Creative Thought Process is Now ArtLoveLight.com
Hello!
It’s been awhile since I last posted at this blog. If you’ve been wondering why, it’s because I now post at ArtLoveLight.com I am still sharing my creative thought processes, and now you can see my professional illustration work my paintings, and my portfolio all on my new website. You can enjoy all the artwork, love, and light, still – just in a new location!
Thanks for visiting,
OT- Passion
I love this song, which doesn’t really start until 1:51 and I love snowboarding. EBM is so fun to dance to, and snowboarding is all kinds of fluid and speed addictive. It’s beautiful, and the combination is lovely, and i just wanted to share.
Doing the Work to Get There (quality eBooks)
In grade school, homework was difficult. It was stuff that I wasn’t good at doing, and therefore it took work. If I wanted to get good at doing it, I’d have to do the practice. Same with becoming an artist- it’s not a matter of Going Out and Doing it- we have to learn the skills that will make us able to handle:
putting on a show (framing, hanging, tagging)
an email newsletter (content, updates, lists)
talking about our work (statements, personal heartwork)
And here are some good resources for personal development that will help you formulate a plan, help you get yourself on a solid foundation, so you can kick some ass without slipping on a banana peel. Some of these are also resources for Putting things on the Internet, and Being Successful.
I have read them all, so I feel confident about recommending them.
Destuckification Packet by Havi Brooks
279 Days to Overnight Success by Chris Guillebeau
7 Sins Young Entrepreneurs Make by Bradley Will
Creating Killer Flagship Content by Chris Garrett
Work Because We Choose To, Not Because We Have To
It takes less than five minutes to go to the washroom- that INCLUDES washing your hands. And touching up that black eyeliner. If you’re not wearing any, I can help with that. An equally small percentage of your life, ideally, would be spent “working.”
I don’t recommend a job as a career path. It’s risk for non-risk-takers, security for ostriches, hard labour with no guarantees at the end of the day.
I’ll put it this way: I quit my last job on my birthday in November- I walked out, jumped on a plane and had The Best Day Of My Life surfing at sundown in San Diego with my best friends, followed by sushi and margaritas on a patio. Everyone thought I was crazy to leave behind the security of $16.50 an hour for a job that consisted of tap-tap-click basket-weaving.
Six months later everyone at eBay in Vancouver has been laid off.
So basically, I quit a job I couldn’t keep anyways to have the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE! Not such a bad idea in hindsight, now, is it?
I reccomend working because you CHOOSE to, not because you HAVE to.
And sometimes you might choose to have a job because you want to learn something, apprentice at something (I would not turn down the chance to work with Donald Trump!), or network. THOSE are great reasons to have a job.
And if you’re an artist, why don’t you look here: Art Info Job Board or here: ECUAD Artswork
What to Do Next
The biggest reason we artists are not successful is we simply don’t know what to do. We’re talented- how many of you have had people say, “I wish I could do that!” ? They say how incredible our work is. We reply, “Oh, it’s nothing,” fully aware of how much more great talent is out there.
And there is all kinds of great talent and skill in basements and left behind at the end of the year when art schools close and students move home, great art in yard sales and nondescript but skilled paintings in homes, hideous prints and posters sold by the dozen to fade under black-lights and to be stickered onto binders and glued onto collages. Great art becomes great kitch, Mona Lisa, Starry Night, Warhol kitsch.
And if kitsch is selling (not even the ironic kind) why shouldn’t your heart-work?
All we have to learn is how to market. And who’s our audience? Beyond friends and family. Beyond craigslist.
What exactly is that first step?
It’s not art school- which is expensive and no great guarantee of anything, although it may open a few more doors, it’s another gatekeeper, in a way.
How to bypass the gatekeepers, the people who say, “Send us a portfolio” or “You haven’t had enough shows” or “This isn’t a press release” and just… get people… to like it?
Anyways, this is something I want. Going to find it now…
How to Set Up Feed, RSS, & Twitter Buttons on Your Blog
Sometimes people will forget you exist. You know, you haven’t thought about wild strawberries every day because they just aren’t around. They’re delicious- can you imagine if they showed up in your inbox? What a nice surprise! So make it easy for your readers to get such nice surprise in their inbox with these pretty buttons…
So if you haven’t noticed, I set up a few new things on the right sidebar: one is “Get it RSS’d” and the other is “Get it in Email” and they are two handy things to click on if you want more Katanaville in your life. It is a nice place to live!
So you go to Feedburner and when you sign in, you’ll be on a “My Account” page. Then you put your website in here:
If you use Blogger it’ll be in there already…
Then you continue with “next” …
You’ll want to go to the Publicize tab on the My Account Page.
Then go to Chicklet Chooser. This little code at the bottom will give you a code for an RSS feed just like mine at the top right. (Have you clicked on it? You’ll want to do that, see where it takes you).
Then you go to your wordpress widgets, and insert a “text” widget. This is where you paste that code from Chicklet chooser.
Do you want to have a button for Email Subscribers and Twitter? Hang on to that code you just pasted, and repeat (Copy code, paste into a “Text” widget”) for email and twitter. Only, you’ll replace the links with the one you get from clicking on “Email Subscribers” in Feedburner, and with your twitter address: mine is http://twitter.com/katanabarnett.
But oh no! Now you have 3 RSS buttons that look the same but all link to “RSS” “Twitter” and “Email Subscribe”- how to tell them apart?! You’ll want to replace the Feedburner RSS icon, which looks like this 
[http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon32x32.png] in the code with this: [http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3195/twitterbirdie.png] 
or [http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4900/26207682261ed59406b2.jpg] 
Without the brackets. You can also use your own images.
