Check here: Starhorsepax.com each day for new surprises behind the doors. Freebies, Inspirational items, stuff I made and things I found to be of interest. But don’t wait too long…it won’t be there forever!
Also keep watching the my Zazzle pages. New items are being added all the time and Zazzle has sales on every day this month! Remember most designs are customizable! That means you can add the recipient’s name or a special message to the design. Check out the ornaments that you can add a ‘to and from’ on the back. They make great gifts or will even double as gift tags.
Cafepress also has items on sale, including Christmas stockings.
Finally, don’t forget your Christmas Cards. For your horse loving friends or for those who love teddy bear, remember my store at Greeting Card Universe . Expect sales there too. You can also customize the message in these cards. If you want special customizations – a name on front or like a design and would like to see it with a specific message or customization on front, contact me. It can probably be done. There is a button right in each card page for contacting the artist (namely me!)
Do not steal has been around at least since the ten commandments and that’s just when it was set in stone.
I recently happened across an interesting blog post by James Gurney, creator of Dinatopia about his encounter with the designers of the TV show ‘Terra Nova‘. It was entitled ‘Wish you weren’t here’.
Apparently, they had been using his art in their design mock ups and decided to contact him and ask him to collaborate. At this stage of the game, he was not pleased. They are paid to design after all and should’ve asked him before using any of his art, not after. His flat out ‘no’ was not surprising. Asking beforehand might’ve been a compliment. He could’ve said yes or no. Asking afterward is treating him like he’s an afterthought. It’s neither professional nor polite.
Having seen a piece of promotional artwork about Terra Nova some time after the show premiered, I found this story solved a puzzle. I’d seen Terra Nova. I’ve got one of the Dinotopia books and seen the mini series. Outside of them both having dinosaurs, the style of the TV show has no resemblance to the artwork, which did seem rather familiar. Now I know why.
Dinotopia, the Original Book, photo by chubbzazz, Photobucket
What I find saddest about this is not just that the bigwigs behind Terra Nova were willing to rip him off. It’s that some of the designers probably never realized they were doing anything unethical.
This brings me to the whole Internet regulation debate in congress. Personally, I suspect it would just shift the ethical issues from the many individual to the few individuals in charge of big corporation if the government tries to regulate it.. I find that alarming. I don’t have any reason to think those few have higher ethics than the rest of us.
Learning Internet and Media Ethics
What they should consider is whether this is an issue under the heading of education. Most morals are learned from parents. But the internet isn’t a family activity. In order to find out the parents morals, the kid has to be watching said parent on the internet.
Now there are two reasons that won’t happen. One is, the internet is a dull spectator sport. Fun to surf, not fun to watch someone else. Two is, the older the adult the less likely they are to know anything about computers. No offense to any age group, I’ve just found the older generations grew up without it and are less likely to think they need it. Nor is the parent likely to be watching the kid surf. If they don’t know much about computers, they won’t know what they are watching anyway. So a kid downloading for free an entire music library can happen right before their eyes and how would they know?
The result is that there really are people who don’t realize the ethical implications. I still encounter people who, when you tell them that images on the internet are copyrighted, are dumbfounded. Honestly, the thought that taking the image and using it on their own commercial items is wrong, has never crossed their mind!
If it’s online, someone still had to create it, draw it, build it, sing it or act it. Someone put time and energy and money into it.
Then there is the whole justification that music studios make tons of money and stick it to consumers for regarding downloading songs for free. This may or may not be true, but like it or not, they pay the artist. The same is true for movie and television studios I for one, do not want to find my favorite music artist or actor had to abandon their art to wait tables, because they weren’t getting paid. And that’s not to mention all the background people that go into making movie or music magic happen. It’s not like when you record off the radio and TV with the old cassettes or VHS and only get part of the song or show in dubious quality. That’s more of a placeholder and reminder that when you have the money you intend to buy. An artist might offer a song or two for free as a promotion, the same for the TV shows, but if you can grab the lot for nothing, there is no incentive to buy a quality copy short of your own honor.Is your honor stronger than temptation?
