An image post

[pebblerocker]

In the wake of the Great Photobucket Apocalypse of 2017, and after every other image host on the planet has already forbidden image hosting, I'm going to try out Dreamwidth's new image hosting. Here is a picture of a dragon I drew for my niece.



I currently have no job. Since being too busy at work and being drained after work has ruined my chances of doing NaArMaMo most recent years, perhaps I will do better at making art for a month this time around. On the other hand, it turns out that all my self-worth is in being able to work and so I have been mainly feeling miserable instead of doing amazing things with my new free time.

Comments

[feng_shui_house]

*HUGGLES* Your dragon is lovely.

I just found a free site that might be usable for the purposes of Naarmamo- it's not meant for image STORING, but for linking to forums- It looks like you don't need to get an account, just upload your images and get 'permanent links for Facebook, Twitter, message boards and blogs.'

http://postimages.org
http://postimages.org/terms

If you want to keep using DW but are afraid you'll run out of space, you can reduce the file size- I copied your dragon to check it out-it's 664kb. A black & white line drawing could be much smaller and still *look* the same on a webpage, so I'm guessing you don't have any programs to do file size reduction.

BUT! If you google 'online image file size reduction' you'll find quite a few free sites that promise to do it for you.

[pebblerocker]

Now that sounds useful! I wonder what they really mean by "permanent"... I don't trust any site to stay around any more.

I can resize files but I have no idea what size to make them! I have a different monitor to the one I used when I started scanning my art, and now all my old pictures look very very small on my new monitor at about 800 pixels wide, but I don't know what is a good size these days and I know you can't make them bigger again once they're shrunk. I already made the dragon a bit smaller, keeping a copy at the original resolution. There's also an image quality setting when I go to save it and I do drop that one below 95% when uploading less important screenshots to a game forum, but again I don't know if I'll regret lowering the quality later.

[feng_shui_house]

Nothing on the internet is truly permanent- I expect what they mean is that it's not just a pass-through, but they leave it hosted.

For images meant only for online viewing I resize files at 72 dpi (that's the old standard, the new standard is a bit larger, I think). I usually have them about 10 inches wide.

For viewing an image hardly ever needs to be much more than 200kb- most of the ones I shared over the years were far less than that. Your line drawing dragon I could probably have reduced to 30kb while keeping it the same number of inches visually and not looking much different on screen (it would have been a mess if enlarged and no good for printing, but that's actually a good thing - it makes image theft less profitable.)

[pebblerocker]

Huh. I've had a good wrangle with the image editing program (I'm using paint.net, it's free) and with the scanner, and lowering the dpi either on the original scan or when resizing the image seems to do nothing to the file size. I really don't know what I'm doing here! The only way I can make the file smaller is to shrink it down so that at 100% it takes up less of the screen, or to save it as jpeg and lower the image quality. These are currently in .png format which is what the scanner gives me automatically.

[feng_shui_house]

PNG is a 'non lossy' format, that means it tries to preserve everything in the image, which results in large file sizes.

JPG is a 'lossy' format, which means you can reduce file size by losing detail in the image, but still keep it the same number of viewing inches.

If you can set the scanner to jpg maybe that will help?

[vilakins]

I can still host images at Flickr, but it's a pain getting the URLs; DW is so much better.

Nice dragon! When is naarmamo? I'll have to try to unpack the stuff I haven't yet to find my graphics tablet.

I know what you mean about self-worth and work; I went through that a few years ago after a redundancy. I hope you find something good soon, and in the meantime enjoy the spare time.

[pebblerocker]

It's this month! I drew nothing yesterday but I was up before dawn today and drew a bit so I think that counts as yesterday.

I'm off work due to an injury as well as having the role disestablished at some point in future possibly before I'm well enough to work, and there have been problems with forms getting signed and all that so I haven't even been examined yet. Most frustrating. I don't know what I'm going to do in future.

[spiralsheep]

I host at flickr and the urls for dw posting are one-click for me (on the arrow symbol, mid-right on the photopage), but I do strip out the embedding code before posting.

[vilakins]

Ah, you mean the share photo icon? I'll have to check that out. I've been clicking on the download symbol, then View all sizes, then clicking on the size I want, then get that URL. :-P

DW hosting is a doddle, but you don't get much storage.

[spiralsheep]

And... you've made me realise how many anonymous arrows there are on flickr pages, lol. Yes, "share photo" bendy arrow then in the pop-up box, for dw, the "embed" tab at the top (which is then stored in your log-in cookie as your preference), pick size (again your last preference is stored), and c&p code, but I used to do it your way and that works too, obv.

I also strip out the embed code (which might or might not effect friends using various screenreaders, other browsers, mobiles phones, &c.):

data-flickr-embed="true"

&

[script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"][/script]

[vilakins]

Thanks! I already tested it and it works well. I just grabbed the jpg URL and was good. This is a huge help!

[sallymn]

I've been hunting around (I mean, I've been putting pics on photobucket since 2007!!!!!) and the easiest I've found is vgy.me. Again, how permanent is permanent...

Flikr is fiddly, but I may use it for some of my grouped posts (like the 100 things)

[pebblerocker]

Thanks, that may be useful! So many icons to re-host, and so many people won't bother.

[jekesta]

That is a very gorgeous dragon. I like how tough it looks, like lean and ready for a fight.

And lkasdjfhoisjd, this:

I have been mainly feeling miserable instead of doing amazing things with my new free time

It's such the worst thing brains do, but yes. It's really hard to get past. Have you looked into volunteering at all?

[pebblerocker]

Inevitably I would have to talk to someone to explain to them that I don't want to do anything involving talking to people, and they would judge me for not genuinely wanting to help because nearly everything involves talking to people. The closest thing needing volunteers is going to talk to lonely people at the rest home and that might be all right if the old folks are so desperate they don't mind who they talk to, but still.

[jekesta]

Ugh yes, there is that. I hate that when you're looking for a proper job too. Even if it's the most anti social job you can find, you're still supposed to win it by talking to people and coping with phones.

[spiralsheep]

I love your dragon, especially the clean lines and pointyness.

[pebblerocker]

I was looking forward to adding lots of spikes and scales and wattles, but once I'd got the body drawn I realised it needed to be a sleek dragon with very few extra bits.

[capri0mni]

it turns out that all my self-worth is in being able to work and so I have been mainly feeling miserable instead of doing amazing things with my new free time.

Well, damn!

It looks like NaArMaMo came just in time, then. If there were any time to break out the crayons and finger paint, now would be it.

No evil can withstand the power of crayons.

[pebblerocker]

Exactly! I hope my brain weasels are easier to overcome than a plain lack of hours in the day. And I hope doing art will make me feel like I am good for something after all.

[capri0mni]

You are! You are!

(And yes, that's how art has always worked for me. After all, each thing I create changes the world a little bit. A new thing exists that never did before because of me (you).

[electricwitch]

That's the unemployment catch. I just started a new job so am not participating, boo. Good luck! Create some stuff you like!

[pebblerocker]

Thanks! I wish you well in the new job!