Archive for the ‘The DIY Artist’ Category

I get asked variations of this quite a bit and it wasn’t until someone recently asked on my Facebook Wall that I realized it would make a good blog post. This sums up quite well all the tools I need to make my artwork.

Behr Paint from Home Depot. I use this for a few different reasons.
1. I’m not a fan of mixing my own colors. It’s not that I’m totally against it, but it’s a real pain to mix a second batch of the same color. I can get any shade of any color I want at Home Depot and it’s always consistent. You can actually make your own custom color at home and take a sample of it to Home Depot and they can match it for you. All they need is a sample that’s at least the size of a quarter. Check this out. This is something I’ve actually done. One of my favorite colors of MTN Spray Paint is called “Luminouse Green”. I sprayed it on a piece of paper, took it to Home Depot and they color matched it. I was able to get a quart of my favorite spray paint color in house paint form.

2. I like the consistency. I can make it drip if I want to. Watering it down to do light washes isn’t a problem. It just works for me.

3. Price. It simply can’t be beat. We’ve all seen those little 2oz. tubes of Golden Acrylics for $8. Or $15 if you want Cadnium Red. Even the “cheap” stuff like Liquitex Basics is going to cost you $6.50 for a 4oz tube. Behr, you can get one quart of paint (32oz.) for $12-15.

About a year ago I discovered these little gems. Home Depot, I’m guessing, finally got tired of people returning paint that was custom mixed. Basically, people would get a gallon mixed, take it home and not like it. Then return it. Now you can get these little 7.25 oz. jars of any color you want for $3. I rarely need an entire quart or gallon of paint for what I do, so these things have been great for me.

I use spray paint quite a bit. Mostly for my backgrounds. I’m certainly not one of those guys doing super fine detailed and technical work with a spray can. I like brushes too much.

I’ve strictly been using MTN Spray Paint for the past four years. In my opinion, it’s the best. It’s so great, in fact, that I’ve been selling it in my gallery since 2008. DO NOT get it confused with “Montana Gold” or “Montana Black” or “Montana Cans”. The one you want is manufactured in Spain and simply goes by “MTN” or “Montana Colors”. If it doesn’t look like the cans pictured here don’t get it. MTN has a very interesting story that you can read about here.

All the black lines you see in my paintings are done with brushes and ink. Some people ask if I use paint pens for my fine lines. The answer: no. I can get way more detail with a brush than with a pen. Over the years I’ve used a few different inks, but this acrylic ink by Daler-Rowney called “FW” is currently my favorite.

And of course, painting on wood is the best. Canvas is way overrated.

- Jeff

If you have an iPhone or an Android I suggest getting the Red Laser app. It’s awesome. You can use it to scan QR codes as well as bar codes. Scanning bar codes is fun because you can price check items and see what other stores in your area carry the same product and how much their selling it for.

Those square black and white pixelated images you’ve been seeing popping up everywhere are called QR Codes. If you have a smart phone you should be able to scan the code and it will take you to a website. They’re pretty cool and you’re going to start them more and more. As an artist the first thing that came to my mind was getting a QR code for myself and printing some stickers made with a code on them with “FOLLOW ME” just below the code. When scanned the code would take you to my twitter page. I know, I know, it’s not that original of an idea, but usually the first idea that comes to mind never is. People are already doing similar things and printing QR codes as shirt graphics. I think it’s great though because scanning a random code is always a surprise.

Naturally, I wanted a more unique code, something custom, so I used this painting:

and came up with this code:

If you’re familiar with photoshop you should be able to figure out how to do this pretty easily. Unfortunately, this isn’t a tutorial on how to customize your QR code. It’s just a post to show you that it can be done and also to talk a little about QR codes.

My buddy, STENZSKULL, put my design to shame with his custom QR.

So, where to get your own QR code? That’s easy. You can get a QR for any URL using the google URL shortener, www.goo.gl.

After messing around with the google URL shortener I learned that the Red Laser app can generate QR codes too and it’s super simple. I’ll make a tutorial on how to do that in a future post. Anyway…

The thing with using www.goo.gl is that the code it generates will always be for that one particular URL. This is ok for the “FOLLOW ME” sticker idea, but for other applications you might want to change the URL the code takes somebody too. It would be pretty boring to have a QR code as a shirt graphic that only takes people to the site of the shirt company. It would be much more fun if the URL was changed from time to time so that people scanning it would be taken to different places every time they decide to scan it. For this you need a QR Code that allows you to redirect your URL. That way you can use the same code and switch up the URL destination from time to time.

