mysticalpha

Shorter month but I got some more things done. In this entry, I'll discuss the art stuff and what's been happening recently but really, it's probably gonna be about tech.

Art Stuff. I tackled a bunch of sketches I had lying around. I still have some left I have yet to do. Yet again, the safe stuff didn't take priority so stuff to post here won't be abundant. To combat this, I will make an effort to have a safe and naughty version of the same picture. That'll probably make the safe versions look a bit weird and if you took a second look at one or two recent pictures, you can tell they're hiding something.

Pluggin. if you're into the naughty stuff, I recently made an alternate twitter for that at twitter.com/mysticbeta. Also, I am continuing posting stuff on inkbunny at inkbunny.net/mysticalpha and hopefully will be caught up in a few months. 

Tech. Over the past 2 years, I've been slowly planning upgrades to my setup. Currently, I'm still using an intel i7 3770. Yes, that old. Gamers cringe. Surprisingly still adequate for my purposes. I knew an upgrade was gonna cost a lot so I decided to make a sidegrade instead. I upgraded the old rig with more ram and swapped out the graphics card. Everything I decide to get as an upgrade takes a journey in my mind. In terms of my graphics card, I went from wanting a rx480 to a 1060 to a 1070ti to finally a 1070 to replace my antiquated radeon 7600 or was that a 7800? Bah, in the drawer you go. The journey continues with which CPU I want to upgrade to. Seeing how intel is usually higher in cost, I decided to go with AMD as my next CPU. It went from me wanting a 1700 to a 2700x to the unreleased 3rd gen ryzen to an i7 to a 2600x. Besides the other components such as the mainboard, ram and cooler, the tech upgrade does not end there. I'm in need of another hdmi monitor preferably one with an ips panel and decent color reproduction. I'll need to eventually replace the first old monitor with that exact same model so they both match. I'll also need the arms to go along with it. Wait... the tech upgrade still does not end there because...

Itsdedjim. Things don't last forever. My old Canon digital camera recently suffered a mechanical malfunction and became unusable. I barely used the thing too and gave up just like that. You know what else is old? Android OS 4.4 and that's exactly what my phone is still on. You know what else sucks? Apps that no longer support that OS. You know what that means. I need a new phone. It'll be tough in this day and age when phones cost hundreds and you need to finance something in order to get one. Hey, did you guys see the new folding phones which cost around 2k? Ohboy, tech is expensive. I can tell you one thing, I'm surprised my old rig lasted this long. I bet it still has a few good years left in it.

At this point, I'll probably wait for 3rd gen ryzen. By the time I have the funds for it, it'll be out already. Comment section below, let me know what you think of my upgrade options. BTW, anyone using a Huion tablet, the ones with a screen on it? If so, how does it hold up to a cintiq?

I hope you all had a good holiday. There's not much to ramble about since this is more of an announcement. 

Tweet. Since fumblr has become less useful to me, I have decided to post the naughty stuff on twitter. If any of you are into that and I know some of you are, you can follow at twitter.com/mysticbeta.

Art Pack. Speaking of saucy stuff, the next art pack is now up on Gumroad which contains all the non commissioned artwork I have done from July to December 2018. It includes adult and non adult in large PNG format with applicable alternates and extras. You can purchase it at gumroad.com/mysticalpha.

Future Pictures. Here are the pictures ready to post in the next month or two: 6 pony pictures, 1 peach, 1 girl and 1 BG.

Um... er... *looks around frantically for stuff to talk about* Ah, so how's the weather? 

The year's almost over and what a year it has been. I feel it wasn't the best year but hey, we're still alive... *sobs in the corner*

The art stuff. I have been concentrating on commissions this past month or two because of a time sensitive financial situation. Hopefully, that is resolved. The holiday commission sale was a success. Thank you for those of you who sent some my way. Aside from the commissions, I am now rushing to get the patreon rewards finished before the end of the month. All of that means I haven't done much sfw stuff I can post here but I still have 8 things I can post and possibly a commission or two. 

