Caemgen

Legend
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  1. Caemgen

    Gifts from Pyro

    I'm all in favor of the witch licking!


    (I knew I was forgetting to do something....)
  2. Caemgen

    It's back!

    I didn't see the English option

    (Ok, I looked for like 5 seconds but I'm tired and just got home for work... Will check out again later)
  3. Hey! I broke your rules first... Stop copying me!!

    Amusing though... makes me think of what I'll do next, probably sometime tommorow. It's probably a break of you're rules but since you broke them I guess they're broken for good now!
  4. Interesting... I definitely would have thought the subtle shadings came further on in the process.

    Looking good so far, as always... I do have a quetion though: Are you changing her earings? Hard to tell from the picture in the picture but it looks like she's wearing a more round (pearl?) earing in the (communion?) white dress pic but the art seems to have a circular band more similiar to what she has in the other art...

    Doesn't matter for anything and I could just not have good enough eyes to see the earing in the pictures, but I was curious...
  5. Get distracted by House and forgot to close last night...

    Anyway, officially closed now. I'm going to mull over the entries for a few hours and then I'll start a voting thread. I'll list my 5 or 6 choices and then voting by anyone who feels like voting will determine the final 2 winners/selections.
  6. This is closing in about 11 hours (at about 8pm eastern) unless I get a slew of complaints that people were too distracted by the double XP so hurry up and get your last minute entries in now!

    Remember, you can enter up to twice...
  7. Caemgen

    Feral Kat artz!

    Very nice... And I think it's easily understandable he'd have thought the tail was the same as the hair color.

    Out of curiosity, is the tail actually a part of her or of the costume?
  8. As I mentioned on his page, I'm loving the piece he did for me. I love the knotwork additions to the costume so much I'll probably force future artists to include them even if I can't get them in game... (I've tried 20 different costumes on different characters trying to use the games knotworks but none ever came off quite right for me... These are perfect!)
  9. Caemgen

    Gifts from Pyro

    They've all looked more than alright but you insisted on suggestions

    I'm liking the added depth of the star...

    Personally, I think the colors are a bit too bright. EnnVee's taste may differ (and she's the judge for this piece that counts) and it may just be the vast diffeence from the original, but I was envisioning darker shades if color was used. Either way, nice work both before and after
  10. All are great pieces but I am loving the combat scene especially....
  11. I'm thinking we can probably tell a lot about this character and their personality by this piece... Very nice!
  12. Huh? So stifling creativity and crushing people is not the wrong way to teach?

    Perhaps one or both of us is misreading the intent behind the others words but if the above is what you meant then we must disagree on that point. I'm all for forcing people to go outside their comfort zones, even forcing them to try (or even get proficient) in new techniques and styles... But I believe those things can be done without stifling and crushing.
  13. Caemgen

    The Gray Gallery

    Still one missing I think... But I'll leave that to the Swanster to link since it's not mine or done by me
  14. Caemgen

    Sales & Deals

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by FrozenDeath View Post
    I gotta say it: TA I love ya, but you're killing me. For 3 reasons.

    <<Reasons edited for brevity sake and because they're just two posts up!>>
    I had some additional thoughts on this but rather than hijacked this thread I started a Commission Discussion thread here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...17#post2318017
  15. Can’t read the forums from my work computer but I do occasionally browse them from my Kindle… The Kindle is amazingly slow as a web browser but once in a while it’s so dead at work that I still do it.

    Anyway, I read FrozenDeath post (in the Sales & Deals thread http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=194771) and wanted to respond so rather than wait 5 hours until I got home I figured I would write it up and just post it later – Thus if any of my points have already been covered, I apologize.


    1)Lead loss.
    I’m all in favor of supporting the local community – When it’s not too much hassle and when my local community has what I want and has it at comparable quality for comparable cost. How much quality will I give up to go local? How much more will I pay? Eh, it depends… But all things being equal I would rather shop local and, for arts sake, this forum is my local community.

    I actually had the shop local thought in mind during my recent rash of commission purchases. One problem I encountered, however, was the availability of local product. One or two were full up and not taking more at the moment, at least one doesn’t do commissions (yeah, I’m glaring at you, CR!) and several others either didn’t appeal to me, didn’t list even ballpark prices, weren’t clear about whether they were open or not or were just flat out more than I was willing to pay.

