Updates

April 2, 2006
Well, time for a new update and a new layout. Things has been delayed with the php transfer but it's coming. Eventhough I decided not to change layout before that I just couldn't wait anymore, so here you go! It's based on my latest obsession and one of my latest wallpapers. I've discovered the world of bruises and blood and has started making alot of dark pieces involving this, so I thought that when I was changing layout why not make it reflect my latest work and obsession? :) This layout is based on the piece 'Being the Slayer isn't always fun and games' which you can find under 'recent additions' :)

With the layout change you can now find the menu to your right again. The other style looks great but it feels so small and I need my frikkin' space ;) Anyway, with this layout I give you two new pieces, one called 'Love Hurts' and the other 'Being the Slayer isn't always fun and games' as I mentioned before. The 'Love Hurts' piece is a couple piece with Buffy and Spike. They usually beat the crap out of eachother and then on to the lovemaking. The one thing going through my mind when making this is a quote by Spike 'You always hurt the ones you love, Pet'. The other one, started out with me wanting to do more with the bruising and blood and it turned into this piece. It took on a mind of its own which I love because that's when my best pieces is created :) Basically it's about Buffy, and that when things get bad she usually gets pretty broken and bruised alot, bleeding from all kinds of cuts.

Thanks to all of you who's tagged me lately, big *hugs* to all of you, especially Peace who recently had a birthday, and also to Amber who gave me such a sweet gift! Love you both :)

I'll be back! //Dana

March 18, 2006
Just reporting that I'm alive and well ;) The site will get a new layout soon and I'll try and start updating more frequently. Sometime in the coming 2 weeks (hopefully) I'm enlisting my brothers help to convert Chosen Art and my other major sites from html into php. This will make my life so much easier when done and I can make layouts I really wanna make that I can't now due to not right kind of code that is needed.

Ok, time to chock you guys, I actually have two pieces for you to check out. Made them a few weeks ago, and if you're a regular at BWF you've already seen them but for all you guys that isn't a regular, check out the recent additions under 'graphics' in the menu above :) Hope you like the two new additions! I've also changed the icon section and used a script to make the sorting so much easier and much prettier. Now you can get the right count on icons as well without me counting wrong ;)

Until next time, take care guys!


February 14, 2006
As you can see, a new layout. I felt it was time to make a change but still keep the low mood but in a new way. I didn't feel like making a valentine layout, because I don't like that day (being single and all) and besides, didn't feel like making a layout that I have to remove a few days later. Anyway, I hope you like this new style of Chosen Art. You can now reach the tagboard via the menu above along with everything else. I don't know when I'll be returning with new work. Just this layout has taken me 3 days to get to, and I still have no inspiration what so ever. But.. enjoy this new layout anyway.

January 18, 2006
This is not a regular update. I just wanted to let you guys know that I won't be updating in a while because my grandfather passed away yesterday and I'm having some trouble handling this fact. All the affiliation requests will have to wait, and so will my fanart. I'm going home to my parents tomorrow and then I will be staying there until sunday. I don't know when I will return with something new. I hope you all can bare with me during this time of grief.

January 18, 2006

This is not a regular update. I just wanted to let you guys know that I won't be updating in a while because my grandfather passed away yesterday and I'm having some trouble handling this fact. All the affiliation requests will have to wait, and so will my fanart. I'm going home to my parents tomorrow and then I will be staying there until sunday. I don't know when I will return with something new. I hope you all can bare with me during this time of grief.

January 5, 2006

First update of 2006. I can't believe this will be the second year of Chosen Art. Feels like only yesterday it was 2004 and I had just started this site but now it's 2006, I've been around for a while, the site has become quite popular and the hits just keeps on coming, along with new affiliates :)

I have added new things to the picture gallery, not only does it contain photoshoots and promotion pics from the shows I'm focusing on, I've also added Tru Calling to the list, and a whole bunch of screencaps. Of course all the screencaptures are in very HQ, taken by yours truly, and today I'm adding (as I'm typing) the captures for Serenity - the Movie! :D

I've also added 15 new icons. Had to make some, couldn't resist. Personally I love the ones of Faith because they look kind of like anime, which is an effect I'm starting to love :) And since I've just capped and uploaded Serenity caps, I just had to make some icons for the movie as well. The one featured with this update has the words spoken by Simon to make River fall asleep in it (in case you wondered what they were). This icon is also available without the text ;)

I've also added a tutorial section, with my first tutorial. It's just a basic one of how I created one of my icons. Got some questions on how I did it so I made this simple tutorial. You can find it under "Downloads". Not much else to add, so take care people until next time :D xoxo //Dana

December 29, 2005

Just one day and another 15 new icons. I'm definitly on a roll here ;) This time it's more Serenity icons and various from Earshot, Once More, With Feeling and Salvage.
Tomorrow's my birthday and Berend has already been a sweetheart and given me a gift today, with my favourite guy on it :) Check out the gifts section to see what he gave me. Thanx for the gift again Berend! *hugs*

xxx
//Dana


December 28, 2005

Today I have a few icons to add. Realised I had caps of the yoko factor on my hdd so I decided to make some icons from that episode. Been reading some tutorials around the net and looking for new stuff to use (brushes and textures and gradients) and found a few so there you go :) it's 10 new icons. 9 from the yoko factor and 1 character icon featuring Faith.

xoxo
//Dana



December 26, 2005

Well, it's finally time for a new update, with a little more than just merry christmas :) As you can see, new layout. Had a x-mas layout up for 2 days which featured my parents home, where I grew up, in a picture taken last winter. But now it's time for a new layout since I had the urge to make one. This one features as you can see, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and I named it "Sarah in a Box" since it's a boxy styled layout :) I hope you like it, 'cause I really do. Thanx to Lyn for the lovely textures! First time I played with light in this way and it turned out awesome, to me anyways ;)

Alot has happened this past month. The advent calendar has been a major hit which makes me really happy to hear and makes me think that this might become a regular x-mas thing on Chosen Art. During the past week my computer was also killed due to a major virus, trojan and worms attack. This meant that the calendar became very delayed but thanx to the wonderful Lyn it still presented new gifts everyday during my computer problems. Thankfully my computer was back online on the eve of the 23rd so I'm back in business and I had the chance to make you the gifts for the 22nd, 23rd and 24th :D

I have one new piece to present you, sadly no more. I'm feeling rather drained after the calendar and I'm sitting by a 17" screen instead of 19" so it feels like I don't have enough space to work on, annoying I know, but hopefully I'll get something together during the week or so, and I'll start making frequent updates again :)

I've finally put all my awards into order and added the ones from the past year that I've been neglecting to add. I've also added all the wonderful gifts I've recieved this x-mas, thank you so much guys *hugs*. The gifts from thanksgiving, easter and wad has also been added. I've just been so lazy and so I've been neglecting these beautiful gifts and awards.. I know, I suck.. sorry! But I'll be shaping up now and add everytime I win or recieve something :) I've also been a bad girl in the SOTM section. I have had so much to do that I've forgotten about giving out this award, so there is no sotm for december, but starting with january I will be giving out each month. I'm also thinking of starting an artist of the month award along with a blend of the month. But that's all for 2006. :)

Soon it's my birthday and I can't wait. This friday I'm turning 23. Can't believe I'm at 23 already. I meet girls in my same age who's already married and have kids, has a career and a home, car and picketfence. Me on the other hand, so damn single that it's almost a lie. Been single for the past.. erhm... 7 years. This is almost pathetic, and not to forget the fact that I don't have a career... ok, this is getting me down.

Merry Christmas Everyone!
xoxo
//Dana

December 3, 2005

Time for a new update and as you can see, with it comes a new layout. It was supposed to be christmasy but I ended up with this, which I kinda like so there you go :)

The advent calendar seems to have been a success so far. I'm glad you guys enjoy it and like the gifts you get everyday. Tomorrow will ofcourse bring another one so remember to come back for that one as well. Today's gift included to wallpapers from Ats, one with Doyle/Glenn Quinn and one with the original gang - Doyle, Angel and Cordy. The Doyle one is a tribute to Glenn Quinn since today is sadly the third anniversary of his passing. The wall features images from all his episodes on Angel, with 2 extra caps from Hero.

The Ats one is a pretty basic one. A whole bunch of textures, one picture and the obvious text that has been going through the show during all their years (except season 5, not much of angel investigations then).

I also have another new piece, it's just a promo piece, like the ones I did with Alias a few weeks ago. This time it features Logan Huntzberger from Gilmore Girls. The promotion pictures for season 6 has finally started to show up in HQ and after seeing them in full resolution I just couldn't resist making something with them :) You can probably expect that both Rory and Lorelai will show up soon as well since they too have come out in HQ.

There is also three new icons, all of them based on this layout, and one of them can be seen at the top of this update, pretty don't you think? :)

Chosen Art has also been named Site of the Month over at No-Promises.net by the lovely Sara, thank you so much sweetie! *big hugs*

There's not much else to add than this. Hopefully I will manage to make a x-masy layout before christmas is over and gone but I don't want to promise anything. Got alot on my plate right now, especially with the advent calendar. But one can always hope, right? :)

xoxo
//Dana

November 21, 2005

It's been a little more than a week since my last update and this time I have loads to show. Been busy this weekend and made a whopping 7 new pieces, that's right - Seven new pieces :) Feels great to be back working with photoshop and having fun again! Also, the gallery has once again been updated. I can't remember everything I've added so just hit last upload and see for yourselves :)

On to the new pieces! The three first ones is rather similar. The promotion pictures has been released featuring Thomas Grace, Rachel Gibson and Renée Rienne. I felt a need (or urge ;)) to make something with these so I ended up doing three promotion pieces, featuring the character and the name of said character. I went with different colors for different characters and just played around some. I hope you enjoy them. And with this addition Alias gets it's own section. Why? you ask, well, I'm feeling some need to make more Alias pieces and so it's rather natural to give the show it's own space, don't ya think? :)

The next one is something entirely new to me - it's boxy style. I've never been able to master this style and also I didn't really want to do it for a while when EVERYONE was doing it. It almost became a rule for me, but now - I've broken it. Thanx to a tutorial by Ann @ OOTM I could really get into it and understand how to make this kind of art, and voila! Here's my latest piece. It features Michelle Trachtenberg and a photoshoot she had earlier this year. She looked very dirty and trashy in these pics (but I love them ;)) so the title of this piece is "Trashy Girl". I hope you like it - 'cause I'm very satisfied with it myself :)

Again with the boxy style (well, I think I've become addicted now!) and featuring Faith and Connor. It's made for a challenge over at BW forums and it's about Faith. I used the scene where she holds Connor down and asks him "Are you a killer? 'Cause I am". I've always liked this scene so it felt natural to use it. I also added pictures from when she killed the guy who worked for the mayor in Buffy's season 3, just to underline her words. The piece naturally got the name "Killer".

