is your art good enough to sell online?

Short answer? Yes.

Long, realistic answer?

pretty on the inside

I show you my heart.

Putting your art up online is kind of like showing it in a gallery. You may not be the best at your particular art style, but if you want to improve, showing the internet what you are doing is a good way to get better. There are so many skill levels, so many ways of expressing yourself; the internet is home to them all.

If you’re really timid, start slow. Use deviantart, and request critiques. Once you feel like you can handle more harsh views, try some art forums, and ask for opinions.

Or, alternately, you can dive right in. We all start where we are. Try to get very good pictures of your work. never upload giant files; upload files that are just big enough to look good on a monitor, no larger. Image theft is common, and sometimes unintentional. If you watermark unobtrusively, and only upload smaller files, you’ll find more people credit you when reposting or sharing your work. You want people to do that, because that is how you will sell your art online.

Etsy is a good starter for artists. It’s not the best venue for fine art, but it can be a good way to get your feet wet. Be cautious, though, as most of the advice on using etsy is not written with art in mind, but easily-reproducible craft. Your painting can’t be tagged and posted the same way a t-shirt can. This is why etsy is only a starter site.

The Craftstar has a decent art section, but you will have to have a paypal and pay for listing in advance.

You could also opt for one of the other sites geared for art sales- originals are harder to sell most places than prints, but it IS possible to sell just originals online.

If you are just starting out, keep your prices as low as possible. Once you are selling your work on a regular basis, then you can raise your prices. At first, it’s unknown if you will succeed or not. Most people not only buy art for its look, for how it grabs the eye, but also for the artist’s longevity, their name, their history. Build your history a little!

It’s the internet. You should maintain privacy for your own comfort and safety of course-but letting people get to know you, talking about deep or personal things, lets the viewer understand the origin of your works, and become more invested in them. Give them a chance to find out where the art came from. You can be a cantankerous bitch hermit like me and STILL be capable of showing your inner self online. You don’t have to be outgoing to do it; you can talk as if the site was your own art journal, your own notes about each piece.

So- yeah. Your art is good enough to sell online- at etsy or anywhere else. Keep your expectations of sales low at first, and your prices the same, and then as time passes you will see how your work can fit into the greater whole of online art.

And if you need encouragement, ask for it. And if you need a slap on the wrist, or a sound drubbing, you should ask for that too. All the help you could ever want from other artists lives inside your computer, but it can only do you good if you put your own work in there too.

oregon tsunami. work in progress.

We did a 4 1/2 or 5 hour session on this. It’s a cover-up of an older tattoo, a medium-sized rose and banner was there before.

This fellow lived in Eugene for a good long while, and so he wanted a memento of Oregon. We’re doing Mt. Hood at the backdrop of the waves, on the underside of his arm.

This, a version of the great wave as painted by Hokusai, is simply that- a great wave. Our man Joe is a surfer, and currently lives in Socal- we talked a bit about my fear of swimming in the ocean (SHARKS.) and his lack of fear (DOLPHINS AND PUPPIES). He works as a biologist, right now he is working with condors. I LOVE VULTURES AND CONDORS.

We also had some good book conversation, we’d both read Mutant Message, and a bit of McKenna, and he recommended some music to me, and I recommended he read The Flounder.

He also sat like a champ. It was a long, and brutal session, encompassing both his front and back armpits AND the knob up top by the collarbone, not to mention a large raised scar up there that must have stung! But he sat quite still through it all.

I can’t wait to finish this. I still have to refine the splashed droplets of white, and blue- and reline the cloud areas- and finish the mountain underneath.

more: feathers, rocks, sticks, shaman things.

Just photos today.

legal domestic feather

things I want to tattoo on you.

Just a few sketches I would LOVE to do on someone.

enjoy!

insomnia.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/resonanteye/portfolio

When I was a kid, I stayed up all night and was exhausted every morning. I lay in bed, wide awake, waiting to sleep.

Now I don’t know for sure if it is a result of chemicals in my brain, anxiety from some trauma I have long forgotten, or just a natural state for me, but at night I am wide eyed and alert. I think clearly, I work better and harder, I thrive. When the sun comes up I begin to yawn, and I would, if I could, sleep always on a late-afternoon wake-up schedule.

