Nice prize For Your Digital Pictures

Digital photography has created new opportunities for photographers of all skill levels to make money from the sale of their pictures. It seems like a new photography website goes online every minute and it appears this healthy market will only continue to grow. This makes now the perfect time for opportunistic amateurs to learn the secrets of selling their digital images.

The first step in forming your own picture selling empire is to make sure you take the right pictures. Since most of the people who your buyers will be using them for design purposes, it is important that your capture the popular topics. This can be things like nature pictures, tourist attractions, or action poses. Just think of anything that might be useful in publishing a website or magazine, as this is the audience you want to appeal to.

Next you need to edit your photos as necessary. Fine tune the colors and review each picture to make sure it is crystal clear and very vibrant. No one will want to buy a picture that is out of focus or dull. You may also need to crop your images to center the subjects or eliminate unwanted items in the background. You can also use the cropping feature to resize the image so it focuses on a particular subject or element.

Once your pictures have been proofed, you are ready to take them to the market. There are literally hundreds of websites that will host your images and pay you a percentage of each sale that is made through them. This could be from the direct sales of your portfolio, or even when someone clicks on an advertisement within the page your image is hosted on. The hardest part is determining which sites offer the best deal for your situation and finding who offers the largest payouts.

Once you have experimented with uploading your images to the different online marketplaces, you then need to monitor your success and try to determine patterns within the sales. Ideally you will find a specific niche or subject that seems to sell well for you. Since photography is an art form, some people take better shots of certain subjects. By testing the waters, you can improve your chances of finding that profitable niche that can generate thousands of dollars.

After you have experienced your taste of success, it is important to continue to seek new opportunities. Get involved with the online photography community and learn from the experiences of others. You can visit some of the many picture-related blogs and photography forums where people discuss the different ways you can make money in the photography market. The key is to network and always strive to learn more about your craft.

Selling your digital pictures is great way to make some extra money and subsidize your photography hobby. The learning curve for making consistent profits can be frustrating for beginners, but following the tips laid out in this article should help. The best advice is to jump right in and start gaining experience. Take tons of pictures and upload as many as you can to a wide variety of profit sharing sites. You will soon get the feel for what sells and what is a waste of time.

How to take good picture?

We are getting Photo crazy.

We are now so used to taking digital pictures, and looking at images everywhere, in advertising, shop-windows, billboards, newspapers, magazines, everywhere. In fact, we have images telling us to take images.

The danger is that images will become meaningless.

Capturing an image years ago was seen as something special, nowadays, taking digital pictures is so routine that we do it almost without thinking, and digital photography makes it even easier. We are now seeing cell-phones with 12mp cameras and built in flashes, so we could ask, is it a PHONE with a camera, or camera with a phone.

Taking digital pictures should be seen as something special, the ability to capture a moment in time, a snap-shot of life, whether it's your life or indeed someone else's, we can even look back in time. An image that can stir the emotions, of loved ones now departed, or a childhood now gone, all of these and more are held forever as an image on paper, or images on a disc, to be viewed on a big screen, or on your PC, or as prints.

Take care shooting

And yet we just click away, pointing our camera, or phone, at whatever is plonked in front of us, digital making it easy to store on a disc or card, waiting for a future generation to reveal the memories again. Well, just spare a thought of what images you want people to see, just snaps or pictures that stir the imagination and bring back vivid memories.

Yes, we can take snaps to record something quickly but we also have a responsibility to take pictures that are worth looking at, and pictures that are worth leaving behind, so that future generations can look back and have their soul stirred.

So whenever you are taking digital pictures just take that extra second to have a second look, don't be too hasty to shoot and move on, you may never return, either to the place or the person, so make the picture count.

It's not just the camera.

Taking Digital Pictures is like any art-form it starts in the imagination, and getting the shot you want takes perseverance and experience, as well as knowing how to use your camera.

Digital Picture Art

Digital fantasy art is something everyone can learn. If you love fantasy and want to create your own art you need a few things to start. There are a couple of ways to create your own art. If you are an artist using traditional mediums you can transfer your pictures onto the computer and then enhance them. If you are like many people you may want to create purely digital images.

You can start from scratch and do everything long hand or you can choose to use many of the tools available on-line to help you create your own art. If you are not careful it is really easy to run up a high bill very quickly. But it doesn't have to be this way. You can start out with very little outlay. To do this you will need to know where to get really cheap or free resources and what you will need to start. The simplest way is to start with pre created models. These can look very realistic and you don't have to fork out a lot for them. In fact you can get many for free. Then you will need clothing for them. These can range from almost any style of era. Again it is worth considering the pre made things while learning.

