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It’s been a while since we recorded a podcast, but we still managed to bitch and moan for a good hour and a half. I can’t even tell you what we went on about now – probably some Covid related thoughts and maybe even some stuff about art! Either way, it’s a bit of company for you as you while away the hours in your studio/shed/spare room/kitchen…etc We did give you some tips to sell better and Jill recommended the other podcast we love – Older and Wiser with Jenny Eclair, so do check that one out if you haven’t yet.

We do manage to finally have that chat about affiliate marketing today, where we explain what it is and how you can use it to earn anything from a few extra pounds each month, to a substantial amount if you give it some welly. But we obviously never keep on the straight and narrow, so you’ll be delighted to know that Jill shares another of her ‘stories’ and this week it features that traditional English game…Cricket! We’d also like to start featuring some of your news each week, so if you have anything going on that you would like to share with the art community, then do drop us a message over on Facebook and we’ll give you a mention. As ever, make sure you’ve joined our Facebook group over at facebook.com/groups/lifeandpencils and if you have any excess art supplies to sell or are looking for a bargain, do swing by the art for sale and swap group at facebook.com/groups/newandusedartsupplies. If you’re reading this over on iTunes, then we’d appreciate it if you could drop us a review or share the podcast with your arty friends.

You know what it’s like when you meet a friend for coffee and before long an hour has gone by and you’ve barely scratched the surface of what you supposed to be talking about? Welcome to episode 20! Yep, bit a of catch up episode where we still talk about lockdown, painting. exercising, baking, drugs, entertaining – oh and some stuff about reality shows. Also, we hear about that drug fuelled area of town Jill lives in… So join us for some mindless banter for an hour and take your mind of whatever you don’t want it to be on! Oh, and don’t forget to check out our new art supplies sell n’ swap group on Facebook – www.facebook.com/groups/newandusedartsupplies Next week, we will actually be discussing affiliate marketing.

Episode 19 and we mention art a bit as we have a catch up and hear about Jills latest liaison with a ‘Ballet Dancer’. There’s a moral in there somewhere, but it will certainly bring a smile to your face whilst you figure it out! We also talk about the fear of being as good as your last piece of work and how it can impact your mood and play havoc with your sleep. We also talk about a group challenge we are creating for everyone on our Facebook group and next time we will be talking about affiliate marketing. We never got around to that in the end today! Our Instagram heroes this week are Richard Blunt and Nadine Duke, both very different artists (oils and watercolours) but exceptional in their own rights. So do go and check those guys out!

Yeah we know, it’s been a while, but it’s unprecedented times and flailing about looking startled for a while has been the norm, but time to get some sort of normality back. Plus, some of you actually noticed we’d buggered off – so how can we possibly deprive you!! We don’t cover much in this episode specifically – we chat about the current covid sitch and how we and others have been coping, we have a bit of a catch up and a bit of a laugh about DIY haircuts. We do give out some arty recommendations as normal, but more than anything we just wanted to give you a bit of company and a smile.

Sorry for the delay folks – but finally, here is part 2 of the interview with Becky. There are some quality issues with this and Jill has done a tremendous job of cleaning it up, but do bear in mind that is has the odd wobble. You can find downloadable info sheets for this on the episode 16 show notes

We’re delighted to be able to bring you this interview with Becky from Bex Arts where she gives a rake of information about photography, prints and copyright, that you can utilise in your art business today. Becky has also kindly given us some information for you to download here below, which includes a guide to taking great pictures (especially pet portraits) whether you’re taking them for yourself or wanting to advise your client. You will also find pictures within this of her studio set up, so that you can fashion something similar to take your own great pictures. Part two will be winging it’s way to you shortly, please don’t forget to give us a like or review, tag or share with your fellow artists and follow us on our social media channels. Just search for ‘Life and Pencils’ Take-Great-Ref-Pics-with-Becky-GouverneurDownload

Well, we may be self isolating – which for most artists isn’t anything too unusual, but we don’t have to be alone! Over the coming weeks, where it might all feel a little bit gloomy, we’re hoping to bring shorter but more frequent episodes to you. We figured it might be the best way to perk you all up. We’re never ones to step too deeply into art anyway, but these episodes will be generally more focused on the Life side of ‘Life and Pencils’. So, let’s all pull together and support each other through the coming weeks and tune in for some light banter, and also come and join the Facebook group over at https://www.facebook.com/groups/lifeandpencils – you’ll always find a friendly fellow artist to natter to over there! We did manage to pop out a recommendation for oil painter Michael J Smith over on Instagram, and he’s also got some great videos on YouTube too. Our next podcast that we’re currently editing, will be with you all very shortly and features the fabulous Becky Gouverneur from Bexs Arts who gives us all the low down on photographing your work, prints and much, much more. This will be a special 2 part episode for you, so something else to keep you entertained.

And just when you thought we couldn’t exhaust the subject of cake any further – we bring you the Yumnuts and Cronuts episode – no prizes for guessing who the numbnuts are! On a serious note, we do eventually gather our thoughts and we talk about art workshops and the sort of experience you can expect when attending, plus we also recommend starting your own and what level you need to be at to do that. In the same vein, we also chat about YouTube and Patreon and building a passive income there. We also highly recommend you follow Remington Robinson, Valerie Murphy and Gianluca Corona over on Instagram this week too. As ever, you’re welcome to join our lively, amusing group over on Facebook and we appreciate any comments or reviews you leave us. See you next week!

