Ott light discount

I love my Ott-light! I just found out that Joanne Etc online has Ott lights for 40% off retail:

40% Off OTT-LITE Lamps & Accessories

Pencil portrait of Chester

Here's a dog portrait of a mixed-breed dog. My client said she was told that Chester was a Labrador/Dalmatian mix. I think I see some Great Dane in him, though - especially in his snout area. But whatever he is, he's a gorgeous dog, and I really enjoyed drawing him. I used 2B and 4B Tombow Mono-Homograph pencils and a mechanical pencil for this artwork. Blending with chamois, erasing and highlights were done with a PenTel Clik-eraser and General's kneaded rubber eraser. Paper size: 11"x14," Strathmore 500 Series Bristol 2 ply paper with Plate (very smooth) surface. To see more dog pencil portraits, go here and here.

Pencil portrait drawing paper

I saw that Michael's has Strathmore 300 Bristol Pads on sale for 40% off this week. It made me think about sharing a bit of what I know about paper.

Strathmore 300 is nice for basic drawing, but it's not as good for long-term preservation as Strathmore 400 or 500 grades are. If you want cotton paper and acid free paper, go with 400 or 500 grade.

Then, you will notice the Bristol papers have other descriptions on them, like "Vellum," "Smooth," and "Plate." I used to think Vellum meant smooth. It's not smooth...it has a bit of texture. "Smooth" is smoother than Vellum, but Plate is the smoothest.

What about Canson brand Bristol paper? In my opinion, even their "Smooth" grade Bristol paper is too rough. I have found too many inconsistencies in the texture. It really matters when you are blending pencil.

But overall, Strathmore papers are good, so if you just want a pad of paper that's nice to draw on, and permanency isn't a concern, then why not try some at 40% off?

If you have any questions let me know.

For more on drawing paper recommendations, see: http://www.squidoo.com/drawingpaper

How do you set up a pencil portrait business website?

The answer to this question depends on what you want. If you want a very quick store that you can set up, with ability for checkout, then I think signing up for a website like Etsy or ArtFire would be the quickest and most efficient option. Here is my Etsy shop, so you can see how it sort of looks like an online store. You can add a banner to it. In February, I interviewed John Jacobs, the CEO of ArtFire.com, so check out that interview here if you'd like to know more about ArtFire.

If you want to have a free place where you can show your art, but you don't necessarily need the ability for customers to checkout - you just want an online showcase where can direct people to see your art, then ArtWanted would be a good place for you. It's free at the basic level, but you can only upload a certain number of images per month at the free level. You can upgrade to a paid account to be able to upload more images. Keep in mind that your username will be part of your web address (URL) on Artwanted, so keep it short, catchy, or your real name (if your name is easy for people to spell and remember!)

You can get free websites at Tripod, Homestead, Weebly, and GooglePages. Unless you upgrade to a paid account, you may have ads on your website pages. The last time I checked, GooglePages did not have ads in the pages, but surprisingly, my GooglePages site doesn't rank very well in Google! You can see what I did with it here. I found it pretty easy to work with. My own pencil portrait art website is hosted on Tripod. That doesn't mean that it's necessarily the best for me or for you. I've just had it there a long time, so I'll probably just leave it alone.

The main thing is that you provide the basics people need:

• Your name

• Contact page

• Pricing page or info on how to get a quote - people want to know how they can pay, do you ship internationally?
  

• Recommendations (or even a link to your eBay feedback, to show you are dependable)

• Examples of your art

An inspiration

Great quotes by Robert McCloskey - he was the author and illustrator of Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings, Lentil, Homer Price and others. I found this in his 2003 New York Times obituary, while looking up info for this Squidoo page on Robert McCloskey. I love it, and I completely understand what he meant.

"Speaking of his art, Mr. McCloskey once said that while the hand is trained, ''it's an automatic part like shuffling cards or knitting'' and that "drawing is most of all a way of seeing and thinking."

"Most of my friends and neighbors just don't seem to see as I do," he continued, "even looking at simple things like a ball of string. But I'm not a nut, really, as anybody can see. I have one foot resting on reality and the other foot planted firmly on a banana peel."

Artist and crafter goodies

Here's a link to get free art supply catalogs from Blick Art Supplies.
There are several to choose from, including the Blick School Catalog, Blick Studio Catalog, K-6 Classroom Catalog, Studio Sale Catalog - Holiday 2009 edition, and the School Sale Flyer for Fall of 2009. I have ordered more than one at a time in the past, so if more than one of them interests you, go ahead and request whatever you like.

