Just sending out an update on the raffle for a personal portrait worth $1,400 that someone will win on October 22. I want to thank everyone for the great feedback, registering with the site and supporting us! There are many exciting things to look forward to including a brand new website for leocortesstudios.com that will provide more insight into the art of Leo D. Cortes, include examples of different stages of development of paintings and much more. I greatly appreciate any suggestion on what you may want to see on the new sight to better service you!

Thank you!

We sometimes get so caught up on the goals of attaining a certain financial status that we forget that there are other important things that have their pay offs as well. This idea of making and X amount of dollars is instilled in us since a very young age and it's often very difficult to disconnect with it. However, I think this notion often causes us to make less money over the long term and this very irony is unrealized by most people. The problem is that we focus on charging for every little effort we make, charge for every talent we posses because we are under the misguided belief that the more we can do, the more we can charge for. As good as this sounds it causes us to miss great opportunities. To simply apply your talent as a favor to someone else, no strings attached, is very powerful because it builds possitive relationships that reverberate through social circles. I may be considered advertising and many large corporations also do this in the form of charity because they recognize that it will benefit their reputation, how they are percieved by potential clients and it's advertised for helping the charity. This formula also applies in small scale. Of course we can't do everything for free but every now and then it is a good idea, especially if the individual or organization is well connected. So the next time someone asks for help with a small project that you may lend a hand with think, FREE ADVERTISING no HOW MUCH TO CHARGE!

Since the Holidays are now four months away, I've decided to hold a raffle in the spirit of the Holidays and offer one lucky winner a 24 X 36 inch painting worth $1,400! Since I have never done this in the past I cannot tell how many people will participate, it may be 10 people or 1,000 people. All I know is that someone will get the free portrait and it could be you!
If you've already signed up you are automatically a participant.

To participate follow these two easy steps:

1. Register here: http://leocortesstudios.com/Create-customer-account.html

2. Email the photograph you would like painted. Photo must be (if taken by professional photographer, you must obtain consent to have photo used by Leo Cortes)

On Saturday Ocober 22, 2011 the Raffle will be held on my live channel. I will making periodical announcements.

Good luck!

To get traffic on a new website takes some marketing skills. However, that does not mean that one must be a marketing guru to acomplish good initial traffic for FREE! There is not one magical thing that will be the key to online traffic, it is a combination of things you can do in only a few days that may bring you hundreds or thousands of visits within weeks of launching your site.

1. Keep the Big Picture in Mind
We sometimes begin to implement a strategy and focus so much on noe thing that we forget about the plan in it's entirety. If we focus only on one aspect of online marketing like facebook, we begin to limit our possibilities of obtaining visiters through other means.

2. Focus Your Efforts Online and in the Real World
Maintain balance between marketing your site through the internet and marketing to the people you know and meet. It makes no sense to work hard online to show people what you do but forget about opening your mouth and talking about what you do. Marketing is a people business and if you get used to forming relationships with people so that the could get to know what you do.

3. Blog, Blog, Blog!
One of the most useful tools to getting traffic to your site is to build content that is genuinely useful to people and add it often. This allows the search engines (getting indexed on search engines is vital) to see that your website remains fresh and up tp date. If your an expert in your field write about things that people may need some help with then include your email information for any questions.

4. Use Google Analytics

in my opinion this is a tool you cannot live without if you have a website because it allows you to see a breakdown of information about where your visits are coming from, that way you can see which sort of online marketing yields the most results. I won't get into depth about this topic but I encourage you to sign up and begin using this free service.

5. Be Creative
Do not dismiss the silly ideas you may have about marketing your site, write them down and execute them. You never know which one will yield possitive results. For example; Since I am a portrait painter I must find creative ways to give people a sense of urgency to buy my work. Otherwise they tend to put it off, so every now and then I hold a Holiday Raffle as well as a sale.

As you may remember my rambles a few days ago about how I realized I had been charging too much for my portrait artwork, well here it is! A completely new price scale equiped with my new "Pay as I Paint" program with low down payments to get your portrait started, and allowing you the flexibility to pay small or large amounts at a time. Follow this link to the information page for "Pay as I Paint". Email info@leocortesstudios.com with additional question.

