MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

To get into the Spirit of the season, we (myself, Laruna, Wildbluesun and Jen) at Stagleaf will present a screenshot, photograph, poem, concept set, or anything else that relates to deer and the Holiday season every day from December 1 through December 25. This is a gift to the blog readers, the Endless Forest community, and the creators of The Endless Forest themselves. Be sure to come by on Blogspot at least once a day to for your surprise!

Everyone at Stagleaf wishes you all a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Honestly, I would like anything you send to me. A picture, a story, a poem, whatever--as long as you put your heart into it. Photoshopped screenshots are wonderful, too.

Still, if you want some sort of guide, here is some information, if you're drawing my deer:

*Name: Redkora, 'Kora, or the Pictogram.
*Age: Ageless. If you want to put it into the context of life cycles, you could say that my deer is old, as I registered him in March of 2007.
*Bodily Appearance: I really don't have a typical set that I wear. I even like to go default. If you have seen me in the game, I'd like you to draw the deer based on your impression of the deer, using your imagination to fill in the particulars. If you'd like a set to go by, then I tend to lean toward the gold pelt, brown whistle mask, and poppies/violets/candles/whatever on the antlers.

Me:
*Season: All of them.
*Color: Blue, mostly.

Thank you, and Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus!

Just to let you all know up front, I'm not leaving the Forest. With that said, I regretfully announce that I am not going to be *nearly as directly involved* in this community has I have been. I have been thinking about this for awhile now, and I have already told a couple of other people here; however, but I feel too much responsibility to the community to pull away without telling you all. I have several reasons for backing away:

1)This semester, I am going to graduate from college. I'll be going to graduate school, and that is a great deal of work. I'll be getting my Master's degree in psychology, and I'll hopefully be doing work in human-computer interactions (HCI). Right now, I have a lot of pressure on me to keep up my high GPA (3.9 something) and to get into the HCI subplan, and the work is only going to get harder in the coming years. This on top other non-school responsibilities IRL, keeping up with forum discussions and what goes on here at the community site other than major happenings, working hard in the Forest to help people, and keeping up with the blog is too much. I'm 24 years old, I have to get serious about my work other than simply doing it to make the grades, I am not about to stop being helpful in the Forest (although I'd to just chill out in the Forest now and then ), and I am not going to close my blog down any time soon.

2) The community, still largely caring, is evolving into something in which I don't have the time or the energy to participate as much. The community is much different from what it was when I first came in March 2007, and simply I can't keep up. What I post is also somewhat redundant and unnecessary, and I don't want to waste your time or my own.

Now, this is in no way intended to be drama. Please don't start it. This is not intended to be an "I'm leaving the Forest" post. I don't see myself permanently leaving the Forest in the foreseeable future.

I'm starting to wonder whether or not I should even bother posting my art anywhere but my subVariance page. I am hesitant to post anything here or at the TEF community or deviantART at all anymore because it feels like I'm just wasting page space and my own energy. It's taking up time that I could be using for something else, and it's probably wasting other people's time. The more I see the wonderful art here, the more I think that I should step aside and let more serious and talented artists take the page space.

I'm not going into art as a career, but human factors and ergonomics; however, art is what I love, and it's come to a point that I feel that I have to have a number of people who say, "Ooh, that's very good," or "Well, you could have shaded this area a bit more; work on your coloring--here are some nifty tutorials for that" to feel good about my hobby, and I'm wondering whether or not I have lost sight of what I should be doing with my hobby. I know I'm just a hobbyist, and my art skills are generally crappy--should I be feeling this way at all? Should I even care? I'm going crazy and getting frustrated. I know many people here are probably offended that I even consider art something that someone can even consider something so seemingly insignificant as a "hobby."

Now, I'm not leaving The Endless Forest or any crap like that. Perhaps I have lost sight of the intention of the community site in the last few months. Maybe it's not about the comments or the number of views a person gets, but the spirit of sharing what he does with his energy.

Gotcha! No rants here.

Even though I didn't vote for Obama, I congratulated him and his supporters, and I hope he serves the country well.

Laruna, Jen, and Wildbluesun have joined Stagleaf, and Endless Forest blog on blogspot! Welcome!

Check it out!

Laruna has accepted my invitation to be a Stagleaf contributor! Welcome!

You can find her posts by her screen name, Winterly.

http://endlessforestfun.blogspot.com/

Stagleaf, an Endless Forest blog, has been up and running since April of 2007. It covers the major happenings of the Endless Forest and I post a screenshot or two once every weekend (normally on Sunday, I'm so busy). This week, I posted a link to the screenshots section on this community site since everyone has been sending in such nice screenshots.

The blog also has a plethora of links from official websites and user created content. If you want your link up there, let me know! Here is the user created content on there so far.

* Perplex's TEF Artists
* Rutilus' Sententia
* Perplex's TEF Forum
* Sluggs' the Shady Grove
* The Endless Forest deviantART Club
* Moosehoof's deviantArt Page
* Ghost's The Haunted Studio
* E. Dueland Art (Kogy)
* Skokey's "Hanging Flowers" Story
* Redkora (Shadowfire)'s subVarience Gallery
* Mazey's Lion Light Lands
* Fayne's Webbie
* Draco the Deer

Check it out! http://endlessforestfun.blogspot.com/

I met another stag in the Forest last night. He gave me a pelt and we gave each other antlers.


We listened for other deer...


We ran...


..and ran.


We found a toadstool ring and sat with one another.


However, such lovely times can not last. I cast my spell and said goodnight.


I had fun with you last night! Take care.

The gradient effect is something I learned from a space art tutorial, but I learned that it can be applied to screenshots from Laruna. Thanks, Laruna!

Thank you to everyone who came! I'm sorry that I couldn't have it on better times, though. Class and lab work, and all that.

I hope you had a good time, though!