Amid over at Cartoon Brew has mentioned recently that the summer of 2005 could go down as the animation artist's blog renaissance, and I would have to whole-heartedly agree with him on that. I've noticed an incredibly large influx of new blogs by artists, illustrators and animators, all showcasing their talents to a new audience. So, why is there a big wave suddenly? I've narrowed it down to four factors:
1. It's free.
Simple as that. If you use Blogger (I do), it's completely free and no pressure to upgrade. With Typepad, there is a service fee, along with several other services out there, but Blogger seems to be the big blog service of choice with all these newbies.
2. It's easy.
It's much easier than uploading on your own portfolio site, which can be mundane and tedious, I'm told. Even if your web designer made it as simple as pie for you to upload, it's a matter of organizing and arranging that frustrates even the most timid of artists.
3. Peer pressure.
Most of the new bloggers I've been checking out recently I notice link to their artist friends' blogs, and some of them are even co-workers as well. I can imagine the conversation: "Dude! You've GOTTA get a blog, man! Everybodys' doing it and it's so easy!"
4. Free image hosting on Blogger.
This is the biggie. Even though blogs have been around for a long time, and Blogger's been there from the beginning, Blogger did not offer free image hosting until just recently. And that, my friends, is the real bonafide reason why there's such a huge surge in artist blogs now. Not having to worry about paying an unknown service to host images and then trying to get around to uploading to your blog gives the artist an incredible amount of freedom. It also gives them a great advantage to showcase their work simple and pure, complete with a description on what they're posting. Even better, the artist gets immediate feedback on their work with the comments. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved. Plus it helps that Blogger makes uploading images so easy.
I'm completely loving it. I've found so many cool artists and animators posting some amazing work, many of whom I've never heard of before. Now I'm a big fan. That's where blogging works. It becomes a great close-knit community where everyone supports each other and gives many a great resource for inspiration.
Some blogs I feel are worth noting:
The Daly Blog: animation director for Dreamworks, Donnachada Daly
Enrico's Blog: storyboard artist for Pixar, Enrico Casarosa
Tweedle Sketch: illustrator Michael Fleming
Les dessins de Marco: illustrator Marco Allard
Art-Attacks: animator Hans Bacher
Oscar Grillo's blog: illustrator and animator
Harald Siepermann's blog: animator
Uli Meyer's blog: animator, owns a studio in the UK
Stef's Sketches: illustrator Stephane Kardos
Mattjonezanimation: animator Matt Jones
Khoolsville: animator Sandra Khoo
Face It!: animator Sean Zeles
Captain Yolk: animator Jeremy Bernstein
Lambey's Log: illustrator and animator Steve Lambe
Ovi Nedelcu's blog: animator and comic book artist
Amid just posted about this guy's blog the other day and already I'm a fan:
Portfolio: animator Uwe Heidschoetter
So what you waiting for? Get out there and start your blog! The more, the merrier.
UPDATE: I've added some more blogs now since I first posted -- so enjoy!
You forgot #5. "Gargantuan ego and desperate, clawing need for attention." Seriously, though; Janene Garafalo once said that the formula for being a successful stand-up comedian was equal parts self-loathing and egomania. Applies to artists, too. It seems to me that the one downside to all these blogs is that they're little black holes that suck up so much of your time! Let's just say that nobody's headstone should ever read: "glad I read all those blogs"
ReplyDeleteAs an IT student we are often required to install and build blogs for our courses. I've had, and have a number of blogs I maintain using WordPress or the techie fav, MT. But half way through one quarter I wanted a quick and easy way to post pics, reference images, and keep track of links. A few days before, I had found your blog, which gave me a blogger account when I went to post. By default I just started using this blogger account. I was going to migrate it to my own server, but now that I can load the images here instead of filling up my server I’ve kept with blogger.
ReplyDeleteNow I just wish blogger would find a way to add "most recent comments." I hate it when I miss a comment because it was on an old post. Also, as long as I'm in the asking mode, it'd be nice to upload flash animations too.
Cher, I have it where they send me an email whenever anyone comments on my blog. Check the preferences -- I can't remember where it is exactly, but it lets me know whenever there's a new comment on an old post.
ReplyDeleteWOW WOW WOOWW!!! Thanx so much for adding my blog to your list of blogs to check out! *.*I never would've thought! Gaaaa, WOWOOHOOO!!! You've made my day!
ReplyDeleteOh and I should mention that I don't really qualify as an animator as yet cause 90% of my worklife is dealing with drawings/scripting or R&D for pre-production in animation,and I hardly ever get a chance to animate which is quite frustrating sometimes. Thanx so much again!^^ I'm still trying to recover from my state of shock.
Thanks for the heads up on these blogs. Alot of great stuff out there. Yours included.
ReplyDeleteI found in the blog a useful tool to organize and explain my work (politics caricatures for press articles) as well as to get inspiration from others. I thank you for that.
ReplyDeleteThere are many free host places besides "Blogger". I chosed "Blogsome" with WordPress templates and personalized help in its forum.
I've ben using typepad, although I've had a blogger blog since 2000. Typepad, though not free, has certain things that make it worth checking out. Seward Street gave me the idea.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the links. I'll spend some time checking them out. I really dig how the community is expanding at such a rate.
Love your blog!! Very informative!! I join blogger this month, it's indeed is a great way to communicate and share artistic vision with many talented artists and fellow animators all over the world!!
ReplyDeleteCheck out your site, great stuffs! :)
love the headline! this is a most amazing time - watching all of this evolve. great links as always!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget about Flickr.com! It has gott to be the easiest way to manage an online portfolio.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about it being a "desperate, clawing need for attention", but it IS nice that artists on the animation side are finally getting out there and being seen! Thanks for listing all these talented people's blogs...it's inspiring to say the least.
ReplyDelete--Sandra