Friday, March 23, 2012

Sketchy Business - The Human Face

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 28 - The Human Face (3/22/12)

This lesson involved tracing a sketch of DaVinci's Angel of the Madonna of the Rocks (over and over and over) and then free handing shading using a light source on the left.
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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Sketchy Business - More Two-Point Perspective

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 24 - Tower in Two-Point Perspective (3/22/12)
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Sketchy Business - More Single Focal Point

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 23 - A City In One Point Perspective. (3/21/12)
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Sketchy Business - Intro to Single Focal Point / One Point Perspective

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 22 - A Room In One Point Perspective. (3/21/12)
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Sketchy Business - Trees

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 21 - Trees. (3/21/12)
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Monday, March 19, 2012

Sketchy Business - Pyramids and Foreshortened Circles

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lessons 19 & 20 - Pyramids / Volcanoes, Craters and Coffee Cups. (3/19/12)
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Friday, March 16, 2012

Combinable (is that a word?) Shop Discounts and New Listings!

Howdy kids!

I'm taking a break from frantic preparations for next month's show to tell you that ArtFire, the online marketplace that hosts Krissi's Art Studio, home of Skelekitty & Friends has some new features to make shopping easier and, to be blunt, CHEAPER for our customers!


NEW "ArtFire Patron" discount.  Now when you sign into ArtFire with a free buyer (they call it a "Patron") account, you will see prices marked down in many of the shops - in mine, all ArtFire Patrons receive an automatic 10% off.
The number in teal is the ArtFire Patron price (10% off shown);
the small number below is the regular price that non-members pay.
Sign up for a Patron account here.
You can even sign in using your Facebook account, after which you will be assigned a patron number.  Just go into your account settings and fill out your profile for an easier shopping experience - no need to complete your shipping profile every time you shop at an ArtFire store, you can give feedback on purchases and communicate more easily with sellers.



NEW Comment discount.  You can now leave comments on ArtFire items (subject to approval by shop owner, of course).  Some shops even give discounts for commenting on their items.  Just look in the right side bar for the blue button to comment and share for a discount.  After you comment, you will see a discounted price for that item only.  Each seller controls which items receive a comment discount and how much that discount will be.
Brooke Van Gory did a helpful
step-by-step photo tutorial
on this feature - check it out.
If the shop doesn't offer a comment discount, you can still leave a comment on that item.  Just scroll all the way to the very bottom of the screen and look for the text box.
I rarely offer comment discounts, but if you have one of my prints, pendants or paintings,
my future customers and I would appreciate any information you'd like to share!
IMPORTANT TIPS! Please don't disappoint the sellers and leave a one-word comment like "awesome."  Be helpful and leave a decent, well thought out comment in return for the discount.  Pretend you're doing it for free - what would you say then?  Why do you want to buy it?  What have you heard?  It's also very helpful to sign in and fill out your screen name before posting - a comment from "DaisyGirl" is so much better than one from "Patron125094."




Combining discounts with Coupons and sale items.  Now this is where it gets good.  Discounts can be "stacked" with each other and with coupon codes. Pretty cool, huh?   So if you have a Skelekitty scratch-off card from a previous order, you can use that coupon code from in combination with your new Patron discount.  Here is an example using an old listing of mine:
To clarify, the discounts are calculated in this order:
Patron discount (from full price)
Comment discount, if any (from Patron price)
Coupon code (from full price)


Happy shopping!  A lot of shops are giving these new features a run this weekend - why not shop around?  I suggest starting with my fellow Corporate Rejects team members.  I know Ant Farm Studio, Madd Style Cosmetics, Kit Cameo and Brooke Van Gory are all offering some sales, and/or discounts too! Of course, don't forget to drop by and visit little ol' Skelekitty too.


Oh yeah, I promised you new listings too, didn't I.  Well, MOST of the new flower & nature paintings are up in the shop as prints and pendants - let me know if there's something you want that you can't find in there and we'll work something out.  ;)
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sketchy Business-Rippling Fabric and Rolled Paper

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lessons 17 & 18 - Rippling Flags & The Scroll. (3/13/12)

I need to practice the scrolls more. Lots more.
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Sketchy Business-Contour Lines

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lessons 15 & 16 - Contour Tubes and The Wave (3/11/12)
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Monday, March 12, 2012

Sketchy Business-S Curves

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 14 - The Lily. (3/11/12)

Now THIS is a lesson I enjoyed!
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Sketchy Business-Two Point Perspective

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 12 & 13 - Constructing With Cubes (3/4/12). As you may be able to tell, I am in no danger of becoming an architectural draftsman any time soon. ;)
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Marketing Tidbit: Online Events and Invites

This is another Marketing Tidbit focusing on issues specific to social networking, particularly Facebook. One of the fabulous things about Facebook is that you can set up "events" and invite your friends. Allyson Seconds and I use them with great success in getting the word out about our ongoing Project Hank gigs to help Sacramento area animal charities. Events are also fantastic for reaching out to non-local people for online classes and calls for art.

