Is Someone Making A Virtual Buck From Your Art?

I received an email some months ago from a lady who is a player/participant on the virtual world game…

Second life.

If you haven’t heard of second life, in summary here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

It’s not my thing, but it has given some people a chance of living out their fantasy world.  SL actually has it’s own currency (Linden Dollars). You can buy Linden Dollars with US dollars.

And Linden dollars is exchangeable to US dollars. I’m led to believe the exchange rate is something like L$275–285 per US$1

Anyway…

This lady wrote to tell me that she owned an art gallery in SL and that she had been selling images of my art (obviously taken from my website at CAKUart) to people who want art for their “virtual homes”

Kooky, but true.

Due to some new enforced copyright issues, people such as the lady who owned the gallery were forced to re-assess where and how they were accessing and distributing the art and images of real life artists.

Hence why I was contacted.

Ultimately she wanted permission to continue using my images to on sell to people who wanted some cool art for their virtual homes.

I rejected her request.

It’s nothing personal, its just business.

I said that unless I can see how the images of my art were being distributed for sale, and how they were being represented in her gallery, I no longer wanted her using them and requested that she delete them from her gallery.

I am aware that there are artists using SL to promoted their art. I have even heard of one story where an artist has done quite well for himself in terms of recognition. His popularity as an artist has shifted from the virtual world to the real life world.

Good for him.

Though I wonder if all that time spent on SL promoting his art could have been time better spent promoting his art in the real world.

Who knows for sure.

What’s your opinion on this?

Perhaps you are an artist who is using SL to promote your art. If so, how is it working out?

Or have you had any similar experienced with virtual galleries using your art to sell the images to members of SL so they can decorate their virtual homes and offices?

Perhaps you don’t even know they are using your images. Do you care or are you not phased by it?

Power to you and your art!

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Outdoor Art Shows and Festivals

Participating in outdoor shows and festivals really can EXPAND your world as an artist. For many artists in can in fact be the only avenue they’ll ever need to pursue in order to promote and sell their art. This in turn makes it easier for an artist to focus, organise their time and ultimately get their artwork in front of people on a consistent basis.

Exhibiting your art for sale at outdoor shows and festivals allows art buyers to see your artwork in flesh. They get to admire your work on a deeper level because they can view it directly up close.

As the artist you get to personally interact with people and explain your work, which helps to add significant value to your artwork. Art buyers get to see your artwork for what it truly is. They get the experience the ENERGY of your art –something that is difficult to achieve through promoting your art for sale on the Internet.

Art shows and festivals are like giant marketing laboratories for an artist – you are constantly exposed to genuine feedback, you can establish who your customer is, and you can test your marketing plan as much as you want until you begin to experience the results you want.

You also get to network with other artists. Networking with other artists will provide you with a wealth of information, great tips, advice and encouragement. There simply is no better resource than learning from the very people who are out there on the front line exhibiting their work for sale regularly.

Participating in Outdoor art shows and festivals provide what you ultimately need… a targeted market of buyers. The greatest benefit of being amongst a targeted market of buyers is being able to sell your art.

You can exhibit your art to impulse buyers, and both novice and experienced art collectors. You can create your own collector base. This can mean repeat sales through building customer/client relationships, and you can generally build a reputation within in the art industry.

One major challenge a lot of artist face is the on going costs involved with buying materials to maintain an inventory of work. If you are regularly participating in art shows and festivals, and selling your art, this of course means you can afford to keep creating your art because you are continuously generating a cash flow.

Expand your world as an artist and participate in Outdoor shows and festivals. It just may be the very course of action you needed to take to get things really rolling for you as an artist.

Some helpful words of advice…

Enter the outdoor show and festival circuit with the attitude to work and apply everything you learn along the way. Try to keep your foot off the accelerator and enjoy the experience – you’ll be far more receptive to what is going on and what you’ll need to apply in order to make things work for you, if you avoid going in with too many high hopes.

Most of all, enjoy the journey.

Watch the Get Your Art Out There Video

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Get Your Art Out There

Book Launch Date Is Sunday 11th April 12pm CDT If you are not already one of my “Anatomy Of An Artist” Newsletter subscribers, and you would like to be notified as soon as Get Your Art Out There is released, simply enter your details in the box to the right.

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What Do You See For 2010?

I have been laying out a basic blueprint plan for 2010.

Just like every year, I want the New Year to be my best year ever. It doesn’t always work out that way – in other words, there are always big challenges that throw my plans around and delay things. But I have become used to it now… and I factor that in to my plans.

If you have been sitting on the fence in regards to wishing you could do something worthwhile as an artist, then you should know that 2010 will be the same… a long time sitting on the fence… unless you write down what you want to do and create a few basic action steps to make it all fall into place.

If you have been meaning to start that business, then start it now.

