Of Websites and Graphics

[pameladlloyd]

I've been working on a website for our local science fiction convention, TusCon. The old site had become outdated, so my goal is to bring the site up-to date, make it more user-friendly, and add some spiffy new graphics.

I've already designed a new logo for the group that organizes and runs the con, BASFA, the Baja Arizona Science Fiction Association, but I haven't figured out what I'd like for the logo design for the con itself. I may update one of the old logos, as one of our local artists did a number of them--I'm not sure, but there may actually be one for each year. For the website graphics, I want to combine images that reflect fantasy, science fiction, and horror themes, then wrap it all up with a little bit of Steampunk sensibility. Whether my artistic skills are really up to this is just a bit questionable.

I've also been trying to keep up my writing, although that's going a bit more slowly than I'd like. I have one story that's almost ready to send off, but I need to figure out if any of the feedback I recently recieved will have an impact on the story. (Ian dragged me off to meet with his writing group last weekend. Unfortunately, I found them far more interested in sitting around and talking about world-building and things they'd written from any time during their lives than the recent past. I enjoyed hanging out with them, but was a bit frustrated with the lack of focus.)

All of this has kept me pretty busy, especially since I have a few loose ends I want to tie up for some other projects, so I haven't been posting much, nor have I been keeping up with my flist as I'd like to. My apologies to anyone who has posted important news that I've missed.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I found them far more interested in sitting around and talking about world-building and things they'd written from any time during their lives than the recent past

It's not easy to find a good crit group, is it? I got a lot out of Critters in the past, but then felt I needed something at a higher level. After looking around and failing to find anywhere suitable, I decided to go the academic creative writing route because, despite it not being geared towards genre writers, it guarantees feedback from tutors and at least some from your peers.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Yes. I was in a very good crit group for several years, but when I returned to school in 2002 I was afraid of spreading myself too thin and not being able to meet my commitments to both, so I left the group.

My son knows I miss my old group and I think he misses the time he and I used to spend talking about our writing when we both lived in the same house, so he feels the need to get me involved in his writing groups. This is the second he's tried to involve me in; the first at least had people who were writing and capable of focusing, but it dissolved when the other members' responsibilities pulled them away, leaving only Ian and me.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I am absolutely sure your artistic skills are up to great Web design. I think it every time I look at my certificate, above my computer :-)

Speaking of which, I do still mean to make you a ten thousand dragons soup picture, at some point.

jmeadows and others seem to get a whole lot out of Online Writers Workshop (OWW) as a crit group. I never joined because it's a paying thing and I'm stingy, but I know I've found jmeadows's crits useful, and she finds the group's crits useful, so they must be good.

[core-opsis.livejournal.com]

I went the online writer's groups (not that particular one, but several others) route a number of years ago, and found several that were very serious, and very helpful, and then several others that I spent far too much time writing critiques for what I got out of it. But the best one, a subset of the original group broke off, and continued working together for several years, and was enormously helpful.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've known people who were very fine writers who worked with online critique groups. I've thought about it. I'm somewhat ambivalent about joining a group right now. If I knew a group was working at the level I need, that would be one thing, but it's clear to me that I need a group that includes people whose ability to critique is past the beginner stage. It's possible, of course, to get something out of nearly anyone's critique--by learning how to read between the lines, as it were--but it's also nice to have people who understand what I'm trying to achieve and who can offer a critique from an informed perspective.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Thank you. *blush* I look forward to your picture.

I've considered online writing groups, but have never quite reached the point of taking the plunge. I wouldn't be able to afford a paying group right now, but I know there are also free groups. Mostly, I went to my son's group because he'd been asking me to join for several weeks. If I'd just gone over to hang out, it would have been fine, but that wasn't the reason I was there, so it was pretty frustrating.

[core-opsis.livejournal.com]

Your website project sounds really interesting. I'm in the process of doing the same thing for a logo for our scandanavian group--wanting to combine a number of images into something that we'll be able to use for a long time. I'd be very interested in seeing what you come up with.

Do post your results!

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Our local convention is called TusCon and is run by BASFA, the Baja Arizona Science Fiction Association. Here's the old logo for BASFA:
(http://pics.livejournal.com/pdlloyd/pic/00090f4t/)

In developing a logo for BASFA, I didn't so much come up with an entirely new logo, as spiff up the one they alread had. Here's my version:
(http://pics.livejournal.com/pdlloyd/pic/0008zwc7/)

Here's an incomplete version of the artwork for the home page (and possibly a very dim and muddy version, as I'm having trouble with my computer's color management, so what I see when I'm working on the image is not, apparently, what the image looks like elsewhere):
(http://pics.livejournal.com/pdlloyd/pic/0008eex0/)

In this image, I'm trying to incorporate a number of images related to science fiction, fantasy, and horror. What I'd like is to add a young woman standing in the prow of a ship (preferably an airship with a Steampunk aesthetic) which is located in the foreground in the left, lower corner, heading toward the castle (which either needs to be spookier, or glowing with light and looking like a big party is taking place there. I also still need to work a horror element in. I've considered having skeletons swimming in the water near the ship, although tentacles reaching up out of the water might be as good or better and would probably be easier to achieve. Oh, and the planet or moon in the background is missing a ring, which I must have put in after I uploaded this image.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I should mention that the image includes both drawn elements--the moons, in particular, especially in this early version--and manipulated photographs, such as the castle, which I cropped out of a picture I took in Scotland many years ago.

The Steampunk ship and the girl in the prow are the most difficult, because I don't have a good reference among my photographs and I have yet found anything in the public domain that gives the right effect.

[core-opsis.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I like the picture, even now (it looks much nicer blown up bigger), and I can imagine what you describe as additions. Keep us posted.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Thanks very, very much. :-)

I'm not sure I'll post many interim pics, but for sure when the site goes live (which I hope to do before the end of the month), I will post a link. At which point, I'll want plenty of feedback, not just for what people like (although I love getting that kind of feedback), but to find out if the site is truly user friendly. :)