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Continue Engaging Your Audience

Continue Engaging Your Audience For so many artists the idea of continuing to engage the people who come to their Open Studio event is anathema if ever they have even had the notion.  For most, it is a task which is simply overlooked, unthought of. If you have an Open Studio event, the event is not the end of the process, it is simply a point in a continuous process cycle.  You need to continue engaging your audience. The Planning Cycle Can Help Your Audience Grow The great Event management web-based tool 'Eventbrite' produces an excellent example of what it refers to as 'The Event Planning Cycle'. You can see that Post-event, according to Eventbrite has 25% of event-related effort allocated to it. Now, most Open Studio events operate by focussing on Planning and Event, Planning and Event and they wonder why they do not achieve increased growth each year. You need to do the 4-step process.  If you are not, then you are relying on luck [...]

By |2019-10-26T19:05:09+00:00October 1st, 2019|Open Studio, Real Collectors|0 Comments
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7 Ways You Can Develop Your Work

Human beings are learning beings.  We are able to learn new skills, learn from mistakes, make subtle changes in the way we do things and implement strategies over extended periods of time. If you are a professional artist these traits should resonate with you since success depends on all of them. It may well be that you honed your style and you have sold some work.  That is great news!  Don't stop there, keep going. As soon as some artists start selling they think that is the end of the learning curve, in fact, it is just the end of the beginning.  The real work begins now. Imagine if other professionals stopped learning or developing because they had been paid for their work.  If it was a professional boxer, the career would be very short-lived.  The opponents would soon work out the striking blow and their 'edge' will have disappeared.  Let us visualise a troupe of dancers.  Do they stop practising, rehearsing or learning new steps?.....OF COURSE [...]

By |2019-08-20T10:56:19+00:00August 17th, 2019|Common Mistakes Made By Artists, Creating, Model, Real Collectors, Selling Art, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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How Well Do Your Blog Posts Reinforce Your Brand?

Today we start with a question: What is the most important asset you have when trying to sell your art using online channels?  The answer is You. You and your work are your brand identity.  Everything you do, including writing blog posts, need to reinforce your brand. Write Blog Posts Which Reinforce Your Brand It's a cliche but Real Collectors buy a piece of the artist a little bit at a time. Of course, some folk just buy a piece of creation based entirely on its own merits.  Most do not.  Most folks buy art from the people they know or have met, or from people they think they know. The personal touch is crucial and that is the same when you are trying to use digital channels when trying to sell your art. If you are posting to Facebook, Twitter etc or writing a blog, you need more than just a photo and a few lines of text to get the job done. Creating Content Which [...]

By |2019-08-19T11:04:26+00:00August 10th, 2019|Blog, Common Mistakes Made By Artists, Real Collectors, Selling Art|0 Comments
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Why You Must End Your Inconsistent Voice or Style

Many creatives are drawn to a variety of different directions, both in terms of the medium used and subjects they decide to use in their work. Sure, it can be fun to try out or learn new techniques and its essential in a way if you are to grow, but success at The Model means that your voice or style; your brand needs consistency.  Your Real Collectors need to understand what you are going to produce and when you unveil some newly finished piece, it needs to male sense in terms of a sensible progression to those who support you.  Ricocheting through the vastness of possibilities can alienate those who would otherwise start collecting your work. It's great to know that you dabble in a wide range of mediums from pottery, to watercolour, to pastels, to pen & ink, to lino cutting.  Notwithstanding the colours, materials, different sizes, bolting down your brand to something that is instantly known by those who see it is a giant leap [...]

By |2019-08-21T12:40:25+00:00July 31st, 2019|Common Mistakes Made By Artists, Model, Real Collectors, Uncategorized, What Makes Art Sell|0 Comments
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Get Rid Of Unfinished Work Once And For All

Maybe you remember when you were at primary school and during an art session, the teacher told you to take the colour to the edge of the paper after you had drawn your subject right in the middle.  It was an important lesson and as a professional artist, the same spirit of that lesson applies.  Don't stop, push on through until you have completed your work. Finishing what you start helps you make more money.  The idea that a couple of shots of details from your latest work in progress will satisfy your Real Collectors enough to give you money is fantasy island.  Your Real Collectors will only buy finished paintings.  Show them that instead. The Model relies on the premise that you will be 'prolific', but that does not stand if you are forever starting new work with new styles which confuse your Real Collectors who have already committed to your brand style. All creatives have a million and one ideas which can 'go off' in [...]

By |2019-07-20T11:58:01+00:00July 20th, 2019|Creating, Model, Real Collectors|0 Comments
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How To Set Price Points Your Real Collectors Will Love

Explore and learn the market you operate in.  Discover art most like yours.  Learn about the artists and where you find their stories chime with yours; check their prices for benchmarks and learn why they charge the amount they do.  benchmarking does not mean that you charge the same, it just means you use that price point when comparing your own.  You might end up charging more or less, but you will have justified that in your mind and you will be able to communicate that to your collectors. A nice place to kick off is with a formula for pricing your art which considered: time labour cost of materials For example, if materials cost €150, you take 10 hours to make the art and you pay yourself €35 per hour, then you price the art at €500. This is a very crude means of working out value.  Most artists will testify that they do not earn an hourly wage.  We ask "why not?" Of course, give yourself [...]

By |2019-07-03T03:18:42+00:00July 3rd, 2019|Model, Real Collectors, Selling Art|0 Comments
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Real Collectors: A Bit More Detail

In other posts, we have mentioned Real Collectors and in this post, we will attempt to outline the principle on Real Collectors in simple terms and you will see how easy it is to understand. As we have outlined before, the principle is based on 'The Model' espoused by the late British fine artist, Brett Neal and the writings of authors Kevin Kelly and Ylane Duparc respectively. Let’s say that you define your success with an income from your sales of £4,000 per month, you are talking about £48,000 per year.  For most folk, that is a comfortable amount to live on, even after taxes. Using the Real Collector model, you would need to find: 48 Real Collectors who give you £1,000 per year. 2000 Real Collectors who pay you £24 per year. 1000 Real Collectors who pay you £48 per year. 500 Real Collectors who pay you £96 per year. You can change the numbers to work out what works best for you. Using the same premise, [...]

By |2019-06-29T06:39:49+00:00June 29th, 2019|Model, Real Collectors, Selling Art|0 Comments
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