Figure Painting Monday
Another figure painting Monday post. We had a good model tonight but she took really different poses between each break which we take every 20 minutes. She kept switching between sitting more straight up and tilting heavily away from me. My painting ended up being something weirdly in-between. Oh well, can't win em all.
This pose was a little over an hour.
This is a 20 minute pose. I typically use these to figure out the color palette so I don't have to for the longer pose.
These were 5 minute poses, I was pretty happy with the reclining one on the lower left.
On Steem related business, I'm chomping at the bit to get Communities, I feel like a couple of weeks ago, they said it would be a couple of weeks. Looking around it seems like people are posting less and less. We need an adrenaline shot to the heart here. I think people are just bored. New developments are exciting.
There was also a post by @thecallmedan where he was calling for marketing ideas. Someone in the comment section said Steem wasn't ready to be marketed, and unfortunately I agree. There are two gaping holes in the user experience of Steem that I would fill before spending money on marketing.
- A solution for content discovery
- Learning material
Of course if you're reading this you probably know I'm always railing on and on about the user experience on Steem. I can think of 100 little improvements to make a site like Steemit better, but the BIG things are these two.
If you come here as a new user to consume content, you will be bombarded by content that is irrelevant to you. I don't really like classifying things as good or bad content because that depends on the consumer, but there is still no solution for finding relevant content.
I'm mostly referring to Steemit. This is the site that has the traffic and the most likely first stop for a new user. I know communities is going to address this but...
Then there's learning material. Steem is complicated. I think A LOT about how to simplify what this place is and how it works. I've so far mostly failed. It's a new thing, built on top of another new thing, that was made possible by the invention of another new thing. None of these things will a new user be familiar with most of the time.
To understand what Steemit.com is, you need to understand what Steem is, to understand what Steem is you need to understand what cryptocurrencies are, to understand what cryptocurrencies are you need to understand blockchain technology, and to understand why you should give a damn about any of it, you need to understand a bit about finance, money, banks, ownership, censorship, and what's wrong with these things. Yikes.
So we need well organized, fast, to the point well designed video tutorials, accessible of every frontend, but especially Steemit.com.
Until at least those two holes are filled, 90-95% of people will come here for the first time and leave shortly after frustrated. I'd love to make those videos but I'm pretty swamped with real work. I'll still try to do what I can though.
That's all for tonight peeps. See you all in the next post.
P.S. "You can't stop Steem from rising...it's in its nature." - A cheesy Steemian
I never saw your account before, but that is just one problem here isn't it. Finding the quality. We have been fighting worse things than that though - bidbots who ruined the idea that the best, most work heavy and most talented posts should get the highest rewards, a bad reputation as a place full of plagiarists, spammers and swindlers (I had to check your profile before writing this to see if the other posts with painting was in the same hand).
But great to see another artist who likes this place to succeed. You will get my votes in the future.
Thanks @katharsisdrill! I followed you as well so we can keep in touch from now on :) Yea it's really a shame and a huge problem with the platform that it's so hard to find the content you want, and when you throw $$$ into the mix the scammers come out, so that's just par for the course here unfortunately.
One thing I always did like about this place was that people had to do everything for themselves - like crazy frontiersmen. But sadly that is also the problem. The tools for keeping a community together was always chat platforms like Discord and not Steemit itself.
Good job and I liked your art👍🏻
**To understand what Steemit.com is, you need to understand what Steem is, to understand what Steem is you need to understand what cryptocurrencies are, to understand what cryptocurrencies are you need to understand blockchain technology, and to understand why you should give a damn about any of it, you need to understand a bit about finance, money, banks, ownership, censorship, and what's wrong with these things. Yikes.
I think about this all the time mate.
I try to explain STEEM to curious friends who have no idea, and for this cool-trendy-steem-thing to make any sense I have to go back to the beginning and tell (really badly and inaccurately) the blockchain story. Without that it’s just free money from a magic internet money tree. That inevitably no one trusts the idea of at all.
So they get a bit confused and thrown off, then that’s the end of it.
Steemit.com needs the overhaul of a lifetime. And like you say, simplified world-class marketing and materials to connect to people in a way that it currently is absolutely not doing.