Create Art Collectors Want to Buy (Free Workshop)

hey everyone uh welcome to this free Workshop how to create art that sells it is going to be really really good I think it's going to be very important information for you that will really get your career going and I think after this the artwork that you create you're going to be able to sell it a lot easier I think you're going to be filled with all kinds of new ideas and inspiration on new artwork you can create I think you're not going to have a question about color anymore after this and you'll really be able to have a color story in each and every piece and you'll know that the colors you choose are going to be sellable colors so I'm really excited to share the information that I have for you so a little bit just a little background about me in case you don't know you know much about me and then we'll get started this is my husband John So I Married an artist which is not what my dad wanted he wanted me to marry a doctor or a lawyer or maybe an engineer but not an artist so um I think I made a great choice though he's a fantastic artist a wonderful dad and just a great human being his name's John and we went to art school together and we went to Savannah College of Art and Design and then we transferred to the University of Georgia so this is John's artwork that he used to make years and years ago in college and he used to do all kinds of murals and nightclubs and he would draw on the back of people's motorcycle jackets and he would draw on people's cars that went into car shows so he did all kinds of crazy wild things this is his artwork today these are oil paintings and he is you know doing this series all about you know DJs so this was my artwork in college and this is the artwork that I'm making today so this painting here I just finished Friday uh so this is still drying on my easel and even though um you know I do these workshops and I help artists from all over the world um step into their Destiny and pursue their passion as a full-time artist and build a whole career and I Mentor artists I also paint still every day I paint and sell my artwork so um this is the artwork that we started doing right after college what our professors told us in college is that we needed to make art for Art's Sake there was no way we would be able to make a career selling our art they had no pointers for us no tips at all on how to uh you know build a profession as an artist and I didn't like hearing that and I didn't really believe it was true and what happened is I had an art show in a restaurant here and a lady saw my artwork and offered me a job working in Atlanta creating artwork for the decorative market and I didn't even know the decorative Market existed and what the decorative Market is is basically paintings that go in businesses Hospitality restaurants Health Care Centers and for the home and the clientele is either the person you know for their home or an interior designer art advisors art Consultants that type of thing so um and there's even dealers that work specifically in this market and sell the artwork to all these different outlets and I didn't know any of this existed so I got involved in that and I started working in Atlanta in art studio and I was paid a salary to paint and this is the kind of artwork I was making my husband also started doing that at a different company and so we did that for for many years and we after about one year with the company we left and we went out on our own and we just worked basically freelance in this industry in this Decor Market we were able to raise four children off of the sale of our artwork so our art professors were completely wrong and we built a really great career and a sold artwork all over the place and raised our four kids and our four kids are grown today and all four of them are artists and sell their artwork professionally we got involved in publishing and Licensing so that's when you license an image for it could be poster prints or lithographs it could be for a product of some sort and they put your artwork on a product and then you make royalties so we did that for a while and then we started making abstracts and collaborating so my husband and I would both paint on the same pieces together and uh we made abstracts like this and they started going in galleries all over and we were working with dealers and got into the collectible market so that's more the market you're probably familiar with where artworks in a gallery art collector goes into the gallery falls in love with the piece and buys it so we sort of transitioned out of the decor market and into the collectible market so over the course of our careers we have sold over 10 000 paintings and we were just really really painting very prolifically collaborating and we would paint as much as 80 to 100 paintings every single month and we were sending them all over the world through dealers and Distributors and um and they were selling faster than we could really create it and what happened in that is we really really learned a lot about what kind of artwork sells we learned some very interesting tricks working with different Publishers in the publishing industry we learned a lot about um uh what what what things to do and what not to do to make artwork sell for example the Publishers would come in and and look at a painting we did of a landscape and say oh yeah that that won't work we can't publish that because it's a path that leads to nowhere and so we started picking up oh I guess we can't paint a path that leads to Nowhere a path has to lead somewhere other things that they would tell us is oh yeah this one won't work because there's nothing on the table it doesn't look like human beings live here and so I was thinking uh wow we need to put stuff on the table like dishes and vases of flowers or you know lean a jacket over the chair put a hat on the table something that shows you know evidence that that human beings live there so it was it was really great education for us um painting this much artwork and selling this much artwork and that is information that I'm going to pass off to you today that will help you in your career and for your art sales um so uh we had a lot of artists along the way that would ask us for help and wanted to know how we were doing it how were we making a living selling our art and we wanted to help them but I didn't have a platform or a way to really consolidate my knowledge and and be able to help them so we decided in 2010 to open Milan art institute and this is the I called it the little Tin Shed in the middle of a cotton field um because that's kind of what it was it was this metal building that we transformed into an art school into this big Art Studio it was about 2 000 square feet and we would have about 20 artists in there at one time uh and we would teach them uh how to draw how to paint uh how to build a portfolio we taught them uh we would do these portfolio boot camps um that were like this intense eight weeks uh where they would do all these paintings like four paintings a week um we taught them how to do production uh and we gave them tips and and help in their career so um then in 2014 I launched the Mastery Program so that is a one-year course that uh teaches you everything you need to know and how to have an art career and we launched that in 2014 and it was it's it's really really successful and we've seen tons of artists go through it and come out the other side as professional artists able to sell their artwork in 2018 because it was so successful I'm teaching it on site and having people they started coming even as far as Australia to Queen Creek Arizona where we were to learn from us so we thought we've got to get this online because there's so many artists all over the world that need this information and so that's why we launched it online and we did that in 2018. okay so that's just a little background about um you