I don’t know how I found your blog, but I subscribe via bloglines. I read about Scott here, got a drawing back, posted it on my site, and already 2 of my friends have gotten sketches done.

I love the way good new ideas spread like a virally on the internet!

[...] Its worth a buck. Found via Amit Gupta’s Blog [...]

Life is what happens when you’re busy killing time.

Here’s a post that has the announcement I sent out to friends and family about sketch-it. I set up sketch-it to figure out how to collect paypal payments for a site I was going to set up for my friend.

I got a few requests from former coworkers. I still haven’t gotten any requests from my family. I suppose they figure they get free art from me. They have in the past.

Once Mica Scalin started sending me requests, things began to pick up. She hooked me up with the derelicts over at evilvlog.

I thrashed about until Kelly Newcomer and I met at the Indoor Playground over at Painter Park. She’s an artist with a background in marketing. Unbeknownst to me she sent out a press release about sketch-it.

What I don’t know is how Amit found sketch-it.

Amit, how did you find sketch-it?

Hey Scott,

Honestly, I’m not exactly sure how I found sketch-it. I think I was researching a viral campaign by dotster to give away a small number of domains very cheaply during a “happy hour”. While looking on technorati at how word of their campaign had spread, I somehow happened upon your site.

I tried to recreate it just now, but could not. Perhaps I found sketch-it on a blog that also mentioned that Dotster campaign?

I have something like 30 domains registered with Dotser. Gotta say I love their registration service. Don’t love their hosting solution.

One step in the progression of sketch-it that I neglected to mention is meeting Ed Kohler from Technology Evangelist. Ed and I share a hatred of illegal graffiti vandalism so we met at Lula’s Coffee and Jaz here in Lyndale.

After that discussion, Ed pulled up sketch-it and took a look at my source code and made some suggestions for improving it. He also suggested I claim my site on Technorati. I did that this past Tuesday. Sometime between then and Thursday, you found it.

I believe Ed found sketch-it after reading a short blurb about it in the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper. This short article was the result of Kelly’s press release.

Kelly and other friends are concerned that I am not charging enough for the sketches. My reasoning behind sticking with the one request + one buck = one sketch model is its simplicity.

I wanted to do more traditional artwork. I wanted to figure out how to set up PayPal payments. If someone pays for a good or service, no matter how little, they become invested in it. By making a tiny bit of money from my efforts, I gain constant motivation. I have to draw the sketch because they’ve already paid me.

The up front understanding is such that there’s little pressure. It’s art. It’s subjective. Once I start a sketch I finish it. No do overs. I just make what I’ve started work. I don’t promise to spend any more than sixty seconds. If you don’t like the drawing, pay me another buck and I’ll do it over.

As you(Amit) have demonstrated, it’s worth a buck or two to get a unique gift for yourself and your friends.

The other interesting component of sketch-it is ownership of the image. I scan all sketches as a Black and White, 8bit ,PNG at 200dpi. Blogger hosts the images as a JPG. What the customer has access to is a decent quality electronic image file. They get what they asked and paid for. I however still posess the original art work. The customer has a virtual representation of that artwork.

I’m about to announce a new service on sketch-it called “Go Postal”. For a certain, as yet undetermined, fee a customer can request a sketch on an acid free, card-stock, post card. I’ll write out a message on the back and mail it anywhere in the world, postage not included.

I’ll stop writing now.

[...] It’s funny, just a couple of days prior to Amit blogging about Sketch-it, I had submitted a picture to another fantastically talented illustrator, Paul Schaner, over at iconizeme.com. [...]

Hey, I gotta say, I believe the sketch for a dollar idea is fantastic! Scott, it’s wonderful. It’s gotta stay that way. The creative commons licensing is great. Yeah, it’s not really for art buyers who need an illustration for their ad campaign or their magazine article. But! Why not stick a button up there for commercial purposes or something, then market this sketch-it service to the commercial illustration world. Sketch-it would then be able to pull in better paying gigs for the sketch-it illustrators. I’ve had quite a few jobs where I’ve been paid $75 to $500 for a little illustration. My sister-in-law Lisa who worked at a big ad agency in town said they had a client who needed a unique black and white sketch of a suitcase and they wanted to buy exclusive rights to it… Well, they ended up paying someone $12,000. for something that to me, looked like clip art. — suffice it to say, there’s potential in that there sketch-it you’ve got, Scott.

Sketches for a Buck

I heard about Sketch It from Ben and thought I would give it a try. A local artist, Kelly Newcomer, did a sweet sketch of Bipin. The results are perfect…maybe better than perfect. I’m going to have it framed and hang it over Bip’s bed. Everyone sho…