I Used to Struggle as an Illustrator & I Still STRUGGLE with My Art

If You only knew How Much I Used To Struggle!

 In fact, I still STRUGGLE with my art.

Fish King

To this day I still have a problem drawing in front of people. I have no problem painting in front of a group but I’m so unsure about my drawings I get really self conscious.
This fish for instance goes through a really rough loose stage that changes form many times before I start to see things I like. Often I don’t like where it’s going and have to start over from scratch – that would make a really fun demo wouldn’t it? (sarcasm intended)… and the fear of that happening is paralyzing – so I don’t often draw in front of my classes.
A lot of our artist friends that are realy good at what they do, don’t want to do a course for folioacademy because they are afraid of the camera, they don’t want the world to see them struggle.

Developing Your Art Skill Takes Time

I know I’ve talked about this before but I really want you to know two things:

1. This art thing that you want to get good at takes a long time – a lifetime really.

2. It’s really fun when you start to put all the pieces together and start creating images that gather an audience!

Assignment: Create a “Fish King Character”

King Fish line artI gave an assignment to create a “Fish King” character in my Imagination and Visual Literacy class at UVU and invited my students to send me images to post – some of them took me up on this invitation. I hope they realize that they draw better than I did when I was going to college. In fact, I was put on “probation” as a provisional student for being such a horrible artist. I was one of the few that didn’t get a studio space my junior year and I was on probation, I had to improve or I wouldn’t be in “the Program” my senior year. So I spent my Junior year being a lesser student. Yes that was stressful and depressing. And scary, to spend three years in University just to be told that “I can’t be an artist”.

Here are some preliminary sketches.

Oh yeah – it was my son Aaron’s idea to put fish hooks in his lips – credit where credit’s due!

Evolution of a Fish King.

King Fish line art c

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s What My Students are Drawing

King Fish line art d

I love the diversity you can see in their work. By nature artists want to be different. Artists want to show the world something they’ve never seen. Check out Dallin Orr’s and Todd wilson’s work.

I don’t mind admitting it, some of my students are a lot better artists than I was at their stage in the game.

 Here are a few warm up sketches I did.

King Fish line art b

Should I Go To Art School Or Take Art Classes Online?

Should I take college art classes or learn online?

Advice for beginner artists.

I get this question a lot so I posed the query last week in hopes to get you all thinking on your own and now I am going to give my answer. This may take awhile so you may want to pack a lunch or put on a pot of coffee.

Let me just start by saying that it is really an unfair comparison, it is like the old apples and oranges thing. But let’s compare anyway.


So first, let’s look at cost.

 

Online, you could probably spend anywhere from $1000 maybe even up to $5000. With that amount of money and a little digging around on the internet, finding a few systems or mentors that work for you, and applying yourself, you should be able to get all the schooling you need to become a genuine artist and get started as a pro. Compare that to a state college where you could spend from $25,000 to $35,000 and that’s if they even have an illustration program and if you are close enough to go to that school. Compare that to an bonafide (bow-nuh-fide) Art School that can cost well over $100,000.

What Kind of Artist Are You?

Sammy the Dog doing art

Maybe a better question here would be, What kind of student are you? This makes a lot of
difference. Are you super motivated? Do you love to draw? Do you love to paint? Are you a
self-starter and can you push yourself. This will make a lot of difference. If you are self
motivated, like most of us are NOT, then you will most likely do better any way. If so, you
could become a professional artist/illustrator and do well without any college or formal
education. When people really want to learn something, they usually figure out a way to do it. Libraries, stores, teachers/mentors, internet etc. That is probably fewer than 3% of us, but if you really made up your mind to be one of those 3%, I believe you could. I believe you CAN. I KNOW YOU CAN. I also know you probably won’t. (just sayin)

Continue reading

Online Art Schools vs University

Art Lessons Online or University?

lizard SVSsm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

– I’ve been asked about the difference between online courses like we have at Folio Academy, interactive online schools like SVS and attending an illustration class at a University or art school -(I will give you my opinion next week, March 28, 2014) – I’d love to know what you think. One thing I will say is that we have quite a few art teachers at art schools and Universities using our videos to enhance the learning experience. We aren’t any better than those teachers, and they aren’t any better than us, well not a lot better. Often teachers want their students to hear the same things from other teachers and in different words. I do the same thing when I’m at University – I often show videos from other artists and teachers to reinforce the principles I’m teaching.

