how to sell art for high prices that's
what we're going to look at in this
video
[Music]
welcome back to my channel if we haven't
met before my name is Michelle and on
this channel you'll find painting and
drawing particularly watercolor but also
some mixed-media stuff as well as art
social media and online selling for
artists now after I've talked about two
reasons why people aren't currently
paying more for your artwork I'm going
to give you ten tips that are going to
enable you to find those buyers with a
bit more money and set in those places
where you're going to get more money for
your art work so do keep watching for
that so let's look at the first reason
why people aren't paying more money for
your art work currently and I'm going to
be really harsh with you here it could
be the quality of the artwork so there's
notice you know there's no two ways
about it if your artwork is not of a
high enough quality or not even just the
artwork but if the presentation of your
artwork and the marketing for your
artwork is not a high enough quality
than that will put off buyers with more
money so if you are suspecting that this
may be the case for you and I am
absolutely not here to I just buried you
or to put you off at all it's just a
stage in your journey if your artwork
isn't currently of a good enough quality
or you suspect it might not be to
attract those buyers or pay high prices
then I've got a great video for you that
I made recently so I'll link to it in
the information card up above and it's
going to help you to really improve the
quality of your artwork very very fast
and it's also going to give you some
tips about how to how to accurately
assess the place that your artwork is in
now and how good or how bad it is
currently so do have to watch it that if
you click on that card you won't go away
from this video it'll just line it up
for you to watch next so the first thing
to consider when you're wondering why
people aren't currently paying more for
your artwork is to consider the quality
of the artwork or the quality of the
presentation of the artwork now at this
stage some of you might be saying well I
know my artworks good because people buy
it but I'm afraid I'm really I'm here to
disillusion you on this I've been
running art events and art fairs I've
been curating exhibitions and taking
part in them for
and let me tell you I've seen some
appalling work sold if the price is low
enough eventually all work will have you
know all artists will get some buyers at
least so just the fact that one or two
people have bought your artwork isn't
really an indication of quality if the
artwork is priced low I mean I have even
seen people walk into exhibitions and
buy work that it's framed so badly that
the you know the picture isn't straight
in the in the mount and the backs
hanging off I mean it is amazing what
people will part working part with a
small amount of money for so just
because you're selling work isn't an
indication of quality so do have a look
at that video I recommend it to you it
gives you a much better idea of how good
or how bad your work is currently so the
second reason why you might not
currently be able to sell your work at a
high value and it's really the main
subject of the rest of this video so
I'll be brief when I speak about it now
the main reason is that you're just
selling to the wrong people the people
that you are selling artwork to are not
your target market and they're not the
right people to be buying your artwork
that's what we're going to look at now
so I'm going to give you ten tips now
I've had to find the right people to buy
your art so the first tip I have for you
is just to understand that art is a
luxury item it's a luxury market and you
were looking for buyers with significant
disposable income now I used to joke
when I first started working as an
artist I always used to joke that I
couldn't afford to buy my own artwork
except it wasn't really a joke because
no I was choosing I was a single parent
and I just started out I didn't have any
money I was living on Social Security
benefits and I had a toss up really of
you know
do I feed my daughter or do I pay the
electric bill I wasn't gonna buy
original art that would be crazy so the
first thing to understand is that you
shouldn't be looking at the bottom end
of the market you cannot and should not
try to compete with mass-produced items
it's just a race to the bottom and it's
a race that you'll lose every time so
that's my first tip to you is to
understand that art is a luxury item so
the second tip to realize is that you
are not a charity now it's not your job
to bring art to people that can't afford
it and this only happens really within
the art
and within the arts I mean you know also
writers musicians people like that
they're always trying to put upon us
because it's very hard to set a price on
how much a piece of art is worth so
everybody thinks they're entitled to a
huge discount or a huge bargain but it
really isn't your job to bring art to
people that can't afford it now I
currently drive a Skoda Citigo it's
lovely it's bright green it's got about
as much power as my sewing machine use I
can just about get it in fifth gear if I
go downhill now maybe I'd prefer to
drive a super-fast Mercedes so perhaps I
should go to my local local car dealer
and ask for a huge discount because I
can't afford a Mercedes so baby I'll go
in there and I'll pick a 50,000 pound
car and I'll ask him if he could sell it
to me for six thousand pounds now he's
going to say to me don't be ridiculous I
can't even make a profit at that money
you know I'm paying myself less than
minimum wage and I'd actually be losing
money on this item but as artists we
kind of feel like we are obliged to to
sell art I know people give us all kind
of hard luck stories but art is not
bread and nobody needs it to survive it
isn't your job to give to give art to
people that can't afford art there's
loads and loads of free art in the world
there's loads of museums that you can
get into it and look at beautiful art
you know there's loads of shops selling
reproduction posters there's no shortage
of art for people that can't afford
originals so you know it isn't your job
and don't you shouldn't feel guilty
about asking for a proper prices it's
not to say that you shouldn't sometimes
perhaps donate a painting to a charity
sale or use your artwork to raise money
or donate your personal money to charity
it's great to do stuff for charity but
it shouldn't be every single art piece
of art you produce you know it just just
don't do it just put a value on your
time you wouldn't get a plumber come
round to your house and ask him if you
wouldn't mind working for a tenth of
what he was going to charge you you just
wouldn't do it so don't allow people to
do it to you
so tip number three is to look outside
your own experience and your own
location now if you are currently not
that wealthy not that well off it can be
really hard for you to imagine
you know for some people buying a 500
pound paint or you know a $500 painting
means as little to them as as you and I
are treating ourselves to a cup of hot
chocolate in the local cafe you know it
really isn't a big deal to people that
have got a lot of money they're quite
prepared to spend money on this so it's
a matter of kind of putting yourself
outside of your own experience and
that's particularly the case if you live
in a part of the world where everybody
is some is quite hard up for cash you
know if you live in an area where
everybody is just you know concerned
about putting food on the table and
keeping a roof over their head then
understandably they're not going to have
the money for buying original art and if
you yourself live in such a place where
nobody has the money to spend a lot of
money on original art or original crafts
then the simple answer is to get
yourself good at selling online and to
connect with those buyers who don't live
locally to you and buyers can really
surprise you sometimes I mean I was not
expecting to sell a painting that I made
of a little Cornish Harbor that Zach or
Melissa South of England I was not
expecting to sell that painting to a
lady who lived in a flat in Moscow and
yet I did and she paid the money and I
shipped it over there so try not to make
assumptions about who your buyers are
and where they are too much you know try
to look outside of your own experience
of your own family and your own location
because people with money do exist
there's lots of them and most of them
are perfectly happy to pay for good
quality art so tip number four is to
avoid really really cheap places to sell
your art so this is places where the
buyers are always expecting to pay low
prices so in England we have something
called boot sales
I think boot in America would be a
quarter trunk of your car and everybody
goes parks on a big field and buyers
come around and people sell mostly you
secondhand secondhand household items
now that would not be a good place to
sell original art also some of the
markets that we have in the center of
town here they can sell a lot of cheap
mass-produced stuff and very cheap
secondhand stuff so they again would not
be a good place so you can sell in
really nice craft fairs you can serve in
galleries and art exhibitions but you
shouldn't be looking to sell in those
really really cheap low-end places and
that would include um places online so
for instance you know it is possible to
sell art on eBay at very low prices but
nobody really sells high-end art on eBay
the exception to that rule is artwork
that is being resold secondhand by
unknown artists so there is a market for
that on eBay
but generally speaking if you're a fine
artist and I have experimented with this
myself people on eBay are not willing to
pay a decent price so wherever you
choose to sell online or offline you
want to be going somewhere where you
know that people are already expecting
to pay a reasonable price so tip number
five is don't display your artwork in a
haphazard manner alongside lots of other
things so whether this is online or
offline if you have oil paintings you
don't want to be displaying the fact
that you also crochet dog toys nothing
wrong with crocheted dog toys make them
if you want sell them in a different
place to your oil paintings because it
really makes everything look a bit like
a jumble sale or a thrift store if you
have everything jumbled together like
that so let your buyers think that you
are a serious artist or a serious
artisan crafter and display everything
in a cohesive manner so tip number six
for finding better bias is to exhibit
alongside and better artists and better
craftspeople and one of the best ways of
doing this is to join a club or a
society so you can join an art society
or you can join a high-end craft society
and you will instantly have access to
better exhibiting venues more
opportunity so we will work two serious
buyers and you'll also be exhibiting
alongside other people who are pricing
themselves decently as well because it's
very hard to sell artwork if somebody
next to you is done selling things as
underpricing they're selling things too
cheaply so joining these better
societies and exhibiting and selling and
you know having to store alongside
people that are also selling very high
quality highly priced work will enable
you to access those better buyers so a a
buyer coming into one of these high-end
craft fairs is
to instantly expect that everything on
show is going to be very very good
quality and they're going to just expect
to pay a higher price for it so tip
number eight is to show the process so
what I mean by this is I often get
people say to me well if people won't
pay the money for my work and they have
no idea how long it took me to make it
they have no idea the expense of the
materials involved how many years it
took me to get to this level of skill
they just don't know what's involved in
creating this work if only they knew
they might pay more well it's true they
don't know and they would pay more if
they did know so what you need to do is
to show them the process of you making
the artwork now there are many different
ways of doing this if you're actually in
an exhibition if your student an
exhibition that you're in or if you're
at a craft fair then the most natural
thing to do is to demonstrate your work
and to show people to process and to
talk about it now I make liner prints
for example now people don't understand
that you have to do these over several
days but each time I cut the layer of of
liner away and print another layer on
that print you know it has to then dry
to walk to the print workshop come home
again let it dry go back you know they
don't understand the the amount of time
these things make and it's up to you to
explain it to them and to show them
another good way of doing this is by
putting up on your social media support
videos of the process up now the of all
the posts that I put on my social media
the ones that have the most engagement
or where I show people a painting step
by step now it can be counterintuitive
to this because paintings don't always
look very good and drawings don't always
look very good right at the beginning
but go with it I can tell you people are
absolutely fascinated by seeing the
process of you making your artwork and
if you explain to them this is how I do
it if you show them a video show them a
series of pictures of you producing the
artwork and if you explain in the text
how long it takes you how much the
materials cost how many years it took
you to get to this level of skill
there'll be far more likely to part with
their money because they understand the
value of the thing that they are buying
so don't leave it up to them it's up to
you to show them the value of what
they're buying
now tip number nine is to offer a range
of crises very it's very easy for me to
stand here and say well put your prices
up and then well now you haven't got any
buyers
so the the answer to this is that you
shouldn't be saying your originals
really really cheaply you need to keep
those at a high price but that doesn't
mean you can't sell a selection of
things so when you're in an art
exhibition you want to have something
for everyone so you know there will be
people that come in that can't afford
those high prices on your original
paintings or on your big pieces of craft
that doesn't mean that you should
discount those pieces what it means is
that you should sell other things that
are at a lower price point so you
consider selling greetings cards off
your work you could consider you know a
whole range of merchandise from t-shirts
to marks you could get your artwork you
know assuming it's your original artwork
you own the copyright you could get it
printed on anything at all you could
make calendars limited-edition prints is
a really good one I so far more prints
than originals because you have to
understand that you know if you go to an
exhibition and you only display a board
full of really expensive originals you
may not make a sell the answer is not to
sell cheaper the answer is to give
people other things that they can buy if
they can't afford the large pieces now
tip number 10 is all about presentation
and those buyers with more money are
more discerning they expect everything
to look in macula that's not only the
artwork that's the framing but the
packaging that's the presentation that's
the labels that's the social media posts
that's the photographs that's spelling
and the grammar everything must look
perfect if there's any area that you are
not good at then get yourself someone to
help you with those things because
buyers with money they expect a certain
standard for when they buy and they also
they know how things are supposed to be
presented people collect at
limited-edition prints for instance she
clay prints they know how they're
supposed to be signed they know if
they're supposed to be signed in pen or
pencil they know what sort of gap if any
is supposed to be left between the mound
and the and the painting if you're an
America that's a matte so the buyers
they understand how this stuff works
and they
how things should look and they know the
correct way of presentation and the
correct framing if you don't know what
you're doing and you're putting stuff
out there that's not not displayed
correctly or just looks shabby you're
going to find that those buyers won't
touch it with a barge whether we know
we're near it so you really really need
to take a good account of your
presentation so do let me know in the
comments if you have any anecdotes if
you have any stories to tell about
selling your own artwork is always
useful to look at other people's
experiences isn't it usually have any
specific questions about pricing your
artwork and it be love doing lots more
videos on pricing artwork soon so do
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