The second to last is also made with the help of Ann's tutorial. It is also a manipulation between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Maggie Grace (Lost). I loved this photoshoot with her but I don't want to work with her as the main object, so I manipped her and now it's Sarah lying there in the chair. I think it turned out really great, it's been a while since I did any manipulations but I haven't missed a beat ;)

The last one is also a manipulation between SMG and MG, but here I focused on only one picture and just named it SMG because I didn't want to take the focus off of the picture. Personally I think it turned out great and SMG looks so cute sitting there in the chair :)

All in all, a productive weekend and a very fun one :)
'Til next time! *hugs*
//Dana

October 2, 2005

As you can see, new layout. This time a very different one. I have gotten very interested in 3D art and I found some renders at deviant art, and with the help of that this layout was created, along with a whole bunch of brushes from lacrimae-spiritus.com. This layout is called "Xaelithiaxis" which isn't a word, or - it is now ;) it's inspired from the non-word "Xaelith", also from lacrimae-spiritus.com.

I only have two new arts to show you, but hopefully you'll like me anyway *hehe* ;)

Anyway, the first one is based on the Buffy episode "Dead Things" and it's the scene where Buffy walks up to Spikes door, puts her hand on it, while Spike does the same from the inside since he can actually feel that she's there. But then she's not when he opens the door. The text is a quote from the song "Out of This World" by Bush, which is also played during this scene in the episode. I felt it fit so well with the piece since I chose these specific lines: Out of our heads, out of our minds, out of this world, out this time, I just want you to save me.

The second one is a bit different, or alot different actually. It's based on something that actually never happened or was mentioned on the show. As some people might remember, Joss said something about a plot he wanted in the 3rd to last episode of season 7 of Buffy, but it never did become reality. Here's what he said:

"In one of the final episodes, the third to last episode, Buffy was going to basically get a get-out-of-jail-free card. Any reality-altering thing that she could have - she could bring Angel back to her, she could do anything she wanted. At the end of the episode she basically comes to Willow and says
- Look at these shoes I got!
-What?
- I got these really awesome shoes. I wanted them, and now I have them!
- You used the wish for shoes?
- Of course not, you idiot..
Buffy walks out of the room and Willow turns around and Tara's standing behind her."
This was stated by Joss at the Wizard World convention in Chicago in August 2004.

Here's my take on this moment. I made the piece to be the second after Buffy say's "of course not, you idiot..." when Willow turns around and sees Tara, and they kiss. I added Buffy because this is what she made happen and she finally got to see Willow happy again.

That's it in the art department. Things have been stirring in other parts of the site though, the gallery has evolved with a bang (yes, a bang, didn't you hear it?) and is now placed on it's own site and is now under coppermine construction. It is purely based on HQ images of the cast from Alias, Angel, Buffy, Firefly, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars. It's far from done, I'm still adding images for the different cast and characters, but already the Alias section is done and the Angel section is growing by the minute. The Photoshoot section grows with each castmember I add in the other sections. Welcome to Pretty as a Picture.

The affiliates section has also been cleaned up, affiliates that doesn't have a button back to CA has been removed. New urls for old affies have finally been fixed (sorry Nelly!), and it is no longer based on link images. I like the cleanness in just textlinks and so I've decided to do the same to my affie section now. If you feel you've been wrongfully removed or I've forgotten to add you, or anything else - don't hesitate to contact me on the tagboard or in the "contact me" form on the site.

The theft has also been taken care off. The person who stole haven't done anything to fix it, but I have. As I noticed the theft was purely hotlinking I've restricted all direct linking on .thedudes.nu, so if you direct link now - you'll just get a very angry Buffy saying that you're a criminal :)

Big hugs to all my taggers, esp. slaygal - long time, no see! *hugs* //Dana


September 12, 2005

Well, as you can see - a new layout. Got tired of the old one pretty fast, so I decided to do a new one. This one features Jennifer Garner of Alias and Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham of Gilmore Girls and it's in celebration of the new seasons for the shows. This is also the first time Jennifer is a part of the layout. Thought it was time and I really love this photoshoot with her so I had to use it, and then I had to make the gilmore girls happy too and added happy pics of them as well :)

I don't have much else to share in terms of fanart, haven't had the time to make any new ones, except the icon you can see with this update - based on my latest layout. But sadly it has come to my attention that my entire gallery has been hotlinked and my art stolen and made as backgrounds on another site. In the process of taking care of this, thanks to Jessie for getting my attention on this.


September 4, 2005

Check it out, it's been one day and already a new update. That haven't happened in a long time :) Anyway, what this update is about is just the new piece I made of Buffy and Spike. It's featured in season 5, I guess you could say as kind of a promo for season 5 - 7 about Buffy and Spike. It's called "A story just beginning" and I'm very satisfied about how it turned out. There's no brushes involved, just some textures, some filters and my imagination.. oh and the pictures and text ;) I hope you enjoy it!

Added update: Just finished a kinda different piece. I've been running a "what if?" challenge over at Beautiful Strength. It's about, what if Buffy was Veronica and Veronica was Buffy (considering all the talk about the two shows being alike I had to bring up this question). Well, I got a little carried away and made a what if? piece myself. So what if Veronica was Buffy and she was the one in season 5, 6 and 7 who got to smooch with Spike and have all the fun? :) This is my first kiss manipulation and I think it turned out pretty good, even though Kristen (Veronica) looks ALOT like Sarah (Buffy) *lol* :) Anywho.. you can find this new piece in the recent addition section :)

I've also added a button in the menu involving paypal. Now you are more than welcome to make a donation to keep Chosen Art and the rest of my domain alive. Even if it's only 1 dollar, I'll be very happy because I'll also know that you appreciate what I do, or try to do anyway ;)) Anyway, there it is.. :)

*hugs* to my taggers! //Dana

September 3, 2005

A smallish update today. Here's what I got to show off today: 1 new piece, 1 award giveaway and 2 updates in the screencaps. Lets start with the piece I've got to show you guys. It's about Buffy in the season 3 episode "Earshot" where Buffy hears what everyone is thinking. I've always loved the thoughts Oz has about this - "I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything thatis me and she becomes me. I cease to exist". It's kind of terrifying, so I played on the is Buffy really good now or has she gone over to the dark side? :) Hope you enjoy it, also - it's in a very big resolution, 1280x960. Since alot people is using a big monitor nowadays I thought I'd give this a shot (I'm that kind of user myself ;)). The updates in the screencaps is #1: Earshot has gotten a new design and I've recaped the episode, so now there's 1270 number of caps and in 1280x960 resolution. Should make alot of people happy I wager :) #2: I fixed the episode name of the thin dead line on angel's season 2. I accidentally wrote the site name instead of the episode name *doh*.

Now to the award giveaway. I've been planning on adding a SOTM to Chosen Art for a few months now, but I haven't had time to actually go through with it and make an update and have time to make a desition around the month transitions. But now I took time and here goes. The first award goes to a close friend of mine, Ehwlyen. She's a very talented newcommer. She has a very special style that you really can't find somewhere else, and she recently got herself a website (that works in firefox now too ;)). She is a wonderful person, and is great at giving art advice when you're in a rut. Ehlwyen - this one has been a long time coming! *hugs*

That's it for this update, will return with more goodies (yeah, I'm working on more fanarts - impressive, non? ;)) and I'll also try and get around to answering all the affies requests. Big hugs to all my taggers! //Dana

August 24, 2005 *updated*

Hay guys, so it's finally time for a new update. I've been working so much that whenever I've had some free time I've actually spent it sleeping or just sitting infront of the tv watching season 1 of Veronica Mars, haven't had much energy for much else. But I did during this time somehow manage to make two new pieces and now a new layout as well! Since I've been watching VM so much I felt I neeeded to make a VM layout as well. The old one with Serenity is one of my favourite of all the versions Chosen Art has had, not only because it was a rather simple layout but also because I was trying out something new with the menu, but you know me, the minute I get the layout online I want to make a new one *lol* :) I hope you enjoy this one. I've only had one Veronica Mars layout before and then it was Veronica, Logan, Rory and Logan (Gilmore Girls) so I thought it was time for a full fledged VM layout with just that show. And as I've been watching the first season again I've begun to appreciate Duncan and Veronica together much more than I did the first time. He's a really sweet guy and who knows, maybe he's the one outside Veronica's door ;)

Anyway, as I mentioned I have two new pieces. Both is from the episode "Becoming part 2" of Buffy's second season. The first one is for a challenge by Lex over at Buffyworld. It features the "Tears and Rain" lyrics by James Blunt. I picked the moment when Buffy leaves Sunnydale, having nothing left to lose. She's broken and she's running from all the pain. It turned out much better than I had planned, it turned very dark but warm at the same time in it's colors. The second is of Joyce when she sees Buffy's room is empty and a note from her. I used the lyrics from Sarah McLachlan's "Full of Grace" and the very part of the song that is played during this moment in the episode. I added two other pictures to it to give it substance and a full background and show Buffy leaving, so a picture of the bus and Buffy walking away is merged into the pictures of Joyce crying, the empty room and Joyce seeing the room.

