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• Who's the Artist?
  by RedBubble

  Standing, looking at an artwork in a gallery recently I found myself asking, who is the artist? At one level the answer is obvious – the …

  Standing, looking at an artwork in a gallery recently I found myself asking, who is the artist? At one level the answer is obvious – the person who created the object. But the tricky bit is they may or may not be the person/s who decided it was art. A recent exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia of Aboriginal art is a case in point. The early objects on exhibit became “art” when a curator determined they were. Before that they were objects the community created to give meaning to their lives. There were no artists just the people making the works. And, I will confess here, I find the idea of being an artist a little bit diminishing. It is possible to be a lawyer because other people aren’t one (I know at least that I am not a lawyer). But if I decide I am an artist does that mean I wasn’t one before or that you aren’t one? The truth is we are all artists or at least have the potential be. And so being an artist is really little different than being human. At least if we allow ourselves to be fully human. And whether the things we make are considered to be “art” or not, I guess we will have to leave that to the critics. Martin (aka Pilgrim)

• The road map for the next few months
  by RedBubble

  So, we said January is thinking month, yet here we are mid-Februa…

  So, we said January is thinking month, yet here we are mid-February and we’re still thinking quite a lot! It’s been incredibly valuable to us to take a step back, look at what we’re really trying to achieve here, and how we make all the pieces fit. The first thing I guess you need to know about RedBubble is that we have no shortage of ideas, and no shortage of suggestions from the community. It’s actually quite rare that we hear of a bad idea — most ideas are great, or as Xavier would say, winners. So when we’re faced with hundreds or thousands of great ideas, the challenge is deciding what’s going to solve the biggest problems for the most people, and making sure we stay true to The Big Plan. A huge part of The Big Plan is the buying and selling. Artists are happy when they sell their work, buyers are happy when they find something they want to buy. With this is in mind, we’re going going to be spending a lot of our time over the next few months looking at our products, as well as how they’re bought and how they’re sold. What does that mean? Hopefully that means… Revised wall art products We don’t think we’ve got the wall art stuff right yet, and this is going to change. Pete’s already previewed our plans for framed wall art with interchangeable matted prints, but this is just the tip of the iceberg — we have some top secret stuff wall art products we really hope we can get ready. Wall art needs to be big and we still haven’t been able to find a way to economically ship big wall art around the globe, so this is high on our list (still). Post cards Our greeting cards still need some attention, but we’re also really keen to do post cards and some other printed promotional stuff that helps the artist sell their work and promote themselves. Photo books Calendars were a roaring success (and they weren’t even publicly available for sale), so we’re pretty keen to get a photo book product out there for everyone to buy. More T-shirt options We’re keen to have more colors and styles available to the buyers, as well as more options for the artist (like front and back printing, shifting the print area around on the tee, etc). Better selling tools As Pete recently discussed in the year ahead, we feel we’re in a partnership with the artists, and we need their help to promote their work and sell it. So we want to give you tools to do that. Business cards and post cards will help, but so will some technical stuff like allowing you to have a more product-oriented profile page and some more widgets to embed in other websites. Personally, I’d really like to help other artists sell their stuff by promoting it, so that’s something we’re going to explore as well. Better buying tools Not everyone is a buyer, but for those who come to RedBubble (or to your profile) with cash in their hand looking to buy something, we want to make it really easy. Mooks and publications In addition to In The Moment (on sale in a few days) and our current competition Gaia, Fran is working hard to introduce more periodical publications in the form of Mooks (not a magazine, not quite a book, get it?) to get more of your fantastic writing and art published. Disclaimers and footnotes This is the big stuff that we really think will make a difference to RedBubble over the next few months, but it’s not a definitive list at all. There’s no guarantee we can get all of this done of course, and there’s obviously other things that we’ll need to take care of along the way, but everyone needs a plan and something to focus on. Hopefully you’re as excited about this stuff as we are! — Peter & Justin

• Art About
  by RedBubble

  Today the Australian National Gallery celebrated its 10 millionth visitor since 2002. I thought good on them. And then I began to feel a …

  Today the Australian National Gallery celebrated its 10 millionth visitor since 2002. I thought good on them. And then I began to feel a little less charitable. Australia’s National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum in NYC (I believe the most visited museum in the world but may be wrong), the Tate in London are great institutions. As are there counterparts in many other countries. Upon them are showered millions of dollars of citizen’s money and the establishment elite fight tooth and nail get on their boards and help choose which dead artist is next for sainthood. And having said all that, I am sure they do some good. But, shock, they are relatively small beer. Currently RedBubble is, according to Alexa, the third or fourth most popular art site in the world. Not bad considering we have only been going for a little over a year. AND we get about 40,000 visitors a day. How does this compare? Well the National Gallery gets 4,520 through its doors each day, MOMA in NYC gets about 5,000 and the Met a little over 14,000. So LETS get serious here. The real action in the art world is happening online – at RedBubble, DeviantArt and the other top handful of serious sites allowing people to engage in creativity and share their art. Yes, we all love sitting in front of dreamy Monet but that is a once a year (or once a lifetime) event. The everyday, transforming, life-changing art is happening in our loungerooms and studies and being shared with each other across the Internet. And that is a good thing. And the established art world will catch on …. Eventually. by Martin Hosking (aka Pilgrim)

• André’s creation: eclectic pleasures
  by Maxwell Edward

  Black and white keys, saxophone, guitar, everywhere. The music has much more magnificence than can be tried to be explained through words…

