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Mustard, Magenta, Teal

by Elaine Greywalker

Water Snake 2013

lucky happy new year!

iPhone 4S in a vintage note pad skin

Finished the iPhone 4S skin I started earlier. I am delighted with it. And pleased that Decal Girl has made creating custom skins easy. I bought three skins for my old 3GS. They were lovely and convenient; easy to put on and take off with absolutely no residue.

I was going to use a photographic cardboard texture for the back. Then I opened up a texture I had been working on and decided to use it. I mean, it's not like I'm making photographic quality illustration. It's an artsy illustration. A photographic texture wouldn't match.

Here it is!

Screen capture of my art in the Decal Girl online customization app.

Placing the artwork in the custom skin is a simple to use and understand process. I did have to jiggle the front a bit and then had to reposition some of the art and re-upload the file. Not a problem, though. The upload was a tad slow but that may have been my connection. Still, it was well under two minutes, so I'm not complaining really.

The decal includes pieces for the rails. And a properly aligned home/lock screen download, too! They offer a downloadable template for the rails. For the body decals they offer only suggested dimensions. Those didn't work for me. I made paper copies and tried them out on my phone. I ended up measuring my phone and adjusting the file to fit.

I'd be happy to let you have this artwork, or a custom version of it, for your 4S, for a small fee. Very small! I can also make you a highly modified version. Let me know!

I'm really looking forward to getting my amusing skin!

Color: a Study Without Conclusions

Arithmetic Color Progression (left)
vs. Geometric Color Progression (right)
To perceive arithmetic progression
we need to create a geometric progression.

I finished studying the Josef Albers Study of Color Interaction archived book at the library. It made me feel young again, reminding me of all those hours with colored papers in basic design class at VCU with Sal Federico. There was one exercise he skipped that I wish we had done: culling leaves and creating color design schemes from them.

I now realize I subverted his intention with the overlay exercise by turning it into a study in angles. My overlays changed the color and the angles. The purpose of the overlay was to help us see how geometric actual progression resulted in arithmetic perceived progression. I also realized that I have this intuitive sensitivity to color contrast which made my color contrast exercise very subtle indeed. Fortunately, Mr. Federico understood this and didn't make me do it over again so the contrast would be obvious.

The best part about the class were the crafty-like things we made: a 3-D sculpture form we alternately destroyed and enhanced with color shapes, the booklet with overlays, deconstructed/reconstructed letterforms.

At the back of the book are color theories. Mr. Albers felt that students should explore color prior to being exposed to the theory. Having tried to make sense of color through the exercises, students have a better appreciation of the theories.

I like Goethe's Color Triangle and wish more people were aware of it and it's brilliant layout. In a small space it accomplishes a lot. I might play around with it in tints and shades. Could be fun, particularly now that it's so easy to make transparency overlays in Illustrator. I can do the geometric vs. arithmetic comparisons until I go blind. And I might also discover more about why I like certain colors and combinations.

Goethe's Color Triangle

Explanation of how the color triangle works.

Here is Part 1 of this report.

Happy Little Notepad

I'm making a custom skin for my iPhone 4s. Thought it might be cute to make it look like a note pad with cardboard on the back and paper on the front.

Here's a first draft of the front.

With a tip of the lid to this tutorial.

Happy 13th!

In case you missed it on my FB Page.

Vintage 1999 Christmas

How I saw it in 1999.

Unio Font - a nice face lift!

Greeting Cards

Glowing Trees Holiday Greeting Card by whooshing
View more Blue Cards

And when you get there, you can see other greeting cards (click on "Greeting Cards" just above the card in the shop) made with my art. All of the cards are customizable with your sentiments.

Carefree

by E. Greywalker

Free as a bird.

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Artist of the Day: Sting
Texture of the Day: Leather
Thing of the Day: Purse

Flogging Art

Paradise Sky (2012)

The list of labels (or keywords) at the end of this post should tell you a little about the complexity of this topic. Sure, those of you still making art the traditional way (by hand, in meat-space) still have your traditional markets: art fairs, galleries, solo shows, etc. The rest of us, who, like me, have taken to the computer like a duck to water (how does a duck take to water? Is it really that natural? How would a duck take to water without mom around?), are having a different sort of experience.

This has all led me to the question: what is art anyway? Is it something we hang on the wall and perhaps forget about a lot of the time? Is it something we like on our (ooops!) CD covers? Is it just for decorating the desktop?

Once upon a time we all knew what art was: that stuff made out of canvas and oil paint hanging in a gallery. This is no longer the case. Now art is everywhere on everything. And with the tons of free art programs out there, anyone can make art. And I'm all for that.

My dilemma is how to make money flogging my art.

PRINTS
Once upon a time, there were originals. They were lithographs on stone or drawings on paper or a water color or oil painting that you could reproduce as a printed copy. That kind of art was not very expensive because it was easy to produce. You could make a lot of those and the fees reflected that. Art gets it's value from rarity. There is only one Mona Lisa and they ain't makin' any more.

Art also gets value from history. Old art is generally more valuable than new art. Mostly because no one knows what new art is really worth. It is, basically, worth what someone will pay for it. This is how old art gets it value. Over time a work becomes increasingly popular and so we have the old supply and demand law kicking in.

Art gets some value from art critics. Some. Friends ask me how to determine what is good art. I say, "If you like it, it's good art." Sure, a ton of "good art" gets bought and put into storage as an investment. But that's not how most artists make a living. In fact, most of that "good art" was made by dead artists.

