Watercolor and a mystery plant
I'm excited now to have more time. While I'm applying for jobs, I plan on getting back to my watercolors, starting today!!
So I could use some advice.
1. Does anyone know the best forum for selling art? I've heard of Etsy, and of course Ebay. But I don't know where to start.
2. Off topic a bit, I have a mystery plant growing in my garden. There's several pics of it in my photos, but here is one. Any guesses? So far jerusalem artichokes and hemp (omg)! have been thought of, but neither fits this plant's M.O. perfectly. I'm strangely enamoured with this being, I call it my magical plant and I'd really like to know more about it.
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I've sold things....and I was contacted on RedBubble by an ad agency --to buy one of my images for an ad...RedBubble is high-quality and the people are WONDERFUL and supposrtive and helpful!!!
They'd love you and your work!!!!!!!!
No cost to join!!!!
Here's post about the ad agency
Today I posted asking for help with how to get paid -- they want to buy the image!!
I hope you join RedBubble!!
Your watercolors would be yummy for sale!!!!!!
I don't know what the plant is......
I had forgotten about RedBubble! Thank you, so you like the service so far? J also told me I need to use PayPal, because it's safer or something (see how educated I am? LOL)!
Hey, I'm here as much for interaction as anything else. Love the Hi, no earth-shaking answers required.
It may not be a weed per se it just resembles the ones that frustrated us. They tended to be by themselves on rather dry ground. (it was extremely hot that summer-water restrictions and everything) The lawn care company I worked for actually took a week off because all the grass had died.
Are you wanting to sell your originals, or your prints? I am not entirely sure, but I think at RedBubble, you can only sell prints, that they print for you as a print or on various products, and you get whatever markup you put on the product.
For selling originals, I highly recommend 1000markets. They're juried (so a lot of the trash you see on etsy doesn't get in). They're free to list (unlike etsy, which costs twenty cents per listing for four months, and another twenty cents if you want to bring your product back up to the top of the searches) - and they still cost only a very small percentage when you sell there. It's just more ethically sound, the creators say it keeps them on the same page with their sellers (they only profit when we profit). Having said that, I still keep an etsy shop, but only for my most popular items. They have much more traffic right now, but 1000markets is slowly snowballing.
Whatever you do, do it soon. The best four selling months are coming up. I hardly sell a thing in the new year, but November is a killer month. :)
That's good to know from a landscaping angle - maybe our landscape guy would know the species. We intentionally grew a "wildlife garden" with all native wildflowers and plants. So we wanted the natives to take the focus. I hope I can figure out what it is.
Wow, great timing!!! Thanks for alerting me to the selling months. I really appreciate it.
I'll have to ponder my options. At first I wanted to sell my originals but I discovered that I'd have to custom frame them - I tend to work with wacky oversized paper with dimensions that apparently no frame maker accomodates. :P I assume it would cost me a fortune.
Prints seem easier, although I don't have a sense of how much they cost to make. Does 1,000 markets require my stuff be framed? I like the idea of joining an up and coming company. J told me to look at Ebay and other popular sites, he said "what are the chances of someone seeing your art amongst thousands of other paintings", so that's my worry.
Thanks again, I haven't started yet so it's going to be an adventure!
Neither 1000markets nor etsy require things to be framed. And, if you are selling in an art gallery, they often have a display area for unframed prints - you just need to secure them to a backing, and put the art+backing into a cello sleeve. I can help you find places to get those.
Another option is to do watercolor cards - either originals or prints. I know a fantastic place to get cards from that are 5x7 with a 4x6 space for either painting or attaching a photo to. Original watercolor ooak (one of a kind) cards seem to sell really well. It's functional art - useful for framing or for giving as a card.
Bookmarks sold really well for me too, if you like painting really small things. Again, the more functional your art item, the better it will sell!
As for printing - the easiest way seems to be to get a photography place to print them as photos. I have great connections for that, too.
Yes, I love that the etsy fees are up-front and when you sell. Always a known quantity.
Btw, Ellie - I've heard selling art on ebay is very unpredictable, most of the local artists I've gotten to know here in the US have now left feebay.
;) Thank you!
I hadn't heard of Yessey. Looks like a great resource.
People do prints and originals as ACEOs and ATCs. I had an ACEO shop on etsy where I sold pretty well. Cutting and backing them was more work than selling a regular photograph though.
FYI - ACEO stands for Art/Artist Cards Editions and Originals. It implies the card is produced for sale. An ATC (Artist Trading Card) is the same thing, but the implication is that they are for giving away or swapping with another artist.They are a standard size, and there is generally certain artist information included on the back of the card.
Thank you for the acronym guide, I'm usually unfamiliar with the terms. The backing and techical stuff is where I fall down. I can frame pictures (except matting), but otherwise I'm not skilled in backing items and such. Maybe I just have to learn.
Great to know about the originals and prints though, that's huge. I'm hoping to use mostly prints because I understand how to make them. Thank you once again, I need all the info I can possibly get.
I don't have a degree or anything but I have taken some drawing classes and I've been enamored with watercolors since I was a kid. I've been told I don't use traditional watercolor technique, I use more acrylic (thicker, less watered down) methods.
Here is my watercolor page, if you want to see more. :D
Oh that sounds easy enough, can I do the same with prints?
I don't know if I should sell my originals. If they are popular as prints I figured I should hold on to the source...? I admit I have a certain attachment to some of the paintings. Is that a bad thing? LOL
Can I do the same for prints....use the spray on? I suppose it depends on what kind of paper it's printed on, J found a type of paper that replicates the "canvas look" so it looks more like an original, but it's a bit cheesy, the fabric.
I say this having no idea what a consumer would want.
I can tell you this, earning money, no matter how little, off of my art would be worlds easier than having the responsibity of live animals like I did as a vet nurse. I'm totally burned out.
http://shinyadornments.com/wordpress/?p=300 - I don't like their ranking system, I don't think they are taking enough into consideration for how artist-friendly a site really is (or at least not my criteria for a site being so, lol). However, there's a big list of art selling sites you can check out.
Also, I'm sorry, I thought I had added the glue. Um - it's an Elmer's brand spray adhesive. Orange and blue can. Not at home right now, so can't check it exactly.