The Storyteller: July 2017

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Portraits

"Weimy Goes home"

The last couple of weeks have been extremely busy here in the studio. I had taken up quite a few commissions and knew that these were subjects that needed complete attention. I rarely ever do portraits unless I get a special request for them. But when I saw the picture of the pet dog that the client sent me, I knew I had to paint her, those eyes could not be ignored!

It took me quite a few hours to paint her, but I think I have never been as happy about any project as much as I have been of this one. It was so exciting to see her come to life on paper.

and here is the 8x10 print that finally went home to California!

Also, I worked on this house portrait which was equally challenging with the angles and straight lines, but it's done!

I think this is just the beginning of a new phase in my art career, I never thought I would love working on such detailed subjects where staying inside the lines was crucial.

That's it for now, will be back with the desserts that I talked about in my previous post.

Have a nice weekend!

Friday, July 14, 2017

Etsy Celebrations

July 2015, I took a big step in pursuing my passion for art and watercolors, I opened my little shop on Etsy, a platform for handmade sellers and before I could blink, I found myself thrown into this huge ocean of artists creating a myriad of items and I was just a tiny little drop in that ocean. I soon realized that just to stay afloat would require a LOT of effort on my part, forget selling anything at all!. I had absolutely no knowledge, whatsoever, of SEO. I would list a piece and before I could go see it on the Etsy home page, it would get lost to be never found again! I knew that I had taken up a huge challenge but I did not give myself the permission to look back..no..moving forward was the only way and if that meant that I had to start from scratch, I was willing to do that.

I read and researched about SEO, got started on Instagram and got more active on social media and joined Etsy groups on FB. Heard whatever advise people had to offer about pricing, design, photos etc with an open mind. I had good success in my first year with a 100 sales, which was huge for me, especially since I started with no expectations at all and considering the fact that I am not good at promoting my shop or my work and in fact shy away from telling people that I sell my art assuming that they might feel like I am being pushy! lol!

And then, as I have mentioned before, I had to put my shop and art on hold for over 8 months due to certain unforseen circumstances. After that huge break, I opened again in March 2017 and thought that I would have to start over because it takes time to be found in searches and thats how online shops work ..searches! But, by the grace of God, I was proven wrong, I did way better than before! It took 2 months to settle in , but June and July have been great and I am really grateful to all those who have been following my art journey and have considered SANKETI for their art purchases.

July 17th will mark the second year of SANKETI and to thank you all for your support and encouragement, I have a promo going on in my shop and will send a 5"x7" MAP ART PRINT FREE with every order that includes an 8" x10" art print in it. The map will be of the state that the order was placed from.

THANK YOU!

In other news, we watercolor enthusiasts are enjoying a whole month dedicated to watercolor . It's #worldwatercolormonth..yayy! join in the fun over on FB and Insta or stop by Doodlewash.com our official host! Its 31 days..31 watercolors.!

I decided to do illustrations and take up new subjects and started the month with some fruits, moved on to bugs and butterflies and now desserts. Here are some of them..

Here I have compiled the fruits together ...

Will share the desserts in my next post.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend !

Monday, July 3, 2017

Happy 4th !

Happy 4th to all those here in the USA. Hope you have had a wonderful weekend so far!

After working on all the individual state maps that I shared in my previous post, I put them together and came up with two designs for the complete large USA map. One has them all together and the other has a little bit of space between the states so that you can still see the individual art on them. I was so excited to share this on Instagram last week and now they are available in my Etsy shop.

I have also started working on my next collection which will be 'Fruits' which will be my next post!

Also, another major update with regards to my shop is that I now have digital downloads / printables available in my Etsy shop. After giving a lot of thought to the requests that I had receiving for printables, I went ahead and made some available and to begin, you will be able to download some of my hand lettered pieces from my 'Minimalistic' collection. Hope this helps those who are abroad and unable to purchase my work since I do not ship international as yet! This one's for you!

Here are some of them..