selling art

sorry if someone asked this already summ time ago but,

what should i do if i want to sell art. im in grade 10. should i look for people in my school?or put something on ebay?or put up papers on lamp posts or something?

how do you guys get clients

Since I wanted to sell car art I went looking for people who like to buy car art....CAR PEOPLE!!

In my town there are about 64 car clubs, all makes and models. I went to my local car dealers and asked if they had clubs that met there. I asked when, and if they had a contact number. I called the number and asked if I could come to a meeting and show my work. I went to many meetings and showed my pictures. I'm into shirts so I did some club shirts, and sold tons of one offs to individual members. (nice cheese)

I also go to a lot of car shows. I have some cards (cheap) with my web address and contact info, plus I carry a little photo book with little prints. I tell them who I am and what I do, and give them my info. Then I wait for the phone to ring.

Remember these are people who put a lot of $$ into their cars so charge them accordingly. You may want to charge less so you can get the work, but that's not good in the long run. If you sell yourself short, the clients will treat you that way. That's true in any business.

Also if you get a bad feeling about someone say NO!!! Saying "no" can be the hardest thing to learn, but it's a quality that all professionals have. As a matter of fact many people will treat you better after you tell them "no", whether you do business with them or not. Respect. You enjoy what you do, but you don't HAVE to do it for anybody.

Another great resource is "The artist market" it's a publication that lists all magazines, books, newspapers, and whatever. You can flip through find out who to contact, what to send, and how much they pay.

If you want to sell in school. See what clubs and organizations are in your school. I don't know how much $$ you can make, but it's worth a try.

Try some local t-shirt shops. see if they'll by your work, or give you a shot ata design or two. Once again don't be the cheapest. Your art is respectable and so are you. Make sure people respect both.

That's all I got for now.

Good luck.

-Lemorris

p.s. I also set up my site then went and emailed about 900 car related organizations individually (personal touch). I asked them to check out my work and asked If I could do anything for them. I offer a 3 tier payment system for internet clients. They pay a $200 or so deposit up front. I do work. After the pencil work is approved, but before ink and film they pay again. I receive next payment after they recieve the goods. This way we both have to trust at some point, and everything can be kept above board.

Get a pay-pal account, and make them get one too. That way all $$ transfers are secure, and you can worry about how to get 36 perfect spokes as opposed to how to cash a no-good out of state check.

-Lemorris

p.p.s. Jump in here Bonzelite!! I value your input in these matters.

thats very informative, my brother is part of a car club so i guess i'll start there. thanks a lot!!!

oh, and where can i get this artists market thing? is it a magazine or is there an online version?

what about portraits, what would be a good place to go to for drawing people.

I beter stay tuned for this one, I have got to make some money (dunn0 why:P) Anyone heard of World of Wheels? I think I will see if I can show of my work there...First...

Get a real job...

haha, i plan on doing that

this is on the side

SUCKA

The artist market is a book. They print it out every year. Here's the 2004 edition

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1582971846/qid=1087105098/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-9545078-9452617?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I'm not too sure on portraits. That kind of stuff seems tough to sell unless you're really really good, and have some gallery support. (opinion).

Mike said get a real job.

Trust me art is a real job. As a working graphic artist I deal with people not understanding creativity as work all the time. The fact of the matter is being an artist is a very hard thing to do professionally, and it takes a dedication to your craft on a more than professional level. I work with software engineers and when they go home they don't work. When I go home I'm still an artist.

We who choose this life just are. It's beautifully tragic, and rewarding all the same.

-Lemorris

oh HONU,

World of Wheels is like a huge car show. They have it everywhere. If you want to try to work for them I don't know how to get you in, but to be a vendor you have to pay some fee, then set up at the show and try to sell. I haven't had much luck at car shows selling art as I'm not an airbrush guy, and I don't stock up on prints or giclee's. If I was to do a world of wheels show I would take my little photo portfolio and some cards and try to talk to the owners of the cars. Chances are they or an organization they are in might be interested.

In my opinion most people pay the entrance fee to look at cars, not buy art, but most of the people who have egos and wallets big enough to have a car in the show have egos and wallets big enough to buy art of the car.

Target your market and jump in. It takes time to establish a foot hold, but stick with it. The worst that will happen is they will tell you no, and you keep trying and they say no, and you keep trying. Eventually you'll look up and be good, and someone will say yes......then to quote South Park....It's on!

-Lemorris

you are in "grade 10." ok. the first thing you need to do is get really good at drawing cars so word spreads when the friends of the guy who bought your picture see it. word of mouth testimonials are the keenest selling device.

start there.

and whatever lemorris is saying.

oh. also, all these cheapskate motherfu#ck'rs who devalue art can all just go jump off a cliff. those are not the people you need to 'change.' f#ck them. move on. and don't take it personally.

like lemorris is saying, target the crowd.

believe it or not, i started by drawing people's cars for ten bucks at car shows. instead of the "characature" portrait of family, i did/do car drawings in charcoal on the spot. bring a can of fixative.

typically, i'm so busy all day i cannot see the car show. and i must turn work down. no joke. try it. you will also get really good at drawing from life, quickly, and on-the-spot. at this point, money is not the main idea here.

listen to me: you CANNOT use any excuse like "it is too hot out here." or "it is too noisy." or "i cannot work like this." --TOO BAD. TOUGH SH!T for you. you must be able to draw ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, SUDDENLY. with QUALITY BEYOND THE NORM. you must do a $100 level drawing and charge $10 maybe $20.

then hand out the cards. use the ten dollar sketch as an extension of your business card. they may ask you, "wow. this *sketch for ten bucks* is so great, can you do it in color?" and say "yes, i can do a finished car rendering for $400."

