How to – Page 2 – Katie Jeanne Wood

Prepping mini panel paintings

Before I start painting on any substrate, I prep it first. Take these mini 4x4s for example. The back of these panels come plastered with Dick Blick’s logo all over them. As much as I’d love to promote Dick Blick on every order I ship out, I think it’s more important to sign, date, and add my website info to the back of every painting. The logo needs to go.

I’ve tried gessoing over it, but the logo showed through. So, now I paint over the logo with black paint, like this..

It’s not ready for my signature until the backs get two coats of gesso. With all the drying time involved, this process took most of the day. Now it’s on to the front of the canvas..

I’ve written about my dislike for painting directly on canvas many times in the past. Same goes for canvas panels. I don’t like the texture of canvas. I don’t like how paintings look on canvas after the paint dries. My remedy is making a nice smooth surface to paint on by using either artist quality modeling or molding paste. I spread a layer on with my palette knife, and wait for it to dry. Yes, more time is spent waiting..

Once it’s dry, I wet sand the surface of the panel until it’s nice and smooth. Then, I cover the modeling paste with two coats of gesso. ::insert lots more waiting between coats here::

Once these are thoroughly dry, I can start thinking about what I’m going draw on each one, and then finally, I can begin to paint.

If you’re thinking this sounds like a long drawn out process, you’d be correct. It took me two full days to prep 24 panels. I’ll have more to say about all this next week. Stay tuned.

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How I photograph my paintings for Etsy and social media

When I finish a painting, it ends up here in my office on my “photography table”. This is where it stays until I have a chance to photograph it, and list it on Etsy or elsewhere online. This is how my table looks most every day. It is a MESS. I always have finished paintings piled up, waiting for me to shoot. I used to dream of the day I’d have a clean tabletop with nothing to photograph, but that’s just not my reality. If I’m breathing, I’m painting. If I’m painting, I’m making more stacks of paintings to photograph. This table is evidence of the hard work I’m doing. That said, now that I’m caught up on some of the custom work I’ve been doing for the past two months, I’m determined to shrink these piles of paintings down to a more manageable size. ::crossing fingers::

For those who might not know, in each Etsy listing there are 5 image slots to fill. I’ve read or heard that for seo purposes, you should fill each of these slots. I have no way of knowing if that’s true or not. Some say yes, others say no. I’d rather be safe than sorry, so I fill each of the slots.

Believe it or not, until a short while ago, I used to shoot 5 different angles of each painting, even the mini 4x4s. It was an incredible amount of photo editing to do that I simply don’t have the time or patience for anymore. These days I use what I call “filler photos” for 2 of the 5 Etsy photos, and I shoot three different camera angles, instead of 5 (which still equals 2304982340983249 photos to shoot, and edit in Photoshop each week). I think three photos of a painting gives the viewer a pretty good idea of what they’re going to get when they buy a painting from me.

So, here’s how I do it..

1. Straight down

I shoot straight down using a tripod, and a horizontal bar (this is also what I use to make my videos). I go through each painting in the stack, and shoot them all at this one, close up angle. I take 2 to 4 shots of each painting using my camera remote control, just to be sure I get the perfect image. I later use the high resolution photo for my prints, so I need to have a crisp clear image of the painting.

Tip: You’ll want to sandbag your tripod when using this bar because once you screw your camera onto the pole, it does make the tripod top heavy. Mine has toppled over at times, but luckily I was able to catch it before it smashed my camera lens into the table. Since I made a sandbag for my tripod, I haven’t had any trouble with it tipping over. Remind me to do a blog post about that sometime soon or you can just google it. It’s super easy to make a sandbag.

Tip: You definitely need a camera remote if you’re using a horizontal bar. You don’t want to touch the camera because it will bounce, and the photo will come out blurry. You’ll also want to stand very still. If your house is old like mine, the slightest little movement can cause the floor to shake. Even if one of my cats walks across the floor it can move the tripod just enough that the camera reacts like a bobble head on that bar. Boing boing. So, be sure to take a few shots of each painting, pausing a few seconds in between each one, just in case you do get bar shake.

