Making A Mark still in Top 10 Art Blogs

I recently found out that Making A Mark is still in the top 10 of a list of art blogs from all over the world

Specifically they are #5 in the 60 Best UK Art Blogs and#10 in the 100 Top Art Blogs according to Feedspot. 

Not quite sure how they work out the rankings either and not quite sure how this happened but I'm happy that it did. 

Although I was #5 in the Vuelio's Art Blogs UK Top 10 in 2022

60 Best UK Art Blogs - according to Feedspot

The best UK Art blogs curated and ranked based on multiple factors, including content relevancy, subject expertise, posting frequency, and freshness of content. Blogs with highest credibility within the UK Art space are ranked higher. This list is updated regularly to ensure it reflects the most active, influential, and valuable UK Art blogs on the internet today.

In the 60 Best UK Art Blogs to Follow in 2026, Making A Mark ranks 5th!

5. Making a Mark

+ Follow Blog
Description A top art blog for artists and art lovers: news about major art competitions and exhibitions, interviews with artists, techniques and tips for art and business
Email ****@gmail.com
Location London, England, United Kingdom
Facebook 12.5KTwitter 3K Domain Authority 46

100 Best Art Blogs- according to Feedspot

The same principles apply in relation to how different sites rank within the 100 Best Art Blogs to Follow in 2026 - where Making A Mark is ranked 10th.

10. Making a Mark 

+ Follow Blog
Description A top art blog for artists and art lovers: news about major art competitions and exhibitions, interviews with artists, techniques and tips for art and business
Email ****@gmail.com
Facebook 12.5KTwitter 3K Domain Authority 46

This is despite a reduced level of posting in recent times due to the facts that:

• I got to 70 and decided if I was ever to retire I needed to make more time for me. This is despite the fact I took early retirement (knowing that severe osteoarthritis was a racing certainty for me) back in 2005 and started this blog a few months later
• I now need to walk a decent amount every single day to stop me from seizing up. I average between 5,000-6,000 steps
• Periodically I have to get ready for and recover from surgery. Like I said I always knew osteoarthritis was in my future. I didn't quite factor in the time needed for surgery!
• Not to mention other health hiccups. I was told I need an urgent MRI this morning! They're going to see if they can fit it in before surgery next month.

Although I do fewer posts now I do seem to get better audiences for the ones I do.

For the record, other art blogs "from the old days" also ranked as follows in all Art Blogs

1. Artsy

3. ARTnews

13. Artwork Archive Blog

14. Jackson's Art Blog

16. Artnet

23. Lines and Colors

24. Parka Blogs

26. Gurney Journey

38. Art Biz Blog

39. Art Marketing News Blog

40. Xanadu Gallery - Red Dot Blog

41. Artsy Shark

Note: I do find these inventories of blogs to be very useful. If you look at the Feedspot Instagram, you can see all the other categories which are ranked.

20 years of Making A Mark

Making A Mark has now been published for 20 years. 

I meant to highlight the big birthday at the beginning of January - and then forgot!  I think I'm one of a very few art bloggers left from the art blogging explosion of c.20 years ago. (I must do a blog post about who's left!)

I was three months into early retirement in January 2006 when I started this blog as a way of recording what I was trying to do in terms of getting back to my art after a fairly intensive career in government and management consultancy which hadn't left a lot of time for anything else. (If you want to know more about me, try this page!)

I trialled it in December and then went public at the beginning of January.

What it turned into over time was a platform with a very strong emphasis on trying to help other artists with their own art and an educational slant. 

If you are a regular reader I hope you've had some benefit.

Incidentally, there's been a few side effects 

• I now know an absolutely phenomenal number of artists from across the UK - and across the world.  As you can see from the stats below I have a very global following. 
• Some I only know online. Many I have actually met. Unfortunately, I've got to that age where I know the face if I've met you before but the name only comes along about two minutes later! 
• One of the very weird side effects of all this is that complete strangers now come up to me in the middle of central London and say "You're Making A Mark!!". The first time it happened I was crossing Trafalgar Square!

