The lovely team of ladies from Art is Moving sent me one of their ART in your POCKET portable drawing kits(www.iheartartinyourpocket.com) to try out. Each Art in your Pocket comes with the 2″ x 3″ box to carry the 4 pieces of paper, pencil, pencil sharpener, eraser, sharpie, and 3 oil pastels(come in random colors). I was lucky enough to score the red and green oil pastels just in time for the Holiday season. This adorable kit fit perfectly in the outer pocket of my backpack and I’ve carried it everywhere with me. Now, I typically draw with a pencil, and there is one included, but the little Sharpie marker caught my attention and demanded that I draw with it. The pieces of paper are sturdy and have a shiny and matte finish side. I drew the little characters in the photo while having hot chocolate at several different coffee shop stops with friends. AIYP is both fun and inspirational. It inspires you to create art no matter where you are.

Art in your Pocket would make a fun gift for the artist, student, or yourself. Also, for every sale they make 10% goes to donating art supplies and Art in your Pocket(s) to those who cannot afford them. The Art is Moving team has a mission:

Make a world where EVERYONE has access to art and makes art everyday.

I think this is a wonderful goal. Get the full details on the Art in your Pocket page: www.iheartartinyourpocket.com .

If your interested in one of my mini drawings, send me an email (andy@calexstudio.com). They are $5 each and include shipping. Happy Holidays.

Fiverr

Let’s ignore possible shipping charges momentarily, and focus on the cost of listing and selling fees. Fiverr.com and TenBux.com both charge a $1 for selling a $5 item. You may think, well it is only a dollar. Yes, it is only a dollar, but that is 20% of the selling price. Even by todays standards, 20% is pretty high. We will not even get into the fact that PayPal will still get their cut when you get paid. Now, I don’t expect for them to do it for free, so we need a comparison. I’ve stated in a previous post that I’m not a big fan of selling art on eBay anymore, so I think the best logical alternative would be Etsy or Artfire. I’m most familiar with Etsy, so they will be my basis for comparison. Etsy does charge a flat fee of 20¢ (twenty cents) to list an item, so Fiverr would have the advantage if an item never sold. Now, if we did sell the same $5 item on Etsy, they charge 3.5% of the sales price(excluding shipping), so our $5 sale fee would be 18¢ (eighteen cents, actually .175 but we will round up) and adding the initial twenty cents for listing, brings the grand total to 38¢ (thirty-eight cents). Etsy would be 62¢ (sixty-two cents) savings over Fiverr or TenBuxx. You may say this is no big deal, but the goal here is multiple sells, so multiply the difference times 10 or 100 and see which sounds better, $100 in fees or $38 in fees. The goal for us, as artists, is to make the most that we can make and to maximize our efforts, while sustaining and fueling our creative lifestyle.

Etsy fees description

So far shipping and fees do not seem to favor Fiverr and the various what people will do for “x” amount of money sites. What about building our brand as an artist. One of the selling points for these sites is that everything is anonymous and not to exchange emails or information. In my opinion this is where, these sites ultimately break down the most. Sure on eBay, Etsy, Artfire, and Fiverr you can leave feedback for transactions, but the goal should be to spread the word about our artwork(Ultimately, I think you are best served with a blog or a website to create a hub for your art, crafts, and ideas. If you need a free or simple blog or site, you might try out a free account on Tumblr.com or WordPress.com). Again, one of the ways that Etsy excels is that you can create a shop, and this is free. Your shop has a profile, where you can tell people who you are and why they might want to do business with you, in addition to selling your wonderful creations. Building your own brand and identity is priceless and will allow you to create repeat customers leading to future sells.

In the communication and sharing comparison, all of the options are pretty even. Fiverr has sharing buttons to share your item via Twitter or Facebook( if you don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account, I highly recommend these for spreading the word about your art and communicating with your audience). Etsy and even eBay both have excellent means for sharing your items, and if you aren’t using the buttons, you should be. The problem with all of these sites is that there is a sea of items and offers and in order to stand out you will have to get eye balls on your items, as Gary Vaynerchuk would say, in order for there to even be a chance of a sell. The more places that you tell people about what you have to offer, the more chances you have to make a sell. However, please don’t spam. One of the keys to marketing yourself and your artwork is to be courteous and considerate. I see many Twitter users only tweeting about their products, which will eventually turn people off. Help other artists at the very least, but hopefully you will engage with other people and have a conversation. Let people know what you like, what interests you, and above all, “Be Yourself.”

One more thing that is important to consider on any site, is to make sure that you state clearly what rights the end user will have over the created piece of art. Are you giving all rights to the buyer, or are you maintaining rights for yourself to create prints, market, or whatever a creative individual might want to do with their art in the future. Fiverr clearly states that “Buyers are granted all rights to the delivered work,” unless you state it clearly in the description. Maintaining your rights as an artist is important. You also don’t want to give away your rights and allow someone else to profit off of your hard work. Sadly you have to defend your rights. Cheer up, it is not all doom and gloom. Just be clear about the rules.

