October Issue of Digital Paint Magazine

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October 20111

Wohoo! Another month behind us and winter is lurking just around the corner. I get excited about winter because it is always a time of break through’s with research. We just unpacked the new Canon printer last month and have been having a blast. With new materials to print on and new combinations of materials to try I won’t run out of testing projects for awhile.

We had a few nice webinars in the last few months with Marco Bucci in August, Nathan Smith in September and Heather Michelle in October a few days ago. Great stuff all of them. As I begin the process of putting together the Digital Art Summit for 2012 I would like input from the readers on who they might want to see. Work is already underway contacting artistd for the summit. While there are some folks we are talking with that I don’t have total commitments from yet, there are a few presenters who already have it in their calendars. Darrell Chitty, Odwin Rensen, Heather Michelle, Michael Campbell, Jim Cunningham, Cher Threinen Pendarvis, are a few of the folks we have lined up. Let me know if there is someone you think we should be talking to.

You will see the magazine will have a bit different look going forward. I am sad to say that Skip Allen and Joan Hamilton will no longer be able to write columns for us. We were blessed to have had them with us and sincerely appreciate the selfless time and effort they gave in putting together tutorials for all of us to read. Most of us are time poor so we all have to make decisions on where to best use the time allotted and we can only donate so much. So please support them in their future endeavors by visiting their websites and blogs as well as taking classes when they present themselves. Thank-you Skip and Joan! Classes just started October 22 at Digital Art Academy. A few of the classes include, Intro to Painter, Basics of Brush Making-Painter 12 and Basics of Watercolor-Painter 12.

So one way we are going to move forward with keeping a variety of content is to ask the readers to come forward. If you would like to write an occasional article let us know. We will be paying for tutorials that we will use in the mag and on the blog. You can find out more regarding our the tutorial requirements at DPM Contributors. As we are working on the page as we speak if it is not up when you check you can send an email to me.

Live well, Love much and Laugh often,

This magazine is free to distribute by any medium.

You can print it, email it, upload it on your web server. You may however not edit any part of this PDF, copy the content, or split the pages. This PDF must remain whole at all times, the content of which belongs to Digital Paint Magazine. All art and trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

Tim

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In This Issue An Interview with Rodney Pike

by Tim O’Neill

Cartoon

by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

Readers’ Gallery

by Charlie Mae

Landscape Tutorial #2

By Michael Campbell

A Blast from the Past An Interview with John Derry

by Tim O’Neill

Cover

“Sean and Ron on Set”

By Rodney Pike

Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

Marketing Buzz: Keyword Marketing Research

by Tim O’Neill

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Rodney Pike Tim: Hey everybody! Thanks for joining with us. This is Tim O’Neill from Digital Paint Magazine and Digital Arts Summit. Thank you for joining us. We’re gonna have a great time today. And with us I have illustrator Rodney Pike. If you haven’t seen any of Rodney’s work yet you’re gonna love the kind of thing that he does. I’ll be willing to bet that you have seen his work around. Maybe you just haven’t attached it with his name yet but you’ve definitely seen some of it. So, thank you Rodney for being with us and this is our second time of doing this.

Rodney: Well thank you Tim for your time. I appreciate the invitation.

Tim: So, Rodney tell me a little bit about where you grew up and a bit about your childhood.

Rodney: I grew up in Brethrens, LA. I lived not far from there now.

We have very close families so we’ve stuck together. I grew up in a very strict household but my Mom was very, very supportive of my interest in art which started at an extremely young age. I don’t know when I started getting interested in art but as long as I can remember I was in my room on a floor with sketchpads just going nuts with them.

My earliest influence was Mad Magazine. I used to copy characters and cartoons from Mad Magazine. I have an older brother who was unlucky.

He didn’t call himself an artist but he drew well and I’d admired him for that. I can remember as a child thinking wow, one day you know, if I could just draw as good as my brother , that’s my ultimate goal in life.

I pursued art and then, I don’t know maybe I was 10 to 12 years old when I saw for the first time the Norman Rockwell Store and I just totally fell in love with his work. I had up until that time starting collecting art books of different artists, mostly the masters. I had appreciation for all of that but when I found Rockwell just synched.

It was a really strong connection with his work and the type of work Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

George Washington

he did. I was amazed at how he could tell a story with a single image without a word. Norman Rockwell more than anybody shaped me as far as my direction and ultimately I ended up as an illustrator.

