Been thinking for a while now that - and as an indicatior - my gallery entries are getting fewer and fewer and I'm getting less and less satisfaction from my Poser work.

First, let me state it's not a fault of Poser, nor its limitations.  It's something in me.  Here's the what and why.

Technical shortcomings aside, I believe my earlier images were far better than most of the stuff I've uploaded for a couple of years.  The reasons for this are:

I lost sight of why I create images in the first place
I got seduced by production values
I concentrated too much on technique at the expense of content.

I am very much of the opinion that my work - although not as technically proficient as I would ultimately like it to be - has suffered because I spent too much time tweaking things rather than getting on with the business of saying what I meant to say.

I used to - and still want to - make images as a form of self expression.
I am a firm believer in Dali's approach to Surrealism.  That is, not making weird pictures for the sake of being weird, but using imagery and symbols personal to me, in order to express my emotional and mental state.  Sometimes this may be in the form of a "realistic" image, rather than a floating whale with a violin up its arse, or whatever.

BTW, I'm using the term "realism" here in a different sense from the CGI perfectionists (whom I admire greatly), but to describe something which could be an everyday scene.

I like the potential of producing realistic unreality, in the same way as some of the best SF art.  Not robots and spaceships necessarily, rather a relatively straightforward scene but skewed in some way to make the viewer go "WTF?"

So, it seems to me I have to re-evaluate my reasons for posting images - other than the ones I'll use to promote my products - and go back to my "roots".  Chances are, I'll start postworking and comping much more than in the past.  I have, pretty much, gone as far as I can go learning Poser, other than maybe getting to grips with the newer versions when I can afford to upgrade.  I've learned a lot from Ajax, BagginsBill, Doc Geep and hundreds of others about the ins and outs of Poser.  I am no expert but I have the necessary skillset to do what I want it to do.  

I am not - and never have been - a Poser purist.  I simply resisted postwork because *I wanted to learn Poser.  *I think I have enough to get by with for now.  It's my artistic expression I need to work on and try to remember what it means to be truly creative.

Sam, there is nothing wrong with reinventing yourself.  Human nature, as it is, tends to run out of motivational steam every so often, and taking a view from the outside certainly puts your priorities into perspective.  Things change, attitudes change.  As long as you can project your expectations into the future, or start afresh from grassroots, it should be a good beginning.  I wish you much luck.  I eagerly await to see what you can create.

Not relevant but I find your writing style very engaging. Do you do any fiction? It might tie in well with your graphics work. 

As to the other, just looking at the posts here, there seems to have been a decided shift to the technical aspects of Poser. This is understandable given the new features in materials, lighting etc. They say that everything goes in cycles, so perhaps you're at the forefront of a return to 'basics' :-)

Every now and then I actually miss Poser 4. Yes, I miss it...lol. It had it's own "look"; a look that brought me to Poser in the first place. And because it didn't have too many technical aspects to it, you could be more creative in how you did things. The newer versions almost force you to tweak and tweak and tweak until something looks right, rather than setting it up the way you want, rendering and then postwork if ya want.

I guess it's nostalgia or something...

Laurie

Thank you for your replies.  

hborre - thanks tor your encouragement.  You echo what I've been feeling for quite a while, yet unable to express it in a coherent way.

lmckenzie - thanks for the compliment.  I've written some fiction for my own amusement and a couple of short stories but nothing much.  I am, however, a songwriter.  Believe it or not, the stuff I do is usually Metal towards the Killing Joke/Heavy Punk stuff.

You're right about things going in cycles.  It'd be amusing if I found myself at the front of the "New Poser Wave", since all I ever wanted to do was my own thing.  :)  Neither a leader, nor a follower.  One of life's perpetual pains in the rear end, that's me.  :lol:

Laurie - yep, you have something there.  Sometimes P4's limitation were what made it great.  Squeezing a half decent render out of it was a trick in itself but somehow, that didn't get too much in the way.

