Technology

Important Website Considerations for Artists: Part 3 of 3

Brian Steck · Nov 5, 2012 · 1 Comment

This article is part 3 of a 3-part series discussing important website considerations for artists. The first part laid out some general thoughts to keep in mind during the initial stages of creating your art website. The second piece attempted to put complex website elements into simple terms.

Part 3: Implementation – Putting it all together

In today’s world, your website is likened to a business card, giving you credibility, basic details about yourself and a way for others to contact you. If you’ve read the past two parts of this series, you know it must reflect the excellence and perfection of your artwork, as well as be inexpensive to maintain and easy to edit, which is why WordPress may be your best bet. Assuming you’ve read my tips on setting up your website in Part 2, you may be asking, “So, how do I design a great website?”

Navigation

When designing a website or choosing a theme, I believe that it is much more important to design through the lenses of usability than esthetics. Sure, your website should be beautiful and pleasing to the eye because it reflects your excellent artwork, but the colors and layout is much less important than your visitors ability to move around the site.
If a visitor comes to your site, but cannot navigate easily, it is very unlikely that they will hang around long. So it’s essential that your site navigation be blatantly obvious, intuitive and consistent.

Blatantly obvious navigation
Make your links easy to see. A usable website will incorporate vertical or horizontal links that are either shaped as buttons, tabs or use colors to distinguish them as links. If your site navigation uses the same font, size and color as the rest of the text on your site, it will be very difficult for a user to discern between text and links.

Intuitive navigation
Your links should describe with simplicity what the user is being linked to. Terms such as “store”, “portfolio”, “contact us” and “home” are widely used and understood. If you get too creative in the titles for your web pages, it will only succeed in confusing your guests. It’s like being at a restaurant where they get too creative in theming the names to the Men’s and Women’s restrooms… using a different language or some ancient hieroglyphic symbol can leave you feeling real embarrassed when you wind up choosing the wrong door.

Consistent navigation
This is a common mistake for most beginners. For example, when you visit the home page, the navigation is on the top, but then it’s on the bottom on the next page. Later on, it may move over to the side, or change verbiage. Even for a familiar web-user, this can be confusing and cause them frustration — even to the point of finding another site to browse. Do yourself and your visitors a favor: keep your navigation consistent on every page.

Connecting with your visitors

There are a few methods of connecting with your visitors. Because of SPAM-bots that scan websites for e-mail addresses and then bombard your inbox with junk mail, it’s recommended that you avoid listing your e-mail address on your website. If you must share your e-mail address, I recommend using the following code to help throw the SPAM-bots off the trail:

<a href=”mailto:name&#64;domain&#46;com”>name&#64;domain&#46;com</a>

Replacing the @ symbol with @ and period with . is a method of protecting your e-mail address from being hunted down and mercilessly overwhelmed with SPAM e-mail.

Contact Forms
Another excellent way of letting your visitors connect with you, and my preferred method, is using a contact form. WordPress offers a number of superb form options, with my favorite being Gravity Forms, allowing you to easily create a form that can be used for contacting you, taking polls or making purchases. The benefit to the contact form is that it doesn’t require your visitors to use their default e-mail program. Have you ever clicked an e-mail address on a website and all of a sudden the website disappears and a program you never use opens up? This is the default effect of linking to an e-mail address. Instead, I recommend linking either the text “Contact Us” or, if you must, your e-mail address to a contact form. The contact form, when submitted, will safely send you an e-mail and return a confirmation such as “Thank you for contacting us! We’ll reply shortly.”
Social Media
Social Media is the general term for tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, MySpace and other platforms that allow you to create a profile and use their features while connecting with others. Depending on your business, different platforms may be more useful than others. Let me explain a few of them:
Facebook is the most widely used social media platform. It originally started with college users, but has since grown to welcome children, grandparents, businesses and celebrities. By posting photos, videos, links and comments, Facebook users can keep in touch with a wide range of friends, family and coworkers easily. Facebook is an excellent resource for artists who want to feature artwork and keep their collectors and potential followers updated. Facebook provides some great tools, such as the “Like Box” and “Activity Feed” to help you easily integrate Facebook with your website.
Twitter seems to strike the most fear in people’s eyes when it is mentioned. And, other than fear of the unknown, there is little reason for this. Twitter is a social media platform allowing you to post short (140-characters or less) status updates, called “tweets”. Other Twitter users can “follow” you, which allows them to receive regular updates on your status updates. Twitter appeals to quick-paced hipsters and executives alike who prefer to get straight to business, cutting away the clutter of videos and long-winded Facebook status updates. Twitter uses a few symbols to help users shorten their tweets:

The “@” symbol is used refer to someone’s username
The “#” symbol, or hashtag, denotes a subject or keyword, making it easy to search for or join in a conversation
“DM” means direct message and is used to send a private message
“RT” means “retweet” and is used to forward someone else’s tweet
URLs are frequently shortened to save space. Twitter will do this for you automatically.

A great Twitter example for an artist would be:

@OilPaintAmerica Check out my artwork being featured at the #OPANationalShow this year! //bit.ly/uxHSPX

Pinterest is a newcomer but has quickly taken the social media world by surprise. Pinterest is a digital pin-board of creative ideas. Thousands of creative crafts, recipes, outfits, haircuts, architecture designs and cute quips are posted daily. As an artist, I believe this is a great opportunity to share your paintings with the world. Simply post your paintings, linking them to your website or blog, and Pinterest users will “pin” your paintings if they like them. They may even begin to follow you on Pinterest, in which case their friends would see your artwork and could lead to more artwork sales.
LinkedIn is the serious side of social networking. Geared towards the executive or businessperson, LinkedIn has become the generally-accepted digital resume. As you connect to others in LinkedIn, your network of connections grows, giving you credibility and potential job opportunities. This would be a great option for an artist wishing to connect with publishers, businesses looking for artwork or portraiture, as well as side-jobs or a way to stay connected with others in the business world.

Keeping it all organized
There are many more social networking options coming out every year. My word of advice is to pick one or two that you feel comfortable engaging with and then focus on those alone. Do not feel the need to master every new trick the internet throws at you.
For those of you who want to try your hand at a few social networks, I recommend using a desktop program such as TweetDeck, which allows you to post to multiple platforms with a single click.

Search Engine Optimization

I’m going to keep this section short, because there is a lot of information about Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, on the web. SEO is the process of creating websites that are simple for search engines to understand, making it easy for search engines such as Google and Bing to present your site to visitors.
A few things to know about SEO:

It’s not an overnight job. It’s a process. Count on it taking longer if you have a lot of competition who is actively pursuing high search engine rankings.
Focus on content before tricks. Similar to “If you build it, they will come.” in SEO, “If you provide valuable information, your ranking will improve.”
Proper coding matters. Use a web designer that knows what they are doing and a search engine-friendly platform like WordPress.

Strategy

Begin with the end in mind. We talked about this a bit in the first part. Begin with a clearly defined goal so that you can focus on achieving it. If your goal is to collect a large list of subscribers to your blog or newsletter, then make your sign-up form obvious and the sign-up process simple. If you’re goal is to increase the amount of people seeing your artwork, integrate social media with your website and be active on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. If you want to sell artwork at all costs, make your online store flawless and offer to mail artwork out to buyers to inspect, giving them 72 hours to send back the artwork or purchase it. There are many strategies. Choose one that fits your personality and goals and stick to it.
Don’t be afraid to have a simple website. Your website can be very simple and doesn’t need to be updated often. But make it professional so that it reflects your product. Though, I recommend that at the very least, use a Facebook or Twitter feed as a way to provide fresh content on your site.
Try something new. Give blogging a try. Tweet. Give something away for free on your website… you’re an artist! You’re supposed to be the crazy type! 😉 Do something fun and take a risk!
Learn from some of the great minds of our day. Read the writings of Seth Godin, John C. Maxwell, Dave Ramsey or Michael Hyatt. These thinkers are shaking the way marketers sell, leaders stir and people spend.

