I’m not saying I don’t have talent or that some people wouldn’t buy my art now. What I am saying is that I want to grow and I can’t concentrate on that growth if I am too worried about making money.

I’m also not saying I wouldn’t sell a piece if someone offered to buy it.

I want to fall back in love with painting and wrap myself up in it.

Then I came across this awesome blog post. The list is going on my wall of inspiration. I need to tell myself this every day.

Artists work very hard on their work. We have spent considerable time, resources, energy, and emotions in developing our style and “language.” It is ours and it is personal.

In order to be up to date we need to be online. We have to market ourselves and have a web page. If we want to reach out and expand our community we need blogs and Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages and more.  It’s bad enough when sites like Facebook claim the rights to our images if we post them, but at least we have a choice there.

Many artists do not like to watermark their work because it obscures the image and makes selling online difficult. Watermarks can also look unprofessional.

If you find that you took someone’s work and they contact you, usually removal of said work and a sincere apology is enough.  If the artist took the time to contact you before going to their lawyer then you should be very happy as well as humbled.  Do not behave like this guy http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/rethinking-healthcare/big-mother-gets-her-shot-at-cutting-health-costs/1023/#comments and respond with arrogance and condescension, trying to rewrite the law. Also don’t then write an eye roll worthy article acting as though the guy you stole from is an out of touch jerk like this…http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/thinking-tech/how-to-protect-your-copyrighted-images-on-the-web/3684/.

I don’t know how to get it through to this guy that an illustrator makes money by creating illustrations for articles just like his and ethical professionals pay for those illustrations. As others in those comments said, it devalues the artist’s work because the clients that paid for the work then wonder why they bothered.

Just because something is easy to do does not mean it’s okay. Although now it is very easy to just click and grab a piece of artwork does not mean that artists should not get paid for someone to use it. It means that artists need to be even more vigilant. It means that it is even more important to get permission before using the work of someone else.

If you would like to see more about this particular situation you can find the artist’s reply here…http://drawger.com/buzelli/?section=articles&article_id=10164

Please don’t steal from people and for artists, copyright your work. Better safe than sorry.

P.S By law all my images are copyright. If you want to use my work, ask me.  I’m nice…unless you steal from me. Then I’m mean, very very mean. And while I may be poor (and would love the opportunity to take your money) I do have a lawyer in the family who would love to help me take your money.  Have a nice day.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Business blogs:

What is the one thing you do every week to get more clients?   Check out what other people said here.

ArtBizBlog’s Alyson B. Stanfield is interviewed here.

Loads of interesting articles here.

Ever miss a great opportunity?

Improve your art sales w/ these seven selling points

Tomorrow I will announce the winner of the give away. You have until midnight tonight to post a comment for entry!

Clark R. Covington

Full disclosure time: I tweeted a request for recommendations for books on selling. Covington tweeted an invite to check out his books on Amazon. I scurried over, but he was out of stock. He very kindly sent me a copy.  I read the introduction right away before I headed to work. However, I put off reading the rest for a few weeks. There’s a lot of pressure. What if I don’t like it? What if it has nothing to do with my line of business, but I still “have” to review it (that is purely my own pressure as I was never asked to review it/he probably doesn’t even know I review books on my blog/has never seen my blog)? I also have about 8 other various books I am reading at any given time.  Some for the business side, some for the art side and some just because I love to read.  So with out any further ado…..

I have to say I like Clark R. Covington. Not just because he sent me a book (although that is a huge plus) and not solely because he has an easy chair called the Sumo, although I too have a gigantic Lay-Z-Boy that takes the place of my office most days once in a very long while.  I like Covington because he doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously and because he celebrates people owning their uniqueness. And I quote:

“Embrace the information in this book, and then immediately challenge yourself to be different, to stand out, to do things your own way, and there is a good chance the rewards of your risk-taking will come sooner than you’ve ever thought possible.”

When people say things like that I know they get it. They get that being yourself and bringing that thing that no one else can bring is what makes the world go round.

Another paragraph that I need to share with you is this:

“Think back to your happiest time, the time that you daydream with your fingers crossed will come again. think about that time: Did you have to overcome something to get there? Did you have to fall a few times and get back up before that happiness overcame you as you tasted sweet success?…If you are going to succed, you must fail first.“

I also love it when people tell me it’s okay to fail. After all, my personal motto is, “If you are going to fail, fail hard.” I have failed enough at enough things to know failing is a pretty good thing, even if it hurts at the moment.

I could share a few more with you, but perhaps you should get your own copy.

Covington writes like he is talking directly to you. I find that very easy to read especially when the topic at hand is not something I am familiar with.

It’s not all butterflies and rainbows though, he knows how to get down to business. Clearly. After all, he did write a book about it.

It could be argued that a lot of this book is an ad for his services as well. Why shouldn’t it be? If you trust a guy enough to take his advice about internet marketing, wouldn’t you want to know about all his other products as well?

This book may not be for everyone, but I definitely think there are a lot of great ideas in here. I know on several occasions it has had my mind racing with new ideas.

Being a fine artist and therefore being the only person who can create my particular artwork, implementing some of the ideas Covington introduces may seem a bit of a stretch at first, but I know with some creative thinking (it is what I do) I could use most of them to my advantage.

*Like all the other books I mention there is now a link on the side bar.

For my very first give-away your prize will be my oversized wall calendar. This way you get many lovely images (if I do say so myself, and you know I do) and you get something for the new year.

Now for the rules.

First answer this question (in the comments, not just in your head):   If you could own any painting which one would it be and why? If you would post a link that would be even better. Although it won’t help your chances of winning it will make it much more enjoyable for us all .

How this works: I will put the number of comments into a random number generator, whichever number that baby spits out will be the winner (if I can’t figure out how those work then I will have The Man pick a number between 1 and the yet to be seen number of comments, not fancy but it works).  I will then ship the calendar to you.

I will most likely do a top 5 comments as well. You won’t win anything, but it’s an extra way for me to thank you all for participating.

I will start, I would love to be able to look at this Pasini every single day.  It has that quality that just makes me sigh. Everything is in place and it all seems to hum together. Don’t even get me started on the gorgeous spot of teal. In real life it is lovely.

The winner will be announced next Wednesday! Good luck!

(p.s. I’m so excited.)

(p.p.s. Sept. and Nov. will have full size images by next Wednesday)