I have just watched the movie "Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood" on YouTube, you can watch it here: [link] - it lasts over an hour though, and I'm sure you're all too busy, but it's Friday night, so if you're at home, trust me, it's worth it.

The conclusion of the film is in short: kids get conditioned into buying stuff, watching screens, and only emulate learned behavior, losing the chance to develop their own imagination.
I think this is very true.
I have a younger brother, he's 17 now. We were raised by the same parents, but under different circumstances. When I was a kid, we lived in the country until I was 4.5 years old. We had a small farm with sheep, chickens, our own vegetable garden, fruit, corn etc. I was a very lonely kid - surrounded only by adults most of the time, and adults pretty much don't have the time to entertain you. I had books, TV, notebooks, colored pencils and markers, and some toys - building blocks, cars, stuffed animals, and two Barbie dolls. I was playing alone, and often talking to myself, the way children do when you leave them alone. Later I got some Mickey Mouse comic books from older cousins so I got pulled into the same marketing scheme everyone else was in and soon we moved to a slightly less rural town, and I had to learn to socialize with children. It was difficult, but I made it through somehow with minor emotional bruises.

At one period in my childhood, I think between ages 11 and 14, me and my pals (ages 6, to 14 like me) who came to the village over summer had a game. There was this threshing floor in the village that wasn't used for over a decade, and it had a low wall you could sit on so we imagined it was our house, and we were brothers and sisters aged from 13 to 18. We were a rich family, and our parents were always on a business trip, or on a vacation on Hawaii or something. So we had this house, but no things in it - then we went to a huge pile of rocks and searched for stones that looked like things. Each of us had a "room" with stones arranged on the wall that looked like TV, computer, telephone, hairdryer, make up... we had everything made of rocks. I shit you not. My cousins teased me that we're playing the Flinstones. Well we couldn't care less about the Flinstones, our setting was modern, but rocks were everything we had.

My younger brother did not have this "rural buffer". He was immersed in the culture since age 3 when he started kindergarten. When he was a child, we already had a computer at home and sometimes I'd let him play Super Mario. Then Pokemon came, and he was as infatuated as any other kid. Then there was something else, then there were soccer games, computer games on my old laptop, etc.
I love him of course, but I have a hard time accepting that he ended up so different. He isn't interested in anything other than girls, computer games, watching sports (not even playing anymore) and drinking. I'm disappointed, but really there's nothing I could do to prevent it from happening. I gave him books, played boardgames with him, drew with him... He had access to everything I had, and even more. Now I think this "more" part was somehow at fault. I don't know.
I was a bad girl too at his age of course (and occasionally I still am), but at least I was creative! I was sewing bags, painting silk scarfs, making jewelry, playing the piano, reading a 500 page book a week, started designing web sites... I can't remember a time of my life when I wasn't creating something. Now of course, I don't expect everyone to be like that. Having that many hobbies is a curse actually and I would advise against it. But one, just one, at least reading something that isn't Dylan Dog, come on...

A lot of times I hear from young folks here on the forums, "I have an art block, I don't know what to draw!"
I can't remember when I had this problem. There's always more pictures in my head, then I can put on paper. To me, and "art block" is when I can't be arsed to pick up a pencil because I'm just too lazy. Not lack of imagination.

And then, at the bottom of the barrel, there are kids who don't even try to imagine anything. Just Naruto, Pokemon, Disney, Sailor Moon, Sonic, and whatever else is popular these days. OK sure, if you're inspired by a cartoon, draw something every now and then, but all the freaking time? How don't you kids get bored with that?
And now I understand how.
The poor little imagination-lacking indoctrinated creatures.
Take away their favorite cartoon characters, and what do they have left?

...

Is there anything left?

Does anyone ever talk to themselves anymore?

Does anyone play with sticks and rocks, other than throwing them at cats?

Are we as a society rooting out creativity?

I have no idea how you're supposed to be a good parent these days. If I do things the way I think it's right, my child is going to be an outcast like I was, and will probably resent me.
I get really depressed when I think about it and wonder if I even want to bring a child into this cruel world.

Hi there,

I don't remember posting any of this here? Well, I get requests for permission quite often, and every time I say the same: No problem, just please send me a photo!
So far I got 3 photos.

Dave put my image Electric Medusa on his arm: photo. Such a shame it's a crappy mobile photo, and looks unfinished, so I can't be the judge really.

Next are two ladies who liked my Phoenix very much (actually, all the people except Dave asked me about the Phoenix).
Charlene prefers pure black tattoos (me too ) - photo - and Matt Parkin at Southern Ink (you can see the photo there as well, but the one she sent me is taken from a better angle ) did a great job of making it blend with the back. It's a friggin huge tattoo!
Lauren likes it colorful - photo - and I can't blame her, this looks really cute The artist took some liberty in changing the original because it's placed on the side, it turned out very nice.

