Three Writing Exercises
Brooke Shaden
Lessons
Class Introduction
19:06 2Storytelling & Ideas
27:34 3Universal Symbols in Stories
03:19 4Create Interactive Characters
02:16 5The Story is in The Details
04:13 6Giving Your Audience Feelings
05:49 7Guided Daydream Exercise
04:20 8Elements of Imagery
02:19The Death Scenario
01:47 10Associations with Objects
03:01 11Three Writing Exercises
06:39 12Connection Through Art
30:35 13Break Through Imposter Syndrome
07:40 14Layering Inspiration
23:13 15Creating an Original Narrative
07:42 16Analyze an Image
04:12 17Translate Emotion into Images
04:31 18Finding Parts in Images
06:02 19Finding Your Target Audience
04:05 20Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?
12:01 21Create a Series That Targets Your Audience
32:43 22Formatting Your Work
06:08 23Additional Materials to Attract Clients
07:24 24Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?
04:17 25How to Make Money from Your Target Audience
11:27 26Circle of Focus
07:55 27The Pillars of Branding
06:18 28Planning Your Photoshoot
09:05 29Choose Every Element for The Series
07:38 30Write a Descriptive Paragraph
09:37 31Sketch Your Ideas
17:27 32Choose Your Gear
02:50 33How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations
26:18 34What Tells a Story in a Series?
13:06 35Set Design Overview
01:43 36Color Theory
19:50 37Lighting for the Scene
12:05 38Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design
06:00 39Locations
04:31 40Subject Within the Scene
07:26 41Set Design Arrangement
05:46 42Fine Art Compositing
03:46 43Plan The Composite Before Shooting
10:29 44Checklist for Composite Shooting
18:52 45Analyze Composite Mistakes
12:11 46Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing
10:42 47Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing
08:36 48Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories
08:17 49Shoot: Miniature Scene
09:59 50Editing Workflow Overview
01:57 51Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress
08:35 52Edit Details of Images
08:09 53Add Smoke & Texture
10:47 54Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite
24:58 55Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario
17:55 56Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot
22:10 57Self Portrait Test Shoots
22:30 58Shoot for Edit
04:21 59Shoot Extra Stock Images
10:01 60Practice the Shoot
25:07 61Introduction to Shooting Photo Series
03:33 62Shoot: Vine Image
10:40 63Shoot: Sand Image
09:50 64Shoot: End Table Image
04:59 65Shoot: Bed Image
06:18 66Shoot: Wall Paper Image
05:54 67Shoot: Chair Image
08:02 68Shoot: Mirror Image
06:57 69Shoot: Moss Image
05:48 70Shoot: Tree Image
07:33 71Shoot: Fish Tank Image
04:09 72Shoot: Feather Image
09:00 73View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing
07:35 74Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion
36:55 75Edit Images with Advanced Compositing
29:33 76Decide How to Start the Composite
09:35 77Organize Final Images
21:37 78Choosing Images for Your Portfolio
08:19 79Order the Images in Your Portfolio
16:28 80Why do Some Images Sell More Than Others?
16:03 81Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order
11:42 82Framing, Sizing, Editioning & Pricing
02:19 83Determine Sizes for Prints
16:44 84How to Choose Paper
13:56 85How to Choose Editions
07:18 86Pricing Strategies
18:59 87How to Present Your Images
13:26 88Example Pricing Exercise
09:39 89Print Examples
08:23 90Licensing, Commissions & Contracts
04:44 91How to Keep Licensing Organized
06:07 92How to Prepare Files for Licensing
07:28 93Pricing Your Licensed Images
12:33 94Contract Terms for Licensing
12:07 95Where to Sell Images
04:55 96Commission Pricing Structure
08:23 97Contract for Commissions
12:17 98Questions for a Commission Shoot
08:45 99Working with Galleries
08:58 100Benefits of Galleries
07:39 101Contracts for Galleries
10:32 102How to Find Galleries
05:22 103Choose Images to Show
08:53 104Hanging the Images
03:38 105Importance of Proofing Prints
08:04 106Interview with Soren Christensen Gallery
21:59 107Press Package Overview
04:35 108Artist Statement for Your Series
18:20 109Write Your 'About Me' Page
09:04 110Importance of Your Headshot
03:55 111Create a Leave Behind & Elevator Pitch
20:19 112Writing For Fine Art
04:44 113Define Your Writing Style
14:49 114Find Your Genre
06:41 115What Sets You Apart?
