SamandraKhandr's avatar

SamandraKhandr

221 Watchers1 Deviation
39.1K
Pageviews
I know this is a touchy subject with many people, but I just feel I have to put in my 2 cents.

Much of this rant is based on a post a friend of mine from Second Life made on her Blogger page back when Second Life was going through it's big Adult Content ordeal.  The basic premise is that unless you live in a cave somewhere under a rock located in the absolute middle of say the Mojave Desert or something like that, then you already know that no matter who you are, or what your beliefs are you can and will be exposed to things you don't like.  It's an accepted fact of life for just about every person on the planet.  Likewise you can't control the actions of others (nor do you really have the right to in my opinion, you hear that Moral Majority?), these 2 things pretty much go hand in hand when you think about it.

In the real world (not your cave under a rock fantasy world) just walking down the street can expose you to things you may not like, such as billboards advertising bars, or adult clubs, underwear models, or even something as simple as fast food.  When that happens what do you do?  Simple.  You ignore it and go about your business as normal.  When you listen to the radio if a song comes on that you don't like what do you do?  You either let it play out ignoring it or you change the channel.  When you watch TV and you see a show come on that you don't like, what do you do?  Again you change the channel.  When you read a magazine and you come across page after page of uninteresting advertisements, what do you do?  You skip ahead and go back to reading the things that do interest you.  Browsing the internet should be no different really.  Each and every one of us has the ability to simply 'Change The Channel' as it were whether we are accessing content through a web browser or through a dedicated app.  I'm not saying you should turn a blind eye to everything, but some things are simply not worth getting all worked up over, and deep down each of us knows this, otherwise how would we be able to continue on with our daily lives in the real world if you let every little thing you see that you don't like bother you.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Did you know that you can get a large number of Creative Commons Licensed images in a variety of sizes as well as a few different file formats for free from Wikipedia?  (note that it's important to check the licensing restrictions of the images by clicking on them, as detailed below, instead of just assuming that they're all Creative Commons Licensed (some may not be)).

For example if you're a 3D modeler looking for US Military Aircraft Insignia you can check out a page like this one:United States military aircraft national insignia
where if you scroll down the page quite a ways you'll see various images depicting the various insignia utilized on US Military Aircraft over the years.  In this example the thumbnails are in .png format, BUT if you right click on them and choose something like "Save linked content as..." you'll get the scalable SVG format of the image, left clicking on the images will take you to an image preview page on the Wikipedia site with a large "More Details" button that when clicked will then show you a page with all of the information about the particular image, including licensing information.  On that page if you want to you can download the image in various sizes sometimes (usually in .png format) by using the right click "Save linked content as..." method I described above, the link that's labeled "Original file" where you can either open the image by clicking on that link, or by using the right click method I described earlier to save the image to your computer for use later (same applies to the links to the various sized images listed there too, though those are usually in .png format even if the Original file was in .svg format).

If you're a digital artist sometimes if can be helpful to use images like those in various parts of your own works (keeping in mind to follow any licensing restrictions that may apply), even if you're someone who does things like building plastic model kits and you need to make your own decals, images like the ones I mentioned above can help you to do that (again providing that the licensing of the image permits it).  Or in several cases the images can be used as 'reference images' for various other types of artwork such as sculpting, drawing, painting, creating an actual 3D model version of what's depicted in the image......

Just make sure you pay attention to any licensing restrictions on the source image, and of course try to be nice and give credit where credit is due if you end up using the artwork in your own projects.

Hope this helps some of you! :)

P.S. - Here's a hint at what to look for in your browsers right click menu to be able to use the right click save method I described above (the example I gave above is for Opera on Windows):

Chrome -- when you right click on the 'Original file' link choose 'Save link as...' to save the file in the original format.

Internet Explorer 11 -- when you right click on the 'Original file' link choose 'Save target as...' to save the file in the original format.

Safari -- when you right click on the 'Original file' link choose 'Download Linked File' to save the file in the original format with the original name.  Choose 'Download Linked File As...' to save the file in the original format but with a different name.

Firefox -- Same as for Chrome.

Edge -- I don't know since I'm outright refusing to use Windows 10 until they fix a few major issues such as: stop using it as an advertising platform to push people to buy Microsoft Products, stop having it 'call home' with my usage details, and quit trying to force me to use Microsoft Software for everything by constantly changing my file associations to point to their software whenever it 'thinks' (yeah sure) there is a problem with my file associations.  If someone else out there knows how feel free to add it in a comment on this post.
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Just a quick post to let everyone (who may not already) know that Autodesk has made their digital drawing/painting software Sketchbook available for free now!  Sketchbook uses a different style of workflow/interface layout than many other drawing/painting applications such as Photoshop/GIMP/Krita so it may be easier for some people to learn to use.  Get it here: sketchbook.com/
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Featured

Don't like what's on? CHANGE THE CHANNEL! by SamandraKhandr, journal

Handy Art Resources by SamandraKhandr, journal

Free art software by SamandraKhandr, journal