know maybe what qualifies me to tell you the information that I'm going to tell you today the first thing I'm going to talk to you about is color because color is the number one reason why a painting will sell color really affects our mood it affects our our emotions color is actually a frequency and that's why fast food restaurants usually will paint have oranges and reds and yellows because it makes you hungry if you have an orange kitchen you might want to change the color because it'll make you hungrier and eat more so color does a lot and interior designers when they're buying artwork and and other other you know art consultants and art advisors they're really looking at color color is is the number one thing they're looking at so in order for a painting to sell the color needs to be rich it needs to transition and and sort of change throughout the painting and not just be out of the tube or one color and and then there needs to be a color story so I'm going to show you some slides that illustrate that so here for Rich color the painting on the left here that says Rich color that would be an example of that whereas the other painting everything just kind of seems anemic it seems muddy it seems dingy it seems like there's a filter over it and it's not as inviting that type of color tends to sell less how you end up with anemic color is if you neutralize your color by mixing worms and cools together in oil or in acrylic if you just mix too many colors together and it gets kind of Muddy if you're water or your solvent is dirty and you're kind of mixing muck into your into your paint then that's that's something that that can cause that here is some neutral colors that are rich and the neutral colors that are not rich so the non-rich neutral colors is kind of mixing black and white together and it's not very not as pleasing as the one on the left now this is color that is transitioning if you look here at the magentas and and the greens there's all kinds of different greens it goes from teal green to you know sort of a true green or kelly green and then all the way to a yellow green so that's what we would call transitioning color that in the color wheel it goes from yellow to Blue through the whole gamut of green same thing with magenta it goes from kind of an orangey pink all the way to a violet pink and if you look at the painting on the right everything is the same it's the same white it's the same blue it's the same purple everything's the same it's like this painting was made with three colors um now uh I think paintings that sell well are going to have a color story so I'm going to illustrate all kinds of different ways to have a color story but basically a color story is when you are um sort of predetermining that you know what your colors are going to be and it could be according you know a Triad of colors it could be um based on compliments it could be based on a dominant color it could be based on neutrals with a splash of color there's something intentional about your color story you're not just throwing your favorite colors on a canvas willy-nilly and just hoping that it all makes sense um or just kind of feeling your way through something you know hoping your colors work out that is not having a color story a color story is when you've decided ahead of time um you know you're you're building your palette you've predetermined a palette and that palette makes sense According to some you know color theory rules so let's go through those this would be a complementary color story so an orange and blue painting you want those to be unequal like the one on the left that makes it pleasing so it's it's a complementary palette of orange and blue but it's disproportionate the one on the right has this conflicting feeling it makes you feel a little bit agitated because those colors are are conflicting and because they're equal so you want to avoid that and you want your complementary color palette to be unequal in proportion here's another example of that equal versus unequal and you can see from these examples why one is more successful or more sellable than the other now this is a a full spectrum with neutrals so you can have when we say full spectrum we basically mean a rainbow you can make a rainbow painting rainbow painting is is really a cool idea but there needs to be enough neutrals mixed in there that it makes it look pleasing both of these have you know the one on the right has kind of this creamy white as the neutral and the other one on the left has a lot of Grays to it and those Grays really make the rainbow work whereas in these paintings it's there's very little neutrals and so the the rainbow palette is very um just too much it's just too much you know it's like you're living with a tie-dye T-shirt um rainbow t-shirt on your wall and it's it's not it comes across as not tasteful so you want to avoid that if you're going to use a rainbow palette use a lot of neutrals a primary palette would be you know a like a Triad palette so that's where you're using yellow red blue and if you if you just use only yellow red blue in equal proportion it's not going to work out it's going to look really um uh I don't know like amateurish uh where's the one on the left here there's enough neutrals mixed in there that it it it it it looks much more sophisticated so a primary palette is a good idea but you need to mix neutrals in with it so this is an all neutral palette um and the one on the left has transitioning colors so what that means is it's not the same gray everywhere it's not the same brown everywhere it's not the same white it transitions throughout whereas the one on the right it's like the same gray the same white the same brown and it doesn't change as it's moving throughout the painting this is a dominant color color story where you choose one dominant color so the one on the left the dominant color is you know that that Violet and and it's it's very definite we know we know that's the dominant color that magenta whereas the one on the right it's like is it green is it yellow I I'm not so sure maybe it's orange there's kind of a mixture in there and even though it's probably green it's not as definite so it feels like the color isn't as successful or sellable the reason a dominant color is more sellable is you can put that in a room where you want to highlight magenta uh and and it'll begin to pick up that color all around the room and that's a trick that designers use to coordinate a room and make a room um really work well also uh the homeowner is imagine the wife is like oh yeah I have magenta all throughout my house so when she sees a magenta painting that has a dominant color of magenta she's like that would work perfect in my house I know exactly where to put that so it'll sell where's this one that's maybe green maybe yellow she's trying to figure out where she's going to put that in her house and is it going to pick up the other colors in the room and it's harder um you also want to ask yourself is it tasteful is this beautiful um so this is a very similar color palette but one is the tasteful version and the other one is less tasteful what makes it less tasteful is really the sort of outer tube colors the intensity of the colors that the the mixture that that yellow sun is having on the water and turning it green it's just kind of too candy it's too intense where is the color on the left is much more tasteful but it's it's Rich color instead of bright color um so uh that's a tricky thing to to know if your color is tasteful and I think a good way to know and if you want to elevate your taste is sort of feast your eyes on tasteful things look at Interiors look at color and how it's being used in really high-end Furnishings really high-end fashion really high-end um you know rooms and see what colors are they using and then look at your own painting and try to imagine your painting in that room does it fit are