Definitely a talented man

"A Norfolk butcher is proving a hit in the art world after he swapped his meat cleaver for a paint- brush.

Andrew Edmonds can normally be seen behind the counter of his Bradwell Butchery shop in the village near Yarmouth, as he sells tasty sausages, chops and steaks.

But now Mr Edmonds is surrounded by colourful paintings, bronze sculptures and sketch portraits as he holds a display of more than 130 pieces of his own art".....

"Mr. Edmonds said: “As a butcher I can see the muscles and bones as I create the sculptures. Someone in the shop saw my bull sculpture and asked if I had won it as a prize because they did not know I was an artist as well"....More

Art Job: Character Design for Video Game

Aisle 5 Games needs a character artist

"We are in need of a traditional character artist for our video game project. We are looking for an artist to design a female character in the age range of 30 - 35 years of age. The character is a creative type and an art shop owner. We will need 6 to 12 poses plus a couple of backgrounds of the shop.

Finished artwork needs to have clean lines and in color. Digital delivery in a non-compressed format such as PSD, BMP, TGA or TIFF. The artwork will be compressed to PNG format for import into the video game. The artwork should be 300 dpi for print material. All artwork for the game is done at resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The height of the character should be at a minimum of 2048 pixels high and will be scaled down as needed in house."

Budget: Between $500 and $999

Find out more at ifreelance.com

Art Job: Logo for Independent Music Co.

Here's an art job for someone who can design a logo with an interesting character:

"....looking for an artist to create an original logo, for an independent record company. This logo should not be a logo used by any other company. I will own exclusive rights to this logo. After this project is completed I do not expect the logo that you designed for me to be used by any other party or parties once created. Loon Productions is the label. I will need to agree on the logo created before purchasing. You can be as creative as you want, keep in mind this logo may end up on the end of a necklace. Provider must be able to show examples of his/her previous work before being considered to take the job. If you have questions before considering please do not hesitate to ask. what I was hoping to see is a duck in a strait jacket, but if anyone else has an idea let me know."

Find out more at Project-Outsourcing.com

Artist needed to record archeological findings

Wow, this job would be right up my alley, if I was anywhere nearby Wirksworth, in Derbyshire! LINK

The artist will need to have attention to detail and be able to be 'hands-on' and really experience the dig. for The location is Wirksworth, UK.

Call for Entries - Pastel Journal Competition

Call for entries to The 10th Annual Pastel 100

Making a Mark - Katherine Tyrrell's art blog

"The call for entries for the 10th Pastel 100 competition has been published! I've lost track of whether this is the Pastel 100 2008 because the deadline is 1st September 2008 or the Pastel 100 2009 because the results are announced in April 2009The Pastel Journal is an American magazine and I think the work which has achieved Pastel 100 status in the past has been done overwhelmingly by..."

Ohio Artist Opportunity

If you are an artist in Ohio, you may be interested in entering the "Our Ohio" contest, sponsored by the Mahoning County Farm Bureau.

You will need to use a full sized cowboy hat to create an artwork with the theme "A Tip of the Hat to Ohio Agriculture." All Ohio counties are participating. The hats will go on display at the Ohio State Fair and the Canfield Fair. Then, the hats will travel all over the state, on display at art galleries and conventions through the year. The hats will be shown online at www.OurOhio.org, where people can visit and vote for their favorite hat from July 30 until November 30, 2008.

"Artists interested in the project must make a $15 deposit, which will be reimbursed
after the project is completed. The “Our Ohio” logo must be included in the
design of the hat, though it is up to the artist to decide how big or small to
make the logo.

The winning hat will be chosen by the Farm Bureau Art Committee
and its artist will receive $50 and free admission to the
Ohio State and Canfield fairs.

All entries must be completed and returned to the Mahoning
County Farm Bureau by June 23. For more information,
contact the bureau at (330) 533-5553."

For more information: CLICK HERE

Google Analytics

Do you have a website or blog, and if so, what kind of site hit tracking software do you use? I have used about three different types, and have been very happy with SiteMeter. But if you have been looking for something that will give you a little more information, check out Google Analytics (free) at Analytics.Google.com.

For the people who may be reading this who don't have a website or a blog, it may seem creepy that someone wants to know how you found the site. It isn't for mean intentions I promise you, it's really to make a site better - the statistics help me know if I am providing what people want. It also tips me off to problems...for example, in the past I discovered that a certain page of my website wasn't working properly, when I investigated why such a large percentage of website visitors were leaving from that part of my site. I was able to fix the problem. So statistical information on a website can really be helpful for everyone.

At first, the workings of Google Analytics seems a little confusing, but the more I use it and look at the information that is collected, the more it all makes sense. It is great to be able to see the keywords people used to find my site or blog. I still haven't even scratched the surface of all the tools that are available.

Through Google Analytics, I found out that on average, the readers of this art blog only stay here for about one minute. They're either very impatient or they are speed readers. Another very real possibility is that the blog's main page has too much junk on it and it's loading too slowly.
Unfortunately, I bet it's the latter.

This blog gets around 1,300 visitors a month. My art website gets 4,490 visitors a month, and the average visitors spends about 2 minutes there, viewing about 3-4 pages.