Yellow Stones (2011)

ORIGINALS
When I make art, technically I don't have an original because I create on the computer. This means I have a file which can be endlessly copied without loss of quality and from which I can make an unlimited number of prints - also without loss of quality (depending, of course, on the output device).  Since value depends on originality, a lot of buyers have questions about rarity. Who wants to buy something you think is one of a kind and find a millions of them in Target?

One solution is to limit production and never sell or give away the original file. It would be nice to have just the one file, however, this is why backing up was invented. Also, as an artist, it is nearly impossible to keep just one version of a work a art when you discover that you can make endless non-destructible variations.

I can limit physical reproductions. No one makes prints or derivatives (versions) from my files unless I say they can. And I can limit the kind of reproductions they make. Although, technically, since you can't (yet) really display the original file, each reproduction is an original. Hence the title: multiple original. So, what I'm really doing is limiting the number of original prints. (Prints - not reproductions.)

So, here's the real issue: if anyone anywhere can view my art online how do I charge for it?

LICENSING
Digital Blasphemy has found a few ways. He chooses licensing. Licensing let's third parties sell art by giving the artist a percentage of the sale. Since the licensor bears most of the cost, they take most of the money. Typical licensing fees are about 10%, often less. Simple math: if I want to pay my mortgage with 10% fees, I have to sell about 400 pieces of art. Or the licensor has to.

This works really well for Digital Blasphemy because he's a high volume producer, kind of like Thomas Kinkade. He has a lot of outlets and he's been at it for a long time. He's also not bothered by how or where you use art. He even gives it away for free; a part of the new internet marketing model.

Which brings up marketing which still works traditionally and always will. As Kickstarter participants have discovered, you have to have a crowd for crowd fund sourcing to work. One way or another - on the web, at parties, on the news, through word of mouth - you have to get fans for you work. People interested in owning your work. Which is why artists are plentiful but rich artists are few.

Art is a solitary endeavor and tends to appeal to those who enjoy spending a lot of time alone. Which means most artists are introverts and tend to not engage in large quantities of group time. Although, artists can be happily sociable - see Whistler, Renoir, Rubens, Goethe, Oscar Wilde, etc. This is not the rule.

Which brings me back to how to flog my art. I have posted art on a few licensing sites. I haven't marketed those sites much. And, harshly, I don't care. What I really care about is being able to make art. Tangentially, it's nice to be able to show it, to have others look at and like it, and sometimes make a sale.

Few of my circle are interested in owning original art. Most are happy with posters or nothing. Many are totally satisfied with snapshots taken on family vacations. Where does the art go? It goes on packaging. Mostly. It goes into ads, on tee shirts, bed linens, web sites. It's disposable. As in, not long lived. Even my son has free desktops that change daily.

So, I'll go on making art and wondering what it is really - more than a concept or idea; more than execution; something between dialogue and a kiss; a conglomeration of color and form. Perhaps some day, somewhere in there will be something I can (ahem) monetize.

Bomb Shelter (2010)

Graphic Design develops from Product

I came across the useful diagram below while reading up on content strategy. Most of the requests I get from clients are to make a logo. Fast! They usually want their logo right now. They want to get that out of the way so they can have a business card and letterhead and flyers and start getting the word out.

Before I can do any of that I have to understand their business strategy. "Oh", they tell me, "I sell insurance" or "I sell real estate" or "I'm having an event." Okay. That doesn't tell me anything and it won't tell your potential customers how what you offer is different from what others offer. Why should they choose you?

While graphic designers and art directors participate in marketing strategy, and sometimes even drive it, what really drives the strategy (and the graphics) is product. This diagram shows the dependent relationship. You might want to view the entire presentation. It's about web content management, yet it also applies to product management (since content is a product).

Trying to be like everyone else is uninspired. – Sal Federico

I didn't win the NEA Art Works logo RFP either

It's been seven months since I looked at the logo proposal I submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts. I knew in April that I hadn't won. Which was about what I expected. The winner was an artist, Hoon Kim, from New York with all the right credentials (Pratt, Rhode Island School of Design, MOMA, etc.) who runs a workshop called "Why Not Smile." In perusing the Linked In profile as well as the web site, I fail to see real evidence of a workshop. But I could be wrong. It could all be happening offline in meat space.

Today I looked at the NEA Art Works site to see if they are using the new logo yet. They aren't (the "logo" displayed there is a place holder from before the RFP). Why not?

© 2010 Elaine Greywalker

I was poking around on my hard drive and opened up my submission file. I like it. The main drawback is that it's kinda complex. For starters it's a four-color logo which makes it expensive to print. It also has a lot in it, but then they wanted a lot in it. Mostly everything from this page. I'm curious about how reductionist Hoon Kim got all that into his logo.

If you have a group or business that can use the logo I made, you can have it for free. All I ask is acknowledgement. If you are going to use it, let me know and I'll send you the real ready-to-use files. This will eliminate more than one group using the same logo – which, of course, defeats the purpose of a logo.

Field Design 2 didn't win either.
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"Cosmic Control: The First Age" is an epic science fiction transformation story about an alien who saves the universe from implosion simply by becoming everything she was meant to be.

Word Count Statistics

Goal: 70,000 words

Today's Total: 15,707

Written Today: 0

getting paid to watch YouTube

Yep. Some of us are able to swing that. I'm working on a piece that's a Family Feud look alike, so I get to watch lots of Family Feud snippets on YouTube for research. It's only research, you know. I'm working.