[eetu]

whee!

after some fiddling around i found that on PC
it's shift-rmb ! mm-mm

eetu.

[phreaknasty]

spooge if you really want crits i'll offer one up, but if your site is ment to be vehical to share your art with other artist i don't really see the point since its fine....

if however you want to use it to expand your market potental then you could probably sure it up a bit....

[This message has been edited by phreaknasty (edited October 17, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by phreaknasty (edited October 17, 2000).]

[Joachim]

thx eetu !
now I like phshop 6 more than 5.0 ...the pressure sensitivity is much better than before too.

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Joachim's Place

[PuckDewd]

Snake- whooops i kinda missed that post..sorry.

Spooge- you don't owe me anything (though a personal art lesson would be nice *jk*)just glad I could help out, and yeah you nailed it right on the money about the NAPP. It's a pretty good organization, get discouts on all kinda computer stuff from Mac Mall and PC Mall among others. You can see all their details about it ummmmmmmmm here

-Puck

[Chapel]

spooge: I can help you with the site design if you want. Just drop me an email if your interested. I'm not big on animated sites. I like nice simple streamlined sites. Although I do know Flash and I'll probably do my personal site in Flash, but that is just for part of my portfolio.

[Sumaleth]

I work from my home in Australia for a company located in the US and there are certainly major "issues" involved in this approach to contract work.

I'm actually very comfortable with this approach having worked on dozens of projects purely over the internet during the last 8+ years, but one thing that I've discovered is this; it doesn't matter how comfortable I am with this approach if the other party isn't good with it. If one party doesn't quite understand how it needs to be used then you get similar problems to when both don't know what they're doing.

I've been quite interested in these conferencing systems and have used a couple of them over the years (earlier versions, not like the one described on this page). They can actually be very good and you do tend to get through a lot more stuff than if you rely on email or phone calls.

Personally, I prefer IRC. To me, this is the ideal medium for doing work 'over the net' - both parties simply have an IRC client running fulltime and in that way it's much like I'm working in another room at their office. We can ask a question and know that, at some point, we'll get an answer. Deeper issues can be discussed at any time and at any length right there on the spot without having to call a 'special meeting'. And because irc conversations are a little bit slower than in-person meetings (this gives you time to better consider what is being said and how you're going to respond), you can actually work and converse at the same time. You can even run several conversations concurrently.

I've even used that java paint thing (that was popular a couple of months back) to aid discussions and it turned out to be really good (much easier drawing a diagram sometimes than trying to describe in text). I'd LOVE for Adobe to allow networked use of Photoshop, although that is, unfortunately, probably not something they'll do.

As I mentioned earlier, if one side of the contract isn't comfortable using IRC and email then it can be a bit painful at times. But if you know what you're doing, working over the net can be a really great way to work.

(I really only breezed over the thread so I'm sorry if the above was a bit off topic.)

My thoughts on the service offered by that particular web site? I think it's probably something that, given the right project and the right people involved, could possibly be handy. But until it's a well established system I wouldn't expect to find it useful in anywhere enough circumstances to make it worth spending money on. If they want to watch you work just setup a webcam, and use IRC for conversation - that would be my opinion.

Sumaleth

[yoshi]

just tried new photoshop, the brushes work better (what Joachim said). Shift + click menu kicks ass, brush thumbnails are better too. I also like the new '[]' function better - keeps the brush palette less cluttered.

[opticillusion]

Spooge: your site downright rocks! I'm serious. I've been to a gazillion artist's portfolio websites out there....and yours falls into a special category with perfect delivery and a sweet collection of your work. The art is just awesome!

First, as someonee said, the start page is just unbelievable...and makes you want to continue. I don't see how anyone can just stop there. (It's my desktop wallpaper even). Secondly, you categorize your work...and quite well too with the side frame, and listing matte 1, matte 2, and so on. Each one, makes you want to see more. The How I work has totally inspired me. I either want to be an animator, or do what you do.

The background gives the site a sort of unfinished feel, kinda painty wish washy which is good I suppose, for what you're doing. Also, it's faint enough to let the artwork stand out. I would still try some other possibilities. I think the text, and how you introduce your categories, and so on is great and shouldn't be changed as it really adds a lot of character to your pieces and so on. Instead of saying here's this pic....enjoy. You give how you came to make it, what tasks were difficult, and helpful entities that make the experience better.

So....content's unbelievably perfect. A few suggestions would be to change your 'Craig Mullins' graphic on the first page. Maybe, 'The Art of Craig Mullins' or something. Or paint your name on a sketchbook or something....just a little more to that front page. Another idea would be to change the background of your left frame....have it contrast a bit with the main view.

Wheew! ...I've said too much.....

This is just my opinion about your site. I gotta say it's quite an inspiration...

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Regards,
Jensen

[This message has been edited by opticillusion (edited October 17, 2000).]

[Anthony]

If I see another website titled "The Art of Blahblah Hamsterman" I'm gonna go nuts. That's about as hackneyed as titling your biography "Soandso, A Life." Sheesh.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[Frost]

Spooge:
Hey there. =) What I meant by the design comment is simply to (perhaps) make it more appropriate, clean and professional (as far as presentation) for the professionals who's attention you want to get (for work, contracts, etc.)

As it is now, the background graphic doesn't tile properly and somewhat obstructs the readability of the text on the page at some parts, and you could possibly try to get some cleaner/readable font styles...

