get your art on

[wagoneer]

Selling my paintings is a very small portion of my income. Yet am surprised everytime a painting sells at the flea market. Expecting to spend some time in Quartzsite doing exactly that painting if this form of communication is foreign to you allow me to de-mystify. Groups are great for this. I just learned a painting hanging At the San Francisco Camp near Hetch Hetchy survived the flames. I payed blood for that one, horse fly attacks wild boar running around. I'll take the occasional rattlesnake and scorpion anyday. So if you wanna let that little artsy thing out just bring some basic materials colored pencil charcoal pastel waterpaint crayons paper canvas whatever and we will see what happens.

 

[Cambia]

I'll bring the matte medium & alcohol pens.

 

[dragonflyinthesky]

When I do get to a Quartzite RTR I'l join you all on the studio tour.

 

[SinnTek]

So, not sure if you still post here, as this is such an outdated thread... I found the need to search the forums until I found a thread about my same hobby and looks like it be found.

Anyways....... I am looking at selling my paintings while on the road as well and was wondering how well the success of flea markets can be or if there is a better way to sell them.

 

[Almost There]

So, not sure if you still post here, as this is such an outdated thread... I found the need to search the forums until I found a thread about my same hobby and looks like it be found.

Anyways....... I am looking at selling my paintings while on the road as well and was wondering how well the success of flea markets can be or if there is a better way to sell them.

Without looking at your art, you might want to consider booking space at either fine art shows or art and craft shows. You can develop your own annual circuit if you want. I found that developing a regular following mostly depended on doing the same shows year after year. There are some professional promoters that I used but for the most part, the one per year shows run by various groups had better sales with mostly lower costs.

High priced fine art wasn't necessarily a good seller because there's a somewhat limited market for it. Reproductions/prints and painted items that still had artistic merit usually faired better.

I haven't been in the business since I moved back to Ontario 7 years ago but at that time there were more shows than you could possibly imagine.

While not fine art I sold my work at both markets and art/craft shows all over the eastern seaboard for 14 years. Markets were where I went on weekdays so that I had minimal rent to pay because they always allowed you to stay on site...I spent the summer on Cape Cod that way, booking into overflow sites at the state park in between shows for next to nothing. I also had booth space at Shipeshewana in Indiana for several years.

Fine art shows are mostly juried and I always preferred craft shows that were as well since they made some attempt to keep the Asian import carp out, albeit it always seemed to sneak in.

If you're interested let me know and I'll dig up some links to show directories that I used to subscribe to.

 

[SinnTek]

Well most of my pencil / colored pencil artwork can be found here : http://aksysgamer.deviantart.com but I am looking at developing into the more advanced term of "Fine Artist" one day.

It's all a learning process for me right now though.

Any links are helpful though... I'm addicted to art. Still want to be a tattoo artist one day.

 

[Almost There]

Well most of my pencil / colored pencil artwork can be found here : http://aksysgamer.deviantart.com but I am looking at developing into the more advanced term of "Fine Artist" one day.

It's all a learning process for me right now though.

Any links are helpful though... I'm addicted to art. Still want to be a tattoo artist one day.

I must be way, way older than I feel....

Am I right that the artwork is of fantasy game players? If that's what it is, it's definitely a niche market! You might do well at fantasy gamers' conventions. Particularly if you've got numbered reproductions available.

I'd suggest before booking into them that you try attending a few in your location and check them out. Wander around and talk to a few of the more artistic vendors and ask about the sales. I stuck strictly to the craft end as opposed to the more purer art forms. Truthfully, while I'm fairly artistic and worked in several different mediums, a wall is about all I can paint...

The hard copy books I used to use have all gone the way of the dodo bird...

Here's a link to one of the event listing sites that was in it's infancy when I moved back to Ontario.

http://www.eventlister.com/events/

I'll keep looking for more.

 

[SinnTek]

I will definitely need to check out some of these sites.

