SciFi & Fantasy Artwork by Michael J Routley

*throws rocks at you* Entertaaaiiinnn meeeeeeeeee.....it’s too much energy to go find entertainment elsewhere in the woods

Michael J Routley replies: "*tars and feathers a zombie pig then sets it on fire. Their, you are entertained."

:-O
Poor zombie piggy!!!!! what did it ever do to you!?!? you ass!!!!

Michael J Routley replies: "Well. i guess he tared and feathered me and set me on fire to entertain one of his zombie pig friends on the interweb. It only seemed fair that he return the favor."

So after some uninspiring mishaps at other art sites, I’ve decided on giving up trying to find something better and I’m going to restart on DA. I don’t want to deal with all the comments I have on there so I’m just going to delete my old new gallery and start a new new gallery there
I’m going to leave just a few pics up on elfwood but pretty much let it go dormant here until, maybe, one day, things heat up in the woods again...hopefully...

So, anyway, if you’re ever on DA, feel free to stop by and steal my couch and drink my wine coolers....I promise I won’t get mad at you the first time you do it!

Michael J Routley replies: "Note, if you delete your profile, you lose control of your art, you cant even delete it after that. either delete it first before you delete your profile, or just leave the profile dormant.
You can do What I did, declre the profile shut down in your sub heading below your profile name, and hide all comments, disallow comments on the art in "edit Deviation" then in your journal write a final entry declairing your intent to end all hostilites in that profile, and put a link to your new profile, Ive even seen people change their icon to say, "Moved to a new profile". but thats all optional, but dont forget to shut off all your watch items in your "manage friends" section.

In any case I’ll visit regularly."

Your comment on my page disappeared.. Anyway, thanks for the offer. Yeah I spent a little bit of time looking around deviant now now and saw there’s some writing, but it doesn’t seem directed at stories specifically, more for poems or for a character or setting description.
Still, I find it cool that you can have pictures and written stuff on an account, which would allow me to draw little maps or crude drawings in MS-Paint if to help show a story’s lay-out... if I were to ever join. I haven’t written anything in so long, but if I somehow start up again I might open a deviant art acc. I have to admit elfwood is dead :/ Makes me sad though.

Michael J Routley replies: "Yes, I find the wood, more dead than normal. I recall when I’d get a lot of returned comments, now it seems I get almost none at all. Oh well, as long as its still here i’ll keep posting on it, i’ve got a lot of work to upload, but I need to add stories to the pictures and thats got me hung up for the moment. "

Elfwood seems to be in a bit of a slump. I too am greatly annoyed when I go through a gallery and comment. And get no response. Or the person comes to my gallery, picks some random picture and just writes, "nice." Almost as if it’s a great inconvenience to return the favor. I don’t bother commenting on the really good artist’s galleries here because I know they would never soil their shoes or darken my door.

I don’t know why other people have left. I was having a nice back and forth with Dawn, then one day she said no one is talking to her. What can you do? As for you. I don’t know if you have been putting new art up, but that Elfwood thing letting people know their favorite artist or writer has some new material, never has worked right since it was started. It misses half the time.

And like you, most of the people that have friended me or tagged me are long gone.

Michael J Routley replies: "Its sad really, personally I liked elfwood more than I do Deviant. the friends here were much more loyal. Deviant is too crowded, and most commentsrs do single phrase comments. The only ones that really do extended comments are from Jessicas comment group.

I found her leaving here rather abrupt myself. But I think her refusal to give a clue where she went was nothing personal against us. I think she wanted to keep her new deviant art profile unknown to people in her "off line" life such as family or co-workers. Shes quite busy now getting hundreds of comments to the point she has trouble keeping up. so that seems to make her happy as would be expected.

Acording to my notes, all my friends left here last september, a sort of sudden evacuation. Elfwood really needs to change their system, so that active members have more than on form of interaction, there needs to be some sort of alternative art exposure. Currently the only way to get your art into the public eye here is to upload it and thats it. Devant art has groups that are focused on certain types of art, and uploding your art to the groups re-exposes it. And there are thousands of these groups some with hundreds or thousadns of active members so every day is like an upload day.

Elfwood need to get their viewers out of bed, their system needs an overhaul in a way that gets people more interactive. But every single thing I wrote them about seemed to come back with a negetive responce, so I went to deviant art. where we are even more ignored but atleast its a better system to begin with.