Here's a link to a printable discount coupon from Hobby Lobby Stores.
Get 25% off children's activity kits by Rose Art, Natural Science, and others. Coupon applies to regularly priced items only. Expires October 10, 2009.

Here's a new coupon:
Here's a printable coupon for 40% off one non-sale-priced item at Hobby Lobby stores: Hobby Lobby Coupon Coupon is good from October 12 through October 17, 2009.

Just give me your art!

I have been really enjoying Alyson B. Stanfield's blog, The ArtBizBlog. This post in particular may be of interest to you, if you are an artist and have people asking or expecting you to give your art away for free: Visit Alyson's ArtBizBlog .

Well you know me by now, I had to get my two cents in the discussion!

My response to an email asking me to give my art away would be something like this:

“Thank you for your kind comments about my artwork. I’m sorry I cannot offer my art for free. I need to make money on my art so I can do more of it. Thank you for appreciating all the time and effort that went into it.”

Alyson Stanfield is the author of the book, I'd Rather be in the Studio! and writes for Art Calendar Magazine. Check out her blog - it's really great.

My right arm

I've been trying to rest my shoulder. A few days ago, the pain was pretty bad, but it wasn't as bad as the whining. I took 600 mg of Advil (that's 3 of them) at a time and put ice on my shoulder. I was beginning to think I fractured it. Greater minds than mine wanted me to go to the doctor about it, but I really didn't want to. The solution would probably be a prescription for muscle relaxant medication. That's not going to cut it with me. I know if I took those kinds of medications, I wouldn't be able to drive my kids in the car. Plus, knowing me, I'd catch something much worse while visiting the doctor's office. Not to mention, I'm a hard head.

After trying really hard to rest my right arm and shoulder, it's doing better. I think I sprained or strained it. I am probably the only person in the world who can hurt their shoulder using a riding lawn mower - but I was going up and down a hill. I think the force and the hanging-on-for-dear-life was the final straw, but I also think I have been drawing so much lately that it's a bit of a repetitive strain thing too.

I finished up D.G.'s portrait (1-subject drawing) and C.J.'s portrait (a 2-subject drawing) and started a house portrait before the weekend. I have spent the weekend resting. I considered trying to draw with my left hand, but I'm just not that ambidextrous.

Tomorrow I will finish up the house portrait for D.M. and start work on a dog portrait for J.T.
I will have 3 more house portraits to complete for D.M. - I hope by the end of the week.

But the blessing that comes out of it all is that I realized I should cut back some of my portrait offerings, so I decided to not offer stipple/Hedcut portraits any more. They require very close-up work and repetitive motions that I don't feel I can be adequately reimbursed to do anymore. [Translation, you couldn't pay me enough!] Hee hee, but seriously - Impressionist art seems so easy after the detail work I've done. No wonder so many artists gravitated to Impressionistic art as they got older! I won't take my arms (especially my right one!) for granted anymore.

How to save damaged photos

This newspaper article about how to salvage water-damaged photographs was published because of the recent flooding in Atlanta. This information is good to have, no matter what incident caused water damage to photos and documents. Hopefully, you'll never need this information, but here it is just in case!

• Photos: Do not let photos dry in stacks as they will stick together and breed mold.

• Wearing gloves, bathe old photos in tap water, carefully avoiding running water directly onto the photos as that can damage the emulsion.

• Kodak Photo-Flo can be added to help clean the pictures.

• Gently separate them while wet and use a soft art brush to remove large debris.

• Remove from the bath and flatten the photo with a piece of glass or the back of a Teflon pan.

• Be sure the photo is facing image-side down onto the flat surface, and then use a squeegee-type sponge across the back, from the center to the edge, to remove additional moisture.

• Hang the photos to dry from a string with vinyl coated paper clips or clothes pins.

• After the photos dry, consider scanning them immediately to save the image on disc. Save them at 300 dpi, (dots per inch) so that it captures the highest resolution.

• Assess the original image to consider whether it should be taken to a restoration expert.
  

If you cannot bathe photos immediately, freeze them until a later time. More tips can be found at the Web site, www.bestphotorestoration.com.

Fine art on paper: The most important thing to do is allow the paper to dry before dealing with repair and conservation.

If an important document, such as birth certificate, diploma, military papers or marriage license is framed and behind glass, immediately remove from the frame so that it does not begin to mold, one of the tougher stains to remove.

Separate the papers while drying. Do not brush or rub the piece to remove stains or mud as that can grind the particles further into the paper, he advises.

Many forms of damage, including water stains, mud, smoke and tearing from folds can be repaired or stabilized.

Excerpted from: Tips for saving damaged photos, documents - Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper