Orion Lodubyal's Art and Fiction Blog

  Samples of the Thank You gifts (Hannibal, Deep Space Nine and The Expanse TL;DR: Have my art? Getting some? Post a pic and tag me! (If you've already posted a pic, send me the link to the post.) If you don't have my art, but you made a donation to my PayPal, bought me a Ko-Fi, or subscribed to my Patreon? Message me the details. To say thank you, I'll send you: A hand written thank you card doodle/sketch Stickers Wisdom for life quote from your selected show/movie/book on a wallet card Trivia from your chosen subject Available physically (with postal address) or digitally delivered with an email address. THE DETAILS Last year was a rough year and making art for my friends got me through it. To say thank you, and to help me create more art - I'm running a thank you campaign for all of 2020 starting January 1st. For those who participate, I will mail thank you cards which which will include: An inspirational or wisdom for l...

One tool that accounts for about 15-20% of my art creations (all of abstract art, basically) is ancient by today's standards. It's from an open source image manipulation program called GIMP, which you can download from GIMP.org . (To give you some idea of what I mean by ancient - I've been using this program since it launched in 1996 - 24 years. ) Some of the artwork I've created using GIMP QBist. For it's time, it was amazing - a real challenger to PhotoShop when there was damn little out there - and certainly nothing that was free. While it's still a unique and valuable tool, it's become slow and a little clunky compared to its rivals which, thanks to the subscription model, have become much more affordable. Even so, there is one tool that will always keep me coming back to GIMP - QBist . If you have GIMP installed, it's buried under Filters --> Render --> Pattern--> and at the bottom "QBist".   It's more of a toy th...

  Really, Arjun? Since when do you not know this is the woman you married? Warning - Spoilers - vague ones, but still spoilers. NOTE: I have not read the all the books yet and I have no idea if the show stays true to how the situation plays out in the books. So I'm only addressing the show. Species (Movie, 1995): Xavier Fitch: We decided to make it female so it would be more docile and controllable. Preston Lennox : More docile and controllable, eh? You guys don't get out much. Killing Eve: Eve Polastri: [after rudely demanding the room key from the reception desk and being handed it quickly]  God it makes me rage how efficient things are when you're a dick to people. I've been reading some very mixed reactions about Chrisjen Avasarala's actions/decisions in Season 4 of The Expanse , and I have some strong feelings of my own. But I have a couple of questions to ask readers first: 1. Do you feel Chrisjen made the right choices ...

Double Mads Mikkelsen Book Giveaway!   Only on: Twitter - @orionlodubyal Instagram - @i_am_orionlodubyal       Giveaway #1: Janice Poon's  Feeding Hannibal: A Connoisseur's Cookbook To Enter: Follow this account. Comment a famous quote that was NOT said by Hannibal Lecter, but you think could have been. Do attribute quote author. Don't reuse a quote already in the comments. Share in Stories (Instagram) or Retweet on Twitter for an extra entry. Giveaway #2: Polar the Black Kaiser  Hardcover Graphic Novel by Victor Santos To Enter : Follow this account! Comment a quote from your favorite non-Hannibal Mads Mikkelsen character , so any movie, commercial, music video ;-) EXCEPT HANNIBAL. Do attribute quote character/source. Don't reuse a quote already in the comments. Share in Stories (Instagram) or Retweet on Twitter for an extra entry. Fine print: While this Giveaway is open to international ...

Win a paper copy of Garak actor Andrew J. Robinson's out-of-print novel, A Stitch in Time! This is the actual book / prize for the giveaway. Very good condition, but it is a used book, as this is out of print. My Twitter and Instagram ASIT International Giveaway has started with a paper copy of Andrew J. Robinson's out-of-print novel,  A Stitch in Time. This chronicles Garak's origins and post-canon life on Cardassia Prime after the Dominion War - written by the man who played Garak himself! To enter on Instagram or on Twitter: 1. Follow on Instagram @i_am_orionlodubyal   or Twitter. @orionlodubyal (You may enter on both if you have a Twitter and an Instagram account.) 2. Like and comment a Garak quote from the show or any of the novels, but not reusing a previous quote from the comments (on the #ASITgiveaway thread). 3. Retweet or share in story on Instagram for an additional entry - use #ASITgiveaway. (So, if you share on both Twitter ...

It's Black Friday week so everything is on sale! So Much Fan Art - in all the Fandoms!!! Did you know that you can follow artists on TeePublic? I haven't found a way to like or favorite particular designs I like, but I can at least make a directory of the artists I like most. If you're looking for some Fan Artists to support this holiday season, check out these TeePublic Favorites. If you create fan art on TeePublic, and you don't see your store on this list, please leave a comment and I'll I'd you to the Shop List on the right side of this blog. Keep in mind many of these artists are on multiple platforms and may have more/different merchandise there. Be sure to check out their socials and websites to find out where else you can find their work! And while you're there, please stop by my shop to see what's new! https://www.teepublic.com/user/orionlodubyal Multifandom Artists (Hannibal, Star Trek, Good Omens, Sherlock etc. etc.): Alic...