Fumblr. I'm sure some of you know about what tumblr did this month. If you haven't, they basically changed their policy to disallow adult content on their platform. Why? Because they got kicked out of the apple app store for certain malicious activity. Somewhere, someone in HQ most likely got tired of hearing about the ongoing problems with the platform, threw their hands up and decided to mandate the new policy. Banging their fists on the desk like Jameson is how I pictured it. So since they lack the staff to check content, they have bots flagging potentially unwanted content including falsely flagging content that's totally squeaky clean. Gee, where have I heard this before? *looks at youtube* At one point, I thought it would be a good place to archive all my art. Ah well, all things must come to an end as Spock said. Will tumblr go away because of this? I think it won't be the end for them because of this new policy. They will eventually become less relevant and gradually fade away. 

What does that mean for me? I currently have a blog for posting safe ponies and I have another for posting naughty ponies and furries. Obviously, the latter is an issue. I'm certain tumblr no longer allows photographic adult content but they didn't go into details on art and illustrated naughty stuff. Seeing how half my blog is flagged, I assume that's not okay either. What do I do now? I can still post safe ponies on there but it's less useful to me now since I can't post naughty ponies. For now, I'm posting that on my Discord server. Eventually, I will have them on inkbunny as well. Other artists have migrated to twitter and newgrounds. Other places I have heard are furaffinity and mastodon.

Patreon dramatica. Tumblr wasn't the only thing that had some drama going on. Patreon recently received some opposition because they removed a creator for, what some say, questionable reasons. Whether or not I think it's right for them to do so, I think it will not affect them in the long run. Just in case they end up going away, I have been thinking about using Gumroad for early access stuff.

Holidays. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Happy holidays if you wanna be PC about it. My family doesn't celebrate the common holidays much. Since we're always teetering on the edge of financial oblivion, it wasn't necessary to devote resources to do so. These past two months has made me realize that my situation can change with a drop of a hat. It felt like a roller-coaster ride of despair and ignorant bliss. There are times when I just didn't wanna deal or talk with anyone. In the end, I'm glad I talked to someone about it and I'm grateful for their support. It goes to show that having friends and family there with you is important and being able to have nice shiny things for the holidays isn't necessary.

UPDATE: This sale is finished. Thank you for everyone who sent commissions and I'll see you next time!

Hey look, it's the holidays! You know what that means, right?
I'm in the poor house and you need a gift. 

For the month of December and possibly into January, I will be offering 1 character commissions for only $20.
Here is the info:

• 1 character in MLP:FIM (my little pony) style such as a pony, griffon, dragon, kirin, etc.
  
• OC characters based on MLP:FIM are accepted; you must have references.
  
• Character will have to be feral (non-anthro).
• Simple backgrounds only such as nature, gradient, white, transparent, solid colors.
  
• SFW only.
• You have to be a flexible on what you want. I want to avoid going back and forth with you a million times.
  
• Payment accepted via Paypal. No trades and no points.
  

No complex stuff:

• such as elaborate clothing or armor; simple clothing and armor are probably okay. Ask me first
  
• such as putting the character into a sports car
  
• such as weapons, fictional or real; simple weapons such as swords are probably okay. Ask me first
  
• such as overly complex design/tattoos/patterns that's part of the body
• such as other characters and/or living creatures and/or AI characters with the first character
• such as other complex stuff that I deem worth more time and effort that I can't possibly list all of it here even if I employed a room of monkeys on typewriters for a lifetime

Slots 0 out of 5 available.

If you want to take advantage of this sale, send me a note with the details and say you want to a $20 commission. If it falls under the above criteria, we'll move forward from there.

If you want something that's more than the limits of the above, it will obviously be more than $20. I may be available for such a commission. Send me a note on the details if you're interested and I'll give you a price.

Sigh...

• You have to speak enough English for me to communicate with you. 
  
• If you want a commission, send me a note. Do not post a comment here or anywhere else on my pages. They will be hidden and ignored.
  
• If you haven't paid for a commission, it doesn't mean I owe you one.
  
• I reserve the right to refuse a commission regardless of how many slots I have left.
  

*Crawls out of drawing dungeon*

So... it's been a while since I wrote one of these. In light of the deviantArt Eclipse, I took another look at what's on my profile and contemplated what the new changes will bring. I believe the journals will stay around... *checks* yeah, there is mention of that. I decided to give journals another shot. In the past, entries has been a bit sparsed, filled with back burner ideas and things that'll never get done. For what I'm working on, I want to focus on mentioning more immediate things. I will also talk about random things that I happen to come across during the month so far and updates to long term projects and goals.

