Tagged: selling art

July 10, 2013

Guidelines for Artists in Packaging Paintings for Shipment

Transporting artworks is part of an artist’s life. If you have an out-of-town exhibition or seminar, running an art business, or selling and collecting paintings, shipping paintings is very important. Shipping paintings can be a bit risky. Paintings are delicate and you must take utmost care in packaging, and handling them.

Here are some guidelines to help you in packaging paintings. Note that, despite best efforts, there are still some uncontrollable factors such as bad weather, untrained art handlers, rough roads, etc. that could damage your paintings while in transit. These guidelines will help you send your paintings safely and lessen the damage (if any).

Before shipping
1. Assess your shipping needs. Know the size, medium, and condition of the painting. Fragile, old, or antiquated paintings will be more damaged when shipped so it’s better to transport paintings which are less fragile. But, if you really need to ship a painting that is fragile, you have to take a different approach in packing and shipping it.

2. Consider the distance the painting has to travel. The farther the painting has to move, the more vulnerable to damage it gets. When the painting has to be shipped in great distances, remember that many handlers will be in between Point A to B.

3. Decide which transportation is best to use in moving your painting. Can you move your painting by hand, by car, by truck, or by plane?

4. If you will need a shipping company, search for a trustworthy company and determine the policies, restrictions, and cost of their service.

Packaging
Packaging your painting by yourself can save you money, if done correctly and with the right supplies. Here are the steps:

1. Make sure you have these packing supplies on hand, especially if you’re running an art business.

Boxes
Palette tape & wrap
Cardboard pads
Bubble wrap
Packing tape
“Fragile” stickers

2. Measure the dimensions of the painting. Give a 2″ allowance all around the piece which will serve as a buffer against the outside world.

3. Starting from the back of the canvas, wrap the palette wrap tightly around the painting and cover the entire surface.

4. Cut small slits on the plastic at the back of the painting to let the piece “breathe.”

5. Put the cardboard padding on the table. Place the painting on top of the cardboard padding and measure the width and depth of the painting. Double these measurements and add few more inches if you want and mark these on the cardboard.

6. Cut the cardboard using the measurements. Create a second box using the cardboard padding. Put the painting inside and secure the box with the packing tape.

7. Tightly wrap the bubble wrap around the second box. Tip: Put another layer of bubble wrap on the edges of the box as extra cushion since the edges of the painting or the frame are more prone to damage when shipping.

8. Put the bubble-wrapped second box into the outer box. Fill any spaces with additional bubble wrap. If there are a lot of extra spaces, you can opt to cut the outer box to fit the second box.

July 2, 2013

Where To Find Art Buyers?

Selling your art is no different from selling other items. All you need to do is to find the right people who want to buy them and the right places to display your art and make it look good, where art buyers tend to congregate, and places where you know the client can afford your asking prices. Here are some of the best places where you can find your buyers.

Galleries
Still, the best place to find a buyer for your artwork is in an art gallery. You can look around to find an art gallery exhibition and display your work. Find a good art gallery to represent you, and who can arrange an art show for you. Art buyers often show up at the opening just to see if there is anything that they like. There are always potential buyers who come to these exhibitions looking for good paintings.

Social Media and Art Websites
There are many social networks, online galleries, and other websites online to market art. There are by far too many to mention here, but the major ones are Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and many online gallery websites. Sign up and start advertising online. If you manage to sell many, you are not only making money, but are receiving free advertising! People will be talking about your art, or share it through the mail. Many will see your artworks, who would not have been able to before.

Art competions, Auction sale and Art Expos
Try to join as frequent as possible in competitions and art events. Even if you do not win, you and your artwork will get exposure. Whoever is on the judging panel will see it, be it gallery owners or curators. The more they have to judge your artworks the more they will be familiar with you and know how serious you are about your art career. Its usually best to show alongside other artists who work in the same style as you. That way, the art buyers that often buy from them, may purchase artworks from you.

Neighbors, Family and Friends
Of course, the first people who have to see your artwork are the ones who are nearest to you. Show them what you are creating. Show them to your family members, friends and you neighbours. . Even if they do not buy artwork from you, they may tell others about your creations.

It’s best to never pressure someone into buying though. If they like it, or can afford it, they will most likely purchase from you without any convincing. Observe how art is sold in as many different circumstances as possible. Watch how people sell at all types of galleries, art shows, art fairs and other venues where art is for sale. See what sales techniques work to different kinds of buyers and take note which one doesn’t. Research on what sells best and why and learn everything you can from gallery owners and fellow artists about how they present, market, and sell art to clients.

Image source: www.forbes.com

June 20, 2013

How To Increase Traffic To Your Art Website

Now that your website is ready, it’s time to attract viewers and visitors to your site. The reasons why you want traffic to your site is to put have as many audiences and potential buyers as possible. There are tons of other online art galleries around and your goal is to divert some online visitors to see your page. You might have read a lot of these tips online and there are boatloads of them but here are some of the most basic things that you should do.

• Write search engine friendly titles
Make your titles easy to search by using keywords in your titles. But be sure to keep it unique and avoid having similar titles of other websites. Take note that search engines focus on specific keywords so make sure to integrate your keyword in your title.

• Search engine optimization
Write blogs or articles using significant keywords. This will help your blog or article to show up first when the keyword is typed in search engines. This is done by repetitively typing the keyword all throughout your article but be careful not to overdo it because you still want your articles to be sensible and informative and not annoy your readers with repeating words.

• Link your Twitter and Facebook profiles to your website
Create a social media page and exchange links to other closely similar sites to create more website traffic. Choose other credible websites to link with to attract quality audiences. Post interesting pictures, videos, or articles to your social media page and link them to your website.

• Enhance your internet presence by advertising
Create free advertisements for your websites in social media pages and to other websites. This will constantly remind users that there are websites like yours. You don’t have to stick to electronic medium to advertise. You can use prints like stickers and postcards of your logo and your website and give it out to the community to increase awareness of your website.

• Keep your website updated
Post new things on your website every now and then like uploading new pictures and new blog posts to keep it updated. Let the visitors of your website know that you have something to offer every time so that they will keep on visiting your site even if they have seen it before.

• Make your website interactive
Create a forum in your website wherein visitors can leave comments about your artwork and your blogs. Keep it as interactive as possible because knowing that you read their comments and replying will make your visitors feel that they are not being ignored. You can also participate in discussions with other websites. Letting them know about your presence will build curiosity about who you are and what you can offer.

June 19, 2013

Creative Ways to Sell Your Paintings Online

Now that you have decided that you want to expand your horizons when it comes to promoting and selling your artwork through the internet, the next challenge for you is on how you’ll be able to attract people to visit your page or website and check your paintings out. Here are some creative ideas that you can use when selling your paintings online.

Image source: www.designcontest.com

Create a name and a logo for your website
I suggest that you should take this one seriously. Think of a domain that will carry your name and your work and which will also serve as your trademark. It has to be unique and interesting and very much related to your style and kind of work. Make it as personal as possible to create a character and personality to your website.

Write something about your website and what you can offer
Writing a short history and description about your site will make it more interesting. Say something about how you started and why you decided to put it up. Elaborate on your art and your love for your craft. Show how passionate you are in what you do and that it reflects in your work. This way, you’ll be able to imbibe to your readers that they are not just looking at a piece of decoration but an art worth buying.

Post well-photographed and high definition photos of your art
Remember that your website is your portfolio online. You can show your artwork to anyone and anywhere in the world. They will not be able to see the actual painting so a nice photograph of it will allow them to appreciate the details. You can hire a professional photographer or you can do it yourself provided that you are able to capture the most important details and that it will come out like you are looking at the original painting.

Use videos to advertise and to tell something about you and your artwork
Create fun videos of yourself making your paintings. A time lapsed video is a great idea wherein you video yourself creating a masterpiece from start to finish. Videos tend to create more traffic in websites because watching is more fun than reading alone. You can also share your videos on YouTube or Vimeo and create links to other social networks like Facebook and Twitter to your page to draw visitors to your website.

Write interesting blogs
You can attract a variety of possible clients by writing interesting reads about art in your website. You can write about history of art, about your favourite artists or teach art techniques through your blog. This will make you website more fun and worth visiting again.

June 10, 2013

Tips for Building a Successful Online Artist Profile

When it comes to building an online business, artists should include in their priorities writing a quality profile. It may seem not as important as creating your canvas art, but if you want to increase your success rate selling your pieces online, then you have to spend some time drafting your profile.

Here are some tips on how to build an impressive online profile:

Tip 1 – Create an engaging profile. Write about some interesting details about your life, focusing on how you were led to the painting business. Tell why you paint, how do you use your paintings as an expression, and write in the first person narrative (I, we, my). If your site visitors can connect with you on a personal level, they are more likely to purchase your art than those who don’t have that kind of connection.

Tip 2 – Edit your profile. Don’t write a long, complicated profile. Read it to a friend first and if he loses interests after awhile, then you’ll know you’ve written a lengthy one. Ask for your close family and friends what they think about your profile and consider their comments.

Tip 3 – Use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. There are websites such as SpellCheck.net which you can use to check these things. Don’t post your profile until you’re sure it’s free from errors. It shows that you care about the littlest details and are serious about your business.

Tip 4 – Use effective keywords in your content. Keywords are important in getting high rankings in search engines such as Google and Yahoo! Using the right keywords will help people find you across the web. Include top keywords which attract people who you want to buy your art works. These will drive qualified traffic to your website. The more popular the keyword, the more traffic it will bring you.

marshall_kerry_james — International renown artist, Kerry James Marshall

Tip 5 – Include your best photo as your profile image. Use a good photo of yourself. People are visual creatures, especially in the online world. We want to see the person behind a blog or website. Seeing your profile picture lets other people know that you really exist and they will be more comfortable communicating with you if they have a picture in their mind of how you look like. It’s difficult to connect with someone whom you don’t know how he/she looks like. Eventually, you will have the occasion to meet your clients, so they should connect your profile photo with you in person.

Image source: http://mileswmathis.com/ and http://newsgrist.typepad.com/