As for my art, I’ve got lots of new stuff. I’ve not been uploading it here because its just so innactive, but I may reconsider that and just do it for old times sake. We’ll see.
"

Hey Michael! It really has been a long time. I’m glad to hear from you again as I thought you might be dead :|

I’ve pretty much stopped the mod thing because every time I go to mod I have to go through a "mentor" to get approval (even though I’ve had mod powers for more than a year) because there are just too few tickets to approve and almost 95% of the time my mentor doesn’t even read my e-mails until like 3 weeks later. I’ve written some new work, mainly a new book (cant remember if I’ve told you of it, I’m ~100k words in) and a couple of shorts. I think I might migrate over to deviant art. Unfortunately last time I tried DA it was even more dead for me than elfwood, in a manner of speaking. Of course there are more people there but because there are more people there are more writers and artists to "compete" with in order to receive any attention. At least that has been my experience.

On a different note, I would not like to lose good friends that I have made over some (now) obscure websites and instead would like to remember you as someone who really helped me. Do you have a Skype in order for us to keep in touch once in a while?

PS I shall be making a DA account this morning and hopefully posting a couple things today and tomorrow.

Michael J Routley replies: "Yes I found you there. And yes writing and potography get a bit less attention, in DA, but its all about time and pacients. Jessica has massed quite a following through means beyond her art, largly her conmment for comment style, and collecting Devaint art points from donations from friends, then uses the points for contest prizes to help expose her art, if you follow the same strategy you’ll gain more watchers than me, shes got 150 in a reletily short time. You must also learn to use the groups to continuiously re-expose your liturature to new viewers, it helps bring you out of obscurity. There are Liuteture specific groups, full of hundereds of writers. thats where you unpload your work. I can give you details there. so just contact me in my DA account. "

Hi Michael, how have you been? The mod thing isn’t going to well as I’m having a lot of trouble with Yahoo and life in general. I’ve got a lot of health issues that I am trying to get worked out and it’s just a mess to say the least. As for the modding I haven’t even finished my training yet and don’t know when I will. My life is just really screwed up right now. You take care and I hope you have a wonderful New Year.

Michael J Routley replies: "I’m sorry to hear youre having troubles. I’ve had more than my share in the last little while, last year was pritty tough, but its been starting to pan out. Its nice to finally step out of the fire from the frying pan, and finnaly off the stove for the most part. Dont wory, every dog has his day, Yours will come too, I certainly am hoping it comes soon. Elfwood has taken a bit of a dive of late, as more and more people are bugging out to DA, me included, my other mod friend who was a mod for a year finally just gave up on it. But I hope it comes back, they just need to restructure it a bit to make it less like a museum. Hope you get well, and I’ll try to keep in touch. "

Speaking of cool vehicles, this is a snow tractor from 1927. It’s amazing how powerful it is. Too bad we can’t have this this for deep snow now.
http://www.flixxy.com/snow-vehicle-concept.htm

Michael J Routley replies: "Yeah, it was actually a pritty good design, I wnder why it never caught on? its not like the track replaced it, it was already invented in 1927. But i guess a tracked vehical is versitile year round and works almost as well in snow, and probably not so loud as compared to two huge drums on your tractor going over rocks and gravel. But it was still a good idea for snow, and simple to. A guy could almost make one in his garage."

Ey, I finally was able to log into this page. Wahoo. I wanted to say I really like your works, violent and creative stuff. When I setup a DA account I’ll find you. They need to make this site more USER friendly.
The approval of my artwork took 8 years! I visit only once after I was able to login....seriously....slow.

Michael J Routley replies: "Yes DA is much more alive that this place. I haven’t been here in a while as things are getting pritty busy there for me. I got a Daily Deviation, wich netted 20,000 views in one day, and 2000 favorites, and anther 200 watchers. 250 comments, and now some high dollar commissions. I really cant see why anyone would remain here. if you go to DA and post your art in groups its a real live wire. I have more comments and fav’s on one picture x4 than all of the pictures here. It has its draw backs, this place has more persoality, DA is more grab and go, I like Elfwood more personally. if it wasnt so dead I’d be here more often."

Hey, you visited my page. I will post some art and yeah. *high fives for wolf lovin’* SO yeah. I really think your art is awesome btw. ^^

Michael J Routley replies: "If you like my art here you’ll love my Deviant art account, this place has not seen any of my new art in almost a year. I’ve really moved up in skill, though i really ought to start posting some new stuff in here just for old times sake."