Tips on starting a blog

pfrasier · July 1, 2015, 9:24pm

I want to get started on DPW by creating a blog. Does anyone have advice on what platform to use and templates suitable for artists? Any other tips are most welcome!

Anne_Wood · July 1, 2015, 10:04pm

I use Google Blogspot. It is free and easy to set up. I use the date schedule too so several posts can be stacked if I am away and not able to do it each day.

Connie_McLennan · July 1, 2015, 10:52pm

I’ve used Blogger for 10 years, which is simple and user-friendly. My goal is to learn WordPress, which is more customizable. Easiest way to figure out how to do anything you’re not sure about is to Google your question.

Another thought: You can easily get started on DPW even without a blog. With the gallery and all the other DPW features, my blog now seems almost redundant. I use the upload wizard, and every new DPW entry does generate a little blog traffic, but most people don’t bother. Unless you’re offing a lot more information on a blog (or having it double as your website, which is my current situation) I’m not sure it’s all that necessary anymore.

pfrasier · July 2, 2015, 12:11am

Thanks to both of you. Now I have to decide whether I need a blog. Will think on it a bit more.

Anne_Wood · July 2, 2015, 4:15pm

I agree with Connie…DPW is amazing and I am so pleased I got myself organised to join (procrastinated for 4 years!). I like my blog for the times I want to add studio musings and tips. If you invest in Carol Marine’s book Daily Painting she has loads of information and help to get started. As Connie says, Google is so good for researching and there are lots of chat forums too.

Padmaja_Madhu · July 4, 2015, 11:28am

Hi Patti,
I think a blog is more like a private virtual space to share what we want to, I have been on blogger for seven years now,I dont share every art that I create, only those that I have a personal story to share about, that connect me to the reader, so much so that many of my readers by now know what kind of a person I am! I have made a lot of artist friends through my blog that are encouraging and thus a motivating me to keep going So blog helped me to make my existence known.Not many collectors follow my blog and so I have been able to sell only few over these years through the blog. Now I am here recently and having a blog hasnt played a role to sell. So I think you can start right away on DPW, simultaneously build your blog. Good luck!

Linda_Heitzman · July 10, 2015, 5:34pm

I agree with the others, blogspot is great and it is also a great way to share more than DPW since that is specific to your art piece and you can give a much better all around glimpse of who you are through a blog. I only use mine to post, though others post lots about the art world, artists they like, all kinds of photos of studio, plein air events…etc!

And blogspot is so easy to set up! People can follow you and get email on every post you make if they subscribe. BEWARE-all of it sucks up time when I know we would all rather be painting! But it is necessary, and you can meet lots of other artists and buyers thru blog.

Good luck!

Robyn_Jorde · July 10, 2015, 9:02pm

The nice thing about a blog is that you can post other chatty stuff beyond listing paintings for sale. People who want to know you better enjoy that. And you can use it as a platform to showcase non-Paintowrks work, announce news about your career, participate in other internet art events, etc.

I use Wordpress for my website and blog. For some reason, I could never get the hang of Blogspot. Take a look at them both to see what would be easiest for you.

Irina_Beskina · July 10, 2015, 9:09pm

Sunny, do you feel that having a blog is really necessary?

I ask this because I don’t have one, and also try to figure out if it will help me in any way or just suck up my time. My problem is that I’m not too verbal when it comes to painting stuff. I can’t even come up with any nice titles for my pieces. If I had to describe my painting process it would be something like this: “Oh! This huge red pepper next to that green glass jar would make a perfect couple! Let’s run and paint it! But please, make a sketch first! You idiot, if you can’t draw a simple jar you shouldn’t even start painting, you’d better go and take some drawing class! Okay, that’s a bit better, but can’t you see the jar is too wide? Fix it quickly and let’s start painting. Well, the pepper turns out not too bad, but what happened to the jar??? Does it look like a glass to you? It’s pure mud! Hey, don’t you know you should wash your brush sometimes??? Well, now it looks quite nice. And I really like that green shadow, please don’t touch it, you will surely spoil it, if you do. Better work on the highlights. Yes, that’s correct, and add some highlights to the jar neck. What??? Didn’t I tell you not to touch that greenish shadow??? You ruined everything!”