What follows are 

• some edited highlights about how the blog progressed in the last 20 years - and
• what Google AI has to say about it. (That was really interesting!)
• I also added in some PICS and links to the latter so you can get a flavour of what the archives hold

Plus here are some stats:

• there are now 4,720 published blog posts!  That's an average of 236 blog posts a year or an average of 0.65 blog posts a day for the whole 20 years!
• nearly 27 MILLION pageviews - which averages out at more than a 1 million pageviews a year
• over 6.5 MILLION visitors - a lot of you kept coming back for some reason!
• Plus this blog has been no 1 on Google for the words "Making A Mark" for very many years

Making A Mark Statistics as at 31st January 2026

 

2006-2011

The first 5 years were spent 

• writing a blog post every single day - I kid you not. Check out the numbers on the months on the blog archive in the right hand columns
• doing major projects each year - and then blogging about them
• starting and then developing "Who's made a mark this week?" which highlighted the activities of other artists which generated a lot of engagement and followers - but fell by the wayside when others switched to instagram and stopped long form blogging
• writing about major exhibitions and art competitions n London. I'd worked out how to get into the press views because my blog was doing so well

By January 2011 I wrote Making A Mark achieves #2 in Top Ten Blogs of 2010!

This is what Google AI had to say about 2010

Based on the archives of the Making A Mark blog, the most significant and engaging content in 2010 revolved around the annual art blog awards and in-depth reviews of art books, particularly regarding colored pencils and watercolours. 

• Top 10 Art Books Series (2010): Katherine Tyrrell's specialized posts, such as "Top Ten Art Books in October," were major, highly interactive, and resource-heavy posts for the blog.
• Making A Mark Awards 2010: A major, popular series at the end of the year included the nomination and voting posts, such as "Nominate the Best Art (Place/Landscape) on a Blog in 2010" and "Best Picture of 2010 on an Art Blog".
• Art Competition Coverage: Throughout 2010, posts analyzing major competitions, such as the BP Portrait Award 2010 (noting a record number of entries), were highly read; specifically "BP Portrait Award 2010 - Shortlist announced," was also a significant, high-traffic topic in April 2010
• In 2010, the Making A Mark blog was recognized for its high-quality, research-based content, achieving the #2 spot in top ten art blogs.

This is the link to my Best Books label - for those who like reading about art books. 

Making A Mark Awards 2010: Here's what happened at the end of the Year

• Best Picture of 2010 on an Art Blog
• The Making A Mark Awards (Part 4 - The Home Front)
• The Making A Mark Awards 2010 (Part 3 - Generating Art)
• The Making A Mark Awards 2010 (Part 2 - Learning about Art and the Art Business)
• The Making A Mark Awards 2010 (Part 1 - Getting Out of the Studio)

2011-2015

The 10 Most popular posts in the first million visits (Part 1)

One of the assets of this blog - which started 20 years ago - is there is a very considerable archive of past posts - some of which have been very popular indeed. 

I've just come across a post which highlights what were the 10 most popular posts in 2011 - after the first five years of Making A Mark. 

During this period I did regular "big projects" on specific topics - and these are reflected in the most popular posts

Below are the top five posts - with the links to each blog post embedded in its title.

Tomorrow I'll list the next 5 posts in the top 10

I've extracted a short piece of text and an image from each one - so you can get an insight as to what the post is about.

CAUTION: Given the age of the posts some of the links embedded in the post will no longer work as websites have died and been wound up.

1. 10 Tips for How to Sketch People

Drawing and sketching people is an invaluable way of developing a wide range of artistic skills.

I've been drawing people for very many years - family, friends, people in cafes and restaurants, life class models - and other artists. People often tell me how much they like the sketches I make of people I come across on my travels with a sketchbook - which I find a bit odd as most rarely have faces!

