Quiet time

There is so much noise (bad) and sound (good) surrounding us...by choice we often have music/tv etc. on 24/7. We also think we have to multitask, do puzzles to prevent brain deterioration, be productive!

I find I really need some time with zero artifical sound filling my brain in order to tap into my creativity and really think about my art. It's not just a minute here or there, but to clear my brain and have some extended time to let my mind wander and ponder, is absolutely essential.

Some folks find that quietness in prayer and meditation and I do also, but then I'm mostly focused on people, not art. Walking and biking are also good places for me to let my mind wander. But sometimes just sitting quietly, sometimes because I forgot a book to fill my train ride, I get the most amazing, helpful thoughts!

Try it! Turn it off!

Bring the Art to THEM!

Huh?

I saw a post on wetcanvas where someone was doing plein air painting at a garden tour. FABULOUS idea! Bring the art to the potential buyer's area of interest, not try to get them to come to wherever your art is being sold.

For lower and midpriced artists who self represent, this can be a giant untapped resource!

A year and a half ago, I did a couple Halloween doggy parades. The tables were free, I met a lot of nice folks and got several commissions from it. What I decided I needed to do in the meantime, was having something for sale that day. If I do that kind of thing again, I'm going to think about gift cards and maybe mugs...cafe press kind of things, which would have my site as part of the graphic...a semi-permanent business card.

Anyway, whatever you do, think about bringing art to an unusual venue. I read that less than half of Americans have EVER been inside an art gallery...yet they buy SOMETHING to put on their walls.

I saw a woman spend over $300 at Michaels for a frame for a poster. C'mon, we can do better than we are in bringing art to THEM!

I really love the potential of the upcoming spring planting season. Get your gardening friends to pot up perennial clumps, divy up those seeds, root houseplants and overwintered annuals, dig out those old unused containers and get your painter friends over for a "Garden Party Sale". Split your backyard into zones, put the garden stuff on one side, the art on another and paint while you enjoy the morning.

In the meantime, how about making some garden art? I've seen really cute hummingbird feeders, painted bird/bee houses, etc., that will NOT detract from your "real art".

Put an ad in the paper, make some pretty signs for the big day, and I bet you sell art! And you will build up your mailing list and have a great time marketing your art...almost for free.

Class Time Again!

I'm taking a third woodcut class. I love the atmosphere at the Fleisher Art Memorial. It's more serious than the suburban art places I've gone to and yet is affordable.

I miss the company of fellow woodcut artists, for $20 a night, I get studio time, free crits and a lot of motivation and fun!

And it improves my work. Another step.

Getting my ducks in order

Dear Art Friends,

I'm not a list maker, unless it's for things I HAVE to get done by a certain time. Not one to make and cross off things I can see in front of me having to be done. But I am thinking that relaunching my art effort is going to require a loooong list.

Number 1 of course is: Do the art. I've been fairly good about that. And Number 2 is: Improve the art. With classes and every day drawing and doing art as often as I can, I think that's happening too.

The rest of the list is more vague and less firmly in place. Before I relaunch, I need to update my website. I want decent human portrait samples and enough woodcut prints to make it look like I'm serious, which I am. I am thinking of a "subname" too, maybe: Portraits, Pets and Prints.

I need an art show set up. I need to find shows. I need to enter competitions. I need professionally done cards. Lots of needs!

And I want to have more energy which I know is eating better and exercising more. I'm trying to cram all these things into my limited "free" time without losing quality of work or quality of time with those I love. I also know that there's no perfect time, but I know it's not yet.

So...if I were in Candyland, I'd be pretty much a few spaces off of the starting point...and lots of spaces ahead. Where are you? Do you have some suggestions for me that I'm missing? I'd love to hear from you. Robin

Sometimes you just have to walk away..

Yesterday I posted about my frustration fighting support and pencils to do something pretty new. That old "give up" hits...

You know, sometimes you just have to walk away for a while. I think it helps that I have 2 art things I'm doing...the colored pencil/painting work and the woodcut printing.

Yesterday I printed a life sized cat I cut and proofed it and printed an edition of 9 before I ran out of paper! I loved how it turned out and will post a picture on my other blog after I get out today.

It just totally energized me. Now I feel I can tackle the portrait again, which I really want to do for my niece in law who gave me the photo. And it's not the photo, it's me who failed with it.

However, as much as I want to do art today, I think I won't be doing much. It's a real happy week in our house, our son who's a painter and has been getting a show together in Berlin for the last 9 months, is coming home to paint some commissions he has waiting for him here. And he's going to crash here for a bit til he gets resettled, so I'm moving my studio to the diningroom/kitchen. (will be printing in the kitchen, NOT over my rugs!!)

I can't tell you how much we can't wait to see him!! It's also a beautiful mornign out there, Otto is already nagging me for his walk, and I might do a little garden cleanup!

I hate to squander weekend days for house chores, but not only am I happy to for this occasion, I think it's good to walk away and take a break from art sometimes...as long as you come back soon!

Discouragement...sigh

I have worked hours on a portrait of two toddler girls, on 2 different sanded support. I think I'm barking up the wrong tree here. I'm trying to do too many new things at once, and the sanded paper is going to go!!

I'm redoing a third time and this time I'm going to use the Mi Teintes that I am so familiar with. I know exactly how it will behave, so that's one thing conquered!

Wish me luck!

First Practice Piece - toddler on Colorfix with Colored Pencil

Here's my first practice piece. I used a goldenish colorfix paper, which has a sanded finish. It eats the pencils but I like how you can go light over dark/dark over light fairly easily.

I'm also experimenting with pastelboard undercoated with acrylics. I did a practice piece with that as well, but I was afraid to go too dark with the arcylics so went an did another coat of it OVER colored pencil, and then really overworked the thing. It looked okay from a distance but the texture was pretty ugly. So today I've got a reddish black and a sienna brown pastelboard waiting to be tackled.

Anyway, I do like the colorfix a lot. I think I'll try a darker shade to start with next time. I didn't do a real background on this because it really is practice. The ref is from the wetcanvas copyright free library, and I'm pretty happy with the likeness.

What is on my mind, though, is if I can really get away from copying photos...or trying to. I think more practice and a lot of it..will answer me.

So what are you, my midlife artist visitors, up to on this gorgeous winter day? Tell, tell!

I learned to sell art from Tupperware!! REALLY!!

It's true!! I was thinking about this recently, someone was commenting that people don't like to buy from losers.

Here's a few things I do almost second nature that I learned from my Tupperware manager. (During my very brief, but wildly successful career).

1. Fake it til you make it. I don't feel uncomfortable anymore "being" an artist. When I was starting out with my dog portraits, though, I felt like a fraud. Who was I to sell art, I had no degree, no training, etc? But I pretended to be an artist long enough to become one!

2. Have a full book. When we were starting out, our manager had us write fake party dates in our appointment books. We put in all our friends, our aunts from out of state, etc., so that we LOOKED popular, and it worked. Before I HAD a waiting list, I pretended I did. I didn't actually lie. I said, "well, I have to finish up this golden retriever and then I have a cat portrait to do, I can put you in after that". Never told them that the golden and the cat were both samples for my site! Of course, after a while, I had a waiting list.

3. Tell people what you do. I'm naturally chatty, so this wasn't a problem. And it works, also.

4. Be stocked. My dad owns a kitchenware store in Okeechobee, FL, and he told me he has to have at least 5 of everything at all times. Somehow, when there's only 1 or 2 of a spatula left, nobody buys it! I noticed during the times I put work on my site that's for sale, if there's only one or 2, they don't sell. If I have a dozen, I'm way more likely. Same with Etsy. I realized I have to be stocked if I want to sell that way.

5. Keep in touch. I'm not that good at this. I swear I will get better.

6. Love your product. I never showed Tupperware pieces I thought were stupid. I showed the things I used myself. Love your art.

