Rethink: Blog Structure and Design

Over the last few weeks I have been thinking about how best to structure my online presence (or rather presences :D).

Some of my main goals:

• streamline my process in terms of uploading images and keeping everything up to date
• allow for searching facilities: archives and search box
• create easy access to series that prove popular
• tighten up a few things that I did early in the month
• make it so I didn't have to enter 3 URLs every time I was asked for my website
  

Changes I that made:

• added navigation across the top
  
• turned my sales blog into a sales and gallery site (got rid of my standalone static site)
• redirected my sales blog to my custom domain
• added some "static pages" to my sales blog - galleries for portraits and flowers
• made both blogs three-column
• added a search box, archives, and series "buttons"

I'm sure there is more, but that gives you an idea why things look differently when you next visit. I'm happy to answer any questions about what I did, if that would be of help to anyone.

I have more I'd like to do, but I need to call an end to the tweaking...it seems that I could do this forever! It is very easy to while away the hours fussing with details...and honestly, I started all this so I could begin adding better descriptions for images for SEO purposes - now the structure I want is in place, I best get to that original intent.

My January and My February

This post reviews my January and looks at my February.

January:

• 4 paintings - done and more
  
• 10 sketches - close, 8 or 9
  
• 1 self-portrait - done
  
• Participate in the VSD - done
• Book review - done (and I've finished two books from "my list")
  
• Experiment with Twitter and Facebook - Twitter, not really. Facebook yes.
• Two new things on the camera - I used it a ton and became familiar with it, read a few pages of the manual. But, no, not really two new things.
• Optional:some blog/website redesign - yes, a did a major redesign at the beginning of the month and here at the end I've added navigation buttons across the top and modified the header image

February:

• 4 paintings
• 10 sketches
• 1 portrait
• Participate in the VSD
• Book review
• Learn two new things on the camera
• Write and research for articles
• Optional: Start new project

Thanks dear reader for persevering this far through my laundry list. It really helps me to publish these posts - it makes me feel like I've got a contract out there that I must fulfill - in short, you readers always push me to be a better artist, thank you, it means so much to me.

How are you doing on the goals you set for the year?

Sketching

The more I paint, the more I want to experiment with drawing...that is, when I do take up a sketch, I want to try something different. Lately, this has been holding my pencil differently, not in the traditional writing stance. The above sketch was done with the side of the pencil, holding the pencil with my fingertips only.

This is a difficult hold to master...I couldn't find my usual control, however I think there is real potential there. It allows for quick coverage of areas, a great variety of value, and expressive marking.

Knights, Feedburner, and Facebook

Knights
This was the study of the chess knights that I did before my study in acrylics.

It is useful for me to draw in graphite first...value study, compositional arrangement tweaking, and to get a sense for the edges. It made it easier to begin with the brush without a drawing underneath. (You will see I got rid of the third piece - I had wanted it "fuzzy" but actually it doesn't make much sense to have it so out of focus and so close to the knights.)

Feedburner
Katherine wrote a post on transferring your feeds from Feedburner to Google. I hadn't realized that it was mandatory. Essentially, when you get an offer to move your feeds (at the top of the feedburner page with your feeds), you need to do it. I checked and mine was "available" to move. I clicked a few buttons and that was it. You definitely need to check into this if you use Feedburner and don't fear, it doesn't seem a big deal.

Facebook
As I've begun my adventure into social marketing and networking, I built a business page on Facebook. Even non-Facebook people can view it, one of the many reasons to have one. More on that in my upcoming review...

Two Knights

Two Knights
open acrylics on gessobord
6in x 6in

I was reading about drawing from casts a few months ago. The author suggested spending lots of time in the school's cast library to learn...well, I don't go to art school, so I don't have a library. But later on it did occur to me that I could use chess pieces. Ideally, I would be able to find extra large pieces, but for a quick Friday night painting, the mini-cheapy ones worked.

This was a good exercise for me...finding that balance between detail and looseness. Interestingly, achieving both of them is equally difficult...rendering detail takes an observant eye and interpretative skills...being loose and free takes a creative "otherly" vision and intuition about when enough is suggested. I hope to continue learning the balance.

Treasures!

I mentioned earlier that I have been receiving some of my uncle's things. I thought I would share with you some of my favorite new possessions. Above you see one of my favorite "sets" - it is a collection of drawings spread over time and culture. Below you the inside of the Dutch and the Japanese books.

They are gorgeous books, filled with nice reproductions. They were published in 1965. He had several sets of art history books...he appears to have had all of the Time Life Library of Art "World of..." books.

Then I stumbled onto this....

The drawings are all on different sheets - I can pull each one out and study - a distinct advantage over a bound book. Of course, they could be framed and put up on the wall...now that would be fun! There are color reproductions as well.

And finally, these wood blocks were in with the books and stamps. They are marvelous. Is this the sort of thing you lino printers make?

