hi everyone! Just a quick update…

1.) Search Function for Retail Site

2.) Views Master List

3.) New Profile/Bio page format

4.) Organizational Control Almost Complete

1.) The Search Bar is now active on the retail site! The general search bar is located at the top of every page of www.theuntappedsource.com and is returning excellent results from our testing. The search criteria is based on the following info: Title of work, name of artist, tags, description of artwork, size of artwork and medium of artwork.

Give it some test runs and give us some feedback on your results or general improvements to anything in general.

NOTE: The advanced search is viewable if you click “advanced” next to the search bar, but is still being tweaked and will be completed very soon.

2.) The Views Master List is now up under the “Sales/Views” tab in the Artist Access Center. Once you click “Sales/Views”, you will see the master list on the right hand side of the page. It’s an easy way to see stats for each of your artworks in one location, along with sales.

3.) We have almost completed the new format for your Profile/Bio page. The page will include: Your avatar, artworks you have Featured (based on your selections in the Artist Access Center), the new “My Categories” feature (which is nearing completion) and Recently Uploaded Artwork. Expect this new page format to be complete within the next week or so.

4.) We’ve had a few hiccups with our custom organizational control work…but we’re getting close to completion. Soon you will be able to create categories, organize all your work throughout your gallery, determine locations of works, organize works within each category you create…lots of fun stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to check out what we’ve been working on, test out that search bar on www.theuntappedsource.com, and give us any feedback you think will help! I hope you all are doing well, keep the artwork coming and God Bless!

best,

Drew

drew@theuntappedsource.com
www.theuntappedsource.com

Check out what we’re working on: www.theuntappedsource.com/blog

ARTISTS: BUY YOUR PRINTS IN THE ARTIST ACCESS CENTER

1.) Organization Control within your gallery

2.) Search Function

3.) Close Up Function
1.) We have completed the core programming and functionality portion of our organizational control
project! We still have to make it all pretty and work out a few kinks, but within the next few weeks you will be able to create categories, add work to those categories, etc…all with very intuitive “drag and drop” type functionality and all without ever having to click updates (updates are made to each category you create in real time…makes for a very slick and time saving tool!)

Organizational Control Features:

-Create Categories which will show up in your area of The Untapped Source Website

-Add Artwork you have uploaded to each category as you see fit

-Order your Categories however you would like to so they appear in your gallery the way you want

-Order Artwork within each of your created categories

-All ordering of artwork, category ordering, and placement of artwork in particular categories is done using
simple “drag and drop” functionality. It’s pretty similar to how you would organize folders on your desktop
or laptop…very easy and quick!

-Easily delete or remove artwork from Categories or entire Categories at once.

-Place artwork in as many categories as you like…each Category will have it’s own ordering so you can feature an artwork in 1 category and leave it in the background of another…it’s up to you.

-Profile/Bio Page redesign…assign which works and Categories will show up on your Profile page at The Untapped Source!

2.) While we wrap up the aesthetics of the Organizational Control in the Artist Access Center, we are going to begin work on the Search Function for the Retail Site to make searching for artwork much simpler. The criteria for the Search Function/Bar
are noted below:

Search Function is created by:

-tags

-title of artwork

-artist name

-description of artwork

-subject list (a list we will compile of generic art terms)

-size of artwork (still checking on the feasibility of this, but I think we can work this out)

I would expect the Search Function to be completed by the end of May/first few weeks in June…keeping fingers crossed.

3.) We believe we have found a suitable template for the Close Up additions. See what you think…just hover over the image and move the cursor around. It’s pretty similar in theory to our current close up method, but this is a bit more elegant: http://davidwalsh.name/dw-content/zoomer.php

Let us know with any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions and we’ll be glad to listen and help out however we can! I hope all of you are well and have a great day/week/summer…:)

best,

Drew

drew@theuntappedsource.com
www.theuntappedsource.com

Check out what we’re working on: www.theuntappedsource.com/blog

ARTISTS: BUY YOUR PRINTS IN THE ARTIST ACCESS CENTER

Hi Untapped Artists,

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have completed the visual overhaul of The Artist Access Center. This was a necessary step in order to prepare for the all the upgrades that will be taking place from now until the end of the summer and beyond.