TO SUM UP:
Sign up for feedburner.
Insert your main page address.
Get “Email Subscribe” as well.
Get a Chicklet code.
Use the chicklet code for Twitter & Email, too,
— replacing the Feedburner RSS links with Twitter and Email Subscribe links.
— replacing the Feedburner RSS picture with another picture.
Paste into a Text Widget in your wordpress sidebar.
Not to say you’re not popular or anything. Everyone has a fan club. I’ve got the kid who follows me around and you’ve got your grandma. I think I mentioned once before that everyone has a niche. Some of you may not find giggling goth snowboarders attractive, but there is totally a market for such a creature. That market is easier to find on Twitter!
The only thing is, if people think you’re an autobot trying to sell them tickets to the moon, you won’t have any followers. And if they can’t tell who you are AT ALL? There are lots of real people to listen to. Like, Paris Hilton. I totally retweeted her picture of a doghouse today because it was a mini-mansion.
So how to tell you’re a real person: start with a picture of yourself. Add links of whatever you’re looking at on the internet, along with whatever you happened to be thinking about.
Warning: if you swear, there is a twitter bot that will tell you to stop cursing. I blocked the fucking thing.
And then other people will be like, HEY, this person is RIGHT UP MY ALLEY! I am a snowboarder! I am from Vancouver! I like Girls and You Are One! That Thing You Just Said Was Funny! And before you know it you have followers.
And you know, they may like you cuz you’re Snarky, but they might be a Ninja and you’re on the Pirate side of things. That’s rad too, you don’t have to follow them back. Although auto-following people will get you a lot of followers, you can’t be sure you’ll have something in common with all of them.
I guess you can also use it to tweet with JUST friends, but that’s mostly how I use Facebook. Always open to new friends on there, too, though!
So anyways, that’s how to use Twitter in a nutshell. Apparently some people get business off of there too- I would just chalk that up to the more you know someone exists, the more likely you will think of them when you need their niche. So, hopefully if you are ever needing a famous artist, you will be looking my way. Haha.
Critique: Get it? Get it? Ouch!
The first drawing class I took in university had one hell of a critique. I came back to my dorm feeling like I couldn’t draw. My whole life was filled with me and my sketchbook and admirers. People were always asking me to draw pictures for them, asking to see what I’d done- the validation and approval was amazing!
And of course I improved, constant artistic output will do that to a girl, but there’s some things we just don’t see on our own.
And when we’re used to all this praise then it’s really easy to take it to heart. And then when someone says something different- that maybe my paint looks muddy or that the ear is in the wrong place, it can do a few things.
One: You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Two: Oh my god, I can’t draw.
Three: You’re Right. I hadn’t thought of that.
Four: Endless combinations of the above.
Combine that with the knowledge that all Avant-Garde artists’ art went unloved at some point (heck, isn’t the traditional thing to be Famous After Death) then sometimes it’s easy to get all, “You Just Don’t Get It About My Art.”
That’s totally not helpful. A lot of non-artists feel like they “don’t get art” as it is- we don’t want to encourage them to think that way!
And you know, there’s nothing like being a great artist like standing on the shoulders of those who went before- or however that cliché goes. So if we can take our egos out of critique for a bit, then…that’s a win.
And then we can go on and be FAMOUS ARTISTS. My set date for this is June 7, 2016. What’s yours? I think it will take less than 7 years to become well-known and successful, but influence and fame take a little longer. I’ve got some growing to do. And I just sent some of my work off for critique at the Photoshop/Comic Book Artists’ forum Gutterzombie. Feel free to crit me, too.
Post It Note: This post was quite inspired by Havi Brooks.
Post It Note: Garfield Herriot is making me some food. You can check out his blog- but all you get is some FOOD FOR THOUGHT. haha. I get both! Win!
Free Voicemail- Get You A Business Line!
I think it’s really fun to say …somewhat…unprofessional things in voicemail. You know, like, “HEY this is Katana! I miss you, let’s hang out more- that’s why you’re calling, right? Sweet! Oh, you just wanted to talk to my cat? I’ll tell her to give you a call.”
On the other hand, I’m not sure how well that goes over with complete strangers. “Is this a business or does she think I’m her new best friend?”
SO if you get a free voicemail, you will always have a pen and paper handy when you’re taking down times for an interview, and you can leave a nice professional voicemail. My favorite one is “Thanks for calling. Now you will recieve a wave of good luck! Please leave your name, number, and prepare to have a great day!”
See the difference? Here is where you can get that free voicemail: K7.net
Spooked!
I’m over at my friend Garfield’s and he’s taken out a game called Stare. On it are pictures of tiny paintings which one stares at for 20 seconds, than answers questions. It’s harder than it seems.
Garfield tries to teach me a memory trick so that I can do better. Because physical is memorable, and visualization is a mind-power thing.
“Stand straight, relaxed, knees slightly bent-” he models this for me.
I follow his direction.
“Imagine a tangerine shaped object behind your head. Doesn’t have to be a tangerine–”
I picture a tiny monkey with a wide grin and cymbals.
He continues, “…but just about that size. Just at the top back of your head, right here, That’s where you want the information to go, Now imagine it floating back three inches… ”
i shriek and leap forward and spin around! All at once! Oh my god!
“Whoa!” he says. “That is not the reaction I was expecting!”
I say, “I imagined this monkey. And then it was floating RIGHT BEHIND MY HEAD WITH CYMBALS AND IT WAS EVIL.” Could. Not. Handle It!!!
Creative Thought Process 
