Quick update

I did work more on that painting I've been mentioning. I fixed what I had messed up, but even after that I still feel it's not complete. So I have to figure out what to do with it to make it complete. I will post a picture of it as soon as I figure it out.

Otherwise I have been working on my website a lot, updating it and adding all of my art work. I think it looks GREAT so far, much better than in did even 2 weeks ago. I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with it and sprucing it up.

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.

Portraits, anyone?

Wow! I can't believe it's been about 1 1/2 weeks since my last post. To be honest, I've been completely focused on my upcoming marathon this weekend and haven't been paying much attention to my art, or at least so I thought.

I have been drawing a lot at work. I don't know why but earlier this week I was suddenly inspired to draw. I looked around for something to draw and decided to just draw my hand. A co-worker saw me and asked if I could draw a picture of her. That sounded like a great idea, so I did a fairly brief sketch of her. As always, I surprise myself and it came out better than I thought it would.

Another co-worker saw me drawing the 1st co-worker, and asked if I could do a picture of him, which I proceeded to do. The next day I drew a 3rd co-worker. I spent a lot of time on the 3rd, so it was more of an actual portrait as opposed to just a sketch. It wasn't perfect, but I was quite pleased with the results.

I now have had quite a few of my co-workers asking for "portraits." This could actually work in my favor, though the first few were free, I could easily start to charge for these, even if it's just $10. Plus, they are a lot of fun to do and help occupy and time I'm bored at work.

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!

Disappointed

I was trying to finish my painting last night and I had, for now, just one more thing I wanted to do to it. I wanted to add a translucent white over the moon in the painting, but somehow I messed it up and now it looks kind of bad. I have to think of a way to fix it tonight, but I haven't come up with any ideas yet. The problem is that it didn't come out translucent enough and there's no way I can re-paint the background over it....so I'll have to figure it out tonight, hopefully.

As soon as I figure it out and fix it I will post it. I also have another mixed media painting I started on and messed up (since I'm a beginner at this method it's expected). I'm not sure how to fix that one either, but I think the best way would be to sand it down maybe, or just try to paint over it. Maybe I'll paint over it first, and if that doesn't work I'll sand it down...that's a good idea.

New painting coming soon

I finally got some more time in to paint last night. I took another old painting that I wasn't really satisfied with and started working on it. So far I LOVE how it looks (a lot better than the original painting).

It's an acrylic, which isn't really my thing but I really like that it dries so much faster than oil. I have an oil painting I finished about 3 or 3 1/2 weeks ago and it's still not dry in some spots.

I'm also learning how to use acrylic in fun ways to make the painting look how I want. I love that I can mix the paint with a varnish to thin it out and make it kind of translucent. I still have a lot of experimenting to do, but I'm getting better at it and, like I said, it dries a lot faster than oil.

I should finish it tonight and I'll post a picture as soon as I can :)