  Black and white keys, saxophone, guitar, everywhere. The music has much more magnificence than can be tried to be explained through words. This jazzy rendezvous has always been André’s favourite ear-food. He just loves the way its beauty, splendour, radiance is ‘unleashed’. André stares at the canvas for over a dozen times. Here he is staring at the blank space which is future marvel…or was it to be past marvel? Had he missed his chance, missed the boat which would have sailed to sentimental stardom? He refuses to collaborate more than a sentence for any one idea. Any idea that deserves a sentence must deserve no doubt. Any canvas is only worth the greatest ideas. Two André’s exist; though only one at any one time. The withdrawn analytical front, designed for most occasions. On rare occasions the other character may appear, the intensive, massively determined André who acts on impulses. Impulsive André must be begged out. A Pandora’s Box of surprises, his job will at least never cease to astonish. “Dearest André, Through years have you befriended my son Louis, so therefore I am offering an opportunity to benefit both of our interests (with intent towards your gain). Litton inc., my company has stepped up towards mainstream success. We require visual arts for our newly bought edifice. I understand you have been painting for the eight years since high school. To your discretion I would like to require a painting; just one will suffice. I would like something vibrant and colourful, yet deep and meaningful; Contemporise to your own vision. Much thanks, Dr. Raymond Fonck.” The commissioned paper lies stuck on the wall. André has read it. Now it is time for the future. It has been too long sitting around (or rather bouncing around); too get too much productivity from anything. Someone once said to him that anything is good experience. True perhaps, although he prefers productivity, especially in a time of intensity such as this; three days left until confrontation. His vigilant eyes stroll around the room, searching for advice. He is not bored, nor has he painters block, for such a term does not exist and will not ever for him. His eyes strike the clock. The clock glares 5:48 pm back. What a disgusting fierce look it has. Not 5:45, nor 6:00 and only one uncomfortable minute in-between. For at this time these uncomforting three digits add to the frustration in the actual time. “Aw!” André suddenly realizes the importance of the time. It is the one factor which never seems to be on his side but actually encourages his total progress. It is an epiphany like that of a mother to the newborn. André decides to let his hands take / control. They are the secret key, (sometimes the gatekeepers of unleashing impulsive André) His dominant left one picks up the brush (over time it has made up for its fault of statistically losing him seven years). His right hand decides to lose cognition. It dips itself into a little puddle of Sangria oil paint muck. Than it flies onto the near-centre of the canvas, smeared diagonally. His left hand takes initiative once again, waving lines of smudge to and fro. Right hand brings more paint to its destination. Myrtle, Indigo, Olive, Magnolia…and no, not that…Yes, yes, even black! (Well seal brown to be precise). All of these contextually beautiful colours unleashed! There are no thoughts in André’s mind now. This is impulsive André now; organised thought is of little importance! That colour is important here. This colour is unimportant there. A few lines of any colour are important right here or there, but perhaps a darker colour is better. More negative space up and down the edges. Shape is forming. Lines are bolding. Complete non-representational form is diminishing. Visualizations; the visualized images in mind are being…unloaded bit by bit. It is coming about. What is it though? No one knows. If anybody could guess it definitely would not be André. André knows he has the power to bring out the reality in it though. In a seemingly paradox situation he must not connect to reality at the moment though. Now, after these hours of painting, André is in the painting. He would not know it has been hours besides the constant glare of the illuminating digital clock staring from across the room; it unconsciously processes its recognition into André. The phone screams out, ‘br-ring, br-ring!’ Like the other external matter it creeps into André, until finally its screams become too annoying to ignore. It’s too late now…impulsive André has vanished; his conventional counterpart has replaced him. The phone persists though. André decides to take it (typical for his returned mannerism). He dives across the room horizontally attacking the corner where that nuisance phone lies. ‘Aw, aw, aw, aw!’ A tube of paint has squirt from underneath his stomach. Agonising that his material friend can be so painful at times (like any of his life long friends). He picks up the phone; only the tone. He has missed whatever, whoever it was. Once again, missing the boat… Now thought and all that comes with it has returned. Why now out of all times possible? There is only sadness, misery, all this escalated from these small miniscule misfortunes; all has turned to turmoil! What can one do, when feeling like crawling into a hole? His secret minor disorders such as his claustrophobia would prevent him from crawling into that hole, even if he had one. At the moment everything feels like one big hole. Not surprisingly André’s eyes begin doing the only thing they know to do in times of unrest; wander. It is impossible to ignore what is there; it has been there all along, yet has never been seen. It is beautiful! It is splendour! It is radiance!! It is interrupted by another scream of ‘br-ring br-ring’. André picks up the damn phone. Without contemplation he whispers, “Sir, madam, I’m very terribly busy, could you perhaps call back sometime?” A deep sophisticated voice replies, “Raymond Fonck, André. Listen, I need to know about the progress of the painting. How is it going; ready to sell on Friday?” Many emotions garner at the speed of light inside André allows these emotions to clash inside of him. The painting; it is beautiful, splendour, radiance! How could he give it away now, after an indescribable series of emotional contributions? It is something that has not been attempted before; yet it is new but the expression of old. It is everything, at the moment, hopefully containing more interpretive inoculations for the future. It is a subject, of just some time, yet it contains a collaboration of detail separated from time. It is…once again interrupted by screams, this time of another sort; the infuriating talking of man. “André. Are you there?” Feelings of great rebellion sweep André off his feet. He knows how he will revolutionize his life, because after all; this painting has revolutionized his thought already. “Mister Fonck. I am so sorry. Some things have come over me…a type of sickness…although I am sure you are not aware of this mad syndrome I am suffering due to it. Well to the point, I must say I will not be supplying you with your wanted artwork. Thank you for your understanding. Hopefully we can collaborate something in future.” André hangs the phone up without replies, without a stated understanding from the mister Fonck. Without even the knowledge of acceptance or approval from the mister Fonck…it does not matter. All that matters is this new painting, this contemporised vision. It is everything. Most importantly of all, it is…unleashed!

• What are we Trying to Achieve?
  by RedBubble

  There is an article in this morning’s paper that the National Gallery of Australia is seeking to raise $150 million to purchase new art. ...

  There is an article in this morning’s paper that the National Gallery of Australia is seeking to raise $150 million to purchase new art. They are calling on the philanthropy of wealthy Australians (I guess they would also take money from others if they were so inclined). This is a good thing. Although on one level I question why somebody would give to acquire multi-million dollar art pieces rather than give to save lives in Burma or China. But I can sort of see it. The art is uplifting, raises the tone of society and you get to go to really good dinners and meet really important people. But on another level, I cannot help but feel that this excessive emphasis on “great art” is not very good at achieving the “meta” purpose (the purpose behind the purpose). If the objective is to use art to uplift society, then “great art” is a pretty blunt weapon. There is on old saying along the lines: “Tell me and I may remember / Show me and I may copy / Let me do and I will understand”. Great art is all about telling. We have put too much emphasis on it at the expense of allowing people to participate in art. RedBubble is all about further understanding by helping and encouraging people to do art. This is a higher order purpose, albeit one with far fewer fancy dinners associated with it and the important people we meet are family and friends. by Martin Hosking (aka Pilgrim)

• Art Council Spam Scam
  by RedBubble

  Folks Sorry to say that some dastardly non-Easter bunny has been spamming some RedBubble users with something along the following line…

  Folks Sorry to say that some dastardly non-Easter bunny has been spamming some RedBubble users with something along the following lines. WINNING NOTIFICATION / We are pleased to inform you that your art works on exibition won you a prize credited to file KTU/9023118308/03.In the UK ART COUNCIL ONLINE PROM draws held this MARCH 2008. / etc …. This has nothing to do with RedBubble. Any communication from us will come from the RedBubble account. The spammer’s account has been deleted. It is important that you don’t respond to this bubblemail (both to protect your own privacy and so the spammer gets no joy and moves on). Please report any spam use of Bubblemail. It is ONLY to be used for personal, non-commercial purposes. Sorry about this. There are some rabid bunnies out there. Martin

• 6 Quick Tips For Selling Your Art On RedBubble
  by Jo O'Brien

  Keep your portfolio short and sweet. Show only y…

  Keep your portfolio short and sweet. Show only your absolute best work and ensure your portfolio can be flicked through in under a minute. People have really short attention spans Use tags. But only use relevant tags which describe key features of the work. Use your journal to give buyers a glimpse into your motivations, inspirations and learning. Don’t put anything negative in it (people can see it!) Remove negative or critiquing comments from under artworks- potential buyers can read them and you don’t want them to be put off Personalise your work by adding meaningful descriptions that tell your audience about how the work was created, what it was inspired by or the story behind it Think about and make a deliberate decision on how much to charge for your art

