Showing posts with label SONSI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SONSI. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Illustration blogging: why it's essential - a SONSI discussion

This post is mainly a supplementary series of links and points accompanying our discussion, "Illustration blogging: why it's essential" at SONSI's 2011 Presentation Day




Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Reminder: SONSI Science-Art Talks in Toronto this weekend!



I'll be one of the presenters at this weekend's Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrator's series of professional talks.  These should be a great help to illustrators of all stripes, and I'm psyched about the day.
Here's a link to the official blurb, and I've re-posted it below.

Invitation to all illustrators in Southern Ontario:

SONSI's 2011 Presentation Day
October 16, 2011 
12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Toronto's Harbourfront Community Centre
Assembly Room A
627 Queen’s Quay West, Toronto

Please join us for an afternoon of illustration-related presentations by members of the Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators and a representative of Access Copyright. Light refreshments (coffee, cookies) will be provided.
For non-members, a $15 donation to SONSI is requested (or $10 for full-time students). This will help us cover the cost of facility rental and refreshments.

Space is limited so please register to attend by sending an e-mail to: sonsigroup@gmail.com


Agenda:
Arrive at noon, presentations begin promptly at 12:20.
12:20 pm to 1:30 pm "A Quick Look at Adobe Photoshop"
1:35 pm to 2:15 pm "What Access Copyright can do for Illustrators"
2:15-2:30 break
2:30 pm to 4 pm "Illustration Blogging; why it's essential"
4:10 pm to 4:50 pm "The Content of Contracts"

PROGRAM:
- - - 

"A Quick Look at Adobe Photoshop" by SONSI member Jeremy Loranger

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most powerful programs in an illustrator’s arsenal today. However useful it may be, Photoshop can also be quite a daunting program for newcomers. This presentation will serve as a brief introduction to the program as well as provide some very useful tips and tricks that are commonly overlooked in many tutorials. Proper file formatting for print and web, as well as web security for your work will also be discussed. Bring your questions!  


- - -
"What Access Copyright can do for Illustrators" by Margaret McGuffin of Access Copyright
Every day across the country individuals in schools, businesses and government copy excerpts from published works to obtain the valuable content they need to get their jobs done. But are you - the owners of that content - being compensated? If one of your copyrighted illustrations is published in a book, newspaper, magazine, or journal, then you need to find about becoming an Access Copyright Affiliate. Don't miss out on Payback! Also, Margaret will explain what grants The Access Copyright Foundation offers to creators of copyrighted material, including Research and Professional Development Grants. 


- - -

"Illustration Blogging: why it's essential" by SONSI member Glendon Mellow
How to dive into the online world of blogging and social media to find work, fulfilment and community. Worried about image theft and your copyright? Don't understand Twitter or G+? Want to see how easy it is to set up a blog?  Blogging your artwork can be essential in today's market - people expect to be able to provide feedback in numerous ways to images they find on the internet. We'll discuss the basics to the latest in social media for illustrators and how to be effectively busy online without losing control of your images and brand.

- - -

"The Content of Contracts" by SONSI member Emily S. Damstra
Wondering if it's really worthwhile to have your clients sign an agreement? Worried that your contract is missing something? Frustrated that the contract your client provided isn't quite what you had in mind? Hear from someone who has signed a lot of contracts in her career; learn from her mistakes as well as her successes.


- - -

The Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators is a regional organization of illustrators whose works focus on science and nature.
Our goals are to:
  • Further our own professional development by learning from each other
  • Encourage each other toward higher standards of competence and ethics
  • Network and socialize with others having similar interests and work experiences
  • Support the intellectual property rights of visual artists
  • Promote our discipline to the general public and to potential clients
  • Educate the public about science and nature through our work
We meet every month or two throughout the year, primarily in locations between Kitchener and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Anyone with a genuine interest in nature and science illustration is welcome to join.
For more information about SONSI please visit our website: www.sonsi.ca
- - -
Bios of presenters:


