I Mac Smack

Got a new Mac!

This is my first post on my new iMac, which is Apple's desktop  computer.  Here are my observations, reasons (and hopes) for this new platform and how it will effect studio life and this blog.

1. I was impressed with the way Photoshop opens right now!  I am considering updating to CS 6 (Creative Cloud) because I've been capable of completely locking up my pse and use the program constantly for workshop flyers, image manipulation, image filing, and blogging.

2. The kids and family can use the 27" screen for movies, and I for art movies and You Tubes.  When HD TV became mandatory  we left trad TV behind and only use computers for our moving picture entertainment.

3. It lacks the 10 key pad, but I can buy one down the road if I miss it that badly.

4. My otherwise slow internet speed (we get our feed terrestrially and it is as good as we can get living in the country) is a bit faster now, as are most functions with this computer.  My understanding is that background froof doesn't compete for time like it did on my old PC.

5. I can visit other art blogs more frequently, which has been lagging for me as my PC's performance slowly ebbed over time.

6. A fixed-station desktop (iMac) will yield back the time that I have been spending powering-down my Toshiba, packing it up, taking it out to the studio and setting it up for my music (I use Pandora).  A lot of time has been wasted waiting for that elusive broadcast wave to seep out to the studio from the house.  I will try to leave my old laptop there all of the time and play music that way.  If all else fails, I may get Sirius.  Anyone out there use satellite radio in their studio?

7. Another benefit of the desktop is that I can eat and drink here without the fear of spilling on the laptop!  I survived 2 Toshiba laptops, both at about 4 years apiece, without a mishap.  Also, I am poor at backing up my data, and I did dodge that bullet and retain my data from that time.  

8. Solid State Drive technology.  Boot times will be significantly reduced.  Lifehacker says this about SSD:

Launching applications will occur in a near-instant. Saving and opening documents won't lag. File copying and duplication speeds will improve. Overall, your system will feel much snappier. 

Nice Knowin' ya, old computer!

What all this means for you.

1.  More consistent blogging as far as frequency.  More entertainment, more info, and more fun!

2. I will not become a Mac-vangel.  It isn't that important to me, and I have a skepticism of the big claims that Apple makes about it's products   I enjoyed the joke somebody made about Macs being "sprinkled with unicorn tears."  

3. I hope the greater speed and efficiency of this system will yield more time for the studio!

4. More You Tubes/ vlogs from The Colorist.

The Only Magic Line of Code Bloggers Need

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How to Embed a Link in Comments

Takes Me Elsewhere, You Know.

To embed a link in the comments of a blog, you have to use a line of code.  Since I don't know any code, what I do is recall that it begins as "a href."  I search query a href, and don't even open the results, as the Google page has enough introductory words and, inevitably, one result will say something beginning with a left angle bracket (<) and an "a," a website address in the middle, and ending with an "a" and a right angle bracket (>).  This shows me that the code is complete.  The words you wish to present with the link are also present and enclosed within angle brackets.

This magic line of code will take your readers out to your target page, and you have a smart looking line of text highlighted as a hot link.  What I do is cut and paste the sample line of code from the source to the comment field.  I switch the target web address, and the bracketed word that sends the reader outbound to the target, and now I have my own custom line of code with a link in it.

Write down the brief "a href" on a piece of tape and put it by your keyboard.  I could write the whole code, too, but I would rather cut and paste it from my Google search.  Perhaps you type 300 words per minute, and would prefer to just type it.  I find the address of my target website in the address box at the top off the webpage, and I copy it to paste, as well.

Cheers!

Design Blog Banners and Graphics

Let's look at blog banners. Photoshop is a popular tool for making these, and banners and designed graphics add a great touch to your blogs.  I can't tell you how to make them, but I will post a video I found that gives an adequate start to your efforts.  After the video, I'll mention some easier methods I have found.

Whenever I want to find a quick recipe, or for any other "how to" task, I now go to You Tube.  Sometimes finding the right tutorial is elusive, and I think this is especially true of Photoshop tutorials.  I learned my Photoshop skills by taking an online course for about thirty dollars, and it was money well spent. I'd link you there, but I think she quit running the course.  If anyone has a good course they run or know of, let me know and I will share that here.  Also, if you have saved any good tutorials on You Tube, I'd be happy to link those as well.