I think there is some kind of name for this. I don’t know if it’s delayed sleep phases, or what. But, also, over time my sleep gets a tiny bit later, and later, and later. until I have come full circle and I wake up at 8 AM! I have tried every means to control this sleep mayhem and haven’t found a way yet.

Right now, I take ambien one night- lunesta the next- temazepam the next, then start over. I don’t want to get tolerant of my sleeping pills, I want them to keep working for me.

I guess the only reason I even try to make a day schedule or any normal one is that I like to be able to go to work and tattoo people! And I can’t wake up at 5pm and do much of that…

So I keep trying for a somewhat normal schedule. I’d love to go to sleep at three AM, wake up at noon. That’s nine whole hours. I usually get ten hours, but I could do with nine, right?

I mean, the hours I am awake I work, I do all the things anyone else would do in the daytime, in the morning.

If I could survive just selling non-tattoo artworks, I could stop fighting my sleep schedule, and maybe that would make a difference. But I don’t know for sure, I’ve never done that.

Well, here’s to all of you wide-eyed people under the stars. You’re not alone. If you have any advice, ideas, or experiences of your own with insomnia (especially lifelong insomnia) feel free to overload the comments below, I would love to hear about your sleep struggles.

It’ll be more fun than counting sheep, I promise.

daily dose.

Thought I’d join in on a twitter thing I saw, and post my daily dose of medicines.

In the morning, I take the top row of pills, all of them, everyday.

That’s two 200mg seroquel, and two 40mg prozac capsules. And to the right, Chantix.
I take this as soon as I open my eyes. Sometimes (almost always) I stay in bed or maybe even go back to sleep for a bit; but it’s the first thing I do in the morning.

At night, I take one of the leftmost pills on the bottom row- I alternate them. One is lunesta, one is ambien, one is temazepam. I take a different one each night so they all keep working. And, along with that, I take my second chantix.

I’ve had insomnia as long as I can remember. The last year or so with these medicines, I have been able to fall asleep far easier and more consistently than ever before. Not that I don’t still sleep in, because I do. But at least I don’t stay up all night then sleep an hour or two- or sleep ALL day everyday.

Also, I’ve been smoking a pack a day every day for 28 years. I’ve gone through one pack in the last two days…so the chantix is helping. I still don’t know if it will work, if I will be able to quit completely, yet- but I am hopeful.

the bechdel test.

The Bechdel test is simple. Your book, film, or other work passes if it contains two named female characters, who speak to each, about something other than a man (or men).

I actually think about this while reading or watching a movie. Some movies that have been hailed as feminist masterpieces (by morons *cough*) don’t pass this test. And some movies I love but which are seen as just awful to women- DO pass.

The corollary I’d give, is that if your work doesn’t pass the Bechdick test as well, you are off the hook. This second test is simple- if your film, book, or other work contains two men, with names, who speak to each other about something other than women, it has passed the test.

Some works contain only one character, two male characters, or a mixed pair. These works are officially off the hook, not liable to the test. Since they wouldn’t pass the Bechdick test, you can’t apply Bechdel to them either.

However, a book that passes one MUST pass the other as well, or it’s simply not realistic. Even fantasy works should maintain enough realism in the characters to make me believe they are real, to flesh them out. If a work doesn’t pass the Bechdel test, I find my suspension of disbelief waning, and my interest in the (male) characters almost lost- since some characters are not realistic, none can be.

the world’s gone mad, and a water tiger.

tiger art

he’s the original art, colored pencil on thick bristol, 8×10″ and I will frame him for you! $45 includes shipping.

I know it seems like the whole world has popped the cork on weirdness the last few months, but it’s only to be expected when we’re having such huge peaks and valleys of novelty in the human experience.

Also, I drew this tiger recently. I don’t think I’ll make any prints, but here’s the original. I’ll frame him in a nice wooden frame I think, if someone buys him.

naked mole rat process round two!

I woke up this morning with absolutely no knowledge about casts, molds, or anything

like that.

I had a stoneclay nakedmolerat, and a dream.
I also got: pam cooking spray, sculptamold, a jug of water, the oven on at 250 degrees, a fan, and the mole rat.I got: silicone caulk, glycerin, acrylic paint, a plastic spoon, a few bowls.