2. straight down

With the camera still on the horizontal bar, I zoom the camera lens out a bit or raise the tripod to get a zoomed out shot. This gives the viewer an idea of what the painting will look like from a few feet away, almost as if it’s hanging on a wall. Again, I go through the entire stack of paintings, and shoot each one at this angle. This way, I’m not making a ton of adjustments to the camera or tripod each time I shoot a different painting. All I have to do is make sure I have the painting centered on my camera screen, and shoot.

Tip: I shoot 50 to 100 photos, and then I transfer the photos onto my computer. I do this because I’ve had trouble with SD cards corrupting photos as I’m taking them. You don’t want to shoot 1000 photos before finding out your card has been messed up the entire time. It’s happened to me before, and I lost all the photos on the card. Hours of work went down the drain. If your SD cards are as persnickety as mine, you probably should format the card every time you put it back into your camera. Don’t format it on your computer..I’ve also made that mistake when I first got a Mac, and ended up having to throw the cards away. :/

3. angled so you can see the thickness of the canvas or frame

To shoot this angle, I take the camera off the horizontal bar, and tilt the tripod head downwards toward the table, as seen in the first photo above.

I think this angle is so sooo important for the buyer to see. Here’s why..I’ve bought several paintings online that were suppose to be on “canvas”, as stated in the listing, but actually ended up being on canvas board or panel when it arrived at my home. From a buyer’s perspective, there’s a big difference between canvas and canvas board/panel. Canvas comes on stretcher bars, and doesn’t need to be framed. It can be hung on a nail or screw right out of the box. Canvas board or panel is flat, and needs to be framed. This is an added expense the buyer should know about upfront, imo. That’s why I like to shoot this angle, so people can actually see the depth of the painting.

The bird painting above already comes framed, but I figured it doesn’t hurt to show the depth of the painting/frame anyway. That way there are no surprises when the buyer opens the box. The more your buyer knows about the painting before they purchase it, the less you’ll have to deal with returns.

Once the photos have been taken, I put each painting in a plastic bag (which I buy in bulk on eBay), so they don’t stick together, and stand them up in boxes to be stored until they sell. I store them by sizes, and by type. So, all the 6×6 landscapes go in one box, all the 4×4 florals in another. Each box is labeled on the outside, which makes it easier to find a painting when it sells. I like to ship my paintings out quickly after they sell, so being able to find one fast is important to me.

I hope this post helps explain how I take photos for my Etsy listings. Btw, I also use these same photos on social media, and my blog, so I get to recycle and reuse them over and over again. If you have any questions, I’ll try to answer them when I get a chance in the comments below.

I think you’ll enjoy

Lesson
Acrylic mixed media portrait painting of a woman wearing pink scarf with polka dots
Available for purchase here
Small to large prints available here

Every week I share my favorite finds with you. This week is pretty random, but I think you’ll enjoy.

Biggest mistake that beginners make

I really like this painting, and this handbag. I wonder why? 😉 Hint: pink!! Also, I have a thing for purses and bags.

I would totally do this!!

Etsy’s Reality Check

18 Ways to Sell Your Art Online

If I could buy all of this artist’s paintings, I would.

A look inside the new Etsy offices

I’ve been glued to the RNC this week. I find it all so riveting, I can’t look away. If you haven’t registered to vote, and you’re an American, please do before it’s too late.

How I ship mini paintings

Besides marketing, shipping is my least favorite part of selling paintings online. Yet, it’s something that has to be done, and should be done well. It can take a great deal of time to get a painting packaged up, and out the door. I usually allot an hour per painting. As a general rule, the smaller paintings take less time, and the larger paintings take longer. I’ve learned not to rush through it.

It’s important to me that my packaging looks nice. It’s the first thing my buyer is going to see, so I wrap each painting with care.

I use small Priority mail boxes for my minis on canvas. It’s easy, convenient, and best of all, it’s FREE. I get a box of 25 shipped to my PO box by ordering at USPS.com. It usually takes about a week, so be sure to order in advance.

Most of the bubble wrap I use isn’t brand new. Whenever I buy something online, it usually comes wrapped in bubble wrap, so I save and reuse what I can. I’ve only had to buy a big roll of bubble wrap once in all these years of business.