We are nearly complete with testing and it’s up and functioning properly sans a few minor glitches that don’t effect major functions.

2 IMPORTANT THINGS:

1.) PLEASE let us know if you find any glitches. We are mainly looking for broken links or any funky things going on. Anything left in terms of glitches is minor and won’t effect uploads or any important operations. Most, if any, glitches will be things you can back click out of or will just be of a visual nature. We’ve ironed out 95% of all issues…we’re just looking for the rare glitch here and there.

2.) We are putting the finishing touches on the new visuals for the Statistics Master Lists for both Views and Sales. You can still view stats per work on the individual manage pages in The Artist Access Center in the meantime.

Let me know with any questions and comments regarding the new design, and we’ll hopefully have another update for you regarding our progress on the Organizational Controls for your gallery shortly.

For info on the Organization Tools we’re working, check out the blog link in my sig if you missed it in the last update.

Hi Untapped Artists,

I hope you’re all doing well first and foremost. We’ve been continuing our work in earnest to keep improving the gallery. Our current major project is coming along nicely, which is the ability to control how your work shows up and sort your work into to different categories within your own gallery spot on the site. Below are the topics covered in this edition of our site update. Per usual I have tried to hl the main points for those of you who like to skim (slackers! jk, I use to do it in High School all the time…the beauty Cliff’s Notes!)

1.) Structural Gallery Control for Artists

2.) Crop Tool

3.) New Paper Type Suggestions

4.) Login ID Change Option

5.) Next Project on Tap: Search Functions for AAC and Retail Site

6.) Time Scales for Future Work

1.) In our effort to continue to evolve The Untapped Source Gallery Site, we have been working diligently over the past few months to create an intuitive way for artists to be able to control the appearance of their gallery. To put it simply, we’re working on giving you complete organizational control over the look of your gallery. When complete, you will be able to:

-create categories and place work within them

-sort categories

-sort artwork within your created categories

-feature certain categories on your profile page

-sort your artwork throughout your gallery

-decide which individual works you’d like to feature on your profile page

NOTE: In conjunction with our organization tools, we are completely revamping your profile pages as well! We are looking at Profile Page as a “gateway” to you as an artist, and we are re-tooling it as such. In case nobody mentioned it yet, everyone who works at The Untapped Source fancies themselves and artist as well…so we’re doing our very best to have an artistic flair as usual in all this work we’re doing. Hopefully everyone will appreciate and benefit from the results!

IMPORTANT NOTE!: This and all our new set of tools will only apply and function properly with work uploaded under the new upload system we implemented a few months back. To delete artwork uploaded under the old upload system (those works that appear as “Thumbnail Not Available” in your artwork list in the Artist Access Center), please send an email to us at artists@theuntappedsource.com and make your request and we will assist you with the deletion promptly so you can use the new upload system.

EXPECTED COMPLETION TIME FOR STRUCTURAL CONTROL WORK: 3 weeks for technical completion, 1-2 weeks for testing and making it look pretty:)

2.) We have a small note to mention regarding the Crop Tool. It’s not a big change, but now, every time you upload artwork, after the file upload is complete, you will be taken to the crop tool. This happens even if your work is created at an exact ratio we offer. Previously if your artwork was at our exact ratio specifications it skipped this step, but we figured we might as well allow this option to crop on every upload…just in case;)

3.) We are interested in hearing your opinions on particular paper type additions you’d like to see with The Untapped Source. Our future plans are to offer 5 paper types for general retail sale so as not to confuse the general customer base who isn’t super familiar with the substrates BUT, we see no reason why we can’t offer a plethora of other paper types for you as artists to purchase for your own use regarding your prints in the gallery. The way we’ll separate the two will become clearer…the Artist Buy Program is on our “revamp” list. One paper type in particular we’re going to be adding that we’re sure you’ll love is Epson Fine Art Textured…super rugged surface, super detailed results on a really thick paper. It’s sort of like the German Etching Paper on steroids:)

4.) Now hear this! If you would like to change your login ID, please let us know…we’re making TONS of changes to the site structure, and before we lock this option, we’d like to give you the opportunity to change your login ID if you’d like. If you change this, your login id AND URL will change (www.theuntappedsource.com/NewLoginID). Please let us know as soon as possible and we’ll work it out for you.

