Where How to Best Sell Your Art Work

How to sell your own artwork

Information technology should be said in the get-go line of this guide that selling fine art is not piece of cake. Whether through a gallery, through an online platform, or out of your own studio, making a auction of your own work volition be challenging—but information technology can also be exciting.

I've been selling art for more than seven years, starting time as an independent curator showing fine art in whatever space I could find, then as the co-possessor and director of Louis B. James Gallery, and at present at the gallery yours mine & ours. The main thing I've learned over the years is just how much time and energy it tin can take to go someone to commit to acquiring an artwork. While this guide volition give you a lay of the land for selling your ain fine art, it's important to know that just as everyone's personality is different, each artist's experience selling their piece of work will too exist unlike. So as you experiment with different means to sell your artwork to different collectors, remember to be flexible, be yourself, and try to have some fun in the process.

— RJ Supa

Editor'southward note: This guide is part of a series on making a living.

Marketing yourself and your work

The question I'yard virtually often asked by artists who want to sell their own work is, "How do I go people to know that I make art in the get-go place?" This is a good question, because the first pace in getting people to see (and somewhen buy) your work is by letting them know that there is work to be seen.

Promoting yourself on social media

These days, the nigh obvious mode to permit people know that you brand art is by promoting your practise on social media. It's gratis to use, fairly like shooting fish in a barrel to figure out, and tin can start getting your work on people'due south radar immediately. I know lots of artists who had never shown in a gallery before, merely who were able to generate business solely through their Instagram account.

Personally, I prefer to follow social media accounts that reflect an artist'south unique personality, and which don't just feel like a grid of paintings. Taking a more casual approach to your social media posts will also free you up to simply be you, and will convalesce the fear that you need to arts and crafts an image on social media that isn't true to who you lot really are.

Beyond simply posting about your artwork, there are lots of ways to bring your social media audiences into the fold of your exercise. I strongly believe that anything art-related tin (and should) be posted, whether it'south a formal review of your work, an consequence flier about an upcoming grouping show, or a aboveboard snap from your senior crit.

Putting yourself [physically] out there

While social media is amazing for reaching a large audience quickly, another effective fashion to put your piece of work on people's radar is to physically put yourself out there. This means being as social as you can be, and ever introducing yourself as an artist outset and foremost—fifty-fifty if you're paying the bills past waiting tables, answering phones, or didactics four adjunct classes at your local community college.

What it comes downwards to is that you are your own best marketer. Simply letting people know that y'all make work will lead to questions about what it is, and where it can be seen. In turn, this creates an opportunity to invite someone into your studio to run into what you lot make.

Editor's note: For more than tips on promoting your own fine art, read A creative person'southward guide to thoughtful promotion.

Showcasing bachelor works on your website

Having a website to showcase your work (especially your available work) is also a necessity. You don't need it to exist fancy, just factual. Personally, when I've decided to seek out an artist's website, I'm ready to go downward to business. I want to see conspicuously labeled photographs of private works, an up-to-date CV, any relevant press, and a brief argument that sums up their practice. In my stance, the all-time artist websites are easy to curl or click through, and so an interested viewer can scan betwixt artworks without difficulty.

Documenting your piece of work

If yous don't accept a good photographic camera and can't have peachy images of your work, find someone who can. Y'all must resist the temptation to only document your work via your smartphone'south camera. If you can't afford a professional lensman for every slice you make—and many artists tin can't—exercise a trade. Ask a photographer friend if she'll trade documentation of your piece of work for a slice or two. There are lots of creative ways to assist yourself along that don't accept to toll a lot of money.

If some of your works are hard to photograph, brand sure there are enough of detail shots available on your website so the viewer can get a sense of the work's surface and overall composition. Also, include photographs from multiple angles. If your goal is to get people interested in your fine art through images, they demand to practise a good job showcasing the piece of work, in all of its nuanced glory.

I more note on documentation: ever brand sure each artwork has been photographed before information technology leaves your studio. Who knows what volition happen to your career in 10 years, and what that one specific artwork will come to hateful. Down the line, you may need documentation of the piece for your beginning museum retrospective. Or, you may never run across the piece of work again because the collector won't let it exit their house. Either way, yous'll want an image on file for your catalog raisonné.