those colors the same so taste can always your we can always Elevate our taste I need to elevate my taste you probably need to elevate your taste so we can Elevate our taste by just looking at things that are that are high-end so this is another example of tasteful versus not tasteful although it's the same color palette and so you can kind of see the difference and draw your own conclusions from that okay so let's move on to the second most important attribute that makes a painting uh sell so first is color and the next is theme so what do we want in your theme you want themes that are open-ended and not too specific and I'm going to show you some example of open-ended versus too specific and you also want it to be beautiful inspiring hopeful wondrous interesting something upbeat something in the positive range artwork that is um dreary depressing oppressive violent gory Wicked dark uh typically does not sell um and people want to live with something in the room that uplifts them so hope sells and then the third thing that's that you want your theme is to be unique and not too derivative not like oh it's another Red Barn right we we want things to be unique and different and new and fresh which means you get to be creative which means you get to really express your voice your unique voice and not just copy the things that are out there that you see selling if it's too derivative it's not going to sell you want people to say wow I've never seen that before that's so interesting I think I want to buy that here is an example of open-ended versus not open-ended so the one with the horse is very dreamy and uh you you can make your own story with this in a in a very open-ended way you get the feeling like it could be about a lot of different things whereas the one on the right really feels like it's too specific it's a riddle that we have to solve and um and we're trying to figure out why is one girl naked but she has socks on another one has a spray paint can and then we have this deer with with ornaments in his antlers you know the artist is trying to tell us something but we're just not smart enough to figure it out and then I'm not going to buy it because I don't want to be reminded every day that I'm not smart right so we don't want riddles we can't solve that only the smart artist knows that that's a that's a very hard thing to sell the other thing you don't want to do with a sort of not open-ended enough theme is to beat people over the head with your message you want to suggest your message and allow your audience to fill in the blanks you don't want to make it so easy for them they have no reward in filling in the blanks you want to reward them with them being able to make their own story so this is another this is basically the same thing as the last slide a suggestion of of an image versus I'm going to illustrate it for you you want to stay away from things that are too Illustrated the other open-ended thing if you're doing portraits or you're doing figures you want it to look like it could be anyone it could be somebody's daughter it could be somebody's granddaughter it could be the wife it could be anybody you can relate to it that could be me uh you don't want it to be so so specific it looks like only one person in whole planet Earth and it's like wow that looks just like my second grade teacher because it's like nobody wants to live with a stranger on their wall they want to live with something that is suggestive of a certain somebody and they can kind of put themselves in that place so this is uh not open-ended uh sort of landscape or place versus too specific if it's too specific then only people from that area are going to want to buy it the other thing you want to paint the other side of your pain you don't want to um you know paint things that are sort of a reaction to we've all had pain right we've all um you know live with things that we don't like we see things in the world we don't like we see you know Wars and and oppression and and things that we don't like but if we paint those things it's like you're glorifying it or you're giving it voice we want to paint the other side of those things we want to paint the solution not the problem we want to paint um the victory uh you know not not you know uh what is lost so uh it's really really important and it's more important than just selling your art this is this is in my opinion uh where the art world is headed because it's a buyer's market and it's it's what people are buying is what is going to um uh inform and help artists tweak and know what it is they want to paint and we're not saying um that you need to paint something that's completely outside of what it is you want to paint but find a way to say what it is you want to say in a positive way in an uplifting way you can paint about your pain as long as it's the solution to it or the overcoming of it and that is what is going to inspire people and really that's what's going to change the world that's why I always say art will change the world we've seen art has changed the world and um it's it's painting the other side of our pain that really does it and there's a lot a lot of evidence for that so that could be like a whole Workshop these are some some examples of of what I'm talking about you just don't want this heavy feeling or this feeling of depression or poverty or um lack or pain uh anything dreary none of that you you want it to be uplifting wondrous beautiful so here's some more examples I'm kind of choosing extreme examples but uh obviously you wouldn't want a painting of you know an atomic bomb going off you know on your wall right that's that's not something fun to live with and it can be really subtle like both of these paintings are really beautifully done uh the painting where the woman looks like she's hiding in shame uh is is uh done with Excellence it's a beautifully painted piece but it's depressing to look at I don't want to be that woman I want to be the other woman um that's looking out into her future in a in a hopeful way uh but I I don't want to be the other woman so it's really really important these subtle things um are very important now not everything has to be you know rose-colored glasses and peachy perfect you can be edgy you can be different you can be um you know on you know just the right side of creepy um but one side of it is Wonder and uh and interesting and it's inspired hiring because it's interesting it's inspiring because it's wondrous um or if you're too far there then it becomes creepy so the painting on the right that's creepy um is not sellable it's not something people want to look at but the painting on the left you know it it is inspiring and it is something people would want on their wall you have to be careful too about something being too confrontational sometimes when the subject is looking right at you in this sort of confronting way especially um you know with these glaring eyes it's it's a little off-putting it doesn't mean it'll never sell but it's harder to sell it's harder to sell a portrait that's looking right at you ver unless it's done in a in a very special way but a portrait that's sort of looking off and is non-confronting is easier to sell you want to have a unique point of view so uniqueness is is really important um believe it or not the the still life on the left is more sellable than the still life on the right because there's so much of that painting on the right we've seen that everywhere it's all over the place um where is the painting on the left is much more unique there's sort of distorted that's good you can have things don't have to be realistic to sell in fact things that are more abstract I think sell a little bit better than something that's hyper realistic but there's a distorted that's kind of good and intentional and you know wow they did that on purpose and then there's a distorted where you wonder you know what they were thinking