This weekend I'm going to try some cut paper work, using those thin wrapping tissue sheets. Other cut paper things I've made lately have been using "regular" paper, which is thicker and more difficult to cut precisely. My plan is to make some small pieces and form a group then scan the entire thing. Once the image is scanned I'll paint it using digital watercolors. Not certain now beyond that...I want to make a series of greeting/note cards, using cut paper/scanning/watercolors.....how the images are divided up or gathered together is still a little foggy to me. Which is part of the fun!

See the results on RedBubble: I'll update this when they're complete!

Hmmmm......doing some research.......greeting card prices in stores are VERY high. Certainly higher than the cards at REDBUBBLE, as long as the artist doesn't apply too much of a mark-up. The difference is that a buyer can whoooooosh into the store at the last minute, buy the card, and take it home. No shipping cost. No wait time.

Our cards need to be VERY special and need to be marketed in particular ways. If someone buys a group of cards (the size of which varies, I think) shipping fees are waived. So buying large groups of cards makes sense, from the cost perspective. Difficulties arise when buyers want "occasion" cards, such as condolence, holidays, etc., and don't plan ahead.

Can a seller do much about that? Probably. Marketing ahead of the season (but not too far ahead), offering bulk groupings and linked markup reductions seems like a good strategy.

Have I tried this? No, not really. I've tried pieces of it but not comprehensively, and not well.

Another technique that MAY work is to offer CUSTOM CARD design.

That's what I'm working on now: how to set up and market a custom card strategy.

I was recently contacted via REDBUBBLE (on my site there, Robpixaday) by the Art Director of an ad agency (in another country) that was interested in buying one of my images for use in a pharmaceutical ad. Turns out the ad is for a direct mailing and also a trade journal. WOW!

Here's the image, on RedBubble!

Thousands of years ago, when I was in my 30's, I tried painting. On canvas. With acrylics. I painted for weeks and loved nearly every second of the time! Then I made the mistake of showing some of the results to a good friend who has a Masters in Fine Arts, whose parents are artists, who married an artist, and who teaches art herself. She was such a good friend that she told me what she thought, and I know it hurt her to do it. Her opinion was that what I was doing was too dark, too odd, too creepy to please anyone and if I wanted to keep doing it that was fine, but it wouldn't sell because I wasn't good enough to pull it off. I should switch gears or take some courses. Or both. So I tried a different approach: lots of light and pastels, and swoopy clouds. And I got sick of painting VERY fast.  Then I tried drinking vodka along with slinging the paint around. All I made was a mess on the floor. One night I packed everything up and shoved the paint tubes, brushes, palette knives and canvases (new and used) in a closet. I didn't get them all out until recently.

So what's up with the no-pixel-zone? Making digital art is SOOOOOOOOO much fun!! There's a way to erase! Start over! Change colors! Warp things! Well, you know how cool it can be. But I'm going nutsiola without the TEXTURE. Without the drag of the brush. I didn't have a clue what I was doing while I was painting, but I knew that it made my soul happy. Happier. It pulled the emotions out of me through my fingers, into the brushes, and onto the canvases in a way that was viscerally satisfying.

The few times I've gone to art galleries I've been annoyed and frustrated when I couldn't TOUCH the canvases. Of course it's not good for them, but it's what speaks to me. The FEEL of them.

Anyway, I'm declaring my house a NO PIXELS ZONE for the next 48 hours, beginning after lunch today. I'm going to PAINT. Worst case, I get it out of my system and stop yammering about it. Best case, I rediscover what I loved about it and make progress with it.

Here's a tiny bit of the paints and brushes that were caged for decades; they're the ones I'm going to start with, to re-acquaint myself with everything.

Here are the four small canvases I'm going to paint over, while I get myself feeling comfy with things again.

And here's the second painting I ever did. It's not finished and it's carp, of course. But creating it felt WONDERFUL!

And here's a detail from the third one I worked on.

This is the first of the pastels and swoopy clouds. It's....well, not ME,
except for some of the movement in it. I think it needs to be cleaned, too.

So here I go, off to paint.......we'll see where it leads! 
 

RedBubble is having a SALE!!

Here's a sample of the t-shirts available...for more, please check this out: Robpixaday's t-shirts!

• There's alwa...
• It Doesn't M...

The Groups I belong to at RedBubble have been very generous lately with their FEATURES! My images were awarded features eight times in the past six days!

Most recent features are posted in this journal entry. They include not only digital art but also photography.

YAY!

Not long ago I downloaded a trial version of FILTER FORGE  to play with. The filters are mostly AMAZING! I was able to create distortions that turned ho-hum photoimages into interesting abstracts. With additional editing the results were terrific! Unfortunately not all the filters functioned. The one I was most excited about ("Grunge") didn't work at all. Also, most of the effects seemed to act independently of the original image; I was able to create them with no image open at all, but couldn't use them to alter anything.

If I had a lot of $$$ I'd purchase the full version, since it was fascinating and easy to use.

But........I can't.

The sad thing was that the trial period ran in actual days, rather than days used. I didn't know that and let 5 days go by without opening the program, thereby losing 5 trial days. Gah.

So Filter Forge is in the Trash now. I loved having it here, and I appreciate the trial opportunity. I'd recommend it to anyone who's willing to fiddle with it.

And if I ever win the lottery, I'll download the full version ASAP.

For the first time, I worked up the courage to try the "magic wand" tool in Photoshop Elements 3.  It always seemed too "magical" to me; I had no idea what it was supposed to do. True to form, I never bothered to look for a tutorial about it. There are so many other tools to play with; I didn't miss it! But today I noticed a note in a book on digital photography about how useful the tool is. Sketchy details followed, so I tried it. No tutorial, just clicking and hoping as usual. WOW! worked like...magic!  

Here's the result: "Rainbow Repair Shop."

This is my first post about what I'm doing with images and prose...feel free to send me a private message with questions, or regarding sales and special commissions.