RSS feed for Fantastic Portfolios News http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/ All rights reserved by the artists. We've got a new issue of EMG-Zine up - with an introduction to Cyberfunded Creativity by Elizabeth Barrette, Melissa Acker walks us through the first stages of a painting of a sphinx, Marina examines the history of the Tarot, Giovanna investigates the life and art of Sidney Sime, Ursula tackles guilt and art, and Janet celebrates her 30th column of Healthy Green Artists! Our theme is 'Egypt,' and we've also got great art and fiction. - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/49 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/49 Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:27:42 -0700 The new issue of EMG-Zine is up! It addresses the hot topic of the Orphan Works act (now with 97% less hype), and advanced licensing tips for artists, introduces you to LARP, gives you suggestions for color reference cards, gives the history of steampunk, introduces the amazing work of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, gives green con prep suggestions, and we find out when NOT to panic. - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/48 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/48 Thu, 01 May 2008 11:33:49 -0700 Congratulations to our contest winner, Liiga Smilshkalne, who chose a years membership to Fantastic Portfolios. Her piece Sunlight was the highest scoring piece!   - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/47 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/47 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:00:32 -0700 This month at EMG-Zine, Janet talks about stretching one's art supplies to make them last longer, Melissa demonstrates field sketching and its usefulness, Giovanna features the life and works of Sulamith Wulfing, Marina reviews the symbolism of the Rat, and Ursula Vernon talks about the rules of art - at least, the ones we make for ourselves. This month's features include a painting walkthrough and a continued tutorial on using The Gimp. We also have rat-themed poetry, fiction and comics! - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/46 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/46 Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:50:53 -0700 If you're uploading work for the first time, the critics won't see it until you complete the final step of submitting your portfolio. There should be a button (once you have 4 or more pieces) that says 'Submit Your Portfolio.' If you don't see this, please contact me - I can reset your portfolio for you and make the button come back. It MAY tell you your portfolio has failed when I reset a portfolio - if your member page tells you your portfolio failed, but your individual pieces haven't been judged, and you don't have any critiques to read, it is a dirty liar; don't believe it. The critics are zooming through the queue - if your work has been submitted for more than a week and you haven't received your results, there's probably an error somewhere; please let me know so I can fix it! - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/45 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/45 Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:01:05 -0700 For the next 12 days, until February 1, all work submitted to Fantastic Portfolios is automatically entered in a contest for a free 1-year membership, OR, a free copy of the EMG-Zine anthology; your choice! Results are based on the numerical score the piece receives, there are no restrictions for theme or subject (beyond the usual Fantastic Portfolio genre requirements!) and it can be work that has been completed at any time (doesn't have to be created for this contest!). In addition, for those folks who have had a portfolio failed too recently to submit again, we're offering a free re-set. Just PM me and I'll reset your portfolio so that you can submit! Also, check out the 12 day, $12 sale at Ellen Million Graphics! - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/44 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/44 Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:35:48 -0700 EMG-Zine starts the New Year with some new features! We have two comics! We also welcome Giovanna Adams, who will spotlight historical and famous artists and their work in her new column; and Melissa Acker, who opens her new column with a demonstration of shading with color. Marina looks at the myth and symbolism behind the color Red, Janet ruminates on resolutions for the upcoming year, and we usher in the New Year with Dawn-themed fiction and poetry. Happy new year, everyone!  - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/43 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/43 Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:08:08 -0700 Be sure to check out the November issue of EMG-Zine! Our theme is 'air,' and we've got a lovely gallery of artwork, fiction and poetry, a feature on Japanese weapons for illustrators, tips on creative projects and a tutorial on pixel art. Enjoy!  - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/42 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/42 Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:29:06 -0700 Our queue is empty right now, and the wait on critiques is just a few days. It's a great time to submit some new work for review.