Notice I’m only referring to the individual end, not the web site. I love going on Youtube and browsing music videos. I encounter music I’d never have heard otherwise. I get to enjoy funny clips of my favorite shows. And yes, if my connection is causing the video to continually stop midstream I may download out of desperation. But I don’t strip the music out. I know it’s doable, but I don’t feel like it’s ethical. It’s too tempting to keep that as the ‘final’ copy of the music instead of paying the actual artist. And I don’t plan on re uploading them under my own name either. The music videos are usually a form of fan art, meant for fun. It gives the movie or TV show or music artist a free promotion and the creator has fun and gets to learn skills in making and cutting together videos and music. But I can see why some would object: the free promotion is only beneficial if people don’t steal the goodies, but are encouraged to go out and buy them. Whatever the web site owners thoughts on the subject, in the end it’s up to the individual as to whether they’ll ‘cheat’. No matter how often they change the computer code, someone will find a way around it.
I’ve only once found any of my art somewhere I didn’t put it and it was in a Halloween music video. I was actually took it as a compliment. It’s not like they were profiting off it, and as far as I know they really did purchase the item. If they didn’t they’d only find a low res or watermarked version. Free advertising, I will happily accept.
In the end, ethics come down to the individual.
So what happens if the government and big corporations step in and decide to regulate the internet? We have to trust ‘their’ individual ethics. What if they decide Youtube is altogether too abused and shut it down? Or the fan fiction sites? Maybe they’ll find reasons to block their competitors sites or competing web hosts. And would it really stop the piracy? I doubt it. The worst offenders probably aren’t in the US. In all probability, even if they are they’d just get more creative about how to cover their tracks. Meanwhile the little people get pounded. Fan art encourages creativity. It helps develop skills and the confidence to create ones own art, video and music in ones own style. I fear government regulation would be the equivalent of a sledge hammer: it would pound the people who put up websites with the sole purpose of profiting off others content or stealing. But everyone in the immediate vicinity, those who create websites to share their creative fandom, may get flattened too. The fine line between fandom and copyright violation is just too close.
A good example of dealing with it on an individual basis is fanfiction.net. They have a list of fan fiction material they won’t accept because the author requested it. They take any fan fiction not rated mature and not on that list. Fan fiction is non profit in any case, but they accept the authors preference. No need for an army of lawyers or police descending o them. Another example is how the whole issue played out for Star Wars and Lucasfilm: there was a time they seriously considered going after the sites offering fan fiction and the like. The outrage of the fans caused them to rethink the issue. Now if you sell unofficial knock offs of Star Wars you can expect an army of lawyers as surely as the rebels could expect an army of stormtroopers if discovered. But at times their own web site has supported and encouraged fan videos, artwork and other such uploads. Even now they link to it. They recognize the fine line: they want to stop piracy and theft, but they don’t want to alienate fans or discourage their creativity. After all, today’s employees were the ones doing the fan art ten years ago!
Short Term Temptations have Long Term Consequences.
As for the individual it’s naturally tempting to turn to free downloads and ‘borrowing’ others work when money is so tight, whether personally or in business. But the people who created the art and music and video , whether they are the musician, artist or star, or some background cameraman, also need to eat. We won’t help our own job situation by stealing their product. We just may put one more person teetering on the edge out of business. Being famous or popular doesn’t necessarily equate to being rich. Neither the money or the fame will last forever.
There are a whole lot of things out there I want too. I have a backlog of songs, books and videos on my wish list (including a few by the aforementioned James Gurney and more than a few of Star Wars). I struggle with other bills (internet, cable – the only place one can see my beloved White Collar in a timely fashion.) In fact, my computer seems determined to keep demanding money (right now it’s a battery) which I can’t spare. I’ve only just gotten a job. I’m playing catch up. My priorities have been basic necessities including computer repair and the internet, since that’s the field I’m going in.
Pinched for cash I may be, but I don’t want to cheat to get the extras. And it’s my very love for the stuff that is the strongest thing holding me back. I want more. I want it to keep coming out. I want to be able to buy it, not have it cease to exist because it wasn’t turning enough profit to pay for the highly expensive creation and or production! Even if it’s ‘just’ a piece of artwork, I’m an artist and I know how much art supplies cost. And if it’s music or movie, I know it took more than just the artist: it took producers, directors, sound engineers, special effects, filming permits and more to bring it to life.
Terra Nova Concept Art, Photo by JADFlores, Photobucket
As for Terra Nova, I like the show okay, although whoever was responsible for the design department needs a remedial course in ethics. But I figure there is no point in getting to like Terra Nova too much. It’s on regular network, meaning big corporation types control the content. Sci Fi and fantasy are niche markets and rarely do those shows survive the network bigwigs for long. Even if they are popular (like Joss Wheldan’s Firefly) they get dropped by the fickle bigwigs. Forget about the show that needs to build an audience. It has as much hope as a snowball in a volcano. So if you want to check it out, you’d better hurry. It may not be there for long.
