Coffee with Julie- 1-4-21

2021 arrived and passed and today we are all resuming our daily lives after the holidays. My shop sales came to a screeching halt on December 9th it seems and since this is my first real year of sustained growth and revenue from my online sales I don't have previous history to judge if that is normal.  I think it makes sense that all the online Christmas season shipping had been done and so I took the time to begin working on my new designs for the upcoming year.  

I received my new iPad Pro 12.9" and my first ever Apple Pencil around that same time as my sales slowed down so I stayed very busy learning how to use this amazing new tool.  I downloaded the app Procreate (seems anyone serious about drawing digitally on the iPad chooses that drawing app) and I have been having a blast ever since.  

I'm currently working on my second "Farmhouse Whimsy Coloring Book" and hope to have it published and available on Amazon by the end of the month.  I'm subtitling this one "All Critters Big and Small" so I can include my mice, bunnies and bees in the book too.  This project has me super excited because I LOVE the passive income that I think self publishing on KDP (Amazon) will eventually bring. 

My first book wasn't published until November 1, 2020 and so for those 2 months of 2020 my sales break down as follows:

Farmhouse Whimsy Coloring Book- A Coloring Book to Make You Smile - 62 copies  COLORING BOOK ON AMAZON

2021 Farmhouse Weekly/Monthly Planner- 21 copies  2021 PLANNER ON AMAZON

Little Farmers on the Go- A Traveling Game Book- 13 copies TRAVEL GAME BOOK ON AMAZON

Branding your business is so important and something that I really want to do this year is wrap most of my orders in cute wrapping paper.  Eventually, I will design my own and have that printed for me but in the mean time, I decided that I would use rubber stamps and both brown (the rolls that painters use to tape off windows) and a whole case of white packaging newsprint paper that someone gave me.  The beauty of having all your designs in a farmhouse/country theme is that you can easily upcycle items around your house and it adds to the homemade primitive charm of the farmhouse motif.  

I ordered this "Tim Holtz Collection- Funny Farm" cling stamps and a few colors of ink pads to get started.  We found some wood to glue the stamps too and Wallaaaah! I have cute farm themed wrapping paper with minimal investment.  I can't wait to start wrapping all my 2021 sales with them.

I will be sharing more about this in detail on my next VLOG- YOU HEARD ME CORRECTLY!  I have started my own YouTube Channel where I show off my new artwork or studio tips.  This will be expanding in 2021 and I'm super excited about growing this new social media connection.  Here is the link to my channel so please consider subscribing!  Julie Townsend Studio - YOUTUBE

Step Into the Light

My Studio Lighting Set Up- Very Complex

The foundation to creating sellable reproductions of your art and having that continued income source is the high resolution photo of the artwork.  I can't stress enough that you need to get a good picture or scan of your artwork before you ever put it on display or apply the sealing varnish coat.  Once the original is sold, it is all over.


I just recently purchased an electrical outlet remote so that I can turn the studio lighting on and off as I walk in and out of the studio. I think we purchased that at Home Depot but here is a link for the same thing on Amazon. (Electrical outlet remote control)

There are a number of good YouTube videos about taking photos of your artwork and these folks know a great deal more about the functioning of their cameras than I do.  We use our Canon EOS T2i  camera on a tripod to take photos of my paintings.  We photograph them indoors using equally spaced studio lights (Shown above in the first picture and are under $60 on Amazon) to reduce the chance of glare and shadows.  I have the lights attached in the both corners up near the ceiling of the far wall in my studio.   These studio lights also come in very handy when I am taking pictures of products for my Etsy Shop and also provide a nice bright light for me to paint with.  They have really become a great studio tool.


