Art Wortd Coop

A little bit too late, but good to have it.
1 AI : 300 KB

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Been away on a camping holiday down in Cornwall. So, not had a chance to post much (not that I do anyway!). As promised, here's the coloured version of "Dark Thorn".

Not a whole lot happening today. My husband just informed me this morning that it is labor day weekend and he has 3 days off, so well er, I am being bad and taking a 3 day weekend. This morning I was stumbling the web and found an AMAZING little flash art thing over at Adobe.
Check out : http://adobecards.com/ and be inspired people!
I am not a huge flash fan so when I see something that knocks my socks off I have to share even if it has no doggies involved.

I finally stopped lurking and trying out freebie tutorials over at Lynda.com and I signed up for their annual training. So I plan to spend a few hours tonight learning more about video.

An eye-opening article from ComputerArts Magazine.

Illustration is a force to be reckoned with. Not content to break back into a marketplace once dominated by the photographic image, illustration has fought hard, forced itself under the spotlight and stepped into the limelight. A rebirth, once attributed to the flexibility that digital kit offered, has now reached a vital second phase – a new stage of extended opportunities in the development of the discipline." Read more.

Here is some space humor from the ever popular duddlebug. Best... chimps... EVER!






Keywords: digital concept art illustration chimp ape monkey primate rocket ship render from jonny duddle duddlebug chimpsky

Today I want to talk a little about my Wacom tablet and the painterly work I do here at Art Paw. Every day a hundred new digital artists join us on-line and a large percentage of those folks will discover the rewarding niche of Pet Portraiture. About 5 years ago as the digital competition started heating up I quickly realized I needed to do something to separate myself from the pack. Back then I had started smushing pixels around as a method to compensate for low res. images and the pixelation that occurs when you enlarge smaller files. Using my Wacom tablet I quickly dove head first into developing my own painterly style of working that I am becoming well known for today.
About Filter Driven Work:
I am the first to say that there is nothing wrong with Photoshop filters or what I call "filter driven work". Unless you use Photoshop yourself you might never know if a photo has had a filter applied, hand painting, or wacom painting applied. I am going to post a few samples below to illustrate some differences. I am not going to try to boast that digital work that uses a Wacom tablet is far superior to other types of digital work because that is just not necessarily true at all. What I can say however is that it has brought me back to my fine art roots and allowed me to develop a style that stands apart from much of the work that is out there.

The beauty of the Wacom tablet is that no 2 people are going to have the exact same approach or touch with it. It responds like traditional media and if you like to press down hard and get big fat heavy lines in your work you can do that and your work will look totally different from someone with a lighter touch. Oh and if ya want to see today's Vlog scroll past the images to the end of this post. Nothing earth shattering today ... just me & my tablets, oh and I got a new haircut.

This lovely Saint Bernard is Sadie. Her human asked us to remove the car window from the original photo. I used the clone tool and of course the smudge tool to pull this off. I am happy with the results. The original photo had a lot going for it including high resolution and a lot of crisp detail.

When I first started Art Paw 10 years ago people did not really understand digital art at all. They would look at our canvas prints in disbelief when we told them it was ink on canvas and not oils. Today our clients are a lot more sophisticated about digital art and they often ask us to do challenging things like removing objects in the foreground such as the window. I have even had clients ask me to paint in tongues on closed mouthed dogs before, and I somehow made it work.

While people do understand that a lot is possible with digital art, I often think they still do not quite have their minds around how long it actually takes. Working out an issue like the window above can take me about an hour or so, and then I still have to spend several more hours on the fun part of color & paint strokes. I could charge more for tasks like this and yet the reality is I do not really mind the extra work because stuff like this makes me better at Photoshop.

Zach's post on conceptships.org.





Keywords:concept aircraft ships by zach wolfe inspired by the classic Burnelli lifting body shape basic rough shape done in sketch up for 2d illustration guide paintshop pro

Working hard this week on a handful of new commissions. I have had a few appointments outside of the office lately so I am doing double time to try to stay ahead. I am getting my hair cut later today ... that should make me feel like a new woman.

Gonzalo's portfolio.







Keywords: A fictional creature quick concept ship by gonzalo golpe ships sails powered energy over oceans string grid on coast naval waves abstract vehicle white shapes juxtaposed patterns

Nearly all kinds of stars. Very good for highlights.
1 AI, EPS : 4,1 MB

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Real nice. Some old looking vector paper scrolls.
3 EPS : 2,4 MB

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Exact 100 military camouflage vector patterns.
100 EPS : 40 MB

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The best team in the NHL. Let's go devils.
1 AI : 1,8 MB

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Some cool elements for your designs.
1 AI : 2,8 MB

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Nghia Lam's CG portfolio.








Keywords: digital concept spaceship art by nghia lam chinese concept artist spaceship art helicopter concept to 3d three dimensional model 3ds max low polygon efficient topology in game orange county california studio

Explosion symbol.
1 AI : 300 KB

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Awesome! Thanks to Jason from the UK for this old movie logos.
1 AI : 2,1 MB

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One day you'll need this one here. The famous Clickhand.
1 AI : 300 KB

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Nearly all teamlogos from the National Hockey League.
1 AI : 1,8 MB

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Oh one more quick "PRO" on Etsy ... cool widget tools. The thumbnails below are from my favorites list:

David's blog.







Keywords: concept artist david hong art director temecula california digital spaceship art dshong david sketch blog

Thanks to Alpaslan for this vectorset of Ataturk. Nice work.
1 AI : 1,2 MB

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Detailed wooden and metal sign boards.
3 EPS : 1,5 MB

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Traditional native american tribe ornaments.
1 EPS : 400 KB

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Several years ago I decided to open an ebay account to sell reproduction dog and cat prints at auction. My thinking on this was not that I would get rich selling low-end prints to pet lovers, but instead that I could use ebay as an advertising venue. I saw it as a way to get my artwork out into the world and reach hundreds of web savvy shoppers and devoted animal lovers. If I look at the adventure in those terms I would say it has been successful and I have just about broken even in the money I have spent. In light of yesterday's discovery of copyright infringement on one of my artworks at ebay I thought I would post what I have learned from my years of selling art at ebay.

Pros:
• Great place to spread your branding.
• Easy to use interface.
• Easy to connect with really kind and wonderful pet lovers and art collectors that may not find you any other way.
• When you are actively selling on Ebay you get to see what is out there and when you have a devoted following they will let you know when they see someone selling your work illegally.
Cons:
• You expose your artwork to people that can easily purchase your artwork, scan and resell. Often these digital rip off printers are located in other countries and can be hard to track.
• You will receive tons of e-mail questions from buyers, no matter how specific your terms are spelled out. Things like: "can I get this in a smaller size", " can you do a custom work of my Lab for $10", "do you have any prints of 3 legged Norwegian Chihuahuas", " can I get this print with a different colored background" , "can I use your art in my child's school newsletter" .... and the list goes on and on. If you have the time to respond and respond "thoughtfully" to these sort of questions you can turn maybe 1 in 100 of these requests into an actual life-long client.
• Ebay raises their selling fees every year making it harder and harder to make a profit.
• Lots of competition in the animal art niche.
• Ebay is like a big garage sale and if your goal as an artist includes breaking into elite and high profile national art galleries you may be watering down and cheapening your brand by selling at auction.
• Then there is the question of if you are watering down the uniqueness of commissioned artwork by adding client work into gift & print lines. That is always a nagging issue commercial pet artists deal with. Many of my clients enjoy seeing their art in our gift lines, but I may not be hearing from the ones that don't.

I would have to add that you have to work very very hard to break even when selling at ebay and yet many independent artists do very well and manage to work out a system that allows them to to turn a profit. I have made very little money on the items I have sold at ebay and yet I would have to say that overall I think the effect on branding for me has been a plus. I can not recommend ebay to artists nor would I say that it is not worth a try.

Will I keep my ebay shop open? I am really not sure at this point. The fraud listings have been quickly removed by the seller after my partner informed them of the infringement. The story goes that they were a part of a large purchase the seller made and they were unaware of the infringement. I suppose we will have to give them the benefit of the doubt, however we will be checking their auctions weekly now.

Resources & additional reading links:
Ebay's veRO program
NPR story: Online Art Fraud Nets Growing Number of Victims
Great Post On Wet Canvas: Being successful on ebay...year long study

I know a handful of other animal artists follow this blog and this post is for you. We have all heard about the rampant copyright infringement that happens over at Ebay, but it really stings when it happens to you. Check out this crook's ebay shop and make sure they are not selling your work:
http://stores.ebay.com/Online-Paintings

They have 3 listings for one of my Boston Terrier dogs. There is also a cat listing that looks very familiar. I am not sure who the cat artwork belongs to, but I have seen the work before.

I have reported them to ebay through an on-line form. We will be calling them on Monday to make sure those listings are pulled asap.

Yeah. The whole Simpsons family members. I hope.
36 EPS : 3,1 MB

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Cim bom bom fans will love this one.
1 AI : 500 KB

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Yo, this guy busts... Theodor Waern. I don't mean to flare my own ship thruster but this week's animated header came out pretty nice... Yeah?
















Theodor Waern conceptships weekly header #25 August 22nd - September 5th, 2008 (two weeks)

Keywords: fantastic science fiction concept spaceship ship art from theodor waern swedish concept artist at slx games