Monday, April 28, 2008

"Art Business - Resources for Artists" has had a major revision

Three Black Parrots
16" x 12", pencil in Muji sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Art Business - Resources for Artists has had a good old spring clean and revamp! I've sorted, turfed, given it a good vac, moved the furniture around and generally 'fluffed'!

It's become a massive site since I started it back in August 2006. During that time it has collected its own group of fans, consistently receives good ratings and plaudits from people who come across it and has consistently been in the top 100 art sites on Squidoo.

However, I've recently been concerned that the growth now meant it was also cluttered and disorganised. The first module in particular - aimed at the emerging artist had become very long. Plus the module devoted to my blog posts about the art business and related matters had become very long

So I've reorganised the modules, introduced some new ones, moved information around so it now sits in the module which it best fits and deleted some material completely so it can go on another site. I've split the Making A Mark blog posts up into sections.

New modules I've added relate to:
  • Being a Professional Artist
  • Marketing and Selling Art
  • The Art Economy
  • Selling Art through Galleries
  • The Daily Painting phenomenon
There is a new Table of Contents at the beginning of the site (see below). Looking at that provides a quick overview of contents. Click any link in that table and it will take you straight to the section you want to visit. I'm beginning to think it needs a 'back to the top' function!

In broad terms, information is now organised as follows:
  • Information for those getting started
  • Reality checks for experienced artists
  • Being a Professional Artist
  • The Business of Art - Useful websites
  • Marketing and Selling Art
  • Websites and Blogging
  • Copyright
  • Pensions
  • Geographically specific links
You can find out about....................
just click on a link to go straight to that topicArt Business - Resources for Artists
Swan Song
16" x 12", pencil in Muji sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Now for the interactive bit!

Let me know what you think about:
  • the new structure of the site - Does it seem sensible? Can it be improved?
  • the content on the site - What's missing? What do you want to know more about?
I'm always happy to take suggestions for new links. If you'd like to make a comment or suggestion you have a choice. Either use the comments function on this post or post it as a comment on the site.

Don't forget:
  • Bookmark: You can bookmark all my information sites through one handy bookmark Making A Mark of Squidoo. This contains all my information sites and groups them by category.
  • Update on news: If you'd like to receive news about major updates which I don't announce in this blog then you need to do one of two things
    • Become a member of squidoo and "favourite" any of my information sites or become a "fan" then you automatically receive an e-mail anytime I do a "squidcast" about major updates to a site.
    • subscribe to the RSS feed.
You can be a member of Squidoo without creating a site - although you might be tempted to create a home for all your useful reference sites - which is how mine started!

About The Parrot Tulip Drawings

I drew flowers all last week while visiting the botanical art events - so here are a couple of the drawings I did. They're more sketches than drawings as I didn't use archival paper. I was trying out a new Muji sketchbook which measures 16" x 12" (407x320mm). The size is nice to draw on but a pain to scan as I need to stitch the scans together and then remove all the weird colours which emerge when scanning graphite!

You can see more drawings of flowers by viewing the online galleries for flowers and plants on my website Pastels and Pencils

7 comments:

  1. Black Parrots are beautiful as is the other sketch. Are you going to develop this further - beyond a sketch. I love your graphite flowers.

    Your central Squidoo is fantastic, Katherine while I've looked at different aspects of it, to open up the main link is mind bogglingly great.

    Are you happy for people to put a link to various segments of your Squidoo on blogs. I was merrily doing it and suddenly thought - I should ask.

    Why don't you photograph your large drawings rather than scanning. Is this a subject for a future blog - scanning vs. photography of artwork?

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  2. Lovely drawing, Katherine (three black parrots).
    I love the title as well.

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  3. This is a wonderful art blog...so interesting and all-encompassing! Thanks for this outstanding blog.

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  4. Wow, you really did a major overhaul. It looks great though and very easy to access. As usual, an outstanding art blog. Thanks.

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  5. Thanks Dee, Sioux and Melody.

    It's always great to get compliments but equally nice to get constructive suggestions for how something can be improved. I've got my fingers crossed I'll get some of those too! ;)

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  6. What a wonderful resource, Katherine. I continue to be amazed at your hunter/gatherer approach to information. And I LOVE the drawings- just exquisite. Have you ever thought of (self)publishing a book of them?

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  7. Deborah - I love the 'hunter-gatherer' comment! :) I'm officially a maven - and I know because Bert Dodson told me. I then went out and bought Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point and realised that he was right!

    I'm developing some book ideas at the moment - I know from my website how popular one on flower drawings would be, although it's not currently on the agenda. But maybe it should be?

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