Attracting Customers When Plein Air Painting

You set out to do your landscape painting in the great outdoors. You think it's just going to be you, your painting supplies and the natural world. Well, you're wrong. There's always the chance that passers-by will notice you hard at work. They may carry on walking or they may start a conversation with you. Every single person is a potential customer, so do you turn these passers-by into customers?

Will strangers really buy my art?

When people stop and talk to you, they're showing that they're interested. Not everyone who stops to talk will end up buying your art, though. But the more time you spend plein air painting, the more people will speak to you and the greater chance you stand of finding new customers. Even if you only gain one or two new customers, every little helps. You wouldn't have gained those customers if you'd spend that time painting in a studio.

Be friendly and polite

This person is going out of their way to engage in conversation with you. Even if you don't want to speak to anyone, you have to be friendly and polite. If you show no interest at all, the person, your potential customer, is just going to walk away and there's a potential sale lost. Sales work both ways, so if the potential customer has started reaching out to you, it's up to you to reciprocate.

Get the conversation going

Don't spend the whole conversation talking about yourself, but do let the potential customer know who you are. Mention an upcoming exhibition and say when and where it's going to be. Tell them about paintings you've done before. Ask them if they've done any painting and talk about what you both enjoy about painting. Offer some interesting facts about the place you're painting. This is an opportunity to sell your work, so make the most of it, but don't overdo it.

Offer your details

The potential customer will leave at some point, so they have to have a means of contacting you. If they leave and they have no way of getting in touch with you, chances are they're not going to try to get in touch with you. Offer them a business card with your details on it. Better yet, offer them a free photograph of the painting you're working. The potential customer will be delighted to be receiving something for nothing.

Let them end the conversation.

No matter which way the conversation's going, you should always let the customer end it on their terms. They started it, so they should choose when to finish it. Try to keep them talking for as long as possible and get them interested about your work. If you end the conversation, you're showing you're not interested in taking things further. Of course, do be polite if the potential customer decides to leave or even politely declines your offer of a business card or free photo.

These are just a few tips to help turn a passer-by into a customer. Plein air painting offers a great way to gain new customers and build up your customer base. It can be very easy to do and having a nice conversation that results in a new customer is a nice bonus. Have you got any more tips?

By Joanne Perkins 

Why the iPod Is A Horrible Idea for Wedding Reception Music

So you are on a tight wedding budget, and wondering where you can cut a few corners. Unfortunately, many couples have been wrongly advised to skimp on the reception entertainment.

In recent years, there have been several articles about how the technology of the day will allow you to "self-serve" your reception music via the iPod, as opposed to hiring a DJ. While the concept is interesting, and is initially attractive from a purely economic standpoint, there are several aspects of doing this that are unrealistic, inconvenient, inefficient, and cost far more than you think. Let's look at the facts of most receptions and see why this idea has no legs.

RECEPTION VENUE HOUSE SOUND

The typical reception venue's house sound system will consist of ceiling mount speakers. While these speakers are adequate for speeches and dinner music, they lack the frequency range, power, and low-end response for a party. Would you dance to an overhead speaker with less frequency response than a good car stereo? To overcome this issue, the option would be to rent a professional sound system at a cost of $400-$500. Keep in mind that this price range typically does not include delivery, set up, break down, or return of the equipment to the rental facility. Of course, you could do all that yourself, or get Uncle John to do it, but isn't this supposed to be a celebration for you and your guests to enjoy?

DJ VERSUS iPod... The rest of the story.

Aside from the sound system, there is dance lighting, emcee duties, planning assistance, music library, and the rarely understood talent of "reading a crowd". None of these things can be provided by an iPod.

Leaving the emcee duties to a family member may sound like a good idea, but do you want Uncle John working at the reception? Your family members and friends are there to celebrate with you. This also applies to the music flow. Will you simply create a playlist and let it go for 4-5 hours? What about timing? Will you spend hours calculating the timing of the music? If not, will Uncle John have double duty? What about requests? Will the iPod look at your dance floor, see that it is empty, and do something to fill it?

Good Disc Jockeys will spend ample time consulting with you on the flow and musical choices for your reception, and use his or her professional experience to properly announce your grand entrance, and the events of your timeline. They will also read your crowd, co-ordinate with the venue staff, photographers, and other vendors to make sure that everyone is in their proper place at the proper time.

Do yourself a favor the next time you read an article that says you should do it yourself... Hire a professional DJ within your budget. Expect to spend at least $700 on a quality wedding DJ service, and avoid DJ brokerage services. Statistics show that nearly 80% of people remember the entertainment more than any other aspect of the reception. Save the iPod for personal use.

