..a little gift for you to print out or save to your desktop, whichever you like. You can download it here.
Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’
― Lao Tzu
Revamping my Pinterest – new boards and focus
Pinterest has always been my favorite social media site. It makes sense to me. I’m a visual artist, and Pinterest is full of pretty things and endless art.
Even though I’ve always loved Pinterest, a little something was lacking for me there. For a long while, I was pinning only art, mine and others. It took me taking a class on Pinterest to figure out what I was doing wrong. It was time for some new boards!!
These photos show what my new, revamped Pinterest looks like!!
My focus is still on art, of course, but I’ve added helpful boards for both the art buyer and artist, as well. New boards include: How to Build a Gallery Wall, Apartment Decorating, Farmhouse Style, Cottage Chic, Wall Colors, Decorating the Bedroom, Living Room, Kitchens, Bathroom Ideas, How to Paint, How to Sell Art, and Color Palettes for artists. I’m only getting started, and it’s going to continue to grow from here.
If you haven’t stopped by my Pinterest in a while, why not give it a look right now. Be sure to click that follow button. You don’t want to miss out on what’s to come.
Also, if you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, I’m just days away from giving away this painting..
4×4 bird painting on chipboard
The drawing will be held on May 15th. Be eligible to win by signing up now..
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On the easel – Little Dude Oil Portrait
Little boy blowing on a dandelion
oil portrait painting sketch
Little Dude No 4
At this point, I was debating whether it was finished or not. I decided it wasn’t, so back on the easel he went..
The painting sat here for a couple days to dry a bit, and then I finished it. His eyes were uneven, so I changed them. He also wasn’t looking down at the dandelion enough, so I gave him thicker upper eyelids to fix that. I could go on tweaking this painting forever, especially his eyes, but I’m going to refrain and call it done. It’s time to move on.
Little Dude No 4
finished painting
Small to large prints are available here.
I enjoyed painting this portrait, but it will be the last one I do for a while. One, because I haven’t got another portrait in mind, and I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about portraits these days. And two, I’m working on other projects right now, and don’t have time. If you’re interested in Little Dude No 4, you can purchase it here. It won’t be dry enough to ship for several more weeks. Small to large prints are available now.
Have you signed up for my newsletter yet? You should! Starting next month I’ll be giving away a painting, each and every month to one of my subbies. Be eligible to win by signing up now..
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Art scammers – Part 2
I’ve already written about the art scammers, who contacted me through my website, and Daily Paintworks back in January. I thought they had gone away, but they’re back. I want you to know what to look for if you’re approached by these scammers. Here’s what was sent to me last week through my contact form here on my site..
Name: Mathew Duncan
Email: mathewduncan79@gmail.com
Website:
Comment: Greetings!
My name is Mathew Duncan from Washington DC. I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work. I’m also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too, You are doing a great job. I would like to purchase a piece of artwork (16×20 Acrylic Landscape Painting on canvas – Time Tested $325.00), if it is available and ready for sale as a surprise to my wife on our anniversary. Also, let me know if you accept check as mode of Payment.
Thanks and best regards.
Time: April 11, 2016 at 3:20 am
IP Address: 105.112.18.90
Contact Form URL: http://katiejeannewood.com/contact-katherine/
Sent by an unverified visitor to your site.
This almost looks legit, which is why I’m warning you about it. If I hadn’t been contacted by scammers before, I wouldn’t have picked up on it. You know how I know this is a scam? Because it has the exact same lines in it that the other scammer sent me. His wife likes my artwork, and looked at it on his laptop, just as Handy’s wife did. These men really should password protect their laptops. They have some wild, out of control women, who visit my site all the time. Also, like the other scammers, he picked one of my largest and most expensive paintings available.
I’ve always wanted to be a private detective when I grow up (for real), but I guess I’ll have to settle for playing one on the internet. I decided to dig a little deeper into this. If you contact anyone through WordPress, we automatically get sent your IP address at the bottom of the email..you can see it up there ^. 99.9% of the time, I pay no attention to anyone’s IP address, but since I’m 100% sure this is a scammer, I wanted to see where “Mathew” was really writing me from. I had a strong hunch he wasn’t writing from DC.
You can look up any IP address for free. I choose to use the first two sites after doing a Google search for “IP lookup”. On both sites, his address came back as Nigeria, Africa. Need I say more? I typed “scammers” into my Bing search bar and “scammers in Nigeria” was the first thing to pop up.
We all want to make sales, and it’s always exciting to think someone likes our work. However, if someone isn’t clicking the Buy Now button, and asking you to take a check instead, it could be a sign you’re dealing with a scam artist. I’ve had a no check or money order policy for years because I don’t want to take any chances.
If he can write me a check for the painting, why can’t he use his debit card to purchase it through Paypal? Makes no sense. If someone doesn’t have a debit card to go with their checking account, it’s highly suspicious.
