What's the future for Daily Painters?

Red Tulip #1
5" x 5" coloured pencil on HP paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Daily Painters website seems to be experiencing growing pains which may yet prove to be terminal. Here's a suggestion - how about developing it into a website and a group blog for artists who post a painting a day? Some of you may appreciate the irony of that question........

The original Daily Painters blog was for displaying daily paintings by people who ostensibly produced a painting a day. It 'mutated' as it grew and more people had more opinions about what it should be. A big debate was had with artists who painted on a daily basis but who did not produce a painting a day. Suddenly it was no longer a 'painting a day' blog.

Overall, a lot of people signed up to join and there are now a few hundred members. However only around 100 paintings get posted each day. So that's a lot of people who aren't posting on a daily basis.

What "Daily Painters" has now got is a complete mix of people who produce a painting a day (pretty much) and a range of others who don't. The latter includes daily (professional) painters, semi-professional painters and hobby artists. Nothing wrong with that - except to me it seems a bit confused. Artists with a range of talent and abilities producing work in pretty much every genre, format and media.

Current arrangements are set to change. An announcement in the associated Google Group last week indicates that the owner proposes that, after a date later this month, all members should be invoiced a monthly membership fee (described as a 'low' US$29 per month/US$348p.a) in order to be a member of the group and invest in its future.

I'm very puzzled by the overall business concept, strategy and financial plan behind Daily Painters. On the basis of the current proposition, it's difficult to see what makes the Daily Painters site distinctively different and worth the suggested payment. Its development to date suggests it won't be unlike a number of other sites in the near future. The current proposition is that membership should be limited - presumably to avoid looking like everybody else. However I'm none the wiser as to how and why the site will be different (and presumably much better given the size of the proposed payment) than a number of other sites.

Most new internet products which rely on others to get it off the ground, generally have a beta period during which time people contribute to the development. In return at a later date if fees become payable for the product the beta group of early adopters generally get a free ride - or at least a significantly discounted fee. Not surprisingly the apparent lack of recognition for early adopters is resulting in a number of people indicating that they will walk away once a fee starts being charged. This number may well include a lot of the better known members who have a significant following - mainly generated elsewhere - and sell well.

For what it's worth, here's my two pennorth on what might be the options for the future:

• the "Daily Painters" site continues pretty much 'as is' and current participants pay a very small monthly fee to the owner to cover the cost of hosting and a limited service re maintenance of site. There is no investment in SEO other than that which all members contribute on a co-operative basis. In other words, the site offers additional exposure but does not set out to be major income stream for the owner.
  
• A small group of professional painters - who paint on a daily basis - and/or 'popular' painters develop a new group with joint ownership of the new website and service. This group may then admit a small number of additional painters who meet whatever criteria they care to set (maybe eliminating the hobbyists?). Such a group would expect their followers to follow them to the new site. Except what's the angle? You want people to buy your work for serious prices but show them other people's work? If it's a proper gallery arrangement then the site and service should be primarily funded by commission and the work should only be shown on that site until removed from that site. That way everybody knows whether or not the site contributed to the sale. Such a site might well have the potential to offer a viable alternative to e-bay but it may also be very difficult to lure people's work away from established means of selling work. There would have to be some sort of cost advantage - in the short and the long run.
  
• The Daily Painters website begins to look like every other hobby painters site - except it has a much smaller number of members and a much lower number of hits. I'm not sure what the attraction would be for the owner - although participants might well value the better exposure that their work gets on a site with smaller numbers. However this could still produce lots of work for the owner and the financial model probably needs to be based on a listing fee.
  

Or back to where I started. How about a blog and an associated gallery website and Google Group for people who do actually produce a painting a day? This makes the site distinctive and automatically sets criteria for membership. Each member makes a commitment to place a minimum number of works for sale on the site each period - and pay an amount which is low enough to make the site an attractive place to post work.

I wonder..............

[Amended 05.02.06 to include links omitted in error yesterday]

Links:

• The Best Blog Project of 2006 Virtual Challenge Cup in Making a Mark: Blogging Art in 2006 - The Making a Mark Awards 30th December 2006
  
• Art Calendar and a Painting a Day 5th October 2006
• Making a Mark: The Daily Painters Blog 2nd October 2006

Technorati tags: art, art business, art marketing, daily painter, painting a day

Drawing a Head - 2nd February 2007

I tried using charcoal on coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper this week in drawing class - so I could use white to do the highlights. Of course, I then completely forgot to add the white charcoal and only noticed when I came to take the photograph. - so I added it in anyway! So all normal charcoal was done in class and then white charcoal was added htis morning (see below for both images).

I remembered exactly where it needed to go as I was making a point of leaving the areas which needed highlights free of charcoal!

For the last half hour I drew a slightly larger image of the model - but holding a four inch thin willow charcoal stick by the end. It makes it more difficult to control but funnily enough drawing quickly and holding the charcoal in this way means you make decisions about what you know to be the essential marks to make. Also drawing straight after spending some time on a drawing makes it much easier to do the second drawing.



(Note - the first two images were taken with flash - hence why you can see the colour of the paper)

Technorati tags: art, charcoal, drawing, drawing class, drawing people, portrait,

Introduction to the Van Gogh Project

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)

Harvest in Provence, 1888
Reed pen, quill, and ink over graphite on wove paper; 24 x 32 cm (9 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
(For more images of drawings by Van Gogh see the archive of the exhibition "Vincent Van gogh: the Drawings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's website www.metmuseum.org )

Fine Line Artists are continuing with our big project to study an artist each month during 2007. The artist chosen for February is Van Gogh and, as Van Gogh had a passion for drawing throughout his artistic career, I'm going to be focusing in particular on his drawings.

