Selling Art

[Stardust]

I ran across a link on Tumblr (http://artcorgi.com/) and it got me thinking a little about artists. I don't sell or create much art myself, but every once in a while I've thought about working on my art skills again and I'm curious about this stuff.

For those of you who sell art, what are the wheres and hows that you've found work best for making sales?

Do you usually create threads on forums, like I've seen some people do here? Do you use a website like the one I found? How do you advertise and find work? I thought maybe sharing some ideas might help others out who are looking to get into the area, but maybe don't know where to begin or what to expect.

 

[noise shaman]

I have a website and most people find me through that; or through the graphics pack that I have on steam. I don't particularly do any advertising, but if someone mentions that they need graphics like in IRC or something I'll let em know that I'm available.

 

[coyotecraft]

Salesmanship is one of my weakest traits according to an aptitude test. (Although based on the questions I have no idea how it arrived at that conclusion)

I don't really advertise except to say I'm open. I just let people come to me. My philosophy is you shouldn't try to convince people to buy something. If you do a good job for someone, they'll probably comeback for more.

Another strategy I see on a lot of Art sites, Post every freak'n day. You don't need to understand anatomy or any elements of design. Your drawings can look like the doodles in a grade school notebook. You just need a presence and friends to score commissions. This used to make me bitter until I realized it wasn't about skill or craftsmanship. I'm sure there is a word for it. It's kinda like brand loyalty, you know? You can get better quality at a lower price anywhere else, but that's not the point.
Or like gift shops sell rocks you can get anywhere. The value isn't in the rock itself but where it came from.

 

[Stardust]

Another strategy I see on a lot of Art sites, Post every freak'n day. You don't need to understand anatomy or any elements of design. Your drawings can look like the doodles in a grade school notebook. You just need a presence and friends to score commissions. This used to make me bitter until I realized it wasn't about skill or craftsmanship. I'm sure there is a word for it. It's kinda like brand loyalty, you know? You can get better quality at a lower price anywhere else, but that's not the point.
Or like gift shops sell rocks you can get anywhere. The value isn't in the rock itself but where it came from.

I think you have a very good point here! I've noticed this with just about anything - blogs, tumblrs, twitter. If you post regularly, you tend to grow a larger audience because people remember your name. It makes sense. If you're scrolling through artwork and see this really excellent piece of art, you'll look at it, favorite it, maybe save it to your computer, then move. Then, if you see some artwork that's so-so, but you see something with that person's style every time you're browsing, you're probably going to pay more attention to them. I think a good word for it is familiarity. Because when you order from them, you know very well what the style is going to look like - you've seen it a lot of times. Whereas when you order from the person who has one very good piece, you're not precisely sure what else they can do and it's probably going to cost you a lot more!

Or at least those are my thoughts on it.