Update: I have another three new pieces for you. Since I've been free today from work I've made 3 new Veronica Mars walls, one featuring Logan and Veronica from "A Trip to the Dentist" and two from "Leave it to Beaver". The first one with Logan and Veronica is one of my lesser good work. I'm not completetly saticefied about how it turned out but I'm going to leave it alone now, or I'll just go mad re-doing it over and over ;) The scene is from the bedroom where Logan tells Veronica that he hates that he hurt her when all he wants to do is protect her. The second piece is about the last episode, right after the carcrash. The thought behind this one was a little "Nightmare on Elm Street"-ish. How the ending is just like a nightmare that you almost want it to be that. The last one is about Veronica and Lily. The last moment they share together before Lily finally can rest in piece. I've always found this moment so beautiful so I had to make something with it. I don't think I justified the moment completely, but I still like how it turned out.

With the addition of these three new pieces I've decided to give Veronica Mars her own space in the menu - so now she's just one click away :) /end of update

In honor of this new layout I also made a new icon, which you can see at the top of this update. Of course it's Veronica and Duncan, featuring one of the pictures from their relationship. I find it extremtly cute and I just had to make it into an icon :)

Chosen Art was also presented with an amazing award by Nikki over at Misplaced. She made CA Site of the Month of August. Click here to see the beautiful award she gave me. I'm very honored to get this award as I admire Nikki and her work and find her to be an amazing inspiration and artist. Thank you so much sweetie! *hugs*

I've also re-arranged all the wallpapers so that they all now is organised much better and easier. Also, as always you can find the latest art under "recent art" in the menu :) I believe that's it for today. Big hugs to all my taggers, I know I'm not as active as I have been and I miss alot of you but remember, a months absence does not mean I'm not coming back ;) *hugs* //Dana

August 1, 2005

How time flyes by. It's almost a month since I updated the last time. Sadly I've been so busy working I don't have much time for something else, not even fanart (which is blasphemy!). I have two new fanart pieces to share, and a VERY important message.

TheDudes mail account has gone dead due to server suicide. You cannot reach me through the contact form! If you still need to get in contact with me before this is resolved - please leave a message on the tagboard, with your email and I will get back to you via another email host, probably hotmail.


The first new piece is about Xander and Buffy. It was made for a challenge over at buffyworld forums, and it actually won for most sexy. I hope you like it and when looking at it, think about Xander's major obsession with Buffy in the early years, because this is what this piece is about :) The second one is also for a challenge over at buffyworld. It's based on a song called "Goodbye My Love" by James Blunt. It's about Wesley's death in "Not Fade Away". The moment and the text felt so fitting. The two images in the middle is about Illyria loosing Wes but also her question - "would you like me to lie to you now?". I hope you like it. I went in a new direction with the whole boxyness. Never really done that before so be gentle when looking at it ;)



That's it for today. If anyone has sent me an email about affiliation - please contact me on the tagboard since I've lost all my mail (*cry*). I've also made new layouts for two of my freezeframe sites - "This years girl" and "Homecoming". You can find them under screencaps - be sure to check them out! :) That's all for today. *hugs* //Dana

July 3, 2005

Tadaa! A new layout. The anniversary is over and Chosen Art is entering it's second year, hitching a ride with Serenity. I hope you like this layout. It's alot different from what I've been using before. This time the menu is very different, instead of having it based to your left or right, it's at the top and it's a folddown menu. Never had that before :)

Alot has happened since the last update, first of all - I've finally gotten a job!!! Yepp, that's right kids - I'm a working gal now :D But even though I've gotten a job I've had time to do some stuff with Chosen Art, not only do I have a new (sorry, just one) piece, I also present you guys with 3 downloadable layouts for you to use AND I have finally gotten the grip of textures and if you look at the header in this layout, you may or may not see that it is infact only using my own textures, and of course screen caps from the trailer for the upcoming and most anticipated movie of the year by fans world wide - Serenity!

If you click around in the menu, you'll see that things are still located under the same headers, and if you want to get back to this main page - either click "main" under "site" or just click on the site name "Chosen Art". It will ALWAYS take you back to this page. And all my new pieces is under "recent additions" in the "graphics" menu, but since this is a new layout with alot of new things, I thought I'd feature todays addition here on the main page, below this update. I hope you find my textures useful, just remember to credit me if you use them - same goes with the layouts, but you can read more about this in the free layout section.. :)

Big hugs to all my taggers - thanx for the anniversary wishes! :)

Addition to the update: Forgot to add that I have some new affiliates:


Chosen Art also won some prices at SYCA - Best Webmaster and Runner up for Best Navigation. I've also won two awards over at the challenges at BW - Honourable Mentioning and Runner Up. Curious of the awards? Check out the award section :)

Wallpaper


Textures


Layouts


June 22, 2005

As you can see, new layout! Chosen Art is officially celebrating it's one year anniversary. And what better way to do this than to use a layout celebrating the relationship of Buffy and Angel, which happens to be my favourite ship? :)

No new wallpapers today as I've been busy making this layout. I hope you enjoy it and I hope to keep Chosen Art around for another year!

*hugs* to all my taggers - Joa, HelloYellow, Peace, Anja25ive, Lex, Jamesgirl, JoeyAnya and slaygal. Have a great weekend! //Dana





June 13, 2005

I've been a bit off lately and haven't made any updates, as many of you might have noticed. Well, I'm back on track and it's time for a major update! I bring you 8 new pieces and 7 new icons. That's right people it's a major update! :) Chosen Art is also celebrating it's ONE YEAR anniversary this month! Can you believe it? I've been around bugging you with my arts for a year now :)
This will be celebrated with a new layout very soon! Just wanted to keep this layout until the judging was finished on one of the sites I'm nominated at.

You can of course see the latest pieces in the "recent additions" page, but you can also see them to your right and in this update. I've been very episode focused this time, alot to do with the fact that I've been entering alot of challenges over at BuffyWorld Forums. But I also have 2 pieces that is not episode focused, just character/actor focused. Should I start up the list?

Ok then....

First up is a piece focusing on Buffy and Angel (my favourite couple - as probably alot of you know by now :)) in the episode "I Will Remember You". With quotes from "Passions" in season 2 of Buffy I bring you the scene in the basement when they stop talking and start getting jig... I mean serious :) This piece is made for a challenge called "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and it's supposed to focus on the fact that Buffy is the one making things fun with Angel, that's why I put her in the center and also made her look at Angel instead of having her look down like he's doing, like I was planning at first. The colors is a natural choice because of all the passion and heat in this moment. I thought the Passion speech that Angelus has in "Passions" was very fitting to the piece. "Passion, it lies in all of us..."

The next piece is an episodic piece of the Buffy episode "Welcome to the Hellmouth". I'm planning to, with time, make a piece for every episode and this is the first one. It pretty much contains the most important parts of the episode and I was trying to get the effects of shadows and blackness but at the same time not let it rule the entire piece. I hope you agree that I got in what was important. I wanted to keep the feel to it a little dirty and rough but not so much that it's the first thing that comes to mind when you see it.

This is actually a two-bit piece. I first made the one to your left, but after posting it in the feedback thread at BWF I got some ideas and some advice to make some changes - and that's when it ended up as the one to your right. Which do you prefer? Personally I still prefer the one to the left, but it has alot to do with the fact that that was the first one I made and the second is altered. Anyway, the point and thought with this piece is off Buffy's season 3 episode "Helpless". This scene has always gotten to me and I thought it was time to make it into a fanart piece. It's the scene when Giles tells Buffy that he's the reason why she's lost her slayer powers, and how she then breaks down and tells him that she doesn't even know him anymore. She can't understand why he's doing this to her, why he - the one person she trusts with her life - would betray her like this. If you look closely you can see the word "Betrayal" at the bottom of the piece.

The next piece is focusing on Buffy and Dawn. I was playing around with stock images as textures and I wanted a piece that was really dirty but had another level to it than just dirt, hense the text. It's been a while since I made a Buffy/Dawn piece and I wanted something with sisterhood so this is how it ended up. I had some trouble coming up with the text, took me about an hour before I got it just right, but now I'm happy out it!

The next piece is about SMG as a Daydream Believer. I've always loved that song, "Daydream Believer" and I was having fun on BWF a few weeks ago where I ended up coloring the hair on smg in my icon pink, and then I got the idea to make a piece with her in pink hair. To really get it to work I added the daydream believe part, because face it - we're all daydream believers, and to underline that part in this piece is her hair. I also love this picture of SMG, it showed up online about a week or so ago and I just had to make something with them, so you'll probably see more from this shoot later on :)

This piece is also for a challenge. The challenge is called "Solitude", basically it's about a character when he/she is alone, but with emotions running and not just standing/sitting and not doing anything. This piece is from the episode "listening to fear" when Buffy breaks down in the kitchen - before the demon attacks and Dawn screams for Buffy to come. This moment is so emotional and it brings tears to my eyes.. you can really feel her desperation and pain because of her mothers sickness, and at the moment, insanity. I just used the word "Broken" because I believe that is the only word that can describe this moment.

The last one is also for the challenge "Solitude" and focuses on Faith in "Release" in Angel's season 4. It's the moment she's in Wesley's bathroom, about to take a shower. You can really see her anger and pain and desperation because she lost, and she couldn't beat Angelus - she couldn't bring back Angel. I just wanted to bring out all these feelings and show how she's bleeding - hense the legs and if you look closely you'll see the bloodstains at the bottom left corner. I used the words "Faith the Vampire Slayer: Screaming Bleeding Fighting" because it felt very fitting with the piece. I tried to keep it dark to stay with the mood but not loose the focus of the piece.

