illustration – Art & News from EBSQ

EBSQ Friday Five: Youtube for Artists

This week’s Friday Five is a collection of just a handful the amazing Youtube Channels to be had for artists.

1. New Masters Academy – Their Daily Life Drawing sessions are what I love most about this channel. Don’t have the time or means to sit in on a life drawing session? They have both nude and non-nude, timed sessions!

2. Will Terry – Looking for tips and advice on becoming a children’s book illustrator? Will Terry supplies this and much, much more.

3. ImagineFX – Digital Artists and Fantasy Artists will love the invaluable resources from one of the best magazines in the industry.

4. Blick Art Materials – Did you know Blick has been around since 1911? Their Youtube channel offers more than just product reviews. Take look!

5. Strathmore Artist Papers – There are a wealth of tutorials to be found in this channel, even entire workshops!

I’ll highlight more of my favorite channels next month. Do you have a go-to Youtube channel for art learning and inspiration?

EBSQ Friday Five

1. I love these Four Pups by Melinda Dalke. Too much cuteness in one painting!

2. How Any Artist Can Price Their Art for Sale – Every artist struggles with this in the beginning.

3. Storybird: A New Opportunity for Illustrators – This looks interesting! Kelley McMorris writes, “Storybird users can make books for free by selecting illustrations from the site’s library, then writing accompanying stories.” If the writer purchases their book, the artists get a percentage.

4. Delaware museum loses accreditation over art sale – They sold William Holman Hunt’s 1868 painting “Isabella and the Pot of Basil” to pay off debts.

5. Making Green: Tempera versus Oil | National Gallery, London

EBSQ Friday Five

1. Delilah Smith’s painting, Little Chick, reminds me of my mother’s childhood stories of receiving a chick for Easter each year. Whether you celebrate Easter or not, chicks and lambs always remind me of this time of year (in the Northern Hemisphere at least!).

2. James Gurney shares his homemade light diffuser for plein-air painting. If you’re looking to make your own take a look at his blog post.

3. Chasing the Hotness via The ArtOrder is an excellent article on the tendency to join every free portfolio site the web has to offer and why it’s more important to focus your efforts on just one. There’s also a great follow up article on the obsession with Likes and going viral, both of which don’t necessarily equate to success or selling your art.

4. 6 Tips for Creating and Running a Successful Artist Newsletter via EmptyEasel.com

5. Submitting and sizing your art for childrens picture books–another great video from Will Terry.

EBSQ Friday Five

1. Ulrike Martin’s butterfly caught my eye this morning. I can’t wait to see butterflies again. Spring? Are you here yet?

2. Artist Kathleen McMahon has compiled a list of Known Scammer Names used in Art-Related Email Scams. She also offer some information on what a scam email looks like and how to protect yourself.

3. How I Became a Facebook Meme is another great blog post from Kelley McMorris, with a lesson on watermarks.

4. How much money can you make illustrating children’s book? Ever wondered? Will Terry shares his experience.

5. The clock is ticking. Have you voted in this month’s EBSQ Exhibits?

EBSQ Friday Five

1. Dogwood Prince – I love this new painting for May by Gretchen Del Rio. Have the dogwoods bloomed where you live?

2. Creating a Fantasy Storybook Illustration – Wonderful post from Ursula Tessa Brozovich- Kerger on creating a Fantasy illustration.

3. Mother’s Day Studio Tour – The 15th Annual Camano Island Studio Tour begins May 10th. EBSQ Glass Bead Artist Vicki Miller will have works shown in the Seagrass Gallery. See her blog for more details.

4. Kickstarter vs. IndieGoGo – Tiffany Toland-Scott shares her experience with the two big crowdfunding sites.

5. Varnish and Finish Coats – Georgia Papadakis has an informative post on her blog about varnish, finish coats and their effect on a painting’s overall color.

EBSQ Facebook Artist of the Week: Carmen Medlin

Who and where are you?

I am Carmen Medlin, and I am an artist living in the Black Hills of South Dakota with my wonderful husband and three cats. I am continually inspired by God’s creation around me, and nature seems to always find a way into my artwork ; it certainly helps to live in a forest, also! I have a storybook kind of art style, and love to paint things that have a sense of childhood or innocence about them.

How were you introduced to Facebook?

At first I was just using it to visit family and old friends, but a friend of mine who also licenses my art for rubber stamps at Susana’s Custom Art and Card Design talked me into trying a Facebook fan page for art purposes, as she was starting one also. I’m glad she talked me into it, because it was just the sense of community I had been missing since leaving LiveJournal years ago – which is where I met many of my fellow artist friends in the beginning. It has helped me to keep connected both with other artists and with art collector friends.