P.S.

I've been active on ~MissAnnThropia during the summer so visit it if you're interested in jewelry.

I was attending figurative drawing class for a couple of months. For results visit my sketchblog.

Cheers,
Nela

Clubs

Hi.

*tumbleweed rustle*

It's not easy maintaining 3 dA accounts at the same time, so usually I just ignore the existence of those I'm not submitting anything to at the time. I finally cleaned up my message center and now I can start ignoring it again
Ok kidding, I'll try not to.

Quick notes:

I've been active on ~MissAnnThropia during the summer so visit it if you're interested in jewelry.

I was attending figurative drawing class for a couple of months. For results visit my sketchblog.

Cheers,
Nela

Clubs

I haven't had the time to comment on your work lately, I've been around.. I had a small exhibition at a SF & fantasy con in Slovenia, and that was fun. Besides that, I was mainly fooling around doing nothing worthy of mention, so now I'll have to get to some serious work.

But the reason I'm updating this journal is to tell you I've opened a new account with my jewelry, accessories and other handmade stuff. I thought about putting it here, but changed my mind in the end, and I think my male watchers will appreciate it

So if you're interested, check it out: ~MissAnnThropia
It's still new and only has a few items, but I will keep posting to it as I make new stuff. I have a lot of materials that just wait to be used!

Cheers,
Nela

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I'm updating my website (In obscuro) regularly, but I guess most of my watchers don't go there so here's what happened since my last journal entry.

I've been a part of Morbid Visions art show that was held from October 22nd to November 3rd 2007 at the Newark Art Supply, New Jersey. Here's a flyer of the show: [link]
Prints that were exhibited in the show were Condemned and Electric Medusa.
The opening of the show was on Halloween, so everyone wore costumes and seems like they've had a pretty good time. A couple of photos from the show: [link] [link] [link]

I got a new camera recently, Pentax K100D Super. That means more photo-manipulation when I find the time to do it.

As usual, my sketchblog gets updated at least once a week, so check it out for some random doodles and WIPs.

EDIT: Battlefield Istria is published!

Knjiga se može kupiti na kioscima uz "Glas Istre" za povoljnih 39 kuna, više informacija ovdje: [link]

I had a fun during the holidays, and I hope you did too.
Now back to work

Cheers,
Nela


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Hi,

I've been away for a long time since I was too busy to do personal art projects, and now I come with more unhappy news - my Fuji got stolen this weekend while I was at the SF&F con... Someone failed to guard our stuff and some lowlife took a chance. There were more stuff there like my laptop, a printer, our money from tickets etc., but only my camera is missing.
Crap.
I have no idea when I'll be able to get a new one, so I guess this means more drawings, less photo-manipulation in the future.

In brighter news, there is a group show I'll participate in scheduled for Halloween, more info on this soon.

Thanks to everyone who decided to watch me and favourited or commented my work, I'll check all of you out when I have more time to spend at DA, which I hope to be soon.

If you feel like watching at my less interesting work, visit my sketchblog which is updated sort of regularly with random junk.

Hugs,
Nela

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Hi there,
wow I'm actually making use of this journal. Didn't think I'd ever do that.
I haven't been around DA much, and now I have over 100 deviations to check out, plus a bunch of messages to answer (not counting my other account).. damn. Life is busy.
My lectures are done, now I "only" have to take a bunch of exams.
I'm done with some work projects, yet I have more to attend over the next few months, so I have no idea when I'll get to do some personal art

The bright side of hard work is - I'm getting a Wacom intuos3 in a couple of days! The current one I have is A6-sized Genius and the pen is fixed with a duct tape because I sat on it once and the contact is loose so it sometimes doesn't work properly :/ I can't wait to see how the Wacom compares to this one

There's some WIP stuff at my sketchblog, and.. I think that's it for now. Most of the stuff I did are web-design and coding related so it's not so interesting to look at.

Two weeks ago I went to see the Dream Theater concert, and it was so awesome... I was in front, and some nice fella carried me on his shoulders for awhile so I even got to see the stage lol
Tori Amos in Ljubljana next week, can't wait
I suppose that's it till autumn, I'm out of cash now.

I'll try to answer your comments, but if I don't, don't get this personally, I really appreciate all your comments and favs and watches and everything! I'd appreciate if someone bought a print too, but hey praise is good

Cheers,
Nela

P.S. Thanks to `devildoll, *FrozenStarRo and ~fallenangel-089 for featuring my work in their journals, and `nighty for including it in Dark Materials - Edition 03

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I'm trying to fight my Internet addiction (so I could work and study more), so my time spent on DA is limited. There's a bunch new deviations waiting in the message center for me to check out, so don't be surprised if I comment on something you submitted a month ago

I recently read something Giger's agent wrote in response to an e-mail some "aspiring artist" sent him. Go here and scroll to the middle of the page. Those are some really great advices, and I'll be religiously following them in the future (in case I wasn't already doing it).

