pebblerocker | Art is in the air

The last five years of NaArMaMo seem to have had an effect on me: my brain has been trained to associate cold weather with creativity. Yesterday I started on drawing a picture on the computer, learning about how to use layers and things. I have a sort of a story and it works better as a picture, and since it has several people in it I would struggle greatly without a photo reference (kindly posed for by family members, one standing on a chair holding a bicycle helmet) so learning how to make computer pictures is going to make things easiest. There are tutorials around which I've learnt some hints from even though they tend to use a lot of words I don't know.

And today Dreamwidth launched the first version of a new image hosting feature which even free accounts will be able to use. I hope there's enough space for a month's worth of art, because I'd love to have somewhere to upload NaArMaMo pictures that's guaranteed not to vanish or be "improved" beyond all usability like the last few hosts I've tried. Exciting!!

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I don't think I can manage to do naarmamo this year what with a full-time job and a boarder. :-(

Which hosting sites should I stay away from? I use Flickr for crafts and also used it for naarmamo when Scrapbook was down and that seemed fine, but I'd like something else for other stuff (I refuse to use the new Crapbook). I'm going to try Picasa as aq couple of people have recced it.

DeviantART has actually improved quite a bit. They took out the really iffy stuff from their terms of service, and they now make a point of saying in plain language that any art you post is yours and yours alone, and dA has rights to reproduce it only so that it can be shown to other people through their service as you choose.

The other thing that made me leave in a fit of squick has been fixed -- on the profile page they now allow you to choose female, male, or other. :) So my beefs with them are over and I've made a new account.

I think they even have an embedding code that you can use to post a thumbnail to another page, which makes it easier to share through LJ/DW. I'll have to check that out to be sure.

Thanks! I know a lot of people on DA, but the whole having to display your gender put me right off. I would prefer it not to show at all, but I may have a look again.

Do you get a lot of comments and crit there?

Sometimes. Like anything else, if you're posting stuff in a popular genre you get lots of random favs and likes. But it's really good for hooking up with other people who have obscure interests, and fanning each other all over the place. There are a couple of startlingly active groups dedicated to fanworking the creations of Michael Moorcock, which makes me go squee. Okay, I co-founded one of the groups, but it actually got people and they post stuff to it.

I used Flickr for an August or two, but they made it harder and harder to get the image URL for embedding and started putting in stuff about how it was against their terms of service to embed pictures instead of linking to them, so I'd like to move away from there and get something easier to use. Also it has the vibe of being a place to upload photos that you took, not pencil sketches you drew, and not pictures someone else took to be embedded elsewhere for purposes of criticism and review. Flickr seems to work fine for Ravelry though!

Imageshack put me off by putting porn ads next to the picture I wanted to see. I have adblocker but I'm not going to store my images there and subject anyone else to seeing that. Photobucket put me off by having a very cluttered, unattractive interface for viewing other people's photos, and by asking me which US state I live in on the sign-up form with no "none of the above" option.

Deviantart drove me away by becoming ever more complex and unwieldy until pages no longer loaded completely until the fifth try, if at all, and the categorisation system became too intricate and difficult to navigate especially when nothing worked on the first go. It is at least explicitly a place to upload art in any medium. Now that I have a faster computer and connection I may give it another shot.

I have heard that Picasa is easy to use, and also heard paranoia from people who don't want Google to own their entire lives ;)

Ravelry is why I have a Flickr account; makes it easy. I had no trouble using it for naarmamo that time, but it certainly looks as if Picasa is the way to go.

Re: drawing from poses: if I haven't shown you this yet, I'm sorry. :)

http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php/

You choose the kind of models you want to see (nude or not, which genders) and how long you want to see them, and you sketch what comes up on the screen. You can have them flash by every thirty seconds so that you can sketch, or you can have them each for ten minutes and draw in detail.

Oh yes, Naarmamo! Soon - omg, this year I have no idea at all...Reading about you sophisticated methodology and approach, I am at a loss. Fortunately, I do know even the most primitive and simple contribution will be welcomed. And I look forward to meet old friends and see amazing Art!!!!
See you there!!!
*HUgs*

I don't know what I'm doing at all with computer art! Whereas your art is always most skilled and elegantly presented. I look forward to seeing it all!

Have you heard anything from Jakesta? Is she still doing it? See you soon.

I just assume that it's going ahead -- it can't not happen -- I look forward to being in my seventies and getting ready for my 48th NaArMaMo!

Oh, that's wonderful! Wish I knew how to run it, so in case Jakesta isn't up to it, we could still do it, but I'm technologically challenged. I'll keep positive thoughts.

Good luck

Thanks!

I am reeeeaaally looking forward to naarmamo :D Loved it so much last year! Ooh I better pimp it to my friends in the hope of making more converts

Glad that you'll be in this year too! See who you can bring along to join in :)

Art is in the air

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