How to Make Art that People Will Buy

Art Biz

Jul 13

Written By

Are you wondering if your art is good enough to sell? In this article, I want to tell you a few practical things you can start doing immediately if you want to sell your art.

I've been selling my art since I was a teenager, and for the last decade, I've had a full-time art business selling well over a million dollars of art. I also coach a community of professional artists called Art Revenue Coaching, and we've had thousands of artists come through the program. So, let’s just say I've learned a few things. In this article, I share 4 tips that will help you make irresistible art!

Tip 1: IF YOU WANT TO SELL ART, MAKE A LOT OF IT

This is a fun one. The number one thing that you need to do is surprisingly simply: if you want to sell art, you need to make art. More art. A lot more art. So many artists get stuck in their head, waste time in “research”, get tangled up in business imponderables, or spend time researching about how to market on Etsy… And Don’t. Make. Art.

I once talked to an aspiring artist who had made a single, delightful painting. But then she stopped painting to research what kind of insurance and legal protection she needed. She went down all kinds of rabbit trails—what would happen if her painting fell off the wall and hurt someone? What would happen if it got damaged in a fire or theft? What would she do if someone copied it? I’m all for the right kinds of protection in this complex world, but we can all agree she was jumping the gun a little. Honey, make at least TWO paintings before getting art liability coverage.

The creative process is more alive when it’s responsive rather than cerebral. Action creates clarity. Action creates your unique artist voice. In the beginning, most of your art won’t sell, but you’ll be on your way to creating irresistible brilliance. And by the way, this is the fun stuff! If you don't love making art, I'm sorry to say you have picked the wrong profession. You gotta love it. Find your flow and bliss yourself out in your process.

The Beatles famously played marathon sets in Hamburg, Germany—sometimes up to 8 hours a night, 6 nights a week—which helped forge their sound and group identity. There’s no substitute for sheer repetition when you’re honing your craft. Simple volume of art and time in the studio will sculpt your personal genius in a way that nothing else can.

Here’s what making a lot of art will do for you:

Improve your technical skill and confidence with your medium
Help you find and refine your unique artist voice over time
Make it easier to produce cohesive collections that connect with buyers
Generate more content for sharing online, which builds your visibility
Create emotional detachment—when you make more work, you're less precious about each piece, which gives you freedom to take creative risks
Build momentum in your creative practice, which spills into motivation and clarity in your art business

Tip 2: YOU’RE GOING TO NEED TO CREATE A COLLECTION

An artist will sell a lot more when their collectors know what to expect from them. When you land on a couple of visual ideas that are very intriguing and fun for you, you need to niche down and create a collection or a series. You will need to have some themes developed in order to get an audience to know, like, and trust you. Everyone starts as a stranger, and if you are coming in heavy with something different every day on social, your audience, or potential audience, will find this dislocating and difficult to connect with. By working in a series, we are telling a story that our collectors love to see.

When you have spent a discernible amount of time working through ideas and building your skills, you will be perceived as more of an expert--and people want to collect the art of someone who is really good at what they do.

What is a collection, you ask? A collection will be 10-20 works (preferably more) that all have a similar theme. If the art is all together in a room, a stranger should be able to tell that a single person made them. Your mom will be able to describe your art cohesively to her friend. Your best friend should be able to go to a group show and immediately identify which one is your work.

Ways an artist can express their voice in a collection:

Color palette: consistent color schemes that the artist always comes back to
Subject matter: animals, architecture, emotions, etc.
Medium: watercolor, collage, oil, digital, or mixed media
Style: abstract, realistic, whimsical, minimal
Composition choices: repetition, symmetry, white space, layering
Scale and format: all small works, large canvases, vertical vs. horizontal orientation
Brushwork or technique: gestural marks, tight detail, texture-heavy approaches
Historical reference: expressionism, hyper-realism, classical portraiture, hard edged abstraction, etc

A collection could be focused on just one or two of these themes, or a combination of several. Here's an example. Lauren Pretorious, a successful artist I follow, uses oil paints to create classic still lifes on canvas. She isolates her subject, often kitchen objects, flowers, or fruit, on a neutral beige/grey background. She does marvelous things with light, making the objects appear to glow, frequently painting items with strong reflective qualities, and she has a consistent palette she returns to again and again.

Many artists lack this vital discipline. I completely understand that it can feel scary and even stifling to commit to one idea. For a while.

Remember, a niche is not jail! You can always change it up in the future. But do your art the favor of following an idea deeply and truly. If you exhaust the idea and it's not fun anymore, try something else, or iterate, relying on some of the things you've learned.

Here's another example, think about Van Gogh. He painted a wide variety of subjects in his lifetime, but many of his most recognizable and beloved works are floral still lifes—sunflowers, irises, almond blossoms. These series weren’t just beautiful; they were cohesive, technically adventurous, and emotionally expressive. By focusing on florals, Van Gogh created an unmistakable visual language that helped define his voice as an artist. A collection doesn’t have to be boring or repetitive—it can and should be the foundation of your artistic identity.

This may not be good news for a lot of free-spirited artists, but examining the career success of artists I coach, I see the fastest development of unique voice, the best growth on social media, and the most art sales for artists that are extremely niche focused.

Tip 3: THE SECRET TO MARKETING YOUR ART

"Marketing" simply means to show your art to people.

Now that you have started to develop a unique voice and you are building your collections, the next necessary step to sell your art is to communicate your process, publish your work and listen to your audience.

This is a delicate balance, because pandering to trends is unfulfilling, yet refusing to pay attention to them will mean you are out of touch. Your private art practice is allllll you but developing consistent art sales require a bit of give and take with your audience.

There are lots of ways to listen to your audience. The best way is to take note of what people purchase, or what they spend the most time engaging with. In real life, you could have an open studio, talk to a mentor or art sales expert, or have trusted friends over to discuss your art.

Social media can be invaluable because you can use it as a discussion and feedback tool. As everything, this happens over time, and over time themes and trends will emerge in people’s responses. LISTEN. Adapt.

Hot tip: If you want more info on the process of marketing, join my free secret podcast, "Marketing for Artists 101”. Sign up here.

Tip 4: SHOW UP REGULARLY

Selling art is usually not about talent or hitting some hot trend on Instagram, it’s about trust. When you show up consistently in some of the ways we just mentioned, your audience begins to feel like they know you. Post your work-in-progress, share your thoughts, let people behind the scenes.

The artists who show up the most are often the ones who sell the most—not because their work is better, but because they’re top of mind.

For years, I participated in art fairs, gallery shows, and open studios. Now my practice is centered on the internet. There are a lot of ways to go about it, but whatever you chose, plan on utilizing that method many times.

SUMMARY

Make art. Start now. Take action on your crazy ideas. When you have a few interesting concepts, pick one and make a series of work drilling into that concept. I'm telling you, this WORKS. It will make you a far better artist, it will help you develop your artistic voice, it will make it much easier to sell your work and will make you far more “discoverable” on social media. Then: communicate, get feedback, and don’t take it personally.

When you have developed your voice by creating an art habit, made a series of works and published them, and connect to your audience over time, I guarantee you will start to sell art.

To sum up: