What Can You Apply Your Art to for Selling

How to sell your own artwork

It should be said in the first line of this guide that selling art is not easy. Whether through a gallery, through an online platform, or out of your own studio, making a sale of your own work will be challenging—but information technology can as well be exciting.

I've been selling art for more vii years, first as an independent curator showing art in whatever space I could observe, then as the co-possessor and director of Louis B. James Gallery, and now at the gallery yours mine & ours. The chief thing I've learned over the years is just how much fourth dimension and energy information technology can take to become someone to commit to acquiring an artwork. While this guide will give y'all a lay of the land for selling your ain art, it'due south important to know that just as everyone's personality is different, each artist'south experience selling their piece of work will besides be different. So as y'all experiment with different ways to sell your artwork to different collectors, think to be flexible, be yourself, and effort to have some fun in the process.

— RJ Supa

Editor'south notation: This guide is part of a series on making a living.

Marketing yourself and your work

The question I'm virtually oftentimes asked past artists who want to sell their own work is, "How do I get people to know that I make art in the outset place?" This is a skillful question, because the first step in getting people to see (and eventually buy) your work is by letting them know that there is work to be seen.

Promoting yourself on social media

These days, the most obvious way to let people know that you make art is by promoting your practice on social media. It'south free to utilize, fairly easy to figure out, and can starting time getting your piece of work on people'south radar immediately. I know lots of artists who had never shown in a gallery before, but who were able to generate business solely through their Instagram business relationship.

Personally, I adopt to follow social media accounts that reflect an artist'due south unique personality, and which don't just feel like a grid of paintings. Taking a more casual approach to your social media posts will also free you up to just be you, and volition alleviate the fear that you need to craft an image on social media that isn't true to who you really are.

Beyond simply posting nearly your artwork, there are lots of ways to bring your social media audiences into the fold of your practise. I strongly believe that anything art-related tin (and should) be posted, whether it's a formal review of your work, an event flier most an upcoming group show, or a aboveboard snap from your senior crit.

Putting yourself [physically] out there

While social media is astonishing for reaching a big audience rapidly, another effective way to put your piece of work on people's radar is to physically put yourself out there. This means existence as social as you tin exist, and always introducing yourself as an artist commencement and foremost—fifty-fifty if you lot're paying the bills by waiting tables, answering phones, or education four adjunct classes at your local customs college.

What it comes down to is that you are your own best marketer. Simply letting people know that yous make piece of work will lead to questions most what it is, and where information technology tin be seen. In turn, this creates an opportunity to invite someone into your studio to run into what you make.

Editor's note: For more tips on promoting your own art, read A creative person's guide to thoughtful promotion.

Showcasing bachelor works on your website

Having a website to showcase your work (especially your available piece of work) is also a necessity. You lot don't need it to be fancy, just factual. Personally, when I've decided to seek out an artist's website, I'grand ready to get down to business organization. I want to run across clearly labeled photographs of individual works, an upwardly-to-appointment CV, any relevant printing, and a brief statement that sums up their practice. In my stance, the all-time artist websites are easy to roll or click through, so an interested viewer can browse betwixt artworks without difficulty.

Documenting your work

If you don't have a adept camera and tin can't take great images of your work, find someone who tin. You must resist the temptation to only document your work via your smartphone'due south photographic camera. If you can't afford a professional photographer for every piece yous make—and many artists can't—practice a trade. Ask a lensman friend if she'll trade documentation of your piece of work for a slice or ii. There are lots of creative ways to help yourself along that don't have to cost a lot of coin.

If some of your works are difficult to photograph, make sure there are plenty of detail shots available on your website so the viewer tin get a sense of the work's surface and overall composition. Also, include photographs from multiple angles. If your goal is to get people interested in your art through images, they need to practise a good job showcasing the work, in all of its nuanced glory.

I more notation on documentation: always make sure each artwork has been photographed before it leaves your studio. Who knows what will happen to your career in ten years, and what that i specific artwork will come up to mean. Downwardly the line, yous may need documentation of the piece for your first museum retrospective. Or, you may never see the work again because the collector won't permit it go out their house. Either way, you'll want an image on file for your catalog raisonné.

