Links!!

Make an app. out of your artwork! (I can’t wait to try this out)

http://www.artistsketchbooks.com/step1.php

Any other book nerds out there?

http://artbooknews.blogspot.com/

Very good post for all those resolutions made for the new year!

http://ittybiz.com/creative-ways-to-meet-your-goals/

Amazing art work. I love the spoiled walls section. Hello panda watching t.v.

http://www.bananca.co.uk/spoiledwalls.html

I hope these links make your Sunday a little more interesting.

What I’ve been working on:

Here is the latest version.

I am really enjoying this painting. I believe it’s the first time I have ever been happy with the process and not pushing myself to an end.

Lately, as I mentioned in a previous post,  I have been in a very big slump. It happens from time to time, but this one has been particularly bad. One of the reasons is $$$$$. One solution to this is so obvious and simple it took me a couple of months to even think of it. I also didn’t think I would need to go this route, but you know, “this economy.”  So I bring it up in case someone else is not thinking of it too. I called all my student loan companies and got my loans pushed back until we move to cheaper housing in June.  I really didn’t think that they would just push my loans back. I called before and asked them to lower the payments, which they all did, but I thought that would be the extent of it. Not so.  That has relieved so much stress I feel giddy!

Now back to the painting. Normally I am beating myself up about how much/little painting I am doing more than anyone else. Then this week I realized that that’s not helping me.  That doesn’t put me in the mindset to paint. Those thoughts make me feel bad about myself and doubt my goals.  So instead, for the moment, I am just satisfying myself with sitting in my studio every day. I sit in my chair and look across the room at this painting. Some days that makes me want to paint, others I just enjoy looking at a painting that is going right. That makes me feel good.

I also mentioned a new medication in that older post. That medication made me freak out and it took another month before I could see the doctor again. However, this new, new medication does not seem to have any bad side-effects so far.  Another reason I am just content with enjoying this painting is because it is going right and so much else is in limbo and still needs more attention.  All this is really personal and I may decide to delete it all later, but it is part of my art experience and it does effect my creativity/motivation.

I have faith that I will know when to step up and push myself. For now I’m not going to feel guilty about not painting every day.  I think that will allow me to enjoy the times that I do paint and sooner, rather than later, I will be painting every day instead of pushing myself and beating myself up. It’s hard to learn to love painting again.  But we’re working through it. Clearly painting is willing to give me another chance, the image above is proof of that.

I have some great links for tomorrow!!

Selling Art Without Galleries

By: Daniel Grant

I am a bit torn with this book.

I found a lot of  great info in the pages, but not much had to do with selling w/o a gallery. The author mentions obvious venues such as art fairs and a few not so obvious ones, however, most of the examples from artists seem to be dealing with galleries. Or, even more frustrating,  Grant will give an example of what worked, but in a tone that is more, “This may work for you, but probably not.”  Although, I could just be reading into that.

If you saw all the tabs coming from the book you would assume it’s amazing. I have marked quite a few things from it. It was really dry reading though and it took me quite awhile to get through it. I had a couple of false starts.

This book does have a few amazing lists though. It lists different societies, different insurance groups, etc.

While it is not a very exciting read I think it is one for the book shelf if only for the very valuable archive of extensive lists. The chapter titled ” Help That Is Tailored To Artist’s Needs” is worth the price of the whole book, especially for a “new” artist.

Happy Holidays!*

I have been wondering whether or not to even say anything, but if I am going to blog about my art business then I should blog about it all (or most of it anyway).  I started to type a post and then I stopped, then I started, you get the point.  Around the time of my last post I had a couple of major set backs. It happens. I have also been dealing with a couple of personal issues that have been rather time consuming, one of which is a new medication for depression. That in itself was a huge decision for me.

Because of these business and personal related set backs I am rethinking what I am doing. I tried not to jump in with both feet with this business. I have a tendency to jump with out looking and I wanted to take this slow and do it right. Of course my nature won out.  I want to do everything all at once and when I can’t it becomes suffocating.

So I am taking a deep breath, regrouping, and slowing down. I’m trying to breath and realize this is my journey and I will only be at the beginning once. I do appreciate that fact but sometimes I get a bit impatient.

Over the next few days I am going to reasses my short term goals and write down a step by step plan to get there. Plans make me feel better.  I am going to take what I have learned so far and prioritize my marketing needs.  I am going to focus on painting everyday and save money towards marketing, framing, and contests. It will be slow going, but hopefully only for the next year or so.

Next summer we are moving back to Chicago so I am hoping to get a better paying day job, one that will give me money left over after my student loans. I am also hoping to have enough paintings for a few smaller shows.

Of course I will still be reading books and sketching and posting. Now that I know what needs to be done and I have mentally prepared myself and I am looking up. Sometimes it takes me a bit to wrap my head around a new direction. I have to let go of the old plan or lack of one.  I have to recharge and regroup for a new line of battle. It also takes me awhile to see what that new line should be or if it’s even worth continuing. But of course this battle is.

I know these set backs and changes are going to happen quite often, especially at the beginning.  They are like switch backs on a mountain hike. It doesn’t look like you are getting any where, it seems like you are going in the wrong direction, but eventually you come out at the top of the climb.  I also know that I will process them how I process them. Some might take me a couple of days, others a few weeks.  I need to push myself through these times and just focus on the painting until I can forge ahead with a new plan. So my goal for the New Year is to stop wasting time.  I need to paint. I want to paint. I am going to paint. Every day for at least two and a half hours (the length of one of my old classes) I will work on a painting. The rest of the day I can work on anything else that needs to be done, but in 2010 painting comes first.

*I say happy holidays because I like to include everyone and because there are a lot of holidays during this time, like Thanksgiving and New Years, not just Christmas.  It has nothing to do with being politically correct as some know I am not want to do.  So Happy Holidays, I hope the season brings you love, joy, and a bit of peace.

Ebay

I am testing the waters over at Ebay to see if I can sell a painting. I put this one on the auction block starting at $200. If you notice I am selling it on Etsy for $350 so you have the potential to get a really good deal on this one.

You can find the listing here.

Winner Anounced and Sneak Preview.

With out further ado, I asked Joe to pick a number between 1 and 4 and he picked 3.  So the winner is Todd!  Todd, I just need you to email me your mailing info and I will have the calendar sent out Saturday.

I am thinking about having a giveaway monthly. I’m not quite sure about next month, but I will definitely start it up in January. I believe next time I will offer three choices of prizes. Now I just have to think of another question.

Here is the painting I started last Friday. This is the first wash of color. I am using a new palette, although still only 4 colors.  1 of each primary and then burnt umber. I don’t remember the names of the colors off the top of my head, but I’m pretty sure it’s permanent rose and windsor blue.  The title right now is  “Discussing the Israel/Palestine Conflict in the Back of a Cab: Thailand, 2009″  Joe hates the title, but Joe can suck it. I may change it, but the story behind the painting is: Once upon a time in a land far far away…..

Anyone who knows me, knows how horrible some of my trip to Thailand was and why. However, this cloud for sure has a silver lining. Because of the horribleness of one situation I was able to meet a lot of new people.  One day two of those people and I set out for the royal palace. This gentleman who lives on the West Bank and the young woman that I was with started a conversation about…what else the conflict between Israel and Palestine.  He has really beautiful eyes so I am hoping I can pull them off successfully. They seem a little small now, but I think it’s because everything around them is painted.

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!

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.

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.

New Painting Friday!

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.

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.