If you have been meaning to get an exhibit up and running, then contact the owner of the venue you want to exhibit your work in, tomorrow.

If you have been putting off spending an allocated amount of time each day in your studio, then create a big poster that says, “What! Are you gutless? Then get in the studio, now!” and stick it on your bathroom mirror.

Make that art video and upload it onto YouTube.

Get your website built.

Start your blog and keep a regular running dialogue for your fans and collectors to read.

Do what it is you have been putting off and make it happen in 2010. Chances are, if you don’t, you probably never will. At least, that’s how I view it.

We can go and on and make every excuse we want. Um, I think they are called “rationalisations” actually. Rationalising and excuse making is part of our human genetic makeup. It’s like this unseen power that controls us. But if we are aware of it, we can actually acknowledge it and avoid it by simply doing the work we need to do in order to achieve what we want to achieve.

It’s that simple really. Just do your work.

Don’t have the time?

Get up two hours earlier (I do)

Still got an excuse?

Too bad… it just wont happen for you. And that is the reality of it. Unless you can stop listening to the bullshit you tell yourself, things simply will not happen.

All we have is now, so go and make it work. At least, give it all you have to try and make it work.

Do your work.

Make 2010 a cracking year and one you can look back on and tell the kids, “That was the year it happened for me”

Happy New Year.

Power to you and your art!

Carl

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Artist Toolbox

I have a two-day exhibit this week. Like always, I am so meticulous about making sure I am super organised  – I drive everyone crazy.

As I was getting organised this week I thought it might be a good idea to pop a few items that come in handy for when you are doing an outdoor exhibit on my blog:

Cable ties (come in handy to tie things down if the breeze picks up)

Camera (grab some snaps of the event and the people who buy your art)

Light chains (for extra strength – helps to stabilise your paintings better)

Packing materials (bubble wrap etc for the buyer who wants to take their painting right then and now)

Pens

Client contact book (keep a record of everyone who you talk to and bought your art)

Receipt book

Scissors

Masking tape

Table cloth’s

Drinks

Food

Painting description labels

Hand brush (nice to give your work a dust off)

Cloth for wiping dust

Business cards and business card tray holder

Fliers

Exhibit banner with your name

Hole puncher

Certificates of authenticity

Payment facility (if you don’t have a way to process credit cards grab a small deposit and use paypal to email an invoice to your customer)

Laptop

Blu tack

Easels (paintings look good on the equipment they were created on)

Stapler

Mints

Sunscreen

Promo CD’s (portfolio)

Personality (helps to express interest in people – after all they are buying your art)

Lighting (if you have power use lighting regardless of the natural sunlight – the sun is in and out throughout the day, but having reliable lighting on your work really helps your buyers see your work for what it really is).

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Missing Out

There is a popular art and music festival happening in my home town in December. Like always, I am so head on in my work I forget to arrange to have a spot in the festival.

Yeah… I have made notes so many times to contact the organisers… but missed the boat this time. In other words, I missed my spot as entries are now officially closed.

So I request the cancellation spot (it’s not the first time either).

Essentially, I am asking the organisers to “pick me” first should there be a cancellation from another artist.

I’m not betting on getting in, but I have glued my “huge interest” to the organisers consciousness at least… I think…I hope (gulp).

Things like this TRULY annoy me because I am generally punctual with most aspects of keeping my art biz pointing upwards. But I have to be honest and admit that I do sometimes drop the ball.

I have no one to blame but my self.

Yeah, I will swear at the walls for a day… but then I’ll encourage myself with, “Hey wait a minute, you may still get in… so don’t lose hope yet,” kind of talk.

It’s just the idea of not seeing my name on the “artists who are exhibiting list” that deflates the mood somewhat and leaves me feeling a bit like a like a waterlogged ball.

(sigh)

The big tip is… don’t let your work get in the way of your progress.

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Diversify

If you discover in the beginning that you are not getting the financial results you want from your art…

Or if nobody is buying from your niche…

Then diversify.

Listen… if you are happy to get along with NOT selling what you love to create, then that’s great.

After all you got into this game for the self-fulfilment huh.

Yeah

But…

If you are looking to receive a few cookies for your efforts (of course you are), then put what you do to the side NOW AND THEN and do this…

Create What People Want

“Egad! What is you saying man? Isn’t that like…SELLING OUT? OH MY… I think I hear the “purist” stampede approaching!”

But seriously…

I have received many emails from artists who have struggled to sell art in their niche.

If it is your desire to make some sales in the beginning, then one factor you may want to consider is being prepared to be a little flexible.

During some of my very first exhibits I had people approach me and tell me they loved my subject matter and texture, but didn’t really desire my use of colour.

How could I take their dislike for my use of colour personally when one particular lady was wearing a lime midriff jumper, purple corduroy pants and blue thongs (flip-flops). “What the…?”

