It's Coming Right at Us!

Christmas is fast approaching, and I Have a feeling I'll still be getting ready for it when it's gone. I should be done with cards, but knowing that there's time between now and Christmas makes me just want to keep designing new ones. I'll make the one that everyone just has to have, and that will open the floodgates to the selling out of everything else in the store. That's the fantasy. The reality is I need to figure out how to promote my store(s) cheaply and efficiently. Dropping my life's savings into advertising on Summergetaways.com might get me some eyeballs on my sight, but there's probably a better way to go.

My budget for advertising this year is free. I can advertise anywhere that's free. Actually, that means facebook & google+, which is better than nothing, but not much. So I'm interested in google adwords. I love google. they own this blogsite, the browser I'm using (chrome), the software that operates my phone (droid), my email carrier, and of course google+ (which many people are saying isn't a big deal, but there are a ton of people on there). Of course they also use the search engine that is most popular for finding things, so they have tools to help people who invest in their products. My girlfriend who runs ahtees designs, turned me on to Google adwords keyword tool, which analyses and suggests keywords, the tags that help people find your stuff.

I just joined for the purpose of reporting the cost to this blogpost, and they let you create whatever budget you want. I put in $2 a day which doesn't sound like much, but is considerably more that $0. In fact; it is 2x365 or $730 a year, so that's an estimate based on how much I spend on coffee a day. It's also about $60 a month. This is kind of a lot for me, but I have no idea how it translates into how much advertising it will buy. They say that once my budget is exhausted for the day that my ads will stop appearing. That means that perhaps they wont be seen during high traffic times, but it doesn't matter because it's not tv or radio, only one person is looking at each screen, so the same number of people will be exposed to my ads whether its all in the morning or spread throughout the day. There's also pay per click (again a bid I set that I have no idea how competitive it is.) I didn't intend to get this deep into this subject for the purpose of this post, but I've been hovering over the "join now" button for a while, and I haven't commited to anything yet, so I'm ok so far. I'll let you know when I know more.

I finnished the Santa card, and need to make more shirts, and designs. I'll leave you with this: successful people are the ones who do what they love.

Dragon print $10.00

This dramatic print of the mythic dragon embodies symbolism from Eastern & Western cultures. In the far East, the dragon is a symbol of wisdom & enlightenment; in the West the spiral is a symbol of infinity. This aspect is emphasized by the way the serpent cannot be contained within the limits of the frame.
The print is on recycled black paper with faux deckled edges.
Print is 8x10.

Holiday Prep!

Now that Halloween is over, the holidays are coming at us like that round bolder in Raiders of the Lost Ark! I have been making cards and gifts for Christmas since late summer, but I feel constantly behind. I finished the painting I told you about last time and am pleased with how it came out. It was originally supposed to have fog, but you can't have everything. I made it into a card, and maybe I'll make a second one out of it. I sold a print of St. Hildegard (Thank you!) so now I'm offering more prints of my paintings.

I am also offering t-shirts with my block prints on them. I'm really happy with how they look, and hope that people will get them as gifts. The images I make are meant to be iconic so they really work well on shirts. I have tried to solve the problem I would have with overhead and storage by making shirts to model but stating that they can be any size and will be made to order. I would like to offer long sleeved shirts and sweatshirts, but I also have to spend $ on presents so I can't just buy a bunch of sweatshirts hoping someone will buy something. I know Ihave to spend money to make money, but I have to be realistic also.

That doesn't mean I can't still make more stuff for Christmas. Going with the icon theme I've been trying to come up with an iconic Christmas image for a block print. I've already done a Christmas tree which came out great, but I'm looking for something that will have more of an impact; is bolder or more "dramatic". My girlfriend suggested Santa, which I initially rejected as too cliche to register with viewers but I like the idea that icons originally were saints portraits and Santa Clause is just how little kids pronounce Saint Nicholas. This probably won't go on a shirt, but I'm just thinking about Christmas cards. It makes sense that in order to catch anyone's attention whether it's cards shirts or anything else, my job as an illustrator is to create an image that is bold, iconic, arresting, and all the other synonyms for "eye catching" I've used so far.