You may decide that in the future you want to create your own, but first you will need to learn the basics. Then you will need some form of landscape or background. Finally you will need lighting. Lighting can make or break your picture. fortunately with digital fantasy art you can save, cut and adapt your picture with relative ease once you have learnt the basics. This is not to say it is easy, to do. Like any art form you will need to spend time learning to use the tools and how to create the lighting you want. Many people create things to make your life easier so you rarely have to start from the beginning. However the more you want the more you will have to buy.

Once you are proficient at creating your art you may be happy to continue with it or you may want to strike out on your own and learn how to do the more advanced techniques like creating your own models, landscapes and skin. You may even want to do animation at some point. That is the joy of digital fantasy art, you can go as far as you want with it in the direction you prefer. Depending on your knowledge be ready to learn a lot. Most importantly remember to take a break and spend time with family and friends too.

On Fractals and Life

     "There is no man or woman who walks upon this crazy earth who is not a privileged pilgrim on a fantastic journey to the temple of their own immortal soul. There is no life cast upon the wild shores of this mysterious world which does not belong intimately to the fabric and fantasy sewn inexorably into the all. There is no separate individual who is not therefore part and parcel with the whole. For the all is without division, without futility, and within us all. We are the all that is the all. There is nothing but the everything that we are. For we are one. Amen.

     Our journey takes us from our personal myth and mystery, on to the Great Myth and Great Mystery. Our path leads from our separate body to the One Great Body.

     It is a hallowed and never ending journey to this oneness that ends as it began- in confusion; a confusion which is both the substratum of life and the very goal of life which has no end. For a goal which can be completed is of little value to the eternal Self.

     In this way existence is quite like a fractal; the more we go into it, the more it expands, the more patterns emerge from within other patterns, universes emerge from the smallest iota, solving one problem often creates many others, coming to one realization uncovers multiple enigmas, attaining one peak reveals a higher mountain range behind it, and the threads of the overself paradoxically cover and yet also reveal the limitlessness of the magnificent cosmic carpet running out ineffably before us."

A little art history

We're currently undergoing renovations at home, and I'll hopefully end up with a dedicated studio space when it's all done, but it is slowing me down a bit. Today I painted a lot, but it consisted of two coats of paint on a 40 square metre ceiling. Unfortunately I'm getting no opportunities to go out and paint landscapes.

Earlier this week I was going through some old artwork I'd uncovered so I thought I'd share that, just to keep my "weekly" blog moving.

The first of these dates back to the mid-eighties when I was a signwriter. With my background in airbrush art, I was often given jobs that involved detailed or lifelike illustrations. This beer bottle was painted in lacquer on white acrylic sheet (perspex). It was one of four that I painted side-by-side and stands around 1.2m (4ft) high.

Acrylic sheet comes with an adhesive protective sheet which peels off easily. I used this for a lot of the masking work. All paint was applied with spray guns and airbrush.

The second one comes from the early nineties, after I'd jumped ship into the world of advertising and commercial illustration.

I did a series of concept paintings for Austal Ships in Western Australia. This was in the days when computer graphics were still incredibly expensive, so illustration made sense. I worked from preliminary plans to produce the 3D image and once this was approved by the designers, I'd draw it up about 50-60cm wide, transfer a faint image to illustration board, mask it with "frisk" film then break out the inks and airbrush ready to colour it.

This one uses a photo of the ocean as a base. The boat was airbrushed on the illustration board then it was cut out and the surface layer of the board peeled off (I always hated that part). This cut-out was stuck on the photo with double-sided tape and was then photographed and printed. This print was retouched before being sent off to a commercial printer for reproductions.

I loved these concept-art jobs but I know so much more about light and shadow these days that I would do them very differently if I had to do them all again.

The next one, probably from the early-mid nineties, is perhaps my first real painting done for no reason other than the fact I wanted to do it. Prior to this, almost all the art I'd produced as an adult had a commercial purpose.

One day I walked past a travel agency and saw a brochure with a man skiing on the cover. For whatever reason, possibly insanity, I immediately imagined the man as a kangaroo. I grabbed a copy of the brochure and some others for extra reference and soon went to work with tube acrylics and gouache on a canvas board.

I didn't really know what I was doing but I was having fun at least. I think I painted that roo hair-for-hair!