Ok, so last night after speaking with a friend I realized I have been charging way too much for my art! She spoke very highly of my work and expressed how much she wanted a portrait of her own. After observing her facial expression I realized something was a let-down, if not the art it could only be the price. looking at the prices on my website I soon understood the connection betwenn price and disapointment. It reflecting her inability to pay for such a costly item, even though I had made a three-part payment plan available. That was when I took a mental step back and placed myself in the shoes of a client, I asked myself: "If I was not an artist but wanted a portrait done of my wife or myself, would I honestly give someone three payments of $1,400 for it?" The truth hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized that I would not, not because it is'nt worth $4,200 but because it's just not practical for my own demographic. The rest of the equation seemed to fall into place, when I wondered what it would take for me to agree to a purchase. First, start off by cutting prices in half, instead of charging about $4,200 for a 30 X 40 inch oil painting, charge about $2,100. Second, allow people to pay for the art at their own pace without penalising them. Allow people to make a low down payment of under $100 and after that I can work on their commissioned artwork as they pay for it. This is a simple business model that I believe will render results because it accomodates for individual affordability. What makes me most proud is that I am not following the "business as usual" mentality of big business that gouge the eyes out of hard working people. BTW, it will take a few days to revamp my prices on the site and formulate new payment options, so look out for that soon! Thank You!!!

Here's an ideal picture of my wife Zahonnara and my dog Blizzard that has all the potential for a pet portrait. Since the picture is a little cut off on my wife's side(I take the blame for that) I would have to do some work to add to it, but otherwise it would make a perfect picture for just the dog. Just so everybody knows, I do pets as well!

Here's a short video introducing me and some of my work. Please excuse the nerves, more to come:-}

 I remember being at an art convension a few years back and hearing an artist talk about his work in a most frustrating manner, venting about his struggles and I distinctly remember him saying "I've been painting for over fifteen years now and I've done so much work that I don't know what to paint anymore!"

It was clear that the artist was having "painters' block". Fortunately this has not happened to me since childhood when my skills were limited to pencil, paper and making up super heroes. Art and creativity is a process that emerges from mechanisms in the right brain, therefore we sometimes make the mistake of allowing our logic (a left brain function) to hinder creativity. Embracing creativity means, relaxing and allowing thoughts to flow freely. Understanding that there is an entire world around us full of content, both positive and negative that can free us from mental blocks and give us more content that we can ever paint in our lifetime!

What's important, personally, socially or spiritually? All these subjects are worthy of our artistic attention and will help resume the journey of artistic self dicovery that makes for beautiful art. Think about our cave dwelling ancestors that began blowing color through a straw to create ancient paintings on cave walls. So the next time you find yourself looking at a blank sketch paper and asking "what the heck do I paint about?", even that question can become your subject matter. Just stop thinking and do it!

Although there are many kinds of paint I will mainly focus on Oil and acrylic paints which are the most commonly used for portrait art, others like watercolor and gouache have similar properties to acrylic because they are water based. I will also discuss the different drawing media for portraits.  

If your looking for an amazing portrait done in the style of realism oils are the way to go! Heres why.
Oil paints take longer to dry than any water based paints. This is especially useful in realism because it allows the painter to maneuver the paint on the surface longer without being married to what is layed down, and makes blended areas look much smoother.

If you want a portrait done stylistically I would recommend acrylic. Here's why.
Acrylics let the painter layer paint much faster, not to say that a very expressionistic painting can't be done with oils but, if you would like to capture figure detail by use of beautiful strokes this is the medium for you.

Now about drawings.
One of the main determining factors for choosing between drawing media is the size of the desired portrait. This is important becuase it is not efficient to draw a portrait that is 18 X 24" with a pencil because it would take too many pencil lines to cover such a large surface so the artist would have to charge much more money. Needless to say pencil drawings are for smaller 11 X 14" drawings, while for large surfaces charcoal would be most appropriate. Most drawings should be framed in glass for protection from smearing, especially charcoal and pastel.

So if you want a small drawing go with pencil or color pencil. For larger drawings charcoal, pastel. There are also two different kinds of pastel, oil and chalk. Oil pastels are also great for realism for they have similar properties of oil paints. Chalk pastels are more...well, chalky, and dusty.

Please feel to stop by my home studio in Clarksville, TN and I'll walk anybody through some live examples of paintings.

www.leocortesstudios.com