On a final note: I do think copyright laws were designed in part to give jobs to lawyers. Sometimes all you want to do is use a picture or song in a small video for fandom or non profit. Who do you ask? Have they got a plan to allow for that? It would help if they did, I’m sure. Because people who just want to use it for ‘fair use’ and would like to ask seldom are given an option. This is an issue these big networks and producers should address with something besides a blanket NO or simply ignoring them. They seem to figure ‘no use’ is fair use. Giving fans an option like that would build good will. It would probably take less time to develop a plan than run around stomping on the fans who upload just to share their fandom. And it would win over people like me…who would never have known the music artist, TV show or what have you existed without it. And if I don’t know it exists I sure can’t buy it!
When going to art school or taking classes I note they give a lot of attention to the old masters. Art history and it’s appreciation is often a requirement. This is understandable, for knowing where we come from is important.
But how many of us truly have started art because of them? In my case, inspiration came from elsewhere and only later did it lead me to an appreciation of it’s history.
Art of the Story
My love of horses came from books I read and movies I saw. This means that illustrators, writers and movie makers had an impact long before I realized they were artists in their own right. A peacefully grazing horse or one napping in it’s stall is lovely. But the ones rearing, galloping, leaping and playing are the ones that seem the most alive. To me, they are art in motion in and of themselves. Some films like The Black Stallion revealed this in full glory.
Art of the Movie
As a fan of science fiction I only gradually realized that my beloved Star Wars had to start in an art studio. Without Ralph McQuarrie’s designs, it may never have come to pass. Artists painted backgrounds, built models and invented an entire industry for special effects. Some of these same artists went on to create Photoshop and the modern software that now creates art in 3D. And where would it be without the awesome movie poster art of Drew Struzan?
Art of the Game
Video games are created, in part by artists and I am highly and personally aware they are on target in their ideas about education and games. I recall flunking lessons in how to read music in grade school. Yet I started to get the hang of it playing a video game version of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I never did finish the game, but I did learn to read music enough to play the right tune on the skulls! Amazing what a difference the approach makes. I couldn’t learn for the grade, I doubt if you offered me money I could get it. Somehow getting Indy through to that tomb helped me learn it!
Art History meets them all and becomes more appealing.
Finally, full circle I’ve come to notice art history, not just through art classes but through TV and the movies. A few odd artists are more intriguing when encountered by a very young Indiana Jones. An episode where Doctor Who meets Van Gogh suddenly makes the man come alive in a way the old school story of ‘he’s the guy that cut off his ear’ never did. Then there is my favorite show White Collar. Take and FBI agent and his ‘former’ art forger criminal consultant, set them loose in New York solving art heists and the like and the whole world of art history and museums has an all new appeal. Their accuracy is questionable: this is fiction after all. Sometimes they use real artists, sometimes they invent them. But the real point is not whether it’s true. It’s the fact that they got my attention and aroused my interest in the first place.
Tapping into what’s already there.
Is it just me changing? I don’t really think so. I think it’s always been true, that if you plug the subject to be learned into what a person is already interested in, it engages in a way that would otherwise be dry and boring. As my growing curiosity about art history leads me around the web I’ve definitely noticed who seems to be tapping in and who doesn’t and how.
Art Galleries Online
Some art galleries have gone highly interactive. A look at the Google Art Project. It can take you to museums around the world many of us will never have a chance to set foot in. Some have podcasts or videos online. Some have interactive games or tools to study certain artworks or artists.
Others still have the most boring, bland websites with tiny print and navigation that certainly doesn’t take account for people who might have trouble seeing it. They may be easier on an older computer in general, but they are definitely a turn off in comparison. The odd thing is the great stuff is usually for kids. Why is it the world thinks adults want a ‘dull’ approach? Why can’t it be fun no matter what your age?
So now I’m gradually coming to know who of the old masters I like and why, what mediums I’d like to try even if I have to imitate them on the computer. I love drawing and am willing to try drawing nearly anything. But I could do horses with my eyes closed and in my sleep. As for my writing, well, it’s no surprise I’ve written Star Wars and White Collar fanfics and I love their websites. I’ve written other science fiction but I’ve yet to try and publish it.
