Fun times in Vatican last night... first watching Sam play Natural Selection (always draws a crowd), and then some D&D discussion and sketchwork with Mike Wilson as Sam and Dan played M:tG. Mike's drawn head shots of the D&D company, and, inspired by his excellent anime-style work, I decided to try to draw Lyra as I pictured her: with hide armor (not a dress), scimitar and dagger in her belt, and her hawk on her arm.

(Aside: I wonder how Mike's final image of Lyra's full length portrait turned out... at first, he drew her like a man. Boy was that amusing... ;) And then, his reaction was hilarious when I told him that he clearly needed to look at more women to get a sense for the female proportions of shoulders, chest, waist, hips, and legs... he looked somewhat shocked. Hehehe. -devilish grin- But I guess if you didn't grow up looking at this kind of figure in the mirror, then you wouldn't be used to sketching female contours... and he's a LOT better than I am in general bodily proportions, especially for male characters. Sorry Mike, I really shouldn't make fun of you... and many thanks for the general tips for proportions: a body is roughly 7 1/2 heads long, with 3 1/2 for the torso and 3 1/2 for the legs. Seriously, you're awesome.)

Not sure if she quite turned out the way I'd intended, but I'm rather pleased. She looks happy... not sure if she usually has a smile on her face, but perhaps it's one of those rare moments when she's smiling at something amusing from Lacha or Melvin, or watching Ethan with his weasel, or listening to Toes play his flute (or remembering being in wolf form. now that's a good time ;). I don't think she's usually an open, happy person... she was very close to her mother, and trained under her in druidic tradition. Since her mom died (victim of some magical assassin), she's been trying to make ends meet for herself and Lacha partly to atone for her failure to save her mother (also because she cares deeply for her sister, virtually her only remaining family). And now, since Melvin et al. allowed her to come along and fulfill a purpose in life again, she feels a strong obligation to protect the party as a healer (why she was devastated when she couldn't save Ethan). Add this to her strong streak of intelligence and common sense, and she's probably more serious and practical than this most of the time. But I'm not about to begrudge her a few happy moments - she hasn't had too many in recent months. Anyway, the picture's on my door, and might be scanned sometime in the near future.

Also, Brown's class was really fun today - his discussions are always fun, especially when there's a group of students who actually does the reading. Fortunately, it looks like this will be a fun group to puzzle out the meaning of passages... the discussion over Acts and Matthew today was pretty productive, in my opinion. Here's to another fun Brown class.

What else... oh yeah, I never wrote about my last riding lesson. Had to be the best time ever - Boo behaved himself beautifully, he listened, and I felt the most comfortable on him that I ever have. :) As Davee said, "That was beautiful! He was at a controlled, easy canter, and you were relaxed and smiling! That's the way it should be!" Yup, riding's awesome. Jumping's getting easier, too - I'm still working on low fences, but my recovery time from two-point's getting quicker (no more slouching and collapsing back to full seat), and I've begun doing fences in succession. So, so much fun... Sandy, you were right. Jumping's possibly the most fun thing you can do on a horse. Though I'd still like to try a few more elements of dressage.

Hm. Maybe I should go eat something now... catch you guys later.