Daily DeviationFirst, let's get the good stuff out of the way (wow, I make that sound like a chore

) But thanks to the many people (and I know there's a lot of you!) who suggested my
Spectrum of Emotions for a Daily Deviation, and to `
Synfull for featuring on there a couple of days ago

It was pretty successful for my first emoticon as is, so getting the DD for that, which is very different to the rest of my work and was highly experimental was a really appreciated surprise
Pissed priteeboyNow lets spoil the moment with some ranting shall we

?
First is one I've been noticing a lot in the past few weeks is often new and attention-starved artists trying to promote their work to others by sending notes with their thumbnails to deviants they never even bothered to comment/fave/watch etc beforehand, asking for comments or even not saying anything! I think I must have gotten 3 or 4 of those from various people in the past week, one was OK since the person was actually asking me for help in something I knew about (Vue problems) but others come out of nowhere showing me art that's far from my style, medium or subject and what can they really expect me to say about something I have no knowledge of? I guess I've been too nice, since I saw the other names they send it to, and all I can say is good luck getting
those artists to respond

Now I'll just forget e'm. Plus I've had people copy-paste comments on my work and others trying to get me/them to join this or that site and sell my work as stock...let me tell you, the usage of my work I think is worth MUCH more than a few measly dollars!

Oh, but why pay to use my work, or any artist's for that matter when now - art-theivery has been made 4 times more convenient for all outside parties who are wanting to use your hard work to beautify their facebook accounts...Yes, I'm complaining about the new "share" features and from what I've seen in the forums and news recently, I'm not the only one who thinks dA just threw out a major portion of it's regards to the copyrights of the artist's works. I'm not saying they shouldn't have done it, but we should have the option to turn it off, all that time I spent mentioning that I don't want my art displayed on other sites without permission has practically been thrown out the door. I waste enough time chasing down retards using my art for God knows what, I don't need the problem magnified further

Oh, and the small portion of you who use Vue and kept a keen eye on this years environment competition on e-on software would know just how disappointingly biased that contest was, I complained enough about some of the finalists when I submitted my entry
Tenta-pools but it was made worse when one of the 3 images I complained about in particular came FIRST! there were so many great entries that showed how original and creative a Vue-user could be, but did you pick them? no - you chose a silhouetted island at sunset! wow, I never could have thought of that

I'm not blaming the artist, just the judges - I could make that same winning entry using nothing more than the presets Vue provides and I could do it in an hour...I've entered a lot of contests in the past few years but have never felt as if one was rigged before as much as I do now...Mine didn't deserve to win, but those other entries I saw were grossly underrated and I have never seen hundreds of dollars worth of prizes given away so easily...next year I'm going to make such a quick simple scene and all hell will break loose if I don't come first for it!
CalendarI'm still thinking on whether I should make a calendar to sell here for 2010, I still have enough time to make the 12 necessary artworks (though I would have to make them one after the other and try to get one done each week) It was going to have the Solar System as the theme, but not plain-looking images of planets that we see in the rooms of high school science classes. But rather my own impression of the surfaces of the planets, still recognisable and at least 50% accurate/real - but also a bit stylised to make them look cool...Anyone reckon I should do it? I guess I need to find how to make them here too, if it's too technical I might forget about it

And there goes another trademark text-wall, I took the liberty of making each area seperate since I don't expect many to read it all

*Note to Self* don't forget these contests:
Ultimate Fandom#4:
[link] Ends 25th September
Fantasy world contest:
[link] Ends 15th October
Clubs/Groups:













Winner - theme of the month at #
The3DArtistClub
The person who placed first in the Vue competition had a terrible piece of artwork compaired to the others. The second place artwork, in my opinion, should have been in first place.
But I might try and make you feel better by pointing out this competition over at cgarena:
[link]
Winners Prizes
First Prize - $9770 worth of prizes
Houdini Master worth $7995 USD - Houdini Master is a full featured 3D animation and visual effects software renowned for its particle and dynamics tools. Houdini Master is perfect for visual effects artists, technical directors and CG supervisors who want to experience total control over their pipeline
E-on software Vue 7.5 Infinite worth $895 USD - Vue 7.5 is the most efficient and advanced solution for creating, animating and rendering natural 3D environments. It offers a high-end 3D scenery solution for SFX studios, animators, illustrators, architects, matte painters and CG professionals. It is strongly focused on power, productivity and inter-operability with existing toolkits.
Pixologic ZBrush 3.1 worth $595 USD approx. - ZBrush 3.1 gives you access to unparalleled power and control previously unknown in digital art creation software. Controls enable sculptors to create with a stylus and a tablet as intuitively as if they were using their hands on a block of clay. If at the end of the contest, ZBrush 4 will ready then provide ZBrush 4. Otherwise, provide the license available at that time, with a free upgrade to ZBrush 4 when released.
ambientLight Multibuy Texture Bundle worth $175 USD approx. - This includes our entire range of Texture Packs. All of our packs are at a minimum of 1024 pixels square and are hand edited so that they tile perfectly, whatever application you use them in!. This pack includes Plant & Trees, Natural, Sky, Architectural, Roads textures.
Eat3d Training DVDs (2) worth $110 USD approx. - Our focus is to have the highest of quality training videos geared toward 3D Artists. We put an obsessive amount of time and effort into our work, and we are very proud of the results. So sit back and join us for a refreshing course in high quality next gen art. Winner can choose to download any 2 training DVDs.
Pretty nice eh? On the plus side, you need a proper theme/concept/idea as well, so a island sunset isn't going to win those juicy prizes.
Plus they require constant WIP's and critiques, but I generally don't like sharing my work until its done in most cases, all that seems to be more like a burdon to me
Still, thanks for linking just in case, no harm in that