Resources for artists

Exactly a year ago Etsy published a blog post titled 'A Day in the Life of CreativeIngrid' and I thought that this happy event was a good opportunity to share a little bit about the process of being featured on Etsy.

 

Social media features

 

The very first time I got a feature was through BuzzFeed in 2016 and from one day to the next my little floral watercolour was everywhere: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, without me having to do anything. I always mention this in my interviews as this was the key moment I realised the power of social media and decided to pursue this avenue to build my business.

 

Once in a while these kind of features happen, sometimes by surprise and other times I receive an email asking for my prior permission or even a contract or agreement to sign.

 

Something important to mention: I have never paid for these features. Legit accounts don’t ask for payment, so be careful if an account approaches you and wants to charge you. I have seen this being discussed on Facebook forums, apparently it is quite common on Instagram.

 

In my kitchen.	Walking my neighbourhood.
Life in the studio.	With my husband in our favourite pub.

About my Etsy experience

 

One morning I received an email from Etsy asking for my permission to use one of my moons on the post 'Obsessing Over: the Solar Eclipse' with one of my favourite themes: the moon!

 

Days later a second email followed asking me if I would be interested in being part of the Etsy blog where they talk about the life of artists that sell on Etsy. I said yes without hesitation and full of excitement, so we arranged a Skype call where I answered lots of questions, but I didn’t hear back from her for a while and I started to think that maybe I was not a good fit for what they were after.

 

Months later during my holidays in Mexico I received a very exciting email telling me that they were considering me for a special post about 'all things woman-made’ celebrating 'International Women's Day'. I replied to a questionnaire, sent some photos and I got a yes, you will be featured! And ‘ohh, by the way, are you still interested in that post we talked about a while ago?’

 

What!? I was already over the moon, but yes, of course it was a huge YES!

 

So I prepared a script for what a day in my life looks like and weeks later they introduced me via email to Inna Kostukovsky, the photographer they had chosen to work with me. And again, the wait… in case you did not know, I live in London and the chances of getting decent light can sometimes be very small. So three or four months later, the good weather finally arrived and we found a beautiful sunny day to meet at my home studio.

 

I do not like being photographed, so this was definitely a big challenge for me, but Inna was wonderful to work with and gave me lots of tips of how to look natural. We followed my list: meditation, coffee, painting, admin tasks, yoga break, etc… a long day!

 

I also took Inna to my favourite places: garden, lunch in my favourite place on Golborne Road, supplies shopping at Cass Art in High Street Kensington and finally a drink with my husband in my local pub. By the end of the day I was ok with the camera pointing at me, I felt like a celebrity (that no one knew!)

 

Weeks later Inna sent me a link with the photos and more weeks later Valerie sent the draft of the post called: 'A Day in the Life of CreativeIngrid', ohh happy post!

 

'Silver Moon', featured on Etsy blog.

And then what?

 

As exciting as it is to be featured, the important part comes after. Every time has been different for me. The 2016 BuzzFeed experience basically put my Instagram account on the map and helped boost my social media presence.

 

Etsy is no exception, but each time the impact is different. Being on the ‘Editors picks’ results in a boost of sales, and this is the same with features. Instagram posts can bring more followers, but not necessarily more sales.

 

But I always try to look beyond the number of sales, I am talking about the exposure the different experiences bring. Don’t get me wrong, every time the ‘cha-ching’ sounds I make a happy dance, I still love it! And yes, of course artists want to sell, if not why do we have a shop, right?

 

I sometimes receive messages from art directors or companies looking for talent. Their requests can go from art collaboration, articles, interviews to things not related with my art at all! But thanks to these diverse opportunities my business has grown and diversified. Here are some examples:

 

- Calls to attend castings… one was for a shampoo commercial!

 

- Art collaboration with a local brewery

 

- A feature on Countryside magazine

 

- A gallery in California offering their space

 

- Harrods workshop for their employees (I did this one!)

 

- The BBC recently used my art in one of their programmes called DIY SOS

 

- I was invited to participate to an interior design challenge for The Sunday Times, it was so much fun!

