An interesting thought, a video to go with the painting

The way we communicate is changing rapidly and more about video content than written words. Even Instagram is filled with short clips. I would like to have a interactive virtual gallery to show my work that does not look fake and most do right now. However, another option is doable. I think if an artist were to do a video showing the creation of the painting and finally display the painting in a proper setting will rule if you can get through the learning curve. If real adventurous it could be like a documentary. Wouldn't it be great if a collector also had the video story to go with their favorite painting?

Well that idea was hatched up a few months ago and still not quite there. Starting from scratch it is complicated! There is a significant amount of information on U-tube to help anyone along.... and overwhelm you with information at the sometime. The silver-lining, if you are persistent eventually the video and film buzz words begin to make sense. So far I made half-a-dozen videos or so using various programs and cameras. Every step required additional equipment that also needed additional parts to get it working. Amazon was at our doorstep daily.

Splendor, on the beach

Splendor 20x24 oil on linen (6/14/20 canvas 1341)

After some silly missteps, like forgetting to turn on the camera resulting in missing sequence clips. I managed to narrow the equipment down to the I-phone paired with an Idiskk (128g) enhance external storage and a simple blue-tooth remote.

Film editing was the most tedious part of the learning curve. Adobe Premier Pro is where I started by any measure the industry standard. After months of ups and downs discovered Adobe Premier Rush, a simpler version.... and life is better. The cool thing, when watching a movie and seeing those neat special effects, I know how it was done. However, getting the external mic to work with my I-phone still eludes me.... more equipment for sure.

Time-laps is my favorite, where the video races through very quickly to a conclusion. There are several ways to do it. The phone as an option on the menu bar or in a video editing program like Adobe Premier Rush. A one-hour video can be reduced to 6 or 7-minutes without serious editing. I-phone will do it by a simple choice on the menu bar.... a perfect option for short clips on Instagram. Not tried it yet.

Because of all this research I also accumulated a pile of 20x24 test paintings with some ugly videos over the last few months. In the process of salvaging some of the videos using the time-lapse option to post on U-tube as a first step. Nothing fancy but you must start somewhere.

Fast and Furious

Before uploading I spent the day looking at U-tube tutorials which helped. A bit easier than I thought, and they have FREE music I can use in my videos....duh! I used Envato, a paid subscription for the sound track.

More to come!

SIPSwimming-in-Paint

Love your work!

Love your work, regardless of what you think others may think! Be happy with the result, always be positive and look for the silver lining in anything not so wonderful. Because every painting has a silver lining.... some possess platinum. Albeit a learning experience or worthy of wall space.... each work had a job to do, recognize it, embrace it for what it revealed to you as an artist! A single painting is a fleeting moment in the career of an artist. A simple grain of sand that accumulates in an hourglass to shape our work to come. If your mindset is predisposed to failure.... your canvas will not disappoint you. 

Ebb and flow are a natural occurrence making art, at the beginning more about developing skills that will enable ideas, our conceptual thoughts to formulate in real time. Regardless where our skill level is we will still have exploratory works leading to flowing works. Effortless works that are often referred to as "In the ZONE". Celebrate that time and all those working canvases preceding the masterworks. First and foremost, believe in your ability to do it! Love you work, even the small triumphs each work possesses, and never put your work down if show and tell happens your way! Brag about your favorite detail.... if not the painting itself.  Every painting has a story behind it! Paint it in a positive light.  

SIPSwimming-in-Paint

Blurb - making a hard copy & online catalog

My new project, Chuck Larivey Editions reopened a need for a fresh marketing solution, including a hard copy catalog, an old fashion concept for sure. But we still use wish-book catalogs and magazines even though we may actually prefer online shopping and purchasing because it's easier and ships to your doorstep. Whats not to like about that!

The concept

 
Books, catalogs and magazines convert well to our smart phones and laptops. I wanted both options, so I knew where to start, Blurb! They have a flexible magazine template that might work and is available online too. I wanted the kind of pages that you actually flip as though you are reading it naturally. I wanted it downloadable and on my website. I'm not sure Blurb can do this particular bit yet - it may require a different conversion app.

I started on the hard copy to establish a product base line

The basic stuff, images and text information and some content text to get the ball rolling. I explored various page layouts, actually a fun experience, a little different from painting, but the rules of a focal point, flow and visual rhythm hold true even here. I settled down on one and ordered a single hard copy as a proof to see actual scale of fonts and quality before jumping in too far.

It took a few weeks

My single copy arrived safely. The quality was excellent, especially the image quality and colour . I ended up with 52 pages plus a cover. Its more a soft cover book or an exhibit catalog than a typical magazine we think of. They do have a step down quality (lighter paper weight) that would probably work as well for my purposes as a handout.

As suspected there were a few things to move around for better flow and consistency. Font size had to be reduced and some written text revised or omitted altogether. It was well worth the time and small cost because I did learn a great deal from the whole process. It was a good basic first step.

Online catalog research - page flipping

This is where I leave the Blurb train. You can order a nice PDF file when ordering your Blurb books or magazines, which I did. Blurb does have internet options to sell your eBooks on third party sites. I wanted more control of it on my website, blogger, email and social platforms..... if I can.

I'm really new at this, so I googled eBooks page flipping looking for an app.  Lots of choices and they all cost quite a bit (monthly fees billed annually) Even if they say PDF conversion is "free"..... not so! However, the conversion from PDF to HTML5 is remarkably painless. I'm on several 15-day free trials testing things out;  which I actually did with an incomplete proof PDF (no cover) example here.

UPDATE 12/13/18 

THE FLIPPINGBOOK FREE TRIAL ENDED AND THE SAMPLE CATALOG WAS DEACTIVATED

Flipping book is a very neat app, however costly for the basic service of $44 per mo. The trial used the $89 per month plan. The maxed out version is $179. The evolution of my project Chuck Larivey Editions actually made it obsolete. The free trial was worth the time. If it were a major component to my project perhaps. I'm finding most programs and apps are in subscription form. Programs we once could buy are now on a rental basis only. When you start adding all these small pieces up in our daily tech life....... WOW!

There's no question after hours of research I want a page flipping catalog function on anything I can! I want it more than a hard copy catalog, magazine or whatever. Basically it's a PDF file conversion to HTML5, which gives you a copy and paste-in code. Also interactive with multiple user functions.

FASO, my website host, added it to my website on the face page under the slide show. Aside from the fact it is an incomplete presentation, it worked remarkably well.....

Update 

All this R&D changed my market thinking a bit. I do like page flipping technology, wonderful for email marketing, a website or social media sites. Importantly something a client can easily download and use at will, also easily updated. A hard-copy is not. Perhaps the heavy monthly cost associated with most if not all page flipping apps is worth it. Perhaps not!

The real problem is the construction of the original PDF catalog file. I spent a great deal of time in various programs looking for an alternative to Blurb - in most cases a serious learning curve.

eCommerce  sales platform?

My attention was diverted when I began to realize all this could be covered with a robust online sales platform similar to what the big retails use. Not a typical artist/exhibit website I use now in FASO. Which allows selling but lacks most services any good retailer would need.

More to come.....

A Simple Word “Serious”

A Simple Word “Serious”

Showing great interest in or commitment to an endeavor, skill, or pastime…Wow!  A great word “Serious” when you think about it…Clearly I’m boringly serious about my art!! Why would this word even get my attention?  It did! And in a split second too! I have used the word before in this blog, but I’m not sure I ever applied it to myself.  I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t because I am serious. But, did it always apply?

How long have you been painting?

A question I’m frequently ask “how long have you been painting”? I would typically say 2 years adding “But forever” indicating knee high with my hand. A typical response might be “What happened in between”? If you tell them in my former life I was a…….. Oh!  You decided to do this in your retirement” which given my age could have been a viable reason. They could not have been more further from the truth because from day one I looked at art as career change and approached my new career as any one might a new business venture. Make no mistake if your "serious" art is a business!

Recently I was the main attraction at an Artist opening reception in a nearby sleepy harbor town gallery. The first time a large body of my recent work was assembled, framed, lit and then exposed before a wine sipping crowd. It was a new experience for me too because I rarely hang my own paintings. I don’t like clutter or being influence by yesterdays work so dry paintings are quickly packed away or framed and shipped to gallery shows or new owners…as a result this show was a treat for me as a painter and as a designer, because it took both hats to do it! 

You know the question I was overwhelmed with…. yep!  “How long have you been painting”? I’d say 2 ½ years and they go blank in disbelief!!...never getting the chance to say my forever..part. Now what do I do?? The gallery owner over heard it a few times, knowing I need help broke in by saying “he’s been doing it all his life but, only took it seriously 2 ½ years ago” …Well! There you go…one simple word “seriously” wrapped it up nice and tight! My new buzz word got a serious workout the rest of the evening....my new friends accepted my new explanation and quickly move to talking art...my favorite part.

Until that very moment I never had a clean answer why I stopped painting years earlier. In a single moment I knew, I was not willing to take art seriously. As a preteen and a teenager I must have because art had my attention. I studied the old masters. Not exactly something a normal teen would do, but I did. So I was serious at one point but, later it was just something I could do like riding a bike or driving a car. Art was useful making extra spending money as a teen.

As a young adult entering the job market my art, school drafting along with a wood-shop class allowed me the necessary tools to become a commercial bank designer which I did take seriously from the start. Quite possibly because it was a bigger more complex medium than oil painting. 

Mmmmm... not so sure that holds water in the real world. Oil painting is creating the illusion of light, colour and depth with paint. I found all the same old design rules applied to oil painting.....even has many of the same buzz words. In the end Good Design is the most critical element in a good interior, building, landscape or a great oil painting without good design all these things will fail.  

 #430 Winter Koi 48x44 oil on linen 

I think a good question any serious artist might want to ask themselves before starting any painting intended for eventual sale...."where do I want my paintings to hang"?