Creating a business plan is an intimidating process. Especially if you don’t consider yourself “business-minded,” it can be daunting and most artists put it off or avoid the process altogether.
It doesn’t have to be so difficult. This presentation explains how it can benefit your art business, how to create the best goals for your business, and the simple steps to take to write out your business plan and use it to help push your business forward.
Join us on Thursday, July 26th at the Milton Artists’ Guild, for free!
Most people know how to use social media for their own personal use, keeping in touch with friends, posting photos, etc., but few know how to optimize the platforms for their businesses.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter can be especially effective for visual artists, because the platforms are geared toward visual content. This presentation gives insight into how to best use those and other platforms to increase brand awareness, engage and grow your audience, make more sales, and drive more traffic to your own website, shop, and events. I discuss the pros and cons of each platform, how they can help your business, best practices, tips and techniques, and how to gain insight into your audience so you can create even more engaging posts and grow your audience further.
Join us at the Milton Artists’ Guild on Thursday, July 12th, for free!
Hosted By: The Milton Artists’ Guild
Led by: Corrina Thurston
Thursday June 28th, 6-7:30pm
Free (thanks to an anonymous sponsor)Artists of all mediums and levels struggle with the concept of writing an artist statement. Many feel their work should speak for itself, and the reason they create art in the first place is so they don’t have to explain it in words. But an effective artist statement can draw the audience into an artist’s work in ways the work alone never could. It gives the artist an opportunity to connect on a deeper level with their audience, and become truly memorable, which also leads to more word-of-mouth, and more sales.
Using potent examples and tips from actual gallery managers, I explain how the artist statement can be useful, how it can bring about more sales, how it can help someone become more emotionally attached to the artwork, and then give a number of useful takeaways for creating an effective artist statement that can be tailored for each unique artist, and can accomplish those goals.
Come join us, for free, at the Milton Artist Guild on Thursday, June 28th, 6-7:30pm!
Everyone here knows that I’m a professional artist. This also means that, whether it be via social media, email, or in person, I get asked questions almost daily. Some of these questions are about what I charge for a commission, or if a certain original drawing is for sale. Some of them, however, are questions about drawing:
How do I make colored pencil so vibrant?
How do I get so many small details?
How on earth did I create the skin and wrinkles for the African Elephant drawing?
How do I draw water?
I get these questions a lot, and I’m more than happy to give advice and try to answer them.
With all these questions filtering in, I realized that there’s a huge audience out there of people who want to know these things. So if you’re one of those people who wants to know HOW I create my drawings, you’re in luck!
First Step: Tutorials
One of my big goals for 2017 is to help people learn how to draw using colored pencil and graphite. Not only do I feel that these mediums are underappreciated in the art world, they can be difficult! There’s a lot of people out there wondering how to best utilize these mediums.
So how am I planning to help?
First, I’m creating Step-By-Step Tutorials! These are inexpensive products you can buy directly from my website and download as a PDF to use whenever you want. These are tutorials for specific drawings, and I have two already available for you, with more coming soon! Check them out here.
Learn more about this African Elephant Tutorial here.
These Tutorials average 20 pages and explain in detail, with photos to help you, exactly how I drew each piece. The Tutorial above, of the African Elephant drawing, is 22 pages long. You don’t need many materials to complete this drawing, and the Tutorial is only $12. Once you pay for it you can download it at any time, and you have lifetime access! You can come back to it over and over again, and what you learn from this drawing, you can apply to any other drawing you do.
If you have any questions along the way, contact me! I’m more than happy to answer questions or clarify anything you need. I’m here to help!
Second Step: Online Courses
After I create a few Tutorials to get you going, my next step is going to be to create some online courses. These will be mostly focused on colored pencil drawing.
The first course is going to be about the basics of colored pencil. You’ll learn how to layer, blend, create different types of textures and details, create shine, make the color vibrant and opaque, make it realistic, and have fun while doing it! You won’t need any experience to take this course, it’s for beginners and intermediates alike.
Then I’ll create courses that will be more specific, like how to create life-like cat portraits in colored pencil, or how to draw a human portrait in colored pencil, how to draw water in colored pencil, etc.
Photo by Stefan Hard, of the Times Argus, of me working at my drawing table.
Third Step: In-Person Workshops
My third way to help you learn to draw better is to teach in-person workshops! This will start out locally, and I’m in the process of finding venues to do so in the Burlington, VT area, and central VT.
So if you’re local, keep an eye out for an announcement about an upcoming workshop, possibly in the Burlington or central Vermont areas!
These workshops, similar to the online courses, will start out focusing on the basics of colored pencil. Then they’ll progress to more specific subjects or techniques and more intermediate levels of experience.
If you know of a place or organization who might be interested in hosting a workshop of mine, let me know in the comments below or by contacting me here!
I’m excited to get going on these exciting new projects and looking forward to seeing what you create!
