No Speech Therapy Needed...yay!

I took my 4-1/2 year old son (Little Man) to the speech pathologist this morning. They don't just check out speech, they check out gross motor skills, fine motor skills, intelligence/comprehension, memory, etc. Some of the testing involved showing him a series of images (sometimes up to 5 images) and asking him to take the cards with matching images and place them in the same order (without looking at the reference again). He did extremely well with that.

The speech pathologist was able to tell that he doesn't need speech therapy after all - the speech issues he has should clear up by age 6 to 7. That was great news to hear. I am really grateful.

Impressionist Masterpieces Found in Unlocked Car

Two of the four Impressionist paintings stolen from a Switzerland museum have been found - in a very unlikely place...an unlocked car near the museum. They think the art thieves may have given up on the two pieces because of their size. However, it's possible that a ransom was paid for the artworks and that leaving them in the car was a dropoff.

Read the story here

Draw a Ladder

It has been awhile since I posted to this blog, because Little Man has had Croup again, which led to something that must be the flu, and a couple more kids got it too. It is going around.

When kids are napping or I eventually get them to school, I have several projects to keep me occupied - a colored pencil portrait of a little boy (just needs adjustments); a 3 foot by 3 foot drawing of 5 buildings and a logo of an electrical supply firm (which will include city names and dates that the company occupied each building in their 25-year history); two age regression portraits of little girls; a portrait of a couple for a wedding gift....and those, I have some portraits of soldiers who died in Iraq to do.

I have brought my big drafting table back into the house. I like my drawing boards because they're so portable, but having a good permanent drawing place again is wonderful. Little Guy is old enough now not to bang his head on it (much) or tip it over on himself.

I have to admit, that sometimes when all the housework is piling up, all the kids have needs - they're sick, I can't get any time to work on art or even have any time to myself, I get depressed and stressed out and I think I will have to give up art for awhile. It can just get so frustrating to not be able to find the time I want to spend. But then I give myself a pep-talk, that it took me a long time to get to the point that I have so many great drawing commissions to do.

I am blessed to have something that I am passionate about. If you have something that is your passion, then you don't let anything get in your way. Do it with all your might when and where you can. Life creates a brick wall, but God gave me the ability to draw a ladder.

Opportunities for Artists

Art Calendar Magazine has a page on their site that has just been put up to show opportunities for artists that didn't come to them in time to make it to print.

They have opportunities listed for art showings, grants for artists, and more.

See the listings at ArtCalendar.com

How To Start A Pencil Portrait Business Series - Free

I have been working on a series of pages for artists. I get quite a few emails from people who want information on how they can start their own pencil portrait business. Two of the most common questions I'm asked are:

"how can I find customers?"

"how much should I be charging for a pencil portrait?"

Basically, where to begin. One day, when I was replying to one of these emails, I realized that I wanted to help the person so much more than I was able that day. I was really pressed for time. I wished that I had my responses saved, so I would be able to have the time to share everything that I wanted to share.

So I started writing an e-book on how to start a pencil portrait art business. I just started jotting notes in the Documents section of my Gmail email account whenever I had time. I just kept adding to it and adding to it. I lined up some places I could publish the e-book (an e-book stands for Electronic Book, meaning that people can pay and upload the 'book' from a website to their computer, to reference or to print out). I decided I would probably charge between $25 and $50 for the e-book, depending on how much content I developed. It was starting to turn into a big job. I didn't really want to get into all that marketing and sales...I only want to market and sell my actual art...it's easy for me to get sidetracked, so I realized I should do something else with it.

I decided to put the info on Squidoo (Squidoo is a place where you can create pages on anything you want.) So I did, and I put in affiliate links, so the information on the pages is free for everyone, and when people click through the links to Blick Art Supplies and others, I will make a little bit of income from that.

You can see the list of pages below, but if you would just like to go to one page that lists them all, CLICK HERE

How to start pencil portrait business

What to charge for pencil portraits

Drawing tips for beginning artists

Promoting your art online

With the Internet, there's a world of opportunity for artists to show what they do best! But where and how can you promote your art without spending a lot of money at membership sites? You don't have to pay a lot of money to see results. Here are some ideas on how to promote your art business online.

How to advertise portrait business without much money

When you are starting out in your art business, you need customers and you don't have a lot of money to throw around. Here are some free or low cost ideas.

Art supplies for pencil portrait drawing

Promotional Materials for Pencil Portrait Artists

On this page, I give some advice for places to have printing done, why it's important for artists to have promotional materials, and some unique ways to use promotional and printed materials to bring attention to your art business.

Dealing with difficulties in pencil portrait business

- what to do when things go wrong. We often identify with our art so when a customer criticizes it, it can be very hurtful. Work to separate your art from your feelings of worth.
Take client criticisms of our art as an opportunity to improve your skills and grow as an artist.

Contact Management for Artists

This page is about how to maintain a contact system of your art clients, so you can send promotional mailings and do follow up. I have also included advice about how to organize your email account to maximize sales, and how to send art previews to clients, how to organize your computer files so you can locate art samples when you need them.