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7 Years Ago
Just wondering - do you ever photograph or paint or create art to sell - not just what 'you' might like - but with what someone else might have in mind to hang on their wall? or don't you give a fig?
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7 Years Ago
there is little point in making things that won't sell. making mud pies is fun, but they won't sell the average person.
i'll set out to make things that i hope should sell or themes that should do well. there would be little point wasting my time on things i know won't sell at all.
the only time i might spend, would be on talk about pieces. items i hope people will see, talk about and come to me. sort of like a sign spinner.
i still use my own style though, and people will have to like that or not. but they do, because i'm simply wonderful.
---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com
7 Years Ago
I love birds so it is a win win for me. Birds do sell in my area as long as they are coastal/water birds.
7 Years Ago
I have a different opinion on the subject. I paint and create what I love. If I create just to satisfy someone else, who's to say they will see my creativity in that process. Being true to self always shines through, don't you think?
7 Years Ago
I enjoy the process too much to really think about a piece selling until it is finished. At that time I decide if it has any hope at all. I would like to have it both ways...to work on what I love knowing it would sell but I do not have that figured out....I haven't a clue what I will sell.
Phyllis you are lucky to have that! To be able to paint your beautiful birds that you love and know you will make a sale.
7 Years Ago
Apparently I'm really good at making art I can't sell. :) It's not my intention of course, it's just the way it works out. I always start a painting with great hope...well, I used to. lol
7 Years Ago
I shoot what I love. Sometimes later someone finds I have shot what they love, too. I rarely think about what may sell until way after even processing it. I think it would suck all the fun and enjoyment out of it for me to do it otherwise
7 Years Ago
I paint what I feel best expresses what I need to communicate at the time. I don't care much about marketing but I do care about getting the work out there to be viewed by people.
7 Years Ago
I shoot to the best of my ability. Always try and refine my eye and sometimes hope for a little luck to capture something really nice.
7 Years Ago
Only if commissioned -- which is maybe 5% of my business. Otherwise, I stick to these tried and true steps:
Step #1 - Create what I please.
Step #2 - Try to find a buyer who's as pleased with the work as I am.
7 Years Ago
Your best work may be creating what you want to create - but I don't buy that your creativity cannot show in work that you create to make money. And I think of Michelangelo - look at his creativity in the Sistine Chapel.
Let us suppose that the people in your area were stuck on landscapes - would you create abstracts to please yourself and how many would you paint before you were out of room to store them and we will also pretend that you have an endless supply of money for your paint and canvas - perhaps you will find a day job that will let you be your creative self? Would you have to work as hard at selling your creation?
7 Years Ago
Yes, the marketability now taints everything I do and it's a bummer.
It is the number one source of criticism I get from others who go on field trips with me. They say I'm no fun any more. I used to take pictures of everything... textures in wood, macros, etc. However, now every potential good shot is qualified with "but will it sell?" and if the answer is no, I move on.
Taking pictures used to be fun. But when sellability becomes a priority, it no longer is.
7 Years Ago
there are really only 2 ways to make money at this:
1. make a style and get everyone to like it.
2. find the thing people like and make that.
you can combine the two like i do. not all things i do are interesting or fun. i make them because i think they will sell. i find the things i do for fun, sit there and rot for the most part. a few worked.
it breaks down simply, if this is a hobby, do your own vision. if this is your job, jobs aren't fun, making things that others might light makes sense. if i have a hit on an experimental, i'll make more to see if it was a fluke or a winner
if i was a painter, i'd do the same thing, these things need space to store, and there are supplies to tend too. one has to decide do i please myself or the buyer? and if you can do both. people buy your work because they do like your style. and the things that you make advertise you. so painting on a church ceiling is probably one of the best examples of advertising yourself. so making it the best you can make it is a good idea for future jobs. do a bad, uncreative job on it, and not only do you have an upset client, but you'll probably starve from that point on. even if he didn't like doing it (not sure if he did or not), he had to do his best.
---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com
7 Years Ago
When I paint or take photos I never think of if they sell, I do it because I enjoy it. However with all the years I been creating and selling I knew what I make has the audience and buyers and it just matter of when will be sold. if one constantly question if it sell will only limited your creativity and enjoyment of making art.
7 Years Ago
My first store was an experiment. 220 works of derivative work that was very different intellectually than other work. I am now sorting out how to sell it. Which basically means how to find the right audience.
The second store, 84 works, is simply for music lovers. I wanted to take my PS skills in a totally new direction.
It is not an either/or to me. I put my creativity first, but finding my market later matters to me. I do not worry about any of it. Worrying leads to bad personal and business decisions. Just my take away.
The internet's demand is so great that there is an audience for all the art we produce. It becomes more a matter of quality in what we produce than what we actual produce. JMO
Dave
7 Years Ago
If you rely on your "Art" for your sole source of income, you better believe that you have to keep saleability in mind when creating.
And if the piece test your creativity, and you enjoy doing it, it's a WIN-WIN
7 Years Ago
"...but I do care about getting the work out there to be viewed by people."
That requires marketing too.
7 Years Ago
Yes and no.....
Yes, I try and create art that has a market.
No, I do not sell out nor do I ever shoot anything I don't want to shoot. BUT, given two things I want to shoot where one has a market I will choose the one with the market every day and twice on Sunday.