Selling art straight through your website

The easiest style to make your work bachelor to potential buyers on your website is past putting up a unproblematic statement like: "For inquiries on purchasing an artwork, please contact me at [your email address]." For this purpose specifically, e'er make certain your contact information is clear, upward to date, and easy to discover on your site. If someone finds y'all online and becomes interested in purchasing a work, don't add together friction to the process by burying your email address.

If you want to get fancy, you may cull to sell your work through an online shop. This is a bit more difficult to set up, and if you programme to let customers pay for works right through your website, you'll end up giving abroad a percentage of your profit to payment processors like PayPal or Foursquare. However, enabling website visitors to brand purchases without directly emailing you does have its benefits. For ane, detailing your available works and their prices in an online shop allows interested buyers to easily encounter which of your works are for sale, and get a sense of your prices without the awkwardness of emailing to enquire. Either way, equally you design your website, exist sure to split up your store from the documentation of your piece of work, and so your website doesn't experience like a digital garage sale.

Having an online store dedicated to selling cheaper items (such as editions, prints, zines, pins, t-shirts, or posters) can also help to go your name out in the world. A lot more people can buy a $5 zine than a $500 painting, after all.

Editor's note: For more tips on what an artist'due south website tin can exist, read an essay on the topic by Laurel Schwulst.

How to price your art

In the fine art world, pricing is set with a very flexible formula of exhibition history, previous sales, size of work, and your costs. However, it helps to know that there is really no right or wrong way to price your work.

As a general dominion of thumb for making sales as an emerging artist, keep the works in your online shop cheap. People are going to be much more inclined to spend $fifty on a ten-by-10-inch cartoon than on a $1,000, xl-by-xl-inch painting, specially without having seen it in person first.

As you and your work evolve from undergrad to grad school and beyond, your prices should increase slowly. Once y'all're out of schoolhouse—or if you never attended school—yous are a working creative person, and your prices can reflect this. The more yous exhibit and the more people purchase, the more you can increase your prices, just again, do this very gradually.

As you begin to brand more sales, be prepared to be flexible. For example, if you lot have 10 twoscore-by-40-inch paintings for auction at $1,000 each, and someone wants to buy 2, offer a substantial disbelieve (perhaps $one,500 for both) can help seal the bargain. Even as a gallerist, I tell each creative person I piece of work with that there volition be a guaranteed 10% discount for collectors buying one work, a fifteen% discount for those interested in ownership two works, and a xx% disbelieve for collectors interested in purchasing 3 or more. And, even this formula is flexible depending on the collector and the work.

Finally, consider your costs—including the cost of your time. If each new drawing costs you $20 to make because of materials, and takes a couple days of your time to produce, so a $50 cost point clearly doesn't brand sense.

Information technology can be tricky to determine on prices, and so talk to your friends, enquire art dealers or professors you know for their tips, and just talk to others who take made sales themselves. Another good way to get a sense for how your piece of work should be priced is by direct researching the prices of other artists whose work and feel levels are comparable to yours. You tin do this by browsing available works on their website (if their site lists prices), or when you're at their gallery testify, ask to see the toll list. Endeavour to find out how these artists announced to be doing with sales, and employ that as a foundation to plan your ain pricing.

On selling your work with an advisor'south help

Art advisors can work for an individual, a family unit, or a corporation to assistance them build an art collection. Often this happens when a collector is besides busy to encounter many shows, do studio visits, or search for new artists on their own. If this is the example, collectors may seek out a trusted expert to propose and educate them, and to assistance them notice up-and-coming artists to piece of work with. Banks, hotels, hospitals, and restaurants are among a number of businesses that often piece of work with advisors to collect artwork by ownership directly from artists.

If you're hoping to work with an fine art advisor, the about important matter yous need to do is make your work equally discoverable as possible. This is where the right hashtag on social media can be a real benefaction. On more than one occasion, I've searched Instagram for a specific client or advisor using the #abstractpainting #sculpture #outdoorscultpure, etc tags. So know that if you lot build it, and properly label/promote it, they will come. Additionally, when y'all're out in the world at openings and other art events, you're likely to meet art advisors, as going to these types of events is a large part of their task. If yous see an art advisor, having a business card on hand with uncomplicated contact information (name, phone, email, website) will allow them to quickly search your site and see if any of your work might brand sense for their clients.

