The Artists Blog

We are back with our new site. We hope you like the changes we have made and welcome your feedback via the contact us tab.

This time around we will provide you with the all the latest there is you need as an artist to survive on the internet. We will give you the latest goodies for an artist to buy, sell, trade and exchange everything art related on the web.

The Internet allows people from all walks of life to instantly access knowledge and wisdom at their fingertips that spans the ages and the world over. Art galleries and online artist’s resources are no different. Art galleries online are a wonderful way to buy and enjoy art without having to leave your own home.

With the rise of e-commerce and the growing appetite of consumers for goods and services that are ready to go with a simple click of the “buy now” button, it’s only natural that there is a demand by art lovers, art collectors and indeed artists themselves to buy art online.

What makes Inspired Art unique is that it not only provides visitors and buyers with an extensive, high quality resource for buying art, it also serves as a great information website for artists and art lovers from around the country. With a myriad of potential sponsorship opportunities for investors and business owners this is a great way to also get your business noticed.

The beauty of an online art gallery such as Inspired Art is that not only can you view the artwork at your pace and in your time but you will also have the work of art delivered directly to your door, we even include free delivery!

The Internet has taken the beauty and accessibility of artwork to an unprecedented level, allowing millions of people throughout the UK to view and purchase art instantly. This not only improves the overall exposure of individual artists Inspired Art, but it also provides the country with far greater amounts of cultural and social capital.

However, you must also use a bit of caution when buying art online. As you do not see the physical artwork it is only when it arrives that you get to view the work with your own eyes. Therefore it is imperative that you have some form of safety from the gallery. At Inspired Art we recognise this and offer all of our customers a full money back guarantee which last for 14 days! You will struggle to find service close to this anywhere else. We believe in our art and the service our customers receive, therefore we are happy to offer this guarantee to all of our customers.

Remember we have a close relationship with our artists so if you wish to know more about them or a piece of art they have produced then contact us through the contact section and we will give you all the information you need. Good luck in selecting your new piece of art and why not join our club while you’re looking around.

Join the Inspired Art Club? Join The Club Members of the club receive regular updates on Inspired Art and the new artists we have onboard.

Maybe you buy art simply to decorate. Most of us do. We have a blank wall and want something fabulous, so we go looking for a great piece of art.

But, have you ever considered collecting art? Take a look around at the art on your walls to see if there’s a common thread or theme that emerges. Do you have a number of florals? More than one landscape? Or, maybe you have a budding art collection of pieces purchased on trips you’ve taken.

Of course, when we talk about paintings, we’re talking about real art. Art that’s created by actual, living artists. Not art you’d buy in a department store. So, if you have that kind of art – real art – you can stop thinking of it as a bunch of paintings, and turn it into a budding art collection.

Here’s a wonderful example of real art that’s collectible and affordable.  This fine art photo could be the beginning of a wonderful Americana art collection.  There are literally thousands of artists who artfully document everything American, including this example of a vintage sign advertising the last privately owned bar in Fort Lee, New Jersey.  The artwork titled The Last One is a 20″ x 24″ print available for 5 from fine art photographer Nick D’Andrea. http://www.discoveredartists.com/.

A collection of vintage, neon bar signs or advertising symbols from the 1950′s could create an interesting, decorative art wall while at the same time become an enjoyable pursuit as you hunt for more Americana artwork.

But, the subject area for art collection themes is wide open.  For example if you absolutely love cityscapes and have photos of skylines and skyscrapers, before you know it you’re an Architectural Art Collector. Or, if you have a couple of floral or animal prints, and begin collecting similar pieces, you can build a collection of botannicals or nature artworks

Believe it or not, chickens and cows are very big with collectors.  These are creatures that artists particularly like to paint, often because of the challenge of turning fur and feathers into interesting, lifelike figures with personality.  Rooster 25 is a perfect example of an artist who took on and met the challenge.  This fierce looking bird already has his feathers ruffled, ready to strike without provocation.  The painting is an original 12″ x 12″ oil on canvas by artist Ilse Kleyn and sells for 0 in the artist’s DiscoveredArtists.com gallery. http://www.discoveredartists.com/

So, all you really need to do to become an art collector is to put some thought into your art buying. Before you know it, instead of just buying art, you’ll be collecting art.  Decide on a theme based on art that appeals to you. Perhaps you love raku vases, or glass art. Or, maybe you’re attracted to bronze figurines. If you’re into wall art then cityscapes and watercolors from a particular country could become a theme for your collection.