and in this particular case it it looks like he got shot in the head and there's blood pouring out of his ear so that's sort of a bad a bad uh distorted so again this sort of illustrates a unique um you know subject matter that's been done a bunch of times versus not unique and again stylization uh the painting on the left that's interesting it's not realistic it's totally abstract but it's very intentional like we know that they did this intentionally and it's not that they you know just need to take more painting lessons right whereas the one on the right it's it's distorted in a bad way they didn't get their proportions right the foreshortening is off and um even if they got it right I don't know that it would be that great of a painting anyway but it's um it's uh stylized in a bad way again the one on the left is stylized in a in a beautiful way interesting uh it works whereas the one on the right kind of feels uh you know kind of I think it's mostly because of the color story um doesn't work uh but it doesn't and the lines are kind of like all the same same um but that kind of stylization it it doesn't lend itself to beauty or or something that we want to look at too long uh here's another example of um stylized with skill versus stylized without skill so uh you when if you do stylize something you want it to be obvious that you did it on purpose and you did it with skill and Excellence okay so the third and final reason why a piece of art cell versus not sell um is Excellence so uh do you have to be the most amazing painter on planet Earth and have it perfect paintings absolutely not but it you can't just throw paint on a painting and finger paint and I don't know and not have some degree of Excellence to it or skill and expect to sell it there has to be some level of skill when I was first getting uh started selling my artwork I started selling right after I graduated from from college because like I told you I worked for that company for a year and then I went out on my own and I was always selling my artwork but when I look back at that artwork when I look back at what I was painting I'm like horrified I I think they're terrible I think those paintings are not very good at all I'm you know like looking at them thinking man Leu barely knew how to paint so my skills have gotten a lot better over the years and yours will too wherever you're at in your journey my skills from here on out are going to improve the longer we paint the better our skills get and the more Excellence that we put into our artwork the more Excellence we put into our artwork the more it sells and the higher prices we get for it so you don't have to you know start at you know the top selling your artwork you can start at a lower threshold of Excellence but just know every year that you paint your skills are going to improve and there has to be some degree of skill in order for your artwork to sell so I'm going to kind of show you uh you know where where that's at so if we look at the painting on the right and I think a big degree of Excellence is time put into it intentionality and and really passion you know the painting on the right doesn't feel like uh the artist that painted that had a lot of passion they were like I'm gonna paint a daisy and a blue sky there's very little creativity to it it's not like it's so terrible it looks like a daisy but it's it's really boring there's no excellent to it there's nothing um there it seems passionless it doesn't seem like the artist cared a whole lot where's the one on the left even though it's very stylized it's super strange for a flower um sire where did that come from but it's done with Excellence the line quality is really interesting there's this intentionality to it there's a design to it there's thought put into it and so it comes across as excellence and skill again the the abstract on the left a lot of time and Care was put into that there's lots of layers you can tell there's passion to this where's the one on the right just looks like it was sort of slapped down very quick there wasn't a lot of thought put into it and it's not um it looks like a beginning it doesn't look like a finished piece so the painting on the left was done with Excellence a high level of skill the one on the right a lot less skill and um you know the composition is not so great with the one on the right there's four bottles there should usually be you know um three or five there should be overlap you shouldn't have all those tangent edges uh so uh the level of Excellence is really lacking there um you can see the difference here between an abstracted portrait that's done with skill and excellence and one that was done with less skill and so the one on the left of course is much more sellable than the one on the right here's a very similar kind of idea with uh with uh flowers uh the one on the left is more sellable it's done with Excellence it has uh you know thought put into the composition and how it was arranged and the scale of things where the one on the right I mean the colors are kind of interesting and sellable but it's sort of smack dab in the middle it's too small the vase shape is is kind of weird so it wasn't done with enough excellence uh here's another example of you know a painting of a wolf that's done with skill and Excellence versus one you know they need to keep uh learning they need to keep practicing now a really important here this is really important I believe with all my heart anybody can be a professional artist it doesn't matter where your skills are at because you can learn and I know that because I'm one of those people uh I had very little skill no skill I was not talented I wasn't one of those kids that you know um was painting and doing you know recognized by their teachers as you know good in art class or anything like that nobody from my high school or you know uh growing up in elementary school or anything would go oh yeah Ellie became an artist that makes a lot of sense I was good at math I was good at history um and I I wasn't your typical you know let's say artist and I learned everything that I know I learned by taking art class classes by studying studying it out and practicing lots and lots of time behind the paintbrush learning to draw learning the mechanics and I I learned so even if your skills are not at that point where you're you're watching this and you're going oh yeah I don't have enough skill I can't do it you can learn you can learn and you can learn very quickly and so don't let that discourage you do not ever let your lack of skill discourage you from becoming a professional artist all you need to think about to be a professional artist is Passion remember the daisy are you are you the flower on the left are you the flower on the right if you can put passion and heart into your paintings then you can learn everything else and you can learn it quickly you can learn it in three months six months 12 months at the most so quickly you can learn all that you need to learn to have a full-fledged full-time professional career as an artist and don't let anybody tell you different don't listen to anybody that says you're not good enough uh you you can't do it nobody's going to buy your art uh you're not talented oh you got to be lucky don't listen to that none of that is true it takes hard work it takes commitment and it takes passion and you can learn all the skills where you in a very short period of time can paint Like the Wolf on the left here even if you're starting out with stick figures right people tell me all the time oh I can only draw stick figures well you can learn now for excellence and for your paintings to sell you really do need to use high quality materials do they have to be the highest quality materials do you have to buy fifty dollar tubes of paint no but don't buy the cheap stuff they're selling at Ross or um you know the The Bargain Bin you want to buy a decent uh good quality paint anything that's professional grade even if it's the lower end of professional grade is totally adequate as soon as you buy student grade art art supplies then a lot of the times they're not good enough quality The Only Exception I can think of for that is gambling's 1980 oils they are I think a high quality student grade sometimes better than even some professional grade in other brands so uh I would I would shoot for the best art materials that your budget can buy and it's better to have you know 10 tubes of high quality paint than 20 tubes of low quality paint because with high quality paint you can mix all kinds of colors on your own so really go for good quality paint good quality brushes oh my gosh I learned that the hard way so if you use because I would ruin my brushes and I would ruin them pretty quickly so I didn't want to spend twenty dollars on a rush I didn't want to spend 30 dollars on a brush because I knew I was going to ruin it well first of all learn how not to ruin your brushes also with Murphy's Oil Soap you can fix your brushes if you did ruin them and then buy good brushes because it will make a huge difference in the quality of your artwork and your brush Strokes almost everybody I've talked to that buys good brushes after they've been buying bad brushes they're like oh my gosh now I know why I was painting so badly it was my brushes it really makes a huge difference um okay so good craftsmanship you don't want uh paint boogers in your paint uh I uh we worked with this gallery for many many years in Scottsdale Arizona and the guy as soon as we bring in a painting he would look at it sideways in the light and and he would look down the painting uh sideways to see if there was paint boogers and if you saw a hair dog hair paintbrush hair or paint boogers he would you know be all upset about it and he wouldn't let us you know put that piece of artwork in his Gallery so we learned really really quickly uh to really watch it as we go and if I see a hair from my brush in there I would get it out before it dried if I saw one later I would pick it out and then paint over it there's a lot of things you can do to avoid that so be aware of that as you're painting and paint boogers can be avoided by just painting very often if you paint every day you're not going to have paint boogers because you're going to have fresh paint every day and when if you do open up sort of a crusted over paint blob get rid of it get the fresh paint out with your palette knife put it somewhere and then get rid of the old paint right if you if you have these Blobs of dried up paint all over your palate you will have paint boogers and uh paint boogers sort of tell your audience you don't care you're not a professional so watch for things like that every painting should have the sides painted you can paint them one solid color or just continue the painting around it should be varnished and should be signed so I think it's even extra great to put the hardware on the back and the wire so that it's ready to hang so that is good professional craftsmanship and if you get into the habit of doing that on all your paintings they are ready to sell another trick is you want to imagine your paintings sold what I just said about painting the edges is signing it varnishing it and putting the wire you're ready to sell you're basically prophesying or saying to this painting you are sold whenever I'm working on a piece I imagine who's going to own this what do they look like what does their house look like and I see it sold I see it um you know moving out of my studio into a cardboard box and being sent somewhere for somebody to have and enjoy and you want all your artwork ready to sell by painting the sides having it signed varnished and Hardware on the back so it's really important it'll shift everything just by that mindset of you imagining and sort of willing this painting sold versus it's unfinished it's not signed it's in the corner of a room you're you're basically dooming that painting to not be sold so um it's it's really important trick your artwork should be user friendly meaning it is ready to um it is ready to hang this painting this piece is not user friendly if I saw this for sale even if I loved it I would be like how am I going to get that home is it going to fall apart uh is my gonna climb on that uh what like you know there's all kinds of problems this this has and uh this artist needs to find a way to make this a little bit more user-friendly um to to be ready to hang and not make the buyer feel like you know some something could go wrong with it if you want to sell more art you want to think about the space that your art is going to go in so when you're thinking about creating for a space sometimes you're thinking about size so the size of the piece um you know there's um there's sizes that work well over a couch they're sizes that work well uh over the fireplace they're sizes that are a little smaller that work well in the entryway tall skinny pieces work inside of art niches that you've seen those are kind of build-ins that are sort of arched and they're usually tall and skinny small pieces work well in kitchens Square pieces you know small squares work well in in a series of three so size and series um and and and color are are all things that you you know can be thinking about um also is it contemporary is it traditional or is it transitional so I'm going to show you some examples of that and then also finally price point so here we have a room that is more traditional on the left and then we have a room that's more contemporary on the right and as you can see the artwork that would belong in the space on the left is very different than the artwork that would belong in the space on the right so if you um are leaning towards contemporary it's a good idea to get a visual of contemporary rooms contemporary Furnishings content to contemporary colors so that you can start to see what what how your art can kind of fit into that um that environment whereas if you're painting more towards the traditional side then you might want to look at some rooms what kind of colors are they decorating in what do the Furnishings look like you know what what do the lines look like and that can begin to inform how how your paintings look then there's something called transitional so that's sort of a mix of the two and that's what most people that's that's what Mo where most people fall there's there's few fewer people in the traditional side and fewer people in the more contemporary side most people kind of mix it up and they have something that's modern but has a traditionalness to it so we call that transitional and so that's where artwork that is not just purely abstract but something like this where it sort of feels like a Seascape it feels like something it feels like a landscape but it's very contemporary is going to work well in a space like that so kitchen art is going to be a small multiples food oriented maybe vessels kitchen related themes you know imagine imagine a kitchen and what would you like to see in your kitchen look at really fancy kitchens look at the spaces and and where what what will work there now there's a big Market in corporate art and there's big budgets also that businesses have for art they actually have budgets designated for art Acquisitions so um corporate art tends to be a large scale it tends to be brand Centric so they have a brand they have a vibe that they're putting out there and they want the artwork to emulate that that brand you can get a feel for these spaces and and what it is your your um where you're trying to put this artwork by just looking at corporate art look at corporate settings um and so it could be a waiting room it could be a Lobby it could be offices it could be um a big um you know hotel lobby they have lots and lots of artwork restaurants and you know those are spaces a lot of people