heart-of-this-art

Making money your recycled projects

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:54:51 +0100

Many artists and design professionals make a substantial amount of their income from the relatively passive stream of stock art sales. Useful icon sets, stock photographs, wordpress themes and illustrations. During the course of your art career you'll find you'll start lots of project and never finish them or find that they do not meet your clients needs. The many stock sale channels on the internet are a great way to monetize these poor orphaned works.

Stock art is an excellent passive income stream. Select your art submit it to various channels, tag it and wait for your art to find your clients. There are a number of considerations you'd need to make when submitting to stock markets though. Generally submitting your stock exclusively to one channel will get you higher commissions but will limit your reach as you will not be able to submit it anywhere else. This is the best option for your best quality stock that targets a very particular niche. In cases like these where you have a good quality product you'll find that distributing in one channel will get your best return as you'll be able to command better prices. When recycling work which can be used as stock you'd be better off submitting it as far and wide as possible.

Spend some time on client forums and find out what is in demand, look at trends in web design and on news sites. This is particularly useful for icon sets and illustrations. If you can produce high quality graphics that fill a common need you'll find your monthly income will swell quite quickly.

With stock photography focus on iconic images that are illustrative. Again it's important to think about what who will be trawling stock sites and what they'll be looking for images for.

iStockPhoto.com
Stockexpert

The Power of Presence

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:52:08 +0100

Developing an online presence is one of the most important things you can do straight away sometimes even before you've created your first piece of art.

You must spend time building your authority and your brand. When people consume art or literature the credentials of the author or artist is probably the defining factor when a choice exists. Contributing in art communities and writing articles for other websites or publications are great ways to get your name out and associated with your niche. Spend as much time as you can researching your niche. Comment on work by prominent people in your niche. Find out what allowed these individuals rise above the rest and establish themselves. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Consider approaching insiders for interviews. Understand your niche and how you can add unique value. Most importantly express your passion for your niche and you will find that others will follow suit.

How to monetize your art using online galleries

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:27:59 +0100

Online galleries work much like their real life counterparts. These online galleries display an artists work and provide printing and shipping services. In return for the work marketing and distributing the artists work the gallery owner charges a commission on each sale. which can be anywher from 10% to 80% of the sale price depending on who you deal with.

Naturally when selecting a gallery to display and distribute your work you should consider the quality produced by the gallery first as whatever quality ships from the gallery will reflect well or poorl on you.
Print programs like those at deviantArt are useful for checking the market but unless you're willing to buy a Premium Print subscription this is not really worth your while.
If you're serious about displaying Monetizing your art your best bet is always going to be with lower volume higher quality galleries than community galleries. Smaller galleries are generally more selective but as a result are able to charge higher prices which equate to higher commission cheques. If your work is good enough you'll find your best opportunities will lie in these niche galleries that cater to a smaller market.
These galleries are great sources of backlinks as well. Where ever possible try and get them to add a link to your website. Search engines love good contextual links. When dealing with online galleries it's extremely important to find out what rates you could get on commissioned work. You may find that you do most of your work through a particular gallery and as a result you are now growing your number of commissioned pieces. Try and find out at the outset if the gallery will be able to accomodate you with your commissioned pieces by way of shipping and printing. This is great business as producing one off pieces in your personal capacity can break the bank and send potential clients running.

As with all things in the art world spend some time trolling the net hanging about in forums and you'll soon have list of links as long as your arm to go and hit up for their services. Just remember to weigh up the offers based on what goes in your pocket not what the customer coughs up.

Some Links to get you going:
deviantART Prints
Untapped source art gallery and print store
Digital Art Print Gallery
Spacescapes Gallery

How to monetize your art

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:57:06 +0100

Since the dawn of time the artist has looked for ways to benefit their artistic pursuits and for probably just as long they've found themselves getting screwed over by pretty much everyone else. It's no secret that society on the whole does not put great value on art. As a result the modern artist has had to become multi disciplinary. Every artist except the truly exceptional has needed to learn to be a businessman. The modern artist is an entrepeneur able to balance the books market his work, make sales, manage customer relationships and find some time to create stuff worth selling.

There are a number of ways to go about doing this these days.

