Tag: tips
-
Selling Paintings: Which Subjects Sell Best?
All painters know that some subjects sell better than others. Whether these are subjects you want to paint and whether you should be painting specifically for the market are two thorny questions. Only you can decide whether you want (or need) to paint with a view to selling as much as possible, or whether you […]
-
How to Write an Artist’s Statement
An artist’s statement is a short piece written by the artist to accompany a particular painting or group of paintings. An artist’s statement shouldn’t be dismissed as insignificant or dashed out in a hurry as it’s a vital selling tool, promoting and explaining your work to people looking at your paintings, whether they’re potential buyers, […]
-
How to Sign a Painting
Adding your signature to a painting is like adding a stamp to it that reads “finished”. It’s a sign that you’re satisfied with the painting and no longer consider it a work in progress. Is It Really Necessary to Sign a Painting? It’s not a legal requirement, but if you don’t add your name to […]
-
Juried Art Shows
On occasion I am asked to help jury an art exhibit. These requests are never answered right away. This is a great responsibility, of course not life and death, but responsibility nevertheless. Always I am an artist and as such experience the anticipation and often the disappointment when the juror’s results come back. How long […]
-
How to Create a Body of Work and a Distinctive Style as an Artist
If you’re looking to get gallery representation, or to sell your art in some other, more innovative way, we have to assume that you already have a body of work that consists of at least 20 or 30 works in a style, medium, colors, and subject matter that distinguish you from every other artist in some way. […]
-
Amateur vs Professional Artist
After visiting two art exhibitions, one put on by my local art club and the other by a group of professional artists, I realized that whilst the amateur show had many ‘nice’ paintings, and showed a high level of painting ability, the professional show had many more paintings that had that ‘wow’ factor that made […]
-
How to Create a Body of Work and a Distinctive Style as an Artist
If you’re looking to get gallery representation, or to sell your art in some other, more innovative way, we have to assume that you already have a body of work that consists of at least 20 or 30 works in a style, medium, colors, and subject matter that distinguish you from every other artist in some way. […]
-
Choosing Art as a Career
So you want to be an artist… is this a realistic career choice, or are you going to live in a cockroach-infested flat for the rest of your life, fulfilling the “starving artist” stereotype? In short, the odds of being a successful fine artist (someone who makes a living by creating original, one-off pieces of […]
-
How to Test if a Paint Color is Opaque or Transparent
Different pigments have different covering properties. Some are extremely transparent, barely showing on top of another color. Others are extremely opaque, hiding what’s beneath. Considering this, and not just what the color is, can enhance a subject. For example, using a transparent blue in a sky gives a greater feeling of airiness than an opaque blue will. […]
-
Color Theory Lesson: Avoiding Black for Shadows
Think about how much is truly black in nature. Shadows are not simply black nor a darker version of the color of the object. They contain the complementary color of the object. Take, for example, the shadow on a yellow object. If you mix black and yellow, you get an unattractive olive green. Instead of using this […]