Selling art straight through your website

The easiest way to make your work available to potential buyers on your website is by putting upward a simple statement similar: "For inquiries on purchasing an artwork, please contact me at [your electronic mail accost]." For this purpose specifically, always make certain your contact information is clear, upwardly to engagement, and easy to discover on your site. If someone finds you lot online and becomes interested in purchasing a work, don't add friction to the process past burying your e-mail address.

If you want to get fancy, you lot may choose to sell your work through an online store. This is a flake more difficult to gear up, and if you lot plan to let customers pay for works right through your website, you'll stop upward giving abroad a percentage of your profit to payment processors like PayPal or Square. Nevertheless, enabling website visitors to make purchases without directly emailing you does have its benefits. For one, detailing your available works and their prices in an online store allows interested buyers to hands see which of your works are for auction, and get a sense of your prices without the awkwardness of emailing to inquire. Either way, equally you design your website, be certain to separate your store from the documentation of your work, so your website doesn't feel like a digital garage sale.

Having an online store dedicated to selling cheaper items (such as editions, prints, zines, pins, t-shirts, or posters) tin also help to get your name out in the world. A lot more people tin can buy a $5 zine than a $500 painting, after all.

Editor'due south notation: For more tips on what an artist's website tin be, read an essay on the topic by Laurel Schwulst.

How to toll your art

In the fine art world, pricing is set with a very flexible formula of exhibition history, previous sales, size of piece of work, and your costs. However, information technology helps to know that in that location is really no right or wrong way to price your work.

Every bit a general rule of pollex for making sales equally an emerging creative person, go on the works in your online store cheap. People are going to exist much more inclined to spend $50 on a 10-by-10-inch cartoon than on a $i,000, 40-by-40-inch painting, especially without having seen it in person first.

As you and your work evolve from undergrad to grad schoolhouse and beyond, your prices should increase slowly. Once you're out of school—or if you never attended schoolhouse—you are a working artist, and your prices can reflect this. The more you exhibit and the more people buy, the more you tin increase your prices, simply again, do this very gradually.

As yous begin to brand more sales, exist prepared to be flexible. For example, if you have ten 40-past-forty-inch paintings for sale at $1,000 each, and someone wants to purchase two, offering a substantial disbelieve (possibly $1,500 for both) can help seal the deal. Even equally a gallerist, I tell each creative person I work with that there will be a guaranteed 10% discount for collectors ownership ane piece of work, a xv% discount for those interested in buying ii works, and a 20% discount for collectors interested in purchasing three or more than. And, even this formula is flexible depending on the collector and the work.

Finally, consider your costs—including the cost of your time. If each new drawing costs you $twenty to make because of materials, and takes a couple days of your time to produce, then a $50 price point conspicuously doesn't brand sense.

It tin be tricky to decide on prices, so talk to your friends, enquire art dealers or professors you know for their tips, and just talk to others who have made sales themselves. Some other good way to become a sense for how your piece of work should exist priced is by directly researching the prices of other artists whose work and feel levels are comparable to yours. Y'all can do this past browsing available works on their website (if their site lists prices), or when you're at their gallery show, ask to come across the price list. Try to find out how these artists announced to be doing with sales, and use that equally a foundation to plan your own pricing.

On selling your work with an advisor's help

Art advisors can piece of work for an individual, a family, or a corporation to help them build an art drove. Often this happens when a collector is too busy to come across many shows, do studio visits, or search for new artists on their own. If this is the case, collectors may seek out a trusted expert to advise and educate them, and to assistance them detect up-and-coming artists to work with. Banks, hotels, hospitals, and restaurants are among a number of businesses that often work with advisors to collect artwork by buying directly from artists.

If yous're hoping to work with an art advisor, the most important thing you need to practise is make your work as discoverable as possible. This is where the right hashtag on social media can exist a real benefaction. On more 1 occasion, I've searched Instagram for a specific client or advisor using the #abstractpainting #sculpture #outdoorscultpure, etc tags. So know that if yous build it, and properly characterization/promote it, they will come. Additionally, when you're out in the world at openings and other art events, you're likely to meet art advisors, equally going to these types of events is a big function of their job. If you meet an art counselor, having a business concern card on mitt with simple contact information (proper noun, phone, email, website) volition let them to quickly search your site and see if whatever of your piece of work might brand sense for their clients.

