Sunday, March 20, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up #16!

This week was very productive and fun! I got a lot of things done art-wise, but also got to do some fun things in my personal life. This Wednesday was date night for me and my husband. We are trying to have a date night once every 2-3 weeks and we alternate who plans them. This week was his turn! We started out by having a nice dinner at Dave & Busters which is half restaurant half huge arcade. Their food is really good! I had the BBQ pork sliders with cole slaw...super yummy! After dinner, we walked around the mall a little, had ice cream (Cold Stone - Cake Batter w/ Cookie Dough...ooooh yeaaah) and browsed around the bookstore. The bookstore is one of my favorite places! I love looking at all the books, but I only wish I had more time to read. I've actually switched to books on tape just because I have to multi-task and do artwork while listening to a book! But I still absolutely love bookstores.

After that, we went to see the new movie Red Riding Hood! I was super excited to see this movie. I think it had one of the best trailers that I've ever seen. The one shot in the trailer when she's walking up the snow covered mountain and her long red cloak blows in the wind is just so gorgeous. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I won't say too much. The movie didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it was fairly entertaining. I'd save your movie money though and wait for it to come out on DVD. Just my two cents! But all in all, we had a great night and of course I always love spending time with my husband!

On the art front, I've been super busy as always. Production on a new website for my artwork is underway, I also have a brand new sketch to show you all, I have started offering Daily Etsy Specials, and I have a brand new Facebook Fan Page!

New Website for The Fantasy Art of Nikki Burnette

I have had my website for about...wow..almost 3 or 4 years now. I knew that it was time for an overhaul and a redesign. I've outgrown it in many ways and also wanted to change the look. I have heard of Weebly for quite some time, but was recently inspired by fellow fantasy artist Kristin Palmer to actually give Weebly a try! By the way, check out Kristin's gorgeous website and her beautiful artwork!

Just a little off topic, but for all you artists out there that are wondering how to get a website, Weebly is a FANTASTIC resource for you! It is 100% free. They have an upgraded version, but I don't think it's super necessary and I haven't gotten it yet, though I may in the future just to support such a wonderful company. They host all your pictures and will even give you a domain name. I promise I'm not a Weebly employee, but I have had many questions from artists just starting out and accomplished artists about how to set up and maintain a website with a shopping cart. I now know where I will be sending everyone who asks from now on! They have many features that my old website company didn't have that I was paying $20 bucks a month for! It's super easy to use and maintain. I just can't wait until it's all done so I can start using it more frequently!

But, I digress, my husband is currently helping me build the website and adding my hundreds of product listings! I am working on creating a lot of custom graphics to tweak the standard website templates they have to make it a bit more custom and special for me. I am loving the way it's shaping up and cannot wait to show you all! It will be much easier to navigate and find what you're looking for. Plus, everything will be 100% up to date and will hopefully stay that way.

For now, here's a little teaser image! Oh and here's a link to Weebly for those who are interested.



New Roman Mermaid Sketch + Naming Contest

This week, I also created a brand new sketch for my next painting. I have had this image in my head for awhile and it was finally time to draw her out. I love all my paintings to be very different, so drawing mermaids who are fairly limited to the water can sometimes be a little difficult. I always try to think of new and interesting places to put them! A Roman Bathhouse popped into my head and thought that would be perfect. I had so much fun designing her Roman mermaid clothes and the intricate flowers in the vase on either side of her.

I am also having another naming contest for her! Just visit my Facebook page here and suggest a name under her photo. The person who suggests the name I pick will win a 5x7" print of the finished piece! I will announce the winner of the naming contest when I post the finished digital lines which should be later on today or early next week, so get your names in quick if you want to be considered!



Daily Etsy Specials

I am having a Daily Etsy Special!! Well, hopefully daily (no guarantees), but it will be very frequently! I announce my Daily Etsy Specials on my Facebook page, so make sure to join!

Here's how it works:

Every day on Etsy, I significantly discount ONE item for around 24 hours. The special will run roughly from 5:00 pm EST to 5:00 pm EST the following day. Each time I start a new daily special, I will add a photo on my Facebook page with a link to that product so that you can easily see what's on special for the day.

If someone purchases the item, I will relist it at the same discounted price until 5:00 pm EST the following day. If you don't see the item in my store, it means that I haven't had a chance to relist it. You can always message me during the daily special time period to lock in your order if you're afraid you won't be on to purchase when I relist it.

There are no substitutions! The special is for that image and product type only. For instance, if a Rona Pocket Mirror is on sale, you can't get the special price for a Bryanne Pocket Mirror, only Rona.

To view any specials I have currently, just visit my Etsy store! It should be the first product in the "Featured Products" at the very top of the page. Or you can search "sale" in my store. If you have any questions at all, please contact me!




Facebook Fan Page

Join my new Facebook Fan Page here!

In all honesty, when I set out to get started on Facebook, my intentions were to make a Facebook Fan Page and not a personal page for my artwork. I made the page and started to get things set up, navigated away from it and could not figure out how to get back to my fan page! I was so frustrated, I just gave up and made a personal page lol. They've made things a lot easier now and since my friend space on my personal page is quickly filling up, I decided to make a Fan Page for you all to enjoy as well!

I plan on maintaining both pages, but it's best to join my Fan Page even if you're a member of my personal page just in case that changes in the future. If you're at all interested in my art, I'd love for you to come and join me! Thanks so much. =)


Well, that's it for this week! In this coming week, I plan on finishing up a commissioned logo painting. I was commissioned to paint a portion of the logo and then combine it with some existing elements I already have and add text to create a finished logo. I hope to show you all that after I'm all done! I will also be working on my Roman mermaid piece, continue working on my website and hopefully squeeze in some time to work on the vinyl products I told you all about last week. Have a great week everyone!

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