Critique Clinic – November 4-November 6, 2011
How does it work? For three days a week (Friday-Sunday midnight), I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right, or you’ve got a new design you want to test drive, or you’re unsure about the marketability of a card. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a recently submitted card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- We will take an unlimited number of artists, including those who have submitted recently, HOWEVER I reserve the right to close a clinic for the day if the submissions become overwhelming. If the clinic has been closed, and you submit a card, your comment will be deleted.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
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News: November 3, 2011
Hi everybody!
Just a couple of things today…
Doreen Erhardt has begun an Artist Recognition Awards on her Salon of Art blog. The first winner… Nikki Cutro of 13 Black Cats Designs. Each week, she’ll be choosing another GCU artist to highlight. What a great idea!
Next, the deadline for our Design Challenge: Making Merry is on November 8th – you’d better get cracking if you want to get your submission in.
That’s it until tomorrow, kids – have fun!
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Design Spotlight: Tom Heintjes
Today we’re putting the Design Spotlight on Tom of The Festivus Pole, and he’s going to tell us about Festivus!
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A few years ago, I started seeing Festivus e-cards going around, and I thought it would be fun to mail paper Festivus cards. I didn’t see any, so I made a couple and put them on GCU so I could buy them for myself. Ideas for cards kept coming to me, so I put more and more cards up, and somewhat to my surprise, people were buying them! So I opened up a Festivus card store on GCU focusing on that single niche holiday.
One of the common misconceptions about Festivus is that the TV show “Seinfeld” created the holiday. The truth is, the holiday predated the TV show by decades—a man named Dan O’Keefe did invent the holiday in the 1960s, and his family celebrated it each year, but its date floated around. The boy in that family, Daniel O’Keefe, grew up to become a writer on “Seinfeld” and described the made-up holiday his family celebrated, and they made a storyline out of Festivus. So while it’s safe to say that “Seinfeld” popularized Festivus, it most assuredly did not invent it. Mr. O’Keefe gets credit for the new holiday!
Over the years, I’ve done a couple of things to keep my Festivus card fresh. One thing is creating Festivus party invitations, since more and more people are throwing Festivus parties around the holidays because they’re nondenominational and have some pop-culture cachet. I also developed a few “naughty” Festivus cards that have done well, but I guess it’s no surprise that naughty sells.
I’ve also created a bunch of cards that take traditional Christmas imagery—Santa Claus, snowmen, wrapped gifts, etc.—and mash it up with Festivus wishes. It combines the heartwarming elements of Christmas with the contemporary, secular notion of Festivus and gives the cards an off-kilter feel that I find appealing. The thing I like about this approach is that I can take vintage and copyright-free images and clip art and create a card that feels fresh and fun.
One of my favorite cards—I purchase and send this one out myself—and one of my most popular was created from vintage clip art. It depicts the basic traditions of Festivus using clip art, and the color scheme I chose mimics the dull green, red and gold that I remember from my parents’ old glass Christmas ornaments. I didn’t quite get the muted gold that I wanted to, but I got kind of close, and the colors give the card a faded, retro feel that suits the vintage look of the clip art and gives it a cohesive feel.
I’ve been creating Festivus cards on GCU for about four years now, and sales improve each year. I also see more Festivus card sellers on there, which is good for all of us—it means Festivus continues to move into the mainstream. Each year, I say to myself that I doubt I’ll be able to come up with any more card designs that I need to add, and every year I end up adding more cards as new ideas come. I guess the bottom line is that I get a kick out of helping people celebrate a relatively new holiday while I get to develop cards that feel fresh and fun at the same time. Partnering with GCU to accomplish this truly is a Festivus miracle!
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Dash of Inspiration – November 1, 2011
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
The Color of Light
Okay, last week in Part 1 of this mini-series, I provided tools and tutorials to better understand the importance of exposing Highlights and Shadows; this week is Part 2: The Color of Light.