 

 

Can An Artist Survive Without a Rep?

Will Terry is an Illustrator without a Rep, Still.

Today is March 3, and I, Wayne Andreason, would just like to start by saying, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mark Andreason and Kory Kennington.  I’m Mark’s favorite brother and Kory’s best friend. And happy birhtday anyone else out there who happens to have a March 3 birthday.

Artist, Will Terry has been repless since january 2010

CampFire Boy

Q&A:
Q- so Mr. Will Terry, you don’t have a rep, do you starve?
A- Well Mr. Wayne Andreason, No, I do not starve, in fact if I ever suffered from anorexia, I certainly one that battle. In case you haven’t noticed, I am a big guy.
Q- So how do you make money if you don’t have an agent finding you work?
A- I’m still a free agent and in a position to negotiate my own contracts with my clients. I used to have a rep and It was a good ride with Shannon Associates but due to creative differences we have now parted ways. It was great to work with that company and we did many wonderful projects together.
Q- How long have you been on your own?
Four years ago I declared my independence, severed the umbilical cord and moved on.  I was on my own and chose to embrace the freedom it afforded me.
Funny how, in the beginning, I SO wanted a rep to get me work and keep me fed, and it didn’t come easy. I had to prove myself before they would even look at me. It was like, you can’t get an agent until you don’t need an agent. I was glad to be a part of the team and it was good for me too. Have Paints Will Terry 
Q- What’s that supposed to mean?
A- You’re the one that came up with it. And it’s kind of stupid by the way. It’s supposed to be like my artist’s credo, (like a mercenaries creed) It’s supposed to sound like, Have guns will travel. Well any way, the thing is, If you, or any one you know, has a project that you think might be a good match for me please call or email me direct – 801-368-7568. And yes, my refrigerator is running.
Q- So have you been busy?
A- Yes, off and on. More off than it seems. When I am not working on something for a client, I try to keep myself busy with a self imposed project of some type. To better my skill or to create an app or work with on Folio Academy, or an e-book. I also teach adjunct at UVU.
Q- What about the (above) picture of the boy and the fire?
A- Thank you for asking, Since I am reminiscing, I wanted you to post this self imposed assignment, of the boy and the campfire. It is one I did while getting on my “free agent” feet and trying to get a handle on Photoshop.
Q- Do you like how it turned out.
A- You forgot your question mark.
Q- Whoops, I do that a lot, Do you like how it turned out
A- Yes, I was busy at night working on this painting trying to gain more control with Photoshop and was happy with the results. I was experimenting with the texture but I think that most of the painting worked out. If you have my book The Frog with the Big Mouth you might recognize the little froggy in the lower right. I was always jealous of digital artists for the ability to rip themselves off – you know, copy and paste, now I get to do it! And I do do it, all the time. Tee hee.

Q-So the campfire boy was a “self imposed” assignment?

A- Yeah, This piece was a “just for fun” painting. I still draw and paint, “just for fun” but back then I had to in order to get ready to send out digital art examples to my clients. (note to reader: So if you’re a client or a would be client, I’d love to chat.) I love the ability it gives me to work on details and erase unwanted paint and the control over color and value are undeniable. My personal email is will at willterry dot com (it’s in code to confuse the bots).

Q- So that was Will Terry, has paints, Will terry?

A- Yes.

 

How to Make an App: Step 10: Make Another App

Nice Reviews on Our Story App & a Sneak Peek at “Gary’s Worms”

We are so excited to talk about the reviews Gary’s Place is getting as well as talk about the sequel to Gary’s Place. Gary’s Got Worms.

Gary’s got worms?

Starting my next app, Gary’s got Worms. It’s not what you think, In this next App, Gary has worms, but not the itchy bum type, the night crawler type. Either way, worms can be a pain, in the end.

Gary’s Place gets a 4.5 and a 5 star rating!

