Posts Tagged ‘info’
A Baker’s Dozen: My Favorite Art of 2014
Tuesday, January 13th, 2015
I know the time for all those “best of, most of” posts has mostly passed, but it’s the 13th and I couldn’t resist the chance to share with you my favorites* of 2014, month by month. Some of them have sold and some haven’t, and at least one of them is displayed in my studio, but they were all the art I was most proud of from this year.
*I’m only choosing paintings and not comics for this, because reasons.
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Categories: Words Words Words
Tags: favorites, info, words
Goodies for my List
Thursday, July 10th, 2014
As many of you know, I have a little email list. It’s self-selected into 3 segments, plus the few oddballs who don’t choose anything and only get the Floating Gallery announcements.
There’s Art Patrons, who get a little bit more of a preview on what I’m working on than the rest of you, as well as a few days to sneak in and snipe the art before the Gallery opens each month. There’s the Etsy Customers, who get heads-up emails about new Etsy stuff, as well as the occasional special sale. There’s the Art Blog subscribers, who get the blog posts in their email. You can be any or all of them, if you like.
Now with extra swag!
There’s two new things for my list people:
- New subscribers will get five little emails that introduce you to my art & obsessive personality
- Everyone gets a free printable pdf that’s got bookmarks, a coloring page, and a bit of calligraphy
If you’re already on the list, I sent you a link to the printable in your email yesterday. Go look!
It’s pretty nifty, if I do say so myself. So join my list, and be one of us!
That Thing You Love, aka the calligraphy in the pdf, original art by Amy Crook
Categories: Words Words Words
Tags: info, words
I <3 Payment Plans
Sunday, June 8th, 2014
No, really, I do. Layaway, payment plans, installments agreements, whatever you want to call it, I love them to bits. They help buyers who want art but don’t have all the pennies in their budget today, and they help me.
As a working artist, money coming in at regular intervals is a really nice thing to have. It’s always good to know my boba tea budget is covered! Instant gratification aside, that commitment tells me you love my art enough to give it a good home. It’s like the extra little bit of love you show when you’re willing to wait for your new kitten to get fixed before it comes to its forever home.
Okay, really I just wanted you to think art = kittens for a minute.
You might be wondering, how does one set up a payment plan with an artist such as yourself? Well, it’s really simple: just ask me.
Answers, We Has Them
- I offer 3 payment plans, $25, $50 or $100/month. Even the lowest one is enough to get one piece of art paid off within a year.
- I’ll keep track of it in a shared Google Spreadsheet, so you can always see where you are in your payments and how much there is to go.
- I don’t charge any interest, but you won’t get your art until after you’ve sent the last payment.
- Your painting or drawing will be marked sold as soon as we come to an agreement, so you don’t have to worry someone else will swipe it while you’re paying.
- You can pay with Paypal, checks, or meeting up for coffee & handing me cash, whatever works. Well, okay, you can only do the last one if you’re local to the SF Bay Area (hi!). I can even set up a Paypal Subscription Payment that’ll charge you automagically.
- You can always double up if you get a windfall and get your art faster, or rearrange if you come to a tight spot. If you have to miss a payment for whatever reason, it’s cool, we’ll just pick it back up next time.
Agree With Me?
If you’ve fallen in love with something in the Floating Gallery and want to take it home with you, send me an email! We’ll work out an agreement to make that possible.
Got more questions? You can ask them here, or drop me a line. I’m always happy to chat.
Categories: Floating Gallery, Words Words Words
Tags: floating gallery, info, words
The Floating Gallery: How to Buy my Art
Saturday, September 14th, 2013
So what is a Floating Gallery, you ask?
Well, Dear Reader, it’s an itinerant art show of a sort, a virtual pop-up shop of strange surprises. Bimonthly for barely more than a week, the gallery floats in and sets up, offering an assortment of art originals both rare and strange.
- The Floating Gallery is open from the 1st through 8th of every even month, approximately midnight to midnight Pacific time.
