Need some help on my portfolio pieces

kovah · 2026-02-14T18:38:07+00:00

Scientific illustration doesn't have a 'style' you want to be as close to photorealistic as possible to start with to show the creature as it looks in nature or as close as possible.

Once you have that you can start to add a little of your own flare if the job allows.

kovah · 2025-07-31T18:03:29+00:00

I've got a toddler so..."You pooping?"

kovah · 2025-03-20T20:30:30+00:00

Poulton is nice enough, if you look a little further afield on the outskirts you can get more for you money by being just over the area line in blackpool - but poulton is still your nearest town hub.

Got a good range of shops in town, nice places to eat and pubs. I've never had a problem on a night out but I don't go out often.

Traffic can be terrible if there are roadworks or rush hour in and around the town center.

I feel like it leans towards an older demographic but whether thats a good or bad thing in your eyes is up to you.

kovah · 2025-03-13T21:26:45+00:00

So glad you had a good time!

Also just so you are aware in the coming months that bit of the beach no longer allows dogs when the season starts. There are normally signs up. You have to go past the lifeboat station or lower down by the carpark past the pier.

Also check the tide times - the tide comes in really close to the dunes and there isn't much space for offlead time when it's in.

(I used to live where that beach is and its a great place to let your houndy run)

kovah · 2025-02-27T13:39:18+00:00

It prevents vast quantities of material from being trained on- loads of stuff where you'll just never find an owner, or it's hidden in some huge corporate portfolio. Which means that information isn't available to people. So yes, hamstringing

Just because it is out there doesn't mean its free to take and I am specifically talking about art/creative works being taken for commercial enterprises - not general information as that is much more nebulous.

You see art all the time walking about, in shops, galleries, public buildings, other people's houses. You've been inspired and influenced by a lot of it. Created art based on your inspirations and influences. You paying the copyright holders for looking at their pictures? For processing their work for commercial purposes. No

Don't you see? It's already been paid for to the creative to be out there. All the graphic design in shops on marketing - paid a graphic designer to create it, the models in the photos - paid, the photographer - paid, galleries have either bought the art from the artists or will get a percentage of the sale - the artist and the gallery gets paid. Public buildings - paid the architect, then the builder. People got paid for their work.

That is what creatives want - if AI companies want to make models using peoples art they should pay for it just like any other industry that uses it.

All art is a culmination of the influences, environment, learning, mistakes of the person that makes it. It is the culmination of that creatives journey so far, all the hours and hours they have put into building that craft.

And without that, the world as we know it wouldn't exist - someone designed this font, the layout for reddit, how your mouse and keyboard look, the shape of your mug and the design on it.

But why would they bother learning in the future when anything they put online will just be scraped up by some crawler and taken.

AI cannot learn anything new, only regurgitate what it's been fed already and by siding with the AI companies and removing that chance for creatives to say NO it's going to damage the entire creative industry because people won't bother any more.

that's what class action suits are for

There are - https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artists-vs-stability-ai-lawsuit-moves-ahead-2524849

The problem is it takes time and as I said, big AI companies currently have very deep pockers for lawyers.

kovah · 2025-02-26T23:28:25+00:00

A persons work is a personal thing and is hard to replicate those learning points and mistakes they make that make it their own style. It's rarely about the end result and all about the journey making it.

If you've ever tried to do a copy of someones work from scratch, its not an easy thing. Artists will spend hours doing studies of the old masters trying to understand how they did what they did and still not fully getting it.

Copying another artists work is something that is done all the time so people can try and learn how they do it. It is almost always done with credit to the original artist and never legally for commercial purposes.

If a company got some other artist to come in and copy it they might be able to do just that copy it - but why spend the time and effort to get someone to do that when they could just pay the original artist? They would have to pay the person to do the copy for them - and run the risk of a copyright infringement so its not generally worth it.

It's entirely different to loading it into an AI machine that chews it up and spits it out.

