Some Things Never Change

I was digging through some of my childhood relics stashed in boxes upstairs. I haven’t much left from those early years but I managed to keep these, though the matching jean jacket is apparently long gone. These were one of my favorite things to wear.

I have no idea how old I was when I wore these. 6 or 7 maybe. My mom painted them and I wore them often enough that the paint is nearly gone.

So I think this one item shows how little I have changed over the years.

I symbolizes most of the things that I loved then … and now. Horses, jeans, art and just a little bling to make me smile. (Note: the little brass stars that decorate the hem)

So I will fold this little jem of a time capsule back up and return it to the box it came from so I can be delightfully surprised again some time in the future.

So how about you? Do you have a favorite item that brings up fond memories of childhood?

Wild Things – Vibrant Zebra Painting Start To Finish

Been awhile since I did one of these. Merely a progression of the Work In Progress shots of this piece. Always kinda fun to see ‘em in one strip. Now that I’m getting to the finishing end of my current piece I really need to get the prints of this one done. Not to mention … my first art fair is like 5 weeks away (gasp!)

Protecting Your Photos From Invasive Apps On Facebook

So I Promise Not To Go All Fanatical On You Guys But…
I am spending more and more time looking into online protection of my images. Indeed I really didn’t have to dig very far before I found my art on scraper sites.

Also it seems the internet has decided that artist and/or personal copyright is kinda a frivolous thing so it is constantly trying to undermine one’s right to own ones own images.

See … that’s how annoyed I am. I’ve slipped into talking about myself in the third person.

Okay, okay … taking a moment to gather myself (happy place, happy place)

I was perusing a site that promoted an app in which you can use your friends images from facebook for creating coffee mugs, t-shirts … whatever and you don’t even have to get their consent. Seriously this is the title of their ad. New Service Turns Facebook Photos Into Products Without Your Friend’s Consent

Yeah I know right? Never mind that it might be ILLEGAL!

I am not including the link because I certainly don’t want to promote those … (let’s see this is a PG13 blog so what’s a safe word mofo, arseholes, poopyheads.) But if you are curious contact me and I’ll pass it along.

Anyway lucky for us one of the commenters on this page said how to disable the effectiveness of this app. And since Facebook does not make adjusting your security settings easy well I thought I share it here.

The step by step for disabling photo apps from using your facebook images.
* Top right of your FB page, there’s a cog like round icon
* Click on that for a drop down menu
* Click privacy settings.
* Then in the far left column select Apps
* Then towards the bottom … Apps Others Use
* UNCHECK photos.

OR put an X next to Apps to prevent that app from finding your photos.

Done and done. Now I just need to figure out how to fill out a DMCA to get that the scraper sites to remove my images. (sigh)

UPDATED: I wanted to add one more thing just in case folks think this is just a copyright issue. Since FB and Pinterest have the option to sell or whatever to “any” images posted on their sites there are other things that could happen.

For instance … a site could just collect all the images not really caring much what they were, to create a massive resource site offering them as free to people for wall paper or download or whatever. This huge site would in theory get more and more volumne of people searching for images to use. But the site in itself may not really care what people use them for. So a photo of your child could be displayed next to a photo of the moon which is next to a photo of a body piercing that is next to a p0rn shot.

A site would do this in the hope that someone might click on a ad and they might make a little money.

And in case you think this is far fetched know that I have seen several such sites already. (though most of those just scrape images and do not pay anyone for the privilege) Just yesterday I found my art as well as that of a friends on just such a site.

Copyrights … If You Put Something On The Internet Is It Still Yours?

So I have been digging into copyright issues of late. This all started when I was re-informed that sites like Facebook and Pinterest have a clause in their ToS that states images posted on these sites can be sold by them to any one for any amount of money without so much as a howdy-de-do to the original poster. So yes that means any copyrighted images as well as photos of you and your family are up for grabs.

Now I had first heard of this change before I was ever on facebook and so it went into the circular file labelled “not about me” and I promptly forgot all about it. But recently fate put this concept in front of me again and I’m like “Whaaaaat?”

Now I want to say I don’t plan to get all fanatical about it. Getting robbed in some small way or fashion happens all the time to artists. Personally I know of t-shirts that were made illegally as well as a wall mural. Notecards that were not printed by me have also surfaced. But this I think is bigger and has the potential to really ruin an artist’s livelihood.

So I began digging deeper and realized as someone who makes my living selling my images this could really ruin the whole shebang.

The Plot Thickens
Both Facebook & Pinterest have disclaimers that say things like, they own posted images once posted to their platforms and pinterest states that the pinner must have permission to pin items and that they, the company in fact are not responsible for folks who do inappropriate pinning. When a person signs up for either of these platforms they agree to these terms with the click of a mouse button.

And now Bing has made it ever so easy to pin your favorite whatevers and in fact has gone so far as to offer a tool that you can download so you can pin anything regardless of whether the site has a pin feature. This nifty convenience also bypasses any no-pin code placed on images. (yeah, seriously!)

So Where’s The Harm?
I’ve asked myself this for months now.

Well … if an artist works really hard to be unique and creative and that in and of itself creates collectors. Now let’s say anybody admiring said artist’s style could make copies for themselves with the amazingly simple click of a button … what do you think that does to the market for which the creative individual worked so hard to build and live off of?

