First of all, I want to say ‘Thank you!’ to all the lovely people who participated in my latest poll and left a comment what kind of tutorial they would like to see me do – the response was huge and very constructive, and I’ll sit down now and evaluate the various comments and then make a listing, starting the series of tutorials with the most favourite topics.

To my new watchers, a warm welcome, and to my old friends here – thanks for staying with me although Dragon Age stole me away for a few weeks.

Now life’s almost back to normal, and my art bunnies have supplied me with various new ideas that I am working on, so my gallery will be busy again from now on.

I hope you’re all doing well and wish you a wonderful weekend, wherever you are!

Cheers,
~Kaana

I saw one of ’s recent artworks merely by chance – and was blown away right away. Her drawings show great skill and love for detail, so I wanted to share some of my favourites with you:

Some of you asked me about lighting in Poser for a tutorial. Although I create many lightings myself, there are some premade lighting sets out there that I like to use for inspiration or as a base to work with, so I thought I’d share one of the packs I find very useful:

Luz de Imagen by FKDesign [link]

A great variety of lighting presets, easy to use and easy to shape to your will.

For those of you who might have wondered – no, I did not fall off the face of the Earth.

It just so happened that my copy of Dragon Age arrived this Saturday, so I spent almost all my free time gaming these days. I apologize to all of you who are waiting for a new piece of art, but I promise that once I’ve finished my first playthrough, world will be back to normal.

So, who of you has played the game? I’ve talked to some fellow gamers already, but I’d really like to know more about your thoughts.

I started my game with a human mage (there’s a conceptual image of her in my gallery) and really liked that origin… not to mention the fact that mages just kick a** in DA.

I’m approx. 1/3 into the game and the main story progresses really nicely and is extremely entertaining… but I absolutely love that game for the character interactions and all the small details. The companions are all truly fleshed out with distinct personalities, and it’s fun to listen to their banter or watching the small cut scenes that feature them.

A good example for the well-done details in DA is the gossip. People are actually talking in the streets about stuff they heard when you pass them by, and so far I did not manage to hear the same gossip twice – and believe me, I tried. And the gossip even changes depending on the quests you finished, with people talking about what you accomplished and wondering whether that news is true. I know it’s just a minor detail, but it helps the world to feel more real and fleshed out, and shows how much love the developers put into everything.

All in all, I’m really happy I bought that game and can only recommend it to all who like RPGs with good character interaction.

And rest assured that once I finished my first playthrough, there will be tons of new DA fanart in my gallery.

I hope you’re all doing well, and promise to update my features during the weekend!

Cheers,
~Kaana

is new to dA, and I really think you should check out his wonderful 3D works – his style is very unique and highly detailed, and definitely worth a look:

I spent some time searching for Vue Beginner tutorials on the net, and finally found this page:

Geekatplay.com [link]

I tested more than half of the videos here, and can only recommend them for noobs like me – they give you a good feel and overview concerning the various options of Vue and hand you the base knowledge to improve your skill via practising and practising and practising… well, you get the picture.

But they are rather short and easy to follow, so I thought I should share it here as well.

UPDATE: Keep your eyes open for the kiriban - less than 500 clicks to go.

Watch out for my 66.666th pageview – the person who gets closest and shows me a screenie will get a single character portrait as a free commission!

~~~~~

I’ve been away to Russia the past week. It was a business trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and although I had an incredibly tight schedule filled with meetings and stuff (and almost no sleep at all ), it was a wonderful experience, and Im certain that I’ll remember it fondly for the rest of my life.

Needless to say that I’m terribly behind on my comments and devwatch list again, but I already started to catch up, so you’ll hear from me soon enough.

On a more artistic note, I realised that it is time to move on to the next level. First, I learned Poser, and after some gentle nagging, I started to add some postwork to the mix… and I think that it is time to sit down and add another software now. Sure, I still have much to learn, but I think that I have reached an understanding of CS3 that allows me to produce some ok postwork results, so I think it’s a good point to start another learning curve. *sigh*

I just wish I had a little more time, then it would be much easier to motivate myself to spend some time reading tutorials rather than creating art.

But I really want to sit down now and start my hands on Vue next week, and if you want to help – keep nagging.
Ask me about my progress, demand first render scraps or whatever – just remind me that I have to keep improving, and I’ll love you for that.

Cheers, and I hope you’re all doing fine!
~Kaana

is new to dA, and I really think you should check out his wonderful 3D works – his style is very unique and highly detailed, and definitely worth a look:

Sorry, no special feature this time. I really need more dA time!

You want to know why I love this place? Look at this awesome gift that painted for my 2nd dAnniversary:



Thanks so much, hon - that is such a wonderful surprise!

~~~~~

Today is my 2nd dA anniversary.

It made me a little sentimental, so I went all the way through my gallery to watch my first deviations again, and had to grin at the fact that Bishop and Karnwyr were actually the first characters I uploaded here to dA – some things never change, or so it seems.

I pondered about the past two years, and I am happy to say that my art has constantly developed (and hopefully improved) during that time, and that I’m feeling that I’m slowly growing to become the artist I want to be. I met an awesome community here, and many of my watchers know me for almost the whole two years, some of them becoming good friends in the process. It was a wonderful time, and I cannot wait to see where we’ll all be in two years, and I certainly hope that we’ll still spend much time together here at dA, enjoying each others works.

That said, I’m slowly nearing a pageview number that’s too cool to be ignored for a Kiriban, so the person who catches my 66.666th pageview will get a single character portrait as a free commission.

On a different note – it seems that dA has finally made up their mind about the Share buttons, and I can say that I’m pleased with the final solution and the new image options. What do you think about it?

Cheers, and have a lovely weekend – wherever you are!
~Kaana

Take a look at and some gems from his very impressive gallery:

I thought I’d share links to my favourite render content items and merchants here to spread the word and thank them for the wonderful stuff they have created.

This time, I’d like to introduce you to , who is the creator of many of the background images I use for my artworks. You can find her Renderosity account here:

[link]

Some of my images that use one of her backgrounds:


*didi-mc creates awesome sceneries with highly intriguing atmospheres, and her packs always come with a high resolution that makes working with her stuff truly a delight.

If you'd like to know more about specific items I used, just leave a comment and I'll feature the information here in another journal.

Hello everyone - I just came back from my trip to Stockholm and proudly present you my new journal design. And, what do you think?

A big hug to my husband who helped me with the CSS, and to `Lilyas since one of her wonderful CSS inspired this one.

Now I have a lot of catching up to do, but I'm really looking forward to all your new deviations. And watch out - new art is on the way, as well as some photographs from my holidays... be prepared!

Cheers, and have a lovely summer week!
~Kaana

Follow me to the world of and her wonderful imagination:

I thought I’d share links to my favourite render content items and merchants here to spread the word and thank them for the wonderful stuff they have created. The start makes Poisen, whose amazingly detailed props can be found here at Renderosity:

[link]

I own several of these packs, including the Badlands, mushrooms and War banners, and can honestly say that Poisen’s items never disappoint – they are incredibly versatile and always come with high quality textures, so they are worth every single cent you pay for them.

If you'd like to know more about specific items I used, just leave a comment and I'll feature the information here in another journal.