Advice please!?

Question

I am a 24 y/o stay at home mom with a dream of being a well known artist. I have a small start in painting sets and minor selling. What I want to know is how to better price my work and how to better sell my art. I do personalized peices and try to sell ones that I already have done. I don't have it in my budget to advertise, I rely on mostly word of mouth. I am not good at marketing or anything and need help! If you have any advice please tell!

Ok so I wasn't to far off in my pricing, I sold an acrylic portrait that someone asked me to do, for $150. It was a hard peice and one of the things I do to ensure that people will like my personalized work is let them see it and tell me what they don't like about it and I fix it to better suit them. Others I have sold for around $50-$75 for a 16X20 framed canvas. I usually sell graphite drawings for 10-20 bucks depending on how big they want it. I do have a portfoilo to take to galleries but the cut they want gives me cold feet! lol I will have to check out the coffee shops but most are starbucks around here! Word of mouth has only gotten me so far, mostly in the theatre community I am asked to do set painting and being community they don't pay but my name is in the program. I also did a free painting for one of a person in costume for use in a show hoping that someone would see it and ask about me. I do have business cards, however my source is no longer able to. so they are limited

Answer 1

Pricing your work can be tricky. Obviously you don't want to under price your work as people may not see you as a serious artist. On the other hand you don't have the reputation to command thousands for your work (not yet anyway). Adding to that is the fact that different mediums sell for different prices and it can be tough. I'll try to give you a couple guidelines though that seem to work for most people.

First, oil paintings generally sell for more than acrylics because oils cost more to begin with. After oils and acrylics it would likely be watercolors, pen & ink and then pencil drawings that would be cheaper. Larger pieces, of course, usually sell for more than smaller ones. A general way to figure out what to price a piece would be to, at the beginning of your career anyway, set an hourly wage for yourself that you would like (say, $10-$15 maybe) and then factor in the cost of your materials for the painting and multiply it by 2 and you can get a ballpark figure for what you might charge for the piece. So, if you wanted to make $10/hr to start and a painting took 3 hours to finish and cost you $10 in materials you would multiply your hourly wage by the time it took to complete it, then add in your materials and multiply by 2 (e.g. $10/hr wage x 3 hours to complete = $30 + $10 for materials x 2 = $80 sale price of painting). This figure can, of course, be adjusted up or down. If it was an especially difficult painting/drawing then you could up the price a little. Since you're just starting I would suggest selling anything other than oil or acrylic paintings for probably no more than $25 to $50 depending on the size and difficulty. Oil or acrylic paintings of a fairly standard 16" x 20" or so, on canvas, might sell for $75 to $120 depending on the subject.

As for selling your art, that's usually the most difficult part for artists. You could speak to gallery owners and see if they'll display your work. Be aware that they often want 50% of the price . Another way to get your work seen is to ask coffee shops, pubs, hair salons or any other place that people gather to display your work. Often they'll do this to support local artists or simply to have something to cover a bare wall. Generally they wont take a commission on anything sold but some might. If they want a cut they should get no more than 40% with you getting the other 60%.

You can also try setting up a booth at a local flea market/craft show. Unless you're sure your art will appeal to a wide range of people this might be best saved for later until you have a following as the cost to do this can end up being more than you'd make selling your work.

Personalized pieces are good. When you do a personalized piece you should include a business card along with the finished work so that even if the person you sold it to doesn't buy another piece they'll have your information to give to anyone who might see it. If you need business cards, check the link below. You can get them free for your first order and extremely cheap thereafter.

Word of mouth will probably be your best bet. Getting your work out there and seen will likely generate at least a few sales who will then, if they're happy with the piece, tell others about you. Usually people who buy art know others who do the same.

You might also try selling your work on eBay, eCrater or Etsy. I assume you're familiar with eBay so see the links below for info on eCrater and Etsy if you're not familiar with them.

Hope this helped and good luck to you!

Answer 2

This site can help you: http://www.net-art.it/artyou/enter.html