Pay to Play

I received an email recently from publishers of AKC Family Dog (according to them, "the most widely distributed canine magazine in the world!"). In the email, they tell me that my work has been recommended by the editors to be included in the July/August issue.....

Trout Dreaming

8x10 inches, watercolor

But of course, this isn't free. $395 to "offset production costs". Hmmmmmm. So basically they've chose me to pay for space to advertise. Then not moments later, the CAG crew emails came in. Apparently the majority got the same email which made me think that I wasn't very special anymore and this was a blanket email. I'm not going to do it, mind you. It's just too expensive... but they way they worded it, it did make me feel kinda special.

Then there are the vanity galleries. Vanity galleries (not to be confused with co-ops which are another thing) will approach an artist like myself with the space and location that all artists dream of. They want to take your work and hang it for a couple of months, like an exhibition, but you have to pay a fee up front to be there. No guarantee that your work will sell, hell, they don't have gallery people there to help you. YOU do all the marketing, selling, working.... wait, isn't this what galleries are supposed to do for me? Why should I pay someone to hang my work in there space? Sure they may claim that they have tremendous foot traffic... but how do I know that? Or they have testimonials from other artists that this was a great experience and "I learned a lot." I don't need to pay to learn a lot anymore. I finished paying student loans years ago and have no intention of doing it again (anytime soon anyway).

Bands have this to; it's called Pay to Play. There are organizations out there who will get a couple of bands together... and give each player x amount of tickets. Then the band players have to go out and sell all their tickets to their shows. Wouldn't be so bad if the bands didn't have to charge their friends $10 for a ticket. But because there are venues that will have bands play, maybe give them discounted beer if not a free one, and the profits made at the door is split by the band. It's never a lot of money, but I think it's better than putting your friends in a awkward position by having to buy a ticket for 10 bucks ahead of time.

I've only heard bad things about vanity galleries and pay to plays. Maybe you have a good experience you like to share with me? I would love to hear about it.

Trying new things

Someone told me once, to keep everything fresh in your art, you MUST try new things. Whether it be a different medium, or even subject matter, it will help you grow as an artist.

When T gave me that box of water based oils last Christmas, she also gave me the tiniest canvas that was 2x2 inches. It even has special cute little staples in the back to hold the canvas in place. I recently painted some flowers on it. I brought it to my office job to remind me that I am an artist first.

Flowers

oil on canvas

2x2 inches

Another thing I've been doing is experimenting with different backgrounds on the pet portraits. Salt is a great thing to play with in watercolor. Science will tell you that salt absorbs up water if place on it (that's why they spray salt on the roads when it snows.... to prevent freezing and ice). So if you sprinkle some salt on wet paint and leave it there for a couple of minutes, you'll get this really cool texture that almost looks like rock or something. I did it on the background of this collie.

Playing with Salt


Tri Color Collie
watercolor

5x7 inches

I've also been ditching the pencil overlay on the watercolor pencils. I think I was using them more as a crutch (as in: oh, I'll just fix that highlight later with pencil). I finished up that ream of reams of Cotman paper where I would ALWAYS use the pencil and I think that had a lot to do with it as well.

Salty detail

Pretty cool effect, huh? Looks like the paper has a texture almost....

What are you going to do to break out of the box?

Copyrights

There is a growing fear out there. It's been there a while but with the newest addition on the social media stage, Pinterest, it has been raising it's ugly head again:

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

Babyface Caterpillar

2006 watercolor and colored pencil

5x7 inches

Oh wouldn't it be grand if we could all feel secure about sharing our photos and artwork with out having to worry that someone would actually "steal" our work, claiming it to be there own and using it for God only knows what. Back when I was in art school (early 90s) I remember that they briefly touched on copyrights. My professors said, as long as you make that "C" with the circle around it, date it and sign it... it's yours. And that may still be true, but it doesn't stop the thieves and I'm not sure how well it would hold up in court.

Some people have spoken about putting "watermarks" on their images (you know, the white overlay that says 'Joe Blows Photography Copyright 2012'). Others try not to do that saying that it takes away from the image. Which I believe is kind of true. What is also kind of true is that if someone wants to use your photo/art... they will find a way. Watermark or no.

Now with Pinterest and the ability to "pin" images to other pages (that somehow ties into Facebook), there are artists starting to freak about not knowing who is looking at your work, who's pinning your work. I don't know a whole lot about Pinterest, I've only recently been on the website, but from what I understand, you pin something and if someone else would click it, it would take you to the original website where it came from... well, not really. In fact, I was just on there.... it will list the website where the "pin" was created under the image on your "pin board". You can click it to navigate over to that website.

So why all the commotion? If you're a creative person, don't you want people to see your stuff? As long as it has my name on it (AND ALL MY PAINTINGS WILL HAVE MY NAME ON IT - FRONT AND BACK) I figure I'm doing what I wanted to do all along... have people look at my work.

I do want to note that I am taking a moment to collect all the images of my work and send them off to the government to have it "officially copyrighted" and protected from all the haters out there. Go here and see how easy it is: http://www.copyright.gov/ .