Cheers Boston!
(sketching fellow travellers at Logan Airport, Boston, USA September 2006)
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

2. Van Gogh: Drawing media and techniques

Drawing Media:

• Pencil: He employed pencil for preliminary drawings and then combined it with ink. He often worked with a carpenter's pencil. He liked to press hard and often worked on wet paper.
• Pen and ink: Van Gogh had a remarkable gift for pen drawing and graphic technique.
• Most of Van Gogh's pen and ink and brush drawings (such as the one above) are executed first in pencil first. He then inks/bruhes over the pencil marks once he is happy with them.
• some of his pen and ink drawings are drawn without any preliminary use of pencil
• During his visit to Arles in 1888, Van Gogh discovered the reed pen (made from local hollow-barreled grass, sharpened with a penknife). It changed his drawing style. He created some extraordinary drawings of the Provençal landscape, including a series of drawings of and from Montmajour (east of Arles) , in reed pen and aniline ink on laid paper. The ink has now faded to a dull brown.
• The Van Gogh Museum is conducting research into pigments and drawing inks in use in the period 1888-1890 and comparing this to the inks Van Gogh used [UPDATE: See the Research Results REVIGO: Paintings - which also comments on inks]

Trees with ivy in the asylum garden, 1889
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, May-June 1889
pencil, reed pen and brush and ink, on paper, 61.8 cm x 47.1 cm
Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

3. Composition - Principles of Design

This post forms part of an introduction to the elements and principles of composition and design and follows on from yesterday's post about the elements of design. 

It's an overview. More can be written about each and every principle - and has been!

• Good composition doesn't happen by accident. A quick reminder. The analogy which I find helpful for remembering which is which is to compare the elements and principles of art and design to the ingredients and method of a recipe. Cookery and composition have quite a lot in common!
• All the elements are ingredients - they are separate and need to be combined effectively to produce a successful outcome. Each ingredient gets to play a major or a minor role in the eventual outcome. This, in part, is dependent on the quantities employed and, in part, on the nature and intrinsic power of each ingredient (think garlic and chilis!).
• It's the particular way that they they are combined - using the principles of design - which enables a successful outcome. The same ingredients can for example be combined in a number of different ways (think of recipes for eggs!)

24 Million Pageviews for Making A Mark

I've been writing this blog for very nearly 20 years having started after I took early retirement. 

In December 2005 I started to work out how it all worked with four posts. This was the second 

from Two of my favourite occupations

and  as you can see I hadn't yet mastered how to get a graphite drawing not look overly grey!

Red Onion
from Working Smaller

I then went public at the beginning of January 2006 with these first three posts

• Catnapping
• Links to artist weblogs and websites
• Comments policy

and started to focus on producing small works, thinking I might eventually sell them....

I'm used to Blogger which is why I stick with it - and its archive (see below) although I have been tempted by Substack.

I have a 71st birthday coming up soon and I now write an awful lot less than I did in that first year when I aimed for a post each day and actually wrote 348 blog posts. 

Basically osteoarthritis limits gadding about now but also requires regular longish walks - which in turn limits time for blogging. However I now aim to do as much gadding about as I can before I creak too much - and have had a wonderful hot summer visiting various gardens across London and the southeast! So blogging comes second to filling my eyes with things I like to see - whether it's art exhibitions or plants, gardens and walks.

You can read any of my past posts by browsing the blog archive (see links below and in the side column in the desktop/tablet view) - which probably helps explain how come I've now had 24 million pageviews for Making A Mark!!! i.e. more than a million pageviews a year for every year this blog has been published!

Many posts are what might be called "perennials" and worth a second or third look! People have been known to get lost in my archives for hours at a time.....