That said, I know it's me and my failings, rather than Poser.  I spend too much time worrying about the skin on the model or the eye glint or something, rather than thinking "bollocks to this" and just making the damn image.  As I said, seduced by production values.  

Must learn more discipline. 

 What is the problem with doing both? I like to think this is how I approach my own work.

Yes, I tweak and tweak and tweak. That is why I bought a really high powered computer to do my renders, so that I never get a render that takes more than an hour in IDL. I WANT the technique to be as flawless as my talent and limited expertise will allow. That's why I buy good models and props. I take advantage of the talent the modelers have put forth.

But in the end, it is the story I'm trying to tell that is important. I FULLY agree that if this element is weak or missing, all of the technical expertise that even a Bagginsbill can bring to bear will be wasted.

Looking at your work, I see nothing to criticize technically. You obviously are a competent Poser operator! :) If YOU are unhappy with the content, then by all means concentrate there FIRST, but don't forget to go back and do the tweaking AFTER you have the concept you seek.

I think to ignore either facet is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and will cause your work to suffer accordingly.

My $.02

Doug

Wouldn't it be refreshing if we could all sit down together, raise our glasses and toast to the good times, the old times, and to what lies ahead.  We are heading into that time of the season, out with the old, in with the new.

Hiya Sam...Not a Poserite myself but I think you hit the nail on the head. I ran into a simiar thing in Imagine3D...just relax and spit the image out as fast as is reasonable and forgert the endless tweaks...if the image says anything at all it'll say it with less tweaks as well...keep the faith man.. ...

I inderstand it.It is so easy to mix tool and art in digital age

You are all correct.  basicwiz - you have a very good point and I wouldn't like to compromise my image quality by forgetting all I learned.  There's no excuse for a poorly executed image if I have the tools and the brains to get it out there.  I do, however, need a shift of emphasis.  I'm hoping that posting my thoughts up here will give me the necessary kick up the arse to make me change direction.

In a way, it's "Name the Demon and control it".  Once something is said/written down, it becomes real.

All I have to do now is actually produce this fine work I keep promising myself.  :lol: 

hborre - there's nothing I'd enjoy better than being able to get together with the whole lot of you.  Geography is a real pain sometimes.

bobby - it's the trick, isn't it?  Knowing when enough is enough, and seeing the law of diminishing returns in action.

What helps with me...not everyone's cup of tea, mind you...is I'll start an image. I'll set up everything where I think I want it and then...

I'll leave it alone for awhile. When I go back I have fresh eyes and a fresher perspective. That's why there's not much in my gallery either...lol. Of course, I'm not really that inspired much of the time anymore. I spend much more time making things for Poser than I do making images or scenes lately ;o).

Laurie

It depends on how you approach the image. I used to just slap a simple model in, texture it with whatever, and go...;)
Now I spend most of my time UVMapping, rotating faces to all line up, finding jpgs that weren't created in Photoshop (Wings won't read them unless you convert them to another format, then back to jpg...sigh...;) and I lose sight of just getting the images in my head from my brain through my fingers, and onto the screen...;)

I have a simple text file where I write down picture ideas as they come to me (half-asleep, in the shower, etc., bet I'm not alone in that...;)

. Now if I only had the time to do them more often.

I'd be careful of going too heavily into post-work because it sounds like you might be setting another trap for yourself.  Consider, let's say you start simply again but then you decide to do just a little more and a little more and eventually you are doing so much post-work you are back where you are now.

Now, if you want to post-work feel free.  But to me anyways, you post sounds like what you really want to do is to stop fiddling around with the extra stuff to make it look nicer.  If I may, let me suggest a rule I learned from reading a book by the author of Dilbert.  It's called the 80% rule.  Basically he thinks that in order to get his art the final 20% of the way of what he's normally capable of, he'd have to spend double the time working on it.  Maybe you need to giver yourself a similar rule.  Limit yourself to a point where it takes you a lot more time to only get a few changes in that it's time to stop fiddling with that image, get it rendered, and move on to the next one.

