fantasio

OK, long time no update here and that is because of a couple reasons. Bear with me as I try to get it all organized

First thing is that dA journals were never really a format I enjoyed. The headline character limit is awful. I blog regularly on my site articles, about technology and about psychology. For personal journaling I don´t have the time or better said the value vs. time stands in no serious correlation. Status updates on dA: does anyone read them? So even these small chunks of information are useless when no one is looking at it.

These days I look at what I have accomplished so far and am very happy that I don´t have to start out with doing the art-thing-for-a-living right now. The internet is hilariously full with content so that it seems, the only way to get recognized is to pay for visibility.

Nowadays I prefer to set up my booth in "real life" on a convention or fair and talk to people directly. So whenever the topic comes up about internet marketing, patreon or facebook reach and you don't hide under a rock, things have seriously changed in the past couple of years. 

I´m happy that things are like they are, the facebook or G+ bubbles where algorithms only show you what you like. This makes sure that many emerging artists get depressed before they even have the chance to show the world how great they are. It is no secret that facebook limit your reach so that you have to pay if you want more people to see what you are up to. Most businesses do well and know about that matter, but since many artists don´t see themselves as business, their reach is crippled and they blame everyone else and facebook but not themselves. If you think about it, marketers always try to find chances to infiltrate social channels. Capitalism demands it to be perpetuated and word of mouth is still the best channel for advertising.

There is something I observed on facebook, also other platforms like G+, deviantArt and other communities make use of algorithms. At first sight that is not bad, it would just be better if it would be more transparent and if you could choose. Facebook for example only tends to show you what is interesting for you. A conversation only makes sense when at least 2 people engage. FB knows that and tries to find in realtime the best match possible at that current time, based on your interactions. Orwell would be very pleased. Actually these are all tiny bubbles in which we live and the outside world is even blocked with adblocker or through ignorance.

If you have subscribed to the right people, this might even be a good thing but the problem is that in order to promote your work you feel that you can´t really escape from these bubbles. And worse, the myth about reach is true for facebook profiles and personal profiles as well. Even when you have reached the 4000 friends limit, your reach is limited to around 10% So I would really consider twice putting much time, energy and money on these platforms. Blogging on your own website brings a lot more people on my page than social media could ever do.

The Myth about Witch-hunts

Today it is Nad4r, Kyle Lambert in 2013, and countless other artists that are unfortunate enough to shape the masses against them. I´m in the process of writing an article about the photo -or hyper realism that causes so many confusion among artists and other people.
Until then, here´s my two cent about that matter:
People always love and see realism as the highest form of a visual artistic skill-set that one can imagine. The problem is that realism does heavily rely on references. If you don´t have a Down-Syndrome or be an autistic prodigy, chances are you need a model. Be it a real model that poses for you or a photograph that serves your need. The work has to be done by yourself. Big names like Dru Blair have done it traditionally and made millions with the technique and no one seems to bother. If you want to learn the technique you learn how to mix colors for 2 days straight. Btw. mixing colors and learn how to trace a picture close to 100% is all you learn in workshops of this kind. And workshops of this kind are the only possibility of making money with hyperrealism today. Ever tried to sell an original realism painting that was not oils? Good luck with that

Here is the thing; when it is done digitally, people either want to believe you have done this all from imagination or they just hate you because of the amount of skill, patience and time you are able to channel into one piece. The most hate tends to come from other artists feeling sorry for the photographers that don´t were mentioned. I get that, but I don´t feel sorry for them. Professional photographers can hire a lawyer, send a cease-and-desist letter and earn some extra cash this way. It is part of their business.

But the social internet fosters, yet celebrate this hate. People on facebook click a "like" instead of going on with their lives and over a certain amount of time they will see more of the things they actually dislike. The urge to vomit bottle's up and leads to point your finger towards one guilty person who needs to be the root of all evil in your life that has now to be punished. Witchhunts, do exactly that, they are the new opium for the people. If you are not successful in your life, there must be someone else guilty for that, there you go...

Want my advice?

