Posted on December 15, 1999

• Where is my Christmas spirit? I meant to work on a happy holiday image these past couple days, but somehow that’s just not what came out. Recent security issues have taken their toll on my “good will towards men”. In fact, if it weren’t for Jessica I probably would have produced something much more dark and sinister. You have her to thank for the little dash of color I added to my latest offering: The Low Road. “It’s too dark Ryan,” she said, ” you should have made that at Halloween”. The Low Road is available in the Night Scenery gallery and in the WIP.

Posted on December 14, 1999

• By request I added 1600 x 1200 renders of Let it Snow and The Ride.

Posted on December 13, 1999

• I posted my Holiday Gallery on the free site. Nothing there that you haven’t seen before, except for maybe this poem that I composed to go along with my text for “Let it Snow”. One of my new year’s resolutions is to sit down and fully annotate every image in the member’s gallery (with more than just a few sentences on what software I used to make it).

  I’m still working on some new holiday images. To tide you over I’ve added a directory to the member’s gallery which I call simply “The Pickle Jar“. During the process of making one of the images you see in my galleries I usually go through three or four different revisions. Some of them are just plain bad and I won’t waste bandwidth or embarrass myself by showing them to you. Others were just a pixel or two away from making it into my gallery, but then something stoped me from posting it and went back and worked on it some more. The “Towers” images are a good example. They show off the towers that I later used to make up Gotham 1999 (I decided a city setting was more appropriate). Right now the Picklejar directory is unindexed (hence the name) and it contains 11 images. Check it out, and if you see an image that you think really belongs in my gallery, drop me a line.

  What’s the difference between these and a Work in Progress? A work in progress, when I post it, is an image that I feel is strong enough to make it into my gallery. Sometimes I’ll look at it later though and decide to make changes. I never planned on posting the images in the pickejar, but then it occurred to me that 1) they were doing no one any good sitting idle on my hard drive, and 2) sometimes an image that I don’t think is very strong turns out to be a favorite of others (Adrift is one example…).

  Like I said though, I’m working on some new stuff right now. Stay tuned!

Posted on December 11, 1999

• Quite a few of you have written me asking if it would be possible to purchase a membership as a gift for someone else. I had stopped offering gift memberships when I switched over to my own secure sever, but I’m happy to announce that my they’re back and better than before. Purchase as many as you like because for each one you buy I’ll add 30 days to your account. I personally think this is the coolest gift idea out around, and if I were anyone else I would love to get one. 🙂 Click here for more info!.

  I think I’ve written enough code to last me while so now I’m going to refocus my efforts on artwork. I will try to keep things in the holiday spirit (see the next item below). Don’t be surprised if you suggestions you gave me show up in my next offering!

• Believe me. I would much rather be making artwork than writing programs to fend off password crackers. Unfortunately, circumstances have dictated otherwise. Please read my new security bulletin. I won’t say anything else about it here, except that my holiday spirit really needs a shot in the arm. 🙁

Posted on December 8, 1999

• The order form for shipping my CD outside the United States is now available.

• Thanks everyone for sending me your holiday wallpaper ideas. Keep ’em coming!

  I decided to freelance a little with my first holiday offering of the season. Sorry if this one gets you humming Elvis uncontrollably. I call it “Blue Christmas”, and it’s up now in the Night Scenery Gallery and the WIP.