To do this check out www.qrjumps.com. I haven’t looked too into the site myself and at the moment I don’t feel like googling any more today, so you can research it on your own by googling “redirect QR code URL“.

You can also get creative with what to do with the code. One thing I came across that I thought was brilliant was in the flower section at Home Depot. I noticed QR codes on the labels for plants and flowers. Being an iPhone nerd I figured I better scan it. The code took me to a page about that particular plant, gave me the scientific name for it and instructions on how to care for it, what to plant near it and all kinds of stuff. It was extremely informative.

Nerd out!

My true nerd has been manifested in the last couple of weeks and I couldn’t be happier about it. After all, nerds are awesome.

It all started when I had to transfer my phone line to the new gallery space. Assuming the new space was all set up with a phone line I should have been able to transfer without a problem, at least from the perspective of the phone company. However, there was a problem. And the problem was all mine. The actual wires from the phone jack that lead to the source of all things telephone had been ripped out. This is one detail the phone company would not have known. It was something I didn’t even realize until I plugged my phone in. Hmm…no dial tone, why isn’t it working? Oh, I see, there should totally be some sort of wire coming out of that box that goes outside and connects to a telephone pole somewhere. It was with this desperation that my full nerd was able to infiltrate my being and oversee what has now been dubbed “Operation: What The F Am I Supposed To Do Now?”

I had enough smarts in me to expect a 2-3 day processing time for the phone line transfer to take place, so I had found this app called “Square“, that would allow me to process credit card transactions on my phone.

(Square on iPhone)

That’s right, part of my nerd manifestation required me to buy an iPhone. For awhile I thought not owning an iPhone, or any smart phone for that matter, made me a little bit cooler than other people. Wait, that’s a lie. My true belief was that it made me way cooler. I had transcended the necessity of owning an expensive phone that so many others had fallen prey to. I’ve learned now that gaining cool points in that fashion is a bit misguided. Kind of like how people brag about being an insomniac. There is nothing cool about not being able to sleep, people. Sleep is freaking awesome. For reals. And there is nothing cool about not owning an iPhone. The real selling point for me on acquiring a new phone was that the unlimited data plan offered by Verizon was coming to an end. The loophole, of course, was that if you already had an unlimited plan before the deadline you would be able to keep that plan while new customers would be left in the dust with a measly 2 GB transfer limit. Those poor souls. I refused to be part of that gang.

Ok, so now I had the overpriced phone (worth every penny). This gave me access to the Square app which would allow me to process credit card payments during the few days my store would be without a phone line. I thought I was so smart.

Little did I know, I was getting smarter by the megabyte. And trust me, I transfer googols of megabytes. It wasn’t long before I added Square to my iPad and by golly, wouldn’t you know it…Square on the iPad changed my life. On the iPhone Square is great. You type in the total of the sale, the tax gets added automatically (which is something you set up beforehand), you swipe the customers card, they sign on the screen of your phone with their finger and the last step is the customer chooses to receive a receipt by text or email. It’s awesome!

(text version of receipt)

While Square is great on the iPhone it’s a powerhouse on the iPad. The app transforms the device into a digital register complete with images and descriptions of my products, priced and ready to ring up.

(Square on iPad)

One small problem, my iPad only connects to the internet through a wifi connection. Because of password protected neighbors (jerks) and no phone line/internet in my place of business the opportunity to take full advantage of what Square could offer me on the iPad was totally lost. Or was it?

Somewhere in the scrolling of sites I remembered reading something about the iPhone’s capability to be a hotspot. Voila! One simple trip to the Verizon store later, my phone was set up with hot spot capability. Now I could use Square on my iPad as well have internet access for my computer.

When it comes to math I’m about as gifted as a ballerina at boot camp. When money is involved, especially mine, I start to grasp the concept quite a bit more. If I end up with a higher number of dollars in my pocket than when I started it cheers me quite a bit. That’s the kind of math I can get behind. So, here’s a little breakdown of how my nerdiness has let me keep more dollars in my pocket than before this whole phone line debacle.