Pinterest in particular is creating a world of takers. It’s easy and free so why pay? Hey everybody’s doing it…

But If You Don’t Want It Taken, Don’t Put It Online!
That is the argument one hears over and over again. From every pinner slapped by Pinterest after an artist has issued a takedown notice, or by every blogger using other’s images to illustrate their blog by Google after an artist has issued a DMCA or even major corporations thinking that if it’s been pinned a million times, why should they pay for an image when it’s free from pinterest.

I find this a flawed logic. It’s like saying it you don’t want your writings plagerized don’t be published.

To me someone using my image without my permission is no different than if they walked into my gallery or home and took money off my counter.

So What’s A Gal To Do?
Well I’m back to making it less appealing for someone to pay Facebook or imagery theives to desire my artwork. This means changing my copyright notices on each image to being larger and more invasive. Sadly this means most likely I’ll need to do all of them on my website as well.

Some of you may remember I included a copyright notice at the bottom of my art images posted online. But I kept it small so it was unobtrusive and coincidentally easy to chop off the bottom of the image for any poachers.

In the next post or two I plan to talk more about ways in which to make your images less tempting and perhaps show how to create a very easy watermark in Photoshop.

I have been reading a bunch of articles, blog posts and news statements about various artists fight to keep their right to their own images. Here’s one that is over long in my opinion but is written with wit and whimsy in a fairytale style. Purple Cow … A Cautionary Tale

Chicory And I Did Our Part To Help The Little Birdies.

So yesterday was just too gorgeous. I went for a 3 mile walk and then stood in the yard wondering what I could do to stay outside. Pondering picking up some sticks when Chicory gives me that “come hither” nicker. I grab my brush and we spend some quality time.

Lordy, the hair … I spent the rest of the evening picking hair out of my teeth, eyes and various facial orifices. You’d have thought I would have learned to keep my mouth closed when brushing him. But Chicory and I like to discuss world events, politics and the growing season of grass.

So this is a small portion of what did not blow away on the breeze. So much hairy goodness for the new little Spring birdies for their nest building. And as you can tell by the uppermost photo, Chicory has a ways to go before he’s done shedding. He’s still looking a bit gnarly.

So Horses Aren’t Supposed To Be Green … Are They

I always struggle when starting a new piece to find the right colors for what I have in mind. And this piece is no exception. I wanted a warm yellow color to my gray horse. Gray horses seem to be a challenge for me. I make them too cold, too blue gray and this one I want warm. I want reflected light and soft yellow and rose coloring.

Somehow though I wound up with a whole lotta green.

So here’s where I think I went wrong
I made a few critical errors when I began this piece. First I started it at home in a not well lit environment.

It’s one thing to work on a piece once I have figured out my palette. But it’s probably best not to try to figure it out in not-so-great lighting.

I layed down an yellow/orange-ish base coat and then put my blue/grays over the top and guess what … it made green. Yeah, I know after 20 years of mixing color I should have expected that huh?

Though in my defense had I been working in oil pastel it would have totally worked!

And lastly I get kinda fixated on the area that I am working and in point of fact it was only 6 inches on a piece that currently measures 24 x 32. So I really need to just step back and try to remember there is a lot more to do so stop obsessing..

So the head shown here is nowhere near done but I like it better. Crappy photo makes it look a lot like the first photo … but trust me it is completely different.)

So I pulled out a dozen or so Percheron reference photos that had that glow I was looking for. Pulled out much of the color I had put in and began again. At the gallery. On a sunny day.

What’s Next? My in-progress drawing for the new horse painting

I Think I Blocked Out The Trauma
I have been goofing around with drawing this piece for quite some time now. I had forgotten just how time consuming drawing tack is. Looking at my drawing above you wouldn’t think it was all that difficult. I mean when it’s all simplified out in a coloring book style sketch it really doesn’t look like much.

But … it was.

It was only after I got into the act of drawing tack that I remembered the trauma of spending a week or more drawing various draft teams through the years. I’ve not had a child but I’m guessing it’s just like childbirth. Where you agonize, bargain with God, sweat, scream and cry and after an excruciatingly long time … a birth occurs.

Yeah, this was exactly like that.

And now just like a child, I need to show it love and nurture it so it will blossom and grow into something beautiful… so I can sell it.

So okay, the metaphor gets a little thin at that point.

Moving on …
You can’t really see it here but the horses were done with pretty much NO effort. But the tack … the tack has been drawn, erased and drawn again.

At first I thought it was my geezer eyesight. Not as young as I once was and so I was playing “I wonder what that is” a lot with my sketch.

My dear equestrian artist friend Barb McGee shared an epiphany with me a year or so ago. She used to fuss about trying to figure out what things were that were so deep in shadow they couldn’t be made out. She enlightened me that in the end she decided it really didn’t matter because if you can’t see what it is in the photo it’s okay if you can’t see what it is in the finished painting.

As I told myself this over and over hoping that in the end I’d believe it … well let’s just say I went another direction.

So What’s The Point Of Having All This Equipment Anyway?
In the end, I scanned in my photo at a high resolution (600 dpi) played with the levels in Photoshop and then printed it out at 11×14. My printer would allow 24×36 but that seemed excessive since my painting is only 20×32.

So with my new improved image I could see exactly what I was struggling with and turns out I made up a bunch of stuff that didn’t exist. Too bad I hadn’t thought of this sooner it would have saved me some editing.

Perhaps I should just be grateful my geezer brain thought of it all. You know … glass is half full kind of thinking.

So here’s the beginning of the next big thing.

PS There is still some tack that I was all … “What is that and where does it go?” but in the end I agreed with Barb and just went with it.