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Artists - making a living with your art

Art is a very subjective thing and there are far too many people out there willing to pass judgement on somebody's work. So often, art is viewed as a precious comodity purely for the enjoyment of the elite. This is an attitude perpetuated by the professional critic whose judgement can make or break an artists reputation. What gives a critic this power that can deny the artist a living from his skills? One thing and one thing only. His/her opinion informed by years of studying what the perceived model of acceptability is. Unfortunately, this sort of opinion excludes a great swathe of excellent work for a variety of reasons often hinging on snobbery. If an artist falls out side of these boundaries, it becomes increasingly dificult to break into the world of professional art with agents and galleries less inclined to take them on.

The criteria that really matters is; do you like it? If you've created something that you genuinely like there is an extremely strong probability that there will be a lot of people who agree with you, and some of those would be willing to buy your work of art - irrespective of what the critics may say. If you try and second guess the market and create something that you think will please the critics, you run the risk of satisfying no-one... including yourself. Keep the faith, plough on with your gut instincts, and the results will be honest and probably way more saleable. Lots of people will be there to give advise on what you are doing wrong - listen to them and take in those points that you know deep down are right, but keep faith in your original vision and you will get there. Who knows, the critics may agree too - but don't worry if they don't!!

If like many people, you feel that you want to bypass the old agent and gallery system and get you work seen and bought by real paying customers, there are a whole host of avenues open for you via the internet. A new breed of E-Galleries exist who will let you show your work for a small fee, or even free of charge irrespective of your style. You simply upload your images through the gallery's own interfaces and, hey presto, you're online for the world to see.

Most of these sites will let you sell your work on line through them. Some may charge a commission for this service but you can usually set the price you want for the artwork. Type "sell art online" into your favourite search engine, and you'll be able to find a whole host of these galleries. A major tool in selling your art can be through ebay, just about the biggest market place in the world with millions of potential customers. The good thing about the web is there are new visitors everyday who don't know about what, where, how or who created the artwork. They make their own judgements and if they like what they see enough, they might be tempted to buy!

Article Source: http://www.dummiesguideto.com

Robb Williams works as a multimedia designer, illustrator and composer. He is also the creator of the Free Cosmic Ordering Form. You can see and hear samples of his work at Iconik.

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