The online marketplace for artistic expression, Voottoo, has introduced a totally new, innovative way of helping you monetize your art, and we encourage all artists to take advantage of it.  Many already have!

It’s the latest dimension of branded product personalization – Voottoo’s vision is to help you sell any art on any product, and we’ve hit the ground running.  We’re proud to be partnered with Skinit, the world’s largest skin distributor for electronic products, as its leading source for today’s newest art like fantasy, anime, comic, kanji, tattoo, illustrations, anthros, graffiti, and much more.  Check out cool dragon designs from Voottoo artist Kerem Beyit’s skins on Skinit.

Skin Sample of Kerem Beyit's Silver Dragon

Join Voottoo today to get started selling your art as skins for iPhones, iPods, Blackberries, Palm Pres, Laptops, and 3,000 other electronics products.  The most talented artists who sign up on Voottoo and choose to sell artwork as skins will see their images promoted and available not only on Voottoo and Skinit, but through partners like Dell, Sprint, AT&T, HP, Verizon, Best Buy and several others.

VOOTTOO TIP! To be considered, remember to upload art files that meet Skinit’s image requirements: 14″x11″, 300DPI, PNG/TIFF or EPS.  Eventually we will accept your smaller images on Voottoo for skins, but not yet.  To learn more, check out the Voottoo Artist’s Home.

Before Facebook, how did you indulge in some mild stalking before a blind date?  Before YouTube, how did you relish in such a hilarious variety of Fails?  You probably asked around, scoured the web, settled, and half the time ended up a little disappointed.  Have you tried searching for the right artist to create your next tattoo, or illustrate your book cover, or do some kanji symbols, or pen a comic strip, or create your avatar?  Well, it was kinda like that.

But not anymore.  Voottoo has brought the commission process into today’s world of online searchability, visibility, and simplicity – the Art Commission Marketplace.  We have made it easier than ever, whether you’re looking for an artist or trying to get found.  Here are a few reasons how…

(1) Voottoo is an online marketplace for artistic expression.  It’s the only art site that’s so geared for commerce, we’re never distracted by anything else (no friend quizzes here or gifting virtual teddy bears).  Voottoo is an open platform for art where free market rules prevail.
(2) Browse artists by genre, tags, their previous work, or even their commission portfolio.  When you find the artist you want, click the big button that says “Commission Art From Me” on the profile.  Immediately initiate a commission request directly on Voottoo.  No searching for contact info, lost emails, payment options, etc.
(3) And if you prefer avoiding searches altogether, post an open commission on Voottoo and choose from the artists who respond with a bid to you.

But Voottoo doesn’t just help secure the right artist for the job – we’ve made the entire process easier.  The back and forth conversation, backend payment management, the artist’s work lists, etc etc…  try it out!

Artists, looking for some fresh ideas to revitalize your profile on Voottoo?  We’ve provided plenty of ways to make yours shine, so take advantage of them!  Here are 5 easy steps:

(1) Upload art!

Simple yes, but absolutely critical.  Your profile will be hidden until you upload images.  But once you do, visitors to Voottoo can find your profile in the “Artist” tab under “Buy”.  Remember, how you use Voottoo is entirely your choice.  For each of your copyrighted images, you can set the royalty-free license price to any dollar amount, or make it unavailable for sale. (Be sure to read the Content Submission Agreement.)
– Do it! Go to “Upload art”

(2) Even upload commission images!

If you accept commissions, Voottoo provides a unique way to showcase your portfolio.  On your public profile, a “Commissions” tab will appear if you upload commission images (different link than regular art upload).  These should be examples of finished commissions, which builds buyer excitement and confidence.
– Do it!  Go to “My Account” and click “Upload Commission Images”

(3) Give it character with a profile image.

You know how important a personal signature is, so why not add one to your Voottoo work?  This is the only image that appears when visitors are browsing through the “Artist” tab, so choose something evocative!  The uploaded file will be automatically resized into a thumbnail.

– Do it!  Go to “My Account” and click “Edit”.  Upload the image and “Save” your changes.

4) Spruce things up with a profile banner.

This is the easiest way to add some personality!  Whether yours is professional or wacky, the banner gives you a simple space to frame your site without detracting from your art below.  Just don’t leave it blank – who wants to be generic?  This image will not automatically resize, so be sure to upload an image that’s 860×100.

– Do it!  Go to “My Account” and click “Edit”.  Upload the 860×100 image and “Save” your changes.

5) Boost page views with a Goodie.

If you’re a numbers junkie, a quick way to drive more hits is to promote your Voottoo market on your other popular sites.  Customize a clickable html tag with images from your own Voottoo gallery and embed the code on any other website (like Deviantart, Facebook, or your personal site).

– Do it! Go to “Goodies.” Choose your favorite badge, generate embed code, select text, copy and paste into your other site.

If you’re looking to sell something, you’ve got choices out there.  The simple trick is finding the right market!  Few of us have the time, tenacity or talent to build an algorithmic-savvy personal site to sell stuff, especially when someone else already has, and even drives hits.  If you want to sell used electronics, a desk or handmade items, the choices are pretty obvious.

But what if you’re an artist?

What if you want to sell a killer illustration you just finished?  What if you’re really talented and can draw whatever someone asks you to, well enough to get paid for it?  How do you strut your stuff where the right people are listening?

Enter Voottoo.  It’s an open platform that’s not a museum of images, but a robust store-front for your license, commission, and product business.  We’re geared for commerce, so we provide a professional, modern environment for interaction among buyers, sellers and branded-product companies (i.e. SkinIt).