 

I also got aluminum foil, a towel to scrub my hands off, and a few extra things to scrape and mix with.

I mixed a bit of glycerin with a squirt of acrylic paint in a bowl, then added a TON of the silicone. I mixed it til it was consistent throughout, then sprayed my hands with pam and got them greasy, then I picked up the entire lump of silicone, and wrapped the mole rat in it, about 1/2″ thick.

I also made a silicone mold of  a monkey face toy, a cat and dog and rabbit face toy, all which happened to be 0n the table I was working next to.

the silicone set FAST. like, within twenty minutes it was solid. I cut a slit slong the back, and pulled out the mole rat.

it had made a perfect mold of him!

I mixed up sculptamold. the package says one-to-one with water, but that was too wet. I just kneaded enough water into it for it to be like dough. and then pressed it into the mold of the mole rat, filling it completely.

I let it stand for a bit, then put it into the oven at 200 degrees.

 

when I pulled it out, it came out of the mold easily…

the mole rats I made this way are very rough, the surfaces are really bumpy and uneven. I might sand them down a little bit tomorrow.

I’ve begun painting the smoother ones and the original I’d made the mold from. Part three of this epic project saga will be online late tomorrow night.

naked mole rat in clay.

I have a friend who’s going through some shit, and we were both talking about naked mole rats. As you know, I love, LOVE weird creatures and always want to draw them, pet them.

So I’m making a naked mole rat. I had some la doll stone clay, that I’d never used, that I bought on deep discount a while back to play with. So I broke it out and started messing around.

Now, naked mole rats are basically a wrinkled penis with legs and teeth- so it seemed like an easy way to start messing with clay. I’ve played around with sculpey before and polymer clays, but never with air-dry clay.

The first thing I learned was that water is needed. You have to have damp hands. I kind of formed a naked mole rat body, with legs. I used the clay tools to separate his wee toes, then set him to dry overnight.

I didn’t know how long this would take to dry- the package says nothing, and nowhere online could I find any estimate on dry times for this clay. Overnight, it seemed like the outside half-inch of the clay was dry, so I got out the dremel and marked some of his wrinkles using a wood-carving burr.

And some of his little whisker nubs (I am going to use a dead paintbrush to make the whiskers on him, and glue them into the clay) and holes for googly eyes. Now I know naked mole rats do not have eyes, but this one NEEDS googly eyes, so just humor me.

Then I took water and got the dry clay surface wet, and smoothed on a new layer of wet clay to make the wrinkles kind of real. I used wet clay and the tools to carve out his face better. I have some real rat teeth I’m going to embed for his monsterous teeth. (including a photo of a real naked mole rat here for comparison)

Another friend has a knit sweater he will wear, when he’s finished.

If you let his clay dry out a tiny bit, it’s easier to work with the tools on it. when it’s really fresh and wet, it’s easier to bend and shape it with your hands; and getting a little water on the surface and smearing it around gets rid of a lot of the marks of fingerprints and stuff. I am using a buffer on my dremel to smooth it out once it’s all the way dry, too, and that works really well.

I didn’t wear a mask while I was carving him but I really should have, the dust from the clay was EVERYWHERE.

Also, his feet broke off. Like I said, I’ve never worked with air-dry clay before and didn’t realize how fragile the small bits might become. I’ll have to figure out an alternative (for now, he has stumps)

Naked mole rats are hive mammals. I had a friend over last night who was telling me that naked mole rats are one of the few mammals to exhibit altruism- helping another who is not their offspring, sometimes risking their own life. It’s thought to be because like any hive creature, they will put the well-being of the meta-organism above their own. Very human of them.

I wonder if nudity makes mammals care about their cities that way? Maybe nudity should be legal in large cities.

The philadelphia zoo has a giant ant-farm-ish display of naked mole rats. You can watch them eat, dig, and play in it. It’s basically just that, a giant ant farm for them to live in.

It’s pretty awesome.

I’ll post about finishing this piece later on tonight; I still have to buff it, then paint it.

.

.

.

.

« Newer -- Older »

This is a unique website which will require a more modern browser to work!

Please upgrade today!