January VSD: A Peeling

A Peeling
6 in x 7.5 in
colored pencils on toned and flecked paper

Above is my entry for the January Virtual Sketch Date. Thanks to Jeanette Jobson for the reference and for doing the administration work this month.

I did my first attempt in acrylic. I was not thrilled with it. But then I saw Jeanette's inspired entry and I just had to have another go.

This was done on some orange handmade paper, you can see little flecks and irregularities. The paper surface is not smooth, normally not my choice for colored pencils, but actually I think it really helped with all the tremendous texture on that fruit.

Sargent: Sweat and Success

Self Portrait
work in progress

Recently I was studying up on John Singer Sargent. He was the artist of the month for my newsletter (sign up for the monthly newsletter here.) He was born on January 12.

I'm sure that I had read about how prolific he was before...but it's rather hard to imagine what over 900 oils, 2000 watercolors, and countless sketches means. So I looked at an average Sargent month...to achieve the above during 1877-1925 Sargent produced over 18 oil paintings, 42 watercolors, and scores of sketches every month for 48 years.

Now, I have monthly goals, but they just aren't even close to that! In fact, for my yearly goals, I decided on 100 sketches and 50 paintings...about a typical Sargent month.

Of course, Sargent wasn't typical. What worked for him wouldn't work for everyone. However, you don't need to be as prolific as Sargent to meet your goals. In your hour of sweat, you should remember this...Sargent considered Madame X his best work. He also struggled desperately with it...even though typical and average don't describe him...hard work, struggle, and perseverance did. Sometimes, hard work, struggle and perseverance lead to great things.

Knocked Off My Feet!

Hey Gang,

Sorry to disappear this week. Woke up Monday with a tummy bug. I'll spare you the details...

I'm still not quite right and now I've got a few sons who are less than their best. Once we get our feet, we'll be back.

Working in a Group

Here's a peek at my on-going self-portrait. I'm doing it with my portrait group. I have a long ways to go, but it does highlight some of the advantages of working with a group:

• I get good advice about what to fix and how.
• I have other eyes that can see what's wrong when I can't.
• I feel an obligation to finish this.
• I feel an obligation to try hard with this...I don't want to just "cross the finish line." I really want to incorporate what I am learning from others.

This isn't the only group I'm involved with...it really does help take away the sting of working on your own. I really think finding a community of artists is essential to learning. You may want one community or several, they can be found anywhere...online forums, online challenges, private blogs, commenting on posts, email exchanges, etc...Try it, you might just like it.

Paintbrush Fun Run

Open Acrylics on acrylic paper,
9 in x 12 in,
(as this was just for fun, the paper support was just fine)

I used to run...run competitively. I spent lots of time running to get faster, stronger, and more likely to win races. But, there were days when I ran just because I liked the motion and the calmness it brought to me.

Tonight's painting session was a run with the brushes like that...just for fun, just to try a few things out and enjoy the process.

And now I can take that calmness off to bed...one can always hope...sleep has been elusive this week!

Painting Thoughts and a Web Question

Open Acrylics on Aquabord

Painting Thoughts...

I'm wrestling a bit with my painting. I'm trying to strike the right balance between defining detail and just suggesting form. My mind seems to swing between the two, often in the same painting, which incidentally doesn't really work well. Here I made an attempt to be looser.

One of the things that I really love in painting is lost and found edges...it seems a simple concept, but it is not simple to execute. I need to keep trying it out and see how it goes.

Color....color temperature...more grappling with ideas.

Web Question...
I've been thinking about my online presence and how to make it work best for me and for my customers. I would like to combine my sales blog with a few web pages...something where I can post my paintings for sale individually (in a blog) but at the same root url have a few regular web pages. For instance, a page for all the paintings currently for sale, a page for sold work, a contact page, about the artist, etc. Essentially, I want to combine my online gallery and my sales blog. I am not happy with my current provider. I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a place that provides blogging software and traditional web page templates? I have found Typepad.com, does anyone have experience with them?

STAMP-EDE and Good Business Practice

This post is about some rubber stamps I've inherited and how I'm going to use them.

I've recently inherited an art book library and a rubber stamp library. That sounds a little funny, rubber stamp library, but I kid you not. My uncle was a painter for many years, as he grew older he began collecting rubber stamps and making cards and stationery with them. Every card he sent had a stamp on the envelope and many of the cards were his own creation.



This week I received the cabinet above - 18 drawers full of stamps! In addition, I've received all of the card stock, heavy paper, and handmade paper that he had (reams and reams). And I'm thrilled! Thanks Mom and Dad for sending me all this!

What am I going to do with this? Employ it, of course. When I sell a painting I like to include a freebie or two. Have you ever purchased something and been given a little extra? It's a good feeling. I want my customers to have that good feeling. So, I'll give them a free bookmark or note card, something like that. Just a small way to say "thank you for supporting me."

Have you thought about how you are going to focus on your customer this year? It's a tough market, you are going to need some strategies to stake your claim...find some that work for you and for your customer and go for it!

