Yahoo logo animations

Speaking of artistry, they may be simple flash animations (maybe just ordinary gifs) but I really like the holiday and seasonal related logo animations Yahoo has been putting out.

For Earthday they had the Yahoo Logo turn green and when you put your cursor across the logo, the O’s in Yahoo changed to recycling symbols turning around.

For Cinco de Mayo they did this cute animation of a girl dancing with mariachis. When you first loaded the page it was only one girl and the band… then she went off the screen. Then if you put your cursor over YAHOO after the initial play, the band started up and the girl brought her folklorico girlfriends to dance with the band. All of these are silent but I added music to and repeated the animation to make the Cinco de Mayo one more interesting. I’m am a native Texan and Hispanic so I see this animation and immediately think of my great uncles who used to play. It’s a bit pixelated since I did it with Movie Maker and a screen copying program but it still works out pretty good.

Keep an eye out for more animations. I am trying to copy and keep them as much as I can since I find them cute and historic.

~L~

New Art Contest online…

I don’t think this qualifies as a real art contest, I think it’s more of a promotional site that pays for quality artworks.

Comozo Art Contest asks for illustrators and artists to send in their designs. Once received they judge either through the site (or other means) how popular a piece is and then award the chosen a limited print edition contract (200 in the edition) to print said artwork as a high quality canvas giclée prints. Chosen artist receives a set of 200 “certificates of authenticity” to sign and return for said artwork.

Sounds like a pretty good deal in my opinion and they seem to pay pretty well up to US  $4600 or $3000 Euros. It’s a European site, I think french from the sound of it, and seems to be all and all legit. Heck who wouldn’t mind making up to that kind of cash from a sale of 200 limited edition prints?!? I know I wouldn’t mind much.

~L~

Orphan works - Should I be worried?

Here’s a good link to what this seems to be about: Orphan Works.

It seems this is about your works being stolen should someone try to contact you, can’t and after waiting a reasonable amount of time can claim your work and use it how they wish. Seems unfair to me if this is a new way for people to screw you out of your artworks or other creations. Lucky for me… I haven’t NOT gotten rid of any of my original emails so if someone is honestly trying to contact me about an art work I have listed, they should reasonably be able to get in contact with me. I check all my original and new email accounts atleast once a week or more.

So … fyi!

~L~

I’ve been publish… sort of

Check this out: Schmaps Guide Online.

Someone contacted me through Flickr that they liked my photo so I checked out the site. Looks legit enough so I went ahead and let them use it.

I’m also tempted to try another site I found that sends books to children in countries who are trying to learn English. All illustrations are contributed freely and there is no profit made. All non-profit. I think I could do it but I have to see what they have available.

Other than that… nothing much new on the art scene. I’ve been adding a few new things to sites here and there.

~L~

Prickie goes on vacation

Unfortunately I received an email from Prickie.com today saying they were going to shut down shop for a bit. They’re low on funding, so for now Prickie will become a gallery of badge art. They will not be selling any button badges while they figure out what’s going to happen. I’m hoping they will be able to get funding and come back up as a shop. I guess for now I will have to sell buttons from my zazzle and cafepress shops. *shrugs*

I do still have some buttons from Prickie I bought a while back when I made some cash off Ebay. Spent my earnings on buttons thinking I’d sell them then never had a chance to. I think I’ve managed to sell two when I used to go to the local Graphic Designer Meetups. Too bad all the local meetups seem to become either inconvenient for me to get to or they end up closing up and disappearing. Just a bad market here in my area for clubs and such that don’t involve something like dogs, cats, divorcee’s or something really bizarre like pagan worship. That’s how it is in a small big city (yes I meant to say that… we’re a big city with a small city mind set.)

~L~

Haru no Onna - The Spring Maiden

Here is a pretty good example of what I can do when I’m bored enough and play with photoshop:

This was prepped by me removing the background by hand. I really need to find how to use more shortcuts and such. At this point the image is ready to be manipulated but only the bare minimum has been done by removing the background.

After some work and probably a good hour or so of work, this is the end result. It’s nowhere near perfect but it’s 100% better than what I had and much brighter colorwise. I even added the background as if she were outside along with some layered shadows. Makes me think of a shadowbox or something.

This item is for sale as the final product at my Deviantart and Zazzle shops.

~L~

Big Brother comes to Fotolia

Maybe that’s a little harsh but this is why I’ve chosen this title for my blog today:

Fotolia has always been a pretty good site and I had no major issues with it over all. I’ve only been a member since 2006, but it was fun to get an idea what people liked out of my illustrations. The pay wasn’t too great with them selling stuff for a Buck and me getting .33 cents a sale. I’m lucky I made anything at all from the site (less than a 100 bucks in the almost 3 yrs I’ve been there.)

