How to improve your art marketing with Canva

And yes, we did it on Canva.

Ever wanted a blog with phenomenal images but complaining about Photoshop's price and lack of graphic design skills? You are not alone. A few years ago, you would have been on your own with limited help from Paint or Paintbrush. If you have been able to create great graphics in these programs, you have a gift. For the rest, the results were disappointing at best. Well, thanks to now everyone can design! It's as fast and easy as drag and drop. Find out how you can use Canva to enhance your online art marketing with brand-worthy images.

1. Create a Canva account (and have fun!)

It's quick and easy to get started, and it's free! All you need is an email address and a password and you are ready to go. With Canva, you can either use a lot of free design elements or pay $1 for each of the others.

2. Choose your design

Choose the design you want to create from Canva's extensive list of options. You can create everything from Facebook covers and Twitter post images to blog images and email headers. And that hasn't even begun to scratch the surface of their offerings.

Canva has so many designs to choose from!

3. Customize to your liking

Then it's time to unleash your creativity. There are so many beautiful design elements to choose from:

• Layouts: You can choose one of the standard layouts and customize it however you like. Everything from the background to the fonts is customizable. You can choose a "free" layout, or pay $1 for those labeled as such.

We chose a free Facebook cover layout.

• Elements: Canva allows you to add all sorts of design elements such as photo grids, shapes, frames, photos, and lines. You simply select one from the menu and drag it into place. You can click on it to change the color or add a filter.

We selected a free photo from Elements for the Facebook cover.

• Text: You can choose a pre-made font image, or click "Add Title" and choose your own font, color, and size without additional design elements.

We chose a pre-made font design and then changed the size and color.

• Background: If you don't like any of the layout backgrounds, you can choose a background here.

• Downloads: The downloads provide the most customization and are probably what you will use the most. You can click "Upload Custom Images" to upload photos of your work to Canva. You can then overlay design elements on them to create whatever you need, whether it's an email invitation to your upcoming show or a Facebook image with your name and title of the piece.

Victoria Wedell (our recent one) could create a Facebook cover with her work.

4. Upload your awesome image

Then select the desired download format. We suggest downloading it in PNG or PDF format (if you have a Mac). Then you can convert PDF to PNG on your Mac, which will give you the most beautiful image. Just open the PDF (not in an internet browser) and click File, Export, and then choose PNG from the drop-down menu. Then click Save.

You can choose from several download formats.

5. Show off your wonderful image

• Facebook and Twitter: We suggest using Canva images as cover art and as a way to spice up the images you post. Instead of just uploading regular photos to your social media channels, you can add collages, quotes, invitations with details, and add your name to every post you post.

We used Canva to create our cover image (our recent ).

• Email address:  Whether you use a newsletter system like , or even don't, Canva images will definitely enhance the look and feel of an email. Just be careful not to add too much and make your emails too big to send. MailChimp will let you know if your image needs to be thinned and help resolve the issue.

• blog: Canva is great for blog images. You can use it to create a header image, tag your illustration, add relevant quotes, and create section banners for each part of your blog post. People love images and that keeps people's attention on the page.

We used Canva to create our blog title for our recent post.

Hooked? We are definitely

If you haven't noticed yet, we're big fans of Canva here at , just check out ours and ! Once you've created a few images in Canva, it's hard to stop designing. They also have a variety of design ideas ranging from typography to infographics. You can also check out their tutorials to help you get started. As you know all too well, beautiful images grab attention and draw people in. You now have Canva to help you with your art marketing efforts!