5.) Just a quick mention…our next project is Search Function Capability for both the Artist Access Center and the Retail Site. Yes, yes…my friends, we know it’s a little silly this isn’t in place already, but please understand the history of how The Untapped Source started. We started in 2006 with about 20 selected artists, and the site structure was designed around that. We’re now up around 500 talented Untappers, so please understand and bare with us as we make these modifications and improvements. We’re a small team so it will take time, but we’re quite capable…I promise;)

6.) As far as time scales go, we’re looking at 4 weeks or so max on the Structure Control stuff. After that we have the following projects are on deck from now until the end of the summer (in no particular order…yes we have an order, it’s just below:)):

-AAC aesthetic update (nearly complete)

-Profile Page Update

-Artist Cart System

-Search Function (aac and retail site)

-auto emails for sales and approvals

-close up functions and artwork viewing overhaul

-pm boxes

…and there’s more, but it’s a little confusing to explain without a dissertation, so I’ll save it for another update! Everyone loves updates.

Ok my friends, that’s all for now, keep the suggestions, comments, concerns coming. We’re here to have a dialogue and grow as a group.

best,

Drew
www.theuntappedsource.com

Check out what we’re working on: www.theuntappedsource.com/blog

ARTISTS: BUY YOUR PRINTS IN THE ARTIST ACCESS CENTER

Hi Untapped Artists,

Just a quick line…

We’ve added a new category! Panoramic.

http://theuntappedsource.com/results.php?&secondary=58

The Panoramic category is confined to works with the following ratios/sizes:

1:2.5

24×60

16×40

12×30

1:2

24×48

20×40

12×24

4×8

NOTE: Panoramic categorizations are not limited to any subject matter, but rather simply the size/ratio of the work in question. Panoramic categorizations apply to both vertical and horizontal orientations. You can find the Panoramic category now in your list of optional category selections in the upload process under the artwork details sections.

Please let us know with any questions, keep the LOOOOONNNNNG works coming:), and we’ll have some more updates on progress very soon!

best,

Drew

admin

TUS

Let us know with any questions, and keep the great artwork coming guys!

Hi fellow Untapped Artists,

Quick update:

Your URL at The Untapped Source can be found simply as follows…”www.theuntappedsource.com/YourLoginID”

In plain speak, type “www.theuntappedsource.com” in the address bar of your browser, than “/”, than whatever your login ID is.

Mine, for example, is “www.theuntappedsource.com/dgrundfor” because my login ID is “dgrundfor“.

Soon we’ll have all these links and more personalization options in the AAC that will autodirect you wherever you want to go which will round out our last update of the improved upload system and automation.

Soon we will be emailing you with the server switch update, which will allow images to be uploaded that are up to 100mb’s and ~9000×9000 pixels, which is plenty big for our largest sizes!

I know some of you are waiting for this to upload your images…I promise it won’t be much longer as we’re in the last stages of testing the new server. After that’s done, we’ll finish up the stats engine for both views and sales, than begin working on the next meaty projects of site structure control for artists, auto emails, close up functions, and some others we’ve mentioned in previous blogs.

Please let us know with any questions, and we’ll have another update very soon.

best,

Drew
www.theuntappedsource.com

NOTE: The Updates below and every function we have upgraded in the Artist Access Center is still in beta. Please let us know with any issues you have using the new system. Most of the bugs are gone, but some issues of function and clarity will inevitably pop up. Thank you in advance my friends and fellow artists!

Drew

Hi friends and fellow Untapped Artists!

It’s been a long time coming, and the base of our future work is finally complete. Below you will find the details about what has changed in the AAC, and why the system has become much more efficient, user friendly, and best of all completely automated for instant uploads and much more.

