Teaching Across Interstellar Distances

As an introvert, I don't mind the time at home.  (Extroverts, I imagine, are having a much harder time not reaching for the car keys.)  I'm working on a painting project, tweaking some of my web sites, organizing what I call my "art-chives," revisiting some favorite hiking spots, pulling out some of my old writing projects, doing my long-neglected estate planning--and at the same time, trying to avoid checking the body count every 30 minutes.

One thing I'm really missing, though, is teaching my workshops.  As I mentioned before, I've been forced to cancel my spring ones.  (However, I'm still taking signups for my July and August workshops in Maine; hopefully, this optimism will be rewarded.)  To satisfy this need, I thought I'd try something online.

I'm maintaining light-years between me and the rest of the world.  Is it possible to teach across interstellar distances?

Well, I am going to try.  My first thought was Facebook Live, but that might not give me the degree of interaction I'd like with the students.  I'd like to get and reply to questions.  Do you have a favorite online teaching tool you might recommend that is free or doesn't cost much?

Also, I have a survey concerning this I'd like you to take.  It'll take only two minutes.  I want to know what day of the week works best for you, as well as whether morning, noon or evening--keeping in mind that time zones (and maybe the speed of light) will affect what time the session would occur for you--how long the session should be, and subject.   You can take the survey here.

Thank you!  Stay well--and stay at home!

[UPDATE:  See survey responses here.]

Image Transfer to Make the Drawing Easier: The Schooner Margaret Todd

The Schooner Margaret Todd
12x16 oil
Will be Available Starting July 1, 2017 at Argosy Gallery

I like to paint boats.  I paint a lot of them at my summer studio in Downeast Maine.  They say "practice makes perfect," but where boats are concerned, practice makes only "pretty good."  I think that, no matter how excellent your drawing skills, you'll always find some part of a boat that needs correcting.  Sailors will be quick to point out the errors in what you thought was a beautifully-proportioned boat.

This past week, I wanted to paint a picture of the schooner Margaret Todd, based in Bar Harbor, Maine, for the upcoming Acadia Invitational III exhibit at Argosy Gallery this summer.  I had reference photos and a plein air sketch of this ship, which is the only four-masted schooner still in operation on the east coast.  Painting a boat properly can be time-consuming, even if you are using photos and not working from life.  To make the job easier, I decided to transfer a photo to my painting surface rather than to draw the schooner by hand.

Contrary to popular belief, we painters don't freehand everything.  Image transfer or tracing is a time-honored method used by both illustrators and "fine artists" to get a quick, accurate drawing in place.  Projection is another method, but for the size of this painting (12x16) and the scale of the boat (somewhat small), I didn't need to project. But I did want the perspective and proportions to be correct.

The scene I chose to paint was very close to what my reference photo contained.  I knew that if I placed my eye level (or horizon) line on the canvas as it was in the photo, the transfer method would work.  It most definitely will not work if you start playing with eye level placement.  Next, I needed to figure out  the scale I needed for the boat in the context of the landscape.  I made some pencil sketches to rough out the design, and then I printed out three cropped images of the schooner, each a different size.

I placed these directly on my painting surface, with the landscape lightly sketched in, to see which size worked best.  After settling on one, I coated the reverse side of the print with compressed charcoal, taking care to cover all the areas that needed to be transferred.  Then I taped the print directly to my painting surface where the boat needed to be.  With a sharp, 2B graphite pencil, I then traced over the important parts of the boat—masts and hull—until I felt like I had enough information transferred that I could successfully finish the boat without this aid.

Here's the finished painting, without the frame.

The Schooner Margaret Todd
12x16 oil
Will be Available Starting July 1, 2017 at Argosy Gallery

We'll be painting boats my Rockland, Maine, workshop for Coastal Maine Art Workshops this July.  I hope you'll join me.  You can find more details here.   If that doesn't work out for you, we'll also be painting boats at my Lubec, Maine, studio.  Visit www.PleinAirPaintingMaine.com for details.

By the way, if you take workshops, I have a short survey that I'd like you to take.  It will help guide future seasons of my plein air painting workshops.  You can get to it here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZZB8898

Poll Results: How Do You Find Out About Plein Air Painting Workshops?

The top four ways people find out about workshops, in order: 
Instructor Web Sites, Print Magazine Ads, Instructor Blogs and Recommendations from Friends.

The top way people most often find out about workshops, in order:
Instructor Websites, Print Magazine Ads, Internet Searches, Recommendations from Friends.

(Note that social media such as Facebook lag far behind and, surprisingly, Internet directories such as Artshow.com.)

As a plein air painting workshop teacher, I always wonder how my students find me.  If I ask, quite often they can't recall, or they will say something like, "I saw your workshop advertised on the Internet - or maybe it was in a magazine."  These aren't particularly helpful responses when one is trying to squeeze the most out of a small advertising budget.

Back in the old days, there weren't many places to put your ad dollars.  You either placed an ad in a magazine or sent out a mailing.  If you were smart, you used ad source codes to help figure out the most effective advertising method.  If you weren't smart, you could still maybe guess.  After all, the students either came from your magazine ad or your mailing, or perhaps from a referral from a previous student, and most people could remember how they found out about you if you asked.