I really doubt anyone would be interested in reading stuff like this, and I don’t have too much to add to this. The rest is in my paintings. So, does a nonverbal person like me need a blog?

Linda_Heitzman · July 11, 2015, 4:45pm

Ha ha @irinab, that’s the perfect thing to write on a blog with your painting!

irinab:

I had to describe my painting process it would be something like this: “Oh! This huge red pepper next to that green glass jar would make a perfect couple! Let’s run and paint it! But please, make a sketch first! You idiot, if you can’t draw a simple jar you shouldn’t even start painting, you’d better go and take some drawing class! Okay, that’s a bit better, but can’t you see the jar is too wide? Fix it quickly and let’s start painting. Well, the pepper turns out not too bad, but what happened to the jar??? Does it look like a glass to you? It’s pure mud! Hey, don’t you know you should wash your brush sometimes??? Well, now it looks quite nice. And I really like that green shadow, please don’t touch it, you will surely spoil it, if you do. Better work on the highlights. Yes, that’s correct, and add some highlights to the jar neck. What??? Didn’t I tell you not to touch that greenish shadow??? You ruined everything!”

With just a little editing, I think it would work on a blog. You can talk to prospective buyers, and other artists that way. Tell them about your struggles, your breakthroughs, share yourself through a blog post AND your artwork. Artists will empathize with you and your buyers may appreciate it as well. They want to know the person who painted the art that they are bringing into their home. So, yes. Let it not-quite-all hang out. :D

(Oh, and I will add that I read a similar post from an artist when I first started and it helped me a lot.)

Connie_McLennan · July 11, 2015, 5:38pm

That was a hoot and could totally be a thing. It reminds me of “Tiny Art Director” (illustrator lets young daughter direct & critique his work) with a touch of “Hyperbole and a Half” (Allie Bosch’s famous cartoon blog about depression.) Yours could be “Inner Critic.” Of course then you’d gradually spend more and more of your time writing instead of painting…

Anne_Wood · July 11, 2015, 5:41pm

I too had to smile when I read your ‘pretend blog post’ Irina. It certainly described some of my days and my disasters.

Irina_Beskina · July 12, 2015, 7:37pm

Thank you so much, Sunny @savocado, Connie @Connie_mclennan and Anne @woodworks, for your input, I’m glad that my non-existing blog made you smile, and I surely have something to think about now. Maybe one day I will start a blog after all (but how do you guys find time for everything: painting, blogging, family? In addition to all that I have a full-time job too, maybe that’s the problem - apart from my not-so-perfect English, of course…)

Connie, thanks for the links too, I laughed a lot! And by the way, I so love the painting you submitted for the ABC challenge. I wanted to do something like this for this week challenge (meaning I am the most me when I’m painting), but when I saw your work, I understood, that everything is already done, and I should look somewhere else.

catek2652 · February 9, 2016, 10:59am

This is exactly the sort of thing I like to read in a blog. It gives me insight into a person’s process and helps me relax some about my own process.

I love plein air painting, but I hate that someone might stop by to look right when the painting is at “that” stage when it (and every painting) looks like ass. And when I’m in the middle of it, it’s hard to stop and explain, “I just need to get some paint (or pastel) on the surface so I have something with which to work.”

One of the things I plan to do on my blog soon is to take a series of photos from beginning to end and explain what is happening at each stage. Of course, there is that issue of getting so caught up in the painting, that you forget to stop and take a photo… but that’s another entry, perhaps.

pratima_patel · February 15, 2016, 7:05am

Hey I liked that, Irina! Down to earth, straight talk.Painting process is not always rosyanyway.
Starts with a big plan, as soon as you lay your canvas, the fear, doubts step in, question you, intimidate you and then saga of some trimph and some down time, a tug of war and at times drags you almost on edge. I think your kind of writing will tell that all with utmost honesty! very interesting and amusing !

By the way I am on DPW a novice and also as a matter of fact to art and artworld. I also wonder and think about starting a blog. After wasting some energy on thinking about pros and cons every now then, I tell my self paint first, have some bulk to show, learn more to know the trade and then come back to have or even consider to have the blog. True, I am afraid, blog will take too much time that i do not have.