Browse the Blog Archive

• ►  2025 (78)

• ►  2024 (113)

• ►  2023 (154)

• ►  2022 (151)

• ►  2021 (179)

• ►  2020 (212)

• ►  2019 (174)

• ►  2018 (205)

• ►  2017 (191)

• ►  2016 (180)

• ►  2015 (217)

• ►  2014 (221)

• ►  2013 (274)

• ►  2012 (304)

• ►  2011 (288)

• ►  2010 (307)

• ►  2009 (310)

• ►  2008 (357)

• ►  2007 (392)

• ►  2006 (348)

• ▼  2005 (4)

A comprehensive look at Turner - all my blog posts

This is the blog post I should have done yesterday - on the 250th anniversary of the birth Joseph William Mallord Turner on 23 April April 1775 in Maiden Lane in Covent Garden #turner250

Below is a list of all my blog posts about some aspect of Turner since I started writing this blog. They all include images of various works by Turner - and some even include my versions

Many of you will never have seen or read them.

However, beware the links to pages relating to the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain. They revamped their website - without bothering to do any 301 commands to take people from old URLs to new URLs. In part bebcause they've dumped a lot of their content relating to Turner which used to be on the website - which is a very great shame.

Turner on Making A Mark (2007-2025)

A drawing by JMW Turner
On the Washburn, under Folly Hall
British Museum

2007

• Turner Watercolours with Hockney and Shirley

2008

• Tonight Matthew I'm going to be JMW Turner..... includes one of my sketches of Turner paintings

A study of Turner's snowstorm seascape
coloured pencil on Arches HP, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

2010

• Exhibition review: Turner and the Masters at Tate Britain
• Talk and Draw at the National Gallery

The Fighting Temeraire (1839)

oil on canvas, 90.7 x 121.6 cm

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Turner Bequest 1856

2011

• Review: 'Watercolour' exhibition at Tate Britain
• Turner finished my sketchbook

2012

• A Picture of London

"The burning of the Houses of Parliament" by JMW Turner

2013

• 25th November 2013 - Who's made a mark this week? - featuring Turner and the Sea - a major exhibition of marine paintings which opened at the National Maritime Museum.

2014

• Royal Academy Videos: how we made Mr. Turner
• "Mr Turner" - a new film about JMW Turner

2015

• J.M.W. Turner's House in Twickenham - open today!
• Review of Ruskin's Turners at the Fitzwilliam Museum

Brunnen, Lake Lucerne in the distance c.1841-3,
J.M.W Turner (1775-1851).
watercolour over graphite, with pen, brown and black ink on paper
(touches of watercolour, verso, from next page)
height, 225, mm; width, 290, mm
Image: copyright Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

2016

• Art History: JMW Turner and the Industrial Revolution

Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway
Location: Maidenhead Railway Bridge looking east,
across the River Thames​ between Taplow and Maidenhead
The bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and completed in 1838. 
Exhibited: Royal Academy in 1844
Collection: National Gallery

2018

• Visit the Prints and Drawings Room at Tate Britain

2019

• JMW Turner's Travelling Watercolour Paints

Watercolour palette owned by J.M.W. Turner, R.A.
175 mm x 148 mm x 4 mm

2020 

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), The Doge's Palace and Piazzetta, Venice, c.1840.
Image © National Gallery of Ireland

• J.M.W Turner and The Vaughan Bequest
• British Museum: Prints and Drawings - The Solution! - how to see some of his drawings and watercolours up close

2023

• Unseen Turner and Bonington watercolours now on display at the Wallace Collection

2025

• The Turner Prize Shortlist 2025 begs a question

Where you can see Turner's artwork

The Turner Society maintains a list of all the larger collections in public museums and galleries throughout the world, has a magazine and various events, walks, visits related to Turner. 

You can become a member of the Turner Society.

Lest we forget: Karin Jurick

There's just a few artists who are highlighted in my calendar - to remember the anniversary of their death. Karin Jurick is one such.

Karin Jurick died three years ago on the 16th June 2021 age 60.  It was a very big shock - we'd known each other for about 14 years and I still miss her.

