Sea Holiday Show December 4 & 5

Social Networking, Online Selling Tools & Current Exhibits

My Social Page will provide links to Facebook, Twitter, Not so Daily Blog as well as Artfire, Etsy, and Ebay.

See what’s going on with Wet Paint! Studios by becoming a Fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Want to purchase some of my smaller paintings and note cards online, check out Etsy, Ebay and Artfire.

Current Exhibits are listed on my Blog!

Wet Paint! Social Etsy – A place to buy things online that are handmade, art or vintage. See note cards & small art works for for sale at my Etsy Shop. Facebook - Become a Fan of Wet Paint! Studios Art by Lori Rae  Twitter – Follow me on Twitter. Blog – Lori Rae and Wet Paint! Studios Mostly Daily Blog – Exhibits, Latest Artwork, and Quirky Posts   Artfire – Visit my Artfire Studio to purchase smaller works & note cards online.   Ebay – It’s always fun to bid on an Original Lori Rae painting or some custom Note Cards – visit my Ebay Page  for my latest auctions.

ArtMatters! Tip of the Week by Aletta de Wal, Artist Advisor

Discourage Cyberspace Thieves

The Internet is a fact of life for artists who want to market their work to people who may not be able to see you and your work in person.

Of course when there are benefits, there are usually drawbacks.

We get a lot of e-mails like this from artists who are frustrated by cyberspace thieves:

“How do we keep people from downloading and using our work from our website? Someone downloaded photos and wants to put them on t-shirts. How do we keep this from happening? Can we put a watermark on them or something?”

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the bottom line is that you can’t keep unscrupulous people from getting your images. Even if you use programming scripts to stop them from right-clicking and getting the image, there are many easy work-arounds. If they are dishonest and want an image, they’re going to get it.

You do have options to make it harder for thieves to snatch your talent:

Make files that are visually clear on the web, but that will not reproduce well when printed. Let viewers know that the actual work may not look exactly as the computer image. In fact, it usually looks better. Offer to send a print image to anyone who is serious about buying your work.

Put your own watermark copyright notice on each image, in pale white. There are pros and cons to that. The image doesn’t look as good. If they really want the image it’s easy enough to Photoshop out the copyright notice. It doesn’t stop thieves but it does slow them down a bit.

Buy software that watermarks your images. It tracks down and documents cyber theft. You still have to make contact and consider legal action, which may be difficult and costly. But again, it might slow them down.

Ask serious viewers to call you if they want to see higher resolution images. Set up a password-protected area where they can view a limited number of images of their choice. Not a good idea to do this by e-mail because you still don’t know who you are dealing with. A phone call also gives you a chance to be selective and to start building a relationship that may lead to a sale. Cyber thieves tend to avoid direct contact.

If you know who is doing it, the first step is to contact them directly.
I would start with an e-mail to put this person on notice that you own the copyright to your work. Offer to license the image for the t-shirts. Then call to follow-up. Either you will work out the details of licensing or let them know in no uncertain terms that theft of your images is not okay with you.

Studio Time

I started a new commission yesterday, two Rottweilers (Cocoa and Leddy) on an 18x 24 Canvas.  The piece was commissioned as a holiday gift for the mother of these… sadly…. deceased dogs.  As I am studying the pictures that I was given to paint from (not digital, the real thing) – I see that these were very cool dogs.  They looked happy, well-loved, and like they had great spirit and personality.  One is a bit more of red/black where the other is a classic black/tan.  They are different in many ways…but one thing is for sure, they looked like they had a great life.

I had some artistic freedom on this one but wanted to show a large presence on the canvas.  This meant that instead of trying to fit two full bodies on the canvas by making them smaller, I went from the angle of their large heads, chest and front legs…which drift off the canvas in a natural flow. They are side by side, unlike the pictures I’m working from.  The background is a soft sky blue as if the sky was covered with clouds.  I’m not done, but I feel good about where the painting is going. I will finish this painting after the Thanksgiving Holiday and start working on my next Christmas order.  It felt great to be back in the studio again after a few very busy weeks! Thanks for checking out my blog, I’ll post the final painting after the customer gifts it!

