Selling Art - but where do you start?

So, I don't have an answer to this, or rather, I'm still figuring it out. Things I do know;

• Saatchi Positives: I do know it's the most-visited website for buying art in the West, along with Artsy. Today, I've been on this website for about seven years and have only sold prints. Negatives: Ethically, I'm not really aligned with this organisation for personal reasons. Also, the fees are really high.

• My Website Positives: You can pay me directly, whether you order prints or ask about buying art. No fees, just my commission. Negatives: I only post in the UK.

• Currently, I advertise and use Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, but this doesn't really count for selling art rather workshops.

• Exhibition Positives: people see the work in the flesh and know what they're getting. This is by far the best way to build a relationship with clients. Negative would be the gallery or exhibition space's fees. I am, however, looking into Open Studios next year, which I do feel really excited about. If you're in the UK and have ever watched Make it to Market, you'll know it's one of the things that comes up over and over again to raise people’s profiles and sales.

I still have a lot to do with my marketing, but my personal life has not been conducive to focusing solely on my art. I plan to expand my reach by joining Patreon at the end of the year and building an email list. Watch this space.

‘Oh’ Magazine Issue 55 - Illustrations for ‘The Way She Moves’ and the way it didnt move me…

So, having reached the top five in the Womankind Illustration Award in 2019, I pursued several publications that I knew accepted submissions from inexperienced illustrators. ‘Oh’ magazine got back to me and accepted me as an illustrator for an article on energy work. This was brought about by their positive response to my work, ‘Inner Space’.

Sadly, I didn't find the experience great because I don't thrive on vague communication. Their expectations were too high, given that I'm a traditional artist; I work in acrylics, coloured pencils, and so on. This is something to bear in mind if you are interested in illustration. I do not work digitally. Also, the pay was poultry but I understand a foot in the door can be really valuable in this industry.

I'm not going to label this a completely negative experience. Within all experiences, there's something to be learned. And it really just proved that I am an artist, not cut out to be a commercial illustrator. Illustrating my own briefs is more fun for me anyway. And seeing your work in a national magazne is always going to be enjoyable!

WOMANKIND INTERNATIONAL ISSUE 22 - To Illustrate or not to illustrate?

Womankind’s inaugural Art & Illustration Award was held in 2019 and received hundreds of entries from artists from around the globe.

The theme was ‘flower’, to which I submitted my entry ‘Daisy’, which made the final 5. This experience formally introduced me to illustration, helping me gain confidence in this forte.

I subsequently illustrated for a few magazines, but realised this type of work (freelance) wasn’t for me. So what could you learn from my experience? Well, of course, everyone’s different. But my main takeaways of professional illustration work as a neurodivergent person;

-Communication can be a problem. If people don’t come back to you re questions when you’re waiting to move on with work, then it’s a waste of valuable time, especially with deadlines looming

-Roughs don’t mean roughs. They mean produce something that’s ready to publish, or to the standard of work you sent in

-Money in the beginning can be terrible, more on that in a later blog