Small Hand Drawn Portrait Business Advertising Ideas

FatVonD

I can't see any prices on your page but I was looking to get a picture of the Oxford/Cambridge boat race going under the particular Bridge my MIL lived next to as a child for a Christmas present but the prices I was quoted just made it out of the question. Regardless of how good you are or how much time it takes to produce, people have a ceiling on what they're prepared to pay for a present (mine was an unrealistic £70 ) and I think you need to price yourself with that in mind.

Amatheya81

I would also recomend spending some time editing the photos of your work. They are nearly all taken in bad light with shadows across them. Take photos in daylight, make sure there are no shadows and then edit them in either photoshop if you have it or download a free cropy of GIMP if you don't. Also on your price page add some photos of your paintings next to the origional photo so that your clients can see if you are creating a true likeness as while your portraits all look of good quality there is nothing to show if they are actually a good representation.
If you have a community art group in your area join them as they will update you on local events, exhibitions and they will possibly have their own gallery that you will be able to display in.
At the end of the day you will get very little work from the internet, it will mostly be word of mouth but you still need to inspire confidence. Buy your own domain name, this is cheap and makes you look more professional. Stop using hotmail, a lot of people see that a company has a hotmail (.etc) email address and assume that the company isn't serious. Get rid of the clip art background, it looks out of the packet and change your business cards so that they have a good example of your work on them or even use postcards printed with one of your peices instead. Also set up a blog and post work in progress and finished peices. As your blog gets bigger it will create more trafic than your website ever will and there is also a large community of artists blogging for you to connect with and get ideas from.

Horace

I agree with the comments made by the others already and would add the following to the mix:

who is your target market?
where do they hang out?
Consider spending a bit on marketing e.g. attend a few business networking groups, have a decent webpage and have buttons on that webpage so that each time you blog you share the content using Ping, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Doing your own search engine optimisation is easy and relatively simple to do but it does take time - it is easy to do if you have a wordpress site because you an download an app for SEO and then you can add your keywords and meta tags.

Attend a few craft fairs - set up your easel and pencils and sell drawings that you do on the spot. I am more likely to buy from someone who I can actually see doing the work (I have bought many pictures this way).

If you claim you are selling a quality item then your website and your business cards need to reflect this. Vistaprint will not cut the mustard - it is cheap and their business cards are awful (I still have one my first ones from when I started out just to remind myself of their poor quality).

As for business name Smudge does not inspire confidence when it comes to art - if you were a tattooist then your nickname could be Smudge but a serious artist then no way.

paulwf

I like the idea posted by texranger of doing some charicatures...knocking out some quick sketches for a fiver is likely to be easier to attract customers than £50 masterpieces, especially so in the current economic climate. You could also include contact details so even if you don't make much money at least you'll be doing some targeted advertising.

Horace

Caricaturists are in demand for weddings etc.

With regard to the motorcycle pictures - get yourself off to a few motorbike rallies ask the organisers if they have trade stands and get one. I know that the Moto Guzzi Club GB tends to have trade stands at their V Twin Rally over August Bank Holiday weekend although what they charge I have no idea because I haven't been a member of the club for some years' now. Draw the pictures at the rally. Contact all motorcycle clubs because you just never know - one club may be interested.

Amatheya81

Gah! People who sell art for pennies really irritate me. It completely devalues the work of artists who spend years studdying and perfecting their craft and trying to make a living at it. It's people like that who make it impossible for everyone else to charge a decent rate for painings. Vixis pricing structure is actually very reasonable, coloured pencil work takes a long time and please correct me if I'm wrong Vixi but you can't be making much more than £5 per hour?

Sorry, rant over

texranger

paulwf wrote: »

I like the idea posted by texranger of doing some charicatures...knocking out some quick sketches for a fiver is likely to be easier to attract customers than £50 masterpieces, especially so in the current economic climate. You could also include contact details so even if you don't make much money at least you'll be doing some targeted advertising.

i was trading at a show over the weekend and a local a rt group had a stand their showing off their work and one of their members was doing exactly this, sitting outide their stand doing plain lined charicatures at £5 a time and if you wanted these coloured £8. from 10am until 4pm they never stopped, infact at about 12 noon another of their member had to help him do these.

paddyrg

Amatheya81 wrote: »

Gah! People who sell art for pennies really irritate me. It completely devalues the work of artists who spend years studdying and perfecting their craft and trying to make a living at it.

Actually I agree - however I think we need to acknowledge there is a difference between art and art.

Some artists need to create from their souls, or they will drown in their own emotional overload. Take Magdalena Abakanowicz, Seraphine de Senlis, Louise Bourgeois, or even Vincent Van Gogh, Lucian Freud for instance - they will/did create with or without an audience, the need to create was stronger than needing the money, the art had something of the artist in every single piece. Some people think that adds a certain authenticity as it exposes the artists heart. For these guys is/was not about the money

Then you have more surface-level art - reproductions of likenesses with no emotional connection. It is about likenesses or charicature (eg watercolours of violets by hobbyists), or 5-minute-cartoonists.

The problem is both (and many other subdivisions) are lumped together under 'art' - the first camp are likely to undervalue the work at well below minimum wage as it is the result of countless hours and days, whereas the latter can make a decent rate if they do saleable work. However 'art' in terms of breaking new ground and having future (potential) auction resale value and fame is the domain of the first group.

Amatheya81

Whether a artist is a portrait painter trying to make a living or a conceptual painter who just wants to paint is irrelivant. They both deserve a decent price for their art and websites sellin cheap low quality work undermines that. However I would agree the £5 for a five minute sketch is reasonable... I just get annoyed when I hear about people undervaluing work because it makes it more difficult for everyone else and there is a heck of a lot of pressure out there for people to sell £50 portraits for £10

Anyway, this is off the point.

So, Vixi, have you got a plan of where you're going to go from here?