07.08.2019by admin

How To Promote Printable Art

How To Promote Printable Art 5,5/10 8056 votes

Instead, the company offers a platform where anyone can upload digital images of their art and then print the image on merchandise they have available for sale. Because it is a Print on Demand service, the company will not print anything until there is a sale.

How To Promote Art Online
How To Promote Printable Art Worksheets

If you enjoy perusing art museums in your free time, you’ll know that all of your basic questions about a work can be answered by its corresponding plaque. At a museum or gallery, finding out a piece’s title, artist, date of creation and medium is easy. At a second-hand shop, yard sale or flea market, however, you’ll be hard-pressed to get a definitive answer about anything. And for the budding collector, distinguishing a print from a painting can be difficult and daunting. If you don’t know the difference, how do you really know what you’re investing in? To demystify this art quandary, we asked our Merchandising Manager for Art & Home, Christina Capela, to give us a crash course on how to identify and authenticate prints and paintings. Read on to learn how to school your fellow collectors on the ins and outs of fine art.

Joerg Doering, Untitled (Luck), acrylic on canvas, $5,750; Roy Lichtenstein, As I Opened Fire (Triptych), offset lithograph print, $1,100

Let’s start with the basics. How do you define a painting versus a print?

CC: In broad terms, painting is characterized as the application of pigments to a surface or support. Acrylic, gouache, tempera, watercolor and oil paint are common media. The support may be canvas, paper, metal, et cetera.

A print is a generic term for something that is made in a reproducible format, but a fine art print is made specifically for the chosen medium. Fine art prints are original works of art in their own right. They are not simply copies of an original.

The most basic printmaking concept is the matrix and transfer process. A matrix is the stone, block, plate, screen or stencil that is printed or transferred onto another surface. The printing matrix allows for multiples or copies of the same image to be printed. Artists and publishers typically sign, number and document prints so only a specific number of copies of an image can be made.

Miquel Gelabert, Landscape, oil on canvas, $2,500; Eve Stockton, Untitled, monotype print, $925

Digital means can be also used to develop a matrix, or the digital output can be the end product.Blue chip artists and contemporary photographers produce inkjet prints that fetch high prices at auction. While some may consider digital processes to be less “worthy” than traditional means, this isn’t necessarily the case.

There are numerous types of prints, but we handle lithographs and screenprints for the most part. Lithographs are created by drawing on a prepared stone or plate, applying gum arabic to the surface and then washing the substance away with a solvent, which leaves a stencil. Ink is applied to the stone, paper is placed over the image and is then run through a press to make the print. Screenprinting, on the other hand, is a process in which ink is forced through the openings of a fine mesh stencil-mounted screen.

Jenna Gribbon, Vignette Effect, oil on linen, $4,800; Kim Frohsin, Untitled, digital print, $1,500

Now that we know the difference, how can the average person distinguish one from the other?

CC: Examine both prints and paintings in a clean, well-lit space and note any obvious damage or defect. Then identify the support. Is the support canvas, board, panel, or paper? Flip the work over and check the reverse for any labels and annotations.

Next, view the work using several different angles of light. If you’re unsure of the medium, the texture of the surface should be a good indicator. Brushstrokes, thick impasto and built-up areas of pigment are consistent with paintings. Examine the surface for evidence of a varnish layer, then check for any discoloration, cracks or areas of opacity.

Use a magnifying glass to inspect the surface. Prints will generally have a flatter appearance. If you see small dots, patterns of dots, pixels or screen patterns, the work is a print.

Herman Brood, Frozen Lovers, acrylic on canvas, $4,800; Mike Kelley, Street Sign, screenprint on panel, $4,475

What’s the process for authenticating paintings and prints?

CC: In order to authenticate a work of art, it’s important to accurately identify it. Who is the artist? Is the work signed? Dated? Numbered? Are there any gallery labels, stamps or inscriptions? Is there any accompanying documentation? Is the style and subject matter consistent with the other examples from the artist’s oeuvre?

If the quality and execution of the work look ‘off’ or less than what I might expect, I consider this a red flag. At this point, I’ll begin to consult reference materials and find “comparables,” or works with characteristics that are similar to the piece I’m working with.

For prints, dimensions are an important factor since each impression should be pulled from the same matrix. I’ll also check the numbering, research how many editions were made and look for watermarks or blind stamps. A blindstamp is an embossed seal impressed onto a print as a distinguishing mark by the artist, publisher, or printer. I can use this information to verify that a print was printed by a specific printer or studio.

