Season 1 and 2. I have the shows on non-dvd discs and they needed a cover, so I made them myself, the ones I found online just suuuucked *lol*. You can feel free to use them for your own non-DVD sets if you want, but don't alter them and don't ask me to do so either, because sorry - I won't. These are finished pieces. Either way, hope you like 'em!
As I mentioned I also have two new wallpapers. They're definitly not my best work but they'll do. One handles the Btvs episode "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and the other the Gilmore Girls, which was inspired by Joe who is missing them terribly since they went of the air (you and me both hun! *hugs*). I'm pretty happy about how Rory is looking at Lorelai, considering they're two seperate pics in reality :) The WTTH piece kinda sucks. Didn't turn out anywhere near what I had planned but figured since I'm not making much art these days, I might as well subject you people to the horrible outcome as well ;) I can't remember seeing anyone making a piece handling this scene so at least I should get some credit for that! *lol* :D
Affiliates
Got a bunch of new affiliates as well, be sure to check them out!
I'm getting pretty good at updating here, yeay me! *grins* So with this layout comes a bit of this and that. The first to be mentioned which was actually put into action a day or two ago is the above banner linking to my other site "The Chosen One". It contains a lot of great resources, such as transcripts, of the verse and therefore are a great source for artists when making episodic pieces, etc. I've also added a few awards that I've obtained during the last 2 years that I've somehow forgotten to add to the site.
A W A R D
First off I'd like to thank June of EVERY NIGHT I SAVE YOU for making Chosen Art her September Site of the Month. It's an honor and I adore the beautiful award!
And while we're on the subject of awards, I have chosen the Chosen Art SotM as well, which is DAYDREAMING. Check out her site and the BEAUTIFUL AWARD she has recieved from CA.
G R A P H I C S
This time I bring a bunch of new icons I've made over the past month. 13 icons from the Btvs episode "Graduation Day Part 2", 2 SMG icons and 2 Alexis Bledel icons. Now remember - the textless icons are not to be used as bases. These are finished icons! Check out the "recent additions" to see the new additions. They are also available under "icons" which you can find in the menu.
M I S C I N F O
I have uploaded new screencaps from Serenity. These are in much better quality and have a resolution of 1920x1080 so you should have no problems with them being too small ;) They can be found HERE. I'd also like to tell you that a lot of shows who are going into a new season have released new season promos and of course PAAP has been there to pick them up. I've also added a whole load of new shows to that section so be sure to CHECK THEM OUT!
I have also added over 1000 episode stills from Supernatural's season 1. I bet there are a lot of pics you have NEVER seen before!
A F F I L I A T E
Got one new affiliates this time around as well. Be sure to check her out!
P L U G S
Lyri, Natalie, Signe, Lady Manson, and Line
Thanx guys for your sweet comments! *hugs*
Just been a few days but already I have a new update. Let's hope I can keep this up :)
First off I'd like to thank everyone who's tagged me and commented on the new layout, I'm glad to see so many of you liking it. I guess we can call this new layout a success then!
A R T W O R K
I one new piece featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar/Buffy Summers. It was made for a challenge over at BuffyForums. The challenge was to art a show that has changed us in any way and for me it was simple to say Buffy. This show changed my life in so many ways. I wouldn't be sitting here today, posting on this forum, working with photoshop for fanart and running 3 successfull sites, had it not been for Buffy. I would never been a webmaster for Slayerverse and made official website work. I would never had made all my music videos and I probably never would have had the chance to know anyone here. This show put me on a completely different path than I even imagined I would end up on and for that I am thankfull.
To show this I made this piece (can be found under 'recent additions'), where the thought was that Buffy reached out to me (and so many other fans) through the tv screen. Basically the tvscreen glas broke and Buffy managed to get through to be able to really touch us. It's a simple piece if you just glance at it but when you reflect on what the thought was.. it's suddenly a very complicated and deep piece. At least I hope that's what you find it to be. (yeah, long explanation but there you have it! :))
T E X T U R E S
Yes, I have more of these in this update as well. My textures isn't the same standard as many other sites but I hope they'll due anyway :) You can find the new ones under 'recent additions' and at the top under 'textures'. Hope someone finds use for them! :)
A F F I L I A T E S
Got loads of them this update as well. My affiliation has exploded so I have six new affiliates. I recommend taking a look at each and everyone of their sites, well worth the time! :)
A W A R D S
Chosen Art has won a site award from Every Night I Save You, a new affiliate as you can see above. CA was awarded the lovers award, the highest award given out, and to win this you had to live up to the following:
Big thank you to June for awarding Chosen Art with this award! :)
P L U G S
Monica, Lex, Justin, Heidi, June, Amber, Jenah, Lady Manson, Kirsten, AnMarie
As you can see a new layout has made an appearance. Thought it was time to do a complete makeover on the place and change the 10 years celebration layout. Has after all been up almost completely since March. This time I'm looking back over the years and remembering all the artwork I've done over the past 3 years. Of course the colors of the pieces in the header isn't the originals and so I still advise you to look at them in their categories to enjoy their full potential. Also, yesterday Chosen Art passed the mark of 88 000 unique visits.
With this update I have also changed the menu a bit. I've removed the categories for Alias, Grey's Anatomy, The O.C, Lost, Tru Calling and Veronica Mars. Now don't worry, the pieces are still on the site, I've just moved them into the misc section since they didn't contain that many pieces and I don't think I'll be making much art for them in the near future. If they begin to expand then I'll take them into their own category again. The misc section has also been cleaned up and organized and is now split down into three categories in itself - tvshows, movies and other. I find it easier to brows when organized.
This revamp has another reason as well. I've been copied by another site now for months, and so my site no longer felt like my own. The order, category names and the information in the free layouts have been completely plagerised. As well as my way of sorting wallpapers and the headers I use for every section (like the one you can see here with today's date). I wanted to changed the headers completely and change the sorting of the wallpapers but as this is the most unique way and the only way to not get things jumbled up and keep the coding as simple as possible (yes I'm lazy in this case.. consider how big this site is and then tell me again I'm lazy ;)). I have however changed the alignment of the text in them and that will have to suffice. You all know anyway that you saw it here first :)
A R T W O R K
I have two new pieces. The first one features Buffy. Basically it's a tribute to the show and how it lives on through fans and their forums. I made it for a challenge and actually won, more on that further down this update. The though was just to bring out Buffy and tell the world that the fans will never leave but let her continue to slay us and we will continue discussing her and the show and being just as commited at the day we fell in love.
The second piece is about Dawn. I was listening to "Just a little girl" by Amy Studt when I made this piece. It inspired me because of the lyrics. She sings "I'm just a little girl you see, but there's a hell of a lot more to me. Don't ever underestimate what I can do. Don't ever tell me how I'm meant to be" and it made me think of Dawn instantly in season 5. She had more power than any of us knew, even more than she knew herself, but she was also a strong character and was not to be underestimated.. and this continued, especially into season 7 when she really got to show that she wasn't just a little girl. She had skills and she was not to be messed with.
T E X T U R E S
Believe it or not but after 2 years the textures has gotten a new chance and I have a total of 8 new textures to share. You can find them under recent and textures in the menu of course :)
A F F I L I A T E S
I have a bunch of new affiliates as well that you should check out!
The first one gets an announcement by itself.
My old affie Lex has finally returned and we've finally found eachother again. He goes
straight into the family among my affies and he's a really sweet guy. His site contains not
only art but also his virtual series fanfiction "Shadow Stalker" starring Milo Ventimiglia.
You should definitly check out his site!
I've also re-arranged the affiliates and you can now find out the names of my family members, and I have removed the category of friends, and just smacked everyone who isn't a family member into the affiliate section. Felt easier and again more organised. Of course all sites are listed in alphabetical order. ;)
A W A R D S
I've recieved a few awards since my last update. I entered a challenge that my affie J.J held at BuffyForums with my two new pieces featuring Buffy and Dawn. The Buffy one was the winner and I'm happy about it because it was such a different idea I had and I'm so happy it came across the right way and didn't look to messy! This one won third place!
The second award is first place from KAX in a challenge held by one of my friends, Marie, about death. So I entered the piece I made for Grey's Anatomy of Izzie mourning Denny. I was also rewarded Member of the Month from KAX after just being a member for one month but posting my heart out. I got in over 600 posts in one month, and they weren't spammy. So thanks to Beck for that!
As you can see, the layout for 10 years of buffy has returned. Remember, now there are over 80 headers rotating, a much less chance of getting the same one fifty times in a row ;)
With this update I have two topics, and unfortunatly not any art.
The first one is that in three days THE CHOSEN ONE is returning to Dana.TheDudes.Nu. The site that started it all on this domain and is the mother of this site's name. It will feature Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. Loads of info, both about the shows, the characters, the surroundings and about the episodes along with transcripts. Be sure to visit when it opens August 2nd. There is already some goodies available at the site, so stop by in anticipation of the sites grand opening!
THE CHOSEN ONE
The second is that Chosen Art has been a victim among 186 sites online that has been copied and posted for "archiving" on another site without permission. I and the other webmasters have contacted the owner of the site and they have not responded. They claim to not have done anything illegal since they copied the entire site (I'm not kidding, art, coding - everything) and so our copyright is still holding, but this is not so. They have NO PERMISSION to copy our sites and have done so without it and therefor breaking copyrights and has done something illegal by this. We have now begun contacting their host and the domainname company they've bought their domain from and telling them what is going on and asking that they shut down this site effective immedietly.
THE SITE WHO STOLE 186 WEBSITES WITHOUT CONSENT
All of us is now asking for your help, so please contact the webmaster of that site telling them that this is wrong and that they should remove our sites from their server. Please note, the site doesn't seem to work properly in Firefox, only Internet Explorer. The email to the webmaster is: webmaster@slayerworld.net
On another note, I do not take requests for wallpapers. This includes you Nathan. I have already declined your request once. The reason is that I only do work I get inspired for and that's why everything you get here, is something I've wanted to do, not something I HAD to do for someone. Sorry, but this is how it is.
Been busy the past week and making loads of icons and preparing this purty new temp layout to celebrate that Chosen Art is now THREE YEARS OLD. And what's even more amazing is that CA has now had over 80 000 unique visitors. I checked last years anniversary count and in one year this place has gotten 30 000 unique visits since june 2006. That is just mindblowing for me. Thanks to everyone who's visited and that has come back over and over and that supports this site. I know it goes dead from time to time but I always come back, usually RL has a tendency to show it's ugly face but then I punch it and come back ;)
I have loads of icons added to the icon section. A total of 56 icons. I've been playing and learning alot about color so they're very focused on that but I have a feeling you'll like them. My flist @ my LJ loved them soo ;) Anyway, here's a list of the new ones!
� 21 Buffy Summers / Sarah Michelle Gellar
� 08 Katherine Heigl
� 04 Drive
� 04 Jennifer Aniston
� 03 Keri Russell
� 03 Piper Perabo
� 03 Hillary Swank
� 02 Friends
� 02 Eliza Dushku
� 02 Grey's Anatomy: 3x18 Scars and Souvenirs
� 01 Jeffrey Dean Morgan
� 01 Keanu Reeves
� 01 Jessica Biel
� 01 Jessica Alba
I have finally started up SOTM again. Only took me about 1� years *grin*. I tend to get lazy and behind on things and here I REALLY got behind. Anyway, the new SOTM is J.J over at MORE ADVENTUROUS, be sure to check out her site!
That's all for now, hope you enjoy this layout. It will stay up until July starts, then the blue one comes back on to continue the celebration of Buffy :)
Ok, so I have a very good excuse for not updating in almost a month. My RL put alot of strain on me the past month and the past week or more I've been fighting with my header code to have more headers rotate. And since my system works like it does I couldn't update anything until I got that crap worked out. Ok, enough with the appologies. Got some things with me this time as well! (of course!)
As I mentioned above, I've been battling it out with my headers, and I won. There's now not only 31 headers to rotate between but 84(!!!) headers rotating. That way it's much harder to stumble upon the same one three times in almost a row. The inspiration for this came from Bre over at
This is what she had to say about Chosen Art when naming it SOTM June 2007:
Congratulations to Dana @ Chosen Art for the June 2007 Site of the Month! Sporting one of the coolest and most creative layouts of the moment around, this girl has a very unique and dark characteristic to her art, which is incredibly endearing to me. I love her view on the shows she offers, as well as the lovely goodies that are around. She is continually expanding her horizons, whether it be wallpapers or videos, Dana is constantly bringing us lovely things. Congrats, sweetie!
I've also been very productive and entered three challenges over at BWF. I haven't entered a single challenge for more than a year but as my muse desided to attack me with loads of inspiration I just had to get myself involved. And I won! :D Check out these awards: CH# 118 - Creative, CH# 119 - 1st Place 'Hate' and CH# 120 - Honour. Big hugs goes to Wendy, Line and Marie! *hugs* thanx for the purty awards girls!
Ok, so leaving the awards for a moment, I have some art to share too! First, some icons:
I have also one new wallpaper featuring Buffy from the season 8 comic.
I also have a new affiliate. So go check out a fellow swedes site, it's well worth your time!
I think that's about it. Enjoy the new headers, and thanx again for the lovely awards guys! :D
Well, so far it seems we're back in business, considering I'm making another update this week ;) Got a new batch of icons to share. Icons has become my current little obsession as I'm learning new way's of making vibrant colors and re-thinking cropping and such.
