Biz Talk - I have nothing to put up in my shop
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Hi awesome people! I wad listening to an old podcast episode "Ship happens" where Jake talked about having 3 lives for each artwork I create. The thing is, I have difficulty selling my artworks as prints or licensing or pattern because they are often so specific and wouldn't make sense hanging on anyone's wall?
I also gravitate to making things that have value beyond the art (e.g. educational materials, books) which makes the process time to ship something waaaay longer than if I were to sell individual image as a postcard, greeting cards or prints.
Case in point: now I am working on a set of illustrated cards to help people who are learning English as second language visualize and remember idioms. I enjoy the concepting and image making process, but won't have anything to sell until I finish the whole pack of 20. I also don't see that any individual image from this pack will be good for hanging on the wall...
Just to clarify, I don't think I am really bad at it. It is just not something I do naturally. I have done decorative before - licensed a repeat pattern to baby clothing company, sold a couple of original watercolour at art shows, human and pet portrait commissions, but these are few and far between and they needed to be made separately from the stuff I am really into.
I don't know what kind of answers or discussions I am looking for here, but would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on the 3-lives thing!
My website is www.artmelc.com if it's relevant and you have time to look at. Thanks for reading my long post! I am grateful for the community here.
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I know what you mean, I struggled for a long time not knowing where my art fit into this world. I’ve sold paintings at craft fairs done pet portraits commissions, but it was a different style than what I really wanted to do. Children’s literature is really the only place I see my art happening I t’s a bit hard because a lot of it is so specific it wouldn’t make sense anywhere else, so…unfortunately I didn’t offer anything helpful lol just relatability, sorry lol
