FILE UNDER: Wee Little Things That Drive Me Nuts Department

Confusion of when to use the word 'to' and when to use 'too.'
Example that misuses both: "I was to lazy too pay attention in English class."

Confusion of the words 'discreet' and 'discrete.'
Discreet means to have good judgment in behavior, to be unobtrusive.
Discrete means disconnected elements, separate entities.

Confusion of the words 'complimentary' and 'complementary.'
Complimentary means given free or that a compliment was given.
Complementary means that something mutually completes what one thing might lack - something that goes along with...

Schools calling English class "Language Arts."
I find this especially irritating, because no language is studied in "Language Arts" other than English - they are just trying to appear to embrace diversity. I am all for kids learning Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japanese. I think foreign languages are wonderful to learn. I just think if they call French class French class, then they should call English class - well,
English class! If I was a kid, I'd go by the adults example. Ignore homework and just call it 'alternative learning.'

Thank you so much - now I have that off my chest I can do some art.
I am turning into a female Dennis Miller LOL
Click on Comments below, and tell me what little thing gets on your nerves.
Trust me, you will feel better! :)

Tomorrow's rant will be about people who don't understand how to navigate a four way stop.

I have found the BEST free (and invisible if you want it to be on your
site!) stat/hit counter for websites.

Here is the link to StatCounter

You can get all this for free and this is better than what I've been
paying another service $60 a year to do:

Statistics
Summary
Popular Pages
Entry Pages
Exit Pages
Came From
Keyword Analysis
Recent Keyword Activity
Search Engine Wars
Visitor Paths
Visit Length
Returning Visits
Recent Pageload Activity
Recent Visitor Activity
Country/State/City/ISP
Browser
System Stats
Lookup IP Address

I hope this helps someone! If you sign up and you love it, drop me a note!

Darla
DarlaDixon.com

Open Studio Art Classes
Monday nights, 6-8 pm - begins in September!!
at Hobby Lobby, Snellville, GA
Contact Carly to register!
Cost: $48 for 4 weeks or $15 per class
This class focuses on principles of making art.
All media welcome. If you are a beginner, contact
Carly for a list of basic supplies.
Carly's site is http://paintpleinair.com/

have you ever been
to rosie o'donnell's blog
it is written
just like this
in little segments

hey
this might work for me
too
because my brain is
a little segment

and
if it makes you as
confused
as i am you can be sure
you are sane

I called my Dad today, he is still recuperating and undergoing therapy to recover from his stroke. He is in good spirits though. I didn't know until today that he had lost the use of his right arm and hand. Through the therapy, he can now use his arm and lift it over his head, but he still can't use his right hand. I email the information from my calls to my 3 brothers and 3 sisters. Thank goodness for email! My dad says it isn't very boring there because of all the therapy work.

a montage of some of my portraits
Posted by Hello

My father had a mild stroke yesterday, and he is doing better but will go to rehabilitation.
Please keep him in your prayers, he is 80 years old. Thanks so much,

Darla

I love my electric lawnmower!

Thinking about buying a new lawnmower? I shared my opinion about lawnmowers with a friend of mine, and I realized it might help someone if I posted it in my blog.

If your yard isn't huge, check out
the electric models. I have the Black and Decker 'Lawn Hog' electric
mower, it is usually about $200 or less, then get a 100' electrical
cord for outside use.

No gas to buy, (which is especially nice with the prices of gas now!)
and best of all, especially if you have allergies like I do - no fumes. It
is also MUCH lighter than a gas model. I can mow with one hand if I want!
When I was pregnant with my last baby, I even mowed up until about maybe the
7th month (mainly stopped just because of the Georgia heat).

I thought I was terribly allergic to the grass when I was cutting, and
I am a little bit, but I have found since having this mower, it is
actually the dang fumes that come from walking behind a gas mower that
were making me feel really ill after mowing.

Now I actually LIKE mowing. No obnoxious tiring cranking, just click
and go. No big deal to start and stop when kids want something. My
girls also have mowed with it starting at age 9 (with supervision of
course). It mulches or you can buy an optional bag attachment. It is
quieter than a gas model also.

Only drawback is dealing with the cord, but there is a pattern to
mowing so it doesn't get in the way. It is not hard to do at all.
I gladly deal with it, rather than struggle with oil, gas,
maintenance, cranking, and fumes. Just look up Black and Decker or
Lawn Hog electric lawnmower on http://homedepot.com to see it.

