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Post by unclegarf on Apr 1, 2020 12:27:31 GMT -8
I'm going back to go forwards! A painting haunting me far too long as one flat and bland. A female with flowers. Revisited it and now it's going from the bland to good art. Never be afraid to do the same with books. We all look back on earlier efforts, knowing we could have done, should have done better. I've done it a few times, including three or four 'flag ship books'. Don't shirk this exercise. Remind yourself why you wrote this in the first place and reinvent it. Take a step back, then move on.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 2, 2020 5:47:56 GMT -8
I'm going back to go forwards! A painting haunting me far too long as one flat and bland. A female with flowers. Revisited it and now it's going from the bland to good art. Never be afraid to do the same with books. We all look back on earlier efforts, knowing we could have done, should have done better. I've done it a few times, including three or four 'flag ship books'. Don't shirk this exercise. Remind yourself why you wrote this in the first place and reinvent it. Take a step back, then move on. I'm revisiting one I was never quite happy with at the moment as well. And have a request for a copy of my Black Lotus. My wife loves the first one, so letting it go wasn't in the cards unless someone came up with some serious cash, then she'd consider it. So to salve the situation I volunteered to paint another!
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 2, 2020 11:20:27 GMT -8
Nice one, Chris. I can never find a simple way to put images on here.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 3, 2020 3:19:37 GMT -8
Nice one, Chris. I can never find a simple way to put images on here. There're a few sites that host imagery where you can post your images, then copy the address and use here and on other forums. I use Deviant Art, Pinterest and Imagur to share photos. I came up with a scheme a couple years back to use folks' love of art to hopefully share my novels with them, so many of them point to my Bizarre Tales site. I have no idea if it's ever worked or not, but these sites do give me a free way to both advertise, and share photos. Should you decide to pursue one, I can help you navigate some, just have to let me know, Gary! I'll be more than happy to help.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 3, 2020 7:24:48 GMT -8
Nice one, Chris. I can never find a simple way to put images on here. By the way, been watching one of your favs in a tv show I never knew about until recently. My daughter started watching Sam and Cat, which features Arianne Grande, whom you painted after the Manchester attack as I recall. She's hilarious! I never knew anything about her, and never listened to her because I'm more classic rock, metal, old punk guy versus this new poppy crap. But she really is funny in that show.
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 4, 2020 7:59:47 GMT -8
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 4, 2020 14:31:13 GMT -8
Very close now, Gary. All you have to do is right-click on the image, and select, " Copy Image Address". Then, in your post on the forum, select the Insert Image icon that you see in the toolbar at the top with the Font Face, Font Size, B, I, etc. It's a button with a landscape painting. The button looks like this: It'll pop a little box up, with a field called Image URL. It probably has http:// in it already, highlighted in blue. At that point, just hold your Ctrl key down, and press ' V' -- the old hotkey to Paste. Alternatively, with that http:// text still highlighted, just right-click with your mouse and select " Paste". You don't need that http:// text because that part of your URL is already in your link you copied from where you right-clicked the image and selected "Copy Image Address". You'll end up with your image inserted like you see below. You did great setting up a Deviant Art page! You can now upload photos of your paintings there, copy the image address and then insert it in your threads here! Bravo, my friend.
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 4, 2020 23:36:30 GMT -8
Thanks Chris. It's just a case of getting used to things. Nearly there. Chris has kindly done the tec thing for me with my Ariana Grande portrait. Click on it to expand it. Painted from a studio photo, inspired by the Manchester bombing, I gave the picture a sadder expression than the photo and added the one love emblem. Painted on canvas in oils. Then I added yet another dimension to the painting which, following Chris's advice, I'll try to post here. In the meantime here in lock-down, I'm working through a key chapter of the new book, in the back of my mind. This is one of those chapters that gives hints as to the story direction when further along the readers can go, 'Ah! Yeah. I get it.' So I need to get it right. During this creative battle I have been tackling much needed domestic stuff. Like finally sorting out my tool box and screws and nails etc, finding stuff I'd forgotten I had. This morning is art stuff sort out time followed by a portrait of a fellow student who happens to be a beautiful young woman and an exceptional artist. Using photos taken at the uni before we broke up for the foreseeable future. So in these trying times, try new stuff, use your creative minds to best advantage be productive. What are YOU doing you were putting off?
