Penguins Galore

I thought this might amuse you all. After all the lovely comments you have been making recently regarding my work, I just thought I should illustrate that I too, make mistakes! It concerns a specific work of mine but applies to all of them and describes a situation most professionals, be they painters or photographers will probably have encountered themselves. / You might remember / this design / You might also remember me telling you it took a fair while to paint that background? / Well, guess what? I just found out from the zoologist in Switzerland who vets all the WWF artwork, that it is the WRONG location! It shows volcanic Polynesia, not the coral islands of the Maldives! Okay, they sent me the ref pic that showed this scene, but didn’t say ‘Don’t use this background’ and so, I did, simply because it looked so dramatic. It did cross my mind, however. that it was possibly not correct, but did it anyway for the heck of it! What I SHOULD have done was Google ‘Maldives/Images’ and looked for this specific location and I soon would have realised that The Maldives looked nothing like that photo…but I didn’t! Anyway, at least he loved the whales, if not the volcanoes!!! / Cautionary tale or what? / Anyway, I will now strip out thosevolcanoes and paint a coral atoll instead! Now, before RB came into my life (and changed it in SO MANY amazing ways) I might have been a bit miffed at my own stupidity, but now I realise that although technically incorrect, in respect of The Maldives, the art is still valid and therefore I can leave it for sale on RB simply as a pleasing image. In any event, I’m sure Melon-Headed Whales are seen all over the Southern Hemisphere and so it’s quite possible they are seen off Polynesia as they appear in my artwork, So I suppose it could almost be a ‘collector’s item’ and may make it more saleable! I will correct the art over the weekend and post it here when finished for you to see just how wrong I got it!

I’ve decide to reduce my markup by 18% to celebrate 18 months here on redbubble, today. This reduction takes effect from today until next Friday 6 November 2009. (Please see times below). This applies to all of my products: cards, matted prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints etc except my calendars (as they are already cheap enough…lol…) It is also only 8 weeks today until Christmas Eve, so now is a great time to start thinking about Christmas presents for your loved ones, friends, family and even YOU. I even have a few Christmas cards to get you in the mood. So, please leap on over to My Bubblesite or My Profile / and pick up a bargain today. You won’t be disappointed and then you’ll feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that you have done all of of Christmas shopping, already. This Christmas Sale ends Friday 6 November 2009, at 10:30am Adelaide (Australia) time (or 11:00am Melbourne, Australia). Or midnight on Thursday 5 November 2009, Greenwich Mean Time (London, UK). For other countries, please work it out accordingly. I’ve had a blast these past 18 months, here on redbubble, and I wanted to give something back to you. Thank you for all of your support, comments, encouragement and for giving me the confidence to learn and grow with my art, in this short time. Here’s to many, many more months on the bubble. Cheers very much indeed. Elana /

I spent most of last night (until 4 am) trawling through ALL the groups looking for ones to join and ended up joining about 20 I think. Anyway, it took a while but was an interesting experience, especially seeing how some mods both phrase and justify their ‘rules’. One particular group, (which shall go nameless, simply because I can’t remember it, for reasons which will become abundantly clear shortly …but they will know who they are)....got my dander up when I read something in the ‘rules’ along the lines of : / ‘Digital art will be rejected and no explanation given’. / Is this just me, or does that sound a tad ‘confrontational’, not to say ‘elitist’??? Anyway, needless to say, I didn’t see much point in even attempting to join, seeing as I am now a ‘digital’ artist. Please note the word ‘Now’. For the majority of the time I have been painting and drawing to make a living (over 30 years), I used paint, paper, ink, pencil, airbrush, collage, montage, frottage etc etc etc and it was only relatively recently that I went digital for a number of reasons, some economic, some health / (eyesight) related. I reckon I can legitimately call myself a ‘painter’ if I so choose. / But, using that person’s criteria, it seems I am not one any more. All of a sudden I’m not, just because I switched tools. A carpenter suddenly wants to use a spanner so he’s no longer a carpenter but a plumber or an mechanic…Okay. I get the picture… Check this. 99% of people who make such sweeping assumptions have NEVER seen a digital artist at work, and just assume it’s all prompts, commands and mouse clicks. You just press a few keys and Voila! I picture appears!!! I had this very problem, years ago, convincing the WWF that I was NOT going to be simply manipulating their ref photos, but still painting the art, but just using light, instead of paint. When they saw the first piece I did for them, they immediately changed their POV. / Simply put, the end justified the means. 20+ years ago, when computers were much less powerful than they are now, and graphics tablets didn’t even exist, you still had to know how to paint and draw to create anything that looked remotely like ART no a circuitboard diagram, and it still applies now despite the amazing advances in hardware and software. Sure, you can use a bunch of presets and filters and know little about color theory and come up with something that looks okay, but if you can draw and paint already, it’s just another way of working and the end result will show the difference. I use EXACTLY the same techniques and skills with my stylus and tablet as I did / (and sometimes still do) with a brush and canvas or pencil and paper. I can still do it like that. I just choose not to for reasons already explained. It’s about time people with that attitude realised that digital art is every bit as valid as using traditional media. I know. I have used both extensively and so am in a position to judge. I doubt if that person can say the same, apart from maybe a brief foray into Photoshop to tweak some photos. Not the same thing. The obvious ‘repost’ will no doubt be: ‘There are already many groups for digital art’. Yeah? so what? There are also many that cater for both. There are also many that include photography as well. / IT IS ALL ART. I don’t think I came across ONE digital art group, or any other kind for that matter, that announced ‘Traditional painting will be rejected and no explanation given’. Please correct me if I’m wrong. This notion that trad media is somehow ‘superior’ and more valid than digital is an attitude which belongs in the 80’s and beyond. It’s as out of date and erroneous as the idea that abstract painting or even expressionsim, isn’t ’ real art’ either. So, that’s my 10c worth. Apologies for ‘shouting’ but this attitude really gets up my nose and it’s one that doesn’t belong on RB. / It’s CREATIVITY that counts. An orchestra makes beautiful music. / And finally, if the person who made that comment wants to challenge me and justify their position, that’s cool , but it won’t prove them right. / d’O

Okay, I know this should probably be on a forum not as a journal entry, but seem to have more success with journal entries than I do with forum entries, but I will c/p this into a forum as well to cover all the bases / I have a suggestion: When you post an item and you go to the drop down of all your groups, it would be a REALLY good idea if, alongside the group name, in brackets, (as some groups already do) show the daily u/l limit to that group, should there be one. / I can’t remember which sites allow unlimited and which don’t and so rather than bale out of the u/l, and going to find out, I usually don’t bother u/l’ing to groups at all, apart from the ones that tell me how many I can u/l, in case I upset a mod by going over their daily quota , as I have done in the past. I can’t believe no-one has suggested this before as it would be a very simple way of avoiding this unnecessary frustration and embarrassment, having to chastise people for something they probably didn’t mean to do. / Okay, now tell me there’s already a REALLY easy way of doing this. If so, I’d be interested to hear what it is, because I can’t see any way on the u/l page to do it as it stands.