Hello All!

[Louchiere]

Hello everyone! I am a freelance writer from a small town, and am really looking forward to enjoying this site! :p

[whitehawke]

Hi there and welcome aboard. Do you write fiction or non fiction or both?

[Tamera]

Welcome to CW.

[David Meigs]

Welcome to the CW family! :)

[Timber Wolf]

Howdy and welcome. What do you write? tell us something of yourself.

[lynnmosher]

Welcome to our writing family. We're glad you joined us. Roam around and make yourself at home. Blessings on your writing.

[Keith Wallis]

Welcome to CW, have fun interacting with the folk here.

[Louchiere]

Thank you all! I write fiction, non fiction, and poetry. Currently most of my work has been published in newspapers, websites, magazines and so forth. But since I have written three books and am working on my forth, right now my goal is to publish one of these. I also do alot of charity work with my writing, and that will always be number one.

I have been writing since I was seven, seem crazy I know, but it has always been in me, these characters, thoughts, so forth. I also paint, and do alot of photography, as well as tutoring.

Anyone is welcome to check out my website, to get a taste of my work. It has recently been redone. It's more personal than professional, however, it's open to everyone.

I think I am really going to enjoy this site! Thanks!

[whitehawke]

All the best with your writing. Good to have a fellow artist on board. I dabble a bit myself and I'm into photography as well.

[Louchiere]

Excellent! I prefer watercolors best, love oils though. I do alot of stock photography as well, I prefer canon(have two cams) and canvasx for editing, how about you? I love meeting other artists! :)

[whitehawke]

Awesome. My favorite is colored pencils, oils are neat but the smell makes me ill so I'm going to try either acrylic or water Soluble oils. I also love graphite and have done a few illustrations for David Meigs. If you're interested in seeing some of my works, feel free to follow the links in my signature. :)

I have a Canon EOS 750QD which, unfortunately appears to have some fungus or something growing inside the lens. It's also too automatic for me; I like to have more control over the pictures I take.

My favorite camera is my old Zenit-E. I am hoping to buy a digital sometime and borrow one whenever I can. lol Film costs so much and I don't have time or place to do my own developing.

Where do you sell your stock photos?

[Louchiere]

Will check out your work! I would advise against trying acrylic, because the fumes are worse! Even though they are so much more easy to work with.

Did you try taking apart your lens? I know what you mean about film, thats why I prefer digital because you can take 20 shots of one thing and then pick out the best you want to print. Have you ever tried canvasx?

It sure is good talking to another artist!

[Louchiere]

If you are just starting out go to http://www.sxc.hu/index.phtml and that gets your name out there. People will contact you to use your photos for non promotional purposes. Then you will get contacted from people who see your work and need it for magazines, logos, books and so forth. Also a great site for just uploading and selling per download is http://www.dreamstime.com/ Keep in mind though that they are very picky, and for stock images, you have to remove noise, and have a cam thats at least close to 7.2 pixels. That will greatly increase your downloads.

[whitehawke]

Acrylic fumes are worse than oils? wow I wish I'd known that before I gave away all my oils and bought acrylic. I do miss the oils. Perhaps I should look into buying some water soluble oils then cause I'm wanting to create and sell a few asap.

The lens is one of those ones that can't be pulled apart.

Never heard of canvasx. What is it?

It is cool to talk with a fellow artist. Have you thought of joining shoutlife? I've joined it as an author and I have a few artists on my friend list.

[whitehawke]

Thanks for the links. I'll have to go and take a look. Do you get paid at the first site you mentioned or is that one just to get known?

When I have the money to buy a digital I hope to get one with at least 10 pixels.

[mel3]

Hi and welcome!

[Louchiere]

I will have to check out shoutlife, it's all new to me, but thanks.

Do you ever do inkings? It's really enjoyable:) Also canvasx is a program you can use for all sorts of things, but mostly I do photo editing with it. With your digital photos, you can adjust the brightness or remove spots that would otherwise ruin the image. I think you can download a trial.

When you do save up, I would recommend canon, as they are the most user friendly cams and easy to understand. It's too bad about your lens...I hate when things like that happen, exspecially with ones tools, ya know.

I really enjoyed your site, you have great talent! :)

[Louchiere]

p.s. the first link is just to get known, but it's really helpful!

[Louchiere]

Hi and welcome!
Hello, and thanks!

[whitehawke]

I see you joined shoutlife. Cool. I did a few pen & ink paintings a very long time ago. One was of a stallion up on a ridge. Thanks for the recommendation. I like Canon too so that's another point in Canon's favor. !thumbsup!

[GentleJourneyAu]

Welcome Louchiere. I read your bio. Your life sounds idyllic, especially the horses. I also checked out your website. I like the "book look" of it. Are all the poems there yours? I think I saw a different by line on some. I paint in acrylics all the time and have never noticed an odor. Are there odorless fumes I should be aware of? I have several friends who also switched from oil to acrylic because they were allergic to the linseed oils and turps etc. Whitehawk, I would just buy a couple of colors of the water miscible oils and experiment with them. They are a completely different consistency from oils. Also some of one brand do not mix well with those of other brands. I had wanted to achieve that depth of color with oils that is difficult to get with acrylics, but did not care for the water soluble oils as much. Elaine

[Louchiere]

First off thanks Whitehawke for introducing me to shoutlife! :) Gentlejourneyau I would have to say that the fumes from acrylics are hard to percieve but if you are very sensitive you will get pounding headaches, and feel sick, just from using them for a few hours. I have even tried painting outdoors with them but got sick really bad a few times and just decided it wasn't worth it:)

Um...I smile when you say my life is idylic, I try to percieve it as such, I have learned from many years of sadness to see my life through differant eyes now, and only see the good. I believe life is what we make it, or so I am learning:)

Yes all the work on my site is mine, except for a few marked D. L. M. that would be my father. Most of my family is into art in some form or another:)

It's good to be here, thank you all for making me feel so welcome:)

[Louchiere]

P.S. Yes, I truly love horse, they are great therapy, and are the truest friends:) Being with them is to taste freedom in it's purest form:)

[whitehawke]

Louchiere, glad you like shoutlife. There are a lot of artists on there also and a few art groups. I had always thought acrylic paints would be safer than oils. Learned something new.

Horses are great animals. I could talk about them for hours. lol I used to break them in, but these days I just draw them.

Elaine, thanks. Next time I have the money, I might buy one or two and see what they are like. Sounds like they aren't what I had hoped.

[Louchiere]

Are you familiar with flickr? I have a horse group on there that you are welcome to join:)

[whitehawke]

I don't think I've heard of them. You got a link so I can take a look? :)

[Louchiere]

Yes the link is http://www.flickr.com/groups/myhorse you will need to sign up for a flickr account however, but you can sign up for the free account. Then you can join this group and upload your photos for others to see. It's a really nice place, and you will be welcomed in my group:)