Is Social Media Important to Businesses in the Arts?

Today I had to take my total piece of crap PC to the doctor. I re-booted it so I could get a tad quicker response time while working on a painting. When I tried to re-start it the overgrown lummox decided to rebel…it would not re-start and thought it funny to throw a FATAL ERROR message up. No biggie, I was looking for a new doorstop for the studio anyway. Ok, so I decided to let it live and took it to my good friend Brian who is a pc doc. When I dropped it off his mom was there and was watching a video on Youtube. The musicgeek in me liked the video but the business geek in me freaked when I saw it had almost 8 million views. So I decided I would follow up and write about it. Here ya go.

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Most of you know I live in the great plains, Nebraska to be exact. Last year I heard some hoopla about a band that was coming here to play. Seems that they choose to fly United and the ground crew had a blast heaving guitars around. In the melee they broke a very expensive guitar. As I heard the story I thought of that awesome scene in Ace Ventura where Jim Carrey is playing soccer with a UPS package. Anyway, Dave Carroll is the artist that had the unfortunate issues with United.

Dave decided he would keep his viewing audience in the loop of how the whole thing played out in terms of having to deal with a major company and encouraging them to take some responsibility.

Below is the first video. Check it out and then lets look at some things.

I love this story for a variety of reasons. First most of us can relate to it because we have all had something happen with a big company or at least someone we know has. We all have experienced the arrogance of a company that refuses to hear our issue. The other thing I love is there is a underdog component to the whole thing. I always cheer for the underdog. Big company vs one person, US Govt vs private citizen all of that is intriguing to us and we tend to root for the little guy.

What I want to point out with this video though is the volume of traffic it has produced. It went viral. Between this first vid, the other two produced by David Carroll and all of the spin offs it is over 10 MILLION views. Wow. That is 10 million votes FOR David and a gaggle of people who empathize and most likely wont be traveling United, not to mention they (United) totally look like schmucks.

One of my mentors in marketing is Dan Kennedy. He calls large corporate structures big dumb companies. I wish I had thought of that because it is true in so many cases. How hard would it have been to have systems in place that would allow the management on the ground in the location of the incident to make a decision…the right decision? How much less money would it have cost United?

The point is this, if you are a business owner social media can be your friend or it can really work against you. What is cool is that social media is the embodiment of capitalism and free enterprise. As clients we vote with our dollars. The more we like a companies products or services the more we vote….and talk. No longer is communication from companies one way. It is a very distinctive two-way conversation with a client base. We as clients have a say in the process. If customer service is an issue and we first try the most amenable and judicious route without success, we now have options that are stronger that a mild passing complaint at a soccer game or bridge party. Be careful here though because if you dont personally do the right thing in trying to work out an issue with a company it can make you look like a ding-a-ling. In other words be fair in your approach and try to get it worked out before you slam someone. Once it is out there in cyberspace you cant take it back.

As a business owner we have the opportunity to see what people say, unbiased and stripped of sugar coating. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it heals because people are people. Overall though, it gives us the opportunity to discover challenges we might not have known to exist. Then, we have a chance to fix those issues and move on to the next level.

As a small business owner if you are not involved with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc you should seriously get on board. The conversation about you is out there, you might as well hear what is being said.

You can hit Youtube and see the other two vids in the series. David’s career has been positively affected by his brilliant videos and dealing smartly with a big dumb company in the public’s view.

Corel Painter Brushes Webinar With John Derry will sell out.

I just put a blurb on the sign-up page for Johns Webinar. I host these webinars on GoToWebinar. The fees associated with this platform can be paid monthly or annually. The subscription we currently use at Digital Paint Magazine I pay monthly. It used to be 99 dollars a month for up to 500 lines on a webinar. Now it is 399 for 500 lines. The next break is at 100 lines and that is 99 a month.

So I obviously choose to downgrade our subscription. That means we have only 100 lines for this webinar. Over 75 are already gone. What we will do is give anyone that signs up BEFORE the webinar the download and brushes for 25.00 (but there are only 100 lines). So if we have 150 people sign up before the event we will give the seats to the first 100 and the remaining 50 will get the download and brushes for the 25 price.

After the event the brushes and download will be 30.00. You can sign up here: Corel Painter Brushes Webinar

Adobe Photoshop Cook Video

Elaina presented this on the painter talk forum. I thought it was awesome so I looked it up on Youtube and grabbed the embed code.

This was a video made in stopmotion for competition AdobeYouGC.
The simulation of a tutorial which shows how to make the lovely butter cookies with the new Adobe Photoshop Cook!
Whole set was made with cardboard and with kitchen utensils. I was not able to find the artist. If anyone knows the artist shoot me an email, it would sure be nice to give proper attribution.

Digital Painting Tutorials in the March Issue of Digital Paint Magazine.

The March issue of the magazine is ready. Digital Painting tutorials by Skip Allen, Barb Hartsook, Kathy Pilgrim and Karen Bonaker are in this issue. There is also a surprise with the look and feel! You can download it here:  Digital Painting Tutorials March

If you like the magazine and would like to be on the early notification list fill out the opt-in information on the right side of the page. The magazine is free and we also have a bunch of awesome content that will begin going to the subscribers beginning in March.

March Issue of Digital Paint Magazine

Digital Artist Collaborate

I am not sure where I came across this a few days ago…I think my Google reader revealed it.  I tried to research the background just a bit because I really love this idea.

The painting evolved by four digital artists working simultaneously on the same digital canvas, it was unplanned and free form.  Communication was made possible by text chat and the artists worked from  each others actions. The total elapsed time was 4 hours.

