or Understanding that the Consensus of the Majority does not Constitute Truth
Every few months I come back over to this rather busy corner of the web to see if they have straightened out the licensing issues. As long as the controlling agreement remains somewhat vague, I don't feel comfortable risking the rights of my entire output, so I'll probably just rotate a few images through at a time. Sooner or later, someone is going to offer a lot of money to absorb DA and I don't want my own work marketed in competition with me. So the low res can come here, while the high res goes to the physical gallery ...
When I put up a few images a couple of days ago, one of them moved very close to the "Top of the Pops" for a while. Now since Popularity on DA is determined by absolute counts of favs, rather than the ratio of votes to views, its more controlled by exposure than anything else. So popular People see their works climb to the top even if a smaller fraction of their viewers vote for each work ...
So I go by the ratios, and I'm most interested in the competition between my own works, because I have a business case need-to-know which of them I should invest in, i.e. print up on large canvases and frame. Sometimes people don't really care for the stuff I'm happiest with and it's important to know that ahead of time. If the people who demonstrably like my work consistently pass over something, I'll know it's not up to par.
But while comparing the ratios on my stuff to the other images in the same category, and watching which of them were shooting up quickly, I noticed the obvious: Big Boobs Win! Almost always, it seems. I'm not saying they're not extraordinarily good pictures, but all other considerations being equal, the images with the most shapely large breasts pick up votes and views the fastest.
Instead of being annoyed, I found it very freeing.
The realization that artistry and composition won't push anyone's work to the top of the Popular list (unless big boobs are present) allows me to go back to what I was really interested in, namely collecting useful feedback on the images I sell.
(I once had a picture here that was both the most Popular and the top selling print in it's category. But I made more off of selling one print on canvas directly than the total for everything for two years ... maybe it was because she didn't have Big Boobs!)
So next Monday, I just happen to have a model flying up from L.A. who has an enormous rack (and also incredibly well formed) so we'll see what they do in the water. But I'm actually more eagerly anticipating Wednesday when I'm going to finally going to shoot my own doctor who's almost exactly the same age I am. I'm not sure I trust this place enough to expose her to the kind of sniping that seems to be motivated by something akin to jealousy.
Oddly enough, over on the free-for-all that is Flickr, people are more generally polite. Probably due to the fact you can delete their comments and block them effortlessly - and when enough people block someone the admins will boot them (as happens every day.)
This is by far the more artistic site, and one of the few where copyrights are rigorously respected (at least by the staff.) But when people leave a note just to sneer at something I wonder at their motivations. I also wonder if they really imagine that anything in these pictures is accidental ... when I present something with odd lighting it isn't because I didn't notice - usually that's the whole point of the image.
I can't believe you're still reading this. I'll probably rip it down as soon as someone gets all hot and bothered about my obviously invalid opinions!
ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
I don't write, interpret nor enforce Copyright law
... and I don't necessarily support it in the various ways the entertainment industry abuses it. It is certainly more often used to protect conglomerates than creative artists.
But taking me to task because you either don't think it should be that way, or you just don't believe me, is kind of missing the point.
If you think I'm wrong about what the law says, go do your own research and satisfy yourself that you're right ... all I tried to do was make people aware of the issues. You can choose for yourself to what degree you're going to let the opinions of others affect what you create.
I don't give out my work as stock because I committed
Think Carefully About Copyright and Model's Rights
I get asked constantly if someone can "base" a painting off of one of my photographs. More often, someone just does it and then demands my permission after the fact ...
About 35 years ago, I did something similar ...
I found a photograph I really liked and I based a painting on it, changing minor details that clashed with my sense of composition. It was of a woman sitting on a chair, facing away and looking backwards at the camera. I spent a long time on it and really liked it once I was done.
I showed it to a gallery owner along with some more original works and he thought it was the best of them. But he said "That woman looks familiar, w
Reflections on Reflections Or Recursively Yours
I keep getting asked how I *do* the reflections. There seems to be a common misapprehension that because I am forced to do quite a lot of retouching in PhotoShop that I am in fact manufacturing the reflections there.
Strictly speaking, this is not possible for a number of reasons, although I know many people do a quite credible job and no one seems to notice the difference.
But imagine holding a cup upside down over a mirror. (We're all more or less visually oriented people here, so I am not going to try to prove it with illustrations but if any of this is unclear go ahead and try it out literally.)
When you look down on the cup over the m
I think I slept through it ...
Monday morning I had emergency surgery to remove a dental implant that I got three weeks ago, along with a small (fingernail size) section of bone that was so infected the surgeon described it as "mushy". I saw it, it looked like bloody sand ...
So in a haze of painkillers, I logged on to DA and found 2K+ messages ... took me a while to realize what it meant. So thanks to Helewidis (https://www.deviantart.com/helewidis) for noticing and thanks to all the people who've left congratulations.
And to those few who feel compelled to trash my work LOL, I think you should consider how your criticisms are likely to be perceived by your peers. I think it quite natural to feel jealou
© 2007 - 2024 alberich
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Thank you.
So it's not just me who is wondering why I stick around here.....
I'm glad you said these things.
So it's not just me who is wondering why I stick around here.....
I'm glad you said these things.