This happens in art a lot.  People spend so much time trying to get this one thing perfect that they never finish or spend so much time on it that it hurts them more in the long run than if they left it in a non-perfected.  To me that is really what it sounds like is happening to you and why I offered the warning I did.  Basically the first rule of someone who is going to take creating art seriously is learning when something is finished enough and to stop working on it when it hits that point.

As far as "spending more time tweaking" dials instead of creating, think of it like this: when you drew the picture of the boots you had to spend all that time manually applying the right amount of medium in the right places to look how you wanted it to. Digital art is no different, to achieve a certain look time must be spent on the details of the medium. Instead of a physical substance and an applicator you have dials and render settings. When you walk into a pianters studio I bet you'd see a dozen or so unfinished works sitting around on easels. Mine are stored in a file on my hard drive. Take your time and creat what you feel, when you feel it !    :)

It's a good point, Winterclaw.

I don't have any desire to spend forever postworking a render and besides, my background in traditional methods taught me to know when enough is enough.  You are, however, correct to say it's a definite risk.

What I'm hoping to do now is, rather than spend hours trying to create an effect in Poser that I can do easily in Photoshop, is to do what I do for my paid work and just throw anything at it to get the result I need.

I've found myself going down pakled's road far too often and I have to put the brakes on it.

The artistic vision (if that ain't too pretentious) must come first.   

To give an example, using one of my old pictures:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=419509&user_id=36349&np&np

That one pretty much does exactly what I wanted it to do.  I can rework it and get a far superior render by doing a few simple things.  I intend to use it as a test bed for my "back to roots" stuff.  Likewise, one of my earliest images, "Flesh".  That says exactly what I wanted it to say but knowing more about Poser and having a much better toolkit to work with than I did back then, I can give it more juice.

I'm trying to work out where I draw the line on tweaking, postworking, generally fiddling about with stuff.  Every single piece I posted has flaws - some of them major - but I learned something from each one.  That said, the real artistry went from my images some time back and I seemed to produce "nice" and "technically" accomplished pics entirely devoid of content.  The best I came up with in years are a few cheap laughs.  No bad thing overall but not where I want to be and definitely not what I started doing this stuff for.

Another thing to consider regarding postwork.  I absolutely loathe painting in Photoshop.  Not because I can't but because I did it for a living for years on end and it bores the life out of me.  I'd rather throw real paint on a real canvas.  So, I intend the most of my postworking to be other than painterly effects.  No doubt my pics will still be flawed but at least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing they are honest works and not vacuous eye candy.

Quote - As far as "spending more time tweaking" dials instead of creating, think of it like this: when you drew the picture of the boots you had to spend all that time manually applying the right amount of medium in the right places to look how you wanted it to. Digital art is no different, to achieve a certain look time must be spent on the details of the medium. Instead of a physical substance and an applicator you have dials and render settings. When you walk into a pianters studio I bet you'd see a dozen or so unfinished works sitting around on easels. Mine are stored in a file on my hard drive. Take your time and creat what you feel, when you feel it !    :)

I get your point but see my previous post for my views on it all.  It's not so much the time spent, it's how the time is spent.  In my case, I was chasing some ideal of render perfection and rendering absolute garbage. :)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?user_id=309619

As One learns more.  One becomes more self critical.  Not a bad thing in itself,  if You remember that at some time You MUST let go..

blink This is exactly what happened to me. I haven't even started an image for over a year. It used to be about expressing what words couldn't. Then everyone else's work seemed technically so much better, so I started pushing that aspect, buying books, doing practice pieces, buying more software, and still perceiving my stuff as junk.

The Cinema forum kept me trying, with encouragement and suggestions, but when someone decided to go through my gallery and point out my complete lack of skill... it was the excuse I needed to just give up. It also made me realize I was striving for "acceptance", rather than expressing anything heart-felt.

