How to ship your art safely without breaking the bank I was recently talking to one of our fellow community members (the always awesome Toni DeBiasi) and she was telling me about how difficult it was to find good information online on how to ship art safely to customers without having to spend a ton of […]
This is the fourth book in an ongoing series where we talk about some of our favorite books that deal with art and the creative process. These books were chosen because they have significantly changed my own perspective as a writer and as a human being I believe these books will benefit any type of […]
Hold on… Before you start firing up the torches and sharpening your pitchforks — hear me out. Since you’re here at a site called Skinny Artist, I’m going to assume that you’re either a fan of the creative arts, or you simply ended up here by way of a misguided Google search for diet pills. Look, […]
You know we love this stuff! Those of you who have been around the Skinny Artist community for awhile know that we like to do whatever we can to encourage artists to follow their dreams and find a way to live their art every day. We love to share images, quotes, and writings that inspire […]
Tweak! Tweak! Tweak! No that’s not the sound of some deranged bird, it’s a creative perfectionist who just doesn’t know when to stop. Just one more… How many times have you said something like this to yourself? “Just one more edit.” “Just one more color.” “Just one more layer.” “Just one more ______ and I’ll […]
From fearless to fickle… Back when I was a kid, I remember experiencing that moment when you felt invincible and like nothing bad could possibly happen to you. Maybe this was a result of youthful naiveté (or general stupidity), or perhaps it simply evolved from years of swimming in a murky green rock quarry growing […]
Waxing the Golden Rule by: Kara Brook The road to hell & litigation is often paved with good intentions I’m an encaustic painter who enjoys sharing what I have learned as I develop my own skills. I’ve found there’s a lot of information on the web, specifically video trailers often linked to a video or […]
It’s time to. . . Let go of the anger of what could have been Let go of the worry of what might become Let go of the mistakes you think you’ve made Let go of a future you cannot yet see Let go of the expectations of others, their path is not […]
Dude, where’s all my stuff?! These days it seems my head and pretty much my entire digital life is “in the clouds” Yes, I’ll admit (grudgingly) that I’m old enough to remember things like CD’s, printed photographs, DVD’s, computer software that came in a box, and even those weird looking papery things with all the […]
Stop Thinking About It and Start Doing It! By: Dan Johnson You know that feeling when you’re dying to create some epic piece of artwork, but for some reason, it never gets done? As an artist, I get that feeling a lot. Sometimes I have a whole weekend free, and I think I’ll get a […]
Let’s be honest for a moment. . . Does your current website suck? Do you frequently suffer from website shame and embarrassment? Do you sometimes avoid telling people where to find your website because you haven’t updated in over 6 months? Does it seem like everyone else online has these really cool websites, while […]
You win, I lose! As creative artists we have been trained to see things in a particular way which is if you win, then I lose. We either get the publishing or recording contract or we get rejected. We either get the gallery show or it goes to some other artist We either get the […]
Copyright is Not the Problem, You Are! by: Cory Huff Pinterest is upon us! For some reason, the Internet decided to throw a giant fit over copyright over the last few weeks. It started (sort’ve) with this interesting blog post by a lawyer who tearfully deleted her Pinterest inspiration boards. Her post spread like wildfire, […]
You’ve got more #$@% mail! Those of you who have been online long enough may remember when getting email was an exciting event. We all loved hearing that bossy little AOL voice telling us that we got mail. Our pulse would quicken and we would race to our email inbox to see what technological […]
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ~Lao Tzu Let’s face it, having goals kind of sucks! What do you want to do, be, or have in ten years? Where do you see yourself in twenty years? What are your three major goals for this year? What are […]
This is the third book in an ongoing series where we’ll be talking about a small collection of books that deal with art and the creative process. These particular books were chosen because they have dramatically changed my own perspective as both a writer and as a human being I really believe that any of […]
How to finally get that art scholarship by: Kristina Gehrmann There are literally thousands of available scholarships, awards and grants out there, for both art students and professional artists alike, in all fields of art: writing, painting, sculpture, dance, acting, music, ballet, photography… This mere fact is a revelation for many. You too can get […]
I have always loved invocations like this because they remind us of the mysterious and quite possibly magical creative process that inspires all artists regardless of their craft. I forget how many times I have read this particular piece by the late great Irish poet John O’Donohue, but I do know that each time I […]
Artist Online Community Directory As a community-based site, our purpose is to not only give you the opportunity to interact with this amazing worldwide creative community we have here at Skinny Artist, but also to connect with one another beyond this particular website. So many of us have multiple websites and social media accounts […]
Don’t worry, this is not some boo-hoo my life sucks kind of thing. This is not about regret. This is not about looking back and wishing that I would have done things differently in the past because I do believe that every experience both good and not-so-good has an important lesson to share as long […]
The Muppets guide to life and personality development I distinctly remember watching the old Muppet Show growing up and thinking that the vast majority of these muppets characters were completely insane. For those of you who may not remember the show, it consisted mostly of slapstick chaos and really bad jokes. Kermit the frog would […]
“Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors than piracy” ~ Tim O’Reilly . Creative Commons Reference PDF: Creative Commons License Reference Sheet ..(right click and “Save File. .” or “Download Linked File”) Creative Commons License Links: http://creativecommons.org http://creativecommons.org/choose https://creativecommons.org/about/downloads http://creativecommons.org/licenses http://wiki.creativecommons.org http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons Creative Commons Controversy: What happens when Creative Commons Licensing goes too far? […]
. As many of you know, last year Skinny Artist published a list of 21 Amazing Artists to Watch in 2010. Since then, I’ve gotten to know many of these artists better, and I consider myself lucky to be able to call so many of them now my friends. If you haven’t already had the […]
Every year about this time I have this absurd tradition of sitting down and coming up with a small list of New Year’s resolutions for myself. Fortunately this is a fairly easy exercise because I find myself making the same exact resolutions each and every year. Not only that, but I somehow still manage to […]
We spend a lot of time on this site talking about all of the things we should be doing in order to build our online reputation as an artist/writer/musician/etc… What happens, however, is that we spend so much of our time running after these goals, that we sometimes forget to take a step back and […]
If you love something you have to set it free (right?) Question: When you sell a piece of your art/writing/music, do you feel. . . (a) Elated — Yay! Let’s go grocery shopping (b) A little sad to see it go, but that’s part of being a professional artist isn’t it? (c) Racked with guilt […]
This is not the way we had imagined it to be. . . When we first come to our art, we came to it filled with hope, secret wishes, and visions of unseen worlds. We imagined our muse taking us gently by the hand and whispering inspiration into our ear as we recreated those […]
The only limits artists have is their imagination (right?) Let’s face it, part of the fun of being an artist/writer/musician is being able to do whatever the hell you want. After all, if we wanted people telling us what to do, we would have become an accountant or a manager at Taco Bell. But what […]