7. Don't be your best customer. Part of their plan is to sell to the sellers. In other words, they have you sitting there, and they sell you on the advantages of a product so much that you end up buying it and spending your profit on their product! It's not quite the same, but I try to keep a lid on overspending on art supplies especially if I haven't really earned it back. But I live near great art stores so don't need to stock up. But sometimes, I swear I did more buying than I did selling, and every time I clean the studio, I'm reminded of this...

8. Get your friends to help you get started. I did that with my dog portraits and that's how I'm going to do my human portraits, too.

9. And this is the big one...the harder I work, the more I'll make. And talking about working doesn't count!

I bet if you think of other situations/training you've had in your "other life" you can think of ways to translate it to your art.

Any of those suggestions would be greatly appreciated here! Please do post any hints!

Feeling encouraged!

Yesterday worked on a sample portrait on the train to work, and someone stopped and inquired about my prices! Not just a LITTLE encouraging, lol! My little jump to deciding to go down this route kinda reinforced!

What about you? What jumps are you making? Or hops? Or baby steps? We're in this together!

Hold my hand! I'm JUMPING!

After a lot of waffling, I'm JUMPING into people portraits. I have been so hesitant...even though I get a lot of requests...because I just felt like I needed a formal education to do it. I mean, who am I to offer HUMAN portraits???

I've done some, I enjoyed it, and I do a lot better with practice of course, etc etc etc.

I would like to take my own photos, but that scares me.

I've just decided to throw away all those little fears and go for it. I'm going to do it exactly how I started my dog portrait business...I'm going to do practice pieces for family and friends and put the best ones on my website and keep my prices low....very low...to build up a portfolio, get lots of practice and hopefully grow as an artist.

I'm still planning on taking classes, that should help as well!

I think it is a natural addition to the animal portraits and even the woodcut printing.

Best of all, since I've been drawing every day, I have been drawing Otto my dog and humans and have been enjoying it. So I think it will help me with my goal of getting better as an artist, as well.

I'm going to be posting my progress and hope you'll all be very lavish with your advice for me!

Gulp!!!

:D

More on Cohesiveness - Then it DOES matter!

Yesterday I talked about the importance of taking the time to experience making art fully, deadends, trying different media, etc. and how we learn who we are as artists, not to rush to a style in order to be more marketable.

I should have also said, and will here, that there's a point, and Ghislain is there and I feel I am, too, where decisions have to be made not only for marketability but for growth.

We can be a little good at a lot of things. Or we can get really good at what we found during the experimental phase, that we naturally loved and found we accomplished more than in the stuff we didn't like.

Otherwise, we might never become masters and not only won't be taken seriously, but will feel like we're spinning our art wheels, with a roomful of supplies and no growth to show for it.

I recently read that it takes 40 paintings to be able to do a one-person show. That's an awful lot of work, and of course there's steps on the way.

So sidetrips into another new medium or subject can derail at this point. There comes a time where you have to figure out what "ball" you want and keep your eyes on that ball.

Cohesiveness, Style and How to Get There

One of our participants here, the wonderful painter Ghislain Bruno raised a question on the Wetcanvas forum about the need to focus.

What a great topic to think about!

You do hear it, that you need a cohesive style, subject, etc., to be considered by galleries and shows, etc.

I'm all for cohesiveness, but at the proper time! Especially for those of us who are basically self taught, we need time to explore (and spend money on art supplies!!)

Keep in mind that formally trained artists are exposed to a variety of techniques, media, subject matter, etc. Some requirements that are dreaded can turn out to the be very thing that they love! So those of us on our own, also need to discovery exactly what we like and don't like.

I love watercolor paintings, but I hate doing it. Can't tell you why, but I just don't like the act of painting in watercolor.

Also thought I would love pastels. Nope. Same for still life. Except my foray into painting flowers made them look like they all had personalities!

Love really good abstracts...but have no natural ability to even start down that road.