If you want to avoid the cord and don't mind paying more for the mower
initially, the Neutron mower looks really nice. It has a rechargeable
battery that comes out of the mower to charge up, and once charged
will run for 12 hours. It is quiet enough that you can have a
conversation while it's running. I'm going to get this one next time
:) Here is link for that one: http://tinyurl.com/der82

.
Posted by Hello

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany becomes the 265th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

http://CNN.com
He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI

If you haven't done it already, you really should go to CNN.com and sign up for their email alerts. It is great to get email alerts of big news that way!

Today I woke up at 4 am and couldn't stop thinking about modifying the prices page of my website. I had an idea to make it easier for visitors to see how much the portrait they want will be. I just reorganized, and I made the most basic one subject portraits very affordable. I left the age regression pencil portraits at the same price they were before. They are so much more labor intensive and require so much more conversation with the client before I can get started. They also have involved a lot more re-drawing (ie, time!)
I also decided to make the shipping free to addresses in the USA. As a customer, I think extra charges are a real drag.

You can see online that a lot of artists quite often add on ridiculous fees for shipping a pencil artwork. One charges $15-$20 for shipping! Oh come on, it has cost me $8 at the very MOST to mail an artwork, and that was with all the 'bells and whistles': insurance, signature confirmation, proof of delivery, etc. In most cases, it's no more than $4. So why are they charging $15?!? They want to keep their listed prices low and still make more money is what it is. One time I even saw an artist charging additional fee for spraying the artwork with fixative, another fee if they wanted a protective art sleeve, etc...that stuff is included in my artwork I am proud to say.

Now I'd like to reformat the art examples/samples/gallery page. It is too busy, I need some kind of table or something - I am thinking maybe have small thumbnail examples of each type of art to represent it, with the name link below the pictures. That is a job for another month!

Darla

STATUS

I finished LS's portrait yesterday, now I need to scan it and get it mailed.
All my emails to LS have bounced back, which is disconcerting. I will need to call her today.

VB and HB's art - I'm still working on. Still need to hear from VB regarding length of subject's hair.

JL - I am hoping to hear back from her soon. I am so ready to get started on hers (I have the entire thing in my head but I have to wait to hear from her before I start, in case I don't do it to her wishes).

NM - I sent a rought draft to them via email - need to hear back that it's on the right track before I start adding color. Some time has passed, I need to re-contact to make sure they received it.

KK is going to come by after work today to bring me her reference photographs.

It seems that lately it's the communication time as well as finding the time to literally work on my art that is the hard part. As long as I have the needed information in front of me I can really get a lot done. My folder system is working out well. It has saved me time looking for needed information. I am also enjoying the Google gmail account. It keeps the 'train' of the conversations via email together, so I can more easily find what I'm looking for from a client.

I worked on getting my business area/desk cleaned off and organized today. I will have to make some time for that as part of a weekly plan, because everything keeps getting dumped there, and I need some organization to keep my mind straight on what comes next. Any time I have a free moment, I try to be productive.

I spent the last couple days fairly angry and tantrum-y...which is unlike me. Tantrum-y? Sounds like something Willow would say on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. LOL... that isn't even a word.
Anyway, I think I am frustrated at being unable to get as much done as I'd like, probably also tiredness and pregnancy hormones. Blechh.

Darla

I think this is the first mention of Britney Spears, ever, in this blog.
I think this will be the last mention too.

An online headline today caught my eye: "Who's Pregnancy Would Be Bigger Than Britney's?"
I have no idea, because I didn't click on the link. But then I realized that Britney Spears' pregnancy is going to take attention from my pregnancy. That explains why the papparazzi has been so noticeably absent every time I go anywhere. Wahhhhh... LOL

How frustrating that I have to write a dorky letter like this one:

"To: City of Snellville Sanitation Department

RE: 95 gallon cart stolen

Dear Sanitation Department:

I pay $24 per quarter for the larger sized trash cart. Today I noticed that someone has stolen/traded it for a smaller size cart, #000203. I guess they just want a larger trash can without having to pay for the service.

I do not know unfortunately, what cart number was on the stolen cart.
I am writing so perhaps you can track this information to find out who might have done this (if you need the info) but mainly I need my larger size trash can back!

Thanks for your help"

Can you believe someone would steal a dang trash can?!? I decided to write a letter because it's Saturday and I wouldn't be able to get anyone in the Sanitation dept. By Monday, I might forget, so now I look like a big trash can nerd writing that letter! LOL! What an annoying waste of time. Have to just laugh about this one.