• Photoshop Tutorial : " Under the Sheets " Displacement Maps Exposed!
  by Randy Monteith

  Hi everyone, Julie Langford asked me a few weeks back about doing Displacement Maps in Ph…

  Hi everyone, Julie Langford asked me a few weeks back about doing Displacement Maps in PhotoShop and then Darren Sharp asked me to help him out with an image he was working on. So I promised I would find the time to make a tutorial on one way I have used them in my art. Here’s an example of how I used a Displacement Map in PhotoShop The first thing we need to make is our Displacement Map. Our Displacement Map is going to help our Redbubble text follow the contours and folds of the blanket. Displacement Map Step 1: Load the original photo into PhotoShop Step 2: On the Menu choose IMAGE / ADJUSTMENTS / DESATURATE Now we have a black and white version of our original photo Step 3: From the Menu choose FILTER / BLUR / GAUSSIAN BLUR I choose a Radius value of 5 for this image Step 4: Now this is very important!!! Save this image as a .PSD file I saved mine as Displacement.psd Now to make the TEXT that we want to use like wrapping paper to follow the folds and contours of the blanket Step 5: Make some text on the screen or a flower pattern or photo or whatever you want. Here you can see i made some Redbubble text and then rotated it slightly to follow the angle of the blanket in the original photo. Important Note: Keep the size of this TEXT image the same dimensions as the original photo. Step 6: Save this TEXT image as a JPG with little or no compression at all. Putting it all together Step 7: Start a new image by opening our original Photo into PhotoShop. Step 8: Duplicate this layer LAYER / DUPLICATE Step 9: Turn off the original photo layer by clicking on the eye in the layers pallette / and then load the TEXT you made earlier as a layer above these two. So your layers palette should look something like this Step 10: Click on the TEXT layer so its highlighted to make it the active layer and click on the check box off to the left of it so the eye icon turns on and now you can see the TEXT image on your main screen. Step 11: From the Menu choose FILTER / DISTORT / DISPLACE … These are the setting that I used After you click ok it will ask you what .PSD file to load as the Displacement map. Load the file we made earlier called Displacement.psd Step 12: Now we have this distorted version of our TEXT image, but it has taken on the wrinkles and twists of our blanket and umm err our model too OOOOOOPPPs! Don’t worry we ill fix it up this is where we want to be right now. Step 13: With the TEXT layer the active layer still click on the ADD LAYER MASK icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette , indicated with the Green Arrow. This wiil create a LAYER MASK next to the TEXT Image layer shown with the RED Arrow. Layer Masks are great and wonderful things. When you paint with BLACK on them they reveal the pixels of the Layer underneath. If you make a mistake its easy to fix just change your paint colour to WHITE and then paint with white to correct your mistake. Step 14: On the TEXT layer change the Opacity of this layer to about 46% or so. / The Red arrow shows where I adjusted the opacity of the TEXT Layer. Step 15: Ok now we can see better what we want to Mask out. So Click on the Mask Layer Icon that is next to the TEXT LAYER on the LAYER palette to make sure its active. Step 16: Start painting out the girls face, the pillow and all the parts of the TEXT layer you don’t want to show on the final image. Here’s a detail shot of the Layers palette notice how the Layer Mask Icon is starting to fill up with BLACK where you started to MASK out the pixels of the TEXT LAYER. Step 17: Once you have finished masking out all the parts of the TEXT layer you don’t want showing change the OPACITY back up to 100%. Then change the LAYER BLENDING Mode to MULTIPLY for the TEXT LAYER. Here what it should look like. Step 18: Using the same techniques above, using the DISPLACEMENT technique and ad the big Redbubble text to the pillow and you will end up with this. Use a LAYER MASK and hide all the pixels of the big Redbubble text that fall on her face and hair. This will give it the appearance thats its just on the pillow. Here’s the original idea I did with this before the Redbubble version Other Tutorials On Redbubble How to make a Sketch and then a Pastel Portrait PhotoShop Tutorial : Another way to bring out details and sharpen a photo If you had fun or learned anything new here great ! It took me most of this evening to put this together. So please take some time to check out my gallery and if you wish comment on any of my artwork. Randy Monteith

• Selling Art At Markets
  by Jo O'Brien

  Selling Art At Markets Without repeating the points I made in my Selling Greeting Cards Through Stores...