Maybe one of those old renders is a place to start over. A totally shameless portrayal of pure, sappy emotion, with decent (not perfect) elements, and nit-pickers be hanged.

Thank you so much for this thread: there's slight hope the last render hasn't been choked out of this machine. ;)

Quote - blink This is exactly what happened to me. I haven't even started an image for over a year. It used to be about expressing what words couldn't. Then everyone else's work seemed technically so much better, so I started pushing that aspect, buying books, doing practice pieces, buying more software, and still perceiving my stuff as junk.

The Cinema forum kept me trying, with encouragement and suggestions, but when someone decided to go through my gallery and point out my complete lack of skill... it was the excuse I needed to just give up. It also made me realize I was striving for "acceptance", rather than expressing anything heart-felt.

Maybe one of those old renders is a place to start over. A totally shameless portrayal of pure, sappy emotion, with decent (not perfect) elements, and nit-pickers be hanged.

Thank you so much for this thread: there's slight hope the last render hasn't been choked out of this machine. ;)

Good post.  I sincerely hope you gain the confidence to post images again.

Attached Link: My Gallery

I have been involved with photography all  (well almost) of My life.  One of the most challenging competitions that I entered was to buy the cheapest disposable camera we could find,  take photos,  then mail the camera to the judges.   How easy is that? 

I try to use the KISS principle when creating an image,  by the second test render all is out the window..  When I think that an image is good enough.  I let it go..!

Breaks are good.  They clear your mind and help you find a better perspective.

Mike and I grew bored to death with Poser and the community dramas "back in the day" and took a holiday.  A 3+ year one.  Made music, played Warcraft, played Warcraft some more and then we uh, played a little more Warcraft. 

Then one day we'd had enough of Warcrack, and that was that.  Out.  Cold Turkey. No, you you may not have my gold.

I started playing around in Vue again and installed DAZ Studio so I could use some old Poser content.  Mike saw and insisted that I needed some new Daz stuff for my upgraded Vue and that led to a Poser 8 upgrade and holy chit, we are up to our ears in making Poser stuff again. It's better this time, we have a firmer handle on what we're doing and what we want to do with it. 

It's also more interesting making things with a built-in partner.  We egg each other on.   I gripe offhand that I want a decent pair of trousers and boom! the next morning they're on my desktop asking to be cut and rigged.

-the Anne half of Aanascent

p.s. my art is STILL crap!

This is why we all like Sam so much. The right subject, at the right time, and a few well-placed words. ;)

hmmm... wish my crap looked as good as Anne's....

Honestly, I am squeamish about posting art anymore.  I have a few Vue renders on our web site, but have not posted any of them here.   Maybe I ought to, if only to make some poor schmuck feel better about his own stuff.

Here's the thing.  You post something, and you (usually, but not always) get comments that are  essentially a request to comment on the commenter's latest thing.  If you elect to turn off comments, then you look like you are so engrossed in smelling your own farts that you can't take the time to notice the little people.  Or perhaps that is a false perception and I am a nut job who should just get the hell over it?

Rest assured, people, that if I comment on your image I genuinely like it or got a kick out of it and I am not expecting a comment back.

Anyway, back to the thread, folks.

Quote - Every now and then I actually miss Poser 4.

The other day I rendered something in P4 (because I had Neftis' old Very French hair in it), and it turned out really well.  Better than I remembered.

I think people turn off comments because they don't want the standard "Nice work", "Excellent render" or "I kneel at the altar of your magnificence" type comments that lots give, no one really means and, in the end, don't help you grow much as far as learning anything. For instance, I put an image in the gallery specifically asking for critical feedback and out of all the "oohs" and "aahs" I got a total of one . I really didn't want an ego massage, I wanted criticism, but if you want that or want to get better by asking, don't post in the gallery...lol.