Wow, this is a really big update! If you then click in the recent additions page you'll see all the icons added as well, one of them is featured at the top of this update but the 7 others is under RA or Icons. I hope you like them and if you want to use them, some credit would be nice.

Lots of hugs to all my taggers - especially Amber who still hasn't gotten a new computer, miss you girl! And big hugs to slaygal for featuring one of my pieces at her site Infinite Destruction. It's my "slayer turned vampire" focusing on Buffy and Angelus, and here's what she had to say about it:

Dana's Slayer Turned Vampire is an amazingly creepy piece - its a twist on the usual BA arts - and I love how its manipulated. It's a cool idea - and makes you think about certain "What if..." situations. Lol - brilliant work - I love the "sharp" tone too.

Thanx hun! *hugs* :)
I've changed the banner above the update so now it shows different banners for my sites, to entice you a little and to get some more traffic to my other sites, because lets face it. Of all my sites Chosen Art is the most popular with now over 22 000 hits!
I've also gotten some new affies:

I think that's it for today, take care kids and I hope to update soon again! :) *hugs* //Dana

May 25, 2005

A very small update today, I promise to return with a bigger one in a few days. Just stopped by to give everyone a big heads up on my new Challenge site. It's called 'Beautiful Strength' and it focuses challenges on Btvs, Ats, GG and VM - pretty logical since they are my favves within tv :) so hit the button below this text and hurry over and start entering in my challenges. Please :) Hugs to all my taggers and affies. Hope you join my challenges :) //Dana

May 18, 2005

Ok, I'm the worst webmaster ever. I've been planing on updating since last week and I've been too lazy to sit down and write this text, everything has been done earlier. *goes to hide under a chair*

So by now everyone has probably heard, seen and morned the loss of Star Trek. After 18 years, there is no longer a Star Trek series on tv that's still bringing us new episodes. Enterprise bid it's goodbye after four seasons, not given the chance to evolve as much as the rest of the shows had, with at least 7 seasons. With no plans for any show in a near future, we trek fans are feeling lost. It's just so unfair, over the course of 2 years alot of awesome shows has been either cancelled or has ended on it's own: Buffy, Angel, Star Trek: Enterprise, Dawson's Creek, Felicity, etc. These are all shows that I was a big fan of and having them going off the air just feels so... well it sux! Now I just hope that Gilmore Girls, Lost, Alias, What I Like About You (hanging by a thread, don't know if it's coming back next year), Veronica Mars, Charmed and the rest of the shows that's worth watching, isn't taken off the air after next season. I can't stand loosing yet ANOTHER favourite. I still haven't gotten over that I will never get to see a new Buffy episode, it's so unreal. I envy all the people out there that hasn't seen the shows yet and are just starting. Everything's still new and they don't know what's happening next.. You lucky bastards! :)

But ok, I'm rambling and getting completetly off track here! An update was supposed to take place today, so here goes. As you can see above this update, there is a banner with the words "buffy.nuisance" in it. This is a site that's collecting people that has been attacked by buffy.nu and had their content stolen and posted without permission. I am sending a letter to their providor by the end of this week to let them know what buffy.nu are up to, since buffy.nu don't want to listen to me I guess they will have to listen to their providor. After the letter has been sent the list will continue as more of a protest list against them.

Today 6 new wallpapers and one icon is added. The icon is the one featured in this update (at the top to the left) and it features Captain Archer of Enterprise. If you'll visit "recent additions" you will be able to see the 6 wallpapers added. The first is Buffy and Angel, called "Slayer turned Vampire". I'm playing with a new kind of fanart featuring some blood and new ways of exploring the world of Buffy and Angel. This is just a piece of the two of them together, as vampires. Basically what I'm thinking is that Angel(us) has turned Buffy into a vampire and they've just had a feeding frenzie, hense all the blood. I hope you like it and don't shy away do to the blood, I'm not goory!

The second piece is Cordy in "To Shanshu in L.A" from season 1. It's the moment when she's hit with all the visions and is completetly breaking down. I wanted to bring out the pain and what she's feeling when she gets these visions, so I added lyrics from Full Blown Rose "Somebody help me". It felt very fitting and I've been wanting to use this song for a long time with Cordy. The third piece is of Fred and Wes from the episode "Billy" in season three. This episode is very scary in how the touch of Billy turns men into anger machins and then how Wes hunts for Fred in the hotel. I wanted to bring out the fear and the words "Don't fear the Reaper. Be Terrified of him." felt very fitting as Wes basically turns into this and scares Fred to death (almost). It's a very dark piece but it's supposed to be! :)

The fourth piece is Star Trek: Enterprise. I was feeling a little reminisent when I had watched the last episode so I decided to make a piece featuring the crew. It's a basic promo pic and I just added some effects and the name of the show at the bottom. I was going for the softness in it and I think I got it too. :) I hope you like it. The fifth piece is also a very basic piece. I used two of my favourite pictures of SMG and just wanted to bring out the sweetness in her with the help of some sparkle and the brownish tone. I've never done a piece like this one and I think it turned out good. Not exactly how I had planned it but definitly not bad :)

The last piece features Faith. I found this picture of her wearing a sweet dress but with a look on her face, like she's thinking "Is this how a good girl should look?" (which is also the text featured in the piece). I used very sweet colors, pink, purple, white, basically very light colors to keep the good girl thing alive. Made me think a little about in season three when she puts on a sweet dress for the mayor. She wasn't too happy about it but it was what he wanted and she did look like a good girl.

I'd also like to plug one of my sites. It's gotten a new layout and I thought that you might wanna check it out :) It's about Oz from "Btvs" so you might enjoy it as well! Anyway, click on the link below to visit!

That's it for today, I hope I didn't bore you ;) Talk soon and big hugs to all my taggers! //Dana

May 3, 2005

It's been a few days since the last update. My mum has been to visit so I haven't had much time to do much artwork. Managed to put together three pieces due to my special every friday on Slayerverse, but that's pretty much it in the artwork department.

I'm currently battling it out against buffy.nu, they keep stealing my Chosen Art Special from Slayerverse and post it as a special on buffy.nu without my permission. Ok, it's great exposure but they undermine everything I'm doing to stop the theft from the AOL jerk by making it available to everyone. I've contacted them 6 times now and all it's gotten me is banning from their forums twice and being ignored. I've decided to go one step futher and go above their head and see if this will help. I'll keep you all up to speed on that. Also, if you don't like buffy.nu then visit Amazon.com and make a review on buffy.nu and let other people know that this is not the best website around!

Ok, so on to the graphics. The first one is Alyson Hannigan of Btvs. I love these two pics of her, it's an old photoshoot but she's so cute so I put together this piece. I wanted to bring out Aly but keep it simple to not take the focus of her. It's mainly textures but with some AVH brushes mixed into it.

The second one is from Firefly and it features Zoë. It's a very basic promo piece. I haven't done much with Firefly except my last layout and the 8 icons from last week (and they were technically not firefly, but Serenity) so I put together this piece. Just wanted to show her off from different angles and just use her name and what she is, a browncoat and rebel :)

The last one is a magazine shoot of the Lost cast, although I just focused on Sun, Jin, Claire and Charlie. I really like this pic of them and had to something, and I ended up with this. It took me a few hours to get the effects right, they didn't really want to cooperate with me, hense the long time. After going through about 60 different textures and brushes I finally got the balance in it and managed to also find the right Lost Font to write "Lost" in the background (you have to really look to see it, it's behind the names) and then I used it to write out the names of the characters. I like how everyones looking away but Claire, like she knows something the others doesn't.

I'm also in the process of building a new website. A fanlisting for one of my very talented affiliates, Steph. I met her on Buffyworld and I love her work, she's a real inspiration and so I thought she deserved her own FL. It will surface sometime withing the coming weeks.

Gotta plugg a little today, haven't done that in ages (I'm very lazy ;)): Nikki (LOVE! the new layout - Veronica and Logan *drool* :D), Goddess Illyria, Caro G, Slaygal (I promise to write soon!!), Monica, Anja25ive, Tam, Joa (Love your new layout too, hun!), Iselin.

I believe that's it for today, if I have time to make some new arts tomorrow then a new update will be made, then I'm going home to my parents over the weekend (we've got a long weekend, thursday-sunday, in sweden) to help out with the renovation of the house. So if I don't update tomorrow, a new update will surface next week, I promise :) *hugs* to all my dear visitors! //Dana

April 27, 2005

Well, it's been another day and I'm again updating. I'm on a real roll here :)
As you all probably know now, the Serenity trailer premiered last night on apple.com and I downloaded just minutes after. Have watched it about 10-15 times already. I know, I know.. I'm nuts ;) But I can't help it. I'm so psyched about the movie and I really hope it hits theaters here in Sweden too, so they don't just ignore it here because people don't know what Firefly is (that's right, almost nobody in Sweden knows what Firefly is, because not one channel has shown it...). Anyway, since it's premiered and I've been on yet another icon spredd today, I've made 8 icons from the movie, using caps from the trailer. They're all located both under icons and recent additions in the menu. I told you last night that I had made about three Gilmore Girls icons and I would add more during the evening, well I did. I ended up with 17 icons, involving Gilmore Girls, Buffy and Angel. I haven't been very lazy today either. Made 19 icons, involving Serenity, Buffy, Angel and Veronica Mars. I've really discovered how much fun it is to make icons and I've become quite addicted :)

Big hugs to Caro G and Nikki for the sweet tags! I hope you enjoy the icons and have an awesome day! //Dana

April 26, 2005

The Serenity Trailer is online -> click here to view it!

