Ok. You have made the decision to become a full time artist. Let's go for it!! The first thing you have to learn is the very hard truth that about 10% of your time will be used in creating new art. The remaining 90% will be spent running your art business.
Surprised? You shouldn't be. Selling any kind of product requires being in business, which requires you to spend part of your time being a business person. The books have to be maintained, sales tax has to be collected and paid, licenses must be obtained, reports have to be filled out for state and federal agencies, profit and loss statements must constantly be monitored to see if your head is above water...well you get the idea. When starting out, you really need a written business plan, at least for yourself, that outlines all of these details just so you don't forget them.
Then comes the sales and marketing part. Deciding how your art is going to be sold, who to sell it to, how and when to sell it, how to market yourself and get your name out there and how to collect names of customers who buy your art for possible future sales. All these and much more require a marketing plan to be written and updated, again, again for your own needs. You should also read some books on how to promote yourself.
Then there is the technical part that ties into marketing. I'll just focus on 2D art for this part as it is what I know best. Besides creating the art, you need to think about making reprints of the originals, frames for both the originals and various size reprints, cutting mats for paper reprints, backing boards, plastic bags, wiring frames for hanging, protective sprays, stretching canvas for originals and canvas reprints, and more.
See what I mean? 10% creating...90% running a business. Even my short experiences as a full time artist has proven this to be true. It is so wonderful when that 10% time comes along. There is nothing better than shutting out the world and creating something new.
But let's cut to the chase and assume that you know how to run a business and you know all about the technical parts like matting and framing. Now, we need to focus on how and where to sell your works. In other words, sales and marketing.
Boiling it all down to basics, there are three places to sell your works: The Internet, festivals and galleries.
First, the Internet. This takes a bit of work to get up and keep going as you are trying to market both yourself and your art works. So you need to keep it updated all the time with new works, new appearance schedules, articles, and more. You also need a secure way to collect money on the Net when you make a sale. I will just cut to the chase on this one and say while you really need to have an Internet site, it isn't going to do much good until people get to know you and your works. Then it will come in very useful as your fame starts to pick up steam. Just don't leave it until then as web sites take time to put together.
Next comes festivals. This is where you need to concentrate most of your time when starting out and even when you become more well known. Art festivals, and other kinds of festivals occur all year long, but the best ones for an artist are those that run between May and September. And there are hundreds and hundreds of them all over the country.
These are almost all outdoor shows. Be aware that there are different kinds of festivals and shows. There are the pure art shows (like Salem Art Festival, the Richland Allied Arts Sale, and the Shoreline Arts Festival); the art shows mixed with another theme (like art and wine festivals or art and jazz festivals); and art shows that occur in tourist towns (like Leavenworth and Lake Chelan here in Eastern Washington).
Then there are shows that are part of some bigger event like county fairs...the Apple Blossom Festival, Ephrata's Sage and Sun, and the Edmonds Waterfront Festival. Finally, there are the Christmas shows that occur in Nov. and Dec.
My advise to new artists, based on experience, is to stay away from the latter two types. Christmas shows are expensive and people tend not to buy art as gifts for other people as they are not sure if they will like it. I have had sales at Christmas, but it usually comes from relatives and friends who know that the person they are gifting really loves my work.
The other shows like county fairs and town festivals are usually (but not always) pretty bad for artists. Its the mostly the wrong kind of crowd for artists that come to these shows and they are coming mostly for the wrong reasons, as far as you are concerned. They are there for carnival rides, the food and other things not related to art.
Another good reason to stay away is that many of these shows are very expensive to do. Oh yes, I think I forgot to mention that all these shows cost money to be in. Many shows, like Apple Blossom Festival, bring in thousands of people (hence a large show fee), but most of them are not the least bit interested in buying your work
No, the kind of shows that you want are ones that are almost strictly related to art. In others words, the kind of shows where people are coming to primarily look and buy art. The only catch here is that all these shows require jurying. What's that, you say?
I will explain that in the next episode.
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