May 14th 2008
I mentioned this pending bill in a previous post, well now it’s for real. I am not a lawyer, but I have read through both the House and Senate versions and, as far as I can tell, it doesn’t sound good for the creative community in general. Read them for yourself – here is a write-up on the bill at Drawn.com. If you feel as strongly as I do about the damage this could do then please contact your representatives in Washington.
May 14th 2008
As some may have noticed, I have a link to my profile on the site Ziggs.com over in the right column. I have been registered with them, as well as many others, for a while in an attempt at increasing online presence in search engines and such. Recently, Zigg’s marketing folks contacted me because one of the local tv news stations here wanted to do a story on Ziggs and as part of that, interview a local registered user. So, anyway here is the interview online, click the tiny “video” icon to see it.
p.s. I realize my posts have been few and far between lately, sorry ’bout that…been trying to get my *stuff* together lately. Thanks -dug
April 12th 2008
If you draw, paint, take photos (professional or personal), make home or professional video, sculpt, sew or do anything creative, then you should be aware of the Orphan Works legislation and be ready to speak out against it.
Legislators are trying to allow anyone to ”in essence” steal any creative work we have ever created.
This is not some “rah, rah” protesters call, I don’t do that…however, this legislation as it is currently written would be destructive beyond measure economically, creatively, and culturally.
Articles and interviews that can describe these issues much better than I can…
…it’s becoming quickly evident that there are many (often inflammatory) opinions on either side of this issue. It really seems like it’s going to come down to reading the newly drafted, official bill once they release it…which they haven’t to my knowledge. For now, I’ll swing my legs on the side of the *perceived* fence that favors the artists rather than the bureaucrats, but to be fair I’ll reserve my flag waiving until we see the real deal.I did find another “seemingly” neutral site made by some lawyer in DC about the legislation – ranted, I haven’t read through his whole site yet.
March 26th 2008
There appears to be something wonky with my gallery at the moment. I am using a WordPress plugin that pulls the images from my Flickr account. I may need to try another approach here. So, the gallery page may be on the fritz for a few days while I figure something out.
March 24th 2008
March 20th 2008
I mentioned Illustration Friday in one of my previous posts, well here’s my first entry. “Heavy” is the topic word this week and I immediately thought of the dropping anvils on Looney Tunes that I used to watch all the time…I really miss those cartoons.I switched gears a couple times while doing this. I liked my sketches but thought I would try combining my sketches with the old Looney Tunes look.
March 12th 2008
Being a “jack of all trades” (or styles in this case) is great and all, but it can make things rather difficult. If you try to hold on to this Renaissance man-type persona and someone asks “What do you do?”…what do you say? If you start rattling off a list of talents and abilities, you might impress people but would they hire you? There’s that whole “…master of none” issue, not to mention the frustration of doing one type of task one day (say, illustration) and something else the next (web development, design, animation, etc.).
So, what I am exploring right now is illo style. I have emulated many styles in the past, which does come in handy, but one can lose (or never actually find) their own this way. In that vein, I have taken the sketch I posted on 3/01/08 and put a finish on it. As Chuck pointed out, I did this without a story to start from which seemed to slow me down a bit, but it was good to think through it. Here’s the “finished” piece.
I also found a great site called Illustration Friday that I am going to take a swing at. It helps with the “what do I draw” dilemma when your brain goes numb.
March 1st 2008
So, I am obviously not used to regular updates if you couldn’t tell, and I don’t think anyone is reading this anyway at this point…so, I will talk to myself for a bit. 
Besides continually screwing with the site and figuring out what I can and cannot do with WordPress, I have done some sketching trying to get the creative juices flowin’.
I was sitting and looking outside at one of our wonderfully dreary days we’ve had lately and just started to sketch some trees, then a house, then more trees… I like what started to happen in this one and may take it a little farther with some color studies.
Yesterday, Diane and I were sitting around talking and I drew this little guy – I sometimes sketch around with fantasy characters (just sort of like them I guess).
So, there’s little slice from the last couple of days. I will make an effort to make more regular updates. I am not a talker by nature, so I need to get used to this.
February 5th 2008
Well, now I have screwed around plenty with my site over the last few days, got some good feedback from some friends and have it in a state I can deal with for the time being. If anyone has even been coming by and looking, they have probably wondered what the hell I was doing, given that the site has been changing about every hour.
I think I will let this iteration brew for a while. Now I have to go create more of the content I created the site for.
January 31st 2008
Ok, so here’s my first post…ever, might as well get right down to it.
I am making a real push to focus more on my illustration…I love to draw and paint, so that’s what I’m gonna talk about. In an effort to do this, I started the illustration below. My wife (Diane) thinks I should just call it “done” and move on…but, these things are never really “done”. So, if you have ideas, post ‘em – I’d love to hear them. I may or may not use them, but I love the collaborative process and I thought it would be a cool thing to try here.
* Just a note: I am new to the blogoshpere blogging (for you Chuck ), so if you have any suggestions about linking, image sizes in posts, or whatever, I would love to get that feedback as well. Thanks!