  Selling Art At Markets Without repeating the points I made in my Selling Greeting Cards Through Stores post, here are some of my pointers for selling artwork at markets. It’s going to be another long one so I’ll use headings and give you some pretty pictures to look at on the way :) / Pin-Up Strip Collection – Cards : Freedom by Helen McLean Know The Market You are Attending / Visit the market first! This step is often overlooked and yet it will help you a lot. Some markets can be described as ‘glorified garage sales’ (nothing wrong with that) and others are almost outdoor shopping centres with every convenience. Make a special trip with your stall in mind and ask yourself some questions: What is already being sold? How would you categorise the shoppers? How many people are buying things vs. having a look? How much do things cost there? Is there an entry fee for customers? Have a talk to the current stallholders who will give you the gossip on which spots are the best and how much you can charge for your stuff. Find out about how to get a stall/space. Some markets will ask you to pay an stallholder fee and rock up on the day, others will require a formal proposal in writing and an interview. So find out how to go about it and get advice from current stallholders. By the way, if you’re freaking out about approaching store holders for advice, get over it. Market folk are the nicest people and love a good yarn, just make sure you don’t keep them from their customers. Know Your Target Customer / In an ideal world you would look at your art and work out whom it is best targeted at. Then you would strive to get their attention by stocking your art in places that they go. In the market circuit, things are backwards. You find the market with its existing crowd of shoppers and find a way to sell them what you have. Or you could even make artwork especially to appeal to them. (This is known to some as “selling your soul” – I prefer to call it “paying my bills”) / Since you have visited the market, you have some idea of who goes there. Think about what they are likely to buy and aim to supply it. So take your lovely florals to the nursing home charity fair, your brightly coloured clown shots to the school fete and your super chic city shots to the tourist market. Always have some variety but you can often work out what will be popular before you pay for a heap of printing. / Matilda and Scarlet by Lisadee Displays Are Important / Displays are important. Displays are important. Displays are important. I can’t stress this enough! Most people who sell at markets will at some point learn (usually the hard way) how true that statement is. Think about it before you get there. How do you want it all to look- even if you are artistically challenged like me, draw a picture of how you are going to set everything up. Do you have any space restrictions you need to consider? Are you allowed to hang things? Put them on the floor? Allow people to walk around your allocated space? Are their any other restrictions such as number of displays or tables? All markets have their own (seemingly random) rules so find out before you spend money getting your display units. If you can, do a mock up at home first and see what it’s like from the customers’ side. Some pointers from me on this topic are: / 1) Make sure people can ‘try before they buy’ i.e. can they touch your products to see what the quality is like? / 2) Display things at an appropriate height. Putting your work on the ground degrades its value. If it’s a children’s item, keep it lower, if its wall décor hang it at eye height. / 3) Protect your stock from children, accidents and the weather Packaging / Just a brief note here that in addition to packaging you items to look great, in a market situation they have to withstand the weather. It is also a good idea to have shopping bags so that people can easily carry their purchases around with them. Charge the Right Amount / If you are at a busy tourist market, you can usually set higher prices. As a general rule, I charged 50% more than my ‘shop’ price at tourist markets. Yet at less commercially driven markets you may find the price point has to be a lot lower. You simply have to suss out what is reasonable before you get there by checking out other stalls. The other thing to be aware of is that a lot of market shoppers are out for a bargain. So be prepared for hagglers and decide before you get there how flexible, if at all, you are going to be. You can try and nip it in the bud by having special deals planned ahead of time. It’s also a good point to drop here that human psychology is a wonderful thing and in terms of prices and deals- something displayed in writing will be treated with more respect than information giving verbally. So use price tags and signs. / So Pedestrian by Melody Let People Give You Money / You’re thinking, “Jo, of course I’ll let them give me money- that’s why I’m sitting at this cold, wet market to start with.” But are you really? Are you really letting them give it to you? Do this little task right now, while you’re sitting there at the computer. Pull out your wallet or purse and count how much cash you have. Now think about how much lunch would cost you and deduct that amount, now deduct half a tank of petrol or train fare, which you used to get to this hypothetical market and see what is left. Do you have enough money there to buy heaps of fabulous art? Most people will say “no.” Some will be lucky to break even. What is my point? If you were your own customer, you wouldn’t be buying much- if anything. I can hear you saying “But if I was going to a market I’d get cash out first.” Maybe you would, but, and I mean this in the nicest way, most people will forget. So idiot-proof yourself as much as possible. This might mean knowing where the nearest ATM is to direct people, it might mean having credit card facilities, it might mean having business cards with your online store URL for customers without cash. It seems ridiculous but I have encountered so many customers at markets that simply don’t have cash and therefore can’t buy anything. So have a way around it. / Jo’s little tip: bring a calculator with you. Like They Say in The Scouts: Be Prepared / Make a list of what you need to bring and check it twice. It’s laughable but I’ve seen stallholders forget their trestle table, which is basically the most important part of their stall. So don’t think it won’t happen to you. I know it sounds pessimistic but it’s important to think about what can go wrong. At markets the most common problems are… / 1) The toilet paper runs out in the one and only unisex toilet which is a 5 minute hike across town / 2) You run out of change to give customers- and then you realised none of the stall holders have enough change so you can’t even beg for it, and because it’s a Sunday you can’t get any from the bank… / 3) You are bored stupid waiting for people to start arriving / 4) The weather lets you down. We often prepare for rain but the real killer is the wind and in summer intense sun / 5) You can’t find anything decent to eat for lunch / 6) You need to go to the toilet or eat something but because your ‘help’ is late or didn’t make it, you are literally tied to your stall all day, and the stallholder beside you is too busy to keep an eye on it for you, and you wouldn’t trust them anyway. / 7) You forgot your big warm coat on a freezing cold day or your sunnies on a really bright day. / 8) People keep shoplifting your stuff or even steal your money tin/bag (much more common at markets than in shopping centres with video surveillance) So ask yourself how you will prepare for some of these situations and have a plan. Bring extras of everything and generally don’t feel bad when you can’t even move in your car because of all the stuff you’ve piled in there. When I was doing markets, I prayed for the day I could afford a van. Logistics / Think about all the stuff you need to take and work out how you are going to get it there, set it up and keep it supervised. Can you park your car behind your stall or do you have to move it? Are there strict set up and pack up times you need to consider? If you need to park away from the stall, can you do it securely and do you need to pay for parking? Can your stall be covered if you need to leave it unattended for a bathroom run or are you happy to ask a fellow stallholder to keep an eye on it? And this is a big one guys- What are you going to do with your rubbish at the end of the day? Expect to take it home because the public bins will be overflowing by lunchtime and littering is just not on. / CLOWNS by Mugsy Budgeting / It’s really the first thing you need to do but it scares people so I thought I’d hide it down here at the bottom. When you set up a market stall, you are essentially running your own business and like all small businesses, money, is important. You need to think about what it’s all going to cost you and decide if you are going to make a profit. Let me keep this very simple, the three things you need to think about are… / 1) Things that you buy once to get set up / 2) Things that will keep costing you money as you go / 3) Things that make you money I could write about making budgets all day but I’m trying to keep this post relevant to art. Basically, you want to make enough time to pay yourself back for any major set ups costs like buying new display stands, as well as any ongoing costs, and on top of that you want to make a profit. And please don’t forget to factor in your time. Decide if you are worth $20 per hour or $10 and hour or whatever and include “paying yourself” in your calculations. Keep Financial Records / Another scary one but important one. Keep a list of what stock you bring with you and what you sell. That way when you get home you can determine if anything was stolen or if any money went missing or the wrong change was given. It’s also good to keep a more general record of how much money you are making and what you are spending for each market so that you can see if your business is growing or struggling. It will also show you patterns; for example, an outdoor market would most likely have a quiet period during colder months. I will have to create a separate post about budgeting and financial records because they are both huge areas and very important. For now, my best advice is to get some advice! Oh the irony! I hope that is useful to a few people. And if I made it sound like hard work, well it is. But it’s also good fun. / Nurses by Samantha Thompson

• Evolution of Art
  by Pilgrim

  One aspect of RedBubble that has got little attention is where it fits in the development of art. Firstly a caveat, I probably only know …

  One aspect of RedBubble that has got little attention is where it fits in the development of art. Firstly a caveat, I probably only know just enough to be wrong. Ploughing on regardless, I believe RedBubble is part of a revolution in the artistic market. It is about the rediscovery that art can be embedded in the fabric of society rather than spread on top like a thin veneer of Vegemite. Since the Renaissance, art has been what a tiny elite produced and sold at vast prices to another tiny elite. The art world was open only to the wealth few and a cabal of elevated artists. I have been lucky in my life and have some of this art on my walls. I know it is art because somebody has told me it is and because it cost a smallish fortune. It bloody well better be art or I want my money back. But then, taking a deep breath, I look at what my children produce (or an even deeper breath, what I produce) and I understand that this elite view of art is only part of the picture. I know in non-Western societies art can be much more democratic – anybody can participate in the process. Australia’s Aboriginals maintain this capacity but they are not unique (I have seen a similar thing in Bali). There was a dream of many in the 19th century to return to democratic art. John Ruskin felt everybody had a right to beauty. But the technology has worked against such dreams. In the era of mass production, everyday art is uniformly bland. Ikea continues to churn out an art mediocrity that manages to insult both the artist and the purchaser. And so RedBubble. I feel the site is creating new artists and new art purchasers. We strive to deliver the highest quality and each work, while not unique, is certainly rare. Building a great collection of traditional art is beyond almost everybody’s reach. A great collection from RedBubble can easily be aspired to for a few thousand dollars. All the Bub’s art lacks (in general) is the imprimatur of art elite who tell us it is good. As for me, my RedBubble purchasers sit proudly beside traditional works and I will dare anybody to say which has intrinsically more value. Next week I am meeting with the Chairman of the National Gallery of Australia. We will see if he shares my views on the evolution of art. I will pitch him to try and get a RedBubble art installation, which I see as truly modern art, not just a change in the medium (or content) but a change in the very meaning of art itself. This is a change enabled by the power of the Internet combined with print-on-demand technology.