If an advisor offers to assistance sell your work, make sure you understand the terms upwardly front. Many advisors go paid by their clients (the collector), but some will accept a percentage of the sale (generally between 10%—twenty%). All of this is manufacture standard, just it's necessary that you lot understand this before your work is offered for auction. You never desire to exist in a place where a collector is trying to move forward with purchasing your work, and yous're still trying to negotiate the financial aspects of the deal.

On working with galleries

When working direct with a gallery, know that you'll have to divide the profits from whatsoever sales. Generally, the gallery will take nigh l% of a piece of work's sale cost. While it may seem crazy to give abroad half of your money, galleries will be able to go your piece of work out to a larger audition than you'll be able to reach on your own. They may also be able to sell a drawing that you would accept sold out of your studio for $200 for $2,000, since they know their clients' interests best, and can help lend brownie to your do.

When you get the chance to work with a gallery for a group evidence, art off-white, or via the gallery's online store, make sure you become all the details of the relationship in writing. Ask them for a consignment agreement that covers the cost that they'll list your work for sale at, the length of time they'll accept your piece of work on consignment, the terms of sale, and how any potential discounts will be shared. If a piece of work is sold by a gallery, y'all should also expect to receive a form with the buyer'south information so yous tin keep it on tape in your own files. Check out "documentation" beneath (in the pricing department) to further explore what should exist on any consignment understanding or invoice.

Editor's note: For more on this subject, consult the guide, How to work with galleries and collectors equally an emerging artist.

On commissions, loans, and gift-giving

Commissions

If you're always asked to a exercise a commission (for instance, a portrait of a collector'due south canis familiaris, a sculpture in a particular location, or a performance for a collector's wedding, etc), the start thing to practice is to make sure the terms are written down and agreed to. You lot'll likewise want to make sure that once the piece of work is started, there can exist no refund on the down payment, and that once the work is completed, the work cannot be returned if the collector doesn't like it.

Once a contract for a commission is signed, you should always require a 50% down payment of the final sale price. In my opinion, this is non-negotiable. In the terms sheet, it should also be stated that if the committee is canceled, changed, etc, the downward payment is non-refundable. And while information technology'southward possible to change the telescopic of the commission while it'southward in progress, make sure your contract notes that any changes could result in charging the collector actress coin to cover your time and any additional expenses.

Loans

Often, art shows can take place in hotel rooms, java shops, bank lobbies, or at friends' houses. In these instances, there might non be a huge opportunity for sales, since it'due south more of a curatorial undertaking. But who knows what tin happen! Whenever you loan out your piece of work—whether it's for a casual show at a friend'due south pop-upwards shop, or for something more than established—make sure you get or provide a assignment understanding. This agreement should always particular the length of the loan, and (should a sales opportunity arise) the details of how a transaction can piece of work. For instance, will the friend who's hosting a show in his living room have a percentage of the sale if their roommate buys your work?

Gifts

Yous tin can gift your work to anyone yous want, even institutions (although there's no guarantee that they'll take it). Ofttimes, nonprofits, cultural institutions, or friends will seek out artists to donate works for their fundraisers and benefits. This is a bully fashion to get your proper noun and work seen by a larger collector base and raise money for a cause y'all care about. And, you can write off the value of the work when you lot practise your taxes. If you brand a gift of your work for one of these occasions, always attempt to negotiate a ticket or two to the effect, as these are usually a keen opportunity to network.

With anything that'due south leaving the studio, you'll desire to take a proper newspaper trail and documentation (think: high-quality photographs) of the slice or pieces. And, even with gifts, you'll want to keep records of the transaction. Your career will be in a unlike place in five, x, or 15 years and the more data you have at your disposal most who has your works, the better.

Selling your art through online platforms

In addition to creating your own online shop, there are many other ways to sell your fine art online. From Cocked to Etsy, Paddle viii to Deviant Art, there are a plethora of platforms that can help showcase your work to a wider community.

Some sites require that your work is already shown through a gallery or fair (similar Artsy), while others (like Paddle 8) are more often than not looking for works by artists with proper noun recognition so they can more hands market it to their audiences.

