by Linda | Jun 17, 2011 | my creative journal
I feel that is important to remember, record, and reflect upon our creative journeys – both the good and bad. I like the idea of taking challenging experiences and turning them into life lessons that empower and propel me forward. Sometimes, I really need those reminders, those encouraging thoughts…to get me through tough times. So I decided to make myself a book of notes and here on the blog, I will be sharing the entire process. I hope that you will be inspired to make one for yourself, with your own words of wisdom and life experiences. I have no doubt that it will be a meaningful project…whether you define yourself as a scrapbooker, an art journaler or simply a creative soul at heart.
Where did the idea come from?
A few years ago, I started a series of graphic posters based on little phrases that were important to me. Simple encouragements and motivations like “remember to breathe” and “enjoy the ride.” I loved the idea of capturing these pick-me ups, but the posters seemed a bit cold and impersonal. Nothing wrong with a motivational poster…but I wanted something more and wasn’t sure where to go with it.
Then one day, a blog friend emailed about my work – Chel from gingerblue – thank you my dear! She wrote to tell me that I was inspiring to her and perhaps I should teach classes! We got to talking about various interests and hobbies and I was so honored and touched by her encouragement. From that email, an idea was sparked. It just clicked from our conversations that my series of notes should be turned into a scrapbook. I thought the process would be a great online class of sorts… I was giddy with excitement!
Why a scrapbook?
The story behind my little notes was the big missing component. That is why I immediately thought scrapbook, because I needed the story…the connection to a prior experience… the memory… to make my note more meaningful and more powerful. It’s one thing to say “laugh every day” period, versus “laugh every day” and remember that difficult time…you thought the smiles would never come back, but then Dad said something totally ridiculous and we all burst out laughing? Yeah. I wanted to create a book of wise words with concrete memories behind them…so I could turn to them for encouragement and perspective.
That said, it doesn’t mean it has to be a traditional scrapbook with corresponding photos. It is whatever you want it to be…an art journal, a mixed media altered book, a set of scrapbook layouts, a minibook. You can define it how you like. Mine happened to turn into a book of memories that incorporates a corresponding story with each note. However, not all pages include a photo because I might not have one from that specific time. However, your memories can be recorded in many different ways. The important point is in incorporating personal stories and elements. The personal component puts my notes in context and makes them vivid and strong.
So join me!
I would love to share my entire process of creating this book and although I don’t claim to be a professional teacher in any way…I do hope that by sharing the process, ideas and designs…I will be providing helpful instruction. Each and every one of us should create what suits our needs, style and story…so ultimately I am giving you a springboard of inspiration. I think we all need to me reminded of how much we’ve gone through at times…so I very much think of this as a strength book, an experience book, a record of what I’ve learned and how strong and brave I have already been…and can be. I don’t know why it is so easy to overlook all those experiences at times. That’s why we need to make a record of our life experiences…
If you are interested, please follow this blog as I will post the entire process here, step by step. Also feel free to leave a comment and say hello with your blog address or Flickr link if you plan to share your progress. I would love to see and follow along! 🙂
Thank you to everyone for stopping by and showing support for my work, as always. Grazie and ciao ciao!
by Linda | Jun 17, 2011 | my creative journal
I’m probably not the first person to have fallen in love with Copics before truly understanding how it all works.
I had first been exposed to the Copic brand through the manga community and used their black multiliner pens for drawing. But after seeing the beautiful coloring techniques of many cardmakers and scrapbookers – I really wanted to dive in myself! But going on a whim, I bought a few sets of Ciao markers that I saw at the art store…which turns out to be a bad approach to buying these types of markers. Now I have a mix of colors that do not necessarily go together so easily. However, I don’t think you MUST buy the various shades within a color family in order to make use of Copics. It ultimately depends on how you plan to use them and if possible, you should try them out at a friend’s place or do a bit of research to see what you prefer.
If there is a certified instructor or a presentation going on about Copics at a store, you should definitely attend.
They basically go through the foundations, so that you understand the color system and how Copics are used, usually with demos right there in front of you. Then you will be able to make an informed decision when purchasing. There’s a video by Scrapbook.com about Copics that gives you some basic information about the markers. I love Copics because they are refillable. It’s basically in the vein of buying something of quality that you can keep using, replacing only the consumable parts. Even the Multiliners are now refillable! Finally, the most important thing is to learn the Copic color system and what it all means. Those letters and numbers are very important and you should not just go by the cap color.
The FAQ on the Copic website explains the color system and if someone explains in person it will make more sense, I think. After I finally got it straight in my head, I realized that buying markers in sets of 3 per color makes a whole lot of sense. You basically want markers in the same color family and same first digit for the same saturation level. Lower numbers are more vibrant and higher numbers get more dull or grayed out… the final number is for the lightness or darkness – that’s why crafters buy sets with the last digit just 2-3 away from each other. For example, if you want to create a blended blue-green color, you might buy BG01 (lightest color), BG05 (mid-tone) and BG09 (strong shadow). Those three markers would allow you to blend it all nicely to get the gradation. This really does mean that for each color, you should have the markers to cover the light, mid-tone and dark range. For crafters, I think suzannejdean is one of the most popular on YouTube. She shows you how she colors super cute digital stamp images with the exact marker colors she uses.
