cosmosue.net

I’ve decided to add the “Frequently Asked Questions” page to answer some common questions I recieve on a daily basis. If you don’t see what you are looking for here, please feel free to email me any other questions you may have. All Questions regarding Copyright can be found in the link on the home page to the Copyright information.

Q. Are you still taking fan art/gaming sig requests?

A. No. I am no longer taking requests for Everquest/Game Artwork. If this changes in the future I will update this page. I appologize but I have moved on to other types of work at this time.

Q. How do you do these artworks and how can I learn to do them?

A. I use Photoshop CS. I am self taught, I never went to school for digital arts. I used tutorials available online free, and I figured everything out myself. No I won’t teach you. However, if you ask me a specific question about something I might be able to answer it. I will not, however, just turn over everything I ever taught myself to someone who is not willing to even try to help themselves, so stop asking, help yourself first, if you can’t acheive your goals that way, I will gladly assist you on a specific question or problem you are having.

Q. Do you freehand your artwork or is it a photo or something else?

A. Many of my works are in the photomanipulation category because I feel that those works contain more photo than painting, but almost all my works contain at least SOME painting (usually tons) by hand or mouse (earlier works were done with a mouse), also each peice usually contains some information in the artists description, and usually I will write in there what I did to the base image, which I usually use a “stock photo” as my base and work from there. Many times I use photos just for reference, or I may use a small part of the photo and paint the rest by hand. Most of my works will appear in the Digital Art>Misc. category simply because I use other programs as well (like 3d renders for backgrounds) and then repaint them or because I use several techniques to finish an artwork, all intertwined with digital hand painting.

Q. Will you take all my old photographs and make them look new or will you make me into a fairy?

A. Sure if you are willing to pay me, I don’t work for free, this is my hobby and my job, email me and we can discuss it. But you will be required to provide high quality photos yourself.

Q. How do you make the backgrounds?

A. It depends - I have made backgrounds from brushes, from 3d programs like Vue 5 and Poser 6, and I done a lot of hand painting on them, also in the past I have used photographs. Some are also backgrounds I have purchased from renderosity that I paint over and manipulate to my needs.

Q. Do you use a mouse or a tablet?

A. I am now proud to say that I use a Wacom Intuos3 9×12 and I absoluely LOVE it. I can’t see how I ever did anything without it, if you are serious about your work, I highly recommend investing some money into a tablet, you can get them as cheap as $99 from best buy, or spend over $1000 at the Wacom store. Mine was around $450 but I managed a discount

Q. What are your other “tools of the trade”?

A. Well besides Photoshop, I sometimes use Vue 5 to render a background in 3d and repaint it, also I have Poser 6, the only other program I really love is Painter, every great once in a while I will pull out my good old sketch pad & pencils and scan something into my pc as a base to work from. Tools I use w/in photoshop are brushes mainly, and sometimes styles/actions, not to mention many many of the other tools w/in the program!

Q. So where can I get the stock you use?

A. You can do a search for it on Deviant Art or simply visit the DA Stock Gallery, or follow the credits in my image description.

Q. So what is the best advice you can give me if you are not able to teach me?

A. Open photoshop, dive in head first, play with all the tools, get familiar with how things work and what they do…Buy a book if you like, sometimes its helpful to people, it will certainly help you look up terms and tools and such, I never really used mine. If you are really stuck on something or wish to chat about art my MSN Messenger info is on my main DA page, but please remember I am a stay at home mom of 2 kids and I am very busy so I don’t mean to be short with people but sometimes it just can’t be helped, just try again another time

Q. What do you charge for artworks?

A. I do not have a base price, I price by job, check the commissions link to the right for more info.

Q. If I place an order when can I expect it to be completed?

A. Usually 1-3 weeks.

Q. What will my artwork look like when its finished?

A. I have many artworks in my galleries, please feel free to take a look at these artworks to get some ideas. No two pieces are ever exactly the same, so in that aspect they are unique and you can rest assured yours will also be unique. Each piece is usually a collaboration of the customers ideas and my creativity. Feel free to express your ideas freely and we can come up with something you will be happy with. If you would like a specific color scheme, mood…etc. please let me know before I start your artwork. If you would like to leave it completely up to me that is fine as well, just be aware that I am going to work with your photos the way I feel best suites them, drastic changes after the work is given over to you will be an extra charge.

Q. Can I use your artwork for my blog/website templates/sigs?

A. No. I cannot give you full permission to use my gallery as you see fit. Why? Because some of the images I have used in my artwork are by stock artists who don’t want thier face as your blog/template, and I am going to respect them and not allow it, also its my work, and I am tired of not being credited for it, I don’t want to be another nameless faceless fantasy artist on the internet! ALSO some images have been made for people specifically and I will not allow those to be used by anyone else! This is VERY important! I do browse online a LOT and if I catch you using my images w/o prior permission you will be asked to remove them. PLEASE ALSO NOTE: Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES will I allow TUBES OR BRUSHES to be made out of ANY OF MY WORKS! They are NEVER to be tubed/brushed and distributed to ANYONE. I will not grant permission for this at this time. I am sorry but I just do not feel comfortable with this.

Q. So what else do you do?

A. I am at stay at home mother to a 10yr old and a 9month old, I am also married. Besides taking care of my kids I do my artworks, manage my personal site, & manage my cafepress store. I also have commissions to work on sometimes. I am very busy! I mod at a parenting site & and I also try to keep up with being on staff at #Digital Media.

Hope this helps clear up some questions! If you have any other questions you would like to ask, stay tuned for a Featured Chat coming in a couple weeks! (March) the announcement will be made soon!

More Questions and Answers to come as I think of them. Please see the “Copyright” information page for questions regarding anything to do with copyright. If you think there is a question that should be added to this FAQ please email me.