How to Ship Prints

Shipping prints can be a pain. I've had to go through some trial and error in this recently, so I thought I'd just write out what I've learned so far. Keep in mind that shipping original paintings is quite different, and I myself haven't even figured out the best way to do this, so that will be covered in a different blog post.

Shipping 8x10 prints (or smaller) is really easy, you just sandwich it securly in between two pieces of cardboard, stick it in a cardboard envelope and mail it off.

Larger prints are more difficult. Here's what I've learned:

1. You'll need to ship it in a cardboard tube, which you can get from the post office, a shipping store or even art stores usually. There are all different sizes so you need to get the size that will fit your print, in length and circumfrence.

Tube from USPS:

2. Then you'll want some brown packing paper, and you will roll your print up in the paper, and tape the roll so it doesn't come undone. You want the roll to be smaller than your tube, so the recipient can just slide it right out and the print does not get damaged.

3. I would then recommend taping a piece of paper right on the packing paper with your address and the recipient's address, just in case it happens to fall out.

4. Put your rolled up print inside the tube and tape it shut very well.

5. Then you just address it as usual and take it off to the post office or UPS for shipping.

Ready to be shipped:

Making Large Pieces of Art

I'm working on my largest painting yet! I have to say, this is a lot more difficult than painting on a smaller canvas or piece of wood.

To start with, I was worried about getting an even background color, because with a canvas that size (48x24) you obviously can't just use a regular paint brush. So I got a paint roller, just like the one's you use to paint your wall. I mixed the color I wanted for the background, then just rolled on the paint. This was a very fast method and it only took me a minute or two to evenly paint the whole background.

The only thing is if you want the background to be smooth, this method will not work because you end up with the tiny bumps, just like when you're painting a wall. Luckily I didn't need my background to be smooth.

I should also make note that I'm doing this painting with acrylic paint, because I need it to dry quickly. I would have loved to do it with oil, in which case I would have probably painted the background with a regular, large horsehair paintbrush, but due to the fact that I have no space to allow that to dry for a week or so, I went with acrylic.

Now I'm sketching my main subject for the painting, before I start to paint her on the canvas. Above is one of my sketches.

I plan to have this picture completed by my June 4th art show, and I will post regular updates as the picture comes along. It will be a mixed media painting, with acrylic.

Custom Collage Paintings

This is a custom collage painting I just finished for a co-worker, DB.

I have also done these for my sister, MM and several other friends (see my sister's below):

These are great keepsakes and presents for birthdays, anniversaries, mother's and father's day, and other holidays. For more examples, check out www.MEartist.com. Pricing is currently as follows:

$100 for a 12x12 custom collage painting

$140 for a 16x16 custom collage painting

$175 for a 20x20 custom collage painting

For pricing for larger sizes, please contact me through my website at MEartist.com.

Questioning how to make this work

I started this art blog with one purpose in mind: to help other artists make it on their own, without having to wait to "be discovered" or some such thing.

I've struggled with everything, including putting on art shows, getting a website, getting business cards, getting my name out there, getting prints made of my art, etc. I've asked other artists for help, but rarely gotten any good suggestions. I don't know if they just had more start up money than I did, or if they had someone else helping them along the way.

I cannot call myself a successful artist yet, so maybe people don't consider the information I'm passing along useful, since I haven't made it yet. But I will tell you this: I have been getting more and more orders for my art every month, without having to work as hard for it as I originally did. So I must be doing something right. I just wish I could accomplish what I want faster.

So far not many people are reading my blog, which I attribute to either me not promoting it well enough, or the information in it not being interesting enough. I would love some feedback on this, if you would please. I am also always available to answer any questions, if you wish. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I Am Officially a Business Owner

This may not seem like an intersting blog post, but I had to write it anyway because I'm SOOOO excited about it. I am now officially a business owner. This week I have gotten my EIN, my business license, my seller's permit, and a business checking account for myself as an artist.

One might wonder why you would need those things, but what it means is I can now go to street fairs, art walks, farmer's markets, etc. and sell my art. This is BIG. This opens so many doors for me!