Broadly speaking there are two option, sell your work yourself or use a third party. Producing and distributing your work yourself is a viable option these days with a number of printing options available on the web as well as offline. The problem with this is that once the item is sold the artist needs to keep records, make delivery and generally own the the entire customer interaction. If you hope to make art your primary income this is the kind of business you should look at running as you have control of your pricing and only have to cover the overheads of producing and shipping your works. The catch here is that it is often more expensive as to get discounts on the printing process you would have to buy in bulk which is not always an option which will normally cut into your profit margin.

Some Online printing options for artists:

Print Wild Canvas prints based in South africa with a great web site and tons of options
CanvasRus Art printing Based in the Uk and available throughout Europe
FinerWorks Art printing US based online art print store.

My next article will look at online galleries that do the selling for you.

Attention Deficit disorder - Worse than a Hungarian Fruit fly

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:08:25 +0100

Now I'm not even sure if Hungary has fruit let alone fruit flies but the metaphor seems kinda right for the amount of clutter in my head recently. As it happens this state is very common and tends to afflict me in particular. It generally starts when I'm just trying to many things all at the same time.
Invariably when this happens I tend to revert to safe past times like tweaking a digital canvas that needs no tweaking or watching some boring and ultimately time stealing television.
My strategy when this happens is simple I'll concentrate on just one big goal a day and gear my efforts around that you'll be amazed at how hard it is to focus on just one thing, but how much easier it is to that thing done.
As it stands a really exciting week lies ahead, I've registered my Domain and a number of creative tasks now lie ahead for me. First and foremost and this is my current big goal is to find a wordpress theme - I'm looking at ultimately designing a custom theme however I still have some research to do before I can start with that, once i've selected the theme I'm going to be designing a branded header for the site.
Posts will be kinda sparse not that they could be sparser than they are currently as getting set up is proving to be quite time intensive. However I'm planning to document the creative elements of the set up on this site so perhaps I can add some value as I go along.
I have also been discussing my e-book idea with a few people and am currently working out some possible timelines for the project.

So all in all yet another week without much in the way of content *sigh* but lots of excitement afoot.

New Heart of this Art in development - We're moving

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:51:05 +0100

After a few weeks at this blogging game I have become a bit frustrated with the usability of my current blogging platform, no disrespect to it but it does not fit my long term objectives for my sites and as a result rather than build up a critical mass of effort i've gone looking for pastures greener.
For this reason I have decided to make a few changes first you may notice that the domain name for this site has changed to www.smdfdigitalart.za.net I will not be discontinuing this site but I will be using it for some very specific types of content in the weeks that follow.
I am still commited to putting together a top class content offering geared toward the beginning to intermediate artist filled with insights how-to's walk through's and tutorials however in order to do this right sadly I'll be having to shake things up a bit.

If you'd like to see my sandbox where i'm kicking around ideas for the New Heart of this Art please visit the link and let me know what you think. In the interim my posts will slow down a bit while I focus on getting my blogs moved and up and running.

Responsible Artists

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:39:44 +0100

Being completely self-taught I must say I’ve become very intolerant with the measure of arrogance that comes with success in the arts. Being a regular in the deviantART community I see it very often where talented artists go from unknowns to veritable artistic superstars and forget all the work that went into getting to the point where their work is out there and being appreciated.

For each and every artist in both traditional and digital mediums there is a period where the only person aware of their artistic ability is their mom their imaginary friend and their mangy mutt Waldo. Depending on the level of skill of the artist they’ll get into contact with people who love their work and people who don’t. In amongst this second group will be fellow artists, some of whom who have already arrived. For most every artist this second group is the group that will drive them on to greatness. It is no coincedence that the great artistic movements in history spanned periods, periods where artists pushed each other past the boundaries of the conventions of their time.

The pervading sense in art communities both online and in traditional art tends to get a bit toxic. There’s an all pervading mindset of scarcity. “People don’t buy art so the less competition the better!” seems to be the order of the day. This is one of the driving forces of the artistic ego. The Zero sum fuels the idea that one has to be better than one’s peers. Someone has to lose for me to win. In this way the cycle is perpetuated.

So much more would accomplished if artists learnt some humility. So much more would be accomplished if artists exhibited some responsibility. The craft of art is learned and should be taught. In the teaching we learn and our names are remembered. Giving a man the ability to create, in reality, the ghosts that haunt his mind frees him of them. I am not proposing a smurf village filled with caring and sharing I’m just wondering who is responsible.

Related Articles:
Things to look for in an Art community
A sense of Community

My interview with DeviantArtIst Cheryl-Anne Roelofsz Jewellery Designer, Poet, Painter, Photo ...