Tim: So how did you end up where you are now as an illustrator?

Rodney: I didn’t have acareer in 1980 and the job market was bad. So 4

after struggling for two years trying to make it as an artist in Louisiana I joined the military and I figured that would give me 4 years and save my money. I had plans to go to Arts Students League in New York City which is where Norman Rockwell studied. I wanted to go to the same school. After 6 years I got out and I got home and I got to looking at the cost for school and living in New York and I found out I was not going to make it with what I had saved.

Tim: So did you put your dream on hold for while then?

Rodney: At the same time I accidentally stumbled into the car business and got caught up making money and just working. As the years went

by I kind of got lost. My interest in art slowly slipped away, just doing life. I got married and kids. I’ve got five kids so that has been a long process raising kids and walked through all of that, supporting a family and everything. So, ultimately my art took a backseat for about 25 years. It was like the passion for art was totally gone. I still enjoyed seeing good art but I just couldn’t consider myself an artist anymore. It wasn’t there.

Tim: You grew up in which part of Louisiana, what town? You told me and I don’t remember.

Rodney: Baton Rouge. That is the capital.

Tim: In Baton Rouge. Okay.

And so you’re still down south. You’re still in Louisiana now. Where are you currently located?

Rodney: Definitely not in an art center.

I’m in Gonzales, Admiral Mike Mullen

Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

LA which is closer to New Orleans from Baton Rouge. I’m about 45 minutes from New Orleans. I’m here because my kids are here.

Tim: Yeah. I understand that.

Rodney: I like to stay close to them, to the family.

Tim: I have two other friends up in the area. I have one friend that is just in Mississippi just across the border there. Excellent artist and photographer and then my other friend, Darrell Chitty is a Bill Clinton impressionistic portrait artist.

He is in the Baton Rouge area. I can’t remember the exact community that he lives in but I have a couple artist friends that are in that area.

There is a group of artists down there producing some incredible art.

Rodney: Well I’ll tell you what, to be a successful portrait artist in that area they must be pretty good. Because there’s not much of a market for fine art in Louisiana you know. That’s why I’m taking advantage of the internet now and doing business elsewhere.

Tim: That is a good segue for us. You know, if it weren’t for the internet the things I’m doing I could definitely not be doing. I guess I could still be doing them but not making a living at it. Probably the same thing is true for you so how do you find getting business? I mean this is a big thing for people. How are you getting business from the internet? Go ahead and jump in on that, tell us about some areas that you find are really beneficial to people looking for online business.

Rodney: Yeah. Well I started doing what I do just over a year ago. I’m very, very green and brand new at this. What I did was I started doing photo manipulation I guess a little over a year ago at freakingnews. com. Freaking News is a pretty big organization and well known. I didn’t realize this right away because I was strictly doing this just for fun. After a while I found out my images were all over Google. It was the fact that I was intermittently submitting my images along 5

with keywords. I do a little bit about that from being a web designer. So all of those sites I belonged to I carefully put together a bunch of keywords. I had that for Freaking News and as a result everything that I did was on Google and this power media group. I first started with Facebook. Actually, I started blogs and it wasn’t doing anything at all because nobody was meeting all of us. I rapidly started building up friend for Facebook. I started a Fan Page and that’s picking up fast now. So I started branching out and I really attacked social media Arrogant all out. I realized that this is the way to go, I thought, this is gonna get me somewhere. I didn’t know a thing on where I was going but I was just going you know. And so I started producing work. I started working social networking sites and directories and things like that. I’m now a member of some 80 so different sites, directories and blogs. I recently expanded my social networking. I got into my own link on Flickr, Photobucket, Deviantart, LinkedIn. Tim: I think LinkedIn is where we met. How about the transition to Google plus?

Rodney: My blog has links of all of the places that I belong to but I started working on all of these things and I realized that the social media was changing. Google contacted me a few several months back and asked me to participate in the beta program for Google+. At the time I didn’t even know what that was. I told them sure. I try not to turn down any kind of offer for social networking and I went for it.

I’ve got a little bit of a head start and got in. I immediately saw the potential because when I joined within the first 24 hours or so I’ve had Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

about 3000 followers and that amazed me that it went so fast. I’m spending a little bit time here and I worked really hard to get myself into directories. There were a lot of spinoff websites from Google+ that recommend artists and they have recommended circles by your specific interests and all. That really paid off. I mean when they went public I got thousands of followers just overnight the day that they went public with Google+.