After I wrote the last post about art scammers I got an email from an artist who thanked me for writing it. She said she had been scammed by Handy..the same guy who tried to scam me in January. She did a Google search, and found my blog post. She’s now in the process of getting back thousands of dollars. He did the old “I’ll send you a check for much more than the painting is priced, and you refund the difference.” This scam has been around forever. I was surprised she didn’t know about it. The check he sent her didn’t clear the bank, but the refund check she sent him did. He stole her painting and money. I sincerely wish her the best of luck getting it all back.
If you do still accept checks or money orders for your artwork, make sure it’s made out to the exact amount, and that it clears the bank before you ship the art out. Money orders can be fake, also.
Before this post was scheduled to post, I got yet another email..this one is almost exactly like the first one I received back in January, except this guy’s name is “Paul”, not “Handy”, and he’s from CA, not MA…
Name: Paul Moore
Email: pmoore525@gmail.com
Website:
Comment: Greetings!
My name is Paul Moore from California. I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work, I’m also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too, : ) You are doing a great job. I would like to receive further information about your piece of work and what inspires you. I am very much interested in the purchase of the piece (in subject field above) to surprise my wife. Kindly confirm the availability for immediate sales.
Thanks and best regards,
Paul Moore
Time: April 18, 2016 at 1:51 am
IP Address: 172.102.215.5
Contact Form URL: http://katiejeannewood.com/contact-katherine/
Sent by an unverified visitor to your site.
This IP address came back as Miami, FL, which is a long way from CA, but I can see how you could get the two states mixed up. smh
If you are getting the same messages sent to your inbox, and you think there’s nothing you can do about it, there is! Report it to the FBI here, and let other artists know about this scam.
Have you signed up for my newsletter yet? You should! Starting next month I’ll be giving away a painting, each and every month to one of my subbies. Be eligible to win by signing up now..
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On the Easel – new bird paintings
New bird paintings were painted last week. I only painted 4 of them because I ran out of canvas. Oops! I hate when that happens. I’m getting an order ready for Dick Blick now.
1. I love b&w photos, and haven’t posted any in a while.
2. Sometimes color is overrated, and overwhelming at the same time.
3. I don’t want to give away what the paintings look like just yet.
4. I’m considering doing another black and white series, and want to get a feel for how it will look.
And, that’s a sneak peek into my studio from last week.
These paintings will be shipped off to the Stage Coach Gallery in South Dakota soon. If you’re in the area, stop by, and say hello to Mary.
Have you signed up for my newsletter yet? You should! Starting next month I’ll be giving away a painting, each and every month to one of my subbies. Be eligible to win by signing up now..
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Intimidated by blank canvas? Here’s a painting exercise for you
one of my art journal pages from 2009
Sometimes, as artists, we take ourselves way too seriously. We feel pressured to produce amazing works of art to fill up our shops, blogs, and social media. In our minds, we have to paint perfect paintings, yet do perfect paintings even exist? I don’t think so. All this pressure we put on ourselves makes facing a blank canvas daunting at times. I’ve even found myself scrubbing the toilet, and mopping floors – doing anything to get out of going to my studio to paint. When I realized what I was doing, I was disappointed in myself. If you’re an artist, I’m sure you’ve been there, done that, too. Maybe you’re doing it now, procrastinating by reading this page. It’s okay, you can keep reading, just get yourself to the studio, and do this exercise when you’re finished. 😉
One way I’ve learned to deal with a blank canvas is to give my insufferable brain a rest. If I’m being too serious, and hard on myself, it’s time for some playtime to turn things around. Feeling pressured to create the next great masterpiece slowly starts to dissolve after I open up one of my art journals. I feel the knots in my shoulders softening, as I give myself permission to do whatever I like. You won’t find any perfect paintings on these pages. I purposely make a lot of bad art.
I didn’t notice the white heart until I uploaded the photo here. Love happy surprises like this!
Sometimes I draw my cat, Harold, and write him a note. I have no idea what it says because I gave myself permission to have bad handwriting, so I scribbled. 
These pages are messy, and fun to create. We all should be having fun in our studios everyday. If you’re not enjoying yourself, and it’s all about work, work, work, it gets old and boring. Trust me, I know. I painted well over 500 paintings to sell last year. Believe me, it wasn’t all cupcakes, glitter and lollipops. It was hard work, especially when it came to photographing and listing them all. Some days it felt like I was glued to my office chair. From the outside looking in, it probably seems like all we do is have fun and play with our crayons all day, but in reality? It’s a tough job with long hours, which artists take it very seriously. So when I’m doing these pages, it gives me a much needed break from all that, and allows me to relax.
Besides having fun, I also get to keep all of the paintings for myself. I don’t have to share them with anyone, if I don’t want to. When you’re a working artist, keeping something just for yourself means a lot. If we want to sell paintings online, we’re pretty much forced to put everything out there. I happen to love this art journal of mine, and I especially love that it’s mine, all mine. It has about 100 pages in it, and very few will ever see the light of day online. That keeps it sacred and special to me.
You know what happens when I do this little exercise? I’m forgetting about my worries of making something perfect or pretty. I’m playing, having fun, not thinking of the outcome. I don’t care what it looks like as I’m painting or after I’m finished. I’m in the moment, moving paint around. It loosens me up, and keeps me moving forward. I’m not sitting on the couch with the remote in my hand, giving up on art or myself. Heck no! That’s no way to be a real artist.