But today, besides magazine ads and mailings, students can learn about your workshops by following your blog, viewing your website, Googling key words, hanging out on Facebook -- well, the list goes on.  Some of these are "free" advertising venues; others, like Google Adwords, cost money.

Because all of these cost in some way -- if not in dollars, then in precious time away from the easel -- I wanted to get a better handle on the possibilities.  Did it make sense to spend time tweeting to the Twitterverse, or to list my workshops with a targeted directory like Artshow.com?

I decided to conduct a survey.  Granted, I announced the survey on the Internet, and already that shifted the bias to Internet-friendly folks.  I did try to get the word out to regions beyond my sphere of influence; that is, I placed the request for help in a variety of online forums and other groups where (I think) I am relatively unknown.  I received 76 responses.  That doesn't sound like a very big sample, but maybe it'll be enough for my needs.

Here are my questions:

• I find out about painting workshops through (check all that apply), and
• How do you MOST OFTEN find out about painting workshops? (Check only one)

For answers, I included the following options:

• Print magazine ads
• Online magazine ads
• Internet search on Google, Bing, etc.
• Internet directory listings such as Artshow.com
• Instructor blogs
• Instructor websites
• Facebook
• Google+
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Online forums such as WetCanvas
• Recommendations from friends

I also had two follow up questions:

• If you use an Internet search (via Google, Bing, etc.) to find workshops, what keywords do you use? (An example might be "plein air workshops March" or "painting workshop Maine").
• Anything you'd like to add that I might have missed?

You can see the graphs at the top of the blog, but here are the raw data:

"I find out about workshops through..."

"I find out about workshops MOST OFTEN through..."

Additionally, I asked what key words people used when searching online.  They were what you would expect, such as the phrase "plein air workshop" or "plein air painting workshop" often combined with a month or season, a geographical region, the type of medium or instructor name.

Finally, I asked if there was any question I'd missed.  I got some good responses here.  Other ad sources included: newsletters from instructors or art schools, articles written by instructors, Youtube videos by the instructor, art supply store bulletin boards or newsletters and instructor's art viewed in a gallery or art school.

So, where am I going to put my time and money?  I think it's pretty clear from the graphs.

(And I want to thank everyone who participated!  I'll leave the survey up while longer, if you haven't voted yet.  It never hurts to have more data.  You can find the link to the survey here.)

Fall Foliage - and a Survey!

We're having some great fall foliage here in Sedona along Oak Creek right now.  The cottonwoods are turning a beautiful, golden hue.   Here's a painting showing you how the color looks now.

For those of you who have thought about - or are thinking about - a Paint Sedona workshop this winter, what can I do to entice you? I have a survey for you.  (Visit www.PaintSedona.com if you have questions about the program and look at the "Important Info" page for answers.) No personal information will be tracked!

Here is the link to the survey.  It'll only a take a minute!

Who's Buying Paintings These Days?

If you paint a lot, as I do, the paintings eventually start pushing up the rafters. You either have to sell them, give them away, or burn them. I prefer to sell mine, since that fills the bank account so I can make more paintings. But sell them to whom?

I suspect most of my paintings either go to other painters or to my students, or to older people who have always bought paintings and still have the funds to continue to do so. I suspect that the paintings aren't going to twenty-somethings fresh out of college burdened by hefty school loans. I have some other thoughts on the matter, which I will discuss in a future post.

I've put together a little survey I'd love for you to take. Your responses will help me discover who's buying today. (UPDATE: Survey is now closed!)

By the way, we had a good time last week in the latest Paint Sedona workshop. Below are a few of the sketches I did.  They're all for sale.  Let me know if you'd like one.  (Shipping is $10, so if you buy several, you save!)

9x12, oil. - $100 - From Uptown
We had on iffy-weather day.  This is the view out the window of the Uptown Sedona studio.

6x12, oil. - SOLD - Munds Mountain Vista
There's nothing like Schnebly Hill for some good panoramas.

6x12, oil. - $75 - Thunder Mountain Vista
I'm really liking these 6x12 pieces.  Quicker to do than a 12x24, but they still give you the panorama.
This one is looking down the ridge from Thunder Mountain to Coffee Pot and beyond.

5x7, oil. - $60 - Up the Canyon
I like backlighting on the Sedona rocks.  This is a view from the Sedona Heritage Museum.

6x9, pastel. - $60 - Camelhead
Another Schnebly Hill view, looking toward Snoopy Rock and  Camelhead.  This is another backlit scene.

6x9, pastel. - $60 - Snow up the Canyon
One day we headed up Schnebly Hill Road to the Cowpies area.  There was still some snow up in the shadows.

A Small Painting - and a Small Survey!

Ship Rock sketch, 5x7, oil - $60 - contact Michael

Trina and I are always trying to fine-tune my plein air painting workshops so we can give students a better experience.  January is a good month for that, because we not only are hitting our stride in the Paint Sedona workshops but also looking forward to the summer workshops on Campobello Island and on to 2012.  With that in mind, we have put together a short survey.  We would really appreciate your time on this. (The survey is limited to the first 100 responses, so if you delay, you may not get your word in!)

You can click on this link for the survey:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XZWD7V2

By the way, the above sketch is of a very recognizable Sedona landmark - Ship Rock.  (I've also seen it called "Sail Rock.")  The day was overcast, but that just made the colors in the sail all the more interesting.