But I digress…

So I then asked them questions about what colours they do like… or what kind of themes they like etc.

Through this type of conversation we often managed to meet somewhere in the middle.

And a result I often produced some work for them that didn’t go too much out of my creative category and yet suited what the buyer was looking for.

This is kind of like doing commission work.

Remember the key is not to go TOO far outside of your creative ward and into an area that doesn’t stimulate you.

But try to be flexible.

At the end of the day you are looking for your bread and butter…

The “cash flow” to get you moving.

So be a little diverse with your work to accommodate more people. The same goes with your pricing. Have some low cost entry pieces available. Make your art accessible to everyone without making it free (wink).

Later as you develop your craft, develop a following and build a reputation you can concentrate solely on your chosen niche.

But until then “diversify” a little.

For example…

If you only use charcoal to draw birds…try using some oil colours instead.

If you only do abstract textural paintings…try incorporating a subject theme.

If you paint water colour on board seascapes…try using oil colours on canvas and incorporating people (activity) on the beach.

If you paint portraits of celebrities…try painting everyday people who can actually sit for you.

Whatever you do, try to be diverse.

It’s worth exploring anyway.

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Bitter With Twitter?

Many artists are hesitant about using Twitter because they feel there is no real value in using it as a marketing tool to generate interest in their artwork.

“Just a lot of people waffling on,” as one artist put it.

The most effective way to make the most out of twitter is to point your followers to new content on your blog.

Keep it simple.

Many artists looking to get some momentum are not creating content that supports their work. So my suggestion is to create a running dialogue (regular blog posts) that intrigues, informs and inspires your visitor.

The whole idea of your site or blog, aside from showcasing your work, is to create content that SUPPORTS the curiosity your website visitor has in you and your work.

Twitter is merely a tool to re-direct additional traffic towards that content.

So create content to create a gathering…

Create content in order to EXCITE your suspect…

And then use twitter to direct traffic to that content.

In all honesty… you don’t need to purchase any twitter products (there are many available now to help you use twitter to its full potential) unless you are very keen to master twitter for serious marketing purposes.

But check out my twitter marketing link below. It will give you are very solid understanding as to what twitter is all about and how it may of good use to you.

Read this post on artists using twitter for marketing:

http://www.caku-art.com/twitter-marketing.html

At the end of the day, building legitimate relationships online is where the power is in terms of bringing attention to your artwork. Social media is a handy tool, but it really comes down to developing proper relationships with people.

Power to you and your art!

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Where’s The Artist?

I am amazed at how many artist websites and blogs I have seen and there is not even one picture of the artist. Not one photograph.

For me personally… it feels as though the artist is hiding behind his or her website. I can appreciate that many people are not always comfortable in front of the camera.

But if you are in the business of promoting and selling your art, you have to come out from behind the curtain at some stage.

“But people are buying my art, not a picture of me!”

That is true. But the Internet is a funny beast. The more transparent you can be, the more confident and trusting your potential buyers will be of you.

Being transparent doesn’t mean you have to go to extremes… it doesn’t mean you have to post your school reports on your blog or tell your readers how many times you have been arrested. But just one photo of you will help to provide the human aspect to your site.

One thing to remember is that your website visitor is asking questions about you from the moment they land on your site. So along with your artist bio information, provide a picture of yourself to make their evaluation of you a little more comforting.

Having a picture of yourself is the quickest way for people to read who you are.

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You Are Such An Amateur Artist

It doesn’t matter how far you go as an artist in your career…

You will always have that element of being an amateur.

“Gosh, how dare he condemn me like that” I just heard the guy at the back holler.

Sit down Restless Geoffrey… and allow me to explain.

There is nothing derogatory about being labelled an amateur artist.

Our modern culture is partly to blame for our misinterpretation of what amateur actually means or represents.

The word Amateur essentially comes from the Latin verb, “amare”

Which means, “to love”.

So… to be an amateur artist simply means…

“To do what you love doing”

It is actually a word to describe “experience”

Not “achievement”.

Slightly profound huh

I think so too.

Being amateur is not about how well you do it, but about how much you enjoy doing it (wink).

That’s called being an amateur.

Being amateur is based more on the quality of your experience…

Not the quality of your performance.

So what the difference between being an amateur And a pro?

A pro loves what she does MORE than an Amateur does…

Because a pro sits down and does all the Mundane stuff in order to uphold the inspiration and to maintain a routine.

A professional loves what she does, but also knows what she does.

An amateur only loves what she does.

Being an amateur is groovy to begin with

But think pro

Professionals don’t have to deal with criticism because They look at their work objectively.

They KNOW they are not their art

That’s a pro

A pro is patient

A pro contributes to her work EVERYDAY

An amateur waits till the weekend

A pro don’t make excuses

They make hay while the sun is shining

Think pro

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