After this just after a month of doing this, I think I’ve got 11,000 Ron Howard circles now and this is just early stages of Google+. I’ve made some enormous business connections. It’s totally unlike Facebook. I had a lot of different friends but never made any business connections. With Google+ I I’ve made a lot of business connections. I’ve picked up work, some actual galleries that I’ve picked up on there. I’ve got three magazine covers through Google+ and actually I was talking with you Tim about this earlier today. This film company contacted me yesterday about doing the poster design and DVD editing design for a movie, they found me on google plus. I think the potential there was just enormous and I’m gonna work it hard you know. Because you’re looking at 50 million people I think they’re all out there now expecting another 500. The rate is sterling. It’s not uncommon for me to pick up a thousand circles overnight. I just wake up and wham! There are thousand more people.

Tim: Most people now have the opportunity to see what Twitter, Facebook, and LinkdIn did for business. It’s kind of like Google+ is the 6

beginning, it’s the ground floor. I don’t necessarily need to be an early adapter but I don’t want to wait years. The opportunity exists, like you said, to actually find groups of people that are really interested in your work. I have no doubt I’ll be able to get some sales as a result of being part of Google+.

Tim: Let me get back to our questions. I’ve kind of pulled you off track here. Sorry about that. You’ve told me a little bit about where you were in the car industry. You actually went from the car industry to pursuing art, is that right?

Rodney: Well, not exactly. Not immediately anyway. I was in the car business for many years. To get back to art I I first started with my photo manipulation. As I mentioned I discovered freakingnews.com by accident. I checked it out and it was a photo manipulation contest website. The contests were based on current news events. I entered in a few and enjoyed it. I was churning out enormous amount of work. At that point when doing photo manipulation I realized that I had found the medium that I was looking for. Photoshop was my home. It was like it was meant to be.

I’ve been doing photo manipulation and more recently gotten into the area of caricature illustration with the photo manipulation.

Kind of blending the two and stumbled into an niche that I didn’t know even existed. I kind of stumbled into something different Hillary Durer and people starting Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

taking notice of it.

I’ve done extremely well. I’m humbled to be in the position that I am right now being paid to do what I love to do.

I’m actually living my dream now. I still have a ways to go but I’m an illustrator now. That’s what I wanted to be as a child. I wanted to be an illustrator like Rockwell. That’s what I do now and that’s my profession.

I’m really excited about the future.

The future is very Robert Murdoch bright so I think I’m not putting any limits on my aspirations, I’m going for it.

Tim: That’s awesome! We’ve talked a little bit about that. I remember us talking about the number of people my age or five maybe ten years older returning to art from their choice of profession that they’ve been doing for 30 0r 40 years. Many people wanted to be an artist and they just did not see that as a viable opportunity to make a living then, so there are a lot of people coming into the industry right now just for fun. They don’t have to worry about the money part of it. They have the opportunity to do what they want and they are pursuing art again.

I personally think that’s great. There are a lot of people that don’t like that but I think it’s awesome. It’s awesome for the industry because a lot of new changes will come about. More and more people are out there creating and appreciating art, that can’t be anything but a good thing.

Rodney: Absolutely! I know I’ve got literally hundreds of friends most of them create art for a hobby. One that comes to mind is a dentist, 7

a friend of mind. He is a retired dentist in California and he’s moving way up the ranks. I think he’s about to pass me up on Freaking News in a Hall of Fame. He does it for fun. He’s retired and he enjoys it. He enjoys the interaction with other artists and loitering and sharing with other people sharing what his learned along the way.

name was Max Soto. He was a fun manipulator, a photographer and a manipulator. He is absolutely incredible. His work is unbelievable. I started looking and studying and discovering new artists that I haven’t heard of before. Artists like Sebastian Krueger, who I believe is the best caricaturist that ever lived. He still is an active painter now. He doesn’t do caricature work anymore. He does portraits on an enormous Tim: Who were some early mentors in your life? You’ve talked about scale. Sven Dorothy was another really good artist that affected me.