Well, it's been one day and again I'm updating. Feels like I'm getting back into my shoes and can have fun again. Been spending the last 2 weeks working my butt of for a company here in Sweden and I finally turned in the job this saturday and they were VERY psyched about the outcome (was a video for a big conferance they're having) so I can finally lean back in my chair, put my feet up and enjoy my graphic work again, as you can see on the layout posted yesterday :)

Anyway, why this early update? Well, I've gotten two new affies and I've done three new icons, will probably add more later today as I'm currently working on more of them. It's three Gilmore Girls icons, which you can find under both recent additions and icons in the menu, one of them is featured with this update, as you can see. I hope you like them!

I'm also a nominee of the moment over at SYCA, which is something new for me, never been anything "of the moment" before so this is an honor. They don't have any kind of award for this but as a rememberance I took this banner they used in their layout when presenting CA

They also featured this text:
Site: Chosen Art
Webmaster: Dana
Offering: A beautiful site of Buffy and Angel wallpapers. Should definitely check it out! Also has art for Lost, Tru Calling and Gilmore Girls.

The new affies is featured below, be sure to check out Krisalis' and fray101's sites! Krisalis's a new artist and has got some good art already, much better than I was when I started out ;) and fray101 has got some wicked content!

I guess that's it for this update. Love to all you! :) //Dana

April 25, 2005

As you can see, a new layout has shown it's face. I got kinda restless and since the last layout was up for about a month I thought it was time for a change. This one features Rory and Logan from Gilmore Girls, and Veronica and Logan from Veronica Mars. These two shows are my new addictions (and Lost too :)) since Buffy and Angel ended. There isn't that much good quality tv around anymore but these two shows are top notch! And as I have fallen in love with the two couples, it felt fitting to use them as the new layout, also because the guys are both named Logan - kinda funny really :)

I don't bring much more with this update than, 4 icons, 3 wallpapers and 1 award. The last thing, the award, was for Rosely's Dream challenge over at BW and I won most Dazzling! Curious of the award? click here to see it, or go to the award section in the menu. I've decided to make a seperate section for the icons as I hope I'll get better at it and create a whole bunch of them. The four I'm putting up the veronica/logan one in this update, a Boone one from Lost (featured in one of my earlier updates) and two Backstreet Boys. I've been a fan of theirs from the start and I'm psyched about their new album so of course I have to make some icons with them as well :)

The new wallpapers are featured to the right in the menu, the first one is Cordy and Angel from "You're Welcome" in season 5. I love this moment, makes me cry and cheer at the same time. That they FINALLY get to share a real kiss and that she then dies.. breaks my heart everytime. I tried to keep the mood with her death in it and added some text to get things just right. Mostly textures, didn't use that much of brushes this time. Found alot of great textures a while back and when using them you hardly ever need any brushes. Anyway, it turned out green. Wasn't really my plan but there it is. :)

The second one is Spike and Angel. Made this as my final piece in a photoshop battle over at BW, my main focus is on Spike in this piece. The thoughts behind this one came with the right pic of Spike, it felt like he was thinking back and reflecting on his life, and his bloodlust. And he's always hated Angel and there's always been a bloodlust in the way of Spike-kick-Angel-to-pieces kind of bloodlust. And when I found the left pic things just came together. That specific picture is more symbolising the "other" Spike, the life before his soul. He never did manage to kick Angel's ass until he got the soul and the left pic is a part of the life before.

The last one, featuring Buffy and Riley from "Something Blue", is just made because I love this episode and this scene is so funny! I always laugh like.. well you get my point ;) The text is quotes from the scene and I added the pic och Buffy and Spike to underline the text and the moment between Riley and Buffy. Didn't put much more thought into this one really. Just wanted to make a piece from this episode :)

All my love and hugs to my sweet taggers. Have a great week! Hope you enjoyed the new stuff. Would love some feedback on the layout *hint hint* :) //Dana

April 9, 2005

Due to new attacks on Chosen Art and also personal ones, a decision has been made to shut down ALL access for AOL users on Chosen Art and the entire Dana.TheDudes.Nu network. Starting tonight, no AOL users will be able to access Chosen Art anymore. I am very sorry for all my users who have the best intentions when visiting and are using AOL, but this is the only way to stop everything that is going on. This is a PERMANENT shutdown.

If you ever recieve an email from someone claming to be me but you don't recognise the email as a part of slayerverse or Dana.TheDudes.Nu then please contact me on my contact form to verify if it is really me contacting you. Also, no site online except Chosen Art, Slayerverse and BW will be showing any art by me, if you find it somewhere else, specifically in a yahoo group, then it is a theft and not posted nor autorized by me.

Addition at 9.30pm: The AOL rule has now kicked in and all arts are back online!

Addition at 0.27am (april 10): Some of you might know of the resent attack against my work and myself and have probably visited the group that "satan" has created (this is the reason to the shutdown against AOL), and I thank you all for your support. But what I really need from all of you and the best way you can support me is by IGNORING him, don't give him ANY attention. This is what he's craving and this is what he's not going to get. So please, if you want to support me, ignore the jerk and enjoy my work here instead. I will not stop making art, he's not going to win. I love what I do and I could never give it up.

//Dana

April 8, 2005

It's only been two days but it's time for another update! First off, I just can't believe they killed Boone on Lost. I was never the biggest fan of him but I didn't want him to die and I did like him on certain points. And what's with Sayid and Locke, if you believe the trailer for next weeks episode, Locke is biting the dust, BIG time. Ok, enough rambling (I'm just still in shock!). In honor of Boone I have actually made two Lost pieces just about him. The first one is just a basic piece with two promo shots of him. I just liked the pictures, esp. the closeup, and the colors came out great. The other is when Shannon sees his body and breaks down. The text I used is from "Poets of the fall - Late Goodbye". Felt very fitting since they had been more than just brother/sister and now this was his/her last goodbye. I also made a Sawyer and Kate centric piece. I'm just curious what's going to happen with the two of them, is she going to get with Jack or will it be Sawyer, especially now that we know Jack's married. Anyway, this piece is about their kiss, the look before and after. To me it's the undeniable kiss. And there's definitly something there (eventhough she punched him, but he did have that one coming). Btw, I really liked how Sawyer reacted right away when Kate showed up and needed all the alcohole, he just went to it. First time in a long time we've seen him act that fast, for someone else. The last piece is actually not Lost :) It's back to Angel. It's about Illyria and the episode "Time Bomb". It's a very dark and simple piece but at the same time, not. Anyway, I hope you like it.

Site stuff: As you might have (or not) noticed two new categories has showed up in the menu. The first one under "Art / Graphics", I thought that since I've gotten into Lost, and am currently in the process of developing more of that show, it should have it's own category. So there you have it :)

The second change is something of the moment. My favourite trailers or piece of art or site that I need to get a fix of everyday. It's not much but it's always something. I hope you find something you like too in there. :)

Currently the promos for the upcoming episodes on Lost and Gilmore Girls are featured there. All credit goes to Lost Media and Intense.

I also have another bunch of new affiliates. Please go visit them today.


Oh, and the new arts are featured up in the new "recent art" frame (to the right of Mal and Inara :))

All my love and hugs goes to the taggers today: Lex, Monica, Anja25ive, Goddess Illyria, Nikki, Denise, Joa, wenj, Jamesgirl, Steph, Gaby, SeenRed & Caro G

Have a great weekend! //Dana

April 6, 2005

Today is an awesome day! Chosen Art is opening it's doors again for the public and with it comes a whole bunch of new arts! I have missed it alot myself and now that things have been resolved it's time to move on on the road of fanart and fun fun fun :)

A new layout comes with the new opening. For the first time Firefly is a featured layout. I've fallen in love with this show and have been wanting to do a layout for some time now and finally I decided that now it was time. It features Mal and Inara as they have become a favourite couple of mine, even though they haven't become couple-y yet, there has been some sparks and emotions and it's clear that they have feelings for eachother so.. :) I love this picture so it was a natural choice. This is a very simple layout. to the top right you can see the latest fanart I've done, just move your curser over the previews and they will light up and then open in a new window if you click them.

As you can see, I'm featuring a symbol, both to the left but also in the layout. This is the official Chosen Art symbol from now on. It is created specifically for CA by Ciarae and it will feature in every new piece I make now, more or less visible. Look closely at the latest ones and you'll find it. This is to help identify my work if it ever gets stolen again and my owners tag removed. This symbol is practically un-deletable as it will be a part of the effects in the pieces.
It is also supposed to represent "Infinity", as the original is a lying down 8, but I didn't want it just plain so this is the result, and I love it.

Ok, so new pieces. I have a whole bunch. All the ones featured in the frame to the right is new ones, the SMG one is also a manipulation between smg and kate winslet :) I won't get into all the pieces because there as so many, it would take me so many hours to right down what I was thinking/feeling at the time and it would take you hours to read as well, so I won't this time. Although I can say that the two Faith/Buffy ones from "This Years Girl" is a part of a challenge on BW along with the Buffy/Angel "Go to hell" one. The Angel/Spike one is a part of the battle I'm in on BW and to tell you the truth, I hate it, the piece I mean. It didn't turn out as I had thought and I think it pretty much sucks.. but we have our bad days. The rest of the new pieces is featured below this update, so you won't miss them!

I also have some new affies. So be sure to check them out :)


I think that's it for today. I hope you enjoy the new layout and be sure to tagg me with some feedback! :) *hugs* //Dana

March 30, 2005

I'm happy to announce that Chosen Art will be opening it's doors again sometime between this and next week, with a brand spanking new layout and new pieces, this time both hand drawn and regular digital buffy/angel pieces. Chosen Art has also gotten it's very own symbol(!) to help identify my work, it will ALWAYS be in my artworks, more or less visible, to help make it harder for thieves to steal and claim my art as their own.

The thief has been banned from Chosen Art, never to returned again. Thanks to Slayerverse.net I was able to digg up his IP adresses, and he will be banned there as well. If we can't shutdown his site, we will at least make it harder for him to steal!