Neal Caffrey's Debate: White Collar Fan Art, Corel Paint Experiment
Warning: Creative License may bend the facts.
And then there is that little catch to all this. If you are going to tap into these interests – learning through pop culture can’t end there. Don’t assume pop culture did it’s homework. Pocohantas and Mulan are wonderful female heroes. But Disney’s version isn’t exactly full of truth. The movies, games, TV and historical fiction are a springboard to look deeper. These aren’t flat words on a page or a cardboard picture painted by some guy way back when. They were real people and events with lives and loves, fears, mental illness and physical and economic challenges. That’s the part that’s inspiring. How many of them would imagine our world today? How many would dare dream it’s technology? Would they dare even imagine the prices their work would sell for or the things we would say? Would they be amazed at how much we know or fall over laughing at how far from the truth we had come?
What are your inspirations?
Here are a sites for some of mine that include games, episodes, forums and all sorts of interactivity.
*Note – Remember when doing fan art or fan fiction it is not something you can legally sell. Making money off of it violates copyright law.It makes great practice and can be shared for free fun among your fellow fans. But please remember the actors, writers and artists of these shows too, are out there to earn a living. We wouldn’t want them to stop our favorite show to earn money waiting tables. At least, I wouldn’t!*
Learning is part desire and part sheer stubborn determination. If you love something you want to learn it. Even if you don’t, the idea of being conquered may not be acceptable.
The Stubborn
Learning WordPress, for instance, is my refusal to be beaten by a piece of software. But I hope you’ll forgive any odd places a Permalink sends you, for they are not cooperating. They are determined to have the blog itself as the main site page and everything is therefore out of whack. I know it is one tiny bit of code in many pages that is probably the cause. Finding it is the issue.
I have purchased a book on wordpress and am doing my best to figure out how to correct these things, as well as back it up, without causing anything to blow up, vanish or otherwise scramble my site.
The Love
Love on the other hand, is what made me learn to draw. What it was about horses that called me, I don’t know. Sometime when I was little I got bit by ‘the horse bug’. It’s incurable, although it may lie dormant for several years if significant others, children, school and job are loud enough to override it. But it never goes away completely.
The drawing part started with a book, called Pounding Hooves. The girl who (as usual) pines for a horse makes money by drawing. Suddenly, I wanted to do that too.
I started with tracing horses off of book covers. I found one book with a picture that included parts of the horse. Now I could trace that, label it. Then I could label all the others. Then I tried to draw without tracing and if I had all the parts labeled, I was doing something right. If not, I tried again.
Have you ever wanted to learn to draw more than stick figures?
Here is a secret that many people forget, or lose, in this pessimistic age. ANYONE CAN DRAW. Remember when you were a kid and doodled and colored without shame? Well, the truth is we all start with ‘stick’ figures and odd shaped people. Then, as we grow older, we realize our ‘art’ doesn’t come anywhere close to reality. Then comes the disillusionment.
Those of us who are good at art aren’t just talented. That’s only part of it. Some take three times as long to learn as others. Some are better then others. But I do think everyone can go beyond stick figures.
But they won’t, for the same reason I’ll never be an accountant. I don’t love numbers and don’t want to put in the time to improving my math to that level. There are only so many hours of the day, and someone invented the calculator. It takes PRACTICE, many hours of it, to get good at everything. I’m still learning.
I still practice portraits (my favorite movie and TV characters are my chosen ‘experimentees’) and I need reference pictures for many things, like dogs. That’s just the drawing part. Then there are all the different mediums like painting, pastels, digital and more.
Here are a few tips for those who want to learn to draw and willing to put the time in:
Do what you LOVE. Want to draw people? Do fan art for your favorite movie, tv show or book. You can even try your family. Dogs? Go for it.
Look out for media extras. If you love movies, you may have noticed the trend in DVD extras. Often the storyboards, making of information and interviews with creators can be inspiring. This goes for ‘Art of’ books too such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or Narnia. Spirit has an excellent tutorial on drawing horses. Their is a great section in the Star Wars prequels on the art section as well.
Look for free sources like videos, tutorials and photos to work from.
Watch out for the copyright snare when drawing from other people’s pictures. As long as you are practicing, you are fine. That is free and fair use. Draw from the photo, trace, that’s how I did it. But remember: if you sell, that’s a copyright violation. Wait until you don’t need that source for anything but a casual reminder as to the shape of a particular dog breed’s ears or something. You need to be able to call the work your own to sell it legally. Mind you, you don’t need to be good at everything. I could do horses asleep with my off hand. Anything else takes more work.
