(Take a Deep Breath) Artist -- May I Join In?

Hello, everybody.

Is it all right for me to be on these forums? I'm not a writer. I'm an artist/illustrator.

I'm here because I'm interested and sympathetic. I may not be a writer, but I am a creator, and sometimes I think I might have helpful observations to make. At least, I hope so.

For a little introduction, I live in Chicago, and I've done a certain amount of professional illustration work for the University of Chicago Press, Black Gate Magazine, and Weavings Magazine, as well as semi-pro work for ISFiC and others. My website (easy enough to find with Google, if anyone's interested -- I'm not linking it here), on which I show art and teach egg tempera technique, is a "Preditors and Editors Artist's Site of Excellence".

May I join the conversation?

Thank you all. I was a little unsure if a non-writer would be welcome. It's nice to be here.

Now I'm going to go see if I can make myself useful.

Thank you. And, as you can see, I've worked out the signatures. I hope it's okay to put a link in to my site now -- I avoided it at first because I wasn't sure if it was appropriate for me to be here.

And that is one of my illustrations.

Phew. Looking around this site is like walking through a candy store. Or -- if anyone understands this -- like finding a warehouse-size art supply store next door to a hardware store.

So ... many ... goodies.

Well, I've worked out the signature (that's a few of my paintings down there) and a custom avatar (found for the Great Steampunk Takeover of 2011), and welcomed some new members, and contributed to numerous threads and, I hope, been a helpful and not pestilential presence. I'm also past 100 posts, but somehow I still feel like a Newbie.

I'd also like to drop some more info. I'm a very long time fan of Doctor Who (since about 1984, I'd say), also a first-generation girl roleplaying gamer, from slightly earlier. I'm a mom of two, and my husband is a breathtakingly talented science fiction writer and computer programmer. I've done some professional illustration and hope to do more.