When I share my work online, I frequently get comments along the lines of “beautiful painting!” In fact, it’s become so frequent I’ve gotten to the point where I simply say thanks. That facile acknowledgement is because my process of creating art lies in some netherworld between photography and painting and trying to explain that to…
For many of us, a simple piece of beach art is magical. Beautiful skies, rolling waves, and sugary beach sand… On its own, this is beautiful combination. When you toss in a surfer looking out at the sea… I guess that would be the proverbial icing on the cake. Case in point, this beautiful surfer…
New Domain Name What’s in a name? A question written by Shakespeare and uttered by his character, Romeo, centuries ago, but it still has psychological meaning today! For me, there was a growing block with doing anything with my website. Eight years ago when I picked marktisdalephotography.com as my first domain, I was having a…
I know you are all thinking, well, hello stranger! I kept thinking I would get to post an update that I was done with the never-ending transition to my new print gallery site, but that is a story for another day. I realized the other day that it has been entirely too long since I…
Have you ever noticed how sometimes things have a way of working themselves out? In my last update, I mentioned that I was in the process of migrating my main print partner away from the Zenfolio based site that I had used for the past four years. I will post at much more length on…
Do you like wine? Perhaps you’ve been considering an art purchase from my gallery? This is your chance to gaze at some new art while enjoying a glass of wine! I just got word that for the whole month of July, if you make a purchase, Fine Art America will send you a $100 certificate…
It’s not often that I can say one of my pieces was the stuff of dreams, but it seems my most recent artwork falls into that ethereal camp. I woke up in the middle of the night with the clearest image in my mind of the night sky over the pier at the beach on…
Why do some photographers not consider themselves artists? This is seriously a question that haunts me some days. If I had a nickle for every time I encountered a photographer in various art forums who wanted to be strictly styled as a photographer rather than an artist… Well, I wouldn’t be wealthy, but I certainly…
I have been busy the past month or so but first off, I wanted to bring my Easter Themed special promotions to your attention. You all know I don’t often do promotions like this but a gentle nudge from a friend reminded me that Easter was on the horizon, so I decided to offer some…
This is a subject for both the art-lovers and the art-makers out there. It’s a topic which I’d say I ruminate on at least annually, and that’s whether or not to offer art merchandise in addition to prints. Once upon a time, I was more active on Zazzle. I offered my work there as prints…
I’m sure there are many old friends out there who would be a bit surprised to see me wander down the woodland path towards fantasy and surreal art. Even though my artwork often has a bit of a fanciful air to it, my images have usually featured concrete places where you could go and admire…
A few months ago, I posted about Charlotte Moore’s Deep South Dead, which used my eBook cover design. I’m happy to report that Ms. Moore felt that first design was successful enough to warrant using my services a second time. As noted in the past, Ms. Charlotte Moore is from the same small town that…
I was very excited recently to discover that the folks behind Fine Art America are expanding their product range. And first out of the gate is the addition of phone cases! If you’d like more information about their new direction, you can find the news here. The only phone cases available so far are designed…
It’s no secret I’ve been looking at mirrorless cameras for awhile now. When I wrote a post about my current camera gear two years ago, I was already suggesting people who were looking at their first camera take a look at the Micro Four Thirds format. Even though I’ve yet to spring to action, the…
My years dealing with rolls of film were long past by the time the camera bug truly bit me, but it’s still a part of my youth. And misplacing film was practically a way of life for me. Heck, my baby pictures were on a roll of film lost for years thanks to an absent…
Well, anything profound I had to say about art contests I got out of the way in the last update! So, this should be mercifully short. Round one ended this evening and my photo from Galway Ireland which had the most votes for my entries topped out at 173 votes – short of the 250…
For a period of time, I was ever interested in art contests. I enjoyed participating in a few real world ones early on, but I’ve largely bowed out of the process. Partially this is because so many contests these days, particularly the ones you find online, are simply an attempt to grab the rights to…
When I posted my Spring update the other day, I was sitting on one piece of news. Now, however, it’s fair game to announce my first book cover! Well, I guess technically it’s more like my third book cover since I have done a couple of self-published photo books. In my metaphorical book, this is…
I’ve done an incredibly bad job of delivering updates this year. There, I said it before anyone else had a chance. It’s one of those classic stories of having the best of intentions. Every so often I would think, gosh, I should tell everyone about insert cool news here. On the bad side, there’s probably…
I’ve had this topic bouncing around in the back of my mind for well over a month now, and the topic of visibility in selling art online is a huge one. It’s also not a subject in which I’m remotely claiming expertise, but what I have gleaned over the past years might help other visual…
Wow, I can’t believe we are days away from the end of 2012. What’s more, I can’t believe I’m not traveling somewhere! This will be my first New Years in the US since I rang in 2005 in Edinburgh. Those New Year trips were as near to a holiday tradition as could be, but even…
Oh my gosh, nearly three months without an update! Shame on me. I have let entirely too much grass grow under my feet of late, and there’s much irony in that statement… For those who haven’t heard, I managed to fall and break my foot four weeks ago. The one positive has been that I…
Perhaps abstract photography is too abstract to get much notice online? It’s been a slow but beneficial journey for me, learning how important the words that accompany art are online. Our search engines are smart, but they don’t yet know with any precision what’s in a picture or whether it’s the one you’re looking for…
I’m sad to say that I’ve decided for now at least to discontinue the sale of my photo books. If you didn’t know I offered them, shame on me for not doing a better job pushing that information out there! Background I pushed my first photo book, Egyptian Dreams, into the world in September of…
This overview on Print on Demand services is something of a follow-up to my article last week about making my work available through Fine Art America. The discussion is likely of most interest to other visual artists, but anyone curious to know more about the print on demand experience is welcome! I’m discussing my own…
Those who follow me on various social networks may be reading this and yawning to themselves thinking “old news,” but it’s a post I’ve kept putting off until I felt there was enough of a presence to justify saying it, but yes, I’ve finally bit the bullet and started uploading my work to Fine Art…
I have to preface this by saying that in the grand scheme of things I am not a huge sports fan, and I’m not a loyal follower of the Olympic games, but this one was in one of my favorite places on Earth, London. Couple that with seeing a few of my friends post that…
I wouldn’t have guessed this would be the topic of my next post. I have several bits of news and topics waiting off in the wings, but I’m very much a believer in posting updates as they become fully formed in my head and this one, like a daughter of Zeus, sprung to life fully…
Normally a post like this would be directed to my personal blog, but you’ll see in a moment why I’m posting it here. Friday morning, I awoke to the news like we all did of the shooting at an Aurora movie theater during the midnight showing of the latest Batman film. My heart sank immediately….
Just thought I’d share a little personal project on which I recently worked. My late grandmother was one of the world’s original pack-rats, and the good side of this was ending up with a pile of old family photos and correspondence. Sadly when you tack decades onto the average photo, the results are not great,…