Avatar

It says I am an aviator and former military, and a large part of my sales are military/patriotic.

My avatar is of me ... Simple as that. What does it say about me.... Good question. I personally like putting a face to my work and like my fans and followers to get to know me. As an artist we are our business ..... Being relatable and having my fans feel as if they know me makes it easier to interact. After all they are buying a piece of me.

It says I'm getting old....errrr....am old.:(

It speaks for itself. And I use the same one for all places I need

an avatar so I am recognizable by it if they know me by another site.

Plus I love BOLD colors! :)

Love color. Gregarious. Fun loving. A risk taker. Always look you right in the eyes when you talk to me.

It can't speak. It is ready to point or grasp..not sure which.

From past discussions, I believe the top four reasons for not showing one's face are:

-- Too unattractive; detracts from the art.
-- Too stunningly beautiful; detracts from the art.
-- On the lam from a federal institution, the IRS or an ex-spouse.
-- They really are a rabbit.

I think mine indicates that I have something to do with hummingbirds, maybe.

There's only so much you can convey through a thumbnail image if you're not promoting one specific genre'. Since my "art" varies through a wide variety of subjects from 2D to 3D stereo, I thought it best to just have a fairly current image of myself.

Mine says I'm on the lam from a Federal institution, that I might be using an assumed name, and that I'm trying not to detract from my art by flaunting my stunning beauty.

I usually change mine with the seasons...this one being blue for the period between the New Year and Spring Training.

Mine says, "I spy with my little eye..."

I hope that mine says that I'm a good artist. :-)

Mine say's " I'm about to say something and I don't even know what it will be"

i made this avatar as kind of a joke, but it fits my work well enough that i kept it.

i think a good avatar is important. what would turn me off?

something dumb looking like your feet, your upside down, blurry, or look like a mugshot. stuff that looks ok on facebook. if the initial picture of your face doesn't look good, then why should i waste my time looking at the rest of your stuff, it may look just as bad as your avatar.

if the image is dark, or blends in, or isn't that great looking. you want your picture to be the first thing people see and be interested enough to want to click on it.

things i don't mind - like if your a painter, and you have all paintings, then it would be right to show a painting of some kind. if you draw, then sketches. but if you have a sketch, and all you have are photos, that's confusing. so like on mine, you would expect to see old fashioned stuff.

though i don't like it when people are always changing their image around. this is your face and i'm used to seeing that face so i can ID you. if your always changing it, you might as well wear a mask in real life. that's what it's like, it's hard to remember names, all i have are faces. and i think customers see that too. they see a face that they saw here, and it becomes your brand, i have this same face on other sites as well.


---Mike Savad

I hate photos of myself, so I just came up with a graphic in my favorite colors. I'm thinking of trying really hard to get a good head shot. I guess I might get the tripod out this weekend and give it another try.

BTW,. Roy, we might be related. Erickson is my maiden name....so "go dag" to you...(good day in Norwegian, I think)

I don't really mind putting up a photo of my face, but I don't have a good one (either face or photo). I used to use a photo of a water drop on a feather that I shot years ago, but then started using my current one when I joined FAA. I decided I like it because it says something about what I like most about photography, that is being out in the field working behind the lens.

To Mary Bedy - if your ancestry is Norwegian - it's not really likely - since my ancestry points to Sweden - but - there is another problem - When my great - however far back grandfather immigrated to the US - his name was Gustav Erickson. When he had his first son - he wanted to have Erick Gustavson on the birth cert. Not only no, but no - we don't do it in the US that-a-way. We keep the same surname as our father/parent. Not change it ever new generation.

PS: Mine says I've not seen a "decent" image of me in years - oh yes - there are some - but I was perhaps 20 to 30 or more years younger. I have a "portrait" of me from 1965 - I was actually not a bad looking guy. Aging hasn't improved anything.

I use my self portrait because like Sheena I want people to know not only my name but what I look like. I think it is very personable. I look at it this way If I walk into a store and all I get is someone yelling from the back thank you for coming, go ahead and make your selections and use the self checkout on your way out, I would be more then disinterested. I am positive they would most certainly lose a sale. Now granted It would not and has not prevented me from making purchases online but I have found myself just wondering what face fits with the name and personality of a person I may be corosponding with! ;D

I like to be semi-recognised: a partially familiar international jetsetter with a dash of mystery. Not only that but until I have fully established my powerbase as rightful Monarch of Caledonia, its Isles, Dependencies and Far-Flung Outposts; my position is perilous. Once the sceptre is mine and I have made a few more FAA sales I will expose myself fully.

My avatars change weekly. I upload the newest image I have of me and use that. Members know me by my name. Visitors probably only see me once so they see my up to date. I will not keep the same one as I get VERY bored seeing the same old me every day, day in, day out, on the forum

I hope mine says: I sell art. I am a man. This is what my art looks like.

I've started to use this avatar long ago and I do not want to change it. I like it. It reminds me about one dramatic story during my travels. I don't care what that avatar says to others It allows you to recognise me here at once, and to decide weather to read or not to read what I write - that is all, what is needed. On other sites I use other avatars, but I like them less.

Chuck, I like your avatar.

I'd like to think that my avatar shows that I'm a young yet professional looking person. I'm an undergraduate about to start her doctorate and people still think I'm in high school... I can't stand it. Hopefully that picture makes me look a little older than the first impression people get when they look at me. If not, oh well. I probably won't be able to get a better one.

