Organizing My Life and My Art

I promise myself every time that I am going to do a better job of keeping things put away in their proper place but in a blink of an eye I have piles surrounding me...piles of artwork, piles of paperwork and just piles of stuff.  I think it is a hopeless condition that I suffer from with no known cure.  Oh you can hide the symptoms for a while, but they reappear like a bad rash when you let your guard down.

Recently, I have been tackling my digital piles or should I say files here.  I paint and draw so much that it really is difficult to keep up with it all.  I’ve decided that it is important for me to get this under control so I’ve made a list of about 40 pieces that I believe are worthy to be shown on my Etsy Shop and have begun painstakingly editing each piece to fit my common print sizes of 4 x 6, 5 x 7 and 8 x 10.  Bigger images are good too but I can always visit that when I have the need.  This way I am ready when those print orders start rolling in.

When I get this accomplished, I’m going to upload the files to my Sam’s Club photo account.  There are times I would rather have a photo printed for me rather than using my own Canon Pixma 100 printer.  That is especially the case of my ink is running low.  I started using Sam's Club about 3 months ago for all my photo art prints and have not been disappointed so far.  I love that I can have a print processed in just 1 hour while I shop for my groceries or catch a bite at the cafe.  This gives me the confidence that I can handle any Etsy Shop order I may receive and process that order quickly and efficiently.  Ordering from other photo sources online make me feel like I need to have an inventory of prints on hand because your order takes about 5-7 days to arrive.  That can get costly.

Original Artwork

I was working on a file that proved to be just a bit of a challenge with my limited Photoshop experience.  My original painting "Great Horned Owl" was painted on a long and narrow canvas.  I think it was 10 x 20 or something like that.  I found that difficult to get the owl to fit proportionally in my normal print sizes without making him appear short and squatty.  I wanted to share what I did to solve the problem because I think it turned out nice and I am looking forward to selling this image of such a regal bird multiply times.

Pixabay.com image I used as my background

I decided that I need to have a nice background that would blend well with my painting.  Of course a pine tree was what came to mind.  I went to one of my favorite sites, Pixabay.com where there are thousands of royalty free images that you can use commercially without being required to give credit to the author.  I found what I thought was the the perfect image and I couldn't be happier.  It really complimented the original artwork as you will soon see. 

Finally, I decided that to give it a more 3-D appearance that I needed a branch in the left corner that joined with the painting and yet was over the background.  I found a second close up of pine needles on the Pixabay sight and with using only the eraser tool in Photoshop I was able to get it to blend in perfectly between the two images. 

Great Horned Owl digitally enhanced

The final image is a wonderful blend of my artwork and some digital enhancements. I love the colors and I couldn't be more pleased with the results.  I've already listed the image on my Etsy Shop and can easily turn it into blank greeting cards, 4 x 6 magnets or beautiful matted prints that are ready to frame.  Here is the link if you would like to check out this image and the rest of my artwork I have currently on my store.    ETSY SHOP- Great Horned Owl

One file finished...about a zillion more to do!