Of Newsletters and Phone Wallpapers

For those of you who don't know, I have a newsletter. I send it out generally every-other week, but lately because of the summer it's been a bit less consistent.

One of the things I do to try to encourage people to sign up is to include a new phone wallpaper every issue, with a link to over 540 additional free phone wallpapers and virtual backgrounds. I try to make a phone version of every piece I create, but sometimes that's not always possible. Still, over the years, I've managed to create quite a few! 

People often use their phone homepage screen to display photographs of family and friends. Some folks like to use them to show a lovely pic they snapped that they're proud of. But I like to use them to display my work. 

Over time, I've made a huge variety of wallpapers that include everything from holiday-themed pieces to weird sci-fi expressions, from character art to flowers. I've tried to make a wallpaper for each bird piece I've painted, and I've made a a variety of abstract pieces as well. It has been fun to change the wallpaper of my phone depending on the mood I'm in. 

For me, it also grants a bit of security, too. I personally, don't feel comfortable having snapshots of my family for my home screen, to be honest. 

I've shared a new wallpaper with every newsletter I've composed, as a feature and "perk" of subscribing.  Each wallpaper goes into the "bank" with all the others. Sometimes I create variations and permutations of the pieces I've made, and those can be fun, too. 

Phones come in a variety of different sizes, nowadays, but the most consistent ratio is a 9x16 screen for most devices. Some are longer, but most phones have the capacity to adjust an image's scale and crop it down to fit the screen size after zooming in to fill the screen. Even an image that isn't the correct ratio for one's phone can be used with those cropping tools.

Recently, I've started formatting my wallpapers with a phones "timestamp" in mind. I lower the subject in the picture plane so the time and date of most phones isn't overlapping it, and the subject is framed nicely below it. One thing I've found annoying is that a lot of phone wallpapers don't acknowledge the clock on one's lock screen, and it makes seeing the image challenging. I've tried to compositionally address that and make the pieces look like they're intended specifically for the function of a wallpaper. 

I think making these is a wonderful way of putting a little art on your phone. I know that some folks have special connections with some of the subjects I do, and it's nice to show things off quickly when you're excited about them. They're easy for me to make, and they're a great way of carrying the piece you like in your pocket. I plan on making many more of these! 

If you'd like to sign up for my newsletter to get all these for free, you can do so here:

https://coreyartusimagery.com/pages/newsletter-sign-up