What are you working on??????????

[#1]

This morning I did a quick draw exercise. Gave myself 1 hour or less. I used acrylic and painted a portrait of a pig......I'm working on loosening up. I tend to get tight quickly.
Well this pig is loose and a bit interesting.
Have a painting floating around in my head that I hope to work on later. Will be gone for a while today. I'll use oil for the new one. I mostly paint alla prima.
So what are you working on????????

[MorganRalstonArt]

Yes, nice stuff Charles.

I'm working on listing some originals as prints but I was thinking of listing them sans matte... Not sure about shipping prices among other things...

Anyone have any insights into shipping flat 8x10 prints? Anything flat at all? I'll be using Canada Post.

[SKColeArt]

Hi Morgan,

My giclee printer shipped my 9" prints in between cardboard supports, in a flat cardboard box, and sent it via U.S. Priority Mail for $5.50.

Not sure if the Canadian post has a similar service.

Obviously it's important to ship with rigid supports so the prints don't get wrinkled.

[MorganRalstonArt]

Ah, ok thanks.

So then it would be the same as sending it the way I do now. Which ends up being around $20 priority to the states and sometimes takes over a week to arrive.

I heard something about postal envelopes that don't bend and the shops offering them have postage similar to your prices.

It would be nice to offer decent rates for postage for a change... Sometimes being Canadian sucks ;)

[SKColeArt]

I heard something about postal envelopes that don't bend and the shops offering them have postage similar to your prices.
--
Don't know anything about it. Let me know if you find anymore info!

[MorganRalstonArt]

Finished!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/111833822/original-acrylic-art-ocean-clouds
Now I can get started on my commissions!

[BingArt]

Oh man, yeah, if I could find shipping envelopes that are sturdy and not bendable! For now I cut pieces of cardboard and fit my smaller canvas paintings (6x8 and smaller) between 2 pieces (the painting wrapped in wax paper) and put that in a bubble mailer. It's worked well so far!

I've been going crazy checking Etsy lately. Today and yesterday (as Sheri pointed out to me) one of my landscape paintings has been on the front page of Etsy Art for the landscape section! I keep waiting for them to take it off, but so far they haven't... nice exposure!

As for what I'm working on, I've had a terrible ocular migraine today, but managed a contemporary Christmas piece with green lollipop trees and a bright red background. Will post it sometime next week!

TGIF tomorrow :)

[MorganRalstonArt]

To be the lucky few ;) Glad you got that spot!

I have one of my least favoured paintings on the 3rd page of acrylic... but that's it! I don't know how anyone has been finding me through browse... I do get a few random hits from it but not many.

Etsy has taken a balanced playing field and turned it into a chaotic jumble F_ _ _... I'll let you fill in the blanks.

"Prints on Canvas" is a perfect example of the mess they've made... 3 shops dominate more than 25 pages of listings.

I hope they sort it all out soon!

Anyway... I'm starting a commission of a sail boat on a sunny, completely clear sky day from a photo... and then someone actually wants me to paint "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski... drinking a White Russian no less.

I won't be selling a print of that on Etsy ;)

[SKColeArt]

I'd like to see The Dude painting, Morgan.

[SKColeArt]

Agree that the new Etsy browser sucks. I get far fewer hits now and most are from overseas, and I don't even ship overseas.

Yikes!

[Former_Member]

Good Day everyone
Going down to the dungeon to paint soon
I haven't painted for what seems like forever.............
Going to do a Pig Portrait in Oils
I think I need a housekeeper, cook and an organizer to help me
Seems I'm getting less organized lately and need help
I have my priorities in my life and painting isn't at #1, #2 or #3 but still one of the big loves of my life.
So that is what I'm working on.
Lovely warm colors Charles
Sorry Morgan I don't know anything about Canadian Shipping
Have a great day everyone

[MorganRalstonArt]

SK Cole from SKColePortraitsNPics says

I'd like to see The Dude painting, Morgan.
_________________________________

I'll link it when I'm done but I won't sell it on Etsy... Prints on Society6 however... seems to be a bigger market for that type of work there.

Now... back to figuring out how to get seen in the browse pages... I have all my originals listed under the "Acrylic" Sub-Category... So I'll be changing some over to landscapes since there's a better category slot for those... they have Rachel's nice painting as the lead image too!

