5 Reasons why Art Students Should Blog

The blogging concept was born back in 1999, the same year I graduated from art school. Looking back, I do see may benefits blogging could have had for me during my years as an art student. I hope art students realize the amazing potential blogging can have in their early development as an artist.

It will help in your art studies, articulate in words what your art is about, and gather important contacts in the art world.

 

 

Through blogging, all of this can be done before you even graduate. Whether you attend an art school, or enrol in an online art course such as DrawPJ, this post should be for you. 

 

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Portfolio Templates to Build a Website with Wix

Website templates allow for easy construction of a site, without having to know complex coding such as HTML5, and CSS. With the Wix website builder, any template can be loaded and personalized to your liking. Easily add your own text, navigation, background, fonts, images, and more to make it unique.

 

Each of these templates were created by professional web designers and specifically designed with artists, photographers, and other creative people in mind.

It is very easy to select any website template and begin building a website right away.

First, click on any image preview. A new window will open with a full sized preview of the site. To begin building your website now, click Edit this Site at the top. Wait for the Wix HTML5 Website builder to load.

Please review our previous articles on the Wix HTML5 site bulder before moving on:

How to Create a HTML5 Website With Wix
Walkthrough of the Wix HTML5 Website Builder

 

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Cathy McClelland - Art of Rural Australia

Cathy McClelland

Queensland, Australia

 

I am a farmers wife that loves create paintings of what I have seen and experienced in my daily life.

 

I paint in acrylic/mixed media in a contemporary realist style. Some paintings can take months to create in the studio but I also love painting plein air to capture what that special fleeting moment.

 

 

 

 

Tap Dancer ©Cathy McClelland

 

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Get Your Artist Website Listed for FREE!

I am working on this directory of artists here at Artpromotivate – specifically artists who have official websites or blogs. Only one website is included per artist. 

The sites are listed by the FIRST name of the artist, and alphabetically. This list is by far not complete. I would like to see how big this artist directory grows.

These are the artists websites I have collected so far. Please search and see if you are included.

If you are not, you may leave a comment below with your name and full website URL, and please share this page to return the favor.

 

 

This service is FREE. I have seen other sites requiring payment for doing the same, but I don’t believe in doing that. You may link back to us if you want, but that’s completely up to you.

Those who have already been interviewed at Artpromotivate are highlighted.

 

 

 

To be featured here is free as well. To find out all the details, please visit this page:

Artist Spotlight

 

 

 

All of these have to be entered manually, so please make it easier for me by including your entry in this format:

Graham Matthews – Canada http://www.grahammatthewsart.com

You are also welcome to suggest any art websites or artist blogs you may know of. I have included a few here already. You will see some very familiar famous artists here, mixed with some you may not have heard of.

I will update the artist count whenever I add artists to this list of artists.

 

Artist Count: 250

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The Goal Wheel for Artists – Helping Artists Reach Their Goals

Have you set goals for your art career? I often ask this question for the artist spotlight feature: “Where do you see yourself as an artist 10 years from now?” Most artists have very lofty goals – I do as well.

But, I ask you this - have you actually spent time in planning goals for your art career and working out how to achieve them?

This is a very important first step to success in any art business, whether on the internet or in an art gallery.

 

 

Think of it like this. To begin any business, you first need a business plan. If you planned on opening a new restaurant, you would need to work out goals, start-up costs, everything needed to get setup, and what group of people the business caters to. Don’t worry – I’m not going to tell you need a business plan. I know most artists are not business oriented people and would rather create than deal with all that business stuff.

But, marketing art is different than any regular business. The artist is the CEO and the only employee. Unless you have help, you have to deal all the parts of the business - production, marketing and selling. This is a huge undertaking, and it certainly is necessary to set goals, have a plan, and take the necessary steps to propel your art career to new levels.

There is a book that can help with that - The Goal Wheel for Artists. I will tell you more about this goal book below.

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Peyton Rack - Painting Lavishly - Speaking Frankly

Peyton Rack

Painting Lavishly - Speaking Frankly

USA - Chicago

 

I am a young artist, but I am dedicated to what I do and I work daily. I am a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, working on my BFA, and I want to be an art therapist down the road. I like to collaborate with other artists on group shows wherever I am, and I love to put together exhibitions.