Curate what you chew. Don´t click like if you don´t like something. Don´t like something from which you can imagine that it will hurt you tomorrow. 
Learn to curate your life! Subscribe to the right people. Surround yourself with inspirational people, not with copycats.


The Branding Myth

What I feel about emerging illustrators and what I get from my students most of the time is, that as long as you build a name for yourself, you will get noticed. Yeah, that was true for about 10 years but sorry, these times are over. Companies that are looking for artists don´t have the limited amount of 150 artists online to browse through portfolios, nowadays they see 150.000 great artists to pick from.
"So branding is a key then, like Ross Tran or Bob Ross ?" Um, yeah exactly, if an art-show on television or Youtube is what you want, then yes. Not only the name similarity is hilarious, the generic imagery makes sure that even in 20 years these icons will be remembered for the way they famously painted trees or strands of hair

Everything is a remix put it down in a good documentation; you can´t create anything new. Carl Sagan once said:" If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you need to create the universe first."

As artists, we often think we have to invent something new. Some do, some repeat what worked and some rip-off others. The rip-offs are either drastically bad so that you really don´t have to worry. In the best case it is studies and people don´t do damage to you. Putting things online does not mean someone makes a fortune out of it. But it sure can be a reason for you to be upset. If companies rip-off a piece and sell it, this is another topic, but even then; If you can provide details about that matter, you can forward it to your lawyer, he will earn some cash and you as well. And I learned that online rip-offs are far more paying than physical rip-offs. So if you find out something like your art was stolen - do something about it and stop whining. You want to be in this business, that means you need to learn how to play with the rules.

The "Get discovered" Myth

This brings me to a trap I felt need to be addressed; "When you are good enough, you will be discovered".

Forget it.

At least, I tried it, and with a combined visibility of around 4 million pageviews, G+, fb + dA, it did not happen that I got a call from Marvel or Wizards. Not that I tried to get there myself yet ( as I still think I´m not good enough yet), but as a mid-career artist, I figured that all I did so far was for study and if I really want to work for a specific company, I need to apply there, like anyone else. And if I want something I do that - until now, other things were more important.

"But great fanart can get you there too!"

Wrong. Sure, you can get under the radar when you do fanart, but it has to hit a certain mark of interest (Dave Rapoza for example) or infringement, be it in sold unsolicited copies or else, that a company recognizes that it would be good to hire you if they don´t want you to be a competition. So if you have not sold 10k prints yet or made a profit of at least $ 50k a year from patreon, just realize how tiny your effort is compared to the reach you should have in order to change something.


An afterthought

However, evolution always makes sure that we adapt. Further generations will learn how to survive with the internet in ways we can not imagine yet. But since the internet, opposed to a real physical space, will never be full, it will eventually bring us a glimpse of how infinity feels. Not now but maybe in 20 years from now.

General update dA

A little update here to make this thing a bit different from my blog articles:

Right now I´m at a point in freelancing that I don´t do much freelancing but more of my own projects. This bears several new challenges that I have to tackle. On one hand the convention business grows which is good and supportive on the other hand I need to utilize online channels differently, hence the article above.

Other than that things are going well, I´m in the process of publishing some books about composition that will be released first on Patreon and later on Gumroad. The first book is already released. I´m studying composition more than ever and do a kind of unasked overpaints/critiques regularly to learn from "Masterclass blunders". This also serves on my monthly school workshops as well.

Things are really busy, my list for mashup, fanarts to-do, personal projects and exhibitions is huge, that I even don´t have time for regular commission jobs, but I do them if someone inquires. In the next year I will build several new portfolios for a different market, will see where this leads towards. Great times ahead.

How's your life treating you?
Cheers,
fant

Visit my blog for more:: fantasiox.blogspot.com

I´m having lots of content, hi-res, video process and psd-wise. However, right now I do the most for my physical class on digital painting, where I can explain lots of stuff in person. The small group of  my current Patrons benefit from this too. The problem right now is that I would love to do exclusive content.

Everyone loves exclusive content, at least over on Patreon. However, to do that, I´d need to reach a certain goal (look at my page, it is really not much) but I´m still far away from that goal. That means I have to focus on other things, which prevents me from doing the exclusive stuff that I would need to do in order to get more patrons.