My love to ALL my friends. You guys are awesome! //Dana

March 22, 2005

It's official. I'm closing Chosen Art until futher notice. Why? Because after all the theft I've experienced the last week I'm too tired of things right now. Eventhough both myself and Sensue at The Elite Watchers Society has contacted the thief more than once, he/she has continued to steal my work. I just don't see the point in keeping the site open if all that will happen is that my work will be stolen. Until we have been able to stop this thief Chosen Art will be officially closed.

I never thought I'd do this, I love this site. It has grown into my one favourite site of all sites I run so closing it makes me teary, but I don't see any other choice right now. Of course you can still access everything on the site, except the art. You have the menu located above this frame, and I still want to continue become affiliates with other sites because Chosen Art will open up again, it will just take some time.

I hope you all can understand why I'm doing this and that you won't stop visiting CA. Please come back again and again to see what's up, maybe one day when you're here the site is open. Who knows?

If you don't understand why this site is closed because this is the first time you visit, please read my 2 last updates and you'll understand what's what.

All my love to my dear affiliates and supporters. *hugs* I love you guys! //Dana

March 19, 2005

It's been a few days since my last update. First of all I want to thank everyone for their support, esp. Slaygal, Monica, Amber and Vodvod. Things has happened a bit. I contacted The Elite Watchers Society and asked for their help and they acted immedietly. After we talked it over, Sensue (the head of TEWS) contacted Satan (I'm not kidding, this is his nickname) telling him that a claim has been brought against him and after TWS has looked things over they came to the same conclusion. He has now until monday to delete all the fan arts he's stolen, if not, action will be taken against him. Ee haven't gotten a response yet, but he is aware of the situation because I posted a message on both his sites the same day I discovered the theft and he's deleted it and my membership in his two groups (yahoo), so if he doesn't respond to TEWS's message, it is because he's ignoring it.

As it turns out, this guy has stolen work from alot of other artists, who will be notified if he doesn't delete, which means that he's been going around the net stealing from alot of people, his main target has been everything posted at Slayerverse but he has gotten around outside that site.

All I have to say now is: You want a war? I'll give you a WAR!
//Dana

March 16, 2005

Just found out today that some of my work has been STOLEN, sized down, cut to get rid of my copyright tag, and posted without my permission on another site. This really pisses me off. I don't usually get really really pissed off but I am right now. I worked my butt off to create these pieces and all for it to get stolen? What the hell is the point? I am about to contact a protection site, get their help in getting rid of this and making sure it never happens again. I've read about others being victimized but I've never been there myself, now I understand how they feel. I'm just so angry!

They stole three of my manipulations, smg, michelle and dawn/xander. They also stole two of my latest work, Buffy/Angel and Buffy/Spike, put them together as one image, smacked an ownerstag on it and posted it in the slayerverse comment system (of all places).

This is definitly not any misunderstanding on their part, that they thought they could repost my work without permission, this is just devilish and planned, and I'm gonna get them for it!

The two sites that they are posted on are: SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR PAPARAZZI PHOTOS and SATANS CELEBRITY SLUTS.

//Dana

March 13, 2005

So it's been a LONG time since my last update, almost a month and I feel bad that I haven't come around to update more the last month. I've done some new pieces, both for my weekly special at slayerverse and for a photoshop battle I'm currently in on buffyworld. I won't go into so much detail into every piece this update since I have a whole bunch of new pieces and my update would take you an hour to read ;)

Chosen Art has now passed the TEN THOUSAND mark, and I'm just still in awe at how fast this has gone. During the past month, I haven't only passed that mark, I'm up to 13000 visitors now, having approxamitly 100 visitors a day. This is just amazing and I'm so happy that people have found my site and keep coming back for my work, I have no words. Thank you :)

I've also gotten a whole bunch of new affies :)
Rosely @ Lost in Innocence, Nicki @ Pretended Angel, Holli @ RoryandLogan.net, Gaby @ Paranoia and Jamesgirl @ Chosen2DOTcom. You should check out their sites asap! :)

As you can see, I have a new layout. This time it features Lorelai Gilmore of Gilmore Girls. I was planning on going back to Buffy or Angel, I was even leaning towards Firefly, but when I found this picture (the left one) of Lauren Graham, I just fell and I fell hard for her. I started doing a new layout minutes after I had found the pic and this is the result. It's a rather simple layout this time, nothing with boxes or anything. I just felt like going back to basics with the black. Hope you like the colors and the header :)

So my new art. I have a whole bunch. I had a lot of fun doing them eventhough I have during the past week been feeling a loss of inspiration, but I managed to put together a bangel and spuffy piece anyway :) Hope you like all of them!

I'm currently putting all my focus on The Wild Awards as well. As some of you might know, it's been closed down over a month past it's date so I have to give it a big work over this week. Finally being able to open it up again and announce the winners and open up the nomination form again, so GO NOMINATE YOURSELVES! Alot of talented people pass this website, I am very aware of that and therefor I'd love to see you guys nominated at The Wild Awards. It's a music video and fan art award site, though the fan art section of it has never really taken off and that's what I hope it will do now. So NOMINATE yourselves :D

Big hugs to all my taggers and my affies! You guys rock! :)
So that's it for me today, I hope you enjoy my new work and visit The Wild Awards to nominate yourselves :) //Dana

February 14, 2005
Happy Valentines Day everyone!
So we're back on the day every single person dreads and every non-single loves. I'm personally the first one and my day sucked until I got some sweet cards from some friends with cute teddy bears and hearts on them, made me very happy :)

Today I've got 2½ new pieces, 1 new affilite and 2 new awards to tell you guys about :) First with the pieces, then the awards and lastly the affie - as always.

Ok, so I said I had 2½ new pieces, this is because 2 of them is the same piece but with different effects - hense the ½ :) the first one is a manipulation between Michelle Trachtenberg and Kate Beckinsale. I've completetly fallen in love with manipulations and Michelle and Kate match eachother perfectly, so naturally I had to do more. This is just a basic up close but I just love the pose and how the hair falls over her eye. I hope you like them and as usual, can't spot that they're manips :)

The last one is a Spike and Buffy wall from Spikes p.o.v. It was made for a challenge over at buffyworld - which I just found and realised that a whole bunch of my affies hung out there and now I'm hooked. They've got an awesome fan art section with bunch of challenges, and where you can post your latest stuff and get a little more serious feedback, and there's so much more. Anyways, I made this piece to sum up Spikes feelings toward Buffy during season 5. We all know how he realised he loved her in the third episode "Out of My Mind" and after that tried everything to get her and have her feel the same. I used pictures from "Fools For Love" - the one down on the left where Spike is lying on the ground and Buffy is standing infront of him, and the shot of Buffy - and from "Crush" - when Spike has been uninvited and can't come through the door anymore.

So, I was nominated over at WYDA, and I won in two categories! *happy* :)
I won Best Gallery and Best Design! First time in months that I nominated the site, and I won!

I also got a new affiliate: Vodvod @ Color Blind. Vodvod is a very talented artist and you should visit CB today!

A big hug to Amber, thanx for the present sweetie! I loved it :) *puts it in the gift section*
I think that's all for me now. Have a great Valentines Day, big hugs to all of my affies and friends and visitors :D //Dana

February 10, 2005
Not much of an artwork update today, I've been doing stuff around the site the last few days, and if you look to your left in the menu, you'll see a new category - Screen Caps. I realised I have a whole bunch of screencap sites I've done for Freeze Frame, and I've fallen inlove with Firefly after finally getting a chance to watch it, that I decided to give those sites/screen caps their own space here. So check them out if you're in need of screen caps from the Whedon shows :)

I've also sorted up my resources into categories, makes my life much easier to keep track of things. I've also sorted up my affilites, added their names and added a whole bunch of new affies. In total I have gotten 8 new affiliates since my last update - gotta be a record for me :) I'm proud to present my new affies who's sites you really should go visit today!

Tina @ Blueberry Wings, Esterin @ Crazy Arts, Blindfolded Hunter @ Until My Dying Day, Ronny @ Dark Passion, Jenny @ Gilmore Guide, Sasha @ Morning-Frost.net, Souly @ The Prophecy Designs and Naama @ CowArt

Chosen Art has also won an award from Misplaced, curious of the award? Click to see it.

Big hugs to my sweet taggers. Other than that, I don't think I have more to add today, see you guys soon! *hugs* //Dana

Don't forget to vote for Chosen Art!

February 4, 2005
It's only three days since my last update but I have three new pieces I'm eager to show you guys! They're all manips and I'm very proud of them! :) Hope you like them! I'm also in the current running at "What you deserve awards" and now you guys can vote for me! Just click the image that says "Vote for me" and you'll get to the site where you're doing it, it's done via a guestbook so don't become shocked when you get there :) I hope you guys think my work and site is good enough to be voted on! :)

As I said, I have three new pieces I wanted to show you guys!. The first one is of Michelle Trachtenberg. Originally it's a picture of Kate Beckinsale, but they have similar facestructure so she's a perfect body to manipulate with Michelle, and yes I know. Again with Michelle. But I've fallen in love with her, she's so beautiful and she's perfect to do manips with, her face is in such a structure that she works with most bodies :) Anyway, I wanted to go for the old look, so with alot of work I left it off with some brushed by avh to help with the "old" look. This is in my opinion one of my top manips I've done so far!


The next piece is Mercedes McNab, aka Harmony. The picture to the left is not a manipulation but the right one is. The original is actually Jennifer Aniston. I loved this pic and I just had to use it somehow and when I found the upclose on Mercedes I knew I had hit jackpot! After doing the manipulation, I have never seen Mercedes that beautiful, I love her in bangs and I'm thinking about doing more with her because of this :) The structure of the art is actually in original a thought by Monica. She made a piece featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar a few weeks ago and I loved how she had set it up, with two pics and the name in the middle. I asked her if I could use the same structure and she was sweet and said that it's was perfectly ok, so a BIG hugs to Monica! :) Hope you enjoy the manipulation as much as I do!