If an advisor offers to help sell your work, brand sure y'all understand the terms upward front. Many advisors get paid by their clients (the collector), but some will take a pct of the sale (generally between 10%—20%). All of this is industry standard, just it's necessary that you sympathise this before your work is offered for sale. You never desire to exist in a place where a collector is trying to move frontward with purchasing your work, and yous're yet trying to negotiate the fiscal aspects of the deal.

On working with galleries

When working directly with a gallery, know that you lot'll accept to split the profits from any sales. Generally, the gallery volition take about l% of a work'due south sale cost. While information technology may seem crazy to give abroad one-half of your money, galleries will be able to get your work out to a larger audience than you'll be able to reach on your own. They may also exist able to sell a drawing that you lot would accept sold out of your studio for $200 for $two,000, since they know their clients' interests all-time, and can assist lend credibility to your do.

When you go the adventure to work with a gallery for a group show, fine art fair, or via the gallery'south online store, make sure you become all the details of the relationship in writing. Ask them for a assignment agreement that covers the cost that they'll list your piece of work for sale at, the length of fourth dimension they'll accept your work on assignment, the terms of sale, and how any potential discounts volition be shared. If a work is sold by a gallery, you should also expect to receive a class with the buyer'due south data so you can keep it on tape in your own files. Check out "documentation" beneath (in the pricing section) to farther explore what should exist on any consignment agreement or invoice.

Editor's note: For more on this subject, consult the guide, How to work with galleries and collectors as an emerging artist.

On commissions, loans, and gift-giving

Commissions

If you're ever asked to a exercise a commission (for example, a portrait of a collector's domestic dog, a sculpture in a detail location, or a performance for a collector's wedding, etc), the first thing to do is to make sure the terms are written down and agreed to. You'll also want to brand sure that once the work is started, at that place can be no refund on the down payment, and that once the work is completed, the piece of work cannot be returned if the collector doesn't like information technology.

Once a contract for a commission is signed, y'all should ever require a 50% down payment of the concluding sale price. In my stance, this is non-negotiable. In the terms canvass, it should also be stated that if the commission is canceled, inverse, etc, the down payment is non-refundable. And while information technology's possible to modify the scope of the committee while it's in progress, brand sure your contract notes that any changes could result in charging the collector extra money to cover your fourth dimension and any additional expenses.

Loans

Often, fine art shows can take place in hotel rooms, java shops, bank lobbies, or at friends' houses. In these instances, there might not be a huge opportunity for sales, since it's more of a curatorial undertaking. But who knows what can happen! Whenever you loan out your work—whether information technology's for a casual prove at a friend'due south pop-up shop, or for something more established—make sure yous get or provide a consignment agreement. This agreement should always detail the length of the loan, and (should a sales opportunity arise) the details of how a transaction tin can work. For instance, volition the friend who'southward hosting a evidence in his living room take a percent of the auction if their roommate buys your piece of work?

Gifts

Y'all can gift your work to anyone you want, fifty-fifty institutions (although there'southward no guarantee that they'll take information technology). Often, nonprofits, cultural institutions, or friends will seek out artists to donate works for their fundraisers and benefits. This is a great mode to become your proper noun and work seen by a larger collector base and raise money for a cause you intendance about. And, you can write off the value of the work when you exercise your taxes. If you lot brand a gift of your work for i of these occasions, always try to negotiate a ticket or two to the event, every bit these are unremarkably a great opportunity to network.

With annihilation that'south leaving the studio, you'll want to have a proper paper trail and documentation (think: loftier-quality photographs) of the piece or pieces. And, fifty-fifty with gifts, you'll desire to continue records of the transaction. Your career volition be in a different identify in five, 10, or xv years and the more than information you take at your disposal virtually who has your works, the better.

Selling your fine art through online platforms

In improver to creating your own online shop, in that location are many other ways to sell your art online. From Cocked to Etsy, Paddle viii to Deviant Art, there are a plethora of platforms that tin aid showcase your work to a wider community.

Some sites require that your work is already shown through a gallery or fair (like Artsy), while others (like Paddle viii) are more often than not looking for works by artists with name recognition then they can more easily marketplace it to their audiences.

