This is somewhat self-promoting, but I had to share this story. Why? Because I don’t believe it is actually about me. It’s about a talented artist I came across on deviantART named Xaizently.
Almost two years ago I was wondering what I should do with all these points I had accumulated on the deviantART website. The points are worth very little in real-world currency, but I had accumulated somewhere between 30-50 of them. Surely I could use them for something!
I don’t remember how, but I came across Xaizently’s profile page and noticed that she was offering to do drawings for points. I saw her piece entitled Too Hard and loved it. So I offered up my points for an original drawing. I asked for something of a similar style with the subject matter being Randy Rhoads. What I ended up with was this. I loved it. I can picture a young Randy Rhoads learning the guitar on his way to greatness.
Currently, 400 points on deviantART is worth around $5.00. I received that drawing for 30-50 points. I’m no math-magician, but that’s a bargain. So later on when deviantART offered buy one, get one free deals on site subscriptions, I decided to give a subscription to Xaizently. I figured she’d earned it.
After giving her the subscription I was offered another drawing. I thought this was very generous and said that although there was no obligation, I’d love another drawing. Here’s the brief I then provided:
What would you say to a picture of me (using my profile picture at [link provided]) playing the Jackson RR3 guitar (you can see it at [link provided])? That would make my year. I use the Scarebear picture for all of my web profiles and that is my favourite guitar (I own it). It’s the guitar Randy Rhoads was working on with the Jackson company before he died.
As you can see, I like Randy Rhoads and guitars.
The entire piece can be B&W too. I prefer B&W on guitars.
To make an already long story shorter than it could be, this week I ended up with the image you can now see below. In my opinion, it is simply amazing. Outstanding even. I wish I looked that good. I know one thing though, this experience and the money I spent on my one year deviantART subscription has been one of the happiest online experiences in many a year for me.
Check out Xaizently’s gallery of work. In my opinion she’s awesome.