Jeremy Loranger has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Technical and Scientific Illustration from Sheridan College and has been working freelance for 2 years. His work covers a broad spectrum including fine art, biomedical textbook illustration, exploded isometric assembly diagrams, video game production art, and 3D modelling. http://www.jloranger.com/

Margaret McGuffin is Director of Licensing and Distribution Services at Access Copyright. Prior to joining Access Copyright, Margaret worked as a consultant providing business planning and research services to organizations including the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Canadian Heritage and The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Margaret has been involved in the formation and development of a large number of music industry collective management organizations including the Canadian Private Copyright Collective and the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada. Margaret currently sits on the Advisory Committee of MusiCounts which is a not-for-profit providing grants to schools across Canada for the purchase of musical instruments. She also spends a large amount of her free time in hockey arenas with her two children as a team manager and trainer. For more information about Access Copyright visit their website: http://www.accesscopyright.ca/

Glendon Mellow is a fine artist + illustrator whose projects have ranged from fine art commissions to tattoo design to museum display; appearing in magazines such as Earth and Secular Nation, in books such as Geology in Art and The Open Laboratory and sites such as io9.comHe has spoken at the Centre for Inquiry Ontario and at ScienceOnline.  Glendon is a co-blogger on the new Scientific American science-art blog Symbiartic and shares his art process at his blog The Flying Trilobite, and tweets at  @flyingtrilobite. His portfolio can be found at glendonmellow.com.

Emily S. Damstra has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan and has been a full-time freelance illustrator for eleven years. Her clients have included the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, The City of Kitchener, The University of Michigan Press, Natural History Magazine, The Royal Canadian Mint, The Calgary Zoo, and many more. Visit her website: www.emilydamstra.com

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop 

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Friday, 9 September 2011

Stupendous Upcoming SONSI Science-Art Talks


Really excited about the upcoming talks for the Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators group at Harbourfront on October 16th - and I'll be giving one!

My talk is about why it's essential that illustrators have a blog and use social media, without being terrified of copyright infringement.

Here's the page about the day:

Invitation to all illustrators in Southern Ontario:

SONSI's 2011 Presentation Day
October 16, 2011 
12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Toronto's Harbourfront Community Centre
Assembly Room A
627 Queen’s Quay West, Toronto

Please join us for an afternoon of illustration-related presentations by members of the Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators and a representative of Access Copyright. Light refreshments (coffee, cookies) will be provided.
For non-members, a $15 donation to SONSI is requested (or $10 for full-time students). This will help us cover the cost of facility rental and refreshments.

Space is limited so please register to attend by sending an e-mail to: sonsigroup@gmail.com

Agenda:
Arrive at noon, presentations begin promptly at 12:20.
12:20 pm to 1:30 pm "A Quick Look at Adobe Photoshop"
1:35 pm to 2:15 pm "What Access Copyright can do for Illustrators"
2:15-2:30 break
2:30 pm to 4 pm "Illustration Blogging; why it's essential"
4:10 pm to 4:50 pm "The Content of Contracts" 

"A Quick Look at Adobe Photoshop" by SONSI member Jeremy Loranger
Adobe Photoshop is one of the most powerful programs in an illustrator’s arsenal today. However useful it may be, Photoshop can also be quite a daunting program for newcomers. This presentation will serve as a brief introduction to the program as well as provide some very useful tips and tricks that are commonly overlooked in many tutorials. Proper file formatting for print and web, as well as web security for your work will also be discussed. Bring your questions!  

Jeremy Loranger has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Technical and Scientific Illustration from Sheridan College and has been working freelance for 2 years. His work covers a broad spectrum including fine art, biomedical textbook illustration, exploded isometric assembly diagrams, video game production art, and 3D modelling. http://www.jloranger.com/

"What Access Copyright can do for Illustrators" by Margaret McGuffin of Access Copyright
Every day across the country individuals in schools, businesses and government copy excerpts from published works to obtain the valuable content they need to get their jobs done. But are you - the owners of that content - being compensated? If one of your copyrighted illustrations is published in a book, newspaper, magazine, or journal, then you need to find about becoming an Access Copyright Affiliate. Don't miss out on Payback! Also, Margaret will explain what grants The Access Copyright Foundation offers to creators of copyrighted material, including Research and Professional Development Grants. 

