Caemgen

Have a Holly, Jolly Birthday!!

I'm a bit suprised... I never found him difficult to deal with so am suprised he couldn't get closer to what you wanted.

Least on my phone the sword in the screenshot looks white and I can see that maybe being tough to do on a white background but a flame effect shouldn't have been hard...

Sorry

LJ - great job on the fix - you got the sword really looking like it's in her grip which was my issue...

Nice job!

There's a player run contests thread????

Overall, very cool!!

Not sure I love how the sword looks in her hand but if you're happy that's all that matters

I'm half asleep and forgot to see if there was any horns options for Caem or Scarves for Fen... Will have to go back and see tomorrow

Nice arts as always! And I love the stethescope, very nice touch

The artchivist and jochachi pieces are great but I must say I could fall in love with the expression on the sharby pic!

Hey! I am not famous enough to impersonate!!!

lol, nice job though! But, for the record, Fen has short, orange hair


And Joph... That really does look like Stan Lee in drag!!

Warning: I have a lot of different points to touch on and I have a tendancy to ramble. To make it easy on you, I'll put my comments regarding your notes and references in a quoted box - Feel free to skip right down to that if that's all you really want

The first item I would like to touch upon is money - Know how much you can spend on art and don't spend past it. Should be obvious, right? But buying art is an addicting habit for many so know your limits! I've not had any problems in this area (being a single guy with a decent job and no kids helps me have spending money!) but I've heard of others who ran into problems so go into it with a planned budget even if you don't currently expect to ever buy so much you'll need one.

Second item is to take some time and consider what kind of gallery you are trying to build. Do you want a little of everythign that suits your fancy or are you trying to build the best gallery that will beat out everyone else?I believe both are valid goals and I'm sure there are millions of variations between the two. Knowing what you want is helpful though.

If you want nothing but the top notch art by known artists then keep that in mind from the get go. Don't allow yourself to be tempted by sales and quick deals offered by lesser talents or those who work in different styles than you are looking for. Doing so will just drain your art budget and you may miss out on a real chance to score premium goods.

If you just want what you like, what suits your fancy at the time, you can grab up more deals and such but you should still keep your budget in mind. I think the quick deals by the people with quirky styles may be more damaging to budgets as it leads to more impulse buys.

Thirdly, know your wants and know who you are hiring. The first part I just discussed. The second isn't about being best friends with an artist but rather familiarizing yourself with their works before hiring them. If the artist does chibis or anime and you want nothing but top notch comic book style art don't go thinking they can pull it off to your satisfaction. If they don't have the style you want in their gallery there is very likely a good reason why.

This is not to say that many artists cannot do a variety of styles... But if they can do the style you want they should be able to show you some of their stuff in that style before you hire them. Don't hire on spec or you are likely to be disappointed.

Fourth, speaking of disappointment... I think there is a tendancy to imagine each work you get from each and every artist is going to be the best thing ever - certainly the pinnacle of that artists career to date. Ya, right. It's nice to expect the perfect artwork but it's probably as likely as the perfect blind date.

Ok, art purchases should go over much better than blind dates - after all you do have the opportunity to check out the artists previous works and to tell the artist exactly what you are looking for... But the build up you can do about a piece before it is produced can often times be unrealistic and overly grandiose... Expect your commission to turn out as well as what's in the artists gallery but not better. If it does turn out better that will be pure win. If it turns out worse... Well, that'll happen from time to time. Depending how much worse you can either ask for changes, touch ups, etc or you can write it off as just the standard deviation any artists is going to have. Not even every Picaso work was his best ya know...

Fifth, tell the artist in the initial query just what you are looking for. The more detailed you are about what you want the better. Also let the artist know if you are open to adjustments or not, back and forth on the pose and such...

Often times I like to leave the pose and such entirely up to the artists - I like seeing their vision of my characters. Some have turned out better than others but I've enjoyed them all. Not everyone is this free with their characters and it is the commissioners right not to be. If you definitely want your character doing the tango, a dandelion between their lips and a fish bowl on their head then say so up front. If you want something like that but are interested in what the artist thinks, say that as well... Perhaps some will tell you that it's too restricting and they won't/can't do it... Perhaps some will just roll their eyes and do what you want. *shrug*

The point is, if you want specifics be up front and let the artist know. Too much information is generally much, much better than too little. Most artists are willing to make a decent amount of changes, specially if THEY did something wrong... But if you didn't tell them the character had a peg leg, a pink tutu and a clown nose but somehow just expected them to know that... Well, I wouldn't blame them about being a bit reluctant.