Anyway, here's the new icons:
There you have it. A word of caution, these icons are VERY spoilery for the episodes so if you haven't seen them, I wouldn't recommend looking at these icons as they would give things away (except the izzie and george one ;)). Anyway, I hope you like the new colorish style I'm trying out :)
Wow do I have stuff for you today. First off all I'd like to thank everyone for their condolances.. I appreciate them alot. The past month has been hell to me but I'm trying to go on, and with that I have actually done alot of fanart work. I have 8 new pieces for you to check out, I have fallen in love with a new show so please welcome GREY'S ANATOMY to Chosen Art. I have also, finally, fixed the icon section and made it much more fun to look at. The problem with it was that the coding for the sorting of icons and the coding for this site didn't work together, so I had to build a special part of Chosen Art just for the icons, with it's own layout. So be sure to CHECK THAT OUT. I have also made quite alot of icons as well so there's alot of those added, and I did some cleaning on my HDD and found a whole bunch I never got around to adding to the site, so they're in there too.
so here's the total count of things new:
The Wallpapers:
So I guess that's about it. Check out the new section and be sure to check out the icons new look! :)
This will be my last update in a while as I just got the news that my grandmother passed away this morning. I won't be doing any art in a while and the web won't be my priority. Please understand this open hiatus and I hope you will come back when I do.
It's official. I'm the worlds worst affiliate. You guys give me such pretty gifts and I don't get around to putting them up here to show all visitors what wonderful affies I have and what beautiful gifts you guys bring me. So a BIG appology to all of my affies who's brought me gorgeous gifts, I hope you can forgive me. And to all visitors - check out the gift section and see what gorgeous gifts I've gotten. Big thanx to the following people whos gifts I've neglected to add:
Ehlwyen, Sarah Beth, Liz, Peace, Amber, Nelly, Mandi, Berend, Kirsten, Monica, Austin, Bre, Kate, Lady Manson, Joe and Justin
First of all, thank you so much to all my taggers for your sweet and kind messages. I'm so happy to hear that the layout was such a hit! And I can now reveal that more headers will be added soon. I hope to have ALOT of them, both in honor of Buffy but also it makes it more fun for you guys when visiting, the site is never the same each time you come. Big thanx to my brother for finally getting the script to work, it was being a complete bitca about not working so I sent in the big dog and then it became nice ;)
I only have a small update today, but hay, better than nothing right? :) Got 7 icons from the Buffy episode "Forever" which can be found under icons > Buffy the vampire slayer. Hope you like 'em.
I also have one new affie that I've been meaning to add for so long, big apologies J.J. Now go visit this awesome site!
As you can see, Chosen Art has gotten a new look specifically designed to celebrate Buffy's 10 year anniversary. The header which you can see above will change everytime you reload or go to a new part of the site - and they all celebrate moments throughout buffy history! I hope you'll enjoy this new layout as it is not so much about the artistic side of it but more where all my inspiration first came from and one of my all time favourite shows.
In other news, as you can see to your left in the menu there are four new buttons, all representing a special site I recommend you all to visit, 3 of 4 owned by me. These are definitly worth a look or two so head on over to them and check 'em out asap ;)
I also have one new piece to offer, featuring Dawn and Spike and placed after Buffy's death but before her resurrection. Had loads of fun making this one as I was using brand new textures that's I've never worked with before, made by the lovely Wendy.
I also have two new affiliates, which are definitly worth a look or two :)
So that's about it for this update, please enjoy the layout and I'll be back soon with more fun things to give and show! :)
Thought it was time for an update and this time I come bearing art and resources!
The new pieces can be found under 'recent additions', 'angel', 'firefly' and 'misc'. New icons can be found under 'icons' in the menu. The lyrics can be found via the menu under 'Downloads'.
Wow, an update. These come rarely these days since I have so much going on RL I don't have much time to do art and even less to keep track of my sites.. bad me! Well, to make up for that I'm uploading a new layout! Say hello to version 32. This one will hang around for a while and that's why I've decided to make this layout a dedication to the favourite show of mine that got me online and into art in the first place: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and celebrating their 10 year anniversary! Can you believe it's been 10 years this march that 'Welcome to the Hellmouth' first aired? I can't. It's amazing that it's been 10 year.. just imagine when we celebrate 20.. now THAT will be very very weird :)
Anyway, enjoy the new layout! Trying out new artstyle with this one and therefor I hope you like it! :D Oh and while you're lurking around here, be sure to check out my new forum (link in the banner above), it's well worth your time! :)
Just putting up a temporary layout until I can come up with a better one, just didn't want to leave the x-mas layout up anymore, seeing as it's way past that time of the year now.. *sob* ... anyway, enjoy the temp layout, and while you're at it. Go Join the new forum I've created, which you can find via the banner above this update! :D
Alot has been going on IRL and I'm also running a CHRISTMAS CALENDAR this year as well so the updates over here has become lacking during december. Sorry about that but I hope you enjoy your stay just the same. I tend to sneak in a bunch of icons without updating on the main page ;)
So what's new?
Big thanx to AUSTIN, NELLY, AMBER, KATE, BRE, MANDI, WENDY and CHRIS for your lovely Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts! *hugs*
Plugs: KIRSTEN, LINE, AMBER, SIGNE, AUSTIN, NELLY, KATE, EHWLYEN, JOE, BRE, ROMAIN, MANDI, WENDY, LEX, SANDRA, CHRIS and OMRI
Again with the small update. I hope you enjoy the new layout I'm using. Thought it was time to show off my digital art side again, only had one of these once before. This version is called 'Xilolaxias' which is a madeup name for this layout. The thought is to feel like something in space is coming right at you when you're in a spaceship, and this specific phenomenon is called xilolaxias and looks like this layout! ;)
Just a small update. First off, thanx to all my lovely affies who sent me halloween gifts, I loved them all and they will be added to the site soon, if things goes as I want them to. Also big hugs to all my taggers. You guys are the sweetest - I don't update for months and you still show up and say a few sweet words!
One piece today, it's focus on Buffy but the words kinda more reflects myself than it does her. I've gotten into a funk the last few weeks and this kinda expresses a part of that. So don't take it completely as something buffy would say (though it kinda fits her as well) but more something that reflects me.. It's a very dirty piece, I used some very grungy textures, but they fit so nicely.
Sorry I haven't updated for so long but I'm constantly tired and I seem to have lost the urge to fanart. Everything I make comes out as crap, this is the first piece that's even worth a glance.. I can however promise that an update will be made on the first of december when..... the CHRISTMAS CALENDAR starts up! Loads of goodies every day! :) until then - xoxo
I can't believe it myself but this is another update. Things are running smoothly. Chosen Productions has gotten itself a new layout and home for the videos. The layout being based on the latest Buffy piece I'm presenting you guys today with. I've also updated PAAP, and there is new people and shows in the gallery, among them the long awaited Supernatural. Check out the list under screencaps and you'll find the new ones marked with an arrow :)
As I said above, 2 new pieces and one is focusing on Buffy, and the other on Dean from 'Supernatural'. I'm still on the page of inspiration from Zugma and I hope you like 'em :)
Plugs go to: Chris and Slaygal
Check it out, an update. Let's hope I'll keep this going :) Got four new pieces for ya today. 2 focusing on M�a Maestro, also known as Nadia Santos, Sydney's sister on Alias. The other two is about Jack Bauer, the main character of 24. I've had alot of inspiration from Zugma of 'Ugly Business' for all of the pieces, especially the M�a Maestro pieces. The second one, where it says 'The woman who directs the world' is actually a frase my mom came up with after thinking about M�a's last name for a few seconds. As we all know 'Maestro' is a conductor, so it was fun to play with her name and make her into a director. The bright light is supposed to represent a little of the sun just to give the illusion that behind her is the world. I hope you like these pieces. They were new groundbreaking for me and I will probably continue making this kind of art for a while because I found it to be facinating and fun, to see how a persons face changes when you smooth them or whatever ;)
Plugs go to: Lina, Amber, Austin, Kate, Line, Anja25ive and Signe
Can you believe it? I'm updating!! :D
Yes the rumours are true, I'm alive and kicking! And I'm bringing loads of stuff to make up for my absence. I've added 11 new pieces to show off, I've made a complete list over ALL the different pictures over at PAAP, so you can find your way straight to the right album if you don't feel like looking through PAAP by itself. I've also updated the lists of Buffy and Firefly Screencaps. As you also can see, I've changed a little of the look on the site (ignoring the new layout). The headers are different and new, just like the ones in the menu. I find this to be easer to brows the site. I've also sorted the graphics pages. The Buffy and Angel sections have now been sorted, so when looking at for example Buffy/SMG you will find the pieces seperated to show which ones are focused on the actor and on the character. The episodes has also been sorted. You can now find the pieces under it's episode name in a little header. Same with the other smaller sections.
The layout. The layout!! Finally it looks more than a little different. It goes against the specific layout 'way' that has been used the last three layouts. I got new coding ways by my brother some months ago and I wasn't able to understand all of it from the start, until now. So now I can go back to the way I love showing off Chosen Art. Like this! :D
I hope you enjoy the new Gilmore Girls layout. I realised it's been so long since I had them as a layout I thought it was about time. And since I've always adored this photoshoot, it was a given!
I've also sorted through all of my affies and deleted the links that was dead or didn't have a link back to Chosen Art. I know I've received alot of new affiliate requests but I've been having troubles with my mail and so I've lost requests so if you requested an affiliation, please do so again. :) I've added the last affies who applied via the tag board though. Be sure to check out my affies page to find new and old favourites!
That's it for today kids. Thanx for all the sweet tags during my awayness!
xoxo
So, it's been a week and I've been busy with work but I did sit down tonight and make you two tutorials in HTML/CSS, which you can now find in the menu. I renamed the photoshop tutorial menu name so you wouldn't get confused about which page was about photoshop tutorials and which was about HTML/CSS. I hope you find my new tutorials useful and I hope I'm not too confusing in my explanations, I can get a big fuzzy when I know what I'm talking about but forget that the other part doesn't ;) Anyway, enjoy. Will update in a few days again with new pieces and a SOTM - which is about time I start up again! :D
Big hugs to Esukri and Nikki for your kind tags! xoxo
Wow, another update. I'm amazed. Must be the fact that I'm free from work half this week. Got two new O.C pieces to show off to you guys today, one of Ryan and Marissa, and one from The Graduates. I had to make a piece with the pictures they snapped in this episode, in this case - of the four together. It's just a general 'graduation' piece but I hope you enjoy it with the effects I've used. The Ryan and Marissa piece is just a dedication to what they were and what we lost. Used some stocks of water to get the 'white' effects, I'm not completly happy about this piece, but it'll have to do. I love the pic I used to the right. Even before I admitted it to myself that I liked this show, I loved this pic :) I tried to get the colors to represent of how it began and how it ended.. or something.. I'm not sure. Anyway, that's it :)
Well, as you can see, a brand new layout, and it is of course to celebrate Chosen Art's second anniversary. Can't believe CA has been around for 2 years, feels like only yesterday that I started up this site, and it's been through alot. Theft, awards, PR, features on Btvs news sites. Feels great to see this site still thriving after two years and still the word is reaching new people every day about it. CA passed it's 50 000 hits mark a few days ago and it's more than I could have asked for 2 years ago.
Well, as I said, a new layout and also 4 new pieces, which you can find under recent additions. I've added two new categories in the graphics menu - Firefly and The O.C. Hope you enjoy the new pieces. Loads of hugs to Jess and Caroline for your tags! :D
Wow, Chosen Art just passed it's 50 000 hits mark. I never thought that this place would pass such a high mark within 2 years. Funny thing, the place actually celebrates it's two year anniversary this month so it's kinda just spot on 2 years that I've gotten 50 000 hits.
So sorry I have been bad on the update part, I have a whole bunch of pieces to post and I will return with them soon, and maybe a new layout to celebrate the second year :) Big hugs to all my taggers, love you guys! :)
Well, check it out, Chosen Art is back up. It took so much more time than I had planned because I've been re-coding the entire site to be compatible with a special code my brother made to make things so much more easier, in the future :) And as promised, here's a brand spanking new layout! I hope you enjoy it and I'm happy to present a Bangel layout, it's been almost a year since the last Bangel layout, and being a Bangel, I should be ashamed ;) The version title 'Where Violence Happens' is not about the show, it's about my latest work. I tend to go towards the more violent side, with cuts, blood and bruises, so I decided, this layoutversion should be called this. I also have three new pieces up, two in the cuts and blood category, with Buffy and Dawn, and one with Illyria within Fred. Naturally they can be found in the 'recent additions' section, that you can find in the menu :)
Buffy - She's been called a slayer and a killer. She even had some doubts about the difference herself and I thought about that when I made this wall. The two quotations are NOT quotes from the show, I made them up, just to get the general idea with the two words. Anyway, hope you like it. Thought the picture was very fitting!
Dawn - I've only done this style with Buffy (and one with Spuffy) so I decided that it was baby sister's turn now. This is the main reason behind the wording 'More than one Summers can play this game', it's also a referrall to the strength Dawn found by the end of season 6 and during season 7 when she became stronger, more of a fighter than a victim and well.. her sister played the game, and so can she.