Margaret McGuffin is Director of Licensing and Distribution Services at Access Copyright. Prior to joining Access Copyright, Margaret worked as a consultant providing business planning and research services to organizations including the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Canadian Heritage and The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Margaret has been involved in the formation and development of a large number of music industry collective management organizations including the Canadian Private Copyright Collective and the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada. Margaret currently sits on the Advisory Committee of MusiCounts which is a not-for-profit providing grants to schools across Canada for the purchase of musical instruments. She also spends a large amount of her free time in hockey arenas with her two children as a team manager and trainer. For more information about Access Copyright visit their website: http://www.accesscopyright.ca/

"Illustration Blogging: why it's essential" by SONSI member Glendon Mellow
How to dive into the online world of blogging and social media to find work, fulfilment and community. Worried about image theft and your copyright? Don't understand Twitter or G+? Want to see how easy it is to set up a blog?  Blogging your artwork can be essential in today's market - people expect to be able to provide feedback in numerous ways to images they find on the internet. We'll discuss the basics to the latest in social media for illustrators and how to be effectively busy online without losing control of your images and brand.

Glendon Mellow is a fine artist + illustrator whose projects have ranged from fine art commissions to tattoo design to museum display; appearing in magazines such as Earth and Secular Nation, in books such as Geology in Art and The Open Laboratory and sites such as io9.comHe has spoken at the Centre for Inquiry Ontario and at ScienceOnline.  Glendon is a co-blogger on the new Scientific American science-art blog Symbiartic and shares his art process at his blog The Flying Trilobite, and tweets at  @flyingtrilobite. His portfolio can be found at glendonmellow.com.

"The Content of Contracts" by SONSI member Emily S. Damstra
Wondering if it's really worthwhile to have your clients sign an agreement? Worried that your contract is missing something? Frustrated that the contract your client provided isn't quite what you had in mind? Hear from someone who has signed a lot of contracts in her career; learn from her mistakes as well as her successes.

Emily S. Damstra has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan and has been a full-time freelance illustrator for eleven years. Her clients have included the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, The City of Kitchener, The University of Michigan Press, Natural History Magazine, The Royal Canadian Mint, The Calgary Zoo, and many more. Visit her website: www.emilydamstra.com


The Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators is a regional organization of illustrators whose works focus on science and nature.
Our goals are to:
  • Further our own professional development by learning from each other
  • Encourage each other toward higher standards of competence and ethics
  • Network and socialize with others having similar interests and work experiences
  • Support the intellectual property rights of visual artists
  • Promote our discipline to the general public and to potential clients
  • Educate the public about science and nature through our work
We meet every month or two throughout the year, primarily in locations between Kitchener and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Anyone with a genuine interest in nature and science illustration is welcome to join.
For more information about SONSI please visit our website: www.sonsi.ca



- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop 

Lookee here--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Early


My general philosophy of parenting is heavily informed by Dale McGowan's excellent Parenting Beyond Belief and my own upbringing surrounded by tons of books on a variety of subjects.  Teach many things, teach a child to think critically and let them figure it out.

Still, nothing wrong introducing the little guy to art, science and his dad's vocation at an early age. 

- - - - - - - - 

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

Monday, 2 May 2011

SONSI show underway!






What a terrific day. I`ll report more later.  In the meantime, head to SONSI prez Emily S. Damstra`s blog to see more pictures of our exciting gallery show of nature and science illustration at the Royal Botanical Gallery. 

- - - - - - - - 

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

Friday, 29 April 2011

Starts Tomorrow!


