A Glance at Putting Prints Together

With my inventory low from last months consignment re-stock, it's time to put together more prints of my art and sign them, and that is what I did today. I was completely out of some of my best sellers, and those I need when I'm on the street selling.

I attach the prints to the backboards, set the mat board in place, add the bio sheet to the back and hand sign each print. It's actually alot of work, but as you can see by the photo, we have organized the work area and streamlined the process to make it as efficiant as possible.

The shelf is home-made just for this purpose, and it sits on a regular fold-up table I bought at Costco. Mat Boards, backboards and clear bags ( print sleeves ) all have their place just above the work area. I also have two clamp lights, one on each side to provide good lighting so I can see what I"m doing.

If your an artist and you want to know more about where to get the materials, and how to put prints together - be sure to pick up a copy of my book "Breaking into the Art World".

It isn't over until it's over

Well, it's been a highly stressed last few days since my last post, but after much effort and more delays, we have finally signed the papers on the purchase of our home. ....Now we wait for escrow.

We also celebrated my son's 16th birthday and besides working on my art off and on, I've been building web sites late at night. One is for a buddy who has been my friend since we were kids, the others are sites I've wanted to build for a long time and building them has helped me keep my mind off the "house issues".

As I've looked around the web over the years, I've noticed there aren't many web sites that help artists get their own web sites noticed, in regards to keywords. What I mean by that is; it's hard for an individual artist to build a web site that can be found on a search engine. It's even harder to learn what it takes to optimize that web site so it shows up on the first or second page of a search engine result. For example: When someone types in the keyword "floral artists", they get a list of sites that are optimized to score well on the search engine. The competition to be on the first page is tough, and usually the only ones who make it are web sites who pay a professional to build their site and maintain it (which can costs thousands), or they studied how search engines work and built their own web site.

My idea has been to build web sites that focus on specific keywords like "portrait painters" for example, and lists artist who want to join for a small fee every year. The advantage to the artist is that if they join, they will be listed on a web site that is on the first page of the search engine results, and thier web site will get found instead of listed on page 30 or even worse, page 100. And instead of costing them thousands to keep their web site on the first page of the search engine results - they are there for a only a few bucks a month, and are getting visitors to their web site.

You can go to www.Yahoo.com and do a search for "portrait painters" and see how this is suppose to work. On the first page you will find a web site I built about 6 years ago titled PortraitPainters.net.

It takes up to 6 months to get a web site optimized so it lands on the first page of the search engine results (sometimes longer) and I'm hoping to have my new web sites listed soon. I recently built www.LandscapeArtistDirectory.com and just finished www.MuralArtistDirectory.com . I have others to build in the future, but it takes time and money to build them, so I'm taking my time.

Why hasn't someone done this sooner? I'm not sure, but I think it's because artists usually don't have much money to spend and don't see the value. I also suspect no one in their right mind would spend their time and energy to promote artists web site unless they were getting paid "big bucks" to do it.

Why am I doing it? Because, I've seen the value in having my own web site listed, and I've seen the traffic it brings to my own art web site. Once again, it's about "exposure", and the more people see my name and art in different places, the more popular I appear in the eyes of the art viewing public ( this is web marketing 101 ).

Why am I doing it for others even when I'm not listed on the site? Because I want to help other artists get exposure also, and I figure if the web site makes enough to cover domain and hosting expenses, everybody wins! If it makes more, then I'm re-embursed for my time and energy into the project.

Making some progress...

...Well, as much as I could today.

We are purchasing a home and our stress levels are at a all time high. It's been four long months of waiting for this thing to close, all the time, anxious to find out if we will be able to buy it or not. We were suppose to sign papers today, but it's been put off (again) until Monday.

We are looking forward to owning our own home and not having to move every year or so, and the good news is that I'll have my own dedicated art studio to work in. :)

Besides working on the commission piece today, I've been putting together prints for several consignment shops. This week has been a "Hot Week" for my art print sales and some of the stores that carry my work have been calling for an early re-stock - I can't tell you how happy that makes me feel, especially right before tax time. :)

I recently introduced a new print size to my inventory, a 14x23 frame size, the print size in the mat is 9"x18", and they have been selling really well. The prints are of paintings I did that were on a 18"x36" canvas. Paintings that are very dynamic, but previously only available in a Giclee Canvas Print.


















You can see the others on my web site www.BrianMarshallWhite.com , and don't miss seeing the petroglyph Kahuna Series.

I also made a contact this week who has connections to a gallery on Maui. So, if all goes well, my work will be available there also.

Have a great day, and follow your dream!

Successful Ship Day!

It was another beautiful sunny day in Kailua Kona today and a successful sales day to boot. I met alot of friendly people and finished the base layers of my painting of some yellow Plumerias.

I chose to do the base layers in pinks and blues to build a strong contrast first, then once it dries, I'll lay on the yellows. I did this because I wanted pure vibrant yellows. Since I'm working on five paintings at once, I will be setting this one aside to dry.

There aren't any ships scheduled for Friday, so I'll be running errands (shipping prints that have sold) and working in my studio at home on a commission piece.

Aloha for now and have a great day!

Marshall White

Time to Blog.

I've decided to start this blog to share with others the process of making my art, so they can see some of the inner-workings of what is involved in an art business and see my paintings in process before they are available for purchase. For those of you who collect my art, you'll get a preview of "what's next". For those of you who are interested in art and creating art, you'll get a peek at some "behind the scenes" activity.

I hope you will visit often, and I hope you enjoy!

Marshall White
www.BrianMarshallWhite.com