Any tips for other artists starting a Facebook Page?

I think it is good to give people a peek into your world as an artist – post sketches, a bit of daily life, works in progress, that sort of thing. I am always fascinated by reading about other artists’ lives and their art process. It even makes me like their artwork more and more just getting to know them better. Use a lot of pictures!

What’s your favorite Facebook Page feature?

Definitely the ability to make friends with other artists and collectors. I really love that. This also helps me to see what types of artwork people like best, as you can get more or less immediate feedback. Then I know what to paint more of!

What’s coming next from your studio?

I have several commissions featuring cute mice for different seasons and holidays coming up. I’ve also been sketching a lot of “bird girls”, which I am sure will end up being painted. They either have bird wings themselves or are wearing clothes that have bird wing shapes. I guess I’ve been thinking a lot about birds and rodents lately!

http://www.facebook.com/CarmenMedlinArt

http://dancingdoestudios.ebsqart.com/

Team EBSQ March Showcase: Blue Birds

Who doesn’t love blue birds? Any “blue” bird for that matter never fails to catch the eye.

Featured above are: Aimee Marie Wheaton, Theodora Demetriades, Patricia Christensen, Sherry Key, Julie Behm, Nancy Denomee, Sarah John Afana, Amanda Makepeace, Barbara Haviland, and Dia Spriggs.

Next month’s theme: Frogs

Are you an EBSQ Artist selling on Etsy, eBay, Zazzle, Artfire or RedBubble? Why not join Team EBSQ?

EBSQ Friday Five

The EBSQ Friday Five offers a brief look at noteworthy news from around the EBSQ Artist Blogosphere.

1. One Big Cloud – Windi Rosson has a new landscape painting she’s auctioning on eBay, with 50% off the proceeds going to support relief efforts in Japan.

2. The Silence of Trees Signing – Artist Madeline Carol Matz will be at a book signing, Saturday March 19th to discuss the process behind her painting featured on the cover of The Silence of Trees. See her blog for details!

3. Donating to Japan Relief – Aimee Marie Wheaton is donating a percentage from her art sales on Etsy to help Japan.

4. News Article on my Illustration – Kathy Jurek is featured in a wonderful online article. Check her blog for more details!

5. Pebbles for Japan – I too am donating a percentage from the sale of my original paintings to help Japan. See more my blog for more details.

Have a wonderful weekend!

EBSQ Friday Five

The EBSQ Friday Five offers a brief look at noteworthy news from around the EBSQ Artist Blogosphere.

1. Halloween Series Continues – Artist Christine Striemer has an amazing series of chilling paintings you don’t want to miss. Here is one of her latest, but check her blog to see all of them in their spooky grandness.

2. Getting a Handle on It – EBSQ artist and now student, Kathleen Ralph, is a busy woman. Here’s a slice of what’s on her plate these days.

3. Free Halloween Desktop – Melia Newman has a wonderful Halloween desktop background for you computer, and it’s FREE!

4. October Fiction Frenzy – Mark Satchwill has been painting illustrations for the magazine Dark Valentine. This month features six of his wonderful illustrations.

5. Big Head, and a Word about Water – Theresa Bayer has some wonderful advice for the eco-conscious artist when it comes to painting with acrylics. I’ll be putting some of these to use myself!

Have a great weekend folks!

EBSQ Blogger of the Week: Dennis Kish & Susan Owens

This week’s EBSQ Blogger of the Week is a blogging duo. Between them they blog about art, life and cats!

Who and where are you?

We (Dennis Kish, Susan Owen) are two artist – craftspeople who live on the coast in central California. We restore antiques and build furniture. Susan draws and paints and is a photographer. Dennis is a photographer and digital graphic artist, Susan is also a Celtic folksinger. Dennis is a recording engineer and occasional pipe organ tuner. We started our artist blog (cadogblog.wordpress.com) in April of this year.

Dennis had a political blog (Uproot Bush 2004) guess that worked out well. Our seven cats and a dog let us live with them. Our new blog Cadogblog, is a hairy tapestry about art.

Any tips for other EBSQ art bloggers?

Tell Stories.

What’s your musical inspiration of choice when you’re working in your studio?

