Home › Forums › The Art Business Center › General Art Business › How does a person know if ready to sell art
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November 14, 2008 at 11:19 am #987558
Hi
I want to know when it would be a good time to start to sell. I have been wondering how to tell if you are ready to sell. My goal is by next summer when the fairs are starting again.All I have done is several drawings. Improving on one now. It is in drawing thread “help with this drawing” I have also taken a (2) watercolor class (need to be finished) & have done an acrylic painting. Not sure if I could post the w/c paintings and acrylic here. So until here about posting it I won’t.
Questions:
1. How much of an inventory should I have.
2. How much time should I spend on drawing, painting a day. (have FT job)
3. There’s also a gallery that I want to put my art in by the time the street fair comes here. (July 09)I know that I would need to work at my job and do art part-time but how do I go about doing that. I haven’t been able to find any threads with this.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
TeresaNovember 14, 2008 at 11:49 am #1108899I think the most important test is, ” Does someone want to buy your art”
Inventory, hours painting per day has no meaning if no one wants to purchase what you are producing.
You may need to test thhose waters first.
November 14, 2008 at 1:42 pm #1108882Inventory – depends on what you’re doing really. I would say a gallery would want to see at least a dozen pieces. Many people say more, but some small local galleries might be happy to see less. There should also be a consistency in style, so I seriously doubt you’re ready for that route. However, there’s no reason you can’t see if local cafes, libraries, and other businesses might like to show a few pieces? Just get it out there and see what the feedback is. As painterswife says, someone wanting to buy it is a good indication. This isn’t to say you can’t have a goal for next summer, in fact that’s a good thing to aim for! Even if you decide not to do it by July for whatever reason you will have focused on your artwork.
You might also want to try listing a few things online to see if you get interest. If nothing else this is a nice way to sell early works to earn paint and supplies money as you learn.
As for time – think of it as another job. Part time. Say 20 hrs a week? Divide that up as you can, either daily or weekends or whatever. Be structured and disciplined about your work. When I was learning (not selling yet, I didn’t sell until I’d been painting at least a couple years and then it was just to supplement my materials) I used to paint at least an hour a day, preferably 2, before work and then 5-6 hrs on one weekend day. Once I decided I was serious about this art lark my other day off was usually spent researching galleries and such.
Tina.
Abstract coast and geology art: www.tina-m.com | Art/Science gallery: www.grejczikgallery.com
November 14, 2008 at 5:25 pm #1108903Hi there – I started by doing one outdoor show to get an idea of how it is done, costs, feedback, etc. I would ask around if you have artist friends, or look at the show schedules of artists whose work might be in a similar class as yours. Pick one show and get the info right away. Some shows are booked 6 months in advance. If you don’t have your own display set-up and tent, you might want to start with an indoor show or one that provides hanging space like snow-fence.
Take it slow and target one show and one gallery. You will learn from that experience and know if this is the right directions for you or if you want to do more group shows or contests instead.Shore Painter - [FONT="Lucida Console"]visit me at www.annhayesart.com
November 14, 2008 at 5:26 pm #1108905painterswife thank you for your comment. I thought about starting a blog. Do you think that would help to get going?
timelady thanks your right I don’t have a style yet. I like doing wildlife and landscapes. There’s is that I am interested in that I want to do. I will do art the art part-time and do more practicing on paintings and drawings and see what I can do well also to post here so that I can learn more. There are artisits here that paint there subject like an photo and that is my goal but I am far from producing that.Any other suggestions would help?
Teresa
November 14, 2008 at 8:03 pm #1108889Starting with a blog is a good way to go. It isn’t necessarily a great sales venue, but it can get you started with showing your work and you might sell a few pieces, too. Add a paypal button and you’ll increase the chances of selling from your blog. When you start, friends and family will probably be your first visitors. You will get some feedback and can experiment with selling from your blog or other on-line sales venues. When you decide to make the jump to selling in shows, your blog can complement it nicely by providing a way to annouce to your readers what is going on with you and your art.
November 14, 2008 at 8:48 pm #1108914Some of your questions you can, and have to, figure out the answers to by yourself.
If you’re looking to get into it and turn a profit, you become a small business owner in a way, your art is your product, you are the brand.
You can use this mentality to figure a lot of this out, make a business plan, even a small one.
As for costs and time spent on production and number of works, do the math. What does work in your style and of the same quality sell for in your local market(most important market anywhere)? Now what are your costs for production? How much profit is there from a sale without needing a venue? Out of that profit, if you do join a venue how many would you have to sell to make enough to offset the costs you’d have to pay them?