Another interesting tidbit is the 'bounce rate.' I had no idea what that meant, I had to go and look it up. The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who just view your main page, without going into any inner pages of your site. They leave from the first page they enter, and don't peruse any further. Having a high bounce rate means you aren't what they're looking for in some way. A high bounce rate might mean that the main entry point is not enticing enough to encourage further browsing.

My art blog has a bounce rate of 86.63%. I would say that is because I am so .... "Random" - as my teenage daughters would say. You may have noticed that I have trouble staying on one topic. One day I write about my kids, and another day I'm writing about how to draw or art business or whatever. I started this blog just for fun, so I'm kind of at a loss of what to do about that. Lately I have tried to stay focused on art topics, but I'm too busy to read up on art topics, so that explains a lot doesn't it? Look for this bounce rate to become a lower number as I have more time to think and go to the bathroom by myself.

The bounce rate for my art website is 48.89%. Much better than this art blog. Of all the people who visit, a little more than half of them go on to see more. They visit about 4 pages. Lucky me, the Contact Page is usually one of those pages. Over 17,500 pages of my art website are seen per month. To me, a website is the most fantastic portfolio for an artist. People are looking at my art from all over the world while I'm sleeping! So how cool is that?

Save on Entertainment Books

I just became aware that the 2008 Entertainment Book is on Clearance sale for $9.99 each book.

The Entertainment Books normally retails for $25-$35 depending on city, and for example, the Atlanta book I just ordered has over $19,000 worth of coupons...if you could ever use them all, that is! That's an amazing amount of coupons. There are coupons for hotels, dining, movies, and more. There are over 324 coupons for restaurants. You can see what coupons are in this year's book online.

Keep in mind that if you travel to certain cities regularly, it might be worth getting a book to use there, too. If you have family and friends in other cities, an Entertainment Book would make a wonderful gift, especially for families with children. They charge $2.49 per book for shipping, but they are pretty hefty books, if you've ever seen one.

I'm looking forward to getting a lot of use out of it this summer.

Get the 2008 book for only $9.99!

Add me to your friends list on ArtScuttlebutt.com

We are going through sickness again here. I think that when you have 6 people in a house, with most of them going to places (work and school) where there are a lot of people, this is bound to happen. But I am really getting tired of it. I am stocked up on Lysol wipes and we use antiseptic hand gel on a regular basis, but it doesn't seem to really help. So that gets me down.

The new issue of Art Calendar Magazine arrived, and I was going "yippee yippee!" because that magazine always tends to get me pumped up and positive and I really needed that boost.

The latest issue is mostly about art for public places (sculpture and such) and exhibiting your art in corporate spaces - so most of the magazine this month isn't geared for me, but I try to read it all anyway, because you never know where a useful tidbit of information will come from. This issue also goes into "Creating a Studio to Envy." That sort of depressed me more. My "studio" is a large art board. I have a corner of the living room where I work, but very often I just use the art board and get comfy on the couch and work with some music playing or the TV on.

One of the best articles each month in the magazine is written by Jack White. In this issue, he discusses how he decided one day to be an artist, but he had never even doodled! His wife thought he had gone insane. That Christmas, their kids didn't get any presents except candy and fruit. It was a dismal time, but he goes on to explain that an artist needs to lock himself or herself away to produce art, saying,

"When you made the choice to become an artist,
you committed yourself to a life of solitary confinement.
That is, if you plan on being successful."

I think that is so true. Most artists are creative people, and therefore, everything seems so interesting (and distracting!) to us. I must work really hard to not be distracted from my work. I keep the phone nearby when I'm working, and I'd rather not, but I place it so I can see the Caller ID ... I might need to answer it if it is the school calling saying a child is sick, for example.
My friends who call know which days and hours I have childcare, and I've told them I must work during that time. However, when my kids keep getting sick, they can't go to preschool, and that destroys my working time. That can be very frustrating, but I know my job as a Mom is the most important one.

Oh, by the way, Art Calendar magazine has a great site called Art Scuttlebutt. Here is my page on ArtScuttlebutt.com. If you are an artist and you join, be sure to add me to your Friends list!

House Portrait Marketing Idea

Here is a neat way of marketing your art. Fort Worth TX artist Randy Bacon creates house portraits that are given to homeowners who participate in a home show/tour in Dallas. His portraits are an additional motivator for people to open their homes to the tour and serves as a special commemoration of their participation in the show. You can read more about this from the Dallas Morning News.

I'll need to add this idea to the page I wrote on Squidoo about How To Advertise Your Pencil Portrait Business. I think this would be a great addition.

Don't forget to blog about your custom house portraits and link right to them, as I have done here. haha!

I think we have found our summer project: genealogy

My daughter needed to do a family tree as part of her 8th grade project. I hadn't looked at the genealogy paperwork for over 8 years or so. Since so many years had passed, I hoped I would find more information online, and I found a jackpot!

I was able to trace one family branch all the way back to 1600 in England, another branch back to 1640 in London England, and another branch to 1663, a descendant of Dutch royalty living in New Amsterdam (now New York.) I found another ancestor who was in the Revolutionary War militia.