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:29:54 +0100

Here follows my interview with Cheryl “Ireful” Roelofsz jewellery designer, painter, poet, photo manipulator, stock photographer and general Descriptor of Scorn (ok I made that last bit up)

Having set up my own blog adding pretty (I think they’re pretty dammit don’t judge me) bits and some (I hope) useful bits, some shameless self promotional bits and a whole lot of strange written bits, I decided it was time to add some ridiculously soppy lovey bits. In order to do that I’m going to try and squeeze some interviews out of those DeviantArt artist I most love and loathe (don’t worry I I only loathe you cos you’re so good!! I'd worry if I don't loathe you) This week I’m looking at Ireful my oldest and dearest good deviant, Yup she’s pretty darned deviant and she’s on DeviantArt too. I’ve featured her art here (with her permission) on the front page of my site and now am able to plug her new blog as well visit Cheryl’s artsy blog here.

For a bit of background Cheryl introduced me DeviantArt 2 years ago before which any thought of art digital or otherwise made me queasy. So in thanks for putting up with my tradtional media ineptitude my digital art naivieness and my general artistic constipation I’ve just concluded an interview so you can get to know one of my favouriter deviant like I know her (hmmm… wel not exactly like I know her *nudge nudge wink wink*)

How Long Have You Been Writing?

in february 2006 i signed up at the mobile chat site, prodigits, and the inspiration i got there... well lets just say i've been writing poetry ever since then. :D

And Visual Art?

the first proper manipulation that i uploaded to da was a piece titled In Love With The Moon which i uploaded in march 2008. http://ireful.deviantart.com/art/in-love-with-the-moon-80494021. i'd like to think i improved since then! the improvement can actually seen from the manip titled Left outside alone. thats my defining point. anything created and uploaded before Left Outside Alone was dull...

What Art Inspires You To Create?

the human experiences connected to pain, depression, sorrow. theres just something about taking those ugly raw emotions and creating beautiful pieces of art out of them...

If You Had Your Way Your Business Card Would Read?

master of the imagined flight... lol just kidding... ("masters of the imagined slight" is a sentence from a benchley book i once read. yeah, thats slight, not flight.)
my current business card reads:

Lun'Acushla
Cheryl
0721888084
lunacushla@gmail.com
handmade ethnic crafts.

ya its a bit outdated. but im not worthy of a visual arts business card yet... lol

Who Is Your Favourite Artist Poet And Writer?

My favourite poet is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (favourite poem would be The Day is Done.)
Favourite writer is a bit more difficult to choose... Im gonna go with Matthew Reilly, Stephen King and David Eddings. Wait... Peter Benchley should also be on that list somewhere...
Favourite artist... well let me see, i like Edgar Degas' nudes. i like I like Frida Kahlo, as a person and artist, not necessarily because of her work. i "understand" how her creative processes worked... i admire her will and determination to survive and endure despite the many physical and emotional obstacles she faced. i envy her strong outlook on life and her "you wont get me down" attitude.

she was... different.

Whats Your Favourite Piece Of Art Regardless Of Medium?

its a jane avril lithograph. just a print actually. My mother gave it to me. She bought it many many moons ago.
Henry Toulouse-Lauret did the original in 1893 to advertise avril's debut in the Jardin de Paris. (movie fanatics might know her from the Moulin Rouge movies, first played by zsa zsa gabor, and more recently my nicole kidman)

I like Jane avril. read more about her here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Avriland see the actual lith here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jane_Avril_by_Toulouse-Lautrec.jpeg

oh you said regardless of medium, right? ;) my friend, Leigh, has this awesome tattoo on her hip. just a swirly thingy, awesome in its simplicity.

How Would You Classify Your Visual Art And Poetry

dark, most of the time. scary some other times. sad more than likely. sometimes with a touch of humour :D

Does It Fit Into A Genre?

I would hope not...

211 Deviations, Which One Is Your Favourite?

sjoe, thats really really hard to choose. but if i had to decide real quick, i'd be a toss between Waiting http://ireful.deviantart.com/art/waiting-98509183and Viviene http://ireful.deviantart.com/art/Vivienne-93350952but feel free to also go check Not The Reason and Oh So Vulnerable! hehe

Why?

Waiting. theres just something about it. its the right "shade of dark..." not too dull, not too vibrant. a sense of longing to it too.
as for viviene, i think it her dress... lol. the original stock photo's dress was white, not red... its also a very personal piece and poem to me.

