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Many artists graduate from formal art programs adept in color theory, brush techniques, and composition—but don’t know the first thing about business.
How can artists sell art and paintings online? How will they market themselves? Making a living as a career artist means understanding how to build an audience, how to price art products, and the unique requirements for shipping art. It means thinking like an entrepreneur.
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Before ecommerce platforms, artists relied on third party gallerists, agents, and retailers to distribute work. The creator tools and sales channels of today were nonexistent. Now, independent artists can own their distribution streams, creating and selling their art online—and on their own terms.
For gallerists and curators, the shift in how we buy and sell in the past two decades has allowed these businesses to represent more artists and expand into selling affordable art prints online to reach larger audiences worldwide.
Whether you’re a creator or a curator looking to make money online selling art such as painting, this step-by-step guide is for you. No matter what type of art you’re into—original acrylic paintings, digital art prints, sculpture—this resource has actionable advice for every artist.
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In the following sections, we’ll cover the basics of selling art online for beginners and seasoned artists alike. Explore topics for every level including working with printers and dealing with plagiarism.
We consulted successful artists, curators, and gallerists for their advice on everything you need to know to sell your art online. In this guide to selling your own artwork, their anecdotes will be woven into practical and actionable advice for any creative entrepreneur. Let’s meet our experts.
Cat Seto is an artist and author, and founder of Ferme à Papier, a San Francisco–based boutique representing unique goods from independent designers. Her stationery has appeared in multiple publications and landed her partnerships with brands like Anthropologie and Gap.
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Best known by her artist moniker Hatecopy, Maria Qamar quit her advertising career to focus on art when her pop art paintings began to catch fire on Instagram. Now she works full time on her art, selling her own paintings in multiple formats, from art prints to books to printed merch.
Ken Harman is the man behind the art empire that includes Spoke Art, Hashimoto Contemporary, and publishing company Paragon Books. Together, these businesses represent many global artists through physical galleries, online shops, and pop-up exhibitions.
There are two ways to sell art online: create or curate. Cat built her career on both by creating and selling her own work and representing the work of others in her boutique. Which one is right for you?
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As an artist, you are the creator, producing original art and/or reproductions of originals and selling directly to your customers or indirectly through a gallery, retail partner, or agent.
It’s never been easier for artists to sell directly, with emerging creator tools popping up seemingly every day. Depending on your style and medium, choose a sales channel where your desired audience hangs out. This is arguably the easiest way to sell art online for many.
Maria runs her own online shop, where she sells art prints and merchandise, eliminating the middleman and keeping her costs low. But she also leans on relationships with experienced galleries for exhibiting and selling original artwork.
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If you’re learning how to sell your art, note that galleries can expose your work to new audiences. They may also have access to resources and professionals to help promote, exhibit, handle, and ship artwork.
If you’re not personally an artist but you have a great eye and a love of the art world, you can still get into the game of selling art as a curator. Some artists may be disinterested in marketing or figuring out the best way to sell art online and instead rely on gallerists, curators, and retail partners to handle this aspect of the business. As a partner to artists, you make a percentage of the selling price in exchange for your business knowledge and service.
There are several ways to work with artists to sell their art online—be it selling originals or prints to licensing works to be printed on merchandise or used in publication. “Most galleries offer an industry standard 50% consignment split for original art, ” says Ken. “The artist provides the artwork, we do our best to sell it.”
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The best way to sell your art online will depend on the nature of your art and your chosen medium. You may choose to sell your art, reproductions of that work, or both.
Fine artists using classic mediums and selling at high price points may choose to only sell originals, for example, while digital art, which can be reproduced without loss of quality, is great for prints and merch. However, most art created in 2D mediums have multiple options for generating unlimited sales on a single work.
Some mediums, like sculpture, are more difficult to reproduce or use for merchandise applications. But for those impossible to scan and print, there are still ways to generate additional income from a single design. For example, clay works may use the same mold to generate similar pieces, and 3D designs can be created over and over with a 3D printer.
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Reproducing art on t-shirts or mugs, or as art prints means that a single work can bear fruit indefinitely—or for a limited time. There are two ways to approach selling your art as prints: open edition or limited edition.
Limited edition means printing only a certain number of prints before they are gone. These are often numbered and signed by the artist to add value and authenticity.
This print by Mike Davis has a limited run of 50 prints available on Spoke’s website, each of which is signed and numbered by the artist.
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Spoke often opts for the limited edition strategy. “We work really hard to find things that are very special to sell. Things that are special should be treated like they’re special, ” Ken says.
To help minimize reselling, Spoke will limit quantities of certain prints per customer. “Making sure that the real fans are actually the ones who are able to get the things that we sell is always a priority, ” Ken says.
Understanding how to sell your prints of your artwork comes down to getting very friendly with a printer, whether that’s your at-home inkjet or a company that handles the task for you. There are multiple options, from DIY to completely hands off, to help you sell art prints and other merchandise to your audience.
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It’s possible to start selling your own artwork by creating quality prints yourself with high-quality paper, ink, and an at-home office printer. As a new artist, this method can keep costs low, but may be unsustainable as you scale over time.
“In the beginning, I would print, package, and deliver by hand every single poster that was ordered, ” says Maria. “At some point the volume became so much that I couldn’t make time to draw. I was spending all of my days delivering and in transit.”
This method is usually limited to selling art prints on paper, but some specialty home printers may allow you to print on canvas paper or fabric designed specifically for this purpose.
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A local or online printing company can reproduce your work en masse and can even offer bulk discounts if you are printing many of the same piece. This can be the best way to sell art online if you have a small catalog and high sales volume of those pieces.
With this method, you’ll still be responsible for packaging and shipping the prints you sell online. These companies can often produce high-quality prints due to more advanced printers.
It’s important that we are the last sets of eyes inspecting, packaging, and shipping the product to our customers. Cat Seto, Ferme à Papier
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Cat often prints large batches for collection releases. While she does use print-on-demand services, the prints arrive at her studio first, rather than shipping directly to the customer. “It’s important that we are the last sets of eyes inspecting, packaging, and shipping the product to our customers, ” she says.
Working with a trusted printer and requesting samples can ensure that your work is reproduced in a way that respects the original.
Print on demand is the most hands-off and versatile option and the easiest way to sell art online—especially if you plan to sell your work printed on merch like t-shirts or caps.
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Print-on-demand services generally integrate with your online store. When an order is placed, the integration triggers that piece to be printed and shipped directly to the customer. This is a great option for selling art on a budget, as there is no need to invest in equipment or inventory.
When the number of orders exceeded her capacity to print and ship work herself, Maria upgraded to using a print-on-demand company. “All I have to do is upload and let it do the work for me, ” she says. “Now I can focus on actually creating the artwork and