While we were not close friends - she lived in Georgia in the US and I live in London - she was very much a blogging chum. She and I started blogging more or less at the same time. I followed her and she followed me and we built our followings together. We were both fans of each other's blogs and we conversed via email from time to time - when time allowed! Like very many people all over the world I used to follow all her blog posts and paintings - particularly those of artists with paintings in galleries - which you can still see on her blog.

She was also a regular featured artist in my annual Making A Mark Awards (see below) - as I adored her paintings of people with paintings.

I can do no better than refer you to the blog post I wrote back in June after I found out about her death About Karin Jurick (d. 2021)

These are links to Karin Jurick and her artwork

• https://karinjurick.blogspot.com/
• https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/atlanta/name/karin-jurick-obituary?id=20696548
• https://www.invaluable.com/artist/jurick-karin-pe3a96j8r6/sold-at-auction-prices/
• https://www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/karin-jurick-1074

20 million pageviews!!

Making A Mark has finally achieved 20 million pageviews - as counted by Blogger!

It also recently made it to six million unique visits as well.

125k+ Visitors from all over the world in the last 6 months

I feel so silly though as I knew it was coming up - but took my eye off the ball so I don't know when it happened but it was in the last few days!

Despite me writing a lot less now (only 106 posts so far this year!) - for reasons I explained in my last post - it's still generating a lot of visits from all over the world - and most stick around and take a longer look at what else can be found on the blog.

Below are tips for how to get people to visit and to keep coming back....

Making A Mark - the story so far

Blogger hasn't quite adjusted to blogs being as old as mine. This is the chart on the stats page

The story since 2011 (when it was already 5 years old) - when it achieved 1 million visits

Previous posts on this topic include:

• Making a Mark is 17 years old. What next? (January 5th 2023) - in which I look back at how the blog has progressed and where people come from
• After 17 million pageviews!!! (May 15th 2021) - when I noted that Making A Mark was averaging over 1 million pageviews each year
• Making A Mark achieves 5 MILLION visits! (January 15th 2020)
• 10 Years of Making A Mark (January 1 2016)
• Making A Mark achieves 2.5 million visits (March 13th 2014)
• Making A Mark notches up 5 million Pageviews! (January 17th, 2014)
• Making A Mark notches up 1 million visits. (April 2011) - It took five years to get the millionth visitor in April 2011
• Exploring Web Analytics #1 - about why I use statistics to develop my blog.

I included a tip for how to get visits and visitors who want to look around once they arrive in 11 tips for how to get 1 million website visitors quickly

The 11 Tips (explained in the post) were:

1. Make your website very focused
2. Make every webpage very specific - make it a niche within a niche
3. Make every title very specific in terms of its topic
4. Provide a short summary of what each page contains at the top.
5. Make navigation very easy
6. Have a plan for how your website will develop
7. Use statistics to guide development
8. People look at images and read words - but really they scan both!
9. Write about what you know
10. Refresh and update a website regularly (use a blog)
11. Do link to relevant other websites - and encourage them to link back

Blog posts to date

The Archive tells me that the pattern looks like this - with over 4,400 published blog posts to date.

• ►  2023 (106)

• ►  2022 (151)

• ►  2021 (179)

• ►  2020 (212)

• ►  2019 (174)

• ►  2018 (205)

• ►  2017 (191)

• ►  2016 (180)

• ►  2015 (217)

• ►  2014 (221)

• ►  2013 (274)

• ►  2012 (304)

• ►  2011 (288)

• ►  2010 (307)

• ►  2009 (310)

• ►  2008 (357)

• ►  2007 (392)

• ►  2006 (348)

I started out writing virtually every day - for three years.

Then started having one day a week off. I producing around about 300 posts each year or very nearly 6 blog posts a week. This continued (apart from when I was on holiday) until I started to write my book in 2014.