By Phil A Tucker 

5 Tips on Building an Effective Website for Artists

What follows are five effective tips for building the type of website that will garner a maximum response. Your website should focus visitors on the works you have created and minimize any distractions.

Buy your Own Website

You don't want to use any "free" web hosting services because they are never free. They are paid for by distracting advertisements and have domain names so long and confusing that no one will ever work their way back to the website. The myriad of ads will make your art look bad and worse, gives the website the appearance of being cheap and tawdry. This is why having your own website will work wonders for your art. Plus, purchasing a good website today is very cheap and well worth the effort.

Be Sure its Mobile Compatible

Today, more people use mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to surf the web. This means that your website needs to be compatible with these devices in some manner so that your work can stand out. While your artwork may not look stunning squeezed down to a 4" screen, if your website is compatible then at least it will be functional and useful to those who want to view what you've accomplished.

Remember Image Sizing

One of the biggest problems that many websites for artists have is that their images are simply too large or take up too much space. This can be problematic for downloading your website and the slower it goes and the more likely people will go somewhere else rather than wait. This means that you have to be extra careful about the size and type of image that you display. For example, a.jpeg displays nearly as well as a.bitmap, but takes up only a fraction of the space. It's okay to use one big image on the home page, but limit your pictures to something reasonable for the rest of the pages so that they load faster.

Be User Friendly

This means make your website as friendly and open to visit as possible. You don't want to force any registration, passwords or the like. Plus, you'll want your website to be as easy to navigate as possible so that visitors can find everything that you have to offer. Think of your website as a free gallery for everyone to see and visit.

Be Clear about Purchases

When offering your works of art, the prices you charge should be reasonable for the effort that you put in. Be sure that you make purchasing the art easy and simple, plus you will need to offer a return and refund policy. If you don't, then expect few sales at best since many buyers will want to see the art with their own eyes first.

By following these tips, you can create a more effective website for artists that work for you.

By Matt McWilliam 

An Awesome Career Graph of the Music Magician David Sylvain

As an artist, Sylvain has a shadow that has stretched across 30 years of music history; his immaculately written lyrics have provided inspiration for a number of artists with his songs of spiritual and emotional quest, singer and composer David Sylvain really occupies his own musical space. David Sylvain is a former English singer-songwriter and musician born in Backenham on 23 February 1958. He is a son of a plasterer and a housewife. He was educated at Cat Ford Boys' School, at Cat ford, and South East London. In his 16 years of age, he along with his brother Steve planned to form a band, which lately became famous in the name of Band Japan.

Their other comrades of that band were guitarist Rob Dean, bassist Mick Kern, keyboardist Richard Barbieri and Sylvain's Brother Steve Jansen as a drummer and this group starts their dream journey as a group of friends. A changed had been coming to the band Japan after they signed the contract with renowned Hansa, and therefore, they move fast and grab the number-one spot of rock band ranking in all over the Europe and its surrounding areas. The band suffered from personal and creative clashes, particularly between Sylvain and Kern. And that clash became bigger after Sylvain's relationship with Kern's former girlfriend Yuka Fujii, a photographer, artist and designer. The band Japan was one of the leading bands of the New Romantic movement at the start of the 80s.

Before dissolving, Japan played their final concerts in December 1982. The demise of Sylvain's band in Japan has led him on a more adventurous path that saw him delivering deeper into the worlds of avant-garde, jazz, ambient and improvised music. Furthermore, in this year Sylvain released his first solo joint effort with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Sakamoto's first contribution to Sylvain's work though was as a co-writer of "Taking Islands in Africa."

Sylvain's debut solo album, Brilliant Trees in 1984, got some critical acclamation, and it featured the UK Top 20 single Red Guitar. The time span of between 1980 and 1990 David started to concentrate into his solo career. In 1985, Sylvain released an instrumental EP Word with the Shaman, in collaboration with Hassel, Jansen and Czukay, a recording that re-released the same year as full-length album Alchemy: an Index of Possibilities. The album contained important contributions from renowned guitarists Robert Fripp of King Crimson and Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe. In 1990, Sylvain collaborated with Russell Mills and Ian Walton on the elaborate multi-media installation using sculpture, sound and light titled Ember Glance - The Permanence of Memory.

Furthermore, in 1990, Sylvain reunites with the former members of Japan for a new project. A restless soul and a poet, he became one of the shapeliest-shifting artists in a modern form of music. In the early 1990s, guitarist Robert Fripp invites Sylvain to sing with progressive rock stalwarts King Crimson. Sylvain declines the invite, but Sylvain and Frappe recorded the album 'The First Day' released in July 1993. He released his next album in the year of 1999, by the name of "Dead Bees on a cake", which was his first proper solo album after the "secret of the beehive".