 

 

 

Black Tea ©Peyton Rack

 

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Damien Hirst Art – Controversy, Money, Plagiarism and Formaldehyde

Why is there so much controversy over Damien Hirst in the art world?

He has been called many things – a con artist, a sell out, no talent, and even not an artist at all.

It seems that with increased success, wealth, and notoriety comes intense public scrutiny. He has achieved the fame of richest artist ever.

But, where did he get his ideas from? Is he a sell out by charging such enormous prices for his pieces?

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How 3 Artists Use Facebook Pages to Promote Art and Get Fans

Certain artists have been having huge success promoting art with Facebook fan pages. For those who are virtually unknown, the initial growth of a fan page can be a slow, pain staking process. It is easy to become disillusioned when you see artists with thousands of followers and yours sits there in the hundreds.

But, there is hope for your fan page. From looking at many successful artists on Facebook, I have learned something very interesting.

It seems that growth of a consistently updated fan page is exponential.

 

That is, if you take 6 months to reach 1000 fans, it may take about 3 months to reach 2000. This is because with an increasing fan-base comes more interaction, and therefore more people seeing your posts. Of course, there are several other factors involved – the main being the quality of the artwork and the personality of the artist.

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Sharon Guy - Contemporary Visions Of Nature

Sharon Guy

Southeastern United States

Contemporary Visions Of Nature

 

I am a contemporary, representational painter. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in fine art from Bard College in New York. I currently reside in Southwest Florida, where I paint seascapes, beach scenes, birds, and animals.

 

 

Girl With Red Bucket ©Sharon Guy

 

 

 

I began drawing and painting when I was around 9 years old and never stopped. As a child, I spent many hours drawing horses from photographs, and later on, I learned how to draw them from life.

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Found Myself – Free Portfolio With a Honor System

Found Myself is a completely free artist community whereby artists can set up an artist portfolio and sell art directly through it. What I find very interesting and original here is the Honor System, whereby artists are rated according to being active on Found Myself and giving donations.

 

 

Artists aren’t obligated to pay a commission on sold art, but are asked to give a voluntary donation whenever they want. Donators are given various perks throughout the site. Below I list some of the more useful features of Found Myself, and give a brief tutorial for setting up a portfolio of your own.

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New FAA Art Group – Share Promote Motivate

Online artist membership groups are a effective way to network with other artists and promote art to a select groups of individuals. I have been a member of several online art groups, especially at Facebook and Linkedin. For our next group, I decided to go with Fine Art America.

Fine Art America is one of the largest online print on demand services. Their site offers artists from all across the globe the opportunity to showcase and promote artworks, sell art prints, and participate in blogs and groups. FAA has 2792 recently active groups filled with artists and collectors from around the world.

 

 

These are our groups elsewhere on the web:

1. Promote Your Art – Facebook
2. APM at Linkedin

The Fine Art America groups have some unique differences from the Linkedin and Facebook groups that you may be accustomed to. This is a brief outline of some of the main features.

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Cathy Moothart – Why Not Hang your Pet on the Wall?

Cathy Moothart

USA, Hillsboro, Oregon

Pet Portraits - Why not hang your pet on the wall?!

My name is Cathy Moothart.

I create unique pet portraits in acrylic paint and colorful wine labels from all over the world.

I can create something you've never seen before.

I grew up in a family of Artists. My Dad did fabulous paintings of Walt Disney characters. My brother was a successful Commercial Artist. My Mother did beautiful copper enamelling. I've explored various art medias all my life.

Blue - Cathy Moothart

 

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Basic HTML Coding - Crash Course for Artists

Some have been asking me to help them with the HTML coding for their websites. While I enjoy helping artists, I often do not have the time to go into detailed tutorials with everyone who asks.

Therefore, I have decided to write this crash course dedicated to some very basic HTML, which may help artists in optimizing images and links for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and in formatting their websites. With WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editors, artists do not often need to understand advanced coding. As for myself, I have had to work with the html, especially for including widgets and adding alt and title tags to images (some editors do not have this option).

