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[1/17/2008 5:20:46 AM]
Hello friends! Wow, this is certainly the longest I have ever gone without updating the site. I wish I could say that I'm sorry for the lack of updates over the last six months but the fact of the matter is, day to day life in a new country has a magical way of keeping you busier than you realize and making the time fly! We've been more places than I could ever hope to mention in a quick site update and we've loved every minute of it. I do apologize for the lack of updating though. I never could have imagined just how preoccupied I would be once we got here.
Those of you familiar with the site will probably notice a few changes right away. I've uploaded some new art, changed the icons style used for all of my image thumbnails, and trashed my subpar online biography. The biography will be back however, as soon as I get an updated resume finished to attach to it. That said, there is something of the upmost importance I need to make note of while I have your attention. Ethereal-Imagery.com as we know it will cease to exist in a few months. That's right I'm being "fickle" and changing my mind again. But to be totally serious, this site name and URL just isn't working for a serious business name. It's hard to remember, lots of people spell it incorrectly, and it doesn't easily lend itself to being "iconified". Put another way I've had a very difficult time coming up with business card graphics that go with the name, and so, later this year (likely around April) I will be launching a brand new site. Stay tuned! It will be worth the wait!
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[7/20/2007 11:00:00 AM]
The greatest adventure is what lies ahead. Today and tomorrow are yet to be said. The chances, the changes are all yours to make. The mold of your life is in your hands to break. The greatest adventure is there if you're bold. Let go of the moment that life makes you hold. To measure the meaning can make you delay; It's time you stop thinkin' and wasting the day. The man who's a dreamer and never takes leave, Who thinks of a world that is just make-believe, Will never know passion, will never know pain. Who sits by the window will one day see rain...
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
This song, from The Hobbit, was always a great source of inspiration for me as a child but I have never been more inspired by the words above until now in my 28th year as I prepare to embark on a journey halfway around the world. In approximately four hours my new wife and I will depart Little Rock on our way to Springfield, MO. There we will deposit a handful of boxes full of things we want to keep at my parents place. There will be a BBQ, a goodbye party, and time with family and friends. After a few days in Springfield we'll begin our drive to Colorado where upon our arrival we will party a bit more and leave the car with her brother. On July 28th we leave American soil on a plane bound for Fiji, and ultimately New Zealand. The bad news, there will be no updates here until sometime after August 3rd. The good news, I'll finally be doing artwork fulltime once we arrive! Stay tuned, things are about to AMP up! I could not BE MORE EXCITED!
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[6/8/2007 11:00:00 AM]
Hey everybody! As most of you likely noticed the site design and layout has shifted once again. Though temporary at best the changes made over the last few days were necessary. The now missing side bar was hard to remove because I like getting to know my visitors but registration was extremely low and it's no real secret why. When I started converting this site from HTML to ASP.NET last year my ultimate goal was to implement an interactive system where visitors could leave comments for newsposts and artwork, send messages to one another, search for content using tags, and other cool things. Unfortunately I've never found the time to sit down and finish such a system. Once I settle in Wellington I know I'll have the time needed to get these enhancements in place and I'll bring back visitor registration. In the meantime don't hesitate to shoot me a message if you have any comments or suggestions regarding my work or the site. Feedback is ALWAYS welcome.
Having said all that, this temporary layout is far from perfect. The front page has a giant hole in it from the GNADs comic being removed but that will be fixed asap. I have two comic ideas I'm working on at the moment but I'm not sold on either of them yet and it doesn't make sense to link to either on them until they're ready for public view. I'm sure I'll find something to fill the gap with soon enough. Last but not least, click around in the gallery a bit and let me know what you think of the new java based image display system I'm using now. It's called ThickBox and I absolutely LOVE IT! Till next time, peace!
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[5/29/2007 4:05:00 PM]
As of this morning I have three character sketches left to color for Black Lantern and my contributions for this project will reach an end. Initially my contract called for 6 full color backgrounds and 11 full color character sketches. However, with the wedding planning and preparations for our move to New Zealand keeping me nice and busy we revised the contract to 11 full color characters and 6 background sketches. For those of you out there who are capable of creating environmental images and doing so in a reasonable amount of time I salute you. I never could have imagined how difficult and time consuming such images can be. That said I plan to practice creating such images from here on out!