 

What to do?

 

- Work hard and be patient. Note that from the time I received Etsy’s offer to the actual feature took more than a year. I do want to tell you the full story of my Etsy shop so you can understand the need for patience, but this will come in another post to make it easier to digest.

 

- Be prepared. When I was told that they were considering me for the Woman’s Day feature I was asked to answer a questionnaire and send a head shot within 24hrs. Though I was travelling in Mexico I luckily always have my iPad on me and photos on the cloud.

 

- Have your shop spot on. Good quality photos are key, do some research on SEO to improve your chances of being found and build a cohesive look… brand yourself!

 

- Be there. Check and answer your messages as soon as you can, you never know who is trying to get in touch. Plus this is also an important part of a good customer service.

 

- Be ready when it happens. When BuzzFeed featured me I was super ready for it. My Etsy shop was up and running, I had a website and I was working on my social media. This was the reason that I was able to monetise that boost, but also to show everyone what I had to offer.

As an introvert, I have found social media an amazing tool to promote my art. Instagram is kind of 'my thing' and I love it because it helps me connect with other artists and like-minded people. One thing I noticed is that very often people ask the same questions: What paper is that?, What is that 'blue thing'?, Do you paint on canvas?, so I thought I would answer all of these in one place, and this blog post was born! So here I go...

ABOUT MY SUPPLIES

1. What mediums do you use?
In general I use water based mediums, being my favourites watercolours and acrylics.

2. What are you painting on? Is that canvas? Is that a giant paper block?
I always paint on watercolour paper, it looks like that because I use a thick white wood board to stretch my paper.

3. Why is your board so thick?
Just because it is what I have at hand. The thickness is not important at all. In fact the wood boards I give to my students during my workshops are very thin and light. Sometimes, when I pant in a larger format I use an acrylic sheet and it also works very well for me.

4. How do you stretch your paper?
There are two techniques I use depending in the amount of water that I am going to use and the size of my painting. In one I use painters tape and in the second one gummed tape. I will write a tutorial soon.

5. What paper do you use?
I love working with Arches paper 300 or 185gms. The thickness that I use depends on the technique I use to stretch it, which also depends (again) in the amount of water I plan to use.

6. Do you work with cold or hot press paper?
It depends on the project I am working on. I love cold press (the one with texture), I prefer the experience of my process with it. But sometimes I also use hot press because it’s easier to digitise and it just make my life easier.

7. What is the ‘blue thing’? What is the paint that you remove and leaves white behind?
Ahhh! The magic of masking fluid, my favourite technique. It’s just a liquid that works as a resistance when it dries. It comes in white and blue colour, I like using it blue because it is easy to spot on the paper. I wrote a tutorial about how to use masking fluid here.

8. Where do you buy your supplies? What brushes do you use?
I buy them at CassArt where I am brand ambassador.

Painting on stretched paper over a wooden board.

 

ABOUT MY PROCESS

9. Why do you paint on the floor?
Because of the size of the paper that I use, I find it easier to work on the floor where I can paint using my whole body instead that just my arms. I danced classical ballet for more than 10 years and I also trained to be a yoga teacher, so the connection with my body is an important practice for me.

10. Is not that bad for your back?
Its actually the opposite because I know what I am doing. When I am painting it’s a meditation in movement, I breathe and move very consciously. It’s not easy because I can paint for 4 or 5 hours in a row, so by the end I am exhausted and happy, like when you go to a very intense session in the gym. But remember that I trained as a ballerina for years and I’ve been practicing yoga for more than 8 years now. This is the reason I always call my painting sessions ‘Brush Dancing’.

11. Why are you barefoot? Why do you step on your paper? How do you keep your paper clean?
Being barefoot gives me the feeling of connection with the earth, but it’s also very handy so I can reach all the corners of the paper by stepping on it. My paper stays clean because everything around me is clean, my floor and obviously my foot. I also have a lot of practice so I kind of know what areas of the paper are still wet and I try not to step in there.

My palette	In my studio (Etsy interview 2018, London).