I usually hate the "tagged" stuff (and I never do it) but I liked this particular thing I picked up from *KmyeChan:

Feel free to ask me up to 3 questions. It can be anything, but I'd appreciate if you ask something I'm likely to know the answer, not the "why did the chicken cross the road" type of questions.
And please ask in English, so everyone can read it

I won't tag anyone, do it if you like it
Have a nice day.

Cheers,
Nela

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Hi,

the geek-a-con went great I've met a lot of people I talked to online, and some new people. I won't write much, but you can check out the photo gallery if you're interested. you can even hear my voice in one of the videos

Cheers,
Nela

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WARNING: Long and boring journal ahead. EDIT in bold letters below.

I've been traveling lately, so I'm late with my projects, and I missed out on some important things at college, but I just had to go.

First there was a NIN concert in Vienna, which was absolutely amazing, in every way. The sound was good, awesome set list... I went there by myself, but I met some nice people on the way there, so it turned out much better than I hoped.
Some photos (taken by a guy named Vida): [link] [link] [link] [link]
Definitely one of the best concerts I've been to.

Then I was invited by my cousin to visit them in London. Her daughter was baptized on Easter, and they asked me to be her godmother (oh, the irony).
The trip was fantastic, but very very short, because I already missed a lot on college, so I had to come back as soon as possible.
Some photos from my trip (NOT of the touristic nature... I'll keep those to myself because they're boring): [link] [link] [link]

I'm still working on a project I've been working on for over 6 months and I'm getting tired of it, but we're close to end.

My friend ~Huanglong, another 2 creative fellas and me are working as a team now. We already finished 2 projects (one of them was a Eurobus website), and there are more in the making. I've been offered a job a couple of times, but I refused due to college obligations. But this time it's different. Since all of us are students, we have pretty the same priorities and plans. I'm glad to be finally working with someone who understands my ideas. You'll be hearing more about our work.

Erm... what else... oh yes.
My latest deviation is a commission for the cover of annual SFeraKon book of SF and fantasy stories. It is also used in the poster [link] (poster and cover were not designed by me. I only did the illustration.)
I was suggested to prepare a small exhibition there, but we're still discussing that.

[EDIT]
The winners of the SFera annual award are announced (croatian). I won in the category "Best Illustration" for the cover of NOSF e-zine. To be honest, I was appalled by this, since I had no idea I was even nominated. This is really quite an honor, because this award exists since 1981. and has been given to some seriously awesome writers and illustrators (among them Igor Kordej, who is like... an icon).
I seriously didn't foresee something like this so soon.
I mean, I would never give myself the award, because I see all the mistakes in my own work.
This feels really, really weird.
I better print some business cards to hand out at the convention
[/EDIT]

I figured SF conventions are a good place to promote my work, so I entered a digital SF & fantasy photography competition at Konfuzija 2007. It was open for photo-manipulations as well, so I sent in Paloma Nera, Electric Medusa and You can't own me. I won the 2nd prize!

Now I have to figure out how to appear on both conventions. It's not only the time, but money issue as well. I hope someone will drive there, so I can hop in.

I made a sketchblog recently, so if anyone's interested... feel free to visit it.

Cheers,
Nela

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Today I got my hands on a Fuji FinePix s9600 and it's awesome and I love it and I can't wait for the Sun to rise so I can go stalk my cats.
(I know you photographers will say why oh why didn't I buy a real SLR but the truth is, I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway, and I don't have so much money right now.
I'll be posting my photo stuff at ~jackie-daniels because putting it in my main gallery just doesn't feel right.

(btw, my new ID was made mostly using my old photos, with only a few new textures)

Cheers,
Nela

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I've neglected deviantART for quite a while... ironically, it was during the time I was subscribed
it's not because I wasn't doing anything... I just uploaded a screenshot of a web site I desiged, and I'm currently finishing another one... I did a load of anatomy sketches, you can see some of them in the scraps. Sorry for flooding your devwatch with this sort of stuff... I know that's not why you're watching me

I was also waiting for my new computer so I could start on something complex, because I don't have the patience to go through the same thing I did while working on Electric Medusa... that was just horrible, having to wait for 2 minutes every time I save the work. Now I have a pretty powerful machine, dual core, 2 GB of RAM, 256 MB graphic card and whatnot. Yay

EDIT: I just realized my digital camera died completely I don't want to spend my whole savings on an SLR... I'm stuck. blah.

Thank you for your support, favourites and watches. I tried to reply to all of you, I hope I haven't forgotten anyone.
Friends, sorry for not commenting on your work lately, but I was checking it out every now and then

Cheers,
Nela

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