I am working on getting into a few local farmer's markets. So far I have emailed the directors of three farmer's markets to see what I need to do to become a vendor. So far no response. I will probably end up just going directly to the farmer's market, finding the director and filling out a vendor application.

I will keep you guys updated on how it goes as I get physically out into the world with my art!

LA and SD Art Shows

I haven't written on here in over 2 months! I have been super busy but that's no excuse.

So...Art show in LA on Oct 9th: There were a TON of people there, but mostly to see the band. To be honest the show kind of got out of my control and became a concert with art on the walls. From this I learned some good lessons: 1. Secure the location and the artists, then decide if you want a live band and 2. You really have to have music and a crowd that goes along with art.

Above is my art display in LA, below is Jamie Fisher's amazing photography (FishyFoto.com):

And this is Brian Anger's amazing photography (facebook.com/badigitalarts):

Though it was a lot of work and was relatively expensive, I did sell several paintings and I came out a bit ahead. Either way, it was fun, a learning experience, and some good promotion.

Art show in San Diego, November 13th: This art show was a LOT of fun, there was a good amount of people, wine, a very relaxed setting, with a chill, acoustic band at the end. Overall the show was great. Unfortunately....I didn't sell any paintings. BUT, I did get some good promotion out of it and I learned several things that I can correct for the next one, including how to present my art better and how to be more interactive as an artist. I also learned that the next time I have an art show, I need to specifically delegate people to help me set up and break down, or I go crazy.

Above is some of my art and below is some of True's art:

Overall, the shows were great promotion and great learning experiences.

Experimentation

I've been doing a lot of experimenting lately, mainly with promotion and with various mediums.

Experiment #1: How to get fans on my facebook page more active. I tried doing a couple different "contests", the first being if anyone made any comment on my page at all, they'd be entered into a drawing to get a free 8x10 print of one of my art works. This wasn't very productive, only 6 people (out of my 184 fans) participated. I did the drawing anyway and my friend J.M. won a print.

Next I posted another "contest" where people had to post an idea of what they would like to see more of on my page and I would do another drawing for an 8x10 print. This was very ineffective, no one posted anything.

I did, however, also start just posting a whole bunch of pictures. Sketches I had done, pictures of the painting I'm working on, etc. and I've been asking for feedback and ideas on how to do certain things, and I started getting a lot more participation in my page from more people, so I guess that's really the key. They simply want to see my art and be a part of it.

Experiment #2: How to use prismacolor pencils. I still haven't figured this one out, but I went to the art store last Wednesday and picked some up. While I was there I also got some watercolor pencils, which looked cool, and a couple drawing pads. A friend of mine, D.S., had told me about the prismacolor. He mentioned they were a lot easier to blend than regular colored pencils and they can come out looking more like a painting, sort of.

So I tried them out and I didn't really see the appeal. They seemed like regular colored pencils to me. So I posted my first couple sketches and I got a whole bunch of feedback on them with about 100 different tips, including coloring 1 small area at a time, using the colorless blender, using various types of paper, blending the colors before even applying them to the paper, and someone mentioned something involving an iron. So I have a whole lot of experiments to do with that.

The watercolor pencils, on the other hand, I think are amazing! I've been wanting to get back into watercolor painting for a while (I haven't done it in over 10 years), so this is the perfect way to do it. With the pencils I can draw a pretty detailed picture, or a general scenic picture, and then just add a little water and it becomes a water color painting. I've done two sketches so far with these pencils and I love them! I do need to get the appropriate paper for it, since I've been just using regular drawing paper, which doesn't do so well when you add water.

I will update this posting by tonight with the pictures of the sketches I've been doing.

Mixed media painting

ERRRGGG. I just got this back from the printer and as I'm picking it up I take a look at it. It's not done at all! What was I thinking? There's so much more I want to do with it before I even show it to other people (though I'll leave this picture up so there will be a before and after pic). Well, that was a waste of money! (having it scanned, I mean).

I will be working on it more tonight and tomorrow to possibly finish it and hopefully within the next week I will post a new, completed picture of it. Stay tuned!