    As such, my plans to buy local were at least partially foiled. I did hook up with Cashoo for a couple (which I am eagerly, but patiently, waiting on) but ended up going to an “outsider” for the other
    initial purchases. Since then I’ve been able to stay more local, swooping down on Foo’s and Mr. Swan’s recent openings, but before just recently they were not open…

    So, to me at least, being a contributor to these boards, or even just an occasional visitor, is a factor on where I will take my business. But it is not a deciding factor. Availability, quality and price are all
    going to have their say as well.

    I would encourage everyone to support our local artist folk when possible… but I’d also ask the artist folk to recognize that sometimes that shiny thing from someplace else is just too shiny to ignore… Or
    that sometimes a deal is just too good to pass up. Or I was just shopping at a time when too many had closed signs in their windows around here…


    2)Getting a deal.
    I basically agree with the original post here but have a couple additional thoughts… (If for now other reason than to alleviate my boredom here at work…)

    Spending X amount on art you don’t like is stupid. Spending half of X is still stupid. I would hope that people don’t jump on one of these sales just because it is a sale. I do believe cost should be taken into
    consideration when purchasing art but if it’s your only consideration then I suspect you’re not still going to love the piece 6 months, 1 year or longer down the line…

    Still, if the choice is between artist A and B – both having styles you like, both being roughly equal in talent, etc… Then it’s tough not to let cash have it’s voice heard.

    And, at the end of the day, it’s the purchaser’s job to know the marketplace. Just because a person chops their price doesn’t mean they weren’t over charging to being with. (I’m making that claim about
    nobody, just stating a general fact.) Before someone makes any purchase of any kind they should have some sense of what else is available on the marketplace…


    3)Sale Items.
    I don’t necessarily think that a sale is going to result in sketchier work. I think that any artist who is going to have a sale and do less than their normal standard of quality on those pieces are only shooting
    themselves in the foot.

    I’m new in the commissioning business but I have to believe a lot of artists get work through word of mouth and through previous buyers showing off their new purchases. Sure, the artist can always not include a less than great work in their gallery but the people the buyer shows it to will still see it and judge the artist by it.

    One thing sales are definitely good for is getting sales you wouldn’t otherwise get. I tend to be a fan of the good comic book art to more realistic styles… To details and realism. As such I’m unlikely to
    commission someone who does chibi work (is that the word? Not being a huge fan I’m not even sure…) but if I saw there was a sale, if I thought the artist was talented and I had some spare cash… I just may
    give it a try and see what I thought of the results. Personally, I wouldn’t do this at the expensive of other pieces I really wanted but a sale just may convince me to shell out a little more cash than I was
    planning on…





    Anyway, none of this is meant as arguments against what FrozenDeath had to say… rather just my thoughts on the subject. I’ve actually been meaning to make a post concerning my thoughts and observations of
    jumping into the commission market and this allowed me to touch briefly on a couple of them. Maybe I should do that now and put this all in a new thread rather than hijack the sale thread? We’ll see how quiet
    work stays…


    Work stayed quiet and rather than double posting... Here goes: (And sorry about formatting, linebreaks got all screwed emailing from work to home and I'm too lazy to fix.) ((Never mind, they were too annoying, had to fix... Still not perfect but better anyway.))



    As some of you may be aware, I recently jumped into the commissioning of art for my CoH characters with both feet. I went from 0 to 60 practically overnight. I have yet to received a finished piece (if any
    of the artists are reading this – No rush!) and yet find myself with 12 pieces in the pipeline, 2 pieces yet to have their concept finalized (the CCC#3 contest) and 4 other pieces that were given away….

    Holy moley, that’s the first time I did a count… I did kind of go whole hog, didn’t I???

    Anyway, various thoughts came to mind during the process of finding an artist to hire, contacting them, etc etc and I figured I would put a few of them down for others to see… Some of my thoughts may be more
    interesting to artists, others to buyers. Heck, it being me, I can’t guarantee any of the thoughts are interesting to anyone really… But I will do my best to keep the thoughts brief (at least for me) even if a
    bit disorganized (since this is off the top of my head…)

    Maybe this thread can become a place for general talk about the process of purchasing and/or doing commissions or maybe it’ll just be my scattershot thoughts. Who knows?

