Tips For Becoming a Professional Artist

I was talking recently to a friend who is a professional painter. He makes a living from making and selling art. I asked him about how he was able to make a living and feed and house himself from this precarious existence. Many so called full-time artists in reality depend on their pension from their early retirement from a "proper job" to make ends meet but he does not have this. I was keen to learn some of his secrets. This is what he told me.

Paint and Draw Every Day

He said he started being an artist because he loved painting and drawing and making things. Even if he has no client that he is working for or an exhibition for which he is trying to prepare he still produces work every day. "This keeps my mind active and my hands skilled." He told me that his speed of working has increased as he gets so much practice so that when he gets a commission he can achieve a good result much quicker than it used to take him. And it also has the benefit of building up hi portfolio so that he has on hand a huge range of work that he can pull out at a few moments notice to show potential clients.

It follows on from this that if you have a big stock of work available you have a greater chance of taking it out at every opportunity to show it to potential clients or customers and show it at fairs stalls or exhibitions. Being creative does not only apply to how you prepare your work but also to the ways in which you find to market yourself.

Marketing

This is the big secret. If you are working for yourself you can never stop promoting yourself. It has to be a constant thing. He told me that he is always looking for new ways to sell pictures or show his work to the public. Some creative people fail because they are just not hard nosed enough about the business side of self employment.

Don't Pay Other People for what you can do yourself

If you want mounts make them. Learn the secrets of framing. You will have to invest to get the proper equipment but this is a serious business proposition. Work out how much you spend in a year on mounts and frames and then work out how much it would cost you to do this yourself. Add to this how much you could earn if you do some framing for other people to make full use of your equipment. If you work it out on paper properly then you will make an informed choice on business realities not on a creative whim. Learn how to make a professional website but more on that later.

Your Specialism

You will probably get known for one type of thing - perhaps painting horses or street scenes. But he told me that the successful artist uses this but also importantly has other strings to their bow. There will always be other styles or artifacts that they can produce which may provide another income stream and appeal to a different market. The art market is notoriously fickle and if you only produce one style of pictures and that goes out of fashion and you haven't anything else then you are finished. Diversification is important - if you are a creative person there will be loads of related things that you will enjoy doing.

The Internet

One of the things he said which surprised me was don't stint on your web site. Everyone has a web-site these days. Yours has to be really good if it is going to sell pictures and not just look like something some school kids designed for you for a couple of tenners. Keep it up to date and make sure the selling side of it is verified as secure for handling credit cards. People are justifiably suspicious of putting their credit card details into web sites - they have to know they can trust you so get the best system you can afford. And give options for people who will never put their credit card details into the Internet such as mailing you a cheque or phone ordering.

If you are looking for painting commissions from a web-site rather than direct sales then you can get away with providing more basic information but you still have to make it attractive enough for the viewer to want to make contact with you. It is important that there is your address and a contact me button on every page of the web-site.

Job Satisfaction

He said he loved his job. It is hard work and like all self employed people he works much longer hours than most people in regular jobs. But he said "It is my choice and if I choose to have an afternoon off then I know I am making a lifestyle choice and I know what it will cost me financially".