Paintings are starting to flow...

I just finished my second mixed media painting yesterday, I think it looks pretty awesome. I wish I had taken a picture of it to post before I took it to the printer but I was in a hurry. I will be picking it up in a couple days and will be able to post a picture of it then.

I also picked up my 2 other paintings yesterday that I had taken to the printer, but I didn't have time to put the photos on my computer, so I'll have to do that tonight when I get home and I will post those as well.

Currently I have 2 originals for sale! This is pretty exciting. I also started my first portrait painting last night. I have a beautiful neighbor and I quickly snapped some photos of her yesterday, printed one out and started painting it. I'm using oil paint, because that's the easiest medium for me at this point. I really just got started on the outlines/basics, but I like it a lot so far and think it will come out pretty well!

I haven't sold anything on my Storenvy sight yet, but I'm getting a lot of views on it and I will now have one original to put up for sale, plus another print. Then in a couple days when I get the other painting back from the printers, I will have two originals up on there for sale. After I get a bit more posted on there for sale I will start promoting it even more heavily.

So that's what's going on for now, I will be posting some more art soon!

Worked on my next mixed media tonight

I started a mixed media painting a while ago but from the start it wasn't going how I wanted. So I thought it was going to have to scrap it and start over (it's wood so I was going to sand it down), but then I decided what the heck, I can fix it and make it awesome. And I've been doing just that.

It's based off of a photograph I took somewhere in Orange County of an awesome building with some American flags on it and a pretty sky in the background. The painting will only vaguely resemble the same building, but it's still pretty cool.

Additionally, by the end of this next week I should have TWO original paintings to post for sale in my store, which is pretty awesome. I'll have to try to get them to the printers to be scanned on Wednesday and pick them up on Saturday. Very exciting stuff!

New page on my website

I put a new page on my website where I can feature other artists. I wanted to do this to help promote other artists and, who knows, maybe some day it will just become kind of a one-stop shop to buy art from multiple artists. For now it's just for promotional purposes. I already posted the amazing art work of my friend, Drew, feel free to check it out!

If you haven't had a chance to check out my website yet, please do so (www.meartist.com) and let me know what you think. The new page is under "other artists," for obvious reasons.

I just set up an awesome on-line store!

Thanks to Sheika Lugtu, I learned about storenvy.com. It's just like etsy or ebay but.....it's FREE! And you can customize it a lot more than you can customize and etsy store. The biggest thing for me is that it's free, but I love that people can go to my storenvy store and there is a link to my website, my blog, my facebook page, and my twitter account.

I've put up two prints so far with more to come! The plan is to get some originals up soon. I'm so excited!

On another note, I am setting up an art show for October. So far I have 5 awesome artists collaborating on it, so it's going to be amazing! I am still trying to figure out the best location for it, which will be done within a month. Then 2 months of HEAVY promoting so we have a ton of people there. I want to have at least 100 people show up, but hopefully closer to 200.

Additionally, I have decided to start trying to paint portraits. So I have 4 people lined up so far to do a small photo shoot with me, then I will be painting pictures based off of the photos taken. I am also super excited about this. I love broadening my range of art. I've also been inspired recently to take up watercolor painting again. So more of that to come....

My new on-line store is http://meartist.storenvy.com/. Please check it out and let me know what you think! As it stands, I haven't decided if I'm ditching Etsy yet, but I'm pretty sure I will be. I'll let you guys know :)

Etsy

I almost forgot to mention, I posted my first Etsy listing yesterday for one of my prints. This will be a "test run" so I can figure out the best way to showcase and sell things on Etsy. Once I figure it out I will report back on my findings so that others can hopefully be able to get started selling their art pretty easily. Here is the link for the listing, if anyone would check it out and give me any feedback on it (any info I should include that I didn't, etc.) that would be great: http://www.etsy.com/listing/49026775/orange-print.

Eventually I will also document the levels of workability between selling my art on facebook, my website and Etsy (the 3 ways I can figure to sell art on-line - besides craigslist and I'm not going there). So far none of these methods have worked, but I am just getting started.

