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The most overdue journal yet

Journal Entry: Tue Apr 2, 2013, 6:42 AM

I've been horribly absent on here lately, I know. I spent about two hours today catching up with comments... whew!

And I still have thousands upon thousands of deviations to go through as well.

I do have reasons for my absence, though! Two months ago, my arm suddenly started hurting. It turns out that sitting at a desk like normal people, with my tablet or drawing pad in front of me, screws up my arm. So I couldn't use it at all for about a month, and then it started getting better. I'm almost back to normal now, but it's been sloooow. And I've been saving up the not-sore time for my commissions and other work, which I'm lagging behind on as well, and that left nothing for typing replies and comments on here.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I know it was three months ago, but still. I did see them all on the day and they made me really happy!

I replied to them all now, silly as it feels to say "thank you" three months later. I'd feel far worse just ignoring them.

So, what's been going on? Quite a lot. It's been a good year so far, aside from the whole screwed-up-arm thing. There are now two more books in the world with covers by me: The Lost Diadem and Trouble in the Mage Guild, the first two books in the children's fantasy series A Rogue's Tale. You can see the cover art and synopses here. I'm working on the third one at the moment.

The RPG I worked on, Tunse'al, is out now as well. I got my copy of it the other day and it looks really cool, so if you're into role-playing, you should take a look.

And I've been working on art for a sci-fi board game: Burning Suns from Sun Tzu Games. The Kickstarter for that just launched, and it looks pretty damn awesome, so make sure to check it out.

There's a ton of new stuff waiting to be posted, but I'm going to space it out a little. Here's a preview of what's coming up!

I haven't forgotten about the colour challenge, either! It's just been delayed a little. But *dreamarian did make something for it, which about made my day when I saw it.

I'll post my own efforts soon! I also have a tutorial or two ready to go, and some more resources, and more stuff. I've been busy, I've just also been really quiet. But hopefully, now, you can all understand why. Thanks for bearing with me and thanks for being awesome!

Stamps

17 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Oh Death - Jen Titus

Go 'green screen' for solidarity with VFX artists!

Journal Entry: Wed Feb 27, 2013, 10:33 AM

The film "Life of Pi" recently won an Academy Award for visual effects, but the artists behind those have little to show for it. In fact, 250 of them were laid off when their company, Rhythm and Hues, had to file for bankruptcy.

Visual effects companies are being shortchanged by Hollywood filmmakers, which falls back on the artists, who are overworked, underpaid, and essentially underappreciated. This isn't fair at all, and the protest over it is going social now. People all over Facebook and Twitter are changing their avatars to green as an expression of solidarity with the VFX artists who deserve a lot better than what they're getting.

If you want more info on the issue, you can check out this article or just do a search for "green screen solidarity with visual effects artists".

I think it'd be great if deviants got on board with this, out of solidarity and because it does potentially affect all of us if the art industry continues to be devalued like this. Just change your avatar to green - either a solid green box, or your own avatar tinted green. Here's one you can just take and use:

Let's show some solidarity and help tell Hollywood that visual artists deserve a better deal! Change your avatar, tell your friends, and please fav this article or share a link so that lots of people see this!

2 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Two Steps From Hell

Colour challenge!

Journal Entry: Thu Sep 27, 2012, 11:38 AM

Are you up for a little challenge?

If you do traditional art, chances are that you're familiar with this phenomenon: the black pencil/paint always runs out quicker than all the other colours. Right? Well, I decided to challenge myself to create a drawing without using the black pencil. And then I decided, hey, I'll just challenge my friends too!

So here's the challenge:

Create a colour drawing or painting using only colours, no black. That means no black pencil/paint, no grey pencils, no charcoal, no graphite, no black paper. And you have to use several different colours, or at least different shades of the same colour; drawing a sketch with only one colour defeats the purpose here.

No rules aside from that. White pencils/paint/chalk etc is allowed, and you can use whatever paper you want as long as it's not black (or really dark grey). It's really a challenge for traditional artists, since it's much harder to eliminate black in digital art, but if you want to try a digital equivalent, go for it! The whole point is to challenge ourselves as artists to learn more about our media, to get some practice at shading with colour and experimenting with tone and contrast without the "crutch" of the black pencil.