• Protect Your Copyright - URGENT ACTION REQUIRED
  by Helen Bascom KMA

  If you are an artist or photographer in the United States PLEASE TAKE HEED: you may loose all rights to your work very soon. A bill is b…

  If you are an artist or photographer in the United States PLEASE TAKE HEED: you may loose all rights to your work very soon. A bill is before Congress which will essentially make all works of art ever created orphaned works and send them to the public domain. Essentially what this bill will do is force artists and photographers to pay fees to commercial registry companies to register a copyright on every single work you have ever created or ever will create. The current law protects your copyright without registration. Registration with the United States Copyright Office merely sets statutory damages in the event of copyright infringement. The new law will REQUIRE registration NOT WITH THE COPYRIGHT OFFICE but with COMMERCIAL REGISTRIES. The purpose of this bill seems to be the enrichment of corporations to the impoverishment of the people. If this bill passes and you want to protect your work, you will be required to pay a fee FOR EVERY SINGLE WORK OF ART ALREADY CREATED and EVERY SINGLE WORK YOU WILL EVER CREATE. Additionally, you will be required to register with more than one commercial registry to secure your copyright protection. Now let’s see, I have just on RB 250 works. If I have to pay $5 USD per photo to three different registries to protect my copyright that will cost me $3,750. This is just the cost to protect the work I have uploaded to RedBubble. What about the other 8,399 photos on my computer? If I ever print them, upload them, show them in a gallery, I have to pay for each of them as well. / Folks, this is serious. EDIT – URGENT UPDATE The Orphan Works Bill is out of committee. Now is the time to zealously advocate for defeat of this bill. Please go to the Illustrators Partnership of America Legislative Action Center for more information and useful links to contact your Senators and Representatives. This Bill will substantially limit your ability to recover financially if your work is infringed, even if your work was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office prior to infringement. So registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is a waste of your money if this Bill passes. Important elements of the HOUSE BILL Coerced Registration • The Orphan Works Act would force artists to risk their lives’ work to subsidize the start-up ventures of private, profit making registries, using untested image recognition technology and untried business models. These models would inevitably favor the aggregation of images into corporate databases over the licensing of copyrights by the lone artists who create the art. International Impact • Because an unmarked picture cannot be sourced or dated, works by artists outside the U.S. will be as vulnerable to infringement in the U.S. as work by domestic artists. • Presumably the Copyright Office and Congress expect non U.S. artists to register all their past and future art with the new hypothetical U.S. databases, or see their work exposed to commercial infringement under U.S. law. • It is a violation of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works for any country to impose registration on a rights holder as as a condition of protecting his copyright. Please take this opportunity to protect your rights under the current copyright law by speaking out against this proposed legislation. Go here and read this journal entry by Crockpot The Orphan Works Act of 2008 ~ RELEASE FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP The Orphan Works Act of 2008 will be officially released momentarily. The language in the draft confirms our warnings. If this bill passes, you’ll be forced to clear all your secondary licensing rights through at least two government certified databases – or risk orphaning your art. Despite its masquerade as the “last resort” to search for a rights owner, these databases will likely become the only source many users will rely on for finding a rights owner. Reason: it will give users the legal right to infringe any copyright not in the databases. ERIN JAY’S JOURNAL ENTRY CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT OF THE SENATE VERSION CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT OF THE HOUSE VERSION CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK THIS LINK FOR EVEN MORE INFORMATION CLICK THIS LINK FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CLICK THIS LINK FOR REGISTRATION PROBLEMS Below is a sample letter I sent to my senators and to my congressional representative. Please adapt it for your own use. Click these links to find your state representatives: STATE SENATORS CONTACT INFORMATION STATE REPRESENTATIVE CONTACT INFORMATION Here is an interview with Brad Holland of the Illustrator’s Partnership. He explains how passage of this bill will affect every artist and photographer in the Country. Under current United States and International Law, your copyright is automatic from the moment you create the work. Registering your work provides you with legal fees and statutory damages upon discovering an infringement. If you do not register your work, your are limited to actual damages which are typically far less than provided for in the Statute. International law, and current US Law prohibit forced or coerced copyright registration. Copyright is a longstanding common law right. The proposed legislation is a back door effort to require registration with commercial registries in order to protect your work from being deemed orphaned. SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION HERE SAMPLE LETTER TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE and SENATOR Congressman Baron Hill / 279 Quartermaster Ct. / Jeffersonville, IN 47130 / Phone: (812) 288-3999 / Fax: (812) 288-3873 Re: The Orphan Works legislation Dear Congressman Hill: My name is Helen M. Bascom and I live in Jeffersonville, Indiana. After reading about the Orphan Works bill, I am outraged that this could happen in my country. This Orphan Works legislation, if passed, will severely impact my income and life as an artist/photographer. Not only will it give license for others to legally steal and use my work for free, it will be virtually impossible for me to afford the time and money to register my creations in all the potential new registries. Commercial registries will be the only organizations that will profit from this legislation. I have thousands of photographs and works of art and I simply can not afford to register my works, even at a few dollars each. This bill, if passed, will force me to close my on line galleries which will destroy my business. Should someone consider my work to be orphaned and take my work for their own use, I can not afford the legal fees to protect my copyright. I demand that you to vote AGAINST the Orphan Works bill and protect my rights, my copyrights, to all that I have and will create. Thank you. Regards, Helen M. Bascom, / Bascom Digital Art

• Creative Arts Festival - United Kingdom
  by Faizan Qureshi

  Hey guys I am organising a Creative Arts Festival for a charity in the UK and was wondering if any of you would like to buy a stal…

  Hey guys I am organising a Creative Arts Festival for a charity in the UK and was wondering if any of you would like to buy a stall there, or be interested in buying exhibition space? This is going to be in Victoria Square, Birmingham (with SO much exposure) in April 2008. The stalls could cost anywhere from £400 to £800 depending on the size however I am working out the details for combined exhibition spaces that artists, designers and photographers can get together and hire. The festival will also include food stalls, handicrafts, alcohol, floral designs, jewellery, (unknown) designer clothes, music, dance, drama, musicals, etc. Please let me know if you are interested as soon as you can before the stalls run out. Also, would RedBubble be interested in sponsoring and/or buying a stall to showcase their artists?? Remember, this is for a charity so be generous! ;) What do I get out of this if it’s for a charity? I get public relations, contacts and experience to do it bigger and better the next time! Thanks Faizan / Director – Tutti Art PS: Please comment and favourite this so it can get good exposure. Remember, this is for a good cause!

