Working as an artist in these tough economic times can be quite challenging especially because artwork is considered to be an item of luxury unlike the basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter and education. Getting a job can prove quite elusive and it gets worse if a client whom you had hoped to get payment from ends up rejecting your design.
No need to despair! There are plenty of places artists can sell their art, including graphic design work, drawings and paintings. While most of these selling locations are websites, there are indeed some offline techniques you can use to get paid.
1Sell Your Art on eBay
EBay is without a doubt one of the best places artists can sell their art. The reason is simple; eBay is globally popular and there are always millions of buyers ready to buy quality stuff including quality artwork. In selling your art via this auction site, you need to know that your work is among the thousands of pieces being offered for sale on a daily basis. This realization should be just the impetus you need to spur you to create extraordinary art; something that only a handful of artists are into.
In choosing the ideal category of art to engage in you can make a typical eBay search, just like what an art buyer would. Your search should be aimed at pointing out what categories have the least supply of artwork but a feasible number of buyers. Popular categories like abstract art attract a lot of buyers but the supply is equally abundant as can be proven by the many web pages featuring it. A category like pop art has a healthy quantity of buyers but only a handful of suppliers; you obviously have a better chance of making sales here.
2Selling Your Art via a Website and/or Blog
This is a great supplement to selling your art via eBay. Chances are that a buyer who has seen one of your pieces elsewhere will follow a provided link to your website and end up seeing more of your work. Who knows, he/she may be attracted by a piece of art on the site as opposed to that initial piece elsewhere. You can present and sell your art using either a freely hosted website or a paid one. The latter is the better option because it offers you greater flexibility and control. If you intend to go the free host way you can consider using www.tripod.lycos.com and if you prefer the paid host alternative you can consider www.hostexcellence.com.
Some of the preferred free blog sites you can use include wordpress.com, www.blogger.com, and www.livejournal.com. Blogging has proven to be an increasingly popular online activity and you should be able to get some positive results in terms of artwork sales.
3Using Stock Marketplaces to Sell Your Designs in Art
Stock marketplaces are some of the online places where artists can sell their work including photography and graphic work. If you produce logos, illustrations, templates and icons you can sell your work via graphicleftovers.com. Another such website is istockphoto.com and here you can also sell flash, video and photo artworks. Artists dealing with vector stock image production can use www.vectorstock.com, while those dealing with flash art and video & motion graphics can consider www.flashden.net and www.videohive.net, respectively.
As an artist whose artwork involves creating new font characters you can sell your work via www.linotype.com or www.itcfonts.com. For those producing website templates, there are a couple of options to consider including cleverandy.com, www.templamatic.com, and www.csstemplatesweb.com.
4Using Custom Marketplaces
Custom marketplaces are alternative locations where artists can sell their artwork. The principle here is somehow different; you generally have to go up against other artists in trying to accomplish a real design project, or you can bid for projects whereby clients will choose the winner depending on their own criteria. Two websites where you can compete against fellow artists include www.crowdspring.com and 99designs.com. As for bidding websites we have www.project4hire.com or www.designfirms.org.
5Alternative Websites to Help You Get Paid for Your Artwork
What has already been described includes the conventional methods of selling artwork. Selling art should not be an ends to a means but vice versa. This means that you should also pursue alternatives that will give you publicity and thus accentuate your artwork in the market further.
Some of the ways to sell your art this way include having your art used as a magazine cover illustration or as the subject of a greeting card. Whichever of these you choose, you should be careful not to surrender all the rights to the piece as this will prohibit you from selling/using the same elsewhere. Having your artwork used as the subject of a customized t-shirt or a postcard is equally viable. Two websites that can help in this regard include redbubble.com andthreadless.com. Other websites you can use as places to sell your art include www.artrising.com and www.artbreak.com.