In Summary

Part 1 spoke about adapting to a digital world as an artist, as well as general goal-setting. Part 2 detailed the backbones of a website and a few steps to getting a website set up. This article gave some next steps after you have a site up and running: easy-to-use navigation, connecting with your visitors, and additional strategic tips. We at OPA hope this has been helpful and welcome your thoughts, criticism and questions. Thanks for reading the OPA Blog!
If you have questions, feel free to visit www.steckinsights.com for consulting or website advice.

Paint From Life or Photos?

William Schneider · Aug 27, 2012 · 12 Comments

"Alone In Warsaw" by William Schneider OPA — “Alone In Warsaw” by William Schneider OPA

Especially since the advent of good, inexpensive digital cameras, the debate about whether to use photo references has become almost sectarian. Purists admonish us to paint “only from life.” Yet the instructional art magazines regularly feature artists whose methods start and end with a photo reference. Certain subjects (squirmy kids, transient light effects, horses in motion etc.) almost demand photographs. Even great masters like Fechin and Zorn clearly used photo references for some of their paintings.
There are a host of good reasons to use photos:

They’re convenient
The light doesn’t change
You can blow up small details
You can be comfortable
There are no bugs, wind, interrupting strangers etc.
The model doesn’t move or get tired

There’s only one really good reason to work from life – it will make us much better artists.
Over time, we representational artists become skilled at rendering what we see. The problem is that even high-quality digital photos lie to us. Think of the four elements of a realistic painting: shapes (drawing or proportion), values, color temperature relationships, and edges. Three of the four are always wrong in a photo… and sometimes it’s all four.
The two or three darkest values turn into black and the lightest values become white (photographers call it “blowing out” the lights). The color temperature relationships are limited by the dyes used to make the prints or the phosphors in our computer screens. Also, the camera sees edges as equally sharp (not at all like the human eye which focuses on a sharp area in the center of our visual field surrounded by fuzzy shapes on the periphery).

"Platinum" by William Schneider — “Platinum” by William Schneider

Even the shapes may not be accurate. If you photograph a person six feet away, you will probably get an image of a normal-size face but legs and feet that appear tiny. In other words, the foreshortening distorts the proportions. So, if we work exclusively from photos, we become extremely proficient at painting subjects that don’t look real. We don’t even notice the errors.
When I critique portfolios at various art events I often see paintings where the shadows are black, the lights are white, all the edges are hard, and the light and the darks are the same temperature. I ask the artist, “you work mostly from photos, don’t you?” I often get the astonished reply, “how did you know?”
The pros work primarily from life: For one, it’s much easier to develop good edge control. Also, our sensitivity to nuance of color and temperature improves exponentially. We just can’t see those nuances in photos… I know; I’ve tried! Working from life, we learn to see the elusive, sparkling color in half tones. Our shadows start to have a sense of light and air in them instead of being dense, opaque blobs.
So, if you’ve decided to go the extra mile, how do you break free of the photo? The still life is easy. Just set it up and start painting. Likewise, there’s little excuse for trying to paint a landscape from a photo. If you’re nervous about going out alone, find a painting buddy or group. There are Plein Air groups in most areas now. OPA sponsors paint outs all over the country. Seek, and ye shall find.

"The Mercenary" by William Schneider OPA — “The Mercenary” by William Schneider OPA

It’s a little more challenging to find place to paint the live model but a little digging will yield results. Local colleges or art centers may sponsor open studios. I paint with a number of groups in my area. In fact, I started hosting a group in my studio. We all chip in to pay the model. If you can’t find a group, start one. Finding models is relatively easy. Most people are flattered if you ask them to sit for you. There are even model websites.
Once we start to see the benefits in our work, we want more. The little bit of extra effort to paint from life, pays off tenfold.
Happy painting!

Important Website Considerations for Artists: Part 2 of 3

Brian Steck · Aug 6, 2012 · Leave a Comment

This article is part 2 of a 3-part series discussing important website considerations for artists. The first part laid out some general thoughts to keep in mind during the initial stages of creating your art website.

