The Joys of Art

Pan Practice in Pencil Shading in a Pan Yard in Trinidad by GaFra.org

Hi Everyone, I'm on a major joy ride lately because I'm trying to build up all of my blogs and my art store. It's been an interesting journey as I do all my relevant research, which entails, googling info on web sites and web hosting. Reading books about starting your online business and trying to figure out how to set up all the different sites. Being on social media is also a first for me, but quite exciting. I've tried the entire process where the youtubers indicate that you need to be enrolled on twitter, facebook, instagram, wixsite, Etsy, Artpal, Big Cartel, Redbubble, Tictail, Fineartamerica and Wordpress etc. OK yes I went a little overboard but when you're in a testing/figuring out phase, you hear about all these different options, you register then BAM!!... you find about another one, you register and then BAM!!...you know how that ends.

But a year later, I've started filtering and making decisions as to which ones to keep and which to cancel. Its easy to decide as you go with the ones that fulfil your requirements and are....wait for it......the ones that are FREE!!!!. I must say there are some extremely wonderful sites that are so easy to use and also fun to try to figure out. There are also those that are very frustrating to use. Arhhhhh!!! But I've found some great ones to. What I do dislike though, is the way they advertise one price but you have to pay for the year or they indicate one discounted price but it goes back to the full price after a year. That is just annoying, but I guess everything is to make money... so capitalism lives.

So people I'm having soooo much fun...sigh...life is good and although I started with Wordpress, and I still have one of my sites there. I've registered my other 2 sites on Squarespace because it is way easier to use and has everything you need. Wordpress can be a bit frustrating as you have to purchase Plugins every time you want to do something new or different. I've kept the free plan because it's just to annoying with all the plug ins. My old site was one where I paid for all the plugins and I still wasn't pleased with the end results.

I have to recommend one book that was amazing for me. It was "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon. I just loved that book. Have to read it again. I bought his second book "Steal Like An Artist" and that was just as great. I really love how he writes. I read "Art inc." by Lisa Congdon. This book is a great guide to understand all you need to do to start your Art business and it has been a really great read. Well that's it for now, see everyone next week. Love to you all!!!

Ohhhh I almost forgot: Of course I must feature one of my art pieces for you to see my work. This is a charcoal piece.

GET YOUR FREE ARTIST SUPPLIES CHECKLIST FOR BEGINNERS HERE

Pan Practice in the Pan Yard. Trinidad at Carnival Time by gafra.org

Pan Practice in the Pan Yard. Trinidad at Carnival Time by gafra.org

If you weren't aware, Trinidad is known for its steel pan/drum. We have an entire festival with bands of steel pan groups playing featured music pieces or songs in a competition called Panorama, where the prize is a million dollars. This is a charcoal piece showing a small sized band practicing in a Pan Yard for an upcoming Panorama Competition.

Going back to the reading material, I have for you a list of the books I've read since starting up my sites. I still need to do a review for each one but that will come later, for now get the free reading list and learn as much as you can. Hope its helpful.

I've reached a point now where I stopped using certain sites and I've kept to a set few, so based on what was listed above I am still functioning or using the following sites:

  • Redbubble

  • Society6

  • Facebook

  • Instagram

  • Wordpress

  • Squarespace

and recently:

  • Teachable

  • Canva

  • Udemy

  • SmallPDF

  • PDF Escape

  • ClickBank

Hope you got something out of this post. See you soon and have a great one.

Gail Circular.png

ABOUT ME

Hi guys, I’m Gail Francis better known as “GaFra”

Welcome! I’m a Business Owner, Blogger, Artist, mother of 4, friend to many and a Development Coach.

Learn more about me, visit my other blogs as well.

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Get your FREE DAILY PRINTABLE PLANNER here at gafra.org and many other Printables.

Get your FREE DAILY PRINTABLE PLANNER here at gafra.org and many other Printables.

Keep following my different posts and Let me help you start your art journey. Get your FREE ART SUPPLIES CHECKLIST FOR BEGINNERS HERE.

Get your FREE DOWNLOAD: An EASY GUIDE on “How to Paint an Abstract” OR my LOOK-BOOK

Get your FREE DOWNLOAD: An EASY GUIDE on “How to Paint an Abstract” OR my LOOK-BOOK

Get your personal copy of this ebook HERE!!

Get your personal copy of this ebook HERE!!

 

Referrences:

  • 8 Famous Artists Who Were Self-Taught by Jon Mann, May 25, 2018

  • BBC - Can A SeLF taught Artist Make it in the Art World?