Pancake Recipe: Holiday Edition

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! So, this was supposed to be posted on Christmas... Haha. A little creative holiday treat. Easy pancake recipe and how to transform them into fun holiday themed characters. Great for kids and adults who are in tune with their inner child! Enjoy! Recipe written below:

Autumn in New York

Recently did a very early (too early for me) morning photoshoot to capture some of the Autumn leaves here in Upstate New York. Not only did I get to capture some beautiful shots, but I also shot video of the shoot, as well as some of the scenery while driving around some of the more suburban and country sides of New York. Join me on this early morning shoot and take a look:

Otakon Fundraiser

So, I mentioned in a poll on DeviantArt that I plan on going to Otakon (August 8th-10th), however, I don't have the funds yet to do so. Oddly enough, it's been really on my heart to go this year. So I'm hosting a little fundraiser, which some seemed to think was a good idea based on the poll. Here's how it will work:

Increasing Your Exposure on DeviantArt

Within the last year, I've returned to the DeviantArt site and have realized how truly of a useful site it is to artists. Seeing all the amazing artists on there has become a big part of my inspiration for my own work. And while I'm not able to spend as much time as I'd like to because of my schedule, I was still able to increase my amount of followers on the site by more than 10x as much within the past few months or so. But I've noticed while many artists do very well on DA, there are also many artists on the site who are frustrated in the fact that they just don't seem to get much exposure. So I decided to help those artists out by providing tips on how to gain exposure specifically on DA.

My Two Month Disappearance (Update)

So many of you who follow my deviantArt page already found out that my hard drive had crashed about 2 months ago, hence why I haven't been posting much work and haven't kept up with the weekly portrait project either.

However I'm now announcing that my computer is up & running again and I now have a larger internal hard drive, plus a 3 TB backup so I don't have to worry about losing my work again! I'll have to spend some time playing catch up, but at least I can work again and there will be many art posts soon to follow!

To see the original post announcing my hard drive crash and what I've learned from it, click below:

http://aglimpseofme.deviantart.com/journal/Sorry-For-My-Disappearance-454354377

Announcing...

Announcing: a self portrait photo project. There's a photographer who goes by the name "Lauren Lemon", and she had a photo project a while back where she posted a new self portrait every day for a year straight. Leaving her with 365 photos that I believe she turned into a photo book. So this got me inspired to do something similar. Except, instead of once a day, I will be posting a group of photos from a shoot once a week. I'm not sure if I'll do it for a whole year; but basically until I run out of ideas or no longer have time to. Each shoot will have a completely different theme.

Improving Your Reach by Keeping it Simple & Easy

I was asked by the Glory House of Prayer church to review their site and give input on how I think they can improve. After reviewing their site and how they managed some events, I had a meeting with them to go over what I thought worked and didn't work to their benefit. But when organizing my notes for this meeting, I realized these points would also make a great post to help others improve their businesses and organizations as well.

See, a church, to an extent, is a business, trying to reach an audience who often doesn't already have a huge interest in who you are and what you're offering, just like any other business. No matter what kind of business you're in, you have certain audiences you want to draw in to be interested in what you have to offer. But having a website, social media page, or even having people visit those pages aren't necessarily enough to make them interested in your organization, company, or product.

Valentine's Special

Are you still looking for a gift for that special someone? Don't miss out on our [last minute] Valentine Special. 10% off all services and paintings.

I also decided this year I would offer custom hand-painted Valentine cards. The cards will be painted on front with a custom painting of your choice and artist signature, printed with a custom message of your choice on the inside, and stamped with "A Glimpse of Me" on the bottom of the back side. The inside message can also be done with Chinese ink and ink brush for more custom calligraphy. The cards will be on cardstock and will come with an unsealed envelope. The price of these cards will run $14 for each 4"x5" card and includes shipping (if needed).

Here are a couple samples of custom cards I've done in the past:

Breath of Life Missions

Breath of Life Missions has been a client of mine for a little over a half year or so and it has been a joy doing work for them. To the left here is a flyer I did for a conference they had last year as they were in the beginning stages of their organization.

Toothless the Dragon

Introducing my new little partner: the little bearded dragon named Toothless. Named after my favorite dragon, from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" (and yes, they have very similar personalities). This little cutie became a member of my home shortly after Christmas and has quite the character. You'll probably see plenty more of my little buddy since I'll probably often use Toothless as a test subject for my photography. Here are a few shots for you to enjoy:

Holiday Cards Sent

The Christmas cards I painted and mailed in for the Christmas Card Project that I posted about weeks ago. Hope some of you were able to send some in as well! These were painted with Acrylic paint: