The Cyber-Hurt

It’s imperative these days for an artist, or any professional really, to have a presence on the web. For me this is an increasingly frustrating challenge. My last year at Sheridan College was the first year they offered a computer graphics course, so I just barely missed the digital wave.  (Not that I would have had the foresight to hop on my surfboard anyway.)

So, I have very little facility with computers and the strange digital world to which they connect us. I have neither the training to create my own web site, nor the funds to hire someone else to do it for me. This leaves me with these blogs, and art-based web hosting sites in which to showcase my work.

For some time, I had a bunch of my artwork up on a site called ComicSpace, which was great! It was super simple to navigate and post artwork and messages. I never had any trouble managing things there, in spite of my cyber-ignorance. It was marvellously idiot-proof.

But, ultimately, the site changed hands and was completely ruined by its new Ant Overlords. What had once been a simple little community of professional, semi-professional and wannabe comic artists became forever tainted. No longer simple and easy to navigate, thousands of postings lost, all hope destroyed.

Since then, I have been looking for an alternative art host, with little success. I have tried DeviantArt, where I was unable to upload anything successfully, and where there were no step-by-step instructions on how to do so. (Or, at least, none I could effectively decipher.) A recent attempt at posting on ConceptArt seems to be only marginally more successful. I’m still unable to fathom how to best navigate the site and I can't seem to view my work the way I see the work of others displayed. As far as I can tell, the art of every member on the site has been put on the same huge page of thumbnails, with no way to look anyone up by name, or alphabetically, or by subject matter. It’s just a sea of tiny pictures out of which you randomly click one to see the art. Amidst the vast numbers, I was unable to find my own entry.

Even posting here on this blog has been frequently frustrating.

I’m certain most of this is due to my own ignorance, and that any ten year old can probably make the site sing and dance, but there you go. Then again, if ComicSpace was so easy, why can’t these other sites create a simple straightforward interface?

I dunno, but it’s driving me nuts!

Anyway, here are some pencil drawings I wanted to post on these sites, and apparently failed to do so. I hope you like them.