Susan doesn’t usually listen to music while drawing since she’s a vocalist and “I tend to get caught up in the lyrics and riffs and forget about the drawing before me, so I turn the television on to a low murmur, sit cross-legged on my bed, and work with what amounts to a cooing version of white noise that I can ignore, and be soothed at the same time. If I were to work to music, it would likely be anything performed by Yo Yo Ma. Sometimes something very small can start a drawing or story. a word, a street sign, an offhand comment by a passerby, and a seed is planted, to employ an overused simile. My drawings begin with a complete idea but as they come out of the pens and the pastels they develop their own lives and souls, becoming become pretty much whatever they please. I learned early on not to fight them. I do spend time in meditation for a week or so before beginning a drawing. I used to wonder whether or not that was a waste of time since the drawings do what they please…but no, meditation is never a waste of time.

On the other hand, Dennis wants tunes. “I must have music for work. J.S. Bach to Carl Stone, with lashings of Richard Thompson, Dietrich Buxtehude, Olivier Messian, The Dropkick Murphys, and Flogging Molly. I’m still at work on a series of abstract digital prints that I call the Mask Series, mask being a verb rather than a noun in this case, though I guess you could wear some of them too. I start by taking a hapless photograph and then transmogrify it through various digital processes and spells. My most recent mask is #56, and all of the masks are made from one of five photographs.”

What’s coming next from your studio?

A current interest is multimedia collaboration.

We recently collaborated on “Yggdrasil’s Music Box”, (Yggdrasil is the One Tree in Norse mythology), a semi functional cabinet containing a tree with drawers in the trunk and a multi-track audio sound sculpture. They have ideas for some more.

Please visit our Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/digiprintskishowen

http://cadogblog.wordpress.com/

Thank you Dennis (and Susan) for being an EBSQ Blogger of the Week!

If you are an EBSQ Artist and would like to be considered for Blogger of the Week just add us to your blogroll. I’m searching EBSQ profiles weekly for links to artist’s blogs. If you aren’t an EBSQ Artist, what are you waiting for?

Join Today!

Call for children’s illustrators

the following is a guest post by children’s author Edward Trayer

Anybody out there fancy illustrating a new children’s book?

My name is Edward Trayer and I‘m a children’s book author living in London. I’m the author of a number of popular novels including The Gospel According to Felicity Brady and A Wishing Shelf Tale.

Presently, I’m writing a novel called The Gullfoss Legends. The story follows a girl living in Iceland called Sigri who walks all the way to Reykjavik to persuade the then Danish king to stop the evil English building a dam on her beloved waterfall, Gullfoss.

I’m looking for an artist who might be interested in drawing 15 illustrations for the book (one for each of the 15 chapters) The drawings can be quite simple, the book being aimed at 8 to 10 year olds and must be in black and white.

So, what’s in it for you? Well, here’s the deal. I just completed a mammoth 80 school book tour in London publicising my books and talking to over 20,000 students. I will be following this up with a 160 school book tour to publicise The Gullfoss Legends and I will ensure your drawings and your name form an integral part of the workshops I do in the schools. Secondly, you get paid! Yes, it’s true. Not a lot, but you do. Basically, 1 percent of the gross profit (profit prior to tax). The book will be selling for 12.95 British pounds, approx. gross profit on each book will be 8 pounds and you will get 1 percent of that on a yearly basis so long as your illustrations remain in the book.

Still interested? Then, send me an email to thewishingshelf@yahoo.com by Sunday 8th August (this Sunday) and tell me a bit about yourself and your work. I will then send you CHAPTER ONE of the book. You will then have until Friday 13th August to illustrate the chapter, scan it and send it to me (1 drawing only). All of the drawings sent in will then be looked at by me and my editor and a winner chosen. The winner will then be sent a contract plus the remaining 14 chapters to illustrate (1 drawing for each). Now, this is the important bit. You will have only until Sunday 5th September to complete all the drawings, so if this is too tight a schedule for you, please don’t enter. But remember, the drawings can be rather simple and no colour is needed.

If you wish to find out a bit more about my work, I suggest you Google me. Also, take a look at my website www.felicitybrady.co.uk. On there is a picture of the initial draft of the dustjacket for The Gullfoss Legends.

Good luck!

Edward H Trayer

Blogger of the Week: Kim Niles

This week’s EBSQ Blogger of the Week is most well known for her adorable Westie illustrations, but no dog or cat is safe from her imagination! Spend a few minutes with us while we explore this wonderful artist and blogger.

Who and where are you?