[SKColeArt]

I've changed a few of my listings over to different sub-categories as well-thanks for the tip Morgan.

Let's see if I can recover my traffic! It declined by about 50 percent since the new browser was installed.

[MorganRalstonArt]

I think if shoppers are used to browsing via search they will continue to do so. Most of the missing views could have been coming from other sellers who are now all in the forums griping about "Browse" or are rummaging through "Browse" trying desperately to find their items ;)

I'm just going to continue to self promote as always... that's how it's always worked for me so why stop?

Things will pick back up in no time when all the dust settles!

[Former_Member]

Finished my pig painting 10x10
you can see my pig here
https://www.facebook.com/donnaroseart

oil so it is still wet and can't hang it to take better photos

still etsy changed everything awhile back I don't pay much attention to view.....it would be nice to have more but my shop is very very slow at the moment

[SKColeArt]

I made a Treasury List with items from team members' shops:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MjI3NDEwODN8MjcyMDg2NDc2MQ/flung-roses-roses-riotously-with-the?index=0

[SKColeArt]

I made another Treasury List. The theme this time is "Big Sky" paintings, in honor of Donnarose being from Montana:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MjI3NDEwODN8MjcyMDg2NTMxOQ/big-sky-country

[Former_Member]

Question that isn't about art
Well maybe it is
I just bought a tablet and it has been suggested to me to use Chrome instead of explorer or firefox as my server
It is a Samsung
Any suggestions on the matter

being able to show my art on it when I'm away from home is art related don't you think

[SKColeArt]

I did another team treasury list here--the them this time is house portraits. . .

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MjI3NDEwODN8MjcyMDg2NTc1Nw/our-house-is-a-very-very-very-nice-house?ref...

[Former_Member]

SK
queen of treasuries

[SKColeArt]

Thanks Donnarose. I'm trying to promote our team as best I can. Also, since I've been making the treasuries, I've had more views to make up for the ones I lost because of the new browser.

[JBeaudetStudios]

Thanks for all the treasuries SK! Sorry Donna, I can't help with your tech question. I don't have any cool techy things...you should see my phone, it's ancient!
I'm finishing up another tree painting. It's taken me a lot longer than I thought it would. I've used a palette knife for most of it which, for me, takes longer the a brush. A brush didn't give me the look for the leaves that I wanted. Hopefully I will finish it and get it posted today.
I'm also trying to figure out why my views/stats have been so low. It's been about a week now. I've tried different searches and found that I'm not showing up on here. I haven't changed anything and Etsy says, although they changed the categories, you don't need to change anything to be relevant. If this is true how have I gone from showing up on page one of common searches, to completely disappeared.
I'm not happy with it at all. Is anyone else having a problem with views?

[SKColeArt]

Yes, Jennifer, I've lost about half my outside search traffic. It used to be about 50-50 between Etsy-generated views and outside views, and now it's mostly etsy views.

It's discouraging for a new seller--I was doing well in sales and views the first couple of weeks, and then it all fell off of a cliff. I guess we just have to work harder to get those views from the outside.

[JBeaudetStudios]

Hi SK,
I was referring to inside searches on here. Like if someone comes here to find something then puts "landscape painting" in the search bar on here. I searched several different phrases and only found one of my paintings but it was on something like page 10. I was showing up on page one for at least a few of paintings. Also the new categories shows some of the same artists again and again. I thought they fixed it so that wouldn't happen. If you browse the art categories some of the most popular painters/paintings show up. I'm wondering if they are showing up by how many hearts they have or maybe how many times they've been "pinned" to Pinterest. I
As far as outside traffic, this fluctuates from day to day but hasn't noticeably changed.
Thanks for your help:)

[SKColeArt]

Oh, my inside search views have declined as well. They've both declined :(

[JBeaudetStudios]

Mine too! I'm trying to focus on my Facebook page right now. I sometimes get a lot of views from there. I say sometimes because that fluctuates as well! I think they want money! HaHa. It's frustrating because it's hard enough to sell artwork even when you do show up but if you're not even being seen... Ok, I'm off to become more relevant! Have a great Sunday!