The last one is Sarah Michelle Gellar. I used the body of Heather Graham, but this time structure was not the deciding factor. I just loved the picture itself, how primeval it was and it was very 60's in how it was done so I just had the urge to do something with it. And as I'm in a complete addiction to manipulation, I ended up putting SMG there in stead. I used some screen caps of the desert in "Restless" because the original pic ended just after the stick she's holding and that didn't really work so voila, some caps and I got a background :) I hope you like this one as well and just like the other ones, can't spot that it's a manipulation (except on the fact that the picture is new :)).

I've spent around 4-5 hours on every one of these and I think it's payed off in a great way and I hope you guys agree and that you enjoy my work. Big hugs to my sweet taggers - Amber, Jess, Anja25ive and Monica! Thanx guys! :)

That's it for me today, I hope you have a great weekend and I'll see you next week :) //Dana

February 1, 2005
Just a few days since my last update, but I thought I should do one now, so I don't have a major big one later on :) Just went to see "Ladder 49" and I loved it, I cried and I laughed and I just loved it. Definitly buying it when it comes out on dvd! Both John Travolta and Joaqin Phoenix is awesome actors, so to me, this was just perfect!

On to the pieces. The first one is Rory and Lorelai of Gilmore Girls. Use some of my favourite pictures of the two, just found them in HQ and I just had to do something with them. It's a pretty simple piece, not my best work but turned out ok, a bunch of textures, some smudging and a little text, and I'm done.. ok, some other effects where involved as well, but I can't exactly remember which ones :) Hope you like it!

Second one is of Rory and Logan, again Gilmore Girls. As you can see it's the same couple as in my current layout. I'm just inlove with this couple, and I can't wait to see tonights episode! Anyway, I found a bunch of pics of the two and they looked so cute that I just had to do something. I played around with it for a few hours, adding some textures and brushes and effects and this is the result.

The last one is very special. It's Michelle Trachtenberg, but not. Ok, it's a manipulation, I loved this pic and I just felt I needed to turn it into a buffyverse one. My first attempt was with Charisma Carpenter, but it didn't turn out very good.. like not at all! It pretty much sucked. So after thinking about it for an hour of so, I decided to use Michelle instead. I know, I know. Now you're thinking "Again? Come on you just did her!", but she's perfect for manipulations, her faceform is just perfect for the pics I find I want to do some manipulation with. Anyway. I added some effects and textures and just a few brushes. I wanted her to stand out among the effects to the background is very blurry - plus, she's supposed to be in the foreground, not background or in the middle :) I hope you like it and can't spot right away that it's a manipulation. If you can, then ok, sorry but I hope you enjoy it anyway! :)

That's all for me tonight. Big hugs to my sweet taggers: slaygal, Amber and Nikki! //Dana

January 29, 2005
Well, it's been a while since the last update. I've been busy working for my dad with two advertisement movies that's gonna be showed in stores around the country to promot some new producs of Finax AB. This means I haven't had much time to do any fan art, so sadly I only have two new pieces to show you guys today, but I hope you'll live.

The big happy news is that, look! A new layout! I loved the last one with Dawn and Xander but it was just so dark and I really wanted a new bright layout for Chosen Art, since it's been a long time since the last light layout. This features one of my new favourite couples on tv - Rory and Logan of Gilmore Girls. I fell for Logan the first time he showed up and messed with Rory and I'm just waiting for the first kiss, so naturally I had to have a layout with them :)
It's actually a very simple header, I just blended the pics and added some textures, wanted it to be clean so the brushes had to be nowhere to be found. Oh, and I made motion blur on all three pics to make the background better and to mesh the pictures better. Thought it gave a great effect :)

Anyways, so the pieces I made was of David Boreanaz and Eliza Dushku. I really liked the photoshoot of David where he almost looks like a drawn figure and not real - so with some new brushes and a bunch of textures I ended up with this piece. I wanted to go with lighter colors when I didn't have the black, and I really wanted to underline the fact that he looked like a comic hero, not a real guy - hope you guys think I managed to do so too, and that you like it of course! :)

The one of Eliza is just based on the fact that I LOVE those two pictures of her and I just HAD to use them. And getting her to sit on the bed she was lying on, well, that was just something that was needed to be done :) I went with lighter colors, mainly because the past few months my art has been very dark and I felt, a change of scenery would be nice + the colors really work great with the pics of her. To me, the mood is just right!

Some plugs that need to be made: A lot of my affies has recently changed their layouts, so be sure to check ALL of them out - now :) Also, alot of hugs to slaygal, anja25ive, Daniel, Kate, Monica, Jess, Amber (who's finally back online! *yeay*) and Nicole for your sweet comments! :)

That's it for me today, gotta get something to eat now :) *hugs* to everyone who visits! //Dana

January 14, 2005
I can't believe it's 2005. There's so much I thought I'd do in 2004 and now the year is gone, poof. But with a new year, new goals are set that won't be achieved, it's a tradition ;) Anyways, with the new year I thought I should do an update. I've finally gotten back home after everything christmasy, and can now breath a little - even though I know THAT'S not gonna happen in the near future. I've gotten some new affies, that are really talented, but as usual I'll tell you more about them in the last part of the update. Chosen Art has also become a part of Slayerverse.de. After the announcement of this a few days ago, the site got 1500 hits - within 24 hours. Believe me when I say I almost fell of my chair when I saw this! As you know, I've been a teammember over there for a few months now and with the affiliation I was also offered to start posting some of my work every week, which I gladly accepted :) Today's my first post, which some of you know as I know that some of my regular visitors are users over there as well. :) But don't worry, this won't affect Chosen Art in anyway, you'll just the some of my art in two places at once.

So, with my new mouse I got an urge to do some new artwork, no surprice there, and I have 8 new pieces to show you guys! One of them, the last one is part of a challenge I entered, which I haven't heard back from yet, but anyways - I'll tell you more about it when I've gone through the other ones. I've gotten into doing alot of episodic art, I'm currently working on season 6, even though I have one season 2 and one season 3 piece today as well, but I'm focusing on season 6 episodic wise, I'm also working on making a piece for the whole scoobie gang - characterwise, from season 4 and I've gotten though with 2 already - Buffy and Willow.

#1 - The first piece is of buffy, it features a promo for season 4, and are a part of the new promo series I'm putting together. It's mostly brushes - all of which is avh brushes - and some textures, I've also used the movie grain effect on buffy to make her a bit darker, to fit the general mood of the piece. The words are by me.
#2 - The second is more about SMG, I love these pictures of her and when they surfaced a few days ago, or so, in HQ I just had to use them. I just played around with them and some brushes and textures, and I ended up with this. I put in the words because it was just a thought I had and I thought that they also added some effect to the piece as it looked a little empty without them.
#3 - This one is of Willow and is a part of the promo series I'm putting together (mentioned in the buffy piece above) and it features one of my absolute favourite pictures of Will (AH) ever taken as a promo. I played around with the textures and brushes and added some effects and I eneded up with this one. I was feeling a bit down the day I made it so that's why the text is so dark.
#4 - This piece features the episode "Innocence" back in season two and is the scene where Buffy realises the truth about Jenny Calender. I really like this scene so I ended up doing a piece. It's not my best work but it's not my worst either. Hope you like it.

#5 - This piece is the scene in After Life in season 6 when buffy appears before Tara and Willow and screams at the and throws the glassball - or whatever it's called - and I've been wanting to do this scene for so long. I've tried it atleast 4 times before and everytime it came out like rubbish. I hated all of the results and I ended up deleting them. But this time I decided that I wouldn't stop until it was perfect - I really wanted to bring out the terror and fear in that scene and I think I managed that this time. with only the contours of buffy and the looks on willows and taras faces to center it, along with the words buffy speak. I hope you're as happy about it as I am!
#6 - This piece is the scene where Dawn goes in to sleep with the Buffybot because she misses Buffy so much. It always broke my heart to see that scene and I realised I hadn't done anything with it, so I started working on it and this is the result. A very dark piece but I'm very satisfied with how it turned out.
#7 - This is from graduation day part 2 when Angel drinks of Buffy to be cured from the poison Faith gave him. I didn't really have any particular thoughts when doing this one, I just went along with it and this is how it turned out.
#8 - The last piece of the day, featuring Willow's revenge on Warren. This was for a challenge where we should do something that had to do with "Karma" which in this case means "What goes around, comes around", and this is what I ment with this piece, Warren killed Tara, Willow kills Warren. I wanted it dark, and grungy, or something to that effect, and I think I got that one down. the text featured is what Willow tells Warren before she kills him, and what Warren says to Buffy before he starts shooting and ends up killing Tara. on the bottom the Karma phrase is also featured.

So as I said I've gotten a whole bunch of new affies. They are: Kate @ Pixel Charged, Grant @ A Slayer's Gift, Zugma @ Ugly Business & Ann @ Obsession of the Moment. They're all amazin artists, so head on over and check out their work - now! :)
As stated above, I've also become an affiliate with Slayerverse and a regular art poster, a BIG hug to Slayer who runs the show over there!

Hugs to all my sweet taggers: slaygal - who floodes my tagboard - but I still love her :) flood it any time honey! Elizabeth, Ana, Justin, Amber, Zugma, Grant, Hayley, Brikar665, Sassy, Josie, asassssss, Andrea, Buffy-Anne-Summers & dawn-n. Thanx to all your sweet comments :)

That's it for me today, now I'm gonna go take care of my poor head (headache - hense the small pic of buffy at the top of the update). *hugs* to all my affies! //Dana

December 26, 2004
Greetings all you living people :) I'm back! I've been offline for almost a month helping out at home, working at school etc, but I finally have gotten some time to sit down and work with Chosen Art! As you can see, a new layout has been put up. I loved the last layout alot but I felt I needed something new. I couldn't think of anything particularly x-masy but then I realised that I love one of the latest pieces and decided to work from there and this is the result: A Dawn & Xander layout :) Hope you guys like it!

