Friday, April 3, 2015

Namaste, Simple & black and white, new art journal ideas, selling online thoughts...




I am working on a new form of art journals, (yes, again), 
this time I am going for the simple and only in black and white,
you are welcome to join the fun if you like!

Materials used:

 black pen, I am using a fine point sharpie
# 6B pencil
rubber stamps
tea (optional)
biscuits (obligatory) ;)
Note: All links are for your convenience and facility to view the products 

I simply draw with my #6B pencil my subjects, words and doodles and go 
on top with my black pen, then I erase the pencil lines I don´t want with my
kneaded eraser, not  all of them for this is a layer and adds depth, and I use 
the pencil for some shadowing.  I love this easy process and it helps me 
practice a lot and keeps it fun and interesting which is so 
important to me or else I get bored, I´ll be sharing this new ideas
and what I do with them digitally as shown bellow with Photoshop and 
the ipad´s application Phonto.

I´m also working on a 11" x 14"  sketch book from Canson with the 
same idea of Simple & black and white, I just added some vegetable 
charcoal which is my favorite art tool for drawing!

SIMPLE IS BETTER
SIMPLE IS FASTER
SIMPLE IS POWERFUL 

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
                                                                                                    Confucius



















One of you asked me about what were my thoughts about 
selling online, I still have a long way to learn  but I hope 
my point of view helps you a little!

I started a long time a go on my blog, I opened a page and 
created a store, I still was learning and didn´t know 
much but I was happy, slowly started making direct sells using
Paypal, it takes a while to learn how to use it but is pretty 
easy and friendly, then I tried Etsy for a while and also had 
some sells, I like the way they present the stores and
that is a little easy to understand and use but feels lonely,
I understood that it was me, the seller who was making 
all the effort on promoting and so I realized that
I was promoting Etsy instead of my own work and also had to 
pay a fee on every sell and on every 
post, that was ok in the beginning but then working 
so hard to sell and giving my money to
other company didn´t fell good because they do 
very little to promote you, you the 
individual and if they do is of course charged.
They do ok for the overal place but not for you 
who at the end have to deal with many,
many things, so I decided to go back to my original idea, 
selling on my blog, I still will be doing a lot of work 
promoting but this time it´s for my self alone 
and at the end, this always feels good.

Yes, you have to work a lot on promoting, how else people 
is going to know about your store, your work and were to 
get it, think about it for a while, think of it as if you were the 
buyer, your needs and likes, how you enjoy shopping, then, 
write down all your ideas on how to do it, that´s your starting 
plan!  Make an art journal with this theme, 
make it fun so you keep excited!

I´ve found many places and people who claim to have 
the ultimate truths about how to do it, that
they know it all and that they will share their 
secrets with you!  The truth is, we are all still learning 
about the web and how it works and it keeps changing 
and this changes are fast and unexpected.  
This is one of the greatest reasons of recession!

I refuse to  take success recipes for they don´t work 
the same for everyone, each one has different needs, 
resources, desires, budgets and backgrounds, understand 
yours, make plans, learn how others are doing it, 
learn your needs and  start from were you think is 
best for you, for me it is working 
small, little by little while I learn more, I am happy with 
the sells I´ve made over the years on my blog, it 
doesn´t show like on Etsy but it´s not about bragging, 
it´s about having happy customers that are part of your 
career, your history and they are the ones that matter so 
think of ways to keep them happy , I know
 that makes me very happy too!

Know that even if you don´t like it, you have to invest 
some time, money and effort on learning first how it 
all works for you and then try different things, 
experiment on and understand what your
 customers like and dislike, what makes a sell 
and what makes a fail, ho yes, you will fail, but you 
will also succeed, keep experimenting, keep learning, 
one day it all make sense, but know that this won´t 
happen from day to night.

You could be the greatest thing tomorrow or you 
could do so many things wrong like I have, 
but if you never fail, you won´t learn anything!
And also remember 
that it is you, you are doing it yourself, 
there is no grater feeling!  Success
depends on how much you are willing to put in to it, 
yes I know, I didn´t add the sweets in this topic but 
I think it´s better this way, it´s a job for grown
 ups and sometimes the artist hasn´t get there yet
due to the hard work that is making art!
Being an entrepreneur is different than being an artist,
learn how to be a good one!

I've missed more than 9000 shots 
in my career. I've lost almost 
300 games. 26 times, 
I've been trusted to take the 
game winning shot and missed. 
I've failed over and over and over 
again in my life. 
And that is why I succeed.
                                                             Michael Jordan


Creativity is also making a new path on sales, 
everything is sales, just look and you will see,
use your creativity to be unique and different, 
take the recession as an opportunity to be creative, 
inventive and find new ways, new products, necessities 
to be filled, find were is the hunger and make 
delicious food, economy is cyclic, 
for some periods is up and others like now is down, 
take this moment to learn and prepare
for better times, I recommend you follow WOBI, an
 international channel that educates about business, 
I´ve learned so much there just by watching the 
shows and interviews.

Also, do something extra while you create
your dream job, for example me, I am
a model to make some extra money and do what I
love while I learn to do better!

I am more soft and easy than what a business 
man/woman are perhaps because I prefer
to grow on my artistic path more than anything 
else but I hope this helps you, you will decide
what is best for you!  thoughts, ideas, doubts?
Please email me to monicatlink@hotmail.com
I´ll be happy to help you!

NAMASTE!



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