Click to enlarge! On throughout May!  Show starts tomorrow! Check SONSI for more deets!!!!1!eleventy!!

- - - - - - - - 

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

Friday, 8 April 2011

Upcoming SONSI Gallery Show

Really excited about this!

Postcard design by Jennifer Osborn. Illustrations © individual artists of SONSI.




Postcard design by Jennifer Osborn


For the month of May, I'll be taking part in the Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators first gallery show at the Burlington, Ontario, Royal Botanical Gardens. You can view the press release here

I'll be showing the original oil painting of my popular Darwin Took Steps, and a high-quality print of my Pink Parasaurolophus, which will be for sale with the frame included. Here they are below, all framed up for the show:



We've got upwards of 25 members in SONSI, and I can't wait to see this show.  I also think this show will be Darwin Took Steps's sawn song - it's easily my most popular image, but I don't want to keep pushing it. Time to put my best foot forward with something new.

Actually, I'm hoping maybe to do a series of prehistoric critters as brightly coloured and as stylized as the Pink Parasaurolophus. Maybe an alphabet? I think framed like it is above, it could make a nice series of prints for a child's bedroom.

If you're interested in this print, you can also get them framed or unframed in my online store

- - - - - - - - 

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow


Thursday, 7 October 2010

Copyright links



Since taking my artwork online over 3 years ago, I've been learning and thinking a lot about copyright.

Our group, S
outhern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators (sonsi) had an event on the weekend with a question and answer session with lawyer Paul Sanderson, discussing copyright.

Here's a few links of the type of stuff on my mind.  Yeah, I know some of them are written by me.


- - - - - - - - 

Original artwork on
The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under
Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Sunday, 5 September 2010

Science-Artists Feed: the list

The other day I announced a Science-Artists feed anyone can subscribe to, allowing them the follow the blogs of over 50 artists inspired by or working on visualizing science. Here's the list so far of who is in the Science-Artists feed I created and has been picked up by Scienceblogging.org.  I'll be adding more as I go, please feel free to suggest more blogs if you know of them!

The List, in no particular order:




Who am I missing?

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on
The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under
Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Friday, 3 September 2010

New: Science-Artists feed




In addition to last week's 
Art Evolved Aggregate feed, I've made a Science-Artists feed collecting scientific illustration, science-inspired art and science cartooning on blogs.  After a discussion with Bora Zivkovic via Twitter, we both agreed something larger than paleo-art (though that's included) would be great to have.  And it's included on Scienceblogging.org!   Visual art and illustration are essential to effective science communication (and can be fun and inspiring), and I love that Bora, Anton and Dave recognize this.  Thanks!

I've likely missed some - there are a lot of talented people out there, so please suggest others!  Likewise, if you know of a blog that touches on sci-art from time to time and uses a helpful tag or label on those posts, let me know and I'll add that tag to the feed.

For the moment, I've mostly left out comic strips and photography and I'm focusing on scientific illustration, digital and traditional painting and drawing, and cartooning.

A tip of the hat to Richard Carter, FCD for suggesting the use of FriendFeed when I was creating both feeds.

If you'd like to see the list of blogs who've been added so far, go here.

If you'd like to add the sidebar widget to your own blog,let me know and I'll send you the html to look like this:








Suggestions welcome!

- - - - - - - -
Original artwork on
The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under
Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Thursday, 26 August 2010

2 new scientific illustrator blogs

There's a couple of great new blogs that debuted this summer by established scientific illustrators Kalliopi Monoyios and Emily Damstra.

* * *
An Eye for Science: images make science better by Kalliopi Monoyios, who contributed scientific illustrations to both Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True and Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish.  She is providing an artist's perspective on how important images are to science and the power they wield.

* * *
News From the Studio by Emily S. Damstra features news and images by one of Canada's best talents.  Check out this fish!  As Emily notes, she has likely created the first ever image of this newly discovered fish species from Indonesia - how cool is that?  Scientific illustration combines the thrill of new discoveries with the glow of creating an image that educates.  And check that image out - that's watercolour and gouache paint!