After that, Sylvain reached to the limelight for several times with his wonderful experiments in music, but all those times he came along with some collaboration. Their skills along with Sylvain's voice tune made those collaborations memorable for all the time. Though after 1999, he released only two albums under his name, one of them is "Blemish", which was based on Sylvain's new invented creation of music on 'Samadhi sound', and that album became more popular due to that experimental town in the year of 2003. After Blemish, Sylvain's fans were lucky to beat him for one time more in 2009, the album name was Manafon. This is an average hit till today.

By Anwar Ali Ansari

Power Ranking of Fantasia Sequences

The Pastoral Symphony segment suffers from being the most childish of all the sequences. The humor suffers from too much slapstick. It is not as innovative as in The Sorcerer's Apprentice or Dance of the Hours. Furthermore, the animation is bland and not particularly memorable. Walt Disney had originally intended for the centaurs to be much more wild and beastlike, but concerns by the studio and censors ended these plans. As a result, the centaurs are merely pretty. There are some good moments, such as the storm scene, but this ends before it can become too threatening. The segment is cute, but not much else.

6. Nutcracker Suite

This second piece of Fantasia is extremely beautiful, but that is about all there is to say about it. Scenes such as leaves falling, ice fairies, and Russian flowers are beautiful to look at, but because there is no story, they are ultimately forgettable. This number is gorgeous to look at, but when one is done watching the film, it is hard to remember. This is still better, however, than being geometrically animated and forgettable, like the flamingo with a yo-yo in Fantasia 2000.

5. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

This opening piece is meant to represent what the audience imagines while hearing a piece. At first the viewer can plainly see the instruments. Then one can see images that could be perceived as instruments. Finally the instruments disappear completely.

This is one of the reasons I like Fantasia. This sequence does not have a story; rather it introduces the audience to the concept of Fantasia, for example, when the strings' moving bows become an abstract. The sequence does not pander to children and put in a story, as Fantasia 2000 did with its "abstract" number, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Yet the earlier opening number has more educational interest because it introduces the orchestra.

This sequence has beautiful animation and I admire the ambition of it, but ultimately it lacks the emotional power of the final four on the list.

4. The Sorcerer's Apprentice

This is probably the most famous sequence from Fantasia, and justifiably so. Making Mickey Mouse a sorcerer in the first place is funny. Then we see how badly he botches his simple task of mopping the floor, and while we're laughing, we also sympathize.

We've all probably messed up some simple job, but not spectacularly as he does. The juxtaposition of his fantasy of ruling the universe with the out of control flood inspires sympathetic pity and anxiety, but also laughter at the ridiculous grandiosity of his aspirations. When the brooms multiply so dramatically, it's funny, but also terrifying because they are trying to drown poor Mickey. Likewise, the sorcerer's return is frightening, reassuring, and funny all at once. Mickey has been caught, and everyone can identify with the fear that inspires. At the same time, he puts an end to the madness Mickey started. And the ease with which he does so, as well as the bop on the bottom he administers with the broom, is comical.

While it is entertaining, however, this sequence does not have the fast-paced humor of the next entry on this list or the beautiful animation of the final two entries. It is excellent, but the final three here are great.

3. Dance of the Hours

This is arguably the high point of humor in Fantasia. The dance between the hippo and the alligator is the ultimate anti-Ginger Rodgers and Fred Astaire. While that pair personified grace, the hippo smushes the alligator, who nevertheless retains his romantic drive and debonair aplomb. The humor comes from the fact that both seem to think that they are graceful. In fact all the animals seem to believe that they are great dancers.

Though this sequence is highly amusing, the final two on my list combine drama with masterful combinations of animation and music that tell memorable and moving stories.

2. Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria

Night on Bald Mounta

in is my favorite part of Fantasia. The animation, showcasing the dead returning to the devil captures the insane evil evoked by the music. Bela Lugosi modeled for the animation of the devil, and his smile can be seen as the devil revels in torturing the souls in his hands. There can be no mistaking who he is as soon as he emerges from the mountain.

Why is this sequence on the number 2 spot then? For one reason: Ave Maria comes after it. Ave Maria is nice, but it is blandly, even sentimentally, good. The choral introduction and accompaniment emphasize the goody-ness with syrupy, inappropriate slides, and the personal, pleading quality of the prayer in the piece is reduced when the choir soars over the high parts of the solo, implying that heavenly balm will smooth over actual, human troubles. This is replicated in the animation, which reduces people to faceless lights in the beginning, then soars to saccharine heavenly vistas by the end.

Night on Bald Mountain, as good as it is, has the major flaw of being followed by an unmemorable number. But I believe that the final entry on this list encapsulates everything good about Fantasia and has no flaws.

1. Rite of Spring

This sequence manages to contain all the aspects that make Fantasia good. It has powerful, abstract visuals, such as the opening lava storm. It also has the same terrifying, raw almost primitive might as Night on Bald Mountain. This time, however, it is not softened by a feel-good Ave Maria choir; rather the dinosaurs just die. It does not explain why to children, thus allowing them to draw their own conclusions. The films Dinosaur, and more recently Walking with Dinosaurs, could have taken a lesson from this sequence. One does not have to put in dialogue and frame things as good versus evil for children to be interested.

By William D Wehrs

The Truth About The Michael Jackson Hologram Show - 2014 Billboard Awards

It was June 25th 2009 when Michael Jackson aka the king of pop at 50 years old came to an untimely end, just before the O2 comeback tour 'This Is It.' Indeed there has been plentiful publication out there covering the suspicious circumstances surrounding Michael's death. Whether it is speculation or fact you can draw your own conclusions.

It has to be said however, some pretty strange things happened before and after his death. Before the embarkation of the O2 tour his health came into question; whether or not he would be able to get through the gruelling schedule and handle the pressures...

At a financial low, one of his family members made the comment that he was worth more dead than alive. A comment like that is bound arouse suspicion. Then there was the apparent major 'slip up' by his brother Jermaine during an interview rousing more suspicion suggesting that Michael was still alive and had been secretly flown out of the country... Like I said I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. Having said that, will we ever know?

One thing for sure Michael had been quite vocal, expressing dissatisfaction over the 'evils of the music industry.' Then it looked like he was planning going on talks to expose the elite hidden powers that be with their conspiracies planned to achieve global domination...

Fast forward to recent times, last Sunday we had the 2014 Billboard Awards staged at Las Vegas. Indeed, the king of pop was back, this time in holographic form. The 'evils of the music industry' were demonstrated again by exploiting Michael's image. Still Michael hasn't got away from the elite hidden powers that be controlled music industry and certain connected individuals he so loathed.

Ironically, the song performed was 'Slave to Rhythm' taken from the posthumous album entitled 'Xscape.' Ironic because it was the music industry that had directly and indirectly sealed his inescapable fate.

The performance

On watching the performance I was truly taken aback. The performance had all the hallmarks of the elite hidden powers that be, indicating they had staged it. It starts off with a row of policemen fully clad in riot gear. With helicopters heard and spotlights giving us the impression of an oppressive police state scenario, there's no doubt that this is typical of other elite controlled music industry ideas. It has been the fashion for while.

Then, centre stage, surrounding Michael's holographic projection sat at a throne is a number of occult symbols signifying the control of the elite hidden powers that be. I found the whole thing very strange: Then Michael's ghost figure gets up and starts singing and dancing...

When Michael sits down on the throne again the audience start to clap and cheer. Okay, the audience are aware that Michael died some years ago and that they're expressing their appreciation to a ghost, but I wondered how many knew about the hidden hand controlling the settings and their awful planned agenda.

By Paul A Philip

Singing Success? Reviews And Ideas To Hone Your Voice

Everyone is gifted with talents such as singing, dancing and even acting. Some individuals may even have numerous talents that can be used to their advantage. These talents can also help individuals open new opportunities to make their future better. As an individual, gifted with talent, it is best to hone your skills.

When it comes to singing, not everyone has a wonderful voice. Individuals with charming and harmonious voice will have the advantage when it comes to singing. Because of persistence and determination, they can achieve singing success. Reviews and ideas are listed below to help you hone your voice.

Get rid of bad habits - Smoking, drinking and even other bad habits may affect your voice. Therefore, it is best to get rid of such routine. By removing

these routines in your daily life, you can be sure that you can protect your vocal chords from factors that may ruin it. It is also essential to have a healthy diet and body to ensure that you can improve your skills.

Invest in time and effort - Even if you have a lovely voice that can serenade thousands of people, it is still important to invest time and effort to practice. As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect." So, as an aspiring singer in karaoke bars or a performer on the stage, you need to spend sufficient time practicing to further improve the quality of your voice. You also need to exert effort to improve your skills rather than being satisfied with what you have. With this, you can be on top of the competition. Another way to improve is to look for vocal exercises and routines that will allow you to warm your vocal chords before singing.

Opt for singing lessons - Most artists these days also sign up for singing or voice lessons. This is needed to help you learn the best practices when singing. Singing lessons can also help you ensure that you can enjoy other singing exercises such as diaphragm breathing techniques, vocal tone and pitch training, resonance and strength training, and even agility and flexibility. However, before signing up for singing lessons, you need to look for a reputable school to help you achieve your goal. Reviews from experts can be a good option to find the best school. This can help you determine the effectiveness and quality of teaching that you need. Reviews can also help you evaluate singing lesson providers.

By Amanda W Williams