Public Speaking is for People with Nerves of Steel

That was something that was said to me by a teenager who overheard me say I am just a "horrible public speaker and I will never do that again!". It was followed up by the sentiment that teenagers are the hardest group of people to talk to, and that despite what I think- I probably did just fine. It's hard to judge until you've done it a bit. I stammered, lost my place in where I was going with points, may have gone on about being "afraid" to show art a bit too much. But for the most part I touched on all the points in my notes, had a few visual aids, and considering I had not done public speaking since high school- didn't die from stage fright. (although I did go home for a 4 hour nap afterwards). As much as I try I just can't warm up to doing Karaoke in bars, but I have tried to do something in between which is to say I have started to put together some video tutorials. They're mostly in response to a lack of actually teaching anyone anything about how to render animals in 2D. But I have heard that putting videos on YouTube will increase your visibility as far as your website goes. Apparently it all has to do with content- which follows why you should have a blog- (even if no one reads it). I guess the "new secret" to SEO is content, content, content. The more you mention your website on your blog, facebook page or even on YouTube the higher in the rankings Search Engines like Google will find your page- and then you don't have to pay for advertising. Don't know that it's true but it's worth a shot. So the first series of tutorials goes over drawing Cats. Doesn't sound like any great thing until I tell you I went to the lengths of actually putting the time in to teach people about how ANATOMY affects how the cat LOOKS. It's amazing how many people don't get that. It's like any other thing- draw it how it is- not how you think it is. Hopefully I am not talking over peoples heads and it will build up subscribers, viewers, and collectors. Or at least when I die it will leave something behind. It's a hell of a lot of work though. Waaaay more than I expected. For every 15 mins of video- there is about 10-12hrs worth of work editing and trimming so that I don't look like the babbling idiot I am on a regular basis. And I haven't even gotten to the DRAWING part of the tutorials! (I am hoping that will be easier) But since "House" has now officially ended I suppose this will be how I fill my Monday nights. If your reading this and your wondering what the hell I am talking about here's a link: Drawing & Painting Cats
Hopefully I will be more reliable about posting in this as well. Since it takes almost a hour for the video to convert I suppose I should make posting in here the habit I do while that's converting. Well, check it out let me know what you think. Later!

Doing This Isn't all about Art

Well next week I will be doing a presentation for a High School down in Milwaukee. The presentation is to an advanced art class and covers how I run my business, build up resources, and tips for those who are looking to go from doing art as a hobby to doing it professionally. This past week which has been busy beyond what I think I can normally handle. I sat down with an event coordinator who is looking to start "painting parties" in Wisconsin. It's not that it sounded like a bad idea, but with working 45+ hrs at my "bill paying" job, then running the committee for the dog park, and trying to choose good shows to attend when it comes to vending my art, I don't really have much free time to build lessons that are meant to be more entertaining than informative. My first response when he gets done telling me his spiel is "Have you looked at my website? I gave you the address- did you look at the work on there??" I get compliments but no acknowledgement as to "Not That detailed!" It wasn't really encouraging to have him tell me that the art these people were going to create was going to wind up in the trash or at best the back of a closet. I went through my pictures looking for what he said should be pictures that would take me 30 mins to paint and I could teach in 2 hrs to people who feel they couldn't even draw a stick figure. So he gives me 5 days to come up with 5 pictures (and the steps). I choose 4 stormy skyscapes, 1 landscape from a local park that I know I did in 20 mins, and a cartoon, which would be much more entertaining. I initially suggested watercolor due to it being more cost effective and more interpretive. It was shot down because of the lack of "canvas and uprightness". (basically it wasn't as flashy)  Hindsight being 20/20 I should have just declined. But I sent out the pictures and now these two customers don't come in like they used to (which is to say 3 or more times a week) I don't know if they think I am going to be upset if they say no, or what. Truth be told I was not in the gear of "drop everything" and "do this now". I didn't much appreciate the tone or the slight that this was more important than anything I had going on in my life including my full time job! So to those artists who may get approached by this "prospect". Please take it with a grain of salt, for your wisdom and years of experience are only as good as you are as an entertainer. But in the past 7 days along with dealing with the drudges of the "other thing" I did get another painting done:

 A cute little piece, Archie was up on the couch at the time. I had the canvas board prepped with a fall theme, and since I was just putting off picking out a shot from the Midwest Horse Fair I did this instead.
The Breakout was finished at the beginning of the week and preliminary pictures were posted on Facebook. but here's some for anyone who's reading this:

I finally have all the notes and handouts ready for that presentation next week and while I'm not wandering my apartment reciting paragraphs of material I have a good idea of what I want to cover. Most of it is material I wish I had as a senior looking to move into the art field after high school.

The dog park thing...Well it's not like I am trying to have a power trip. I started a facebook page for it because I heard people complaining they didn't know when the park was going to be open and who was going to be there when. Then when we lost a kid in the high grass and the bugs were so bad last summer I started calling to get it taken care of. Really I just wanted a safe friendly environment for Kodiak to play. Somewhere along the line though, someone who thinks anything that happens out there has to got through her, got a wild hair someplace unpleasant and doesn't like me. Whatever. I don't have time for unintelligent petty games. She did a wonderful job getting the surveys filled out, and I'm very thankful we have that information, by far got the most out of all the people who were out there. But sadly has chosen to try to use them as her own complaining platform instead of being constructive about it. I wish I could get her on the same page but unfortunately timing has seen fit to reinforce her ways rather than get her to simmer down and be reasonable. I did get a "committee" going as it quickly became apparent if the City of Sheboygan was going to allow us to have volunteers to help, I was not going to be able to handle this all on my own. Sadly I have spent so much time and effort into work and the dog park that I now have more people who like the dog park page than like My Page :(... With the new camera I am taking much better pictures and posting them with copyrights as a watermark so people don't just copy and paste them onto their own computers. Since I have changed my perspective on photography, all pictures that get posted there automatically get that unless they are really not all that flattering.

I do regret not having more blog entries than this, but I don't get any feedback and wonder how often anyone reads this.
I did start another Blog on WordPress : "Animal Art Resource" Animal Art Resource Blog on WordPress
What it is meant to be is a collaboration of artists, websites, galleries, forums, shows, and tutorials along with
information and tips on running an art business dealing with Pet & Wildlife art. I sadly have more artists following that than I have this blog which I why I let this one go. I am trying to make a better effort at keeping both of them up...along with facebook...sigh...when I am I supposed to paint?