Adam Cvijanovic, Royal Nevada, oil on panel, $7,500; Wayne Thiebaud, Suckers, State II, lithograph, $9,500

When should a collector invest in (or consign) a painting versus a print?

CC: Prints are a more democratic medium and can be a great entree into collecting. For example, if you love the work of Christopher Wool, Helen Frankenthaler or Wayne Thiebaud, you may be able to afford a print, while a painting may be out of reach.

A number of factors influence the price of works on the secondary market, including the artist, the work’s characteristics, past prices and other economic factors. But medium is particularly important. Generally, a painting will be more valuable than a print if all other factors — including size, composition, provenance and date of the work within the artist’s oeuvre — remain the same. Scarcity and rarity are strong elements that can influence the value of both prints and paintings. If an artist has created a relatively small number of paintings of a particular subject, each individual work will likely be more valuable and highly sought after. This concept holds true for prints as well.

However, I suggest that new collectors buy only what they love, rather than what they perceive to be a good investment. Both prints and paintings can appreciate over time.

Once someone has snagged their perfect print or painting, how can they preserve the piece?

CC: Works on paper and prints are particularly vulnerable and are generally quite fragile, delicate and prone to damage. Paintings can be a bit more resilient. Handle unframed prints as little as possible and make sure they are never exposed to bright light.

Score your own new piece of art with our selection of authenticated prints and paintings.

Selling:

There are literally hundreds of websites to sell your art through, but I will go over some of the better ones.

Amazon, they have a special link a lot of people don't know about for Fine artists to submit their work here.

ArtPal.com is a free membership website that takes a very small commission for works sold.

Artfire.com is a comprehensive marketplace similar to Etsy.

Ebay, the site that started out for people to sell collectibles and knickknacks, is still a great place for selling art. Although they don't specialize in art, you may already be familiar with the site, and it has a huge market of people looking for art on it. Works can either be listed as a fixed price 'Buy Now', or be put up for auction.

Etsy is specializes in all 'artsy' and handmade things, and this certainly includes your fine art and illustration; whether it be on paper, canvas, or a porcelain bowl. Etsy can connect you with a staggeringly big art market, and is great to use for carving out a niche. I recommend the book on the right.

TopHatter.com is another auction site for selling goods that can be useful for artists.

Artiscle is an open platform for artists to sell their work, that is based on the communities that the artists each come from. It is a clean and easy to use website.

How To Promote Art Online

20x200 is another major seller house, exclusively for art. They are re-vamping their website at the time of this writing.

Art Licensing & Merchandising aka 'Print on Demand':

Licensing-or sometimes you'll hear 'merchandising- is when you simply sell someone the right to reproduce images of your art, but you retain the original. Here is an example from my Zazzle store, I made a one panel cartoon awhile back about being from Boston, and I have licensed it to Zazzle.com to be printed on postcards people can buy, when people buy a postcard, I get a royalty from the sale.

CafePress.com is probably the biggest merchandising and licensing site. You can use them to put your art images on hundreds of different products that you can then sell for royalties. I use them myself for both my Dimwitz Comics, and also my fine art. Take a look at my store to see an example of what one looks like: cafepress.com/dimwitzcomics. You can use them to sell everything from coffee mugs to actual prints, and many things in between like clothing. A lot of people say that CafePress' image quality can be low sometimes, and I agree but I'm sure they are working to improve it. Being able to see your image on a finished product is great though.

Zazzle.com is the same kind of platform as CafePress, and I definitely prefer Zazzle, but that could mostly just be because it's the one I got used to (the designing of products seems easier to me on Zazzle). Which site is better is actually a hotly contested issue. A Google search for 'Cafepress vs. Zazzle' reveals endless arguing back and forth in forums over which is better. I have used both sites, there are things I like about each, and things I don't. It really comes down to personal preference. They have a wide range of products from cell phone cases to pillows to posters and back. Here is a poster I licensed them one of my pastel paintings:

I will say the first time I ordered some postcards off of Zazzle, they didn't come as had been pictured–but they reimbursed me and I haven't seen that problem since. I do like the sites ease of use over Cafepress, and that they allow more freedom in customizing the products. Check out my store at Zazzle as an example of an entire store.

Below are some similar sites to Zazzle and CafePress I know less about for now, but assure they are major, competitive POD sites:

Art.com is also a very major art site, and they too give users the ability to put personal photos on everything from paper to canvas.

IcanvasArt.com is yet another photo to art print site.

