#old internet
So I added a new section to the site - index of links to cool art galleries and other stuff I find neat. It’ll evolve as it goes along so check it out in the future but since this is tumblr I figured I’d just post the whole thing here as it currently exists and maybe someone will find it useful. Also if we’re mutuals and you’ve got an art website, let me know so I can add it!
An Internet Experience Curated by Yours Truly
Something I’ve started to really notice recently is the slow but sure decrease in the usefulness of search engines. I’m not sure to what extent it’s intentional on the part of search engine companies themselves and to what extent it’s corporations and spammers putting their time and effort into adspace and SEO optimization, but most searches these days result in you being funnelled towards the same couple of large mainstream websites (when searching for general interest topics or news) or towards legions of nearly-identical spam or borderline spam sites, bloated to fit in as many ads as possible (when searching for recipes, home repair, DIY stuff, etc). It’s frustrating. So I thought I’d make an index of sites that I find to be mostly interesting and sometimes even useful. I’ll add to this over time as I find more stuff. Lots of it will be art focused. If you come across a site that you think would fit in here, shoot me an email!
Art
->Art Galleries
Skewed towards genre fiction illustration because that’s what I’m into.
-Wayne Barlowe - Probably my favorite artist. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent on this site in middle school. Still gets updates, albeit infrequently.
-Unoffical Frank Frazetta Gallery - The Master. I have extremely fond memories of browsing this site as a kid and I directly ripped some of the HTML from here to structure my own site galleries. If it ever goes down I’ll die a little inside.
-Keith Thompson- Site hasn’t been updated in years but it’s good as ever. Keith still puts out art- you can find more recent works if you plumb the depths of the warframe wiki. He actually still respods to the email address listed here and I’ve had some very pleasant correspondence with him.
-Mark Zug- A supberb talent who deserves to be a household name (at least among SFF illustration nerds). If you’re like me and were a kid in the early ‘00s you may be surprised at how many of Zug’s pieces you recognize. I have distinct memories of his art gracing book covers in the new release section of my public library for many years. Seems to have retreated from the public eye since then.
-John Howe- The best Tolkien illustrator ever. I got my hands on one of his books as a kid, long before I ever read LOTR or watched the movies, thus forever skewing my perception of Middle Earth and making every adaptation a complete failure in my eyes when measured against Howe’s work.
-AndroidArts- Long-running, eclectic website of Niklas Jansson. Galleries upon Galleries of beautifully rendered concepts along with discussions of computer hardware that’s completely unintelligble to the layman i.e. me. Arne’s general art tutorial is, in my opinion, oneo of the best out there and certainly the best for so short a length.
-Alejandro Bruzzese- The website of my muse and spiritual compatriot Alejandro, one of my favorite contemporary artists.
-Gnarly Ghost- The incredible and incredibly versatile work of my buddy Drew Shields. A constant inspiration.
-Zak Eidsvoog- The website of the esteemed Burzok’s Fanart Contest Winner.
-Gurney Journey- James Gurney’s long-running, almost daily-updated blog about art and illustration. Hard to find someone who loves what they do more than Gurney.
->Art Resources
-How to Draw: An /ic/ Guide- Yes, I used to go on 4chan. No, I don’t recommend it. Yes, I still think this is an invaluable starting point.
-The W/ic/i- Old but still useful directory of myriad art resources.
-AndroidArts General Art Tutorial- Already mentioned it above, but I think it’s worth mentioning it again because I really do think it’s that good.
-Crtl+Paint- Everything I know about Photoshop/digital painting I learned from here. And quite a few other things. It still blows my mind how much quality instructive material on this site is offered completely for free. Constantly nervous that it’s going to disappear one day, especially as activity seems to have fallen off in recent years.
-Perspective Made Easy- IMO the best and most useful treatise on artistic perspective ever written.
-CGPeers- Fantastic website for profcuring art resources “heavily discounted.”
Useful
-Spotify Adblocker- I urge you not to use this extremely useful browser addon to block ads that other adblockers won’t block on spotify, as doing so would be highly illegal. Be warned, similar illegal software exists for just about any internet browser you can think of.
-Instagram Image Downloader- Does what it says on the box. Again, similar extensions exist for other browsers.
Misc.
-Low-Tech Magazine- Technoskepticism. Probably my favorite website. Reading through it was pretty transformative for me, but your mileage may vary.
-Simplifier- One man’s documentation of his experiences with and methods for tinkering with simple technologies. Highly engaging.
-[email protected]- My favorite Lego website as a kid and one of the few (maybe only?) personal lego websites from that era that still exists. I find it charming.
Delete Yourself From Web Services With JustDelete.me
JustDelete.me is a directory that allows you to permanently remove yourself from different web services such as Facebook, PayPal, Amazon, etc.
Why can’t you just go to the listed sites on your own and delete yourself that way, you ask? It’s not that easy.
A lot of sites have dark patterns — interfaces created to trick users into agreeing to terms they otherwise wouldn’t — and JustDelete.me is designed to work around those patterns.
For example, Facebook’s Account Settings menu only offers people the option to deactivate their accounts, so many think that it’s not possible to completely delete themselves from the site; the “Delete Account” button can only be found if you hunt it down. With JustDelete.me, you can click the Facebook link and be taken directly to the “Delete Account” page without all the hassle.
JustDelete.me even color codes web services by how difficult it is to delete yourself from each site, with green being the easiest, and black being impossible. (Good luck deleting yourself from Craigslist.)
Image: Screenshot of JustDelete.me
Post link
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