Norman Rockwell but who are some other people that inspired your Then there are a lot of artists that have had a profound impact on my creativity in your work today. life because I’ve gotten to know many of them personally. People like Rodney: Well my first and only real, real true life mentor was my junior Jason Zeller who was the king of political satire, a brilliant character high school art teacher. Her name was Dolores Valenweider. She was an artist and teacher. artists and one of the few that can do and teach at the same time. This one teacher of mine knew how to nurture each individual and help them Hannah Wilson, she’s a brilliant painter. There’s a lot of artist that have gotten to know Jessie Smith. He is an incredible artist. He’s a tattoo to develop their own talents and their own style on whatever medium that they wanted to artist. This is another medium that I’ve found that is really interesting to me. Tattoo artists/Enthusiasts are some of the most open-minded get into. She has people as far as art go that I’ve ever met in my life. I’ve very recently had an enormous impact on my entire had literally hundreds of influences. Not so much mentors but lots of life. You know we’re influences. Richard McDonald is an inspiration of mine. There are a lot of inspirational artists out there that they don’t do anything that has to recently connected do anything with me. Richard McDonald is a sculptor but he’s a brilliant in Facebook after sculptor and he inspires me. I think inspiration is everything when it many years. Then comes to art. I’m not really sure if you would probably agree with me as a young child, on this but it’s kind of hard to produce art if you’re not inspired.

I’ve studied the masters. I had a Tim: Yeah, it is. Fortunately, there are a lot of places that we can go pretty sizable library for inspiration today. I mean I’ve spent a ton of time, at least an hour as a kid. I’m also a daily looking at other people’s work and just immersing myself in art. I real big Van Gogh always find a segue into another idea or something that I’ve wanted to fan. There were a try and forgotten about. It just keeps things fresh for me and always lot of old masters keeps ideas changing and always moving. that influenced me Rodney: Absolutely. For me, I need to daily seek out inspiration. I but there was some mean, I’m fired up about what I do now but I wanna stay that way more recent artist because I lost it one time for a long period and I do not wanna lose that had a huge that. I’ve got a fire burning inside of me now and I’ve got passion for impact on what I what I do. I think I’ve said on one of the interviews that I think there’s do. I tell you there a friend of mine on Facebook and he has a saying “to keep feeding the was really one artist dragon” and I think that’s a pretty good analogy. You’ve got to feed that kind also made that fire because it could go out. You need to rekindle it. You need to an impact. His Tom Hanks daily seek out inspiration. I’ve got Jessie Smith’s art all over the place Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

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and different images of from Seth Dorothy to Godfrey Helmwine. Some of these artists that just blow me away. Godfrey Helmwine, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with him, he lives in a castle in Ireland.

Tim: That is cool.

Rodney: Quite an accomplished artist. I spend, like you, at least an hour after I get through my morning email I go out and look around. I have a hundred and fifty or so blogs that I follow and I just go through with those and gain a little bit of inspiration.

Tim: Yup, absolutely. Well we are getting down to the end of our time here. You and I have to go and feed the little kiddies that we have. I’m actually looking forward to that but one last question for you and then we knock off so we can get our kiddies fed. So, what advice do you have for new artists that want to begin to explore digital art or art in general? What would your recommendation be for those folks that look at your work and say, I really want to do that? Maybe they don’t want to be an illustrator but your work inspires them to find their own path.

What would your recommendation to them be in terms of the best way to go about on doing that?

Rodney: What you mentioned about finding their own direction is was very important. I tell people that if you admire someone’s work that’s great. Draw inspiration from it. Take everything you can away from it as far as inspiration and learning. People get a bit impatient in terms of developing a style. I think you just need to find what you love. Find what you enjoy. Whatever medium it is that you enjoy and just do it and have fun and jump into it head first. And seek that inspiration, like I said. You’ve got to enjoy and feed that dragon. It takes a lot of hours and hard work and dedication and sticking to it and doing things over and over and over again. I believe that if you believe in yourself and if you work hard at it you can achieve it. You can get there. And age, it doesn’t matter. I’m almost 50 years old and just launched an art career.

I think, hopefully that could be encouraging to everybody because it’s possible for anybody.