Laurie

Quote -   No doubt my pics will still be flawed but at least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing they are honest works and not vacuous eye candy.

I just want to comment on that for a teensy second. IMHO, there is no such thing as 'flawed' art at least from what I have learned... Its based on interpretation and appreciation. If the technical side is whats getting you down about creating a project, then maybe what would be best is to focus on exactly what it is that makes you happy and proud of what you make and/or upload. When it comes right down to it you are your own worst critic (I'll try not to throw out any more cliches) and if the work you are currently producing doesn't satisfy your creative need then consider what it was that you did enjoy about your older work.

Try not to worry so much about 'perfection' and 'flaws' because no matter what you do, you'll see those every time but make sure that what you did make in the end makes you happy and proud enough to show it off.

One sign that I know I've made something worthwhile is that I want to look at it. Don't do something that you want to upload and forget because then it WILL NOT make you happy and will keep you in the rut you're currently in. Make sure you want to look at your new image and even go as far as to set it on your desktop as a wallpaper or something....

bah- no passion- make some nudies

even if you can't post them here anymore.

Quote - bah- no passion- make some nudies

even if you can't post them here anymore.

I post nudes here frequently..  Just make sure that the appropriate boxes are checked..!!

A nudity flag triples the looks..   An "ADVISORY"  thumbnail more than quadruples the looks..!!

ROFL, Anne! Never thought about the possible  "smell of one's own farts"  reaction to turning off comments.

The type of comments an image gets seems to depend on what gallery you post them. Poser and Bryce comments are more about the subject matter and overall feel of the image. Cinema and Max are usually much more critical and concentrate on technical flaws. Sort of art versus profession, where one has no limitations, and the other needs to handle whatever a client throws at him. When you think about it, the commercial artist is not only limited in subject matter, but he has to render it in very specific styles,  too.

Quote - ...A nudity flag triples the looks..   An "ADVISORY"  thumbnail more than quadruples the looks..!!

Perhaps the reason I don't get many comments.  I don't do nudes. Nothing against them, just personal preference. Anyway, the galleries are chock-o-block full of 'em without me uploading them - that and I don't really give a tinkers damn how many looks my images get ;o).

Laurie

as I have been inspired by a  RARE new mech purchase

( my only one in 2009).

Cheers

Nice one, Wolf.  Some fine work there, as always.  

I have just returned from 19 days of traveling around away from reliable computer and internet access..  A short stay in hospital as well..  Not feeling motivated towards rendering.
Perhaps the New Year will re-vitalize My Muse..!!

Comments, be they good or bad - or the lack thereof - don't bother me in the least.  If someone wants to comment on my work, great.  If they want to say it's a load of tosh, great.  If they don't want to comment, that's great, too.  I post my stuff with no expectations of comments and/or reactions. The need to return to my roots, as it were, is driven by me and me alone.  

I'm not looking to prove anything to anyone, only to myself.  To reach into what it is that makes me a unique individual and put that piece of my world view on paper/canvas/board/screen.  

When I can look at my work and feel I've been completely honest and done the best I can for the subject, then I'll be happy.  Maybe.  :biggrin:

I guess this has been more of an open letter to myself:  

**Dear Paul

Your pictures are crap.  Stop fannying about and give us some real stuff.

Regards

Paul**
 

***"Nice one, Wolf.  Some fine work there, as always"

Thanks!! Im so anal about lighting.
I animated this figure in poser in about 26 minutes and tweaked the lighting&Materials in C4D for this animation
for over 9 hours before I was satisfied enough to start the rendering
of frames and will likely color grade it more in After effects CS3.
now I must find some really heavy footstep sounds

 AKKK!!  Im nearly ready to go back to "slump mode"

Cheers

I've actually been working on my modeling techniques and learning Sketchup (amazingly powerful little app once you get into it.. and some think it's for making rooms / buildings only!)

soon I think I may be getting a little happier with my work...