Thanks, Jennifer, from GoodEye Vintage, for this video.

My extra tips are to open your image in its file, right click that and select "open with: Photoshop," and this is quicker than browsing from Photoshop. Also, in selecting background and text colors, I use the eye dropper and find a color from my artwork or photo. 

I don't copy and paste photos into the new banner background.  Instead, I open all the content and view multiple files at once, then I drag and drop like making a puzzle.  For instance, I'll open a banner sized at about 800 x 200 pixels, then I will open a photo; select the Arrange Tool, which on my version is in the absolute upper left of the page, next to the pse icon. Now I select the jpeg, and then the Move Tool, and drag the photo jpeg to the banner.  

Instead of stretching the text, I prefer to crop the banner to achieve a fit. How to get the text to overlay the images?  I work with layers, which is the critical knowledge you need in Photoshop, and then I very carefully go around the letters with the Eraser Tool.  There must be an easier way, but that's my solution.*

Linda Rosso, of Mill Valley, CA, has a new blog about plein air painting and art marketing is also her area of expertise.  I follow her new blog, and I liked her footer signature block so much that I went into Photoshop and designed one for my blogs. I know The Colorist gets a lot of random traffic, and this is a good way to provide an introduction within each post.

Plein Air Liason, by Linda Rosso.

* Artist Gary Huber informs me that I should try a setting where the text background is transparent.  Goodbye Eraser Tool!  I tested his solution, however when I opened the text layer it was transparent by default.  Go figure.  At any rate, the solution does work and you need to work with Layer and Arrange, then push the picture to the bottom layer.  Also, another tip: remember to merge or flatten your finished image.



My new signature block:

Banners, Business Cards & Graphics

Placing a new banner on your blog is the fastest way to brand your blog.  Why do this?  Because you want (I think) to make your blog instantly recognizable for the "click-through" audience that you are reaching.  The banner should identify you, and set up the visual character of your blog and your art.

This post features my new e-mail banner, and at the top of The Colorist you will see my newest blog banner.  I used Photoshop to create these, and I recommend that you get good with whatever design tool you have and learn how to work with layers.  Once I cracked the code on layers, my design life improved dramatically, and I have fun making these things, whereas before it was like pulling teeth for me!  The links at the bottom of this post shed light on using Photoshop: working with layers and making graphic products.

There are so many You Tube vids for this topic, that you ought to be able to find one that makes sense for you.  My only advice is that you match the tutorial to your design software.  Many videos show how to make a blog header with freeware, but find one for your tool.  Also, if the tutorial shows how to upload the banner to Blogger, realize that the latest version of Blogger is dirt easy to use for headers. Just open Design, and use the widgets at the top of the template.  You should do fine.  I use the header widget, and then I add a banner photo below that.

The widgets for your header or banner offer three options: 

Behind title and description

Instead of title and description

Have description placed after the image

For Pastel Workshop, my instruction blog, I chose the "Instead of..." option.  I created it this way so that clicking on the banner brings the reader back to the home page.  Here at The Colorist, I add the blog title and description above the header.  This makes it clear that the reader is at my flagship blog, and clicking on the title and subtitle/description brings one back to home. The oversize header works as a logo for The Colorist, and lets the reader understand instantly what blog they have landed on.

Experiment with different settings for your header.  Many bloggers choose a low profile header, which gets the content on the screen and above scroll.  Have fun!

35 Best Photoshop Tutorials For Beginners.

Make a Business Card with Photoshop.

Simple Photoshop Header Tutorial - You Tube.

    Your version of pse may vary from the video.

Note:  I took an online workshop to learn how to make a business card with Photoshop.  It was inexpensive and has served me in making all of my graphics.  I think that instructor has moved on to other tutorials, but I recommend that type of thing for those of you who, like me, aren't completely computer savvy.