You can draw whatever you want. It's not a contest, so there aren't any prizes, but I'll feature all the responses in a journal.

If you're interested, just leave a comment, or just start drawing and note me the link when you upload it! And please help me spread the word by faving this journal and/or linking to it!

It's also past time that I announced the winner of my giveaway - =KW-Scott! Thanks for taking part, those of you who did. I'll probably do more of these in the future, so watch this space!

The calendar from ~ArtistsforaCure is now available for purchase - make sure you have a look, it really is absolutely beautiful. Everyone involved did a great job. There's some gorgeous art in there, and it's showcased beautifully as well. Check it out, it makes a lovely gift and all of the money goes to cancer research, so you'll be doing a good deed as well as getting a pretty!

Aaaand, finally: I now have a website! I finally got it all set up like I wanted. Check it out!

No features this time around, since my message centre is still overflowing and I'm nowhere near up to speed again yet, but I'll do my best to have some for you next time.

I hope you're all doing well!

I'll leave you with some lovely features from my watch list:

Stamps

46 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Schandmaul

Quick update, giveaway, and contest winners!

Journal Entry: Mon Jul 23, 2012, 5:25 AM

I've been really remiss in posting and commenting around here, I know. Life has been hectic. Some of my family members went nuts, and I wound up spending FAR too much time looking at legal documents and reading up on German law. Protip: never do this. German law is some of the most boring, awkwardly-phrased literature you'll ever find.

So I've had fairly little free time. Things should hopefully relax a little now, though, and let me get back to looking at everyone's gorgeous art! I have over 50,000 messages in my inbox right now.

If I've missed anything that I should really see, please please tell me!

To make up for my lack of activity at least a little, I'm doing a giveaway!

Up for grabs is this drawing of Jensen:

Just leave a comment on this journal with the

smiley somewhere in it. The code for that is : star: without the space. I'll pick a random person from all the entrants and they'll win the drawing!

And finally - I promised to feature the winners of #TheFavouriteShowcase's "Colours of Renewal" contest, so here they are!

1st place

2nd place

3rd place

Stamps

17 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Radio Rivendell

News - A Poll A Day!

Journal Entry: Fri Mar 16, 2012, 1:32 PM

There are numerous amounts of brilliant traditional art here on dA. Not everyone gets the exposure or the popularity deserved here. As a traditional artist myself, I know the amount of time and effort that goes into creating each and every traditional piece of art. So, can't a group of us traditional artists do a little something for each other and the larger community? Here is a fairly simple idea that a few of us have decided to begin.

THE IDEA

1. The usage of polls as a way of exposing art

2. Art shall be displayed as thumbs

3. A group of us traditional artists take turns as rotation each day to bring out the under-exposed

4. Creating a special folder in favorites consisting of the deviations that have already been displayed in A Poll A Day previously in each deviants' page

GROUND RULES

1. Polls can have a minimum of 1 deviation to a maximum of 4

2. All the deviations displayed should have less than a 100 faves.

3. The last link displayed in the poll must lead back to the previously displayed A Poll A Day folder.

4. Once a deviant has finished doing the poll on his/her turn, they should send a note to the deviant next in line as a reminder of his/her turn in doing the poll.

AN EXAMPLE

Have a look at these artworks
1. :thumb:
2. :thumb:
3. :thumb:
4. <link>------> Here is the folder containing all previously featured in A poll A Day.

THE BANDWAGON

The group of deviants who are helping in making this a success:

*robdolbs - March 15th 2012
=anmeher - March 16th 2012
*JustABeautifulDream - March 17th 2012
*markstewart - March 18th 2012
*zakkiya29 - March 19th 2012
*Ileina - March 20th 2012
=SvenjaLiv - March 21st 2012
*LilaeaBluecoat - March 22nd 2012
=pbird12 - March 23rd 2012
=ArielRGH - March 24th 2012
*Rockinfroggi - March 25th 2012
*acjub - March 26th 2012

I really like this idea - props to *zakkiya29 for coming up with it! Let's hope this makes at least a small difference. And look - pretty art!

Stamps

30 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Epica - Imperial March

Shiny!

