Hello all. I suspect this is going to be a rather lengthy post as there is much to respond to.
First I want to thank Altoholic_Monkey for bringing this thread to my attention last night, as I was totally oblivious to the situation based on the fact that I have received no support emails in regard to some of the concerns here. I also want to thank you Alty for sharing my new pieces here as I totally understand how its easy to get all your information from one source. As for our relationship she hit the nail right on the head it really isnt anyone elses business so if she doesnt feel the need to share personal info with you please respect that.
As for not posting updates on my site over the last month I honestly didnt think what was going on was relevant. I dont treat my splash page as a blog but more a place to post new pieces. However since some people want some word of things I will be happy to share. I feel like some of its kind of personal but hey here goes. I moved as I stated in the last post. This took a few days and you better believe I took a day or 2 off after that. My body was in shambles and I had to recoup. Then a family member called me last min and needed a place to stay and help in regard to local employment. I did quite a bit of driving around and attending to my guest. He was here for 4 days. I then got cracking on The Knights of Divinity piece, and as you can see thats a pretty massive piece. I did lose that piece about halfway through the coloring phase, which is something that hasnt happened in ages, however I am to blame and my wife didnt let me forget it SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!. Thank God I had the pencils! The WOTLK expansion came out for WOW and I must confess I did spend a few days checking out all the new tid bits, and of course rolled a Death Knight, thats still sitting al level 62. I sketched a great deal during that time as well. Right around that time Thanksgiving was upon us and I spent a few days with my family here in Texas, 3 days to be exact. I then got back to work on the Knights of Divinity and also some future roughs, and here we are. So that was basically my month of November and I will do my best to fill you guys in on more details in the future. I cant say I will go into such personal detail but I will do my best.
Thor, first let me say our relationship has been up and down for quite awhile. I find your post here very interesting as you have numerous ways to contact me such as my studio number, both mine and Keishas cell phone number, all of the e-mail addresses listed on my site, and my MySpace account. I havent heard a peep from you in regard to your pieces. So the fact that you went in length on the forums rather than sending that information to me personally leads me to think that you are just attempting to stir up drama. Just to let you know Im really not into drama as it only hampers my creative process and my time, as this letter is proof. Hey but I understand as I know how things can go on forums sometime, so lets get down to the nuts and bolts of this situation and try and get this all behind us.
To my knowledge you have 2 pieces in my queue not 3. The Lord of Valhalla piece and the single character piece I am doing in place of the Priceless piece. As for our history it is very complex due to the fact that a great deal of standard practice was looked over based on our personal relationship. I will chalk that up to lesson learned. You mentioned feeling like you are being passed over for other clients in the queue, but thats strange as I remember many of those late nights when after working 12-15 hour days I would bust out sketches for you. Many of which were pushed to the side due to a new development in your personal life or rolled into the Death Dealer piece I did for you, I do recall gifting half that piece to you also. It was a great deal of work down the drain but hey for a friend right? An unfortunate side effect of all of this was things being done on my personal time not professional time so fitting you in the queue presented quite a challenge. No worries though we will have a solution to this situation by the end of my statement to you.
I recall the last rants of you and Sassy on DA due to the fact that you overextended yourself with many artist and owed money due to some unfortunate real life events. I helped you out and paid that debt for you even though I had nothing to do with it. I paid it because I considered you a friend and I understood your situation. I also didnt like how Rieq blasted you on his webpage. Well this is the second time you have done the very same thing to me and Im sure there have been other times that I am simply not privy to. I have gone out of my way to stay available. I even recall pleading with people here to contact me directly or even through my personal email if they had concerns. Again you never did that. I am sure because I triple checked my emails and I also dont have any voice mails from you. I do apologize that our dealings have resulted in you being bitter. I will do everything I can to remedy this situation, as I am not a crook or thief regardless of what Ironik presumes. I can only assume he has no idea of the statement in our order form that states there may be a significant wait time, but I digress. So T.A. my solution is a simple one. I will issue you a mandatory refund to make you whole. Kiesha will contact you this evening with the details. Hopefully we can move on from there having both created some nice pieces of art together, and also learning valuable lessons in regard to the commission process.
Guys the bottom line is art can be different things for different people. Comparing a custom piece of art to a floor is a stretch from my perspective, but hey if thats more important to some people, who am I to tell them different.
Does real life impact my creativity? Sure it does. I cant really do anything about that as every artist has a process and sometimes it takes longer for some than others. Sure some people can spit it out like a machine and some people it takes months to produce a piece of like caliber. I think it shows in the quality when I work on a piece and dont quite feel like it at the time, but I will admit there is a sought after balance between perfectionism and productivity that I will continue to tweak and work on as I go. I personally know artists who have queues spanning years, I happen to be one of those people. My future solution is simple and its to limit my queue and work at a pace that I am more comfortable. However if you want your piece next day and know an artist that isnt back logged and will produce the quality you desire then by all means patronize them.
As I said above things like this take up a great deal of my time, so please if you have any problems or questions in the future please feel free to contact me at support@mmoart.com.
Just a few more things before I get back to work.
For The_troll here is where I was on your piece before I started on this reply, and now that Im almost done Im going to be all over it. The large portrait will be in the back and his tattoos will be added in the coloring phase.
Troll Pencil
This is a rough for Big Soto he is hard to get in touch with due to his military service, so just waiting for feedback from him on this.
Big SOTO
Thor here is the rough for your piece please consider it a gift, and I will also send you a high resolution copy of the Valhalla pencil as this is probably not a great place to post it
IA Rough
The 2 next pieces I love working on thus fur because hey lets face it I have an affinity for the female figure =D
Tanks
Ms. Frost
Last but not least *Hugz @ Gata_* Thank You =D
More to come soon guys, Peace =)
. I also wanted to share the Aranos X Inks and will be posting the colors soon 
Very nice piece! Graver is such a talented artist!
