Masthead finally Up

[sporangia]

I uploaded my Sporangia Masthead tonight.  I didn't get the dimensions quite right, but it wasn't  too bad for a first try.  This is temporary until I get around to doing my own artwork.    I had dinner tonight with Vala and saw that her Carson illustrations are coming along.   We  also talked about the best facial angles for a Sheppard portrait. 

She wants to have both the Carson and the Sheppard ready for the Chicago convention so she can get them signed.  Her hand is healing fast, but she still has to take frequent breaks in her drawing.

I spent the day doing artwork and cooking.   I made lentil soup and froze lots of ground beef packages for adding to eggs, soups  and veggie stacks.

Tonight Vala and I watched 'Enemy at the Gates' from her newly purchased 5th season of 'Stargate Atlantis'  and imbibed a Newton Claret with chocolate while watching the final episode.    It was sublime.  

I'm tired, it is going to be a long week coming up.  I'm looking forward to the Anhinga Conference, but I've got lots of other projects going at the same time.  I fear my summer is almost over.   The tunnel is approaching fast I'm not ready for classes to begin.   Aaaarg. 

Comments

[ann_tara]

I went back to this post and looked at your masthead - it's beautiful! Very tropical, very Florida (at least, the way we want Florida to look like). Where can I find more of this artist's work?

Beautiful Art

[sporangia]

I borrowed my images from Wikipedia. I believe them to be in public Domain. I have made several icons from animals taken out of the different plates by way of photoshop. I credited them all in my comments section of my icons. (at Lj)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunstformen_der_Natur

I love these plates. They have had a long influence on 20th century art as the Wikipedia article explains. The fern plate does look like phantasmagorical Florida, I love the uniqueness. I need to credit the masthead art in my Profile area--I haven't gotten around to doing that yet, I've got a creative idea and I want to make another image and link it into the profile area with HTML. I think I can do that via Photobucket. I'm getting to be such as expert--Not (LOL) I really don't know what I am doing most of the time with this. Like you told me if we can do this anyone can. And if you don't like how it looks you can change it, and experiment until you get something you do like.

Fun with computers...

[momcat09.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I'm glad SOMEONE was having fun with their computers last night... between trying to convince the Pink Panther that she really, really NEEDS to install her Norton Internet Security ( just like any other cat, doesn't like taking her meds, LOL!! ) and seeing what else I can pull off my old laptop prior to wiping the hard drive and seeing if reinstalling the operating system helps... I did get Tracking the Eye installed on it.. (gotta get the important stuff first...!)

And then there's always the eternal lawn issues... wonder how much it'd cost to dump that much gravel over all of it.. sigh...

Anyway, I just blipped over to your Dreamwidth page -- that's gonna be cool once you get the sizes worked out!! Are you gonna have an official title for your page at some point?? Seems like it wants something more than just "sporangia"...people might get disappointed that there aren't any things about ferns ...

Re: Fun with computers...

[sporangia.livejournal.com]

I like your suggestions. I probably do need to name the thing. Since I wasn't sure how it would display type I stayed away from any lettering. Sporangia comes up automatically with a type font I don't particularly like, but I'm not sure I can change it. Gotta go spelunking again into the nether regions of customization. I need to shrink the masthead about 6%, I don't know how to do that. I want the mauve borders to line up with the brown borders--that is probably going to take some experimenting. Unless the new code push has made it possible to enlarge or shrink the borders. I don't think we can do that at the no-pay level.

Because DW has fewer options it is actually easier to customize. Eventually I will get to work on the Lj journal, and play with colors and the Masthead. I think my cross post command just kicked in for the first time, I need to name which journal I am commenting on to stop confusion.

I feel your computer pain. The hours wasted on it make me sooooo mad.

Don't ever put gravel on your yard except for the driveway. Plants will grow through it, and it looks terrible. It seems great in theory--Don't go there.

Re: Fun with computers...

[momcat09.livejournal.com]

Hmm... well, if you created it in PhotoShop, and if the whole thing's one big graphic, seems like all you need to do is open it in Photoshop, go into image and select Image Size.

You can actually give it a percentage from there; make sure you select "keep aspect ratio" so it preserves your current proportions. Um... ya might wanna shrink it more than 6%.. that's a rather large graphic.


Re text.. if DW's like LJ, you can select your text for the title... but then maybe that's associated w/ the theme you pick. Mine allowed me to do that. I'm not entirely crazy about the font, (which appears to be the same one as yours, BTW...).. haven't really tried to mess with it that much yet.