(Dollar Sign painting by Andy Warhol, who happened to know a thing or two about money.)

My typical phone bill (land line) was in the $20 a month range, which was strictly used only to process credit card transactions. On top of that was an additional $30 for the internet. So, my total phone bill was $50. I couldn’t live without the internet because of my Twitter and Facebook addiction. Ha ha, just kidding…what am I, thirteen years old!? C’mon people, I’m a professional and use the internet only for business. I have no time whatsoever for those silly sites. Now, FOLLOW ME and FRIEND ME! Add the “Statement Fee” from my credit card processing company, $10, and that puts us at a total of $60 for the luxury of having a phone line to accept credit card payments and the internet. I won’t calculate in the percentage taken from each credit card sale because each card takes a slightly different percentage and equates pretty close to the same amount taken by Square, which is 2.75%. The bonus with Square is they accept all cards for the same percentage. If you’ve ever wondered why a store won’t accept your American Express card it’s because the percentage they take could be best described as rape.

The cost of having my phone be a hotspot is $20 a month. The hotspot allows me to accept credit card payments on my iPad as well as connect to the internet on my computer for all of my business needs. Yes, people, BUSINESS. I’m saving $40 a month using my phone as a hotspot, not to mention the cost saved if I would have had to hire an electrician to fix my messed up phone line.

Ching! Ching!

Now, Square up!

The Facebook app is pretty easy to navigate for personal use. For those of us that created a Facebook Page for our business you might have had trouble with a few things. If you’re like me there’s a good chance you asked yourself, “How can I add a photo to my Facebook Page?” It seemed like the only thing possible was to add a photo to your personal page and hope that members of your business page also followed your personal page. Ahh, but what then would be the point of having a business page. One loophole I found was that you could upload a photo to Flickr using the Flickr app and then post a link to it on the wall of your business page. The problem there is that it doesn’t show up in any of your Facebook photo albums and the picture will get buried with each new wall post.

Well, I finally clicked around enough to find out how to add photos to my business page. It’s pretty easy and I’m surprised it took me this long to figure it out.

First, open the Facebook app.

Tap in the “search” bar and click on the “pages” tab.

Type the name of your page. In my case it’s “The Claassen Gallery“. Choose your page when you see it show up in the drop down menu.

Now you should be on your business page. Tap the “Share Photo” option on the left side. This is the part I can’t believe I missed before.

Pick your option. I went with “Choose From Library” because I tend to take photos of stuff before I open the app.

Choose your album.

Choose the photo you’d like on your Facebook Page.

Tap the “write a caption” option.

I highly suggest leaving a caption for all photos you put online.

Now check the spelling on your caption and tap that fancy “upload” button.

And there you go! The photo will post on the wall of your business/fan page and will also be added to the “Wall Photos” album of your page.

When you’re back on a your regular computer or on the desktop version of Facebook you can edit your photo album and move your recent “wall photo” to a more appropriate album. In my case, when I get a chance I’ll have to move this photo over to the “Art Supplies” album, but for now at least it’s on my page.

Hope this helps!
Jeff

I’m happy to announce that The Claassen Gallery now has stencils for sale! People ask all the time if we sell pre-cut stencils and we can finally answer, “Yes, we do!”

I think stencils are one of best and easiest way for people to get into making art, so this book is perfect for anybody that wants to try their hand at getting artsy. Of course, I encourage you to start making your own stencils at some point, but this book is a highly recommended place to start.

Stencil 101 by Ed Roth

Come by the shop and check it out!

The Claassen Gallery
785 Marsh St
San Luis Obispo CA 93401
days of operation: Tue-Sat 12-6pm

Welcome to the first installment of “Ask Jeff”! This is an idea I’ve been tossing around for awhile. People come into the gallery and call me or text me asking all sorts of art related questions, so I figured there is a demand for knowledge out there. Why should the person asking reap all the benefits when there are others out there that could be seeking similar answers. So, let the fun begin!

Christian from Paint This City asks: “When I tried to resin coat a poster, the paper soaked the resin and bled the ink all over the place. The pretty pattern turned into a blob. Any tips?”