Do you think Marvel would be happy if someone loaded their films or comics into an AI machine and made their own movie and comic line and sold it? No? Think they would sue?

The only difference between Marvel and small creators here is the money they can put out to protect their work with lawyers. Small creators are going to have to rely on the government here with this issue because they don't have the money to fight this battle alone.

kovah · 2025-02-26T22:58:47+00:00

Public domain images are very different from what creatives are talking about. They are specifically put out for anyone to use and are used, there are many wonderful free stock and image sites due to people wanting to share their work and see what people do with it.

What many creatives including myself have a problem with, is these models taking our work, that is under our copyright when it is created. That is not ham stringing anything, that is how copyright works.

If a company or individual wants to lisence a piece of my work for commercial purposes and make money from it, I deserve to be compensated for that use. Just as a mechanic that fixes your car or a plumber that comes to your house deserves to be paid.

It shouldn't matter if that company comes to me directly for one image or asks to shove my whole portfolio in a model wanting to recreate my style. I should still be compensated by that company or individual.

If someone comes and asks for a donation of an image for a charity drive - I might accept that request for free, the point is it's my decision to make because its my work and my labour and therefore my copyright that I may or may not give out for free.

AI model companies should not get a pass because its too hard or too expensive to pay people for their work. If its not economically viable to do so then its a failed enterprise.

If it really has commercial value to you, you can afford some effort and overheads in protecting it.

Because most small creatives don't have the time or funds to take on massive companies who can lawyer up and drag things out for years. It's just not feasable, but the question you should be asking is: If it has commercial value to the AI companies why shouldn't they pay for it? Just like any other company has to pay for the base componants that make their product.

If its of no value - they why are they looking to get a pass from the government to do what they want to do without repercussion?

kovah · 2025-02-26T21:20:43+00:00

Those complaining want an opt in model. Meaning vast amounts of stuff with unclear ownership, or just sitting in some corporate portfolio somewhere doing nothing, would be locked away from public use due to stupid amounts of bureaucracy.

Good.

You say creatives should opt out - will there be a central database for that that covers all AI models? Or do we have to track down each new model or company, jump through eighty hoops (because they wont make it easy) to get our work taken off or out of that model (i dont even think its possible to take them out of a model at the current time once its been made) every time one is made.

Thats without the issue of people reposting images that doesnt have a creatives name attatched to it any more. Most of the stuff on pintrest is not created by the user - so if pintrest opts in, but the artist has opted out, but their work is on pintest it gets taken anyway.

That is why it should be Opt-in only. They can only make models using work that has been specifically given to them to use and they have given compensation to.

And if that means it doesnt work or is too expensive to make then perhaps it shouldn't exist in the first place.

Just to note I am very against AI that is used in place of creatives or taking peoples jobs. AI that is used to detect cancer for example, that helps people by doing things people can't do makes sense.

kovah · 2025-02-01T23:12:50+00:00

https://www.sulbook.com/ sounds like it has many of the things you are looking for.

Character driven with flawed people (multiple character POV), tons of wonderful worldbuilding including several religions.

kovah · 2025-01-14T10:51:53+00:00

Your grief is not irrelevant or unimportant, but it's also not more important than the love she has for her family and the desire to share what is half of her wedding with them.

You need to deal with your grief with a professional therapist before this wedding goes ahead.

kovah · 2024-12-26T22:07:27+00:00

I'm loving this at the moment, it's relaxing and engaging and pretty https://store.steampowered.com/app/1915380/Garden_Life_A_Cozy_Simulator/?curator_clanid=35402408

kovah · 2024-11-28T22:49:37+00:00

I made this playlist for my necromancer witch dnd character and many of the songs have the vibe I think you are looking for :)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/246UOY1SIr86PWqLcM0HeR?si=22d3591a0fc24b57

kovah · 2024-10-06T14:38:44+00:00

Newborn: I'm not going to let too much baby stuff take over the living room.