I Went To The Uffizi In Florence, Italy, This Morning

                                    

Google Art Project

Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two, and Please Don't Hate Me

Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two. I can barely write that number and get it right. That represents the number of hits The Colorist received on Thursday. Which is a few more - well, quite a few more - than it is used to getting. The stats have been exploding the past month and a half, but that represents something like a low-yield nuclear weaponized bump.

Many of you are like, "ho hum, I get 900 hits on my blog before breakfast." But, for my humble blab place, that is a happy anomaly. For those of you who walk with mortals and aren't used to such high-handed blog stats, pull up a chair and see how The Colorist got here. It is an amazing story of foibles, foul - ups and flouting full-force the power of the webtunnel.

As the author of The Colorist, I try my hardest to balance that razor's edge between bald self promotion, and universally interesting art content. No blogger that wants to be read by the racing public throng should focus on themselves too much. Does that even need explaining? To that end, I work at writing a few art essays, and I try to promote the best that artist blogs have to offer. Then, I sneak in the bald self-promotion, and likely way too much of that. When I begin to gag on narcissism, I revert back to art content. I hope it all works out in the end, and I have had readers introduce themselves and explain that they appreciate the balance. All I can do is try.

The reason for The Bump of the past month will make my artist blogger friends chuckle, or turn green with envy, or throw a brick through their computer. I hope for the first response. This post was receiving hits like a lab rat on nicotene, and I had to find out why. When I followed the trail left by StatCounter, I found a Google redirect page. As near as I can tell, Google, which never makes mistakes, had randomly selected my Jackson Pollock post as a holding place for confused search devices. Hallelujah! I get hits like Babe Ruth on steroids.

Before you throw that brick, I will plead some of my thoughts on this. On the one hand, that post about the famous artist is not too badly written. I sincerely feel, at the bottom of my heart, that it has near-zero original content. But, as a reference tool, it has something going on. And, as time progressed, my search rank for that post and the image of Galaxy, by JP, began to rank as number one at Google. That is reality, as we count it in computer land. Hello, manna from cyberspace!

I quickly updated it to represent my current format for posts, and added the Pollock dripping paint vid from You Tube. And (you'd do this too, I hope) then I added a couple of big, fat links back to this blog at the top of the post.

All those hits, and a dollar, will now buy me a cup of coffee downtown. Don't hate me, outright, for my good luck, friend. Just hope that Google throws you a bone now and then.

Casey Klahn

abacus photo by chicobangs/photobucket.

Banner Banter - Banners I Like

Blog banners I like are linked below. Tomorrow I'll post a "How To" for those who want to upgrade their own blog banner.

Paint2day (modest sized banner)
Chris Earnhart (irony and graphic pop)
Deborah Paris (has a new banner!)
Jennifer Phillips (artist in action)
JafaBrit's Art (story time)
Laura K. Aiken (remember to include your name like this)
Charley Parker (thin to win)
Brian McGurgan (definitive art image)

Mind Map of This Blog

Mind Map of The Colorist Blog. Click on the image to read in a larger format.

Cue the Twilight Zone Theme. We are going to mind map The Colorist.

Here is the theme music for this post ( Right Click to open a new tab).

The reason for this exercise is that Blogger has introduced tabs. You know the ones that make Wordpress blogs function so well? They take you to static pages that live (as I understand it) within your blog and I assume they accrue to your blog's statistical performance. I already use Google Page Creator (soon to be replaced by Google Sites) to direct readers to static pages, and the links have been via badges or icons that I place on the sidebar.

The mind map is my way of gathering the cluttered strings of this parachute that is my blog. I am trying to discover what sorts of things are interconnected. Which subjects would function better if found via tabs? Which want to be found via badges in the sidebar?

In addition to the mind map, I also listed my sidebar items by function. I look forward to reducing my sidebar to a more manageable affair. My plan is to use sidebar badges or icons to link to certain content, and tabs for other types. Now I just need one more important thing: some time.

Katherine Tyrrell has generously posted a How To for adding tabs to your blog.
Google Sites.
Mind Mapping.

System Corruption

"What Did U Say?"