Important Considerations – Part 2: Basic Website Elements

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Okay you twisted my arm. Now what?”
There are a number of questions that inevitably should be going through your head: what will this cost me? can I do it myself or should I hire a professional? I’m an artist, not a nerd – how the heck am I supposed to build a website?!
As the resident “nerd” at OPA, let me help you along. I’ll walk through some basics that you should know about, even if you hire a professional.
Terminology
“Gigabytes? Hard drives? Ugh… That megahertz my brain just to think about!”
In order to have your own website, you need two things working together: a domain name and a web host.
The “domain name” is what people type in to find you.
“OilPaintersOfAmerica.com” is a domain name. This is purchased from a “domain registrar”, such as NameCheap, Verio or GoDaddy.
Then the domain name is pointed to your “web host”. A web host, like HostGator, BlueHost or GoDaddy for example, holds onto the files of your website and presents them to people when they arrive.
Before you get too confused, think of your “web host” as a gallery that holds your artwork and the “domain name” is the address collectors use to get to the art gallery.

In summary, you purchase a domain name and a web hosting package. The domain name points to your web host.
Congratulations! You passed our terminology section! (Well done. You did great!)

What will this cost me?
Typically a domain name costs between $9-14 per year (sometimes the first year is cheaper when you purchase in conjunction with a web hosting package) and a web hosting package normally runs between $50-80 per year.*
For most users, the starter packages will do the trick. HostGator has excellent prices, so any of their webhosting packages will work. I recommend their “baby plan” if you would like to have more than one domain name (like myawesomeartwork.com and myawesomeartwork.org) or their “business plan” if you would like to sell products directly from your site.

Where does the “website” part come in?
Next, you actually need the files that make up your website. Some web hosting packages provide simple templates for you to fill in your information. There are some companies, such as Fine Art Studio Online, that provide slightly more advanced templates specifically for artists. Then there are web developers like myself, Steck Insights Web Design, that design custom hand-crafted websites for anybody and everybody.
Each of the options listed provides more customization than it’s predecessor, but will generally cost more.
The generic site that comes with your hosting package is usually not what you want. I recommend, at the very least, having someone set up a “WordPress” site for you.**
WordPress, which was originally a blogging platform, has become a leader in web design — in fact, everyone from small start-ups to multi-million dollar corporations use it, including OPA! The WordPress platform makes it easy for someone with little to no technical savvy, to easily update the content of their website. That way, you don’t have to pay someone each time you want to share your latest painting with the world. For extra credit, this is known as a “Content Management System (CMS)”.

Web Design Costs
Having someone design a website by hand can be expensive. A typical custom designed, WordPress-based, “brochure website” will cost between $1,000-1,500. A brochure website will contain 3-5 pages and provide most of the basic information about you that a handheld brochure might. When you add in the need for an online shopping cart or custom features, it can be even more expensive.
So what I would suggest for someone just getting started, is to hire a web designer to set up the free WordPress install, do some slight configurations and walk you through the basics. This could be completed for between $150-300 and it would give you a starting place to get your feet wet.
Feel free to contact me if you have questions about WordPress or how to set up a basic website.

Time vs. Money

“Do you want to be an artist or a web designer?”
We all know that you want to be in the studio painting or scoping out your next plein air location, not pulling your hair out in front of a computer.
This is the main reason why I point people to using a Content Management System (CMS), which enables you to make simple changes, add pages or move links with a few clicks. If you can send an e-mail or create a Microsoft Word document, you can handle WordPress.
The starving artist out there may be tempted to try to do it all himself. There are many great resources available that can help you with this, but I would urge you to seek the help of a professional, so your website showcases your work in the best light and you can get back to the canvas.
If you’re on the other end of the spectrum, you may prefer to stay as far away from a keyboard as you can get and hire a web developer to manage your website for you. When you want to make a change, just give them a call and they’ll take care of it for you — but keep in mind, this is a more expensive option. But when you consider the additional cost of lost business (and extra gray hairs), a trained professional may be the way to go.

Lesson 2 Summary

Option 1:

Purchase a domain name – “myawesomeartwork.com” for example – (currently available, by the way)

Purchase a web hosting package

Set up WordPress

Option 2:

Hire a web developer to do it for you

*Both domain names and hosting packages can be much more expensive, depending on the demand for the domain name and the features of the web hosting package, but for most people’s needs, these are typical prices.

There are two versions of WordPress: a paid and free version. The paid version makes the setup simple for you, but is very limiting. I recommend finding a web designer to set you up with the free version.

Paints, Brushes and Facebook Supports

Cathy Dietrich · Jul 9, 2012 · 1 Comment

Facebook could be as important to artists as their favorite supplies. I sensed this when the general manager of a prestigious Scottsdale gallery told me that when all else failed, Facebook helped him locate an artist he wanted to invite into the gallery to exhibit. He believed if an artist had a web address, they would also have a Facebook page as part of their marketing plan. This seems an incredible story unique to our times and I frequently relay it to artists who profess they don’t have time for Facebook.
In addition to finding the perfect oils, brushes and supports to create your art, an untapped audience could be waiting on the other side of your screen, so to speak, to connect with you and your art. Recently, a prolific plein air artist and popular instructor posted local scenes and paintings created on his trip east and photos of Sargeant’s works from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I “traveled” with him and anticipated his daily posts. He posted “Thanks so much everyone for your congratulations and encouragement. It really means a lot to me.” Art is emotional and unsolicited constructive feedback is a gift.
When a quick critique is needed to save a piece gone awry a Facebook post of “what do you think this painting needs?” can bring every imaginable solution. I enjoy artist’s posts of “just finished, still on the easel” paintings in the studio or plein air works still on outdoor easels positioned to show the view of the painted scene. Posts of paintings sold right off the easel and paintings juried into prestigious shows send an immediate thrill throughout the art community. The sharing of friends’ achievements becomes the community’s collective success.
Artists like to share supplies they love. I was unaware of Vasari oil paints until an artist posted that the company sent her entire palette as a gift. Comments immediately appeared from artists who swore by that brand. So Facebook not only informs, but teaches. CW Mundy posted a painting with a glazing technique and when queried offered steps to achieve the effect. An artist commented “the mark of a great instructor is one who uses every opportunity to teach”. I was impressed and surprised to consider Facebook as the art community’s personal arts “channel” and discussion forum.

Jeff Legg OPAM with "The Provisions" — Jeff Legg OPAM with “The Provisions”

It is a high honor for an artist to have their work juried into the national OPA exhibit and artists shared their stellar news of acceptance on Facebook. Later posts appeared of artists alongside their award winning paintings to connect with a broader audience. I enjoyed seeing Jeff Legg next to his painting and award, offered my congratulations and thanked him for posting it. I also sent a private message to Melissa Gann who won our RayMar award. She responded with “Thank you for creating the memorial award. I am so honored to be the recipient. You and Emily do so much for the art community through RayMar.” Comments like Melissa’s are humbling and create excitement among sponsors and ultimately collectors to become more involved.
So after some solo time in the studio artists can tap into the Facebook art world for the latest news and even the possibility of a sale without ever leaving the studio. I know because I just concluded my first facebook sale. I saw a posted painting I loved, contacted the artist and made the purchase. It was immediate and I could send a message directly to the artist to express my emotional connection with the painting.
Facebook can be a waste of time if you are undisciplined, but as a fresh way to connect with collectors, gallery directors, workshop instructors and art buddies to build friendships it is unsurpassed. Facebook is an exciting part of my day and I’m happy to have the opportunity to share my thoughts about some of its advantages with you as OPA’s guest blogger.

Important Website Considerations for Artists: Part 1 of 3

Brian Steck · Jul 2, 2012 · 2 Comments

There is no law that requires you to have a website, no one is forcing you to use a cell phone and no one mandates that you drive a car.
But each of these are tools and technologies that enhance the quality of life around us, to the point that some deem them necessities.
I’m here as a child of the digital age, and a full-time freelance web developer, presenting some ideas that, should you chose to accept them, may benefit your livelihood in this internet-crazed world we now live in.