Now, there's all different techniques and palettes in oil painting, as well. Some folks jut love to glaze. Others? no. It takes TIME at the easel/drawing board to discovery all this and it's personal. Nobody can predict. AND you have to master the various techniques/media/subject matter etc. well enough to give it a good shot and KNOW that it's not for you.

Only then can we really begin to think about cohesiveness...which is tied to style imo.

Now, I know I have a style. I don't know where it came from, lol! But I've drawn, painted, pastelled and relief printed animals and folks familiar with my work tell me they can tell I did it. So I'm guessing that's style.

Every single choice we make, color, value, subject, stroke, etc. reveals us.

But I think that only comes when we feel good and relaxed and confident with our materials and skills...not following books, or really even much advice. THEN, I think it's time to worry about cohesiveness. Because until then, really it's kind of artifical and strained. IMO!

But enough from me, now, I'd love to hear what you all think about cohesiveness and developing a style.

If you've just visited this blog for the first time, let me introduce! I'm Robin Zebley, my pet portrait website is http://robinzebley.com. My blog about animals and art is http://artandanimals.blogspot.com and if you'd like to read this whole blog, just click on the banner at the top and don't forget to look at the older posts at the bottom.

And don't forget to comment...I love opinions and if you disagree or not, love to hear from you! Robin

Local Shows

Some of you are talking about doing local shows as a way to start selling. If you haven't yet, or are just getting started, I bet you are like me.

I find out about them too late. I hear all about them when they are too close in to get ready and apply for them, especially the juried ones.

So I now keep a separate calendar (a free one I got from my oil company) and any shows I'm interested in, I jot down the date and staple the info on the back. Not that organized, but it works.

Many shows are at around the same time every year. So I have all the pertinent info. Even if the contact person changed, whoever the old contact person was will know who the new one is. I look at my calendar often in order to make a decision if I want to enter it or not.

I have a few in mind that I've been "following" for a couple years, not quite ready.

It's also, imo, important to visit the local shows and see if my work will fit in.

I'd love to hear what you guys do to collect and make decisions about, local shows! My pet portrait website is http://robinzebley.com Come visit! Robin

Selling Art in a Coffeeshop

Midlife artist Pam Boutilier mentioned coffeeshops in her response to my last post. While I haven't done that myself, I'd like to. And I have a very close artist friend who did well...very well...in a coffeeshop in the tourists/artsy side of town and I'll tell you exactly what I think he did that made the difference between sales and just decorating someone else's business. I know I speak for all of us here (we have a LOT of lurkers!!) that any other ideas are most welcome.

Here'w what he did: He had a lot of pieces. BIG pieces. Pieces that fit verticle spaces, pieces that fit horizonal spaces. And all "fit" together...you could tell the same artist painted them all.

He mounted a small tag next to each one with title, dimension and price. Double stick tape.

He mounted small, framed price lists with thumbnails in several areas.

He bought card holders and placed them in various spots including next to the register.

He gave the staff a stack of cards to fill up the holders.

He told the staff he'd be in every Tuesday and Friday at 5 and would hang around til 8 in case anyone wanted to meet him, but he'd be willing to come in and meet anyone who called.

He did that. But he also stopped by often in between, and thanked the staff profusely when they told him anyone was interested.

He gave each waitstaff member and the owner a small, signed, original framed drawing to thank them for their help. They sold his stuff! They passed on the info about when he'd be there, introduced him, gave out his card and most of all, gushed about his art.

He sold out in 6 weeks, all of it priced in the $700 - $1,200 range.

Do you have experience selling in a coffeeshop? If so, we'd love to hear your experience and ideas to make it a really positive and lucrative experience!

Midlife artist, Michael Bailey had this comment a while back on this blog:

As a member of the mid-life group hoping to emerge successfully into the art world I am faced with all of the daunting forces every artist has at the start, how do I market my art, do I try and land my art in a gallery, am I better with an online presence to introduce my art around and work at getting my art into shows and competitions? And of course all the questions of how do I finally price my work when I have it complete, am I too high or too low, will my customers perceive my work as an actual item of worth to spend money on?

