Monday, August 24, 2015

A NEW COAT OF PAINT


I began this blog back in the days when Fred Flintstone was still blogging for the Slate Rock and Gravel Company.  It began impetuously (I named and designed it in about 20 minutes) with the expectation that it would take only a few months to make some much-needed points about artists I liked (and a few I didn't).  After that I planned to shut the blog down and turn my attention elsewhere.
But I ran into some interesting and opinionated readers along the way, and started learning new things from them.  Before I knew it ten years had slipped by.  All the while, my backlog of topics kept growing.

Some readers have long criticized my format ("Your white letters on a black background give me headaches...") or my lack of an RSS feed ("You're a goddamn dinosaur...") Some helpfully sent me urls for blogs that repeatedly copy my posts, remove my name, and post my work under their own name to sell ads.  In each case, I told myself, "Well, I won't be doing this too much longer anyway...."

But that excuse has become increasingly indefensible so I finally decided to fix a few broken things and apply a new coat of paint.  I didn't intend to experiment with these changes publicly, or for it to take this long, but I'm learning about formatting too.  Hopefully the process will be done in a couple of days and I can return to posting.  Thanks for your patience. 

11 comments:

SteveRB511 said...

A suggestion: The green textured background that you're using at this time in your redesign tends to make the text harder to read so maybe use a body font with a little more weight and increase the font size so it separates more from the background. You might want to look into something like Google Fonts for more options.

Li-An said...

This is not a bad idea - but I'm a little surprised as it's known that on screens, white letters on black background is less tiring to read.

And there is a problem with your image logo: it's cut :-)

Astroluc (Find me on Tumblr and Instagram @Astroluc) said...

I don't know that it's "known" because white type on a black field is very fatiguing for the eyes... black type on white is better, but I have found that dark gray (85%) on white is the least tiring without losing readability.

Arun Kumar said...

I think you might want to go for a darker BG - with this textured BG, the illustrations will not have as much of an impact.

Unknown said...

I really liked this part of the article, with a nice and interesting topics have helped a lot of people who do not challenge things people should know... You need more publicize this so many people who know about it are rare for people to know this... Success for you.....!!!

Aleš said...

David, I was wondering what was going on and I'm glad everything is fine and that you're going to continue writing this blog!

Laurence John said...

David,
would you consider setting the comments so they open in a new window ?
it means that you can read comments while eyeing a picture on the main page and don't have to keep going back and forth.

Anonymous said...

David,
Thank you for maintaining this intriguing, educational and always thoughtful blog..
D.H.

Andra said...

David - Like your new look (and your enthusiasm for Bernie Fuchs)!
A.C.

David Apatoff said...

Thanks to all for your comments, suggestions, and most of all your patience while I try to re-engineer this damn thing. I don't want to get too caught up in discussions of the formatting or aesthetics of web sites because I view it as a distraction from the pictures which are supposed to be the centerpiece of this blog. But rest assured I like many of the ideas you're sending (Laurence John, the notion of separate window for comments is great).

If I took ads or did this through a corporate shell, I'm sure this transition would be more professional and less ungainly. But I'll settle on something I like.

Paul Chadwick said...

I find it hard to believe I've only discovered your wonderful blog, through Google, at this late date! Terrific! I have hours of exploration ahead of me. Thank you!