As you lot weigh your options, know that each platform will have its own cost and/or committee model, so practice your enquiry and get a sense of the pros/cons of each site. These days, information technology seems like almost every online retailer is dipping its toe into the art world, so as you lot do your inquiry, you might also desire to check out the options on non-traditional platforms like Ebay and Amazon. Finding the right online platform is about choosing the space that fits the needs of you and your work, and about recognizing where it'll exist the easiest to find people who similar (and who want to purchase) your fine art.

While they aren't sales platforms, online artist registries are another type of platform that can assistance lead collectors to y'all. White Columns has, arguably, the best-known registry. You usually have to apply and be approved to be a part of a registry, simply many fine art earth people apply these lists to find new works, and they've been a skillful launching ground for a number of great artists. Personally, I've discovered artists on these sites who I've then gone on to stand for at the gallery.

On getting paid

I you've done all the self-promotion, studio visits, and emailing back and forth and you've finally fabricated a sale (!), the side by side footstep is getting your money. It should go without saying that yous should never turn over an artwork without having received payment in full. Once a cheque has cleared, then yous should get the slice wrapped and set up to go. Of class, you lot tin also request payment via Venmo, PayPal, or whatever works best for you. That's the easy function! Before this happens, though, be certain to have all the post-obit in place when closing a auction.

Documentation of sale & invoice

For your records, any time you lot brand a sale yous'll desire to generate an invoice that clearly details what was purchased, how much was paid, whether or non at that place was a discount, and the terms of the sale. It's ever a skilful idea to put "no refunds, no returns" on the invoice, and to stipulate how much the piece was valued at versus how much it sold for (for instance, if the retail value was $one,000, simply it was bought for $600, noting the 40% discount ensures that the documented value of the work remains at $1,000).

In your invoice, you should likewise include a copyright section. This is because if the collector ever decides to publish an image of your work or exhibit it in a prove, you'll want to be given proper credit. The copyright section tin be every bit simple as detailing the work's title, creation engagement, and your name. Still, if you desire to be sure an image of your work doesn't end upwards on a tote pocketbook or t-shirt without your explicit permission (and without giving you a cutting of the profits!), you'll also want to include a argument of rights. A little online sleuthing can help you find some canned linguistic communication that feels like the right amount of copyright protection for you and your artwork.

It's as well a good idea to include a brief sentence or two about being able to borrow back the work for a future exhibition or retrospective.

Finally, many galleries include "the correct of beginning refusal" on their invoices. This protects you and your artwork and allows the seller—in this case, you—to buy back the work if it e'er gets to the point where the collector wants to sell.

Before you lot close out the auction, both parties should sign a copy of the invoice for your personal records.

In summary…

Overall, selling artwork is about developing expert communication skills and beingness patient. Putting yourself out at that place as an artist is the first stride. Spending fourth dimension at galleries, open studios, and other related events will aid to establish you every bit a member of the community and atomic number 82 to introductions, studio visits, and eventually, sales.

One final matter to keep in mind: fifty-fifty if no one is buying your art now, there'south no reason they won't be in a year, or even in a month or 2. Keep making connections, and proceed your community informed almost all that'due south going on with you and your do. Let people know that your work is for auction, and where/how they tin can collect it. And as you lot continue to develop your deal-sealing skills, ask questions, don't be afraid to f*ck upwardly, and be flexible. Every collector, artist, friend, art gallery, contained curator or art advisor will work differently based on their ain individual needs, and the best way to work with them is to exist upfront and transparent well-nigh your own needs.

At present get dorsum to the studio and starting time networking!

Nigh the Author

RJ Supa

Gallerist, Curator, Visual creative person

RJ Supa is the co-possessor and director of yours mine & ours gallery in New York. Previously he endemic and ran Louis B. James gallery for five years. He is also an independent curator and creative person, and has exhibited and performed internationally at such spaces as Salon 94, Cuevas Tilleard, New Release, the Kunshtalle in Baden-Baden, Germany and Steirischer Herbst in Graz, Republic of austria. His work was most recently reviewed in The New Yorker for a group exhibition, titled Mother's House.

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Source: https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/how-to-sell-your-own-artwork/

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