one was easier

I'm stuck on my website, it looks like a portfolio which is good but I also wanted a store so that people could buy from me but it's not working like I thought.  I keep following the steps to add PayPal to my site but for some reason its not taking it.  So my website is just the portfolio I started with, which is good so I'll have to call them and see what I'm doing wrong.

Putting up a website isn't as easy as they say, and some even say its essential to display your artwork.  I'll just leave the portfolio up and have people contact me if they want to buy.
I did learn something though.  Putting up a red bubble store is easier.  After I figured out how to convert my photos of my artwork from a jpeg to a gif file, it turned out to be easier.  Red Bubble is a site that any artist can put up artwork and they will put it on coffee mugs, t-shirts, pillows, totes, travel mugs and you keep the rights of your work.  You also keep a larger percentage of the sales on Red bubble than any other site I looked into.  Most of the artwork on there is stuff like the characters of the "angry birds" or little doodles like that but I decided to put most of my drawings.  Like I said easier, and another stream of income if anything sells.  I haven't sold anything yet, but it's only been a month.

check out my site to see what you can sell then go ahead and read what they have to offer, I think its totally cool.
cmcisn1966.redbubble.com

I'm stuck

I started to create a website for my artwork and named it corinneartwork1.com, but to convert it into a store is totally different and harder than they advertise.  They advertise to just click and paste the images and whall-la you have a store.  Not.  Although you can just to set up the images but to create a "cart" and to put buttons under each image that say "add to cart" is totally different.  The instructions say to go to the site where you want to receive payments, example; Paypal or square.com and add your email, so you do then what??   So on PayPal, I created a couple of buttons but now what do you do?  How many buttons do you have to create?
I've gone through the How to section but that information isn't really listed.  I searched through all the Q&A on both sites Weebly and PayPal but couldn't find this information, so the only thing is to call them.  Search through everything just to find a phone number.  Too much trouble, can't I just downgrade back to a portfolio and suggest to email me for purchases?.
Not as easy to create a store as they claim.

News

Well, I have glaucoma, I'm 53 and I'm going blind.  On my right eye, I am 3/4's blind because of a scar tissue build-up.  On my left eye, although I can see I have the same scar tissue building up and eventually I will be blind.  I don't know how long it will take, nor do I know if I'll be totally blind or not.

So that was my news in June, although I've been dealing with my right eye for a little over 2 years and knew that I would eventually lose sight in the left, it's just that after my eye doctor's appointments in June they made me realize that it's going to be sooner than eventually.

Well I think it was mostly the fact that they don't know how I got this scar tissue, apparently, it is caused by damage to my eyes, and I have not had any damage to either eye, so they don't know.  Not like they are going to really investigate the cause.  I believe it has to be glaucoma, I know for a fact that my diabetes has not reached my eyes yet so what else would it be?  However, I recently took myself off the road, I have a white curtain that shows up over my left eye when I drive, and usually I can blink and it'll go away but recently it didn't want to go away while I was driving back from the store which caused me to run over a curb. So I drove carefully home and decided that was the last time I would put anybody else in danger.  For the rest of the weeks I have had this white curtain over my eye, I can see but everything is blurry like looking through a sheer white curtain, it clears up after a little while but then returns a little later.

Of course, there is another reason I took myself off the road.  Everything is making me very sleepy.  Even every day over the counter Tylenol makes me sleepy.  I seem to be falling asleep every little while.  So having this partially blind right eye, blurry left eye and can't stay awake, well no more driving.

dawn

I've been experimenting with soft pastel chalk lately,

I've found a few pastel artists on youtube and I've been

trying to learn to get better then what I've been doing

however, I feel like I still draw like a toddler.

Blood Moon

I also managed to get a shot of the blood moon in the same trees as the previous photo.  Both taken at about 5 a.m. as the moon is setting just before the eclipse is done.

Photos

I do photography as well, this is the moon actually setting behind some trees.

I tend to do a lot of photos of the moon, I guess you can say I'm obsessed.  However, these do come in handy when I need something new to paint.

This Photo is available on my website for purchase at www.corinneartwork1.com

Female pirates

Part of being an artist is being able to do a lot of different types of work,  although I do paint I also draw and I really think my drawings come out better, in my mind I work better with the pencil.  However, you can work in any medium you like, oil, acrylic, watercolor, pencil, pen, color pencil, or inks and pastels.

So anyway this is my version of what Grace O'Malley looked like,  She was considered the Pirate Queen. She is the first female pirate I intend to do, I'm going to try and draw at least 5 female pirates, those that I found to be real, there are a few who were possibly fictional characters.  First time I did red hair, this is a pencil drawing on a 9 x 12 general sketch paper and colored with Crayola color pencils.  

A new decision

The new decision I made is I am going to close my Etsy store.  I've been with them for 4 years and I've gotten 1 sale. I have 6 followers in my Etsy store in the whole 4 years and in only 1 year with my website I have 75. 
This is all with the same amount of promotion that I do, so in the long run, I know that the Etsy store isn't worth it even if it only costs me 3 dollars a month.  Now what I intend on doing is turning my website into an e-commerce store, and sell everything from that.  That'll take my payment to $35.00 a month but it should be worth it. 
According to Weebly, I can easily list the digital downloads that I want and for right now just accept Paypal.  If I remember I'll write it all down and post this information as I learn it.

The other thing that I'm doing is still trying to figure out how to properly film myself drawing.  I can never seem to get the camera facing right, its either too far down or too far up and I end up not getting anything filmed.  So I get frustrated and stop doing it, (like a little kid having a tantrum).  I think I have only one good project that needs an introduction and then a whole bunch of editing.  It's not hard, just frustrating and a whole lot to learn.  But it'll come in handy if I need to put it on my resume, film editor.  Everybody on YouTube makes it look easy, and all this is because its another way to promote my artwork online.  I read that it is essential nowadays to have a YouTube channel to sell items online.