That is the part where the snake bites it´s own tail.

As it is now, I´ll do the following: I´m planning on doing some small workshops for Gumroad.
This ensures that I have a nice presentation, well thought out concept, video, voice over, etc. in a neat package. But; it is not exclusive to patrons.
The $10 Tier patrons will get this workshop too, but it is not as exclusive as I would want it to be / or as you could have it.

Depending on how the Gumroad venture will work out, I might leave patreon behind - or maybe I´ll keep my sketching habit and portrait studies up on here... we´ll see. 

The thing is that at the time when I joined patreon, no one used it. Now every artist uses it excessively and people get bored easily and follow fads- not their fault. It is just natural to find out what platform works and which doesn´t. I hope this post will  not go by as unseen as the most other posts and lead to a little conversation about an interesting matter.

Cheers

fant

Visit my blog for more:: fantasiox.blogspot.com

Long time no journal entry, this time I wanted to share an insight about originality. 



Facebook implemented working animated Gifs by the end of May 2015. Nearly 2 years after G+ and at least 7 years after tumblr.

And it is not important.

Apple has introduced its own maps and direction service 7 years after google.
Tethering was also implemented with the iphone 5 when Android phones had it years before.

And it is not important.

These tech examples showcase on a large scale why it is unimportant to be the first one to invent something. The bliss of being the first to introduce a new technology or feature is only about prestige.

There is no uproar on the internet community that facebook took 7 years to implement animated gifs, because - who cares? A minority.

Theoretically speaking these are unwritten principles on which our world and societies build upon. In the end no one will remember the first person who came up with this. With a little luck a history book will feature your name, but other than that it is only a shallow marketing argument.

An argument that is strong enough to hold others back.

When it comes to artists, creatives, the affinity to originality is so great, it literally holds the artist back.

From success.

I believe we can learn so much from technology, startups and business. It is a shame that many great and talented artist hide and rather sell their souls to corporations which keep them from doing their best work ever, just for the sake of having a regular income.

The nature of any success is for people to see what works and then work in the same direction. Nature does this too. Why on earth are there bugs that can take on the colors of their surroundings?
And why is this mechanism found on Chameleon and also squids? And can one sue the other because of copyright infringement?

I´m getting silly here, but artists are crazy sometimes, right?

You see, if something works, it will be adopted and refined by others. Trends happen to work in the same way. In the end no one asks who was first. It is just the mark of an era. What you do and what surrounds you is a unique set of parameters.

I like to think in parameters.

Only this way I am able to change them.

Visit my blog for more:: fantasiox.blogspot.com

An input device for a computer seems to be a no-brainer, mouse, trackpad, keyboard all there but ...err, wait what? A graphic tablet is missing or should I get a pen display?

This guide is based on my personal experience and opinion, I´m in no way affiliated with any of these companies and I try to be as objective as possible.

As instructor but also on conventions, I often get asked what hardware, tablet or other input devices I use and what I´d recommend for someone just starting out.

Until 2013 I´d nearly always have said: "Go get a Wacom", but the competition and the tablet market is developing so fast that there are more products out there than ever and artists can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume and opinions.

I will just offer some options and add a comment or two that may help you decide.

Let´s stick with the basics:

#1: The Mouse

Artist: khrass

Nothing beats the mouse when it comes to everyday tasks such as clicking, pointing, Office, Internet, scrolling, but it has some downsides; for digital painting it is less usable. For occasional doing 3D work the mousewheel can be really helpful to navigate in a 3d environment.

I currently use a Sharkoon Fireglider, this mouse is actually for gaming and therefore ridiculously cheap but good! If you have money enough, nothing beats the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer in terms of durability, it costs around $100 but worth it. I had one once and I just had to replace it because the coat weared of after 8 years but technically it was still working.

However, there are some artists that feel very comfortable working with a mouse, one fellow artist I know of brought astounding artworks on the table done with a mouse! Khrass´s deviantArt gallery is empty nowadays, but god bless the wayback archive! Not sure if that piece in particular was painted using a mouse, but the style didn´t change that much from earlier works, which means to me: It can be done, but watch out for Carpal Tunnel!

