How did you start selling your art? And how does it work? Is it like a print on demand thing or do you actually create all the pieces yourself? For every commission? I’m so curious because I’m an artist too and don’t know where to actually start to sell.. sorry to bother.. I could totally ask ai.. but I guess real life people with own experiences are a better option ☺️
Hi! VERY long response ahead.
Let me start of by saying I'm glad you asked, and I'd rather you ask me or another person than AI any day, because I think that technology sadly is doing a lot of damage both environmentally and socially. And I agree with you that real people's experiences are invaluable!
With that said, how people sell their art varies a lot from person to person, and there are different things you'd need depending on your goals. I'm not qualified to give advice on everything, for an instance I can't give advice on how to start taking commissions, and I can't give advice on business related things in other countries than my own. I'm also not very qualified on how to get hired on different productions, since I'm an independent artist.
Honestly my path to selling my art wasn't very linear, and involved a lot of struggle. I started off with taking a few commissions from people I knew every now and then a long, long time ago, and tried more "normal" jobs without success after that before I landed on opening my shop and selling my original art.
It depends on what you mean by creating all the pieces myself: Yes I make all my art myself, however I generally do not produce my merch beyond the design phase myself anymore, and order stock from print shops and manufacturers instead. I don't use print on demand partially because I haven't really found a service I trust for it, and partially because storing the stock myself works a lot better for me since I also table at conventions sometimes.
I actually did start out making all my merch in house though, when it was only stickers and prints. I had invested in a good printer and a Cricut cutting machine, and that kept costs low in the beginning. I moved on to outsourcing the making of my products in the end because it saved me a lot of time, and because there are some things that will never be as high quality when made at home. However I still think if you can afford some equipment to produce your merch yourself, that is a good way to start out since you don't have to worry about minimum order quantities, and you're free to experiment and figure out what works for you.
Some blanket advice I'd give anyone starting out though:
Figure out how you want to sell your work. Do you want to get commissions, and if so, personal or commercial? Do you want to get hired for things like game and film productions? Or do you want to sell your work independently? Online or in real life? What are the pros and cons of each?
When you've decided, try to find people who are doing what you want to do and see what they're doing to make it work. Please note that not everyone is as successful as it seems though, and social media numbers are not a good indicator of that.
Practice caution if you want to make this your job, especially in the beginning, and make sure you have all your financial needs covered elsewhere, since it usually takes a long time to build up an art career.
If you're going independent, check what the laws and regulations around starting a business are. Do you need to register your business right from the start, or can you earn up to a certain limit before you have to register? What taxes do you need to keep in mind? And make sure you have a solid handle on the bookkeeping from the start, whether you do it yourself or hire someone to help you.
If opening a shop, I'd advice at least initially to pick a platform that is free or cheap to use, and has a built in market. I started off on Etsy, but I'm sure that is the best choice anymore since fees have skyrocketed and it just doesn't function as well anymore.
In order to find people who like your art, the best thing is actually not to focus on selling it. It's genuinely making friends with your peers and finding community. Not only will you grow together and inspire and help each other, but friends make life a lot more bearable. Might sound a bit paradoxical to prioritise friendships over selling, but opportunities will come by more often when both you and people around you practice having a good time and caring about your community.
With that said, you still do need to make it known what you offer on a regular basis and get very comfortable talking about it. But don't expect it to always lead to sales and/or opportunities, or you could be in for a very bad time. View it more as an opportunity to talk about something you like and make people aware of what you offer than expecting immediate results.
Know that art rarely is a stable career. Be prepared for a lot of failure and rejection. If you want to make money off it, there are ways to do that, but I think you need to have a purpose for yourself that is more important to you than money.
And on that note: You can't know if you can do this without trying. But test the waters gently and do also look for indicators that it could work without jumping in head first. Risk taking is a part of this career, but make it risks you can afford and manage.
I hope this makes sense. I know this was LONG but there is so much going into it, and these are just surface level things I can think of right now :') I'm sure there's a ton I missed, and it's hard to give specific advice without knowing the goals of the person asking, but I hope this was helpful. Best of luck to you!
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