J's sister is a copyright attorney in Chicago (another warning to all you haters out there.) I asked her briefly once about copying images. She made an interesting point. If an artist makes a painting of a still life, let's say of a skull, apples and a porcelain bowl... sets it up in an interesting way.... and then someone copies it identical to the first artist, that's copyright infringement. However, if the second artist would use a skull, apples and a porcelain bowl, sets it up the same way but paints from that particular still life -THIS IS PERFECTLY LEGAL.

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal" - Pablo Picasso

If you've been following my posts, you'll remember my recent discovery of waterbased oils... LOVE THEM. I received a starter set from my friend T for Christmas last year. I went online and did a little reading about waterbased oils and got some mixed reviews. One was often repeated that they just "weren't the real thing." Well, that maybe true, but considering that I haven't painted with oils in about 20 years, it's like I don't know if I'm missing anything.

If you've purchased paints before in a starter set, you know that you usually have the basic colors; red, blue & yellow. You'll get white, maybe black. And if it's a lil more extended, a green or another shade of yellow or blue or red. If you've ever taken any sort of color theory class, you know that all colors are created using your primaries of red, yellow and blue. Here's the thing, you can spend hours and tons of paint trying to mix that perfect brown. And that's what I was doing with the starter set. Here I am mixing and mixing and I'd get it and then to create more quantity (because I had a big space to fill) add more and boom! that perfect brown is gone. Again. Well, I wasn't ready to buy more paint, Lord knows I have enough art supplies to sink a boat, so I started working on Luna's portrait with the starter set.

Luna's Portrait in Oil

first layer

16x20 inch

So I think I got as far as I could before I realized, "God, I'm using up all my blue!" and thought that I really can't get the blacks I wanted but these primaries alone. I believe I could, but again, would take forever and a day and use up most of my paint. Not to mention, I forget sometimes how slowly oil dries. I've been working with watercolor for so long. So I would start painting and try to fill in a truly darker space only to have it mash with the paint that was already on the canvas (the left side of Luna's face in the first layer was a real sticking point to me). I had to get the Burnt Umber and Sienna that I use all the time in my watercolors. I trotted off down to my local art supply store and sadly I find out that they're not selling Windsor Newton brand, but another called Echo (?) ... hmmmmm. The guy at the counter was kind enough to give me a sample of the Echo colors and placed a special order for me for the WN brand.

I went home and tried this Echo brand... eh. They're certainly not as "thick" as the WN so it was more of a wash than more saturated color. Which to me is more of a pain in the butt. Because again, these paints take a very long time to dry, so if I wanted to make my paint more saturated on the canvas, it just ended up swirling around and not sticking. I decided to wait for the WN before I continued on the Luna portrait again.

And waited and waited... ugh! I called on the following Friday to see if they were in and they weren't. Then I got a call on Monday that the orders came in but "we don't know why but yours wasn't in there." UGH! By this time I'm chomping on the bit to get crackin at the painting ESPECIALLY since it hangs out in my kitchen so I'm looking at it every day! So they were kind enough to give me 20% off for the mix up and the paints should be in this Monday... we shall see. In the mean time, I went to another art store and picked up the WN sienna & umber. I would've liked to stick with my small art supplier, but if you're not carrying the things I need what choice do I have?

Luna's Portrait in Oil

So with umber and sienna and some new smaller canvases I'm ready to take on more paintings with waterbased oil paints. Now, the real question is: who will buy them? Because I can't keep doing this and stacking up canvases in my already too small condo.

Luna Loves You!

Making your own book....

So today's Dog Art Today post was about the Morran Book Project. Artist, Camilla Engman, put together a book of illustrations of her dog Morran from artists all over the world. The book was published by Blurb and proceeds go to the WSPA, the Swedish organization designed to protect animals. Camilla started the project by mentioning it on her blog and people liked the idea. She then put a call out to artists to have them do an illustration of her beloved dog.

The cover
Jeanette Bornmarker

Ulrika Kestere

What a wonderful idea! I've spent most of the morning looking at the hundreds of illustrations that she posted on her blog ( not all got in the book ) http://morranbook.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-01-15T11:27:00-08:00&max-results=20&start=40&by-date=false and the 2 above are certainly favorites of mine. I've never done self publishing of a book, even though it is such a popular thing right now. But this little project has got my mind thinking.... Books of my photos, books of my paintings... themes, ideas .... oh I could go on and on.

Have you ever published your own book? Do you have a preference of self publishers? I'm growing more curious about this by the minute.....

Wonderful, beautiful (waterbased) oil paints

Bongo's Beach Day

16x20 inch

oil on canvas

It's been 20 years since I painted with oils... seriously. I took some classes in school and that's it. I always loved them: the flow, the color, the SMELL! (I'm talking the paint, not the turps)... Oh how I missed them. I don't have a studio, hell, I don't even have a separate room in my condo where I create. I work in a corner in the kitchen. So for the longest time oils were just NOT an option. Then T bought me a "starter set" of waterbased oils for Christmas. And Tina Morgan (from CAG) was getting rid of canvas so I had her ship it to me. And Lo! I am a happy artist again!!! Well, always been happy but now I'm elated!!!