One other suggestion re fonts... if it will allow you to NOT display some kind of text up there, you could add text in the font of your choice as part of the graphic... then it'd be just part of the artwork & independent of what people might choose for a default browser font. If you do that, consider adding something in the "alt text" area in your image code so people who are surfing w/o images or or who are sight impaired can still have some idea of what your site's about...

I don't know if DW will let you adjust the size of the text area. The theme I'm using on LJ lets me tweak that; on general principle, I've always set the area at 90% of the window; that way, it's more likely to reconfigure itself so you don't need to keep scrolling back & forth, which is something I personally find annoying.

Re gravel... hmmm... how 'bout asphalt then...?? Somebody down Wacahoota Road actually HAS made a gravel pit in his front yard... if you come up the Williston Rd side you can see it; so far it looks OK.

Re: Fun with computers...

[sporangia.livejournal.com]

Well my second attempt at uploading a corrected masthead image was a bust. I reduced the image by 6% and uploaded it to Photobucket. Then I linked the Photobucket image in the DW link spot and for reasons I can't fathom my masthead actually appeared bigger rather than smaller this time. So I checked the image to make sure I really reduced it--and it is smaller at least according to Photoshop.

I am totally puzzled by this outcome. Obviously I did something wrong. The only other possibility is that the Code Pushes that the DW maintenance crew has been doing have been affecting changes in the borders of my template That happened on the last push. If they reduced the pixel space that could explain my non-shrinkage, but likely I just screwed up somewhere.

I do have the ability to add a journal title. But I didn't know where it would show up relative to the image. So I left it out. Because this is a journal and not a website, I don't need to obey the graphic conventions about masthead design. People who come to my journal will be expecting a journal not a website. I don't think I need to explain to people who accidentally find me that this is a journal (Lj itself tells them that). And you guys expect to see lots of graphics, because that's what I do. So a whopping masthead shouldn't be a problem. More crucial is posting long text blocks under cuts so I won't clog other people's friend's lists. I suppose the same goes for graphics. Since right now it is just us, that's not a problem but if we start extending our flists then we need to do that. DW allows you to subscribe to other people's journals without having to friend them, so you avoid the I'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours reciprocallity inherent in the standard Lj set-up. Lj does allow you to create discreet groups, and allows you to post to friends only. But that set up has limitations. DW improves on that. Since I'm learning both systems simultaneously, it gets confusing.

I don't think I can adjust the type position or font in DW. The template puts it in a standard place. Once I figure out where that place is I can design around it. I should try an upload just to see how it looks then I can redo the Masthead. I saved all the parts so that won't be a big deal. It's the longstanding HTML problem how to solve placement with limited command options. It drives designer's crazy.
..........

Almost everyone who puts down gravel as a solution to avoiding mowing, regrets it--and later--getting the unwanted gravel out of your yard is an unbelievable pain.

Fun with scanners...not!

[vala3.livejournal.com]

Well, searched all through my computer and finally found the scanner in programs in the HP file. But for some reason still can't get it to come on. I hopefully didn't erase it when I ran that Ccleaner to clean out all the cookies and other stuff. I have a horrible feeling I deleted the link to it or something.
Worked this morning on the Carson pic. I won't be doing another stargate soon. That thing was a bitch to draw. Hopefully it looks enough like it to pass. Finished up the background and now just have to do the some detail work and some more on Carson.
I enjoyed watching Stargate Atlantis last night as well. I will probably watch another episode later tonight. Need to head over to Momcat09 lj next. Was on elemgli and DesLily lj's earlier, posted a comment on DL's but Elemgi hasn't posted since July 12.
Snapped a picture this morning of the cat. Looks a lot like Momcat09's critter. Except this one has more golden eyes.

Pic experiment phase 2

[momcat09.livejournal.com]

OK, will now try to post this image on your site. This is a test; this is only a test. Had this been an actual comment, you would've been referred to The World According to MomCat

Re: Pic experiment phase 2

[sporangia.livejournal.com]

It is beautiful my html tests went the way they usually do. They didn't work at all. Go ahead and delete them and I will try again later. I gave up at four in the morning calling it a bust.

I was trying to link to a specific essay on my site without the link showing. And I was practicing an Lj link to an individual I actually got that to work once. Thanks for the test zone.