Featuring colorist Ronda Francis

Thursday, March 31, 2016

March Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Heather Demonteverde!



She is the winner of our Fancy March Giveaway. Now she will be able to light that delicious citrus pomegranate candle and draw to hear hearts content.

Stay tuned for April's giveaway ~ a lovely coloring book, drawn by ME, and pencil set!

Congrats again Heather!

xo


Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Bunnies of Cuteness on SALE

All the Easter coloring book pages are on sale at my Etsy store.




Bunnies on a crocus field, on the farm, in a birdbath, and MORE!


Click HERE for the bunnies at my shop.

Happy Easter!! 

xo

Friday, March 18, 2016

Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail ~ Easter Bunny Coloring Download

Hippety hoppity!

Just a few short weeks until Easter.

I hope you like this Bunnies of Cuteness download. Click HERE for to print Strawberry Bunnies. 


Bunnies of Cuteness!
There is another in my ETSY shop, and every day until Easter I will add another downloadable page.

Have fun! Please share your colored page and share with me--I would love to post your colored pix on my blog and on my fun Facebook page ART by YOU. 

xo

Don't forget the Fancy March Giveaway. Enter HERE.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Fancy March Giveaway

I don't know about you, but I feel like I need a little pampering after such a gloomy winter.

Wouldn't it be nice to sit a warm, scented, candlelit bath and sketch with a new set of pencils? Well that is just what I did the other day!

I want everyone to have a lovely afternoon like I did. Although I can't give the lovely afternoon to everyone, I can give it to one lucky winner of this month's giveaway.



The winner will receive a Muse candle scented in pomegranate and citrus, Farmhouse Fresh shea butter body cream, and a drawing set of eight graphite, pencils, three charcoal pencils, one sketch stick, two charcoal sticks in soft and medium, a kneading eraser and a white plastic eraser. 

The pencils are basic, although I like them very much, I did not want to have to worry if they fell in the water. I think you will like them too.


Start sketching!

I had no preconceived notions of what I would sketch, but got some great ideas! Yes, the paper got splashed a few times, but it was fine. The ideas were worth more to me.

So enter here!

xo

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Selling Your Art

Last month I sold a few images on ETSY.

They were all copies or reproductions of originals that I created in the past. One was a copy of a picture from a book I illustrated that I retained the rights to. One was a watercolor reproduction that I recently added to my site.


Reproduction sold last week.
Although I do not think I will ever get rich selling off these sites, I do think they are important. Agents, publishers, and others look for our work. They need patterns, illustrations for children's books, pix for stationary, umbrellas, cloth, and plenty of other art.

I use Etsy, Facebook, and I just discovered Society6. People use eBay, Art Fire, Craigslist, and many others. HERE is a list of 18 places you can use to get your art out there.

If you are looking to start your art career or just make a few extra dollars, there are plenty of places for you to start. 

xo

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Artists, Watermark Your Work

As artists we realize the importance of sharing our work, and we also realize the danger.

We create original pieces, and are always at risk of someone taking advantage and using them without our permission.

I found several watermark companies today, and after trying them, I found that for the work I am doing now, Visual Watermark is the easiest to use, and the trial period is free. After that, there are three levels to purchase, ranging from a one-time payment of $19.95 for one computer to $39.95 for up to ten computers.



Visual Watermark walked me through every step, from download to watermark image storage. 

I chose to use my name and a relatively transparent watermark. You will be able to choose the transparency, font, color, and design for your watermark.

You can also create a watermark in Photoshop or Illustrator if you have them, although you would not be able to do a large amount at one time.

We should also share our work on social media on low resolution, so a reproduction would be very difficult, if not impossible.

Our work is valuable, and we should do all we can to keep it safe.

Find Visual Watermark HERE.

Here is a link to a post of Nine Best Software To Ad Watermarks. I tried them all. CLICK HERE

Tell me what you think!

xo