As funny as the discussion about the viral marketing campaign that gets created by internet drama was, as desperate is my call for help right now!

So Blood Apple's Kiss laptop died, which is why she was away for so long from the painting digital group.
( [link] )

This is why I am doing my best now to get it all handled. BUT suddenly the member settings changed "magically" and now we (the founders) can't vote on, if members are allowed in anymore, for instance. Noone can, eventhough founder and co-founder have full control of the whole administration, which forced me to change certain settings sothat at least members can join, but are automatically approved right now.

(Everyone who had problems with joining the group previously so please try AGAIN now!)

Does someone of my watchers here have a group and can help me out with this problem?

Please! I am close to rampage something here because this problem drives me nuts!!
Could also someone tell me to whom the part "any-admin" refers in the admin area? Does it refer to contributors, co-founders and founders, or just to contributors?? Or what??? o_O

Hasn't it been long days and nights for all that love a very certain conceptart website so much and don't want to see it go down?
Where are all those people, that so proudly and arrogantly hailed this website, now? Why aren't they rescuing it? Why is that poor man still complaining about the ripped videos and the lack of support? Did they just bigmouth about how great their favorite website is until it reached a point that required their help and then stopped caring because something that really needed their support wouldn't be something cool anymore? Or are they just greedy?

The help of all those amazing artists that had nothing else to do than trolling over other websites like DeviantART that would be so childish and so full of drama.
Might I ask you: where is drama now? Why don't you support what you love?
This doesn't make sense!

And on top of all that a huge complaint about copyright infringement is addressed to the masses. Well, a lot of people truly underestimate this power, the power of copyright. They stand on one side which gets divided in two by a deep deep crave.

On the other side, there is a massive amount of people, the customers. Some of them are the ones that were needed to support what they love in spending just a little money.
But what the people from the artist side do not see is that education is necessary to know what's so important about copyright. It is not enough to just say "stealing is bad". Impresses noone who downloads the new cool Michael Jackson song because they don't want to spend 2 dollars to buy it.

And admit it, even artists download songs from the web, and think no bad about it. Yet they all cry about stolen paintings, or painting instruction videos, and wonder why the rest of them, the customers, treat it like downloading Mickael Jackson songs.

You, me, everyone who is an artist has learned about copyright somehow sooner or later or will learn about it in the future, no matter how. But to the "customer" people, the hobbyists it is something they just don't bother.
Because they never have to think that way, since they are not wearing the shoes of those who have to wonder how they could protect their art (and their money). The customers just continue downloading Michael Jackson songs, not seeing the big picture.

I was about to ask you what you might suggest me to tell my students to help them understand copyright and why it could break their neck.
Point is: As long as noone sues them or grabs them by their balls, their personal honor as an artist, they will treat it like Michael Jackson songs.
Like who cares.

Who cares if a big company goes down because the customers do not support it, but instead, harm it by downloading their Michael Jackson songs?
PEOPLE STARVE DOWN THERE IN AFRICA YOU KNOW?
DO YOU CARE???

Do you share your Michael Jackson songs with them? No? So why is everyone wondering that his favorite website seems to be going down now when it doesn't get support in the first place, huh?

Isn't it really that great? Have all those "fans" just been bragging? Or is it just like some Michael Jackson song to you??

There: [link]

It's awesome! All digital artist's welcome! We are nice, and we will have competitions and a group upgrade coming on... and we will share and discuss digital art and have a lot of fun.

Come on over guys, and don't forget to tell me when you've made it in!

FIRST COMPETITION:

This will be a banner competition, featuring your own art and a nice font that promotes our group. Make your heads up already!

EDIT:

Ok it seems like our main admin will have to make some changes sothat you can apply for joining this group.
But for now, just post on our guestbook sothat BloodApplesKiss can see you and add you once she loggs in! Thanks.

EDIT OF THE EDIT:

It seems like everything is fixed now. If you do not happen to be a member of the group by now, please send me a note, and I will fix it!

Amazing... as I put my hands on Uncharted 2 I thought this was THE game for me for 2009. Hard to imagine how anything could compete with it. Then I decided to preorder the Special Edition for Assassin's Creed 2 (love the figurine) since I was sure that the game would be great anyways, and be it just and only for Venice!

But what can I say?
I must say that I really love the roleplay elements and I love that it makes the game so long. I also love that you can just ride your horse and explore the landscape without being attacked by any stupid fucktard, who thinks that you rode by too quick and sees that as a reason to bug you while you are busy sightseeing.

Meaning you can decide if you want to actually get into trouble or not. I discovered that this game really manages - besides my sudden go wild with an axe rampages - to entertain me purely by simply running, climbing or riding around, exploring the landscape, searching for treasures and enjoying all the wonderful places and architecture. I have also spent a lot of time rebuilding Mario's (Itsa me! Oh my!! XD) villa, which basically got me a lot of wealth sothat theoretically I wouldn't need to do any more assasination jobs to earn money. But as we know I wanna go on with the story so I might assassinate one or the other here and there.

Oh and Venice! Bella Venezia! I have been playing 12 hours straight until I finally managed to get there. Must admit that I could have gotten there faster, but this wouldn't honor all the other beautiful places that I have seen on my journey until getting there.
After I had finally arrived I walked the city so amazingly slowly that Nemo started complaing how the entertaining level of watching me play had now lowered to zero.
What do I care? The city is just too beautiful! XD
They have made it smaller than the real one, and it is not really a copy of the real Venice either (which makes me glad because of the artistic freedom) were I have been on a beautiful suny winter day with someone who made this one of the best in my life, and that I took a lot of vital photos of, so I do have something to compare.
I am not talking about buildings that weren't there around 1480, but about things that have been changed when it comes to the basilica and such, probably because all the little figurines on its roofs etc would have even managed to kill the strong PS3 hard drive.

BUT Venice is in all ways a place that makes me FEEL like Venice, which I find so very important. That also makes you feel all the love and passion that was used to make it become real for that game. I have spent one complete gaming day exploring every inch of it, only returning to the villa every now and then to spend my money on repairing stuff.
For the first time I spot myself being in a game, walking around thinking "Oh look, those guys are working on the restauration of this church" or wondering what the painters may be painting; thoughts that you usually don't have in agame because you are busy killing stuff, for instance.
The whole game is so utterly addicted to art that it makes me write this long article with joy! I don't have to mention that I also already started building up my own gallery there with what I bought from the art merchants.

I also simply love using the database to explore the cities and read information about its buildings and their history. Amazing how a game could manage to drag me so much into this.
As I thought I had already gotten to the highest point of excitement, venezian carnival was announced and started with a wonderful firework that made me climb a rooftop quicker than ever just to see it. Silly eh? That you behave that way in a game? The game must be great then.

I got a wonderful venetian mask, and besides the fact that I am wearing pretty expensive and died clothes, the cape with its filigran patterns I just got make Ezio look quite elegant but not a tad gay. What a great charatcer design! I will spend some more time in Venice now to be able to keep this outfit. ^_^

This is also a thing that I love: Since each town has its own art merchants and tayler stores, it feels like you really have been at another part of the country once coming back to the villa. The villa also has been a place that I have quite enjoyed so far, because they managed to actually design something that makes me feel quite at home.

I am wondering what will be coming up next. And I am also wondering who did the art direction this time. First I thought it could get screwed as Lacoste left, but now I think that however followed in his foodsteps, did his very best to honor him well.


Last but not least: PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT'S COMING AFTER VENICE, since I am planing to have a loooong and beautiful stay there. ^_^

And here we are! I must say that I am quite happy with the result; damn perfectionism.



At first I just wanted to make a calendar out of close ups of my artworks but I didn't have enough portraits. So I decided to make my work match up with the current calendar format.
Therefore some artworks had to be altered a bit, but I guess it's all looking fine now.

I'll order one for my mom for this christmas. Let's hope she'll be happy again. ^_^


Also, FarmVille seems to be the most addictive game that ever hit Facebook. Nya. If you are looking for a new neighbour feel free to add me. XD