Painting with an injured arm

OK, it is my left one..and no I don’t know what I did – my doc seems to think I could have pulled-tore-stretched or just upset my muscle/tendon in my upper arm. A sling and resting my arm is the solution. I got out of making Stuffing NO – I wanted to make it, but Sharon already decided she would do Veg this year (love her) – I won’t get out of the two commissions that I need to start this weekend and finish by next. It’s not that I can’t move my arm, it’s just painful to do so in a normal way…hence the sling to keep me in line. Since I paint righty…my weekend holed up in the studio until I see some serious production should be relaxing (Advil, Heat, Ice) and my loving husband to wait on me (ok. maybe not about the waiting on part) … So I’m laying a bit low right now and hoping day by day my arm feels better.

What’s on the schedule – Harley – a Havanese who Stella played with last weekend (he’s white) and such a fun little dog. I also have two Rotties in one painting (sorry names are escaping me) – sadly those two have passed. I’m anxiously awaiting my holiday cards and have the first of my 4 shows in less then 2 weeks. Better rest up that arm for installing. Yikes!

ArtMatters! Tip of the Week – Don’t Take the Bait

If you had asked me 10 years ago if I would run an Internet based business, I would have asked you what planet you beamed down from.
Aletta de Wal, Artist Advisor
Back then, I used a computer as a fancy typewriter. Bill Gates said 64k would be more than enough for anyone. I had one e-mail address and a simple shared website. The Internet was Web 1.0. You couldn’t search, sign up or shop like you can today. Viruses were illnesses you got from people. If you went away on business or a vacation, you changed your voice-mail to let folks know when you would be back.

These days, I have two websites, a web wizard, several e-mail addresses, social media accounts … you get the picture. All these tools allow me to communicate with more people all over the world, more often about more ways to make a living making art. That’s the good part.

The downsides are few, but with a large mailing list you can expect the occasional “cyberspace door crasher.”

I just got back from two road trips for workshops. I set up “vacation responders” on my e-mail accounts before I left. I returned to a full inbox of e-mail and noticed some odd subject lines that set off my radar: “Thank you for your letter” and “Dear Merry Christmas Gifts.” There was no message in the email, and the signature block at the bottom was an old one I no longer use.

Someone had spoofed my e-mail addresses. It’s the equivalent of dressing up in costume and hanging toilet paper all over your trees. No harm was done, but the prankster wasted everyone’s time.

“E-mail spoofing is the forgery of an e-mail header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Distributors of spam often use spoofing in an attempt to get recipients to open, and possibly even respond to, their solicitations. One type of e-mail spoofing, self-sending spam, involves messages that appear to be both to and from the recipient.” If this is news to you, learn more here: http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/email_spoofing.html

All you need to do with most spoofed e-mail is to hit the delete key. If you see a blank message or one that is not typical for the sender, be suspicious. Use your preview pane to check and do not open the e-mail.

Some spammers are out for more than fun. They want your identity or your money. “A phishing expedition, like the fishing expedition it’s named for, is a speculative venture: the phisher puts the lure hoping to fool at least a few of the prey that encounter the bait. Phishing is an e-mail fraud method in which the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking email in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from recipients. For example, spoofed e-mail may purport to be from someone in a position of authority, asking for sensitive data, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or other personal information — any of which can be used for a variety of criminal purposes. PayPal, The Bank of America, eBay, and Wells Fargo are among the companies spoofed in mass spam mailings.” Learn how to protect yourself here: http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci916037,00.html

Never give out personal information, passwords or credit card numbers in response to an e-mail. Reputable web sites have security built into their Shopping carts. Look for signs like this:

Twitter and Facebook are now popular enough that pranksters have found a new playground. Some recent examples are messages like this: “you’re on hERE!!” “Hahaha .. iss this you?”. Spelling mistakes and partial caps set off my radar that these messages are bad news. Do not click on these links, or as one reader put it, someone else may use your address to have a party without you.

I wonder why these folks spoof, spam or phish. Too much time on their hands? Don’t want to work for a living? Whatever the reason, don’t take the bait. Be alert and use protection on your computer so you will be immune to any viruses. Be careful out there!

