Special Edition Tuesday Links!

I was featured on Empty Easel this week! I am very excited about this opportunity to share my work with a broader audience. Lisa seems lovely and I was happy to chat over email with her. You can check out the article here.

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!

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Step 1:

I draw out the important parts of the figure. I lay out what I consider to be the essential parts of the painting. These elements are what I use to express the feelings and mood that I want the finished piece to represent. In this painting I am concentrating on the torso and the turn of the face. The combination of a front facing torso and a face turned to the side shows vulnerability as well as an openness.
Next I map out the highlights and shadows at this point. Not only do the lines remind me later where I want these to be, but the act of doing it gives me a feeling for the shape of the body, the curves and angles. Thirdly it helps me match proportion as close as I can. Anything to help with that is a must for me.
Then I set the drawing aside to work on another painting or a different aspect of the  business. When I come back I will make adjustments to the drawing and lay down the first wash.

Step 2:

I’m still not happy w/ certain aspects. I think I will need to lay out the face again. I also trimmed down the left (your left) arm and shaved her down a few more places. So here is my first layer. I am leaving the background white and like I said focusing on the torso and the turn of the face. Now is the slow process of layering. Laying down the color over and over again to build up my darks and to mold the form. I want this painting to be loose, flowing, and expressionistic.

Step 3:

Now the slow boring part starts. Just layering and molding the body. It’s in the ugly stage of course, but that is to be expected.

Step 4:

I toned down the white of the paper on her torso in this step. More layering, more molding. Trying to fix the face a bit. I went too dark and let the lines dry hard. It’s all a part of the process though. Give and take, fixing the missteps and the push and pull of watercolor.

vulnerablepresentation

Step 5:

There are about 5 more steps in this one, but I finished it all in one day and did not stop to take photos. I really just wanted to get the whole thing finished. I masked the torso, legs and right arm. Then I used my three primary colors of my “dirty” palette: yellow ochre, prussian blue and brown madder to pour in the back ground.  I poured several layers. During one of these layers a strand of hair made it into the paint. I didn’t see this until the paint dried. I pulled up the strand and it left a nice line. So I ran to the bathroom grabbed my hair brush and went to work with a couple more layers.  It’s hard to see in this picture, but you can see it most on the left hand side near the body.

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New Painting Friday!

vulnerablepresentationetsy

I finally finished this painting. I am very happy to have it off my board because now I get to focus on my Thailand paintings. It did not turn out how I expected, the great thing about the unexpected though is that you learn a few new things. For instance, did you know hair makes an interesting resist? I did not until this week.  Joe loves this painting and keeps giving me the puppy dog eyes in hopes that I will cave and give it to him.

I am now offering 5 and 10 pks of postcards on my Etsy shop.  I uploaded this painting as well as one new abstract that I did not add on Monday.

In very exciting news: I found out that I am going to be featured next week at Empty Easel. I am thrilled that they picked my work. This week has been a little rough. Work was tough for me and left me with very little energy the last couple of days and that in turn allowed doubts and other things to creep in. The week started off very well though and I did get quite a bit accomplished. I mean, I did finally finish this painting.  The email I received from Lisa at Empty Easel was a perfect book end to this week.

Next week is going to be a bit hectic due to the holiday and my work schedule.

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Strange Business:

The Unconventional Guide To Internet Marketing

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.

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Give Away!!!!

I am excited to announce my very first give away. While I dream of giving away goodie bags loaded with awesomeness, you are just going to have to bear with me and we will start small together.

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)

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Tuesday Links!

Why? Because what else are you going to do on a Tuesday.

Just for fun:

Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies in a minute and a half? Sign me up, please.

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-waffle.aspx

Marketing:

http://emptyeasel.com/2007/04/30/7-tips-for-selling-art-online-how-to-help-buyers-find-your-artwork/

(Katie, Sharon, lurking Artists at large, et al ^^^^check this site out^^^^,  on the home page you can submit your art for review, i.e. publicity.)

http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/2009/11/marketing-mondays-youve-been-asked-to.html

Contests:

http://artistsonline.biz/wordpress/?p=61

Art:

http://danidraws.com/2009/11/09/why-i-share/#more-2110 (blog)

http://www.dailypainters.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p4gq5 (So You Think You Can Make Art?)

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Etsy Shop

SongforMicheleMyBelle

Abstract3

Abstract2pregnantwoman

These are the three newest paintings in my Etsy shop.  I will mainly be posting new paintings on Fridays, I just couldn’t wait this week. The format for these posts will include a small “teaser” thumbnail and a link to the store instead of all the paintings I add.  Also Etsy has their site set up so that for every item a store sells the store must pay a small fee. This allows the item to be active for 4 months, then Etsy takes down the item and charges another small fee to put it back up. Because of this I will only be offering my paintings on here for 1 cycle.  If they don’t sell then I will be moving them over to Ebay or at the very least keeping them on my Flickr account under Originals For Sale.  Any postcards or prints will most likely be up for multiple cycles, but I won’t necessarily renew them right away.

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Abstract Paintings

MyBeatingHeart

Abstract1

ChangingColors

I am now painting abstract.  While this is not a permanent change, painting abstract images allows me to challenge myself and experiment with out a lot of pressure. It also allows me to offer paintings at a greatly lower price because they are smaller, faster to create, and not my typical style.

In other news I opened an Etsy shop! I am very excited about this and I have been working all day and most of last night on it.  With this shop it will be easier to buy on-line so stop by and say hi!

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Links

My friend Kristen asked me for links to blogs I read, so of course, I thought I would post them here for everyone to enjoy. (This is not all inclusive and don’t forget the links that have earned permanent status on the side bar.)

With out further ado and in no particular order:

Ginny Stiles has some pretty good tips and I like to look at her sketchbook pages.

Myrna Wacknov is always trying something new and I love her ideas. It’s fun to watch her process.

I like the look of Donna Zagotta’s blog and she has interesting things to say.

I love looking at Errezart’s work. I found this blog on Illustration Friday.

Another blog from Illustration Friday. I really love the illustrations here. They are so simple, yet perfect.

A fellow AAART Allumus

One more IF discovery.

Finally two business blogs:

A recommendation from Sharon of ArtBySAW

I don’t remember how I found this one…

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New Logo By: Art By SAW Sharon Wilson

LogoforwebLook at me….all fancy. Thanks to Sharon I have a logo! I’m very excited to share this with everyone. Sharon took my handwriting, made it legible and turned out a lovely image. And she did it all with a very quick turn around time.  As soon as I make a bit of money I am going to have her do my blog and twitter background!..So get your  original art work for the holidays now! LOL

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