Pony Stuff
Most of you like the ponies so we'll start off with that. What did I think about the last season? I don't know... I haven't watched it. It's not that I lost interest. Watching anything, even if it's an episode, requires commitment on my part. Otherwise, I will miss most of what it has to offer. When I'm watching an episode, I like to take it all in and start thinking up ideas of what to draw. If I have my head down on my tablet, I won't be able to do that. It's the same thing with anime, I have to actively watch it and read the subs to understand what's going on. I have heard things about what happened last season such as the Kirin and uh... what's her name? *checks* cozy glow. She reminds me of Darla from Cats Don't Dance. I want her to be the new evil mastermind like Equestria has never seen; so evil that even Tirek's afraid of her. She'll even do [another] song about her evil ways in a pink dress on top of a piano.

Art Stuff
The art stuff is still going. For those of you with a keen eye may have noticed that one my patreon pages is gone. I decided to concentrate on just one page, the saucy page. Because of this, the rate of safe stuff I can do in a month will be just like before I started on patreon. If you are interested in the saucy stuff, feel free to check out the link at the bottom. I also post early safe stuff on the public feed there. 

On the queue ready to post will be 4 ponies, 1 furry, 4 humans. 
- Twilight in a suit 2: Did I ever post the first one? *checks* hmm, no I haven't. Okay, maybe I should since it's not that saucy. #2 is just a superman parody.
- Rarity portrait: Rarity anthro in a dress. She looks angry though.
- Rainbow portrait: Just an anthro in a hoodie.
Why yes, there are saucy versions of the above. You'll have to find them though.
- Sweetie belle: her dancing... kinda
- A kitty with wings: just wanted to draw a kitty with wings
- hOOMunz: 3 girls and a mustache guy if you care about non furry things

On the to-do list will be a catgirl mage, celly x luna pic, 3 isabel... woop, those are saucy, forget what you heard. There's an octavia pic, a Marle pic, princess peach bride, and maybe a Yona pic.

Pop Culture?
So what's the deal with furry pokemon? Having a pikachu wear a detective hat and do the doolittle thing with a would be trainer is one thing but rendering all that fur? Before a heated discussion starts, I have to say that I am totally okay with it. Why? Because I'm not that into pokemon. I'm not a hardcore fan, I never played the games and I don't hate it either. There has to be some give when doing a live action film base on a 2D animation. There are some things I noticed from the trailer that I find interesting and slightly amusing (spoilers?). Pikachu doesn't have black beady eyes, Squirtle seems to be missing, Mr. Mime is creepy (maybe they should have added fur), Psyduck still stares into space, vore fans will be very interested in that charizard/pikachu scene, and it's apparently that time of the year when all the bulbasaurs make their annual migratory march to warmer climate.

Games
Speaking of pokemon, there's a new game out. It seems to also be tailored to beginners. I wouldn't mind trying it out just because eevee's cute... so cute... *brushes teeth*
I plunged myself into Oxygen not Included, that space colony sim game. It will take several tries to progress to the end game, if I can even make it that far. Dealing with gas is challenging.
I heard there's a new Minecraft modpack out called Stoneblock. It's like skyblock but surrounded by stone. I wonder if I should fall down that rabbit hole again. Surely, there has to be more to it than just being surrounded by stone.

Real Life
It just snowed for one day and now it's all gone because of the rain. I got to test out my new boots. The old cheapos I bought has a hole in it so I invested (heh, for a pair of boots) in buying a slightly pricier pair. This month, I learned there's such a thing called mink oil which you treat leather with it in order to protect it from water. *Runs up to your ear* ... it's made from minks ... *runs*

That's all the rambling I can think of at this time. In the comment section below, let me know what your favorite pony episode from last season is, which pokemon character you're interested in seeing real-ified, and whether or not you think minks are evil.

The Plugging
Alright, it's time to plug it in. I gotta do it. It was inevitable. You can show your support at the following locations:

• Patreon where I do saucy stuff if you pledge. For as little as 100 pennies, you can vote and see the top 3 characters from the show per month. There's no need to pledge for the safe stuff (a follow is recommended). patreon.com/mysticbeta
  
• Gumroad where I have art packs for sale. Currently, there's an art pack of all the January to June art packs combined. Some of it you may have seen and some of it you may have not. They are in high resolution PNG format. This pack won't stick around when the new year comes around so act fast if you want it. gumroad.com/mysticalpha
  
• Commissions are still available if you want one. Commission information is on my profile page on the mid left.