Crazy where the time goes- 2010 is right around the corner

Every year as part of my marketing/business plan I make a wish list of things I hope to accomplish within the financial resources of my business.  This year I did pretty good in accomplishing everything that I was looking to accomplish.  I still have a short list to complete prior to the end of the year, I think I’ll make it.  Looking ahead to 2010 I plan to reduce my challenge in photography by scooping up a more adequette digital camera for when I’m in a pinch and need some postable pic’s of my newly finished art. Wet Paint Studios will also be updated to share into the new wave of Social Networking, and with a wing and a prayer I will be jumping the ship from PC to Mac (even if it’s just a Macbook to start.)  I’ve already Fb’d about my lust for an Iphone so that I can blog on WordPress from anywhere – and use my app for processing Credit Cards (especially when traveling for shows.)  Yes, I know – better sell some art Lori to pay for all this.  Well, that’s the only way it will happen as my business pays for it’s own supplies!  Even in a down economy I have found ways to save money on supplies, bulk purchasing, stocking up like crazy to paint all winter. It’s working, some of my savings will entitle me to upgrade my technology and finally put my PC to sleep for good.  Most of all, even with limited resources, my Mother will be proud that I did the Holiday Cards (skipped last year) and she will be the first one to preview them this weekend! Thanks for reading

Wet Paint! Studios Booth get’s a new look

I am now the proud owner of slip covers for my exhibit display racks.  After ordering material, cutting and fitting it to the rack (thanks Rich) it was ready to be sewn.  Since I don’t have any memories of what was that class called, the one where you whisk an egg and sew…oh well, I don’t remember it, so I never really ever found myself around sewing machines.  However, my friend Lara is  a natural at all of this and agreed to trade babysitting for some sewing. 

After designing a slip over system with velcro bottoms so the material (dancewear) dosen’t creep up and mess up my display…she sewed three sides on each of of the three covers. 

They look so great, I’m so excited. We had just enough left over to do a matching table cover for my four foot which comes with me to almost every show.  I have some fun accents that will look great with the new color I choose to excite the booth a bit more. I’m trying to use colors from my website/logo and continue with a  color motif for my business.

Next show is December 1 (a self-designed Creative Day at my day job) – so I’ll test out the new digs.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Fluffy

Fluffy is a friends cat and this painting will soon go live with her.  A great painting and not so great photograph (me taking the photo) there is nice build up/texture on Fluffy.

The real Fluffy is getting up there in age and has a funny eye now, but we love her and wanted to give her two good eyes in the painting.  Fluffy is Acrylic on Canvas, double thick, 8×8 Inches.

Fluffy is NOT a fan of Stella my 1 1/2 year old Mini Dachshund who thinks Fluffy wants to play with her and couldn’t be more wrong.  Fluffy is

 

Art Matters Newsletter Post by Aletta de Wal, Artist Advisor

“I understand the concept of conversations, building relationships, trust etc. Most of these marketing strategies rely on exposure and extroversion. What advise might you give to an artist who is NOT an extrovert, salesperson, or even remotely out “working the crowd.” An artist who lives in an area removed from cultural opportunities, venues and potential buyers? Just thinking about this conundrum. Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for the insightful, encouraging, and practical advice you send in your newsletter! I have been enjoying it for several months now.” Sincerely, LL ———————————

 

Dear LL: Good news. You don’t need a personality transplant to market your art. You don’t have to be extroverted to have conversations. And, thanks to technology, you don’t have to move. Extroverts draw energy from being around others. Extroverts process their thoughts and feelings “out loud.” Being alone too much can deplete their energy. Introverts can be out in public but prefer their inner world. Introverts watch and listen to make sense of life. Engaging in “cocktail party chatter” can be a stretch. Extroverts are not all the life of the party. Introverts are not all reclusive or shy. We each have the capacity to modify our preferences. I know. I am an introvert with good social skills. But I carefully balance how much time I am “out there” and make sure I have quiet time to regroup. I coached artist Valerie Edwards on how to handle both social and geographic distance. She lives on the top of a mountain 4 1/2 hours from the 220 galleries in Santa Fe. “My greatest obstacle was to learn to market my work without fear. Art galleries, publishers, clients, newspaper reporters, all the questions, art receptions; talking about my work with strangers, being the center of attention, it was overwhelming. The A.C.T. TeleClasses helped me to break all this down in easy to follow steps, and gave me the opportunity to ask questions and get answers from those with experience. I learned fear was only a result of my ignorance. “Aletta’s insightfulness in our telephone coaching sessions helped me to face my social anxiety. Her recommendations of books to read helped me understand that this is a common fear. (Otherwise, why would there be so many books on the subject!) She walked me through it, giving me sample social situations and verbal replies for guests at my first reception. She made me feel comfortable. When ’show time’ arrived, I talked non-stop for two hours and sold a painting for $1,000.00!” According to Laurie Helgoe, in “Introvert Power”, more than 57% of Americans are actually more introverted than extroverted. Feel better now? You can do this too! Just take it one step at a time.