    1) The artists need to keep their pages updated.
    I’m not saying that they need to do daily updates on where they are in pieces or anything, nor to include an up to the minute listing of their queue… But I ran across more than a few artists I would have
    otherwise considered but whose latest journal entry (or anything with a date) on their page was a year or more old. They were on TA’s Resource list so I kind of assumed they were still active but no
    movement on their page that I could see…

    Sure I could have sent a note asking if they were active and open and such but *shrug* I basically just wasn’t going to be bothered and instead moved on.

    1a) Listing a price scale helps.
    I don’t need prices written in stone.. I’d be ok with negotiating final price based on what I was looking to get done… but I want some kind of ballpark named so I know if we’re talking the same league or
    not. Again, I could send a note inquiring but I can also just move on…

    2) Diversify your galleries…
    I’m not even talking about expanding outside your personal style, I’m just talking subject matter. Mainly, I’m talking gender.

    I saw a preponderance of galleries containing nothing but (or at least vast majorities of) female characters. These galleries were generally very nice to look at… but at the same time weren’t giving me all the
    information I needed.

    Mainly playing male characters and 2 of my first 3 pieces I wanted done being male, I wanted to find an artist I believed could draw a good male character. You would think if one was good at one gender they’d be
    good at the other but that’s not always true… I saw at least two galleries where the males just looked like females without the ta-tas… And speaking of which, am I the only one with a female character who
    didn’t go to the plastic surgeon and get filled up to overflowing?

    3) How much do I tell an artist?
    3a) One a couple of the pieces I had very specific poses in mind, in others not so much. On one commission I was even willing to let the decision of which character to do be up to the artist. My general
    opinion is that I’m paying the artist so I should be able to be as specific and detailed as I want. If the artist doesn’t want the job they can just say so…

    But on the pieces I was less specific about I was a bit curious how much or how little the artists liked the “do what you want” attitude. Do they like the freedom or would they rather just fill an order? I imagine different artists have differing feeling but it was something I couldn’t help wonder about…

    3b) For my first two sets of commissions I was getting my 3 mains each done by two different artists. I had poses for each in mind and provided picture similar to what I was looking for in my reference gallery for
    each. The two artists have different styles and talents and I was very interested (still am) to see the different takes on each character. While I am very interested in comparing the two sets, this was by no
    means meant as any kind of competition or the like…

    Yet I fretted a bit that it would be perceived as such and I wondered if I would be better off explaining this to them both (in case they happened upon the others work) or if that would add extra pressure to
    them… I also fretted that I was worrying over nothing and that neither would care one whit… They were getting paid so why should they?

    In the end I told them both… I would rather err on the side of openness. Told them each that if either was uncomfortable or anything I could change my selection of poses or what not… Neither had a problem
    and I still can’t wait to compare the works. One said people do it all the time (and I thought I was just being odd… or maybe I was and they were being generous) and at least one expressed interest in seeing the
    others work once done…

    Still, I wonder if artists would rather know or not know in that kind of situation? Would it add stress or no? Would it be different if the styles weren’t really different?

    4) Hiring local.
    This got started in a different thought but I figured I would touch on it again here…

    All in all, I’m a big fan of keeping things local, meaning of hiring artists from the board I hang out on. All things being equal I’d rather hire an artist I chat with on these forums than someone I just found off a list or through surfing Deviant Arts…

    Still, that doesn’t (nor do I think should it) mean that I’m only hiring local. Sometimes the local talent may be busy on other projects/full up. Sometimes I may just get wowed by something else. Also, I would think part of the whole collecting thing would be variety and while we do have a variety here, it’s still a limited variety…

    So while I’ll hire local when I can (not that I will be keeping up my current pace of purchases!) I don’t want anyone to feel slighted if I don’t hire them… It could be any number of reasons and talent level is at about the bottom of that list. Not to say I don’t care about talent but rather to say that I haven’t seen anyone on this forum who takes commissions who isn’t talented (in my opinion…) Instead there’s the whole issue of are you open while I’m shopping, of is your style in line with what I’m looking for and a bunch of other possible obstacles… I’d recommend to every purchaser that they buy local when they can, and to every artist that they understand when they don’t.