Illyria - The picture of Amy was perfect for an Illyria piece, she's got this same ice cold look that Illyria got when dressed as Fred and confronted by Wes, or when she greived the loss of Wes. So I started thinking, eventhough we were told that Illyria got into Fred in the same episode she died, I had this idea that she'd been lurking beneath Fred's surface, just waiting to get out. As you can see there's also a picture of Fred in the top right corner of the piece, this is to symbolize Fred. And also, it just looked so pretty ;)
That's all, 3 new pieces, a new layout and new coding. Oh, and as you can see, the icon section has been closed for the time being. I was using a script for it but it kinda backfired now that I've recoded Chosen Art so until I've solved this problem that section will be closed. I am having ideas about starting a seperate site for my icons, but I'm not a 100% sure. You're more than welcome to tag me about ideas ;)
April 2, 2006Well, time for a new update and a new layout. Things has been delayed with the php transfer but it's coming. Eventhough I decided not to change layout before that I just couldn't wait anymore, so here you go! It's based on my latest obsession and one of my latest wallpapers. I've discovered the world of bruises and blood and has started making alot of dark pieces involving this, so I thought that when I was changing layout why not make it reflect my latest work and obsession? :) This layout is based on the piece 'Being the Slayer isn't always fun and games' which you can find under 'recent additions' :)
With the layout change you can now find the menu to your right again. The other style looks great but it feels so small and I need my frikkin' space ;) Anyway, with this layout I give you two new pieces, one called 'Love Hurts' and the other 'Being the Slayer isn't always fun and games' as I mentioned before. The 'Love Hurts' piece is a couple piece with Buffy and Spike. They usually beat the crap out of eachother and then on to the lovemaking. The one thing going through my mind when making this is a quote by Spike 'You always hurt the ones you love, Pet'. The other one, started out with me wanting to do more with the bruising and blood and it turned into this piece. It took on a mind of its own which I love because that's when my best pieces is created :) Basically it's about Buffy, and that when things get bad she usually gets pretty broken and bruised alot, bleeding from all kinds of cuts.
Thanks to all of you who's tagged me lately, big *hugs* to all of you, especially Peace who recently had a birthday, and also to Amber who gave me such a sweet gift! Love you both :)
I'll be back! //Dana
March 18, 2006Just reporting that I'm alive and well ;) The site will get a new layout soon and I'll try and start updating more frequently. Sometime in the coming 2 weeks (hopefully) I'm enlisting my brothers help to convert Chosen Art and my other major sites from html into php. This will make my life so much easier when done and I can make layouts I really wanna make that I can't now due to not right kind of code that is needed.
Ok, time to chock you guys, I actually have two pieces for you to check out. Made them a few weeks ago, and if you're a regular at BWF you've already seen them but for all you guys that isn't a regular, check out the recent additions under 'graphics' in the menu above :) Hope you like the two new additions! I've also changed the icon section and used a script to make the sorting so much easier and much prettier. Now you can get the right count on icons as well without me counting wrong ;)
Until next time, take care guys!
February 14, 2006As you can see, a new layout. I felt it was time to make a change but still keep the low mood but in a new way. I didn't feel like making a valentine layout, because I don't like that day (being single and all) and besides, didn't feel like making a layout that I have to remove a few days later. Anyway, I hope you like this new style of Chosen Art. You can now reach the tagboard via the menu above along with everything else. I don't know when I'll be returning with new work. Just this layout has taken me 3 days to get to, and I still have no inspiration what so ever. But.. enjoy this new layout anyway.
January 18, 2006This is not a regular update. I just wanted to let you guys know that I won't be updating in a while because my grandfather passed away yesterday and I'm having some trouble handling this fact. All the affiliation requests will have to wait, and so will my fanart. I'm going home to my parents tomorrow and then I will be staying there until sunday. I don't know when I will return with something new. I hope you all can bare with me during this time of grief.
January 18, 2006
This is not a regular update. I just wanted to let you
guys know that I won't be updating in a while because my grandfather passed away yesterday and I'm having
some trouble handling this fact. All the affiliation requests will have to wait, and so will my fanart.
I'm going home to my parents tomorrow and then I will be staying there until sunday. I don't know when
I will return with something new. I hope you all can bare with me during this time of grief.
January 5, 2006
First update of 2006. I can't believe this will
be the second year of Chosen Art. Feels like only yesterday it was 2004 and I had just started this site
but now it's 2006, I've been around for a while, the site has become quite popular and the hits just keeps
on coming, along with new affiliates :)
I have added new things to the picture gallery, not only does it contain photoshoots and promotion
pics from the shows I'm focusing on, I've also added Tru Calling to the list, and a whole bunch of screencaps.
Of course all the screencaptures are in very HQ, taken by yours truly, and today I'm adding (as I'm typing)
the captures for Serenity - the Movie! :D
I've also added 15 new icons. Had to make some, couldn't resist. Personally I love the ones of Faith because
they look kind of like anime, which is an effect I'm starting to love :) And since I've just capped and uploaded
Serenity caps, I just had to make some icons for the movie as well. The one featured with this update has the words
spoken by Simon to make River fall asleep in it (in case you wondered what they were). This icon is also available
without the text ;)
I've also added a tutorial section, with my first tutorial. It's just a basic one of how I created one of my icons. Got
some questions on how I did it so I made this simple tutorial. You can find it under "Downloads". Not much else to add,
so take care people until next time :D xoxo //Dana
December 29, 2005
Just one day and another 15 new icons. I'm definitly on
a roll here ;) This time it's more Serenity icons and various from Earshot, Once More, With Feeling and Salvage.
Tomorrow's my birthday and Berend has already been a sweetheart and given me a gift today, with my
favourite guy on it :) Check out the gifts section to see what he gave me. Thanx for the gift again
Berend! *hugs*
xxx
//Dana
December 28, 2005
Today I have a few icons to add. Realised I had caps
of the yoko factor on my hdd so I decided to make some icons from that episode. Been reading some tutorials
around the net and looking for new stuff to use (brushes and textures and gradients) and found a few
so there you go :) it's 10 new icons. 9 from the yoko factor and 1 character icon featuring Faith.
xoxo
//Dana
December 26, 2005
Well, it's finally time for a new update, with a little
more than just merry christmas :) As you can see, new layout. Had a x-mas layout up for 2 days which
featured my parents home, where I grew up, in a picture taken last winter. But now it's time for a
new layout since I had the urge to make one. This one features as you can see, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and
I named it "Sarah in a Box" since it's a boxy styled layout :) I hope you like it, 'cause I really do. Thanx
to Lyn for the lovely textures! First time I played with light in this way and it turned out awesome, to me
anyways ;)
Alot has happened this past month. The advent calendar
has been a major hit which makes me really happy to hear and makes me think that this might become a
regular x-mas thing on Chosen Art. During the past week my computer was also killed due to a major virus,
trojan and worms attack. This meant that the calendar became very delayed but thanx to the wonderful
Lyn it still presented new gifts everyday during my computer problems. Thankfully my computer was back
online on the eve of the 23rd so I'm back in business and I had the chance to make you the gifts
for the 22nd, 23rd and 24th :D
I have one new piece to present you, sadly no more. I'm feeling rather drained after the calendar and I'm
sitting by a 17" screen instead of 19" so it feels like I don't have enough space to work on, annoying I know,
but hopefully I'll get something together during the week or so, and I'll start making frequent updates again :)
I've finally put all my awards into order and added the ones from the past year that I've been neglecting to add.
I've also added all the wonderful gifts I've recieved this x-mas, thank you so much guys *hugs*. The gifts from
thanksgiving, easter and wad has also been added. I've just been so lazy and so I've been neglecting these beautiful
gifts and awards.. I know, I suck.. sorry! But I'll be shaping up now and add everytime I win or recieve something :)
I've also been a bad girl in the SOTM section. I have had so much to do that I've forgotten about giving out this
award, so there is no sotm for december, but starting with january I will be giving out each month. I'm also thinking
of starting an artist of the month award along with a blend of the month. But that's all for 2006. :)
Soon it's my birthday and I can't wait. This friday I'm turning 23. Can't believe I'm at 23 already. I meet girls in
my same age who's already married and have kids, has a career and a home, car and picketfence. Me on the other hand,
so damn single that it's almost a lie. Been single for the past.. erhm... 7 years. This is almost pathetic, and not to
forget the fact that I don't have a career... ok, this is getting me down.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
xoxo
//Dana
December 3, 2005
Time for a new update and as you can see, with it
comes a new layout. It was supposed to be christmasy but I ended up with this, which I kinda like
so there you go :)
The advent calendar seems to have been a success so far. I'm glad you guys enjoy it and like the
gifts you get everyday. Tomorrow will ofcourse bring another one so remember to come back for that one
as well. Today's gift included to wallpapers from Ats, one with Doyle/Glenn Quinn and one with the original
gang - Doyle, Angel and Cordy. The Doyle one is a tribute to Glenn Quinn since today is sadly
the third anniversary of his passing. The wall features images from all his episodes on Angel, with 2 extra
caps from Hero.
The Ats one is a pretty basic one. A whole bunch of textures, one picture and the obvious text that has been going
through the show during all their years (except season 5, not much of angel investigations then).
I also have another new piece, it's just a promo piece, like the ones I did with Alias a few weeks ago. This
time it features Logan Huntzberger from Gilmore Girls. The promotion pictures for season 6 has finally started to
show up in HQ and after seeing them in full resolution I just couldn't resist making something with them :) You
can probably expect that both Rory and Lorelai will show up soon as well since they too have come out in HQ.
There is also three new icons, all of them based on this layout, and one of them can be seen at the top of this
update, pretty don't you think? :)
Chosen Art has also been named Site of the Month over at No-Promises.net by the lovely Sara, thank you so much sweetie! *big hugs*
There's not much else to add than this. Hopefully I will manage to make a x-masy layout before christmas is over and gone
but I don't want to promise anything. Got alot on my plate right now, especially with the advent calendar. But
one can always hope, right? :)
xoxo
//Dana
November 21, 2005
It's been a little more than a week since my last update
and this time I have loads to show. Been busy this weekend and made a whopping 7 new pieces, that's
right - Seven new pieces :) Feels great to be back working with photoshop and having fun again! Also,
the gallery has once again been updated. I can't remember everything I've added so just hit last upload
and see for yourselves :)
On to the new pieces! The three first ones is rather similar. The promotion pictures has been released featuring
Thomas Grace, Rachel Gibson and Ren�e Rienne. I felt a need (or urge ;)) to make something with these so I ended
up doing three promotion pieces, featuring the character and the name of said character. I went with different
colors for different characters and just played around some. I hope you enjoy them. And with this addition
Alias gets it's own section. Why? you ask, well, I'm feeling some need to make more Alias pieces and so it's
rather natural to give the show it's own space, don't ya think? :)
The next one is something entirely new to me - it's boxy style. I've never been able to master this style and
also I didn't really want to do it for a while when EVERYONE was doing it. It almost became a rule for me, but
now - I've broken it. Thanx to a tutorial by Ann @ OOTM I could really get into it and understand how to make
this kind of art, and voila! Here's my latest piece. It features Michelle Trachtenberg and a photoshoot she had
earlier this year. She looked very dirty and trashy in these pics (but I love them ;)) so the title of this
piece is "Trashy Girl". I hope you like it - 'cause I'm very satisfied with it myself :)
Again with the boxy style (well, I think I've become addicted now!) and featuring Faith and Connor. It's made for
a challenge over at BW forums and it's about Faith. I used the scene where she holds Connor down and asks him "Are
you a killer? 'Cause I am". I've always liked this scene so it felt natural to use it. I also added pictures from
when she killed the guy who worked for the mayor in Buffy's season 3, just to underline her words. The piece
naturally got the name "Killer".
The second to last is also made with the help of Ann's tutorial. It is also a manipulation between Sarah Michelle
Gellar and Maggie Grace (Lost). I loved this photoshoot with her but I don't want to work with her as the main
object, so I manipped her and now it's Sarah lying there in the chair. I think it turned out really great, it's
been a while since I did any manipulations but I haven't missed a beat ;)
The last one is also a manipulation between SMG and MG, but here I focused on only one picture and just named
it SMG because I didn't want to take the focus off of the picture. Personally I think it turned out great and
SMG looks so cute sitting there in the chair :)
All in all, a productive weekend and a very fun one :)
'Til next time! *hugs*
//Dana
October 2, 2005
As you can see, new layout. This time a very different one. I have
gotten very interested in 3D art and I found some renders at deviant art, and with the help of that this layout was
created, along with a whole bunch of brushes from lacrimae-spiritus.com.
This layout is called "Xaelithiaxis" which isn't a word, or - it is now ;) it's inspired from the non-word "Xaelith", also
from lacrimae-spiritus.com.
I only have two new arts to show you, but hopefully you'll like me anyway *hehe* ;)
Anyway, the first one is based
on the Buffy episode "Dead Things" and it's the scene where Buffy walks up to Spikes door, puts her hand on it, while Spike does
the same from the inside since he can actually feel that she's there. But then she's not when he opens the door. The text is a
quote from the song "Out of This World" by Bush, which is also played during this scene in the episode. I felt it fit so well
with the piece since I chose these specific lines: Out of our heads, out of our minds, out of this world, out this time, I just want you
to save me.
The second
one is a bit different, or alot different actually. It's based on something that actually never happened or was mentioned on the show.
As some people might remember, Joss said something about a plot he wanted in the 3rd to last episode of season 7 of Buffy, but it never
did become reality. Here's what he said:
"In one of the final episodes, the third to last episode, Buffy was going to basically get a get-out-of-jail-free card. Any
reality-altering thing that she could have - she could bring Angel back to her, she could do anything she wanted. At the end of the
episode she basically comes to Willow and says
- Look at these shoes I got!