sort of Miss and don't think about and there's a lot less competition there too because there's a lot of people that don't paint for those spaces if you're thinking about a waiting room it's going to be easy on the eyes and more contemplative if you are thinking about a hallway the artwork in the hallway is designed to keep you moving so it's going to be a little bit more like minimal I would say and nothing that's going to grab you and as you're walking down the hall and make you stop and look at the artwork it's it's sort of there as a as somewhat of an afterthought and and uh of course nobody wants to think of their artwork as an afterthought but uh there there is artwork you know in these corporate spaces in these hallways um that that they need there imagine this hallway didn't have that art in there it'd be so boring it wouldn't it wouldn't look elevated um so it might feel like it's not contributing a lot but it really is your artwork is really contributing to the atmosphere so art can fit uh into you know there's different lines shapes moods different rooms have have sort of a different vibe to them and your artwork uh needs to complement that and fit in with that so I can't stress enough how important it is to look at different environments look at different rooms where you think your artwork would fit in and you'll see that the artwork that you make after that that is four specific rooms will even be more sellable and again color is really really important so you can see with this complementary palette of the one on the left they designed the room with a dominant color of blue and a splash of orange in that complementary palette so this painting uh really really fits well into that room and then the uh other one on the right they decorated in a lot of neutrals and then a splash of sort of you know uh reddish-toned um color in the room also creating in series and multiples is another way to sell more artwork because people could just buy one they could buy two they could buy three and as you can see buying multiples in a room is something that a lot of people like to decorate in so that's another thing that'll help you be more prolific and give you lots of options for your buyers and uh you know you might be able to sell more than one painting at a time so I want to kind of highlight a success story here of Dimitra so dimitro is our oldest daughter and she you know grew up all around you know this art this art industry and she started taking art classes when she was about 11 years old 10 11 years old as she was learning everything from us she started selling her artwork when she was about 12 years old um this is a painting that she uh she's now 23 and she um this is a painting that she just sold I think Tuesday um off of her website uh but this is not how it began so this is this is where she's come she started let's say at age 11 uh and this is where she is today and um this and she's she's doing great she represents herself and uh has her own uh art business this is just a sales for the last 90 days only on her website most of that is from selling prints and that excludes uh the the paintings that she sold in galleries the paintings that she has sold you know off of Instagram uh paintings that she sold to just private collectors that have contacted her um so this only represents just one portion of her sales um but it didn't it didn't start that way she and she wasn't just born being able to create these amazing paintings she took classes she worked at it when her friends were going to parties and uh you know going going and and doing you know different social things she made a choice oftentimes to stay home and paint because she had a show a gallery show that she was getting ready for when she was 15 years old so those were sacrifices that she made um and anything worthwhile you're gonna have to sacrifice you're going to have to work you're going to have to pour your heart into it and she did that and that's why she's become successful so this is her when she's just getting started and as you can see her artwork uh you know was developing um this is after she started to find her style a little bit and uh but they're a little bit on the dark side and the color is not you know exactly right she's sort of finding her way she did start to sell her artwork a little bit but not anything like how she's selling it today uh as her style began to develop uh she got into her first Gallery shows and uh and then she got represented by a publisher who uh put her in all these different Galleries and I think she at one time she was in about 12 different Galleries and this is the artwork that they were selling and she was creating and she was about 15 16 years old at this point and she did that until she was 17 when she started to go out on her own her very first year with the publisher uh when she was 15 years old they sold over one million dollars of artwork that year so uh that this works the the things that the professors say that artwork doesn't sell nobody's buying a ring nobody can make a living selling their art is just not true I know so many artists that are super successful and we have so many students that have come through our programs that are enjoying a full-time career selling their art and making very good money so um uh after this Dimitra decided that she wanted to help other artists because at 17 she decided to uh not work with the publisher anymore and go out on her own because she wanted to Pioneer her own business and be in control of her brand completely and use social media to her advantage and really expand and grow her business on her terms uh and I learned a ton through that because I had gone the more traditional route working with galleries working with dealers working with art consultants in more traditional Avenues of distribution and Dimitra was you know a sort of pioneering this new new artist way of working directly with the collectors and branding herself on social media and using email marketing all kinds of things that you know over the last few years I learned uh so she wanted to help other artists and decided to help me teach the Mastery Program and so we combined all of our knowledge of the knowledge that I've had uh since 1996 of selling my artwork and the knowledge that Dimitris had of selling her artwork in the last 10 years and we put that together and uh put it in our online Mastery Program so the Mastery Program in 2019 um we we went online in 2018 and by 2019 we had reached over 400 students with it that were taking this program and finding their own success as they graduated from the program selling their artwork and now in 2023 we've really refined the content and we've um uh uh just really gotten this incredible program together with the help of over 2 500 students so a lot of artists have taken this program and they love it they tell us that it's life-changing and they're enjoying uh their their careers so who is the Mastery Program four maybe it's for you maybe you who are watching right now the Mastery Program is perfect for you um it's for people who are passionate about creating art it's for artists who want to really uh make a full-time career selling their art it's for artists that want to find their own voice it's for artists that want to level up their skills or even even for artists that only have passion and absolutely no skill whatsoever and can get into the Mastery Program and learn how to draw and paint and we've had people that are complete beginners that have never touched paint before that by the end of it graduate and sell their work in fact Jake who's is one of those people who's demetra's husband and she he took the Mastery Program had never touched paint before never drew never thought of himself as an art artist and he took the Mastery Program and completed it in less than six months I think it was like five months he did it full time 40 hours and completed it in five months and uh at his graduation he had sold like three paintings and then after graduation had sold a ton more so uh he is a very good example of what I'm talking about who else is the Mastery Program uh good for um it's it's for somebody who really wants to build a personal brand uh build a cohesive body of work and get out there in the market and start selling their work um so uh it's it's a it's a really great program we have a proven process we've been working at this for many years and like I said it comes from our personal experience this isn't just us teaching a program from an ivory Tower and its Theory and we hope it works this is our life experience um poured into this program program so that you can benefit from it and you can have success selling your art and so uh our proven method is that the first part is all about developing your skills and becoming proficient at oil painting and drawing that is a foundation and it doesn't matter if you already have some skill you're already very skilled or you have no skills at all what we will teach you will teach you how to paint accurately how to paint in an Old Masters technique the the foundations of the elements of art and to get really really really good at drawing and oil painting so that you don't have any limitations whatsoever whatsoever and you're super confident it's very important here is an example of a student who has gone through the program of her before and after and this is just in the beginning of the program this isn't even all the way through the program um of of her skills and how much they they they developed in a very short period of time the second part of our proven method is finding your artistic voice it is so so important to find your voice as an artist to be able to identify your personal aesthetic be able to identify what are those themes that you want to paint in what is it that you have to say and how are you going to say it what is your style developing your own unique style so that you can be set apart from other artists and recognize for that style and and be able to sell your artwork by honing your style so we teach you that and we found that you finding your voice and and being able to paint in your style consistently is a huge part of a successful career um here is an example of one of our graduates Rachel doring of her before the program and after the program after she found her voice she sells artwork all the time she is an incredible artist she lives in Australia and you know she's she's uh just a really great artist very successful so another big part of this I already talked about establishing your style um because it's it's really really important it's your style is an expression of your voice so first you find your voice and then you figure out what kind of materials do you want to work with what is your process that you're going to paint in I have my own unique process that I like to paint in Dimitra has her unique process that she likes to paint in Jake has his process my husband has his but all of us have our own unique process and you need to find your unique process that you like to paint in that you can really really express your voice and that will become your style so this is Rita another student success story um that I want to highlight she really found her voice and paints in her style and it's very recognizable anybody can recognize one of Rita's paintings just by looking at it because it's so it it's so unique and and it's so consistent and I think that's why she's so successful uh selling her art another part of our proven method is to build your brand build your personal brand as an artist um so you will learn how to create a long-term career with an authentic brand that is true to who you are we teach you how to understand that you are your brand not your artwork and how to identify what is inside of you what are you passionate about what is so important to you um that that and how to translate that into a visual brand that you can put out there and add to your marketing strategy so this is another graduate Tanya Abu and her uh her artwork is an expression of who she is and what her brand is so this is another example another other part of our proven method is to implement a marketing strategy so in the Mastery Program we teach you how to actually market and sell your artwork when I went to art school they did not teach us that not only did they not teach us that they told us we wouldn't be able to sell our artwork and so the last thing they were going to show us how to do is build a personal brand and to create a marketing strategy so that I could actually promote and sell my artwork so we've changed that and in the Mastery Program we teach you all about marketing we teach you all about how to create a marketing strategy that will work for you we teach you how to use all these different platforms that will elevate your marketing so you will learn how to build a website you'll learn how to use social media to your advantage you'll learn how to do email marketing you'll learn all kinds of things so uh then um the next part is to promote your artwork you've got to promote it you have to get it out there people have to see it in order to buy it right if it's just hidden away in your studio and nobody ever sees it how in the world will you ever sell your artwork so you have to get it out there and we show you um how to do that how to get your artwork out there how to get it seen how to promote it how to contact follow-up who to contact um and and you know how how to uh let your artwork be seen which is lifting your voice and letting your voice be heard so that your message can be out there and that is that is so important to every artist so uh another important uh attribute to the Mastery Program is uh to grow with a community that supports you I know a lot of times when I was early on in my career I didn't have a ton of support I didn't have a ton of family support they were sort of waiting on both sides of our family John's side and my side they were sort of waiting for us to to fail so that we could go get a real job and they kept kind of waiting waiting waiting in year after year after year um I think it took probably 10 years before they stopped waiting and I remember the day that John's Grandpa you know told him how proud he was of him and he never thought he could make it as an artist but after about 10 years into his career and he already had uh you know two kids that he was he was Raising and and supporting um then his grandpa was like wow you know you're doing it you're really doing it you're a successful artist I was wrong and that was like a great day for John to hear but a lot of times we don't have a supportive Community we have people around us that are telling us we can't do it when are you going to get serious uh you know it's a pipe dream uh oh you're being tricked that's a scam you hear it all the time and it's just not true and it's so important to get around other successful artists so that when your belief is low when you don't necessarily believe in yourself you see others are achieving others are doing it and we all lift each other up we all encourage each other it's so so important to connect with that community of support so you're not alone in this if you join the Mastery Program you will share this experience with other people that'll be going right along there with you we have a mentoring program where you can get a personal Mentor that helps you every step of the way we also have a art social um which is uh our own social media that we've created and built from scratch that is for artists and art lovers uh so this on this uh art social as you can see you can join all kinds of community groups there's a Mastery Program forum that you can you can join and you can see what all the students are doing and how they're posting you know their assignments and and what they're working on and you'll meet