Archive for January, 2012

Inspiration

If you’ve done as I’ve said in previous posts, you’ll be a part of a lot of fantastic websites for inspiration.

Websites:

I normally go to deviant art to start off with, then onto pinterest, and if all else fails I use google images. I’m telling you to steal peoples ideas but just take note, like “I like those colours” “I like the trees in that” etc.. and then come up with something that has everything you’ve seen and liked during your search. People like original work, so don’t copy!

Music:

I find listening to music really helps with imagery, the above picture was inspired by pendulum, the tempest.

Also try different music, a new genre, new band, if you like rock, listen to classical! Go nuts, go to the weird parts of youtube music.

Movies.

Movies are quite easy to get the type of picture you want to do, if you like the retro gansta type look, watch pulp fiction for ideas, like patterns or fashion, hairstyles etc..

Time of year.

What time of year is it? What do you like about this time of year? Then draw it!- that one’s too easy.

I use the internet as a limitless media tool, there’s so many pictures on here, it’s hard not to be inspired.

Tools of the Trade


People think that if you want to make it, you need all the up to date tech for digital art. As this is a big help, it’s not really true. There’s so much free software on line the mind boggles, 3D Blender for example is awesome, I’ve downloaded it, it’s so professional and sleek. I read somewhere (can’t remember it was so long ago) a professor at a university was arguing with one of his students who didn’t want to fork out a fortune for the software that was being used for his lectures, because A, it was hundreds of dollar and B, it was mush better than what they were using anyway, the professor tried it and has never looked back. Trust me, if animation and modelling is you thing, use Blender. It is a huge program though so your computer might have a mental break down.

Blender also holds a competition to pick up the cream of the self taught gods, they bring these people in to make a movie/game to promote blender and also to upgrade and de-bug the currant version. This is a huge opportunity for people, a lot of the team who make the movies/games are scooped up by the likes of Pixar, could you imagine that!?
There’s loads on tutorials on their website to get you going as well.

Gimp is another brilliant, FREE software to starting artists to use, I used it for years, I learnt everything on it, its how I learnt everything I know now. Not buggy, I used to run it on my old laptop, so currant computers are able to cope fine. You can also use drawing tablets with it too. Good editing software for a photographer. So that’s one for the shopping list! I know for a fact that loads of people on deviant art use this. It does everything that the mid range of photoshop does and is updated a lot.

So there’s two fantastic free programs you can use, and they are highly recommended by people who’ve used them.

The only thing that I think people should buy is a drawing tablet.

I have the Wacom Bamboo Fun Touch and Pen.

You are selling your artwork so you want it to look the best that it can be, so stop drawing with a mouse and get one, or get one for your birthday/christmas. The Wacom Bamboo Fun Touch and Pen comes with a lot of software for a start, like artrage, coral and photoshop essentials, that’s like £150 saved there and then. It’s nice and thin, I got used to mine very quickly after the initial not looking at my hand to draw but the screen (was a bit strange at first). The pen is nice and fat so it’s comfortable to use for hours on end. And there’s loads of room to doodle on, it’s about the size of an A4 page. I don’t know what I’d do without mine, for what it is, it’s a very good price on amazon.

Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet

Pinterest.com

I’ve only just joined this new website. It’s freaking awesome. I love it, such a simple idea as well.

It’s a virtual pin board of the internet, you have your own “boards”, title them in to categories like “my favourite animal pictures” or “stuff I’ve bought”. Find the picture you want to post and pin it.

It’s that simple and what you end up getting is a wonderful gallery with all of your links and pictures on.

Also people can “re-pin” your stuff on theirs and so on a so forth, so you get a huge number of views.

Also pinterest.com are trying to keep the quality of the website to a high standard and it really makes a difference, everyone on there have made an effort with the pictures and content and it looks fantastic, the lay out is really easy to use.

The bookmark button is really good, so you’re not going back a forth through websites, they’ve made a button to go on your bookmark bar, you click on it when you want to pin something and it comes up with all of the pictures on the page you’re viewing, you chose what picture you want where and it’s done.