As well, how much time is spent producing each piece? Divide the profit by number of hours to get how much it costs per hour to make a piece. Then if you need say $200 to get into a venue to show work, how much time do you have to put in to make that amount at least so you recover your costs? Also keep in mind whether you’ll have to frame your work, that will add cost.
Play with the numbers, see what comes up.
November 15, 2008 at 5:46 am #1108892Teresa, you can post your pics here, or a link to them elsewhere.
It is difficult to understand whether you mean your question to be about your work itself, or you personally being ready to sell. If it is about you personally, it really can only be answered by you.Incidently, no matter how good your work is there are times when you will get nothing but knock-backs and no sales, so be aware it is hard work, and more importantly, don’t take these times personally, I know of no artist that hasn’t hit a bad patch (sales wise) at some stage or other, and they tend to be more frequent than the purple patches where everything walks off the walls.
November 15, 2008 at 8:10 am #1108885I didn’t really consider “selling” until I took a pastel I’d done as a gift for my daughter in to be framed and the owner, who also had a gallery as a part of the frame shop, suggested that I consider doing something similar and hanging it in the gallery. Also that I join the local art guild, which I did … and they suggested I donate a piece to an annual auction they did as a fund raiser for the library.
I followed the suggestions … while the gallery piece didn’t actually sell, it did lead directly to two portrait commissions. The donated artwork brought a respectable price at the fund raiser compared favorably with pieces by other artists already established.
My next step was to get a booth setup going and start with one or two of the local art/craft shows.
I was employed full time during all of this, but the inventory more or less took care of itself by the time I started with the art shows and a booth.
I’m starting out again after a number of inactive years and the plan is to use the Internet for the majority of my “marketing”. Will begin with a page added to my existing website, then do a few eBay auctions as well, in hopes of increasing traffic to my art page on the website.
Next will be to rejoin the local art/craft group and also to find out what the requirements are for displaying work at the three “local” community art centers that are available.
I probably won’t do any shows locally with a booth … the market is very different here than where I was before and not as specific to my type of artwork (it’s mostly fine crafts here, rather than fine art). But I may try to do something that worked well before … I offered some of my artwork as a “trophy” for specific classes at horse and dog shows in exchange for having a table with examples of my art. That worked very well for me before to build a mailing list of people interested specifically in what I did.
Depending on what type of artwork you do, you may want to explore some of these possibilities. I would say, though, as others have … finding out if someone is willing to buy your art is probably the first thing you need to determine before going into it professionally.
As far as being “emotionally” ready … I think that may actually take longer than the actually producing and sales part. I still do not market my own work very comfortably.
Sharon
MT native in KY
https://www.facebook.com/Art-by-Sharon-Michael-426594037677803/November 15, 2008 at 10:00 am #1108909Teresa-
Sportpony has some great ideas.
This is exactly how I would suggest you start. Join a local arts group, enter some juried competitions, and get ready for feedback. This will give you a feel for how your work will be received. People may react in an incredibly favorable way and then presto changoo you are a practicing professional artist!
Soooo, now for some reality. Speaking from my stand-point, I am very pleased to find myself in a venue where perhaps ten percent of folks find my work interesting. Out of those perhaps ten percent will like and can afford to purchase my stuff. This means that one percent of folks will find themselves and my work in a position to purchase. Some of the potential patrons will be interested but for one reason or another will not be in a position to purchase. For these folks create a way to follow your work. Start an email list, do a web site, in short, stay in touch. I have found eventually a good number of these folks will become patrons. So let’s do a little math. You do a small art show, and the stars align and you have found yourself in a great venue. Five hundred folks come through. Using the above numbers, 5 people love and want to purchase your stuff, but sixty percent of these folks can’t buy today. This means forty percent are going to purchase. This equates to two sales. Not shabby. You also have a mailing list, three of these folks wanted to buy, but could not. They follow you and in the future, one of these folks buy, this makes three sales. Of course the two who purchased your work are also following you through your “reminders to check your new works” e-blast. One of these folks just saw something there that would look great in the den, you know by that ugly easy chair. Now this is four sales. Boy, this is getting good. I could go on and on, this stuff actually works. Get a load of this. I did a show about six months back. I couple walks up and tells me his brother is building a new home and he would love my work. I thank him and give him a card. Two weeks back I get an email asking me about my work. The inquirer sent his phone number and address. I could not believe it, but this gentleman lives on the same street as me. He is interested, either way; this is another opportunity that came simply by being out there.
My sister and closest friend hate my work!
Please remember, most people will NOT like your work!