Religious Icons generally hold something in their hands to make it easy for viewers to recognize them. I'm haveing a hard time figuring out what to have Santa hold. First it was his list of naughty and nice, but I thought people might not know that's what the scroll was meant to be. I thought maybe coal in one hand and a toy in the other, but I really think Im going to stick to red and white for colors, so that wont work. let me know if you have any ideas!

Oh! Maybe a thumbs up with one hand and thumbs down with the other!

All Hallows Eve

As we come to another Samhain (pronounced Sowen {more or less}) also known as All Hallows Eve (the evening before All Hallows or All Saints day), more commonly: Halloween, my mind is drawn to the Silver Branch: the gateway to the nether world which legend tells us is open on this night to let the spirits wander into our world and where we can wander knowingly or not into theirs, and become lost... forever.
Currently, I am working on a painting of a lonely winter night, lit by streetlamps, as the snow and elements attempt to obscure what little illumination they offer. As I paint, I'm listening to Wicca radio on itunes. I have always loved Halloween, but not everyone shares this fondness for a night of ghoulish corpses, haunted graveyards and magic spells. I have dragged people into the depths of parties, haunts and demonic debauchery over the years hoping they would catch the spell cast upon me in my youth. All too often however, the night turns into a curse for all involved. You cant force someone to enjoy Halloween.
As a child, I would have Halloween parties thrown for me for my birthday which is about a week before Halloween. Then of course, on the big night came the trick or treating! Going door to door and having strangers give me candy was thrilling! In retrospect, it was more the idea that these strangers were friendly enough to give me something rather than the candy itself which would often last until Thanksgiving when it would get thrown out. Dressing up was definitely a big part of the magic and the only remnant left to me as an adult. I remember having one of those really shiny costumes with the plastic mask secured by a rubber band as a child; I think it was Superman. I had to go while it was still light out because I was so young, which I hated, but I think I went by myself, which I loved.
One year my next door neighbor put a stuff scare crow in a chair on her porch and whether she jumped out at me or what I don't remember, but I do remember that she scarred the crap out of me.
Then there was the time I went trick or treating and somehow came to the door of the first girl I had a crush on. Her name was Melinda Waller. We moved to a neighboring school district soon after that and I tried in vein to remember where that house was, hoping to screw up the courage to knock on the door and ask her out. I thought it might be across the street from a certain park, so I spent a lot of time at that park, drawing and wondering which house might be hers. (I guess I was the worlds worst stalker!) I was in the 6th grade.
Once, in my youth, I took some friends trick or treating. The people at the houses were less than friendly as they told us we were too old to be doing this. (I was a fifteen year old gangster {a la The Godfather}, my friends, both on the JV football team, had no costumes). The previous year or too before that, I was dressed as Radar from M*A*S*H, and met a girl. we liked each other but my friends didn't approve so I didn't pursue that relationship (what an idiot I was!)
When I became old enough to go to bars I would go dressed up on Halloween, and I was home! Here were a bunch of other grown ups that were dressed up, drinking and having a good time.
In college, I made the mistake of dressing up like a girl. I had long hair in those days (the 80s!) and had decided I liked the idea of wearing a costume that didn't look like a costume. When people actually mistook me for a girl, I could say in a low voice that it was Halloween and I wasn't really a girl. It had worked in the past. This time; however, the girl I was with thought that dressing up like a girl meant I was gay, and wanted to go hang out in West Hollywood. Man, that was a miscommunication!
Then there are too many drunken catastrophes to go into, both on other people's part & my own. Well there was the time I dressed up as Jesus; I went around blessing people and using bible quotes humorously. With my long hair and goatee it was great until we found we had locked the keys in the car and had to wait until dawn for a locksmith to show up. There is a lesson in there, I guess.

Once I got sober, I found there were always sober Halloween parties to go to and these were great, because sober alcoholics at Halloween parties really love Halloween, but I would often drive far, late at night to somewhere cold and would just sit outside, smoke and not talk to anybody. I guess I have some unexorcised Halloween demons left! haha!
Now I can make Halloween cards and sell them on Etsy

Mask problems

"I'll bet that after chasing around the Riddler in the hot sun all day, Batman wishes he were right here at this cocktail party having a drink!"

The Relation Ship

At The Protest Deli