I'd also like to take this chance to thank all my affies who sent me holiday gifts - I love you guys, and I loved the gifts! I've added a part of the site where all my visitors (that means YOU! :)) can check out what I got for this x-mas from my wonderful affies!

I had a great x-mas this year, got lots of Buffy goodies. A lot of fact books and some novels I was missing. Especially the "Chosen" one by Nancy Holder. I tried to get ahold of this one here in Sweden but it was sold out and there wasn't any more at the publisher either so they weren't going to recieve anymore. But my mum and dad went to London just before x-mas and got it for me at the same time - suffice to say, I was happy :) I also got 2 calendars - one buffy, one SMG and one Spike. I got alot of other goodies as well that wasn't Buffy/Angel related that I really loved! I finally got a new cordless phone, my last one broke and I've had to live with a cord-one for about 2-3 months now and I hate using it when I'm sitting at the computer. But now I'm set! :D

This thursday I'm celebrating my 22nd birthday - the day before new years. I'm hoping for some Angel goodies - a calendar would be nice *drool* :) and some other stuff, like Troy!! or The Butterfly Effect!! or Socks. I use my socks until they fall apart and I'm in desperate need of new ones :) Anyway, It'll be a nice and quiet birthday this year, just me and my family.

I've been working alot with Slayerverse this past month and because of this I have 12 new artworks for you guys to check out! As always, all of the new pieces has been added to recent additions and also featured below within this update so you guys know what I'm talking about and don't think I'm just rambling :)
# 1 - The first piece is a x-masy with Spike and Buffy. I really like this picture of the two of them and thought I'd do something x-masy with it. I checked around for some x-mas pics and finally found some after searching for about 2 days *puh*. I ended up at FreeFoto.com and got me some pics of trees etc. When added to the pic with Buffy and Spike I then just added some textures and some brushes. That's it. The hardest thing with this one was thinking of something good text-wise, thought about it for probably an hour until I just wrote "A Christmas To Remember" on it.

# 2 - This is my first piece with Cordy alone. I've made one with her and Angel before but nothing with only her (though if you look close enough, you'll find Angel in the pic, not gonna tell you where though - that would be cheating ;)). I love this moment when she acends to a higher plane and becomes a Higher Being. I wanted some warm colors for this piece to be able to feel the wormth and love that lies within Cordy. I used alot of brushes in this one from AVH, there isn't that many pics within this one. Mostly pans of Cordy acending with the light above her. I also used a pic of the boat Connor used when trapping Angel at the bottom of the sea because I really liked the lights the boat cast on the water - you can't actually see the boat but it's placed just left of the big picture of Cordy. I used the words spoken by Cordy when she rambles until she realises that she IS a higher being.

# 3 - This features the scene in the season finale of Angel when Willow has come to tell him that Buffy is dead. I actually made a piece with this moment once before - like 6 months ago, but I was never truly saticfied. I gave it another shot, this time using alot of brushes featuring old paper, adding a pic of Cordy from when she's about to ask willow what's going on. I only used one closeup of Willow, when she's sitting on the couch just as the gang walks in. She looks completely devastated and then the look on Angels face when he realises that it's Buffy she's come for.

# 4 - It's about the last moments of Doyle, when he realises what the good fight is. I used the moment when Cordy embraces Angel and looks Doyles way, and several pics of Doyle on the killing machine (can't remember the exact name) and a big one of Doyle as the demon he is. I wanted to use the bright light the machine gave and just get into the moment it happens.

# 5 - This is the scene after Faith has taken over Buffy's body in "Who Are You?" and she's standing infront of the mirror trying to be Buffy, doing all these faces, saying "You can't do that, it's wrong" "it's naughty" etc. I always loved this scene but at the same time it scared me like hell, especially when the last thing she says as Buffy in that scene is "I'm gonna kill you" and then she leans into the camera - or the mirror - and you hear Faith (Eliza) laugh. It's so creepy, and that's what I wanted to show in this piece, that that scene isn't all fun and games, it's actually very frightening but at the same time, funny. Hard to explain but I hope you get it. :)

# 6 - This is from the episode Becoming Part 1, and it's the moment Buffy's running though the school corridors. I've always loved seeing that scene when she opens the door, and just as she comes around the corner everything becomes slow-motion. And then you hear Whistler talking during her run. I've always liked what he says - "The big moments are gonna come, you can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts." - I think those are words that one should live by in some ways. I also added a head shot of Buffy as she looks up when she's over Kendra. The expression on her face felt perfect for this piece. I didn't have that much thought about how I wanted the effects to be, they just evolved themselves.

# 7 - This was just an idea my mum had. She just told me - do something with Jonathan and Buffy. I thought about this and did some other arts in between and then I began working with this one. I remembered the episode where Jonathan makes the world his and he is this big superstar and I thought that Slayer and Superstar would be perfect for this piece. I just picked my favourite pictures of the two and put them together and went from there. The colors in the picture of Jonathan (Danny Strong) inspired me to go the green and black way. It felt right and I'm happy about how it turned out. This is also my first piece with a minor character. But I've always loved Jonathan, even when he was "evil". I always had sympathy for him and thought he was so sweet and I felt so sorry for him when he wanted to kill himself. It felt right to put him and Buffy together, not only for the episode Superstar but because they've had a link with eachother for a lot of years now. He gave her the Class Protecter award, she saved his life several times, and when he was evil he didn't want to kill her - he even helped her when she fought Warren. In my eyes, the guy had always been the sweetest and I cried the day they killed him. (ok, so I'm rambling on about Jonathan here, but I really love this character :))

# 8 - Here I just wanted to use some happy pics of the triangle that is Angel/Buffy/Spike. I love the pic of Angel and Spike together. For once they look like friends :) I just added some effects (brushes) to it so that it didn't turn out too black and then I showed it to my brother who's first reaction was - X FILES! - I just looked at him, what? He told me that it made him think of X files because - which I afterwards realised he was right about - the poses they stood in was the typical X files poses. Said and done I made it The Buffy Files. Because what else could one call it when it's the three of them? :)

# 9 - I realised I've never done anything with Giles before - if you don't count the layout I had a few versions ago, but that wasn't just him and the piece with him and Buffy, but again, not alone - so I thought I'd do something. I really liked this photoshoot of him so I thought "what the h***" and I sat down, picked up the pics and started to work and as I worked I came to think about that we have seen Giles as Giles - the sweet, a bit geeky and bookish, sometimes stuffy, english librarian/watcher. But then we've also seen Giles as Ripper - the guy who without a moments pause kills Ben because Buffy couldn't, the Ripper who was the rebellion in his teens and the Ripper we don't know that much about. As I thought about this I realised that this guy has two sides. So I used a happy smiling Giles as Giles and a more serious not so nice looking Ripper to stand on the other side. He is the man with two faces. I wanted to make it a bit mystical and messy but at the same time, not. It's hard to explain my thoughts on the effects on this one as I had alot of them but I can't really remember them, just the feeling I had when doing it.

# 10 - This piece is my pride and joy! It is also the current layout! I've always loved the bond between Dawn and Xander, both the brother/sister bond they had in the later years but also when Dawn had a crush on Xander. They're so sweet and special and I thought that a piece with them would be perfect. As I started to look for pictures things went downhill because I really couldn't find anything good and I was loosing my inspiration. Finally I found a pic of Xander and Cordy from season 2 or 3. I thought about it and then I decided to try to do a manipulation. I've done this before and it hadn't turned out very good, like, ever. But I decided to give it a try, I was afterall in love with the picture of Xander and Cordy and thought it would be PERFECT if I could get it right with Dawn and Xander. I began looking through the pics of Dawn and finally found one from season 6 - the promos - and thought that her expression and her hair was perfect. The hair part because it wasn't in her face cutting of anything and the expression - well, look at the pic and you'll understand :) Anyway, I began working on it and finally got her face on Cordy's and it was perfect, except the part about her being so much MORE lighter than the rest of the pic, after alot of effort and touch and feeling etc I finally got the color on Dawn's face to match the rest. And more perfectly - I got her face to blend with Cordy's forhead and her ears and some of her cheeks. I'm so happy about how this piece worked out that I just had to use it for my newest layout! I hope you like it as well and can't tell that it's a manipulation. :)

# 11 - This is my second piece with Cordy. I didn't have that much thoughts when I began doing this one, I just put the two pictures together and started to mess around with it for a few hours, not one brush has been used in it, it's all textures and the pictures that is the effects :)

# 12 - This is the last one of them all. It's one of Buffy and Riley. Being a Bangel myself I didn't always approve of Riley but re-watching the show has shown me who and what Riley really was. This really great guy who loved Buffy alot. Sure he had his downsides - the suckage of vampires being one that disturbed me but that I could understand - but he's human, he's allowed to have downsides and bad days just like the rest of the scoobies. I've come to understand during alot of my discussions with other fans that this relationship has been hated by alot of fans and people has been anti-Riley so much that it's almost been disturbing. So the perfect name for this piece was "a Love overlooked" as nobody want anything to do with it - except the fans of it of course :) I used two pics of Buffy and Riley that I put together as one as a representation of them and then two pictures from their first kiss. I love that moment nowadays so I just had to use it. The colors just turned up when adding some textures and then I added some brushes and this is the result :) I hope you guys like it as much as I do!

PUH - finally the update is completed. It became so much longer than I thought it would but I hope you had the time and efforts to read through it and I hope you enjoy my work as much as the next one :) Hugs to all of you - especially Amber, Jess, Monica, Nikki, Orome and Peyton! See you guys soon, if not in 2004 then in 2005! Have a great last days of the year! //Dana