-What?
- I got these really awesome shoes. I wanted them, and now I have them!
- You used the wish for shoes?
- Of course not, you idiot..
Buffy walks out of the room and Willow turns around and Tara's standing behind her."
This was stated by Joss at the Wizard World convention in Chicago in August 2004.
Here's my take on this moment. I made the piece to be the second after Buffy say's "of course not, you idiot..."
when Willow turns around and sees Tara, and they kiss. I added Buffy because this is what she made happen and she
finally got to see Willow happy again.
That's it in the art department. Things have been stirring in other parts of the site though, the gallery has evolved with a bang (yes, a
bang, didn't you hear it?) and is now placed on it's own site and is now under coppermine construction. It is purely based on HQ images
of the cast from Alias, Angel, Buffy, Firefly, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars. It's far from done, I'm still adding images for the different
cast and characters, but already the Alias section is done and the Angel section is growing by the minute. The Photoshoot section grows with
each castmember I add in the other sections. Welcome to Pretty as a Picture.
The affiliates section has also been cleaned up, affiliates that doesn't have a button back to CA has been removed. New urls for old affies have
finally been fixed (sorry Nelly!), and it is no longer based on link images. I like the cleanness in just textlinks and so I've decided to do the same
to my affie section now. If you feel you've been wrongfully removed or I've forgotten to add you, or anything else - don't hesitate to contact me
on the tagboard or in the "contact me" form on the site.
The theft has also been taken care off. The person who stole haven't done anything to fix it, but I have. As I noticed the theft was purely hotlinking
I've restricted all direct linking on .thedudes.nu, so if you direct link now - you'll just get a very angry Buffy saying that you're a criminal :)
Big hugs to all my taggers, esp. slaygal - long time, no see! *hugs* //Dana
September 12, 2005
Well, as you can see - a new layout. Got tired of the old one
pretty fast, so I decided to do a new one. This one features Jennifer Garner of Alias and Alexis Bledel and
Lauren Graham of Gilmore Girls and it's in celebration of the new seasons for the shows. This is also the first
time Jennifer is a part of the layout. Thought it was time and I really love this photoshoot with her so I had to use
it, and then I had to make the gilmore girls happy too and added happy pics of them as well :)
I don't have much else to share in terms of fanart, haven't had the time to make any new ones, except
the icon you can see with this update - based on my latest layout. But
sadly it has come to my attention that my entire gallery has been hotlinked and my art stolen and made as backgrounds
on another site. In the process of taking care of this, thanks to Jessie for getting my attention on this.
September 4, 2005
Check it out, it's been one day and already a new update. That
haven't happened in a long time :) Anyway, what this update is about is just the new piece I made of Buffy and Spike.
It's featured in season 5, I guess you could say as kind of a promo for season 5 - 7 about Buffy and Spike. It's called
"A story just beginning" and I'm very satisfied about how it turned out. There's no brushes involved, just some textures,
some filters and my imagination.. oh and the pictures and text ;) I hope you enjoy it!
Added update: Just finished a kinda different piece. I've been running a "what if?" challenge over at Beautiful Strength. It's
about, what if Buffy was Veronica and Veronica was Buffy (considering all the talk about the two shows being alike I had to bring
up this question). Well, I got a little carried away and made a what if? piece myself. So what if Veronica was Buffy and she
was the one in season 5, 6 and 7 who got to smooch with Spike and have all the fun? :) This is my first kiss manipulation and I think it
turned out pretty good, even though Kristen (Veronica) looks ALOT like Sarah (Buffy) *lol* :) Anywho.. you can find this
new piece in the recent addition section :)
I've also added a button in the menu involving paypal. Now you are more than welcome to make a donation to keep Chosen Art
and the rest of my domain alive. Even if it's only 1 dollar, I'll be very happy because I'll also know that you appreciate
what I do, or try to do anyway ;)) Anyway, there it is.. :)
*hugs* to my taggers! //Dana
September 3, 2005
A smallish update today. Here's what I got to show off today: 1 new
piece, 1 award giveaway and 2 updates in the screencaps. Lets start with the piece I've got to show you guys. It's about
Buffy in the season 3 episode "Earshot" where Buffy hears what everyone is thinking. I've always loved the thoughts Oz has
about this - "I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything thatis me and she becomes me. I cease to exist".
It's kind of terrifying, so I played on the is Buffy really good now or has she gone over to the dark side? :) Hope you enjoy it,
also - it's in a very big resolution, 1280x960. Since alot people is using a big monitor nowadays I thought I'd give this a shot
(I'm that kind of user myself ;)). The updates in the screencaps is #1: Earshot has gotten a new design and I've recaped the episode, so
now there's 1270 number of caps and in 1280x960 resolution. Should make alot of people happy I wager :) #2: I fixed the episode name
of the thin dead line on angel's season 2. I accidentally wrote the site name instead of the episode name *doh*.
Now to the award giveaway. I've been planning on adding a SOTM to Chosen Art for a few months now, but I haven't had time
to actually go through with it and make an update and have time to make a desition around the month transitions. But now I took
time and here goes. The first award goes to a close friend of mine, Ehwlyen. She's a very talented newcommer. She has a very special
style that you really can't find somewhere else, and she recently got herself a website (that works in firefox now too ;)). She
is a wonderful person, and is great at giving art advice when you're in a rut. Ehlwyen - this one has been a long time coming! *hugs*
That's it for this update, will return with more goodies (yeah, I'm working on more fanarts - impressive, non? ;)) and I'll also
try and get around to answering all the affies requests. Big hugs to all my taggers! //Dana
August 24, 2005 *updated*
Hay guys, so it's finally time for a new update. I've been working
so much that whenever I've had some free time I've actually spent it sleeping or just sitting infront of the tv watching
season 1 of Veronica Mars, haven't had much energy for much else. But I did during this time somehow manage to make two new pieces
and now a new layout as well! Since I've been watching VM so much I felt I neeeded to make a VM layout as well. The old one with
Serenity is one of my favourite of all the versions Chosen Art has had, not only because it was a rather simple layout but also because
I was trying out something new with the menu, but you know me, the minute I get the layout online I want to make a new one *lol* :) I hope
you enjoy this one. I've only had one Veronica Mars layout before and then it was Veronica, Logan, Rory and Logan (Gilmore Girls) so I thought
it was time for a full fledged VM layout with just that show. And as I've been watching the first season again I've begun to appreciate Duncan and
Veronica together much more than I did the first time. He's a really sweet guy and who knows, maybe he's the one outside Veronica's door ;)
Anyway, as I mentioned I have two new pieces. Both is from the episode "Becoming part 2" of Buffy's second season. The first one is for a challenge
by Lex over at Buffyworld. It features the "Tears and Rain" lyrics by James Blunt. I picked the moment when Buffy leaves Sunnydale, having nothing
left to lose. She's broken and she's running from all the pain. It turned out much better than I had planned, it turned very dark but warm at the same
time in it's colors. The second is of Joyce when she sees Buffy's room is empty and a note from her. I used the lyrics from Sarah McLachlan's "Full
of Grace" and the very part of the song that is played during this moment in the episode. I added two other pictures to it to give it substance and
a full background and show Buffy leaving, so a picture of the bus and Buffy walking away is merged into the pictures of Joyce crying, the empty room
and Joyce seeing the room.
Update: I have another three new pieces for you. Since I've been free today from work I've made 3 new Veronica Mars walls, one featuring Logan
and Veronica from "A Trip to the Dentist" and two from "Leave it to Beaver". The first one with Logan and Veronica is one of my lesser good work. I'm
not completetly saticefied about how it turned out but I'm going to leave it alone now, or I'll just go mad re-doing it over and over ;) The scene is
from the bedroom where Logan tells Veronica that he hates that he hurt her when all he wants to do is protect her. The second piece is about the
last episode, right after the carcrash. The thought behind this one was a little "Nightmare on Elm Street"-ish. How the ending is just like
a nightmare that you almost want it to be that. The last one is about Veronica and Lily. The last moment they share together before Lily finally
can rest in piece. I've always found this moment so beautiful so I had to make something with it. I don't think I justified the moment
completely, but I still like how it turned out.
With the addition of these three new pieces I've decided to give Veronica Mars her own space in the menu - so now she's just one click away :) /end of update
In honor of this new layout I also made a new icon, which you can see at the top of this update. Of course it's Veronica and Duncan, featuring
one of the pictures from their relationship. I find it extremtly cute and I just had to make it into an icon :)
Chosen Art was also presented with an amazing award by Nikki over at Misplaced. She made CA Site of the Month of August. Click
here to see the beautiful award she gave me. I'm very honored to get this award as
I admire Nikki and her work and find her to be an amazing inspiration and artist. Thank you so much sweetie! *hugs*
I've also re-arranged all the wallpapers so that they all now is organised much better and easier. Also, as always you can find the latest art under
"recent art" in the menu :) I believe that's it for today. Big hugs to all my taggers, I know I'm not as active as I have been and I miss alot of you
but remember, a months absence does not mean I'm not coming back ;) *hugs* //Dana
August 1, 2005
How time flyes by. It's almost a month since I updated the last time. Sadly I've
been so busy working I don't have much time for something else, not even fanart (which is blasphemy!). I have two new fanart pieces to share,
and a VERY important message.
TheDudes mail account has gone dead due to server suicide. You cannot reach me through the contact form! If you still need to
get in contact with me before this is resolved - please leave a message on the tagboard, with your email and I will get back to you via another
email host, probably hotmail.
The first new piece is about Xander and Buffy. It was made for a challenge over at buffyworld forums, and it actually won for most sexy. I hope you
like it and when looking at it, think about Xander's major obsession with Buffy in the early years, because this is what this piece is about :)
The second one is also for a challenge over at buffyworld. It's based on a song called "Goodbye My Love" by James Blunt. It's about Wesley's death
in "Not Fade Away". The moment and the text felt so fitting. The two images in the middle is about Illyria loosing Wes but also her question - "would
you like me to lie to you now?". I hope you like it. I went in a new direction with the whole boxyness. Never really done that before so be gentle when
looking at it ;)
That's it for today. If anyone has sent me an email about affiliation - please contact me on the tagboard since I've lost all my mail (*cry*).
I've also made new layouts for two of my freezeframe sites - "This years girl" and "Homecoming". You can find them under screencaps - be sure
to check them out! :) That's all for today. *hugs* //Dana
July 3, 2005
Tadaa! A new layout. The anniversary is over and Chosen Art is entering it's
second year, hitching a ride with Serenity. I hope you like this layout. It's alot different from what I've been using before.
This time the menu is very different, instead of having it based to your left or right, it's at the top and it's a folddown menu.
Never had that before :)
Alot has happened since the last update, first of all - I've finally gotten a job!!! Yepp, that's right kids - I'm a working gal now :D
But even though I've gotten a job I've had time to do some stuff with Chosen Art, not only do I have a new (sorry, just one) piece,
I also present you guys with 3 downloadable layouts for you to use AND I have finally gotten the grip of textures and if you look at
the header in this layout, you may or may not see that it is infact only using my own textures, and of course screen caps from the trailer
for the upcoming and most anticipated movie of the year by fans world wide - Serenity!
If you click around in the menu, you'll see that things are still located under the same headers, and if you want to get back to this main
page - either click "main" under "site" or just click on the site name "Chosen Art". It will ALWAYS take you back to this page. And all my new
pieces is under "recent additions" in the "graphics" menu, but since this is a new layout with alot of new things, I thought I'd feature todays
addition here on the main page, below this update. I hope you find my textures useful, just remember to credit me if you use them - same goes
with the layouts, but you can read more about this in the free layout section.. :)
Big hugs to all my taggers - thanx for the anniversary wishes! :)
Addition to the update: Forgot to add that I have some new affiliates:
Chosen Art also won some prices at SYCA - Best Webmaster and Runner up for Best Navigation. I've also won two awards over at the
challenges at BW - Honourable Mentioning and Runner Up. Curious of the awards? Check out the award section :)
Wallpaper
Textures
Layouts
June 22, 2005
As you can see, new layout! Chosen Art is officially celebrating it's
one year anniversary. And what better way to do this than to use a layout celebrating the relationship of Buffy and Angel, which
happens to be my favourite ship? :)
No new wallpapers today as I've been busy making this layout. I hope you enjoy it and I hope to keep Chosen Art around for another year!
*hugs* to all my taggers - Joa, HelloYellow, Peace, Anja25ive, Lex, Jamesgirl, JoeyAnya and slaygal. Have a great weekend! //Dana
June 13, 2005
I've been a bit off lately and haven't made any updates, as many of you
might have noticed. Well, I'm back on track and it's time for a major update! I bring you 8 new pieces and 7 new icons.
That's right people it's a major update! :) Chosen Art is also celebrating it's ONE YEAR anniversary this month! Can you believe
it? I've been around bugging you with my arts for a year now :)
This will be celebrated with a new layout very soon! Just wanted to keep this layout until the judging was finished on one
of the sites I'm nominated at.
You can of course see the latest pieces in the "recent additions" page, but you can also see them to your right and in this
update. I've been very episode focused this time, alot to do with the fact that I've been entering alot of challenges over
at BuffyWorld Forums. But I also have 2 pieces that is not episode focused, just character/actor focused. Should I start up the list?
