My new Flickr profile -- I'm available to do visual facilitation work for you

I'm a Visual Facilitator, also known as a Graphic Facilitator.

Imagine a workshop or seminar. Sitting in the corner is an artist with an easel. That artist is visually interpreting the ideas that are flying around the room. That artist is me.

I work on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, painting primarily in ArtRage 2.5, with a video projector hooked up to my machine so that people can see what I'm painting.

At the end of the session, everyone gets to take home the pictures I've made.

Here's a link to my Flickr set showing some of my work: Visual Facilitation.

I'm happy to work anywhere in the world, with the proviso that I have fair notice to sort out visas where necessary.

I charge R8 500 (roughly US$1300, Euro 850, UK£650) for a half-day session, and R12 500 (roughly US$1 900, Euro 1 250, UK£950) for a full-day session. This excludes travel and accommodation.

Coffee-Shops and Me

I'm a coffee-shop schmuck, and I spend much of my time sketching people in coffee-shops. I'm somewhat of a leftie (probably more of a left libertarian than anything) and a sometime activist.

My Motto

I live my art in prosperity and abundance.

Technical Details

All of the earlier drawings are done directly onto an iPAQ 2210 palmtop computer, running a licensed version of Mobile Atelier drawing software. These pics are NOT suitable for artprints, except small, cos their resolution is only 320 x 240 pixels. I'm VERY happy to print them out as postcards for you. Lemme know, and I'll do it.

The later, more detailed, higher-resolution drawings are done on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, running ArtRage 2.5, Alias Sketchbook Pro 2.0, Corel Painter 9.5, and Photoshop CS2. Almost every painting I make now is done in ArtRage.

(Sandi asked me if I get paid for mentioning ArtRage and Toshiba. The answer is a resounding no. I get nothing from those companies. No favours. No freebies. No money. No nothing. I just love what their tech does for me.)

I generally draw the line work on the top layer first, and then I colour on the layer below that. Each painting takes between 60 and 240 minutes to make, the colouring taking most of the time.

Creative Commons -- Attribution, Share-Alike

I'm a great believer in the open source movement. That's why I release all of my artworks under a Creative Commons 'attribution, share-alike' license.

(It's also why I buy music from Magnatune.com.)

My license means that you're free to use my work as you see fit, as long as I'm credited, and you distribute your work under the same license.

Swaps of Prints

I love doing swaps with other photographers and artists around the world. If there's a pic of mine you like, and I like one of yours, let's swap. Here's the deal... I give you a signed print, you give me a signed print. That way we both win.

Here's my postal address...

Roy Blumenthal
PO Box 532
Auckland Park
2006
South Africa

My Blog

I'm a fairly regular blogger, with a tiny cult following which seems to be shrinking since I stopped talking explicitly about BDSM and sex. Hehehehehe. That's in the archives. You can find me at: schmucknews.blogspot.com.

My Stuff on Zazzle

I'm now selling my artworks on various items at Zazzle. They're an official Flickr associate, so give it a try!

My Prickie.com Button Shop

I have a button shop-front on Prickie.com. I supply the designs, they print, manufacture, and ship the buttons. I get an incredible US75c per button sold!! So make me rich! Go and buy my buttons.

Please note that one of my absolute aims is to offend people. So if you're NOT offended by my lapel badges, please let me know what I'm doing wrong!!!

Here's the address of my shop-front: ACoffeeShopSchmuck Button Shop.

Where to Find Me

Twitter: royblumenthal
Facebook: Roy Blumenthal
Skype: royblumenthal
Google Talk: schmucknews@gmail.com
Shared Google Reader Links: schmucknews
Cellphone: +27 74 104 6386. (That '+27' is the country code. Pop that number into your cellphone as it stands, and it should get to me.)
Email: schmucknews@gmail.com