pixeleiderdown

I'm currently working on updating my saffrongraphics.com website (it's seriously out of date). Moving into 100% freelance work is bordering on terrifying, I've always had a full time job and have used my freelance income as icing on the cake so the website update is very necessary.

Any advice from freelancers who've had good experiences with getting work through their websites is more than welcome. Years ago I had a good run with getting user interface design work from companies in Europe and The USA just through my little site - I guess I cropped up on the search pages at the right time. Then the western economies took a nose dive. Since then I've had more luck through word of mouth and putting things on Facebook...

It keeps snowing. Where is Spring?

Tracy.

Nova Scotia, eh? Two feet of snow on the ground is less cold and unpleasant than expected. My main problem is not having snow-friendly boots. My city Winter boots make stepping out of the car a treacherous experience.

No new art at the moment. Some of my art gear just arrived in the mail but I've got to acquire a new mac and some software. At present I'm using a family member's Windows machine with the monitor set to a weird resolution (he's elderly). Awkward, but at least the net connection speed is good.

Talk at ya soon....

Very soon. Mid February = a brave move to Nova Scotia.

From the 9th of November I'm having an exhibition at Mint Gallery in Dunedin, NZ. I'll try to remember to post an advert for it here. Hoping to sell even just one painting and I'll have broken even with the costs. Some of the paintings can be seen in my gallery.

I work with Illustrator and ArcGIS all the time, making digital print-quality maps and diagrams for researchers, and sometimes I make advertisements in Photoshop and Illustrator to go in university publications. I also use oil paints and acrylics for landscapes on canvas and the occasional portrait (as you can see in my gallery), some pencil portraits, and the very rare but enjoyable time-wasting effort that are Bryce landscapes.

But... colouring line art digitally? Clearly I have more patience for detailed painting on canvas than using Photoshop for this sort of task. OMG, painful! I have so much respect for artists who can turn a very flat looking piece of line art into a colourful masterpiece that looks like you could either walk into it, or it could walk off the screen towards you. Now that is talent (and again, patience).

... sigh ...

Time to go drag vector lines all over the place. Skill required? Not much.