One last point before I write off on this post, I have been extremely successful with my art at my work place. I haven't even been trying, just placing it at my desk and people come by and buy it. Then someone else will see it on my friends desk and ask how they get some of my art, etc. I have been selling my prints basically at cost and sometimes giving them away as birthday presents, etc. because it's great promotion.

I need to confront my painting

Do you know how when you begin something and it doesn't go quite as planned, it's sometimes hard following through with it? That's how it is with my most recent painting. It started out REALLY well, I LOVED how it looked and was very excited about it. There was only one other touch I needed to put on the painting...and I messed it up somehow. That finishing touch did not come out at all as I envisioned.

This was about 3 weeks ago and I have not touched the painting since. I really don't think it will be that difficult to fix, I just need to confront it and do it. I will do my best to confront it tonight and finish it, and try to post pictures tomorrow if I do. It will be awesome when it's actually completed.

I guess this counts as art?

I just made a website for my sister for a new preschool she is opening. She saw the website I had made for myself (www.meartist.com) and loved it so asked me to make one for her (much cheaper than hiring someone to do it). I readily agreed because I think it's fun. I was also curious to see if I could do it basically from scratch and make it look appropriate for a preschool and professional.

She was very happy with the results (it's still pretty basic but I only had limited info to work with) and I was fairly happy as well. I've now taken on the project of helping her promote the preschool, so I created a twitter account and a facebook page as well. Now I have to figure out how to get people interested in the product, from scratch. This should be interesting....

Her new website is www.littleacornsgrow.net. If you could check it out and let me know what you think, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

How to throw your own art show

On the note of how to get your art shown, if you would like to have your own art show or an auction for your art (I have done both) here are some useful tips:

1. Pick the date and time you want to have your show. I would start planning about 4-6 months in advance from this date. Saturday nights usually work best so you don't have to contend with people's work schedule and Sunday family activities as much.

2. Find a space to borrow or rent for the amount of time you want. I recommend allotting 2 hours for the show, with an additional 1-2 hours for set-up/break-down. I would pick a studio type setting - a big empty space, usually with hardwood or cement floor, track lighting or otherwise good lighting, a way to play music and ample space to display everything you want. For my first couple art shows I rented a space for a day for $200 a pop. I recruited a few other artists who wanted to show their work and we all chipped in. For my auction I got the space donated.

I would recommend getting a few other local artists to do the show with you. That way it's cheaper and you get more promotion out of it (5 artists each bring 20 friends = 100 people. One artist = 20-40 people usually). But of course you can do a one-man show as well, you just have to work harder on promotion.

3. If you are attached to you art as I am, get everything scanned beforehand so you can keep them digitally forever and make prints if you want.

4. Decide if you want to charge for the show or not. I usually charge a $5 entry to my art shows and am charging a $10 entry fee for my auction, which is all going to charity. The entry fee will cover the food and some of your costs of renting a space (or if you're lucky it can cover all of your costs for the food and the space).

5. Plan your menu. I have always catered my own and I usually keep it pretty simple with finger sandwiches (tuna, egg salad, cream cheese and cucumber), fruit and vegetable platters, cheese and cracker platter, and some sort of desert (cookies or eclairs). I usually also have wine, champagne, juice and water. This is the most cost effective, but if you won't have the time you could always have it catered.

6. About 1 1/2 months in advance make or have made invitations and pass them out to your friends. Create an event page on facebook. Promote on twitter. Send out an evite to your email list. You can also post a free listing on craigslist in the community section (I haven't tried this before but I plan to do it for the next show). The biggest thing will be word of mouth, so get your friends and family to help promote you to their friends. You could also look into putting a posting in a local newspaper or magazine (I also haven't done this so am not sure how that would work).

7. Recruit a couple friends or family members to help you at the event. If you're charging you'll need a person at the door selling tickets. You'll also want to have another person in charge of the music, making sure the food is stocked, and any other random details. You want to leave yourself free to be the host and roam so you can answer any questions about your art as needed. You may also want to recruit someone to take photos, which you can then post on your blog, website, facebook page, etc.

