The Artist Author Notes

Behind the Scenes of an Artist, Author, Small Business & Traveler

Writing Naomi VanDoren Writing Naomi VanDoren

Editing a Self-Published Book: A Comprehensive Guide

Editing a self-published book is more than fixing typos; it's about honing your story to perfection. This guide walks you through key steps to track elements like magic systems in fantasy novels, identify inconsistencies, and perfect your pacing. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned writer, find expert tips to elevate your manuscript.

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Naomi VanDoren Naomi VanDoren

Print-on-Demand for Squarespace Artists

Exploring print-on-demand options for your Squarespace shop? In this article, I share insights from my own journey, discussing the pros and cons of popular services like Printful, Printify, and Art of Where. Find out which platform might be the best fit for you.

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Writing Naomi VanDoren Writing Naomi VanDoren

Bringing an Illustrated Novel to Life - A Collaboration with Wacom

Are you a creative? What are the essential tools that you use for your creative practice?⁠⁠ Would you consider them to be strange or out of the box? What tools serve multiple functions in your process?
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I’m really excited to be partnering with Wacom to bring you a special treat — An article all about creating illustrated novels and more specifically how I use a tablet for each stage of the process!⁠⁠

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Naomi VanDoren Naomi VanDoren

4 Watercolor Textures for your next Digital Painting

I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that I use a lot of watercolor textures in my digital artwork. Often these are textures that I’ve created but occasionally I like to include some that I’ve picked up from an online marketplace.

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Naomi VanDoren Naomi VanDoren

Inviting Your Audience Online

When showing at your first convention, or your 20th, grabbing your audience's attention and making sales in the moment is usually the #1 goal for any artist. But once you have them, taking that captive audience online with you for the longer journey is key to growing a sustainable business.

Inviting your audience to join you online can happen in many forms. It can be as easy as giving out a business card or mentioning the fact that you have a website or Instagram account. Here are some ways I make it easy for fans to maintain the connection past our in-person experience at the convention.

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Business & Marketing Naomi VanDoren Business & Marketing Naomi VanDoren

Scheduling Social Media Posts with Later

This year, one of my goals is to regain a lot of lost time spent on social media while growing my online presence. When I refer to lost time, I don’t mean the lost hours of endless scrolling looking at friends posts, what I’m referring to is the tedious task of maintaining a business presence online.

For too long I’ve operated without a plan in place and, like many, posted sporadically and often in-the-moment. Neither of these things was working to grow my following, and neither helped get me more time off my phone.

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Reviews & Tutorials, Business & Marketing Naomi VanDoren Reviews & Tutorials, Business & Marketing Naomi VanDoren

Top Tips for Artists to Level Up your Newsletter Game

When getting serious about becoming an artist in this digital age one of the many things that you’ll probably here is that “you should have a newsletter.” In a nutshell, a newsletter is a way to connect directly with your audience in their inbox. Since the beginning, I’ve kept a relatively simple bi-monthly newsletter for this very reason, and I'm happy to add that it works.

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Artwork & Paintings Naomi VanDoren Artwork & Paintings Naomi VanDoren

May the 4th - Star Wars time lapse Video

Every year on May the 4th I paint a few Star Wars pieces in celebration. This year I had a very hard time choosing which Baby Yoda piece to work on (so you get to see both) and I loved creating a young teen version of Han Solo and Princess Leia. I hope you enjoy watching and hearing a little bit about my process. May the 4th be with you!

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Writing Naomi VanDoren Writing Naomi VanDoren

My Author Journey

I want to share a little behind the scenes with you of how I became an author and wrote my first novel.

When I began this journey I actually didn’t set out to write a full-length novel. Originally I thought I’d tackle to project without words but as I outlined and explored some of the early world and characters I quickly found that I wanted to give them voices. Thus began my journey to becoming an author.

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