Rant about the people that diss my artAfter being up on Organic Metal’s main Fanart gallery for several years, I’ve decided to remove the piece “Honey does some spring cleaning” and place it in the Blog. (I’ve back-dated it to an earlier blog entry)  Why?... Not because I don’t like the picture, but around 1 in 2 comments added to the artwork page were flames or complaints on how distasteful the artwork is! The fact the picture was specifically drawn for a Hentai art contest makes me wonder why people would bother saying something along the lines of “she should be wearing clothes” or “she shouldn’t be in a provocative position” since that was the whole point!  The whole issue of me posting sexy, erotic or hentai art has become something that winds me up. My argument is this: It’s my site, my art, my opinions and my preferences- you either acknowledge this and check out my stuff, or don’t look at it and go elsewhere. I think that’s fair. I feel even if one day I wanted to post uncensored ‘pornographic’ artwork on OM, that’s up to me and I shouldn’t have to face abuse or criticism for it. Especially on my own web site! However, quite a few visitors to OM have felt they need to make an unuseful, and annoying remark on the girls I draw- particularly how their boobs are too big, or they portrayed as little more than sex objects, which degrades women in general. Am I the only person that thinks this is ridiculous?!  I draw what I like to draw. Criticism like “boobs are too big” seems stupid to me- obviously any artists that draws a girl with big tits does it for a purpose. The boobs were intended to be big!.. Unless you’re a total novice that needs a lot of artistic assistance (something I’d like to think I’m not). Don’t get me wrong- I can take constructive criticism like “she’s got huge boobs, so to make them look more naturally lifted like that you could have made her wear such and such a bra / top / corset or something”. I’m not trying to hurt or offend anyone and I’m sorry if somehow I have. I don’t expect everyone to like everything I do and people are entitled to their own opinions, but I wish some people were more familiar with the phrase “if you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. For people to give negative criticism or diss what I like, do they really think I’ll start changing my preferences or the kind of art I produce just to please them? I really do wish people would be a little more accepting or open minded. It makes me think about how society and individuals in countries such as Japan- (the home of Hentai) wouldn’t even bat an eye lid at any of my work. It’s just accepted along with every other genre of manga, art or storytelling. Perhaps I shoulda moved over there long ago?
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Organic Metal Visitor StatisticsSince January 2001 I’ve been using eXTReMe Tracking to monitor hits and visit data to OM and thought I’d share these statistics before I take down the tracker, which is being replaced by a more accurate tracking alternative. I’m sure half the visits OM receives are to pages contained within the site rather than to the www.organicmetal.co.uk domain itself, but here’s data from what eXTReMe Tracking has picked up so far:  I'm sure a lot of visitors were disapointed to find I've not drawn any Metal Gear Solid Hentai!  These are in fact stats for the last 19 months- didn't include August since the month has only just started. That’s a lot of visits! And I’m happy that so many people have taken the time to stop by and check out my site, which at the end of the day is just one in a million of other personal homepages floating around the internet. Things are slowing down however. A few years back, I’d easily be getting a few hundred visits per day, but this is shot right down according to these stats. I guess the fact OM has not been updated for ages would explain this, so I’m not surprised. Also the fact that promoting websites and pulling in visitors 10 years ago is totally different from today. I imagine the net has grown 1000s of percent since I first opened up the doors to OM and competing with so many other art sites or personal sites is tricky. Especially now there are so many massive Devianart-type sites out there which makes having a personal art site relatively pointless for a lot of people. But I’m happy to keep OM up for as long as possible, since I like it and according to these stats, so do other people 
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Work In Progress...One of the first images I uploaded to the gallery was the "Mechanic Skyscrapper" and ever since finishing it, I wanted to produce another similar style of artwork. The fact the Mech Skyscraper took so long had been putting me off starting another, but about a year ago, I began making progress on a new image *see below* - I've been chipping away at it, adding a little more as and when I feel in the mood and I'm about 4/5 of the way through!- So close to being able to add something new the the OM Gallery!  Here's a section of my next 'Mech doodle Pic'. Taking forever! >_<
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An Update?! Really?!Hello to those still visiting or stumbling across Organic Metal and thanks for stopping by
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Alien InterfaceThis was a little project I put together at uni last year using Macromedia Director (basically a redundant version of Macromedia/ Adobe Flash). The idea was to create an interface with the intention to show a simple process of "Making a Baby". I ended up for whatever reason going off on a HR Giger route and did something 'Alien' inspired. James Cobb provided the sound. Cheers dude!  Click image to see the full working version in new window!
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More Oekaki NeededStopped by the AAUK Oekaki board for a quick late night doodle. I hope to doodle some more soon and maybe do an ‘Open Canvas’ collaboration or two?  The first and only oekaki of the year (So far)
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3D SoftwareNever tried using any kinda 3D software in the past, but always wondered about the idea of one day attempting to get to grips with it. I had a few quick play around goes with Cinema 4D- a supposedly easy 3D application. Admittedly, I didn’t find it as easy to use as I’d expected and gave up on it perhaps a little sooner than I should have. Maybe I should still try going back to it and have another play in the future? Not all was lost- I managed to create this funky abstract ‘thing’  I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what it represents...
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Fantasy CardLast year I was asked to design a new mascot for 'Fantasy Card'. They wanted a manga style sexy cat-suit wearing 'special agent' to enhance their brand identity and to feature on their new web site. She was lots of fun to work on and the client was really pleased with the end result. I was later commissioned to create a Christmas version of Agent Ami for the holidays.  Agent Ami
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Happy New YearHi to everyone viewing this entry in 2007! Hope you had a good time over the holidays  Here’s some artwork I did for the xmas e-card I send out each year. I generally send it out to people on my email address book (about 50 recipients this time). I think that covered most people I know! A large part of my address book comprises of people who I either haven’t talked to for over a few years or probably wont be talking to ever again. So the other day I decided to finally prune my address book down to a third of the size. I feel a bit guilty for erasing so many contacts, but at the same time it feels like my life has just got ‘simpler’ – which is good! As for the artwork, I like it, but since it was a little rushed and looked too similar to the Nikki Card I sent out a few years back, I decided to stick with my current trend of not posting it in the main Organic Metal Gallery. Again, I feel guilty for not having updated the gallery in well over a year! But it’s worth pointing out that all the artwork I have been producing over the last 12 months is either in a doodle / non-polished form (and not worthy of posting), or has been for clients. I guess I -could- post –some- of the client work I do? For now, it’s back to work. Busy as always. After having a longish time off from work, starting up again has hit me pretty hard. Like last year (as of August 06) I’m juggling my Graphic Media Uni course with freelancing, while continuing my part time web design job for ”Optimum Fitness”. Would be great if I only needed to focus on one of the three. Perhaps then I could finally get around to some Organic Metal site updates and break into the many ‘still sealed’ games I have sitting on my shelves. Some of which I bought 7 or 8 years ago! Lol.
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Perhaps you’d like to share it with the rest of the class?Last month I tried my hand at some one on one Photoshop tutoring. My student was really keen to learn how to colour cartoons with Photoshop- mainly just basic stuff, but I took it upon myself to teach nearly everything I knew regarding Photoshop and CGing. He flew (by airplane, rather than superman style) all the way down from Scotland to receive the tutorials which lasted a week. Overall it was a pretty cool experience and I managed to surprise myself with the amount of stuff I knew! But then again, after working with Photoshop on and off for the last 7 years odd, you’d hope I’d know a thing or two! Maybe I will do more teaching in the future?  Other than one of my more manga styled pics, I demonstrated some CG techniques on a Lara Croft drawing by my buddy Greg.
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