We have the new updates now that we’ve fixed the ending of Gary’s place and we submitted it to Digital Story Time and The iMums. Two of the top review sites for children’s story apps. Digital Story Time gave us 4.5 stars and The iMums gave us 5 stars! YAY! I couldn’t believe it! I had to start looking at the competition on those sites and found that many of the other apps in the 4-5 star range are being produced by big publishers like Harper Collins and Disney. It felt really good to be able to start and finish this project with Rick Walton and my son Aaron and a little help from Tabitha Thompson’s wonderful voice acting – and to be able to compete!

WHY IS HE HELLBENT ON MAKING APPS? IS HE CRAZY?

Since we’re finally rolling I’ll share our sales stats from Google Play, Amazon, and iTunes, but not yet, stay tuned. I will in future posts. I don’t expect to sell thousands of these, and certainly not overnight. I don’t think digital publishing works that way for the

most part. I’ve got my eye on the long term goal of steadily building a brand. Some of my peers ask me why I seem to be so hellbent on making apps. Why work on a project like this without any guarantee of success? Why not spend 
more time in traditional publishing markets? Or watch more TV? Why risk it? Do you hate traditional publishing? ARE YOU CRAZY?

I love these questions – keep em coming! :)

No I don’t hate traditional publishing – I illustrated 3 books last year and loved each one of them. I look forward to illustrating more in the future. I’m having the time of my life working in a medium that is expanding my knowledge and skill sets. I’m enjoying the collaborations I’m making with famous children’s book author Rick Walton, and my son Aaron – who, by the way, is very creative and is actually a major contributor on interactive, animation, and content ideas. I count myself extremely lucky to be able to afford the time to work on these. But probably the biggest reason is that in order to succeed in anything artistic there needs to be risk. I’ve learned to embrace it. This doesn’t mean that I don’t hear nasty things from the voices. There always there but I’ve learned how to cage them quicker and keep them locked away longer.Many are afraid of digital publishing. Some are wishing it away. Some are ignoring it. I would just like to point out that it took nearly 50 years for the automobile to become mainstream. The early contraptions were noisy, expensive, unreliable, and inefficient. People  made fun of the early adopters. Many were hoping they would fail so everything would go back to normal. I can’t predict the future but I doubt we will move away from digitally delivered and enhanced storybooks for children. This means that I won’t have to worry about my creations going out of print.

Build a Quality Brand

My plan is to steadily and slowly build a quality brand. Each new app will advertise the previous story apps and each previous app will be updated to advertise the newest story app. I guess that might be step 11 or step 12 but who’s keeping track? They “say slow and steady wins the race” – unless it’s a sprint – we’ll see. I keep hearing about artists who make an app and never make another one because they didn’t sell enough to justify the effort. I also hear about those who make one app and it’s their “Driving Miss Daisy” and they are suddenly rich, and famous and they are millionaires, but that is fluke-ish and it’s probably those guys that make the rest of us want to give up when we don’t hit a home run with our first try. I think this is a mistake if they can afford to continue. Think about some of the most famous picture book brands out there – like the Olivia stories…or the Skippyjon Jones books. They weren’t created in a year or even two – it took a LONG time. It took RISK from their publishers. So Give a Hoot, Take a Risk, and another, and another, and slowly and steadily win the race, it’s not a sprint. 

Story Apps Need (good) Ratings TOO

If you’ve bought a copy of Gary’s Place I’d love to hear what you think! Also if you wouldn’t mind giving us a rating in the app store – that will help – good or bad – Preferably good. My mom used to say, you must be able to think of something good to say about anyone, or any app. 
If you haven’t bought a copy, feel free to buy it, we don’t mind.
thank you
If you want to go back and see all the steps, start with step one and link from there. How to make an app-step 1.

The Folio boys road trip to Las Vegas

Las Vegas trip

It’s never a good idea to send Will and me to Las Vegas. We went once before and it’s the reason I’m listed in the Guiness book of world records under human appendage modifications. LOL.

We walked around.

The California Teachers Association chose one of Will’s books – Armadilly Chili for their Read Across America book for 2010 and 2011. What an incredible honor! They brought him out there two or three more times that and the following year to speak and to sign his book at their conferences. It’s was so fun to hang out with their committee members in Vegas. And eat.