I love them. I've read some mixed reviews on line regarding them. Some say they're not for the serious painter, just the hobbyist... I call BS on that! Maybe it's because it's been so long since I did use oil paints that I don't notice a difference between normal oils and waterbased but....

Some also said that if you do use them, then Windsor Newton is the brand to get. My set is WN (I use their watercolors and watercolor cold press paper too) and maybe that's the difference? But because this is a starter set there was no umber or sienna, so I ended up mixing all my browns and using a lot of paint to get there (Color Theory 101 in the Allston Skybox this Sunday!). So I went to my retailer and he didn't have the WN brand, but a brand called Cobra (?) never heard of them. He gave me a sample to try, but ended up ordering the 2 browns in WN anyway. They should be in next week! I'm almost ready to chuck the watercolors out the window I love these so much!

But I won't :)

So have you used water based oils? What's your take on them? I would love to hear from you!

Here Kitty Kitty

People always ask me, "So are you a cat person or a dog person?" I never really believed I was one or the other. But then when D (my beloved kitty for 16 years) passed over the rainbow bridge I was faced with a decision: dog or cat? And then I realized I am a cat person (who really likes dogs!). But yes, a cat person. I love having them on my chest as I sleep. The consistant purring and their playfulness makes up for all the litter box messes I've ever had to clean up.

Conner

watercolor & colored pencil

5x7 inches

So some of you know that I belong to the Canine Art Guild. The purpose of the CAG is to bring dog artists together to share ideas, experiences and view each others art. We have shows open to members that are posted on line about once every three months. We have had a few shows open to other species as well as one that exhibited cats only. But for the most part, it's all about the dogs. Some of the members are also a part of the Equestrian Art Guild, celebrating horses in art. So then I was thinking.... is there a Feline Art Guild? and if so, How do I become a member?

3 Kittens, 4 Bowls

watercolor & colored pencil

5x10 inches

Well, there is and it's the Society of Feline Artists http://www.felineartists.org/index.shtml and I'm sure it's a great group of artists. But as I looked further into it I found that it's based out of Great Britain. No big deal! I thought since CAG has members from all over the globe. BUT! then I looked a little more into the site and see that they have very few shows. Nothing on line, but classic brick and mortar galleries. Nothing wrong with that either except you HAVE to drop your work of in person! What? Now, mind you, it would cost a small fortune to ship a painting overseas just to have it hanging in a gallery. And I don't know anyone in GB that I could even ship it to. THEN I find you have to be an "Associate Member" for at least a year. While the cost is less that a regular member, as an Associate Member you can enter the London art show, but no guarentee that it would be hung. hmmmmm. Well, let's say I did do it, and for a year. Now I'm a full member. And now (actual quote from the site) "Full Members are expected to support the Society by taking part of the Annual London Exhibition " ???

Sally's Silly Kitties

(from L to R) Barack O'Kitty, Misty & Popeye

Now, I'm not trying to make this a bashing post about SOFA. I'm sure there a great group of people that make wonderful art and love their cats as much as I love mine. But, Ladies, really? I think your guides are a little strict and if you have a reason to be that way I would like to know why. So I'm thinking, should I start my own Feline Art Guild? Would this bring more exposure to cats? to me? to my art? I don't know.

Orange Kitten III

watercolor & colored pencil

5x7 inches

So then a couple of weeks ago, I was reading one of Elin Pendleton's post on CAG (btw, she is one of the few CAGers that I would love to meet and have critique my work. Check out her site here: http://www.elinart.com/pages/dogcat.html ) Anyway, she was saying about how most of her animal art sells because there's a connection between the owner and the dog. "And the dog owner isn't just going to simply buy a painting of a golden retriever because she likes golden's but because what golden's mean to her. Whether it be the duck hunter's helper, the child's keeper or the house guard, it's you as the artist need to find that connection and build the art around that. So paint the golden, but paint him hunting, or laying down by the cradle or on the front stoop." (I am paraphrasing but you get the idea). So that being said.... what about cats?


Below are some famous artist's pieces featuring the beloved kitty...

Picasso

Gauguin

Renoir

Beardsley



DaVinci

gig

According to her website, Gig was a big influence on A.V Vibes Kitty in her Kitty & Robot webcomic http://www.evilkid.com/comics/KR/pages/rogers.html. She used to have this great illustration of a cat's butt with "Kitty doesn't like you" on it, but, alas, she doesn't have it anymore :(

Sleepy Toon

Luna Loves You!

"KC"

Commissioned piece

Watercolor & Colored Pencil

16 x 20 inches

Bowl of Kittens


So do you appreciate your cat? Would you buy cat art if it WASN'T your cat? What do you think of cats in art anyway?

I would love to hear from you!

>^..^<