But you don't just find royalty and possible war heroes, you also can find rascals, like my great-great-grandfather, who allegedly abandoned his wife. His wife had to divorce him on grounds of desertion in 1887.

My daughter was shocked to find this info with me. I like any extra info I can find besides names and dates. I think it serves as a reminder that they weren't just names and dates, but they were real people. It's a lesson to leave behind only admirable data for our descendants....and to live a life worth genealogical research.

Oh, and that Revolutionary War militiaman ancestor? I need to find out which side he was on. If he was on the American side, maybe I can be a Daughter of the American Revolution. I wonder how much that would cost, and will I have to wear a silly hat.

UPDATE: I now have one line going back to the year 1540.

UPDATE #2: Oh bummer, I'm not really related to Anneke Jans (Dutch royalty) but close. Seems my ancestor was just related to one of Anneke Jans' husbands. Too many family researchers in the past wanted to make a connection a little too badly.

Guess the nationality/culture

This was in a newsletter I received from Gwinnett County. I thought it was interesting

"It is interesting to meet someone from a different culture. Some of these encounters may seem unusual. Here are some guidelines to help you better understand another person’s culture. Read on to find out more about your neighbor. "

Put your guess in as a Comment below...guess the nationality,
and I'll let you know if you're right!

Clue: They greet each other by kissing on both cheeks.

Clue: One important rule is to refrain from pointing at people, or pointing people toward objects or locations.

Clue: If you are wondering why this person is so close to you, in their culture, there is no personal space.

Clue: You may think weddings are costly. Think again. This culture celebrates weddings for three consecutive days.

Clue: Family members of the older generation kiss both genders on the lips; however, non-family members are kissed on the lips only if they are of the same gender.

Clue: No need to guess what they are trying to say; they are very direct and will tell you exactly what they mean. There is no beating around the bush.

Clue: Bring a gift to the family who invites you to their home for dinner. If you bring flowers, make sure the number of flowers is uneven; even numbers of flowers are for funerals.

Clue: Do not cross your legs with the ankle on the knee or put your feet on the furniture. It’s impolite to show people the soles of your shoes.

Clue: Be prepared to accept all alcohol and food offered when visiting friends—and that can be quite a lot! Refusing a drink or a toast is a serious breach of etiquette. An open bottle must often
be finished.

Clue: Don’t put your thumb between your first two fingers. It is an extremely rude gesture.

Lawsuit Filed Over Unauthorized Use of Norman Rockwell Painting in TV Series

"NEW YORK - The owner of Norman Rockwell's "Bottom of the 6th" — showing three umpires looking skyward as first raindrops fall — is steaming over the use of the classic illustration in the television series "The Bronx is Burning."

Curtis Publishing Co. Inc. has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan seeking to stop ESPN

Curtis sent an e-mail to ESPN lawyers notifying them that ESPN did not have a license to use the painting and was committing willful copyright infringement, the lawsuit said."

Full story on Yahoo News

My Art Business and Marketing Pages

Several months ago, I came to a realization - I was receiving quite a few emails from people who wanted information on how to start a pencil portrait business. Others had started a pencil portrait business, but had no idea how to find clients. It struck me that there was a need for this information.

I grabbed one of my kids' blank composition notebooks, and whenever I had a spare moment here or there, I jotted down advice that I would give someone who was starting a pencil portrait business. My first thought was that it would become an e-book, but when I discovered a site Squidoo, I realized that it would be a perfect place to put the information. After all, why not share it? Now I can direct people who email me for advice to the page on Squidoo that deals with what they need. It saves me time overall, but it is also gives the information seeker much more thorough information than I would be able to give them in a single email.

You can read all my art business pages here.

I've created pages about art marketing, affiliate programs, dealing with difficult situations, what to charge for portraits, advice on advertising, and more. You'll also find how-to art tutorials. The most popular is How to Draw Hair.

So, if you have been looking for information like this, be sure to check out the pages. I am always looking for advice and suggestions!

Kindergarten Registration

Yesterday, I registered Little Man for Kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN! It hardly seems possible. Yep, they grow up really fast (sniff sniff!) What a process the registration was. It involved standing in a long line three times. The paperwork was considerable, but at least I didn't have to fill out the same paperwork twice like I have many years for our twins.

Some things have changed since I registered the twins for Kindergarten 10 years ago in the same school. The paperwork is one thing...the paperwork involves much more of "who has CUSTODY of the child?" than I remembered. There's room to list several guardians, ex-husbands, ex-wives, significant partners and such, I guess....also places for home phone, cell phone, pager, etc...several pages to fill all that stuff out. It's scary to me that this is our culture now. When my mom registered me for Kindergarten in 1970, it was probably one page. If my mom wasn't home and something happened, there wasn't a cell phone to call...and yet, I survived!

My son will go to a three day, half day session at his new school in June. It is to get the kids familiar with the school before the school year starts. Unfortunately, they only have about 60 spots for 240 or more kids. I hope Little Man is able to go.

Little Guy has Croup, so I started my day at 4:15 am. I think tonight may be bad for him.