Thank you all for your encouragement and warm wishes concerning my new (ad)venture. I listed three more paintings on Etsy this morning. Freshly varnished (and now dry), the Moeraki Boulders (above) are for sale. I photographed them prior to varnishing because, as anyone who has ever tried to take a decent photo of a varnished canvas will tell you, shine is no friend of the camera.
‘Springtime’ is also now on Etsy. What a tricky little painting it was to photograph! I tried all my usual tricks. Shooting outside on an overcast morning usually gives me the best true-to-life results but the layers of gel medium mixed in with the paint made it very shiny ― nice to look at but not so nice to photograph. It seems to be more of an issue with dark colours. I’m still not completely happy but Photoshop’s Shadows/Highlights and Exposure adjustments helped a lot. And it’s still better than scanning (which produces strange and unattractive ‘shadow blobs’ where the surface touches the scanner).
Getting the shop organised over the last little while has meant less time for painting (boo) but I plan to throw myself back into it again… starting today : )
Anna Cull ~ Art & Music 
Great that you’re on Etsy! I’ve thought about it some and just haven’t taken the plunge. I hope you find a lot of success on the site!
Thanks, Dave : )
Are you able to put an Etsy link on your blog?
It’s already there (look to your right) : D
I think I need a holiday… Got one coming up in a month
You are so right about photographing art work / paintings … very tricky with lighting . An important consideration when you are selling through an internet site like etsy I can imagine .
Those boulder paintings are so fascinating !
Making the painting look the same on screen as it does in real life is the REALLY tricky part. You’ll know this too, from posting pictures of your own art on WordPress. Some photos are disappointing and other photos look better than the original artwork. You can’t really allow either when you’re selling it!
I’m glad you like the boulder paintings : )
I definitely felt like that after my last one Anna … that the photo was better … perhaps because of the angle of my shot I was able to eliminate a couple of nasty buckles in the watercolour paper . I was disappointed that after VERY careful stretching and drying one edge still popped away from the gummed strip . Well …more along the lines of GRrrrr to be honest Lol