Speaking of wedding and moving plans, things are moving along quite well. I have one final form to fill out for my New Zealand visa application, and a few more items to sell/give away but I'm almost ready. As far as the wedding is concerned, I couldn't be more excited! In a little over a month I'll be marrying the woman of my dreams in one of the most beautiful parts of the United States. The week will be filled with fun, family and friends and I'm well aware of the fact that I am extremely blessed in all of those areas.
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[5/8/2007 11:21:00 AM]
Great news friends! As of just over a week ago I'm an official contract artist for Black Lantern Studios and HOT DAMN I am pumped! Granted it is contract work for a single unannounced project, and as such there is no guarantee for long term employment down the road but I am extremely excited and grateful for the opportunity nonetheless! The guys at Black Lantern are a truly enjoyable bunch to work with and I'm having a blast so far!
As for the specifics of the project, I've signed an NDA (non disclosure agreement) so I'm limited on how much I can talk about it but I will share what little information I can. My portion of the art for this project will focus on four main characters and a handful of game environments where said characters interact. The contract calls for the creation of 11 color character poses and 6 color backgrounds. As most of you know, up to this point art updates have always been few and far between around here. My hope is to change that with this, and hopefully other future projects as well. I'll post some updates from the project once it is officially announced and said images have been approved to share. Stay tuned!
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[4/30/2007 10:41:00 AM]
I've posted a new image this morning with a style unlike anything I've ever done before. Most of my full color work up to this point has always utilized heavy black outlines. This stems from the fact that I typically use an inked scan as the base for a full color image. However, in an attempt to challenge myself, I decided to try something a little different this time around. Rather than ink the image before scanning it into photoshop I chose to scan the pencil sketch and color it directly. Though the results could use some work I'm fairly certain I like the overall look a lot better. SKETCH - RESULT
In other news, though it will likely be at least 4-5 months before the changes go live I'm in the process of cooking up a new and improved user experience once again. Though I like the somewhat minimalist slate blue design I've got going on here it doesn't really suit an online art gallery. This is a matter of opinion of course, but I also feel like there are a lot of things I could add to make the experience more enjoyable. It will be a while though. Until then, I shall continue the New Zealand job hunt and keep posting updates as time allows. Till next time, peace!
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[4/11/2007 7:08:47 PM]
I have some awesome news to share today, but first; a sketch from one of my current art projects. Gearhead is the temporary name I've given to the robot pictured HERE. As you've probably noticed there are a few different robots like this floating around my website. He's a character I've been dreaming up for a while now and his design is an ongoing process. In this latest attempt I tried to beef up his level of detail without making him too complicated. The head has changed significantly to be more expressive, the body is now sporting an extra layer of armor, and there are buttons and lights added here and there that beg to be touched. I wish he was already colored and ready for print but I've been pretty busy these last few months, which brings me back to the big news.
As of a little over a month ago my fiancee and I will be relocating to Wellington, New Zealand shortly after our wedding this coming summer. BLAM! Just like that! I'll post more details in a future update but suffice it to say that I'll be using this opportunity to begin a fullscale shift of my day to day energies away from IT towards art and design. More info ASAP!
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[1/24/2007 11:50:15 AM]
Good day friends, and a happy new year to all of you. I apologize for the lack of updates over the last month and a half. Holidays are killer on the freetime and this year was no exception. My fiance and I spent Christmas week in Colorado with her family (the week of the Blizzard) and the following new years weekend with my family. After that it was back to the daily routine with a few small changes. First and foremost we're both trying to get in shape in time for the wedding. As such we've both been spending more time in the gym. It's time well spent, but time I'm used to having for other things.
In other, more are related, news I've also enrolled in my first drawing class. Up to this point everything I've learned as an artist has been self taught. So in an attempt to get more serious about improving my style I'm now taking a figure drawing class at the local art center. It's a lot of quick sketches, value studies, and working in ways quite different than I'm used to but I think it's going to be a huge help in the long run. If you're interested in seeing some of my class work I've posted a few sketches online HERE Till next time!
