How to Navigate Instagram and Find Customers to Sell Your Art

And Kiri Leonard has a post on 5 Illustrators to Follow on Instagram. I shared five to follow in the comments, but here are another five:

Every Day Original – http://instagram.com/everydayorig

Kelly McKernan – http://instagram.com/kelly_mckernan

Kimberly Kincaid – http://instagram.com/kimberlykincaid75

Winona Nelson – http://instagram.com/winonanelsonart

Scott Murphy – http://instagram.com/nocturnalghoul

A Peek at my Instagram feed…

The post Are you on Instagram? appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

The Story

When you seek out the Bone Oracle never do so empty-handed.

The Bone Oracle is a magical creature you do not want to double-cross. If you happen upon one you might at first mistake her for a beautiful woman, but bloodline hails from the harpies of legend. She spends most her time in caves, only venturing out at night to feed. While a Bone Oracle is not a creature you should seek out, there are those that do, for her powers of prediction. Her gift of sight is renowned but she will only reveal what she knows when the proper gift is presented. Bones.

If you backed my Kickstarter or bought a sketchbook in my shop, then you’ve seen the first quick sketch I did for the Bone Oracle. In the last week I’ve begun to revisit this idea with the start of a new drawing.

My plan is to complete the drawing, scan it and then decide if I want to zoom back in on the face and skull or create a painting based off the entire drawing. Decisions… Once finished the drawing will be for sale in my shop. I expect to finish it in the new couple weeks. I’m working on it during my free time–my work time is being devoted to a book cover commission. If you want to watch the drawing progress, follow me on Instagram!

The post Work in Progress: The Bone Oracle appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

Signed and numbered copies of Daydreams and Wanderings are now available to purchase from my shop. Also, if you happen to be a fan of my Facebook page, there’s a coupon for folks who have Liked the page inside the Store tab in the menu. The coupon is good for anything in my shop.

http://makepeaceart.storenvy.com/

The post The Kickstarter Sketches appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

See the Full Gallery and Prices

Since these artworks are completed, using them for your book cover is more affordable than commissioning a custom painting. I have a fee for just the image or the image plus layout/design (I’ll crop the piece, add your title and name). If you only plan to publishing an ebook, the fee is less than the digital and print option. You can see a full breakdown, including information on personal art commissions, in my 2015 Price Sheet.

I’m working on a contract now, that when you sign, you will agree to only use the image for a specific book. I will still retain rights to print the art, exhibit the art, etc. but the artwork won’t be available to use on any other books. Artworks in the gallery (check out the full gallery) will be marked Available or UnAvailable. I expect to add a new piece every 2 months, but no guarantees!

The post Art, Licensing, Contracts and Whatnot appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

Harbinger – a person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another. But who is approaching, or what? I suppose only time will tell. In the meantime, you can expect to see more small drawings and the occasional larger piece. I would love to be working on the new series of paintings swirling around in my head, but I’m focused on commission work for the moment. Commissions are an important source of funds for me and I love the projects I’m involved in too! Little side projects like this one help keep my motivation steady and my creativity charged.

I’ve also been using the opportunity to test different drawing pencils. Derwent has been my go to pencil for several years. They are affordable and I’ve always been pleased with the quality but I’ve also always known there are better quality options–superior pencils.

For Harbinger I used Koh-I-Nor’s Toison D’or pencils. They are a bit harder than Derwent pencils. Their HB feels more like an H to me, so I started off with the Derwent HB and the moved onto to using the Toison D’or 4B and 6B (which felt more like a 2B and a 4B for Derwent).

Next I’ll be testing Tombow Mono pencils. I’ve already given them a short whirl, but I want to see how they feel creating a full graphite piece like Harbinger.

The post Harbinger appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

1. Have a fan base. Seriously. It’s going to be that fan base that shares your campaign on their social media accounts. This is incredibly important. I’m certain if I had tried to run my campaign a year ago, it probably would have failed. What changed in a year? I was in the DragonCon Art Show.

2. Look at other campaigns, both successful and unsuccessful. I browsed and took notes for various art kickstarters and specifically those campaigns for sketchbooks. I looked at the type of rewards they offered, prices, and how they structured their descriptions. You can learn a lot this way!

