I had to see her again.
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studiomcah
Community for science fiction and fantasy author/artist M.C.A. Hogarth.
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
10 hours ago
Chimerical Gallery Update (August 13)
As promised, I’m updating you every couple of weeks on the progress on the gallery project! Since we last talked I have:
• Added a system that allows users to request context on an image (artist commentary or tags) or report an issue (broken metadata or a scan/image quality issue)
• Added a maintenance section that will allow me to see what images have user requests, and allow me to verify platforms/user information when users create accounts
• Started work on the gallery “experience”, adding a landing page and consolidating user profile/settings/gallery browsing/favorites pages
• Put together a “benefits of membership” page and started nailing down what those benefits are
• Started integrating the main site’s color scheme, and added a function so users could decide what color scheme they want (including dark mode)
• Put in code for patron achievements
• Completely redid the image processing/discovery process so that it happens on the backend, instead of being triggered by user visits
It feels like I’ve done very little because so much of what I’m doing now is either invisible (the maintenance section) or seems minor (being able to choose your color scheme). I spent half an hour, for instance, tinting the thumbnails on dark mode so that they wouldn’t be bright white when the rest of the gallery is a dark blue/purple. But what I’ve got my head down on, right now, is the most important task: ensuring patrons have an experience that reflects their support. Your gallery experience should involve your gallery home greeting you, sharing announcements and notifications, and displaying images people have either tagged/favorited lately, or that have been uploaded lately, or are related to the project I’m writing, etc. You’ll have achievements too, based on books you’ve read, artwork you’ve collected, kickstarters you’ve backed, wikis you’ve helped edited… even gallery images you’ve added context to with tags!
Anonymous visitors will only see a handful of images and reasons why they might want to sign up; and free accounts (people who login and create accounts, but aren’t subscribed or haven’t bought a Shopify pass) will have limited access, to about 50 of the available hundreds of images.
The old Stardancer Gallery was free for everyone, but even as extensive as it was for the time, it’s nothing compared to what I’m planning with the new gallery… which not only has higher quality uploads, but SO MANY MORE of them. I’m going to have to upgrade hosting to handle the sheer amount of content I’m going to scan and upload. I’ve got hundreds of images ready to go already, though I’m only testing with about 55… and that’s hundreds of the thousands I have planned.
I’ve spent about two months on this already and it feels like a LONG time. But it’s going to be so good to have a gallery again! I can’t wait!
To answer some of your questions:
Yes, you will be able to buy passes if you aren’t a Patreon or Locals subscriber. I’ll have a Shopify option for passes. Probably an annual, and maybe a six-month? Or seasonal? I’m still deciding.
No, you don’t have to share your data with me unless you want to. When you do set-up, it’ll ask if you want me to know about your support/connection with me on other platforms, and it’s up to you whether to share that or not.
No, I’m not planning a comment section like the old Stardancer gallery’s. Only about 15 people regularly used the ability to leave comments on images, and while I loved every one of those comments, I don’t relish the idea of policing the comment section on a modern website with free users. You will be able to favorite images, and tag them if you want to contribute to organizing them; and you’ll be able to ask me to write an artist commentary on any of them you’re curious about. But unless my patron users ask me for this capability, I’m not planning on it.
End of summer was probably aggressive, but I’m definitely thinking three months should get us to the beta, so sometime in September. Since we’re halfway through August, that’s actually not too long from now (eep). I remind myself that I haven’t had an online gallery for years now, so waiting a few more months isn’t a big deal. But I’m excited and I want to share!
Feel free to leave your comments/questions/requests about the gallery here. Or if you want to watch the daily progress, ask about the Discord, where you can hear my developmental comments in #sandbox.
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Cursive Practice Video, to Relax
Or at least, I intend it to be relaxing. Hopefully it delivers.
4:22 minutes
Materials:
- Pen: Moonman Starry Glass dip pen, Mars: https://www.jetpens.com/Moonman-Starry-Sky-Glass-Dip-Pen-Mars/pd/31536
- Paper: Strathmore Writing Series 500, lined: https://www.jetpens.com/Strathmore-500-Series-Writing-Pad-8.5-x-11-Lined-50-Sheets/pd/15322
- Ink: Robert Oster, Rose Gilt Tynte: https://www.jetpens.com/Robert-Oster-Rose-Gilt-Tynte-Fountain-Pen-Ink-Shake-N-Shimmy-50-ml-Bottle/pd/25170
00:04:27
Overview of the First Oil Paint Experiment
In which I talk about the paper, the paint, and the experience of oils versus gouache. Fun stuff, will do more.
