it’s strange…i have Favourite Vendors, and then I have Favourite Vendors Who Make The Sort of Stuff That I’m Constantly Using Because It Suits the Type of Art I Like to Do. Heh. I admire ALL vendors - they have skills and talent and dedication and the drive to make things - whereas I don’t have ANY of that. Someone who specializes in making textures - holy cow, I don’t know how anyone can have the patience for that. LOL. Someone who specializes in making characters and character skins -whoa, tried that once and realized my eye for detail was sadly sub-par, and I’m just TOO impatient and making the DS mats drove me nuts. Someone who specializes in modelling buildings and props - well, my attempt looked like an explosion in a fur & treacle factory. So I bow down before all vendors making things, regardless of what it is - because they are skilled and talented in their areas.
So while I may have a Favourite Vendor, I may not buy every single thing they put out - because while I think their stuff is awesome, it just doesn’t suit what I like to do in my art. And I may have another Favourite Vendor, who specializes in creating the things that suit my art perfectly, so I snap up everything they ever release. It doens’ t mean I don’t “like” a particular vendor - I can still admire their work, think it’s fabulous and then just buy one or two pieces, and get excited when they release something new.
For instance, my art tends to more be portraits of a character - if I do a “scene” it’s generally one or two characters doing someting particular, but I focus on them, not where they are. So while I bow down before Stonemason and believe he is the God of All Modelling (like a lot of us), I don’t tend to buy a lot of his stuff. I have a few pieces that I use, but I don’t do scenery art, or big mega scenes, so I find I’m using just a tiny fraction of a set more as a background than anything else. But he’s still one of my Favourite Vendors, cos like, he’s a God! And his work brings joy to my life because it’s just so wonderful and beautiful. LOL. And I love seeing his new pieces and get quite excited reading his WIP or preview threads and seeing his fabulous art. And if there is spare cash floating around my credit card, and it’s kinda sci-fi’ish, then I might pick it up. But then, there is another vendor that I just buy as soon as they release, regardless of what it is, cos they specialize in doing stuff that perfectly suits my art and is something that I will use again and again and again.
So it’s sort of like, they are ALL my favourite vendors cos they all do spiffy stuff, but like everyone else around, I only have a certain amount that I can spend, so I wait with anticipation for certain vendors to release something new this month cos I know it’ll be suitable to what I do, and other vendors that I wait with anticipation to release something new so I can oooo and ahhhhh over the gorgeous work…and then figure out if I can really spare anything, and if not, maybe next month. I’ve got no “un-favourite” vendors at all. I kinda spent the whole month of September getting excited over EVERYONE.
Some of the things you put out I sit there and go “omg what a GREAT idea, how’d he think of that??” LOL. Now, you need to go model one of those gorgeous cats of yours along with textures, and I can snap it up. *laughs*