I've already got the book by Sjraar Van Heugten "Van Gogh - The Master Draughtsman" published by Thames and Hudson. It's linked to the exhibitions of his drawings held in 2005 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

The exhibition and the book comprise a survey of his works on paper and his approach to drawing and provides insights into how his drawings developed over time, both in their own right and as preparation for paintings. I've provided some links below - including ones to the comprehensive website of images compiled by David Brooks.

To see what other Fine Line Artists are doing go to their blog posts about the project (I'll update this list as people post):

• Maggie Stiefvater
  
• Wendy Prior
• Nicole Caulfield
• Gayle Mason
  

As before if you'd like to join in then just let one of us know by inviting us to view your blog and your project post.

Right - here's the edited highlights so far (and VG is Van Gogh) based on my reading of Sjraar Van Heugten's excellent book:

• VG would never have been an artist if his brother hadn't suggested it - after several failures at other occupations / jobs.
• He focused almost entirely on drawing at the beginning of his artistic career - and drawing became and always remained a passion
• His work may suggest he was a spontaneous artist, who worked intuitively and was averse to rigid rules and thorough preparation. However study of his approach to his works and drawing reveals this is not the case at all. He always worked in an organised and systematic way and never ever stopped studying art seriously. Which may surprise a few people!
• He didn't start drawing until 1180 when he was 28. In relation to drawing:
  
• He didn't have a tutor and had to learn from textbooks and basically master techniques through trial and error.
• The manual he particularly liked was Armand Cassagne's A Practical Guide to Applied Perspective in Art and Industrial Drawing. You can find an e-book version of the New Extended Edition, Paris, published (in French) by Fourat and Son in Paris in 1884 here.
• He designed a study programme for himself which included following the contemporary approach of most art courses (then) of copying examples of drawing and other graphic works by well know masters.
  
• He admired social-realist art - portraying things the way they really were - but had a tendency to portray people in an awkward rigid way.
  
• He liked motifs from nature and was influenced by Millet who VG regarded as his spiritual and artistic guide.
  
• VG produced some extraordinary drawings of the Provencal landscape using a reed pen
  

For the next post, I'll continue with what else I've found out and what sort of project work I'm planning for February.

Links:

• Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
• Vincent Van Gogh - the Drawings (exhibition archive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
  
• Vincent Van Gogh Drawings - a catalogue
• The Vincent Van Gogh Gallery - all images collated by David Brooks
• Vincent Van Gogh - Paintings: An Overview
• Armand Cassagne "A Practical Guide to Applied Perspective in Art and Industrial Drawing"

Technorati tags: art , drawing , Vincent Van Gogh

A Bunch of Beets

A Bunch of Beets
10" x 12" pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

And now we have the still life bought on the supermarket trip. Or we would if I wasn't getting a Blogger error every time I try to upload an image. So I thought I'd post "IMAGE NOT UPLOADING DUE TO GOOGLE / BLOGGER ERROR" in place of the image and see what happens! ;) [Update - took about an hour os but I can now upload images. memo to self -try that one again next time I have problems posting images!]

I'm going to try a number of simpler drawings - more developed than the sketches in my sketchbook and not as developed as some drawings. They will involve drawing in pen and ink first and then using coloured pencil afterwards. This is the first drawing using this appproach. And I enjoyed drawing the beets so much I'm going to do them again I think!

Technorati tags: art, colored pencils, coloured pencils, drawing, still life

Canary Wharf Sky 31st January 2007

Canary Wharf Sky from Greenwich 31st January 2007
8" x 10" pencil and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Otherwise known as the supermarket shop can wait! I'd put off the big supermarket shop for as long as I could - but had a spot more procrastination while sketching about 50 feet to the right of the Prime Meridian (which put me into the Eastern Hemisphere!) at the top of Greenwich Hill and next to the Old Royal Observatory, the home of Greenwich Mean Time.

I'd wrapped up well but it was still very cold and I need to remember to bring something to sit on as cold stone is very, very cold!

As I commented earlier in the blog, the Canary Wharf Sky series will mostly be small works of the skies I can see above Canary Wharf from my home but that it would also include some larger works. I'm minded to do some very large drawings from where I sat yesterday of the view. Maybe on a regular basis throughout the year? Maybe once a month?

It was very odd doing the sky and the buildings but from another perspective. I also noticed that the very blue bit of sky was very high - like a strip across the sketch - just like we all used to draw sky when we were little. Also that many of the higher buildings were in an aqua glass material which made them much less intrusive - which I'd never really thought about before.

This sketch shows both sides of the River Thames. Nearest to me is the large green space at the bottom of the hill in Greenwich Park. On the far left (in shadow) is the National Maritime Museum which is the largest maritime museum in the world - very good for keeping small boys, dads and granddads occupied! Then the pale stone building is the Old Royal Naval College next to the River. This is where I sketched the skaters on the ice rink that I sketched on Boxing Day.

Beyond that is the River Thames - which you can see between the towers of the naval college. On the other side of the Thames is the Isle of Dogs and the East End of London - which is where many of the docks used to be. The skyscrapers are built along side the wharves in the Canary Wharf Area. In the far background are the hills of north London. Off the page to the left the Thames continues into the city of London and the West End and to the right is the Millennium Dome - and my eco-friendly supermarket - a "bastion of scientific innovation".

Note: If any of you have kids or grandkids and they like stars, astronomy or are interested in time get them to check out the Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum websites - they're rather good. You don't get "How to make your own comet" on every website you visit! Plus there's a good set of e-learning resources for the different key stages. and some games, quizzes and art activities.

Links:

• How to get to Greenwich Heritage Sites
• Old Royal Observatory, Greenwich
  
• National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
  
• Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
• Making a Mark: Canary Wharf Sky series

sketchbook,