Even if you use a WYSIWYG editor your whole life, it does benefit knowing some basic things of how websites work underneath.

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Betsy Frahm – Realist Artist - What Inspires Me to Paint

Betsy Frahm

USA

What inspires me to paint the subjects that I choose in my artwork

Artistic, patient, loving

 

I am a realist oil painter, and I am finally at the point in my life where all my efforts are now focused on my artwork. I'm living on the Eastern Shore where I feel the inspiration to paint very strongly. Not to mention there is an endless number of wonderful things to paint and a beautiful place to be as well.

 

Pretty Privies Lewes, DE. Oil on canvas - Betsy Frahm

 

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99 Inspirational Art Quotes from Famous Artists

Art quotes are about the experiences of artists, thoughts on art, and inspire us to create. I love reading and sharing the quotations of other artists and inspirational people. They encourage, motivate, inspire, uplift, and stimulate creativity.

I have included many of the quotations of Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Rembrandt, and Leonardo Da Vinci along with this list of famous inspirational quotes for artists.

I created several of these in image form. Feel free to to share these wherever you want - Pinterest, Facebook, etc.

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Walkthrough of the Wix HTML5 Website Builder

 

I’ve had the opportunity to use many website builders on the web, but very few have as many customizations and features as the free Wix HTML5 editor. Everything can be customized, including fonts, layout, widgets, and colors. There are a whole slew of widgets and addons for pages, including online shops, Facebook pages, art blogs, slideshows, contact forms, Google Maps, community forums, stats counter, and much more.

I know many artists who are already using Wix for their portfolios. In the coming weeks I will be writing specific tutorials for adding some of these elements to your Wix pages. The tutorials will also include plenty of advice and tips artists can apply to their existing art sites.

For those who desire to begin creating a portfolio site with Wix right now, this is the place to begin:

Wix Websites

Before moving on, please review our previous post concerning Wix:

How to Create a HTL5 Website with Wix

 

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Candace Byington - Artist Obsessed with Vibrant Colors and Skeletons

Candace Byington

United States

Energetic, driven, curious.

 

I studied drawing and printmaking at Bowling Green State University and earned a BFA. During my studies at Bowling Green I spent a summer in Guadalajara and Mexico City Mexico. It was here that I learned about Mexican folk art and became enamored with El Dia de Los Muertos, the day of the dead. My work is about the day of the dead, myth and magic. I currently work as a graphic artist in Toledo, Ohio and am working on an associates degree in graphic design at Davis College.

 

The Poisoning of Snow White ©Candace Byington

 

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List of 10 Best Portfolio Websites for Artists to Sell Art Online

An online portfolio website is typically a place for artists to post artwork, receive feedback, and hopefully sell their art. For the past few months I have been reviewing several portfolio sites for artists at Artpromotivate.

I typically like to focus on online galleries that either have a free option or trial period. 

 

I have posted my own artworks and setup my profile at each of these portfolio sites. Below is a list of my favorites from those I have reviewed.

 

 

Why online portfolios if you already have an art website?

I use my artist website as my central location on the web and try to lead everyone there. When I join an online gallery site, I set up my profile along with uploading 3-4 of my best paintings - and include my artist statement along with my website link. By posting my website, interested people can see more of my art. From checking my website stats, I do receive visitors from free online galleries. The way I see it, the more exposure the better. Even if I did not get visitors from these places, at least it is a free linking opportunity.

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ShineBIG – Online Video Journaling for Artists

 

Recently, I had the privilege of speaking with Tola, the founder of ShineBIG. ShineBIG is a way for artists to promote their art by incorporating video commentary along with artwork. I asked Tola a few questions, and this is a transcript of our conversation.

 

Hi Tola! Please introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi my name is Babatola “Tola” Oguntoyinbo and I am the founder of ShineBIG.com.

 

What is ShineBIG?

ShineBIG.com is a site where you can tell stories about your artwork using video. Like making “DVD extras” for your works of art.

 

This is a tool to help artists move beyond the written artist statement.