Tim: Yeah. I don’t think that it’s ever too late. One of the key things we talked about yesterday is how quickly you began to get freelance work. A lot of high level people looking at your work. You have a lot of jobs coming through from really high-end areas and that is not really Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

easy to do. You did it in a really short period of time by most people’s standards. So from the outside looking in, that’s an encouragement but I always liked to tell people things are not always what they seem. What I want to point out is it’s not a year of doing this just one hour a day. It’s a year of doing it 15, 16, 18 hours a day and there’s a huge difference with that. Sometimes Tim Burton people get the impression that can just kind of fiddle around with it and they will gonna rock and roll. That rarely happens. The difference between someone who is succeeding and someone who is not yet succeeding is simply the number of times they’ve failed. So, I appreciate the work that you put in and continue to put in and the absolute dedication that you have to your craft. I think it is exciting and we need more people out there doing that. I know our time is up and so I do wanna thank you again Rodney for hanging with us. I think this exciting interview is gonna be a nice spread for this October issue of Digital Paint Magazine and so thank you very much for being with us.

Rodney: Well thank you Tim. I’ll look forward to seeing it come out and I am honored on this opportunity. I really appreciate it.

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http: //cargocollective.com/victorlunnroc Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

“Traditional Versus Digital�

Victor Lunn-Rockliffe 10

Images by Charlie Mae Charlie lives on a farm in Indiana. She paints with oil and water colors. She has been a member of a variety of Juried art guilds and also used to teach fabric painting. She created these images after taking Nathan Smith’s webinar in September.

Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

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Landscape Tutorial #2

by Michael Campbell

Create Imaginary Landscapes from real photographs.

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

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Basic Original Photograph of Scene

Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

15

-+33%*+%$*53%#4-3+3$/4.%&'*21$:%Z-(+-%-*%&*''3&-%,"*-*.+(,"$%0#-"%&(4%93%2$31% #4%&*59#4(/*4%-*%&+3(-3%(4%#5(.3%*)%(%,'(&3%0#-"%3A#$-$%*4';%#4%;*2+%5#41: On Line Gallery L%0#''%$"(+3%0#-"%;*2%#4%-"#$%&'($$%-"3%$-3,$%L%034-%-"+*2."%-*%&+3(-3%-"#$%#5(.3:% b*2%5(;%2$3%-"3%$(53%#5(.3$%(41%&+3(-3%;*2+%$&343%-"34%;*2%&(4%.*%*2-%#4-*% (4*-"3+%(+3(%(41%-(E3%$*53%$4(,$%0"#&"%;*2%&(4%2$3%'(-3+%-*%&+3(-3%(4%#5(.3% 0"#&"%0#''%"(=3%(%133,3+%(41%5*+3%,*3/&%53(4#4.%)*+%;*2%-"(4%5#43:%>3%0#''% ,2-%-"3$3%2,%*4%(4%*4'#43%.(''3+;: 506&('036(%*#-") >"34%L%'**E31%(-%-"3$3%$4(,$%)*+%-"3%<+$-%/53%L%$(0%-"(-%-"3;%1#1%4*-%3A,+3$$% -"3%35*/*4%L%"(1%3A,3+#34&3%*4%5;%0('EC%-"3;%'(&E31%-"3%&*'*+$C%-"3;%$33531% -**%&*'1%(41%1+3(+;%$*%L%13&#131%-"(-%L%<+$-%0(4-31%-*%#4&+3($3%-"3%$(-2+(/*4% (41%(11%0(+5-"%-*%-"3%&*'*+%,('3D3:

Here are the four images taken at two different rivers .

Create Imaginary Landscapes from actual Photographs.

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

7#8"(#(603-1()8"&91($#'03&(0:('036($#.+)9#;"4 L%13&#131%L%0(4-31%(4%*'1%(9(41*431%9*(-%#4%5;%$&343%(41%L%034-%'**E#4.%)*+% *43: !"3%9*(-$%03+3%,"*-*.+(,"31%*4%(%1#c3+34-%+#=3+%*4%(4*-"3+%1(;:%L4$-3(1%*)% $"(131%9;%-+33$%-"3%,(+-%*)%-"3%I*#+3%0"3+3%L%)*241%-"3%9*(-$%0($%*,34%-*%-"3% $E;%(41%"3+3%L%1#1%4*-%3A,3+#34&3%-"3%$(53%-+(4T2#'#-;%L%"(1%9;%-"3%+#=3+%-"(-%

16

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Step 2.

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Step 1

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

17

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

18

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

19

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

20

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Steps Outlined.

O:%!(E3%7"*-*.+(,"$: It is often a good idea to reduce a composition to black and white tones to help to assess the compositional design. By removing the color it is sometimes easier to see if composition is working

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Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

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21

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m o r f t s A Bla ast the P As one of the original authors of Corel Painter with Mark Zimmer and Tom Hedges, John Derry has been a major proponent of the digital art movement since 1985. Both a tool user and tool maker, John shares his unique perspective.

