E Books: Online Auction

June 23rd, 2008

When hosting an online auction, there are several things to consider. From payment options to shipping methods, it is wise to have all of your bases covered before you decide to host an auction online. In order to give you a better idea of what I mean, I have provided the following tips and information. Hopefully after reading them, you wont have any problems.

Hosting an Online Auction
Whether you are using Ebay or another online marketplace, it is wise to offer your customers as many payment options as possible. Pay Pal, for instance, is an excellent service to which you can subscribe that will allow auction winners to use credit and debit cards to pay for their purchases. Not only do services like Pay Pal make it easy for winners to pay for their goods, but it also makes it easy for sellers to collect.

Another thing you can do to help make your Internet auction a success is provide a list of available shipping methods. Since winners of Internet auctions are typically responsible for the shipping of their item or items, it helps to provide potential customers with a list of shipping methods and the associated costs. In doing this, your winner is never surprised at the cost of shipping, and you lower the risk of winners refusing to pay for delivery fees.

E Books: E Book Publishing

June 22nd, 2008

In addition to the creative aspects of E Book publishing, there are many technical logistics to consider. From copywriting your material to establishing royalty rates, it is important for E Book authors to be prepared for everything. If you are an E Book author and are interested in publishing your material, I recommend that you read the following information.

Tips for E Book Publishing
Copywriting your E Book is a crucial step in the Ebook publishing process. By getting the copyrights to your book, you protect your ideas and materials against thievery. As unscrupulous as it seems, there are many people in the world who make money by stealing others ideas. Once your E Book is protected by copyright, however, you can rest assured that your ideas and original concepts will remain safe.

Another thing to consider before publishing your E Book is the cost and royalty rate you will be expecting. Before setting a price on your book, do some research on works similar to yours and find out what others are charging. If you are planning to discuss royalties with a publisher and/or E Book store, hire a lawyer look over and approve of any agreement.

Fine Art: Jae Dougall

June 21st, 2008

Jae Dougalls works are unique, post-impressionistic compositions inspired by the great Dutch painters of the twentieth century. Jae Dougall was born in the Philippines and raised by her father, Jose Trinidad. Trinidad was himself a painter, and the first years of Dougalls artistic education were spent learning directly from him.

Once of age, Dougall left her fathers tutelage to study in Canada at the Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. It was there that her style truly evolved. She began to formally fuse the traditional methods of her father and her own vision of brightly colored still life paintings with wonderful, exotic subjects echoing her early days in Asia.

The Works of Jae Dougall
Those who see Dougalls works often compare her to such masters as Cezanne and Gauguin. Like Cezanne in particular, she constantly tilts perspective to bring out the inner life in her subjects–even when those subjects are not living things. Her ability to breathe life and motion into inanimate objects on her canvases sets her apart from all other artists.

As Jae Dougall enters her fifties, her works are as popular as ever. Private collectors around the world display Dougall paintings and inexpensive Dougall prints are available for those who simply admire her work. Many of her works can even be purchased online through art dealers with web storefronts.

Landscape paintings have been a favorite of art collectors for centuries. Before the invention of the camera, the only way to capture the image of a place was through a painting. In centuries past, artists would sell their works on the street to passers-by looking to take home a visual reminder of a place they had been. Today, photographs have supplanted the landscape painting as a means of capturing memories. Cameras have not, however, replaced landscape paintings as pieces of art.

Landscape paintings have been created during nearly every major artistic movement throughout history. Monet painted many famous landscapes, as did his predecessors and artists of today. There is something deeply satisfying to the artist when he or she looks out on the world and can duplicate not just the image he or she sees, but the feeling of the place as well.

Types of Landscape Paintings
Landscape paintings are often realistic. Painters look out on the world and duplicate much of what they see. They then infuse the landscape with their own artistic styles and sensibilities. It is an artists style combined with the artists craft that makes a landscape painting great.

Though many are, landscape paintings need not be realistic at all. Some of todays finest artists create unrealistic, abstract landscape paintings that are truly awe-inspiring. By reducing a landscape into a few simple forms and colors, the artists audience is able to look beyond the beauty of a landscape to find something with even deeper meaning.

By selling limited edition art prints, artists are able to sell their artwork at affordable prices. It can take weeks or months for an artist to create a single painting. The economies of scale are such that few artists can afford to live by selling original art pieces. To increase their ability to sell their work, artists create limited edition art prints that can be produced in bulk and sold for far less than an original.

Limited edition art prints are not like the prints one might find in a poster shop. The creation of a limited edition art print is overseen by the artist. He or she will also authenticate the limited edition art by signing and numbering each print off of the press. Numbering authenticates that the print is one of a pre-determined number of prints that will be made from one drawing.

Ways of Creating Prints
One of the methods used is called intaglio printing. Intaglio printing involves carving an image into a metal plate which is then covered with ink. The plate is passed through a press where the plates image is transferred to paper. Because the plate is usually smaller than the paper itself, most intaglio prints have borders around their edges. To ensure that a plate is not used again once a limited edition run is complete, the plate is defaced by the artist or the printer.

Many artists have spent their entire careers working with printing methods. Andy Warhol, for example, utilized a printing method for all of his 1960s pop art. In the 1890s Pierre Bonnard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec used a printing method to mass produce their own works for sale. Warhol and Toulouse-Lautrec prints are some of the most valuable prints in the world.