Down to Business

As I was checking out my daughter's blog, I clicked on one of her links to the Small Business Administration (SBA) and I found several online classes for free!! There are several that look very interesting and I plan on checking some of them out at a later time. Each class is online and is self-paced and should only take around 30 minutes. Some classes that looking worthwhile are the ones on e-commercing, marketing and advertising, making a business plan and more.

When I decided to do my art full time, I actually did put together a rough business plan. It helped me focus on what needed to be done, both as an artist and also as a business person. There are things on my plan that I have actually accomplished with some things that I still need to do. One of them is getting my basement or lower room cleaned, painted and refurbished as my studio. It has been so terribly cold that the last place that I want to be is away from my cozy wood stove. However, the work still needs to happen and that will be one of my goals next week...to at least work on it a couple of hours each day.

My neighbor was also telling me about how during the summer there is an Art Tour around the city of Cambridge, MN...hitting everyone's studio and checking their work out. It is like having an open house for your art and studio!! My studio is called Spirit River Studio since it is on the Rum River. Spirit River is actually the original name of the river given to it by the Native Americans.

Recently, I also found out that I live in the "Little Africa" area of the Rum River. What that means is that everything along the river must remain natural....when a tree falls, it must fall. A person cannot take it out or cut a tree down along the river.

I have not forgotten about sharing the drawing techniques using charcoal and conte...coming soon. Look for photos of what I use, the process and the end product. Hopefully, I will have some info in my next post.

MaryAnn

Julie and Nico

Original charcoal/conte drawing on toned paper

Size: 9"x11"

This drawing was done on a toned paper using conte crayon and charcoal. This was done from a photograph that I took along with doing some preliminary sketches before this drawing. I was hoping to take photos of the drawing as I progressed through it. However, today was what my friend calls, "a plan B day". It just did not happen due to other things interfering with my time. I hope to do this with my next drawing and hopefully by the end of the week. These are fun to do and absolutely my favorite types of drawing.

Enjoy and more to come.
~M

My Favorite Medium

One of my favorite mediums is to use charcoal and conte crayons on toned paper. The toned paper is nice as the middle tone is already there and all that is necessary is to add some value with the sepia color of the conte and the black of the charcoal. At the every end, and the best part, is to add those highlights with the white conte.

Tools that I use for this process are a piece of cotton cloth, a leather chamois, and many different types of erasers as well as various grades of charcoal. I also will use a piece of paper to put under my hand if the work is being done while I am at a table. (It is important when you do work this way to stand back from the drawing as things can easily get out of whack.)

I also will use a drawing board with newprint or other paper under the drawing paper. The drawing paper is also taped in place with masking tape or a tape that can easily be removed. I will tape about a 1/4 inch along all the edges. This fulfills two purposes...the first is that the drawing paper stays in place and the second is that when the tape is removed there is a nice clean edge for a border.

Tonight I am going to start a drawing of my grandson and I will take pics of the process to share with how I actually do it.

Stay tuned....MaryAnn

The Beginning of a New Blog... or a Line in Time

This blog will be a more personal one where I will share how I go about creating a drawing, some art history, what makes a good composition and other things about art and my experience with it. At least that is where I plan to start and I know as I write, the blog will evolve. I hope to include my experience as I try to make it as an artist...an unsurmountable task I feel at times. There are times that I feel totally discouraged and then there are times that I know that I must stay focused, do what I love....and probably get another job (at least a parttime one) in order to survive until some sort of income is established.

The first thing that I did start doing was my blog of a daily painting. I knew in order to get my skills back to where they once were after working for a living as an engineer that I would need to discipline myself on a daily basis to create. It is a bit like riding a bike....I am a little rusty, but once I began drawing and painting daily again, the skills were still there and came back quickly. Things started to "click" and it was not such a chore to get down on the canvas or paper what I wanted to express. You can see my progress over the last couple of months by checking out my other blog "Spirit River Studio".

The second thing that I began was a website. See http://www.maryanncleary.com/ . I used a template to begin with and even with that, setting it up took an incredible amount of time. I know that eventually I will fine tune it add things, redo things, but it is also nice having a place that speaks of professionalism....is it worth doing it this way. I am not sure. The site has only be up and running for a couple of weeks. I also added "Google Analytics" to both sites. It was a little tricky setting it up ~ especially for someone who knows little about all the html script, etc. ~ and I think that I have it so that I can at least track my traffic progress.

The third thing I did was to write an article for EmptyEasel. Initially, I was surprised at it being accepted. It was a "How To" article on making a paint brush cleaner. With that article, the owner of Empty Easel also provided a link to my blogsite and I also had a link to Empty Easel. It did help with increasing traffic to my blog site a little.

The next thing that I have been doing is also putting my small paintings up for sale on eBay and I also have an eBay store. So far I have sold three paintings and I am at least breaking even with all the fees...insertion fees, fees when you sell, fees for paypal, fees for the store..... I really did not think that I would "make it" on eBay, but I did think that it may help with driving traffic to my blog and website. The only thing is people must "google" your name to get to the site since eBay has a policy against putting your blog or website in with your description as it would be considered a conflict of interest....they want all your money. I am also considering putting things up at a lower price...I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. Since I am trying to develop a following, it may be a good thing, but I may also end up "giving away" a lot of paintngs.... I guess it may be better than having a pile of them sitting at home. However, I am building up inventory if I decide to do a show.

What I am finding is the marketing part of this business of art is taking up considerable time and effort so a "Line in Time" will cover not only the drawing line, but the written business side or line of art.

More on tomorrow or the next day or so.
MaryAnn