However, I should note that the multiple shades in the same color family isn’t the only way to use Copics.
In fact, if you learn from a manga artist…they don’t actually use those rules of buying markers. Think of paints that an artist might buy…a teacher might recommend a palette to beginners, but everyone develops their own preferences in the use of color. Same with Copics. In fact, I also just like Copics as markers without any blending. They are just kick ass markers!
And as with anything tool, the more experience you have the better you are at using it. From the manga world, we learn that you can apply blending solution to your paper first to create a wet surface to work on…think watercolor techniques…only it’s alcohol and dries a lot faster. You can feather different colors into each other, layer on top various colors to mix and use an external palette. In fact, you can buy empty copic pens and use the various color refills to mix your own colors. I know, getting complicated. The point is to say the markers are powerful tools…like any other artist medium.
Some tips I’ve learned from attending a presentation and my own experience…
You really can use any kind of heavy paper. This goes back to the old saying of how the tools don’t totally matter…in the hands of a master, regular heavyweight copy paper was colored on beautifully! Copic still bleeds through, that is part of how the marker is used…so just make sure to have backing scrap paper when you color. Otherwise the non bleedproof papers by Copic are super thin, but have a coating on the back to try and prevent bleedthroughs. I say try because it does depend on how heavy handed you are. If you try to make it bleed, you can!
Try not oversaturate your paper, keep a light touch! I know many tutorials tell you to saturate the paper, but going overboard is what causes all the bleeding out of lines. Practicing with the paper will help you get a hang of how much ink to apply.
Copics can be used on many different surfaces, not just paper…so extremely versatile type of marker.
You can blend completely different colors!
You can use the marker directly, use your blender pen and touching it to the marker tips to get only a bit of color or create your own external palette by putting colors on a plastic sheet.
Another thing I saw, were artists putting down the colorless blender first then feathering strokes on top. They kept using the blender to smooth out edges, leaving white space as well, not necessarily coloring every spot in. The brush tip is used just like a paintbrush.
You can leave the white of the paper for highlights or use white paint, white gel pens or even white out to add touches of highlights to your final work.
The colorless blender refill can be dropped onto color to create cool effects – very much like alcohol drops on acrylic paint. Suffice to say, there’s lots to explore.
I found more videos of crafters who use Copic and you can see a different style here and here. You can also find out more information and updated color charts at the Copic Marker website. I’m still learning a lot, but found that after meeting instructors and seeing demos finally felt more confident in purchasing. Hope I’ve provided some helpful information to spread the Copic Love! If there are ever certification classes here in Italy, I would jump for it immediately. Copic coloring is super fun whether you like the blending methods or just plain coloring!
by Linda | Jun 16, 2011 | my creative journal
I love WordPress and build all my blogs using the system…including this one! When I refer to WordPress, I do mean the self-hosted version. Basically, you are downloading a copy of the blog publishing platform onto your own web hosting space…so you can do whatever you want with it. The great thing is that this is absolutely free and your web hosting will usually have automatic install options for WordPress. You have full control and will never be at the mercy of other hosted platforms – ahem, if you know what I mean. Let me tell you why I think WordPress is amazing.
Besides are the normal functionalities of most all publishing platforms out there WordPress has plugins. The system is also constantly being improved and updated with over 25 million people using it to power their blogs. With such a huge community to service, plugins or extensions have been created to add more functions when necessary. Anyone who can do a bit of software development can write a plugin which is not recommended if you aren’t saavy for security purposes! But there are countless established plugins out there to use with no worry. I would like to share a little list of those I have installed, helping me with marketing and pushing my creative business forward.
Akismet
This is already installed with WordPress, but you have to go into the Plugins area and activate it. You will have to sign-up with the Akismet service to get a special unique key. This is simply the best way to combat spam in my opinion. Forget all those crazy captcha and preview methods of filtering commenters – they are annoying to real people!
Broken Link Checker
Very useful tool to make sure you’re blog doesn’t become filled with broken links. I hate hitting broken links! Although no one is perfect, this tool will help you to avoid having old or broken information out there. Even though blogging is chronologically, people might hit any post on your blog. I sometimes go back and read the archives of blogs when I really like the content!
FeedBurner FeedSmith
All my blog feeds are tracked through Feedburner, a free service you can sign up for to track how many subscribers you have. With this plugin, if makes sure anyone who subscribes is tracked through Feedburner. Metrics are supremely important to keep track of over time, to see where you came from, how far you’ve gotten…
Subscribe To Comments
Unless you use a separate commenting system, it can be hard for commenters to receive the replies or follow comments on your blog. If you want to build up the community and encourage discussion, I think this plugin really helps for those who want to keep track of what people are saying. I have switched to just replying on my blog for everyone to see and track if they wish, instead of taking up more email time, replying individually…
Thumbnail For Excerpts
When you click on a category on my blogs, a list of entries pop up and this plugin makes an automatic thumbnail for me, so everything looks nice…instead of just text links.
