Sunday, January 27, 2008

Just a reminder,

There just happens to be a FAQ on my site outlining how you can use my art, how it should be credited and what you need permission for. It's not that complicated. But, people continually don't read or disregard it.

I have free avatars available
I have licensing for tags, tubes and sigs available at CILM
I even have pretty link banners you can use to link to my site AND show off art, just so that you don't have to copy my entire site over to photobucket or flickr to show your friends.

And all I ask the rest of the time is that you don't post my art on commerical sites (where you are selling something or where there are ad banners, or sites like photobucket which sell prints), credit and link to me so that every time someone else takes that art they know where it came from:

Your site must be a non-profit web site.
- Must be properly credited with "© Meredith Dillman. Image used with permission" near the images. To type the © symbol use "option G" on Mac and "ALT 0169" on PC.
- You must link to my web site near the image: http://www.meredithdillman.com/
- DO NOT crop or remove my name or any text on the image
- No hotlinking.

My watermarks do not negate the need to credit me. If you like something, you tell other people who made it. That's just common courtesy.

Sorry I don't write in here very often.

Here's some quick updates on what's going on.

It's been well below zero for the last week in Minnesota. On Thursday I was unable to start my car so I couldn't mail end of the week orders. Attempts at having a friend jump it failed so yesterday I called AAA and took it to get the battery replaced. I'm surprised it lasted 7 or 8 years anyway. So tommorow I can finally finish running my errands and get caught up.

I am working on 3 new paintings for the how-to book I mentioned earlier. Meanwhile I did put up prints of the previous 3: Castles in the Sky, Among the Mushrooms and Poppies. Yujean released 5 new sticker designs and those are also available from me

Time not spent on commissions has been spent on painting a couple of comic covers for Tempest of the Soul, as well as re-"lettering" the old pages I've scanned. I have to laugh at the number of typos I had in the old version. I am confident that even without touched up art the new typeface would make the new book will look many times better.

I opened a shop on Dawanda. There is not much there yet because I am still figuring the site out. But soon people will have the option to shop with Euros.

I finally got to looking into conventions for this year. So far I will be attending Anime Detour April 4-6 (in the dealers's room not artist alley this year), Anime Central, and Kakkoi-con, and most likely Anime Iowa. Other conventions I will have art at will be Farpoint Feb 15, Oddcon, Marscon MN Feb 29...

Saturday April 26 I will be at the Craftstravaganza Rogue Art and Craft Sale in the Fine Arts building at the Minnesota State Fair grounds.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Recommended books

John Howe Fantasy Art Workshop



This is a wonderful book. I am a big fan of Mr. Howe's work and much of the advice in this book is familiar from John's forum but it's a good chance to see how he works step by step, as well as how he organizes his studio and prepares for illustration jobs. There are lots of tips even I who has been painting for many years didn't think of before. John Howe makes a point to encourage readers to find their own unique style and way of painting, unlike many how to books which only show one way of doing things. I particularly love that his sense of humor shows. He honest about illustration and admits that he isn't perfect and procrastinates as much as possible before every job (just like me^^)

Scott Pilgrim 1-4 by Mal (Bryan O Malley but he'll always be Mal to me!)



Way back when I was a senior in high school I discovered the internet and the anime fanart community. Mal was one of the artists who was always around the forum and irc channel, and I did fanart for his online comic Winged Misa. Mal grew up and published the incredibly awesome and funny Scott Pilgrim. Read it!

(I still haven't read them all, but it took a month for the comic store to get them all for me)

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

3 fairy paintings



These are for a future how-to book, but there will be prints.

Castle in the Sky

Mushroom Fairy

Poppies

I updated my cafepress shops, and zazzle shops with new art. There's still the calendar from last year available. I only uploaded a new cover because I don't have time. Ellen Million Graphics still has some of the Meredith's Magick Calendar's left, but I'm all out.