When I am take pictures of my smaller merchandise, I use a large sheet of foam core art board that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. (don't forget they have a 40% off coupon that you can use for every trip) I scored it down the center so it fold up and stores nicely when I'm not using it.  I use the camera on my iPhone X for these smaller product photos and then I pull them into the Photoshop Express app on my phone to crop, adjust lighting to make the white of the background really bright and add a watermark.   For the canvas art, we place the canvas on the white display grid you see here that is attached to the opposite wall of the studio.  My husband takes several shots of the artwork using different shutter speeds.  I pick the photo that has the highest resolution usually to be my original photo.  I hope that gives you some ideas for your own creative space.  Check out my artwork on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com

Its not Finished until the Chubby Lady Sings

What a learning curve I have experienced these past few years in my journey to becoming an artist.  Basically I knew pretty much nothing about the business of being a full-time artist to now feeling an excitement building as I am beginning to be more comfortable with the style I am developing and techniques I'm learning.  I can honestly say that being an artist is FUN.  I know...You thought that all there was to it was to just paint a pretty picture, huh?  Well that not quite all there is to it.  Not only is there the process of photographing and marketing your new work on blogs and websites,  but you have to finish it off with a good coat of varnish and a lot of love.  Another final consideration that I have just recently started adding to my "Getting Ready to Hang" checklist is preparing the backs of each of my canvases to give it that professional appearance that I feel is important.

I have observed a number of artists that wrap the backs of their canvas with paper to give even the back a cleaner and professional feeling.  I really liked how that looked so I have started this finishing process and believe me when I tell you that I have done plenty things wrong in an attempt to figure these details out.  There are a couple of tools that I have discovered along the way that I am very excited about and decided to share them with you.  

First of all, is my Scotch Advanced Glider double-tape gun.  I sing it's praises every time I pull it out of my studio supply closet.  The hardest thing about this gun is loading the tape and that isn't because it is so difficult but rather seems like you are doing something wrong and that it isn't going to work but it does.  I make sure I have kept the instructions just because each time we load it we find that we must consult the instructions again just to be sure we are remembering the correct steps.  Of course we have only loaded the gun twice so it is relatively a new tool in my artist tool box.  

Previously, I had tried to use a standard double stick tape but it just didn't hold the brown shipping paper I was using to the back of my canvas well enough.  There was always edges and corners that were coming loose.  Not with this tape....glides on great and sticks well.  I have even started using it to attach my photos to my customized cards.  Also it is ONLY $19.99 and it is PINK!  Both of these facts have this chubby artist singing loudly.


Here is a picture of my beautiful PINK tape dispensor.

Amazon-Scotch Advanced Glider

Whether it is finishing off the backs of my painted canvases or matted sketches, I pull out my Fiskars Cutting board and combined with my kitchen counter I find that it works as a perfect surface for me to get busy.  Silly me used to cut the paper first by tracing around the canvas and then just cutting it with ordinary scissors.  I would then apply the double stick tape all around the back edges of the canvas and then try to get the paper to lay flat and smooth while I would run my fingers around the edge trying to get it to attach firmly to the canvas.  Let me just say that I have discovered this is completely BACKWARDS to the most effective method.  It was one of those "Bop me the Head, What Where You Thinking" moments.  I now apply the tape to the canvas and then lay the canvas out on the unrolled brown paper.  I then can then take my box cutter and work my way around the canvas, cutting it as close as possible without damaging the canvas.  The box cutters worked pretty well as long as the blade was sharp but I just found a new tool that makes this job even easier.  It is the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife and boy does it work like cutting hot butter.  Only thing I can see might be a problem is that it is so small and attached to your finger that you might forget you have it on and cut yourself so please be careful because those blades are sharp!

I loved how it allowed me to glide along the edge of either the matte board or the canvas with control and ease.  Cutting straight and true with no frayed edges or tears.  I LOVE IT and I LOVE the price that I paid on Amazon too.  I didn't have to go wondering around the isles of my local Hobby Lobby, Blicks or Michaels or get in the REALLY hot car (Remember I live in Las Vegas) and drive 12-15 miles to go shopping.  I certainly use those stores plenty for the rest of my art supplies but for these type of things I think Amazon is KING!


Here is a picture of the knife:

Amazon-Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife

I have made it so easy for you by giving you the links here to both tools.