• Our Art
  by RedBubble

  In San Francisco today I visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and am confronted by a deep unrelenting humanity. Lee Miller tak…

  In San Francisco today I visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and am confronted by a deep unrelenting humanity. Lee Miller takes takes me (and a thousand others) on a remarkable photographic journey from the fashion of Vogue to Hitler’s bunker and horrors of Buchenwald. We see her bathing in 1945 trying to cleanse herself from what her camera has captured. I move along and a remarkable special exhibition of Frieda Kahlo’s works lets me share in her physical pain, her passion for a philandering husband and back again to her pain. Each detail minutely captured and magnified by her art. Life darts through the lives of both women. In their art they try to make sense of it – its immutability, its transience, its bloody beauty and its brevity. The art puts a mirror to their experiences and it would be facile to say it transforms it. But it seems to give it some sense. Every moment I spend on RedBubble I see the same thing. I stare deeply into our collective humanity. This is our art. Martin (aka Pilgrim)

• Selling Art Through Galleries- My Advice
  by Jo O'Brien

  I recently received an email from a fellow RedBubbler and thought I should share my response… DISCLAIMER: this is just my opinion an…

  I recently received an email from a fellow RedBubbler and thought I should share my response… DISCLAIMER: this is just my opinion and advice so don’t take my word as gospel! ____________ Hi Jo, I ‘discovered ’ you on Red Bubble and love your work.. You mentioned you work for a gallery that takes work on consignment. I’m interested in getting some of my work into galleries but don’t know how to. My stuff is here… http://www.redbubble.com/URL So just wondering if you have some advice?? Cheers & thanks, ____________ Hey M First thing is you will notice that the footer of this email has all my phone numbers- please do not hesitate to call me and we can have a proper conversation about this. I have a lot of artists ask me about this and am only happy to help out. I have found that the best way to get your stuff into galleries is to do what you have just done- send an email with a link to your work. Your webiste is basically your CV in the art world – it doesn’t have to be flashy (and redbubble is totally appropriate) but having work that loads quickly is important. You will be lucky if a gallery spends more than 1-2 minutes looking at your site. The other thing you can do is to print out samples of 5-8 images of your work, a biography or artist’s statement and any quirky info that could be used to market you. Put this together into a CV or folio and make several copies. Then you do the door knock thing. If you take this option be aware of a few things- Gallery staff at some places (certainly not us though) can be quite snobby to artists who come off the street and try to sell their wares. I suggest being pleasant but do not try to take up too much of their time. I’m more receptive to a “here’s a copy of my folio, here’s my contact details, i’d love to have a chat some time but obviously now isn’t the best time for you- maybe give me a call if you’re interested?” than a lengthy rehearsed sales pitch. Each gallery will have a slightly different way of doing things. Some will ask for a tax invoice when you bring in art and they will just pay you when it sells. Other will ask for an invoice only once something has sold and they may or may not request a consignment note when you deliver your art. Other places do 90% of the paperwork for you but these are rare. We keep a running file of what work you bring in and if anything gets returned to you because it wasn’t selling. Then if something sells we call or email you the same While I’m on this I should mention that some galleries will not deal with you unless you have an ABN. GST normally doesn’t make a difference but I have heard of a couple of fussy places who have insisted on dealing with GST inclusive artists only- go figure? The other thing that changes between galleries is the mark up of your work. In some of the artist run galleries you can get a 30/70 split of the sale (with the artist being better off). Other places will rip you off majorly and mark up your work by more than 100% and therefore will get more money than you do when it sells. Don’t let people bargain with you for your cut and THEN try to add 10% on for GST- insist on bargaining on the final price inclusive of GST. I make this bargaining process sound difficult but the truth is most places have a policy about how they split things and you either take it or leave it- my advice is more to show you the difference between money grabbing and artist appreciating! Which brings me to my next point- look at the attitude of the gallery. Some places are really picky about what you give them to sell which can mean that they either have no idea OR it could mean that they know their clientelle really well. You just have to be good at reading people to wrok that one out. The places that I would steer clear of are the ones who don’t seem to fussed by what you give them or don’t really care about having a biography or any information about you. They should be interested is selling ‘you’ as a product as well as your stuff. You have to balance out the financial side of things with the personal side. At our galleries we go 50/50 on sales which is considered a bit high. The upside however is that you get a mini cheering squad who will rave about your amazing talents to anyone who glances at your work sideways. We don’t have artists complaining about the higher mark up because we make up for it in branding and promotion you. This is a call each artist has to make for themself. If you’re stuff is considered sellable (which is decided on a case by case basis) we will give it a decent chance of selling- normally I put new stuff on display straight away or in the shop window. Then we see hwat the reaction is. Sometimes we find out very quickly that there is no interest, or everyone loves the image but thinks it is too small, or red, or badly framed or whatever. We aim to have open lines of communcation with our artists so that they don’t keep sending us stuff that no one wants! But in the end if after 4-6 weeks things are not going so well I send things back and invite the artist to try again if they begin experiementing with a different syle or medium. I certainly invite you and any other RedBubble artists to contact me about selling work through our galleries. We are always very keen to see what people have got to offer. Jo O’Brien Work: +61 3 9349 4333 (Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday) Work: +61 3 9827 3338 (Monday)

• Ok, stop it already! "Content" of photos and quality.
  by Natalie Manuel

  I’m getting really sick of people using the line “all those pet dog, pets and baby photos” as an indicator of the “rubbish” on RB. The…

  I’m getting really sick of people using the line “all those pet dog, pets and baby photos” as an indicator of the “rubbish” on RB. The content is irrelevant. There are some damn good “pet” portraits on RB (and yes, some really bad ones) I’m actually quite sick of a photo being considered good because of the content. Taking a photo of an exotic looking person doesn’t make you a genius photographer by default. It just means the person isn’t from your country and so is ‘interesting’. Good for you. It can be much harder to get a GREAT photo of a common subject. You have to work to make it stand out. Blurring the water in a photo doesn’t mean it’s a great photo, having a pretty sunset doesn’t make it a great photo, photographing someone who has a character lined face doesn’t make it a great photo, being naked in it doesn’t make a great photo, taking a photo of an exotic animal doesn’t make it a great photo….on and on I can go. So really, enough with the idea that pets = bad photos. Nothing is great or bad by default, it’s how you take it, YOU make it a great photo, if you can.

• Redbubble Code Generator and handy list of your works
  by Julie Langford

  hi all / / For those of you who have a little trouble with generating Redbubble code to create those lovely previews of framed prints for…

  hi all / / For those of you who have a little trouble with generating Redbubble code to create those lovely previews of framed prints for your profile pages, or even if you would just like to have a handy list of all your Rebubble works, along with the ID code numbers for them, then look no further. / / The very clever Dave Pearson has created a little program that will do it all for you. / / The application can be found Here / / To instal it / / Click on the blue text – RBArtManSetup.msi and chose Run from the box that appears. Then you may get a message asking you if you are sure you want to instal it – Say yes, then keep cliking until the application has finished installing. / / Now for the magic / / To open the program, go to your start programs menu and click Redbubble Art Manager to open it up. / / A window like the image below will appear / / Click on New [up the top] as shown in the image below / / / / A new box will open [see below] / / / / Type your Redbubble username [not you real name] into the User ID box / / Click on Art [up the top], then on download as shown below / / / / A message box will appear asking you if you want to download a list of your artwork – Click yes/OK / The application will then look for your Redbubble work and generate a list of it – this can take a few minutes, depending on how many pages of art you have in your portfolio. / Once the download is complete, you will recieve a message saying it has completed. / / Click on the piece of art in the list that you want to generate code for to hightlight it. then click on Art [up the top], then Promote, then work [see below] / / / / A new window will appear which shows all the options for different types of preview that you can create. Simply choose which one you want to create, making sure that Textile [For Redbubble] is checked and the code will generate in the little window below. Once you have what you want, click on the Copy to Clipboard button [see below] / / / / The code is now ready for you to use and is copied ready for you – just go to where you want to use it on Redbubble, and right click and paste the code – save, and Voila – its done. / / You can also save the list for future use by clicking on file, save as and naming the file – Dont forget though – any art you add to Redbubble after you save it, wont appear on the list, and you will need to generate a new one Thank you Dave – its awesome.

• Art Criticism: How to Criticize a Work of Art
  by Trace Lowe

  Art Criticism: How to Criticize a Work of Art / A four step process This is what I give my students as a guide to art appreciation: / ...

  Art Criticism: How to Criticize a Work of Art / A four step process This is what I give my students as a guide to art appreciation: 1. Description- What do I see? Study the work in detail carefully. Describe the work in full detail. Be factual. Mention everything you see. 2. Analysis- How is the work organized? Look for and talk about the elements and principles of art and design that seems to dominate the work. Look at how the artist has used The Elements of Art / • Lines- real and implied, curved and straight, direction of movement / • Shapes, Space, Forms- Are the shapes geometric or free-form? Where is the horizon? Where is your point of view as the viewer? (Above, below, in the work, or outside) / • Colors- Warm, cool, bright, dull, soft, bold, etc. / • Value- light: reflecting much light; dark: absorbing much light. / • Texture-Both the medium and the objects portrayed: rough, smooth, shinny, dull Look at The Principles of Design / • Rhythm- Are there repeats of elements or images? / • Movement- Is there an illusion of action? How does the eye move around the work? / • Balance- Formal or Symmetrical, informal or asymmetrical / • Proportion- The size relationships between one part to the whole or one part to another part / • Variety- Visual difference and contrast within the work / • Emphasis- What part is dominant, and what part is subordinate? / • Unity- Does the work hold together? 3. Interpretation- What is happening? This is more than storytelling. As in literature, you need to interpret and generalize from data given. You need to find the metaphor or allegory in the work. What is the artist trying to communicate? Use your intelligence, imagination and courage to explain and tell the meaning of the work. This is based on the facts you have observed and your own life experiences. You can express your feelings, but they must be backed up by the observations you have made about the work. 4. Judgment- What do I think of the work? Does the work hold together visually? Does it communicate with the viewer? Judge whether the work succeeds or fails. You give your opinion backed by the three steps above. To make a judgment, you need to be honest with yourself. You need to know why you feel the way you do. Three Theories of Judging Art Imitationalism -Some people believe that art should imitate what we see in the real world. / Formalism – Some people believe that the most important part of a work is in the use of the principles of design and the elements of art. A work is successful if the texture, color, lines, etc are organized properly. / Emotionalism – Some people believe that the most important part of the work is the mood the artist communicates. Perhaps it is best to use all three theories when judging a work of art. Adapted from many sources, including Arttalk by Rosalind Ragans

• Ten Tips for the Absolute Photoshop CS2 Beginner
  by The Gift of Art: Members of A Photographer's Craft

  So you’ve finally installed your copy of Photoshop CS2, the one your friends have been raving about for months now and telling you how go…

  So you’ve finally installed your copy of Photoshop CS2, the one your friends have been raving about for months now and telling you how good it is and how you won’t be able to live without it. Yet, once installed, you can’t make heads or tails out of it? The language seems so foreign and you have no idea just where to start. Here are 10 very basic tips on getting to know and love Photoshop CS2 – you’ll see that in no time, you’ll agree that your friends are right on this one – you won’t be able to live without it! Let’s begin: / 1. When you open up an image for the first time, make a copy of that image and give it a name. Then promptly close the original image so that you have a record of it. To do this, simply go to the “layers” panel, right click on the background image and then select “duplicate layer” and select “new” in the destination bar. It’s good practise to do this each and every time, so that you maintain a record of the images in their original format, to those that have been edited. 2. Digital cameras use their sensors to see the images we see with our eyes. Sometimes images captured with our cameras aren’t as we remember them. That’s because no matter how sensitive the sensor, they’re still no match for our own eyes. To try and replicate the image we saw with our own eye, we need to tweak the levels, the contrast and the colour. When you’re just starting out, simply select “image” from the toolbar, go to “adjustments”, then select auto levels, auto contrast, and auto colour. You can always undo these steps in the history panel. And when you get more comfortable with PS, you’ll be able to tweak the levels, contrast and colour yourself from that same “adjustment” menu. 3. Is the photo still lacking that little something? Perhaps you need to apply “curves” to it. No, it won’t warp it into something unrecognisable (unless you want it to…) curves will simply help with the tonal range of your image. If your image is lacking contrast, it could be that the curve is a little flat. To remedy this go to “image” in the drop down menu, select “adjustment” then “curves”, a graph will display and you will want to make that line follow an “S” shape. As you’re tweaking it, watch the changes on your image, then simply select ok when you’re done. / 4. Now, speaking of warping images. You’ve taken that perfect shot of that sunset. Compositionally it’s perfect, the colours to die for, but your horizon is crooked. Do you delete the image? No, of course not! Do you live with the image as is? No, of course not! To correct something like a crooked horizon line, go to “Select” in the toolbar, select ‘all” – you should have marching ants surrounding your image (hoorah!), go to “edit” in the toolbar and select “transform” from the menu. Now you have a selection of different methods of transforming your image – and it will depend what you want to do with it as to which method you choose. For this example, let’s select “skew”, then use your cursor to straighten up that horizon. When you’re done, just hit enter, the computer will have a think and you’re done. 5. If you’re still not sure whether that horizon is straight or you simply want to see if you’re following the “rule of thirds”, then go to “view” in your toolbar, select “show” then “grid” – these gridlines will tell you just how straight the lines in your image really are. / / 6. Get to know and love “Layers”. That is the one big mystery that catches beginners in PS time and time again. I’m sure volumes can be written about Layers alone, as they are crucial in turning an ordinary image into a WOW image. Layers means that you can divide your creation into different parts by assigning these parts to different layers. Different “layer effects” can be applied that can enhance your image, and you can blend more than one image together to create a totally new image – this is all possible by using layers. If I have an image of a flower and the background isn’t especially pleasing, then I can create a layer, position this above the flower image, select a brush and colour of my choice and begin to paint on that new blank layer. You haven’t destroyed the flower image, and any excess painting can simply be erased. Which brings me to the next point, 7. Make “Layer Masks” your next best friend to using layers. Using the analogy of painting a more interesting background for your flowers, there is an icon in your layers palette – the circle in a square, select that icon and you will see it will appear on the layer you had active. Making sure that the mask is the active of the two images on that layer, now select the “eraser” tool and make sure that the colour selection in your toolbox is set to black and white. White will erase what you have painted, and the black will add the paint back again. What this means, is that you won’t lose the image as it stands. There is nothing worse than making changes, finding you don’t like them, then finding you have to start all over again as the history panel has only gone back so far. Using layers and layer masks will help save a lot of time and effort, as what they do is act as a record for each editing change you make on your image. 8. Again discussing layers, don’t be afraid to select a choice other than “normal” when applying layers. One effect that is popular and creates a dreamy, diffused effect to your image, is the “Orton Effect”. To do this, you will need to duplicate your background image. Now with your duplicate, go to your “filters” toolbar and select “blur” then “Gaussian blur”, depending on your image and the effect, choose any number of pixels here. The greater the pixels, the more diffused and exaggerated the effect. Select ok, then go to the layers panel, select “multiply” and you now have a soft, dreamy, moody image. Selecting other effects such as overlay, soft light, hard light and so on will yield you different results, so have a play with the effects. You can always tone it down by moving the slider from 100% opacity to a lower amount. 9. Could your images use a little more sharpness to them? There are several ways of sharpening your image, but for me the easiest and most effective is the “High Pass” method. Begin with your background image, then duplicate. Go to the “filters” toolbar and select “other” from the drop down menu, then select “high pass”. Here is where you don’t want to overdo it. Only select between 1 and 2 pixels for a realistic look. The image shown should be quite grey with only the sharpest areas highlighted. Select ok, then in the layers palette, select “overlay” and your image is now sharper and crisper. If you still want to retain some areas that aren’t as crisp, simply apply a layer mask and erase the part of the high pass image you don’t want (remember to make sure you’re erasing the mask, and not the image). 10. Lastly, don’t be afraid to explore and play with his wonderful program – it has so much to offer, that these 10 basic steps really don’t even do it justice, but they’re a way to slowly introduce you to the joys of Photoshop. Keep a pen and notebook beside you so that you can record your steps and discoveries – there’s nothing worse than trying to remember exactly what you did last time. / Most importantly, have fun, enjoy and create!

