Creating art is a fun thing to do. I think that most people who choose to express themselves artistically tend to develop some level of bond with their work. Along the way, some times things just don’t come together and those items end up either being chucked away or placed on hiatus, on the shelf somewhere.

For those pieces that do come together to the extent that you sign your name on the corner, those pieces of art usually take a piece of the artist with them. For the artist there is a sense of accomplishment, a goal accomplished, and perhaps a feeling of growing towards perfecting a craft.

Then enviably it happens, the artist sees the work of another that causes their own work to pale in comparison. I suppose some might become a little depressed when this happens however I think many, myself included, find inspiration when this happens. A realization there are endless possibilities, and that learning and improving one’s abilities  is a life long journey.

I recently saw a 3D render created by a gifted artist that caused me to have that feeling. It’s an awesome piece of art and I recommend taking a look http://digitaldownunder.net/gallery/data/581/medium/Render-2er.jpg

When I first looked at this image I thought it was fairly simple, then I looked a little closer. Two things impress me about the image, the colors used and the detail. Little things that perhaps could have been omitted but including them adds so much to the image, the tombstones in the background and the shadows on the water, excellent stuff. The colors are soft and soothing, as well as striking in the scene. The character herself blends in with the rest of the scene, its a fantasy render but lends a realistic feel. I think the artist completely nailed this one.

I don’t know how or why it ever became to common thought that anything found on the Internet was free for the taking. However that has become the "normal" rule of thumb for many, this is particularly true of images found on the web.

It is especially not cool to take images from others and display them as your own. It’s become such a common practice that many out there aren’t very bright about the way they do it. Rather than download the image, they simply link to the image on the site where they found it. This is not the most intelligent thing to do because A) it’s not very difficult to find the culprit and B) once you’ve link to another site to display content you’ve effectively given up control to something on your site.

I recently discovered a site that was built entirely around my images, several others using my images on their profile pages in various venues. All that was required on my end to correct the situation were a couple of lines of code added to a site configuration file on my site. Imagine the fun I had experimenting with the settings on my site. Opps sorry about that bright pink that suddenly showed up as the background on the macho guy’s myspace profile. Just doing a little house cleaning on my own site lol

The thing is, why stealing images rubs me the wrong way, if the people would have asked first I likely would have gladly said ok. There are honest people out there who done just so, I can’t recall ever turning anyone down. Just seems to be the polite thing to do.

I don’t watch much TV so only recently discovered True Blood on HBO. I’m still trying to figure out some of the storyline and character but this show is awesome. Vampires have come out of the closet so to speak and existing out in the open with their human counter parts. The show is incredibly sexy and has the right mix of the supernatural to make it at times almost believable.

Immortality does have its benefits but also comes with a heavy price. In a recent episode, a young female loses her virginity, only to have to endure the painful experience again the second time around. Being immortal vampires automatically heal themselves from most injuries. She realizes this is something she will live with for eternity. Watching the scene I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of empathy as she felt the irony or reality sink in, brilliant writing.

All great movies or television cause you to think, feel, and laugh, True Blood does all of those things well. It’s one of the shows that I’ve thought every time, "is it over already?", that’s always a good sign, it’s an awesome show, did I say that already?