Month: July 2023

X and Oddballs

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As you may have heard, Elon Musk has rebranded Twitter to “X.” This comes as no surprise as it has been his plan all along – use Twitter’s infrastructure and its massive user base as a foundation for X, his “everything app.” Things are about to get interesting.

I have never really used Twitter. I found it to be confusing and laborious. I had deleted my account a while back and lost all my followers and tweets. I got back on and couldn’t figure out how to gain traction. After hearing the news of the switch yesterday, I immediately got on and changed my username to reflect “Oddballs” instead of simply me.

My gut is telling me that X will become the new YouTube and Instagram. What those two platforms are missing is a way to share what you see and have a conversation about it. And creators will now get a cut of the revenue when their posts are viewed and shared (from what I understand). That’s huge! If something goes viral, you could make money with it! Before, it would simply be a bragging rights thing.

I’m not sure exactly how I’ll use X for Oddballs. I’m bouncing ideas in my head. One idea is to have Seamus C. Monster be the voice of Oddballs over there, commenting on things and having conversations. All this would lead people to the zine. We’ll see.

In any case, I’m excited about X. Are you?

Instagram PayPal Scam

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Recently, I was approached by a follower on my CoffeeShop.AI Instagram page, asking me if I do commissions. It turned out to be a scam!

The guy asked if I accept commission work. I said it depends. He wanted me to draw his three kids in my cartoonist style. We agreed on a price of $300 for the three kids together, nothing fancy. I told him I charge half up front and half at the end of the project in order to send the digital files. All was hunky-dory.

I told him to pay via Venmo or CashApp. He said he only uses PayPal; not my favorite but I have an account. So I sent him the link.

I had a bad feeling in my gut. First, I couldn’t figure out why he approached me via my AI art page, not my other two profiles (JasonSalasCreative and OddballsZine). Both of those exhibit my drawing style. Secondly, I tried the link and it worked on my end. But I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

My email address is on my website (which I shared with him) so it’s no secret. And my PayPal is linked to it as well. I don’t use PayPal much so I don’t know how people search for users so I sent it.

That “Use Latest App” deal was weird. Apparently, it was three pics that were made to look like he initiated payment.

It was after that last message that the guy blocked me. This was the email sent to me, which was in the spam folder, of course. From Gmail??? Ha!

As you can see, this fraudulent email is telling me to “refund” money to this guy. The dead image links were probably meant for me to click on them to download photos. The whole thing is a scam. I already have a business account and I’ve done plenty of business with it, over $300.

That last part is funny, about PayPal being committed to preventing fraudulent emails and how it should only use my full name. Of course, he got all this from the link I sent to him.

These are the things that artists go through. We put our work out there and put ourselves out there for work. In doing so, we attract scammers. It’s a shame but it’s part of the job.

I’ve often said that, in the term “Art Business,” the word “business” is bigger for a reason. Anyone can do art, but not everyone can do the business end of it. I fail regularly. Luckily, I didn’t fail in this instance.

“Goofy Monsters” Coloring Book is Now Available!

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My new “Goofy Monsters” coloring book is available NOW, exclusively on Amazon! Click here or the image below to check it out!

Here’s the description from the back of the book:

“Get ready for a monstrously fun coloring experience with the Goofy Monsters Coloring Book! From fuzzy, huggable creatures to scaly, spiny pals, this book is packed with growls, gurgles, and giggles. So, grab your crayons, colored pencils, or markers, and get ready to make your new monster friends come to life!”

Here are some of the monsters therein:

I created this book with an assist from AI (Midjourney). Sounds easy, right? If you watch some videos on YouTube about the process, they make it look super easy. But it was more difficult and took longer than I had anticipated, even with my experience as a graphic designer and artist.

Needless to say, I had to learn a lot to get this book completed. But I loved every moment of it! Here are the tools and resources I used to get it done:

  1. YouTube (to learn)
  2. Discord
  3. Midjourney
  4. Affinity Photo
  5. AI. Image Enlarger
  6. Procreate
  7. Creative Fabrica
  8. Canva
  9. Amazon KDP
  10. Friends and family (to review)

The thing that took the longest was generating the images using Midjourney and manipulating the selected images using Affinity and Procreate. I didn’t have to do the latter, but the raw images from Midjourney were not up to my standards; they had shading, odd glitches, and were weird in spots. Below is a time-lapse video showing part of the work I did using Procreate:

The Oddballs Mascot Got A Makeover

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As you can see, I’ve got something new to show you. It’s my new mascot Seamus C. Monster! He’ll be the “host” of all things Oddballs from here on out. That means that he’ll be the “voice” of Oddballs. It’s like he’s my first employee… only I don’t have to pay him and he doesn’t use up all my K-cups for endless coffee breaks.

You may have seen Seamus featured in Oddballs. Who can forget his “biggest hits”?

The cover of Issue #4:

As well as “2023 Resolutions”

“In a Maze with Roaches & Spiders”:

The back cover of Oddballs #7:

And, of course, the sculpture I made of him out of Bash’s Play-Doh:

My buddy J. even did a fun animation with him!

And now, here he is, Seamus C. Monster in the scaly flesh!

I commissioned a fantastic artist, Gal Weizman after seeing her work in one of Bash’s Highlights magazines. Isn’t her work amazing?!

I’m so excited to have Seamus C. Monster on board. I’m sure you’ll find him perfectly odd.

Oddballs: Flyers for Absurd Music Festivals

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Have you ever gone to a music festival? I’ve gone to a couple. I’m not a fan of them. There are too many people and it seems like chaos. Plus, they usually overprice any water or food and I’m a cheapskate. I’ll sit in my room and listen to Spotify instead.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the actual music festivals, they are:

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Oddballs: Diary of an Alien Kid

Jason Salas1 Comment

How many of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books have you read? I’ve read eleven of the books, from what I can remember. It’s been a while.

Since writing and drawing this Oddballs page, I got the itch to read another one of these books so I just ordered #12. If I’ve already read it, I’ll read it again. I absolutely LOVE “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”!

Aliens, on the other hand, I do not like.

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