3. Videos are important–more than you may think. The Youtube culture has exploded in the last few years. It’s taken a while for it to grow on me. I must be getting old! Everything I’d read reiterated how important it was to have a Kickstarter video. So I researched the videos of successful campaigns and 90% of the time those videos included either the artist talking in the background or the artist in the video. It needs to be personal. Backers are giving you their money, they are putting their trust in you and your product.

A lot of folks watched my video. This may not be a phenomenal number, but it’s more than I imagined.

3. Quality graphics to show off your rewards. People want to see what they’re going to get if they support your campaign. Take the time to create the graphics. You can then use them in your social media promotion too.

4. A complete profile, with links to your website and social media. This might seem like common sense, but I’ve seen more than a few campaigns with no link to a website. Or their link goes to a Facebook page that hasn’t been updated in over a month. That’s not a good way to make an impression.

5. Read the entire Creator Handbook and then also read the FAQ pages and the Rules. Read everything Kickstarter makes available to you. They have specific rules but they also give you an enormous amount of information to help you build your campaign.

6. Pre-promotion. You have to start talking about it online months beforehand. I probably could have done a bit more of this. Share teaser images, talk about your rewards, anything to start peaking the interest of your fans and their friends.

7. Think about your fans when it comes time to schedule your campaign. December might not be the best month to run a Kickstarter. It’s a holiday season for several religions. Even November might be risky if people are beginning to buy gifts for December.

8. Don’t underestimate your goal. You need to know in advance how much it’s going to cost to ship your rewards. Either add shipping to your goal or add it to the rewards. I chose to include US shipping in my goal and add a flat rate shipping fee for intentional backers.

9. Promotion during the campaign–to the point you fear people will starting ignoring you. Truly, you need to share your campaign every day. Work out a schedule and make sure you’re not posting about it at the same time. It doesn’t hurt to ask other artists to share your campaign too.

10. Keep your backers updated! During the campaign you need their support more than ever. I recommend composing an update once a week to let backers now how the campaign is proceeding, to remind them to share with their friends, and for making announcements (stretch goals, new rewards, etc.). But don’t let it end there. If you’re campaign is successful then it’s even more important to let your backers now how things are progressing, so they know without a doubt you are holding up your end the agreement. I had a lot of fun sharing the arrival of my sketchbook with my backers. They made my book possible!

The post My 10 Kickstarter Tips appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

Also available…

+ Limited Edition Prints of Renascentia are now available. Only 25 prints are in this run.

+ There’s a new section for Art Show prints. These are only available while supplies last.

Coming Soon…

+ I’ll be adding a selection of 12×12 inch open edition mandala prints this week!

http://makepeaceart.storenvy.com/

The post Prints, Originals and Pre-Orders are 20% Off appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

It’s not a good feeling.

You might try to reason that you’re not selling their image, only using it for a profile image, but you still took someones creation without asking and without giving them credit. I probably won’t bother with contacting this website to have them remove my art. I’d rather just focus on making art and selling it those who will buy it and cherish it. If I felt they were making a profit off my art, then we might have a problem. An artist has to choose their battles wisely… In fact, I probably wouldn’t mind if a fan wanted to use this owl painting as an avatar, but I’d hope they would ask me. The website linked above doesn’t give credit to any of the artists.

But YOU have the choice to think before you use an image you find online. You should ask yourself:

Who created this image?

Would they mind if I used it for an avatar or blog post?

Is this image copyrighted?

If you’re not sure who owns an image you can use Google to perform a reverse image search. I use this tool occasionally see if anyone has stolen my art, like the avatar website above. Sometimes I find instances where I’m inclined to contact the thief and ask them to stop using my image. Other times I feel a small punch to the gut but then I keep going. I can’t stop people from stealing my art, but I can educate them. So please, think before you use an image!

The post Think Before you Use appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

From an art/business perspective, it was also a great opportunity to meet other artists. I was happy to be given a second chance to meet Sam Flegal. I meant to introduce myself at Dragon Con, but that was my first convention art show, so yeah, that didn’t happen. I also met Michael and Paul Bielaczyc, Ariel Burgess, Amy Romanczuk, Edsel Arnold, and of course my con roomie Melissa Gay!

