I'm mostly posting this journal to get the previous one off my page, since it's about a month old now and the topic is hardly current. So I'll just take the occasion and be happy about the fact that these two:



got picked for D'artiste: Digital Painting 2 by Ballistic. Yay!

Which leaves me even more puzzled about their selection process than before, as I had two completely different images shortlisted for this book. Go figure, I'm not complaining though.



Other than that, not a whole lot to say. I'm up to my ears in commissions right now, so while I may accept new ones, the completion time isn't of the shortest at the moment. Either way, e-mail if interested and we'll see.



And now for some pretties. There really isn't much I can say about =viag's works that isn't completely obvious - i.e. they kick ass. The colors are vibrant, the compositions are dynamic and the environments are involving. See for yourself:

Okay first things first, the RANT.

Most of you probably noticed this in your newsbox at one time or another: Square Enix + deviantART = contest! by $Moonbeam13. It's a contest to create some storyboard-based material for Square Enix, and the prizes are a copy of the game it's all for, some DA goodies and if you're the super duper grand prize winner, they'll also send you a critique of your work. Cool huh?

HELL NO.

I already expressed my concerns on the newspost, but the comments on those things move faster than a cheetah on steroids that's being chased by a truck, so I will take the opportunity to voice them over here, as well.

For some strange, strange (and supposedly charitable?) reason DA seems to specialise in total rip-off contests lately, cooperating with LARGE companies/brandnames/ventures to dip into its large pool of (often naive and) talented artists to provide cheap labour and bring forth ideas in return for what - a game, a few DA related trinkets and if you're SUPER DUPER UBER LUCKY the opportunity to be told what they thought about your entry?

Oh yes, and exposure, which seems to be the big trump card here. Just think of it, by contributing to the nameless masses generating a large pool of ideas for Square Enix to pick from, you get all the exposure a ghost writer would get.. ..only in a situation where there are another thousand or so competing ghost writers! Isn't that friggin awesome!? That's right, it's not.

The only exposure you're really getting out of this is getting noticed for being readily available to do work at the drop of a hat for pittance. Is that something that an aspiring professional wants to be known for? Do you really want to be able to proudly state anywhere NEAR your portfolio or resume that you'll happily hand over the fruits of your labour done on demand for a large company for a t-shirt? This is not a fan-art contest that will get your work published in a book or any other media with credits underneath, clearly associated with a large franchise that would signal to others that your work was considered of high enough quality by them - that'd be another thing altogether. In that situation, you'd actually have an identifiable name. Here, you do not.

And if you say that this is a chance to advertise yourself specifically for Square Enix as a potential employee, imagine yourself in the shoes of SE - if you can get even a few thousand entries out of this, some are bound to have at least some merit. Are you going to approach those individuals and offer them highly competitive salaries afterwards? Hell no! They've already presented themselves as folks who are willing to work for less in your favor, so there really is no reason to pay them more if you can get away with much, MUCH less than someone would expect of you in any other conceivable situation.

The sad thing is, this isn't just something that happened once - stuff like this keeps happening all the time. It creates issues for not only the Future professionals, but also the existing ones. Sure, one may argue that the folks who compete in this don't necessarily possess the skills to become solid competition right away, and that is absolutely correct. Of course they're targetting amateurs here - being inexperienced and naive in the business matters of art doesn't necessarily mean you can't actually cough up a few really cool ideas for an upcoming game. And hey if some of the ideas come with a sweet visual style, that's just an added bonus - not like it cost them anything of note to arrange this contest anyways.

What ever happened to actually having the sufficient respect towards yourself and your works to NOT work for free at the whistle of a large enterprise that, guess what, happens to have money, for the mere chance that someday, in the beautiful blissful future you MAY actually get paid for your work, whilst in the present you're doing it for free? This isn't charity, this isn't even something that'll generate you a whole lot of exposure, this is just plainly ripping yourself off by creating work on demand for a large company that owes absolutely nothing to you, but only some pittance to those that'll be chosen to be the happy winners of this charade (which you may or may not be among, as the exact criteria for selection also just so happen to be undisclosed).

There is one amazing video on this topic on YouTube, and the person speaking in it isn't just a random face on the internet. I suggest you to check it out if you haven't already: Harlan Ellison on free art and large companies. The guy may come off as being a little cocky, but imo what he's saying there is pure gold.

Ayways, I think I've made my stand on this whole issue plenty clear, so let's move onto some happier topics.



I got two pics accepted into Exposé 6! Wooo! These are the ones that got in:



Needless to say I'm absolutely thrilled, can't wait for the book to get here. They said they'll be shipping them pretty soon.



On the note of commissions, I've still got a few to finish, so I'm not taking anything *right* now, but if you're interested in getting something started in the near future, such as mid to end April, drop me an e-mail or a note (e-mails preferred, it's easier to keep track of them).



And now, feature time! When I ran into ~HeatherHorton's gallery I was amazed at the stark realism mixed with painterly feeling that she has achieved in her works. She paints in oils, which is all the more amazing in this digital age - well at least for as far as stuff posted on the Internet is concerned. So please check out her gallery:

This is pretty much a follow-up from my previous journal. I exchanged a few more e-mails with 3dtotal, pointing out that this would all have been prevented had they asked to see the source photo right away. Anyways, they offered their apologies again and to make up for it offered a subscription to their PDF zine or vol.1 of the digital art masters book. So I will be getting a book out of this afterall. I just love artbooks of all kinds, especially with how bloody difficult it is to get anything decent of that sort over here that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. So, thanks a lot for all your support and the kind words regarding this whole issue.



