_{The following is not meant to be fingerpointing, mudslinging or the like in any direction, nor is it meant to come acros as some sort of a cry for help.  It's just an informative journal to those who are interested, with no subtext implied or meant.  Thank you.}

I know there have been a couple of you that have suggested a picture to me, or have just asked me something along the lines of "When's the next picture of Argo and {Argo's Girlfriend} coming out?" Well, I'd love to tell you that it's going to be soon, but the simple truth is that's not going to be happening.  Possibly ever.  Sit down a spell, and I'll tell you a story...  It's long, be warned.



See, what might not be known to everyone is that the character-- specifically, the one that the model the above pic is based on-- isn't mine...  I'm pretty much to blame for that misunderstanding, because I don't know that I always included the little copyright caveat on all my pics depicting her... just like I haven't always included model creators or my mediums.  I tend to have mind-slippage from pic to pic.

Point is, while Argo and his look are completely mine, {Argo's Girlfriend} is not.  She belongs to an acquaintance who didn't really do art when we first met and started gaming together.  I, on the other hand, did... and so I photoshop painted a uniform over a character I did up in Poser 3 to match the text description he'd given of her uniform.  And with that, the graphic version of {This Character} was born, and over the years I was given carte blanche to change and update her look and use her in my artwork pretty much without reservation.

Over time, I kept trying to refine the look so I could get beyond the limitations of Poser meshes, and at one point, when we were under the impression we were going to make a comic together using {That Character} among others, we even pulled in third-party help in the person of *sturkwurk (who is pretty much one of the masters of Poser superhero uniform creation) to help with the problem of her heroine alias running down the legs of her suit.

When the comic project crashed and burned, largely because I just didn't have the time or wherewithal to handle the full scope of everything I'd envisioned on my own, I went back to making singular pics, and eventually revamping {Argo's Girlfriend}'s look to its most recent incarnation, one that I thought really captured her original personality and youth, and consequently an incarnation I was very happy with.

That lasted up until the last couple months when {The Character}'s creator and I got into what I think I can objectively call a pretty childish, immature fight (especially on my part) over things we both feel strongly about and are probably, in the larger scheme of things, ultimately pretty fucking stupid.  But really, that's neither here nor there.  The point is that I was specifically requested to quit doing new pictures depicting, or referring to, certain characters... including {Said Character}, all of which I should point out is entirely his prerogative.

But, at first, before I thought it out-- as you can probably imagine-- I was all sorts of pissed.  I mean, my thought process was this: I'd basically created the visuals for her, especially the most recent ones.  I drew the original roughs that we used to create a poser model for her suit.  I'd done all the work on creating, modeling and texturing her most recent look, and it could even be argued that my artwork was essentially the reason those characters had built up a fanbase in the first place.  My money went into them and helped create their individual looks.  And on top of that, dammit, I'd been given free rein with them.  That was my opinion, not the facts, and it was not a correct one to take.

See, those were all arguments hinged in a need to lash out defensively, not actual logical conclusions.  The rub of it was, he was not only completely within his rights as a creator, but absolutely correct in doing so.  The argument was just an impetus to do so... if he'd said, "Dude, you eat bananas and therefore I don't want you doing pics of my characters", that's completely his right.  And it would be hypocritical of me-- as someone who loudly touts artists' rights and gets PO'd when people anonymously post artwork they've stolen from other sites without even giving the actual creators proper credit-- to fight it.  What I'd done doesn't matter in this case... if you get employed by DC and have complete okay to do what you will, and you decide to change Superman's look, you don't get to take that with you when you go to work for Marvel.  Plain and simple.

So that leaves me at a crossroads with my favorite character.  Over the years, Argo's pretty much become defined by his relationship to {Argo's Girlfriend}, and whether I mean to or not, I like to kep a little bit of continuity to my pictures.  With that summarily taken out of the equation altogether, and with no opportunity (or really, desire on my end) for a continuity-settling picture, I was given a couple choices.  

1) I could continue to use the model for {Argo's Girlfriend} and change her name, skillset, powers and the like, caller her Janet or Jamie or Anne or something instead of {Character's First Name} and essentially rub out every reference to her with a universal search/replace.  But I didn't like that idea.  It's classless, and it's a cheap workaround to Retcon history like that.

2) I could create a brand new model to be Argo's new flame, and without explanation continue churning out pics of the two of them in whatever magical peril happened to catch me that day.  And I could cheerfully ignore any questions that came my way about "What happened to {Yeah, Her}?".  And while I was at it, I could cheerfully punt continuity to the breeze, too.  Natch, I didn't much care for that, either.

3) I could quietly retire both models, at least for the time.  I didn't much care for that, either-- I have a lot of pictures, both statue-heavy and not-- that I have ideas for, I have a lot of stories left to tell.  But this was unfortunately the most palatable of options.

So for now, at least, Argo's story is at a close, and he's being retired.  I have one more picture of him coming out soon, which I'll thumbnail here when it's done.  And since the actual Poser model for {The Character in Question} is not copyrightable, I could use it in other pictures, just... not as {Sonically Suggestive Name for Character}.  So I guess, if I want to use her namelessly as a background placeholder, I can.  But that's it.  And it's easier for me to just remember the good times than try to revamp them. So that's how I'm doing it. It's nobody's fault but mine, and I'll live with the results, thanks.

So now you know why there won't be any further pics of them.  Go ahead and drink a shot for the end of an era, if it makes you feel complete.  I won't;  I'm old now, and the stuff goes straight to my fuckin' head.  



As you can see, I've done some work with the CSS here, and I like the way it looks for the most part.  I may still be working around with it a little here and there, but I like the scheme of it.  It's dark, kind of mature-feeling, and yet still pretty readable.  

Guh..  Thunderstorms over the last few days caused the motor on the sump pump to quit, which left us with 4 inches of standing water in the basement.  Again.  So much for a nice easy weekend.

HELP SOMEONE OUT!

and are both in dire need of some extra money, and they could use help from whatever sources they can get.  They both offer very reasonably-priced commissions, and they both do really good work.  So please, if you have a little extra spending money, consider getting an art commission from either of these two.  Not only are you getting a primo piece of art, but you're helping out a couple lovely gals who really need it... that makes it all the better!.  

Commission Info HERE

Commission Info HERE

-

ENTER A CONTEST!

Also, another really good friend and sometimes co-conspirator, is holding a CONTEST with the theme "Encasements" (I.e., petrification, plasticfied, card-fied, picturefied, frozen, that sorta thing... Details HERE!), so here's your chance to show off what you can do and get some primo custom artwork as a prize if you do it well!.  

After all the cool pics Alex puts out, I know some of us really owe him!.  So pull out your pencils, pens, and tools of the trade, and enter early and often... and tell others to, too!.  You only have until the 15th of July!



Commissions: Closed, see below
Art Trades: Possibly
Requests: Closed

There is a good possibility I will be opening up Commissions in the near future, work-dependent.  See, I'd like to have a little extra money for Gen-Con, but we're getting ready to ramp up to move to a new warehouse at work, and I don't want to take on commissions if I'm going to be so tired from working 20+ hours of overtime a week that I won't be able to complete them except on the weekend.  I'll keep everyone up to date, because I know I've received a couple requests to know when Commissions open back up.



Just a thought: There's something cosmically wrong with $4.00/gallon gas in a country where the average commute is about 35 miles.  I spent $55 filling up my compact, and unfortunately, I'm not in a position where I can suddenly begin riding my bike to work daily.  It would be nice to work within walking distance of work.  I could actually get exercise while commuting.