Tell me where you grew up and a bit about your childhood.

I'm from Omaha, Nebraska. My father was an engineering draftsman. When I was little, we'd play a game in which I would draw a quick scribble and he would take it and add to it until it became a recognizable object. I have always thought that seeing the magic of something come from nothing is a part of what shaped me into an artist.

My mother was a self-taught pianist and we always had music in the house. Again, I was entranced with watching and hearing something expressive come out of nothing. This, too, I feel contributed towards my creative demeanor.

Where did you go to college?

I received my BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. My painting professor, Peter Hill, comes out of the Abstract Expressionist school of the 1950's. His style is hard-edge abstraction. I had been exposed to Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

American artist Robert Rauschenberg by a very good high school art teacher and I was always fascinated by the way in which he combined photographic elements with expressive brush work. I explored this merging of photography and expressive mark-making primarily through drawing and print-making (which I graduated one course shy of majoring in, as well). Peter had a lot of influence on me and encouraged me to go on to graduate school.

I got my MFA in Painting at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Cranbrook utilizes an interesting teaching style. Each department is comprised of 10-16 students (there are a total of 150 students in the school). A department is headed by an artist-in-residence.

The Painting department's artist-in-residence during my time there was George Ortman. George was a part of the original New York School of Abstract Expressionist group in Soho, New York City.

The graduate program is unusual because there are no "courses": all learning is self-directed under the guidance and supervision of the respective artist-in-residence. The primary learning tool is the critiqueâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a weekly session in which some of the students' work is "up" and the group 26

discusses each presentation a both technical and aesthetic levels. In this regimen, the students learn to both utilize criticism as well as give it. The experience was tough, but very fruitful.

Direction of growth and goals, where is the business going?

I graduated from Cranbrook just as the personal computer revolution was taking off. I had always had an interest in technology and followed the nascent personal computer industry. I spent 2 years as an artist for the Nebraska Arts Council's Artist-in-Residence program. It was during this stint that I was able to immerse myself in investigating the computer as an art tool, which culminated in employment as an artist for a small startup venture in 1985â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Time Arts, in Santa Rosa, California.

It was at Time Arts that I became involved in the tool-making of artistic paint software. I worked on Lumena, one of the first desktop paint systems aimed at artists. Later, we created Oasis, a paint application with natural media tendencies for the Macintosh. And then the fates brought me to Fractile Design, where Mark Zimmer, Tom Hedges, and I together to create Painter.

Having been fortunate to watch and be involved with digital art, I see the internet and the distribution of digitally created art as a parallel of the printing press and its role as an impetus of the Renaissance. My goal is to continue to get artists excited about this medium and its vast potential for extending personal expression via digital means.

Who are some of your favorite artist that inspired you?

Without a doubt, Robert Rauschenberg. He borrowed the expressive brush work of the Abstract Expressionists and combined it with photographic imagery in a manner that made it difficult to know where one medium ended and the other began. It was this media blurring that I was attracted to in high school and has been a driving passion ever since. Rauschenberg passed away last year; I had the good fortune to meet him several years ago.

Who were some early mentors in your life?

During childhood, I'd have to say Jon Gnagy. Gnagy was the original television art teacher. He had a weekly show and demonstrated various drawing techniques. I even had the requisite John Gnagy Drawing set.

My high school art teacher, Sister Peter Julian, was a huge influence.

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She was a graphic artist and taught me silk screen, as well as exposed me to contemporary art, including Rauschenberg. In college it was Peter Hill. Peter's example demonstrated to me that it is possible to base a career on art.

What are some of the biggest changes in the last few years specific to marketing?

The internet, by far. It is now feasibly possible to reach a world-wide audience with very little working capital. The trick is to rise above the noise level.

How long have you been Blogging?

I started my PixlBlog in January of 2007.

What other methods of social media marketing do you employ?

I currently use Facebook and Twitter, as well as posting on various digital art-related forums. I'm in the process of initiating my All Things Painter webinar brand. This technology has matured to the point that it is now possible to interact in realtime with a large online audience.

It avoids the high costs associated with workshops, travel, lodging, etc. Rather than try to engage a small number of students with high workshop fees, it is far easier to reach a large audience with a low-cost webinar experience.