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 6, 2020 4:38:35 GMT -8
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 6, 2020 5:09:27 GMT -8
Done all that Chris, but just won't insert the image. No idea. tried various permutations. There is a little thing says image has been reduced click here but not doing anything This URL (https://www.deviantart.com/unclegarf/art/Dsc00612-2-836745441) is to the Deviant Art page, but doesn't include the extension of the image you're trying to insert. When you right click on the image, and select Copy Image Address, you are copying a URL with the photo extension (you are probably familiar with these, .jpg, .png, .jpeg, etc). When I right-click and copy the image's URL, and just paste it here, I get this, which includes .jpg which I highlighted: images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/48dad664-f8e4-4fec-9510-14b2435f526e/ddu6cwx-9cbe4dc5-b42e-4587-aaee-8fbe180ccd6d.jpg/v1/fill/w_1280,h_436,q_75,strp/dsc00612__2__by_unclegarf_ddu6cwx-fullview. jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NDM2IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvNDhkYWQ2NjQtZjhlNC00ZmVjLTk1MTAtMTRiMjQzNWY1MjZlXC9kZHU2Y3d4LTljYmU0ZGM1LWI0MmUtNDU4Ny1hYWVlLThmYmUxODBjY2Q2ZC5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.NrDjSRsuQ3RwDqzxFDE1-qhDx_5hYVkXiyIu4eQbieI If I use that Insert Image button, and put this text in it, I should get your image below:
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 6, 2020 5:12:48 GMT -8
Oh yes, this board is set up to reduce a file size to a certain size apparently. It always reduces images. You can go in the BBCode tab, and play with the percentage of the file size. Look for "max-width:100%" in the image code. Change this to a smaller number, like 25% or 40%. By doing so, you can avoid that reducing that the Smashwords board applies.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 6, 2020 5:13:50 GMT -8
Oh yes, this board is set up to reduce a file size to a certain size apparently. It always reduces images. You can go in the BBCode tab, and play with the percentage of the file size. Look for "max-width:100%" in the image code. Change this to a smaller number, like 25% or 40%. By doing so, you can avoid that reducing that the Smashwords board applies. I'm going to play with that with the previous image. I revised the image BBCode to: style="max-width:25%;" and it appears to display the image in its entirety without reducing to a thumbnail. You can play with this by using the Edit button on your post, going into the BBCode tab, and revising that max-width value. <Edit> Well, frig. Now it is appearing smaller, but then goes full size and the forum code is again reducing it to a thumbnail. Haven't actually seen it do that before. Wish there were someway to disable this. Not all proboards forums do this, so maybe this is something Ted could change? It might be something the Admin controls. It does make it a bit aggravating. If the viewer has to click the reduced thumbnail (which wouldn't be bad if it displayed the full image in a reduced size, but it doesn't -- it only shows a zoomed-in corner for me) which then opens up the host site, there's not really much sense in using the Image button in the first place.
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Post by unclegarf on Apr 6, 2020 7:30:12 GMT -8
Glad it isn't just me flumoxed with it all. All double geek to me. I posted on deviantart and clicked on the picture trying two or three of them but nothing seemed to work on smash. Should anyone care to look go to deviant art and search unclegarf four images of the same painting for reasons that should be clear on there.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Apr 6, 2020 11:43:43 GMT -8
Glad it isn't just me flumoxed with it all. All double geek to me. I posted on deviantart and clicked on the picture trying two or three of them but nothing seemed to work on smash. Should anyone care to look go to deviant art and search unclegarf four images of the same painting for reasons that should be clear on there. You do show up when I search for your moniker. Now, I'm at a loss why you're not getting the whole image address (which should include a file type extension) when you right-click on the image and select Copy Image Address. It's a crazy, long address, but buried in it should be that .jpg extension. When you put that same address in the Image URL field in the pop-up box that appears when you click on the Insert Image icon, that image should appear when you click Ok. Now, as to the resizing that proboards does, I've no idea. I've tried to circumvent it by reducing the image size on the BBCode tab, but to no avail. At least the image did appear, tho.
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Post by djmills on Apr 7, 2020 12:02:55 GMT -8
What I do with an image/photo is open in photoshop, save as web at 25% and upload that smaller image to my blog images. Then put the blog/webimage.jpg in the Insert Image icon on to a forum site. The site code makes it smaller, but when I click the image it opens at the 25% size. Have no idea if that works here. An example follows.
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