More Links and a Reccomendation. =)

Ipod still a success and I have come to an agree to disagree arrangement with I-tunes. So In other news... A Suprise looms nearer.... I shall clarify on monday and tell all =)

regarding good websites / blogs i have found more =)

BLOGS:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ COMMENTARY ON ANIMATION LINKS
http://samuel-michlap.blogspot.com/
http://badablingthing.blogspot.com/
http://cartooncreation.blogspot.com/ THE CONSTELLATIONS
http://conversations-on-ghibli.blogspot.com/
http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/STORYBOARD ARTIST TELLS ALL
http://thefirehousestomp.blogspot.com/ ANIMATORS STORY
http://drawingboard.org/blogs/?u=theatomicterrier ART BLOG AND GOOD LINKS
http://blackwingdiaries.blogspot.com/ ANIMATOR AND GLEN KEANE FAN
http://www.michaelbarrier.com/index.html DISCUSSIONS ON ANIMATION
http://funnycute.blogspot.com/ STRANGE GIRLS
http://cartoonmodern.blogsome.com/ DISCUSSING ANIMATION
http://uncleeddiestheorycorner.blogspot.com/ WELL WORTH THE READ

Ill add the web site list later.
a brilliant artist I have discovered through my Blog trawling is 'Rodolphe Guenoden' to see what I mean go here: http://www.rodguen.com/ I love the mix of styles this guy has and hope everyone else go's to have a look the misc section is especially funny.

Ta Ta for now....

The I-Pod Saga.

So I got an I-Pod 30gb last thurs.
First impressions were good, the apperance is slick and well designed (down to the very swish packaging), there are a few niggles I'm not so happy with.

Firstly the only Instructions I recieved with the I-Pod was a 'Quick start guide' and it leaves a lot out if you have not Had an I-Pod before, Or have not used I-Tunes in your life. (Previously I was a windows media player junkie, it had everything I required at the time =) )

As I was saying I-tunes.

It took over my pc for 3 days while it converted all of my normal music files into ones it could deal with. And unamusingly it cant seem to recognise if it already had imported somthing, if for example the PC crashes half way through the conversion, it starts from the begining again and you end up with lots of duplicates, and I mean lots.
So once everything was converted I tried to cleanup the files. this caused the actual files on the harddrive to get better as there were no duplicates anymore but i-tunes still had them in the library file, so far I havent forund a cleanup option the only way to solve it seems to be manually removing each duplicate track from the library list. Be warned that this happens and is a pain to clean up after it.

Also the strangest glitch I have found is the lack of a delete function on the I-Pod itself so if you want rid of a track you HAVE to connect it to a PC/MAC running I-tunes. Originally I thought this must be a fault just on my Ipod, until I discovered masses of data on the internet detailing the same problem. This hasnt made me any less pleased with the Ipod as a device just baffled regarding the programming.

True to the publicity the I-Pod has my entire music collection from the PC and is not yet half full so far so good. the external drive option works like a charm, and the screen quality for slideshows of photos is unbelieveable. I have yet to test the Video function as I have not yet discovered a video file that the Pod will play ( needs to be a specific format apparently) and am still looking for a way to convert the videos I already have to the correct format. I'll report later on if its a success or not.

Overall the I-Pod is great, its got a lovely slick design and a brilliant quality to the playback. the Complementay case is fine but will be replaced asap as its difficult to get the Ipod out again =) nice looking though. the I-Pods own interface is nice and intuitive it takes literally 3 second if that to work out how it works. I-tunes is a different story =) but i'm working on it.

One of the cool side effects which I hadn't known before I got the Pod was with a simple connector a camera can be downloaded into it when traveling. a definiate plus point =)

Happy with the Pod and dealing with Itunes.

More later. =P

SOME INTERESTING LINKS

http://playlistcomics.blogspot.com/
http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm
http://gogopedro.com/about.htm
http://www.bugglefug.com/dailyscribble/
http://bgott.blogspot.com/
http://www.davidmartinart.com/sketchblog.html
http://www.cartoonmonkey.com
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/
http://www.linesandcolors.com
http://comicfacts.blogspot.com/
http://typolad.livejournal.com/
http://www.sketchcrawl.com/blog/
http://stickysketches.blogspot.com/
http://bobbychiusubwaysketchgroup.blogspot.com/
sketchgroups@imaginismstudios.com
http://www.bradfitzpatrick.com/weblog/
http://www.claireobrien.com/blog.htm
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/
http://classiccartoons.blogspot.com/
http://classicanimation.blogspot.com/
http://gezfry.com/links.shtml
http://kevindalton.blogspot.com/
http://www.thewhitecanoe.com/dalto/
http://www.animationapprentice.com/

Todays forcast

Question- Who doodles on the phone?
Ancwer - Nearly everyone I know.

I feel I need to change jobs, the one I am in is driving me mad. Its not that its difficult more that there are no calls to deal with during the summer and we literally sit staring at the phone in case some one calls. Sounds like a cushy job right? not so. we are not permitted to browse the internet while waiting, nor are we allowed to read a book or simalar, and my only method of retaining my sainty, doodling, has now been banned as well. so either I change jobs soon or slit my wrists from abject boredom.Its not even as if doodling was interfering with my job preformance, if it was I could understand a little better, no apparently its untidy. In an office where customers never actually appear and the place is falling apart anyway, I cant draw because its messy. personally I feel it may be more to do with the fact that out of the 10 people working here i am the only one who can draw and my doodles are generally recocnisable so perhaps its envy? its really annoying. The agent in questiuon who has made the decree is making my blood boil as is seems to be fine for her to sit and read Hello magazine but I cant doodle to keep myself alert. Bugger that.

Enough of my rant, it was something which had to be said somewhere and since no one reads
this its safe enough to leave my temper tantrum here.

Anyway, in other news....

I am hoping to start a sketch club in Northern Ireland, specifically within the Belfast/Bangor area, and i was out last night at a cafe in Bangor scoping it out as a prospective starting site, its good for the idea has nice big windows so that the next taregt can be spotted etc, however its a smallish place so a group of artists who buy 1 coffee each and then take over all the seating for the evening might not go down too well with the owners, a good and easily accessable starting place but not a venue. more research is needed. I'll post the sketches I did there once they are scanned, I was actualy happy with them for once. =)

Again for personal development I am thinking of doing a life drawing session this weekend, although not so sure if I should go to a class or just take myself down to the seafront here in Bangor, since the forcast is for a heat wave I might do that and save myself £40 quid from the lesson.



Also the sea front path has the most beautiful flowers at the moment, see photo for an example, this is one of the first ones out.

So this is an older sketch done with coloured pencils on a blue/grey page, Chicken Licken? can anyone remember the story of chicken licken? all i remember is the name. =)

Half the family's birthdays within 1 month.

Hi again, this very poor fuzzy photo shows the painting I gave my dad for his birthday, I shall endevor to get a clearer shot the next time I visit him.