Another good business practice is to have some consistency or branding in all the facets of your business - that's why I have now updated my sales blog to the new look.

More on the art book library later...

Cleaning Sidebar Clutter

This post explains how I made the "buttons" in my sidebar and got rid of all the clutter over there.

Changes That I Wanted
Initially, I didn't really notice the clutter in my sidebar. But, I noticed it on other blogs that I read and it irritated me. I didn't like that I couldn't find things without scrolling up and down and just thought the whole thing looked messy and crowded. Then, when I took this standard back to my blog, I realized I was just as guilty.

Also, I wanted to add the bloglist gadget with the thumbnails (for reasons below.) I felt that I couldn't add that until I had taken away some clutter.

Inspiration for Change
I recently added a slideshow and I've had several people comment to me how much they like it and how effective they think it is. That planted a seed.

I should also state that what I did is not original with me. Several people have used the same idea. Perhaps I have taken it the farthest, but Casey Klahn has "buttons" in his sidebar and Kasie Sallee has buttons along the top of her blog. I'm sure there are others as well, but those two leaped to mind.

Changes I Made

• Got rid of archives and category list - This felt a little radical at first. However, I realized these two gadgets bring the most clutter to the sidebar and I almost never use them. I never search through a blog by date and usually not by category either. These gadgets, although standard, aren't all that useful - particularly for the more established blogs that I would likely search (the archives and categories are just too numerous). As well, for any series or categories that prove particularly popular, I can make a button - hence my "book reviews" and "on blogging" buttons.
  
• Made buttons to link to things - this makes the sidebar nicer to look at and also puts the words of the blog posts in focus.
  
• Went for White - Although I liked my previous template with it's greys and "boxing in" of the blog - it just felt a little clunky. I decided that if everything was white, then colorful images would stick out.
  

How I Made the Changes

• Got rid of archives and category list - In the blogger "Layout" Tab, "Page Elements" page, just edit the gadget (archives or categories) and remove it. If no one ever clicks on it, why have it?
• "Buttons" - This is as easy as putting in a "Picture" gadget in your sidebar. Make an image the size that you want for your buttons in an image editor. In blogger, add a picture gadget, upload the image and fill in the url box to where you want the button to lead people.
  
• Side note on picture gadgets - I did not give my picture gadgets a title (Casey Klahn does - that's the only difference between his and mine). That decision makes mine read more like a menu than Casey's, but it does mean that all of my image gadgets are labeled "Picture" in the blogger page elements page. This is slightly annoying, as you have to know which one you want to edit - it's not as easy as knowing the name. But, as I don't really edit these all that often I'm willing to pay that price. I really like the effect - more than I dislike this small inconvenience.

Use of URLS - some of the buttons took an extra step. I explain below.

• Profile button - I got rid of the profile gadget, but I just made an "about me" button and attached the url to my profile to it.
• Monthly Newsletter - Previously, I had the standard subscribe gadget for my monthly newsletter. However, that is just some HTML and Javascript (from google groups). I just pasted that into a post, posted it, and then I had a URL for it so I could make a button out of it. Thanks to Nithya for pointing out that I could make the date old.
  
• Category buttons - those are just a matter of copying the "search/label" urls that are used on categories. (If you look at the urls for my book reviews and on blogging buttons you'll see that they are nearly the same apart from the specific search label.)
• Contact Info - Again, I put the image with my email address into a post. Then used the post url to link to the button.

Blog Thumbnail Gadget
I wanted to add this because I know that I benefit from it's use on other blogs. When I have an eye-catching image at the top of my posts, I always get more clicks from other blogs. People see that thumbnail and click through to my blog. Since I have been benefitting from it, I wanted to extend the same favor to those blogs that I enjoy.

In the next month I plan to update my website and sales blog, to give a consistency to all my "sites." I haven't done those yet as I am thinking of restructuring things a bit, I'm trying to streamline my "updating" process. I'd like to make website updates as easy as possible. I'll let you know if I come up with any insights there.

On a final note, I do think that these changes have been successful - I have more clicks than usual on my sidebar offerings. :D That feels good.

New Look - Like It?

I've just given my blog a redressing for the new year.

The goal was to tidy up the clutter of the sidebar, but still keep that information easily available. As I thought about how to accomplish this, I realized that I deal in images - why not let them speak for themselves?

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear it. And to those who got a bunch of posts in their readers today, my apologies.

More redressing ahead for the sales blog and the website...perhaps another day! :D

January 2009 Goals

Quick Sketch during Story Time

My goals for the month:

• Complete 4 paintings.
• Complete 10 sketches.
• Complete 1 self-portrait (for the portrait group).
• Participate in the VSD.
• Write a review of Harold Speed's Oil Painting Book (yeah! one book from the list!)
• Experiment with Twitter and Facebook.
• Learn two new things on the camera.

I may also throw in some blog/website rethink/redesign.