I also met Todd Lockwood–the Artist Guest of Honor. But of course, we didn’t meet in the usual way. That would have been too easy. The introvert in me has a hard time approaching people I admire. Who doesn’t admire Todd Lockwood? He’s an incredible artist who’s had a very successful career in illustration. When I have the opportunity to meet someone like this, I tend to worry that I’ll be wasting their time. I don’t want to be rude and I don’t want to hover over them. So how did I meet him?

Saturday evening I entered the MTG Draft in the Game Pavilion. I’d just begun playing my first opponent when April Moore, one of the co-directors of the Art Show, found me. She wanted me to know in advance Todd Lockwood had chosen my painting Renascentia for the Judges’ Choice Award.

I cried. I was utterly blown away. April made sure I was indeed showing up to the dance party after my game and then she was gone, in a flash.

Anyone would be over the moon winning an award like this one. But for me, this came at a moment in my creative journey when I needed it most. Even without the recognition, I would have pushed forward, but there was a bit of resistance behind-the-scenes with this painting. There was a day I thought about giving up, but I felt so strongly about its worth and my vision that I was determined to stand by my creation. I was convinced there was something powerful here. I even put the sketch for Renascentia on the cover of my soon to be printed sketchbook, Daydreams and Wanderings. To have someone like Lockwood see it in the same way I do and comment on the same choices I made in its creation was such a positive affirmation. This is a moment I will never forget! It also reaffirms my decision to focus on this new direction and see where it takes me.

I’m rambling. I just can’t help it!! So back to my story of meeting Todd Lockwood…

I beat my first opponent at the Magic Draft but the second walloped me good. I packed up my cards, dropped them off in my room, and headed to the Two Rivers Hoe Down. First, JordanCon knows how to party. Wow… It didn’t take long for April to spot me wandering around lost. She pulled me over to Todd Lockwood, informed him of who I was and the excitement on his face was palpable. He talked about why he chose my painting, there were toasts, there were hugs and…there was dancing. Oh yes…. I don’t dance and from what Todd told me, neither does he. But we were both out there on the dance floor. I’m actually a little nervous there may be photos of us… Let’s just try not to think about it!

It was a night I will never forget. It was a weekend I will never forget.

What did I learn at JordanCon?

1. Everyone at JordanCon is awesome. Everyone.

2. I should invest in a black or grey cloth for my gallery space. It looks so professional!

3. I need to triple check everything before I drive off to Atlanta. I did leave a painting behind.

4. I should have brought more matted prints and priced them a bit differently. JordanCon is not DragonCon. I did sell one “original” from my gallery–the 1/1 mounted print of Fire and Ice. And I sold several prints from the Print Shop, but that was it. Obviously, I’m not too concerned about this since I won the Judges’ Choice Award! But it’s something to keep in mind for next year and there will be a next year! Next year I will probably bring my two best originals and a slew of matted prints for my gallery space.

Also, I received soooo many compliments on my Fire and Ice mandala. Many of you are familiar with my mandalas. I don’t keep them in my main portfolio and this was the first time I tried selling one in an Art Show. The response I received was encouraging! Chances are I will bring another next year.

For those of you that couldn’t make it to JordanCon 7, I will be adding my unsold prints to my shop this week.

The post JordanCon 2015 Memories appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.

I will be selling originals and limited edition matted prints in the Art Show. This year’s is also the start of their first Print Shop. I will have a selection of prints available, but supplies are very limited. There will be only 5 prints per title, so folks will have to be quick!

This year’s Artist Guest of Honor is Todd Lockwood!! This is going to be such an incredible Art Show. The programming too is top notch. I’ll be attending several panels, both art show related and fiction related. If you see me, come say hi! Here’s a peek:

Here’s a rundown of all the Art Show – Programming at JordanCon 7. I’m also putting together an album on my Facebook page with the art I’m bringing for the Art Show and Print Shop: JordanCon Art Album.

The post JordanCon Art Show appeared first on Fantasy Art & Illustration by Amanda Makepeace.