Damn! I hate when that happens. I’ve had the same mishap with resin coating a few things and I finally figured something out that works. First off, you never really know what kind of an effect the resin will have on certain materials. It’s good practice to make test pieces first and try the resin on it. For example: Dab a little of your poster ink on a scratch piece of paper and glue that to a scrap piece of wood. I’m assuming you were mounting your poster on a piece of wood. Anyway, doing the test obviously takes up time, but it’s worth not ruining the final product.

Now, here is what’s worked for me.

Mod Podge is great! I prefer this matte finish one to the other finishes they offer. I use this to glue my paper/prints to wood. What makes it great is that it dries clear so you can also use it as a sealer. If you put a coat of this over your poster before you pour the resin coat there is a good chance you won’t get the bleeding of ink again. Of course, test this out on a sample first to be sure. One coat usually works for me, but you can also do a second coat to play it safe. You can also try a clear coat spray, such as the Krylon Matte Finish or Crystal Clear.

Again, I like the matte finish better for sealing purposes. I’ve used the glue and the spray on finishes and I’d say it’s a matter of personal preference. They’ve both worked for me, but I still prefer the glue.

Try it out and let me know if that works for you.

* Enviro-Tex Pour On Resin, Mod Podge Matte Finish and Krylon clear coats are all available at The Claassen Gallery.

Thanks for sending the question!
- Jeff

If you have an artsy type question you’d like to ask feel free to visit the contact page and send it my way. If I feel qualified to answer it I’ll make a blog post out of it.

That’s right! I have six ad spots available for free! Well, kind of. You see, I am doing some research. You will not be charged for having your ad on my blog, but in return I would like some feedback from you on if the ad was effective.

What’s in this for you:
- Free ad to your URL for two weeks.
- The possibility of getting more exposure to your site.
- The possibility of getting some sales.

“Effective”, of course, can mean different things to different people so here is what I am specifically looking for.

- Did the ad generate visitors to your site? If so, how many?
- Did the ad generate any sales of the products you offer? If so, what products and how many sales?
- Was there any interaction between new visitors and you. For example: “I saw your ad on Jeff’s blog and………”
- At the end of this two week experiment I’ll have some more questions for you, but those I just mentioned should give you an idea on the type of feedback I’m looking for.

To be eligible for the free ad you must have some form of web statistics available for your site. I highly suggest that the URL your ad links to is a specific page set up just to monitor how many visitors that page gets. In other words, it’s a page you set up and the only way for someone to view it is from clicking the ad on my blog. Doing this will give us the best indication of how effective the ad is. If that’s too much work for you then we’ll have to settle for the “referring URL” information.

I’ll be totally honest with you, I’m a little guy in the world of blogging. There are some serious pros out there getting 1,000′s of visitors* every single day. As of yesterday my blog has received 2,777 visitors for January. That’s an average of 132 visitors a day. My lowest day was January 3 with 100 visitors and the highest day was January 14 with 235. As you can see, it varies. However, I am proud to say that my daily visitors has not been below 100 for quite a while. Yeah, January 3 was a close one!

Why am I doing this?
Quite honestly, I want to be one of those “pros” getting 1,000′s of visitors a day. Eventually, I would like this blog to help out paying for diapers when our little monster arrives in July. Selling ads on here would be a great way to get some extra money coming in. Of course, if the ads aren’t effective not only would I feel guilty charging for the ad space, but people would also run their ad once and stop. That’s not the kind of relationship I want with the people that help support me. I want people to get back an equal or greater value than what they spent on an ad.

Also, I just love helping promote people and what they’re doing. I’ve had free ads on here for about the last six months.

Ok, you still with me here? If so, and you’d like to help me out by putting your ad on here and tracking it’s effectiveness please use the contact page to send me a message. Be sure to put a link to your site so I can take a look at it. It’s in both of our best interests if what you are advertising is cohesive with what my blog is about. Let’s face it, if you’re trying to sell Nascar t-shirts the people that read my “art” blog will not be interested and therefore, not click on your ad.

Happy blogging!
- Jeff

* There is a BIG difference between “visitors” and “hits”. To put it simply, a hit is a request to a web server for a file. What that means is that if your homepage has 20 jpeg images on it and one person looks at your homepage you just got 20 hits. It’s popular opinion that hits are not effective to determine the popularity of a website.