 Cityscape at Dusk is a wonderfully warm, inviting photo that captures a moment in time at the intersection of North, Damen and Milwaukee Avenues in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood. Collecting photos and original art that takes you back to places you’ve visited or neighborhoods where you once lived adds meaning to the art that you use to decorate your home or office.  This fine art photo by photographer Kurt Kramer can be purchased for in his online gallery at DiscoveredArtists.com and is just one in a series of collectible, big city neighborhood cityscapes.

So, as you can see, there’s no end and no limit to the types of themes for collecting art. In fact, many collectors just buy what they like and create collections comprised of favorite artworks. These are collections that bring the owner years of pleasure and great satisfaction.

In fact, when compared to using art simply to decorate or to impress someone, collecting art gives you an even greater payoff. The process of collecting art is a life enriching hobby that beautifully mirrors who you are and shows the world what you love.  It can return a lifetime of satisfaction and value.

Where to Find Real Art At Reasonable Prices:

At www.DiscoveredArtists.com you can search over 4000 pieces of original and limited edition art created by international, independent Artists. Search by style, color, price, shape, size, and theme. Read artist biographies and search for artists by career experience, credentials, juried status and more.

Artwork is shipped directly to you from the artist’s studio. Prices are set by the artist, not by the gallery so you avoid paying gallery markups.  Purchase art using a major credit card using a secure shopping cart. All purchases are backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee including return shipping.

After reviewing a myriad of artist demos, press kits and bios as a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency and founder of ReelMusician.com, I’ve decided to write a short article on how you can formulate a workable and eye catching artist bio avoiding too much hype and grabbing the attention of the music industry. As the years have gone by and technology has increased, you would think that bios, press kits and other various articles written for an artist press kit would get better – I believe it has gotten easier, but better I’m still debating. There are fundamental truths and principles that you should incorporate into your press kit material if you really want to catch the eye of the industry professional and land some real success.

There are not as many fast or absolute rules as there are don’ts when creating your artist bio. I can tell you from experience, that the creation of an artist press kit is not as easy as one would think. Anyone can have their friend or another member of the act put together a press kit, but one that really sparkles and grabs the attention of your audience is the key – Not just creating what everyone else is creating. Believe it or not, I tend to think that many industry execs don’t even bother with the run of the mill artist press kits with CD’s sent in with the barrage of mail received on a daily basis. Unfortunately, there are probably some very deserving bands in the pile, but if you don’t catch their attention or are not conducting a polished approach to your material, then you can forget it – incredible reel or not.

As we go along here, don’t hesitate to contact ReelMusician.com should you have any questions on artist press kit design. Many articles, features, logo design work and free material are available there as well as the opportunity to have their staff professionally design and write your artist press kit material. To Begin with, there are scores of different ways to press kit layout. It is highly recommended that you have your folders professionally printed with your logo, etc and not adopt the gloss black folder that everyone is using. I understand that money doesn’t grow on trees, and if you are cash tight, then you might consider an off color other than black such as blue, yellow red, or variations, etc. Starting with that idea, let’s look at logo design. Do you or your band currently have a logo? – If not you should. Logos are becoming increasingly important in defining the act nowadays. Logos also help to set the mood for the tone of who you or your band is. Logo designs are fairly inexpensive and software is out there that is a great help in achieving some very professional designs. Your logo ought to be printed on the front of virtually everything your name is on – From the press kit cover, CD cover, bio, etc.

When looking at the creation of your bio, it almost seems a daunting task, to get the flavor and tone right and the pitch verbalized in such a way where you are articulate, provide a foundation of telling your reading audience why they should look further into your act, and do it in such a way as to not turn off your readers. This is a common thread among those who are serious about a powerful press kit and not just throwing it together to have something to send out. Let me assure you that if you will implement a few of these ideas and then for further reading and ideas at the ReelMusician.com website, that you will be well on your way to creating quality, eye-catching promo kits.