This is an interesting article about the new scientific techniques they have come up with to determine whether an artwork is a forgery or not. They analyze the patterns and strokes that each artist has made - in effect, an artist's pattern and style is almost like a fingerprint, I would think. I have seen a lot of other artists who work in pencil, and they work using photographs as an art reference, as I do, but their style and pattern that they work in is so very different from mine. The artwork as a whole might look similar, but when I look closely at the pencil strokes, they are very very different. Many artists I would like to emulate, but it's good to know I have my own unique way and that every artist does.

So much has happened today that I don't quite know where to begin.
Usually when you hear someone say something like that, it means you are about to hear about a lot of exciting stuff. That is not true in this case.

Not all that exciting, just kept me really busy, happy, stressed, exhausted, and/or mad...not all at once you understand, but those were my feelings I had today. That is a pretty full day. I am feeling just ready to drop into bed, but I'll go over my day just a bit.

My 20 month old son can open the pantry door (which has a hook and eye safety lock at the top AND a doorknob cover). These things are supposedly child-proof. He can go in there, grab himself a Capri Sun drink pack, take the straw off, take the wrapper off the straw, and poke the straw right into the tiny hole on the drink pouch! Now, I know there are probably kindergarteners who can't do it that well, actually he does it better than I can! I am both impressed and scared about how smart and resourceful he is. LOL! He did this twice today.
Even more impressive that he manages to do this without squeezing the pack and shooting the drink all over the place.

I was lucky that I was able to get a 45 minute nap. I had fallen asleep on the couch and realized when I woke up that I had no idea where my toddler son was! I think I was only asleep for a couple minutes, but it scared me for his safety's sake that I was that sleepy, so I put him in his crib for a nap and I took mine too. He can get into so much trouble in so little time, I get scared that he could get into danger if I fell asleep again. I can't wait for this extreme tiredness to be over with.

I picked up my girls at school because I had a meeting there with a client. It is going to be a gorgeous picture, I hope I will be able to start on it soon. A very nice 25th anniversary gift.

I brought them home, washed some dishes and made some tea, then I was off to a networking meeting. I signed up, so I am a charter member now and signed the charter.
I left there about 8:30 pm, ran by the post office, mailed off about 30 postcards, and got my junk mail of the day from the PO Box.

When I returned home, Laser the Sheltie dog did not bark at me, he saw me through the window and actually looked relieved! I am so glad he is getting more comfortable being here. He has been so good lately. He is quite the snuggler and will actually play with me now. Before, whenever I tried to play with him, he acted confused and scared by it. He would only play with the kids.

The girls (non identical twins, age 11) took my being home as their signal to let the fighting begin. ("let the wild rumpus start!") They save it all for me, I am convinced. The fight was over the TV - DD1 doing homework in front of the TV for some reason, and wanting the TV off, and DD2 wanting the TV on because she was done with her homework and why should DD1 hog all the space in front of the TV and tell her what to do (and so on and so on). The argument hit crescendo with an Avon Mark lip gloss container being smashed on DD2's baby toe by DD1. (hard enough to draw blood). I mean, c'mon Lord give me strength! They are both grounded until April, 2009.

Sigh...I want to draw! Tomorrow I am locking myself away until I get some art done.
My scanner is on the fritz, today it made a knocking sound and the scans I got were horrible.
I am going to give it one more shot tomorrow, and that might be the end for dear Umax Astra 1220p. Luckily, they are not as expensive as they used to be.

Thanks for stopping by - I did warn you that it wouldn't be that exciting, didn't I?
I promised extreme boredom for you and I delivered!

:) Darla

A free online test/demonstration - you can see if you are racially/ethnically/sexually biased. I heard about it on CNN yesterday and checked it out today.
Click Here

We have the opportunity to help a good cause - and maybe you just
might have some extras of the following supplies in your house.

You know probably, of the little girl named Jessica Marie Lunsford who
was taken from her home and killed (the one who they think was buried
alive). There is a message board and web-group working to mobilize to
toughen the laws that protect children from repeat offenders.
http://jessicamarielunsford.com/

If you have any of the following items that you could donate to them
in order to set up their offices, let me know and I will get you the
mailing address to send the things to.

Thanks,
Darla

----------------
Since we are still looking for office space in both locations this
will be a preliminary list. More will follow. And remember this is
100% Voluntary. For some of the items we can help with shipping costs
and if the items located are at a reduced price let us know that too.
Thank you everyone.