Part one was so well received, we thought we’d better dish out part 2 pretty swiftly for you! Huge thanks goes out to Lisa Ann Watkins of Animal Art by LAW for giving up her valuable time to chat with us, it was great fun all round and interesting to have an insight into a successful artists lifestyle. And of course, you must listen to the end, just to hear Jills story about her Arun jumper, honestly – it’s pure gold! We also totally lose it today when we get in-depth about inner voices, you’ll have to listen to find out what poor Bob Ross and his evil brother Dick have to do with all of that! Next week we’ll be back to our normal format of talking nonsense with some helpful, factual stuff thrown in for good measure, plus we’ll also be doing our usual recommendations too. We thoroughly enjoyed doing this interview and already have a few more in the pipeline. We’d be ever so grateful if you could leave us a review, and don’t forget to share the podcast with your arty peers and join us over on the Life and Pencils Community on Facebook.

We get to chat with Lisa Ann Watkins (Animal Art by LAW) in this episode, and she was so utterly thrilled to speak to us, it went on for over an hour and a half, so we’ve had to split it into 2 parts – I know, right? So, you get to listen to part one this week and next week, we’ll let you have part 2! As we wanted this to be focused on the interview, we only have a quick catch up at the beginning and then head straight into the interview, so limited waffle on this one! As ever, we appreciate your support and would be so grateful if you could take the time to leave us a review (if you’re enjoying it) and do come and find us in our Facebook community over at www.facebook.com/groups/lifeandpencils

In episode 11, we mourn the loss of cake as we chat about domain names, hosting and building a website. We also talk about some of the important things that should be included on a website. Plus we discuss pricing and whether you display them or not, how to handle sending your price list to customers and what to do when you want to put your prices up. Plus there’s the usual banter, us going off on a tangent and Ant Middleton even gets a mention! We recommend following Carla Grace a fantastic acrylic painter of wildlife over on Instagram and Teresa Elliot who creates the most beautiful oil paintings. Check them out and give them a follow. PS Who knew Jill had a thing about Ben Fogles knees? WTF?

We’re into double figures people, so welcome to episode 10 where we discuss whether it’s acceptable to trace as part of the process in producing your work and how impostor syndrome can impact your life as an artist. Jill also gives some good guidelines on how to overcome this very common problem. We also have our normal catch up with a few laughs along the way and our recommendations this week are for Renato Muccillo – an oil painter who creates such beautiful landscapes that look like photographs and Dorus Brecklemans another oil painter with a completely different, but equally beautiful style. Go and check them both out, see what you think and give them a follow. We also take the topics back over to the group for further discussions, so join us in the friendly community on Facebook we’d love to see you over there!

After lowering the tone in episode 8 (that was funny though!), we’re on to more sensible topics this week. When we’ve established what beverages we’re drinking and what cake we’re not having, we crack on and tackle a few issues that we feel most artists will resonate with. Topics discussed this week are loneliness as an artist, something that is more common that you might think. Being an artist is quite an isolating thing, and whilst some artists embrace all of that alone time, others – especially those who are transgressing over from a full time day job, tend to find the solitude quite hard to deal with. We come up with some solutions that you can put in place to help combat any feelings of loneliness. We also talk about unwanted critiques and how offensive it can be to foist your unwanted opinion onto another artists work. Plus, we chat about dealing with clients who are asking too much of you in terms of tweaks and changes. Jill recommends following an amazing artist called Lauren Daae, who creates amazing art with coffee! And Nikki recommends a tool called Canva this week and has created a video on How to Use Canva here. So grab yourself a cuppa and have a listen. Feel free to drop us a comment or review below and don’t forget to look us up on our community Facebook group

In episode 8, Jill walks us through how to understand tax with your art business if you are working within the UK – it could work differently, depending on where you are based. She explains how it all works, what your tax allowance is and how much you can earn before tax, plus what is tax deductible and what you need to do to keep track. Nikki touches on why it’s not a bad thing to fail, so that you can then adjust your plan and try something else – failing is good, everything is a learning curve. We also chat about what we got up to over festive period and the worst Christmas we’ve ever received – trust me, you won’t have received a worse present than Nikki. Jill recommends a podcast for your dogs ‘My Dogs favourite Podcast’ created by Spotify – you did not read that incorrectly, and Nikki recommends you go and follow Wildlife artist Annie Drew, who paints beautiful wildlife paintings in oils. You can find Annie on Instagram here. Jane Booth is also mentioned as Jill is having a day’s painting tutorial with her in Feb and is really excited about it!! If you’d like to keep up with when the next podcast is dropping, you can follow our Facebook page here -or join our Community here

In episode 7, Jill brings up those bloody mince ‘not’ pies with the sponge topping again, it’s not a pie Jill!! We talk about winding down for the year and some of the things we’d like to draw in our downtime over Christmas, and how that can impact us us within our businesses as we head into the new year. Nikki mentions how she’s inadvertently used her boob to draw with pastels on occasion, which leads to a discussion on other appendages that they both find hilariously funny – because frankly, the maturity level is low. Our recommended follows this week are @jessie_babin_fine_arts and @demilangart So allow us to keep you company in your studio for an hour as we say goodbye to 2019 and look forward to 2020. Merry Christmas to all of our listeners, thank you for your ongoing support – we can’t wait to bring you lot’s of exciting ‘stuff’ in the New Year. Stay safe, have fun and enjoy your break 😊