As a matter of practice, start reading as much material as you can, whether on line or hard copy, gleaning writing ideas tips and artistical direction that you find in the mainstream artist write-ups. I will tell you that because of mere position and the presence of record deals, that you will find it a little more difficult to write your bio. It’s a much easier task when you can talk about major play dates with top 40 acts, or your own singles released, etc then when you are first starting out – I am well aware of that. That’s why I recommend professionally written bio’s on the front end of your career. Professional writers who write bios and press kits tend to have a better feel for how to address certain inadequacies with solid writing material then most artists or band members. When you are in the business to write and make someone look good in print, with little name recognition to none, you get a feel and get good at choice verbiage.

So what should you include in your artist bio? Include name of act at top in bold – don’t be so artsy fartsy that individuals can’t make out the name or the main body of the bio for that matter. Include important play dates, singles released, significant air play (chart number) and where, band members and anything about any player that exudes credentials. Be sure to include future release dates, any solid future bookings, your artist manager if they have credible acts that substantiate your credibility, length of band being together, if longer than a year, and music genre. Don’t spend a lot of time picking apart the music style and don’t include that you were the high school choir president and any other non-consequential type of information. It’s better to have a shorter bio, than to stretch it out with information that nobody gives a darn about. The fact that you came from a certain town or region, may be important for certain unknown reasons here, but if not, don’t include it. Don’t include the local fundraiser that you played at if it’s not a fairly significant regional show. You get the idea – Don’t include something that you think the reader might read and say, “So what.”

In closing, and so much more could be written here, but for the sake of time and length of this article, I will leave you with that less is more, don’t use the same old tired color of folders, and be aware of what’s truly important when writing your artist bio. Let your creativity be shrouded in user readability, without using a lot of unneeded or unhelpful hype that detracts rather than supports or emphasizes and start looking at many press releases and bios to gather ideas.

Art news isn’t featured much but now with the election in process, whichever party leads the next government, the key issue for arts will be funding as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport faces budget cuts in 2011-12.<br><br>

With the UK general election taking place on 6 May, the governing Labour Party’s election manifesto includes detailed commitments to the arts, unlike that of the centre-right Conservative opposition. Indeed it figures as one of the “50 steps” which the Labour Party promises for a “fairer” Britain—the summary of 50 national commitments which conclude the manifesto.<br><br>

The party states it will give “operational independence for major museums and galleries, with more lottery funding returning to the arts, sport and culture after 2012″. To implement this, new legislation will ensure “managerial and financial autonomy” for national museums.

In a surprise move, Labour also says in the manifesto it will “give public institutions new rights to borrow works of art from the national collection, so that more people can benefit from access to our national artistic heritage.” This is a new commitment, and although very vaguely worded, it refers to the Government Art Collection. The manifesto also includes a renewed commitment to free admission to national museums.

The Conservatives have only a single sentence on the arts in their manifesto. This promises that the proportion of National Lottery funding going to the arts will be reinstated to the original 20%. Previously, the Conservatives had also promised more independence for national museums, although this does not figure in their manifesto.

The Liberal Democratic manifesto is the most detailed of any of the three on the arts. It promises to “maintain free entry” to national museums, to “open up the Government Art Collection for greater public use,” and to “reform” the National Lottery by changing the tax system to benefit the arts.

However, whichever party firms the next government on 7 May, the key issue for arts will be funding. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will almost certainly face budget cuts in 2011-12, and the question then will be how DCMS will share out to the organisations which it funds.

The Truth About Martial Arts and Self-Defense

I understand that this series of articles is not going to appeal to very many martial arts school owners. However, I feel that we are all best served by the truth. But I also realize that nobody and certainly not I, seldom if ever sees the whole or absolute truth about anything.

After forty years of studying and teaching martial arts and spending the last twenty of those years teaching self-defense only, I feel I must communicate to the public in general that martial arts training is simply not true self-defense training for today’s world.

Yet having said that I sincerely hope that I will not be misunderstood to be implying that martial arts is not well worth anyone’s time and dedication to study, because it most certainly is worth that study.

Martial Arts has done a great deal for me in my life and on so many levels too. I was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame and awarded the Instructor of the Year Award in 2008 and I hold rank in three major martial arts. Martial Arts training really does have so many health benefits both physical and mental.

What I am simply saying here is that for most people classical martial arts training will very seldom meet their self-defense needs in a crisis.