The geek at the computer shop tells me that my operating system is corrupt. In the Old West, those would be fightin' words! But, in the digital era, it just means that I ought to complete a system restore. So, if I can find my (improperly filed) SR software, this will be my next move.

With August activities pressing, and Sausalito upcoming, my posts will be thin.

I leave you with the most frightening movie scene ever filmed. HAL 9000 has your back, Dave.

Art Blogs & Art Blogging

Photo: Lorie Klahn

A number of clues have me feeling that art blogging is going to be a focus for many this year. It is free, which helps since general advertising budgets are getting slashed. In that light, I'll be adding this thread about my perspectives on art blogging. An outline would be: tips, theories and observations.

No one is in greater need of improvement at blogging than moi, and that provides my motivation for this thread. Katherine Tyrrell at Making a Mark has focused early on blogging this year, and I am catching on myself that this blogging upgrade series will benefit the artist blogging community. Katherine's new posts include how to use Google Analytics, and a poll on posting frequency.

In the area of design, Rose Welty has taken the ball on Cleaning Sidebar Clutter. My own "how to" on this is posted here: Quick Key Links. Good work, Rose! Rose has emphasized clean and neat, but I choose communication over being tidy. I once had my labels shrunk, but now am leaning towards having them available for clicking - sort of an impulse shelf. The one thing that I mull is whether to consolidate the number of labels down to more distinct categories. What are your opinions?



Art Blogging Tips

First, a rant. The Weblog Awards still do not have an art blog category. Hello. Photography? Hottest Mommy Blogger? Hobby? People often ask me if I think our culture is in decline. My answer: "what culture!?" Here is another loser award blog without an art category. I have written them, and now reside in their troublemaker files. Power to the people, baby. *endofrant*

This reminds me of my other blog goal this year: to get out-of-genre to expand my reader base. My wife reads Ravelry, which is mega big, but I can't really see going there, myself. I did get some link-love from Pin Tangle recently, and I thank them for having an interest in art - that's what we like to see in our culture.

In the same vein, I will be setting a goal of following through with an exhibit at my alma mater, Northwest University. They now have an art class, or department, but didn't when I attended in the 70's and 80's. I ran into an old classmate at the Bellevue ArtsFair who is now a Hebrew prof., and he suggested a show. An exhibit there would be outside of the art gallery fold, and provide some extra exposure. And frankly, it would be a cultural event.

So, outside of genre blog interests should be just that - authentic interests for yourself. Mine include Christianity, the military, particularly WW II and the Civil War, Italy and blogging and marketing technology (a little bit).

Here are my favorite blogs in these categories:

Christianity - Faith and Theology

Military - Michael Yon

WW II - Ordinary Heroes: Six Stars in the Window

Civil War - Civil War Blogs

Italy - Living in Florence

Marketing - Seth Godin


Another discovery of mine has been the art community website ArtSlant. I have avoided many such sites, usually because of issues with their layout. ArtSlant has an attractive layout, and meets my goals, so far, of cross-exposure for my art, and for The Colorist. Hat tip, Julianne Richards, for recommending me there.

Speaking of Oops

A subscriber informs me that her feeds to my blog create an unwanted pop-up that tries to open a dial-up connection. I have taken down all of my Widgets and third party links from my right hand column. Anybody else get unwanted pop-ups from my blog? Pollock linking by accident?

Additionally, I have attempted to kill any feed utilities that are my option to do so. That shouldn't, as far as I know, end your actual subscriptions. Personally, I use Bloglines, and I subscribe to URLs manually. That means I don't click offered subscriptions at blogs. It isn't a security thing, but I just find it the easiest method of using Bloglines.

I did not take down Statcounter or end my Technorati association.

Apparently some problem exists with Google Reader not recognizing this blog. I found that to be true myself.

Update: Google Reader is catching my posts with no problem. I entered the http:// by accident, and it just wants the name without the subscript.

Anyone else have subscription issues here?

Fine Crafts

Pottery*

Here at the Klahn household, we collect fine crafts. Raku pottery is our favorite, and handmade quilts are even-up with that. My goal is to start on an art glass collection.

