abc-a | Art by clarawallace · 365 Project

I am discovering lots of new things via Facebook. Here's something called 365 project - you upload a photo a day. I'm participating in a challenge where you upload a photo for each letter of the alphabet. Today's letter is "A" and my photo is of "art". I uploaded a photo of a painting I did on Saturday for my daughter, who is the inspiration. 

Thanks for looking!

abc-a | Art by clarawallace · 365 Project

If cooking could be done in Photoshop...

So creative! I've often thought what a neat world it would be if reality were able to be manipulated with Photoshop. You could color your hair whatever color, look skinny, have a tan, and undo stuff! I wonder how long this video took to make?


Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

Some good Illustrator tutorials

When I first started being creative on the computer about 7 years ago, I was learning how to digitally scrapbook; using my computer and Photoshop to design and layout scrapbook pages using digital photos and digital graphics. I remember having Photoshop on my computer but never having even opened it to try anything. As I started reading how to make digital layouts, I thought I'd try a page myself and opened up photoshop. I made a new document, tried to type something on the page, couldn't figure out how to move it around and gave up! HA! I closed Photoshop and went on just looking at the nice layouts that other people had made. Well, the next day I figured I would do a search for some tutorials on using Photoshop and found a beginner one. I followed along and lo and behold, by the end of that tutorial, I had made my first Photoshop layout! Better than that, I had probably learned at least 20 things to do in Photoshop that I had no idea how to do before that.

My point? Online tutorials are a great way to learn how to do a lot of things, including getting good at Photoshop and Illustrator. I use both programs daily, along with my Wacom tablet to do my chick caricatures.

Since I am horrible at making my own tutorials, I thought I'd post some that I found. 33 New High Quality Adobe Illustrator Tutorials

via Ping.fm

drawing chick caricatures today! my fave! $20 off Original style chick graphics in my store www.clarawallace.com. great time to get your own for FB or twitter!

Would you like to stand out from the crowd?

I just read this article from Wendy Maynard's Marketing Maven. She talks about selling yourself and how not to feel icky about it. I'm in a business where I sell my chick graphics to people who want them as part of their brand...to make it easier for them to sell themselves. The chick graphics are eye-catching and stand out. On a business card, they are memorable in a good way - which is sometimes hard to get with a real photo. (Think outdated photo, unphotogenic photo, or the glamour photo...)

Wendy says, "Make a very specific offer. Don’t be vague. Be very precise in your offer so that people understand. Don’t ask your prospects, “Would you like some food?” when you can say, “Would you like a huge, ripe, mouth-watering, strawberry covered with Ghirardelli dark chocolate right now?” I took that tip and applied it to my own marketing. Here's what I came up with - "Would you like a profile picture of yourself for Facebook/blog/website that isn't an outdated photo of yourself that you don't really love?"


How can you apply the tip "Make a very specific offer." to your marketing?

Pics of my studio

Well, here's a picture of my studio about a month ago. It's actually been re-arranged since but I have not had a chance to take pictures so I thought I'd share this one. I collect those wire mannequin forms (get them from HomeGoods) and have them displayed on top of the Ikea Expedit 5x5 unit. I love that thing! My desk is also from Ikea...so are the curtains (and more stuff you can't see). The chandelier used to be a boring cream color (my neighbor was going to trash it and I saved it). I spray painted it black and it's pretty cool. The only thing I don't like about it is all the wattage it uses from the 9 light bulbs it has. Hubby put in a dimmer switch for me though so I can dim it down when I want to. I keep my art books, journals, art supplies, idea books and magazines, office supplies, and other 'stuff' in the cubbies.