Pretty sure my avatar was taken after I had a few drinks.....so I guess mine would say that I LOVE wine :)

Mine says I need to update it probably. Took this shot in a mirror in a hotel room while in Georgia or Florida (can't recall) a year or two ago. The shot was taken with the sole purpose for use as an avatar, and I use it at the few sites I'm on. I used to use a photo of my truck. :)

Kylana - when you are old - remember when you were young.

Greg - I think your avatar is just fine.

Ah, yes, remembering when we were young - I'm with you, Roy. I need to take a self portrait for my work directory anyway, but I find the better camera shows all my age spots...uh...freckles. Might actually have to go out and get some cover girl, even though I don't wear it usually. I find those of us of a "certain age" look ridiculous in a lot of makeup.

I changed mine from a Photo of myself... to something more interesting...an image of my current Work in progress. Lets "face" it...Eagles look better than I do and just maybe more people will click on it to check out just what's behind it.

I'll be changing it soon...very soon

Yes Chuck, You are a man, talented man, man of many talents, man with beautiful gallery, creative man, yes the last I looked you are man...

Roy, your avatar has zazzzzzzzzz, almost like the eye of the storm..

Mines an old pinhole photo taken with a camera made with pieces of black card. The lens is a hole made with a needle in a piece of silver foil. I haven't done a lot of pinhole photography for a while but hopefully if I can sell some prints here, it will inspire me to get back in to it.

Does anyone want this image for avatar?

My daughter took my head shot. It's underdeveloped & over exposed - & I like it that way.
You can see me...... but not really.

Yruy That would SO suit me! I love it lol

Beth, I wanted, but didn't dare to offer it to you. You like to change your faces and to be unrecognisable as kinda spy (me) or just to attack someone by surprise as a censor. I am sending this to you, do what you want with it..

My avatar is unique, I use it for my business card. It has been suggest by some it may prevent gallery owners or private collectors from purchasing my work. One individual actually was spooked by having all the eyes stare back at him. Sounds to me a very unstable individual, I replied they are not purchasing my eye and its just an avatar. Its original, if you go to my gallery and look at the Architecture Gallery you will see a photo of the entire sky line of New Orleans, Louisiana USA. I started having vision problems and went to my doctor he advised me it may be more serious than the diagnosed brain tumor. So after visiting my optometrist, he informed me I had glaucoma. I did have corrective surgery on both eyes and both operations where successful that was 3 years ago. Today I have perfect vision thanks to modern medicine. As far as the brain tumor, after months of monitoring its growth I had shaved my head in preparation of going on chemo therapy The doctors initial diagnosed was they were not certain if I was born with the tumor or it had recently developed. To the doctors amazement, after studying the last MRI, I was informed my tumor had calcified and to just leave it alone. I had fallen off a scaffold and severely impacted the ground caused me to have physical spasms, I could not even glance upwards more or less take a photo. That was back in 1997 and to this day, I have not had any side effects. I will be posting in the near future my website on my blog. it is not public as yet because after spending 1,000 of hours designing my site an iconic photo I had taken in the city will launch my local and world premiere of 51 years of photography. So you see my avatar is my creation and too bad if viewing my gallery effects any potential sales. My avatar I own and it shall remain. Because the eye as they say is the window to the soul and behind my avatar are the images i see in my dreams, the spirit in my heart and the love of photography. I am grateful to be a member of FAA and tp continue meeting each and everyone of you and hope the best for everyone and there objectives and future sales. Cheers Michael Hoard

Getting a sale on FAA is like winning the lottery, I shall not hold my breath, my winning ticket was gaining my eyesight back. "Color is merely a de-fraction of light, without light my images would not exist" Cheers, Michael Hoard

getting a sale isn't winning a lottery unless you fix the lottery. it's not by chance the find you. they find you because you threw yourself on their car.


---Mike Savad

And this I have been doing such as yourself, your dedication speaks for itself. the more you input here on FAA the greater your chances for success here at FAA, and its individuals such as yourself which help the new members.

Dan Turner, you nailed it. I fit all of the points you bring out.

My avatar is me in a wig and dark glasses - no, actually they are transition lenses that have gone dark, and the wig is quite like my own hair, so I wear it on bad hair days ... or when it is cold to keep my head warm. I like the picture because the coloring is a bit spooky. You can see my eyes, I am not looking directly at you, but I know you're there. I don't believe this picture is particularly inviting but possibly could be seen as intriguing. Maybe it says there is more to me and my work than initially meets the eye.

Yury, is that Avatar from Juristic Park, is it digital art or an actual bird.

Mine's just me....nothing more...nothing less....not sure what it says! Interesting to read other's posts. God bless!

From Juristic Park. To be exact from a small private museum of dinosaur moving models. We visited that place earlier to day together with my wife and grandson (5 y,o.) It was a model of some prehistoric quant bird. I thought it looked funny when it opened its beak. So I hariedly made that image just temporary for 2 threads on this discussion board. It is kinda digital art, because it was too dark ther for a good shot and I had only a small point and shot camera. Just for fun.

It is just...so....me........

A prehistoric Bird LOL

Congratulations! Once more as in our personal correspondence "prehistoric" is unfare. Bird will do.

Elizabeth, you look ravishing!

My Avatar is... Me... Humble me... I am not afraid of showing my age because Time is relative... It is just a way to help peoples recognize me easily... God Bless you all!!!

Dan

If you mean me, Ginny, I AM rather pleased with this new look....and people do not even notice the size of my bum anymore...got to be good :)

Its a great image for the general discussion group, its keeping a watching eye on all of us. From one eye to another see you later, off to the parades here in the city a little later.

i change mine every so often for the holidays.


---Mike Savad