A Hunting We Shall Go - Looking for stuff on the Internet

Looking For Artists - II

I found an image on my computer and I realized that it is one I would like to review on "Blended Realms" however it is an image that I found quite a while ago before I ever figured I might be interested in seeking its source. So I decided to seek that source out this afternoon.

I thought I might share that hunt with you as an example of how I hunt for stuff. I am normally fairly successful so I thought I'd share.

The image is a file on my hard drive called "CoolestPictureEver.jpg" (image to the left -- image from deviantArt) and you might think it would be difficult to find from that. But it is always worth starting with a simple search. I might have taken a different first step... but I will come back to that. The image did not have the link that I have conveniently included in this article... I found that after the process I am about to outline.

The first thing I did was go to my Firefox browser and type "Coolest Picture Ever" into the search window. Firefox has a search window right on the browser toolbar and it defaults to Google. I can set it to a number of search engines including directly going to "Google Image". I also have an Application added to my Firefox which lets me customize Google to my preference. You'll be able to do these searches from Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, or others including Flock and other Mozilla derived browsers.

When I searched using Google Image I could immediately look at the results to find if I had found the image I was seeking. Google Image: coolest picture ever

I immediately recognized the thumbnail from the Incredimazing Site! I also recognized this as the site I first saw the image on. But they are just a "Social {PIC} Collective" which I take to mean are like a blog/image collection service and the person didn't really say much about where the image was from other than having a large image of it. But looking at the picture was where I realized the alternative way I could have searched! At the bottom on the "matting" of the image is some information on the image. The name, artist, and copyright notice. "Space Lane - By Dinyctis" "Copyright 2004 - All Rights Reserved".

Now, "Space Lane by Dinyctis" would probably give me very good results from Google if the artist existed at all on the Web! Indeed entering "Dinyctis" alone produced results. The first listed in my search was "dinyctis on deviantART" which is actually a heading with subheadings. The main result was good enough for what I wanted.

"Space Lane" was even the piece of artwork featured on Dinyctis' page so I could go directly to the page on the work rather than search through his gallery pages.

The tools I want to pass on are that you can type in file names into a search window on Google Image or Google to potentially find an image. I suggest not including the suffix like ".jpg" ".gif" or ."png". I suggest perhaps looking first at the image to see if there are any identifying marks on the image. That is a step I forgot to take -- there might have even been a Web address in the information at the bottom of the image. Of course if Google wouldn't have come up with anything... or if it came up with too much, I could have gone to a site like deviantART to search like I mentioned in the previous "A Hunting We Shall Go" article.

Later!
~ Darrell

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A Hunting We Shall Go - Looking for stuff on the Internet

Looking For Artists

Often when I find pictures on the World Wide Web there is very little information on who created the image or where it was originally found. I'm very curious and would like to know who is due the credit for the artwork and if they have done other pieces of work. If I might want to use the piece of artwork I would like to know who to ask for permission or if that permission might even be granted already. Some pieces of artwork have had that permission granted for use under certain circumstance - for instance under non-commercial circumstance.

I've started doing reviews of artwork with a friend of mine, Mags Alden on another Blog, "Blended Realms" and while using some material for reviews is acceptable "fair use" a person really needs to have an artist to review when reviewing the art. So I have had to play detective when seeking the name of the artist and if they have a site or where their art might be found. I have learned a few tricks.

The trick I will share here is a site called "deviantART".

"deviantArt" is a web site where artists in all sorts of genres whether electronic, text or traditional can come together to share their work with each other and the world that is connected by the Internet. I have found that often I can find pages for artists I might not find elsewhere on the web. Sometimes all I have is a name or a signature along with a description of the work and the media of the work whether oil, watercolour, photograph, manipulated photograph, sculpture, story, poem, prose, or mixed media or...

A recent piece of artwork I was looking for was an image of the moon sitting in a field*. (image to left -- image from deviantART) I actually could find a number of representations of that image on the internet, but none with any clue on the artist. My good friend Mags came to the rescue and suggested "why don't you try deviantArt?".

It never really crossed my mind as I am used to researching and looking for other things using a number of other techniques and resources and they have allowed me to dig up a great many artists of various works I have found uncredited on the Web.

So I went to deviantART's front page. Knowing it was a matter of computer photo manipulation I chose to look under Digital Art though I considered Photography. Under that there was a subsection for Photomanipulation. There were further subcategories and I might have chosen Fantasy or Landscapes & Scenery, but I thought I might try my search in just the Photomanipulation category. So I decided to simply enter the two keywords "moon" and "field".

The results of that search were 421 poplular "deviations" submitted in all of time in Photomanipulation for "moon field". (Of course the results of this search probably will change over time, but this gives an example of the results.) The first page had 24 of the 421 images -- perhaps the most popular? In any case the image of interest was on that first page and actually categorized in "Surreal". It is called "World of Sleepers" by ~Karezoid Sep 28, 2007 and there is a link there for it. "World Of Sleepers". Anyway, it was that simple for me to find the artist and image when all I did have was an anonymous picture on the Web.

There are other ways to search for sure and other tools I can use and do use. But this is one I wanted to share. It is true that I might have gone through all 421 of those images and not found it. Then I would have tried something else. Or I might have tried other key words. I might have tried landscape. I might have tried moon and whatever that greenish colour is or maybe landed moon? I did have luck in other searches with "moon in field" though, but only finding other copies of the image.

So if you are seeking an artist, you might like me try looking through deviantART.

BTW, can you find me there?

Later!
~ Darrell

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* "World of Sleepers" by Michal Karcz (Karezoid) Review of this picture is on "Blended Dreams".

Blended Realms -- Not Just Pictures

Realms of the Imagination From Across the World Wide Web

You might think I have enough to chew on with this column and my other writing, but I have undertaken to collaborate on another web column. This one is "Blended Realms" which I suggested to my friend Mags Alden because she is constantly finding interesting art and artists on the Internet and wanting to share them. She also has an interest in writing and I have found has a pretty good eye for interesting artwork. Much tends to be Fantasy, Science Fiction, Space Art, or Surreal Artwork so after talking about it she came up with the title "Blended Realms".

We plan on regularly taking an image we find on the Internet and writing a short review of it and giving a bit of information on where you can find it and other work by that author. We might expand into biographical pieces as well, but for now we will just showcase individual pieces and say a little bit about them leaving you to follow the link to the site hosting the artist's works.

Mags and I noted that very often we have found that people on StumbleUpon will review a picture and it is only the picture. They will say "What a cool and beautiful picture!" -- but stripped of any identifying marks as to where it might have originated before it got into the collection it was found in or who the artist is -- it is impossible to find other examples of that artists works. We intend to make sure that we are including links to collections of an artists works and if we find a great piece without any indication I'll try to hunt down the artist. I have succeeded more than on a few occasions at that.

The Image to the right is the first one reviewed: Elements IV by Frank Melech, hosted on fotocommunity.

We will not be posting any images stripped of identity... except maybe if we get a large enough audience as a wanted poster in case others might be able to identify the artist for us.

I hope that if you have an interest in this sort of art -- or perhaps are curious -- that you will stop by Blended Realms.

Later!
~ Darrell

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