Ok then....
First up is a piece focusing on Buffy and Angel (my favourite couple - as probably alot of you know by now :)) in the episode
"I Will Remember You". With quotes from "Passions" in season 2 of Buffy I bring you the scene in the basement when they stop talking and
start getting jig... I mean serious :) This piece is made for a challenge called "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and it's supposed to focus
on the fact that Buffy is the one making things fun with Angel, that's why I put her in the center and also made her look at Angel instead
of having her look down like he's doing, like I was planning at first. The colors is a natural choice because of all the passion and heat
in this moment. I thought the Passion speech that Angelus has in "Passions" was very fitting to the piece. "Passion, it lies in all of us..."
The next piece
is an episodic piece of the Buffy episode "Welcome to the Hellmouth". I'm planning to, with time, make a piece for every episode
and this is the first one. It pretty much contains the most important parts of the episode and I was trying to get the effects of shadows and
blackness but at the same time not let it rule the entire piece. I hope you agree that I got in what was important. I wanted to keep the feel to it
a little dirty and rough but not so much that it's the first thing that comes to mind when you see it.
This is actually a two-bit piece. I first made the one to your left, but after posting it in the feedback thread at BWF I got some ideas
and some advice to make some changes - and that's when it ended up as the one to your right. Which do you prefer? Personally I still prefer
the one to the left, but it has alot to do with the fact that that was the first one I made and the second is altered. Anyway, the point and
thought with this piece is off Buffy's season 3 episode "Helpless". This scene has always gotten to me and I thought it was time to make it
into a fanart piece. It's the scene when Giles tells Buffy that he's the reason why she's lost her slayer powers, and how she then breaks down
and tells him that she doesn't even know him anymore. She can't understand why he's doing this to her, why he - the one person she trusts with her
life - would betray her like this. If you look closely you can see the word "Betrayal" at the bottom of the piece.
The next piece is focusing on Buffy and Dawn. I was playing around with stock images as textures and I wanted a piece that was really dirty
but had another level to it than just dirt, hense the text. It's been a while since I made a Buffy/Dawn piece and I wanted something with
sisterhood so this is how
it ended up. I had some trouble coming up with the text, took me about an hour before I got it just right, but now I'm happy out it!
The next piece is about SMG as a Daydream Believer. I've always loved that song, "Daydream Believer" and I was having fun on BWF a few weeks ago
where I ended up coloring the hair on smg in my icon pink, and then I got the idea to make a piece with her in pink hair. To really get it to work
I added the daydream believe part, because face it - we're all daydream believers, and to underline that part in this piece is her hair. I also
love this picture of SMG, it showed up online about a week or so ago and I just had to make something with them, so you'll probably see more from
this shoot later on :)
This piece is also for a challenge. The challenge is called "Solitude", basically it's about a character when he/she is alone, but with emotions
running and not just standing/sitting and not doing anything. This piece is from the episode "listening to fear" when Buffy breaks down in the
kitchen - before the demon attacks and Dawn screams for Buffy to come. This moment is so emotional and it brings tears to my eyes.. you can really
feel her desperation and pain because of her mothers sickness, and at the moment, insanity. I just used the word "Broken" because I believe that
is the only word that can describe this moment.
The last one is also for the challenge "Solitude" and focuses on Faith in "Release" in Angel's season 4. It's the moment she's in Wesley's bathroom,
about to take a shower. You can really see her anger and pain and desperation because she lost, and she couldn't beat Angelus - she couldn't bring back
Angel. I just wanted to bring out all these feelings and show how she's bleeding - hense the legs and if you look closely you'll see the bloodstains
at the bottom left corner. I used the words "Faith the Vampire Slayer: Screaming Bleeding Fighting" because it felt very fitting with the piece.
I tried to keep it dark to stay with the mood but not loose the focus of the piece.
Wow, this is a really big update! If you then click in the recent additions page you'll
see all the icons added as well, one of them is featured
at the top of this update but the 7 others is under RA or Icons. I hope you like them and if you want to use them, some credit would be nice.
Lots of hugs to all my taggers - especially Amber who still hasn't gotten a new computer, miss you girl! And big hugs to slaygal for featuring one of my pieces
at her site Infinite Destruction. It's my "slayer turned vampire"
focusing on Buffy and Angelus, and here's what she had to say about it:
Dana's Slayer Turned Vampire is an amazingly creepy piece - its a twist on the usual BA arts - and I love how its manipulated. It's a cool idea -
and makes you think about certain "What if..." situations. Lol - brilliant work - I love the "sharp" tone too.
Thanx hun! *hugs* :)
I've changed the banner above the update so now it shows different banners for my sites, to entice you a little and to get some more
traffic to my other sites, because lets face it. Of all my sites Chosen Art is the most popular with now over 22 000 hits!
I've also gotten some new affies:
I think that's it for today, take care kids and I hope to update soon again! :) *hugs* //Dana
May 25, 2005
A very small update today, I promise to return with a bigger one in
a few days. Just stopped by to give everyone a big heads up on my new Challenge site. It's called
'Beautiful Strength' and it focuses challenges on Btvs, Ats, GG and VM - pretty logical since they are my
favves within tv :) so hit the button below this text and hurry over and start entering in my challenges. Please :)
Hugs to all my taggers and affies. Hope you join my challenges :) //Dana
May 18, 2005
Ok, I'm the worst webmaster ever. I've been planing on updating since last week and I've been too
lazy to sit down and write this text, everything has been done earlier. *goes to hide under a chair*
So by now everyone has probably heard, seen and morned the loss of Star Trek. After 18 years, there is no longer
a Star Trek series on tv that's still bringing us new episodes. Enterprise bid it's goodbye after four seasons,
not given the chance to evolve as much as the rest of the shows had, with at least 7 seasons. With no plans for
any show in a near future, we trek fans are feeling lost. It's just so unfair, over the course of 2 years alot of
awesome shows has been either cancelled or has ended on it's own: Buffy, Angel, Star Trek: Enterprise, Dawson's Creek,
Felicity, etc. These are all shows that I was a big fan of and having them going off the air just feels so... well
it sux! Now I just hope that Gilmore Girls, Lost, Alias, What I Like About You (hanging by a thread, don't know if it's coming
back next year), Veronica Mars, Charmed and the rest of the shows that's worth watching, isn't taken off
the air after next season. I can't stand loosing yet ANOTHER favourite. I still haven't gotten over that I will never
get to see a new Buffy episode, it's so unreal. I envy all the people out there that hasn't seen the shows yet and are
just starting. Everything's still new and they don't know what's happening next.. You lucky bastards! :)
But ok, I'm rambling and getting completetly off track here! An update was supposed to take place today, so here goes.
As you can see above this update, there is a banner with the words "buffy.nuisance" in it. This is a site that's collecting
people that has been attacked by buffy.nu and had their content stolen and posted without permission. I am sending a
letter to their providor by the end of this week to let them know what buffy.nu are up to, since buffy.nu don't want to
listen to me I guess they will have to listen to their providor. After the letter has been sent the list will continue as
more of a protest list against them.
Today 6 new wallpapers and one icon is added. The icon is the one featured in this update (at the top to the left) and it
features Captain Archer of Enterprise. If you'll visit "recent additions" you will be able to see the 6 wallpapers added.
The first is Buffy and Angel, called "Slayer turned Vampire". I'm playing with a new kind of fanart featuring some blood
and new ways of exploring the world of Buffy and Angel. This is just a piece of the two of them together, as vampires. Basically
what I'm thinking is that Angel(us) has turned Buffy into a vampire and they've just had a feeding frenzie, hense all the blood.
I hope you like it and don't shy away do to the blood, I'm not goory!
The second piece is Cordy in "To Shanshu in L.A" from season 1. It's the moment when she's hit with all the visions and is
completetly breaking down. I wanted to bring out the pain and what she's feeling when she gets these visions, so I added
lyrics from Full Blown Rose "Somebody help me". It felt very fitting and I've been wanting to use this song for a long time
with Cordy. The third piece is of Fred and Wes from the episode "Billy" in season three. This episode is very scary in how
the touch of Billy turns men into anger machins and then how Wes hunts for Fred in the hotel. I wanted to bring out the fear
and the words "Don't fear the Reaper. Be Terrified of him." felt very fitting as Wes basically turns into this and scares
Fred to death (almost). It's a very dark piece but it's supposed to be! :)
The fourth piece is Star Trek: Enterprise. I was feeling a little reminisent when I had watched the last episode so I decided
to make a piece featuring the crew. It's a basic promo pic and I just added some effects and the name of the show at the bottom.
I was going for the softness in it and I think I got it too. :) I hope you like it.
The fifth piece is also a very basic piece. I used two of my favourite pictures of SMG and just wanted to bring out the sweetness in
her with the help of some sparkle and the brownish tone. I've never done a piece like this one and I think it turned out good. Not
exactly how I had planned it but definitly not bad :)
The last piece features Faith. I found this picture of her wearing a sweet dress but with a look on her face, like she's thinking
"Is this how a good girl should look?" (which is also the text featured in the piece). I used very sweet colors, pink, purple, white,
basically very light colors to keep the good girl thing alive. Made me think a little about in season three when she puts on a sweet
dress for the mayor. She wasn't too happy about it but it was what he wanted and she did look like a good girl.
I'd also like to plug one of my sites. It's gotten a new layout and I thought that you might wanna check it out :)
It's about Oz from "Btvs" so you might enjoy it as well! Anyway, click on the link below to visit!
That's it for today, I hope I didn't bore you ;) Talk soon and big hugs to all my taggers! //Dana
May 3, 2005
It's been a few days since the last update. My mum has been to
visit so I haven't had much time to do much artwork. Managed to put together three pieces due to my special
every friday on Slayerverse, but that's pretty much it in the artwork department.
I'm currently battling it out against buffy.nu, they keep stealing my Chosen Art Special from Slayerverse
and post it as a special on buffy.nu without my permission. Ok, it's great exposure but they undermine everything
I'm doing to stop the theft from the AOL jerk by making it available to everyone. I've contacted them 6 times now and
all it's gotten me is banning from their forums twice and being ignored. I've decided to go one step futher and go above
their head and see if this will help. I'll keep you all up to speed on that. Also, if you don't like buffy.nu then visit
Amazon.com
and make a review on buffy.nu and let other people know that this is not the best website around!
Ok, so on to the graphics. The first one is Alyson Hannigan of Btvs. I love these two pics of her, it's an old photoshoot but she's
so cute so I put together this piece. I wanted to bring out Aly but keep it simple to not take the focus of her. It's mainly textures
but with some AVH brushes mixed into it.
The second one is from Firefly and it features Zo�. It's a very basic promo piece. I haven't done much with Firefly except my last
layout and the 8 icons from last week (and they were technically not firefly, but Serenity) so I put together this piece. Just wanted
to show her off from different angles and just use her name and what she is, a browncoat and rebel :)
The last one is a magazine shoot of the Lost cast, although I just focused on Sun, Jin, Claire and Charlie. I really like this pic of
them and had to something, and I ended up with this. It took me a few hours to get the effects right, they didn't really want to cooperate
with me, hense the long time. After going through about 60 different textures and brushes I finally got the balance in it and managed to
also find the right Lost Font to write "Lost" in the background (you have to really look to see it, it's behind the names) and then I used
it to write out the names of the characters. I like how everyones looking away but Claire, like she knows something the others doesn't.
I'm also in the process of building a new website. A fanlisting for one of my very talented affiliates, Steph. I met her on Buffyworld
and I love her work, she's a real inspiration and so I thought she deserved her own FL. It will surface sometime withing the coming weeks.
Gotta plugg a little today, haven't done that in ages (I'm very lazy ;)): Nikki (LOVE! the new layout - Veronica and Logan *drool* :D), Goddess Illyria,
Caro G, Slaygal (I promise to write soon!!), Monica,
Anja25ive, Tam, Joa (Love your new layout too, hun!),
Iselin.
I believe that's it for today, if I have time to make some new arts tomorrow then a new update will be made, then I'm going home to my
parents over the weekend (we've got a long weekend, thursday-sunday, in sweden) to help out with the renovation of the house. So if I don't
update tomorrow, a new update will surface next week, I promise :) *hugs* to all my dear visitors! //Dana
April 27, 2005
Well, it's been another day and I'm again updating. I'm on a real roll here :)
As you all probably know now, the Serenity trailer premiered last night on apple.com and I downloaded just minutes after. Have watched it
about 10-15 times already. I know, I know.. I'm nuts ;) But I can't help it. I'm so psyched about the movie and I really hope it hits
theaters here in Sweden too, so they don't just ignore it here because people don't know what Firefly is (that's right, almost nobody in
Sweden knows what Firefly is, because not one channel has shown it...). Anyway, since it's premiered and I've been on yet another icon
spredd today, I've made 8 icons from the movie, using caps from the trailer. They're all located both under icons and recent additions in the
menu. I told you last night that I had made about three Gilmore Girls icons and I would add more during the evening, well I did. I ended up
with 17 icons, involving Gilmore Girls, Buffy and Angel. I haven't been very lazy today either. Made 19 icons, involving
Serenity, Buffy, Angel and Veronica Mars. I've really discovered how much fun it is to make icons and I've become quite addicted :)
Big hugs to Caro G and Nikki for the sweet tags! I hope you enjoy the icons and have an awesome day! //Dana
April 26, 2005
The Serenity Trailer is online -> click here to view it!