02:25 116Write to Different Audiences
05:10 117Write for Blogging
39:57 118Speak About Your Work
14:21 119Branding for Video
07:37 120Clearly Define Video Talking Points
14:27 121Types of Video Content
31:45 122Interview Practice
13:22 123Diversifying Social Media Content
22:32 124Create an Intentional Social Media Persona
24:48 125Monetize Your Social Media Presence
18:46 126Social Media Posting Plan
04:01 127Choose Networks to Use & Invest
02:57 128Presentation of Final Images
19:13 129Printing Your Series
09:16 130How to Work With a Print Lab
13:39 131Proofing Your Prints
10:11 132Bad Vs. Good Prints
03:32 133Find Confidence to Print
10:50 134Why Critique?
06:55 135Critiquing Your Own Portfolio
10:39 136Critique of Brooke's Series
16:18 137Critique of Student Series
40:07 138Yours is a Story Worth Telling
02:09Lesson Info
Three Writing Exercises
This is one that will scare you. I'm just going to put it out there. Don't be scared. You will be, but don't be. Stream of consciousness writing is the first thing that I want to talk about. This is where you put your pen down on paper, and you write continuously for a certain amount of time. I think that that is one of the most beautiful thing that anyone can do. You start writing, you put your timer on five minutes, and you don't stop, and you will realize immediately how difficult that is, immediately. You start writing things like hello, hello, hello, my name is Brooke, and you just write whatever comes until something better comes along, and it's amazing how many themes you can find within your writing when you really, really focus on your writing and just whatever needs to come out of your brain. I find that to be fascinating. I always start with nonsense, you know. I might start writing about my day, and then it's like clockwork. After about one minute, I just start writing stor...
ies. Just pure story comes out, and I love that. It didn't used to happen that fast for me, but now it does, and you might think a minute is a long time to just be writing, writing, writing nonstop, and it is. My hand cramps up, we're not used to writing that much, but really, really valuable as an exercise. Now if we think about story and writing in terms of how we use story visually, we've got these elements that we so often use, character, time, wardrobe, color, location. You can add in any of our image components here, and that's fine. So I've got these elements, I just chose five of them, and what I like to do is to pick a totally random thing to go with each word. So character, 10 year old girl. Time, early evening. Wardrobe, mermaid tail, why not? Color, blue. Location, desert. (laughs) I threw you off, didn't I? And so when you just do totally random words to go with these story components, it is so much fun to see what story will come out of that. So I challenge you to just, totally random, if anybody remembers what I just said, Girl, 10 year old girl, early evening, blue wardrobe, mermaid tail, desert. Write a paragraph of a story where you have to use every element. It is so much fun, and you'll be amazed at how many ideas visually come from that little exercise. And then finally, story structure. Now we're going to play a game to learn story structure, okay? So I want you guys to pass the mic, alright? But I promise you won't be too overwhelmed by what I'm going to say. So, first of all, these are the different elements of story. We've got an introduction, every story has an intro. Once upon a time, it was a dark and stormy night, all of these things, intros. Then we've got backstory, which is where does your character come from to get to the place in the story that they're about to lead their lives and show you through the story, okay? So this is everything you need to know about the character. And we've got inciting incident, which is like, the point of no return where you've got this character, they're making choices, and suddenly they can't go back. Okay, they make a choice and it leads the story in one direction. It's like a Y, you're going on a path and then all of the sudden it splits. And based on their choice, you go in a different direction. Okay, and then after the inciting incident we have the climax, which is where The Thing happens. The Thing that you've been leading to is taking place, and either everything is gonna come crumbling down, or everything's gonna be great, and then the resolution, okay. Now I challenge you to try to write with story structure, but it's very difficult for a lot of creative brains to work like this, to work in a really structured way. So just know that it could be really, really difficult. So our quick, quick exercise, okay? Let's start over here. Who are we? We're a little boy. A little boy, okay. Um. Any special attributes? Well, he... went with his grandfather, he's coming out from a balloon store with lots of helium balloons. Ooh, nice! Okay, perfect. A little boy coming out of a balloon store with lots of balloons. Would you pass that on to April? Okay, what is he doing? He is (clears throat) going to a birthday party. Oh, okay, good! Next? But he's mad, because they didn't have the color of balloon that he wanted, so he's