Product photography help from the "Four Corners"
You know what I love most about talking art and business with Amy Duncan of Four Corners Design? Not only is she willing to let me pester her with endless questions, she's happy to offer practical help.
Amy has a great design sense -- just ask Better Homes & Gardens. This week, she took product photos for me because I'm reviving my Etsy shop soon... and I hear pictures are kinda totally unbelievably important to online buyers.
Two suggestions right off the bat: Presentation boards or foam core boards to bounce light onto the item. Too easy, right?
I knew about this, but somehow never implemented it. Another idea to use in the half-hour per month of dry, sunny winter weather in the Pacific Northwest:
Do a photo shoot of your art on your driveway. Everything looks better in natural light, and the concrete adds a textured but non-distracting background. Can't shoot your art during the day? Ask Pinterest.
I'm going to revisit my own art marketing & display board, which has several low-tech photography-tip pins. Between Amy and Pinterest, I'm sure my own skills will improve. What -- or who -- are your photo resources? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook.
Thursday with LHPAI: Winter classes are a win-win
I have to confess, I've been waiting for winter classes for a while: options for both of my kids at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute!
See the class in the upper left corner, My Music, My Story & My Dance? It's a movement/story time/song class for three to five-year-olds like TwoBoo. (Hopefully they'd be able to keep up with him. You know he's, um, "high-energy.") Most classes like this I see elsewhere are for older kids. Very cool.
For The Boy, I have several options: single-subject classes (like breakdancing on Thursdays) or the Winter Youth Performing Arts Academy. It's a Saturday class series of movement, dance, vocals, acting and dance, starting January 26.
The Boy would be most interested in the vocals, especially the part where kids learn how to do character voices. But wait, there's more -- for teens...
...and for grown-ups!
Classes include an open-studio string instrument class, writing, African dance and drumming, theater/voice, knitting and popping & locking (dance). I should sign up The Husband for that last one, just to hear his reaction. "Oh sure -- you can watch my joints start popping out of their sockets and my muscles start locking up."
You can register for classes in either of two ways:
If I sign up for any of the dance classes, you'll know -- by the sound of my own joints popping. Seriously, you can hear them like a mile away.
FTC disclosure: I'm partnering with the LHPAI on a series I call "Thursdays with LHPAI," generally published on Thursdays. I am being paid an honorarium for my work. However, all opinions and views expressed in this series are my own.
You can register for classes in either of two ways:
- Visit the SPARC class registration page OR
- Sign up in person at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
If I sign up for any of the dance classes, you'll know -- by the sound of my own joints popping. Seriously, you can hear them like a mile away.
FTC disclosure: I'm partnering with the LHPAI on a series I call "Thursdays with LHPAI," generally published on Thursdays. I am being paid an honorarium for my work. However, all opinions and views expressed in this series are my own.
New artwork: sensitive "Skin"
I don't know why I kept avoiding writing about this artwork. Too personal? How's that possible for a woman painting a collage portrait of a man?
I guess the subject matter is weighing on my mind.
Want to see the full piece? First person to RSVP yes to my solo show will receive a sneak peek image of the full piece before everyone else! Just in case you've never RSVP'd on Facebook before, here's what you do:
Slowpokes will have to wait until May to see "Skin" [wicked cackle].
I paired the above medical text with a painted-over image from my favorite Library of Congress collection...
... and assembled other elements, including the art paper I think of as "pinto pony hide."
But the layout didn't really say "hide" or "skin" to me until I added another bit of text: "... the color of skin resides in the superficial layers, hence beauty is skin deep."
Pony hide... skin. Skin... hey, don't I have some crocodile hide paper?
So then I gave my guy a suit -- a tattered one, to expose the croc skin -- and added claw marks on the background for good measure.
From that point, it finally felt like I'd convinced the work to give up some of its secrets. I think it's enough to call this collage "Skin."
- Go to the event on Facebook here
- Click the "Join" button
- Message me to tell me your email address, so I know where to send the image
Slowpokes will have to wait until May to see "Skin" [wicked cackle].