Simon Cottee

"finding an alternative"

As a professional artist it is hard to feel like you are giving up on art by making the pivot. It's a complicated move, and like me, a lot of your self worth and pride may be wrapped up in being a professional artist. But maybe life could be simple for a while? And maybe we can float for a time.

My 3 PIVOT career had these metrics
1. Creative
2. High Paying
3. Breezy
What I learned is you can't have all 3. The creative part, the part I hold most dear doesn't fit into High Paying and Breezy. As those are the two I couldn't cut as those are the two Professional Arts ISN'T haha.

So that means looking into the job market and finding a alternate career in an industry that isn't circling the toilet. IT, Technical Writing, Customer Service etc.
The trick is, is to find your personal metrics for a job.
I had 3 metrics for a pivot job. Cont...

Hey professional Artists. The industry (at least what I've experienced in MTL Canada as a 2D Animation director) is at an all time low. Most industry professionals like myself have been looking into the PIVOT. Where we plan an off-ramp or a float career alternative. Cont... #animators #arts

To Gaza With Love | Palestine Solidarity | Help Gaza Live Stream YouTube video by Animation Community 4 Palestine

Today we have a 24 hour live stream of all the short animated films made for our To Gaza With Love animation jam! Check it out:

www.youtube.com/live/yuWokTb...

Dice, Pens and Paper - RPGs as story and art engines | Slyman Get more from Slyman on Patreon

I dug up this old artwork to go into my new patreon post about my history with TTRPG's and the art that they have generated over the decades:
www.patreon.com/posts/dice-p...

An illustration from 2018 depicting a tense flying minivan ride from our old Starfinder campaign. The NPC is obviously the one bleeding. #traditionalgames #illustration

Ahhh, now the old base is the hangout loft. Nice and empty!

The move continued! Transporting so many things! This really is like death stranding out here.

Moving down the cliff day! #duneawakening

Play Dune Awakening like Death Stranding! When building your base, make traversal infrastructure for your fellow spice freaks! Instead of a grey box, why not make a bridge?! A mountain side staircase? A comfortable spot of shade to wait out the midday sun? Strand (sand) type gaming! #duneawakening

YouTube video by Yay Can Phantasy Star Online Soundtrack • Dreamcast

Listening to this at work. I used to play Phantasy Star Online on me dreamcast when I was like 15. Now at 39 and listening to it I'm getting flooded with emotions. My first experience to this kinda game, and the music was such a large part of the vibe. aetherial and drifting
youtu.be/flCtIKNyDoM

It was held together with super glue (I didn't have plastic glue with me). The super glue was melting things and a pain in the ass. I sprayed it with varnish clear matte as a final step, which did frost a bit. But I don't mind some frosting.

I dry brushed some white onto the weapon parts but I think if I did it again I'd just hand paint highlights and shadows. I got carried away and dry brushed a bit of the mobile suit and then had to paint over it because it looked real bad

Photoshoot bonus

Gunpla mini kit, Zaku Canon mobile suit. This is my first gunpla paint job. Pretty satisfied. But the assembly with the painted pieces was a mini nightmare. This is probably unique to mini kits, compared to a standard HG kit. Mini is so fiddly and fragile #gunpla #zaku #minis #paintjob #zakucanon

Quote about alien general Traff and his promise not to destroy a captured library Traff already knew what he was going to do. He solved the problem by shuffling the library, sorting every word in it into alphabetical order and every pixel of every illustration into order of color, shade and intensity. The original microfiles were wiped and re-recorded with volumes upon volumes of "the"s, "it"s, and "and"s; the illustrations were fields of pure color. There were riots, of course, but Traff was in control by then, and as he explained to the incensed and-as it turned out, literally-suicidal guardians of the library, and to the Empire's Supreme Court, he had kept his word about not actually destroying or taking as booty a single word, image or file.

Elon Musk’s Culture obsession might mean he uses this alien Library solution on Grok. Not destroying human knowledge but rearranging it all into confusion.

Landing that knife double kill #FragPunk

need to revisit her model occasionally to justify all the work i put into it
#art #blender3d

YouTube video by Duker91 Microsoft Songsmith Commercial

Sure all these new AI music systems are "neat", but me? I only fuck with Microsoft Songsmith:
youtu.be/3oGFogwcx-E

Started up a new mothership campaign at work. Created a new gang to build out some lore. #mothership #ttrpg

Digital painting of a giant ominous man, sitting cross legged, levitating in the sky, surrounding by flying giant oarfish, overlooking structures and buildings. The man is a merfolk; mostly humanoid, but with a giant oarfish tail that he's sitting on. He's dressed in a religious tunic, with a red band resting over his shoulders, a helmet fashioned to look like an oarfish head, and he is holding a horn closely, as if he's about to blow it. The his sclera are bloodshot. Around him are dozens of giant oarfish, rising from the sea and floating mid-ar. Beneath them are deserted buildings, homes and infrastructures.

the omen #MerMay

TO GAZA WITH LOVE: A Global AniJam REGISTRATION PAGEJoin animators and artists around the world in a powerful creative call for peace, love, and solidarity with Gaza.TO GAZA WITH LOVE is a global aniJam initiated by AC4PAL (Animation C...

Calling all ANIMATORS. There is an Animation Jam to raise funds for animation workshops in Gaza. Donate what you can and sign up to participate and submit your 10-30 second animation with love to Gaza #animation #gaza #anijam

ac4palanijam.gumroad.com/l/ToGazaWith...

02 - The Kids Fixed It | Animation Stories Get more from Animation Stories on Patreon

Here is the 2nd film presentation for the Gaza Animation Workshop patreon. The Kids Fixed It. Made by 20 girls aged between 9 and 14. Join up and support animation for kids in Gaza #gaza #animation #animationstories #palestine

www.patreon.com/posts/02-kid...

here's the RULESHEET and updated FACTION CARDS

ROUND 2 RESULTS of CUTIE FACTIONS! Oh no, a bubble tea misshap. Cutie factions is an ongoing story engine project that YOU can participate in. Just reply with a CUTIE FACTION ACTION with a photo of a dice roll using 2d6! Most liked faction action will be used. #cutiefactions #ttrpg #roleplaying #rpg

My mother painted the lil guy!
Shout-out to Mums.

Watch: 'Death Does Not Exist' First Look Revealed ahead of Cannes Directors' Fortnight Cinephiles today got their first look at Death Does Not Exist (La Mort n’existe pas), the latest hand-drawn feature from celebrated Canadian filmmaker Félix

Get hyped for the indie 2D animated feature Death Does Not Exist! By Félix Dufour-Laperrière. Who has "oh-so-casually" made 4 2D indie feature films here in Montreal. #animation #cannes #indiefilm #embuscade

www.animationmagazine.net/2025/05/watc...