When studying photography, another critical aspect is light temperature. The Kelvin Scale is how the color of light is measured and you’ll notice that each light source is associated with a color of which the camera picks up in the form of a color cast on the finished image. Photography is considered a Realist Medium in the arts, and realism is the intent to achieve a truthful representation of reality in its historical context. This is the reason why the color of light plays such an important role in photography.
The average person can look at a painting and because they know it was created from the imagination, a pink zebra is not only perfectly acceptable, its adorable. However, that same eye looking at a photograph of a zebra with a pink tint in the whites and purple in the blacks is considered unacceptable. Why? Because our minds tell us this is not a truthful representation of realty. This is another area where photographs taken by an amateur will stand out from those of the professional photographer. A photographer must pay close attention to the color cast of the light, whether natural or artificial, which will render on their final image.
In the past, photographers corrected for color cast by carrying a supply of Color Correction filters in the camera bag to remove the magenta tint when shooting under fluorescent lights, the yellowish-orange casts from tungsten lighting and the too cool blue and cyan tints from deep shade and winter lighting. What could not be done using filters on the camera, was then corrected by using filters in the enlarger when the prints were made.**
Snow for example, should not be pink (in photographic terms Magenta), and blue in a snow scene should only be there when the image provides the viewer with some indication that the image was shot in the evening hours such as lights in the window of a building. Color cast issues are considered technical flaws in photography, and your photos will be rejected by galleries, licensing agencies and places like GCU where there is a level of professionalism required in your submissions.
Here is a link to an example of what I’m talking about with snow (the before and after)– due to the color of the light when it’s snowing, it is likely that without proper adjustments and/or corrections, your photographs will have a blue/cyan color cast.
Today’s photographers have MANY more options when setting the camera up for a photo shoot, in addition to after-processing techniques to get the color right. Many digital SLR’s, such as my Canon 7D have a White Balance setting in addition to light temperature settings, but even those which are not considered Pro-level cameras have symbols for shade, sunlight, tungsten and so on. These are will auto-correct for the color cast as a filter on the camera would do.
Color balance corrections can also be made using a variety of methods in programs like Photoshop. The important factor is that the photographer trains their eye to recognize the proper color of light for a given subject and learns to correct it before passing the images on to their clients. An unappealing color cast is not art, it’s poor technique.
Next week we’ll take on the the final ‘chapter’ in this mini-series and talk about Creative Tinting: When and How to Apply It.
Here are some great links to learn more about this subject from how to set up your camera properly for a shot to after-processing techniques in Photoshop, Elements, Paintshop Pro and GIMP.
Digital Focus: All About Color Balance
Understanding white balance settings on a digital camera
Neutralizing Color Casts With The Photo Filter in Photoshop
Eliminating Color Cast With Paint Shop Pro
Fixing Overall Tonal and Color Problems in Photoshop Elements
**Note: It’s also important to note for those out there who are scanning film-based images and for the artist who scans their paintings; color casts are common in scanning and you need to do a lot of testing and adjustments to create a profile for your scanned images that automatically corrects for a natural shift to magenta and/or cyan.
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Lightning Round: THE GREAT PUMPKIN
Halloween - Trick or Treat - Olivia A. Myers
Ding, dong! The witching hour has struck – it’s Halloween, and time for the results of our frighteningly fun Lightning Round: THE GREAT PUMPKIN. Visit each of our artist’s blogs… if you dare!
And Sharon Fernleaf is the winner of our random prize drawing for a $15 Amazon gift certificate – congratulations, Sharon!
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It’s Halloween or Howl-oween!
“I love Halloween…”
Blessing Art Cards, Sharon Fernleaf
Countdown to Halloween
“Halloween, a day of fantasy and fun…”
Che Bella Nota, Teri Nelson Kuster
The Big Pumpkin
“I”m born in Hong Kong, so Halloween for me is the most unusual holiday…”
Painted Cottage, Judith Cheng
Twisted Rainbows: It’s Halloween!