5 Gajillion Favourites, Which Fave Is Your Favourite Favourite?

i can think of many many many, but instead of going for something that i can relate too, im gonna choose the image which grabbed my attention way back when and inspired me to dabble in photomanipulation. its titled Cry For The Moon, by dA artist 870. http://870.deviantart.com/art/Cry-For-The-Moon-49702450. My favourite literature piece -
1. Yellow dress http://lyrica-lee.deviantart.com/art/Yellow-Dress-53828497by lyrica lee
2. Im not myself right now http://cassinova500.deviantart.com/art/I-m-Not-Myself-Right-Now-52687862now by cassinova500.
eish... i also really like Ms. LL's House in the distance... (why do you keep asking me to choose favourites? lol. its hard!)

When People Look At Your Work, What Word Do You Hope They Use Most Often?
No words, only silence...
I dont want them to say anything, i want them to look twice...

Related links:

Cheryl’s DeviantArt Home

Cheryl's Stock Photography Home(I so need a decent camera)

Cheryl’s Blog Kahla’sBeat

What is Stock Photography?

What is photo manipulation?

Editorial: Busy busy, Social media, manipping, painting and writing - oh my!!

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:29:15 +0100

Ok as everyone can see i've been quite the busy bee this week.

I felt I needed a bit of a content break so I spent some time working on the design and layout of my sites.
I also have a new Digital Painting project underway I've asked the owner of the stock image for permission to display the image on my site and am still waiting. I have actually prepared a project page for this image but won't be publishing it publicly until i get permission.
Over and above that I've Uploaded a new Photo manipulation entitled Edge in my DeviantArt gallery - Edge is an old image that i never completed which I found some time to finish up on the weekend.Yeah i'm not 100% happy with it but it's done so i'm not gonna over think it, it just feels good to have gotten one done.
On the front page of my site you'll see I've included a new feature, Deviant Love I'll be using it to showcase work of Artists I follow and I will with permission be following this up with an Interview blog post (coming soon) I'm just waiting for the current Deviant (how apt) to commit to an interview.
I've also removed alot of the advertising that was creating clutter and have gonna for a more stripped down site trying to keep the content front and centre.
I have also put up comments section on pretty much every page on the site so you can let me know what you think about my work.
I have also spent alot of time on social networking sites looking at ways of promoting this site and my others. I am on twitter and will be looking at setting up a facebook group. I set up two Squidoo lenses, one Photomanipulation lense and my Personal development site lens - Monetize
I've also started doing some extra curricular blogging on My Digital Life, My digital life is a South African tech news aggregating site, which also hosts user blogs. One of my articles on the new Kindle E-book reader was even featured as one of the top blogs this week past as it stands I will still be doing my blogging on my own sites but i'll still use my digital life to blow off some steam when the inner techie in me is feeling cranky.

Ok so now that I've proven I'm not a lazy bugger let me get back to work :-)

Live long and Prosper,

Michael

Revision not just for writing about art

Sun, 31 May 2009 09:34:16 +0100

I’ve often worked on a piece of art for ages. From the time I start piecing together an idea and looking for stock for a photo manipulation until when I’m done with the last tweak weeks may have passed. I set fairly high standards with my manips there’s no real excuse for being sloppy when everything is fixable.

As it happens when I’m done with a photo manipulation or digital painting I tend to have invested so much time in it that I’m pretty much blind to any flaws. I’ve invested so much into worrying away the details it’s quite easy to miss something glaringly obvious. This is a trap I still fall into, thankfully a lot less often now though.

A lesson from my old friend Stephen King (well I consider him a friend considering how much time I’ve spent reading his books, if you asked him he might pretend never to have heard of me, Stephen you kidder you!) He writes every day for about six months. He then takes the large pile of paper puts in a file and puts it in his desk drawer. He then starts writing every day again normally short stories and such. Six weeks later he’ll take the large manuscript out and start revising.

This is not an ideal method for visual arts especially if it’s commissioned work 6 weeks may seem a bit excessive to a prospective client. The principle of the advice is sound though. Create! Create without censorship let your imagination run wild get caught up in the process and let it take you. When it’s done throw a cloth over it or switch your pc off grab your sketch pad and take a walk and sketch some ideas for your next project or just take a walk. Take as much time as you possibly can. Then when you return to your work be ruthless. The Devil’s in the details and you’re much more likely to see the detail when you have some time away so that you can try and look at your work with fresh eyes.