Thank you Locals supporters! Your contribution to my art war chest here is what's powering these experiments and videos. For now I'm keeping them public but I may start doing some subscriber-only videos if you all are interested.💖
00:03:35
Alysha Misc
Thanks for your comments yesterday on the business post... all very provocative, in a good way. I'll try to respond to all of them today.
Some Alysha misc now, since I'm gearing up for the results of the Kickstarter!
Petrov is giving away coupon codes for every book in the Alysha series (and has some leftover coupons for Marda and the business book). You can pick those up here (and please do! The books are bought already, someone should use them!) https://twitter.com/PetrovNeutrino/status/1457344535843987461
Our own @JudasComplex sent along a sample of the Faith in the Service audiobook, which I've attached for your delight! I... haven't had a chance to listen to it. Don't ask me about my past week and a half or so. Putting it here will guarantee I get to it.
After hearing the amused comments during the livestream, I went ahead and added all the ship type illustrations I have inked from the 90s to the wiki. Glory in the rampant adorableness of their anthropomorphic stylings! See those ...
The Jaguar's Heart 7: We Are Not a Monolith
A little comedy today, at least in the link. Transcript follows.
Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
A while back I was introduced to a comedy sketch about Cuban coffee by a Mexican comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. ( The sketch begins with him greeting all his fellow Latinos and then backing up to say ‘but we’re all different, aren’t we’ which is a segue into a demonstration of how different Hispanics speak Spanish.
It is hilarious. First, because I am a Spanish speaker and a linguistics hobbyist, and his portrayal of various accents resonated with my experiences in trying to make sense of them myself… Not always easy, since from culture to culture, slang and accent are often totally different (and sometimes grammar! Spaniards use a grammatical construct that has died out in many other Spanish-speaking countries, the plural “you.”)
I also loved it because the Cuban coffee part is real. I grew up with Cubans. I know how we are....
The Jaguar's Heart 6: Hatespeech
One of the most common things I hear (and say) right now is "the asymmetry is the story." Here's one about how none of us are innocent of the sins we hate in others.
Hi, all. Welcome to this week’s episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
It’s been weeks since the Baen’s Bar incident and I’m still thinking about it... because the longer I do, the more I feel, overwhelmingly, that it’s obvious that the problem is deeper than “this forum was saying stuff that offended us.” We have to back up to the glaring fact that people on opposite sides no longer consider each other human. Nothing I say will matter because the people disagreeing with me don’t think I’m human. They have denied my humanity; they have not bothered to listen to my beliefs, or have fake-listened to them in that way that people do when they’re so ready to prove you wrong that they’re only using your speech to provide talking points for their own ideas.
We have forgotten how to listen.
Increasingly, we have also ...
Quick Update: Holy Cow!
My kickstarter campaign is live! So if you want stickers, go get some. This time it's holy cow and holy carp, with a ton of add-ons if you want to shop my older designs.💛
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mcahogarth/holy-cow-and-holy-carp?ref=ekuins
THE RESURRECTION OF THE STARDANCER GALLERY
What if I told you that, after years of requests for the return of my Stardancer.org gallery, I was in the process of recreating it?
Because I am…! RIGHT NOW. flail
CHALLENGES
First, let me tell you why I haven’t had an online art gallery since stardancer went down:
I did not want to put thousands of images on free gallery sites (like DA) because it would be a ton of work, and I wouldn’t have any control over the site (“what if they go down one day”, “what if they start charging per-upload fees”, “what if they have copyright policy changes I don’t like”, “what if they start using their corpus to train AI”, etc, etc, etc). Can you imagine dumping hundreds of hours into uploading stuff only to lose it because the site owners made questionable decisions? Ugh.
I wasn’t capable of coding my own gallery and I didn’t like the gallery plugins for various content management systems. I could have installed a package on my hosting service, but none of the ones I saw were customizable enough, or did ...