Ok, if you’re an artist and you don’t have a Facebook Fan Page now is the time to set one up. This post isn’t about how to set up a fan page. You can find all you need to know about that on Facebook. So, once you have your page all set up you need to get the word out and get some fans. Somehow this “Suggest To Friends” link went unnoticed to me for months until a friend of mine pointed it out.

When you click that link this window pops up.

All of the friends you have in your personal profile will show up in this box. If you look close you’ll notice that some of the profiles are faded, those friends have already become fans or “liked” your page. Click on all the profiles that have not “liked” your page yet. Once they are all highlighted click the “send invitations” link. Obviously, the more friends you have on your personal page the more fans you’ll be able to get on your fan page. If you can get your friends and family to use the “suggest to friends” feature you’re sure to get a lot more people visiting your fan page.

When my friend first showed me this feature I had about 600 “fans”. Luckily, I had a lot of friends to suggest my page to. After I sent the invitations my number of fans jumped up to over 1,200 in a couple of days. About once a month I use the “suggest to friends” feature because I get new friends on my personal profile that might not know about my fan page.

Keep in mind it’s nice to reciprocate. If any of your friends have fan pages be sure to “suggest” their page to all your friends too. No need to be greedy. The more fans we all have the more exposure we’ll all get.

You can see the fan page for my gallery at www.facebook.com/theclaassengallery.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. This little bit of information has helped me tremendously in my own art career and I know it will help you too.

Become synonymous with your craft.

I’m going to say that again so it sinks in. In fact, I’m just going to type it out in all caps.

BECOME SYNONYMOUS WITH YOUR CRAFT.

This should be one of your ultimate goals and I’ll tell you why. First, think of the names of some of your closest friends and how you refer to them or better yet, how you would introduce them to somebody. There is a good chance you add a title to their name. Sometimes it’s an official title like “George the architect” and other times it’s a little less official such as “George the cokehead (or wife beater).” You may not even realize that you do this or that people are doing it with you. I think it’s a default behavior we fall victim to because we all love associations so much. Becoming synonymous with something has been out of your control for the most part, but now that you are aware of it you can decide what to be synonymous with and take advantage of it. Ideally, you want to get to the point in which the people you know think of you anytime your craft (art, design, photography, etc) is mentioned and vice versa.

If you have dreams of becoming a professional artist it will be easier as soon as people begin to know you as “Jill the artist” and not “Jill the housecleaner”. Here’s why. As long as people associate you with house cleaning (or serving coffee or whatever you do as a day job) they won’t think of you when they hear about an opportunity that will help out your art career. Here’s an example from my own life. I never listen to the radio. My cousin, however, was listening to the radio while driving to work when an ad came on asking for artists to submit work for a chance at getting their art on a TV show. My cousin instantly thought of me. As it turned out I emailed my submission and was chosen. The company paid me to use my work in a pilot they were filming. They even paid for my gas so I could drive the artwork to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the show wasn’t picked up, but I still got paid and a lot of people (cast and crew) saw my work. If my cousin thought of me as “Jeff the skateboard hoodlum” he might have called somebody else he knows that’s an artist. This is just one of many opportunities that have come my way because of being synonymous with what I do.

Ok, so how do you get rid of that unwanted title people have chosen to add to your name? It’s easy. Start referring to yourself with the title you want. Get business cards that state exactly what you want to be known as. When I first got business cards they said “Jeff Claassen – fine artist”.

Another thing you can do if you’re not already is start living up to the title. I know there are some artists out there that hide the fact for some reason. I’m not suggesting you go yell it from the rooftops (unless that’s what you want to do), but it’s good to start talking about it. When people call you and you’re in the middle of painting don’t just tell them you can’t talk because you’re busy. Tell them you’re in the middle of painting and you’ll call them back later. When people ask how you’re doing or what you did last weekend tell them it was a great weekend because you were able to get a lot of work done on one of the paintings you’ve been trying to finish.

You can even take it a step further. I have a friend that’s a realtor and literally asked me to think of him if anybody I knew mentioned they were looking to buy a house. It worked too. Whenever I hear, “we’re looking for a house” I think of him and say, “Call my friend John.”