For economy of communication and clarity here I will phrase some ASSERTIONS often made about martial arts followed by the ACTUAL FACTS and thus the rebuttal to that assertion:

ASSERTION ONE: Martial Arts are the result of a thousand years off development and the techniques taught in them are the ones that were proven and survived on the battlefield.

ACTUAL FACT: False on every count. Empty-handed martial arts as we know them today are a very recent historical development. Karate was unknown in Japan until about 1920. Tae Kwon Do was consolidated into an art in 1950. Man is the tool user and he fights with weapons and always has and not bare hands and feet. No martial art has any true historical record or proven experience on any battlefield either and for this very same reason.

ASSERTION TWO: Asian Martial Arts Provide a Complete system of self-defense which when mastered is well sufficient for one’s self-defense demands in most cases.

ACTUAL FACT: This is also fundamentally false. Empty-handed Asian Martial Arts largely developed from weapon arts long after the periods of civil war and fighting had ended (in Japan for one example). These unarmed martial arts were not directly developed for self-defense purposes either really. They were developed as cultural ‘arts’ and later ‘sports’.

There creation was sometimes a means for some ‘martial heritage families’ to continue to make a living through teaching these cultural treasures. In this way these families also maintained their martial traditions after the habitual carrying of weapons such as the sword was generally forbidden and the Samurai class was legally dissolved in Japan at the later part of the nineteenth century.

Tae Kwon Do is a Korean form of Japanese karate, largely based on the Japanese style Shotokan. The Korean Patriot General Choi felt a Korean form of “karate” would be beneficial for a rebirth of Korean national pride after the defeat of the Japanese in the Second World War. The Japanese occupation of Korea was a rather brutal one and it was designed to eradicate all Korean culture and supplants it with Japanese culture.

General Choi, the basic founder and promoter of TKD saw the Japanese practicing karate during their military occupation of Korea. He changed the forms a bit so TKD could easily be identified as ‘not being Japanese karate’ but a Korean form and a Korean art.

The techniques and forms added to the Japanese karate (TKD) were not meant to add any self-defense value to the Japanese art form but were added simply to make it visually apparent that what was being seen practiced was Korean and not Japanese.

Later what self-defense value TKD did have was mostly lost when it became an Olympic sport and most all training followed the rules of that Olympic sport. Now I am not saying that there are not some tremendously powerful fighters turned out by TKD schools but that is much more the result of the individual and not the TKD training method or the training syllabus of the art.

Further still, a complete system of self-defense, if such a thing could exist, certainly would have to include much more than ‘physical technique’, such as how to kick or punch etc. Once a situation gets to that physical point in the real world you have an uncontrolled situation where anything can happen and regardless of ones martial skills.

The true objective of self-defense is to survive and escape death or serious injury from an attack. That objective is very clearly first and best accomplished by conflict avoidance which is made much more possible by knowing the ways of the human predators. That is how they think, how they chose their victims and thus how not to appear as an unattractive and ideally unacceptable victim to them. Self-Defense training must also include de-escalation and conflict avoidance training and skills.

Asian martial arts do not even address or acknowledge the need or existence of any of these critical survival self-defense skills at all. Instead Asian Martial Arts follows a syllabus almost wholly devoted to the practice of physical technique alone. The majority of that physical technique is wholly impractical for most people to employ effectively in an actual self-defense situation too.

ASSERTION THREE: The founders of these arts were proven masters of self-defense and knew exactly what they were doing in creating the techniques and training syllabus of their art

ACTUAL FACT: Few if any of the creators or founders of unarmed martial systems had ever been involved in any real fight at all in their entire lives. These arts were created in modern times and in societies more peaceful than ours are today. So about the only thing resembling an actual fight that most of these founders were ever involved with was an ‘athletic contest’ with another master in order to show the superiority of their style over that other master’s style. And in so doing they aspired to acquire new students for their own system. It is essential to understand that no ‘consensual athletic contest’ such as this is a self-defense situation in any significant way at all.

ASSERTION FOUR: It is undeniable that martial arts training has created some extremely formidable fighters who would make very short work of the average untrained street assailant.

ACTUAL FACT: There is some clear and demonstrable truth to this assertion. But these people are the exception. The study of traditional martial arts fails most people in being able to apply it to an actual attack successfully.