While the video was put on Youtube in August of 2009, I still had a difficult time finding much about it. Who were the artists involved? What software were they using? How did they draw simultaneously while each was in a different location? Was it iscribble.net and the interactive canvases on the draw-chat site?

There are several ways apparent to do this so  what method did they choose? Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Digital Painting tutorials by artist Barb Hartsook at Digital Paint Magazine.

Introducing With Brush and Pen.  A new column in the magazine by Barb Hartsook.  Below is a bit about Barb. Also you can drop by her blog where she combines stories with words and paintings  at, Over Coffee… Let’s Talk. You can see some of her work  in the PBase Galleries. Following is her bio.

Barb Hartsook author of With Brush and Pen

Who am I and what do I do?

Hi. I’m Barbara Hartsook, and I live in Northern Ohio with my husband, close to our three adult daughters and their families.

All my life I remember loving the splashes of color in my world, and noticing how pretty everything looked when the sun was low in the sky, when shadows danced on houses and tree trunks and lawns… Yes, even as a child I noticed.

Art as a professional pursuit was not an option for me – my parents wanted me to become a classroom teacher, as they were.

So I taught. And hung out with the art teachers. And bought sketch journals, pens, and paints. And started taking classes…

Over my art-life I’ve used pastel pencils and oils and watercolors, acrylics to paint staging sets and wall murals, pen and ink, and liquid pencils (with a brush).

In April, 2006, my girls grown-up with families of their own, I took a week-long class in Durham, N.C. introducing me to Corel Painter software and a Wacom Tablet.

And I had a new love… digital painting and drawing.

My work has sold locally, as well as in galleries online, and has won awards, both locally and online.

I help moderate Karen Bonaker’s digital art forum PainterTalk, where in the past I’ve written and/or edited the forum’s interviews for the monthly featured artists.Where in fact, I was the featured artist one month…

Using Corel Painter as my brush and canvas is pure joy to me. I’m forever learning from others — teachers and fellow students and my forum-mates — all that I can absorb and practice. I love to share back what I’m learning, and so have written several tutorials, some of which are available in the forum and on my blog.

With brush and pen, I tell stories…

Stories are everywhere and can be found just by looking. Life happens when we are not conscious of it, but simply living it. As artists we write and paint the stories that we pull out of the casual snapshot – whether that snapshot is a photo or a piece of daily life.

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Thank-you Barb!  We are blessed to have you as a contributor to Digital Paint Magazine. To profiles of other digital artists you can visit the contributors page.

Corel Painter Tutorial by John Derry

Ok, so maybe it is not really a tutorial. It is a tad more than that. This is a live event delivered via webinar. John will be covering Corel Painter’s brush engine and show you how to customize your own brushes. This webinar is a primer, an introduction to brush customization. There are some fantastic brushes that will be featured in the webinar, you can see these brushes in action on the short video compiled below.

As a bonus John is going to throw in  a chance to win a lynda.com Painter 11: Mastering Brushes DVD (a $99 value). How cool is that?

Click to watch preview segment

The price listed is for a short time only. The video download and brushes will be selling for 35.00 after the live event is over. Even if you can not be on the call live register NOW,  each participant will be sent the download page for the video and the brushes. Sign up below now and save yourself $10.00.

Breaking NEWS! We only have 100 seats available for the live event. My account just renewed with Go to Webinar and the price for 500 lines went from 99 a month to 399 a month. Right. So as you can imagine I renewed at a lower level which is 100 lines. This will sell out.

Your $25.00 Webinar will include the following:

• Solid step by step instruction by John Derry
• Attendees will watch and listen to the webinar live
• A download of the video capture of the webinar
• Johns Brushes 2 Collection that will used as examples

Dont forget about the BONUS! A chance at winning a Lynda.com DVD by John titled, Painter 11: Mastering Brushes. The DVD sells for $99 and John is going to be giving one away  the during the webinar.

Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless Tablet hits the street!

I may be a tad behind the eight ball here but I didnt see the announcement until a few days ago. I think it was announced February 1st. I am so glad I have been putting off upgrading my beat-up and abused tablet.  I was salivating over the Intuos 4 when it came out but promised myself  I would wait until the next version. Yay!  The upgrade is here, the wireless 4 sports bluetooth tchnology.

While I truly am not techie I am diggin this. I can work up to thirty feet away without a tether.  How cool is that?  Now when teaching workshops one can cruise around with your tablet and still be projecting what you are doing.  it will be much easier to harass people.  he he he.

Go check out the link and find out all about it. It is only 399.00! A big whack for my budget but I was planning on spending almost that for the next version anyway. Check out Wacom wireless.

Wacom Intuos 4 wireless

Skip Allen self portrait

Digital Artist Skip Allen

Skip received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Pottery from the Memphis College of Art in 1968.  He was a studio potter for 3 decades and taught at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi for 21 years.  He is published in Ceramic Monthly and the Crafts Report and has been included in articles from House Beautiful, Mississippi Magazine and Studio Potter.

His connection with digital art started in 1984 when he got his first computer and began playing with graphics and desktop publishing as a hobby.  He started using CorelDraw in the late eighties, but didn’t discover Corel Painter until a couple of years ago.  “It was love at first sight,” Skip enthusiastically explains.  He has immersed himself in Painter ever sense.  He was a member of the Beta Team for Painter 11, which really helped him hone his knowledge of the software.

“I love to teach,” Skip remarks.  “I find that it is a wonderful sharing experience.”  Retired from pottery, Skip currently teaches several Painter 11 classes at the Digital Art Academy.