Steps to Making a Free Digital Download

This week I thought I'd share how I put together my free downloads for my website and/or email subscribers. 

1. Search for inspo photos- unsplash, shutterstock ( I pay for licensed photos if I use one of those), my personal stash, photos from friends and family that I have permission to use.
2. Cut my paper to size
3. Light sketch
4. Prep my desk- clean water, towel, paint colors i need, brushes I will need, as many lights as possible, my reference photo, and lastly grab my phone stand.
5.  I typically gage which brushes I’ll use by the piece, but for this piece i mainly used, my 4 and 8 round, you can find some of the more common brushes I use here - I’m going to make a more detailed supply list in another post!
6. Sketch a light outline
7. Once my paper is set up under my phone stand, I turn on record, timelapse usually, and start painting
8. Once I have about 95% of the details done, I stop recording, and let the painting sit overnight.
9. The next day I go back in and add the finer details
10. Scan the piece, I use an epson perfection v39, which is great for about 90% of my work, but I definitely plan to invest in a larger scanner soon.yes, I do a majority of my scanning on the floor. 
11. Edit the image in photoshop. By edit I mean I just clean it up for print. Some paintings I remove the watercolor textured background, so the art stands out more and it looks cleaner. Some I leave it, and just clean up any paint splatters etc. Sometimes I adjust the image colors, because when they scan they don’t always translate. So my goal is 1. Make the colors look as close to my original painting as possible, and 2. Make sure the colors are crisp enough for printing, and when printed, closely reflect what is on my screen. ( This is another thing I could go into an entire post about).
12. Once I am satisfied with the edit, I save the print in the sizes I want- usually for my work and free printables I save them as 8x10 or 5x7, but recently I have been offering more scalable sizes for poster printing and larger prints in my etsy digital download shop.
13. I make sure the files print ok by doing a test print with my basic office HP printer, on plain computer paper. I want your downloads to look as great as possible, no matter what you’re printing them on.
14. If the test print is ok, I create the print folder, and compress it for the download. For shopify, I upload it to my files in the content section ( this allows you to directly link to your file, which is great for emails!). You can also attach the file to a listing for a digital download like this. 
15. Next I create the mockup images of the print or card.
16. Then I create the digital product listing on my site * I don’t have to do this if I’m sending directly in my emails
17. Next, I create the blog post that is in conjunction with my freebie of the week, only if I’m posting it to my website.
18. LASTLY, I create my email and link the photos with my file link on my website.
19.  AND BAM it’s all yours to print and download to your liking!

If you're seeing this after I sent my email, then sign up for my email list here . 

Once you sign up reply back to your welcome email, or email me hello@alr-designs.com, with the subject freebie, and I'll send you over an email with the download! Or send me a message on instagram @alr.designs, let me know your email address and I'll send you over your free download