Changes

Graphite pencil on paper, 11'x8'

Copyright Laura Hardie 2009

Something I have been meaning to do for a long time is to update my blog and move with the times as far as it was concerned. I think I was the only blogger left using the old template and I was feeling a bit left out especially when I saw all the wonderful things you could add using the layout tab.

Of course, it was easy enough to change and I did this last year but disliked the way it moved everything around in my earlier posts – mainly squashing everything together and leaving no spaces between paragraphs and pictures. Being a perfectionist and not having the faintest idea how to amend all this I went back to the old template – at least this way everything looked alright.

But I guess the layout tab has won (it was either that or starting a new blog) because I’ve now changed back as you can probably tell with all the additions I’ve added to my sidebar. I spent quite a bit of time on this last night, even tried to edit my text in previous posts with the spacebar so everything didn’t look so cramped but it didn’t work – that will probably niggle away at me until I find a solution or grow to accept it. What is bothering me more however is the appearance of what looks like a small spanner and screwdriver appearing several times down the sidebar on the left – can you see them? I went to bed last night and they were there, got up this morning and they’d gone, made a change in layouts and they’re back to haunt me. Now everytime I check my blog they are there – does anyone know what they are and how to get rid of them? And there are people I have added to my blogroll who aren’t showing and I’m at a loss to why. I’m sure I make things difficult for myself as nothing ever seems to run smoothly.

My blog will probably be a work in progress for a couple of weeks until I get everything as I like it so bear (or is it bare) with me as I play around with it.

I’m calling my graphite drawing of a horse finished for the time being – I’m still undecided what to do with the background and I may yet continue the shading to the edges of the paper. Looking at it now on screen I think something needs to be done though it does look better in real life.

Technical difficulties

Duke
10x12 Graphite Pencil

Note to self: don't play around with things I know nothing about! In this case it was Blogger when trying to update my blog template.

To cut a long stort short, I wanted to add my own header with pics along the top of my blog - others have done it so I knew it was possible. Experience now tells me only to those who know what they're doing. All I achieved was a new template that 'messed up' all my previous posts - the font was changed in some parts but not others, the spacing was all wrong so everything looked squashed and, to finish me off, some of my pics were deleted and replaced with a red cross.

Thankfully, after spending hours trawling bloggers help pages I found out there is a little button I could press to revert back to my old template - problem solved(ish). I still don't have my header. I'm not computer literate, far from it, but if there is anyone reading this who knows how to add a header/banner without having to change to a fancy template I would LOVE to know. You can leave a comment or email me.

It never ceases to amaze me just how dependant I am on the computer in this business. You would think being an artist that computer skills weren't a necessity. Instead I find myself relying on it more and more but at the same time feeling totally clueless. It's not that I haven't tried to get on with it because I do - all the time. I've lost count of the number of hours I've spent trying to master photoshop for example, but it just doesn't register. If only they'd taught me this at Art College.