Further, it is largely the proper mindset and personal physical qualities and attitudes of these individuals that allows them to make their martial arts training effective to an actual self-defense situation. And make no mistake here, the street thug is not untrained, he learned the best way possible and that is ‘ by doing it’. The street thug is very seldom in his ‘first real fight’ when he attacks someone.

However, if that someone he attacks is a martial arts trained person it is much more likely that this will be that ‘martial arts persons’ first ‘real fight’.

THE REAL PROBLEM IN APPLYING MARTIAL ARTS EFFECTIVELY TO A REAL WOLRD SELF-DEFENSE SITUATION:

I can say without any doubt whatever exactly what this problem is and martial arts traing very seldom prepares the student for it properly at all.

That problem is the only thing one can absolutely count on occurring in any real self-defense situation too, and that is the problem with dealing with the powerful adrenal stress reaction.

Martial arts training almost always occur under non-adrenal circumstances. The training hall is correctly a place of respect and courtesy. The real world of violence and human predators certainly is not.

Even the most demanding tournaments with significant levels of physical contact do not approach the adrenal levels that actual combat engages in a person.

The repeatedly observed reality for this writer is that the adrenal stress reaction (to those not previously conditioned to it) will affect a decided loss of motor control; especially fine motor control that so many martial arts techniques demand. I have observed this for many years in training even very accomplished martial arts people in self-defense using ‘scenario based training’ and our RMCAT armored assailant instructors.

Once the conditions of an actual self-defense situation are authentically simulated by the instructor in a scenario, that is the body posture, verbal abuse and the body carriage and projection of true malevolent intent, etc, the ‘body does not know the difference’ and we see these adrenal affects display themselves every time.

When the instructor who is training the ‘student’ for adrenal stress management assumes and displays the same physiological cues of the actual human predator, the martial arts person and the previously untrained person are often indistinguishable in their fight performance against that armored assailant instructor.

To be frank here, even well trained black belts often flail ineffectually and seldom land any effective blows at all or defend themselves effectively in their first fight simulation scenario against the armored assailant. I feel that this would be their

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, American women artists did not get a fair deal in the male dominated art world. Only with the exception of Mary Cassat, Cecilia Beaux and Georgia O’Keeffee, most American women artists were ignored. In a recent study conducted, it has been estimated that about forty percent of all the artists in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were women. Most of these women artists had undergone art training from some of the greatest masters of the time.

There was a remarkable change in the American art scenario after 1860. Many artists who were well off went to Europe for instruction and inspiration. America at that time did not have much opportunities for training to women artists and therefore Europe which had more sophisticated system of learning and training, was a better alternative to them. Most of the women artists learned from masters in Paris. They studied and copied the masters at Louvre and also got themselves enrolled for private instructions in the art colonies of Barbizon, Grezsur-Loing, Pont-Aven, Concarneau and Giverny. These gave them opportunity to develop their artistic proficiency, under the guidance of the masters.

However, even in Europe, sexual discrimination remained the norm as it was in America. Women were not admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Though they were accepted in the private Academie Julian, the tuition fees were almost double from that of men. Also classes for women were not so frequently conducted in comparison to male students.

Discrimination of women artists continued in America till the 1890s. During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, only about 10 percent of the art work of women artists was put up as exhibits. However this figure gradually increased and in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, 1915, the exhibits of the work of  American women artists were more than thirty percent of the total exhibits.

Women artists in America gradually took their place in the entire major art exhibition in America and also won a good share of medals and trophies for their artistic output. But in spite of all the credentials and honors, there was still discrimination against women artists as few of their artworks were selected for permanent collection in the American Museums in the country. However, many professional women artists started demanding equal rights in the art schools.

The women artists of America were also influenced and inspired by the French Impressionists in the nineteenth century. These artists began to paint with more vibrant spectrum applied in short strokes, paying close attention to the effects of the sunlight and shadow. But these women artists did not imitate their French counterparts, but developed their own individual styles.

By the beginning of twentieth century, another revolution was waged in the art world. This transformation occurred with the emergence of “The Eight,” which was dedicated to capturing the conditions of modern urban experience. This realistic attitude toward the images and concerns of everyday life is amply demonstrated in a portrait of the famous actress Lois Fuller by Theresa Bernstein, one of the “Philadelphia Ten,” and in the Red Hat by Elizabeth Clay Fisher. Elizabeth Clay Fisher, a student of Robert Henri, imbued Red Hat, a portrait of a young girl, with the coloration and style of her tutor.

American women artists began to assert themselves and also explore the modern aesthetics in art after the 1913 Armory Show. A famous painting in canvas the “Sailboat” by Elizabeth Miller Logingier reveals the precisionists influences made on the women artists of America.

Online Gallery Question Checklist to Sell Your Art Online

When looking for an online art gallery it is a good idea to have some kind of question checklist. Here are some questions you might consider. How much will the gallery cost to run? Is there a commission I have to pay on my art sold? Will I get enough traffic and how much art can I display? Will I be given my own personal art website and biography page? Is it difficult to set up? Can I check my client traffic statistics. Is there a free trial period so I can see if I like the system? Let’s look at some tips for selling your art online.

5 Tips – How to Sell Your Art Online

1. Presentation – Present your art in the most professional way possible. Ideally, showcase your art in an online gallery.

2. Traffic – Even if you have the most beautiful art in the world in your gallery, you will have little success selling your work unless people know where you are. Market your art through free ads, paid ads if you like, pay-per-click ads, blogs, forums and articles. Write “how to” articles about art, which is a great way to generate traffic to your site. Also, have business cards made up and distribute them in as many ways possible.

3. Critiques – Ouch! – If you’re way too sensitive and thinned skinned, get over it. Criticism is one of your best money-making friends. Why? Because you want to find out what people like and don’t like about your art so you can fix it and make your art more salable. Go out of your way to get criticism of your art by asking friends, strangers (safe strangers!), forum groups, art teachers, art professors and even art appraisers if you want to spend the money.

Leonardo da Vinci asked for criticism from a man off the street. He asked the man what he thought of his “Last Supper” painting, which was not yet finished. The man said he really liked the chalice cup. I believe Leonardo readily removed the chalice from the painting because it was not supposed to be the focus of the work. Leonardo was wise enough to appreciate and receive objective criticism which helped finish his masterpiece.

4. Constant Improvement – Creating your art should be a constant learning process, ever improving because the more knowledge you have of the laws and rules of art the better your painting skills, hence greater financial return on your art. To what is needed to improve your artistic eye and skills. Look at great art and try to see why their colors, their lights and darks, shapes and compositions work so well. Take an art class. Read art “how to” books. Grow in your knowledge of what makes great art.

5.  Pricing – Too High, Too Low – Check out your competition, art similar to your own work. What are their prices? Get opinions from people about your art pricing. Remember, be thick-skinned for they are only helping you decide on the correct pricing for your art. Test your pricing. If it sells too quickly (how wonderful!), perhaps you could raise the price. If it is not selling, then your pricing is probably too high. Test, test, test. Oh, you might consider having prints made of your originals because it would give you a whole new extra pricing market. Some people would rather pay for a print than to pay more for an original.

So, hopefully the art gallery question checklist and the tips for selling art online will help you get your art selling. Enjoy your divine gift, the unique ability to express yourself through art.

Do you want to check out an online art gallery I have used and recommend?

Click “Online Art Gallery” below.

Imagine that you work with a high salary while meeting celebrities and other famous people, make others look presentable and get paid by doing something you are passionate on? These are just some of the benefits of a makeup artist! If you have the talent for making other people look good and you have a good eye and good hands when it comes to makeup, then you may consider becoming a good makeup artist.

Work Options

Once you get a chance to enter into the business, you can have a chance to succeed being a makeup artist in salons and spas – to someone who does the makeup of movie and television stars! In the entertainment scene, you can have a job as a makeup artist for modeling agencies, print ad agencies, magazines, television commercials, music videos, runway shows, weddings, photo shoots and theater. Of these many choices, witness that there is an entire world of known people who are on the look out for makeup artists to groom them – or bad, if needed, which is true in the case of costume makeup or special effects makeup.