May Workshop

After a very successful oil painting workshop in March, Gallery 500 have invited me to do another workshop in May.

Workshops run for around four hours on a Saturday morning and students paint along with me as I break down my process of painting sunlight into easily managed stages.

The techniques demonstrated suit either plein air or studio painting. While I paint in oils, the approach works equally well for acrylics.

If you're interested in attending, contact Brad at Gallery 500 in Albany, WA.

World Policy Journal

A while ago I was asked by Nick Ditmore, Creative Director for World Policy Journal, for permission to use one of my caricatures with an article in their Spring issue. Permission was granted and the article, discussing how Australia rode-out the Global Financial Crisis, is now online.

(Kevin Rudd caricature - digital. 800x1000px. © 2010, Andy Dolphin)

Kendenup Rail Bridge

Here's the plein air painting I did last weekend near Kendenup...

 (Kendenup Rail Bridge. 30x20cm oil on board. © Andy  Dolphin)

It's far from perfect but it was an unusual subject or me and presented quite a number of challenges from perspective to tonal contrasts to colour to reflections. Plus, the sun was setting fast so all these things had to be dealt with without much thought.

At one point I thought I'd lost it completely but I pushed on and once I'd mapped in the major highlight areas in the foreground and on the bridge pillars, it didn't look so bad so I continued with it. From here on I added most colour and tone from memory as the scene had changed dramatically in a short time.

I hope to go back soon and try again, from a lower angle so we can see the width of the bridge.

Perfect weather

While summer was colder and wetter than we usually get down here, autumn has been spectacular so far. The last few days in particular were hot with mostly cloudless skies, day and night.

I took the opportunity this afternoon to go an paint a subject I noticed a long time ago.

This bridge carries the Great Southern railway line over a small creek near Kendenup. That trickle of water is probably more than it usually has at this time of year.

Plein air painters have a phrase "chasing the light" and I experienced it full on in this painting.

I started about 4pm, as the sun was casting a shadow of the steel bridge on the creek bed. It was 5pm by the time I finished and, as shown above, the whole scene was in the shadow of the distant trees.

I had to establish major shadow positions and angles at the start and try not to "chase the light" as the major shadow moved away from the bridge and toward me, which it did quite rapidly. I used a limited palette of four colours plus white to save time.

It was a subject I've never tackled before and quite a challenge. I might go back another day and try a slightly lower angle so I see a little of the underside of the bridge as this would give me a nice strong shadow tone and probably some warm reflected light. I hope there's still a bit of water flowing when I get there.

I'll post the finished picture when I can get a good photo of it. In the meantime, here's the plein air painting I did near Woodanilling a few weeks ago...

(Near Woodanilling. 20x22cm oil on board. © Andy  Dolphin)

Albany Workshop

Today I did a workshop for Gallery 500 in Albany, hopefully the first of many.

With ten keen and competent "students" and a wonderful workspace at Terra Verde Gallery, it was a great way to spend a few hours on a beautiful autumn morning.

I explained my approach to painting light in the landscape and everyone followed along as I demonstrated each step. With lots of good questions, exchanges of ideas and some good conversation, it was all great fun.

This is my painting, based on a digital image I came up with in my head a few months ago...

And here's a few pics of everyone hard at work as I cracked the whip...

Thanks to Brad and Jo of Gallery 500 for inviting me and to everyone who attended.

My next workshop is planned for late May. Contact Gallery 500 for details.

Warrior Desktop Wallpapers #2

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Woolorama time again

Yesterday I drove about 200km to Wagin to deliver some paintings for the Woolorama art exhibition which takes place in a couple of weeks. It was a hot, humid day with clear skies and a gentle breeze.

On the way home, I deviated down a few back roads looking for "something different" that I could stop and paint. I found it on the road to Woodanilling. The tree was interesting and the light blinding. There was space to park the car and a shady tree to stand beneath.

I had no excuse not to paint.

We normally think of shadows as cool and highlights as warm but these trees seem to have a warm, peachy glow about their trunks, even in the shaded parts. Finding a colour and tone that would convey that warmth whilst still allowing the strongly sunlit highlights to jump was an interesting challenge.

I'll post the finished image when I can photograph it properly.

Strange summer!

Large parts of Australia have been hit with extreme weather this summer. Northern Queensland was hit by floods and then perhaps the largest cyclone on record. Meanwhile, northern and central WA and Victoria have also suffered exceptional flooding. You need to visualise the size of the Australian continent to grasp the area that's been affected. It's ridiculously huge.

Whilst we haven't been personally affected by any of these events, this has been the weirdest summer we've had down south since leaving Perth over seven years ago. February is normally hot and dry, with temperatures in the forties not out of the question. This year, however, we've had the threat of a cyclone, though we're nowhere near the tropics, and of a surprise storm that devastated some southern towns but never quite made it this far. What we have had is day after day of drizzle and rain, often with gusty winds. I think we've only seen clear skies for about four days this month.

With only one week left before autumn arrives, I'm hoping for some opportunities to get out and paint some summer sunlight. In the meantime, I'm managing the odd painting indoors. Here's this week's contribution...

(Evening glow, Porongurup. 30x45cm oil on board. © Andy  Dolphin)

This painting was based on a couple of plein air works I did last month. I took a little licence with the lighting since I have seen it turn warm on previous occasions. I kept the mountains simple as I wanted the white sand track to catch the viewer's attention and for the large tree to stand out against an atmospheric backdrop.

Here are the two plein air studies I used as reference.

(Porongurup track. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy  Dolphin)

(Summer track, Porongurup. 30x20cm oil on board. © Andy  Dolphin)

Latest

Things have been a bit hectic lately but I finally managed to get some painting done.

(Inn Kitchen, Arthur River. 70x37cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

This piece was based on a small plein air painting I did in March last year and "fixed up" a couple of weeks ago.

(Karri Light. 50x37cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

These will be on their way to exhibitions in the coming months.

Google Art Project

I just saw Google Art Project on Marc Dalessio's blog - it looks fascinating.

Take a virtual, 3D tour of any one of more than a dozen galleries/museums around the world.

It might take a bit of getting used to but if you've ever navigated Google Street View, you'll pick it up pretty quickly. Just click a museum link, choose to Explore then mouse around a bit, click on direction arrows, click on distant rooms or paintings, click on + signs, move the zoom slider in the bottom corner and eventually you'll find yourself staring at a close up of a masterpiece.

If you're the nervous type who's bamboozled by all this technogologicacal stuff, then there's instructions and videos to get you going if you click on the "Learn more" link.

I suspect people with a slow internet connections might experience some difficulties.

Looks like I can cancel that world trip I was planning now.

Digital landscape animated

I thought I'd have a go at animating the step-by-step digital painting process from my last post.

Here you go. Click to see it larger.

How to: Digital Landscape

Here's a  step-by-step breakdown of how I approach a digital landscape painting like the one I did this morning.

For this painting, I used a cartoony cross-hatch brush from Chris Wahl.

For this brush to work to full advantage, you need a pressure-sensitive stylus and Photoshop (other software might also do do this). The default settings for the brush work beautifully as the cross-hatch pattern randomly rotates as you paint. All I change is the brush size and sometimes I turn Other Dynamics - Opacity on or off. I do most of the painting with the Opacity setting on so that a light touch produces a translucent wash. This makes it easier to build blends and allows for a little variety within major tones.

Step 1: Rough outline to locate main shapes. Since this painting was right out of my head, with no visual reference whatsoever, some things will change as I progress.

Step 2: Rough in undertones. Lighter and cooler in the distance, darker and warmer in the foreground. I adjusted the mountain shape so it would fully contain the main tree. I use a fairly large brush here to get the surface covered.

Step 3: Add weight to all tonal areas. I use some of the sky colour in the mountain colour. I do this by painting a transparent patch of the sky blue over the purple from Step 2. Then I select this colour with the eye dropper and apply it across the area. This helps to "absorb" the mountains into the atmosphere, especially the more-distant peaks.

I introduce highlights in the background and mid-tones in the foreground. I re-establish the main tree and distant trees and some minor detail is added to indicate a fence and track. I've also introduced a foreground shadow being cast from a tree off to the left somewhere. This small detail instantly adds depth - plus I like shadows falling across white sand tracks!

Step 4: Highlights are added to the foreground and middle distance. I've strengthened the track and foreground fence posts. By this stage, I'm adjusting the brush size up and down as I work on different areas.

Step 5: I decided to change the shape of the main tree as the earlier shape looked a little "weak". I've also marginally brightened the sky and added my digital signature.

(Imaginary landscape 2. 1500x1000px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

Step 6: Finally, I flattened the whole image, boosted the saturation a little and tweaked some minor details here and there across the whole painting. I could have adjusted the saturation with an adjustment layer instead of flattening - but I didn't.