    5) Controversial subject matter.
    Ever been put off from considering an artist because of the subject matter in their gallery?

    There was one artist I would have seriously considered except they had a bunch of political cartoon type art in their gallery that really turned me off. It wasn’t just that it was anti-Democrat or anti-Obama but more that it was (in my opinion) crossing the line into racist.

    Now I’m a pretty easy going guy and a pretty damn liberal guy… By no means am I about censorship or boycotts or such. They had every right to create that art, to exhibit it in their gallery, to sell it, whatever… But I also have the right to take my business elsewhere and did so.

    My impression was that they were commissioned pieces. Whether the artist agreed with the sentiments or not, I’ll not argue that he shouldn’t have made a buck doing them or not. If I knew the person I’d probably suggest that different political cartoon material might be more appropriate for an open gallery they’re using to try to drum up sales though. I just don’t think it’s smart to potentially piss off a large segment of society when you’re trying to turn a buck…

    Then again maybe the cartoons reflected their views and he’s happy to not get the business of a liberal. If so, more power to them.

    I’m not trying to drum up a political discussion, a race discussion, a censorship discussion or anything of the like… Just including a little segment of my commission shopping experience. If anything, I’m merely suggesting artists consider whether or not the pieces in their gallery are attracting the clients they are looking for and consider the possibility that some pieces could push off clients.

    6) TA’s Resource post is a great, great tool…
    The only things I could think of to make it better are pretty impractical to actually be done. One would be to make sure the artists listed were current and still active… Actually TA may do this (no idea how often he has contact with each artist listed) but he sure can’t make them periodically update their sites so it’s obvious their still active… Heck, I should just ask him how often (if at all) he keeps in touch with each one after the initial “You want on my list” phase. I’ll do that if I remember later….

    The other thing would be to have a listing of who specialized in what… But the problem is figuring out which specialties to list and who qualified to be on those listed. It’s just that in looking to find an artist for my commissions the one character wears battle armor and I didn’t see a whole lot of that in galleries. I saw pieces with tech parts and such but very few full on Iron Man type armors. The other thing I was looking for is someone who did group pictures… Lot’s of artists mentioned $x more per character but few had examples of more than two characters in a picture. Not that either is a specialty exactly but I did see a few for each who mentioned they wouldn’t do them…

    - - - - - -






    Well, the time at work when I actually have to work is approaching….

    The above isn’t really meant as much of anything except random thoughts and such that came to me during the commissioning process. Not particularly looking for answers to the questions I posed (not that I’m not looking for answers either) or to tell anyhow how to run their business or how to choose an artist. Just thoughts and observations of my own experience and messed up brain o.0

    Feel free to add your own thoughts, comments or observations… Feel free to comment on mine. Feel free to ignore this thread altogether...
  16. Caemgen

    Gifts from Pyro

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by EnnVee View Post
    well I for one LOVE IT !!! if it get's better than this AWESOME if it stays like this I'm all smiles so THANK YOU SO MUCH Py !!!!!!!!

    Also I added this one as my FTW Sig on the forums there as well !!

    on a side note, Caemg, did you know your DA link is borked ?
    Yep... Just too lazy to fix so far. That and double xp, heh...
  17. Caemgen

    Gifts from Pyro

    I think that's pretty damn cool as is....

    If I had to suggest any changes, the two things I could possibly come up with are:

    1) Give the pentagram more depth/thickness. The ring it is within seems to have a thickness to it but the star itself seems about as thick as a piece paper.

    2) The spheres. I actually came up with a third idea but it's a subset of this so I'll sneak it in...

    2a) The shading gives them the spherical quality but they're still just kind of just there... Maybe something to add some zip to them? Mayeb some color? Nothing bright by any means but maybe a dark red to make them seem like jewels at the points of the pentagram or a bluish tint to make them seem like planets? Just a thought, and not one I neccessarily like...

    2b) The lettering on the spheres doesn't comform to the spherical shape... This isn't anything i noticed until I was really studying the sig to try to figure out what could be done to improve it so it's nothing I would worry about at all... But if that could be changed it would probably add a very nice touch. (and if it could be changed, I'd do it enough to make it very obvious...)
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suichiro View Post
    Every art teacher is different. Because there's no right or wrong way to do art, there's also no right or wrong way to teach it. Sadly, it seems like most teachers want to stifle creativity and crush people into their way of doing things, regardless of how valid the technique they hate may be.
    Errr, wouldn't that then be a wrong way to teach it?

