hamilton.likes.to.draw...

On March 26th I have a new book coming out.

A while ago, my friend and colleague Ryan approached me with an idea for a book of my drawings. I didn't originally want to relinquish control of my drawings to someone else to do something with them, but eventually I realized that I wasn't making a book any time soon, so someone else might as well.

People have been calling me the Bartist for a while now, and this book will be a collection of quite a few of my BART drawings from over the last few years. There are over 300 drawings and quotes and stories and ideas represented in this 200 page book. We really tried to do something fun with this book, and we're so excited about it.

You can go to the Rapid Transit Book site to sign up for a mailing list and to get more info as it becomes available.

I bought a book on a whim while at the book store.

The Taschen books on art and history are really fascinating to me, and last night I picked up The Elements of Euclid from Green Apple on the strength of its interior alone. Lately I have been doing a lot of work with geometry and trigonometry and this book speaks to me in a very real way.

If you have ever been interested in math, geometry, or even design, this book will be an amazing addition to your repertoire.

You guys, It has been one of my life's dreams to have a book with my art in it. The fact that I made this book on my own bootstraps, using an awesome self-publishing platform like Blurb, shouldn't detract from this accomplishment. It's possible that it should even make it all the more impressive, but I might just be trying to convince myself.

I have plans for this book. This one is not the last. Notice the name is Portrait Quarterly. It is not San Francisco Portraits. It is not Hamilton Portraits. It is not Caricatures, or Drawings, or any other numerous names that people tried to convince me to brand this project with. It is just portraits, and it is almost certainly going to be quarterly. I made myself a promise and a goal earlier this year to make this book, and I have done it.

Once.

Now I have to do it again. And again. Every three months for the rest of my life, if it makes sense. But this book does not, should not, CAN NOT be just about me. I asked other people to participate in this first one, and through a number of different reasons, I ended up just pushing out the book with my own content. But I want this book to be a possible showcase for the works of many artists. I would love to possibly show your art in its pages. I am interested in putting out feelers for other artists, writers, photographers, or collaborators that are interested in participated in this thing I'm doing. The subject is "portrait". What can you do. Give me an idea for at least 10 pages of content, and let's talk about working together on a future release of Portrait Quarterly.

This book was 120 pages, and 10 of that was blank pages, and a number of pages of content were filled by December art. I think I can consistently fill 80 pages of content every 3 months. I need your help to fill up the other pages. Email me your idea for inclusion. I still don't know how it's going to work out. I need to think about how compensation works and such. I just know that I need to start the conversation now. So if you want to get in, get in.

When I started my Portrait Project, not many people signed up initially, because they thought that I would just let them in. But I'm trying to make schedules and stick to them. We've got 2 months until the next Portrait Quarterly needs to ship. Let's do this.

Alright. After getting feedback from my copy editor Andy Franzen, after getting a test print printed, and seeing any things that need to be fixed, after feeling it in my hands and rubbing it on my face, after resampling, and re-editing, and reuploading...

I am proud to announce that I believe you should purchase a copy of the PORTRAIT QUARTERLY! (hopefully the first of many)

This book features 120 Pages of art and words by me, and a little room for something by you. It is a 6x9 perfect bound softcover book that holds art that I created, mostly over the first quarter of this year. It features the wonderful Agnessa Vardani on the cover.

Portrait Quarterly 2015 Q1 by Hamilton Cline
Make Your Own Book

I do a lot of Social Media strategy and statistical analysis. Here's a set of tips about the major social networks hashtags.

First of all, let's get this out of the way. Hashtags WORK. On everything. To a greater or lesser degree.

Twitter. Hashtags are super important to your social media strategy, and make the difference between languishing in anonymity and rising up in the ranks. Twitter tends to be a place that thrives on tech talk, politics, and celebrity. So those tags tend to be the ones that get the most play. #javascript will immediately get a hundred eyes on your tweet. Plan your character count to include at least one relevant hashtag.

Instagram. Hashtags are equally important, but the audience is fairly different. On instagram, tags involving food, selfies, and art will get the major response that you're looking for. When hashtagging #java on twitter versus instagram, you will get a much different response.

Facebook. Hashtags are nearly completely irrelevant here. In fact studies have shown that using hashtags on personal posts discourages people from looking at your content. Which is a shame, because Facebook is set up to handle hashtags, it's just that no one cares.

Google+. Sigh. Why won't they just release an api so that third party apps can post to them? Google Plus is unique in that they will auto tag your posts if they find relevant tag information within your post. You don't even have to try. Of course, you can also help it along with some actual tags of your own.

Tumblr. Hashtags get generated as a side content for tumblr posts, and so don't have to be a part of your content strategy, but can be tacked on as meta information. This is a nice addition to the process. Tumblr thrives on immediate image content, and so photography and graphic tags tend to get the most play.

Is this a comprehensive list? Not even a little. These are just some notes I've made along the way while trying to stay relevant in a world that moves quickly every day. Hopefully you find something useful in here.

I've been drawing a lot on my Instagram, and I am starting to post more on my Patreon as well.

A lot of people have been asking what tools I use to draw. I draw mostly these days on my Samsung Note 3. I use a program called Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for Android. If you visit that link, and it says it's missing, you're screwed. The thing of it is, the version of Sketchbook I use is no longer available for purchase, and more's the pity, because I don't like the new version.

The old version (which can be found around the internet, by searching for sketchbook pro apk) had the ability to lock the tool and swatch palettes to the side of the phone. For the life of me, I can not find this functionality in the new version. This is a hard line selling point, and the whole reason I use that software versus other similar competing products like Photoshop Touch (which has fucking awful pressure sensitivity) and Corel Painter (which actually has some awesome pens, but not separate erasers).

So when I tell people I use Autodesk Sketchbook, technically I'm telling them I use a product which doesn't even exist anymore, which is a real shame, because I use it daily now.

2015 is shaping up to be a great year. My plan is to make a portrait sketch every weekday, and a painted portrait every weekend. It's an ambitious goal, and one that will rely on the timing of others, so here's hoping.