I have been wanting to put together a website to promote my artwork for a while now. I have finally launched the prototype and will give out the address to friends for their critical judgement and constructive advice. Maybe All Fools Day is not the most auspicious of dates!
There have been a few things that have held me up:
A critical mass of paintings.
Suitable images of the paintings.
Decision on how I want to go forward.
Critical Mass of Paintings
I have been painting for just over a year now, and the topics I have chosen have varied. I have now settled on two main classifications of paintings that I both enjoy and feel comfortable producing. These come under the broad classification of Transport and Portraits.
As my skills develop (under the keen tutorship of Jon Dent and the support of artists in his art group), I now have a sufficient portfolio and feel comfortable sharing my efforts with the wider community as opposed to just friends and family.
Suitable Images of the paintings
In order to share my paintings, it is important that I have a fair representation freely available. Up until now, images have been produced using either my mobile phone or my camera and shared on facebook, however the set up is not consistent or particularly good and facebook gets out to a limited number of friends.
I have a reasonably good SLR camera (Canon EOS1100D), but consistent lighting has proved problematic. My lovely wife has bought some studio lights for me, so I have been playing around with the set up in order to reduce glare. I now have 2 lamps, a tripod for the camera and a dedicated easel for placing my paintings on.
The other problem has been photo editing software. I have an old version of Coreldraw which allows me to straighten up the images, crop them and adjust the white balance. I am still not convinced I have it right, but it is much better!
Decision on how to go forward
I love painting! I started off with Acrylics and have been experimenting with Oils (both water mixable and 'proper'). One problem I am facing is that cupboards are now getting full of my finished work, yet I want to carry on producing more. My poor Mother ends up with paintings for Christmas and Birthdays, but I need to find other outlets.
People have suggested that my paintings are now of a standard where I can take commissions, so this is a possibility I would like to pursue.
As I am retired, I am under no pressure to make a living from my art (thank goodness!), however, it would be good to recoup some of my expenditure as well as reducing the need for storage space.