Well, it's been one day and again I'm updating. Feels like I'm getting back
into my shoes and can have fun again. Been spending the last 2 weeks working my butt of for a company here in Sweden and I finally turned
in the job this saturday and they were VERY psyched about the outcome (was a video for a big conferance they're having) so I can finally
lean back in my chair, put my feet up and enjoy my graphic work again, as you can see on the layout posted yesterday :)
Anyway, why this early update? Well, I've gotten two new affies and I've done three new icons, will probably add more later today as I'm
currently working on more of them. It's three Gilmore Girls icons, which you can find under both recent additions and icons in the menu,
one of them is featured with this update, as you can see. I hope you like them!
I'm also a nominee of the moment over at SYCA, which is something new for me, never been anything "of the moment" before so this is an
honor. They don't have any kind of award for this but as a rememberance I took this banner they used in their layout when presenting CA
They also featured this text:
Site: Chosen Art
Webmaster: Dana
Offering: A beautiful site of Buffy and Angel wallpapers. Should definitely check it out! Also has art for Lost, Tru Calling and Gilmore Girls.
The new affies is featured below, be sure to check out Krisalis' and fray101's sites! Krisalis's a new artist and has got some good art already, much better
than I was when I started out ;) and fray101 has got some wicked content!
I guess that's it for this update. Love to all you! :) //Dana
April 25, 2005
As you can see, a new layout has shown it's face. I got kinda restless and
since the last layout was up for about a month I thought it was time for a change. This one features Rory and Logan from Gilmore Girls,
and Veronica and Logan from Veronica Mars. These two shows are my new addictions (and Lost too :)) since Buffy and Angel ended. There
isn't that much good quality tv around anymore but these two shows are top notch! And as I have fallen in love with the two couples, it felt
fitting to use them as the new layout, also because the guys are both named Logan - kinda funny really :)
I don't bring much more with this update than, 4 icons, 3 wallpapers and 1 award. The last thing, the award, was for Rosely's Dream challenge over at
BW and I won most Dazzling! Curious of the award? click here to see it, or go to the award section in the menu.
I've decided to make a seperate section for the icons as I hope I'll get better at it and create a whole bunch of them. The four I'm putting
up the veronica/logan one in this update, a Boone one from Lost (featured in one of my earlier updates) and two Backstreet Boys. I've been a
fan of theirs from the start and I'm psyched about their new album so of course I have to make some icons with them as well :)
The new wallpapers are featured to the right in the menu, the first one is Cordy and Angel from "You're Welcome" in season 5. I love this moment, makes me
cry and cheer at the same time. That they FINALLY get to share a real kiss and that she then dies.. breaks my heart everytime. I tried to keep the mood
with her death in it and added some text to get things just right. Mostly textures, didn't use that much of brushes this time. Found alot of great
textures a while back and when using them you hardly ever need any brushes. Anyway, it turned out green. Wasn't really my plan but there it is. :)
The second one is Spike and Angel. Made this as my final piece in a photoshop battle over at BW, my main focus is on Spike in this piece. The thoughts
behind this one came with the right pic of Spike, it felt like he was thinking back and reflecting on his life, and his bloodlust. And he's always hated
Angel and there's always been a bloodlust in the way of Spike-kick-Angel-to-pieces kind of bloodlust. And when I found the left pic things just came
together. That specific picture is more symbolising the "other" Spike, the life before his soul. He never did manage to kick Angel's ass until he got
the soul and the left pic is a part of the life before.
The last one, featuring Buffy and Riley from "Something Blue", is just made because I love this episode and this scene is so funny! I always laugh like.. well you
get my point ;) The text is quotes from the scene and I added the pic och Buffy and Spike to underline the text and the moment between Riley and Buffy.
Didn't put much more thought into this one really. Just wanted to make a piece from this episode :)
All my love and hugs to my sweet taggers. Have a great week! Hope you enjoyed the new stuff. Would love some feedback on the layout *hint hint* :) //Dana
April 9, 2005
Due to new attacks on Chosen Art and also personal ones, a decision has been made to shut down ALL access
for AOL users on Chosen Art and the entire Dana.TheDudes.Nu network. Starting tonight, no AOL users will be able
to access Chosen Art anymore. I am very sorry for all my users who have the best intentions when visiting and
are using AOL, but this is the only way to stop everything that is going on. This is a PERMANENT shutdown.
If you ever recieve an email from someone claming to be me but you don't recognise the email as a part of slayerverse
or Dana.TheDudes.Nu then please contact me on my contact form to verify if it is really me contacting you. Also,
no site online except Chosen Art, Slayerverse and BW will be showing any art by me, if you find it somewhere else,
specifically in a yahoo group, then it is a theft and not posted nor autorized by me.
Addition at 9.30pm: The AOL rule has now kicked in and all arts are back online!
Addition at 0.27am (april 10): Some of you might know of the resent attack against my work and myself and
have probably visited the group that "satan" has created (this is the reason to the shutdown against AOL),
and I thank you all for your support. But what I really need
from all of you and the best way you can support me is by IGNORING him, don't give him ANY attention. This is what
he's craving and this is what he's not going to get. So please, if you want to support me, ignore the jerk and enjoy
my work here instead. I will not stop making art, he's not going to win. I love what I do and I could never give it up.
//Dana
April 8, 2005
It's only been two days but it's time for another update! First off, I
just can't believe they killed Boone on Lost. I was never the biggest fan of him but I didn't want him to die
and I did like him on certain points. And what's with Sayid and Locke, if you believe the trailer for next weeks
episode, Locke is biting the dust, BIG time. Ok, enough rambling (I'm just still in shock!). In honor of Boone
I have actually made two Lost pieces just about him. The first one is just a basic piece with two promo shots of
him. I just liked the pictures, esp. the closeup, and the colors came out great. The other is when Shannon sees
his body and breaks down. The text I used is from "Poets of the fall - Late Goodbye". Felt very fitting since
they had been more than just brother/sister and now this was his/her last goodbye. I also made a Sawyer and
Kate centric piece. I'm just curious what's going to happen with the two of them, is she going to get with Jack or
will it be Sawyer, especially now that we know Jack's married. Anyway, this piece is about their kiss, the look
before and after. To me it's the undeniable kiss. And there's definitly something there (eventhough she punched him,
but he did have that one coming). Btw, I really liked how Sawyer reacted right away when Kate showed up and needed all
the alcohole, he just went to it. First time in a long time we've seen him act that fast, for someone else. The last
piece is actually not Lost :) It's back to Angel. It's about Illyria and the episode "Time Bomb". It's a very dark
and simple piece but at the same time, not. Anyway, I hope you like it.
Site stuff: As you might have (or not) noticed two new categories has showed up in the menu. The first one under
"Art / Graphics", I thought that since I've gotten into Lost, and am currently in the process of developing
more of that show, it should have it's own category. So there you have it :)
The second change is something of the moment. My favourite trailers or piece of art or site that I need to get a
fix of everyday. It's not much but it's always something. I hope you find something you like too in there. :)
Currently the promos for the upcoming episodes on Lost and Gilmore Girls are featured there. All credit goes to
Lost Media and
Intense.
I also have another bunch of new affiliates. Please go visit them today.
Oh, and the new arts are featured up in the new "recent art" frame (to the right of Mal and Inara :))
All my love and hugs goes to the taggers today:
Lex,
Monica,
Anja25ive,
Goddess Illyria,
Nikki,
Denise,
Joa, wenj,
Jamesgirl,
Steph,
Gaby,
SeenRed &
Caro G
Have a great weekend! //Dana
April 6, 2005
Today is an awesome day! Chosen Art is opening it's doors again
for the public and with it comes a whole bunch of new arts! I have missed it alot myself and now that things
have been resolved it's time to move on on the road of fanart and fun fun fun :)
A new layout comes with the new opening. For the first time Firefly is a featured layout. I've fallen in love
with this show and have been wanting to do a layout for some time now and finally I decided that now it was time.
It features Mal and Inara as they have become a favourite couple of mine, even though they haven't become couple-y yet,
there has been some sparks and emotions and it's clear that they have feelings for eachother so.. :) I love this picture
so it was a natural choice. This is a very simple layout. to the top right you can see the latest fanart I've done, just
move your curser over the previews and they will light up and then open in a new window if you click them.
As you can see, I'm featuring a symbol, both to the left but also in the layout. This is the official Chosen Art symbol
from now on. It is created specifically for CA by Ciarae and it will feature in every new piece I make now, more or less
visible. Look closely at the latest ones and you'll find it. This is to help identify my work if it ever gets stolen again
and my owners tag removed. This symbol is practically un-deletable as it will be a part of the effects in the pieces.
It is also supposed to represent "Infinity", as the original is a lying down 8, but I didn't want it just plain so this is the
result, and I love it.
Ok, so new pieces. I have a whole bunch. All the ones featured in the frame to the right is new ones, the SMG one is
also a manipulation between smg and kate winslet :) I won't get into all the pieces because there as so many, it would
take me so many hours to right down what I was thinking/feeling at the time and it would take you hours to read as well,
so I won't this time. Although I can say that the two Faith/Buffy ones from "This Years Girl" is a part of a challenge on
BW along with the Buffy/Angel "Go to hell" one. The Angel/Spike one is a part of the battle I'm in on BW and to tell you
the truth, I hate it, the piece I mean. It didn't turn out as I had thought and I think it pretty much sucks.. but
we have our bad days. The rest of the new pieces is featured below this update, so you won't miss them!
I also have some new affies. So be sure to check them out :)
I think that's it for today. I hope you enjoy the new layout and be sure to tagg me with some feedback! :) *hugs* //Dana
March 30, 2005
I'm happy to announce that Chosen Art will be opening it's doors again
sometime between this and next week, with a brand spanking new layout and new pieces, this time both hand drawn and regular digital
buffy/angel pieces. Chosen Art has also gotten it's very own symbol(!) to help identify my work, it will ALWAYS be in
my artworks, more or less visible, to help make it harder for thieves to steal and claim my art as their own.
The thief has been banned from Chosen Art, never to returned again. Thanks to Slayerverse.net I was able to digg up
his IP adresses, and he will be banned there as well. If we can't shutdown his site, we will at least make it harder for him to steal!
My love to ALL my friends. You guys are awesome! //Dana
March 22, 2005
It's official. I'm closing Chosen Art until futher notice.
Why? Because after all the theft I've experienced the last week I'm too tired of things right now. Eventhough
both myself and Sensue at The Elite Watchers Society has contacted the thief more than once,
he/she has continued to steal my work. I just don't
see the point in keeping the site open if all that will happen is that my work will be stolen. Until we have been able
to stop this thief Chosen Art will be officially closed.
I never thought I'd do this, I love this site. It has grown into my one favourite site of all sites I run so closing it
makes me teary, but I don't see any other choice right now. Of course you can still access everything on the site, except
the art. You have the menu located above this frame, and I still want to continue become affiliates with other sites because
Chosen Art will open up again, it will just take some time.
I hope you all can understand why I'm doing this and that you won't stop visiting CA. Please come back again and again to
see what's up, maybe one day when you're here the site is open. Who knows?
If you don't understand why this site is closed because this is the first time you visit, please read my 2 last updates and
you'll understand what's what.
All my love to my dear affiliates and supporters. *hugs* I love you guys! //Dana
March 19, 2005
It's been a few days since my last update. First of
all I want to thank everyone for their support, esp. Slaygal, Monica, Amber and Vodvod. Things has happened
a bit. I contacted The Elite Watchers Society and asked for their help and they acted immedietly. After we talked
it over, Sensue (the head of TEWS) contacted Satan (I'm not kidding, this is his nickname) telling him that a claim
has been brought against him and after TWS has looked things over they came to the same conclusion. He has now
until monday to delete all the fan arts he's stolen, if not, action will be taken against him. Ee haven't gotten
a response yet, but he is aware of the situation because I posted a message on both his sites the same day I
discovered the theft and he's deleted it and my membership in his two groups (yahoo), so if he doesn't respond
to TEWS's message, it is because he's ignoring it.
As it turns out, this guy has stolen work from alot of other artists, who will be notified if he doesn't delete,
which means that he's been going around the net stealing from alot of people, his main target has been everything
posted at Slayerverse
but he has gotten around outside that site.
All I have to say now is: You want a war? I'll give you a WAR!
//Dana
March 16, 2005
Just found out today that some of my work has been
STOLEN, sized down, cut to get rid of my copyright tag, and posted without my permission on another site.
This really pisses me off. I don't usually get really really pissed off but I am right now. I worked my
butt off to create these pieces and all for it to get stolen? What the hell is the point? I am about to
contact a protection site, get their help in getting rid of this and making sure it never happens again.
I've read about others being victimized but I've never been there myself, now I understand how they
feel. I'm just so angry!
They stole three of my manipulations, smg,
michelle and
dawn/xander. They also stole two
of my latest work, Buffy/Angel and
Buffy/Spike, put them together as one image,
smacked an ownerstag on it and posted it in the slayerverse comment system (of all places).
This is definitly not any misunderstanding on their part, that they thought they could repost my work without permission,
this is just devilish and planned, and I'm gonna get them for it!
The two sites that they are posted on are: SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR PAPARAZZI PHOTOS and SATANS CELEBRITY SLUTS.
