That’s right, a contest! Want one of my prints but don’t have one? Here’s your chance to win one for free! Time to crack out your favorite art supplies because this is going to be a coloring contest. What better way to win some art than be a little creative yourself? Here’s how to get started.

1.) Download the Contest Lineart.
2.) Color it in any way that you wish– it can be done digitally or printed out and colored traditionally (markers, crayons, colored pencils, paints, etc.) and then scanned in.
3.) Submit it to me to become an official entrant in the contest!

Easy, right? You bet! You can get your entry to me via Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, by email or right here in the comments of my blog!

Now, how do you win? By being the Fan favorite! I’m going to set up a voting system with all of the entries so that you have a chance to win by popular vote.

!!WAIT that means you can enlist your friends to come vote for you! Spread the word about the contest, get your friends to come vote for you, and WIN!!

Prize:
The winner will be able to select ONE (1) print from my Etsy store and I will mail it to them after the winner is announced.

When is your entry due?

Deadline for Entries: March 21th, 2010 at 10:00 PM EST

The voting will begin the next day, and the winner will be announced on March 28, 2010. That gives you a FULL week to rally your friends to come vote for you!

OMG, are you excited? Colored pencils quivering in anticipation? Hold on, gotta read the RULES first!

Rules:
-One entry per person, please.
-Only entries received prior to the deadline will be considered.
-No voting for yourself, that’s just dirty.
-No purchase necessary.
-The prize can ONLY be selected from Joie’s Etsy Store Account: No exceptions will be made.
-Entries may be submitted via tweet, Fan page posting, Facebook wall posting, email, or comment at Joieart.net.
-No entries that someone else colored for you. This is supposed to be about having fun and being creative!
-No entries may be submitted by postal snail mail. Sorry– visit Kinko’s if you need scanning help!

What if I can’t/won’t/don’t color? Don’t worry. There is a contest made just for you coming next month!

Ok, that’s it! Here is your lineart! GO!

Download the lineart here!

Back at the beginning of October, I posted an article called Art: Not Just a Hobby, that spring-boarded me into a fact-finding mission. I wasn’t given all of the tools necessary to make my passion into a career—so I need to find them for myself. I thought perhaps other young, emerging artists such as myself may benefit from this journey, and so I wanted to share it.

My very first question was, “What are other artists and freelancers doing?” I needed to find some successful artists, see how they are doing business, and what they did to get there. I asked around, hit the library, and did some heavy web surfing to come up with some answers. I’ll share what I have thus far. (continue reading…)

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be in an art show and expo next month right here in Atlanta! I will have prints of my art available for purchase, as well as some originals for sale and viewing. There’s a good chance I’ll have my worktable set up as well, so if you come you can see me painting and drawing in action!

Each artist will have their own small storage unit that can be set up like a gallery and store. There will be jewelry, glass art, paintings, quilts, sculptures, pottery, photography, and much more! I’d love it if I saw some new faces out there! Also: I will bribe you. I will have FREE CANDY at my booth. So come get some!

Today we’ve got a fantastic article written by a guest poster, Kelly McKernan. She was originally featured on this site as an Artist Spotlight, and I’m glad to bring her back again, this time as the author of a great article geared to those artists still in school. It is a great follow up to the post I wrote last week. The original is reposted with permission:

“If you’re in art school, and you feel like you’re wasting your time, then leave. You don’t need it, but if you can benefit from it in some way, make it happen. Just don’t let those years feel like a waste…”

(continue reading…)

The realization that I had been treating art like a hobby instead of a career blindsided me early in the morning last Thursday. There I sat at my day job, wondering why all of my efforts to make art a full time venture just weren’t working. Wallowing in thoughts about if I was made of the right stuff to make this successful and what I was doing wrong, it hit me:

A career is the way you make your money, survive in the world, and create your livelihood. Ideally, it is supposed to be something that you truly love and cherish; something that makes you eager to get up in the morning to do.

A “hobby is an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.” (1) (continue reading…)