Quote -

I guess this has been more of an open letter to myself:  

**Dear Paul

Your pictures are crap.  Stop fannying about and give us some real stuff.

Regards

Paul**
 

heh. I think that's a form letter sent to all aspiring artists. What's needed here, I believe, is a huge dose of self-esteem delivered by a crop duster for wider distribution. Or perhaps an "art corner man'" to tell us all we're the Greatest!

Sam has no problem when he's playing music, so enlist his help to make Paul see he can make art just as bold as his music?

Interesting points, scan.

I do seem to go from one to the other; music then art, art then music.  I am certain my re-evaluation will lead to - if not a quantum leap in artistic development - greater satisfaction in the images I make.  I have no illusions about being the greatest in anything but I know I'm competent enough to achieve my aims.

Oddly enough, just writing it out here and reading everyone's responses has kick started my creative flow.  Every poster here has given me food for thought but ultimately, I have clarified and confirmed what I have believed for some time.  Writing it down means I don't have to carry it around in my head any more; I can always refer back to this if I get stuck in a rut or find myself going down the same old road again.

There is a whole subtext about the Sam/Paul thing; it's a matter I addressed in a one act play a few years back.  Maybe there's some scope for images in there.  Not my plan to do any but if I ever get stuck for ideas, it's a useful backup.

Merry Christmas.. Break for a few days...

I make images to please my eye and to make me happy because you can't please everyone so why bother trying?  

I always try to incorporate something I want to learn. For a long time it was lighting and then reflection and an assortment of other things.  But the goal is always to make something pretty for me :)

At times I don't do any post work because I want to work on learning techniques in Poser, and at other times I do a little bit of post work to add ambiance or something that I can't or haven't learn yet, to achieve in Poser.

But I never stress myself out about an image.  The inspiration is either there or it isn't.   When I'm feeling creative an image forms in my mind and all I have to do is go about getting it from inside my head onto the computer.  Basically any image that I make is a reproduction of what I see in my mind. Granted perhaps not as polished, but all of the elements, placement, and colour etc is there.

If I don't see an image in my mind, there is no way I can create an image because there is nothing there  for me to draw from.

I also try not to box myself into a particular style. I like to try all kinds of themes.

Create for yourself and not for what you hope others will want to see.
 

 SamT - you need time off.

A number of artists have become part of history due to the work they produced as amateurs. Then they got job working to produce art and they fluffed it. Art is intuitive - it cannot be forced - by demand or by technique. Art is from the soul - force it and perish.

Well, at least I'm making the same mistakes as my betters...;) j/k...;)

Actually, I discovered a few weeks back that I'd made about 750 megabytes of objects, most never used more than once (just rendered on Sundays by a little old man...;)

My problem now is an itch and go redo old pictures, because I know more and can do them better...;) Can't even abandon  them...;)

tee hee Laurie has a Santa beard! ;)

Paul, here's a question for you: How long did you spend learning to play a guitar before you climbed up on a stage? Did you just get to the point where it sounded okay, and  went for it? Or were you the sort who  played brilliantly right from the start?

Sam,
One thing that I do to get motivated is to pick one aspect of the process and decide to get really good at it. I'll take a look at some of the posts at, say, CGSociety, and try to learn something.

Honestly, and this isn't meant to be a knock, after looking thru part of your gallery I think you could make a big improvement if you were to study lighting. Poor lighting can make or break every image. It separates the "drop some content into a scene and hit Render" folks from the really proficient artists. And IMO, taking on a big challenge and making incremental success at it is hugely gratifying. And, with me at least, it usually leads to a whole lot of inspiration.

Quote - Sam,
I think you could make a big improvement if you were to study lighting. Poor lighting can make or break every image. It separates the "drop some content into a scene and hit Render" folks from the really proficient artists.