8. Set up about 1-2 hours before hand (depending on how much art you have to set up). Make sure art work is fashionably shown, evenly spaced, at a good height if it's on the walls, and well lit. Put your price tags next to each piece (it's a good idea to have a master list already made with each piece of art work and the price listed so you can keep track). It is also a good idea to write a biography for yourself with a picture and post it next to your art. If you have business cards lay them out on the various tables. Set up food table in a logical location. Set up a play list for music or pick a good set of CDs to play and get the music rolling.

9. Greet your guests and have fun!

Letting go is hard...

Tomorrow night I will be having a silent auction as a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I will mainly be auctioning off my art work, though I have some other items, including art donated by another artist, a starbucks gift basket, gift certificates, etc.

I will be auctioning off every single original I have at the moment. I guess it's a pretty good sign that I don't have any in my possession. I have either sold or given away the rest as gifts (and I have actually sold quite a few, I didn't even realize it).

There are a couple of the ones I currently have that I REALLY like, specifically my first mixed media painting "Travel" and my 3 panel oil "Sunset." I love it when I do a painting I'm really proud of and don't mind showing off, but I hate the fact that I will now be selling them tomorrow. I already have a $100 bid on "Sunset."

The sad thing is I don't even have time to get all of the latest pictures scanned so at least I can have the digital version and can make prints if I want. I did get "Travel" scanned, so I'm happy about that. I hope whoever wins "Sunset" won't mind if I borrow it back later to get it scanned :)

Problem #2 - How to get a website made without breaking the bank

This is one I've been working on for a while as well. I looked into having someone make a website for me, but they seem to start at about $300 and go up from there. I'm a "starving artist," I don't have that kind of money! I wish I had a friend that made websites who could cut me a deal but I don't know of any such person, unfortunately.

So I braved it alone. First I went with Google Websites. This was great! It was free and very easy to use. This satisfied me for a couple months. While Google Websites is free and easy to use, it is also VERY limited and there were a lot of things I wanted to do with my website that I couldn't.

I did some more research and asked around. My friend Tim told me about Wix. I checked them out and I have definitely found what I am looking for. I am in no way, shape or form and computer tech person (websites for dummies would be too complicated for me) but I was able to figure it out fairly easily. The whole website operates in flash, so I can do a lot more with it than with Google. I wanted to like my domain name to it, so while it is free to make the site, you do have to pay to be able to link your domain name to it. Not much, if you pay for a year or 2 it's about $8 a month I think. Very doable.

They also have the option to upgrade so that you can actually have it be a commerce website as well, with a cart and the ability to recieve credit card payments, etc. This is about $15 a month if you pay for a year or 2 at a time. I will be doing this eventually, but I'm not up to that point yet.

By the way, I got my domain name from godaddy.com and linked it to my Wix website. Also, I went on-line before purchasing the domain and before upgrading my Wix websites and I found discount codes for both, so I got the Wix upgrade free for a month and my domain name for a year for about $6. Very affordable!

My new website is www.meartist.com. Let me know what you think!

latest latest painting

This is another painting I did several years ago, probably about 2 1/2 years ago when I was first experimenting with acrylics. I was practicing what I call the "bleeding colors" method, where I bleed certain colors together with water (which obviously wouldn't work on oil paint!).

The picture was never a big hit and I never really liked it either. It was ok...just not enough color and life. It's fine if a painting is dark, but it has to have life. So I added a good deal of color to it as well as some beautiful pressed flowers, then I "bled" the painting again with red and black paint. It came out very interesting. I haven't completely decided if it's done or not, but I definitely like it a lot better than the original.

Latest painting

Oil and acrylic on canvas. This is a painting I actually did quite some time ago, probably almost 2 years ago. I have shown it at a couple art shows, but have never been satisfied with it; it always seemed kind of dull and lifeless to me. So I took it and "edited" it to my liking. I added more color and life to it, including a bit more depth and detail. I am finally satisfied with it and will now actually feel good about showing it and about selling it.