I greatly appreciate all the suggestions I have received about marketing my art, but I think I have left a wrong impression. While I would like to sell some of my art for a little extra cash, I am not sufficiently motivated, interested, skilled or whatever to do the work necessary. What I need is a middle person so I can just draw and not give any thought to marketing.
Marketing is the reason my graphic business failed. I loved the design work, but hated the sales side. All of business requires a “sales” side. That’s why what I do now is a hobby. I only hope I sell something. I do not work at it seriously. It’s a lot like a God relationship. Many people only hope to go to heaven, they do nothing about it.
I appreciate the concern many of you have for me. If it will make you fell any better these shows are often only good for contacts. Two follow-ups have lead to two commissioned portraits. That combined with filling the pulpit in a couple of weeks will give me a really good Christmas. And because I am a doting old man who would do anything for his daughter and grandkids, they will also have a good Christmas. I don’t need much to live on. I can and have lived on less that $10 from as early as the tenth of the month to the end of the month. When you are retired, have a place to live and food to eat, it is amazing what you can do. I don’t go anywhere and I don’t do anything that will cost money. If I run out of something, I just wait until I can afford it. It is no big deal. I can’t say that about past days of my life, but at this stage —it is not hard at all. I not longer live on credit
Art is and expression of joy for me. While it is nice when other people like it, I love it when I like it. And that is not always true. While I do not consider myself a perfectionist, that blood courses through my veins. I have had my stomach in a knot in the past because of a glitch no one else would ever notice. That is pretty much a thing of the past. Every drawing I have done lately has multiple errors in the process. Now I either incorporate those into the drawing or cover them up as best I can. My medium is colored pencil. Prismacolor is a wax-based pencil. You do not erase wax. You can lift some off, but if you have already layered it in too heavily, it’s going to stay. It helps if you work lightly and gradually build up the color intensity.
When I decided to take my sabbatical in 1990 and take an art class, I knew I wanted to create something that could hang on the wall. I had spent all my life working on signs and brochures that pass on information. No matter how pretty, interesting or artist they were (and plenty were not), they were used” and discarded. That was their purpose. So when it came time to decide what I would do I gravitated toward colored pencil because it was a dry medium. I have laid this left hand down in more wet projects than I can count. I usually smear the project at some point. I have tried working from right to left. I even did big banners from right to left and often leave out a letter in way too many projects. The beauty of wax (for me) is that I can lay my hand on top of it and nothing changes. Yeah!
I have toyed with putting things on the web. I’m not sure I want to deal with my own web site. I would like to find a consignment art dealer on the web — so if you know of one, I welcome that direction.
In many ways I just like people to see it. And, by the way – most of my prints sell for $20 in 5x7 and 8x10 both matted. I also make then into cards for $2. I’m happy with that. Any lower and I don’t even cover the cost of pencils, paper and ink.
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