There is a about 30-40 minutes work in this. Note that at 1500 pixels wide, this image would only produce a high quality (300dpi) print about 12cm wide! If I wanted to do anything serious with it, I could work at this size up to around Step 4 then increase the resolution before continuing with detailing.

Half-awake digital landscape

I had a bit of a sleep yesterday afternoon, after having a tooth pulled. In those moments before I woke up, properly, I saw another landscape image. I tried to focus on it to see if I could commit it to memory.

I should have got up there and then and captured the image as soon as possible, but I was still feeling a bit sorry for myself and went back to sleep. Anyway, I decided to drag it back out from the depths of my memory and here's what I ended up with...

(Imaginary landscape 2. 1500x1000px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

This is nowhere in particular but I think if I headed out around the Stirling Range, I'd find something pretty close to it. Don't forget to click the image to see it at full size.

I painted this in Photoshop using a tablet and stylus. I only used one brush which I downloaded from Chris Wahl's blog. I used the same brush in my previous imaginary landscape digital painting.

I painted this one in layers so I can upload the various stages as a mini digital painting tutorial. The basic approach is the same as I use for oil painting - under-paint in shadow tones followed by mid-tones then highlights.

Revision

Sometimes, despite best efforts, some paintings just don't work. With plein air paintings, the chances of "failure" are much higher as paintings are executed quickly in changing light conditions.

I have quite a collection of paintings that I don't let out in public. Every once in a while, I review them and see if I can recover the feeling that made me want to paint them in the first place.

Here are two such paintings, although you only get to see "the after shots".

(Wansborough Karri. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

This small painting was done in the studio but executed quickly, like a plein air painting. It is based on a piece I did a few years ago. The original lacked a significant warm-cool contrast and therefore failed to portray much depth or the warmth of the sunlight. This little painting was done with a view to doing a larger piece.

(Kitchen, Arthur River. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

This was a little plein air painting I did back in March of the historic Mount Pleasant Inn kitchen at Arthur River.

When I first painted it, the sun disappeared for quite a while and I lost the light that had initially attracted me. As a result, all my tones drifted toward the centre and the painting lacked punch.

Last week I took another look at it and increased the contrast on the building, darkening the shadow side and boosting some of the intense light on the red brick wall. This instantly lifted it so I continued on, making the front row of trees darker to bring them forward from the distant trees. A bit of warm colour was added to the dry foreground grasses and it was saved.

In this case, I painted right over the original because the foundations were okay. It's a risk, because it could all go wrong then you've lost the lot, but it is a huge time saver. This one too might be used as the basis for a larger painting. There are a few exhibitions coming up and I need some paintings bigger than 20x24cm.

Plein air summer

I was invited to this year's first Porongurup art picnic yesterday and decided, this time, I'd do a painting rather than sketches.

We met at the old Woogenellup bridge and I wandered around for half an hour or more looking for something to catch my eye. It's a very interesting place with the abandoned timber bridge sitting alongside a concrete river crossing and culvert. The bridge itself is slowly returning to nature as the timbers rot and grasses and saplings take hold. Much of the area immediately surrounding the bridge is overgrown with grass and scrub.

I chose a spot at one end of the bridge where the post-and-rail fencing ends atop a grassy ridge. The evening sun was shining through at a sharp angle offering interesting contrasts of warm and cool tones.

The colour of the light changed dramatically during the forty minutes or so of painting time and I battled to decide which colours to follow and which to ignore. I ened up with this...

Original, on-site painting

I didn't mind it as an on-site exercise but it lacked punch, largely due to my colours drifting too much toward greys. There was no sunlight shining on the fence or grass by the time I was finishing.

I reviewed the painting this morning and decide to see if I could lift it. Step one was to scrape it back with a palette knife...

On-site painting scraped back ready for retouching

Scraping back an oil painting leaves a clear image in thin, smooth paint.

I reworked almost every part of the under-painting as I wanted to soften the background tones, pushing them back in the process, and strengthen the foreground. Here's where I ended up...

(Post-n-rail. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

It's still a fairly loose study but the finished painting has much-improved tonal contrast, helping the fence stand forward from the distant trees. There is also a more distinct warm-cool contrast between foreground and background.

I also added in a post on the far side of the track. I'd noticed this as I was finishing the original but I was too busy to add it in. It's barely noticeable but adds some dimension to the timber structure.

This was an unusual subject for me as I most-often seek out wide vistas, but I enjoyed the challenge.