//Dana
March 13, 2005
So it's been a LONG time since my last update, almost a month and I feel bad that I haven't come around to
update more the last month. I've done some new pieces, both for my weekly special at slayerverse and for a
photoshop battle I'm currently in on buffyworld. I won't go into so much detail into every piece this update
since I have a whole bunch of new pieces and my update would take you an hour to read ;)
Chosen Art has now passed the TEN THOUSAND mark, and I'm just still in awe at how fast this has gone. During the past
month, I haven't only passed that mark, I'm up to 13000 visitors now, having approxamitly 100 visitors a day. This is just amazing
and I'm so happy that people have found my site and keep coming back for my work, I have no words. Thank you :)
I've also gotten a whole bunch of new affies :)
Rosely @ Lost in Innocence,
Nicki @ Pretended Angel,
Holli @ RoryandLogan.net,
Gaby @ Paranoia and
Jamesgirl @ Chosen2DOTcom. You should
check out their sites asap! :)
As you can see, I have a new layout. This time it features Lorelai Gilmore of Gilmore Girls. I was planning on
going back to Buffy or Angel, I was even leaning towards Firefly, but when I found this picture (the left one) of
Lauren Graham, I just fell and I fell hard for her. I started doing a new layout minutes after I had found the pic
and this is the result. It's a rather simple layout this time, nothing with boxes or anything. I just felt like going
back to basics with the black. Hope you like the colors and the header :)
So my new art. I have a whole bunch. I had a lot of fun doing them eventhough I have during the past week been feeling
a loss of inspiration, but I managed to put together a bangel and spuffy piece anyway :) Hope you like all of them!
I'm currently putting all my focus on The Wild Awards as well.
As some of you might know, it's been closed down over a month
past it's date so I have to give it a big work over this week. Finally being able to open it up again and announce the winners
and open up the nomination form again, so GO NOMINATE YOURSELVES! Alot of talented people pass this website, I am very aware of that
and therefor I'd love to see you guys nominated at The Wild Awards.
It's a music video and fan art award site, though the fan art
section of it has never really taken off and that's what I hope it will do now. So NOMINATE yourselves :D
Big hugs to all my taggers and my affies! You guys rock! :)
So that's it for me today, I hope you enjoy my new work and visit The Wild Awards to nominate yourselves :) //Dana
February 14, 2005
Happy Valentines Day everyone!
So we're back on the day every single person dreads and every non-single loves. I'm personally
the first one and my day sucked until I got some sweet cards from some friends with cute teddy bears and hearts
on them, made me very happy :)
Today I've got 2� new pieces, 1 new affilite and 2 new awards to tell you guys about :) First with the pieces, then
the awards and lastly the affie - as always.
Ok, so I said I had 2� new pieces, this is because 2 of them is the same piece but with different effects - hense the � :)
the first one is a manipulation between Michelle Trachtenberg and Kate Beckinsale. I've completetly fallen in love
with manipulations and Michelle and Kate match eachother perfectly, so naturally I had to do more. This is just
a basic up close but I just love the pose and how the hair falls over her eye. I hope you like them and as usual,
can't spot that they're manips :)
The last one is a Spike and Buffy wall from Spikes p.o.v. It was made for a challenge over at buffyworld
- which I just found and realised that a whole bunch of my affies hung out there and now I'm hooked. They've got
an awesome fan art section with bunch of challenges, and where you can post your latest stuff and get a little more
serious feedback, and there's so much more. Anyways, I made this piece to sum up Spikes feelings toward Buffy during
season 5. We all know how he realised he loved her in the third episode "Out of My Mind" and after that tried everything
to get her and have her feel the same. I used pictures from "Fools For Love" - the one down on the left where Spike is lying
on the ground and Buffy is standing infront of him, and the shot of Buffy - and from "Crush" - when Spike has been
uninvited and can't come through the door anymore.
So, I was nominated over at WYDA, and I won in two categories! *happy* :)
I won Best Gallery and
Best Design! First time in months that I nominated the site,
and I won!
I also got a new affiliate: Vodvod @ Color Blind. Vodvod is a very
talented artist and you should visit CB today!
A big hug to Amber, thanx for the present sweetie! I loved it :) *puts it in the gift section*
I think that's all for me now. Have a great Valentines Day, big hugs to all of my affies and friends and visitors :D //Dana
February 10, 2005
Not much of an artwork update today, I've been doing stuff around the site the last few days,
and if you look to your left in the menu, you'll see a new category - Screen Caps. I realised
I have a whole bunch of screencap sites I've done for Freeze Frame, and I've fallen inlove with
Firefly after finally getting a chance to watch it, that I decided to give those sites/screen caps
their own space here. So check them out if you're in need of screen caps from the Whedon shows :)
I've also sorted up my resources into categories, makes my life much easier to keep track of
things. I've also sorted up my affilites, added their names and added a whole bunch of new affies. In
total I have gotten 8 new affiliates since my last update - gotta be a record for me :) I'm proud to present
my new affies who's sites you really should go visit today!
Tina @ Blueberry Wings,
Esterin @ Crazy Arts,
Blindfolded Hunter @ Until My Dying Day,
Ronny @ Dark Passion,
Jenny @ Gilmore Guide,
Sasha @ Morning-Frost.net,
Souly @ The Prophecy Designs and
Naama @ CowArt
Chosen Art has also won an award from Misplaced, curious of the award? Click to see it.
Big hugs to my sweet taggers. Other than that, I don't think I have more to add today, see you guys soon! *hugs* //Dana
Don't forget to vote for Chosen Art!
February 4, 2005
It's only three days since my last update but I have
three new pieces I'm eager to show you guys! They're all manips and I'm very proud of them! :) Hope you like them!
I'm also in the current running at "What you deserve awards" and now you guys can vote for me! Just click the image
that says "Vote for me" and you'll get to the site where you're doing it, it's done via a guestbook so don't become shocked
when you get there :) I hope you guys think my work and site is good enough to be voted on! :)
As I said, I have three new pieces I wanted to show you guys!. The first one is of Michelle Trachtenberg. Originally it's a
picture of Kate Beckinsale, but they have similar facestructure so she's a perfect body to manipulate with Michelle, and yes I know.
Again with Michelle. But I've fallen in love with her, she's so beautiful and she's perfect to do manips with, her face is in
such a structure that she works with most bodies :) Anyway, I wanted to go for the old look, so with alot of work I left it off
with some brushed by avh to help with the "old" look. This is in my opinion one of my top manips I've done so far!
The next piece is Mercedes McNab, aka Harmony. The picture to the left is not a manipulation but the right one is. The original is
actually Jennifer Aniston. I loved this pic and I just had to use it somehow and when I found the upclose on Mercedes I knew I had
hit jackpot! After doing the manipulation, I have never seen Mercedes that beautiful, I love her in bangs and I'm thinking about doing
more with her because of this :) The structure of the art is actually in original a thought by Monica. She made a piece featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar a few weeks ago and I loved how she had set it up,
with two pics and the name in the middle. I asked her if I could use the same structure and she was sweet and said that it's was perfectly ok,
so a BIG hugs to Monica! :) Hope you enjoy the manipulation as much as I do!
The last one is Sarah Michelle Gellar. I used the body of Heather Graham, but this time structure was not the deciding factor. I just loved
the picture itself, how primeval it was and it was very 60's in how it was done so I just had the urge to do something with it. And as I'm in
a complete addiction to manipulation, I ended up putting SMG there in stead. I used some screen caps of the desert in "Restless" because the original
pic ended just after the stick she's holding and that didn't really work so voila, some caps and I got a background :) I hope you like this one as well
and just like the other ones, can't spot that it's a manipulation (except on the fact that the picture is new :)).
I've spent around 4-5 hours on every one of these and I think it's payed off in a great way and I hope you guys agree and that you enjoy my
work. Big hugs to my sweet taggers - Amber, Jess, Anja25ive and Monica! Thanx guys! :)
That's it for me today, I hope you have a great weekend and I'll see you next week :) //Dana
February 1, 2005
Just a few days since my last update, but I thought I should do
one now, so I don't have a major big one later on :) Just went to see "Ladder 49" and I loved it, I cried and I laughed and
I just loved it. Definitly buying it when it comes out on dvd! Both John Travolta and Joaqin Phoenix is awesome actors, so
to me, this was just perfect!
On to the pieces. The first one is Rory and Lorelai of Gilmore Girls. Use some of my favourite pictures of the two, just found them
in HQ and I just had to do something with them. It's a pretty simple piece, not my best work but turned out ok, a bunch of textures, some
smudging and a little text, and I'm done.. ok, some other effects where involved as well, but I can't exactly remember which ones :)
Hope you like it!
Second one is of Rory and Logan, again Gilmore Girls. As you can see it's the same couple as in my current layout. I'm just inlove
with this couple, and I can't wait to see tonights episode! Anyway, I found a bunch of pics of the two and they looked so cute
that I just had to do something. I played around with it for a few hours, adding some textures and brushes and effects and this is the
result.
The last one is very special. It's Michelle Trachtenberg, but not. Ok, it's a manipulation, I loved this pic and I just felt I needed to turn
it into a buffyverse one. My first attempt was with Charisma Carpenter, but it didn't turn out very good.. like not at all! It pretty much sucked.
So after thinking about it for an hour of so, I decided to use Michelle instead. I know, I know. Now you're thinking "Again? Come on you just did
her!", but she's perfect for manipulations, her faceform is just perfect for the pics I find I want to do some manipulation with. Anyway. I added some
effects and textures and just a few brushes. I wanted her to stand out among the effects to the background is very blurry - plus, she's supposed
to be in the foreground, not background or in the middle :) I hope you like it and can't spot right away that it's a manipulation. If you can, then
ok, sorry but I hope you enjoy it anyway! :)
That's all for me tonight. Big hugs to my sweet taggers: slaygal, Amber and Nikki! //Dana
January 29, 2005
Well, it's been a while since the last update. I've been
busy working for my dad with two advertisement movies that's gonna be showed in stores around the country to
promot some new producs of Finax AB. This means I haven't had much time to do any fan art, so sadly I only have
two new pieces to show you guys today, but I hope you'll live.
The big happy news is that, look! A new layout! I loved the last one with Dawn and Xander but it was just so dark
and I really wanted a new bright layout for Chosen Art, since it's been a long time since the last light layout. This
features one of my new favourite couples on tv - Rory and Logan of Gilmore Girls. I fell for Logan the first time he
showed up and messed with Rory and I'm just waiting for the first kiss, so naturally I had to have a layout with them :)
It's actually a very simple header, I just blended the pics and added some textures, wanted it to be clean so the brushes
had to be nowhere to be found. Oh, and I made motion blur on all three pics to make the background better and to mesh the pictures
better. Thought it gave a great effect :)
Anyways, so the pieces I made was of David Boreanaz and Eliza Dushku. I really liked the photoshoot of David where he almost looks
like a drawn figure and not real - so with some new brushes and a bunch of textures I ended up with this piece. I wanted to go
with lighter colors when I didn't have the black, and I really wanted to underline the fact that he looked like a comic hero,
not a real guy - hope you guys think I managed to do so too, and that you like it of course! :)
The one of Eliza is just based on the fact that I LOVE those two pictures of her and I just HAD to use them. And getting her to
sit on the bed she was lying on, well, that was just something that was needed to be done :) I went with lighter colors, mainly because
the past few months my art has been very dark and I felt, a change of scenery would be nice + the colors really work great with the pics
of her. To me, the mood is just right!
Some plugs that need to be made: A lot of my affies has recently changed their layouts, so be sure to check ALL of them out - now :)
Also, alot of hugs to slaygal, anja25ive, Daniel, Kate, Monica, Jess, Amber (who's finally back online! *yeay*) and Nicole for your
sweet comments! :)
That's it for me today, gotta get something to eat now :) *hugs* to everyone who visits! //Dana
January 14, 2005
I can't believe it's 2005. There's so much I thought I'd do in 2004 and now
the year is gone, poof. But with a new year, new goals are set that won't be achieved, it's a tradition ;) Anyways, with the
new year I thought I should do an update. I've finally gotten back home after everything christmasy, and can now breath a little -
even though I know THAT'S not gonna happen in the near future. I've gotten some new affies, that are really talented, but as usual I'll
tell you more about them in the last part of the update. Chosen Art has also become a part of Slayerverse.de. After the announcement of this
a few days ago, the site got 1500 hits - within 24 hours. Believe me when I say I almost fell of my chair when I saw this! As you know, I've
been a teammember over there for a few months now and with the affiliation I was also offered to start posting some of my work every week,
which I gladly accepted :) Today's my first post, which some of you know as I know that some of my regular visitors are users over there as well. :)
But don't worry, this won't affect Chosen Art in anyway, you'll just the some of my art in two places at once.
So, with my new mouse I got an urge to do some new artwork, no surprice there, and I have 8 new pieces to show you guys! One of them, the last one
is part of a challenge I entered, which I haven't heard back from yet, but anyways - I'll tell you more about it when I've gone through the other ones.
I've gotten into doing alot of episodic art, I'm currently working on season 6, even though I have one season 2 and one season 3 piece today as well,
but I'm focusing on season 6 episodic wise, I'm also working on making a piece for the whole scoobie gang - characterwise, from season 4 and I've gotten
though with 2 already - Buffy and Willow.
#1 - The first piece is of buffy, it features a promo for season 4, and are a part of the new promo series I'm putting together. It's mostly brushes - all
of which is avh brushes - and some textures, I've also used the movie grain effect on buffy to make her a bit darker, to fit the general mood of the piece.