1. Printer Paper
2. 2 fax machines (we have one set for shipment on Tuesday but need
3. Note pads
4. Pens
5. Post it notes
6. Appointment keepers (several)
7. Pencils
8. Pencil sharpeners (2)
9. Desks
10.Desk blotters
11.File cabinets
12.Folders and spacers for drawers.
13.White out
14.Rolladex (3)
15.Dual Coffee Makers (3)
16.Paper clips
17.Staplers (several)
18. Key Maps for and the surrounding counties of Citrus County and
Harris County Texas (Loose leaf version)


Depending on the item(s) being donated I will have to let you know the
address to ship to.

This is a commissioned artwork of a college. I had a severe lack of good reference photographs to work with. The client wanted it made into a definite Florida or Miami-like look. The water and the palm trees are all from my imagination. The client gave me total artistic control and this is what we came up with together. It is done in graphite pencil, prismacolor, and verithin colored pencils.
Posted by Hello

This first paragraph is dog training stuff. Just go on to paragraph two if you are totally bored of hearing people talk about their dogs. Oh, if you are sick of people talking about their kids too, you might as well skip paragraph 3 also. BUT if you really like vacuum cleaners, then today is your lucky day! Check out paragraph 2!

Today was proof that Shetland Sheepdog expert Frank was totally right. He told me that he had trained his Shelties to urinate and defecate on command. Yes I know that sounds really strange, but I tried his tips and it does look like it's working. He told me to say "go hurry" or "hurry!" when I wanted the dog to urinate (ok that one was easy, the dang dog always wants to urinate, right?), and then say "good hurry!" when he did it. Then to say "Go-two!" when I wanted the dog to do #2 and then say, "GOOD TWO! GOOD TWO!" with lots of praise and treats when he did it. The idea behind this is to get your dog to do their stuff in YOUR own yard, not to do it in other peoples' yards. No cleaning up problems, no angry neighbors this way. Ok, I figured it was worth a shot. So after 4 "good hurries" I took Laser to 'his #2 area' and told him to go two. I almost fell down when he actually did it! His reward for doing these behaviors was a nice long walk this morning, which I was barely awake for. The good news is, if you see me walking my dog by your house, you won't have to worry about an unwelcome mess! Laser is also learning to sit by the door (inside or outside) until I walk in first and say "OK!" What a smart dog. I think he could learn anything, except maybe do things that require opposable thumbs.

Last night we went to Fry's Electronics again (oh I love that place) and I got a Professional Dirt Devil vacuum. It was only a bit more than other models yet has a 6 year warranty. We are going to really put that thing to use, with all the kids and the dog tracking in stuff. It is bagless, and I can see so much dirt that it is getting up that our old vacuum was missing. Our old vacuum got up lots of fuzz but I didn't see much dirt. The Dirt Devil is picking up almost enough dirt that I could plant flowers in it! (slight exaggeration). Anyway, click on the link and check out it's funky retro look. Strange to have a vacuum cleaner that reminds me of a retro diner.

Tomorrow the girls are going on a field trip to Warm Springs
for a visit to the "Little White House. It was here that Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1945.
The weather is so great here right now and the azaleas (except mine) are in bloom. It is a great time to be in Georgia.

Darla

Recently I read some of my daughters' books: Jacob I have Loved and Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Although these are written for "ages 9-12," I have to tell you that, if you have never read these, then buy them and read them, I don't care if you are 90 years old, you will really enjoy these. I could go into the subject matter, but it's something you need to discover for yourself. They are life changing books. Here's a link: Katherine Paterson's books

Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is also one I recently read that I have always been meaning to read but was waiting for sometime I could 'get around to it.' Well if you are waiting for that time, get around to it now. A very moving and life changing book.

Remember the old adage to not judge a book by its cover? These books look super boring, but trust me on this okay?!? :)

I have several gmail email invitations I can give - if you would like a gmail email account, just email me at darla.dixon@gmail.com

I finally got the scanner settings figured out to get a halfway decent scan of an age regression colored pencil portait I'm doing for a client.

This is the one I've mentioned here before...the girl is age 10 and I'm drawing her as she might have appeared at age 4 or 5. I may have gone a bit cutesy with her pigtails, but I definitely have the sparkle of her eyes and her mischievous (in a nice way) smile down. I know I have the human element right when I just want to hug the kid in the picture - so cute! But, as always, I am still frustrated by my artwork never scanning or being photographed to do it justice.