Tell us about the message in your art. What would you like to express through your creations?

I try to provide multiple levels of interest. I start with an emotion and attempt to portray that feeling or expression in the piece. I often like to have the piece tell a story—which is open to the interpretation of the viewer. And I generally employ a visual puzzle for the viewer to work out: Am I looking at a painterly photograph or a photorealistic painting? In general, I want my pieces to provide an emotionally positive uplift for the viewer.

Do you listen to music when you are painting? If so, who?

Yes! I'm pretty eclectic: jazz, rock, classical. I never get tired of the Beatles. For contemporary, I'm currently addicted to the Fountains of Wayne—pure pop perfection.

What are your most immediate projects?

This magazine! My All Things Painter webinars. I do a fair amount of Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

expressive interpretation for the pro portrait photography market. I've recently released a set of Painter watercolor brushes for purchase and I may continue developing more brush sets if it looks like there is a viable market for them. I'm currently serving as Corel's Painter Ambassador-atlarge. In this role, I get to be Painter's main cheerleader. I'm pitching a title to lynda.com: The Ultimate Guide to Painter's Brushes. I'd like this title to be the "bible" of Painter's Brush Engine and how to use it to create your own ultimate expressive tools.

Where does your inspiration come from?

I've been doing art for so long that I've developed an ability I call, "being creative on command". I've been very lucky to have a career in which I'm paid to do what I love, which—at times—can hardly be called work. Being able to exercise my creativity on a daily basis serves to develop a sharpness that makes it quite easy to engage in creative projects without a lot of hand-wringing. Having said that, it continues to be a complete mystery to me where the spark of creativity comes from. It certainly seems to me that everything knowable is ultimately connected.

Tell me about the work with digital.

I came out of the analog age—paints &pigments—and got to not only watch the transition to the digital age, but partake in the development of some of its tools. I had a conversation with Mark Zimmer recently— he's the true father of Painter who wrote the original code—and he said, "You know, Painter was basically custom programmed for you."

It shocked me to hear that, but I guess it is true that it was my background in analog art tools that contributed to the creation of their digital equivalents. It is truly humbling to see the broad range of expressive art that has resulted from these tools. We never could have imagined in our wildest dreams that Painter's tools would be so broadly used to this day.

Have you had “process resistance:” people that balk at an image being produced in part digitally, if so how have you overcame that?

I dropped long ago the worries and arguments over whether imagery created with digital tools is or isn't Art. In my mind, I apply the same commitment in a digital environment that I apply in an analog one.

So—for me—there is no distinction: it's all valid art. Now that digital output is at an archival level, the next step is in bloom: merging digital 28

with analog. It begins with the craft of embellishment—adding hints of physical media to digital artwork output to paper and canvas. As a result, digital output is now being subsumed into the vocabulary of art media in general. Digital art is nothing more than another expressive tool.

What is your dream as an artist?

To inspire as many people as possible to utilize the tools of the digital age as a means to express themselves creatively to others.

What does your daily reading inlude?

I have several blogs that I check in with daily. Here are a few artrelated nuggets: Today’s Inspiration This blog by illustrator Leif Peng is dedicated to the Golden Era of Illustration Art, which was big on storytelling as it was used to accompany a written story. Much of this artform has been been replaced by photography.

Gurney Journey This is the blog of illustrator and author, James Gurney. Gurney is responsible for the Dinotopia series of illustrated stories. His illustration is amazing; Better yet, he freely discusses his techniques on his blog. There are many traditional techniques that can be borrowed for Painter. I find James’ blog a daily must-read.

Drawn! This Canadian-based blog covers illustration and cartooning.

It covers a lot of subjects and artists I would have otherwise not been made aware of. Lots of good illustration.

Lines & Colors This blog by Charley Parker is dedicated to illustration, but covers a lot of territory—including some digital topics—and is updated on a daily basis. I have discovered many interesting and talented artists working today via Drawn!.

Gorilla Artfare is a new collective art blog just dripping with talent!

Use this one to humble yourself! Good Stuff!

Hobbies, what do you do in down time?