RSS Footer
This plugin adds a special footer to your RSS feed entries…so whatever reader or however it might be organized for someone else…at least the credit is always there and available.
Efficient Related Posts
Another one I just added, replacing the Linked Within one I used to have installed. It’s just a basic list of related posts at the end of every post page. This will encourage readers to check out other posts that are related and it gets the relations from the tags you have entered. This efficient version basically creates all the connections when you update or add a post. So the viewer will never have to wait a long time to see the list of related items.
All in One SEO Pack
This is something I just installed in trying to improve my web presence. The plugin basically let’s me type in the title, description and keywords for every page and post of the blog. SEO means search engine optimization and by having this control over all the content of your site, you can optimize your code…basically make it so that people searching for xyz information on your website can actually find it better!
I hope you’ve learned something about the power WordPress and plugins…and there are many more out there that might help improve your blogging workflow. There are plugins to create polls or generate photo galleries…check them out and see what will help you improve your site. Don’t hesitate to try out plugins, because you can always uninstall if it doesn’t work for you. I think it’s important to take a look at your blog and whip it a bit into shape…every month if possible. A bit of cleanup or improvement scheduled in…just like cleaning your house or taking care of your household tools. Machinery has to be tuned up and there’s always something you can update. That’s all for this week’s creative business 101…ciao ciao!
by Linda | Jun 12, 2011 | my creative journal
Reading onward in The Artist’s Way (here’s a link to the copy I bought on Amazon) and this chapter started with talk about the Great Creator and it’s still a bit uncomfortable for me. I tend to be so practical and it is precisely some of those thoughts that might be getting me bogged down. I can’t always let go and believe in something higher. It’s all about work work work and deserving it, making your way.
Which leads into the next section about allowing yourself creative pleasures. It is true that we often blame certain difficulties on lack of money, but Cameron writes that it’s not actually the money. It is the feeling of constriction or sense of powerlessness. Makes a lot of sense and I suppose that is why many a wise person has said that you have to make do…
We are asked to think about what truly gives us joy and giving ourselves small gifts so larger gifts can come as well. In a way, I started to think about gratitude and the little things that can make us feel so happy and experience the abundance of life. The section about how things seem silly or crazy and that thought prevents us from doing that very thing we might need. It’s so true…we let preconceived notions and thoughts stop us from exploring so many things…like our inner creatives trying to break out, but we just shush it because it’s silly…
The goal for the week was to record our actual spending of money, to see if what we value matches with how we spend our money. I have to say I do pretty well in that arena since it’s pretty much all on books, art supplies, classes and going out with the hubby, besides necessities. I guess I don’t really have a problem enjoying myself 🙂
The takeaway for me was more internal, about letting myself do crazy things or spend a little money on something I intuitively want…even if it might not make sense or seem silly. It’s about nurturing ourselves a bit…of course, hopefully not overboard! Ugh, there I go again…
But it’s ultimately to get down to the root of how we feel about …but ultimately it’s about tackling our ideas around money and creative abundance. Huge topics to face.
Related:
by Linda | Jun 10, 2011 | my creative journal
I must confess that things have been all quiet on the marketing front. I’ve actually been swirling in experimentation, self-reflection and reading. There goes the productivity level on the business front! Even though I want to be successful and well-informed for my creative business, it’s also the easiest thing to slip out of sight as I enjoy the process of creating and playing with art as well as frolicking in the Tuscan hills! I’ve definitely been spending more time outdoors, walking my dog and enjoying the warm sunny weather.
However, I do have a mega list of ideas for how to get my brand out – basically the many marketing options available for exploration. But I’m a bit stuck into analysis paralysis, wondering what is worth it, where to start and where my efforts should be focused upon. I thought perhaps to share my list of marketing ideas and see what you have to say. Have you tried them, have they worked…what’s your experience? I would love to know and I’m sure many others would love to know as well…so I thought it would be a nice little pow-wow on marketing here. Please comment away!
- Have you tried advertising on blogs?
- Do you use an email newsletter and track the results?
- Do you hold blog giveaways and do they attract sales in the end?
- Do you participate in multiple online marketplaces – Etsy, Dawanda, Society6, Zazzle, Artfire…etc?
- How does your blogging help with your creative business – do you track statistics or conversion to sales from your blogging?
- Social networking – is it just community and branding in general for you?
- Old fashioned face-to-face marketing – do you even do that now that online is so widespread!
- Do you offer coupons to existing customers to make them return?
- Do you offer promotions and holiday sales? Do you think it cheapens the value of your work?
- How about teaming up with partners in business?
- Submitting to galleries, magazines, blogs, etc? Does it bring traffic?
Yup, a lot swimming around in my mind and that’s a big list, a very general list as well, to really tackle efficiently. Maybe just pick one and share your thoughts? Thanks a bunch and happy weekend!
