About

Ian McKendrick

How did you get started with art?

I’ve always liked drawing and painting from a very early age. I was incredibly fortunate to have a highly inspirational art teacher, the renowned artist David Carpanini at my school Kingham Hill. although I used to dabble a little, David lit a fire in my belly that still roars as strongly today as the day that he lit it. I also loved metal work and technical drawing, so on leaving school I wanted to become a jeweller. Unfortunately the timing wasn’t right to take on an apprenticeship and that dream never came to fruition. I started work as a paste-up artist at a printing company in Cambridge where I learned the secrets of effective layout. It was in the days before computers, and everything had to be typeset and drawn by hand. It was a great grounding for the design work I would be doing in my later life. I learned a lot from that early paste-up role and it helped me to become fully aware of what worked to get messages across to people in the most engaging and interesting way.

So what career did you did you end up with?

I eventually found a career in IT, and did that for 30 years. I then went off to set up my own businesses, and in this modern, multi-tasking world I now have three careers!

• A Broadcaster on a weekly business radio show called The Business Hub.
• A Social Media Strategist and founder of SuperBlog.biz. I help companies and individuals use Social Media to spread their messages, reach more people, build and manage their reputation, generate more business leads and create residual incomes.
• A Key-Note Speaker, Presenter and Trainer. I speak at conferences and seminars all over the world on Social Media, IT Strategy and Information Security (and maybe even watercolour painting if enough people asked me!) You can find out more at IanMcKendrick.com and LetsPresentIt.com

What about your art?

I still love my art, I carry a sketch pad with me everywhere I go. In the last 9 years I have taken a keen interest in learning Watercolour Painting – which has become my passion. You will be able to see examples of my work all over this site, I hope they bring you as much inspiration and enjoyment as I’ve had creating them, and that you can also learn from the mistakes I’ve made along the way.

Why this blog “Watercolour Journey”?

Passion

• I’m absolutely passionate about watercolour painting, and I’m fascinated with all of the techniques and planning that goes into creating even the most simplest of watercolour paintings

Time

• I work far too hard!  ”Free Time” has become such a limited resource for me and I treasure every single moment that I can spend painting watercolours

The people

• All of the people who I have met that are involved in this medium (including some of the top artists in this field) are incredibly kind, generous and supportive. They take immense pride in unselfishly sharing their hard-earned knowledge and know-how with anyone who is keen to learn more, and I want to do the same

My learning journey

• This blog enables me to share my personal journey of  learning and enlightenment with you, and hopefully it will inspire and educate you as well

Build a community

• All of us could learn even more if you would be so kind as to join in the conversation with us. Please feel free to share your own experience, knowledge and know-how by regularly submitting your personal feedback and comments – the more the merrier!

Give something back

• Artists don’t have it easy. Most of them dedicate themselves to their art to the exclusion of almost everything else. Very few make the money they truly deserve, and even fewer get the recognition they’re due. Sadly the art industry, and many of the  middle-men&women seem to be making more profit than they do. To help address this problem I will try to do everything I can to set up any affiliate links that I make with the originating artist, thereby helping them to reap the financial rewards they deserve. Please read my ecommerce disclosure below for more information and a fuller description of how I fund this site

Social Media Showcase

• I’ve been helping and training companies and individuals use Social Media to spread their messages, reach more people, build and manage their reputation, generate more business leads and create residual incomes for several years. I’m now going to use all of the techniques and strategies that I teach to promote this site and build a watercolour enthusiast community.
• If you would like me to help you with your Social Media strategy, or help you to build your website to help you promote  what you have to offer then please contact me HERE>>>

What tools do you use?

• Watercolours: Windsor & Newton artist quality tubes and pans.
• Brushes: Windsor & Newton Kolinsky sables and Terry Harrison’s amazing brush collection.
• Drawings: Rexel Cumberland Derwent Graphic (mainly 2B) pencils.
• Digital drawing: Wacom Bamboo tablet
• Digital art: Flash CS5, Photoshop CS5, Fireworks CS5, Autodesk Maya and SnagIt
• Layout: Adobe Illustrator CS5 and Adobe In Design CS5
• Web design: Photoshop CS5, Dreamweaver CS5 and WordPress SuperBlogII
• Presentations: Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Captivate CS5 and Camtasia Studio

What do you get up to in your spare time?

I must admit that I’m a workaholic, but when I do get some time to myself I like spending it with my two children and Smudge, my cat. I also love to:

• Create watercolour paintings
• Draw and sketch from life
• Photograph everything around me
• Create cartoons
• Paint my Warhammer model collection.
• Play with 3D puzzles and board games with my family
• Occasionally play World of Warcraft as a Dwarven Hunter
• I love reading  Terry Pratchett, Dan Abnett and Raymond E. Feist
• I used to play lead guitar, bass guitar and keyboards in various bands
  • …and I still tinkle the ivories occasionally!

Ecommerce Disclosure

In the interests of disclosure and ethics, I want to be honest and open about how I make money from my site. This site sometimes earns revenue using third-party affiliate links to some products and services, which means that I sometimes get paid a small commission if you purchase a product or service that I link to in my content.

I want to make it perfectly clear that my reviews are written entirely by myself, they are based on my own personal experience and what I think. To ensure that I include an independent balance to my ratings, I allow visitors to submit their own feedback and ratings for each item as well. This means that over time, as more  people submit their own ratings, this gives a more accurate reflection of the community’s overall opinion rather than just mine alone.

You also need to know that I occasionally have free access to products or services to review. I would like to point out that this does not in any way affect how I rate something, or influence what I say about it. Trust and Integrity is very important to me, so if you send me something to evaluate and I end up writing a review that you don’t like, then I apologise. If this has happened to you then please feel free to send your “happy customers” along to this site so that they can share their own ratings and feedback with us so that our “watercolour community” can all benefit as a result.

I’m expecting some lively discussions!

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