The website Artsy Sister was born out of a desire to share my work with the world, as well as making a few bucks on the side. It was created by my dear brother, and manage by me. I wanted to make a website to sell art products, and thus, he made this Shopify website. I choose all the products to feature, based on my knowledge of the artworld. I am a bit of a self-taught artist. So, when picking products I keep their learnability in mind. Any fellow with enough practice can develop enough hand to eye coordination to make a masterpiece. Just because you cannot afford art school or you failed to enter, it doesn’t mean you should give up on your dream. I chose products to go along with all ages and skill levels. People need to start somewhere. You do not need to be a child to pick up the craft. Painting and drawing is a personal matter. One can make money from it, but at other times one does not. The key is to find yourself a good marketer. For example, Van Gogh died poor, as well as his brother Theo. His work only became famous when his sister in law started promoting his work via letters. She wrote to art galleries, and collectors, informing them about the awesomeness of Van Gogh.

The long and short of my argument is that you do not know what the future holds. It is very easy to get discouraged. If you are not an artist, but a fellow who wishes to encourage someone with talent, then Artsy Sister is the place for you to shop. My brother made this website for me to encourage me to get back into the website game, as well as the actual development of artworks. In the old days, we used to have numerous websites, but that went sour all thanks to Google. We were novices, and the lesson we learned is that trying to make money with Google Ads is a no go. Google is the only one who benefits.

We took some time off the website development. We also stopped working on our comic book The Furies. I started focusing more on my finally getting my Bachelor in Journalism. As for my brother, he went himself and got a day job developing websites for other companies to make money. We no longer had a website to call our own.

Come January, my brother had learned all he needed to know about Shopify to try to enter the game once again. All that he needed was a theme. This is where I came in. I told him to make me a website to sell art products from Amazon. The competition in that department was very slim. Most of the people who do those types of website aren’t artists. They just pick a random theme, and then get everything they think should go there without a forethought. I at least attempt some quality control. I do not choose anything I would not like to use myself. However, I do need to keep my expenses under control. I am an artist on a budget.

With budgeting in mind, I have products of many varying prices. So, depending on how much you can or are willing to spend, there is a quality art tool for you. Speaking of products, I have the 3 classic styles of paintings. For those that do not know or are learning, I am referring to oil, watercolor and acrylic. As of late, I am gearing more to acrylics. I had plenty of practice with it. Slowly, I am becoming better with the brush. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes. However, people sometimes do not get better with practice. This is not to say they are unskilled, rather, they are trying to paint like other people, and not the way they know. Everyone has their own style, as the saying goes.
Modern art today does not rely too much on realism. There is more of an emphasis on uniqueness, with more attention placed on the personality and emotions of the artist. Political art is also catchy. As for me, I am a fan of art for arts sake. I first heard of that art movement from one of my art teachers, whose name I cannot remember. He was teaching political art in artworks. He mentioned in one of his lectures James Whistler. There was nothing political in his work, at least as far as my teacher was concerned. Whistler was simply doing an emotionless rendering of paintings, a study of color and form, if you would. There is nothing wrong with that. Paintings do not need to mean something to be awesome.
Aside from painting, Artsy Sister was made for those who think the pencil and pens are mightier than sword. Drawing has become quite common place, as of late. In the old days, pencils were a luxury that people now take for granted. With a proper pencil, people can make masterpieces. Pens and pencils are the mediums I use the most. Like some of you may know, I was originally a mangaka artist that expanded to other art mediums. All my works are done in tangent with my brother. I do the line art and then he does the shading and the coloring in Photoshop.

Photoshop is a common staple of every modern day artist. It if for this reason that I included in my Artsy Sister digital mediums for producing artwork, with computers. As far as modern art is concerned, most of my favorites produce it using computers. It is the way of the future. Once a person gets used to the gimmicks of the program, a computer can become the artist’s new best friend. I still haven’t made much of a headway in that department. My computing skills are limited to the realm of Photoshop for photos. From time to time, I post my favorite photos in the website. Usually, a photo only needs, Levels, color balance and a bit of dogging and burning. If you need to jump through hoops to make the photo look better, you might as well try again. Photoshop was originally designed for digital art. It was only around the second version that it was adapted for photography. I heard that story from my collage photography teacher.

I was learning the general rules of photoshop for journalists. And yes, journalists do photoshop their images. I cannot say that I was surprised. I have been going through a bit of a skepticism period. I do not believe anything seen on the Telly. The only newspaper I read is the one in the BBC. Still, even as of late it has gained some of the aspects of the tabloid. Not that it matters much, as far as I am concerned. From time to time they do mentioned some artsy stuff, like the story of a 5 year old whose paintings sell for 4000 euros. A lot of painters these days lack confidence. They have thousands and thousands of people telling them they are going to fail. And frankly, only one or two of those voices come from the real world. It is pointless to start something if you assume you are going to fail. I never had that problem with worrying about failure and all that nonsense. For me the future is something intangible.
People worry far too much about the future. This is part of the reason why most people stop themselves from even trying something remotely artistic. They start thinking “I am too old to learn to draw” or “This won’t make me any money”. With that perspective, the lot end up running into dept trying to get a diploma for a career they care nothing about. This is my problem with most doctors and lawyers. They went into the game to become rich out of other people’s miseries. I am a big fan of getting paid what is owned, but there is a limit you know. Why worry about building your own personal wealth to absurd levels, if you are going to croak in the end? It is better to get rich out of doing something that you love. So, if you love art, go for it! You do not know what the future holds. Just because someone tells you to walk along a certain path, it is not guarantee that you will reach success. A tree could have fallen down that path, or many there is now quicksand, and down you go. All past successes came about through past circumstances, and history does not repeat itself. So, analyze the current state of the world, and then give a step and then another and so forth. If your path leads you to Artsy Sister, then we will welcome you with open arms.