crying. Perfect. How does it end? Yeah, yeah-- I get the hard part, right? Um... So he's mad, he's been crying, he doesn't have the color that he wants. He sulks in the corner at the birthday party. Okay, I like it, you guys are real sad. (laughing) Okay, but look how fast we have a story? So, story is really just made up of who is this person? What do they want? Why can't they have what they want? How does it end? Super simple, right? Takes like a minute to find a story. Now it takes way longer to find a good story. To find a story that you actually need to tell. But story itself is simple, and we get really overwhelmed by story, because we think that it's this huge thing, that like we just couldn't possibly do because it's such a time consuming thing to learn. It's not. But the way that we personally tell stories, the stories that we have to express are in the end much more complicated than our poor little boy sulking in the corner 'cause of his balloons. Okay, so that was storytelling exercises and idea exercises, and I really hope that you get a lot out of it. But I also hope that you come up with your own ways of finding ideas that work for you, because this is our fine art class, right. We're going like start to finish, everything in the world to do with fine art. And I want you to have your own personal journey in this experience. I want you to take your own associations, your own past, your own experiences, and channel that all into art that is meaningful for you. That has your type of story that you need to tell. Because in my opinion, it is vitally important that we tell those unique stories.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
April S.
I tuned in for most of Brooke's lessons in this course and watched some of them more than once as they were rebroadcast. First I want to say that Brooke is a very good instructor. Her easy-going, friendly, down-to-earth, somewhat quirky manner cannot be mistaken for unprofessional. She is very prepared, she speaks well (not a bunch of hemming and hawing), she is thoughtful, she is thorough, she is very relatable and at ease, and she is definitely professional in her presentation. I really thought when I first tuned in that it would mostly be background noise while I was at work, sound to keep me company. Not because I didn't like Brooke but I really didn't think I was into fine art photography nor did I think I cared about the business side of things much. Not now anyhow. I was really wrong. Brooke sparked a deep interest in me to delve into fine art photography, to consider creating images for myself, from my imagination. In fact, I realized that this was something I'd been thinking about for a couple of years though I hadn't put a name to it (the idea of creating pre-conceived images based on my own creative goals). I gleaned many little treasures from her about image sizes, working with printers, different types of paper, selling, interacting with galleries, and so much more. I may not need all of what she taught right now because I'm definitely headed in another direction at the moment, but she planted ideas and information in my head that I know will be useful at some point. Things I may not have thought of on my own, but that seed is in my head now so when the time comes, I'll know. I'd really like to buy her course but at the moment, with the holidays right around the corner, it's not in my personal budget. I'm grateful to have caught the live and rebroadcast lessons though, and her course is on my list to own. I think it's a great reference to be consulted over and over again, not watched once and forgotten. Kudos Brooke for really putting together an excellent course.
Angel Ricci
When the title says comprehensive, it means comprehensive! I loved every part of this course. It's inspirational, motivating, and insightful towards creating art work. Even if you are not necessarily considering a fine art specialty, the concepts discussed in this course are applicable to many areas! I find this super useful as a videographer and photographer and look to apply all of these exercises and concepts for my personal and business work moving forward. It is lengthy, but you will not regret a single minute. Brooke Shaden is an amazing artist and educator. I recommend keeping up with her work, presentations, and any future courses that may come in the future.
Ron Landis
I'm retired now, but spent decades in the people and training business. Brooke is extraordinary! Even though this course is extremely well organized and she's left nothing unattended, she moves through it with friendly conversational manners and without a sense of it being stilted. It's as though we are all her friends, not students, as she shares her heart and passion with us. What a joy it is to listen to her. And what a clear, unambiguous command of her subject. Wow! She explains it with such ease using explanations and techniques that won't overwhelm artists just starting their portfolio or the Photoshop-squeamish among us; but despite its simplicity her resulting art is breathtaking and beyond original. I wish more of my professors at school were as engaging. This was by far my best buy at Creative Live yet.