21 December 2007 // Sketch: Медведь + Bloggerificness
I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:
- The best blogging techniques.
- How to get traffic to your blog.
- How to turn your blog into money.
I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.
^ copied-and-pasted. I don't typically "snag" unless i'm wearing a woolly sweater. I'm more of a glomper. ^_^
But, i would like to turn this into a bit more than just posting a picture every day, and hey. Free blogging class. Thus, i shall glomp it. 0 comments
20 December 2007 // Sketch + News: Still alive
Oi, haven't posted in a while.
Haven't done Illustration Friday for a while, either - but i've got a new screen-capture programme, and i think i might make a video of the next digital picture i do (which will likely be next week's Illustration Friday). Of course it depends at least partly on how much memory the programme takes up while it's running, if it makes Photoshop lag too much it'll be pretty self-defeating.
May be making the switch from Blogger to WP soon, because WP has built-in Pages which will make changes to the layout significantly easier. Tried to get it working already, and had it going good for a while before accidentally breaking it, so now i've got to see if i can fix it XP Which i don't have time to do any time soon; maybe some upcoming weekend. 0 comments
03 August 2007 // Sketch + Not-Quite-News
Man i haven't updated a sketch inI bought a new Wacom Intuos3… i'm planning on getting an airbrush accessory for it at some point in the near future but i want to wait until my upcoming money issues (moving, returning to college, switching jobs, и т.д.) are sorted out. I would've waited on buying the tablet, too, but my old one crapped out on me* (
So i've been practising a bit with it:
…i like it but haven't quite got the hang of it yet.
Also, i've almost finished my picture for last week's Illustration Friday theme, Moon. I'm slow / I'll upload this weekend, done or not.
And. I the Comically Yours competition over at DeviantArt. My entry's here, for those who are interested. I'm not really satisfied with it, but there's no time to work on it any more.
*it may be reparable but i don't see the point in fixing something which i'd only be using for another month or so anyway. In fact, i strongly suspect the problem lies more with my computer than the tablet itself. If any technogeeks want to take a stab at fixing an old 4"x6" Deleter XP-Pen tablet, i'm just about willing to give it away for free. I mean, i'd like whoever takes it to cover shipping and whatnot, but otherwise it's just one more thing i don't want to have to pack when i move.
Labels: contest, face, male, news
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06 May 2007 // On the sudden lack of updates
Friday, when i said i was "caught up" on my back sketches, what i really meant was, "I'm caught up now, and i'm going away on a long trip tomorrow, but i'm bringing my scanner with me so it's all cool, right? Right?"Well, yesterday my scanner was taking the day off (hiding deep in the bowels of a pick-up truck, somewhere under the bicycle and behind the refrigerator). And today my scanner is also taking the day off (balanced precariously atop a pile of books, and heaven only knows where the cords to connect it to the computer are).
I'm thinking everything will be back to normal sometime tomorrow, but no guarantees.
Labels: news
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01 April 2007 // News: Mm, widgetness.
Today i added a LibraryThing widget to the front page that shows whatever artsy book i'm currently reading. Clicking the cover goes to Amazon to buy the book and clicking the title goes to LibraryThing to look at LT goodness. Also i have an account as an Amazon associate so i get money if you click the cover and buy that way… just sayin', if you were planning on buying something like Illustrating Children's Books anyway, that's a good a link as any.Labels: news
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21 March 2007 // IF: Total + Random news
Total freedom?
Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch on the definition… oh well.
My alternative was a computer geek totally immersed in WoW.
This is based on an old sketch of mine, one of about a billion tattoo designs from back in the days when i was planning on getting a tattoo. Never did come up with a design that i'd be willing to have permanently engraved in my flesh. Meh.
I'm going to add a special Illo Friday section to the main portfolio part of the site tonight. I may also rework the home page (which i almost never update) and redo the thumbnails in the rest of the portfolio. I don't really have anything else to do tonight so it's either redo the site a bit or order Chinese and watch TV all night…
I'm not going to break the site this time. Really. 1 comments
08 March 2007 // Sketch + Random news
I'm leaving for PA tomorrow morning. I'm not entirely sure yet if this will be updated at all while i'm gone… this computer isn't set up to work with the internet where i'll be staying (yet), and i'm not bringing my scanner with me. If i can get the internet connection working, i'll update with some digital sketches. If not, i'll be back on the 18th. 0 comments
14 February 2007 // News: E-mail subscriptions! And a lesson on RSS.
I just want to say that i hate e-mail newsletters. I despise them. In my mind, RSS is much cooler. It's easier to get an RSS feed than to sign up for an e-mail, and RSS doesn't clutter up my inbox. I'm subscribed to maybe two e-mail newsletters and about a hundred RSS feeds.Of course, only about 2% of the internet-using population has a clue what RSS is (i'm one of the ones who not only knows what RSS is and uses RSS, i can code an RSS feed from scratch if i have to. But enough of my own geekiness), so e-mail newsletters are still a bit more popular.
And now… TornCanvas has one.
It's basically just the TornCanvas sketchblog, run through FeedBurner and set up to be available as an e-mail newsletter. Anyone who already subscribes to my RSS feed won't be missing anything.
But… i feel i would be lax in my duties as a webmistress if i didn't explain to all you e-mail users just what an RSS feed is.
Basically, an RSS feed is something you can subscribe to, just like you would subscribe to an e-mail newsletter. Except you don't need to put in an e-mail address or have it cluttering up your e-mail inbox. If you see something that says "RSS" or looks anything like the standard RSS feed icon, you can just click it to preview an RSS feed, which is usually a list of headlines and parts of articles. You can then click on any headline to go to the full article.
Depending on how you prefer to read RSS feeds, there's a couple of different ways you can subscribe - in most newer browsers, you can just bookmark it like a normal webpage, except when you look at your bookmarks, there will be a number next to the title showing how many new articles were posted since you last checked (I can't wait for the day when every bookmark somehow lets you know if the site's been updated since i was last there). It's pretty awesome.
Some browsers have pretty decent built-in RSS readers, where you subscribe to an RSS feed and can see all your feeds together. They all have different ways of subscribing, but it's usually pretty straightforward - somewhere off on the side or near the top of the page will be a message saying something like, "You're viewing an RSS feed, click here to subscribe!" Then when you feel like reading some feeds, you go back to the browser's RSS reader, and it's like having a custom newspaper, made just for you. Very nice.
And then there's stand-alone RSS readers, like Vienna. If RSS feeds are the e-mail newsletters of the future, RSS readers are like Mail or Outlook. To subscribe to an RSS feed using a stand-alone reader, go to the RSS feed in your browser first, copy whatever's in the address bar, and then paste that into the box that comes up when you click "New Feed" in your RSS reader.
So now you all know how to use RSS. And if for some reason you don't like it… there's an e-mail subscription option to make you happy.
[edit] Blogger seems to have decided it wanted to kill this post. Well, i have ninjas on my side, Blogger. Ninjas.
You can't defeat me. 0 comments