Background

Ian McKendrick - Watercolour Journey

Ian McKendrick

Summary Bio – Update – 2016: I had a heart attack in 2013, and In 2014, as part of my therapeutic recovery, I signed up to a Fully Certificated Online Drawing Course where I’ve been making great progress. In October 2015 I had a quadruple heart bypass operation, and as a result I’ve had to stop watercolour and pencil drawing as I was finding it far too painful. Not being one to give up, I’ve now transitioned my newly honed drawing skills onto my iPad, with great success. You can read the full background on my Go Fund Me page , where I’m attempting to raise the funds necessary to help transition my career into that of a full time pencil artist.

  • Watercolour Painting 5% 5%
  • Drawing and Sketching 95% 95%

How did you become interested 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 at that age I was dabbling a little as an amateur artist, David lit a fire in my belly that still roars as strongly today as the day that he lit it. I also really enjoyed  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.

Gathering Storm by David Carpanini
Cow Gum used for pasting up artwork in the old days

Have you ever worked in art before?

I actually 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 an artist, especially for the design work I would find myself doing in my later life. I learned a lot from that early paste-up artist 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 do you do now ?

I’m currently recovering from a quadruple heart bypass operation that I had in October 2016. I’m still finding it very painful as I wait for my sternum to knit back together, so sadly I’m dependent on state handouts until I’m fully fit for work again.

What did you do before ?

Previously I found a full time career in IT, which I did for around 30 years. I then set up my own businesses, eventually ending up with three careers (which I still miss very much)

 

  • Spending every moment of every day that I can to improve my drawing skills
  • Continuing with my Fully Certificated Online Drawing Course
  • Learning how to become an art teacher
  • Building up a portfolio of work to sell as soon as I fully recover
  • Growing my network on social media to reach more people
  • Using my work to inspire as many people as possible
  • A Broadcaster on a weekly business radio show called The Business Hub.
  • A Social Media Strategist and founder of SuperBlog.biz. I help organisations and individuals use Social Media to build communities, spread their messages, reach more people, build and manage their brand and reputation, generate more business leads and create residual incomes.
  • A Key-Note Speaker, Presenter and Trainer. Speaking at conferences and seminars all over the world on Social Media, IT Strategy and Information Security (and maybe even the odd watercolour painting if enough people asked me!) You can find out more at IanMcKendrick.com and LetsPresentIt.com

What about your art and watercolour painting?

I still love my art, as a typical artist I carry a sketch pad with me everywhere I go. In the last 11 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. I’m also inspired by some of the fine art watercolor paintings I see on the internet, but who can’t be? Especially when confronted with a wonderous work of art and famous artists paintings such as the famous watercolor painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Fighting Temeraire.

The Fighting Temeraire by Joseph Mallord William Turner
Learn to draw the easy way>

Please help support me>

Why this blog “Watercolour Journey”?

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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. My Watercolour Journey blog is a great platform for me to use to share that with people who have a similar passion.
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 vibrant 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 to use Social Media to build communities, 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>>>
Build an online library
I’m hoping my Watercolour Journey site becomes a library of links to everything to do with watercolour painting, such as a list of watercolour artists names i.e.a famous artists list, online watercolor painting lessons, the companies that supply the materials such as watercolour paper, watercolor paints etc., the galleries that exhibit watercolour paintings, foundations that fund watercolour art projects, art festivals, watercolour painting competitions and seminars, watercolour painting collectors and dealers with watercolor paintings for sale. In essence, the internet is filled with so much information about watercolour painting and I see this site of a way of organising that information for anyone wanting to find out more. If you would like me to submit an online resource for me to include in my Watercolour Journey website then please let me know via my contact form HERE>>>

What tools do you use?

Art equipment
Management Tools

WordPress, Buffer, Hoot Suite, Feedly, FlipBoard, TweetDeck, SocialToo, Twellow, TweetAdder, Co-Tweet, OnlyWire, Evernote, Highrise, Dropbox, SalesForce Desk, Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Maps, Vertical Response, Mail Chimp, iTunes, iPhone Apps, Android Apps, and Windows Mobile Apps

Software

WordPress, SEOPressor, Marketing  Samurai, Social Metrics Pro, Artisteer, Camtasia Studio, Snagit, Adobe Audition, Adobe Soundbooth, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, ERP, CRM, MS Office 365, MS Office 2010, MS PowerPoint, MS SharePoint, MS Project, MS Visio, MS One Note, GarageBand, Adobe Audition, Cool Edit Pro, iPhoto, iMovie, and iBooks Author

Social Media Tools

Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Blogging, AudioBoo, Pinterest, Google+, FourSquare, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, Quora, StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Technorati, and FeedBurner.

Knowledge

Present at seminars and events, Run training courses, Create websites, Manage web domains, Edit themes, Create digital graphics, Create policies and procedures, and I have in depth knowledge of SEO, HTML, PHP, PPC, and RSS

What do you do in your spare time?

I must admit that I’m a bit of a workaholic, but when I do get some time to myself I like spending it with my two children, our cat Smudge, our Westie Ollie and two chickens Shelly and Gobby . I also love to:

  • Create watercolour paintings
  • Draw and sketch from life
  • Photograph everything around me

E-commerce 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! 🙂

Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoy my blog.

Ian McKendrick

Browse my watercolour book library here>
Browse my watercolour DVD library here>