If you're in southern Ontario, Emily has a show on in Waterloo, details below. 


Emily is also the founder and president of the Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators (
SONSI), which I am currently the webmaster for. We have good times, feel free to check out the illustrator interviews there!

* * *
In the past, a lot of illustrators have been reluctant to blog or even start a website, until the market essentially demanded website galleries.  I hope we'll see more of my fellow science illustrators, artists and image-makers jump into blogging and the flow of comments and connections. It's so vital to my work process, I almost don't understand the reluctance.

Keep an eye on Monoyios and Damstra.

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on
The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under
Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Tips for web-ready images

I originally posted this over on SONSI, where I practice my webmaster skills.  I thought it might be useful to some Flying Trilobite readers.

- - 

Recently I was asked,
“Could you help me with understanding how to format my photos for upload and how to add the transparent © symbol? (see below) If these are questions that many have already asked, maybe a FAQ on the site would be a good idea?”
We discussed it, and I thought I’d share my quick tips here and the whole intertubes.
If you use software like Photoshop or Gimp to alter the size of your files, aim to make them 100kb or less in size.  (Most of mine fall into the 75kb range).  There’s generally three things that affect file size: colour, dimensions of the image and quality of the image.
Colour: Typically, you are not going to want to reduce your colour range, unless it’s a colour scan of a black and white image.  So let’s leave that alone.
Dimensions of the image: you can often find ways to alter this (keep your proportions the same) under names like”canvas size” or just look for how many pixels wide and high the image is.  Typically, I tend to make things somewhere around 500-800 pixels on the larger side.  Most people don’t want to click to enlarge an image and have it expand to be bigger than their monitor.
Quality of the image: This is a dodgy one, since most of us want everything crystal-clear.  However, jpeg files can be compressed quite well without losing a lot of resolution, at least for posting online.  Not good for submitting to a magazine or for getting prints, but online it’s great.  In Photoshop, use the “save for web” feature (you can monkey with canvas size there too).  In Gimp, you get the option when you save the Gimp file as a jpeg.
I’ve mentioned Gimp a couple of times – it’s a decent, FREE alternative to Photoshop that can do (kinda-almost) everything Photoshop Elements can.  There’s no insidious pop-ups or programming.  It just works really well.   (I do not work for them or receive any cool kickbacks.)   You can find it here. http://www.gimp.org/
To put a copyright symbol on your work, go into the text tool on software like Photoshop, Gimp or many others and hold down ALT and type 0169 .  Let go of ALT and the © should appear.  Or you can cut-and-paste it from this post.
Anyone have any other quick tips?



- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under
Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

SONSI logo - round 3!

The Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators (SONSI) are choosing a group logo - head over and help us decide!  Illustrator Jeremy Loranger had put up round 3 of tweaks and variations.  Great stuff.

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on
The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under
Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Monday, 7 June 2010

New interviews at SONSI

Continuing the interview series on the SONSI (Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators) site, I've posted a couple more.

Head over to read about SONSI president Emily Damstra and children's book illustrator Celia Godkin.

The SONSI site is getting increasingly heavy traffic. We've got a great many talented artists and illustrators there available for freelance work! Oooo and ahhhh at the amazing pictures.

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Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Photos from the Kortright Centre

Some of my photos from the SONSI (Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators) sketch day at the Kortright Centre for Conservation just north of Toronto, a couple of weeks ago.
The SONSI group at the marsh.

Leopard frog.  Lots of tadpoles around. 

Red-eared slider ignoring us in the sun.


I managed to spot a heron pretty far away. 

Photos are great for future illustration reference. 

Perfect day.  I stood here sketching reeds. 

Swans heading back to their nest on a small island in the marsh. 
If you're an illustrator or fine artist living in Ontario interested in nature and science, check out our new group.

- - - - - - - -
Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under
Creative Commons Licence.

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