The Very Short Story. The Expanse, and the stories it tells about its primary characters, has important messages about surviving crises, trauma and grief. In particular, the image of Chrisjen Avasarala, trudging through the snow, in that red coat, got me through some of the darkest months of my life. My art, not just of her, but what I considered to be my unimportant, just-for-fun art, got me through some nights I don't know I would have survived otherwise. The Longer Story. Collapse The worst truth about health care in American is how much you have to fight for it. For the care you think you've already paid for. That you've signed all the forms for, paid all the premiums for, met your deductible for, given over all your information for and in some cases, given up your dignity for. And yet.... When you are most vulnerable, most afraid, most unprepared for the task - you will often have to fight the hardest, the dirtiest, the ugliest. That could...

I wanted to love TeeSpring, I really did. The art placement dashboard was easy to use and the products described seemed really high quality. They are also one of the few Print-on-Demand sites that offer two-factor authentication, which made me very happy. So I loaded up some art and got started. Within two weeks, I knew this was not going to work out. Here's why. 1. Use our amazing marketing tools - after you prove you don't need our amazing marketing tools. You can't use their marketing tools, or be visible in their marketplace, until you prove you don't need their marketing tools or their marketplace. You have to drive your own sales for some unspecified number before your "Trust Score" is high enough to even appear in the site's search results. Also, they want you to "optimize your listings for search" but you can't use tags. ??? Wait, what now? Like a lot of Print-on-Demand sites (TeeFury, Threadless etc.), TeeSpring let...

    My first Patreon Giveaway is up (you don't have to be a Patron, but you will need to login to comment and be entered.) The first person to answer the Star Trek trivia question posted there wins a $25 RedBubble Gift Certificate!    Please d on't post guesses/answers here - only comments on Patreon will count!  https:// patreon.com/posts/31689173

The first people who support your art . . .  . . . are such treasures. The first person who liked my art and encouraged me to put it up on RedBubble. The first Patreon subscriber. The person who said my legit art (I create more conventional art on other accounts) is great, but I really love your trashy fan art. Those people keep you going through the times when nothing seems to sell. Your art just doesn't come out the way you want. Everything seems like such a struggle. And then you remember those first people who helped you change course and believe in yourself. Just wanted to say, I love you for being the sort of people who reach out to artists - and for encouraging me to keep making art, and keep reaching out to other artists. Y'all rock. That's all.

Now for the dark side: When you know your art isn't going to get approved but you want to sell it anyway.  I am not saying anyone should do this or that it's a good idea or that it's a respectable thing to do. It is very much in the gray area of what is "allowable". Print-on-demand sites let a lot of stuff slide because if you aren't "trading on the brand's name", the brand isn't likely to notice or, in some cases even care.  It's very simple, but not without risk. Proceed with caution (and for godsake back up your artwork!) Don't tag your art with anything the brand owns or looks for.   Don't use the brand's name, the actor's names, anything . This will make it harder to find. My Garak stuff is largely invisible because there is no "DS9", Star Trek, etc etc.  So how will people find it? They won't - unless they know to look for it. You can use fandom tags like Garashir, Spi...

One of the abstract Obsidian Order (commissioned) pieces CBS approved on RedBubble.   Another commissioned set of designs approved by CBS this week.   I finally have a handful of artwork that's been approved by CBS for sale on RedBubble! It only took 6 months, but at least now I have a better understanding of what they're looking for, and what they're rejecting. What follows is only slightly above hearsay but it's what I've learned from other Star Trek artists and from representatives at RedBubble and TeePublic (which have now merged.)   I only recently found out a lot of this stuff when RedBubble and TeePublic joined forces. TeePublic reached out to me upload my fanart over there and I asked them what the brands, particularly CBS/Star Trek was looking for. The rep actually gave me some really helpful info that isn't on the Brand Partnership page. Here's the TL;DR if you don't want to read the whole thing: Avoid actors' face...

If you see my artwork on Amazon, I did not put it there. No one on Amazon has permission to sell my art, ever. In fact, if you see an artist's work that you like on Amazon, look them up on social media or for the website on Google. Ask them if they have given permission to sell their to Amazon. I saw pages and pages of artwork that I know I've seen from artist friends' pages on Twitter. I spent all evening trying to match the artwork with the artists and let them know. For many of them, this isn't the first time, or even 5th time. They have a monthly routine of using Google image search and store name tag search to find their artwork posted in places it should be. It's a job in itself. And now it's my job too. The worst part of it was talking to Amazon's customer service rep on the phone who said, "Amazon has never had this kind of problem before." Oh really? A 2 second search on twitter yields pages of results. Then there's the BuzzFeed ...

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Hellooooo everyone! Thank you for being so patient! I've been working so hard to get new products up that I haven't been updating, so today's entry is going to be big! First, I have the new Star Trek Orions Collection up on RedBubble , with more designs coming soon. The "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" design is for an Orion Dabo girl at Quarks in one of the DS9 Pocket Novels who is seen wearing a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" shirt. I laughed so hard at that, I decided to make the design so I could make a shirt for myself! My three "The Prisoner" designs were approved by the brand copyright holder, ITV, and are approved for sale! I also finally found the original Hannibal and Polar artwork in the larger sizes to upload - rather than just the social media smaller sizes I'd had. So those designs have been updated and added too!  There are also a few new designs added (below the collage.) Please do keep i...

More coming soon! This blog is a brand new baby, so check back soon for updates!