Robert Genn wrote a list of ten commandments for the professional artist not sure how to price him-or-herself when selling prints.

Robert Genn’s Ten Commandments of Art Pricing

• Thou shalt start out cheap.
• Thou shalt publish thy prices.
• Thou shalt raise thy prices regularly and a little.
• Thou shalt not lower thy prices.
• Thou shalt not have one price for Sam and another for Joe.
• Thou shalt not price by talent or time taken, but by size.
• Thou shalt not easily discount thy prices.
• Thou shalt lay control on thy agents and dealers.
• Thou shalt deal with those who will honour thee.
• Thou shalt end up expensive.

The list is inspiring, and gives me great insight on how I should start pricing my prints as I setup download and framed print sales through Lulu.com. How would you price yourself as an artist of your medium?

Carry the weight of the world

Originally uploaded by K weav

Had to post this set by Katy in Portland. I would say, for her age, she is an excellent photographer. I think she limits herself a lot, though. She has lots of pretty pictures and well-composed self portraits, but nothing that could carry a deeper message. The image here - a photo and digital edit she says does not mean she’s “clinically depressed or emo” - Is the only one I could say really digs deeper than the lens.

Props to Katy’s ability to capture people with emotion and beauty. Now if she could just make a statement…

Shapefinder #5

Originally uploaded by allegedgenius

This is actually my new flickr account. I just wanted everyone to know it’s there. The pic here is a series called “Shapefinder”, where I show how one would find figures in seemingly random shapes or lines. I’ve been doing this kind of practice for years, simply scribbling random lines on paper and finding the faces or people who pop out of the chaos. If you’re looking to learn cartooning, this is a great routine to get into. You find how to exploit body parts and facial features to get what you want. You’ll be surprised what pops out of nothing. And with some practice you will see faces pop out of other things: rocks, trees, clouds, wood grain, etc.

station panarama tiny size Originally uploaded by Inthehat

WARNING: Shameless plug for a friend follows!

inthehat, aka Matt, a friend of mine from high school, is an aspiring photographer that has a great view on how a camera and photo should be interpreted: an extension of the dynamic vision of the human eye. He specializes in panoramics, but his general still photography is real and honest. He has all the right elements to his composition: form, space, proximity of elements, movement of the eye and depth. I am interested to see how his work would survive a themed montage. If he was to shoot a series that compared urban areas to rural or small village communities, I am sure he would turn heads.

Matt seems to be one of those artists who can’t decide if he’s a hobbyist or professional. While he enjoys and is skilled at photography, I am not sure if he wouldn’t shy away from making that his career. He is a musician as well, a trait of multimedia studies instilled by the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics (VSAA) where I first met him. I expected many of the students I knew to be interested in more than one art form, and it always seems to be music paired with either visual or moving image arts (film, video, animation, etc).

I encouraged him to expand his panoramics (literally) to take one panel and add more panels vertically to further break the rectangular mold of photography. I also think he needs to sell his work on Lulu.com. I hope he takes my suggestion.

DORIAN LIGHT TEST
Originally uploaded by KOUMAKO

Koumako is a terribly talented artist who has a plethora of content on Flickr. He has no profile info, but judging by the mapping option on Flickr it looks like he/she resides in France. This is a great example of how astonishingly realistic the tools in openCanvas, created by Portalgraphics, can be for a digital artist. I am using it for the first time and can’t believe I never heard about this before. I will never paint in Photoshop again. And Koumako makes a convincing argument why.

With profound color techniques and dramatic contrasts, Koumako gives us a world out of focus, translucent and dreamlike. You could imagine the same reflections from a dirty mirror pointed towards a pool of crude oil surrounded by demons. Koumako makes a splattered blend between shades, but it almost looks like clay gouged out and spat upon.

If you have not tried openCanvas yet, please do so by downloading it at http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/.

If Koumako, or anyone who knows this user, can send me some real life info to add to this review, please do so. I want to give overwhelming credit where it is due.