Two Blog Awards – At The Same Time!

Hello all,

I recently received two blog awards from Jennifer Edwards of the wonderful Drawn2Life Blog, whose watercolour artwork I find to be really fun and uninhibited.

It’s strange to realise that my ramblings and sharing of thoughts and pictures is actually being noticed and enjoyed by others so thank you Jennifer for the recognition!

The first blog award is the Versatile Blogger Award which funnily enough I’ve received before! The second blog award is the Sunshine Blog Award which is awarded to ‘bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others’ >  **blushing**

I’m going to follow Jennifer’s example and combine the instructions/rules from the two awards into one to make things easier.  The Sunshine Award states that I should  answer 9 specific questions about myself and the Versatile Blogger Award states that I should share some random facts about myself.  Both awards also ask that you pass the award on to other deserving blogs.  So here goes:

My favorite color is….. I don’t have an absolute favourite one but I am drawn to vibrant and earthy colours

My favorite number is…. I don’t have a favourite number.

My favorite drink is     Hot green tea.  I find it very refreshing.

My favorite animal is  I don’t have a favourite animal but I’ve always been slightly fond of elephants because my mum had a set of three wooden ones in the house when I was growing up.

Facebook? or Twitter?   Facebook – because the connections there feel more personal to me, despite it only being a virtual connection.

Getting or Giving presents     I prefer giving presents more because there’s nothing like the feeling of making someone happy or even delighted, especially if it’s a gift that will last a while.  That’s worth much more to me than getting presents.

My Favorite day    Monday – because it’s full of possibilities for the week ahead.  Of course when I was working for someone else it was always Friday :0)

My Favorite flower    Orchid – timeless and elegant

My Passion  Creating my artwork. Sharing and talking about art, design and illustration. Helping others with knowledge I have gained.

So now you should know a little bit more about me although, after answering those questions, I’m now wondering if it’s weird that I don’t have favourite numbers and colours and things….

Anyway, here are the list of bloggers that I would also like to pass these awards onto:

Cabbi Arts

Gennine’s Art Blog

Divine Choice Creations

Sweet Design Diaries

Passion.Fruit

I would have listed more but then I’d be repeating some of the ones I’ve already given an award to.  Thanks again to Jennifer for the blog awards and I hope the bloggers I’ve listed above enjoy receiving their awards too.

I’m just curious, do you guys have a favourite colour, animal, flower etc.?  Or not?  Let me know in the comments below please!

A Class For Artists Who Blog

So, I decided to sign up for the Blog Triage online class which promises to help me maintain a healthy blog.  It is a class geared mostly towards artists who have a blog that is in need of a boost, but I think that some of the lessons we will learn can be applied to most other blogs too.

The class is being taught by Alyson Stanfield of the ArtBizBlog and Cynthia Morris of the Original Impulse Blog, both of whom know a whole lot about blogging and helping creatives to get the most out of their own blogs.

As part of the first piece of homework we are asked to blog about the type of people we would like to visit and read our blogs.  I’ve been thinking about this and although it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable talking about who my ideal reader would be, I’ll have a go anyway:

• Interested in Art
• Interested in Mind/Body/Spirit
• Artists/Creatives
• Bloggers
• Collectors
• Fans

So there is my list, which of course is not intended to exclude anybody and is not exhaustive!  I know it sounds a bit abrupt as well but like I said, it made me feel a bit uncomfortable to specify like that and I guess I’m just scared that some of you may run off because you don’t fit into the categories above!

The second part of the assignment is to think about what I want to get out of blogging.  This part I found much easier to write so here goes:

• To be able to freely share my art
• To provide me with regular fans of my art who like to read and comment
• To learn how to talk comfortably and confidently about my art
• To share my process as an artist
• To encourage others to share their art too and learn to talk about it
• To encourage others on their own creative journeys through sharing mine
• To keep fans and collectors updated about my work

I doubt that the above is a complete list but it’s certainly what occurs to me right now!

It seems to me that some of us may start blogging because everyone else is doing it and everyone says it’s a really good idea.  But I think starting with those questions above is probably a good exercise to complete before launching a blog for the first time.  It may help with finding things to blog about and maintaining consistency if you think beforehand about why you want to blog and who your audience is.  I’m hoping that it will help me in this way too.

If you have a blog, have you ever thought about your blog in this way?  Do you know who you want as an ideal reader and do you know what you want out of blogging?  Let me know by commenting below please!