After making a couple pages like this, I’m grabbing one of those blank canvases that has been taunting me, and I get back to work. I’m well on my way to making my next painting, and probably several more after that because once I start, it’s hard to stop. Ideas keep flowing.
I hope you try this exercise. If you do, let me know how it goes in the comments below.
Have you signed up for my newsletter yet? You should! Starting next month I’ll be giving away a painting, each and every month to one of my subbies. Be eligible to win by signing up now..
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On my easel – a pink abstract painting
abstract painting progress shot No 1
I had a range of paintings on my easel last week – florals, birds, landscapes, portraits and abstracts. Whew! I didn’t have a chance to take progress shots of them all, but I’d like to show you how this abstract was created.
progress shot No 2
finished pink abstract painting
This one is larger. I think maybe 16×20 inches.
The finished paintings are hanging in my shipping room until they sells. Seeing all this pink when I walk out there makes me so happy.
A special thank you to Sheila, who sent me this postcard in the mail.
♥♥♥
Tips for buying paint on an artist’s budget
This is part two of the painting on a budget series. If you missed the first one, you can find it here. I wrote about buying affordable substrate when the high cost of canvas isn’t in the budget.
There are two types of paint for artists to use – student grade, and artist professional grade. You can probably guess that the student grade is cheap to buy, and the artist grade is pricey. Now, if you’re on a budget, you might think that buying student grade will save you money, but it actually won’t in the long run. I’ve had to paint over some of my earlier paintings because the color faded, and turned dull and muddy in just a short period of time. I learned my lesson on buying cheap paint.
Also, I always have my customer in mind when I buy art supplies. I don’t skimp when it comes to paint because it never seemed right or fair to me to cheat the buyer like that. A buyer is giving me their hard earned money, so in return I should give them a high quality painting. It only makes sense to me. However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t learned a couple ways to save money on paint, and that knowledge I want to pass along to you.
Tip No 1: Mix your own paint colors
This is a MUST. It saves me a ton of money because I’m not buying every color under the rainbow when I shop. I’m only buying the primary colors, plus black and white. Sure, I’ll buy an exotic color or two if I have the extra cash. If I don’t, I know I’ll be just fine making my own.
mmm..looks like blue frosting, eh? 😉 I wish!!
Mixing your own colors can seem intimidating at first, but it’s easy to learn. If you’re not sure how to do it, I suggest you read 1500 Color Mixing Recipes by William Powell or The Color Mixing Bible by Ian Sidaway. Or do a Google and Youtube search for mixing paint, and absorb all the free information you can get on the subject. It’s free! You don’t have to spend a cent, and your budget will love you for it. Here’s a great video for beginners..
“Do 50 paintings with this color palette”
It’s good to experiment. Example: yellow and blue makes green like the guy shows in the video. However, black and yellow mixed together makes my favorite shade of green. I never use yellow and blue. So, don’t be afraid to experiment. When you’re first learning, start by mixing a tiny amount on your palette, and do some tests.
Tip No 2: Look for different brands of artist quality paint
Another paint savings I discovered a few years ago – it pays to shop around for different paint brands. Instead of buying Golden paint, which can run over $130 for a 32 oz jar of cad red, the alternative could be SoHo Urban Artist paint. Their byline is Artist Quality at Student Quality Prices – Artist Grade Acrylic Paints! It is exactly that, and has saved me thousands of dollars over the years. Soho has a rich, creamy texture that I love. The cost of a 500 ml (16.9 oz) jar of acrylic is roughly $11. If you buy two, you get 33.8 oz, and you save $108, if I did the math right. I don’t know about you, but the thought of saving a hundred bucks thrills me to no end. Plus, you get a tiny bit more paint on top of it.
I can tell you from experience that the colors are super bright, especially the reds, and the savings can’t be beat. I have the 32 oz jar of Golden cad red in my studio, and the Soho brand. I actually find myself reaching for the Soho jar first, time and time again. Don’t get me wrong, I still buy some Golden paint, too, but I actually like the consistency of Soho paints better. And before you scream at your screen, “but Katie, Soho red paint is a hue, and Golden is a cadmium red.” I already know, and I still like Soho better. Try it, and tell me what you think. You’ll never know until you try.
So where can you buy this paint? There are a couple places selling it online, like Amazon. Jerry’s is the only one I trust, so I buy there in bulk about 2 – 4 times a year. I tried buying it at ASW Express, and it was a horrid experience – not once, but twice they failed. I will probably write about it sometime.
And, in case you’re wondering, Soho also has affordable oil paint. These cans are only $15. Try buying an entire can of oil somewhere else for that price. It’s more like hundreds. I haven’t painted with the oils enough to form a strong opinion, but the couple times I’ve used it, I thought it was great. Give it a try, and let me know what you think.
Be sure to sign up for my newsletter. Starting next month I’ll be giving away a painting, each and every month. You MUST be signed up to receive my newsletter to be eligible to win.
Also..
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