#2.: The Trackpad

Actually the trackpad used to be an expedient for doing things on the go. Apple has done a lot with their macbook trackpads since iphone and ipad evolved. Since they didn´t offer styluses for their tablets and phones - other brands jumped on that waggon and offer products that even work with a trackpad, believe it or not, see the video for some example. It works with the Bamboo-pen from Wacom too.

#3.: The Graphic Tablet

That´s where most people actually start with and this is totally right, because it allows to work naturally with a pen on a surface but there are some obstacles to keep in mind when considering to get one:

1. The brand does not matter, don´t settle for the cheapest, if the features are OK and the pen seems durable/ tablet has a warranty, that´s all you need.
2. Don´t fall for pressure sensitivity, between 1024 and 2048 there is NO significant difference, if it cost you twice, think twice.
   

It takes years to learn drawing on the tablet AND looking at the monitor. This synchronisation process will never be natural and you will not master it like drawing with pen on a paper. It is a totally different process that has to be learned from scratch like learning a new language.

This list is by no means complete, as mentioned before I can only pull from my own experience or from other sources that I trust. If you have a review or great experience with a product not listed here, I´d be glad to do some research and link it here.

#4.: The Pen Display

Pen displays are the shortcut for any artist to get the results that you are used to create with traditional media, OK, lets speak of pen and paper or pencil. Assuming you are able to use the programs right, these "Tablets" allow you to save years of learning to work with a tablet, believe me or not, the curve is immense. The main difference between these and a regular graphic tablet is that you draw directly on the screen, similar to working with a tablet, but more precise.

There are currently three brands for Pen display´s recommendable:

Wacom, Yiynova, Hanvon

Wacom Cintiq:

This is a no brainer; The Cintiq is actually the first thing that comes to mind when professionals think of a pen display, but my feelings are a bit mixed, here´s why:

First of Wacom has a really bad marketing strategy, for example they try to sell the larger Cintiq´s as HD, with resolutions that for any other 24" display comes natively with, 1920x1200 is not HD Wacom, sorry any 22", 24" and 26" monitor can do that. So the only thing that really has HD is the 13".

And that would also be my recommendation, it is big enough to work out anything you want its durable enough, lightweight to take it with you and less expensive than the other models.

The SenTip from Hanvon might be a good alternative for artists to get started as they are probably cheaper, but like mentioned before Hanvon is also good for surprises plus drivers can be buggy, read some reviews before you decide to get one.

Yiynova 

My feelings about this one are also mixed, the pricing is very low, but I´ve heard many mixed opinions and they´re not always good. The obvious cons are a battery driven pen, Walltop digitizers which are not as snappy as Wacom´s or the UCLogic ones that work great in OSX.

Ray Frenden has also another great review of the Yiynova MSP19U display. Not so obvious con´s are drivers that can be buggy. Find out more here on their website.

General advice for Pen Display´s:

From my own experience I can´t stretch enough how important it is to get a screen protection. I recommend putting a glass over it, this also saves the glove, because scratches don´t come from the hand but through dust particles under the hard nibs. Learned this the hard way.

Personal Statement and Warning about Wacom´s Customer Service:

Just in case you think I´d recommend Wacom throughout the show, that´s not true and here´s a personal story about the reason why:

When it comes to Wacom, I can say the products and delivery of products is great, however their customer support is really really bad (so is their advertising) for example, when I wanted to get a replacement cable for the Cintiq 13 HD to have one stationary to sit where my Ergotron arm holds it, and one to take with me for mobile use, you´d imagine that ordering such a replacement cable from their site would do the trick right?

Far from wrong: Lesson learned: What you see is what you get from Wacom, always!

I asked the customer support upfront if there is a power adapter included and I took their answer as a yes.

When I got the cable the power adapter was missing, getting in touch with the customer support waits on a reply ever since, the rating for their store was reasonable bad, but that didn´t helped me much. What would have helped would be an advice upfront, that the power adapter is not from Wacom itself. Research showed it is a universal AC power brick from Delta electronics that costs another 70 bucks. I find it ridiculus that this is nowhere stated on their site. Paying just 140 bucks for a second set of cables is insane.

