What beginner artists should know
"It does not make sense to start a career nowadays as an artist or with social media as competition is enormous," I hear pretty often. Well, then I have to tell you a secret – in the world live 8 billion people! Some of them probably already started an art career and are chasing their dreams about self-fulfilment, work flexibility and wealth. On the other hand, there is another secret truth: in the world live 8 billion people, which means some of them can still be your fans and customers.
Get rid of the narrow-minded possibility of the limitation of fans. Stop thinking that when people already like some artists, they are already taken and cannot like you. Of course, they can! Everybody has different taste and likes many things.
You should immediately start producing your artwork! Practice, paint, study, try, cry, draw, erase, show, cut into pieces, and be frustrated and delighted simultaneously. It is part of the process. Without enough art pieces, you cannot know if you are terrific, terrible, or whether art is something you would like to do for the next ten years, forever, or well... never.
Put yourself on social media. It is ironic that I am the person who gives this advice as I was probably the biggest enemy of social media over the last few years. About three years ago, I deleted all my channels and did not want to return. It was good to some extent as I cleaned my life and head, focused on my personal and professional development and tried to figure out who I was and what I wanted. Around the same time, I also met my husband. However, after cleaning my mind, I realised I needed to return to art but I wanted to take it seriously and start from scratch this time. So here I am, writing an art blog and maintaining active Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. That is enough for me. I cannot manage more channels appropriately. Plus, it would be unnecessary.
My advice is to start with online selling platforms like Etsy, or if you have an account, for example, on Facebook, start using social media for selling your art. Forget about the exhibition in the stone galleries - they are costly, and nobody goes there anyway. Everything is now played in the online world, so be a part of the big game. You will sell one small cheap art piece every other month in the beginning, but you will learn how to deal with customers online, how to work with SEO and keywords, and very importantly, how to take good quality photos and do personal branding online. “Be virtual” is the new “be alive”, so use the internet to your advantage and chase your dream.
Leave a comment