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 […]
Every once in awhile when we get our act together here at Skinny Artist , we have the pleasure of introducing you to a new featured artist. We have them sit down and talk to us for a few minutes about their experiences working as a creative professional. We talk about their work, some of […]
It all seemed so simple in the beginning… These days it seems as if everyone is telling you that you need to find a way to “engage” your fans in social media (whatever that means) if you are to have any hope of surviving as an artist/writer/musician in the 21st century. So you sign up […]
“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? […]
This is the second book in an ongoing series where we’ll be talking about a small collection of amazing books that deal with art and the creative process. These particular books were chosen because they have dramatically changed my perspective as both a writer and as a human being. I truly believe that any of […]
. 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 […]
Success can be a bit of a double-edge sword sometimes. . . On one hand a little bit of commercial success gives us the confidence we need to continue creating our art, but on the other hand, it can also lull us into a sense of complacency and prevent us from taking risks and […]
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 […]
Etsy is a dream come true for Artists (isn’t it?) Etsy is widely known as one of the premier websites for selling arts & crafts online. They essentially took eBay’s shop concept and focused it squarely on the creative niche so you no longer had to sift through lawnmowers in order to get to beaded lanyards. […]
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 […]
This is the first in an ongoing series where we’ll be talking about a small collection of amazing books that deal with art and the creative process. These particular books were chosen because they have dramatically changed my perspective as both a writer and as a human being I truly believe that any of the […]
Gimme Five You’ve probably heard it said before that we become the average of the five people we hang around with the most. This supposedly not only determines our level of career, success, and income–but our general attitude and outlook on life as well. Twenty years ago, this essentially meant that whatever motley group of […]
Actually, I guess that’s not really fair because as a writer, I never actually went to art school because I was stuck in “writer’s school” which I’m pretty certain sucks. What I’m really talking about is any type of so-called “art school” whether it’s music school, design school, fine art school, or your plain old […]
Let’s face it, only bad things happen quickly One of the things that I’ve learned about this whole building your artistic repuatation online process is that it’s going to take a heck of a lot longer than most people think. In fact, one of the biggest complaints I hear from frustrated artists is that they are doing […]
What is a peer group (and why should I care)? When we’re growing up, there always seems to be a lot of talk about our “peer group”, but what exactly is a peer group and why would I be talking about any of this now? Well according to our good friends in the dictionary […]
Now that we are entering into the second half of 2010. I wanted to take a moment and share with you 21 amazing artists I have had the pleasure to meet over the past six months, and artists that you’ll certainly want to keep your eye on in the years ahead. Some of these artists […]
Dear Twitterite, We know that it was a bit rude to unfollow you this afternoon, but let’s face it, we seemed to be growing apart these past several months. Even though I saw you there in my Twitter stream each and every morning, I found myself ignoring you more and more and I just wasn’t listening […]
Unlike high school, getting a reputation online as an artist isn’t easy. We can’t just smile and charm our fans and potential customers with our good looks. Sure they might stop by and admire your stuff, but chances are they’re not going to be buying anything unless they end up feeling a real connection […]
The internet is great. With the world wide web we are connected like never before. News travels almost instantly and communities of like-minded individuals can easily come together and share their passion. Without the world wide web, witty and informative websites like Skinny Artist could never exist. Unfortunately, as many of you already know, […]
“But you’re a writer, you’re not an artist!” (insert mildly derisive tone here) I hear this from people all the time when I tell them that I help run a website called “Skinny Artist”, and then reveal that I am a writer and not a visual artist. To many people (mostly non-artists) it seems almost […]
Where’s your online home? As an artist marketing yourself and your work online do you have a home or do you find yourself virtually homeless? In other words, after you spend a long hard day schmoozing with your groupies on Twitter and Facebook and displaying your wares on Etsy, Amazon, ImageKind, and deviantART, do […]
Okay, okay, Radiohead is not the “Dead” (but they’re closer than you think) Many of you may remember a few years back when the band Radiohead decided to release their album “In Rainbows” as a name-your-own-price download before it was ever released on CD. This was considered nothing short of crazy because, at the […]
How many times have you decided to get serious about marketing and selling your art only to become quickly confused by all of the conflicting information out there? Everywhere you go online these days there are books, websites, videos, forums, and webinars all telling you what you should and should not be doing (not […]