As you weigh your options, know that each platform volition have its ain price and/or commission model, so do your research and get a sense of the pros/cons of each site. These days, it seems similar almost every online retailer is dipping its toe into the art globe, then every bit you do your research, y'all might also desire to cheque out the options on not-traditional platforms like Ebay and Amazon. Finding the right online platform is about choosing the space that fits the needs of you lot and your work, and almost recognizing where information technology'll be the easiest to find people who like (and who want to buy) your art.

While they aren't sales platforms, online artist registries are another blazon of platform that can assist lead collectors to you lot. White Columns has, arguably, the all-time-known registry. Y'all usually have to use and be approved to be a part of a registry, merely many art world people use these lists to find new works, and they've been a skillful launching footing for a number of nifty artists. Personally, I've discovered artists on these sites who I've and so gone on to represent at the gallery.

On getting paid

1 yous've done all the self-promotion, studio visits, and emailing back and along and you've finally made a sale (!), the adjacent step is getting your money. It should go without proverb that you should never plow over an artwork without having received payment in full. Once a check has cleared, then you should become the piece wrapped and fix to go. Of form, yous tin can likewise request payment via Venmo, PayPal, or whatever works best for you lot. That's the piece of cake part! Before this happens, though, be sure to take all the post-obit in place when endmost a auction.

Documentation of sale & invoice

For your records, whatsoever fourth dimension you make a sale you'll desire to generate an invoice that clearly details what was purchased, how much was paid, whether or non at that place was a discount, and the terms of the sale. It'southward always a good idea to put "no refunds, no returns" on the invoice, and to stipulate how much the piece was valued at versus how much it sold for (for example, if the retail value was $1,000, but information technology was bought for $600, noting the twoscore% discount ensures that the documented value of the work remains at $1,000).

In your invoice, you should also include a copyright section. This is because if the collector ever decides to publish an image of your work or showroom information technology in a show, you'll desire to exist given proper credit. The copyright section can be equally simple as detailing the work'south title, creation date, and your name. Even so, if you want to be sure an image of your piece of work doesn't finish up on a tote bag or t-shirt without your explicit permission (and without giving you lot a cut of the profits!), you'll too want to include a argument of rights. A little online sleuthing tin can assist you lot notice some canned linguistic communication that feels like the right corporeality of copyright protection for you and your artwork.

It's also a good idea to include a cursory sentence or ii about being able to borrow dorsum the work for a futurity exhibition or retrospective.

Finally, many galleries include "the right of start refusal" on their invoices. This protects you and your artwork and allows the seller—in this instance, yous—to purchase dorsum the work if information technology always gets to the signal where the collector wants to sell.

Before you close out the sale, both parties should sign a copy of the invoice for your personal records.

In summary…

Overall, selling artwork is about developing good communication skills and existence patient. Putting yourself out there as an artist is the first step. Spending time at galleries, open up studios, and other related events will help to establish you equally a member of the community and lead to introductions, studio visits, and eventually, sales.

One final thing to proceed in mind: even if no one is buying your art now, there's no reason they won't be in a yr, or even in a month or two. Keep making connections, and keep your community informed about all that's going on with y'all and your practice. Let people know that your work is for sale, and where/how they tin can collect it. And every bit y'all continue to develop your deal-sealing skills, inquire questions, don't be afraid to f*ck up, and be flexible. Every collector, artist, friend, art gallery, independent curator or art advisor will piece of work differently based on their own individual needs, and the best style to work with them is to exist upfront and transparent about your ain needs.

Now get back to the studio and showtime networking!

Almost the Author

RJ Supa

Gallerist, Curator, Visual artist

RJ Supa is the co-possessor and director of yours mine & ours gallery in New York. Previously he owned and ran Louis B. James gallery for five years. He is also an independent curator and artist, and has exhibited and performed internationally at such spaces equally Salon 94, Cuevas Tilleard, New Release, the Kunshtalle in Baden-Baden, Germany and Steirischer Herbst in Graz, Austria. His work was most recently reviewed in The New Yorker for a group exhibition, titled Mother's House.

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Source: https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/how-to-sell-your-own-artwork/

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