Make a Research and Sell Yourself

Now you know what career awaits you, here are the steps that you need to note on how to be a makeup artist. First, see if there’s any competition in your place. Are there already a lot of makeup artists? Is there a wedding coordinator, a film outfit or an advertising company that you can work for? For the next step, see if the salary is just right for the number of clients that you can possibly get while working as a makeup artist. Now, there are two paths to go when looking for employment as a makeup artist. If your current contacts can refer you to people they know, you can get a career as a freelance makeup artist. Another thing that you need to remember when you choose to work as a freelance makeup artist is that you need to continuously market yourself and work doubly hard to build a regular clientele. On the other hand, if you want to have the stability of getting a regular paycheck, you can work for employment agencies, like wedding services, salons, and movie outfit establishments.

Don’t Stop from Learning

When you are already working as a makeup artist, keep yourself up-to-date with the latest trends in beauty and fashion. Make sure to avail of nature friendly cosmetic products, since this is what some of your clients may be looking for. Constantly keeping your clients happy, improving your skills and loving your job are the steps to succeed as a makeup artist.

Backing dancing is one of the most exclusive career paths for a dancer to go down. Even if you’re a dancer whose main interest is theatre, who wouldn’t say yes to dancing for Justin Timberlake? Well-paid, high-profile and all your friends will probably recognise you on TV.

But what happens when you get offered the role of backing dancer and it’s not your favourite artist? Are you confined only to dancing for one artist? Luckily the answer is no.

You can dance for as many different clients and artists that you want and usually they won’t mind. If anything it will make your CV look more impressive if you’ve previously done backing dancing and may even make it easier to dance with your favourite bands.

Most people have loads of different artists and groups on their Ipod or Cd collections. Perhaps too many even to be able to name a favourite. So it’s great that you have permission to dance for lots of them.

There are a few things however you may want to consider. For example if you know that a certain artist has a rival artist (think Britney Spears vs Christina Aguilera) then it might be harder to dance for your favourite artist if you’ve already danced for their rival.

The fact is that production companies usually go to the same couple of agencies for their dancers so naturally some dancers will have worked for several music artists. It won’t come as a surprise to them although sometimes they just want fresh faces which haven’t worked with too many artists.

Sometimes dancers can work for one artist and then work for another rival artist. It happens because dancers are not always at the forefront and unless heavily featured they’re not that easily recognisable. After all every time they cast for dancers they want the best dancers for the job.

The artists or band members aren’t always in the decision-making process for the dancers, although sometimes they are. Sometimes the whole image and production team may be involved in the decision to make sure that the dancer’s style of dancing and image will compliment their artists. It’ll sometimes be video footage they study of the auditions and you won’t even know the artists are helping pick the dancers.

So take a look through your music collection, decide which artists you want to work with and starting plotting for your success. But remember to spend as much time practising your actual dancing skills rather than deciding which artists are your favourites!

The world of arts and culture is such a vibrant and constantly evolving place that it can sometimes be difficult to keep up to speed with the latest art news and events.

New concerts, exhibitions and performances are constantly springing up, sometimes at very short notice, and if you take your eye off the ball for a second you can end up missing out on some great events.

But with the arts industry thriving and with exciting new events taking place left right and centre, how can arts lovers stay up to date with all the latest goings on?

The simple answer is to turn on your computer and get online. Indeed, there is a vast array of resources out there on the internet for arts and culture enthusiasts wishing to stay informed of all the latest developments.

The internet has totally revolutionised the arts industry, and is now the first port of call for artists looking to promote their events. It is also a fantastic way for art lovers to keep their finger on the pulse.

A huge number of websites offer up-to-date industry news and updates on new events, with many of them offering special arts calenders to keep you in touch with the areas that interest you most.

Many such sites allow you to sign up for daily, weekly or monthly newsletters which provide details of concerts and exhibitions in your area, and sometimes offer exclusive deals and information on ticket prices.

In addition, certain sites give you the chance to sign up for text message updates on the latest events. This is great if you find yourself at a loose end and need instant inspiration about which gallery or event to visit.

Social networking websites are also a fantastic platform. By ‘making friends’ with your favourite venues and arts venues, you can get the inside track on all the latest events, including lesser-known ones that you might otherwise never hear about.

Podcasts are also an excellent tool, and many venues now use these as a way of speaking directly to their clients. For art lovers, podcasts are great because they are usually free to download, regularly updated and provide all kinds of interesting information about the latest news and events in the flourishing arts industry.