What to use:
Any paper will do for practice except cheap newsprint or some of the kids drawing paper. You want something you can erase easily without a big mess or ripping to practice on. You can invest in good paper whenever you feel you are ready.
Any decent pencil, but you can get a range between 8H, HB (the usual) to 8B which is lightest to darkest. You want light for when you plan to erase a lot.
A good eraser: plastic erasers are great, rubber is crumbly, but generally, just get a good chunk. You’ll find an eraser at the end of the pencil wears out pretty quick!
Drawing on the computer: If you have a decent drawing program and are really good with a mouse, why not? Their are two kinds of programs for it: vector and raster. Raster programs look more pixelated when resized, but they tend to feel more natural, more similar to using regular art tools. Vector is more ‘computerish’ and resizes easily. You can buy or even find free programs for both.
You can also find tablets to draw on (not the newer ipad type stuff) that come with a pen and plug in a computer’s usb port to allow even more natural action.
Finally: Draw what you love, be stubborn and when you look at a pile of rejected drawings remember: that’s how we ALL started.
It’s up and ready, complete with music. It features my illustrated horses in exciting poses. Done in Imovie it is complete with music and sound effects. I’m eager to keep going and have several ideas for more. I’ve set up an all new channel, including other people’s videos I find inspiring.
I’m also working on Flash, although the storms lately are a major issue. I won’t stay on a plugged in machine during thunderstorms. It’s different with a laptop of course.
I now have a wacom bamboo pen tablet working on both machines and I’m head over heels in love. It came with Corel Painter Essentials 4 so I’m experimenting with that too.
Finally, I’m also still wrestling with this WordPress thing, since it’s determined to not cooperate in the area of permalinks.
So I’m finally at the validation stage of building my site.
Naturally I’m running into easy issues like Seamonkey Composer not
using proper end tags. Of course, I didn’t expect it to be
perfect, I only used it because I was in a big hurry to get all
that Cafepress stuff up.
Then there is the external link issue. Turns out my referral tags
have unsupported characters in them. There is nothing I can do
about it. Nothing. The referral links are designed by Greeting Card
Universe and Zazzle. If I want my royalties I must use them.
Finally there are the bizarre CSS issues. I gave up on those when
I realized I was getting two or three different results from the
same validator and the same css stylesheet!
At long last I joined a horse community called Barnmice.
Looking forward to reconnecting with the horse community.
I already joined Deviant art the other day, and they’ve certainly
inspired my art lately in many ways. There is some truly brilliant
stuff up there.
So this just leaves what to do about the original Starhorsepax .
I’m hoping to redirect the original URL and recreating it as a
kid’s site.
Now if only in this business I can actually make some money
instead of just spending it. Horses and art are good for the soul.
Hopefully I can translate that into earning money too. Moonlight Prancer Horse by starhorsepax
Browse My new and improved Clydesdale, with the cool brush effects added.
I really love free brushes for Gimp and Photoshop. Moon is by Hawksmonte, Water by Obsidian Dawn. Most of them I found on Brusheezy
I finally have my animation gallery up and just need to link it in.. It’s not my best artwork, but then I was more focused on getting the hang of Flash then the finer points. My ‘computer crunch’ is little more than a doodle and certainly sounds like a cereal. But anyone who has ever fought with a computer will enjoy it. It was done in CS3. Check it out: Animations
Now I have to figure out CS5.5 and I hope to combine my real art with the animation. Fortunately I like that kind of challenge
A case in point: I’ve wrestled for hours with Inkscape gradients trying for a fuzzy teddy bear. This was after a critique on Deviant Art. I may post it as a tutorial or a sort of how to (and how to NOT) do it. And I have that nice Adobe Illustrator waiting for me to use. But how could I ignore the challenge of the not at all intuitive freebie Inkscape?
This blog is all new, the website is too. So please be patient with it. The shop navigation isn’t up yet and I haven’t filled in the prices or finished the contact page.
Friendly suggestions for improvement are welcome, just keep in mind I’m not claiming to be finished.
But if you are looking for a web designer and or graphic artist I’m here and ready even if the site isn’t complete. My specialty is horses and other animals. In addition to here you’ll find me on Zazzle, Cafepress, Greeting Card Universe and I’ve just joined Deviant Art.