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Gail McCoy – Collage Art of Nature and Cranes

 

Gail McCoy - Watercolor and Collage

I live near Madison,WI and am retired from teaching. Now I am working to master watercolor and having a great time constructing collages from paper I create. I use places I have traveled to for inspiration.

 

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Art Takes Miami 2012 – Prizes and Deadlines

 

This fall Artists Wanted, Scope Art Show, and See // Exhibition have teamed up to hold the third annual Art Takes Miami, which will give thousands of artists around the world an opportunity for international recognition, including great cash prizes. The art contest has a grand prize winner, including various secondary prizes - Category awards, 1001 Artists Project, and People’s Choice Award.

The first part of the entry process is reminiscent of the Art Takes Times Square competition in New York City held earlier this year.

If you entered or voted on this one, you will recognize the setup right away. Voting and commenting on entries can only be done with those with a Facebook account.

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How to Create a HTML5 Website With Wix

 

23 million websites have been created using Wix. Wix websites are very easy to customize, and do not require knowledge of any HTML coding whatsoever. Using Wix, artists can create an entire portfolio site of their own in a very short time, and best of all - it is free!

There are hundreds of template designs to choose from - each of them can be customized with colors, fonts, layout, widgets, and more. Easily create artist websites, online shops, Facebook pages, mobile sites, and art blogs.

 

 

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Encouraging Advice for Struggling Artists

As artists and people, every now and then, we need a little pick-me-up from others. A little encouragement or kind words goes a long way. One of my favorite things about showcasing my art online is the feedback I receive. Even simple statements like “I love your art!” are encouraging, especially when they add up!

This article features 10 artists who have been interviewed at Artpromotivate, and the advice they have to share with emerging artists.

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Sam Randall – Artists Complexly Simple Style is Much More than Meets the Eye

Sam Randall

Brisbane, Australia

 

I am a self-taught visual artist based in Brisbane. I have recently made the huge decision to pursue being an artist full time. My previous career was as a Children's Therapist where art and creativity were a key foundation to my practice. I have always needed to be in a creative role or I get bored and dissatisfied.

 

Flora Montage ©Sam Randall

 

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Salvador Dali – His Art and Life of Controversy

I always loved Salvador Dali’s surrealism paintings. The first time I saw his paintings I was blown away by the level of detail and intricacy. Dali’s art draws us in and bring us to another reality or dream world - a world where our own laws of physics and gravity do not exist.

His paintings were often bizarre and striking at the same time, and had many symbolic references. I’m proud to say that Dali is one of my influences. I love to distort, abstract and surrealize the real world in my drawings and paintings, though I am certainly not the eccentric character he was.

 

 

In this article I will explore certain things about Salvador Dali’s life and career which we can apply to out own. How did Dali become so well known? What things can we learn from his life of controversy that we can we apply to our own art careers right now?

 

 

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Why Digital SLR Cameras to Photograph Art?

I think most will agree with me that one of the best cameras for photographing art these days is digital SLR (single lens reflex). The phrase “single lens reflex” refers to a moveable mirror which reflects light up to the viewfinder. When the shutter is pressed, that mirror moves to allow light to reach the film or sensor. I have a Digital SLR (Canon Rebel Eos XS) and it has suited me very well.

The right camera represents an investment for the future of an artist. Even if prints are not something you do at the moment, it will give you the capability of creating them in the future. Who knows, you may be creating a catalogue of your art in 10 years time, or speaking about your art in public venues. Having good quality photographs will not only give forthcoming capacity for creating prints, but will help document your progress - and make you appear more professional as an artist.

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Ruth McCabe - UK Watercolour Painter – Artist Spotlight

 

Artist Spotlight - Ruth McCabe – United Kingdom Watercolour Painter

I've been painting since 1997 and for the last 5 years, full time. Progressing from acrylics to oils about 6 years ago, this year I've mainly worked in watercolour, painting the local East Suffolk landscape and working towards greater abstraction.

The grace of the ordinary (working agricultural landscape), natural and man-made tracks and marks on the landscape, colour, flow,all give me pleasure, as do the qualities of different media and surfaces.

Creating goes back to childhood: the colourful world of infant school, the joy of writing, of moving and playing; a mother who sewed and moved furniture around to create new spaces out of old.