Down time…what’s that!? Actually, I try to get out and photograph a variety of subject matter. Some of it eventually finds its way into my work. I play guitar. I’m self taught like my mom and have been for over 40 years, although I still consider myself a struggling guitarist. I think it’s good to have an alternative creative outlet that is a personal Digital Paint Magazine - October 2011

struggle…it keeps you honest with yourself. www.pixlart.com www.pixlart.blogspot.com www.twitter.com/John_Derry www.facebook.com/john_derry

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Marketing Buzz

By Tim O’Neill

Keyword Marketing Research Everyone wants more traffic. But most of us do not know how to excel at the one thing that will insure their site is jammed with traffic. That is, we fail to do anywhere near enough keyword research and then use those keywords in our content.

Granted reading one article will not make you an expert. But I can at least begin to bring you up to speed when it comes to finding visitor laden top search terms. To do so I will reveal four of the keyword research rules of thumb.

The first rule of thumb is simple. Do not settle for the obvious keyword phrases. I know, it sounds obvious but apparently it isn’t.

For example the term “easter baskets” gets 120 searches a day while going up against 420,00 other pages. That is not insurmountable, but I like less of a challenge. Especially when “personalized easter baskets” gets 109 searches a day and only has 615 competitors.

See the difference one word makes? Similar to the difference between lightning and a lightning bug, no? You get nearly the same number of searches with nowhere near the same number of competing pages.

The next secret rule of thumb is to compare the plural versus singular forms to see which is better. When it comes to this many webmasters tend to pile onto the wrong choice which is good news for us. Take the term “gold earrings” for example. It gets 168 daily searches in all engines, and has 1,540,000 competing pages in Google. While “gold earring” gets 84 daily searches and faces 440,000 competitors. In other words it has less than a third of the competition for half the searches.

So we’re on the right track. Best of all “italian gold earrings” is used by 52 searchers daily, and only has to fend off 514 pesky competitors.

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Your third keyword research tactic involves grabbing the low hanging fruit. Or what I call “orphan keywords”. Ideally you’re looking for search terms with less than 1000 competing pages in Google when searching for the EXACT phrase. 500 or less is better still. Of course the closer to 10 competing pages you get for a search term, the more likely it is your page will be to stumble into the top 10. These are true “orphan keywords” so named due to neglect by your competitors.

Then don’t forget to think outside the box just like your potential customers do. Say you had a law practice in California. One term you might consider is “criminal defense attorney”. That gets 131 searches but faces 1,450,000 competing pages, I’m not wild about those odds.

Plus the term really isn’t very targeted. Digging deeper I found that “criminal defense attorney LA” gets 85 daily searches. And only has 11,1100 pages to beat out. Not bad. Digging deeper still “criminal defense attorney la county” gets 84 daily searches. But only has 575 competing pages. Paydirt!

Many times “Geo targeting” will get you on the first page in the search engine results pages (SERPS). That is, using your keywords plus putting your geographical area with it. So for example, instead of using “wedding photographer” you would target “Phoenix Wedding Photographer”. This makes things much less competitive when you are only looking at a smaller area.

Never forget that keyword research is THE factor that determines the success or failure of potential traffic actually finding your site. That is of course after you dump the flash site you might have and replace it with an html site or a blog. If you have to keep your fun flash site and you just cant get rid of it then I suggest you lead with a blog and link 30

to your flash site for your galleries and so forth. Applying basic rules of thumb like these can help you do smarter optimized keyword marketing.

That in turn will help you attract more traffic from search engines more easily.

I know for most of us this is pain in the tail. I would rather paint.

Having said that I would like to sell more of my work so I have to spend time in marketing. If keyword research is all greek to you would like to know what free tools to use to find keywords and how you use them to your benefit there is more information on the blog about keywords.

We also will be putting more articles on the blog. We also have a short video course in keyword research that we market on other sites at Artist guide to keywords.

Artistic Impressions Embellishment is a two day hands-on intensive workshop designed for maximum educational discovery with the embellishment process.

You will need a few of your images to work with as well as your laptop.

No drawing skills required. Bring only your brain, body and motivation... in addition to your laptop.

We will have two days of digital painting and embellishment discovery that will crush the intimidating â&#x20AC;&#x153;real paintâ&#x20AC;? questions about adding traditional media finishes to your art.

We will delve into various step-by-step techniques that will show you how embellish your prints with oil paint.

Ok, here is the scoop. The cost of the workshop is $297. There are a ton of options for accommodations in our community of North Platte, Nebraska.

If you have interest in the workshop, call Tim at 308-534-2350 or email at topimages@msn.com.

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