My art is pretty much just whatever I feel like doodling at the time and tends to turn into huge projects. I have recently gotten into learning how to paint though so I do plan on doing realism as well.

I'm just a big fan of Japanese artwork as well as Neo-Traditional tattoo art, so it tends to go with that style more than anything.

Might even look into ways to get jobs doing graffiti on warehouses / clubs and such. I actually only started drawing / painting about 1 1/12 years ago. The main art form me before that was spray paint and music.

 

[angeli]

I will definitely need to check out some of these sites.

My art is pretty much just whatever I feel like doodling at the time and tends to turn into huge projects. I have recently gotten into learning how to paint though so I do plan on doing realism as well.

I'm just a big fan of Japanese artwork as well as Neo-Traditional tattoo art, so it tends to go with that style more than anything.

Might even look into ways to get jobs doing graffiti on warehouses / clubs and such. I actually only started drawing / painting about 1 1/12 years ago. The main art form me before that was spray paint and music.

SinnTek
I think your work is really fabulous and very skilled.  If I can suggest, as a 'fine artist' I've been to many many farmer's markets, craft fairs, art shows, etc and have had sold there.  You can see some of my more commercial, less realist, work here:  http://www.redbubble.com/people/artangeli

Yes, I've sold both artwork and jewelry at those places, but seriously, with the influx of mass made products, and the hardships and difficulties of the shows themselves, and the impact of the economy on people's buying power, for me - it's not worth the effort to put all my focus there.  Or rather it would be better to say that offline sales venues like craft or art fairs probably should not be the main or exclusive source of your sales.

I have, however, had luck selling both originals and prints online.  about a decade ago, I sold more originals, and now I wish I'd sold prints rather than the originals then.  Prints are the artist's version of passive income.  In other words, you can put them up for sale on a print on demand site and they just keep on making you money.  As long as you market them.  (Repeat after me:  MARKET THEM)

Both eBay and Etsy have been good sites for me for originals and prints.  You can also try Redbubble and Zazzle and Cafepress for POD.  Again, you have to market your work online so that people know you are there AND have an idea of who you are selling to.  You don't need to make art to fit the tastes of an audience.  ON the contrary, make your own work to your heart's content!  That's how we grow as artists.  But you do need to find the right audience for your work.  That is a subject for a whole other thread! 

Just to try it out, why don't you take a few photos and list one or two things on Etsy?  Do some self promotion.  Attend one of those craft fairs and hand out a few cards with your Etsy shop address, or your domain.  Just a suggestion.  It takes a while for people to know you and find you, but after seeing your work, my personal opinion is that it would be worth trying. 

Here's a list of online selling venues:  http://www.artsyshark.com/125-places-to-sell/
And you can vet the best of those at ecommercebytes dot com website in the vendor's yearly ratings list.

Good luck!

 

[Patrick46]

I'd like to tell SinnTek that I have been to lots of tattoo conventions, and there are ALOT of tattoo artists that sell their original art prints at them. There are usually a bunch of artists (like him) that set up and sell their work there too...and SinnTek's work is right up that street.

I see lots of influences of Chet Zar (whom I just happen to know).

So I think Sinn could give this a good shot...however, he hasn't been on this forum in several months.

 

[angeli]

I'd like to tell SinnTek that I have been to lots of tattoo conventions, and there are ALOT of tattoo artists that sell their original art prints at them. There are usually a bunch of artists (like him) that set up and sell their work there too...and SinnTek's work is right up that street.

I see lots of influences of Chet Zar (whom I just happen to know).

So I think Sinn could give this a good shot...however, he hasn't been on this forum in several months.

You know, that's an excellent idea.  Since it is a specialized niche, he'd have a lot more luck there than at an art show or craft fair, etc etc.  And his work is really worth pushing.  Maybe he'll come back and look at the posts.

PS - I love love your avatar.  Aygore is one of my favorite characters.  Marty Feldman was a comic genius (RIP).