We learned that the famous Faberge egg company had just gone out of business a few weeks earlier (still don’t know if this is true but the dealer made sure we knew that there is now a supply and demand issue) It would have been a good idea for us to have been rich before this trip. Either way, we came home broke so…

I must not have wanted my picture taken. Or I was just in a stupor of thought, or lack of thought. Or maybe I was trying to “act natural”.

FREE WEBINAR! 10 Step Digital Painting

FREE STEP BY STEP Digital Painting Webinar

 March 1, 2014 7:PM MST (mt. standard time)

Dragon Rider

You know that feeling you got when you were 5 and you got to run downstairs on Christmas morning to open presents? Not to diss on past memories but WOW – I have that feeling again! I’m so excited to be able to create a lesson and share it with people all over the world! Our last webanar “How To Draw Everything” by Jake Parker gathered 879 people from countries on just about every continent – I even saw someone named “Penguin7493″ so… (Okay, maybe that wasn’t his, or her, real name… but then again, maybe it was)

How to, Step by step, Digital Painting Process FREE!

My ten step, how to paint, digital painting course webinar is absolutely free. And the video we make of the webinar is not free, but you can get a $10 discount if you act smart, I mean fast. Anyway, we have another webinar coming up on March 1st at 7:00PM MST and this time it’s my turn to share my digital painting process. I’ve broken it down into 10 steps. You know that old saying? The one that I’m about to butcher – “eating an elephant is hard unless you eat him one step or spoonful at a time…” or whatever but you get the point. If you learn to do something methodically it can not only make the task seem easier but also give you results you can replicate, and really, that’s what’s important right?

You can also purchase the video with added perks. 

Dragon Rider 02
For those who decide to purchase the video recording of the webinar we’ve decided to throw in some extras this time (we’re learning). You’ll get 3 things: A PDF study guide with a verbal description of each of the 10 steps. A bonus video explaining in detail how to set up Photoshop to use the texture settings in the brush pallet and my FULL Photoshop painting with over 30 layers from sketch to finishing touches. This is a high res file over 300 mb  – my working file so you can deconstruct the Dragon Rider and see what she’s really made of. Don’t be dissapointed if you don’t find any bones or entrails. Use it as your own working file to replicate my layers if you want to. This is a great way to actually see how someone paints in Photoshop.
DragonRider 03I realize that many people will think I’m crazy for letting my artwork get out there to be used by anyone for any purpose. I think most artists get a little too attached to their work and subsequent self importance. In the end it was 25 hours having a blast doing exactly what I wanted. If someone makes T-shirts out of it in some other country good luck – send me a picture of all the cash – that’ll put a smile on my face! And send me a T-shirt while your at it. I take a size “pretty freaking big”.
Pre-Order the Video & save $10 – The Webinar is FREE
It is absolutely FREE to attend the webinar, but if you would like to pre-order the video, PDF, Bonus Video, and Dragon Rider Photoshop file, you’ll get a $10 discount using coupon code “10step10” – but this will expire the end of the day of March 1 – check out the details in our store.
DragonRider 04
So you need to get registered for this event in order to be sent your individual joining link from GoToWebanar – simply click here and follow the instructions! See you soon!

Illustrate the word, Confined.

How would YOU Illustrate the word, Confined?

What do you do with your spare time?

confined
This is a “Quick and Dirty” that Will Terry did in his, otherwise, spare time. He did this a long time ago for Illustration Friday.
You would thing that he wouldn’t have any spare time with his busy schedule. He deals with FolioAcademy, teaches college art and Illustration classes at Utah Valley University and he spends a lot of time in the boardroom. That is what we call Mother Nature. So a nice hike to clear you head is basically a trip to the board room.

Illustration Friday word or phrase to illustrate

Every week, Illustration Friday has a different word or phrase that they put out there for all their followers to have a go at. The thing is, they don’t really pick a winner. I mean, they don’t choose the winner for it’s merits, I think. In fact I think they just randomly choose one each week to display as the winner.

Artist Jim Madsen, I’m his best friend, has been submitting almost every week, and he his Dang good. They finally chose one of his paintings, (Last Friday, Feb, 14, 2014) for the “random”, pick of the week.

PREHISTORIC

We Should do a Folio Friday weekly competition 

I have thought that would be a good Idea and a lot of fun to allow any and all of our peeps, that is, those follow this blog or use Folio Academy, to enjoy a similar thing but with some kind of judging system that chooses the winner. And they win something like a trip for two to Florence Italy, a brand new car, or our art courses at Folio Academy. (Which ever costs less)

 

Naturally there would be a lot of times when several pieces are near equally good and we would inevitably choose one that may not be the exact best but rather, the best according to our judges opinion. And I don’t want to ever hurt anyone’s feelings, especially one of my peeps. So if we ever do this, and I do want to, I am just apologizing in advance for not choosing YOU every time.

Any way, it may be awhile till we get that, or not, what say ye? I am still pretty stupe when it comes to running a blog, so if you have an opinion, you should let me know via my personal email. wayneandreason at gmail dod com. (that is in code to keep bots from spamming me.

In the meantime, this week’s winner for the word, confined, is the above cat in the cage by my good and probably best friend, Will Terry.

How to Make a Story App, step 9, fix it.

Gary’s Place Now Available For Android

In this post I’m going to write about what we’ve been doing with Gary’s place and some of the mistakes we’ve made along the way – and give information on how to contact my son Aaron for help with your app.

Now Playing at Google Play and Amazon app stores near you.

First: Gary’s Place can now be found in the Google Play and Amazon app stores for Android devices – YAY! We are charging a dollar less since it’s optimized for iPad and stretched a bit on many of the android phones and tablets.

Still not a best seller. 

Second: I’m not sharing sales data yet because we really haven’t gotten off the ground yet – I’ve been holding back because of all the problems we’ve had – ARRRRG! Sales data coming after we start advertising. Naturally I hope it sales like “Where the Wild Things Are” but I am also realistic. So don’t hate me if it flops. I already know that it might. That’s the beauty of free enterprise. We are lucky to have the freedom to buy, the freedom to sell, the freedom to try AND the freedom to fail.

So lets talk about the problems and subsequent updates:

UPDATE #1: FIX THE NAME.

When we first uploaded to iTunes and waited and waited for the approval we were horrified when we downloaded the app and saw that it was called “Build 17” on my iPad in the title below the icon. NOOOOOO!!!!! Let me just say, that while Apple is “user friendly” for consumers they are 180 degrees from that for developers (User UNFRIENDLY). It really feels as if they don’t care about helping you AT ALL! Or even like they want you to fail, give up, eat worms and kill yourself. When we uploaded the app file, Apple asked for the title of the app – which we filled in with “Gary’s Place”. But they don’t use that to put under your app icon – instead – they use the file name -BUT THEY DON’T TELL YOU THAT.

Now available, an awesome children’s story App, “Build 17”. No, it’s not sci fi. 

Therefor, update number one, change the name to something a little more appealing, like “Gary’s Place”.

Update #2: fix the ending and reducing the overall size

The story of Gary’s Place is about a small fur bearing animal that lives with mom and dad, and eventually moves out into a place of his own. Hence the name. Gary’s Place.
Well one of my online friends – Elizabeth – informed me that at first she interpreted the ending as Gary moving back in with his parents at the end. “Hmmm”,  I thought, “that’s not good.” So I asked Jan Watford who had reviewed Gary’s Place on her blog if she read it that way as well – and she said, “Yes, isn’t that what you intended?” …..Crap!
So…Update # 2 was to fix the ending and reducing the overall size of the app…and that update just went live for iPad. Yay!

Update #3: add a navigation bar

Then my app builder guy, AKA my son Aaron (who’s been working really hard on all of this) thought we needed navigation to make it easier to pick a specific page in the app and go directly there. (It will disappear after a few seconds so it’s not in the way.) That was a GOOD CALL. I’ve been so busy with a large freelance assignment that I haven’t been able to give it as much attention as it deserves. So luckily I have him around, and yes, I compensate him for his brilliance and work. He went ahead and did added the navigation, and it makes using the app Sooo much easier, and user friendly. Take that Apple. Below is a screen shot of what update #3 will look like. So Update #3 will add a navigation bar to quickly jump to any page and reduce the size even further.

UPDATE #4: TBA and in the mean time, Start my next App 

My writer/partner, Rick Walton has now written the next story and I’m starting to layout the entire app – and loving it! Gary’s has Worms.

