THE DAY HAS COME! New URL Address

As of this very moment I won't be posting to this blog any more. My new URL is laughinghorseart.blogspot.com. Please come visit and join my followers. I would love it! HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.

Art Tip for the Day...Sign it right

This part is for women only-not anything too tricky- but have you ever wondered if it matters whether you sign your whole name on your creation or not- as far as marketing goes? Well, it does as proven by a female artist that I read about probably about 15 years ago. She did an experiment to see if it mattered whether she signed as a woman. She tried her full name, just her last name, and a made up man's name. Guess who sold the most? Well, you guessed it, ladies. Of course, the man. Not fair. After I read that article I decided that my best bet- if I didn't want to misrepresent myself all together- was to sign just my last name. I don't know, for me, if it really helped a lot as I didn't try her experiment but I thought it couldn't hurt, right? Dang. It's no fair that we can't be a woman all the way in this man's world. But, I just hate to break it to you, ladies, but from what I've learned in my "Human Heritage" class at the University of Utah-there has NEVER been a woman's world. That's right. I said it. NEVER. Never has there been a true matriarchal society. The Iroquois came close but still no banana. The women in the tribe could decide the leaders of it but the men could STILL veto her. So, we better go with the flow somewhat and that means we women have to be a little crafty. Therefore...the last name, only, is your best bet.



Okay men-you can get in here now. Your signature shouldn't ever be the only thought you put into your creative signing (because it is original to YOU only). If you want to protect your rights on your work you must put a visible date (yes, out in front pretty much-I guess a sculpture that is viewed with a 360 degree view would be an exception here) on the front AND the copyright symbol. Even though you haven't applied for a copyright-put it on there. From what I read- the copyright office takes forever to process claims and such. So, it would be a good bet that you would have plenty of time to apply for your copyright before the trial date, etc. Now this could be a Wickapedia fact as I haven't read up on copyright laws for quite a while but don't completely take my word for it.



While we're at it on the signature business-unless your signature is a world wide prize (like Van Gogh, etc.) you want people to look at your art work and say to themselves, "That's such a great work of creativity! Oh, who is it by? Julie Jacobsen". Get it? The name is less important than the work of art unless you are-repeat after me-Van Gogh or some other big time art whosit. You don't want your viewers to say, "Julie Jacobsen did this work. Now how about the art? Nice. But Julie Jacobsen is the artist". Do you get it? You don't want your name to be blatant. That brings up a whole other can of worms-framing. Let's hit that another day because it is, oh, so important.

Now, look at my examples of my signature. Notice something? The colors blend into the color scheme and yet they stand out ENOUGH. Of course they are really standing out to you as I magnified the view but if you go back in my blog you'll see many of my original works that were very successful marketing wise. If you look for the signature you can find it but you have to hunt a little. Sometimes I have changed the painting beneath my signature to have it stand out just a little more as it was too wimpy.

P. S. I forgot that today we were going to talk about drawing the viewer in. Alright, you people that looked at Dore. Hold that image/images in your mind for a day. I wrote myself a note to be sure to do it tomorrow.


Art History Moment: Okay. I heard this rumor. It could be another Wickapedia fact but I heard that Van Gogh lost a lot of marbles in his head because he would actually eat the lead paint that he painted with. Just a little here and there but nowadays you know what eating lead paint can do to you. That's right. Brain damage. Maybe I should Google that and see what the consensus is on that info. Interesting theory, isn't it.

*****URL CHANGE COMING SOON*****
Remember it will be laughinghorseart.blogspot.com in about 1 week or less.

Art tip for the Day...Get it moving

What makes an image inviting? Often it's the movement involved that will pull you in more than what the subject is. As I said before-our doodles say a lot of what we are thinking deep down-how we're feeling. There is a wonderful site called mondayartday.com. They have contests each week and I'm showing you my very first entry for the topic "circus". I started out drawing a ring with elephants in it and it just was a dud. I tore it up. Then I just let myself go with the flow and things developed. A lot developed in fact. 3 drawings and I used some watercolor on one of them. All 3 are filled with movement and turmoil. What have I gone through this week? Turmoil. There you go. Reflected in my drawing.

Anyway, adding movement makes things so much more intriguing. I'm going to talk about what will make for a successful painting-bringing the viewer into a place/space where they will want to remain a while and study things-tomorrow.

Art History Moment: Have you all heard of Gustave Dore, an illustrator from the 1800's? I want you to Google his Dante's Inferno illustrations to see how Dore pulls you into the story by creating drama, etc. Dore goes along with tomorrow's tip. So keep him in mind.

*****REMINDER OF URL CHANGE*****
Remember next week, most likely, my address will be changing to laughinghorseart.blogspot.com.