If I don’t have bubble wrap on hand, I’ll cut cardboard to wrap around the painting before placing it inside the box. It gives it an extra layer of protection. This is a video I found that helped me learn how to make my own box. I have a scoring wheel tool that I use. Instead of folding the cardboard as messily as this guy does, I score it instead, and the box comes out looking much neater. Again, I want my packaging to look nice when it reaches the buyer, so I take my time preparing the shipment.

The most important thing about packaging a painting or any item for shipment is securing it inside the box. You don’t want it to bounce around and break. You want it to sit as tightly, and still as possible while on its journey. There was extra space to the right when I slid the painting inside the box, so I made sure to pack it with scrunched up paper. I stuffed it full after I shot this photo.

I always tape up all edges, and openings. You can’t see it in this photo, but I go around the entire edge of the box with tape. I’ve learned that the sticky stuff on the Priority box flaps isn’t dependable. I sealed a box once, walked away to print out the label, and the box was wide open when I came back in the room. All I could think was, what if that had happened in transit? The contents inside would have been lost for sure. Since then, I’ve always taped the box shut before shipping it out, and never rely on the sticky flaps working correctly.

Want to read more about how I ship paintings? I’ve written other posts about shipping here and here.

Have you signed up for my newsletter yet? You should! Starting this month on the 16th, 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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5 Things I can’t live without in my art studio

1. Gesso and cheap black paint

I buy Blick Master gesso by the gallon, and black paint by the 1/2 gallon. I use gesso to prep my canvas before I start painting, and the black paint is used for painting over paintings I don’t like. The black paint I use is student grade. I can get away with buying cheap black paint because I know it’s going to get covered up with gesso later.

2. Palette knives

Unless I’m painting a portrait, you’ll find me painting with knives. Most people don’t know this, but I actually started out painting with knives back in the 1800s. haha People often think I completely changed my style when I started painting flowers again. I didn’t. I was painting flowers, birds, landscapes and abstracts when I first started selling art online. My husband has a flower box that I painted 13 or 14 years ago that he bought off me from Ebay. It was long before we were married or even dating. He also has a couple landscapes I did. So, yeah..knives have always been important to me. I couldn’t work without them.

3. Dorland’s wax or varnish

I seal my paintings with either Dorland’s wax or varnish. Either one works great. This big jar of wax cost me almost a $100, but it was worth it. It will last for years. I also have smaller jars I keep on hand.

I either spread the wax on the finished painting with an angled knife or with a paper towel. I don’t like how the wax feels on my hands, so I usually use a knife. Sometimes, I use a blow dryer on it to melt the wax, and move it around, and then I let it sit for a while before I gently buff it out. It gives a soft finishing layer to my paintings. I wouldn’t be without it in my studio.

If you don’t want to spend $100 on wax, and I can’t say as I blame you, this 16 oz jar runs a little less than $20 at Blick.

4. Plastic paint cups for acrylics

The cups keep acrylics from drying out too fast, especially in the summer months. My studio is on the second floor of my house. It’s either too hot up here or waaay too HOT up here. Either way, acrylic paint dries out fast up here. I hate wasting paint, so these little cups work well for me. I mix up enough for one painting and get to work.

5. The Masters’ Brush Cleaner

I’ve had this brush cleaner around my studio for years, but I didn’t think it worked all that well cleaning my acrylic brushes. At the time, I was looking for something to clean hardened on acrylic paint, and this doesn’t work for that.

It wasn’t until just a few weeks ago, I discovered this brush cleaner works best with oils. I used to clean my oil brushes with natural turp, which worked okay, but I prefer being able to wash my brushes out in water. I keep this little container right by my water bucket. After wiping my brush off on a paper towel, I swish it in water to wet it, and then in the soap, alternating back and forth until the oil paint is gone, and the brush is soft and clean. The soap itself gets covered in paint, but just keep swishing it with water to clean it off..works great!! If you paint with oils, this is the soap to use on your brushes.

I have also found something to clean hardened acrylic on brushes, but you’ll have to wait until the next time I write a new list of studio favorites for the answer. Awww!! Subscribe to my blog below so you never miss another post.

Have you signed up for my newsletter yet? You should! Starting in May, 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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I’m so happy to have you here. Thank you!

