How do other artists promote their work?

Lets start off with something that will catch your eye. 

I'm sure you've seen this image if you are a Jay-Z fan or if you listen to hip hop because its an album that was hard to miss. I never knew that this was an actual painted sculpture till I did research on Greg Burke, creative director at Atlantic Records. I'm a fan or his work and his development as an artist. After reading an article  about him, I basically discovered that his promotion was based on hard work and getting to know the right people. He developed good working relationships with people while also building a good portfolio and when he felt stifled as a creative person he moved on to another job. 

This strategy can be successful if you have the right people willing to pay for your work. 

I looked up different post cards that people send out though, because I remembered the one Jon showed  me of his own. This site is smart because it not only shows someone like me the popularity of post cards but it also links those cards to their respective web presence which is a great form of promotion. 

Here's one artist that talks about how one form of print promotion was post cards but then he started doing a brochure. I decided to just post this part of the interview. Click here to get the whole thing. 

What are some of the ways you currently promote your work?

.

The Internet is probably the first port of call for most clients these days when sourcing an illustrator – website portfolios, blogs, inspiration sites, interviews, Twitter, Flickr. I do all of these and more. Sites like Behance and AOI portfolios are also excellent portals for clients to find creative talent too.

I’m still a great believer in the value of quality print promotion targeted direct to a client.

I usually send out a set of A5 postcards twice a year but this year I decided to produce a 28 page full colour brochure – essentially a complete portfolio in a book.

To date I’ve sent out over 2000 copies to clients in the UK & US (via my US rep), and I’m targeting the European advertising agencies next in the autumn. An expensive exercise but it is proving to be fruitful.

I buy a mailing list for the contacts from Bikinilists, and the AOI also produce affordable Client Directories which I’ve used in the past too.

p.s. I went to this article because it had the first part of my business name and I got nervous. Red Lemon Club instead of RahLeeCoh. 

Hey so I wanted to be random. 

Here are some cd covers that I liked. 

lets not forget about the back of this one. 

Design Studio: You Are Beautiful

damn, still looking for the illustrator

Jonathan Zawada, nice web site too

Decided to do an album cover for myself. Still needs work though. 

I'll update you on my other projects too. Working on the back, another concept and something for my sis. 

Another good site on promotion to leave with. Don't really like the gallery though because I wish that he just did light box instead of going to another page. 

Some I like, Some I don't - But still got time to play.

Yea.........

Example of stye used for an athletics group

look what jon lee did

I think i'll find a happy place between my digital stylings and his.

Updating you on my project.

These are some portraits that have been worked up since my last post. Also, I've been exploring birds, specifically parus major, and there relationship to the people that choose to photograph at random. I try to match the bird's body language and movement with the way that individuals react to me. Categories include shy, bold, intermediate and I may go so far as to say free spirit.

I've done a prototype to have an idea of how the rest of the portraits will look when they are finished. 

The start of portrait series

Interesting Article that will aid my project

Bold and Shy Birds

My Collage Dance Collective Experience

Check out Oedipus Finished

Documentary Illustration Statement

I’m interested in documenting Collage Dance Collective; a ballet company right here in Memphis TN. Nicole Taylor introduced me to this organization after I met her at Rhodes College, and she later informed me on a conceptually intriguing dance routine that she had orchestrated as her senior thesis piece for the University of Southern Mississippi. Even though I already had an amateur understanding of ballet due to dance classes in elementary and a younger sister in the department, I now made an important conceptual connection between visual arts and dance. Before this conversation, I viewed dance only through its beauty and routine without consciously taking the ideas behind it into consideration. This excited me because I have been trying to make connections between the arts ever since I attended Power Apac in Jackson MS, an art school that fostered music, dance, theatre, and visual arts.

Imagine my joy when I discovered a school in Memphis that creates creative potential in young people at an affordable price. There mission simply reads “To inspire the growth of ballet.” I believe in any goal that is focused in the arts because I feel like it gives people of different cultural backgrounds the chance to make interactions in environments that demand collaboration. Also, it furthers an internal motivation of mines to get the arts to the underprivileged, an initiative that definitely affected my growth. Even as I was getting aid from outside sources, I worked with my father to teach art classes as early as twelve years old to people in my city. My involvement with the arts has created a desire to spread it wherever I am. In this way, a network of artistic understanding is created. This idea of connectivity is the root of my art.

Recently, I had begun to combine visual art skills with poetry and rapping, so I have been craving an opportunity like this one. One, where I can visually document dance and get insight in the IPC (Idea, Process, and Criticism) behind ballet pieces.

By documenting Collage Dance Collective I plan to accomplish a number of things: interview the founders, interview some of the young students, capture amazing movement, paint portraits, document the environment that they work in and see how that environment affects them. The skills that I gain in this documentation should also translate into illustrations that I am working on as well as help make necessary connections with artist in Memphis.

             

Class Sketch

This is how they look together, but I might try to do some digital stuff, but not a whole lot.

They caught up

Almost ready for scan. 

Oedipus Start

I think its ready for a scan. 

Still in Progress