lol no need to appologise, I would have much rather been at Siggraph too!  I had a chance to go for free about five years ago, and have been kicking myself ever since for not going.  Hope yah had a good time and saw lots of cool new stuff!

Scott

wooooohoooohooo hooooooo Ahm Dancin like a monkey! cough Sorry ZIM! flashback.  awsome news though heh.

hmmmmmm... hog snorts..... yeah I prefer your writing Joel.  I have been on both sides of the coin as well.  So like you said, write what you know and in my opinion at least the more raw the better.  Use what you have to grip the Mind and Souls of your readers and take em for a wild ride.  Keep up the good work man, you are workin down the right path and like Ariana said, I'd start lookin up the publishers or even the game companies.

Scott

I will see if I can find em, I am kinda in a transitional between moves thing although this transition is taking a bit longer than usual lol.  I will see what i can dig up for yah though.

Well Ariana you have got me on the 45 miles from nowhere, lol, Most of my neighbors are animals and then we have a lot of wild life too.   This week we had a pack of wolves and thier dinner come thru the yard, that was exciting.   The sweet soothing sounds of howling wolves and thier dieing dinner to put you to sleep lol...maybe if you are Bela Lugosi.  I think I would prefer it here in the middle of the woods than in the middle of the desert though.  At least I know whats in the woods here.. big things with lots of teeth and claws, that I can deal with.... and maybe even think about surviving.  Down there you have all the nasty little things that can kill yah before you go DOH!

I can say that I have PSP 9 but I'll be damned if i can figure out all the things i used to be able to do in long long dead versions.  Actually got pretty good at making banners and what not for people.  Now I just add my signature and maybe do minor cosmetic touch ups on pictures but thats about it.

And Yes I agree with Ariana, Connie, I wish I had your eye for photography, your stuff really is Phenominal.  I used to have an ancient 35mm that I would hit all the cemeteries with, god I miss that thing.   I still would rather use a manual 35mm than a digi.  I hate autofocus. BLARG!

Scott

Hmmmm... well here I am still a lil fish in the pond, which I really don't mind lol.  I think I might be related to your friends there Joel.  I keep hearing but thats an expensive school and you sure you can succeed at that program? maybe you should scale your goals a bit.   Gotta love family support.  The only thing that gets me about the CGI tools is, you can buy a program one day and three days later they release version 2,000,000 that your computer cant run.  Lmao I have yet to Sell any of my CGI work although there is a Gallery who were interested in my work, that was like 4 years ago now though.  On the other hand I have sold about 10 sculptures but, my mentor always kicks me in the butt for selling my work too cheap.   DOH!  Right now I have several pieces I could sell BUT I am stuck in BFE and well the locals concider Bears and eagles carved with chain saws to be high art....... shakes his head oh how i long to have my lungs fill with the toxic air of the city,  This fresh air is killin me lol.  Ahh well soon enough.

lmao that actually sounds kinda scarey, I'll start easy and let you folks obliterate me first.   work my way up the ladder of imminant destruction.  heh

PS and by the way thank you for the compliment Ariana!

LOL Sorry Connie!! The closer I come to going to school the more critically that I am looking at my OWN artwork.  Although you can feel free to rip it to shreds too! =P  Actually now more than ever I am looking for more critical critiques, will help Psych me up for Critique hell at art school.  Talked to my mentor today and his advice was buckle down, expect to get the crap kicked out of your art work, and if the teacher says jump - ask how high.   He is a graduate from that school and it if was that bad back when he went, I think I am gonna be walking into Dantes Inferno when I go.  Abandon all Hope, all yee who enter here.   plays taps for himself

LoL all I know is since joining the critique group, I am finding myself ripping my artwork to shreds in my own mind, before anyone gets a chance to comment on it.   "the Gaurdian" is a good example of one that will be getting an overhaul before too long.   I picked out tons of stuff I want to change on my own after posting it but, by then I already had comments so i decided to see if anyone else noticed lol.

Very cool Karen, I agree with anything that will help this group continue so yah have my backing (as if that means anything lol).  Glad to see you don't have demonic eyes anymore and GREAT qoute, love that movie.

Scott

I Agree with DarkePhaze on the hesitancy to give a negative critique even when you do approach it in the nicest manner posible.  Some people just explode from a negative critique and suddenly see you as thier arch nemesis.  Why be in a critique group in the first place if you don't want to see the bad and the good?  If all you want is high praise give your friends the URL of the website and tell them to get names and you will have your own little fan club.   Sorry if that sounds a little bit sarcastic but it's the truth.

The other thought I wanted to address is, if you are showing at a real gallery as opposed to a virtual gallery, you are going to attract at least one art critic to the scene.   Thats the game of showing at galleries, You send out your invites to who you want to come and the gallery sends its invites out to critics and also to buyers.  They want to attract business for themselves, you are really just thier tool to make that happen.  And when the Critic writes up thier revue of the show, it's not as if you can go ballistic and scream at the critic.  That would pretty much be commiting professional suicide as by the end of the week you will have another write up about your lack of professionalism.

Ok enough chatter from me. 

Scott

hehehe I know volatile is a word, i meant the concoction I came up with Volatility.   Not sure if that one is a real word or not... Don't make me go 3.C on yah.  =D  

I happen to agree with Joel on his thoughts on what you should look for when prepping to do a critique.  I think thats the best way to keep what little sanity us artists have.  If you went thru the e-mails of new postings for hours on end you would start to feel more like a teacher giving grades than an artist who genuinely wants to help people suceed.   I can post comments as much as i want normally, I dont have the sanity to lose to begin with. =D   

Personally I do not mind which direction that the group takes as long as it stays intact, I think it is far too valuable tool for everyone.  We have a very broad mix of mediums and skill levels here and thats something that should be taken advantage of.  

I think this is the most I have posted to any forum in the last 5 years lol.  anyways thats my next two cents.

bows to ConnieKat thank you, thank you verah much.

LMAO feel free to leave me a novella anytime Joel AND shoot off your mouth while your at it too!  

When I get a critique I want passion, yah love it or yah hate it and you aren't afraid to say so.  That's the nature of the beast right there for me at least.

Hehe and a little bit of volatility (is that even a word? lol) can sometimes drive us to levels that we have never attained before.   

The only real complaint that I have about anything to do with the critique group is, the fact that when I have been given negative comments about something that I do not know how to correct, I ask the person how to you fix it or how do you prevent that?  99% of the time I get the answer of "I don't know."  It kinda bugs me to get a negative critique and then the person not even know how to correct it when you ask.  shrugs doesn't help out too much.  Some of the people I get critiques from ALWAYS give me great revues wether they are negative or not.  They are usually the ones who write a small novella for thier response, those are the critiques I love.  I have been an art student for going on 7 years now (no smart ass comments please lol)  acting as both a student and also an assistant.  The best critiques I have ever received, the person takes the time to not only tell me exactly what they do or don't like but also tell me how they see how it  can improve upon it.  Thats what a Critique is about, informing the person on what is good or bad and then giving them your insite about how it can be further improved.  It is then the Artists responsibility to take those comments and decide which of the comments coincide with thier vision and which ones don't.  Usually in these cases if the person is given an informative critique they are more likely to concider the changes and improvements suggested.