Pinterest Pin Favorites

I started a Pinterest account many years ago. The focus was to highlight my digital art - mostly pet portraits. But I also have other boards for Capitol Hill - which is mostly made up of my blog contents, garden, baseball autographs, France, England, Copenhagen and Iran. I rarely look at the stats for these boards, but for whatever reason I checked them out the other day. I wanted to see which images had more than 100 impressions. By far and away the highest pin at 966 impressions was columns at Shiraz. It seemed a lot of the highest numbers were related to Iran - Persian new year and museum pieces. Modigliani Art from the National gallery were also well liked and I can see why. The images are very quirky and he has quite a style. All the others are a mixed bag of Alexandria Halloween and tunnels, parking garage, and DC attractions. So what I learned is is that none of my digital art gets a lot of attention. So in the end the original intention hasn’t been realized. But I’ll keep posting images ecause it’s an enjoyable hobby. 

Zazzle Promotion on Pinterest

It’s nice to get noticed. I’ve been painting custom pet portraits for about eight years - shortly after the first iPad came out in 2010. That new invention reignited my love for painting, but this time it was self taught digital art rather than watercolor, pastels, charcoal and ink. I used the sketch book pro app at first, but switched to Procreate when I got my iPad pro. One of the first commissions I had was of four golden retrievers. Each was distinctly different from the others. Whenever I complete a portrait I upload the image to several websites - Amazon Merch, Fine Art America/Pixels, Zazzle, my Etsy shop, and Redbubble. But I also share the items on Pinterest, Twitter, my website, Instagram, and Facebook business page. It’s a full time job! When I was looking at Pinterest the other day I noticed that my golden retriever face mask was being promoted on Pinterest. I know that because it says “promoted by Zazzle.” Perhaps it’s because that face mask was sold on Zazzle, as well as another one with cherry blossoms and the Supreme Court. I saw that those too were also promoted. So thank you for noticing not only my digitalart, but also some of the photographs that have also been uploaded to some of the websites. The sky is the limit for sharing, but getting noticed is quite another thing. 

James Drury and Baby Shark Pinterest Pins

I’ve been writing this blog just about every day for the last ten years. Each entry includes images that help tell the story. Those images are posted to several of my Pinterest boards depending on the content. Four pins that I posted on my LIT Capitol Hill board have gotten a bit more attention than most. One image is a crate of stuffed baby shark toys taken at IKEA; the other three are related to James Drury RIP - an autographed photo he signed for me, and two photos of me and him standing together. We went to see him in Pennsylvania several years ago after having watched the Virginian re runs following a major DC snowstorm. My family watched the Virginian tv show when we were young and I always liked James Drury. Since those images were posted, I get an almost daily notification that these images are being saved and/or viewed to many Pinterest boards. It’s kind of funny to see myself alongside all of the cowboy Virginian James Drury photos on all those Pinterest boards, but I’m also tickled pink at the same time. As for the shark? I don’t really understand that one. You never know what image will get the most attention. It’s always a pleasant surprise. 

Can’t Post to Instagram from Pinterest

Updating to the newest Apple IOS operating system has caused several problems on two iPads. One of them belonged to my mom who passed away last month. Ever since then, neither one works in spite of every trick. The last suggestion was to bring it in for the technicians to figure out. That won’t be happening for awhile. On the devices that do work, I can no longer post items from my Pinterest boards to Instagram. It first started on my iPhone when the IOS system was upgraded. Then the same thing happened on my iPad Pro yesterday. It’s not essential, but annoying. As with every one else, but on a much lower scale, my digital art business no longer exists. Luckily I don’t rely on it for steady income, but I can only imagine if I did - like so many other businesses folks out there struggling right now. So rather than cause myself getting a headache any more I found a workaround. My Pixels/Fine Art America website has an Instagram link. So I use that instead to connect to Instagram. It looks nice and still serves the purpose. We are so fortunate that our lifestyle hasn’t changed so much because we are retired. We spend our days at home and pick up the mail at midnight to avoid contact with any of the condo residents. So during the day I spend time maintaining my websites and writing this blog. The hardest thing now is to come up with some interesting topics since I’m not taking photos either - we aren’t going anywhere. At least this digital work keeps me busy and we are content. Just hoping everything turns a corner soon. 

Pinterest Saves, Follows, and Favorites

Aside from all of my digital art websites, I have a lot of different social media outlets to keep up with. One of them is Pinterest. I started using Pinterest several years ago without really knowing what it would do. It included Garden, LIT Capitol Hill, Pet Portraits, LITDigitalArt, Iran, England, France, Copenhagen, and Baseball Autographs Boards. Several boards were made up of photographs I’ve taken while traveling, the rest were art related. Then I changed over to the business version when my digital art was introduced several years ago. So now there are boards from Etsy, cool Stuff, Artist Collab, and other art related subjects. Any time there is activity on these boards I get an email notification about what it was. Someone may have liked a pin, a pin may have been saved, or a weekly activity shows the top pins and impressions. I always try to follow any one who likes anything of mine. Pins of Borzois are saved to “my favorites” board. You can also review your personal stats and do a lot more with Pinterest than I do. One of my dog portraits seems to get the most mileage. The goofy dog portrait gets high marks. It was one of my favorite paintings because looking at that face just makes me smile and I’m guessing it has the same affect on everyone else who likes it. Pinterest is just another way to get noticed, but I’m not so sure it’s translated in to anything more tangible. 

iPad Five Year Anniversary - What A Difference It Has Made - For Me!

I can't believe it's been five years since the iPad changed my life! Since that April day in 2010, so much has happened because of it. I waited by the door for it to be delivered and things have never been the same. I had a feeling about it like no other gadget before it. Now I have three iPads - the first one is now my husband's - and the other two are used exclusively for all my art - and maybe a few games! I downloaded Sketch book Pro and my love for art was reignited. It started with doodles and sketches, and became three children's books - as apps in the Apple Store published by StoryChimes, a New Yorker Eustace Tilley win, self published children's books on Amazon, and commissioned pet portraits from all over the US, Canada, Australia, and Puerto Rico. I even have a "gallery wall" at the Wagtime Shop on Capitol Hill. Along with all the art is the social media that ties it all together - this blog about living in the Capitol City, Facebook business page, tumblr, Pinterest boards, krrb ads, my etsy shop, twitter, a Wordpress personal website, and the most recent Rebelmouse that pulls a lot of it in to one place. The iPad makes it so much easier to coordinate all of these things. It has become my mobile studio - which is a lot cleaner and neater than watercolor and pastels - that I take with me whenever we are out of town. Yes, some of this could have been done without the iPad, but not to the same degree. Thanks Steve Jobs for having the vision. Happy Anniversary IPad!