How to win an original painting in seven easy steps!

1) Visit http://oneartistsjourney.com/ or http://shaunellsworth.com/ (Make sure you look at the “100 paintings in 100 days” gallery on shaunellsworth.com) and pick your favorite paintings
2) Then go to http://oneartistsjourney.com/
3) Click on the “Twitter” link in the top right corner of the home page.
4) It will take you to Twitter.com. If you have an account, great. If you don’t, set one up. It is free.
5) You should land on my Twitter page for “shaunartist.” If you don’t, go to http://twitter.com/shaunartist
6) In the top left, just under my picture, is a “follow” button. Click on it.
7) Next, hit “home” and make a post under “What are you doing?” Tell us which of my paintings you like. Include a link to the page with the photo of the painting you like. Get the link by clicking on your favorite painting and then copying the address in the browser window.

It should look something like this:

I like Shaun Ellsworth’s painting “Fields.” You can see it at http://oneartistsjourney.com/2009/10/one-month-is-past/

(Remember, you have 140 characters to get your message across, so you may need to adjust what you say. Twitter will probably shorten the link part for you.)

And now you are entered to win your favorite painting! Once you “follow” me, I will “follow” you and all your tweets of all your favorite paintings will be entered in the drawing.

You can enter as many times as you want, but only one per painting title per day.

Answers to all your questions

What are you doing?
I am painting 100 paintings in 100 days. This challenge will end on New Years Eve, 2009. I would love to give away a painting to a fan to celebrate the end of the challenge.  If you are reading this, I hope you are a fan – and I hope you win a painting.

The winner of the contest will win an original painting, ready to be framed. This isn’t a print or reproduction of any kind. The winner will get the real deal. And it will be ready for you to pick out your favorite frame at Aaron Bros. or Michael’s.

Is there a Catch?
Of course there is a catch! I want to start some online buzz by having people tweet about my art. That is where you come in. You tweet about my art and tell the world about your favorite painting and that tweet counts as one entry in the contest.

But that is the ONLY catch, I am even going to pay for shipping inside the US. If you are out of the US, you will need to pay the difference between what it will cost to ship domestic and international.

What are the Rules?
In order for the contest to be valid, at least 100 people must “follow” me and post at least one “favorite painting” tweet. You can find out how many people are following me by going to my Twitter page at: http://twitter.com/shaunartist

It would benefit you to tell your friends about this contest so we make sure and reach the 100 followers number. I purposefully set the number low so I can give away a painting.

Your tweet must follow the format. “1) I like/love/adore/dream of owning, etc. 2) Shaun Ellsworth’s painting, (Painting Title). 3) Link (url) of page with the picture on it. The link should be from either from http://oneartistsjourney.com or http://shaunellsworth.com . You can just copy the link from the address bar in your browser when you are on the page of your favorite painting.

Check the websites often because I will be posting new paintings weekly. You might change your mind and want a newer painting. Tweet about the newer painting and it will become another entry for you. Then if you change your mind and an old tweet of yours wins, you can still get the latest favorite painting that you tweeted about – if it is available.

I say “If it is available” because I am constantly entering these paintings in exhibitions, trying to sell them. So if one that you want sells before the end of the contest, I am sorry, but you will need to pick another painting.

EXCITING REFERRAL BONUS
If you tell a person about this contest and that person wins, you can also win a painting. So if you have a blog and talk about this contest and someone who reads your blog wins, you can also win a painting. Because I have no way to track this, the only thing I can do is ask the winner how they heard about the contest. We will have to go by what they say to award the second painting. The REFERRER must also have entered the contest to be eligible to win the second painting.

IMPORTANT
Remember, this is a contest. ONE person WILL win. YOU might not win. If you really love a painting, don’t wait to win it. Please buy it. And then if you win, you can win another painting and have a set. Good idea, huh?

Questions
If you have any questions, please contact me by leaving a comment under this post. That way, when I answer your question, it will become part of my “Frequently Asked Questions” and perhaps will help someone else. I will also email you a personal answer if you leave your email address.

Small Print
As always, contest rules subject to change at any time.

Kanji #4 - 12” x 12” Acrylic on Masonite - This is the painting that sold.

I am so excited!!!

Today I reached a milestone. I sold my first painting on ebay. I told you I posted 5 paintings online about a week ago. There was a free deal where I could post 5 things for free. So I did.

I posted 5 of the kanji series. This morning, I was reading my email and got the news from eBay that the auction was over. And I didn’t sell the painting – do I want to relist? I got 4 of those, but then the 5th one said “Your eBay item sold! Contemporary Abstract Asian Kanji Acrylic Painting” How cool is that!?

So what did I do? I went out and spent 3 times what I made in supplies! Go figure!

Great Wall #1 - 18" x 14" - Acrylic and colored pencil on Masonite - $300

I have started using photographs as references for my abstract landscapes. The problem with that is sometimes I get too caught up in making a good representation of the photo. In this picture of the great Wall of China, I got too caught up and I don’t think it turned out great.

Now watch, no one will buy it from me if the artist doesn’t think it is any good!

Anyway I am going to try it again tomorrow and make it more abstract. “They are only shapes!”

Abstract #9 - 12” x 12” Acrylic on Masonite - $200

I have been trying to so some fine art photography of my images so I can post them online. Posting them on the blog is not a big deal because the fine art images don’t have to be that big. However, I found a site called Imagekind, where they will do fine art prints from my photographs. As we say in the graphic design industry, “Garbage in, garbage out.” If I send them trashy images, people will get trashy prints.

So, today I went outside on the back deck, set up a sheet as a reflector so I could get more light and took high resolution photographs of my paintings and drawings.

Sorrow - 9” x 9” Acrylic on the rough side of Masonite - $200

Later, when I tried to color correct the images in Photoshop, I got close, but it still wasn’t perfect. Then I learned that my camera has a custom white balance feature. What that means is I can tell my camera what “white” is. I take a sheet of white paper out where I am shooting the images. I tell the camera that the paper is white and it resets itself so the colors should be more true to real life, based on the lighting conditions at that time.

It shouldn’t matter if it is morning, afternoon, or there is a yellow tinge because there is smoke in the air, whatever. I am going to res shoot everything tomorrow and see if I can get closer so i don’t have to do a bunch of corrective work in the computer.

Kanji #3 - 12” x 12” Acrylic on Masonite - $200

I am not interested in buying art online, but I AM interested in selling art online. However, I want to attract online art buyers. See the subtle difference? When I make a post, I need to think, “How are people who want to buy art online looking for art… online? They will probably Google, “buy art online,” so that is what I need to have in my post.

Anyway, there are a couple of sites where buyers can buy art online and sellers can set up a gallery. One that I found is zatista.com. This is a really cool site because it is easy to use (thought time consuming) and it is FREE to post and set up a gallery! A lot of the sites charge a monthly fee to set up a gallery, but not Zatista. I will post the link to my gallery once I set it up.

Kanji #4 - 12” x 12” Acrylic on Masonite - $200

Another site that is free is fine-art.com. You can post a small gallery for free and then they have paid services that allow you to post more images.

And finally, this is a twist on the “post your art online” idea. Imagekind.com is a cafepress company. They allow you to post your art online and they will create prints for your customers. So you can get your art into the hands of the masses for less. You make money when people buy your art online and can also get a commission for any frames they sell.

p.s. This post was kind of dry without any art, so I came back and put a couple of the kanji series in. Hope you don’t mind if they are out of order…