Once you dive in to the world of selling your artwork you will want to start selling prints. It’s like a musician selling albums. A musician doesn’t want to perform live overnight, they want to see a recording of their best work. This is the same for an artist. You want to make artwork that is awesome, then sell prints of that artwork so you can continue to get financial gains from that artwork. If you are going to start doing prints of your artwork, here are a few tips I have from my experience selling prints of my artwork online and in my Maui Art Gallery
5 Tips for selling and making art prints
Tip #1 Quality Art Scans
Get high quality Images of your artwork. You’re looking for the highest resolution possible without breaking the bank. Can use a professional, or rent a camera, or try your phone depending on budget. Use natural light if doing it yourself, best on a lightly overcast day.
Tip #2 Use Standard Sizes
Plan on using standard sizing, 5x7, 8x10 and 11x14 for your artwork. Not only will this make your prices for making prints the most affordable, they will fit in standard frames, matts and bags etc. Start making your originals the sizes that can scale down to these sizes. Remember that 5x7 is actually an 8x10 Matt and bagged. And 8x10 is 11x14 and a 11x14 is 16x20. Also stick to one size at first. Variety is great, but it is a total hassle. I basically just do 11x14 to keep it simple. Id not have to have excessive inventory, or too many variants on pricing.
These are the basic standard sizes for both the USA and the rest of the wold
Tip#3 Choose Top Selling Designs first
Choose your prints based on what has sold or got the most attention. By doing this you can narrow down what you need to get printed. It is really frustrating having 400$ in prints that are not selling. Order or print 2-3 prints of a new piece if you’re unsure what the print response will be.
Tip#4 Package Your Art Professionally
Put a bio sticker on the back of your print with a brief bio, picture of you the artist. Your website, email, and social media, so the collector can easily contact you if needed. My stickers are black and white 4’x4” and placed in the center of the back. No need for title etc on back of matted print.
Also Sign your prints. I sign mine on front right corner in black Posca pen. Sign your prints how you want but make sure that the artist name is visible to the person viewing the artwork.
Tip #5 Price Accordingly
Paper prints have a lower price point than originals. Generally between 20-55$ for an 11x14 matted paper print. If you retail for 20$ that means you will only get 10$ wholesale if you sell to a gallery or boutique. Be conscience of your price. Also this is an affordable product so don’t give away too much value. For these small prints you don’t need to do a limited edition. Save those for the canvas or aluminum reproductions.
Bonus Tip: Print your own prints. This will cost you some money in the beginning but you will save so much more by doing it yourself. You can do smaller print runs, try get the colors right before printing hundreds of dollars only to find out the colors are off. You can sell online and print to order. You can have a stack of paper ready to print. Its so much cheaper to do it yourself.
If you’re wondering what printer I recommend the Canon Pixima Pro 1000
The Best Art Printer you can buyer prints under 11x14
The ink is the same quality ink used on the commercial printers, but it's a desktop. You only need to print 8x10 anyway so don’t pay for your prints to be done on a big expensive printer when you can get the same quality for cheaper. A printer won’t fix a bad scan or bad art, so make good art, get good scans, print it write, package it right and then get out there and start to show your work. Stay inspired. Aloha
Make sure to check out my artwork here in my Online art gallery
Or See my artwork at the Welzie Art Gallery at the ANDAZ RESORT in Wailea Maui Hawaii