Fiverr buyer/seller rights

In conclusion, it looks like sites like Fiverr and TenBux are not that great for selling traditional arts and crafts. Obviously with Etsy, Artfire, or Ebay you are not limited to the amount that you can charge to sell an item. I did not even getting into selling things directly from your own site by using a PayPal “Buy It Now” or “Add to Cart” button. These new sites seem to be about doing things cheaply and churning them out. There is nothing wrong with selling items for a lower cost, but it should not be your only price. I hate to say it, but many people attach value to expense. Oddly if you charge more, people will believe that you are worth more, and frankly you are. The purpose of sharing these articles and tips is for all of us, myself included, to make money from doing what we love.

P.S. As an example of social media impact, I used the Tweet button on one of my Etsy paintings as a test, and created 25 new item views as a result at the time of this posting, in less than 15 hours. Here is the tweet:
testing for a blog post I’m writing tomorrow – Capital Hat minipop painting by andymcnally on @Etsyhttp://etsy.me/aq48sc

P.P.S. If you like this article consider signing up for my newsletter, following me on Twitter, or reTweeting this article if you are already on Twitter.

I’ve been playing with the Brushes App on my iPad the last couple of days, and thought I would give everyone a brief review. First off, let me say that I love creating artwork in any form, wether it is crayons or on a computer. One of the things that first made me want to get an iPad, besides that I’m trying to develop some interactive story apps, was being able to create digital art on it. I’ve tried out several drawing and illustration apps, but I have not really found one that has had every feature I’m wanting. The amazing thing is that this $7.99 iPad/ $4.99 iPhone app can do things that would cost hundreds of dollars or more in many desktop applications, not to mention you would also need an external drawing tablet, which would cost more money. In the overall scheme of things, you may even save money buying the iPad(or iDevice) and the app, over other tools, and the iPad is incredibly portable. I know that iPad isn’t for everyone, so with out further delay, on with the review.

view of the interface with the layer panel open

The interface on Brushes is minimalistic and easy to use. There are quick menus for changing the brush type and size, although the slider can sometimes be difficult to get just where you want it. The plus and minus buttons on either side of the sliders are a welcome feature to allow for the fine tuning of settings. The interface also provides menus for picking colors(and saving them), a bucket for filling colors, an eraser tool, undo button, redo button, a color picker, and a layers panel, which offers a couple of basic blending modes and a way to move the entire layer. All of these menu items can be hidden, so that you can focus on your creation. The tools are all amazingly easy to use without reading any instructions.  I would like to see a few extra tools to make selections and manipulate the selections.

brush settings menu

color panel

The gallery is the area for creating new images, and for viewing items previously created. The gallery also provides a menu for sharing you work via email, saving to your photos, and even uploading to Flickr. One of my favorite features is the ability to email yourself the file’s actions. The Brushes Viewer, available for both PCs and Macs, is a free desktop application that will take the .brushes file and exported the image at up to six times the original size or export a movie of your creation. I’ve included a sample movie export at the top of the post.

gallery

gallery sharing menu

In summary I really like the easy and simple interface of Brushes, and that is what makes it shine. Sure it could use a few more features, but some of it’s beauty is it’s simplicity. It is a tool that I will be glad to use and include in my creative tool set.

PS. The untitled drawing in the review, I later decided to call “Lex Luther.”  It reminded me of the Lex from the Smallville television show.  I drew him happy, because I don’t want to give up on him changing his mind about the whole villain thing.

The painting is available in my Etsy shop.

If you haven’t already, be sure to enter my Dinosaur Grocery Tote giveaway.

]]> http://www.andymcnally.com/2010/08/20/sharpie-markers-on-canvas/feed/ 0 http://www.andymcnally.com/2010/06/07/curse-you-iphone-4/ http://www.andymcnally.com/2010/06/07/curse-you-iphone-4/#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:26:51 +0000 Andy http://www.andymcnally.com/?p=499 A new sketch with HB Lead for my 2mm lead holder.  I like this lead much better and can get the darker lines that I prefer.  In regards to Apple’s announcement today and the new iPhone 4, I fear my poor Piggy Bank may be in danger.  Curse you Apple and you uber cool gadgets.

I bought an extra 2mm holder, that I intend to use in DIY iPad/iPhone stylus project.

I found this four pack of Bic Mark-it Permanent Markers at Target for only $2.99.  I wanted to try them out and see how they compared to my last find, the Sharpie Writing Pen.  I’m really glad that I decided to get the Ultra Fine size, rather than the Fine Point, because the tip was wider then I expected.  One thing that I did not mention,in the video, is that the pen’s comfortable rubber grip  made it very comfortable to hold and use.  Check out the video to see my additional thoughts and comments, as well as a quick drawing to see how the pen preforms.  Have a wonderful day.

Here is my first, but certainly not last pen review.  I saw this Sharpie Writing pen at the store and decided to give it a try.  It said that it was permanent, no bleed, quick drying, acid free, water resistant, and could fight off aliens.  Ok, they don’t claim any protection from aliens, but with the right imagination it might be better than nothing.  I will have to say that for a very inexpensive pen (2 pack around $2.75) that I was impressed.  It did not bleed into the paper, which scored major points with me.  It is a nice pen to carry around with you so that your expensive drawing tools can stay home safe and sound.  The video even shows one of my random doodles.  Thanks for taking a look.

Want to watch a higher quality version.