1. Decide what you want to do as an artist.
Choose your medium, topic, or theme, and find your voice. Some artists spend their whole life looking forward to it, but you can begin at the purpose what your location is now. Your thoughts will change with the years, be ready for this. Define your values, everything you stand for—they may be the absolute most permanent aspects of your personality and your art. Build everything around them and you is likely to be set for a lengthy time.
2. Define your target audience and future patrons.
That are the folks sharing exactly the same values and passion as you? Marine artists should look at ship or boat owners and coastal dwellers. Wildlife artists should think about people who have wildlife within their hearts—Greenpeace fans, safari lovers, hunters, landlords of large wild properties. If you like kids, look at their parents; if you love landscape, think of property owners and farmers. There is no secret—just 2% to 5% of society buys artwork: that part who has enough money and who values art. That doesn't just select visual art—music, dance, and the performing arts work exactly the same way.
3. Build your portfolio.
Keeping in mind your topic and your potential patrons, build your portfolio. If your topic is closely related to some particular interest, approach your potential patrons and look for non-monetary support in portfolio building. This is often access to a property or help through being truly a model. Oftentimes, it could result in your first sales. That is also the beginning of building your network. You can choose and manage your network for some extent. People attract like-minded people. Defining what type of people you would like in your network helps you to get them. It may sound like magic, but that is really a natural way for you yourself to select individuals to talk to about your art.
4. Gain recognition.
This can be quite a show, an opposition, or some other kind of recognition. Take time to inform the press, your existing patrons and other admirers about this. Most people like to have an art piece by way of a recognized artist. Even when they bought it ahead of the recognition came, it will please them. Maybe even more, they could take credit in discovering you and your talent before others. Provide them with this small treat!
5. Fine tune your brand.
Since the moment you made a decision to ministers be an artist and began following steps 1 to 4, you've been building your brand. It is rooted in your values, your beliefs, and your view. It sparkles in your art, yourself and everything around you. Take the core message (as in step 1) and make an effort to incorporate it in most single step you make. Your web page, your opinions, your organization card—even the manner in which you dress—might be an integral part of your brand. You're the brand! Be careful the method that you get it ministers done, though—be yourself and ensure that you don't trap yourself with your own personal brand.
6. Revise your pricing strategy.
It's no secret that recognized artists sell their benefit higher prices. So, as a rule of thumb, higher prices indicate that the artist is recognized. Don't forget to reflect your amount of recognition in your prices. Pricing is extremely sensitive thing—you have to find the appropriate spot. Underpricing will result in fewer sales and less interest in your art. People love emerging artists, but you've to give them the message you're emerging not only starting. One of the hidden messages can be your price. On another hand, avoid overpricing. If costs are too high, people will become deeper investigation and will soon discover unreasonably high prices. In any case, you ought to calculate material costs and set a price that covers at the least your material costs.
7. Think about sales and information channels.
Just how can people find your art? Are you experiencing an online portfolio? Are you experiencing a web site? Is your art exhibited somewhere? What's that place? Is it a gallery or even a cafe in a disreputable street? Be careful whenever choosing a channel and area for your art. The context also sends a hidden message. You wont find the task of a high artist in a small corner café unless it's under their studio or belongs to him or her!
After step 7, look around: almost certainly you are already an artist who has their particular admirers, network and sales. Set an objective for once you will quit your entire day job. Is it an amount earned monthly? Or number of art pieces sold? Or amount of blog visitors? Revise your strategy, sales, channels, audience, branding and work before you reach the goal.
Read more about Transcendent Artist James Martinez