1.) You keep all profits above base price

2.) No restrictions on pricing Matte/Glossy/Luster prints

3.) Automatic pricing updates by dollar amount or percentage

4.) Sell one size, sell them all, it’s up to you!

5.) Many new sizes, small and large, have been added

6.) Artwork is up and in the gallery the second your complete your upload process

7.) Custom Crop Tool allows any ratio you wish to print at

8.) Delete, hide, or just display with no pricing

9.) Automatic Bio Updates

10.) What’s next?

1.) We’ve changed the profit sharing model at The Untapped Source to benefit all the artists in the gallery. There is no more 50/50 split on profits! You price your work at whatever price you wish above the base price, and you keep all the profit. All we will keep is the base price. Simple and better.

NOTE: Base prices have changed, and will apply to all artwork uploaded under the old system as well as the new.

2.) The old “Low/Medium/High” pricing restrictions for Matte/Glossy/Luster are now gone. You are now free to price your prints however you like, no matter the paper type.

3.) Pricing is now updated by either Percentage (%) or Dollar ($) amount. Pricing is done per paper type, and is done across the board per paper type to keep the pricing somewhat logical per size.

4.) Artists are now free to sell any number of size/paper type combinations they wish. You can sell one print on canvas, sell 2 sizes on Glossy and only 1 in Watecolor, or sell all the sizes associated with ratio assigned to your artwork…it’s completely up to you.

5.) We’ve added many new sizes…from 30×36 and 30×45 on the high end, to 4×6 and 5×7 on the low end, there are a plethora of new sizes for you to put up for sale on your gallery page or buy for your own use. We now offer 39 different sizes at 10 different ratios!

6.) Uploading is now a 3 step process (4 if you need to crop, the system will determine this). You upload the file, crop (if necessary), fill in the artwork’s details, and select your pricing options. Once you have completed these steps, your artwork is live and up in the gallery! Your artwork will be viewable in “manage artwork” after the upload process, and you will be able to adjust any details, including pricing, that you wish. You will also have a link associated with each file that allows you to see the artwork on the actual retail site!

NOTE: Artwork will not immediately be available for purchase because it will need to be approved for a Maximum Print Size by a print specialist at The Untapped Source. Pricing will go live within 24/48 hours. Other sites will allow you to sell immediately…this is not how we wish to work. We do not believe in selling work we have not already inspected for print quality/max size. We believe it’s irresponsible to allow a customer to purchase an artwork that may not be ready for sale at a certain size. This ensures customer satisfaction and artist peace of mind that your artwork will always be a product you can be proud of in terms of print quality!

7.) To avoid having to upload a perfectly sized file on the artists part, we’ve created a custom crop tool. If the size of your work is off a little bit, or a lot, the crop tool is there for you (it loves you actually:))! You are allowed to select any ratio from the crop tool drop down menu, and at the bottom of the page you can see all the sizes associated with each ratio to help you in selecting which ratio you would like to use. The crop tool allows you to select any portion of the image, and will also automatically tell you at the top of the page what ratio your artwork is closest to so you know off the bat how to keep the most amount of your image in tact before you complete the upload process! It’s really easy to use and super useful, I promise;) Of course, if artwork is sized exactly to a ratio, the crop tool will be skipped to save you time.

8.) The artist is now free to delete artwork permanently, hide the artwork from view totally, or just have the image up for viewing with no pricing available. Whatever you wish to do with your artwork is now up to you and automatic.

9.) Bio updates are now automatic. No more waiting for an admin to approve. You can update your text, update your av, etc…all on the fly.

10.) The next things we’ll be working on are as follow:

-Comprehensive Stats for Sales and Views (yes, we know the views function is down, yes, it sucks…yes it will be WAY better when done)

-Artist Cart. You’ll be able to buy your prints through the Artist Access Center simply and at the base price. No more requests or emails, just select your prints and pay via Credit Card or PayPal. We’ll still help via email if you like of course:)

-Auto Email System. This will be optional, and will notify you when an artwork has sold with details, when an artwork has been approved for sale and at what size, and in the future much much more as we add to our features.

-Close Up Function. Something completely unique to The Untapped Source, our close up system will have auto options, custom manual options, and a built in watermarking solution for increased image protection.

After all that’s done, we’re on to structurizing (mutiple galleries and categories in your own gallery), search functions for the AAC or Retail site, Quicker payments for artwork sold, and an FTP option…among much more. Our goal is to have all this complete by the spring…fingers crossed.

I’d like to point out that all of the above was mentioned by artists, so keep the suggestions coming, we’re all ears my friends!

To end this little informative rant, I want to make it clear that we’re really moving in programming the site and adding new features. We’ve added a new programming wiz to our staff who’s pushing things along nicely and much more quickly than before, and his attitude of “if you can think it up, we can do it!” is something we feel very confident has us moving in the proper direction.

Please be sure to let us know with any issues you have while using the new Artist Access Center, it’s been tested by us to death on our test server, but new eyes on new programming always yields some room for upgrade:) If you like something, let us know, if not, lay into us with your technical dissection of what we’ve done wrong…critique in the end will create the best result (We all learn that clearly through our own artwork!).

NOTE: Here is the only bad news we have regarding the switch to the new system from the old system. All artwork uploaded under the old system is not able to modified anymore. Meaning, pricing, thoughts, and images are all static. The work remains for sale, but your only options as of the switchover are deletion of the artwork or leave it as is. All current artwork under the old system remains for sale until you notify us you would like them deleted. Once notified, we will be happy to go into the old system and fulfill your deletion requests. You are allowed to simply tell us to delete all your artwork if you would like to start over using the new system, which does in fact give you MANY MANY more options than the old system. In the end, we just could not find a way to fuse the two systems together.

Keep the submissions coming my friends, we love seeing all the great creations!

best,

Drew

artist/admin TUS

Hi Guys,

Here’s a few tidbits of info for the coming AAC switch. Read below and send drew@theuntappedsource.com and questions, comments or concerns or leave a suggestion in the Artist Access Center suggestion box in the AAC Faq tab. The stuff we’ve been working on is the reason for a delay in blogs, but it will be well worth it!

The entire Artist Access Center is being revamped and should be done within 2-4 weeks (this has been a LONG AND FAILRY COMPLICATED PROCESS as some of you well know considering the custom nature of the programming work). When that is done, everything will be automatic, work will go up immediately, pricing completely under your control and updated automatically with no 50/50 split on profits!!!!, and no restrictions on pricing (well, a few, but much more liberal than the current method)…this step is the foundation for the mile long list of fun (and pretty darn useful) features we have in store.
Until that time, please let us know which photos you would like removed/pricing updates, etc.. if any and I will be glad to assist you with that. You can always email drew@theuntappedsource.com with any requests or questions like this in the future for a faster response.
There will be new rules and a few new caveats to the new system which will be explained in a blog update around the time of completion and at key points throughout the Artist Access Center. Overall the programming is being wrapped up, and with this groundwork we laid a good foundation to really begin the building process and features we’ve been compiling for a long time.
Please feel free to email us with suggestions or drop us a line in the FAQ section of the Artist Access Center. The changes will make life easier and better for us all! Easier and better are good most of the time too btw.

best to all,

Drew

TUS

Hi Everyone! Below is our June progress update with some interesting info regarding how The Untapped Source is coming along and what we’ve been doing to make the site better…Remember to use our suggestion box in the Artist Access Center and give us your thoughts or suggestions regarding the blog or any improvements you’d like to see regarding The Untapped Source. Thanks to everyone who have been contributing their ideas…

Per usual, I’ve highlighted the main points in Blue if you’re just a skimmer of text…

1.) Monitor Testing Tutorial UP!

2.) Canvas Stretching Tutorial UP!

3.) Taking Tutorial Submissions And Suggestions

4.) Color Profiling Per Paper Type

5.) 3 New Papers COMING SOON!

6.) Artist Buy Pricing Sheet Updated

7.) Big Projects Still In The Works

1.) There is now a Montior Calibration Tutorial up in the Artist Access Center! It is the first step in our efforts to create a comprehensive SOFT PROOFING system for you all to use in order to see what your prints from The Untapped Source will look like when printed. It will also show you how our prints will compare to your onscreen image, including how to make them print as you see them on the screen to a fairly exact point! Remember, monitors EMIT, prints REFLECT…that’s why we gotta bring the worlds together;)

Without a properly calibrated monitor, it’s impossible to SOFT PROOF your images for print. Along with our text and images for the tutorial, we’ve also added in a very cool Flash Application for monitor calibration at the very bottom of the tutorial text. Play around with it, very cool stuff indeed.

So check this tutorial out, play around with your monitor, and let us know if this was helpful and what we could improve upon using the suggestion box link at the top of the tutorial page.

2.) Thanks to our good friend and fellow Untapped Artist Wayne Benedet, we now how a custom Canvas Stretching Tutorial up in the Artist Access Center! It’s a very in-depth tutorial with extensive pictures to go along with very well written and clear text. This tutorial will help the newbies and more seasoned canvas stretchers among you to take stretching canvas artwork into your own hands in order to avoid the VERY costly proposition of having others do it! It’s pretty darn easy with Wayne’s new tutorial…he worked hard on it.

So check this tutorial out, buy some stretchers bars, canvas pliers, etc… and some canvas prints of your work from the Artist Buy Page in the Artist Access Center (soon to be Artist Cart System), and let us know if this was helpful and what we can improve upon using the suggestion box link at the top of the tutorial page.

Again, many thanks Wayne! We look forward to more of your contributions in both sporatic form and a usual basis!

3.) As stated above, we’re always taking suggestions on Tutorial ideas and general suggestions…we love to hear from everyone who thinks they have something that would improve The Untapped Source! Archan Nair (one of our good friends and fellow artists) has suggested we have more images of actual products for instance, so in that vein, we’ll be working extra hard to get the framing and stretching program up and running in the coming months, and from there, we will deck out the proper pages with pictures of actual work hanging from walls and the process of work being framed…so thanks to my personal e-buddy Archan for that idea!

4.) We’ve recently resent our paper types to a lab for creating custom color/printer profiles for you guys to use in conjunction with The Untapped Source for color matching and soft proofing purposes. In the next few weeks, you’ll have 9 new printer/color profiles for specific papers along with hopefully 1 generic profile to use. These will be located in the Artist Access Center. We will of course have detailed tutorials on how to use these from the installation process all the way through to how to use them properly and how to make the proper corrections to print files if necessary. Trust me, color profiles can be a little mysterious to the uninitiated, so we’ll try our best to give detailed info on what they are all about once we have them up in the AAC…they really aren’t that complicated…

5.) We’ve recently decided to add the following 3 papers for purchase by artists only, in the AAC. All are very nice, Fine Art Quality per usual, and add good options to our already good sized and simple paper offerings:

-Fine Art Bright White (330 gsm) - Big, thick, matte paper with a bit more texture than a normal matte, a bright white surface, and similar to texture of watercolor paper in terms of texture depth.

-Premium SuperGloss (190 gsm) - Superglossy, a bit thinner than our Epson Premium Glossy paper, and provides amazing detail in printing.

-Graphic Matte Canvas - a bit more rigid than the Water Resistant Canvas we currently also offer, but with a completely matte, no glossy surface. Excellent detail reproduction, amazingly white canvas!

We’ll have these added to our paper sample packet shortly after they are added to the Artist Buy Pricing.

NOTE: These papers are for Artist Purchases only, but made be added in the future.

6.) We updated the Pricing Sheet around the site, including in the AAC under Artist Buy Pricing. It’s a cool little sheet now that you can adjust using the different criteria headings at the top…we were a little bored and we’re still wrapping up a few other more complicated things:) Here’s a link: http://www.theuntappedsource.com/cw2/upload/UploadArtistPricing.php (just login in and you’ll be on the right page…scroll down)

7.) Big projects still in the works…kind of sick of hearing myself tout them, so you can read about the Automation, Artist Cart, Stats Features, etc…in previous blogs

Anyway, I hope all you guys are doing well, and keep the awesome artwork and suggestions flowing!

Drew

Artist/Admin/Founder

The Untapped Source