This says it all, doesn't it? Galleries? Online? Shows? Can we do it all? Should we do it all? At the same time? Conquer one at a time? I would love to hear more input from others on this but I do have a few thoughts.

For me, I picked one of the above. It's so daunting, especially for someone unestablished, unknown, and inexperienced! There was no way in heck I could have walked into a gallery 5 years ago looking for representation!! Here's my true story, and go ahead and laugh, I do!:

After I had done enough practice pieces that I felt reasonably sure I could pull of a commission, I made up cards and took my Brutus the boxer on the chair portrait that was nicely framed around to vets and pet stores in my area. Now, what you don't know about me unless you know me in real life is that I'm very outgoing. I love talking to strangers, have always dealt with "big shots" in my real life jobs, have no difficulty at all getting up to give a speech, etc.

But that day, whoa boy! I sat out in the truck with my dogs (who came for the ride) with butterflies like crazy!!! Finally I talked myself into going into my first place with my cards, a pet shop. I walked in, showed the kid behind the counter my portrait, said, "I'm a pet artist, and I was hoping I could leave some cards here" in a too loud/too high/too fast voice.

"Sure, ma'am. Leave them here on the counter," he squeaked, sounding like the burger flippin' counterboy in a Simpson's episode, his voice changing.

What was I so afraid of? That he'd say, "NO! You are no artist! You're an imposter!!"????

For many of us, it takes some dipping the toe in the water to get over that fear and to feel like yeah, I'm an artist.

So where to start getting your work out there? I'm glad I did commissions first, but that's a skill to learn too. There is SO MUCH to learn about promoting your work in any fashion, and the first thing? You need lots of pieces. IMHO!

Following Opportunities...do as I say...not as I do!

So many of us complain that we love making the art but hate the marketing. If that's so, then every opportunity that arises needs to be taken dead seriously. I am saying this from experience. I have been really remiss in taking advantage of opportunities that presented themselves because AT THAT TIME, I was busy and time just had a way of running away from me.

I was asked to put samples in a frame shop. But at the time, I was swimming in commissions (was asking very little for them!) and never got around to it.

I was called by a vet in another state asking for flyers. But I was, again, busy and all the steps to getting flyers to him...the printing, cutting, and mailing...had to wait and I just didn't get the job done.

Another wanted me to show her samples of my human portrait work, but I had done them a while ago before a computer crash and would have to wade through disks looking for them...never done.

THis is really stupid. You never, never know what will lead to what.

I thought about this today because I saw a post on wetcanvas in the art for sale forum of someone who posted a link to their work, was hoping to sell some pieces to buy more art supplies. Another member inquired...about size, price, etc. was interested. And the original poster..never got back. Ever. Opportunity lost, sale lost, who knows what would have led to what?

I recently decided to buy my cosmetics and shampoos, etc. from a local avon dealer who had knocked on my door instead of the grocery store. I know how happy sales make me, so why not help someone else out, all things being equal.

I bought over $40 worth, got free shipping, am happy enough with the products and yet...I have not only never gotten a thank you, she ignored my inquiry about whether she was aware that I bought from her and instead, pummels me with spam asking me to order something!

Now, this poor soul bought the catalogs, walked around knocking on doors, got a decent sale, and will never get another one from me. I would have been a regular. All because of not paying attention to the follow up. I will bet that instead, she's out there with more books, working awfully hard for that next new customer.

Now, art isn't the repeat business that avon is. But I do get repeats, and I also get referrals, when I follow up.

Some of my customers still email me from 5 years ago. But I've sold dozens and dozens of aceos and have never, ever sent a follow up email, or tried in any way to cultivate the interest of people who I worked awfully hard to sell them the small piece they bought from me in the first place.

Why not? Because I am waiting for the correct time? When I have more pieces? When I have bigger pieces? When I have a series? ETC.

Crazy, huh?

Well, I do want to be ready to have credible sales of non commissioned work, but I pledge I'll be ready this spring to see if my oldies can be reinterested!