I love Twitter. At first I was hesitant, but tried it out despite my skepticism. Now I’m slightly addicted. As a DIY artist that is responsible for all aspects of my business (making products, selling, packing/shipping, marketing, customer service, etc.) twitter has proven to be a great tool at keeping people informed. All my followers now know what youtube videos I’m watching, what I’m eating, and the ungodly hours I choose to go on donut runs. What does this have to do with being a professional DIY’er?

For starters, it gives your fans a behind the scenes glimpse at who you are and what you’re about. Have you ever watched an episode of Behind The Music or Cribs? If you have there’s a good chance you sat transfixed watching somebody you would never normally be interested in. Leif Garrett, anyone? If people know who you are they are going to be excited to support you. And if they like what you post twitter makes it very easy for them to retweet your post to all of their followers.

One thing to keep in mind when getting started is to not bombard your followers with links to buy your stuff. Be sure to mix up your self-promotional posts with the personal ones. Nothing will lose you followers faster than incessant “look at my stuff and buy it” posts. I’ve actually set up a separate account that I use solely for promotion. It’s so obvious that anybody who chooses to follow it knows exactly what they’re signing up for. I still post self-promotional tweets on my personal account, but I mix it up.

The one thing that has really helped out with promoting my goods on twitter is the “hashtag”, which is this symbol #. I saw people using the hashtag before keywords (example: #painting) and had to investigate as to why? As it turns out people can save searches for their favorite topics and see posts from all the twitter users that use a particular hashtag/keyword. For instance, if you want to see what the entire twitter community is saying about fashion simply save the search. Using the hashtag is a great way to have people see your posts that aren’t following you. I’ve even picked up new followers that found my tweets with hashtags. I’ve posted links to items in my etsy shop and have seen 20-30 more views in a matter of minutes. Same with blog posts. The key, of course, is to find popular hashtags. Search for a few in your field to see how often people are posting with the same tag. Here are some of my favorites:
#etsy
#diy
#art
#painting
#craft
#style
#streetart

You can also try some specific local keywords for where you live. Where I live (San Luis Obispo) local twitter-ers will use #slo and #centralcoast. So, when you have an art show on the Central Coast promote it on twitter with “#centralcoast“.

When you get really obsessed with Twitter you’ll want to tweet using a third party. Here are the two that I use and swear by.
Tweet Deck – Super easy to use and you don’t even need to open a web browser to use it, which I think is great.
Hoot Suite – This is awesome because you have the option to schedule your tweets! I love this feature. The site is a little crowded, but it’s still easy to use.

I still have a lot to learn about the world of tweeting, so if you have any tips and tricks please share with us by leaving a comment. Thanks!

(photo of Thierry Guetta, aka: My Brainwash, by Gregory Bojorquez)
When pricing your work it’s good to consider how long you’ve been selling your art. Perhaps you haven’t made your first sale yet or maybe you consistently sell two originals every month. It should be obvious that if you’ve never sold your work before it would be wise to charge less than a person that’s been selling consistently for fifteen years.

Unfortunately, a lot of artists new to selling see work that is similar to their own at high prices and assume they should charge the same. Just because your work is similar you must keep in mind that the other artist has worked long and hard for years to arrive at their prices. There is a good chance they have a long list of collectors, have received some press and also have representation in a reputable gallery (or several) as opposed to selling out of their garage or on a street corner. In a sense, they have paid their dues and know what people are willing to pay for their work. A lot of big name artists are in such high demand that they even have waiting lists of collectors standing by to snatch up the next available piece. If you are just starting out there is a good chance you don’t have any of those things. I know that sounds harsh, but that’s the reality and we all have to start somewhere. Don’t worry, if you keep it up you’ll get there too.

Of course, I always encourage artists to know the market their work fits into and researching what else is out there. It’s good to know what similar art is selling for so you can set goals and work towards those higher prices. Be realistic with where you’re at in your art career and price accordingly. If your work sells out fast then you know to price higher the next time around. Remember, if your work does sell fast don’t feel like you got ripped off or cheated. There is a bigger value than you think in having your work out of your studio and out in the world to be seen. Also if your work does sell fast you now have bragging rights to say your show sold out, which will create more demand for your work in the future.

If you’re a mid-career artist or a full time professional I think it’s safe to assume that you’ve figured out this whole pricing thing by now so if you have any tips and pointers for artists new to the game please leave a comment.