“It’s the time of year when ghosts and ghouls like to frolic in the streets…”
Reel Cards, R.P. Bulanadi
Happy Halloween
“Boo! Did I scare you?”
Tanitu, Creative Paradise
Colors of Halloween
“I have made two color palettes that scream the fall colors of the Halloween season…”
Dragonfire Graphics, Betsy Bush
Grumpy Halloween
“Help yourself to a little sweet orange treat…”
Naquiaya’s Cards, Naquaiya
Oh, Great Pumpkin, Where Are You?
“Cute, scary, on the doorstep or in food, I love pumpkins!”
What Dreams May Come, Maryann Nolan
Ooh… Candy Corn!
“20 million pounds of candy corn are sold annually…”
Hand-Me-Downz, Richard Skelley
Halloween Memories
“Happy Halloween, everyone!”
Warm Traditions, Candace J. Hardy
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Critique Clinic – October 28-October 30, 2011
How does it work? For three days a week (Friday-Sunday midnight), I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right, or you’ve got a new design you want to test drive, or you’re unsure about the marketability of a card. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a recently submitted card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- We will take an unlimited number of artists, including those who have submitted recently, HOWEVER I reserve the right to close a clinic for the day if the submissions become overwhelming. If the clinic has been closed, and you submit a card, your comment will be deleted.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
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Nuts and Bolts: Clicks vs. Sales
It’s a topic I see coming up again and again on the Greeting Card Universe Forum: “How come I’ve got lots of clicks on Card XYZ, but it hasn’t sold yet?”
There are a couple of reasons a card (or cards) can pick up clicks, but not any (or few) sales. Before we get into that, let’s define “click” so we’re all on the same page – a “click” means that someone (shopper or otherwise) has visited your Card XYZ’s page on GCU. Not that a shopper’s put it in the shopping cart, mind, but just paid a visit to the page.
So why don’t these visits or “clicks” always translate into sales?
Search Engines: All the helpful, handy search engines out there use “spiders” (or web crawlers) – a type of program – to browse the World Wide Web, and gather new content in order to index that new content for the search engine they’re working for. Whenever you upload a card to GCU, that’s new content. Since the Web is very vast, it can take a while before your card’s information is added to search engines, usually 3-6 months (hence the need to create new holiday cards ahead of the holiday). At this time, there’s simply no way to differentiate when the “click” comes from a crawler or a shopper.
Shopper Browsing: Suppose a shopper is browsing (or doing an on-site search) on GCU for “birthday card for mom.” Lots of cards come up in that search. Just like a store, a shopper may look more closely at a card here, a card there, and your Card XYZ is one of them. However, ultimately the shopper decides not to buy your card. Since they have visited the card’s page, their visit is a “click,” but no sale has been made.
Super Clicks: Sometimes, a card receives hundreds of clicks, but has not sold. This is a clear indication that something about your card needs improvement because visitors are dropping by, but not getting interested enough to lay out their money. Take a good, objective look at your card. Could be the image, might be the inside verse, or perhaps you haven’t taken proper advantage of a good title, keywords, and description in Artist’s Notes. Compare your card to others in the same category, particularly those cards on the first couple of pages. How does yours measure up?
What else can you do?
- Make sure your card looks professional
- Make sure you’ve got a detailed description in the Artist’s Notes field
- Make sure you’ve chosen good keywords
- Make sure you give your card a proper title, not just a string of words
If you have a card with clicks but no sales, you can always submit it to the weekend Critique Clinic every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday right here on the GCU Community blog to get an honest peer review and assessment along with tips and advice. It does work: since submitting to the Clinic, we had one artist’s revamped card chosen as Design of the Day, and another artist started experiencing sales of her revamped card.
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Inspiration Station: Google It
I don’t know about you, but Google is my best friend when I’m looking for inspiration.