Journal Entry: Fri Mar 9, 2012, 1:33 PM

I've been ill - had a migraine and a bit of a temperature for a few days, which is why I was a bit quiet for a few days last week. But I'm all better now!

Did you see another one of my DD suggestions was featured? I wasn't online to see it at the time, but I'm chuffed anyway. It's a miniature film set, have a look:

I also spent far too much time chasing down the graphics tablet I ordered - I am avoiding the Wacom eStore and anyone else who uses UPS like the devil from now on, I swear. I literally had to draw them a map to my house, and even then I had to meet the driver at the school down my road. It took them twelve days to get this package from Germany to Ireland. The regular post takes two or three days. Holy hell.

But now it's all sorted. And so, I'm selling my old tablet, if anyone's interested! It's older and a bit scratched, but it works fine. The scratches aren't anywhere near deep enough to actually be felt, either, it's mostly just that the surface has been worn smooth. I'll upload some pictures of it in a bit, along with more info.

I've been drawing, too, but a lot of it these days is commission work. I also tried out something new - a portrait of Jensen Ackles using metallic pencils on black paper. You get a really cool effect with them, and I also found out that you can use metallic gel pens almost like paint. You can even mix them with water and erase them that way. The down part is that it's impossible to get a good scan. Without the shine effect, it looks pretty flat and boring, so I haven't uploaded it yet. I'm not sure people want to see it. Anyone got any advice on how to make it look good?

In any case, I'll leave you with features, as usual!

Stamps

29 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Garmarna - Varulven

Exposure!

Journal Entry: Sat Feb 25, 2012, 2:22 PM

Okay, so, I'm sure you've probably seen this elsewhere, but let's talk about under-exposed art for a second. I often come across art where I think, "why on Earth does this not have a thousand comments, as opposed to ten?" I know how it happens - getting exposure is hard if you're the quiet type who doesn't hang around in the forums and leaves millions of comments all over the place. I know that on deviantART, exposure and popularity tends to be more about your level of social interaction than your actual art.

I know this firsthand. After 5 years' membership, I'm slowly creeping towards 600 watchers, and many people I see have garnered far more followers over a shorter period of time. My response is to keep trying harder to produce better art, but sometimes it does get discouraging. I do wish I could help to give others better exposure through my journals etc. At the same time, I'm doing a lot better than a lot of other people who are as good or better than me, and trust me, I'm not complaining. I know it's because I don't have the time to come on here for hours every day.

But as a result, and because this is something I believe is important, I've always tried to feature art with relatively few comments and favourites, and I intend to continue that. It'd be great if you'd help and do the same - by making your own features, or by helping to spread the word about mine and others'. Other people are doing the same, so if you haven't yet, check out these articles and features by other lovely deviants:

Art Feature 02.5|12Again another collection of my latest dA faves in the fields of dark art, science-fiction, surrealism and more...
ENJOY THE PIECES!

My latest personal pieces:

See more on my main website:
http://www.markusvogt.eu
Me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/markus.h.vogt
Many thanks for viewing! :thumb285218457: :thumb285407513:

Cane, Dea!Hello everyone,
These days I was lucky enough to find many great works, so I will feature some of them in this journal.
I would like to thank all the ones who faved my works and watched me this week, I hope you are having a great time

Kind regards,
Dragos
:iconArxArtis:

***

Also check out

- you're guaranteed to find some really, really beautiful art there!

Speaking of which, I promised I'd feature the winners of ~Share-ART's Valentine's contest. So, here they are, along with some other features - most of which haven't gotten nearly enough attention yet:

And those of you who are here and reading this, thank you very much for your time and interest.

you all.

Stamps

36 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Terry Pratchett - Snuff (audiobook)

On the topic of perfection

Journal Entry: Tue Feb 14, 2012, 12:44 PM

If you saw my poll, then you already know that I spilled coffee on my drawing. Because I has a stupid. Then, because that clearly wasn't enough derp for one day, I spilled my waterjug - not on the drawing this time, of course, but on my keyboard. See, if I'd been even a little bit smart, I'd have switched it and spilled the coffee onto the keyboard and the water onto the drawing.

Because, if you're going to spill stuff, you might as well go for maximum damage.