• Seascapes Group
  by Mel Brackstone

  I’m very pleased to announce the new group Seascapes I’m looking forward to viewing wat…

  I’m very pleased to announce the new group Seascapes I’m looking forward to viewing waterscapes from around the world. I’d like to think that we can upload just our very very best, so please, limit your uploads to just ONE a day, and we’ll see how things go. One upload a day only Five photos per member only If you’d like critique, please ask. If you’d like information on how different techniques have been produced, please ask If you think you have a question that I haven’t mentioned, please ask. Thanks for sharing your photos with us! Mel

• PHOTO SHOOT MELBOURNE & SYDNEY PHOTOGRAPHERS ALL WELCOME: JOIN THE MAILING LIST
  by Alateia

  I PRODUCE & DIRECT PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR STILL CAPTURE / for Amateur & Professionals alike PRIVATE ENQUIRIES ALSO WELCOME / ”!http:/...

  I PRODUCE & DIRECT PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR STILL CAPTURE / for Amateur & Professionals alike PRIVATE ENQUIRIES ALSO WELCOME / / photo courtesy of MAREE TOOGOOD / / photo courtesy of Jodie Johnson If you are interested in attending any of the PHOTOGRAPHIC SESSIONS that i stage and stepping off the virtual platform for a shoot, meeting other bubblers, working with excellent models, picking up tips on the job, let me know! and i will add you to our mailing list and keep you in the loop. / _photo courtesy of KARLS I organise, models, drops & props, venues, equipment etc. for on location and studio shoots. So jump on the mailing and stay in the loop just email SHOOTER MELBOURNE or SHOOTER SYDNEY to / events@arthouseproductions.com.au Some of the sessions are by invitation only as location can restrict numbers so let me know what areas interest you ie, dance, portraiture, black and white, cityscape, sports, nudes, fashion, catwalk, landscape, storms, seascape, animals, babies, night , long exposure, photo journalsim, macro, etc. etc Look forward to seeing you at the next SHOOTERS GALLERY !!

• Creative Arts Festivals, United Kingdom - Updates
  by Faizan Qureshi

  You remember UK art festival that I’ve been…

  You remember UK art festival that I’ve been trying to arrange? Well, here are some updates and questions. I have had several meetings with our sponsors in the past 2 months and we’ve been working out a plan. As it turns out, Victoria Square in Birmingham is extremely difficult to book and they were giving us too much trouble. So… what’s the plan? Well, if any of you have heard of art streets like Brick Lane, London, you’ll know what I am talking about. We’re working closely with the Custard Factory on their very expensive project to bring art culture to the West Midlands. So, here’s what we’re proposing. We will be arranging an art fair every Sunday where people can come and hang out, buy art, enjoy great company, food, alcohol, performances, etc etc. We will be working on a contract basis with the artists, and let them book stalls for a little longer than one off. Let’s say, if we work out a package for 8 weeks, it’d work out MUCH CHEAPER to hire a stall than on a one-off term. The great thing about this is that it will be very well advertised so you’ll be making lots. This plan is starting in a back street of Birmingham city centre, the footfall will gradually increase as we advertise nationally through various media. I have a list of those people that were initially interested in this on my website So, are any of you interested in getting a stall for a few weeks? Some of you might even want to think about permanent stalls. The prices will vary depending on the period of your contract. Prices? We haven’t worked them out yet but they’ll be MUCH cheaper than what I initially worked out. They’ll be very affordable, even for students. A lot of us are ‘starving artists’ so this is a great opportunity to get ourselves out there and recognised, and not to mention the cash coming in. I will be talking to the RedBubble staff about sponsoring the artists as well, so let’s see how that one goes. I’ll keep you posted.

• Redbubble break
  by Mel Brackstone

  Arrggghhh….I’m going to miss you all so much! Leaving tomorrow for a second honeymoon in NZ….not going to be much time for the bub, s…

  Arrggghhh….I’m going to miss you all so much! Leaving tomorrow for a second honeymoon in NZ….not going to be much time for the bub, so I’ll just have to say hooroo and will catch up with you all when I return. Gotta go pack – cameras, lenses, tripod, cable release, lee filters, batteries, battery chargers, power leads, extension cord, powerboard….these are all essential, of course. Clothing and toiletries are optional extras… Take care all you lovely people, I’ll log in if I can, but it’s not going to happen often, I suspect.

• Artistic Nude or Objectification of Women
  by Helen Bascom KMA

  NSFW

• My first solo exhibition - Aug 1 - 14
  by Mel Brackstone

  Come one, come all, I’m having my first solo exhibition, opening night August 1st. I’m going to be there on opening night, so if you wa…

  Come one, come all, I’m having my first solo exhibition, opening night August 1st. I’m going to be there on opening night, so if you want to meet the crazy old lady with the camera, feel free to come up and say gidday. I’ve been madly processing work so that I’ve hopefully got enough to put up on the walls, and I’m having the majority of it printed on Kodak Endura metallic paper. There’ll be something for everyone, and prices won’t be very high at all….seriously! Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments and best wishes!! August 1 – 14 / Brunswick St Gallery / 322 Brunswick St, Fitzroy 3065 / ph 0419 390 478 / Hours: Wed-Thur 12 – 4 pm, Friday – Sunday 11am – 6pm