- Original artwork will be displayed in the Floating Gallery for those 8 days only, and each piece is one of a kind. Once the Gallery floats away, those pieces will not be for sale again.
- My Art Patron’s List gets a few days before the 1st to sneak in and get a preview of the Gallery, and buy before the general public sees it.
- You can buy art from the Floating Gallery either by using the buy buttons on the page, or arranging a payment plan with me, but you have to decide before the 8th.
- You’ll see the little airship in the sidebar to the right if the Floating Gallery is open. Just click on it to go view the show!
- Other than commissions, this is the only way to buy my original art if you want to take a piece home. If you’re new and want to see what sort of art I make, check out my Portfolio of recent works.
Questions? Email me! I’m always happy to talk to my Dear Readers and Future Patrons.
Categories: Floating Gallery
Tags: floating gallery, info
The Winds of Change are Blowing
Monday, August 12th, 2013
My wonderful Starship Commodore Tara Swiger is doing an Exploration Party on her blog, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. I’m about to embark on a big exploration here at Antemortem Arts.
I’m exploring a less daily way of giving you art.
The blog is going to be the first thing to change, from daily art posts to less frequent and more blog-like posts. I’ll be showing you all the new Etsy swag as usual, but I’m also going to start writing more about my own enthusiasms, and posting more works in progress. I do so much work that centers in one way or another around what I’m reading, watching and fangirling that I want to share some of that excitement with you.
But yes, this means that Tentacle Tuesdays are no more. Sorry, Gonzo.
The current Art Shop is closing on August 31.
The big art shop with ALL the things in it will be closing at the end of this month. If there’s something you’ve been coveting, now is the time to find room in your budget or arrange a payment plan.
There won’t be any more new art for sale posted during the rest of August, though you’ll still get to see the finished pieces others have commissioned. Actually, there won’t be any more individual art sale posts on the blog at all.
Something wicked this way comes…
Well, not really wicked. Or at least any more wicked than usual.
On the 1st of each month, starting in September, I’ll make a big post of the new art from the previous month. You’ll be able to arrange a payment plan for the piece of art you love most, or buy it outright because you’re just that awesome. I’ll also throw a few select older pieces into the mix, at least at first. It might take me a few months to get the rhythm and flow of it right, but that’s what makes it an exploration.
After Amy-bedtime on the 8th, the “show” will close and I’ll go back to making art and doing commissions and client work, and getting things all ready for the next month. When things re-open on the first, it’ll be an entirely new mix of art, whatever I was inspired to make in the month prior.
If you’re already on my email list, you’ll get a preview a few days early, including the chance to call dibs on things before they go up on the blog.
I’m exploring new email stuff, too.
You can read more about it and sign up here, but here’s the basic gist:
- The old Daily Art emails will be renamed and continue to give you the blog posts, they just won’t be the same thing that you’re used to.
- The Art Patron’s list will give you the inside scoop on what’s new, as well as little private tidbits of info no one else gets.
- The Etsy Customer’s list will be just for those people who want to know about new cards, prints and swag coming out in the Etsy shop, plus coupon codes.
Amy’s still not dead yet on Etsy.
You can still buy cards, prints, and other such swag all month long.
I’m going to do some cleaning up here, too, by retiring some of the old designs next month to make room for the new holiday cards and generally freshen up the place. You’ll get to see new stuff, too — I’m exploring some ideas for new kinds of swag, and even a new coloring book.
It’s a whole new world!
And now that I’ve earwormed you, I hope you’ll come along with me on this new adventure, looking forward to future art and fannish squee. I’m always happy to hear what you think about things, either as blog comments or by email.
Categories: Words Words Words
Tags: info
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Letters and Light
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
Illuminated Alphabet by Amy Crook
It’s hard to believe it’s done, but my whole alphabet from A to Y & Z is complete. It’s amazing to see it all together, from the things I love to the ones I might’ve done a little differently. Some of the letters make me wish I was a better photographer, because the Q and ampersand are so much cooler in person than they photographed, and some of them just make me want to redo them until I can refine the idea, or go a totally different direction.