This includes those closest to you. This, if you think about it is a great thing! Doing something that is all your own and is special to you, where others close to you inputs are not helpful makes this all your own; also, you end up not having to give that much stuff away!Congrats on your future prospects and GREAT LUCK,
Jerry Lipp
www.jerrylipp.com (my paintings)
www.mwlea.com (fine art etching)
Blogs: http://jerrylipp.blogspot.com/ (professional artsNovember 15, 2008 at 10:30 am #1108896One of the biggest factors in getting buyers and galleries to take you seriously as a professional is a body of work/Inventory. It can vary some or greatly (depending on your own viewpoint), but it’s a good idea to have at least 50 or so pieces ready to “show and go” at all times. Of course, you don’t want to take all 50 to the gallery, (some galleries don’t want to see more than 2 actual pieces at first) but a small desktop-printed porfolio of the work is a good back-up to have. This way they can see you’re serious by the amount of time you’ve put in which is reflected by the number of works.
That may sound like a lot of pieces, but if you give 10 to a gallery to rotate and then take the other 40 to fill a venue and/or give people choices to choose from…? That situation (depending on sizes, of course) may look pretty sparse with less. It’s always good to have MORE than you need to fill a given venue. Nothing looks more amateur from my viewpoint than an artist that hits the market with nothing more than a handful of works, especially in an art fair setting. It screams “NEWBIE”. Working up many pieces is also a great way to “find your voice” in the beginning, so it solves 2 problems at once.
Remember: there’s no deadline on your fine art career!
Take the time you need to work up a lot of truly top-notch works before you hit the streets. You only get one chance to make a good, first impression. If you don’t make your July 9th date, just keep going till the next event.
Everyone budgets their time differently but if you are devoting at least 2 hours every day to your art, you’ll be surprised how much work you can accomplish. It truly takes dedication. When you feel burned out and don’t want to create, ask yourself “how much do I want this goal?”. It might mean 2 hours less TV or surfing the net or whatever, but every time it’s 2 hours closer to your dream.
November 15, 2008 at 10:39 am #1108910One of the biggest factors in getting buyers and galleries to take you seriously as a professional is a body of work/Inventory. It can vary some or greatly (depending on your own viewpoint), but it’s a good idea to have at least 50 or so pieces ready to “show and go” at all times. Of course, you don’t want to take all 50 to the gallery, (some galleries don’t want to see more than 2 actual pieces at first) but a small desktop-printed porfolio of the work is a good back-up to have. This way they can see you’re serious by the amount of time you’ve put in which is reflected by the number of works.
That may sound like a lot of pieces, but if you give 10 to a gallery to rotate and then take the other 40 to fill a venue and/or give people choices to choose from…? That situation (depending on sizes, of course) may look pretty sparse with less. It’s always good to have MORE than you need to fill a given venue. Nothing looks more amateur from my viewpoint than an artist that hits the market with nothing more than a handful of works, especially in an art fair setting. It screams “NEWBIE”. Working up many pieces is also a great way to “find your voice” in the beginning, so it solves 2 problems at once.
Remember: there’s no deadline on your fine art career!
Take the time you need to work up a lot of truly top-notch works before you hit the streets. You only get one chance to make a good, first impression. If you don’t make your July 9th date, just keep going till the next event.
Everyone budgets their time differently but if you are devoting at least 2 hours every day to your art, you’ll be surprised how much work you can accomplish. It truly takes dedication. When you feel burned out and don’t want to create, ask yourself “how much do I want this goal?”. It might mean 2 hours less TV or surfing the net or whatever, but every time it’s 2 hours closer to your dream.
I absolutely agree, GREAT POINTS!
Jerry Lipp
www.jerrylipp.com (my paintings)
www.mwlea.com (fine art etching)
Blogs: http://jerrylipp.blogspot.com/ (professional artsNovember 16, 2008 at 10:07 am #1108890I am pulling up a chair and going to follow this interesting thread.
My website. My photos on Flickr. My blog.November 16, 2008 at 10:45 am #1108888I think testing the waters online is great. I did aceos and was shocked that most sold to other artists. It was a great boost to my confidence and taught me a lot about the process of an online marketing campaign.
Robin
November 16, 2008 at 2:04 pm #1108901Start selling right now. Don’t wait. At first your sell price not be super high but that doesn’t matter. The more you art is on walls the more you get exposure.
I have been painting for 6 years and now I can’t paint fast enough.
Gallery usually keep 50 %. So if you sell a nice painting for 600 $ well you get 300 $. Hum well for me I still make mor e money to sell to my own leads and collectors that know of me then in Galleries.
Just go for it set a price you think is good and start selling.
If you think it sells it will believe me… just believe in your art Teresa!
You should post a painting you did so we can see and give you feedback on it.
Good luck!
Yan
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