Christas Art & Design

Facebook and their changes

You know…Facebook is a privately owned business, providing a service for free to those of us who wants to stay in touch with friends and relatives. And yet, they are probably the most criticized place on the web today. We are just never happy, are we?

Whenever there’s changes happening on Facebook, we scream. Even when the changes are for the better, there’s nothing that generates more articles, discussions and analysis among those of us who been around both their community and the rest of the web for a while. We automatically assume that because we are a part of building their community, we also have the right to be a part of their decisions. And yes, in a way we do. From a business point of view, it’s not really any of our concern what they do with their assets. We are all free to leave them behind for something else if we wanted to, so no one is forced to stick around and hate the changes they do.

That said, the past couple of weeks have been a bit of a horror on Facebook. From personal experience I know and I’m very aware that making any changes to a big community is technically demanding and takes time. It will also mean that nothing works the way it should.
I’m also pretty sure that there are legal reasons why they can’t take the entire place down for a short amount of time while making their changes. I mean other than 400 million members that would be furious :p

And every time they make changes in the layout to make it more user-friendly, we all hate it. Well, almost everyone anyway. Change the way things work and force your members to learn a new “pattern” to find things is a 100% secure way to end up in the 10 Most Hated Places Ever. And most likely in the top 3.
Personally I don’t really have a problem to learn a new layout and maybe that’s a professional injury more than a positive thing. But it’s a lot more pleasant to explore a new layout when everything is functional. There’s something annoying about dead links in a community with 400 million members and 6 years of presence on the web. Even the same day they switch to a new layout it should work.

It also annoy me a little that they keep pointing out that the new layout should be “easier” to use. At least in theory it should be easier to find things. What I would want is a more dynamic place where I can put my own bookmarks, links, notifications, inbox, friends, news feeds, updates that are important to me where I want them. They do have a certain flexibility in their layout where you can change the sort order in the menu and so on, but I would want to build my own layout. Decide what I want to see on my Home page.

Now, I’m not saying that I want another MySpace…heaven forbid that. What I like about Facebook is that there is no possibility to clutter it with blinking background images, animations, sound and the entire wardrobe from Little Shop of Horrors. That is something I’m very happy without.
But it would still be nice to be able to place existing modules wherever I want them to be.
And maybe next time they realize that the best way to make it easier for all of us to find what we need is to allow us to plug it in where we want it. Not where they think it should be.

End of rant :)

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Donna Summer – some more details

I’ve spent the past couple of hours painting a bit again…while watching Star Trek Voyager among other things :p

Anyway….there might not be a huge amount of visible difference between the last update and this one, but this is what I’ve painted tonight:

She’s got real eyebrows. Or at least the eyebrows that I think she will end up with in the end.
I’ve done details on her nose.
And I’ve also done some more work on her eyes and make-up.

She still doesn’t have any eyelashes, but she will in the end. I promise :p

If I didn’t have such an explosive headache tonight and no painkillers at home, I would paint a lot more, but my head is killing me and there’s nothing I can do about it. Other than more coffee that is, and I think that more of that will keep me awake all night.
So I will have to hope it’s gone tomorrow morning instead.

Now it’s almost time to watch “The Good Wife”.
For a bigger version of this image, just click the one in this post. And it should work now :)

Back tomorrow :)

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Donna Summer – yesterday’s progress

I just never got around to make a progress post on this painting yesterday, so I thought I’d repair the damage today :P Better late than never ;)

Yesterday I added the basic hair layer for the sake of getting some more balance in the painting. I also removed a bit of saturation in her skin color. Even though the reference photo really do show her with a skin color that is a bit too bronze and shiny…so I decided to make it look more natural. One explanation to the look on the photo might be a mix of the use of light and make up. If this photo was taken 20-25 years ago, it was very popular with the face powder that had a bit of glitter in it.

Her eyes are almost entirely done. At least the eye whites and the iris. The iris is so dark that there is no visible pupil…just the reflection and a few shades of dark brown.

Lips are not done yet, just marked in a middle shade of red. There will be both highlights, texture and shadows later. And I haven’t done a thing about her teeth either. And her clothes will look pretty much the same as they do now. It’s a black sweater…no folds or details.
Still a lot to do before any of this is ready though.
I will paint more tonight…unless I fall asleep like I did last night. Haven’t got a clue what happened, but I was finished by 10 PM already.

Anyway…hope your day is as sunny as ours :D

I’ve downgraded the plugin that opens a bigger picture if you click the one above, so it should work now.
Sorry about da mess :p

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Alexander’s first tooth

Alexander’s first tooth have appeared and his mom was trying to get a picture of it yesterday to no luck :p I remember when his dad’s first tooth showed up too and how impossible it was to get him to show it off. Can only imagine how sore the gum must be, so it’s not that strange.

However, I also know that in a near future Alexander will forget about it and start smiling big towards both people and cameras and show it off at no charge :p So it’s just a matter of time :)

Thought I’d post something cute in here for a change. There’s been a lot of old actresses lately since I’ve been painting, and at least to me Alexander is much cuter than all of them together :p

Then it doesn’t matter if he’s playing peek-a-boo like in the picture to the right here, or if he’s asleep. It’s just the way it is :D
His face is changing a lot as he’s growing so I think it’s time to paint him again…or at least a portrait of him :p I’m gonna have to ask his mom for some bigger photos in a near future :))

A lot of things happens fast in that age and he will be 1 year in about a month. Still haven’t got a clue what to buy him, but sending money is still an option. In a year or two it will have to be some sort of present instead of money, so I might as well grab the opportunity while it’s still there ;)

Soon he will be “helping” his mom doing the dishes and all sorts of things that makes a huge mess…heh His dad used to wash everything (including cats and himself) when he helped me in the kitchen :p He was a bit older than Alexander when his interest went from his toys to the sink and the stove, but it was still messy…hehe

Alexander is taller than his dad was in the same age though. Peter did not reach up to the kitchen counter like Alexander does in the photo here when he was in that age. Peter didn’t get tall until he was a teenager.

Anyway…I thought I’d post some of these piccies while they are still new and fresh :D

I’m alone and unsupervised today, it’s grey and foggy out there and I will most likely paint some more during the afternoon. I slept for way too long today and it was 11.30 before Robin finally woke me up. Well, I guess it’s okiday since it’s Sunday and everything. No harm done. Other than my sleeping schedule of course :pp

Hope you guys are having a great weekend and I will be back laters :D

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Summer – skin

I’m painting skin layers right now and as always after painting in black and white for a while, this is so awkward. And so darn colorful…hehe
But I guess it should be too.

So far I’ve done one layer only and it’s a rough one to that. But I needed to find the right temperature straight away since her skin tone got a lot of olive in it. Green, in other words. Might be the reference photo, or it’s the tone of the skin she’s got, I’m not sure which.

In spite of that this has been pretty easy so far. That can change of course, but I don’t think so. The skin is always the worst part of a portrait….at least when there’s no dots around in clothes :pp She also got a lot of curls in her hair, with highlights and plenty of shades of brown and gold. Which means that her skin tone here won’t look that “much” once the hair is ready too.
I will create a basic hair layer like I always do to get a better balance before I continue this.

But that’s it for now. More tomorrow most likely. It’s time to shut down Photoshop and do something else.
Click the image for a larger view.

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Facebook and their changes

Donna Summer – some more details

Donna Summer – yesterday’s progress

Alexander’s first tooth

Summer – skin

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