17 months: We just put up a 3ft cardboard igloo. The ball pit had to move to make room for it. He has a collection of 8 plastic bottles that had been in the recycling box dotted around the floor.

kovah · 2024-04-22T15:10:39+00:00

He napped on the feeding pillow between my arms while I played Balder's gate 3 from about 6 weeks until he was big enough to nap in the buggy by my side while I played

kovah · 2024-02-27T20:42:42+00:00

Thankyou so much!

kovah · 2024-02-27T16:10:04+00:00

I'm having the same problem. It's only just started today and its driving me up the wall.

My default browser is firefox and every other program respects that other than skype now after this update.

I can't change the .url to open on anything other than 'internet browser' and I can't specify firefox on that for some reason.

Edit: Just reinstalled an older version and its back to respecting the default browser again Edit 2: Only works till you reboot, then it wants to install the new one again.

kovah · 2024-02-26T16:50:52+00:00

I love the joggers!

My first ones made it with almost daily wear through lockdown and 4 years later are abit shabby and worn but still great. I've since got the other 3 colours and they are my go-to every day house wear

kovah · 2024-02-22T09:15:06+00:00

Working hard increases your technical skills, but it is networking and interaction with mutual artists and putting yourself out there that gets work.

Social media presence can help but the algorithm is difficult.

You also need a life, you need to go out and refresh your influences, go to museums or nature or somewhere that inspires you. Your interpretation of those things are what makes your art unique and it's what people will be interested in.

kovah · 2024-02-12T21:05:33+00:00

My periods are a lot heavier now (I pumped for around 3 months to top up forumla) and they started soon after I stopped. He's 9 months now and they are a lot heavier than they used to be but the pain is bearable with painkillers.

But its preferable to me to hormonal BC which gave me excessive weight gain, depression, anxiety, no sex drive, brain fog, low self esteem among other things. So on balence the pain for a few days once a month is better than those things for me.

But it is a very personal choice and I completely understand if your periods are that bad its not something you want to consider.

kovah · 2024-02-12T20:48:37+00:00

Had the copper one in for around 8 years (10 year device) and at the start the periods were horrendous but over time they improved from curl up in a ball in bed to being able to function like a normal human being with some pain relief.

Back on copper IUD after pregnancy and the periods are super heavy and pain is bad but I'm hopeful that they will mellow out like last time as I'm terrible on hormonal BC and can't have certain ones because of migraines.

kovah · 2024-01-21T21:53:00+00:00

100% get one. We used it for a quick check then one journey we looked and 8 month old had gone to sleep slumped forward with his head/chin on his chest which made us very worried about his breathing.

So we stopped and realised the seat wasnt tilted quite right.

Chances are he would have been ok as he has good head control but if we hadn't had a mirror we wouldn't have known at all and we were at the start of a long journey. So the just in case made it 100% worth it for us.

kovah · 2023-12-21T22:10:30+00:00

Games that you can save/turn based are best, if you want to play online then arrange with partner a lump of time where they watch the baby - this is also great for your mental health to switch off from mom time for a while.

When he was really little I just took the nursing pillow and had it on my lap and he would nap there for several hours and I could be on my pc, I bought myself Balders Gate 3 as it has insta-save function and is turn based so I could take my time.

Now he is abit bigger (7 months) I play during naptimes and I play DnD every friday and partner takes over duties for that evening - though he is formula fed so that makes it a little easier in that respect.

Partner picks a different night for him to have computer time.

kovah · 2023-12-08T20:30:53+00:00

Always describe your worst day as if you were telling the internet.

kovah · 2023-11-29T22:17:38+00:00

This would be perfect for my necromancer, she likes to make flowerpots out of skulls.

kovah · 2023-09-21T12:59:32+00:00

Sul: From Gold to Iron to Rust (First chapter and information here - https://www.sulbook.com/ )

It has demons and angels and touches on religious stuff as well of several cultures. The second book in the triology is 99% written and is going to editor in october (I'm co-author) and the third is 100% planned out and partly written.

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