I think pinterest is a fantastic tool for artists on the web trying to get seen, pictures speak a 1000 words and this is the whole point of the website, it’s like blogging without the effort XD.

So get your butt on there! You have to ask for an invitation.


http://pinterest.com/lazyhazey/

This the link to mine, if you like me I will like you back.

Don’t Give Up

Valentines Day

It’s really hard in the first couple of months to keep going.

I’m quite a defeatist anyway and it took every ounce of me not to turn back, but I started at a time of my life where I needed something to throw myself into, or I think I would have gone mad. Also the support from my boyfriend I have every day to get stuff done helps me a lot. He’s always nagging me about putting more designs on or making new products.

People on the internet will make you believe that the web is full of people who just want to give you money for little effort, this is utter bull. If the internet was this lovely place with a river of gold that every can just help themselves to, do you really think that people would be sitting at a desk in their shitty, no prospect job doing 12 hour shifts?

You have to put the time in to get a return. I’m not earning a lot off the internet so far, but I am earning because I’ve worked so hard to, every night I sit at my computer for 3-4 hours, this is nothing compared to what a lot of people are doing, my boyfriend helps out as well, he does at least an hour. I will not be in the position for at least another year to go part time and I have to keep the momentum of my store going by putting on more products, pictures and posts, more links etc…

But if like me, it’s the only glimmer of hope you have to have a job that you’d love with a passion to do then this should keep you going. If you think you can just slap a few pictures on zazzle and make a fortune, you are wrong.

You will one day wake up to fine a lovely e-mail with your first couple of dollars, and it’s the best feeling in the world.

How to get hits

If you’re like me, then you’re working full time, have a home to run and not overly wealthy with the amount of time or energy you have to put into your empire, it gets easier when you get into it.

To get more hits on the internet in general you have to update, update and update! Everyday update your sites, it’s pretty gruelling but it doesn’t have to be a major content update everyday, I normally make a mountain of spelling mistakes, every time I read something I’ve written I have to sort the spelling out, this is still an update people, you don’t have to write a new essay everyday! Updating every day means your work will still stay high on the list when people search.

Go public on everything, I’ve got pages everywhere now, youtube, bloggerdeviantartsquidoofacebooktwitter and will be making many more too. So what I’ve basically done is made pages and thrown them into the internet, all have links to each other, remember to link your stuff to each other, all have advisements for me or money making advertisements. Also your pride my hurt, but it’s about quantity not quality. I’ve had a hard time with this lol, but I’ve spent real time on a few things and less on others.

Also another tip I’ve read is the importance of tags on everything you do, there’s no point in creating a wonderful blog or picture when no one’s going to find it because you’ve put one tag on *slap wrists*. What ever you create some on else has done the same thing or something similar have a look at what tags they have used and add to them on yours, don’t be miss leading in them because that just annoys people.

Comment on other peoples work and like it. This is a great one, you get chance hits from people who are bored and just surfing for nothing, if you comment people will click on you comments to see what you’ve done. I am one who does this all the time. Don’t advertise on other peoples work though, I think this is just rude.

Facebook, family and friends are so supportive and helpful, post your new work on face book so people like it comment and you’ll get nice feed back, which always cheers me up, it’s normally my mummy though lol.

On zazzle and a lot of other sites, there are forums, participate and chat to others, you’ll get good hints and more people will have a look at your page.

Let others share your work. I get a lot of e-mails of people sharing my products on their blog or website. Some people get a bit funny about this, but I think it’s really nice that some one like your work enough to advertise it them selves (and yes the will be making some money from the referral, but this way of marketing is all over the web now). You can also do this for other people, creates more easy content for you.

Organise everything properly, people don’t want to have to sort through a load of images/writing that they’re not interesting. If I see something that confused and un-organised I go onto somewhere else. On your zazzle store create easy sub categories stick to under 10, you don’t want everything in it’s own box because that just makes the same problem as before. On lenses or blogs, make sure your content flows like a story;

Start

Middle

End

Stick to short paragraphs.

I think that’s it for getting hits. Things to remember, update, tags, lots of links & share, organise

My First Sale on Zazzle.

My First Sale on Zazzle.

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Hello 2012

Hello 2012

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