FineArtAmerica.com Is an extremely easy to use major marketplace. They bifurcate their selling platform for specializing to either individual artists (or photographers) and or to galleries. The link above takes you directly to their selling page.

Snapwi.re is one of the few sites I will reccommend for photographers (Disclosure: I am an investor in SnapWire), it is one of the only Microstock photography websites where starting day one, you can take assignments for major companies for the chance to have your photo selected as the one they license. Currently only open for photography, but check out 99 designs for the equivalent for graphic design.

Art Marketing, some umbrella advice for all channels:

You can have the best website ever, and be on all of the above art platforms, but it will still behoove you to learn all you can about art marketing in and of itself. Burnout 3 takedown video. It will be hard to be successful with your creations without some savvy in that domain. For starters, I recommend reading my article on marketing tips for selling online: Bonobos Pants Marketing Case Study and numerous other articles herein on BradfordHines.com of course. Read up on things like personal branding, e-commerce, e-mail marketing, social media marketing (Pinterest is of of course huge in the arsenal of marketing tactics for artists), digital public relations.

As an artist of any type, hopefully you already have some understanding of the nitty gritty of how to make a work look its most appealing, like for example how to photograph a piece, keeping websites looking clean and intuitive, etc.

All artists and illustrators, no matter what they do, should own the most current copy of The Artist's and Graphic Designers Market for the current year (shown left). The book is indeed the counterpart for Writer's Market, if you are maybe familiar with the same reference book professional writers use.

Empty Easel is a great all encompassing source for how to market art on the internet, plus they have an easy to use art submission form.

This is an online community of artists where you create a profile and promote your works. It seems to be better suited for a certain style of art–more underground stuff if that makes any sense.

Taking Good Photos: If you are going to put your art on the internet in any way, it's really crucial to learn how to take great images of you art. I recommend this article by Empty Easel: Empty Easel on photographing art.

Social Media/Networking Sites:

I recommend all the major social networking sites for selling your art: Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and especially visual pinning sites like Pinterest and The Fancy; but, to choose which to be on. Even Linkedin can be a good site to use, especially for networking. Do get together a good social media plan, as the visual arts integrate beautifully with the highly visual aspect of social media: How to write a good social media plan for your business. Don't feel bad about not being on every network, there is only one of you after all, and time needs to be focused on your core activities.. like making art! Hire a freelancer off of zaarly, taskrabbit, or Upwork and have them do the social media work for you if you insist, or even get the Buffer tool to help you post to multiple networks.

How To Promote Printable Art Worksheets

Show people the artist behind the works, get a video portfolio together if you want, and use Vimeo or YouTube to promote yourself. Have a video of you in your studio briefly introducing yourself, or even working as an example (showing your story). All these sites are great ways to not just promote your actual works, but to find and engage with other artists and potential customers alike.

Pinterest is of course good, as it is an image based social media network where people 'pin' images–especially art–that they like. You will want your website to include the pin tool so people can add your art this way. Search for 'Pinterest Goodies' to add that functionality.

For a more comprehensive look at Pinterest, I recommend the bookPinterest for Business by Jess Loren and Ed Swinderski, especially since I am featured in it, full disclosure.

Some thoughts on branding:

As an artist, you can place your work under the categories of 1. what you like 2. what others like, and 3. a combination of the two. While there is something to be said for making art you like, as a business person (you are prepared to be a business person yes?) are you focusing on creating what sells? This means a few truths: Making more of what people are telling you they like, and throwing away nothing (how many times has someone told you they liked something that was appalling to you/in your trash?). So if fans resoundingly like a style you have done, do a series, and do the series in a limited fashion so as to create scarcity and increased perceived value.

As an artist, pushing out works of a certain and recognizable style is one of the quickest ways to be known. If a person can identify your works by sight alone without being told who did it, you know you are on to something. You may already be on that level, but the point is, in the beginning of your career, it will behoove you to jump around less style wise, to streamline that association of your work. Stick with what sells, or perhaps do 80% of what you know sells, and 20% truly just enjoying yourself. Naturally, there is the likely possibility that the work you do enjoy the most is already what others want to see from you the most, as passion often breeds good beautiful art.

Art Galleries and their Online presences

I specialize in education about all things digital, so I will refer you to this comprehensive article on how to get your works in galleries. The approach there for your own online sales through your website and the above mediums, is that depending on the nature of you contract with a gallery, ultimately it is one more channel to get your name out there.

Keeping costs down

Earning money as an artist, is as reductive as having your income exceed your expenses. Don't forget to make sure you are not squandering money as a business. Check out my article here on how to save money on art supplies.

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