(If you've submitted work and not gotten any input, make sure you've gone through the final step of submitting your portfolio!) - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/41 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/41 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:27:35 -0700 If things still look weird on the website in a not-good way, drop by the Salon and let me know! - marrael http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/40 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/40 Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:45:41 -0700 Remember! Tomorrow is the last chance you'll get to purchase an eternal membership! - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/39 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/39 Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:28:12 -0700 New images that are published publicly on the site will no longer be watermarked automatically by Fantastic Portfolios! This change makes sense since members are now allowed to submit images that they've already watermarked themselves. However, automatic watermarking is still an option if you want it, you just have to make sure you set your preferences on your account! - marrael http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/38 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/38 Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:28:25 -0700 Members submitting their portfolios right now won't notice anything different, but  the format of the feedback from the judges will be slightly different from before.If anything looks strange, please let me know. I really appreciate the feedback! - marrael http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/36 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/36 Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:28:16 -0700 We've set a date! That means that once September 1st rolls around, eternal memberships will no longer be available, and the clock will start on the memberships with time limits. What? You didn't know there were memberships available? Check out the details here.  - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/32 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/32 Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:50:58 -0700 After fixing a small blip (thanks for spotting it, Ellen), I can happily say to ALL members: feel free to start creating test tours for the site! You can also starting taking other tours and rating them. (Thanks for taking and rating the Paris Hilton tour. Hope you enjoyed it. :P ) - marrael http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/31 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/31 Mon, 02 Jul 2007 22:46:02 -0700 You may now submit work with watermarks!This policy (not to allow watermarks) was in place to ensure anonymity, but if you choose to, you may submit work with your watermark already in place - we'll still be professionals and stay as unbiased as possible in our judgements. There are still tools at the site to watermark your work after it's been accepted, if you prefer to submit clean, unmarked images. Also, there appears to be an error on the portfolio management page - we'll get that fixed as soon as possible! - edit... I think this is fixed now! Do remember that you have to 'submit your portfolio' after you have uploaded artwork, before it will be shown to the critics! - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/30 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/30 Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:41:50 -0700 The search function of the site is being worked on. Artists, you're encouraged to tag all the images you upload with all the relevent keywords, it does affect your art appearing in the search results!The search bar though is making the site menu a little wonky - CSS is a bit trial and error here, but I'm hoping to clear that up. (If the site menu is looking and acting normal to you, then it's been cleaned up.) Thanks for your patience!Add more art to the site! - marrael http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/29 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/29 Sat, 05 May 2007 03:05:58 -0700 Hi folks! The "Integration with EMG" component of FP is currently being worked on. It's a 2-parter: 1) If you have an EMG account and it auto-detects the correct EMG account for you, integrate it to FP by providing your EMG login. Let me know if you run into issues. You can do this anytime now. 2) I'm still working on the "Add/Edit/Manage Products" part that will recognize the EMG settings for specific pieces of artwork. This part's pretty hairy and is not working yet, but you can see if FP manages to find your EMG artwork by matching your integrated account and the titles of your art pieces in both places. You can click on "Use EMG settings" but that's not working yet! Gibberish (code!) appears. When this part finally works, you won't have to upload high-res files for the images you already have on EMG. There'll be a further announcement when this happens. Thanks for all your patience! - marrael http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/28 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/28 Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:01:33 -0700 Wow! I'm utterly floored by how quickly and wonderfully Janet's gotten this site together. I'm terribly excited to see this project gathering steam, and I'm off to play with all the nifty features now.  - emillion http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/15 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/15 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 10:11:06 -0700 1. The site's look is not finalized (especially on the public pages). Suggestions welcome! 2. Create an account and login. If playing with the image upload - do it carefully... it counts uploads and restricts the number. ;) I'll have to reset the limit manually if you want to test this. You can if you want to, though! 3. If you run into an error ANYWHERE (they'll probably look like "mysql error..."), post it in News, in the Core section of the Salon, or email me from my profile. I want to take care of it ASAP. 4. More little features will be added. I'll post announcements as they pop up. 5. Though the look on some pages hasn't been finalized, there is a display issue I do want Firefox and Explorer users to look out for: please let me know if there are any pages where the parchment background is broken or disjointed. I'll need the page, and your browser model. 6. Thanks for testing! - marrael http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/14 http://www.fantasticportfolios.com/news/14 Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:40:16 -0700