Are you a “Professional” Artist? I’m not talking about if you have a corporate sponsorship or whether or not you are earning the big bucks. I’m not even talking about quitting your day job, if you have one, and living on ramen noodles and Starbucks (because even if you’re poor you still need your Cafe […]
Let’s face it, you’ve probably been working way too hard. Forget about all of those years toiling away in obscurity Forget about putting in your 10,000 hours of practice to master your craft. In fact, forget about creating any creative work at all, now it’s all about becoming famous for the sake of being famous. […]
Walking out of a store the other day and was approached by two girls who asked me, “If I would like to buy some Girl Scout cookies.” Now, of course, I don’t necessarily need another $5 box of cookies in our house, but was I really going to say no to these girls who were […]
By Suzanne V Paddock Often creative artists are asked to donate their skills or their work for the sole compensation of exposure. While well intentioned, few of those situations can seem like real opportunities and many times, unfortunately, are more of a benefit for the person seeking the free work. A studio tour, however, can […]
Going Local: 5 Ways to Market Your Art in Your Community by: Steff Metal As artists, we’re told again and again how vital it is for us to market online, to reach an international audience, to establish a profitable niche. And this is very true, but in extending our reach we often neglect a lucrative […]
by: Kevin Chung As artists we live in fear “You might as well give up.” “You’ll never make a living as an artist.” “Being an artist is a great job if you want to starve.” These words have been ingrained in our thoughts for what seems like forever, but it wasn’t always that way. “That’s such a wonderful […]
By Thea Fiore-Bloom The email list for my blog is small. Not small as in,‘Ah shucks,I only have 500 or 1000 people’–-small. My email list is just plain old small-—as in tiny. In fact my mailing list is so small that if I told you exactly how many people are on it right now you’d probably rush to your kitchen to make me a grilled cheese and some cocoa to comfort me. Thanks for the thought but I’m good, I swear.
by: Angela Cross As an artist, you’ve probably felt unappreciated at some point in your career. Heck, even calling your art a ‘career’ might sound silly to you! It’s a common 20th-century misconception that popularity equals value. It can feel like you just can’t build a following unless you already have one, which is a […]
Judging a book by its cover Book covers are probably more important than you think. It doesn’t matter if you are publishing a book, an ebook, or just a PDF that you plan to give away on your website, the cover will often determine how many sales or downloads you will end up getting. Why? […]
Who Pays Who? by: Andrew MacDonald When I started out in the arts and craft world over twenty years ago, I don’t think the idea of “artist’s application fees” had been invented. As far as I remember, in order to enter submit a work to an art competition you sent some recent photos and sometimes […]
You win, I lose! As creative artists we have been trained to see things in a particular way which is if you win, then I lose. We either get the publishing or recording contract or we get rejected. We either get the gallery show or it goes to some other artist We either get the […]
Copyright is Not the Problem, You Are! by: Cory Huff Pinterest is upon us! For some reason, the Internet decided to throw a giant fit over copyright over the last few weeks. It started (sort’ve) with this interesting blog post by a lawyer who tearfully deleted her Pinterest inspiration boards. Her post spread like wildfire, […]
Etsy is a dream come true for Artists (isn’t it?) Etsy is widely known as one of the premier websites for selling arts & crafts online. They essentially took eBay’s shop concept and focused it squarely on the creative niche so you no longer had to sift through lawnmowers in order to get to beaded lanyards. […]
Actually, I guess that’s not really fair because as a writer, I never actually went to art school because I was stuck in “writer’s school” which I’m pretty certain sucks. What I’m really talking about is any type of so-called “art school” whether it’s music school, design school, fine art school, or your plain old […]
Let’s face it, only bad things happen quickly One of the things that I’ve learned about this whole building your artistic repuatation online process is that it’s going to take a heck of a lot longer than most people think. In fact, one of the biggest complaints I hear from frustrated artists is that they are doing […]
Unlike high school, getting a reputation online as an artist isn’t easy. We can’t just smile and charm our fans and potential customers with our good looks. Sure they might stop by and admire your stuff, but chances are they’re not going to be buying anything unless they end up feeling a real connection […]
The internet is great. With the world wide web we are connected like never before. News travels almost instantly and communities of like-minded individuals can easily come together and share their passion. Without the world wide web, witty and informative websites like Skinny Artist could never exist. Unfortunately, as many of you already know, […]
Okay, okay, Radiohead is not the “Dead” (but they’re closer than you think) Many of you may remember a few years back when the band Radiohead decided to release their album “In Rainbows” as a name-your-own-price download before it was ever released on CD. This was considered nothing short of crazy because, at the […]
One of the biggest myths out there in the art world seems to be that a true artist should do nothing but create their art and perfect their craft. This is known as the “Field of Dreams” art marketing theory where if you build it, the customers and financial reward will eventually come. For whatever reason […]