Why? Because of the Images option.
For example, I can go to Google right now, type in “Christmas inspiration” and choose Images. Instantly, I get a big page chock full of beautiful pictures. Best of all, I can go to those websites to see the pictures in context. This gives me plenty of material for color schemes and themes I can translate into my own art.
If you’re searching for inspiration, why not do a literal “search” for inspiration! It works for just about any holiday/occasion you can think of, such as “Halloween inspiration” or “wedding inspiration.”
Have fun!
Oh, and don’t forget about our Design Contest – see the details in yesterday’s post.
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Design Contest: Making Merry (October 25-November 8)
Guess what? We’re holding a Design Contest, and the theme is MAKING MERRY!
We’ve given you lots and lots of tutorials, tips and advice with the help of our guest bloggers, so by this time, you should have all the tools necessary for you to make fabulous card designs.
How does it work? Design a greeting card with a Christmas theme using one of the two color palettes I’ve provided below. You can add any other colors you like, but you must use one palette or the other. You must also make either a Photo Card, or a card with customizable text on the front. If you’ve never done it before, now’s your chance. Other than that, anything goes! Use your imagination.
Traditional Christmas Palette
Cool Christmas Blues Palette
Don’t forget to upload your card to GCU.
Post a link in the comments section of this post on or before November 8, 2011.
On November 9, I’ll make a master post containing all the entries and… if all goes well, I’ll also include a poll so everyone can vote on their favorite card! The winner will receive a $15 gift certificate to Amazon.com, which you can put towards a Christmas present for yourself or someone special.
So get designing – I can’t wait to see what you’ll create!
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Dash of Inspiration – October 24, 2011
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
Highlights & Shadows
As a photographer, light has always fascinated me. It can be the difference between an award-winning photograph and a snap-shot. Shadows and highlights are just as intriguing and critical when a painter creates them as they are to the photographer who tries to capture them. They create depth and mood, without a nice balance the photograph feels flat, muddy, and in general is unprofessional and unappealing. Why? Because the world of light and shadows is the world we live in, so why would we consider a photograph eye-catching if it is dull in comparison to what we see every day?
Have you ever heard of ‘The Zone System’? This was a very complicated process created by Ansel Adams which started at the point of choosing the right exposure through to film and print development. I had the pleasure of studying this system for a semester in college and it’s something that I have held on to all these years and have learned to apply in to digital photography.
The idea behind the Zone System is to capture the details in the darkest shadows through to the brightest highlights with every level of gray (or tone value) in between. I share this with you so you will begin your own personal journey to understand the gray-scale and its importance in photography (and no it’s does not just apply to black and white photography). In today’s digital world, many poor captures can be corrected using the digital darkroom, BUT keep in mind that if the exposure was so poor at the time it was taken that a complete loss of detail in over-exposed and under-exposed areas was the result . . . no digital tool in the world will magically make them reappear.
Image by Ansel Adams - http://www.anseladams.com
This is going to be a three-part ‘mini-series’. This week we chat and learn about highlights and shadows – next week we’ll discuss the Color of Light and How to Use it. The final ‘chapter’ will focus on Creative Tinting.
This week I want to inspire the photographers out there to really inspect your photographs. Are there details in those shadows or are they distracting black blobs? Are there details in those highlights, or are they washed out hot spots that blind the viewer from seeing the subject? Either will result in images that will be considered unappealing and unmarketable, they will not win awards or gain gallery exhibitions. This is a critical aspect of photography and one you must master before considering yourself a professional.
For the Photographers out there:
Be Inspired: Ansel Adams Gallery
Exposure Bracketing is what the Pros Do
Understanding Photoshop: Shadows, Midtones and Highlights
Preserve all the highlight and shadow detail in a shot
SIMPLE: Photoshop Shadow/Highlights Photography Adjustment
I like to include something for everyone, so…
Watercolor Painting Basics : Painting Shadows
GCU Community 
