Doing some housekeeping

This week in the studio has been more me doing stuff behind the scenes...updating the website and tweaking a bunch of stuff on there. I've changed the text box backgrounds so they are a little bit easier to see and read. I have all of the buy it now buttons on the pages for pieces that are either for sale themselves or I have limited edition prints available for. The works in progress page got updated too to show the border collie drawing. There are some other small things I've been tinkering with that have to do with coding and making sure the site looks the same on a laptop/desktop as it does on a smart phone or tablet.

There's some other pages and big updates I have to make and those will come over the next couple of days/weeks. I have a notebook of things I need to do for the art biz and as something pops into my head, onto the notebook it goes. I am tackling things one at a time as I move down the page. I'm making sure that I don't pick and choose the cool stuff I want to do now and leaving the not so cool stuff for another time (which most likely will become "never".) I'm finding it's a good way for me to prioritize and make sure nothing gets left to the way side. Some of the "to do list" you guys probably wouldn't even notice because it's marketing or me talking to someone to get some feedback or ideas about a new path or whatever. Some things will become new webpages, events, or things my collectors will find interesting. I think I will give a shout out to the things that my Equus2 fans would find interesting on here...just so all of you guys will be kept in the loop. 

Here's the website link for you inquiring minds!! - http://www.equus2studios.com

Something else I've been wrestling with is the reworking the pricing of my art. After talking with a friend of mine who is an artist (she works in oils and has a great impressionistic style - http://roxannesteed.blogspot.com/) the price of my original works were way, way too low for the amount of detail and time that goes into them. I was basically giving them away...and therefore devaluing what I was creating. For what I was charging, I was probably making about .75 to 1.00 an hour on them. That's crazy. :( So, after researching and researching artists who created art that was very similar in style and detail to what I create. I figured out a new pricing scale that I feel good about and what is fair for the level of artistry and craftsmanship I put into the piece. This pricing scale is also opening up a section of my business I wasn't planning on opening up because I wasn't feeling good about being fairly compensated for my art. You can probably figure out where I'm going with this...but I'll leave you in suspense for a little while.

I'll close out this posting with a photo I took with my new camera - Inquisitive Lars. :)

I'm not sure if this will become a drawing at some point. The level of detail I would end up getting wrapped up in would be similar to what I got into with his puppy pic (which is sort of stalled right now because I'm having a hard time in my brain seeing the forest for the trees with it .)  I was hoping to take a bunch of new potential reference pics at the agility trial I was at this weekend. Well, a head cold rolled in and I had a hard enough time just running Lars let alone function in between runs. So, next time.... I will take it along with me to the herding instinct test Ocean will be taking in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some great working photos of herding breeds doing their herding thing and then offer those great images to you all some day (if herding dogs are your sort of thing.)

'Til next time!