Hello everyone, I have been thinking about trying to turn my painting into a career but i don't know where to start.
I have only painted for family members and friends. Never sold a painting and not even sure if my stuff is good enough to sell. All i know is I love to paint and would love even better if i could quit my job and make a living off of painting but right now i don't even know how or where to start.
Do i need to make a lot of paintings with the same theme?
promotion is the key. Advertise for yourself. Write a bio, write a resume, put together a portfolio, get good quality photos done, and don't be afraid of rejection. Just go DO IT.
Your body of work is good enough. You just need to promote to the right venue. Show anywhere and everywhere. Then weed out the venues that don't sell... or revise the type of art that you show there.
First things first. Everything Sketch mentioned is essential. Especially a thick skin. I would add to his list a "Leave behind" piece that has, at the very least, an image and your contact information on it. If you can, get a website up too. It doesn't have to be fancy.
Yes promotion is key. It doesn't matter if you have a better mousetrap if no one knows about it. Find venues that are the most likely to use your art and concentrate on them first.
Send a query letter to the art director telling them that you have what they want and ask them what format (slides, CD, etc) your samples should be in.
Once they respond, send only your best and include a pre-stamped response card with check box options (Keep us updated, No thanks, etc) so that the art director can just check a box, file the sample and toss the card in the out box.
Also, if you get an actual interview, arrange your portfolio so that you can taylor it to the potential client you are going to see. Don't bring sailboats to Arizona magazine for example.
After looking at your work, I would definitely look into doing greeting cards with some of the Print on Demand shops. Zazzle.com comes to mind at once and it's free to join. They have other items, but I think you would do well with cards.
I found an article in the July 2008 issue of Art Jewelry, written by Marlene Richey that really hit home for me. She talks about questions to ask yourself to see if you are ready to start your business. Set goals, don't quit your day job, how to market, be pragmatic about money management. Great stuff. She's written a number of articles that are on the web, plus a book called Profiting by Design.
Everything she said made sense to me as a good guideline to get started.
I haven't quit my day job yet and I'm working on marketing and how I should grow my business.
I think there are lots of avenues and it's just a matter of finding the right one for you. Just keep trying things until you find something that works.
I'd definitely do a google search for Marlene Richey. Hope this helps.
For a long time I was fearful of making the dive into being afull time artist but eventually it happened. Looking back on things I can give some advice that could help you move along quicker than I. Sketch is sooo right. Promote, promote, and promote some more.
First things first. Develop a brand for yourself. A design that will carry over from your future website or blog to all of your promotional material. It'll allow people to recognize your work easier. Kind of like the store Target. Anytime I see a commercial with a target or even a red and white color scheme I associate it with Target. A hodge podge of different looks will only confuse people that are specifically looking for you.
I've seen your work and the best work that I've seen of yours has been the graphic nude women. I would get a few more of those ready. Take high res. SHARP photos of your work. So many pieces that I see on this site are fuzzy.
Get together a list of everyone that would be interested in your work. This includes art directors, gallery curators, interior designers and even family and friends.
Some people like to mail out greeting cards but I've always sent out hand written postacrds. Hand written to give that personal touch and postcards because the postage is cheaper. Make sure your best piece and the kind of work that you'd like to be known for is on there. Promoting pieces that will sell that you're not passionate about can backfire on you. You'll get a lot of work but you'll be miserable in the process.
Send these postcards out and then get another set of postcards made with a different image and send that out to the same folks about a month later. Essentially you're beating them over the head with "Hey look at me" advertising. It works.
I'm sure there's more I should cover but much of this can be found in the book
Selling Art 101: The Art of Creative Selling by Robert Regis
Enjoy - Steven Http://www.stevenwalkerstudios.blogspot.com
They update a new one every year, but I got the 06 from the library, then I bought the 07 version. Lots of interesting information, plus just about every gallery listed in the country and they tell you how to submit your work, whether you are a fine artist, illustrator, digital, whatever.
About $10-18.00 on amazon, although it's showing one used from 07 right now for $1.00!!!
I my self made the jump four years ago and had a hard time finding information about the business of art. I finally found several books on Amazon and read them cover to cover, some of the advice I used some I did not. Your career is a lot like raising a child there is a lot of conflicting information about how to do it right and all the ways to screw it up. Educate yourself and follow your instincts you will know what is right and what is wrong for you.
If you want to make money get your art out there not just online but in local shows, festivals and galleries. You may sell some stuff because someone stumbled onto your website but for the most part people only buy what is sold to them. For this reason I do not recommend Coffee Houses my personal experience is very little is sold this way.
Hope some of this helps. Art is a great profession and the more who know it and enjoy it the better off we are.