I’m Kim Niles, a freelance Artist, and children’s book Author & Illustrator from Whidbey Island in WA state, and I think it would be safe to say I’m addicted to making art. I’m self-taught and have been selling my art professionally since the late 1990s, and working full-time at my KiniArt business since 2005. I’ve been married for nearly 25 years to a man I’ve known and loved for 30 years. Together, we have a son, a daughter, one daughter-in-law, and we’re expecting our first granddaughter in the Fall.

How did you get started art blogging?

I had heard that being a successful artist means you essentially work the hours of two full-time jobs because you spend at least 75% of your time marketing and promoting your work. This is very true. I typically work long hours and most days of the week just to have the time to get the new art ideas started on paper and out of my head. I started to blog as means of promoting my work and I found it to be a fun and easy way to introduce myself to new collectors, and to keep existing fans up to date with my latest art and project news too. I use a variety of blogging and social networking sites (Blogger, LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to inform, but also to keep in touch with my collectors. The majority of my blogs are listed and linked to from my blogs page at KiniArt.com

Any tips for other EBSQ art bloggers?

I do have a couple tips for art bloggers. If you have multiple blogs, like I do, set up reminders in your schedule to post at different blogs on different days. This helps you keep them updated so they don’t get overlooked. At the very least, tie your blogs/social sites together wherever possible. For instance, when I post on Facebook, it also shows up on Twitter and anything that shows up in my Twitter feed automatically shows up on Myspace, etc. Tying your social media together is a huge time-saver for the multi-blogger. My 2nd tip is for the art blog reader in you. Blogging and social networking can eat up a LOT of time. Set a maximum amount of minutes you’ll allow yourself to spend reading up on your favorite blogs so you don’t suddenly find you’ve spent your entire morning reading about everyone else’s productivity.

What’s your musical inspiration of choice when you’re working in your studio?

I love working to music when I’m drawing at my desk – slower songs I can hum to, but I don’t always get do so because I share an office with my husband who also works from home. Music is mandatory however, when I’m painting – no less important than my paintbrushes – and I even dance while working at the easel. I listen to a mix of favorites – rock, folk, oldies, pop, country, alternative, etc. While painting “Westie Up Close On Red” last weekend for instance, I listened to a mix that included Anjulie, the Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, KT Tunstall, John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Duffy, Schuyler Fisk, Meghan Tonjes, Michael Jackson, Otis Redding, etc. My new favorite song though is an absolutely beautiful cover of the Lucinda Williams song “Blue” by Mike Antone. I had the opportunity to see him sing it live, and it brought tears to my eyes. You can get the free mp3 of his cover of “Blue” online. It really is SO beautiful.

What’s coming next from your easel?

I always have way more projects on my wish list than I have time to finish. Commissions take top priority, as do my works for my monthly auctions at KiniArt.com. I usually have 1-2 Petcature Portraits in various stages of progress in the studio. But I have a long list of paintings I want to do but don’t yet have time. I’m forever getting new ideas in the strangest places (I saw a Collie in the marbleized pattern in the tile on my floor just last night). Sometimes these ideas are forgotten by the end of the day. But if I’m anywhere near a pencil and paper, they’re roughly sketched out and filed away in my “someday” project file.

I’ve been itching to try my hand at some landscapes too, inspired by some gorgeous photos of China, and I plan to do both whimsical and non-whimsical versions. I’ve also been creating digital backgrounds for my hand-drawn dog art combined into designs for laptop and iPhone skins for Society6 and fabric for Spoonflower, and I’m finding those to be highly inspiring. I plan to do canvas paintings of some of those designs, as well.

http://www.kiniart.blogspot.com/

Thank you Kim for being an EBSQ Blogger of the Week!

Join Today!

EBSQ Friday Five

The EBSQ Friday Five offers a brief look at noteworthy news from around the EBSQ Artist Blogosphere.

1. “All American” is a Winner – Congratulations to EBSQ Artist Pat Burns, who one second place at the Georgia in Bloom Fest for her painting All American!

2. First Post on Blogspot – Illustrator Natalia Pierandrei has moved blogs. Be sure to update your bookmarks so you don’t miss her updates.

3. Updates – Bethy Williams is new to EBSQ and I just wanted to welcome her to our community. 😀

4. Big 25% Sale – Little Gorjuss is having a sale on prints and original artworks! Sale ends May 9, so hurry!

5. Digital Painting & Video Tutorials – Ever wondered how Brigid Ashwood creates her stunning digital art? Wonder no more with this great tutorial.

Have a wonderful and creative weekend!