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How to Use Stumbleupon for Promoting Art

Stumbleupon is a social bookmarking community of 25 million users, and over 100 million submitted websites in a vast variety of categories. Artists do not have to be a Stumble Upon member to find their art there. Anyone can stumble your pages and include it in the huge index of sites for others to view.

Becoming a Stumbleupon member carries many advantages though. Not only can you stumble your own artworks, but you can scan the other artists and sites at Stumbleupon for inspiration. By using certain techniques, you can expect sudden bursts of traffic from other Stumble upon members.

 

Whether this traffic leads to eventual art sales is debatable – it can depend on several factors, but mostly on the quality of the image and artwork itself. I will show you some techniques I use at Stumbleupon for promoting my own paintings, along with finding pages as inspiration for my art.

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6 Top Blogs for Learning About Art Business

The internet is a vast resource for artists. Many art blogs and websites exist that offer free art business advice for artists. Artpromotivate is of course one of them, but for this list I will be referring to other sources for learning how to market art. All of these are popular sites and have their own dedicated readership. Through Artpromotivate, I am honoured to be serving so many artists around the world. But, I realize that Artpromotivate is only one resource among many. 

One of the purposes of Artpromotivate is to inform all of you what is out there, so that artists can use everything available at their disposal to promote their own art. Hence, comes this list of top 6 art blogs and websites for learning about the business of art.

 

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Neleisha Weerasinghe – Sri Lankan Artist

Neleisha Weerasinghe 

Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

I am Neleisha (Nelly), a self taught artist from Sri Lanka.

I have had a bit of formal training, but mostly I have learnt through trial and error. I am a full time online lecturer as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swirling Tree - Acrylic on Canvas                   ©Neleisha Weerasinghe

 

 

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How Artists Can Use Slideshare to Promote Art

It never ceases to amaze me with all the free tools the internet has to offer for artists looking to promote art. Recently, I viewed some artwork slideshow presentations at Slideshare. Slideshare is a network similar to Youtube, but the main difference here is that presentations are used instead of videos. Slideshows become popular by receiving more views, can be commented on, favorited, and shared.

In doing a search for artists at Slideshare, I came across some very good presentations, and decided to create a Powerpoint slideshow.

Read all about how to make a Powerpoint presentation in my recent post here:

Powerpoint Tutorial for an Art Slideshow

Of course, art slideshows are only one way of utilizing Slideshare. There are numerous other ways  – tutorials, portfolio presentations, displaying ebooks, and much more.

Here is an ebook I found entitled Creative Exercises for Artists by Benoit Philippe.

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How to Handle, Care for and Store Paintings

Years ago I made the mistake of storing a few of my paintings in the loft of a shed for the winter.  I am embarrassed to admit this, and it was a stupid mistake, but I have certainly learned from it. The roof had a leak that I was unaware of. Water ran on several of my canvases, and damaged them beyond repair.

I decided then to always store my paintings safely inside, or find a place to hang them somewhere before being sold – and to learn everything I could about the preservation of artwork.

Unless you are an artist who sells everything as soon as you create it, you will probably have to consider ways of safely storing your artworks. What follows are some important tips for caring for and handling paintings, which will help to prevent different types of damage, including scratches, scrapes, mold, cracking, and flaking.

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Gretchen Deahl - Proper Etiquette When Dealing with Guardian Monsters

Gretchen Deahl

Pennsylvania, USA

Proper Etiquette When Dealing with Guardian Monsters

I'm just your average run-of-the-mill-type artist who also happens to talk to monsters... on (ahem) a daily basis. Yes, I realize that may sound a bit unusual, but they actually make pretty decent companions, especially when there is no one else around to talk to.

 

 

 

Baby Monster         ©Gretchen Deahl

 

 

As a professional illustrator with too many ideas wanting to burst forth from my overactive (and slightly addled) mind, it seems the most natural outlet. Unfortunately, I have discovered that monsters - Guardian Monsters in particular - are rather high maintenance creatures and have become a bit annoying and whiny with their constant demands for attention, including I might add, requests for specialized "monster" food, which involves much time-wasting activity (at least for me).

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