people from all over the world uh we have people and probably even in this chat um that that can attest to this that have made friendships um with people in different countries and they know they're going to be lifelong friends so this community of support is really really important and if you look at history any time there was a movement in art any time there was something big that was happening it happened through a collective of people it didn't just happen one person the impressionist was not just you know Monet the impressionist was a collective of artists and that movement uh you know marked the Earth forever because of this community of people so being a part of a community is really really huge um so we help you in the Mastery Program um build a a portfolio of 20 25 pieces of a cohesive body of work that is in your style um you uh learn a proven method on how to promote and sell your artwork uh and so that this portfolio that you build can get out there and you can get consistent sales we also before you build that portfolio in order to build that portfolio you have to find your voice you have to know your voice so we teach you step by step this really really cool I don't think there's anything like it in the entire world than the voice section of the Mastery Program because we really really methodically take you through all these prompts it's like a journey of self-discovery it's this incredible journey where you really know yourself on a deep deep level of why you paint what it is you want to paint how to identify what it is you want to paint and connect that all back to your personal life experience so that you have a brand so that you have some marketing collateral you have something to to say to somebody when they ask what inspires you to paint this you know exactly what to say and how to answer that and those are the kinds of things that really sell artwork your story your story is so so important so we teach you how to identify that story how to hone that story and be able to communicate it effectively um and before you can find your voice you really have to have a wide skill set so that you can paint paintings that are excellent paintings of Excellence High craftsmanship and that is what is going to sell your artwork consistently so getting those skills building those skills drawing skills painting skills skills in acrylic it's not just oil but acrylic and there's a whole mixed media section where you'll learn all about textures and collage and spray paint and inks and Mark making and all kinds of cool things that are really contemporary techniques so building those skills is really really key um so how do you get access to the Mastery Program well the Mastery Program is it's a one-year course and uh registration right now is closed it'll open uh in the beginning of the month but what I suggest you do right now if you're interested in this if you're if this is you know getting your motor going and you're like man I've been looking for a program like this this is exactly what I need to fulfill my dream of becoming a professional artist I need to do this what do you do right now what I suggest you do it's totally free is get on uh the waiting list so we once you're on the waiting list then you have access to a free Prep course so this is a course that you can go through in a very short period of time that will teach you all kinds of things so you can start your learning now absolutely free so joining the wait list is free and getting the uh Prep course is free so so where do you get the prep course well you'll receive it right there on art social it'll be uh on on the right when you when you pull up the navigation you'll see Mastery Program Prep course and then you click on it and the whole um the whole course will be right there so what will it teach you it will teach you how to build your own easel so I have found in being a professional artist having a nice big wall easel um is a great way to be prolific be able to stand far back from my work to see what it needs and be able to work effectively you can build one of these easels for like 30 40 bucks they're not that expensive to build and anybody can build it we've had people that are you know in their 70s that have built these built these easels even I can do it if I can do it I'm not a carpenter if I can do it then you can do it so we teach you step by step how to build your own easel we teach you how to set up your studio like a pro so that you are ready to get into action and be able to produce some amazing artwork we teach you all about the supplies that professionals use and how to fund your art program so we even teach you how if you don't feel like you have the money for this how you can get the money how you can fund your art education another thing that you'll learn in this Prep course is what is your role in in art history and how to find your superpower as an artist so there's all kinds of really cool inspiring information there's some right brain left brain exercises in there to get your right brain motored up and and working it's a fantastic Prep course and uh you'll just learn a ton so you want to make sure that you join the waitlist I think they'll put the link here and you can get on the wait list and start learning today with that free Prep course and then you'll be the first to know and get a reminder about when registration opens and you can join the Mastery Program that's why I suggest you get on the wait list get on the wait list you guys if you're even thinking of taking this program just get on the wait list it is totally free and you're going to receive so much much valuable information from us that is really going to help you and that prep course is fantastic you are going to love it and you can start learning today you can start elevating where you're at today you can begin um you know succeeding already today so um I think it's it's really incredible I know since uh I was young I I wanted to be an artist and I know what that feels like I know what it feels like to have that nagging gnawing desire in your gut of of something that you really really want to be and you feel this greatness in you you feel this this amazing draw towards your destiny in you but the whole world around you tells you you can't that's outlandish that's romantic that's a pipe dream that's impossible um and it's not it's not just hang with us just hang out with us you will you will believe before you know it that it is possible it's possible for you and it doesn't require luck it doesn't require knowing the right people or or talent that whole thing about Talent is just garbage it requires passion and you have the passion you have the desire and that's what it takes it takes hard work commitment passion desire and the Mastery Program um to to achieve your dream as a professional artist so I really enjoyed uh talking with you guys and teaching from my heart teaching something that I feel passionate about and I believe in you I believe in every single one of you that no matter where you are in this journey with hard work and passion you can fulfill your dream of becoming a professional artist and sell your artwork all over the world and with us change change the world for the better with your art so um I really enjoyed this and uh thanks for coming and and I will see you at the next Workshop foreign [Music]

Channel: Milan Art

Views: 531,813

Keywords: dimitra milan, milan art institute, art podcast, contemporary art, art, art skills, artists, artist, art school, art education, classical art, composition, texture, professional artist, professional artists, create drawings, learn art, art program, acrylic, oil painting, how to draw, learn painting, best art skills, artist mentor, art mentors, art mentor, pro artist, pro artists, art blog, art social, art sales, sell art

Id: PjjhGL1MoXs

Length: 72min 6sec (4326 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 02 2023