So right now I'm plodding away on commissions. If you're interested in commissioning me, I'm still open for that, although it's super unlikely I'd get anything done before the end of March at this point.



Okay enough banter, feature time! I recently ran into *RMBDarkmyth's gallery when =OchreJelly showed me his latest submission, and was totally awestruck by the awesome colors, textures and figures. And he's what, 24? Amazing! Here, check them out:

Once upon a time - mid December to be precise - 3dTotal issued a call for entries for their upcoming book Digital Art Masters. I decided to submit a few entries, just in case, among them Sunlight:



I clearly wrote in the accompanying notice that it's a photomanipulation* and I'd be able to tell about how I handled the skin, hair and a few other things. Great was my joy and surprise when in January I got an e-mail stating that Sunlight was accepted. Much paperwork was included, among it 6 pages of guidelines about how the accompanying text should be written (for, you see, the book is about the making of the images, not just the final product). Numerous e-mails were sent back and forth, until everything was uploaded on their FTP server by the middle of February and the big wait began.

At first I got an e-mail from a very confused contact person saying that my FTP folder was empty. Huh, what? I went to check, everything was there, in rar archives. Okay, okay, perhaps for some reason they have issues with that archive type, despite the fact that pretty much everyone should be familiar with the concept of rar by now. So I write back, they find out that they had some mysterious setting missing, etc.

Now a few days pass, and I get an e-mail from them, stating that they have finally read the contents of my files, and decided that, quoting "I’m really sorry for bringing bad news today, but we were not originally under the impression that this painting was a complete "paint over". In light of this fact, I’m afraid we have had to make the very difficult decision to remove your submissions from the book, I am very sorry. We are happy to include work that includes painted elements and references, but this is a simple "paint over" which doesn’t quite stand up to the title of a “Digital Art Master” piece, I’m afraid."

NOW JUST A DARN MINUTE.

FIRST of all, I had the image Clearly labeled as a photomanipulation when I submitted it. IF you're going to pose as a super professional edition that pays great attention to how things were made, perhaps actually reading that little tiny bit of accompanying text is in order.

SECONDLY, the focus of the making of essay and images was on manipulating - aka painting over, apparently - the photo in a way that recognises the issues with the photo and deals with them in order to achieve a more "lively" result with more artistic impact than the source material.

So I'm left with two conclusions to make - either the folks reviewing the entries don't give a rat's ass about what the artist writes in the accompanying text, even so much so as to read what KIND of image it is, OR a photomanipulation is only qualified as such if it is done through a method of compositing, filtering or distortion, but if you even dare take the brush to it in a painterly manner, it automatically becomes a dirt cheap paintover.

Either way this is complete and utter unprofessional douchebaggery, in my humble opinion. I was perfectly honest about the painting method from A to Z, only in the end to have it blow up in my face. And they probably would've accepted it gleefully if I'd blended the wips up a notch and stated that I used some sort of magical grid method or whatnot, because that, you see, would've been Completely Different and with Great Artistic Merit.

And yes, I can draw the human form, most easily the faces, without photos or photographic reference, and I gleefully do, because I really can't be arsed nor feel the need to find that one magical photo that's going to fit the particular image that I have in mind just right. And no, I don't support painting over photos as they are, just to make some sort of painterly texture, and then posting them all over the internets for 5 minutes of fame claiming them to be Super Original Paintings. But when I see the attitude that would perhaps better fit that kind of creations being brought over to this situation where I am manipulating a photo in my own way, and not pretending it's something that it isn't, and am correcting it in ways that, in my honest beliefs, add sufficient artistic value to it, that just makes me want to curbstomp over someone's face.

In the light of this I'll probably take the walkthrough that I wrote for them and post it on DA, once I've resized and sorted the accompanying images to a size fit for posting online.

*Edit: to clear up any possible confusion, the source photo was taken by myself of myself, so it's not like I was relying on the work done by some third party - the image is 100% done by myself, which was clearly indicated in the making of essay they received.



Anyways, with all that said, let's have a feature. *michaelkutsche isn't exactly an unknown artist, but he is new to DA. And since his gallery is full of awesome, might as well feature it.

How come I can never find the Update Journal button. oO

Anyways.

Thanks a lot for all your comments and favorites and watches and overall awesomeness over my last few submissions! I'm starting to realise that submitting them so quickly one after another wasn't the wisest thing I've ever done, because I'm a little behind on answering the comments. But I just wanted to let you know that I read and appreciate every single one of them. So thanks again!



I'm still open for commissions, so if you're interested e-mail me to smilshkalne@hotmail.com (or drop me a note, but e-mails are easier to keep track of). Please keep in mind that my schedule is filling up so the estimated completion time for most things right now is March-ish. But if you're in a rush we can always work something out.



And, of course, a feature. When I saw *clytze's gallery for the first time, the first thing I thought was "wow". The second was "omgwtfbbq why does she have so few pageviews??" Her works are of the surreal persuasion, with misty colors, fluid compositions and eerie subjects. I really enjoyed looking through her gallery, hopefully you will, too!