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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Tips for artists who are painting on a budget

When I first started painting, and selling my artwork back in 2001, money was tight. I knew I had to keep my studio stocked with art supplies or I couldn’t work, yet I also needed to eat and live a little between painting sales. It was a tough juggling act to find a balance between spending what little money I made on food or art supplies. It was something I struggled with for several years, but I found some easy ways to cut the high cost of art supplies, and keep painting. If you’re trying to paint on a budget, you’ll want to keep reading.

example of what chipboard looks like

So, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of art supplies is..you need the basics. Gesso, paint, brushes or knives, some sort of surface to paint your painting on, and varnish to seal your work. You can get by nicely as a painter with only these few items. Today I’m going to write about the surface or substrate.

I’m not going to lie, hands down, I prefer using canvas. The problem with canvas is – it’s expensive, especially if you use good quality canvas, like I do. I can easily throw down $200 to $300 each time I purchase it. If you don’t have that kind of cash to spend upfront, a cheaper alternative is either canvas panels, wood panels or chipboard. I put the list in order from the most expensive. Chipboard is the least expensive to buy, so let’s start there.

What exactly is chipboard, you might be wondering? Chipboard is made from wood chips that are pressed together and bound with synthetic resin. It’s what they make cereal boxes with, only the kind I buy is thicker, and rigid. To give you an idea of the cost, I bought chipboard from Ebay about a month ago. I’m working on a project that requires a 3.9 inch painting surface, which is an odd size I knew I’d have to cut myself. I found a package of 20 acid free sheets of chipboard that were 8.5×11 inches. Perfect! I got .030 point, which as you can see in the photos, lies flat and takes big gobs of paint well. You want to get the thick stuff, otherwise it warps under the weight of the paint, and loses shape. You don’t want curly paintings.

I paid $8.00 for 20 sheets, plus got free shipping. Now, if you compare that to the cost of 20 canvas roughly the same size as the sheets, I would have paid about $225. So, buying chipboard instead of canvas equalled BIG savings for me. Chipboard has not only saved me money over the years, but it kept me painting when I didn’t have money to spend on canvas. The way I look at it, any day I’m painting, and not sitting on the sidelines wishing I was painting is a GREAT day. If you love to paint as much as I do, I think you’ll agree. Give chipboard a try, and let me know how you like it.

Next week, I’m going to write about ways to save money on paint, and it might not be exactly what you expect. Stay tuned.

How I take photos of my paintings

Katherine Jeanne Wood - 9x12 Sweet Dreams 02

before – dark and gloomy

As I said yesterday, I’m on a painting break. I’ve decided to spruce up my Etsy shops with new, improved photos. I finished up my Art by Katie Jeanne shop last week, and now I’m on to my Miz Katie shop.

Katherine Jeanne Wood - 9x12 Sweet Dreams 02 2
after – lighter, brighter, prettier

Like I’ve said a few times now, I bought a new slr camera last summer. It has 24 megapixels, whereas my old Nikon only had 6 or 8. You probably already know that the more megapixels your camera has the larger the prints you can make. The higher the megapixels the better quality your photos will be, too. Long story short, I’m able to make much larger, better quality prints and photos now.

Katherine Jeanne Wood - photography tablejpg
This is how I take photos of my paintings

I also bought new lighting last year, and have a photography table set up specifically for taking photos of my paintings. These were all big changes. I used to use my worktable to take photos of my work, and I’d have to clear it off every time I needed photos. Now I have a table in my office with a nice white lace tablecloth on it. It’s some different than that dark old paint stained table I was shooting on. My paintings look 100% better now. Don’t you agree?

white roses, palette knife painting
before

Katherine Jeanne Wood - 4x4 Flower Series No 7 02
Now

Slowly, but surely, all of my Etsy listings (roughly 1000, including all those expired. ack!) will have these new bright shiny photos in them. I just need time to retake all the photos of my paintings. Then there’s a little thing called editing each one in Photoshop. This is why I’m taking a studio break. It’s a long, daunting process, but so worth the time. Every time I see a listing with my old photos in it, I cringe. So dark and gloomy. I’m going to work my tail off until all my listings have these new lighter, brighter photos, even if it takes me all spring and summer to do it. Don’t worry. I’ll still be blogging. I’ll probably update you now and then on my progress.

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