I've been down with a nasty cold that seems to be hitting everyone and because of that I've missed a couple of work days........not good for the already struggling self employed.  
I have managed though to at least get started on the silly animal paintings that were commissioned from my decorator friend in Florida who's opening a new restaurant.

Make the girls sexy were my instructions and I find this really difficult.  I'd much rather be painting a still life than silly animals but I guess its good to step out of your comfort zone now and then.  I'm still putting some finishing touches on her.  I still have a monkey, giraffe, hippo and zebra to go, then a larger painting with a monkey couple.
You can see I've relisted some small paintings on ebay and have started with lower starting bids hoping to get things moving.....my new car fund is not growing :-(
I got a couple of books that I was able to read while trying to recover from this cold......Craft Business Power by Jason and Cinnamon Miles......its about starting an online business and there's a lot of focus on ebay.  The other book is called Etsypreneurship and deals with Etsy (of course) and is really about the 'business' of starting a business, taxes, business plans, marketing etc.  Both pretty quick reads but I'm not sure there was anything in them that I didn't already know, it seems to me the most important thing about trying to sell online is consistency and reaching out via social networking, and those are the things I need to get better at.

What the heck is 'metal clay' I asked myself?  Can't remember how I landed on this website Craftcast.com but land there I did.  Its a website that offers recorded and live craft lessons and while there were no current live classes listed there was quite an extensive list of downloadable recorded lessons that could be purchased, the majority having to do with working with 'metal clay'........I'd never heard of it?  Not surprising though since I don't create jewelry or even wear it much but.....I'm intrigued.

So I got the first painting started

I even got it further than this but I hated it.  I'm just not comfortable or good at doing ridiculous characters, so she'll get scrapped and I'll start again.  Yes it was so awful I can't bring myself to show it.

I went out to clean this morning and on my way home I stopped at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop and found this, what looked to be a well used vintage chamber pot for $5.  She cleaned up well but I'm going to feel dirty for at least a week.......yuck.

I'm still waiting to hear back from my landlady about the cost to rent the room across the hall from my apartment for a studio.

Today was spent relaxing :-)  A friend and I went thrift shopping this morning and I was able to find three old chairs for my dining table, one at http://www.phantasticphinds.com/ 
for $17

and two others by shear chance at a shop further up the street.

I'm going to try and restore the old cane seats in these two.

I say by chance because we were walking out of the shop not seeing anything I liked when the owner came out and asked what I was looking for.  He instructed us to come to the back of the building via a narrow alley and there they were two charming little chairs circa 1930/40, perfect for what I was looking for.......the pair for $30.
On my way home I stopped at a local thrift shop and found this fabulous bowl for $3.

Got home and made some amazing peanut butter fudge, then indulged and had nachos for supper........good thing it'll soon be time for winter clothing, I can hide my badness ;-)

I'm entertaining yet another option regarding moving or staying put.  I've asked my landlady about a room that is across the hall from my apartment, its just a large single room that she's currently using to store some of her things, I asked her about the possibility of renting it as studio space.  She did tell me that it would be possible, that she had rented it out to other artists in the past.  Now I'm just waiting to hear back from her about how much she would want for it.
I'm still vacillating between staying here (in the Germantown section of Philly) or moving back to the suburb of Narberth.......the quaint little town that I adore (but that is oh so expensive).

Tomorrow I start my sketches for the Florida restaurant job and I'll post photos as I go along.

Well.....looks like its on to plan B.  I got quite a lift to my ego when my little ACEO paintings would sell quickly on ebay but that appears to have stopped.  I will just keep them listed for sale here on my blog and move on to working on larger pieces that I will hope to sell through the DailyPaintWorks site.......and of course I have the restaurant paintings to focus on.
I continue to be dazzled by mother nature since my return to the northeast.  This tree is at a home I work in and it was simply gorgeous this summer covered in these white flowers.

But those flowers have now been replaced with what I'm assuming are the trees seeds.  I have never seen a tree like this before, does anyone know what it is?  The seeds(or fruit?) look like prickly cherries.

Fascinating.

I had my first sale on my Etsy prints today to add to my car savings :-) I feel like the tv show Two Broke Girls....new total $37.25 cha-ching

I also got a deposit for more paintings to add to this collection...

Remember the Florida restaurant(s) that commissioned these several weeks ago? The then hopeful prospective owners are no longer involved in those projects and have move on to a new restaurant where these will be hung for sale.......a new perk, their new partner owns a shop and maybe that will produce more work for me :-)

I was looking through some old posts and I can't believe its been almost five years ago that I made these mural lesson videos, they look so crude (well let's admit it they were) to me now but I did have fun making them and trying to share what I'd learned as a self taught muralist. A walk down memory lane here's part 3 of creating a shuttered window with a sunset scene.

So I just signed up with DAILYPAINTWORKS.com and we'll see how it goes.  What I like about it is that you can either auction through them or link to your ebay auctions and since I have three paintings listed on ebay already I was able to just link to them. 
I'm trying to decide whether to relist them (if not sold) on ebay or just use the DPW auction.  I feel like listing on ebay where some people already know to look for me will give me double exposure, but at the same time I'd like to increase my starting bids and the higher price may be more acceptable to the DPW audience.....still, extra exposure is a good thing.  I'm also going to wean myself away from the tiny (2.5"x3.5") ACEO paintings and start painting a bit larger.
Its $12.95 a month to 'join' DPW and just a 3% commission on (their) auction sales, listing is free and I believe there is no commission taken on straight sales.  Once I get an idea of what buyers are willing to pay for my work I can switch to straight sales.

I spent most of this day online looking for more ways to sell my art and came across this site which made the looking a lot easier.....125+ Places Artists Can Sell Online.
While checking out some of her links this one caught my attention, not that my art would work here but its worth a mention, Bucket Feet.....interesting name eh?

Here's another site if your designs would work well on fabric... DENY Designs.

I could probably spend the entire weekend looking through all these sites.  I think I might give
Daily Paint Works a serious look.

And this looks really cool Fotomoto, a print widget you can incorporate into your existing website/blog etc that allows the buyer to choose prints of your work in various sizes and forms, very cool, then Fotomoto takes it from there, printing/shipping etc. LOVE IT!

And are you looking for a rep to help with licensing, try this site, Next Day Art.

Oh for goodness sake I just got engulfed in a live auction site, anyone else ever heard of Tophatter.com?  It's a first for me, and I hate to admit fun to watch.  Anyway it is another way to sell stuff you've got.....or buy of course :-)
Well this has been too time consuming, you guys go check out some of the links I've listed and the Artsyshark site with the 125+ where to sell your art links....have fun!