I decided to start the series on a whim, taking my new spiffy nontraditional art materials and combining them with the classic art form of calligraphy, which I’ve been doing for many years. Choosing the themes was an interesting challenge that gave the project a lot of structure, though there was also a lot of panicked googling (and how happy am I that xerography is a thing?) to try to fill in some of the letters. I learned new techniques, got new supplies, and revisited a lot of things I hadn’t done in years.
You’ll see a few more letters cropping up here and there — tomorrow’s post uses the design for my heraldic H to make a B for Baker Street, and I’ve already got one commission in the works for a different version of the J.
I got my code monkey to set up a page so you can see the whole alphabet together in clickable thumbnails, so if you’d like to go revisit your favorite letters, have at. You might even decide you need one of them to come home with you.
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: alphabet, info, words
How to Ask for Art as a Gift
Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
So, what if you’ve got your heart set on a piece of art you saw in a gallery, online, or elsewhere? How do you let it be known what you’re hoping for?
Well, part of this depends on whether you’re the sort of people that give each other a Very Specific List, or Broad Hints. For the former, you’ve got your answer — tell them! For the latter, it’s important to think about whether you have a specific piece you want or you just like anything by the artist in a certain style.
If there’s just one piece you want above all others, you can put it as your computer and phone wallpaper, forward the email or web page about it to the people in question, and generally talk about it in glowing terms. The phrase, “I know just where I’d put it,” is an excellent clue.
You can find out if the artist offers gift certificates and what their terms are. (I do! They’re generally good for a year from date of purchase.) Getting a few people to give you a gift certificate for an artist’s shop is a good way to get an original that’s out of reach of any one person.
Try to keep budget in mind.
Don’t ask someone who normally gives you a $20 gift card for a $2000 painting. Instead, you could ask them for a print, or a $20 gift card to that artist’s shop or gallery. You can hint to your friend who likes to organize these things that you’d love the piece, and if everyone chipped in you might be able to cover the balance. A lot of artists will help you out with payment plans, too, so you could use your friends’ generosity to make a head start on the painting of your dreams.
The group gift plan works really well for office Secret Santas, too, because you can casually say, “Oh, I’m asking all my friends for gift cards for this artist I like,” at work.
Make sure they know where to buy.
If your Mom’s not so great with the internet, make sure she knows how to call the gallery or contact the artist in a way that feels safe for her. If your friend in Buffalo wants to give you something from a gallery in San Diego, make sure they’ve got a site where they can order online. If it’s a local artist that shows in your favorite cafe, take your friends to coffee and then ask in front of them how one buys the art.
Figure out the seller’s policies.
If your gift-givers are the sort to want to feel clever and get you something kind of like the thing you asked for that they think is entirely superior, make sure the gallery or artist will exchange it. This also applies to things like gift cards, prints or crafts. The one original you want might also sell before your loved ones can buy it, so you need to figure out if the gallery or artist will help you find something to go in its place, or refund the money.
You can read more about my policies here, but remember I’m only one artist, and every small business is a little different.
Think about giving art to yourself.
Sometimes, we get so caught up in holiday madness we forget to take care of yourselves. Consider giving yourself the gift of art, something you can see every day and smile over during the busy season and after. Hints and lists aside, sometimes it’s good to just go for what you know you want and not have to worry about ending up with the ugly green one instead of the pretty blue one, or something from entirely the wrong artist.
Art can be a real mood-booster, especially if you buy it when you see it instead of worrying someone else will snap it up. A bit of self-care goes a long way during gift-giving season!
No matter what, remember that they tried.
If you do get something a bit disappointing, try to remember that, at least to most people, gift-giving is hard. It happens to be my super power, but even I have a harder time with some people than others. Even if you end up with something more worthy of Regretsy than your mantelpiece, smile and hope they put in the receipt.
It’s a cliche, but it really is the thought that counts. Even if that thought is a little bit awful.
Categories: Daily Art, Words Words Words
Tags: info, words
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