Art Tip for the Day...Basics about creating distance

I have this really nifty chart that will help you so much with creating distance in your paintings/drawings. There are so many little tricks that create the illusion that things are receding besides just normal perspective rules. If you use these you will be successful at it. It's self explanatory, really. I think you will understand. The only thing that puzzled me a bit was where it says overlapped and overlapping. What this means is that in the foreground the object will overlap something. That shows it is in front. The object behind and , therefore, further back will be overlapped. I had a small copy of this chart that I just put on my table next to my easel that I could refer to from time to time until I fully understood it. I hope this is helpful to someone.

Art History Moment: For any of you that are interested in the history of art you will find that when you study it you can't do it without learning about the art itself (of course), politics, culture and religion. That's what makes it so very interesting!

***REMINDER OF URL CHANGE***
Remember my new blog address will be laughinghorseart.blogspot.com. Changing probably the beginning of next week. It's partially up but not in complete working order as of yet.

Art Tip for the Day...Let's do something different and low stress

Okay. I'm back. Yesterday was an extremely hard day. Just can't get over that my cat is gone. It helps to keep busy and not mope as this only makes it worse.

So, I'm moving on with more artsy stuff. When I get depressed I get busy! Do you all have a dark mug? I want you to hold it at an angle so you can see your reflection. It's going to be funky but that's half the fun. I did this years ago and you can tell by my drawing that I had a drink in the cup. This isn't necessary unless you want the reflection to blend from the mug to the drink. Anyway, get out your drawing paper and a pencil or colored pencils. Now draw what you see. Don't try to make yourself look your best. That's not the point. It's a lesson in forgetting about your nose, etc. and drawing the shapes and negative space + fluidity. Loosen up. The drawing I did was centered on the paper but you don't have to do that. Let it go off the edges but be careful about that dirty little devil, the tangent (see older posts to learn about that).

That's all there is to it.





Art History Moment: Eugene Delacroix, a French Romantic painter, was a master in the painting technique of fluidity. In looking at "Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains" you'll see his paintings are alive with movement. Not only are the brush strokes fluid but the composition sings with motion-one element moves to another and so forth.

In keeping with the "fluid" theme go back a few days in my posts and look at the natural arch painting I did. Notice that my first attempt at it is so static. Harsh. The second painting has so much more movement and flows.

By the way.....my discussions of art history are not going to follow any sort of order. This isn't a class. This is just discussing what inspires me at the moment.

REMINDER OF URL CHANGE
Remember that my address is changing to laughinghorseart.blogspot.com. Most likely the beginning of next week.

Art Tip for the Day...Sad day for me....

So sorry to not have any tip today. I'm going to have to put my cat down this morning. She's been sick with diabetes and urinary tract infections for over a year. It's been a battle trying to get her through it and I am at the point where I just can't go through this any more. I don't need to tell all of the pet lovers (especially cats) how I feel. For those of you that don't know-well, I feel awful. Back with a more cheerful tip tomorrow.

Art Tip for the Day...Don't sell your best/most meaningful work

First of all I just want to say that today's samples are little "quick" paintings that I did of Gracie, my daughter, and Charlie, my son. They have helped me so much in my endeavor to get my new blog site going. It's almost done and I think it will look a lot better. After all-this page, now, is part of my maiden voyage. Anyway, Gracie works at a place called Shoplet.com in the web page and marketing department. She looks at 100's of blogs every day and writes the online blog for their company. Quite a clever lady. Charlie is Mr. Computer Know it All around our house. He's fabulous also. I just want to say a huge thank you to both of them for all their help!

Back to the main topic. As artists we are constantly trying so hard to make a buck here and there. This I have done. I mean-who wants to live in a hovel? Not me. So, it's tempting to sell or give away/donate all your original work if someone wants it. Now, I do have to say that it would be hard to turn down a million dollars but you get my point when I say that you'll be sorry if you can't look at the originals any more. This is especially true of subject matter that is near and dear to your heart. These paintings above of Gracie and Charlie were sold and I miss them but I have a lot of paintings of my kids. So I thought I could spare a few. Plus I take pictures of everything before it leaves my house. Let me repeat that-I take pictures of everything before it leaves my house. That way I have an image of them for occasions, like today. I know it's tempting to donate your best work always but that's a mistake as you won't have anything to show (and this will happen) in your home when the time comes to show off your work.

Maybe I should go into the picture taking in more detail. That's for another day. Wow. I could do this forever. I never run out of ideas. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share them.

Many of you know that I'm back in school after many years getting my Art History degree. I'm a senior. Well, pretty soon I've got to take "Senior Seminar" and it's been so long since I was really in the art history world. Of course I remember quite a bit but there's a lot I don't. I think, starting tomorrow, I'm going to add a "Art History Moment" comment to my blog. This will help me and help all of you to become a more well rounded artist. I've got to start reviewing everything, guys.

*****Blog address change reminder*****
Remember my address will be changing very soon to laughinghorseart.blogspot.com.