Art is in the air

[pebblerocker]

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!!

Comments

[megaptera]

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.

[vilakins]

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?

[megaptera]

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.