Posted on July 20, 2009

• Wow. I hit a little rough patch healthwise over the past few weeks. I had to go into surgery 3 times (nothing life threatening), most recently last Friday. I think I am coming out of it now though and I did get a chance last week to do some sitting at the computer and do a little creating. I was going back and forth about entering my project in a contest but in the end I decided it was far more important to post it here than wait until the contest was over. Nothing I could possibly win in any contest could be better than the what I have going with Digital Blasphemy. Let others win the prizes.

  My new project is called “Canopy Creek” and it’s up now for your review on the new images page. You could call it a reworking of my “Canopy” wallpaper from 2000 though I chose a different title for this one. Thankfully it only took a few hours to render 😉

  I have another project that I am still working on and I hope to have that one up before the end of the week. Be sure to check out my news posts below if you only visit the site when I post new images. Thanks!

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Posted on July 15, 2009

• Time for a little update. First off you will note that I have added my “status” to the upper right corner of the page. Upon looking at the items I list you may wonder to yourself: “What do I care what games Ryan is playing on his phone?”. Well, I’m posting that stuff because you may get a better idea where my inspirations come from.
  For example, I am pretty positive that “Beginning of the End” was inspired by my reading “Dying of the Light” by George R.R. Martin. By knowing what I am into at the moment I hope you all might have a better insight as to where my ideas come from. If you have comments on the “Staus” section please give them below or follow the link at the bottom of the box itself.
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• I also wanted to mention that I have finally found a use for the “ryanbliss.com” domain that my Mom purchased for me many years ago. I’m using it as an extended “artist bio” with pages about me, my family, and a brief history of my artwork. It is a work in progress but check it out if you are interested. If you have any feedback feel free to share it below.
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Posted on July 12, 2009

• A few items to report today. First, I am starting work on a new project and leaving the site alone for now (everything will stay as you see it). I’m finally starting to feel normal again.

  Second, I was making some changes on my server a couple of days ago (adding a couple of domains) and apperently the changes broke the script which allowed Members to purchase renewals. I just wanted you all to know that the renewal script is working again and anyone who wasn’t able to renew can now do so.

  Lastly, I am thinking about entering one of my images in the Vue d’Esprit “Environments” contest. I would like to hear which you guys think would have the best chance of winning. Thanks!!

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Posted on July 7, 2009

• If I hadn’t been laid up the past couple of weeks I probably would have stopped my workstation in the middle of its epic re-rendering of “Enshrouded”. Since I didn’t have anything better for it to be doing I let it go.

  The render finally finished this afternoon and I’ve posted it on the New Images page for your review. The clouds look more like fog to me now and that is what I was going for. Too bad my workstation isn’t fast enough to render these sorts of effects more quickly.

  I will set my other renderer going on a multi-screen render ASAP.

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• As far as the site tweaking goes I think I am done for now. I’ve taken some of the advice given and I have dramatically shortened the links on the left. Access to the gallery is now through the “gallery” link (or the “Newest Images” link above) and once there you can browse my images in a number of ways.

  I’ve removed the background image. The people who hated it really hated it a lot and the people who liked it were like “sure whatever”. I’ve also added a comment form to the top of each comments page so you can more easily add your own.

  Yes, this site is due for a majhor overhaul using the most modern technology. That will have to wait until I am on my new server though. To be honest, I’m thinking about bringing someone on to help with the web design part of the job. I would rather concentrate more on my artwork.

  Anywyay, thanks everyone for the feeback thus far. Let me know what you think of the newest layout.

  Comments (68)

Posted on July 6, 2009

• Thanks for all the feedback! From what I can gather, the background will only work if it doesn’t contain a focal point. Makes sense to me. I’ve replaced the Phraxis background with something a little more neutral. Somewhere down the line I will make it so you can choose to have a background or not (and maybe choose from a number of different styles).
  I’ve made one rather large non-cosmetic change. I’ve removed the gallery links from the left hand list. Rather than go year-to-rear, you can now just hit up the “gallery” page, see them all, and go from there. I’ve removed the “Lightbox” script so clicking the thumbnail now takes you to the larger thumbnail with download options. I may tweak the navagation options on the gallery page a little (make it so you can download the size you want without clicking to the new page for instance). I’d like to hear what you guys think of the change.
• Late Update: After hearing from a number of Members I have decided to leave the “year” links in place.