The overall setup of it looks fine, but small issues like having to scroll to see all the options in the left frame and such makes for extra points off the design and functionality. People like things to be clear, as in your paintings with contrast, to be directed and manoeuvered around, where it's easy to know where you want to go, easy to understand, and easy to navigate.

Anyway, I am so far away from being a designer, but, I just think you could benefit from getting a better looking site and posting your url EVERYWHERE. =)

Good luck. =)

[opticillusion]

anthony: woh....hold up. I was just giving a suggestion and 'the art of ____' was the first thing to come to mind, cause you're right...it's so dang popular. maybe having goodbrush on the title is better.....who knows....it's up to spooge

[Anthony]

Haha, I know, I was exaggerating. - here's a tip on me: don't take anything I say too seriously. I like to overstate things to make a point. ^_^

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[opticillusion]

ok...no biggy I'll take note

[Jorge]

To keep it short, I think Vortx's site is the perfect example of cool while simple design.

Your art is the main character there, so I'd avoid long texts and confusing backgrounds. Let each piece attract all the attention. I'd go for as a slim lay out as possible, and leave long explanations hidden behing a useful link. That is MHO of course.

My fisrt impression when browsing your web is that I did not really get a grasp on what its structure was. Too many sections in a same level...

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Jorge

[AliasMoze]

Spooge, I don't think your site needs anything. Except more frequent updates. But who cares about the interface? The content is awesome.

[rikkitikkitavi]

Mr. Mullins:

Feng (Vortx) has a very simple, practical but extremely elegant site design. Especially for showcasing artwork. I am sure you would want to add your own creative liberties, but I feel that for the sake of beautiful simplicity, his is an excellent choice.

I would recommend checking out his site: http://www.artbyfeng.com/

[spooge demon]

Excellent suggestions by all-

thank you

[Bg]

This is my suggestion: choose best paintings to describe each category of main page. I think your opening picture
looks awesome so it's in the center. And one ellipse per topic (matte paintings, concept art, forums, etc.). Arrange
the ellipses by color (or by topic) around the big picture. The numbers below the topics indicate the number of pages
available (the way you have it at the moment on your website). And finally, outline the ellipses with black (notice
the way they are outlined).



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---
Timo Vihola
http://www.mbnet.fi/~badgers/

[Bg]

This is my suggestion: choose best paintings to describe each category of main page. I think your opening picture
looks awesome so it's in the center. And one ellipse per topic (matte paintings, concept art, forums, etc.). Arrange
the ellipses by color (or by topic) around the big picture. The numbers below the topics indicate the number of pages
available (the way you have it at the moment on your website). And finally, outline the ellipses with black (notice
the way they are outlined).



------------------
---
Timo Vihola
http://www.mbnet.fi/~badgers/

[Sergenth]

Nice design, Bg.

Is that Explorer only CSS though? :P
I still use a dying browser...

[Bg]

Thanks Sergenth.

[Verantartist]

Craig. aka spoog

I dont see where you think simple is better. If you are loking for your site to represent a modern artist who recognizes the demands of the free market then I would go with the most flashy and most interactive site I could make..lets say that your site gets made in flash and then you win Macromedia site of the day or shockwave site of the day suddenly you have gon from maybe 1-5K peoplke seeing it per day to about 50-100K people seeing it. Take Joe Cartoon he was nothing before flash and now he is a super star...dont be scared of new media there is a reason good sci fi films make a lot of money even if they have a bad plot and dialoge ( ep 1.... )!!!!

[yggdrasil]

i disagree, verantartist... i think the tendancy lately has been to overdo everything with dynamic html, flash, etc. i think spooge would be much better served by a clean and simple design that doesn't detract from his artwork. afterall, that's what his site is there for. start putting in random, useless animations and you move the focus away from the art and into the web page design.

and that, i think, is not what he wants/needs.

my opinion on websites has always been to cater to the lowest common denominator. ie, make the damn page work for as many people as possible. just use plain html... maybe a couple image rollovers to highlight menu selections.

now you may argue that it's possible to design a badass flash-enabled site with javascript exploding everywhere AND have it work for most people, but i think then again you have to ask yourself "why do i need all this crap?"

unless it serves a useful purpose, why have it at all?

instead of wasting bandwith and download time on an animation that contributes nothing to the page, make the page load quickly and painlessly.

as far as spooge needing to prove himself to be a "with-it" modern artist... i mean, come on... have you actually _seen_ his stuff? i don't think he'll have any problems proving his skill to anyone.

so in short: i vote for clean and simple, though i definitely agree that the page is in sore need of an overhaul. :P

but that's just my opinion,
-yggdrasil

[Jezebel]

A site can be modern and "flashy" looking without depending on all latest technology and interactive goodies. I think as an artist it's also very important to make sure that your webpage is supported by a large number of browsers, otherwise you're losing potenial viewers/clients. A decent load time is pretty important as well, although I'm certainly guilty of making my websites waaay too graphics intensive

[Jezebel]

Bah, yggdrasil just said everything I was trying to say and before I said it. You're too quick for me!

-Jez

[nightmare]

my 2 cents:

simplistic is mr spooge's style of choice. minimalist is in. Ever been to ikea? do u see streamers and ornate carvings and flashy interactive furniture? no. but everyone loves ikea right? people LIKE simpler things. we CRAVE simpler things because the hyperflashy seizure-inducing sites have been done to death. and besides, when u get as good as spooge u learn how to make every brush stroke count and u need less details.
so there! :P

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it's all a conspiracy!