That pretty much killed my enthusiasm for that painting, so now it'll probably be a few more days before I finish and upload it. I've mostly been working on commissions, anyway; I should be able to upload those at some point, too, but not yet. So the next week or two will probably be fairly quiet on my side.

I've got another thing that I'd love to hear your thoughts on, though. I'm not going to go into it here, but I've been thinking more about realism lately, and wondering whether getting a drawing 100% photo-perfect is really the point. I know that there are several pieces in my own gallery that are just copies of a reference, but I don't know if I'd really count them as art, and they aren't 100% like photos anyway.

The way I see it, if I look at a drawing, I want to know that it's a drawing. I want to see the artist's style. Preferably, I want it to say something that the reference photo didn't, I want it to have something more. Whether that's a bit of colour added, other elements changed, or the whole thing transformed into something new, it's nice to see some originality.

I know that a fair few of my watchers are interested in photorealism, so I'd love to hear where you stand. Do you want 100% perfection, or do you prefer it when the artist's style or maybe even a message comes through? Or maybe you don't like realism at all and prefer something else? Tell me!

(And why yes, my current WIP is going to have 100% realistic coffee stains on it. Because I am a master.)

I'll leave you with a poem in honour of today's date.

Roses are red
And violets are blue
If I wrote a poem
It would be for you.

Violets are blue
And roses are red
If I gave you flowers
Then they would be dead.

Roses are red
The colour of blood
Here are some features
They're all very good.

:thumb282869517:

Stamps

64 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Nightwish - The Islander

Comments protocol

Journal Entry: Fri Feb 3, 2012, 1:28 PM

Recently I've started noticing something - if I look at someone's work and see that they haven't replied to any of the comments they've got on it, then I'll be much less likely to comment myself. Obviously not if the piece was only uploaded yesterday, maybe they just haven't had time, but on some deviations none of the comments are ever answered.

I think the reason why I'm less inclined to comment in those cases is that it feels like wasted effort. It feels like the person doesn't care enough to even say "thanks", so I don't want to bother. But now I'm wondering if I'm alone in that - do you guys comment regardless, do you even check that stuff, or are you like me? Do you reply to every comment yourself, or do some or most go unanswered? I'm just wondering - I won't judge you, promise! Maybe I'm just being petty or missing something?

Oooh, also, I made one-minute chocolate cake the other day. If you like chocolate cake, seriously, you have to try this. It took me a little more than a minute - more like three or four - but I think that's still really good for almost-instant chocolate gratification. It's even faster than running to the shop for one!

On an unrelated note, I'll leave you with some blue features! (Well, they're mostly blue. Shh.)

:thumb202099448:

Stamps

101 Comments

Mood: dA Love
Listening to: Red vs. Blue Season 9 soundtrack

SOPA ate this title

Journal Entry: Wed Jan 25, 2012, 8:25 AM

Which is convenient since I am not good at titling things, especially journals.

I meant to update this again much earlier, but... same old story. Life happened. This time it involved Christmas, New Year's, the hospital (not me, and everything is fine!), my birthday, and then I've had my hands full with commissions, other art, and writing.

At the moment I'm keeping one eye on SOPA and all the related stuff that's happening; there's a piece of legislation due to be passed in Ireland soon that bears far too many similarities to SOPA for comfort. If passed, it could theoretically allow the government to order an ISP to block websites like deviantART. So that's fun.

I've already decided that I'm going to be participating in Black March, although I don't think it'll make much difference in my case. I don't buy music anyway. Before you start, though, I don't download it either. I see no reason to clutter up my computer with that crap. That's the one thing that record companies don't seem to understand: that maybe, their sales aren't down because of piracy, but rather because no one wants to listen to the pop clone army making love to the auto-tune and we can find better music for free or for cheap on the internets.

Then again, maybe they do understand that. It would explain why they want to censor it all.

Anyway.

I came across this video which is too awesomely adorable for words so I will not try and let you just watch it instead. Through it, I wound up visiting the Big Cat Rescue website, was suitably horrified and impressed with the need to help, and bought a really cute plush toy to help them out a little bit. Seriously, you get a plush toy or something equally cool, and you do a good deed. WIN-WIN.

Have some features!