    IMO, it would be one thing for a teacher to say "I don't like smudging. I think there are much better techniques. I'm going to teach you those techniques. Thus, in my class, you will use those techniques only." and quite another to just flat out condemn a technique.


    I remember one project in an art class... The assignment was on shading and the guidelines were very basic: Do a picture with a lot of shading.

    I have no idea why but I decided to be an oddball and experiment with pointilism... We hadn't used it in class at all and I had never used it at all for my own stuff. I think I had just seen a picture somewhere and liked it. I did a picture of a partially unwrapped (and bitten into) Heath Bar (I think it was a Heath Bar...) and it came out amazing. Probably one of the best all around pieces I ever did and I was pretty decent at one time...

    With the different shades from the very dark wrapper, the subtly different darkness of the wrapper, the different shades to show the different layers and textures of the bitten into candy bar, the words and such on the wrapper, as well as the background... I was working on that damn project morning noon and night. Pointilism is not a quick process....

    Anyway, long story short, everyone loved it... Everyone was simply amazed at the detail I was able to pull off with my millions of tiny freaking dots of ink... Everyone but the teacher.

    Actually, the teacher had quite good things to say about it. He also said he didn't consider that shading. Thus, he said, I had no project to turn in... I do believe that was my one and only F ever in High School...


    Man, wish I still had that piece. Actually, I can think of about a dozen things I had done back then that I wish I still had so I could show them off... A few I'd probably actually have up on my walls... Alas, I was young and careless and having moved almost a dozen times since I started high school it seems I lost everything worth saving somewhere along the line. *sigh*


    Anyway, back to your normally scheduled thread. [/highjack]
  19. Two days left to get in on the contest...

    Been no entries for a while... I'd close it early except there may be a couple people too wrapped up in the double xp to get to this yet...
  20. Someone keep this active so I can maybe give another try or two after 2xp weekend...

    And btw...

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ChristopherRobin View Post
    New Topic: Freakshow!

    New category: Vahzilok
    Is it just me or does it seem like he's calling out a certain pirate woman???
  21. That is some darn good shading for a number 2 pencil and a smudger... Very smooth, very subtle...

    Knowing pencil or pen/marker were your SOP I kind of assumed as much but the gentleness yet precision of it on the face had me wondering.

    As for fancy pencils with varied hardness - even in my most skilled days I found very little need for more than 3 different hardnesses. Everything else can be achieved by the amount of pressure used, smudigng, etc...
  22. Very impressive. Very, very nice...

    From the photo's on top alone, her eyebrows in the art seem a bit too arched/peaked but you know the kid so it may just be an expression the photo's don't show. And even if not, a little artistic license is your right, no?

    What did you use for the shading in this piece? Especially on the face it is very subtle but very effective... Nice!
  23. Caemgen

    Gifts from Pyro

    Thanks to all who are loving on the new sig... Truth be told, my contribution was the words "celtic knots" and beyond that it's all Pyro. To go from the very, very rough sketch I had of a simple knot just to show what one was in case he didn't know and end up with this is quite amazing...
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kai View Post
    Someday the plan is a wristband...if I can ever find/design the idea well enough to consider having it on my body forever...
    My rules for tats:
    No names, slogans, bands, etc that will easily be forgotten (or worse) ten years from now. (This doesn't apply to memorial type tats but I don't think that's my style anyway.)

    Only artwork I design myself. I can fashion some decent looking stuff when I really put my mind to it and 10, 20 years down the line at least I can say it's my own art... And I won't bump into someone else with the same piece.

    Noplace that can't be hidden by a short sleave shirt. Yeah, they're a lot more acceptable now but who is to say that will remain? Not that I care too much about what others think about me but let's face it, I may want to put on a good act now and again for a job interview or such...



    This is NOT intended at all to say everyone should follow these rules but I would suggest anyone considering their first tattoo take a decent amount of time to come up with their own rules before doing it. Having something set in your mind for a while can stop brash decisions and (specially the younger crowd) people should really spend some time seriously considering the "long term" before doing something permament...