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
Write Your 'About Me' Page
To the About Me page. I also don't like this, but it's a must-be-done thing. An About Me page is gonna have a picture of you, hopefully or something related to you. And it's going to answer the same questions as the Artist Statement. What? How? And Why? I'm a fine art photographer. I do self portraiture. I layer my images, and they're painterly. And I overcome fears, and I love to help others. So just bullet points of what I would want to write about in my About Me page, same as in my artist statement. So then how is this different from an artist statement? This is the question. Because you're not getting out of it, let me tell you that. You can't just write one and use it for both. Well you could, absolutely. But I don't recommend it. So how is this different if it is literally the same content? The answer is that your artist statement should be professional, it should be polished, and you would write that from first person. Which is something that surprises a lot of people. You would...
think that to make it sound extra fancy you would put it in third person. I would actually recommend first person for your artist statement. For your About Me page I have an argument for both, okay? If you want to be really personable, and your aim is to just totally ingratiate yourself to people, go with first person. That's okay. A lot of people do it in your About Me page. I mean, we're not really fooling anyone. Obviously we're all writing our own About Me pages. Like, come on. The ruse is up. We all know. But, here is the thing about third person for your About Me page. Is that if hopefully you get to a point where you're being published in different places, on blogs, in articles, wherever, those people are going to go to your website copy and paste your About Me page and put it in to their article - like at the end of the article, let's say So if you have written it in first person, it's going to sound like you've now, you're writing on their blog, on their page, on their article. But it sounds a lot nicer when they copy and paste if it's in third person. So that's my argument for keeping it in third person for your About Me page, is that it will be copy and pasteable more easily for people. And it also sounds professional. So, how is it different? ME-Centric. Your About Me page. Which is funny because I just said I don't necessarily recommend first person but its very much about me. That's why it's called an About Me page. Very funny how these things work, isn't it? It can be playful or serious or something in-between. That's up to you and how you want to sound. You can talk about your accomplishments. You probably wouldn't do that in an artist statement. The artist statement is about your art. This is about you and what you have done so far. And you might make a distinction between personality versus style. So, you've got your personality - who you are. You want to put that in. You don't need necessarily to speak in the way that you would write captions for your images. With the flowery language, or however you would do that. So, there's a distinction to make there. Style of your writing for your work, versus style of your writing for your About Me page. So it can be emotional, it could be funny, it could be professional. These are three categories that I find most often people use to write their About Me page. Some people are super emotional and they tell the story of their life and it is really sad, or it's really heartbreaking and you learn something about them. It could be funny. It could be professional. And I want to show you a few examples of these. So if you're going with emotional you want to talk about why you create, probably. Pretty good one. What experiences you had. Any emotional ties that you have to your work. And the impact that it's had on you, or that your work has on other people. Something emotional, always relating it back to the emotion. Here's my emotional blurb that I wrote. "Even when we stand in the light, we necessarily cast a shadow." That's my dark, cryptic quote that I put there. "Brooke has always explored the ways in which we are made of darkness and light, and her art aims to share her inner-workings. She photographs herself so that she can be the characters she has always dreamed of from a childhood of intense imagination and fear. By being the creator and the actor, she can confront the fears that have always plagued her while taking control of her darkness." So it's written in third person, speaking to the emotional connection that I have to the work that I am creating. Okay, funny. I'm just going to totally switch gears here. You might include silly facts about yourself, which is always fun to do. You might share why you create, of course, because that's sort of like the heart of what we are writing about as it is. And then maybe you share a funny story or an anecdote or something like that. So here's my funny one, and I wrote this in first person to be more casual. "I'm terrified of whales, eat a head of kale almost every single day, and love the feeling of being completely dirty from a day of shooting. In my world, muddy feet are always a good thing (unless you ask my husband). I'm a fine art photographer, and I photograph myself, which, aside from sounding horribly narcissistic, is a way of having full control over my images and working completely, and blissfully, alone." So it's just a funnier tone. It's like sharing random facts that nobody needs to hear about, but let's you know that I'm a real human being and I like kale and stuff like that. And it's just silly. But it still tells you about my process a little bit. Professional. Now this is where you might talk about achievements, your journey in your craft, your education would also be relevant here. And this is my professional blurb. "Brooke Shaden studied filmmaking and English Literature in college, graduating with bachelors in each shortly after she began pursuing photography. Her images have been presented with a number of fine art and conceptual awards and she has representation through galleries around the world." Also tells you about my journey, about my photography but in a very professional, clean, clinical way. So I tend to do like a mix of all these things in my artist statement, I mean my About Me page. You don't have to be one or the other, you know? You can mix them up, see how that goes. For example, in my About Me page I've got a little bit of the emotional stuff, but then I have like a quick five questions at the end with like 'What's your favorite this?' And then a funny answer. Just to sort of be like, 'Here's my emotional stuff, but also I'm funny, or I try to be, or I wish I was funny.' You know, whatever. Okay. So. Your CV. Is generally going to go on your About page somewhere. At least like a link to it, or just some easy way to find it. You're going to have your name on there, your contact information, always important. Your education, if it's relevant. If it's not you don't need to put it, but if it's at all relevant go ahead and put that. Let's see, exhibitions, awards that you may have won, publications that you've been a part of, notable clients that you've had. And your job history. Now job history, I'm going to put like, a little asterisk next to that to say that if for whatever reason you have no jobs that are relevant, then don't put it. I mean, honestly, it's like nobody cares if you're an Olympic athlete if you're going for a job as a nurse. You know, it's like nobody cares. It's really interesting, but not relevant. So make sure that you don't dwell on the job history. It's not something that I've ever put on my CV because I have no relevant job history. But if you do, then good to mention. I think, at least. Okay. Notable highlights on your CV. Good to not put everything if you have too much stuff. Only pick out the most impressive things. Dates should go along with your CV, so if you've got, you know you don't just want to write 'Group exhibition' you'll want to put down 'March 2017 group exhibition' and let people know a little bit of information. What organization or client, or gallery, or whatever it was that it was associated with, good to mention that. So I just had a show open a couple of weeks ago and for that show I would write down 'Joanne Artman Gallery, solo exhibition October 2017' for example. And then that would give people all they need to know about that. You might include the title of the show or something to that effect. Not necessary. Any links if there are any, so if you've got you know like an important show that you were a part of and there is a link to the webpage that speaks about it, can't hurt. I mean obviously if you're printing this you can't have links, but if it's online definitely do!
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
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.