The site and blog has moved!
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New MachineI'd been using a Desktop PC for all my computer stuff since forever and 3 years ago I decided to buy my first Laptop. It got to the point whereby I was using my 'Intel i3, 4GB ram 300GB HDD' Laptop 90% of the time and only going back to the PC when I needed to work on a larger Photoshop file which my laptop couldn't handle or to store things on the PC's larger hard drives.  But now I have this: A Lenovo Y500 15.6" Notebook which performs A LOT better than my old PC and laptop put together! This means I can once again update question 14 of my site's Q & A: 14. What equipment do you use to create your work? Before Hardware- Desktop PC:
Software Typically Used: PhotoShop CS5 (64-bit), Dreamweaver CS5, Flash CS5, Illustrator CS5, In-Design CS5, also Open Canvas (only for online drawing sessions with buddies). Now Hardware- Lenovo Y500 15.6" Notebook:
Software Typically Used: Upgraded to Adobe Master collection CS6 Configuring it to run how I wanted wasn't an easy task. Lenovo and Windows seem to team up against their customers if they want to replace hard drives and add a fresh install of Windows 8 on their system, but after a week of trouble-shooting and customizing it's all running how I want now 
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Social Media: I'm now on TumblrI've been thinking about replacing this OM Blog with a Wordpress or Tumblr Blog instead. That may well happen at some point, but for now will keep it in addition to a newly created Tumblr account-  Follow me on Tumblr Follow me on Twitter Add me on Facebook Like my Facebook fan page Watch me on Deviantart Perhaps towards the end of the year I'll get some free time to develop a smaller 'Ben Krefta' web site. A smaller gallery and gateway which links to my ever growing plethora of blogs, profiles and info pages!
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Drawing on the big screen!Hitachi Europe asked if I'd be interested in working for them during the ISE convention in Amsterdam for 2013. My Role was to make use of their new 65" touch screen display by demonstrating how to draw manga style faces.  I'd typically work on one drawing in the morning and one in the afternoon. It was a tiring but fun experience to produce art in this way and would like the chance to do it again some day ^_^
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Drawing more: Alien Girl, Snow Fairy, Pokemon fanI've been making a little more effort to up my character art production levels recently. Check out my Character Art gallery page for latest  8/1/2013: This is a Snow / Ice / Winter Fairy design I completed as part of an Art Trade on Devianart. We agreed to just do sketchy drawings rather than polished works.  14/12/2013: This is an anime style portrait commission of the client's boyfriend. I find it's always tricky to 'animize' real people, but she was very pleased with artwork. 
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Character Styles I've been asking myself for years: "what's my style?" I wouldn't necessarily say I have a definitive style which is unique to me. This is both a strength and a weakness all in one! When working on commissions, clients often ask for certain styles of illustration, so I adapt. Plus I love to vary what I do and these faces are an example of adapting or experimenting with different styles over the last decade+ One thing that can hold me back is when clients commission artwork; unless they nominate a particular style they won't know exactly what to expect from me as my artwork evolves so much each time I draw something new. I don't want to be confined to just manga or just western comic style or just realism, but it would be great if I could develop a solid and consistent portfolio for each of these categories when marketing my services * Why the numbers? For easier reference. * Most art Pencil for the line art + Photoshop for the colour - Some have been inked traditionally, or digitally * They're kinda in chronological order, but not totally * I like drawing faces
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T-Shirt Designs and YoutubeI decided to convert some of my lovely doodle art into shirt designs and submit them to DesignbyHumans- a shirt design contest site.  I need votes to win and get them made up, so if you'd like to vote: [1] Click a link below which'll take you to one of my designs [2] Log in to DesignbyHumans.com by setting up a user name & password, or Login with your Facebook details. [3] Click to Vote link. [4] Add a comment and click the like (heart icon) too if you can. [5] Repeat steps 1,3 and 4 for the remaining designs ^_^ Doodle Blue http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/217451 Mechanical Doodle http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/217019 Aqua Fade Mechanical Doodle http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/217551 Doodle Green http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/217471 I don't really expect to win. The designs that seem to get through have over 100 votes and I don't have a big enough audience to get me that far. Plus I'm not drawing skulls, animals or Samurai which seem to win votes on a consistent basis! Worth a shot though  YouTube: I created my first time-lapse video showing my process using Photoshop. Although since I've condensed 8 hours worth of CGing into 4 minutes, it runs pretty quick! If anyone would be interested in me producing more videos- perhaps slower time-lapse or tutorials, let me know.
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Artwork for sale on thousands of customizable products
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Social Media: I'm now on Twitter and FacebookThanks for stopping by and reading this blog entry on Organic Metal! Guess what? You can now also get new Ben Krefta updates via Social Media sites...  Add me on Facebook  Although having been on Myspace and Facebook for several years, and other profile sites before FB and the like existed, I was never a huge fan of the whole social media thing. I probably cynically saw it as a giant popularity contest and an opportunity for everyone (including many who don't deserve it!) to have platform to shout about their lives to anyone who'll listen. And to be honest I liked it back in the day whereby if you wanted to put yourself on the web, you needed to make some effort, be a bit of a geek, learn some HTML and construct your platform from the ground up rather than being presented with a plethora of pre-made template sites and profile pages. That's still all true to an extent but with the way the internet is right now, it seems to make more sense to have social media profiles where you can potentially connect with millions of people all using the same platform. People want regularly updated information quickly and easily and it's easier to get that from within a social media network than hoping to stumble upon it via Google. And to have the latest news from several/dozens/hundreds of sources/people all gathered in the same place is pretty convenient! What I'm trying to say is, I think I'm being converted! Not massively, but I see the good side to social media now as well as the bad and would love to connect with anyone interested in following me
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Music and SoundI started playing around with a mini synthesizer and some music production software last year and thought I'd upload a few sketchy doodle-like experimental tunes I came up with to YouTube. I'd love to do more tunes providing I have the time and inclination. Maybe update a few classics from old school video games or something? Mini Music experiments Classically Inspired 1 Classically Inspired 2
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