#5.: Tablets and Tablet-PC´s

There are currently a few powerful Tablets and Tablet-PC´s out there that I would consider useful for an art professional. And I´m sorry to say that but the Ipad is none of them, however, I´ll include that as a representation of the IOS and Android niche to have it listed. Just to be objective as possible -yes it is there, it is not a good solution, but that doesn´t mean it´s not useful for others.

Ipad

Artist: Nikolai Lockertson

To start with the non-tablet, the Ipad can be powerful with a pressure sensitive pen and the right application, Procreate has to be proven the best digital painting app by far and the Wacom bluetooth pen is a good 

addition. Nikolai Lockertson is a living example that with the Ipad great art can be created, however, I consider it useful to sketch or paint on the go and prefer the more powerful devices in the studio to get the refined work done, but that is just me.

Microsoft Surface Pro 2

The first Tablet that I´d recommend is the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 here, the first one was promising, the second one has improved with the digitzers again and for the price it sounds like a good Ipad alternative with productivity potential. For more information read the review from fellow artist Thierry Doizon aka Baronthiery.

I currently have a Surface Pro 2 and am very happy with it, rumors have it that the Surface Pro 3 comes soon, but from what I´ve heard it will have another digitizer that is better with multitouch but has only 256 levels of pressure sensitivity. It has to be tested of these are sufficient for artists. In any event it might be useful to wait for the SP 4 to come out in a year or two.

To have the cover include the physical keyboard is a great approach to me as this is what makes this thing usable when you are on the go. 

Modbook Pro

The Modbooks are quite around for a while, they started out with a service to convert original Macbook into convertible tablets, now they produce them on their own using Apple parts. This  means you have Apple hard-and-software plus wacom technology, the counterpart to the Microsoft Surface Pro. However Microsoft also uses Wacom digitizers and both have 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity, the pricing, OS and some features may be the key differences here.

Wacom Companion

Wacom has the most levels of pressure sensitivity, but actually that isn´t relevant because you´ll not notice a difference. The problem with the Wacom Cintiq Companion, is that they advertise the touch feature and Windows 8, but it is actually Surface Pro with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity.  Similar to the Surface Pro, the HD resolution that comes with 1920y1080 pixels makes the touch function nearly useless in Photoshop and most other applications because all icons are tiny - you´ll need a pen to "touch" them. Except for a swipe here or there to control Windows it will not make a difference. From my point of view, a cheaper "without touch" product would have been genius and a 15" version with touch more sense because more space for a bigger battery, but hey - that is Wacom.

I´ve made the order of the list above in terms of battery power and professional use, from experience I know that working with the Ipad can last around 8-10 hours, the Surface tablet can run quite well, if the modbooks run like the regular Macbooks it can be 6 hours until you have to plugin the cable and the Cintiq with it´s I7 screams for the cable after 3 and a half hour - maybe 4h if you´re lucky.

If you are still interested in getting a Wacom Companion, Mike Daarken Lim has a nice review about it on his youtube channel, check it out.

#6.: Other and Experimental Devices

Leap Motion

Leap motion is a novel idea but I guess it will take years of development until it can hit the consumer market like tablets today.

There is also Kinect and the technique Sony developed for the PS4, which all look good, but I suspect a usability fail, so it might be Okay to use something like that as a replacement for the mouse one day, but nothing can replace the pen-on-paper feeling.

Fluid Paint

Another avantgarde setup that probably takes lightyears to be affordable or usable or both.

Selfmade Cintic

Not the first guy to do that and probably not the last one.

I suspect it is cheaper to get a Yiynova display and you have a warranty, just want to mention it in case you have thought about a DIY solution.

MaKey MaKey

And if you are more into performance art, fine art, whatsover, there is still the possibility to create your own device with MaKey MaKey.

I know, the best stuff is at the bottom, but hey, that´s life

Visit my blog for more:: fantasiox.blogspot.com