Well I mentioned I wanted to do a Christmas DT wrap-up, and while I'm finishing late, it's not that late, so maybe I can manage a quick one. ;)

Dragon Tails itself. Well the biggest thing for Dragon Tails is that it made it through another complete year. Daily, uninterrupted since the 26th of June 1999. Not bad considering! I had oodles of fun with the super hero storyline, I was able to blend in some old characters of mine (the Psycho Possums from Tasmania) and even work in some of my ideas on public transport. I hit comic #1000 near the start of the year, and am currently powering into the 1300's. I brought back Colin in upgraded form, and even had another moon attempt for old times sake, even though people inevitably accused me of running out of ideas for doing so.

The storylines had lulls and dragged on, I'd cut away and only pick up an important event weeks, sometimes months later, but I hope all up it's been a fun ride. It's been hard work but fun, and with the donations I'm not running the site at a loss, although I'm still very conscious this is simply a hobby.

As for me personally, I haven't had an exceptional year. Unfortunately I'm currently unemployed, a result of the company I was working for being forced to scale back, although I am ok for the mean time and will start seriously pursuing new employment options in the new year. If you run a high profile video games or visual effects company and want a talented young graphics artist type person, by all means, give me shout. ;) Speaking of the games industry I was actually hopeful for a little while that I could get a start in my own back yard - Adelaide's own Ratbag games was looking for artists and animators, but I didn't even get an interview, which leaves me with a new goal for 2003 - fleshing out my 3D folio for the next time an opportunity like that arrises. I'm also considering trying some kind of freelance/independent artist type venture, but I have little practical experience with the field and guess I'll be testing the waters some time early next year.

Like last year, I've had a strong focus on my handdrawn art outside of Dragon Tails, not only working on my basic drawing skills, but my inking techniques and colouring methods. Whenever you think you're getting near the top of the mountain you realise it just keeps going up, and you see someone elses site that sends you into the pits of depression but I'm making progress. If you haven't already, and are so inclined, you might like to check out TimDawson.com, my art gallery, to see some of the junk I've been getting up to.

My social life has been utterly abysmal this year, and I am, as always, painfully single, and using video games to dull the pain. ;) The DT community has been a whole lot of fun though, especially the IRC channel, and it was certainly great to have something like that after I basically got jerked around in the last couple of months. But I'm a fitter human being than I was this time last year, and so here's to a brighter 2003!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy your Christmas, as for me I really better head to bed. Thanks for reading Dragon Tails, thanks for all your support, thanks for everything.

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