Adapting to the digital world

“If I cover my eyes, maybe it’ll all go away!”
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as ignoring it. There are some of you that have been forced to use new technologies which would have been considered science-fiction a decade ago. Or maybe you remember the age when making a phone call meant speaking with an operator first. Either way, take a moment, a deep breath and pat yourself on the back — I mean, you’re reading a blog for goodness sakes! Way to go!
A few things to acknowledge:

It’s okay to not know – the key to the digital age is that you don’t need to know or remember anything. That’s what Google is for! If you have a question, it’s only a search away.
You don’t have to do it all – new and ever-changing technologies are just a fact of life. So don’t feel as if you need to sign up for every social network out there. Pick one and stick with it.
There are no “tricks” or shortcuts to success – when it comes down to it, your journey to success is still all about quality and trust. Providing consistent, exceptional value to the customer is what it’s all about. This is true whether you’re an oil painter, a supply store or a fortune 500 company.

The need for a website

“Com’n, you know you wanna. Everyone’s doing it!”
We’ve all heard it before: “you’ve gotta have a website”. It was the resounding cry of the dot-com boom that caused businesses and organizations, large and small, to rush out like lemmings off a cliff to stake their claim of the world wide web. Unfortunately, few stopped to ask “why?” Today, many folks are stuck with expensive, outdated and altogether abandoned websites — now scratching their heads and wondering “what did I need this website for, anyhow?”
Why do you need a website? Here’s why: People are no longer relying on yellow-pages and billboards to find the products they need. Instead, they turn to Google or Facebook. The “like” button or online product review has become the new “word of mouth”. So, when someone is looking for an “original oil painting near Denver”, for example, it becomes very important that you are online and easy to find when they begin that search.

Important Considerations – Part 1: Goals & Organization

“Tips for right-brain thinkers who prefer to leap, then look”
Steven Covey, in the book “7 Habits for Highly Effective People”, says “Begin with the end in mind.” This is my advice to you, as well. What are you trying to accomplish? We know that we are supposed to have a website, but we are often unclear as to “why”. Your website is your business card. It is the book cover that people judge you by. A website should reflect the personality, professionalism and quality of your product which, in your case, is your artwork.

Interesting Stats:

It’s been said that upon meeting someone you have seven seconds to make an impression. This is even more true online. In fact, some studies say it takes less than two tenths of a second for an online visitor to form an opinion of your brand. ¹
Needless to say, your website must present your business in the finest light possible.

So your first goal should be to make a good impression. Spend time thinking about the image you want to present of yourself?
Secondly, ask yourself this clarifying question: “What do I want people to leave with or accomplish while visiting?”
To help with the specifics of that last question, let me give some examples. Maybe your end-goal is that your visitor purchase something; so make sure that your products and prices are obvious, that you have a simple and functional shopping cart with current discounts and specials highlighted.
Would you like them to sign up for a newsletter? Then make that registration form the first thing they see and perhaps offer a free download or reward for signing up.
If your ideal is for visitors to spend time looking at your paintings and share them with others, then put your photo gallery on the front page with prominent “share” or “comment” buttons for each of them.
You see, it’s not difficult to create a game plan, but it begins with the end in mind. Your visitor is better-served because you provided them with obvious steps to accomplish. No one enjoys arriving at a website only to stare blankly at it wondering, “now what?”
The third goal that I see for any website is that it provides quality content. This content, or information, should take into account your intended audience. Some questions you should be asking while creating your website are:

Who are you trying to reach?
What is your target audience?
Are they of a particular age? If older, should font size be increased?
Will they be accessing your website on a desktop computer or from their mobile device?
What are they most likely looking for? What phrases will they be searching with?

These questions can help guide you in making decisions about layout, graphics, fonts, content and navigation.
Do your best to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Think like the visitor.

“Important Website Considerations for Artists” is a three part series aimed to help artists make educated decisions around their web presence. Feel free to add questions and comments below and the author will do his best to point you in the right direction. If you’re in need of assistance with your website, feel free to visit Steck Insights Web Design.