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[12/5/2006 12:53:57 AM]
Good evening ladies and gentlemen! I hope each of you had a most splendid "Turkey Day" this year. Mine was fantastic in case any of you were wondering! Tonight I'd like to take a moment to present my most recent sketch; an image I created for a good friend of mine who has always been extremely supportive of my work and a valuable asset anytime I've asked for constructive feedback. I call this image "Age of Innocence"; appropriately named for the blood elf female it depicts, long before the destruction of the sunwell and the impending corruption of the race in general. If none of that makes much sense to you suffice it to say it's a pretty elf girl and we'll call it good.
As I mentioned in my last update, prints of a full color version of this image will be available for visitors to purchase RIGHT HERE on Ethereal-Imagery.com in the near future. If you or someone you know may be interested in purchasing a full color version of this image please feel free to drop me a line via the question/comment form on the FAQ page. I'll be sure to let you know when those prints will be available!
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[11/22/2006 3:05:20 PM]
Thanksgiving is easily one of my favorite holidays! Ok so 80% of all holidays are my "favorites". I can see my darling Vanessa smiling at me now. She's thinking "You love holidays like you love music, and sandwiches Jay; too much to settle on just one choice!" And she would be right! Thanksgiving is extremely special to me however; that one time of year I get to spend time with my family and enjoy some good home cooking. Christmas is equally special from a "gathering" standpoint, but I feel like the presents are an unnecessary distraction I could do without.
Anyhow, I wanted to take a moment this afternoon to give you all an update before I disappear into the wilderness of southwest Missouri for a few days. This last week I began working on my second paid commission, this one for my good friend Rae in California. Her only request for this commission was I draw something "fantasty oriented". Shes put a lot of faith in my ability by saying that and I don't plan to disappoint. CLICK HERE to see a preview of the work in progress. Per Rae and I's agreement, full color prints of this image will be up for sale once it's finished.
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[11/5/2006 7:05:50 PM]
Good evening friends! Tonight I am proud to announce the completion of my first publicly commissioned image: Ike Turner, the somewhat sinister mascot for the online art community The Angry Crayon. My personal thanks go out to Roz, primary administrator of "The Crayon", for allowing me this opportunity. Assuming the community responds to Ike in a positive manner we may soon see a series of related images created over the coming weeks.
In the meantime, though this goes without saying I'll repeat it for good measure. With this being a commissioned piece I ask that visitors please be respectful and refrain from displaying and/or altering this image in any way for their own purposes. Doing so is not only extremely uncool, it's also illegal. So please, if you like the style of our new friend Ike, take a moment to see about a commission of your own. I would be more than happy to see what I can do for you. That's it for tonight folks! I hope each of you have had a fantastic weekend! Goodnight!
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[10/30/2006 1:43:55 PM]
With my favorite baseball team winning the World Series and my favorite holiday coming up tomorrow the last week and a half has been both exciting and extremely busy. Having said that I'm still doing my very best to keep the flow of updates coming and promise to continue doing so. The last thing I want is a website full of old artwork sitting out on the web collecting dust. No sir, I want a dynamic gallery of work with constant updates to keep the hits coming. And so, here I am, typing up a quick blurb to let you all know whats coming down the tube.
Last week I spent a few afternoons working on an improved user experience for the site. Several visitors had suggested a less tedius navigation system where most everything is but a single click away so that's precisely what you're going to get. In addition I'm also reworking the registration and login sections of the website to be less invasive. I'll have more details on these enhancements in a future update. In the meantime feel free to contribute questions and/or comments by filling out the new form in the FAQ section. I have four commissions in the queue right now so art updates are imminent. Stay tuned!
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[10/20/2006 5:23:11 PM]
Yes, read the title of this news post again and squeel with glee! (I know I am!) After an extremely long wait, I am FINALLY opening up commission requests to the general public. For somewhere close to four years now I've been dabbling with Ethereal-Imagery as an actual business. Along the way I've created somewhere close to 100 complete images by request; most of which I made for friends and family at virtually no cost; a sprinkling of which I made for actual businesses. But one thing has always remained the same... no truly public commissions. That changes today! Interested in something for yourself? Wanna challenge me? Click the "Orders" button above and bring it on! Now, one more thing before I depart. In addition to taking public commissions I'm also in the progress of creating a startup collection of prints for sale. This will likely take a few months to build but it will be worth the wait! Stay tuned!
