One of my fondest childhood memories was watching “Vision On”, a british tv children’s show in the late 60′s to mid 70′s. Vision On was designed as a replacement for a monthly series called For the Deaf, and maintained it’s commitment to the deaf community though a fast paced, entirely visual programme. There was very little speaking at all, just a few repeated phrases and an introduction that was accompanied by British Sign Language. I think that was the magic that made it work. The format encouraged young minds to be imaginative. Through-out it’s 12 year run the program gained several awards including the international Prix Jeunesse and the BAFTA Award for Specialised Programmes.

The artist in that show was a man named Tony Hart and he just had a way about him that made you WANT to be creative. He went on to present other children’s shows such as  Playbox, Take Hart and Hartbeat. This image took it’s inspiration from one of the Hartbeat shows. It was a challenge image, Tony challenged you to draw right along with him in a series of 2 or three shows. I was only able to see one of the shows but that was enough for spark my imagination. As he sketched the outline for this particular image, he talked. He talked about why he did certain things artistically and he talked about options that made you think, dream, and imagine.

Learn more about Vision on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_On

http://www.its-prof-again.co.uk/

You can read more about Tony Hart on his official webpage here, http://www.tonyhart.co.uk/

Originally posted September 27, 2007

You may have noticed that I have at least one image in every blog post I make. Yes, this is mostly because I’m a graphic artist and wish to promote myself, but it also serves another purpose.

In the online community image is everything. While content is the most important aspect of your web site, the look and feel of your pages, blogs, and ezines also play a part in converting one time visitors into returning visitors.

Images in any web page or blog post act like white space, especially when you have a lot of text. They help to break up the text giving the visitor a break from reading. They also help to make the page look more appealing to the visitor and increase the visibility of your articles.

However, you can’t just slap any old graphic in there and leave it at that. Some important things to consider when adding images to your blog are:

• Does the image relate the topic you are discussing?
• Is the image a convenient physical size?
• Is the image properly optimized for quick online viewing?
• Is the image in a format that is easily viewed by all browsers
• Is the image royalty-free?
• Along the same vein, is the image copyrighted by someone else?

I should explain. Royalty-free images mean that you do not have to pay a fee to someone every time you use that image. It does not however mean that they are not copyrighted. The artist may have specific instructions regarding their artwork such as requiring a link back to their own site and receiving proper credit in each post.

You can use your own photos, find royalty-free photos and images by doing a search on a search engine, or you can commission a graphic artist to create a custom-made image for you.

Pam Sargant

Graphic Artist/Illustrator/Writer/Song-writer

Owner of Delaney Imaging

This digital painting was inspired by a photo a friend of mine sent me of his trip to British Columbia, Canada. I’ve always been fascinated by mountains and the idea of a glacier “dripping” down the side of these majestic mountains was irresistible.