All of this to say that I love Fine Crafts, but haven't had any links to craft blogs in my blogroll. I did try to right this a while back, and went searching for the websites/blogs of my friends who do pottery, and not a single one had a web presence. So, I put the project on hold.

Today you will see the beginnings of my craft links in my blogroll area. Hoo-ray for Cynthia! Anyone know how to shrink these data fields on the right margin of the blog? I want to keep the links big, but wish to shrink/truncate my labels, which look way out of control.

Admin Note:

Laketrees has listed your favorite blog, The Colorist, in the Top 40 of the Top 101 Artist's Blogs. I still don't know how she compiles her data, but I'll take it.

* Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Art Links

It looks as if the evils of linking in a gratuitous fashion are many. It has been termed farming, and some definitions of this can be found here and here. Although placing one's blogroll into your posts seems more targeted and on-topic than the strict definitions of blind link exchanges, I also see that Blogger and Google may cut with a dull knife, if you will.

Because of a complaint about my Art Link Letter, I will discontinue its use. Sorry to those of you who may have felt uncomfortable or feared damage from having been in my link cloud at the ends of my posts.

Content should be the basis of blogging, and especially original content. And someday I'll figure out the technology part of this gizmo called the Internet...

It still remains to be seen if I will start a blog or website of art links. It occurs to me that a need exists, but that there are mysterious pitfalls that accompany the execution aspects of these things.

Art Link Letter, An Art Bloggger's ViralLink & Viral Tags

The Art Link Letter was originally an idea I had to start a blog that would be just a link cloud of art sites. However, in researching ways to increase my Technorati authority, I came across what may be a path for doing my links program, and for giving a boost to my (and your) blog. The authority of TheColorist has gone from @32 to 21 in the past month, and although 21 is nothing to sneeze at, I for some reason want it to improve. Call me an overachiever wannabe.

Here is the way it would work. If you elect to participate, you simply cut and paste into your posts the "Art Link Letter" that I have created at the bottom of this post. Then, change the name of the host to your own link, which will contain your URL and anchor text (Three words or less, please). Replace a Viral Tag with your link in the same way, and you're in business. When you get a ping somehow that someone has you in their ViraLink, reciprocate by pasting them in your matrix.

You can place this viral link "cloud" in a post, after your footer, or anywhere you like. It is suggested that within posts would create less clutter, and according to the techies increase hits to your blog. This is known as a ViraLink, and the idea is referenced here and here.

It may be effective to just do this once a week, or every few days, if you don't wish to clutter up your blog pages with this "Link Cloud" on every post. Here are the simple rules:

1. No Porn
2. Don't change other peoples URLs in the link text
3. Keep the links to the Arts. I will be culling out ones that I copy from your posts which stray from the subject of art, but I will stay broad.
4. One link per person

The value of this to our art blogging community will be to increase the links to every blog involved. There are some blogs in our community, mine included, who hold a strict policy regarding whom they link to. Content and quality are the main motives. This is an experiment in increasing my own and your Technorati (and perhaps Google) rank, but I am hoping that the "Art Link Letter" can maintain some of these qualities in the fact that each blogger can edit the content as they wish.

Cut & Paste Below This Line:

----------------------____________________-----------------------

Art Link Letter

I removed the link cloud due to the phenomenon of "Link Farming" being a red flag at Google. Although I consider my blogroll to be a targeted link tool, and because it is hand generated, I felt "on-topic" with putting it within the post structure. But, you can't fight city hall.

Tower of Babel

For those of you wondering whether my translation widget (thanks, Google) has produced a result, my Stats do show an increase in international "hits". Too soon to claim more page views, and since I am not sure it is trouble free, I won't link it's source, yet. Anyway, it is easy enough to find by searching.

Note: The above flag gifs will animate if you click on the image. Why they are static on my blogger page is a mystery to me.

Podcast

Artist and art promoter William Lehman, of Artist's Hideout, has a Pod cast that samples art blogs and other tidbits.

Pods scare the heck out of me, and I have no Earthly idea what a pod cast is, and even less of an idea how to rip it to this space, but I'll leave you with a link to his post.