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[10/18/2006 4:30:17 PM]
Greetings vagabonds of the Internet! Are you ready to see some new artwork from yours truly? I sure hope so cause I'm definitely ready to share some! Now I realize that most of the time my updates like these are riddled with ambiguous words and phrases like "soon", "shortly" or "before long". This, however, is not one of those times. Over the last couple week's I've spent a fair amount of time working on my entry for StudioMMO's annual Halloween Howl art exchange and this weekend I will finally be ready to unveil my entry. For those of you who aren't familiar with StudioMMO feel free to have a look by clicking HERE. I could go on and on about how much I love this art community but I think you'd be better off seeing it for yourself. In other news, for those of you who haven't heard, I'm also currently working on a wedding website for my fiance Vanessa and I. Yes, you heard right, the troll is getting married! Check out JayAndVanessa.com for more information! And with that I bid each of you adieu. As always, thanks for stopping by!
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[8/18/2006 5:56:12 PM]
I apologize for being somewhat late in getting this update posted. It's summertime, it's hot, I'm lazy... take your pick. All the same I'm here now, and I've got a rather cool update to share with you all. A few weeks ago I was contacted by a friend of mine, Tara J. Brannigan, about the possibility of doing an interview for xxGamers.com. Having never been interviewed by anyone for much of anything, unless you count my "meet the editors" feature in our highschool paper, I found the offer quite enticing. Tara asked some really good questions, some of which gave me pause and made me think in depth about what it is I hope to accomplish here at Ethereal-Imagery. All in all, it was a wonderfully enjoyable experience and I sincerely thank Tara and all the staff at xxGamers for giving me the opportunity. If you'd like to give the interview a glance, or maybe take a peak at a great editorial site for gamers in general, hop on over to xxGamers by clicking HERE! Art updates are still in the works, admittedly I've been a little distracted as of late. Stay tuned!
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[8/4/2006 11:18:39 AM]
Site updates have slowed a bit but with good reason. As of this morning I have several projects in the works, all in various stages of development. The unfortunate fact is that most of these images are due in less than a month but I'll do my best. If you're interested in having a sneak peak at what I'm working on have a look right here. This is the least important of all the images I'm working on, yet ironically the one thats furthest along. I'd love to link you to the rest of the images but they're either for contest entries or gifts so I can't just yet. That being said if you're new to the site and want to contact me about a commission request please feel free to do so, (Email: jawnee AT gmail DOT com) but please be patient. As soon as I get a few things crossed off I'll focus on getting the orders section of the site finished which will make handling new commission requests significantly easier. As for the site, paypal donations are working through the paypal button on the left if you're interested. Coming soon: Guestbook functionality and online commission requests. As always stay tuned, the site is very much alive now!
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[7/20/2006 6:02:04 PM]
That's right, site registration is open as promised, though I can't guarantee at this point that it's 100% foolproof. In fact, there are a few things I've not yet coded for that could cause issues in a few certain cases but overall I feel the registration section is ready to open. To sign up simply click the "Register Now" link below the Login section to the left and follow the prompts. Page two of the registration process will ask for more personal information such as your real name, address, shoe-size... just kidding about that last part, but it's optional. You're not required to submit this information but I would encourage you to do so on the off chance you'd like to place an order here on Ethereal-Imagery sometime in the future. Eventually I'll add the necessary pages to edit this information so you can add it later but for now these pages don't exist. Now I'm seriously taking a little break from the programming and doing some art. When I get back I'll tackle that orders section. Till then, peace out!
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[7/19/2006 5:54:42 PM]
The verdict is in, and Visual Studio .NET 2005 is awesome. Yes I realize writing a site with tools like these might be considered laziness to some. Heck, considering the fact I've written every previous incarnation of this thing using a generic text editor I'll be the first to admit that it feels a lot like cheating. But the way I see it I code for a living and this is an art site. Any time I can save not having to work on the website's presentation is time better spent working on images to put here. That being said things are moving along quite nicely. I had some problems with the prepackaged login controls that come with VS.NET, but I've found a sufficient work around to get the job done. If tomorrow proves to be a cooperative day I should be able to open up site registration sometime in the afternoon. After that, hold on to your boots! I've officially decided on an image to draw for Blizzard's Fan Art contest, and while I'm slow at times, and the due date is a bit sooner than I'd like I'm going to give it my best shot. Wish me luck... and hey, thanks for stopping by!
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[7/17/2006 11:19:56 AM]
This weekend I took a few hours to create a new user experience for all of you visiting Ethereal-Imagery.com. The old interface is still around and may eventually be changed into a selectable theme for the site down the road, but I like this new, somewhat darker theme with it's crisp lines a lot better. It's not a finished product though so things will likely continue to change over the next couple weeks. In the meantime, the best part of the entire update isn't the new look itself, but the fact that I'm now free to start on some new art projects. To name a few of the projects I'll be sharing in the next couple months: First up will be my entry for the Blizzard Fan-Art Contest, followed by an image of Galahad the Paladin and Ferekar the Grey-Elf Mage. After that I hope to complete a little something for the woman I love, and last but not least, the first in a new series of robot images. Stay tuned for further updates and subscribe to my RSS Feed if you haven't already!
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[7/14/2006 9:57:46 AM]
I now find myself at a point where I've revamped everything I already had here, and added a few things that were long overdue... but in my hand sits a long list of things the site needs and I'm having a hard time choosing which one to tackle first. Yesterday I took some time to fix the Javascript popups so that each popup window more closely fit the size of the image inside. This required some additional information stored in the database and a change to the image object but it was a fairly painless update overall. I also managed to locate an extremely handy flash based music player to use down the road. At this point none of my music is worth sharing, or even sampling for that matter, but eventually I know I'll want a simple little player to stream music with and I found just that. If you're curious skip on over to SourceForge and have a look around. It's pretty cool! In other news, the login and registration sections are still busted and I'm not sure why just yet but I'm on it. They work fine on my local machine but not after I deploy them. Something about not being able to connect to the authentication database remotely. Work is busy today so my time may be limited but I'll try to have it fixed by the end of the day.
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[7/12/2006 3:29:59 PM]
Things continue to change almost daily here at Ethereal-Imagery. As of this morning I've made a few slight modifications to the layout, namely changing the images used for the headers above and updating the masterpage for the site to include the new sidebar to the left. Unfortunately most of these changes are for show at this point and lack any real functionality but I'm making progress none the less. That being said you're welcome to try logging into the website but I promise you it won't work, that is unless you know the sole user login that I've already created. At this point my top priority is creating pages and processes for handling site registration. I'd like visitors to have the option to to sign up for special giveaways, newsletters, and RSS feeds when they stop by. Though I've not made any significant amount of progress towards this goal just yet it's a feature the site will definitely have before long. In other news, Blizzard recently announced a new fan art contest which I'll be entering so if all goes well I should have an update with some new art attached to it instead of more of these boring site updates within a couple weeks. Take care till then.
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[7/10/2006 1:00:36 PM]
I'm pleased to announce that as of today Ethereal-Imagery.com is no longer using static HTML files. No sir! Thanks to some hard work, determination, and the help of a few knowledgeable friends we're well on our way to a fully functional ASP.NET 2005 website. The gallery pages are working, the links pages are working, and the newspage is working. The only immediate problems I'm having include a bug with the news archive page, missing code for the orders page (in other words don't try to place an order just yet), and a handful of missing graphics. But these issues should hopefully be resolved by the end of the day so I'm not too worried. After that theres a short list of "look and feel" changes to be made, a forum to add, and a few miscellaneous items but we're definitely getting close. Please feel free to email me any suggestions you have: Jawnee@Gmail.com
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[7/6/2006 4:23:11 PM]
I made great progress on the site upgrade today: I've registered with Viux hosting service and redirected my DNS entries accordingly, fixed a set of bugs with the Orders page, finished the code behind the links page, finished the code behind the gallery page, and entered all the database entries for the links I'd saved. At this point I need to do the following: Replace the preheader, and header images with plain background style images, create the first of many header layers to display a random character to greet visitors, create a new forum navbar icons and a new comic navbar icon, create a new smaller thumbnail template, redo all the thumbnails for existing images using the new template, add a registration page, add a site login panel, download an open source flash mp3 player, finish composing my first original track for the site, download the source for a ASP based forum solution, and so on and so forth. As you can see there is still a ton to do but I'm getting there.