7 Years Ago
I think that, in the end, it depends on your need to sell.
If I depended on 100% of my photos to survive, I would to join the paparazzi... or shooting conflicts in Rio's slums in first person to sell them for CNN or someone who would appreciate this stuff. That's photography as well and entry is relatively affordable. But, if I want to do that? Well, let's say I admire who does (a lot!)...
Lately I've been thinking as follows: I'm not on the FAA to sell my pictures. I'm here to make them salable. I mean, I am what I sell and I sell what I sell. I hope that one day someone is interested in what I sell. If I need to move, I lose the focus. :)
Another detail: People insist on trying to abbreviate results. None of this will happen from night to day. If everyone folds protographing birds because today everyone shoots them, then one day few will photograph them. And even if they do not stop, certainly cease to invest in serious works related to the theme. But I did not stop (in fact, I'm just starting!) and in the long run, it is fine who endures to the end.
I am a kind of conservative investor-artist and I hope that my analysis is right.
If all goes well, I will live to see.
7 Years Ago
Marketing refers to sales, I am interested in getting it out to be viewed. Often at college galleries (Which sell very little) or art centers or museums or publications. Currently I like my situation since "marketing" is done for me through the gallery. If I were dependent on sales for my living then my attitude would most likely be different. One side note to that was I did try to make my living through sales for about three years. I made no compromises and paid the price by making few sales. My compromise has been time, teaching art is a time sucker and it takes a certain amount of discipline to be able to create art. Seems to work ok for me and now I am about 5-8 years from retirement so I don't see major changes for me till then.
7 Years Ago
Whether you are seeking sales or publicity the same skills and activities are required, I consider it all to be marketing. Whatever you are seeking you have to promote to get it.
7 Years Ago
Perhaps but the definition of the term is not the same. I would refer to it as promoting rather than marketing which is solely concerning sales.
7 Years Ago
My work primarily has narrow subject appeal due to its location,.....I feel a strong connection to my subject and therefor draw interest from a narrower group of buyers.
Moreso than shooting to sell,...I feel composition is the key element,....composing in the viewfinder (utilizing the camera frame to it's best potential while shooting),..all within my chosen local of work .
If I do my job well,...the viewer will sense the balance within each photograph and enjoy the experience enough to want to have it on the wall to continue appreciating.
Sometimes it's tough to be creative on demand,...feels like burnout,....but I return to locations knowing there is something within I have yet to connect with that will have selling potential.
Don't know if I got off subject there,....just my particular thoughts.
Marty Saccone
7 Years Ago
I think Ricky Nelson got it right in his song "Garden Party" and I agree with him...
"But it's all right now, i learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself"
Bill Tomsa
http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/
7 Years Ago
I would say it depends on what your goal is.
If your goal is to "have fun" then make whatever you want,
If you want to make money, you better make what some people want,
If you want to make a living, you better make art that as many people as possible will like.
Of course sometimes things you like to do turn out to be things people like to buy, then you are lucky!
After three years of selling art I find I make more of an effort to think of things to do that will sell over what I like. I did plenty of what I liked when I started doing this.
7 Years Ago
I wrote a thread on this awhile back, regarding photography. It has since been closed for inactivity but you can still go read it. There were some great thoughts in the thread I thought.
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2421741&showall=true
7 Years Ago
I do work on commission occasionally. It's for a buyer, so of course it's to sell.
Even so, most of the commission work I've done has been totally fun to do. I've never done commission work that is a piece of art I would have thought to make if left to my own devices and the demands of my own muse.
7 Years Ago
To put it another way....I like to make sales...well..I love to make sales. So shooting thing that sell means I love what I shoot...even if I don't like it.
7 Years Ago
No. I just create what I create. If somebody like it that's great. If not, so be it. Cheers.
7 Years Ago
I call myself a "parts" photographer! Why? Because I find beauty in fine details. Whether that sells is entirely up to a consumer. People are going to invest in something they "Love". So why not take pictures of what you love. There are millions of people in this world, not everyone is going to "feel" the same sense of awe and wonder as I did when I captured a picture that was rich in textures. Such as my flowering red hibiscus leaning against the deep furrows of the bark of a tree. They may not want a huge picture of that on their walls, but with FAA they can get it as a notecard!
Photography is a very difficult business to be in. It's not for the faint-hearted!! You have to put yourself out there!! You can use social medias, get yourself a website, and/or use a site such as Fine Art America. Advertise (if your church has a bulletin start there, its really inexpensive), do the art fair circuit, craft shows around the holidays, farmer's markets. Knock on doors! Go into those trendy boutiques, ask if they would sell a few pieces of a local artists' work. You'd be surprised at how accommodating they are if your from the neighborhood. Check with your city hall, do they have an art commission? Would they put your art work up in the library? Does this library lend works of art to local businesses? Go to restaurants, would they like photos of your states' landmarks to put on their walls?
Let's face it...Art is expensive!!! Personally, I feel that art should be affordable. Everyone should be able to own a piece of artwork, be it a photograph, canvas, sculpture, etc. If they chose a piece of mine I would be honored and greatly pleased.
7 Years Ago
No, I'm just pleasing myself. Marketing is not pleasing to me...not that what pleases me would appeal to the general public anyway.