Well today I thought I’d transfer over what little meager funds I had in the Fotolia account to my Paypal. I hit the convert credits to dollars button and got this: “All contributers must upload an image of your govt issues id or passport to process funds.” I was like “WTF!!!???” Cause up till now I hadn’t heard a damn thing about this. When did this happen?!? I know they’re based in Europe but this was news to me. I also noticed somehow my account is set up to NOT get the newsletters and I know I was getting them in the past. I never changed that option so I find that odd.

So I wrote them through support and they sent me the email for their “U.S.” liason. I wrote him and he tells me “oh yeah that’s our new policy so that we can fight theft, fraud and just get to know you a little better.” Mind you… they already have my social because every site just about now requires that if you want to sell anything. I just think that it’s ludicrous to require more than that. Giving out your social is risky at best unless you know the site is safe and I knew they were safe but this whole “govt id / passport” requirement has got me up in arms and angry. Plus I just want my $15 bucks or a good portion of it and I’ll just leave. I earned it fair and square. I’ve already deleted all my files. I don’t want them using my stuff w/o my permission if I’m quitting… and I am.

So that is why I chose my title. I think it fits just right especially after what a friend of mine who used to work for the U.S. govt told me. I won’t go into details but it fits the situation.

Anyhow… I guess I just have to wait and see what they say. They, of all the sites I sell at, are somehow lacking in a “delete my account” option. Didn’t they think someone “may” just want to leave? Seems strange…

~L~

Imagekind ROCKS!

I have to say the people at Imagekind are a great bunch of people!

I bought a framed print of my own work (my “year of the rat” series as a dual print, single frame) and it came out beautiful! The only issue I had was that the frame was slightly marred. Normally I wouldn’t have too much of an issue but since it is my own work and I might consider selling it later on (kind of why I bought it / assessing how their service is) I let them know the frame had problems.

Tasha was the main person I chatted with both on the phone and in email. She was very professional and friendly and sent me a call slip to send my frame back after they assessed damage from the photos I sent. I got the call slip in good time, printed it out and was able to have FedEX pick it up from my apt and deliver it back. In about a week (Today) I got another framed print of the same item back! I was very surprised and very happy with their quick turn around. This new frame and print is perfectly framed and matted.

If you need something printed and framed, Imagekind is the place to go. They are a top-notch company!

If you are interested in this print (it is for sale) Please contact me for more information.

~L~

Art Contest Galore!

I’m not a professional artist by far. I think I’m good but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a pro. I guess I haven’t gotten that conceit yet. I’ve known many an artist type, student etc who did have it and sometimes they rightly have it as they are very talented and some of them you’re like “uhm… sure… if you say so.” ;P

So as confident as I am in some ways with my art, I have been trying to come up with an idea for this one site called Momiji. They are asking people to contribute a new doll idea. Their dolls remind me of the old clothes pin dolls… the old big wooden clothes pins that don’t snap… the ones that had a big wooden ball type head and just clipped like a paper clip does. They probably don’t sell those type anymore as people have taken to the clippy ones that snap. So I am trying to make a doll and have gone through so many incarnation I don’t know what to do. I need to decide soon though. The contest ends in March but you have to have had people vote on yours to qualify at all I think.

Other than that, I have subbed to a great many free newsletters or have been spammed with a few good ones off and on that give me updates on online contests. The only problem I have is I feel intimidated if they’re open enough. I know I’ll have to compete against someone who’s probably better than me or has atleast some art school degree or something. I just have my natural talent and alot of work at making it better on my own to push me fwd. I’d love to take art classes but my folks always seemed dead set against it. I didn’t show the talent my brother did. He did alot of drawing, illustration and other more traditional art. I did stuff but I hadn’t really started to shine till I found digital mediums like Photoshop to play with. Now my mom is really happy with my art but then my brother isn’t there to compete with much on that front anymore. I wish he would atleast try. He was always really good at drawing and everything else. I think he’d profit by getting online and trying his luck at stockart or other such things.

I should sleep… gawd it’s late!

Wish me luck on the art contests.

I’m going to need it!

~L~

Photoworks… WORKS!

Yep… I finally made my first order when they had 50% off their keychains a few weeks back. I bought one of their keychains they had and put my “tiffany stained glass styled dragonfly” illustration on it. I received it this week and it was just BEAUTIFUL! Check out the pic:

I’m selling this for $10 dollars plus $1 dollar shipping if anyone’s interested.

I only have one but I can get more if more people show interest. I can put other art of mine if you’d like a different print. Let me know. ^_^

~L~