The words are by me.
#2 - The second is more about SMG, I love these pictures of her and when they surfaced a few days ago, or so, in HQ I just had to use them. I just
played around with them and some brushes and textures, and I ended up with this. I put in the words because it was just a thought I had and I thought that
they also added some effect to the piece as it looked a little empty without them.
#3 - This one is of Willow and is a part of the promo series I'm putting together (mentioned in the buffy piece above) and it features one of my
absolute favourite pictures of Will (AH) ever taken as a promo. I played around with the textures and brushes and added some effects and I eneded up with
this one. I was feeling a bit down the day I made it so that's why the text is so dark.
#4 - This piece features the episode "Innocence" back in season two and is the scene where Buffy realises the truth about Jenny Calender. I really like
this scene so I ended up doing a piece. It's not my best work but it's not my worst either. Hope you like it.
#5 - This piece is the scene in After Life in season 6 when buffy appears before Tara and Willow and screams at the and throws the glassball - or whatever
it's called - and I've been wanting to do this scene for so long. I've tried it atleast 4 times before and everytime it came out like rubbish. I hated all of
the results and I ended up deleting them. But this time I decided that I wouldn't stop until it was perfect - I really wanted to bring out the terror and fear
in that scene and I think I managed that this time. with only the contours of buffy and the looks on willows and taras faces to center it, along with the words
buffy speak. I hope you're as happy about it as I am!
#6 - This piece is the scene where Dawn goes in to sleep with the Buffybot because she misses Buffy so much. It always broke my heart to see that scene
and I realised I hadn't done anything with it, so I started working on it and this is the result. A very dark piece but I'm very satisfied with how it turned out.
#7 - This is from graduation day part 2 when Angel drinks of Buffy to be cured from the poison Faith gave him. I didn't really have any particular thoughts
when doing this one, I just went along with it and this is how it turned out.
#8 - The last piece of the day, featuring Willow's revenge on Warren. This was for a challenge where we should do something that had to do with "Karma" which
in this case means "What goes around, comes around", and this is what I ment with this piece, Warren killed Tara, Willow kills Warren. I wanted it dark, and grungy, or
something to that effect, and I think I got that one down. the text featured is what Willow tells Warren before she kills him, and what Warren says to Buffy before he
starts shooting and ends up killing Tara. on the bottom the Karma phrase is also featured.
So as I said I've gotten a whole bunch of new affies. They are: Kate @
Pixel Charged, Grant @ A Slayer's Gift,
Zugma @ Ugly Business &
Ann @ Obsession of the Moment. They're all amazin artists, so
head on over and check out their work - now! :)
As stated above, I've also become an affiliate with Slayerverse and a regular
art poster, a BIG hug to Slayer who runs the show over there!
Hugs to all my sweet taggers: slaygal - who floodes my tagboard -
but I still love her :) flood it any time honey! Elizabeth, Ana,
Justin,
Amber,
Zugma,
Grant,
Hayley, Brikar665, Sassy, Josie, asassssss,
Andrea, Buffy-Anne-Summers & dawn-n. Thanx to all
your sweet comments :)
That's it for me today, now I'm gonna go take care of my poor head (headache - hense the small pic of buffy at the top of the update). *hugs* to all my
affies! //Dana
December 26, 2004
Greetings all you living people :) I'm back! I've been offline for almost a month helping out at home, working
at school etc, but I finally have gotten some time to sit down and work with Chosen Art! As you can see, a new layout
has been put up. I loved the last layout alot but I felt I needed something new. I couldn't think of anything
particularly x-masy but then I realised that I love one of the latest pieces and decided to work from there
and this is the result: A Dawn & Xander layout :) Hope you guys like it!
I'd also like to take this chance to thank all my affies who sent me holiday gifts - I love you guys, and I loved the gifts!
I've added a part of the site where all my visitors (that means YOU! :)) can check out what I got for this x-mas from my
wonderful affies!
I had a great x-mas this year, got lots of Buffy goodies. A lot of fact books and some novels I was missing. Especially the
"Chosen" one by Nancy Holder. I tried to get ahold of this one here in Sweden but it was sold out and there wasn't any more at
the publisher either so they weren't going to recieve anymore. But my mum and dad went to London just before x-mas and got it
for me at the same time - suffice to say, I was happy :) I also got 2 calendars - one buffy, one SMG and one Spike. I got alot
of other goodies as well that wasn't Buffy/Angel related that I really loved! I finally got a new cordless phone, my last one
broke and I've had to live with a cord-one for about 2-3 months now and I hate using it when I'm sitting at the computer. But
now I'm set! :D
This thursday I'm celebrating my 22nd birthday - the day before new years. I'm hoping for some Angel goodies - a calendar
would be nice *drool* :) and some other stuff, like Troy!! or The Butterfly Effect!! or Socks. I use my socks until they fall
apart and I'm in desperate need of new ones :) Anyway, It'll be a nice and quiet birthday this year, just me and my family.
I've been working alot with Slayerverse this past month and because of this I have 12 new artworks for you guys
to check out! As always, all of the new pieces has been added to recent additions and also featured below within this update
so you guys know what I'm talking about and don't think I'm just rambling :)
# 1 - The first piece is a x-masy with Spike and Buffy. I really like this picture of the two of them and thought I'd do
something x-masy with it. I checked around for some x-mas pics and finally found some after searching for about 2 days *puh*.
I ended up at FreeFoto.com and got me some pics
of trees etc. When added to the pic with Buffy and Spike I then just added some textures and some brushes. That's it. The
hardest thing with this one was thinking of something good text-wise, thought about it for probably an hour until I just wrote
"A Christmas To Remember" on it.
# 2 - This is my first piece with Cordy alone. I've made one with her and Angel before but nothing with only her (though if you
look close enough, you'll find Angel in the pic, not gonna tell you where though - that would be cheating ;)). I love this moment
when she acends to a higher plane and becomes a Higher Being. I wanted some warm colors for this piece to be able to feel the wormth
and love that lies within Cordy. I used alot of brushes in this one from AVH, there isn't that many pics within this one. Mostly
pans of Cordy acending with the light above her. I also used a pic of the boat Connor used when trapping Angel at the bottom of
the sea because I really liked the lights the boat cast on the water - you can't actually see the boat but it's placed just left
of the big picture of Cordy. I used the words spoken by Cordy when she rambles until she realises that she IS a higher being.
# 3 - This features the scene in the season finale of Angel when Willow has come to tell him that Buffy is dead. I actually made
a piece with this moment once before - like 6 months ago, but I was never truly saticfied. I gave it another shot, this time
using alot of brushes featuring old paper, adding a pic of Cordy from when she's about to ask willow what's going on. I only used
one closeup of Willow, when she's sitting on the couch just as the gang walks in. She looks completely devastated and then the look
on Angels face when he realises that it's Buffy she's come for.
# 4 - It's about the last moments of Doyle, when he realises what the good fight is. I used the moment when Cordy embraces
Angel and looks Doyles way, and several pics of Doyle on the killing machine (can't remember the exact name) and a big one of
Doyle as the demon he is. I wanted to use the bright light the machine gave and just get into the moment it happens.
# 5 - This is the scene after Faith has taken over Buffy's body in "Who Are You?" and she's standing infront of the mirror trying
to be Buffy, doing all these faces, saying "You can't do that, it's wrong" "it's naughty" etc. I always loved this scene but at
the same time it scared me like hell, especially when the last thing she says as Buffy in that scene is "I'm gonna kill you" and
then she leans into the camera - or the mirror - and you hear Faith (Eliza) laugh. It's so creepy, and that's what I wanted to
show in this piece, that that scene isn't all fun and games, it's actually very frightening but at the same time, funny. Hard
to explain but I hope you get it. :)
# 6 - This is from the episode Becoming Part 1, and it's the moment Buffy's running though the school corridors. I've always
loved seeing that scene when she opens the door, and just as she comes around the corner everything becomes slow-motion. And
then you hear Whistler talking during her run. I've always liked what he says - "The big moments are gonna come, you can't help
that. It's what you do afterwards that counts." - I think those are words that one should live by in some ways. I also added a head
shot of Buffy as she looks up when she's over Kendra. The expression on her face felt perfect for this piece. I didn't have that
much thought about how I wanted the effects to be, they just evolved themselves.
# 7 - This was just an idea my mum had. She just told me - do something with Jonathan and Buffy. I thought about this and did some
other arts in between and then I began working with this one. I remembered the episode where Jonathan makes the world his and he
is this big superstar and I thought that Slayer and Superstar would be perfect for this piece. I just picked my favourite pictures
of the two and put them together and went from there. The colors in the picture of Jonathan (Danny Strong) inspired me to go the
green and black way. It felt right and I'm happy about how it turned out. This is also my first piece with a minor character. But
I've always loved Jonathan, even when he was "evil". I always had sympathy for him and thought he was so sweet and I felt so sorry
for him when he wanted to kill himself. It felt right to put him and Buffy together, not only for the episode Superstar but because
they've had a link with eachother for a lot of years now. He gave her the Class Protecter award, she saved his life several times,
and when he was evil he didn't want to kill her - he even helped her when she fought Warren. In my eyes, the guy had always been the
sweetest and I cried the day they killed him. (ok, so I'm rambling on about Jonathan here, but I really love this character :))
# 8 - Here I just wanted to use some happy pics of the triangle that is Angel/Buffy/Spike. I love the pic of Angel and Spike together.
For once they look like friends :) I just added some effects (brushes) to it so that it didn't turn out too black and then I showed it
to my brother who's first reaction was - X FILES! - I just looked at him, what? He told me that it made him think of X files because
- which I afterwards realised he was right about - the poses they stood in was the typical X files poses. Said and done I made it
The Buffy Files. Because what else could one call it when it's the three of them? :)
# 9 - I realised I've never done anything with Giles before - if you don't count the layout I had a few versions ago, but that wasn't
just him and the piece with him and Buffy, but again, not alone - so I thought I'd do something. I really liked this photoshoot of
him so I thought "what the h***" and I sat down, picked
up the pics and started to work and as I worked I came to think about that we have seen Giles as Giles - the sweet, a bit geeky and
bookish, sometimes stuffy, english librarian/watcher. But then we've also seen Giles as Ripper - the guy who without a moments pause
kills Ben because Buffy couldn't, the Ripper who was the rebellion in his teens and the Ripper we don't know that much about. As I thought
about this I realised that this guy has two sides. So I used a happy smiling Giles as Giles and a more serious not so nice looking
Ripper to stand on the other side. He is the man with two faces. I wanted to make it a bit mystical and messy but at the same time, not.
It's hard to explain my thoughts on the effects on this one as I had alot of them but I can't really remember them, just the feeling I
had when doing it.
# 10 - This piece is my pride and joy! It is also the current layout! I've always loved the bond between Dawn and Xander, both the
brother/sister bond they had in the later years but also when Dawn had a crush on Xander. They're so sweet and special and I thought
that a piece with them would be perfect. As I started to look for pictures things went downhill because I really couldn't find anything
good and I was loosing my inspiration. Finally I found a pic of Xander and Cordy from season 2 or 3. I thought about it and then I decided
to try to do a manipulation. I've done this before and it hadn't turned out very good, like, ever. But I decided to give it a try, I was
afterall in love with the picture of Xander and Cordy and thought it would be PERFECT if I could get it right with Dawn and Xander. I began
looking through the pics of Dawn and finally found one from season 6 - the promos - and thought that her expression and her hair was perfect.
The hair part because it wasn't in her face cutting of anything and the expression - well, look at the pic and you'll understand :)
Anyway, I began working on it and finally got her face on Cordy's and it was perfect, except the part about her being so much MORE lighter
than the rest of the pic, after alot of effort and touch and feeling etc I finally got the color on Dawn's face to match the rest. And more
perfectly - I got her face to blend with Cordy's forhead and her ears and some of her cheeks. I'm so happy about how this piece worked out
that I just had to use it for my newest layout! I hope you like it as well and can't tell that it's a manipulation. :)
# 11 - This is my second piece with Cordy. I didn't have that much thoughts when I began doing this one, I just put the two pictures
together and started to mess around with it for a few hours, not one brush has been used in it, it's all textures and the pictures
that is the effects :)
# 12 - This is the last one of them all. It's one of Buffy and Riley. Being a Bangel myself I didn't always approve of Riley but re-watching
the show has shown me who and what Riley really was. This really great guy who loved Buffy alot. Sure he had his downsides - the suckage
of vampires being one that disturbed me but that I could understand - but he's human, he's allowed to have downsides and bad days just like
the rest of the scoobies. I've come to understand during alot of my discussions with other fans that this relationship has been hated by
alot of fans and people has been anti-Riley so much that it's almost been disturbing. So the perfect name for this piece was "a Love overlooked"
as nobody want anything to do with it - except the fans of it of course :) I used two pics of Buffy and Riley that I put together as one
as a representation of them and then two pictures from their first kiss. I love that moment nowadays so I just had to use it. The colors
just turned up when adding some textures and then I added some brushes and this is the result :) I hope you guys like it as much as I do!
PUH - finally the update is completed. It became so much longer than I thought it would but I hope you had the time and efforts to read
through it and I hope you enjoy my work as much as the next one :) Hugs to all of you - especially Amber, Jess,
Monica, Nikki, Orome and
Peyton! See you guys soon, if not in 2004 then in 2005! Have a great last days of the year! //Dana