How about you? Please don't tell me you're not going to let golden opportunities fall through your fingers. Because every opportunity might turn out to be gold!

Chuck Close is Watching Me!

Earlier in the year, I made my way to a gallery across town on my lunch break to see an exhibit of Chuck Close's. I'd heard his name bandied about and checked him out online but (no surprise to any of you), seeing his work in real life was astonishing.

If you ever have the opportunity, don't let anything stand in your way.

Knowing a bit about his life story...the incident that put Chuck in a wheelchair...made the experience all the more humbling.

So I have the postcard promo piece from that exhibit in my cubi at work. In it, a self portrait of Chuck is staring straight out at me. When I feel tired, discouraged, full of self doubt...Chuck stares me straight! How can I put off artwork just because I'm tired or grumpy? How can I let the circumstances of my life get me down? Not with Chuck watching me!

What a life well lived. To not only make imaginative, fabulous art, but to inspire artists way down the food chain.

I'm never throwing that postcard self portrait out.

Stop Marketing!

That's what I'm doing! Last Christmas season kicked in full tilt around this time of the month, and I accepted every commission. I was exhausted, didn't enjoy things I usually enjoy like baking, was stressed, etc. I had marketed a lot in the previous weeks and the chickens came in to roost about this time.

This year, I'm taking a break. I haven't been a marketing fool, of course, if any come my way, I'll take them...or SOME of them.

My feeling is that more than marketing, what I need to make a jump and not a hop is to improve my skills on every level. Not only in draftsmanship, but in creativity. I want to become a really good artist. Not just a selling artist, but a really good artist. That's my real goal, and I feel like I've been in a bit of a rut and haven't moved along as much as I would like.

The portrait inquiries really made me think about where I want to go. I not only want to be able to do portraits that laypeople say "looks just like him", but that other artists...my peers...like. Same with my prints.

To that end, I'm going to take more classes. I'm really really fortunate that I live here in the Philadelphia area because I have so many options for excellent community based classes. In the city and out, there's lots of offerings. We have a tradition for classical training here and I'm going to take advantage of it.

In fact, one of the locations where I can do life painting, you have to jury into. And that made me think...how good am I, really?

So...while I'd love to make the leap to a full time art career right now, I think that marketing more isn't the answer for me. I think I will improve my chances of really leaping if I first take the time to study.

And the art shows and contests are a component of this...Anything juried will teach me something...good or bad!

So the way I'm looking at this, I can either market more at what I already can do...or I can devote more time to growth. I think the "big picture" is to grow. What do you think?

More Grand Plans

I already got my calendar going, but I have big decision to make, too. Do I follow the human portrait path full tilt or no? I've done them, and enjoy them, but my early success was with the dogs and that's where I went, figuring I had to get good at ONE thing before moving on. And I get lots of inquiries, so if I do, I need more samples to show. I unfortunately lost several I did in a computer crash...

I actually think that in some ways, humans are easier (no worries about breed, lol!), and the photos tend to be better. But I have a lot to learn, but who doesn't?

Am I going off onto one of those tangents that is the opposite of staying focused towards a goal? I am already committed to printmaking, I love it. So another new direction? Too much?

Planning ahead...what are YOUR grand plans?

Okay, we're making the jump, either a giant all-or-nothing leap or a more modest hop on the way. What are your grand plans and how are you working them? What's number one on your list? Here's what I'm hoping to do...

I realize that in addition to putting time in on the art, itself, I need credentials. I have a zero art resume, save lots of commissions and a few show wins. So time to build that up. I'm going to scour the 'net for juried shows and contests I think I might fit in. I've got a calendar just for art to diary the due dates, etc., and I'm going to try and enter the ones I identify.

No, I'm going to do it!!

How about you?

What are your grand plans?

Take a moment to answer my poll to the top right...what is your number one goal?

My pet portrait website: robinzebley.com ; my art and animal blog: artandanimals.blogspot.com