HOWEVER, one event tool, the invite can really bother the bejesus out of people (the invite should not to be confused with public posts on pages or timelines). These excerpts from The Oatmeal's "How To Suck At Facebook" strip have always made me laugh.

Yeah. It's like that.

Laughter aside, would you like to see how overuse and abuse of the event invite works against your small business/band?

I had two people on my friends list who run a marketing company in the midwest (I am in California), one of whom constantly sent me personal invitation to events clear across the USA. After being invited to three events in one day, all of which were over 2,000 miles away, I removed her from my friends list. A week later, her business partner started serial-inviting me to events in Illinois. Yep - she got unfriended too. I had previously unliked their page, simply because they use it solely to promote their local events, which are too far for me to attend. It's not that I dislike these two or their company by any means, but I got tired of having my events calendar clogged with things I couldn't possibly attend. I would have stayed a fan of the page if anything was going on there - besides posts about events they were doing across the country.

Now before anyone gets all defensive and tells me how I "should have" handled it, hang on. I know I could have messaged them and asked them to create invite lists for their local area and and to please not include me. If they had been actual friends or colleagues/artists/DIYers with whom I interacted on a regular basis, I would have. I might even have pointed them to the Facebook help guide on creating lists.

However, this post isn't about how I handled an online annoyance from people I don't know well and never interact with. The point is that THIS IS WHAT MOST PEOPLE WILL DO. If people are deleting you/your company/business/band because you are annoying them with inappropriate personal invitations, you've lost a potential fan or customer.

If you want to run a successful company, and this goes double if you are representing others, make lists for event invitations rather than inviting everyone you've collected on your friends list. When you create these lists, only include appropriate people on them. Do you run online sales? Create an invite list of people who have purchased from you or expressed an interest on your page. Are you a musician/artist playing a gig/having an art show? Create lists of local fans. Don't bother inviting people from across the country unless you and/or the art is going where they are. And feel free to spam away on your own page - that way you'll pick up the stragglers and travelers who were left off the invite list.


Want more Marketing Tidbits? Just click the tab at the top of the page.
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Sunday, March 11, 2012

Sketchy Business-Cylinders

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since the interest is there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 10 - The Cylinder. (3/2/12)


Lesson 11 - Advanced Level Cylinders (3/2/12)
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Sketchy Business-Overlapping Layers

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since it's there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 9 - The Rose. (2/13 & 2/14/12)
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Sketchy Business-Fuzzy Textures

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since it's there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 8 - "Cute Koalas." (2/11/13).
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Sketchy Business-MOAR Cubes!

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since it's there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 7 - Advanced Level Cubes. (2/13/12)
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Sketchy Business (More Cubes/Stacked Tables)

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since it's there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler Lesson 6- Stacking Tables. (2/12/12)
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Sketchy Business (more cubes - open boxes)

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since it's there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler (drawing practice from 2/11/12) Lesson 5 - Hollow Cubes.
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Sketchy Business (Cubes)

One of my 2012 goals is to improve my drawing skills with a focus on perspective and figure drawing. I was surprised at how much interest there was in the sketches I posted, but since it's there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler (drawing practice from 2/10/12) Lesson 4 - The Cube. This was more challenging than I thought it would be. Rounded figures are a bit more forgiving.
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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Sketchy Business: Basic Drawing Lessons

Over the last month, I've been posting some of the practice sketches around Facebook and Flicker that I've been doing as part of my learn to draw properly goal.  I was surprised at how much interest there was in the process, but since it's there, I thought I'd make proper blog posts about the process as I go.

There were a lot of ways to approach this goal, but since I couldn't seem to find a convenient class nearby that covered what I wanted, I looked for some books.  After searching on the internet and in book/art stores for a few weeks, I ran across You Can Draw In 30 Days by Mark Kistler.  I purchased a few other books, but this one seemed like the best (read that as "most basic") place to start.

Kistler: Lessons 1 & 2 - shading & depth with spheres
Kister: Lesson 3 - more spheres & textures

I'll post more of these and then keep you guys up date as I progress.  Deal?

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