"oh."

and if they don't want it, then who cares. move on.

and if they do, you better give them a $1000-level rendering and blow them away.

the choice you must make is "can i really pull this off?"

if you doubt it, then you will not do anything at all. and you will be a dreamer and a wanna-be and go nowhere.

you will end up doing graphic design for a local dairy company or something. or waiting tables or becoming an alcoholic.

How about an advertisement in a local mag? Because I live in a small town in the UK. nuff said.

How about an advertisement in a local mag? Because I live in a small town in the UK. nuff said.

a car mag, yes. those ads are at least USD$300 for a postage stamp sized ad for a single issue. but, hey, look around. the smaller the mag, the cheaper the ad.

join the SCCA or whatever equivalent that is in the UK and put an ad in their 'zine. i've seen such ads.

lemorris, for the record, vendor booths at major car shows, like a NOPI or SEMA, are about $2000 per day for a 15x15 foot space. not including labor costs/hour to set up your booth (they won't let you do it), nor lighting.

LOL, the local paper cost's about £20 for half a page here, but there are only around 25000 ppl in my town. Which I suppose isn't that bad.

LOL, the local paper cost's about £20 for half a page here, but there are only around 25000 ppl in my town. Which I suppose isn't that bad.

dirt cheap, man. do it. great place to start.

Of course you know big Al Saenz has to say something even though the only art I have sold was those darn finger skateboards I use to make in 5/6/7th grade....:)

I am going to link this thread in FAQ, there is some good information here, thx to Lemorris and Bonz.

Of course you friendly neighborhood book worm has some books for youz guys. I have read most of them or reviewed them, but gosh darn it I need to apply them. :)

Art Marketing 101 ISBN 0-940899-32-9
Constance Smith

Blding a career as a visual artist by
Cay Lang ISBN 0-8118-1815-2

Art Office by Constance Smith
ISBN 0-940899-27-2 Artnetwork

How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist,
5th ed. : Selling Yourself Without Selling
Your Soul by Caroll Michels (Author)

The Artist's Guide to New Markets: Opportunities
to Show and Sell Art Beyond Galleries
by Peggy Hadden

Art Marketing 101: A Handbook for the Fine
Artist by Constance Smith

Business & Legal Forms for Fine Artists
by Tad Crawford

I have spoken w/ Tad Crawford here is his site. He has many of the books above plus others. I believe he is the head publisher or something like that.

http://www.allworth.com/Pages/SC_AC.htm

Remember check your library and/or college library esp. if they have a Graphic Arts program. My local library has many of the art/biz books from Allworth

al

wow, theres a LOT of stuff here...

thanks a lot guys

Al just reccomended more books...

...what a surprise.

lol:)

what u can do is gat a binder full of drawings and show them to ppl at ur school, and if they like them and r impresed then juss ask them if they wanna buy 1, thats wut i do

hey that's how i make money for lunch.... i make around $25 a week which isn't bad... but now that schools out the cash flow is toast

To update, since I am venturing into my own independent projects for sale, apart from my storyboarding career, I am seriously looking into promoting VisualHomage (my company) with banner ads.

I am to target certain car forums at the outset and run ads to establish a presence. Such ads, I've found, typically go for $100/month, with a year commitment required, ie, $1200/yr.

I don't know what the rate is for this site, but others fit that profile. It takes money to make money.

As well, I am pricing printing costs for posters. So far I've found running 1000 copies seems to be the minimum for most print shops and they will do it for about $900.

I am continuing to look around because that is too many posters of one image that is unproven. I want more like 1000 posters but 250 of each image. This way I can test market the images. Some will sell better than others.

There are then web site costs and shipping costs. This entails an online merchant account, credit card/shopping cart checkout, mailing tubes, various other things.

This is essentially a garage-based business method of working until the venture takes off. It's a total experiment.

It's the most direct way I can think of to directly market your own original art work.
I will update the section as things progress....

Chad

Insofar as storyboarding, that is an entirely different career direction than forming your own artistic identity as an "original artist."

Storyboarding is mostly adapting other's original ideas to a cinematic flow with continuity editing and camera movement considered. It is more of a vocation than an artform, although it can have artistic overtones.

To get into that field requires a passion for cinema and advertising combined in a sequential image presentation. It's more the realm of a self-taught person motivated to get into that specific and small field.

There are college courses that cover storyboarding, but are, to my knowledge, far too brief in nature to provide an artist with the needed skills to be thrown cold-turkey into a situation.

However, I have found that no amount of training is ever good enough, and at a point, one must throw themselves into it at risk of both success and failure.

Many people with comic book backgrounds migrate to storyboarding as it is initially and largely more instantly lucrative. However, a comic book mode of continuity and frame design is NOT directly cross-compatible with advertising or filmmaking.

They're similar but very different in area of focus. A comic book page is more about overall design impact and less about shootable frames.

Most comic books are not shootable directly from the images (with rare exception such as The Matrix which was drawn directly for film in a comic book style, and Sin City --originally a comic but adapted to film for it's film noir traits).

I came from a technical drawing and television background and not a comic book background. My father was a tv art director and drew storyboards, and in high school I had vocational training in mechanical drafting.

Combining the two areas gives you my style and manner of approach to artistic ideas. I am at a point where I wish to eventually leave the tv/film industry and create original artwork exclusively. I endeavor to do this with VisualHomage.

Chad

^ Holy Thread Revival Batman......he's banned btw.

who's banned? the original thread's author?

I figured I'd revive the thread because it's a good source of real-world advice.

And back when I first posted here, almost 4 years ago, I wasn't up to a point in my career where I was 'selling my art" in the way that I am talking about now.

Sure, I was selling my services, but not really my art. I often don't see my storyboarding career as selling my "art." Do you see what I'm saying?