Agreed its all about the lighting.

wow.  i just have to comment because i'm in almost exactly the same place.

it's not about what others think, though i will say it's the age of my most popular image that concerns me.  it's that i know that image is my strongest.  i've learned tons following the work and teachings of bagginsbill and others.  i've read tons on lighting, and other aspects of CG. i'm a lot better technically than when i did Reaching for Life.  but i'm not better artistically in any sense.  i'm not even on par.

personally, for me, that means more practice.  you can force yourself to grow creatively.  talent can always be supplemented by practice. creativity can be a discipline like anything else.  do 10 quick sketches a day for a month and i guarantee you that you'll be better at coming up with good ideas and good compositions. 

the other thing it means is letting go of certain obsessions.  i can spend forever second guessing my work.  certainly, following bagginsbill can make me embarrassed to even post work with my own shaders.  there's a difference between reaching that space where i'm just focused on a piece, and reaching the place where i'm obsessing over details.  i started off with the former and i've drifted into the latter.  so i've got to get out of the habit of focusing on execution and into the habit of focusing on intent.

i think that's going to be hard no matter what tools i'm using.  it's easier with 2d CG, because i have such an instinctive flow with it and   by the time i get to using an image editor, i've already established the major elements.  if i obsess over painting hair, it doesn't really matter, because it probably won't make or break the image.  but if i get so wed to how realistic a material looks in the background that i don't frame the main figure the way i should, it can kill the image.  putting lots of technical effort into one aspect of an image can make me sacrifice the overall effect and purpose. i need to be more focused, more experimental, more fearless, and more ruthless with my work.

but that's just me.

all i can say is that i'm really hoping my best work isn't behind me.  i know that it happens to people, and no matter what they try, they can't achieve that peak again.  so there's no guarantees.  but i also know that there's no way i'll do better if i either don't try or keep trying the same thing i've been doing for the past few years.  time to make a change.

Belated Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/Non Denominational End of Year celebrations to you all. :)

Had a few days away from home, spending time with some of Claire's family for Christmas.  Little Sam got lots of new toys and was generally fussed over, cuddled and played with a lot.  

Anyhow, I noticed the replies/suggestions have all been rolling in - for which, thanks - so here's my thoughts on what you posted while I was away:

Lighting - Yup, that's one aspect of my technique I want to spend time on improving.  Despite everything else I said, it'd be good to take that next step.

Making images for myself - Definitely so.  The real problem was, even though I was making images for myself, I got too tied up in producing "eye candy" instead of applying a little discipline to my output.

Playing guitar - I wasn't great from the start and I still have a long way to go before I could call myself great.  Competent is probably the word I'd use.  There are some guitarists I know I am better than and some who are better than me.  I don't feel it's a competition, though.  Guitar is still fun to learn and play.  There's something (to me at least) inherently more satisfying in music than in visual arts.  Visual arts are my first love but music is my mistress, if you like.  I think it took me a couple of years before I first got on stage with a guitar.

Time off - Not really.  I just need to apply some structure to what I'm doing.  My last few pictures may as well have been NVITWAS.  That has to change.

Best work behind me?  Nope, I know that's not the case.  I have the will and the imagination (or so I believe) to produce images of artistic merit.  Looking back to my post regarding Dali, I remembered Giger's earlier work, painting and sketching his deepest fears and nightmares.  Since he's also another artist with a strong grounding in Surrealism, I believe I can learn a lot from him.  Not to say I'll be turning out thousands of "Alien" images - even though I like them - but to incorporate the imagery of my nightmares into an emotional context, then portray it visually.  Wow, I think I just broke the Pretentious-O-Meter there.

All joking aside, I do take my art seriously.  I don't expect anyone else to, though.  I also don't like to take part in those "What is art?" discussions because, even though I believe I know what it's all about, it's strictly a personal vision.  Same with music.  I wouldn't write anything if I didn't believe in its artistic integrity.  Playing for fun is a different matter, though.  Kinda like drawing pictures of cats.

Good onya Mate...  Well said..