So now you’ve got the marketplace… what about the interaction?  With good art, a human element is already there, because the maker is intrinsically embedded.  Art lovers crave  connection with the ‘man behind the curtain’, which is why it’s so cool to get autographs! (And why originals cost big bucks.)

And it’s also why this industry stands to reap serious benefit from social networking – buyers already want to connect with artists!  On Voottoo, post your art and tell your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or even other art sites that it’s for sale here with one of our Goodies.  Follow your favorite artists, and get their work on your cell phone and laptop with skins from SkinIt.  Automatically manage a commission, post the final work in your gallery, and use it as a promotion for more jobs, like she did.  We’re constantly putting new ideas into action!

At Voottoo, we’re artists and art lovers with a serious passion for helping create more of it, by making art, commerce and community collide.

Since Voottoo’s public beta June 20, numerous new exciting artists have joined the community.  Welcome! We are continuously adding to the site – you will see some brand new stuff around Profile Comments, Facebook and Twitter connections, Email Fanbase, Easier Commission launches, and much more in the next month or so.  Remember, this is your store for Art, Commissions, and Skins, so send us feedback and we are all ears.

Many of you are interested in doing Skins for 3,000 different products available through Voottoo and Voottoo partner Skinit.  Check out Current Skin Designs

Skins are available on Skinit.com, and at a variety of brand sites such as Dell, HP, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Best Buy, etc.  Very soon, we will be on-ramping a whole lot more “Skinnable” art.   To be considered, Skinit requires art to meet these min specs – 11X14, PNG, 300dpi files.  And another thing, art should generally be viewed as cool, ie far far far better than doodles.  So, log-in and upload to these minimum specs and check the “Skin” box.   For a few months, a select set of these will become available as skins, and after that a lot more – we are working on some awesome new technology.

It’s that kind of mid-March evening. We’re between the day’s grind and the night’s freedom, between the winter’s slumber and the spring’s rebirth. My day just dragged, and we’ve had more snow this month than the past few years combined! I think it’s time for a little inspiration to get things moving…

So I decided to spend a little extra time tonight browsing our gallery here at Voottoo. It was hard to slow down amid the flux (perhaps you can relate!), but I was determined to summon self-discipline. My goal – let whatever seed the artist intended to plant, if any, grow.

My browsing took on sort of a journey, which I guess is par for the course given the talent here. I started with the black & white tattoo art – the style’s piercing positives and negatives actually helped me appreciate the extremes of March. Like snow on branches, Karine’s Blackbuck expertly suggests hidden depth, texture, and perseverance. WildSpiritWolf’s Tribal Maned Lion stands so proud and regal, as winter’s last stance in early March.

As I continued, the path grew lighter. Symson’s Baseball couldn’t have been more timely. (Come on April 6!) And Karen Claire’s light and airy Tuscan Blooms was obviously just what I needed. I was delighted to come across Symson’s Froggie! I heard a small choir of my favorite four-legged troubadours of Spring just the other night as dusk set in. What a brave few!

After that, I was really in the mood for some wild color – color so intense and moving I could imagine those dancing bursts of early dogwood, daffodils, tulips, and forsythias! Two artists really stood out: Archannair’s astounding use of color left my mind spinning. Stephlaw’s incredible pieces likewise took me to that place I yearned to go as I embarked on this journey – beyond this realm to a new world of exuberance and fertility.

But as I neared the end, I was taken back full circle (just like that foreshadowing look in Karine’s Blackbuck!) thanks to My Old Flame by 3909 808. How can you not relate to that?! Remembering faded smiles behind a personally manufactured red glow… Look at it using the “Expanded View” feature to really experience it. Maybe you too will remember how difficult it is to erase your footprints!

With that, and thoughts on plenty more works of art here, I’m off to bed with my head in a new place. As a Voottoo community, we’re doing our part to jumpstart something big, thoughtfully. Thank you all.

More to come!

Here We Go!!

As an artist, I have always looked for ways to exhibit my doodles to unsuspecting friends. It is thrilling when they take the time to understand what you have createdpieced together, but it becomes less conversational when you describe with limitless passion that it took copic markers, prismacolor pencils, and countless hours of shading to achieve the effect. My friends are engineering geeks like me and it’s hard for engineers to be artists and vice versa. I know I know what you are thinking!!! I am not an engineer anymore – but then again I am not claiming to be much of an artist either. Every once in a while, I finish something that IMHO deserves exhibiting. I totally enjoy the creative process.

One Monday morning at work couple of years ago, I ran into “Uncle Ray” (real name hidden to protect the innocent) at the coffee bar. He had a wicked smile as though he had discovered a fire tattoo on his forearm that he never realized he had. He was flitting around the room with childlike abandon. I had no choice but to ask him what had happened over the weekend… Uncle Ray and his wife had just completed their first fused glass artistic pieces. They had meticulously cut glass, stacked them into designs and kilned them. They have since made a number of masterful pieces for friends and family. They have fallen in love all over again. They too love making art!
Over centuries, people have become artists for the sheer enjoyment – the fire to create, in what ever form. We are living through a period of prolific and possibly unparalleled global growth in art. Urban and youth genre arts such as tattoos, graffiti, anthro, manga, and comics are not yet well cataloged in collections and museums as they are in the free spirit of the open social Web. Arts are neither going to be sustained by weekend warriors artists like Uncle Ray and myself, nor by a global set of underpaid artists.

We are creating Voottoo to drive vigorous commerce in youth genre arts and patronage of artists through mass personalization of everyday branded products with crowd sourced art. More to come…

Welcome to Voottoo!