If I could just show you my artworks in person, you'd say, 'wow, you're right - they are much better looking in person than they are on your site!' I could send each piece off to my art printer to have them professionally drum scanned, but then that would cost $95 plus mailing for each one, just for the scanning - and that would be passed on to my clients and I'm not going to do that.

I'm going to go now and get that preview emailed to the client..the nervousness presents itself again, I might have to fight the urge to play a few rounds of Bejeweled!

Darla

Laser (our new Sheltie) did his bidness in da howse again. Argh!
Training, training, training! Other than that problem, he sure is my loyal little buddy.

He is doing great with the grooming finally though. He was scared of the brush (bad experiences in the past I think)...so I kept working on it, putting tasty treats ON the brush on the floor, until he finally connected the brush and dealing with being brushed, with getting yummy treats. Now he will sit calmly, knowing we won't hurt him, and he actually salivates and licks his lips when the dog brush comes out!

The phone is ringing a lot due to my recent advertising. Yee haw, now the hard work is finding the time to get everything done that I need to get done. We have the girls taking turns with responsibilities at home. One week, DD1 will have the job of cleaning the kitchen/doing dishes and DD2 will have the job of walking the dog, feeding the dog, and vacuuming the living room/hallway and keeping it tidy. Oh okay so you know I am an old softy and I usually end up being the one taking care of the dog! I work on keeping up with the laundry and the in-between dish washing and kitchen cleanup, and that's a full time job in itself. You should see the amount of laundry a family of 5 accumulates! I do at least 2 loads of laundry a day, but recently I have been letting it pile up until Friday, when I work at it like an obsessive-compulsive laundry troll.

Today is the last day of spring break here in Georgia. DD2 has done basically nothing toward her state project. She needs to report and have a visual aid on the state of Missouri. That's the show me state, and she has nothing so far to show. Well, I tell myself that my kids' projects are their projects, not the parent's projects, and half the lesson is in learning the responsibility for ones own projects and commitments. One time I did practically all the work on a report DD1 had on the planets. I only got a B+.
I promised myself that was the LAST time, the last and final straw...I do help, I am supportive, I remind, but that is it. I am even slacking off in the reminding department. It is her responsibility, and if she gets a good grade she earned it, and if it's bad, she earned that too.

Ah well,
Thanks for stopping in, maybe I'll have something more earthshaking tomorrow to share.

Darla

Graffiti artist paints a tribute to Pope John Paul II
See the article here

Our new Sheltie has been doing so well lately with the housebreaking. Oops until this morning.
Man, it is hard to love a dog who keeps going number two in the house! Back to square one.
Bummer. It's kind of like having another baby around...maybe I could take some Pampers and cut a hole in it for his tail? LOL!

On a good note, Little Man (19 months old) just brought me one of his artistic creations in green crayon. Yay, this time, on PAPER not the wall. He is very proud of his artwork. If I could figure out the durn digital camera, I'd share a picture of him holding his artwork. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or just more impatient or what, but I don't have much patience to learn new technology. Yeah, I know, digital cameras have been out for awhile, but I still haven't caught up yet. My husband on the other hand, has worked for TV stations for more than 20 years and he can operate or figure out ANYTHING electronic. Even if it's hard to figure out or we don't have instructions, he will fiddle with it for about 2 minutes and he's mastered the thing.

The girls' new mattresses are coming today from the Original Mattress Factory.
If you have heard their radio ads, I am here to tell you something....their ads tell the truth!
They will give you a good product at a fair price and not try to talk you into a bunch of extra junk you don't really need. To give you an idea, I had shopped around (just like the people in the commercials say!) and compared and received a quote of $522 from Sealy's Mattress Expo (and the mattresses they were offering me weren't even Sealys, but their in-store knock off brand).

I went around the corner to the Original Mattress Factory, expecting a similar price. Their price was $311, that includes the delivery, taking away the old mattresses and boxsprings, and the tax! That is $211 less!

The Sealy Mattress Expo also offered a dust mite blocking, waterproof mattress cover for $65 EACH. I went to Kohls and found a better product, made by 3M with polypropylene backing that zips and covers the entire mattress, for $30 each...so I was able to get 2 for less than just one at the mattress store.

Waiting again for toddler naptime so I can get some art done!

Yesterday I had some good news yesterday from Atlanta Wedding Ideas. Since I have an ad with them, I also receive free leads, and I was able to download about 275 names and addresses into Excel. I won't use all of them, but will target certain ones that I feel are the right demographics for me.

I also got a lot of my Mompack fillers set up, packed up, and ready to be sent out.
I addressed a lot of postcards. I am able to do marketing work while the toddler is about, but I'm afraid to try to do artwork then, because he'll come up and grab at it, makes me too nervous!

Well it is time to fix the kid's breakfast and my own.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you have a nice day!
Darla

I apologize for my ranting yesterday. I guess the old pregnant woman just had a little to get off her chest! LOL! Someday I will retire so I can complain on a fulltime basis.

Yesterday I spent DS (19 month old boy) toddler naptime doing an age regression portrait of a 10 year old girl, made her appear about age 4 or 5, and it is in colored pencil. I wish I could share it here, but due to the client's privacy, I won't. I will be sharing it on my site eventually though I hope.

I need to get it scanned and send to customer for approval, but the scanner is disconnected - it was disconnected in the process of getting the Epson Stylus Photo printer installed. Oh my gosh I love that printer! I can now get photos from clients in email and print decent photo-quality prints...finally! It is an Epson Stylus Photo R300 printer, it was about $190 at Fry's Electronics (that includes taxes). I just love Fry's Electronics (online they are http://outpost.com)
At checkout, they tell you there is a rebate and print out the rebate forms right there. All I had to do was do the final steps and drop it in the mail to get a $30 rebate. They even attached a rebate receipt to the form for me. Gotta love that. I pretend whined to the clerk that he wouldn't attach the stamp and mail it for me. He laughed and said no, so I asked him if he could clean my house and change diapers. Again he declined. Well a mom's gotta try.

Thanks for stopping in
Darla

People who have websites just don't understand the idea of 'reciprocal linking.'
Now, if you are not a website builder, then of course you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. I will be glad to explain.

Basically, if you link your site to similar other sites, you and the other site will probably both do better in search engine rankings, because to the search engines, your site will appear to be more relevant. In my case, I should link to mostly art sites if I want to come up higher in the rankings of art sites. Look up 'portrait art' on Yahoo Search for example, and you will see where www.darladixon.com comes up! I would like to come up higher with the search 'pencil portait artists' or 'pencil portraits drawn' ... I can't wait for the Google.com search bot to come around, I am practically non-existent on Google so I have been trying to build reciprocal links with other websites to help with that.

Now I am going into my rant phase.... Seems like most days I run into someone who has a site but has no understanding how this works. They want people to pay for placement. Well, that is fine with me, if your site says openly, "These are advertisements," and you have to pay for them. Or the page should say: Patrons, Affiliate Sponsors, Paid Listings, etc. There is absolutely no way I will pay for a LINK. I will pay for an advertisement, but only if it is presented as such.

To present it as a reciprocal link is just wrong. They may call it a donation, but basically it's just selling an ad. It's not a donation if the site is a FOR PROFIT website. If it's a non profit website, then yes, it's a donation and I am fine with it in that case, go for it! But, if you have a FOR profit website and you need to make more money off it, then sell ads but be open about what it is that you are doing. Also, do affiliate linking, such as http://linkshare.com and http://cj.com

I have also run into artists who have no idea what reciprocal linking IS, and they are usually older artists who have established themselves, but they feel that they have worked so hard to promote their art and their website that they don't want to SHARE it. Almost a direct quote there. That is pretty petty. All I can do is shake my head. Grown people who don't want to share.

I wish artists would trust each other more.

If you look at the Artist Links on my site, you will notice that there are plenty of different artists, even some who do painted portraits, but I don't have any pencil portrait artists.
I do have my own little 'policy' of not linking to other people who do exactly what I do.
In this case, it's not because I don't trust other artists, it's not because I'm afraid of competition, but it's just common sense. Let me ask you, if you went to Coca Cola's website, what would you think if you saw them linking to PepsiCo? Wouldn't you think that was idiotic and actually a bit confusing? I think so too, and that is why I don't link to other pencil portrait artists.

I try to help them in other ways, by a Yahoo group I started, where pencil portrait artists can help each other with tips and support - also sending other group members some commission art jobs that aren't in our area of interest. I have personally sent group members at least 3 jobs so far. I am also available any time a pencil portrait artist wants to email me or call me and ask some advice. So that is how I help. That is how I, a grown woman, am able to share. LOL!

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