My son Aaron has decided to help other people with their apps as long as they’re using Kwik. He’s spent the last 3 months working with Kwik and has gotten pretty good at it. He’s offering to coach you or build your app – you can visit his site right here: or copy and paste or click this>>>http://www.atanimations.com/ and here’s a gratuitous link to FolioAcademy.com where you will find art lessons online.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day

P.S. Happy Valentines Day. Thanks to Photoshop, I was able to customize a candy heart pic for my wife and valentine RuthAnn.

I will post step 10 on Feb, 21, 2014, put it on your calendar, and put that on your fridge. See you then.

HOW TO MAKE A STORY APP – STEP 8, The Final Step

For links to steps 1-7 found scroll to end of post. 

Step by Step, How to make your own story app, part 8. The final step, I hope. 

How to Build and Upload Your App to Apple

Garys place

Building and Uploading Your App to Apple is the part that scares me most. I am no techno genius, In fact I am a right-brained techno phobe, like all good hearted artists. So I am hiring my son Aaron, who also happens to be no techno genius. But unlike me, he is willing to learn.

WE CHOSE TO USE KWIK BY KWIKSHER.

You can use any app building program you want for this process. We My son Aaron and I, Okay, my son Aaron, not we but he, used KWIK. One reason for that is because it is a WYSIWYG program, (what you see is what you get) so you don’t need to be a programming genius to use it. That is KWIK created by Kwiksher see kwiksher dot com for more details. Alex Sossa is the president and founder.

I had my son Aaron do the “programming” for me. Okay, I paid him to do it for me. Hey! I’m an artist. I will let him tell it in his words. Now that he has gone through the learning curve he will be doing my next app soon and he will also do this for hire as well as coaching for hire. (in-case you don’t have children of your own to do it for you)

So Aaron, what do you say?

I say that Kwik works as a photo shop plug in, you can use layers to move things around, and you use the tools within the plugin to build the app. You can show and hide images. It is pretty neat.

“Aaron is an average kid, mediocre grades in school, not a Genius by any means, no offense Aaron.” ~Will Terry

Non taken, Dad.

He is not a programmer, he didn’t and doesn’t know coding. He is not into math, he is a lot like me, he didn’t do TOO WELL in school, was never interested in math etc. He was able to learn Kwik he says, “it is a powerful tool, like photoshop”, he was tired of working at HomeDepo and I was willing to pay him. (his motivation) ~Will Terry

Thanks dad, I’m dumb as a post, I think they get it.

It was a pretty hairy process at first, I was using a mac for the first time, photoshop for the first time and Kwik was new to me too. But I got some immediate gratification when I got started and I could see that I was making progress. On the first day I was able to get something to animate. That was cool and motivating.

You are not going to be able to just take Kwik out of the box and roll with it, but within a week or two you can get pretty good at it. There are a lot of forums and help, most questions are addressed. There are a lot of newbe questions, especially for artists on there.

I started before my dad was actually done with the art part of the app and some of his work wasn’t done when he sent it to me, I even had to send it back to him and tell him to finish it or clean up some over spray on a few layers. I think we work well as a team. That was a little weird, telling my dad to finish his job rather than him telling me to finish something like mowing the lawn or cleaning my room.

Getting your app ready for the build.

You should have all your stuff together and well organized. Maybe even story board or sequence or flow chart.

You need to make sure that any object you want to move better be on a different layer. You can compress them later or whoever puts it to the app can compress it later. (like if you have your daughter or son do it for you)

My dad decided to only have one animation per page so’s not to confuse the child, or end user.

Timetable to learn and use Kwik

If He had everything finished, it would have taken about a month for me to do it. Now that I am familiar with Kwik I could do it in half that time. There is definitely a learning curve. You won’t be able to just open Kwik for the first time and build away. But it is a good program and it is learn-able. I would give it a week before giving up. By then you should be empowered and start liking it.

Kwik does the PROGRAMMING for you,

It would take me about 10 minutes to make a page and for example I looked at one page that took about ten minutes to put together and the program generated about 238 lines of code, and I didn’t have to write or code any of that. Go WISIWYG!

Your work-space is inside PS (That is code for PhotoShop) and you test a page by exporting it to Corona. Just get in there and open it up and look around. It is pretty self-explanatory.

We also used a highlighted text feature. That was kinda hard and I wouldn’t have been able to figure that out without the tutorials, but once you get it, it is pretty easy to implement.

In my honest opinion, I would say you need to give it a chance. Then it is fun, watch some beginner tutorials, you can find them on the Kwik website. There are classes too. My dad helped Alex make some of those videos so he recommends them as well.

Would I use Kwik if I had it to do again?

In Kwik you combine all the voice files, the text files, animation files etc. I used Kwik and I will use it for the next app which we will be starting soon. So that should be a good testimonial for Kwik. Kwik doesn’t take any of your profit percentage like a lot of the other programs out there. Other programs aren’t as robust either, but you do have to buy Kwik, it is an annual subscription, I don’t know how much that is but you can surely find out on their website. One more reason to hire out. Hey! You’re an artist/app creator, have a trained professional like Will Terry’s son do the grunt work for you.

needs, if you are using Kwik to Create your app.

You need Photoshop SC6 or CC installed on your machine, it can be a PC or a Mac to make your app, you have to have Kwik, and then you have to have Corona SDK, the software developer kit, installed which It will give you an iPad and an Android and all major devices simulator.

Email Alex, the President and founder of Kwiksher.com

Rather than emailing me or asking any technical questions here on this blog, to which we Will or Wayne wouldn’t know how to respond anyway, you can email Alex if you have any questions about Kwik. His email is alex@kwiksher dot com Contact him especially if you have technical questions you can’t get answered anywhere else. He is great about responding and helping.

Another plug for Audacity, 

I also want to mention Audacity again, it is a free sound editing program. We used it to manipulate sound files. We used our voices and then altered them. It is a great program too.

Publishing to the apple app store. The fun part. Sarcasm intended.

Not fun at all. Apple is big, they don’t care if it is tough, there is little or NO help. They are big, they know they are big and they don’t care about you or me. I ran into a roadblock, at one point they just returned my money and said that they can’t accept a technical report request. I had to go back and redo a bunch of steps and look online for help. There are a lot of online forms to fill out. They need a lot of info.

You have to make an Apple developer request for which you pay them $99 per year and… You generate a signing request, you generate a certificate using that signing request, you download and install the certificate, then you generate a provision profile using the certificate and you will include that certificate in your app and Corona will search your system for that certificate so when you click build you will include that code in your app without having it put it in there manually, which is pretty nice.

It is not intuitive at all. It took me a week and a half to get it in there. Very frustrating!

That is pretty much what we did. Good luck. Back to you Dad.

In Closing…

Thanks Aaron. OK so, I will be sharing my sales and success or lack thereof in upcoming blogs, so stay in touch and wish me luck.

A way to build momentum in a really noisy market place like we are in, is to build your brand. I don’t see you getting rich quick with apps as there are so many out there. But the playing field is level and you can still play. Get up and do it and keep doing it and enjoy being a producer. There are a lot of consumers out there. We are all consumers, so we need producers like you to produce good products.

Why not hire a coach or an app builder?

My business partner Wayne Andreason has come to say, “If you want a job done right, don’t do it yourself.” Unless of course, that is what you do.

Aaron TerryMy son Aaron Terry no longer works at Home Depot, so he will be assisting others with their apps.  He is building a website now and will be offering Coaching for a fair price, and if you get frustrated or don’t want to bother with it, like me, he will be offering his services as an app builder as well. Right now he is reachable at aaron-terry@live dot com (that is code for his e-mail. use a . for dot and no spaces.)

So if you want to learn art now, go to FolioAcademy.com, if you want your windows washed, go to http://alpinewindowwashing.com/ if you want your teeth fixed go to http://www.spanishforkutahdentist.com/ But if you want your app built, go to Aaron Terry my son and office partner.

If you want to jump to the next step, Step 9, check back around (Feb 14,14). I knew I would never finish. So when I said step 8 was the final step, well it WAS, but it ain’t anymore.

and if you want to read see the previous steps, 1-7, here they are, click on the following links. Step one, two, three, four, five, 5.5, six, and seven.