Sixth, the pickier you are the more important it is for you to see drafts and such. If you are very picky, be clear up front that you want/expect to see drafts and such. Not every artists automatically does show them. In my experience, the ones who do the errr... I'm reluctant to say better because I really love a lot of what would thus become worse arts... Anyway, the ones producing works closer to what you would find in an actual comic book are more likely to show drafts automatically... But there is no reason to accept that as a given no matter how "pro" their results look. Saying that you definitely want to see drafts will not offend anyone who is willing to show them...

Seventh, read all the rules, notes, what have you, that the artist provides before sending them a query on commissions. If you're hiring through DA and the artists journal explicitly states they don't accept paypal and the only way you want to pay is through paypal then save you both the hassle. The same on rough sketches - I have seen a few artists who explicitly state they don't show roughs or don't unless asked. If you're not willing to read the artists notes before hiring them, don't expect the artist to read yours after...

This rule is also important for things like knowing how much your paying and what you are getting. Sometimes the artists send out a new journal saying OPEN but are only taking bust shot commissions, or single characters with no background or whatever...

8th... KEEP TRACK OF YOUR COMMISSIONS.

Unless you are buying just once in a blue moon and keep all the revelant info in your head, it's smart to have a plan on how to keep track of all the info... And there is more info than you may expect.

Admittedly, I should do better book keeping than I do but I'm learning.

Things you want to keep track of include but may or may not be limited to:
Names of artists who you have outstanding work with

What works that artist still is working on (I usually buy in 3's... this may not apply if your just buying for 1 character.)

Whether or not you paid those artists (some take payment upfront, some on delivery, some 1/2 and 1/2... It's nice to have records easily accessible of which is which and how much you paid and still owe..)

When the artist was originally hired and when you should expect the work finished. Turnaround times vary... Some get you your art in days, others months. (btw - you should check this out/ask them before hiring them!) It's hard to write a follow up to an artist who is long overdue with the art they owe you if you don't know they are overdue! Not every artist can give you a flat out garaunteed time period, and even for those that do life sometimes interferes, but you want to have some idea how far past due your stuff is...

Email and/or real name of artist. If you hire via DA but then move your discussion/dealing to email and you don't hear from them for a while you may forget that ARTGUY@Gmail.com is also ArtistDude from DA...



Well, that's all I can think of on those right now but if I think of more (or if others have ideas) I'm sure there will be a follow up

Now, on to your specifics...

Hookers and beer is always a good reward...

But all in all I think things are fine as is... Is it a bit unfair that people factor in immunity to their votes? Yes. But it is just one of many unfair considerations that get factored in, consciously or un... Better to have people thinking JK has immunity so I'll vote for someone else than JK won last month so I'll vote for someone else... The first may be more prevelant but the second is more perilous...

Besides, rules is rules. Changing them midstream would lead to even more complaints.

'gratz JK - pretty soon you won't be losing votes to immunity but just because we're sick of you winning

I'm one of the ones who voted with the spirit of kindergarten in mind so you didn't get my vote but it was a great piece of art...

Not as colorful as i'd expected but perhaps I'm missing some due to the nighttime shot on being on my phone...

Darn typos... It's a reference to a little known movie called Boxing Helena

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...204518&page=45

That thread is pretty much devoted to doing this kind of thing... It helps if you post a pic of what you've done so far so they at least have some idea of what you are going for but they've built from scratch a time or two as well...

All in all the thing I like most about this little section of the forums is the major lack of grief... Oh, there's some tensions here and there and they occasionally pop to the surface but for the most part everyone is just here to enjoy the arts and such however they see fit and people let them do so.

*cough*smiley=joke*cough*

Just to add a quick note about the Porsche thing... I think it is important to remember that a car is a car, not a work of art. End of the day it is an item. Can Porsche stop a movie from having it in a scene? I doubt it's any more likely than Black and Decker could stop one of their hammers being used in a scene. Yes, there is a lot more creativity used in the design of a Porsche but an item is an item...

Somewhere up there someone suggested VW (I think?) wouldn't allow one of their cars to be used for a character in the transformer movie? I SUSPECT it was more along the lines of them not wanting to be involved and thus not cutting deal on cars for use in the movie and such... I'm not sure they would have had grounds to STOP it if the movie makers insisted. If they did have that right I would assume the basis would be that it wasn't being used as scenery but as a chracter... I'm pretty sure the porno movie would be using the Porsche as scenery... At least I hope so!

Mainly, I believe car makers have a lot more power over the use of their logos and names than of the actual cars. Sure, they own the designs in the sense another company cannot make a car shaped exactly the same way and such but for film and art and such use of the car as part of scenery would almost assuredly always fall under fair use...


Anyway, just wanted to contribute something a bit more on topic

No worries, I responded snark for snark so we're even

But you really are welcome to come pick apart anything in my thread - I actually like other peoples views and opinions so autopsy away!

Maybe not for those who've been saving up for 5 years but to more recent converts it could be worth far, far more...

Besides, I think many would be interested just for the laughs...