Tuesday 17th September 2013As an artist, one of the most important things you can do once you’ve created your masterpiece is to get it into the public eye. While the traditional art gallery can be a useful tool if you're lucky enough to know the right people, the Internet has opened up huge new areas of opportunity for artists, no matter who you know or what media you work with. We’ll take you through some of the quick and easy ways you can start to promote your work online and start gaining the recognition – and sales – that you deserve.
First and foremost, the most important element is to start developing a presence on the web. Gallereo offers a simple way for artists to showcase their work online, without having to learn how to create websites. This allows you to point potential fans - and potential customers - to a website that showcases your work in a beautiful gallery template, and even makes selling your work online simple and painless.
If you work in any kind of digital media, it will be fairly simple to upload your work. If you work in any of the traditional physical media, however, it's important to make sure that you take high-quality photographs of your work for uploading to your gallery. Pay close attention to how the colours are represented, and consider taking multiple photographs of a single piece to show detail. If you work in sculpture or installation pieces, be sure to show multiple angles to really capture the feel of the work. (Sculptors and jewellers! Stay tuned for our upcoming post on how to construct a simple lightbox using materials from you've got around the house, and turn your sale photographs into works of art in their own right!)
Once you've got your Gallereo page set up, the next crucial step is to start creating some buzz for yourself and your artwork. Social networks are one of the most useful tools for creating buzz, and Facebook makes the process simple, especially if you already have a personal Facebook account. Simply create a new page dedicated to your artwork, upload a few pictures of your work, and link the page to your Gallereo account. Start reaching out to other artists online, and start cross-promoting each others work - you'll be amazed how quickly you can build up a dedicated following of fans. There are many opportunities to receive free Facebook ad credits to help bring fans to your page, and Google Adwords also regularly offers free advertising credits which you can use to send art buyers directly to your Gallereo page.
As with most types of sales, the key steps to success are showcasing your work and making sure people can find you easily. With a bit of careful attention to detail (and some shameless self-promotion!), you can rapidly turn your artwork into a viable career. Many artists, paradoxically, are a bit shy when they first start showing off their work, but it's important to get over this and really show off your talent - so get yourself out there and enjoy it!
Posted on September 17th 2013 on 02:33pm