If I write a blog about…

…my latest YouTube video about my RedBubble store and then post it on my Facebook page, I’m killing 4 birds with 1 stone…of course I could always add the original painting the video is about to my Bluethumb shop and make it 5 birds, share the lot to Twitter (6 birds) and Instagram (7 birds)…(9 birds if I include my alt Leonardo Bogato accounts)…or not even share this to there but just include the links to those accounts here (see below), or sneak a link in the text - see here and here

I’m feeling pretty social media savvy right now…😎

So…now that I’ve worked all of this social media bird-killing-magic out, I can go back to painting birds instead of trying to kill them. 😊

Note: “Definition of 'to kill two birds with one stone' - If you say that doing something will kill two birds with one stone, you mean that it will enable you to achieve two things that you want to achieve, rather than just one.”
sincerely,
Cat.

Another one of the locals , A4 painting on board.

Leonardo Bogato - my seconD…

RedBubble store is up and running. I opened this so I could put some of my artwork that looks out of place in my original store together for sale as prints on products, and doing this I’ve created a niche. “Niche down” it’s called in marketing speak.
What I’ve learnt from doing this is interesting:

It takes a bit of work to build a searchable presence for a new store like this, which is why I’ve titled this blog “Leonardo Bogato”.
Titling this blog, making it public and sharing it on social media makes it (the name) searchable on google. You see merely opening a store in a big site like RedBubble is never searchable, even if you know exactly the name and title of a product and have uploaded many products in your store it’s not searchable that way on google. So I myself can’t even find my own store via google knowing all the keywords. In fact, I couldn’t find my own store from the outside at all untill I put a link to it on social media and entered it through that link - so I can only find my own store by entering it through a direct link to it that I put there myself, or by logging in to it as the owner of it, there’s no other way that I, or anyone else, could happen across my RedBubble store by chance, that’s impossible. So it’s up to me to lay a trail of links in content that’s searchable on google, interesting enough for someone to be curious about and presented in a way that keywords are hit with searches for something roughly along the lines of what the person using google is searching for, and competing with millions of other people’s content using the same keywords for completely unrelated content.

Environmental missile proposal - conceptual art blueprint bath mat.

See in store

Print on demand...

…is an order fulfillment method where items are printed on various products, like tshirts snd mugs, as soon as an order is made by the customer. POD is a way for artists to generate passive income from their work, investing only their time (no monetary outlay required), in setting up and maintaining their store.
I spent the best part of the last few days working on my redbubble store, culling and tweaking some of my already uploaded work to fit the new products, and adding a few more works. I really like the look of some of the printed wall art options, and I checked a few reviews to see what buyers had to say about them, most are favourable.
Different tutorials about setting up shop tell different things about how to use e-commerce print-on-demand stores - some say “have a select few designs and products so you don’t overwhelm customers” while others say “have a lot of designs use all of the products and upload everyday to encourage traffic to the store.”
I guess I’ll go with something in between 😊 🥳

I Got a new SKETCHBOOK…

…for Christmas and this inspired me to start a new playlist on my YouTube channel “tales from the sketchbook.”

What I love about sketchbook work is the freedom to experiment with ideas and materials without worrying about the outcome - the goal is quantity not quality, lots of experimentation, lots of play without fear of failure because failing is part of the learning process.

I opened an account on…

Bluethumb a few years ago but I didn’t follow up, learn about the site and use it.
However, a few days ago I noticed a fellow artist friend praise the site and that got me really curious, so I had another look and I’m going to give it a go. My plan is to create a small collection of work especially for the site - the kind of thing I’d do if I was going to put together an exhibition so it looks good as a whole body of work, not just random pieces. That’s the plan anyway…

A little heartache

view on Bluethumb

Because of the nature of the medium…

I keep my oil pallet much more limited than my acrylic pallet when I paint. Acrylic paint dries too quickly to pre-mix a pallet so I put out lots of colours and keep the mixing to a minimum, not so with oils…just a few colours on my pallet is enough and then I can mix up as many tones as I want from those on my pallet before I start painting, and then mix between those colours as I’m working Such a lovely way to paint…

There’s many DIFFERENT ways to paint a PORTRAIT…

…and there’s as many ways to share that knowledge to an audience. Even the Loomis method, a method for drawing portraits invented by Andrew Loomis in the early 20th century, can be applied to the process of portraiture in many different ways once you understand it.
Every-time I prepare a lesson I work through the process that gets me to what I’m trying to achieve to figure out the best way to transfer that knowledge, and every time I do that I learn new ways to do the things I’ve done before and in doing that I create lots of little works…some of them I keep, some I sell and some I give away…. 😊

Expressive drawing…

…is the kind of drawing that expresses emotion through the marks (charcoal, pencil, pastel or paint marks) rather than the actual subject drawn. Whether gestural and strong contrast or gentle and tonally subtle, the work speaks more about the artist than the chosen subject, so much so that exactly the same subject can be drawn many times and each drawing look wildly different.

Same subject, different day.

an artist on social media needs to...

…create actual art as well as post art on their chosen platforms. I figured that live-streaming the process, that is recording the painting part of art making and sharing it on social media in real time, does both of those things simultaneously and allows me to be both economical with my time and generous with it. So I’ve set up a duel streaming system where I paint live in my studio while I record and post the session live on social media and anyone watching can interact in the comments section. I can do this via some apps which i’ve purchased and am learning how to use, and in a way those apps are like what galleries do - they are part of the “middle man” - that place between the artist and the public - that place where people gather and experience. That other place, the gallery, is also important because you can’t see artwork as it really is on social media, and art is an important experience in real life.

Social media allows artists have more opportunity and control over their own exposure than they’ve ever had before, and that’s a good thing I think.

This is a very interesting time for artists.

my live painting on twitch

my live painting on YouTube