Playing with .gif

It seems that the net is just full to bursting with online tools that let you do things so easily it's a tad scary.

Of course easy also means less room for adaptation, but as it's my first time dipping my feet in these waters I'll reserve judgement. Bad Flare Day is my first ever .gif

Here's the second-

 

Of course now that i know how much fun this is...I want software to do it with rather  than the limits of this online tool, fun though it is.

Online art marketing tips

I first dipped my toes into the online art world via Zazzle back in February, purely because I'd created something and sent it via MMS to a friend and her reply was that she & her students wanted it on a badge. This in turn led me back to being regularly creative...and the initial catalyst was the Pollock app on my iPhone. (Is it possible to love a gadget too much??)
The wonderful @artbymimulux forwarded a Zazzle mail to me yesterday. For some bizarre reason it appears to be the one mailing list I'm not on...
I've signed up to what feels like an overwhelming number of sites that all promise to help you optimise everything you could possibly think of, (with regard to online art marketing) many have conflicting advice and many seem to take an awful lot of words to tell you very little.
But this wonderful little mail, which was part two, contained most of what I've read all in one place AND had a few things I'd not heard of.
To read the whole Zazzle checklist click here.

Briefly -

• snag user names on the various blogging sites and blog your links.This is one of the main reasons I like Posterous, because you can autopost to almost everywhere and thus theoretically reach more people. BUT I do vaguely recollect someone saying that you can have too many sites with identical content and this is penalised by the search engines. Anyone know anything about this? 
• Social networking. Set up a facebook page (check) and a Twitter account just for your Zazzle store. Now this is where my opinion is undecided. I have a Twitter account, but it's for everything. Sand625 has been my online identity for ages and as my mobility and world has shrunk the net is helping me to cope. I joined Twitter and fell in love with it mostly due to the wonderful and supportive Fibro tweeps, (and yes, there is a certain amount of celeb curiosity. I'm a geek.) But it's also an amazingly inspirational place creatively, so I follow art tweeps too. Does this annoy? Should I have two different accounts? I'm not sure I have the spoons to keep on top of it frankly... They mention LinkedIn, Squidoo, and Kaboodle.too.
• Link to others with similar content.
• "Be sure to use good keywords in your blog post titles, and keep your keyword phrases closer to the beginning of your tweets. (That means put the @myfriend tags at the end of the tweet instead of the beginning.)" And of course, your content needs to be good as keywords will only get you so far...

• "use Pingler, to "ping" your blog posts" Now this is new to me, so I don't know how well it works. Search engines love fresh content apparently, so try to update at least three times a week.

And lastly automate as much as possible, I'm just going to include a whole chunk of a quote here;

"Use Twitterfeed to automatically update your Twitter and Facebook whenever you update your blogs or your store.

Set up Facebook Notes to include your store or blog RSS feed. On your Facebook Fan Page, scroll down to "Notes", select "Edit", then click "Import a Blog".

Use the Wordpress App on LinkedIn to sync your Wordpress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile. You can even filter your posts with a special LinkedIn tag.

Schedule your blog posts. Some blog sites like Wordpress and Posterous allow you to save blog posts to be automatically posted in the future. This is great if you don't have a lot of time during the week to update. Simply write all of your posts on the weekend, and then just set it and forget it!"

My first non art including post...or should I have done this at Wordpress?? ;)

night in the city - version 1

it's a long time since i made a powerpoint presentation & it's the first time i've used this conversion software, so please remember these facts if you watch this...it is my first attempt, it's not how i want it yet, i'm just playing...it's also the first time i've uploaded video too...i suspect it may not be the last.

(12359 KB)
Watch on posterous

Self portrait #iPhoneography

See the full gallery on posterous

I gave in to peer pressure too easily... (:
Processed with Plastic bullet, Photoforge, PhotoFX, then Strip designer to frame.

Happily Ever After #iPadArt #typeDrawing #brushes

Right...attempt number two.
I haven't reduced the size...so anyone thinking of stealing this DON'T, really, karma isn't nice when she's angry...
I've done the text much brighter so hopefully it's readable this time.
As previously stated words are by @detlef_c
Apologies to @whichsongtitle for the lack of a photograph yet again. I haven't left the house in over a week so no new photos, sorry! ;0)

Gallery Tweaking

I'm tweaking my Posterous rather than tweeting or Stumbling...I hope that The Sandman forgives me...

I've altered and added to my gallery page...hope that it looks better than it did. I need to tweak my links page too, the strip designer stuff needs some attention and Henny designs needs an image with no text/watermark.

SO...if anyone would like to be included on this page (and would be willing to reciprocate) please contact me with your website details etc. and I'll add you whilst doing the tweaks...Thanks.

Here's a fractal... ...hope you like.

(oh & excuse any typos...it's late ;)

#digiArt #digitalArt #fractal art Calendar 2011

I just made my very first calendar...12 of my favourite geometric digital creations along with text on each page to explain how the design began.

I was inspired to create it by the most awesome and talented @artbymimulx who made a Dark Art calendar earlier in the week, you can see hers by clicking here.

Here's a screen shot of mine ~

As you can see (I hope) it's free shipping at Zazzle this weekend, use the code FREECONSHIP

Click on the image to visit & see which designs I chose. I'd also be jolly grateful is you could let me know what you think...it being my first an' all...Thanks.

Hope you've had a lovely weekend :)

Image @sand625 words @detlef_c #iphoneArt

Not sure what this will look like on a monitor as I'm finally reducing the size of images before I post...
Need to look at it in daylight on a decent sized screen...it's only my second attempt at adding Detlef's comment on to the original image...not sure I've got it right yet.
'Not sure' should be the title...

Too deep. #iPadArt #TypeDrawing #QJuliaHD

Trying to describe pain.
Pain that there's no reason for, aside from a twist of fate...a genetic flaw...a retrovirus?
An immune system that attacks itself, a nervous system that can no longer manage to communicate.
Oh to turn it off or battle against it with magic and myth to help it to be calm and quiet and at peace
I would not miss it's company
It is not welcome here
I want it to leave
Let me be

Playing with #PlasticBullet

See the full gallery on posterous

...& twitching slightly due to having been offline for HOURS...I can do this...I can go to bed without having checked my inbox or twitter etc...yes I can.

No entry. #iPhoneography #Liverpool

See the full gallery on posterous

Camera genius, PhotoFX, Photoforge, Strip designer.
For @whichsongtitle ;-) who wondered when the next photo would get done...

As for the title & subject matter I chose today, from the images left...you can read volumes into it. My pain levels are spiking & even art is having a hard job distracting me. I warn you...a moaning fibro blog is possibly imminent. I'll give warning though...

Searching for form. #fractal #art #iPhoneArt

Thanks for all the #FF mentions & RTs yesterday...hope I managed to thank everyone?
Not one of my better days today, so back to bed. Tsk...