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[7/5/2006 3:54:23 PM]
Once again months have passed me by without updating the site. I've decided to stop making excuses at this point considering the fact this isn't my primary means of making a living. I still feel bad however about taking so long to get things completely functional. Oh well, such is life. What can you do? Over the last two weeks I've been working to convert the site to ASP.NET 2005, a process made tedius by the fact that I've always designed my websites in Notepad in the past but it's coming along. Hopefully within a month it will all be finished but I make no promises. As of right now the main page and the archived news pages are both dynamic. I've completed a webform for taking online orders but it's nowhere near completion yet. I'm trying to design the new site with as much forward thinking as I can muster in hopes that I'll hit fewer snags down the road. This makes things take longer but will hopefully pay off in the end. Peace out!
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[10/2/2005]
Hi everybody! Hi Doctor Nick! I bet you all thought I'd disappeared again. Well I'm happy to report that I'm still alive and well, I'm just getting ready for things to slow down a bit so I can start spending more time being creative. For whatever reason fall and winter always seem to be my two most productive seasons when it comes to artwork... maybe thats because there aren't as many outdoor activities to be enjoyed when it's cooler out. Regardless of the cause, I'm looking forward to spending more time with my sketchbook. I've been practicing some new coloring techniques with my tablet as of late and hope to put that practice to good use very soon. In the meantime however, I hope you'll enjoy the new line art I've uploaded this evening. This image was requested by a friend of mine from TzT, Shawn H. Thanks again Shawn!
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[8/29/2005]
The color gallery is uploaded, HOWEVER, its only fair that I warn you... all of the images are extremely dated and the gallery is dominated by... dwarves. Yes you heard me, dwarves are holding my color gallery hostage. This is not good as it will only further solidify the belief several of my friends hold that my love for these little fellows borders on an unhealthy obsession, but what can I say, they're awesome. But seriously, I had no idea how long it had been since I'd completed a full color picture until tonight and boy do I need to get busy. The good news though is that I have an extremely long list of requests right now that will require just that so it shouldn't be long before I'll have more material to share. Next up, the links section. That should prove to be quite the task considering I only have about... oh, fifty of them. :-p But hey, August isn't gone yet and I'm almost done. I CAN DO IT! Till next time boys and girls, adios.
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[8/25/2005]
Tonight I went through the time consuming task of rescanning, resizing, iconifying (is that even a word?), and uploading thirty "new" pencil sketches from the last few years. Most of these are from 2005 but there are a handful of images from 2003 and 2004. Honestly, I had forgotten about over half of these pictures so despite the amount of time spent I really can't complain. I had a blast sifting through all of them. Though my links section isn't finished yet I should probably mention that the vast majority of these images are character portraits commissioned by the creative geniuses over at Black Lantern Studios. So even though it goes without saying, don't take any of these images without speaking with me first. Things I've drawn for myself are one thing, but things I've been paid for are another matter altogether. The guys at BLS own exclusive rights to several of these and well, you really don't want them to come after you... trust me on this one, you NEED your kneecaps.
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[8/24/2005]
Well kids, its been a LOOOOOONG night (and a little bit of a morning at that) but at least I've got one of my galleries uploaded. Most of the images I added tonight are slightly dated but they're a few of my favorites. If anything maybe they'll help illustrate the progress I've made as an artist... or something. The news archive is also working now, not that old news is really that exciting or anything but I digress. Over the course of the next few days I should have both of the remaining galleries completed as well. After that I'll be fixing the links section... and then it will finally be time for me to fix the orders page so you people can actually request work and pay me. *CHA-CHING!* Until then, enjoy the completed Ink Gallery. Peace.
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[8/16/2005]
Hello everyone and welcome to Ethereal-Imagery.com, the new home for the art of yours truly, Jay Darnell (aka Jawnee). I'd like to begin by thanking my friends Courtney and Dara for giving me the extra motivation needed to finally get this site up. While things may be incomplete at the moment I promise to work diligently over the course of the next few weeks until everything is finalized for your viewing pleasure. For those of you who found your way here from my old site, Jbravoh.com, you might be wondering about a few things, namely the new site redesign and name change. In short Jbravoh.com was basically a staging ground, a place where I could toss pebbles of creativity into the pond of cyberspace and observe. EI.com, on the other hand, is the inevitable resulting fruit of those observations, an official business website tailored to meet the creative needs of an art starved world.
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