5 tips art business

 5 tips art business

Im Welzie artist maui Hawaii. 

These are my 5 tips for your art business. 

You don’t have to be a starving artist. It doesn’t have to define you. 

A successful artist is one that can balance their creativity and commerce. 

Stick around till the end for a little bonus tip.

Don’t forget to like subscribe and watch the other videos I have the the artist starting their art career.

Stick around till the end for a little bonus tip.

TIP 1 - If you’re watching this that means you don’t know that much. So the tip is : Learn as much as you can. Being an artist you have to learn Business. It sucks, its not creative and you probably suck at it. I know I definitely did when I started. But you have to start somewhere. The biggest mistake I made was that I didn’t actively go out and try to learn. Take a business class, ask questions, read books. You have to take the business side seriously if you want to move forward with your art career. Hate to break the news to you, but the chances of someone coming along and doing the business for you and letting you just create are slim to none. Most artist have to spend a lot of their time on the business end of it. But do you know how they manage that? The get so good and quick at their art and formalize it that they can spend time on the business. Read Books, Study artists and what they do. Do art festivals, get your art into galleries and shops and start selling. All this will help you get going. The Business side of your art career 

INvest in yourself

You don’t know so learn understand that art business can be difficult but so is painting so just start. You will get better 

2

Start keeping track. Money. Data. Sales. Anolog or digital. How much comes in. How much goes out. My weakness was always ballparking and wanting it to work so bad I would make the numbers work. Don’t do this. It won’t help your business. Your time in the beginning is your least expensive thing because you want to do this more than anything else. Take the time to do it. 

3

Don’t stay under the table. Pay your taxes. Start your dba then lock then a corporation. 

Can’t grow unless you’re playing by the rules 

4

Learn how to make sales. Sales tactics. The better you get at sales the more you will make. The more you make the easier business is to run and operate 

5

Figure out when you’re good at making business stuff work. Ie first thing in the morning or late at night. When is your brain in business mode and when is it in creative mode and don’t mix. Designate the time for each. 

Discipline is a big part of art, but also business. Take the time to read a book. Take notes. Try and learn. It’s ok to mess up when you’re getting started. Don’t worry. We all do. But don’t get discouraged 

Recommend reading 

Art money success 

How to win friends and influence people 

Bonus tip - Get off instagram and spend that 10 min you save reading about business and sales. The time ads up and after a few months you will see a lot of improvement on your mindset and confidence.  

 5 tips for Making Art Prints for beginners

Once you dive in to the world of selling your artwork you will want to start selling prints. It’s like a musician selling albums.  A musician doesn’t want to perform live overnight, they want to see a recording of their best work. This is the same for an artist. You want to make artwork that is awesome, then sell prints of that artwork so you can continue to get financial gains from that artwork. If you are going to start doing prints of your artwork, here are a few tips I have from my experience selling prints of my artwork online and in my Maui Art Gallery

Tip #1 Quality Art Scans

Get high quality Images of your artwork. You’re looking for the highest resolution possible without breaking the bank. Can use a professional, or rent a camera, or try your phone depending on budget. Use natural light if doing it yourself, best on a lightly overcast day.

Tip #2 Use Standard Sizes

Plan on using standard sizing, 5x7, 8x10 and 11x14 for your artwork. Not only will this make your prices for making prints the most affordable, they will fit in standard frames, matts and bags etc. Start making your originals the sizes that can scale down to these sizes. Remember that 5x7 is actually an 8x10 Matt and bagged. And 8x10 is 11x14 and a 11x14 is 16x20

Also stick to one size at first. Variety is great, but it is a total hassle. I basically just do 11x14 to keep it simple. Id not have to have excessive inventory, or too many variants on pricing.

Tip#3 Choose top selling Designs first

Choose your prints based on what has sold or got the most attention. By doing this you can narrow down what you need to get printed. It is really frustrating having 400$ in prints that are not selling. Order or print 2-3 prints of a new piece if you’re unsure what the print response will be.

Tip#4 Package your art professionally

Put a bio sticker on the back of your print with a brief bio, picture of you the artist. Your website, email, and social media, so the collector can easily contact you if needed. My stickers are black and white 4’x4” and placed in the center of the back. No need for title etc on back of matted print.

Also Sign your prints. I sign mine on front right corner in black Posca pen. Sign your prints how you want but make sure that the artist name is visible to the person viewing the artwork.

Tip #5 Price accordingly

Paper prints have a lower price point than originals. Generally between 20-55$ for an 11x14 matted paper print. If you retail for 20$ that means you will only get 10$ wholesale if you sell to a gallery or boutique. Be conscience of your price. Also this is an affordable product so don’t give away too much value. For these small prints you don’t need to do a limited edition. Save those for the canvas or aluminum reproductions. 

Bonus Tip: Print your own prints. This will cost you some money in the beginning but you will save so much more by doing it yourself. You can do smaller print runs, try get the colors right before printing hundreds of dollars only to find out the colors are off. You can sell online and print to order. You can have a stack of paper ready to print. Its so much cheaper to do it yourself.

If you’re wondering what printer I recommend the Canon Pixima Pro 1000

The ink is the same quality ink used on the commercial printers, but it's a desktop. You only need to print 8x10 anyway so don’t pay for your prints to be done on a big expensive printer when you can get the same quality for cheaper. A printer won’t fix a bad scan or bad art, so make good art, get good scans, print it write, package it right and then get out there and start to show your work. Stay inspired. Aloha

Make sure to check out my artwork here in my Online art gallery 

Or See my artwork at the Welzie Art Gallery at the ANDAZ RESORT in Wailea Maui Hawaii