Here’s a strange one
You won’t be surprised to learn I spend a lot of time browsing art online. There are some astonishing people in concept art today (above, Popeye by Lee Romao). Love that sweet, sweet eye candy.
There are lots of group art sites, duh. Storage is a burden, but building an art site is still an attractive prospect — the kind of proposition where users jostle to provide your content for you.
Over the last few years — as usually happens with anything online — one site pulled ahead and became pretty much the standard for digital artists. Lots of illustrators used it as their main online portfolio showcase. I spent many a happy hour there, catching up with my favorites.
I won’t link, because CG Hub is gone. About six weeks ago, the URL went flakey and people assumed they’d forgotten to renew their domain name or something. Then the developer released a terse and strange message:
No more CGHUB. Sad day. Project CGHUB is officially closed. The reason behind this extremely tough decision is personal and will remain private. It’s absolutely not connected with business or any kind of technical difficulties. On behalf of development team I would like to apologize to CGHUB users and fans for abrupt project closure and delay with its announcement. – The Shakuro Team
Personal and private? The hell? There was even a for-pay mode and they’ve been busily refunded moneys.
The only thing I can glean is that the developers and owner of the name were different entities, and at odds. The development team has launched a Kickstarter to rebuild the site under a new name, but I don’t imagine they’ll prevail. By the time they get anything going, the circus will have moved on.
Art Station looks pretty cool.
Posted: May 20th, 2014 under art, internet, personal.
Comments: 7
Comments
Comment from Mr. Dave
Time: May 20, 2014, 11:19 pm
***Olive Oil swoons. Thud.***
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 20, 2014, 11:35 pm
Google doodle tells me it’s Mary Anning’s 215th birthday. Who’s Mary Anning? “She sells sea shells by the sea shore.”
Comment from Mike C.
Time: May 21, 2014, 8:22 am
Okay, I remember either that particular “Popeye” piece, or a similar one that must have been by the same artist, because it clicked immediately. Quite good, I thought.
FULL DISCLOSURE – I’ve been a Popeye fan since way back when.
As to ebsite closures, the website on my posts goes nowhere. GCP is still out there, but we’re in the Witness Protection Program for a while after suffering a DDOS attack aimed at the name rather than the IP address. Have no idea who did it or why, but we’re going to wait a bit before sticking our heads back up over the parapet in hopes that whoever did it has moved on. It costs serious coin to rent a zombie network, and I sure can’t think of anybody that is both that annoyed with us and that also has the kind of coin to toss around to just keep such a network employed endlessly.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 21, 2014, 9:07 am
It’s a 3D model, so you’ll find the same Popeye in different poses on the web. There’s also a realistic Popeye painting that isn’t a 3D model, but I don’t know if it’s by Romao.
Sorry about your site. Every time WordPress asks me to sign again, I think, “Oh, shit…I’ve been hacked.”
Comment from mojo
Time: May 21, 2014, 3:56 pm
Love the “hold fast” knuckle tats, a RN tradition. Unfortunately, Popeye was a yank.
Nice pic, though.
Comment from mojo
Time: May 21, 2014, 4:20 pm
PS: took a look at Art Station, seems to be an HMOJ site – “huge mass of JavaScript”, ie slow and clunky. But it’s beta, so who knows.
Comment from Bikeboy
Time: May 21, 2014, 7:38 pm
imageNETion.com is a somewhat-regular stop for me:
Lots of “fantasy” art, plus vintage pin-up art, etc. (I have no interest in it, other than dropping in occasionally.)
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