Instagram Inspiration: Getting in the Mindset

Hopefully by now you see the value of Instagram for your art business. Share your work. Find inspiration. Invite more people into your process. Communicate your uniqueness. Get discovered. Even drive sales. Sounds pretty great, right? So if you're ready to get started or eager get more active with your posting, but not sure what to actually post, this reference is for you. To help your brainstorming and get you into the Instagram mindset, I've outlined different categories of posts and ideas within them for you to photograph and share. Remember to include a caption for content and hashtags to extend your reach. With this recipe, you're ready for discovery!

Showcasing Your Art: Product Photography Deep Dive

If you sell your art and handmade items online or use online tools to promote offline sales of your work, photography is one of the most important elements of success. I'm not just saying that as a photographer; consider the perspective of a potential buyer. If they can't hold your work in their hand, they need images to make them feel like they've seen it in person. Your job is to help them visualize how it would fit into their lives. We've talked a little about staging your photos to entice buyers, but let's dive deeper into what makes for effective product photography in the handmade space.

Monster Dance Designs | Ten Twenty Studio | Ornamental Things
Killer Queen Designs | Proof + Theory | Whipdizzy Handbag Co.

10 Steps to Better Art Jury Photos

To anyone outside of the art world, Jury Photos is a pretty unknown term. However, as we’ve talked about, for fine artists and crafters alike, this category of photography is crucial to exposure and often, success. To get into art shows, competitions and exhibits, you need examples of your work to share with the judges, usually referred to as a Jury. This group of artists, curators and art industry professionals come together to help pick which artists should be included. They are given a set of criteria to evaluate each submission, and in most cases, they’re only looking at the photography, a.k.a. a Blind Jury. These images need to accomplish a number of things – from showing your talent and professionalism to indicating cohesiveness of your style and fit for the category. These juries may go through hundreds of applications, so your photography has to work its magic quickly. How do you make sure your Jury Photos really shine? Whether your just starting out with juried art events or ready to improve your acceptance rate, these tips are designed to help you present your best self.

Pearl Kissed     |     Sunshine Clay     |     Dalton Designs     |      Mary Winsett     |     Sandra Ross

New Year's Resolutions

I've never been one to do something just because everyone else is, but I make an exception for New Year's Resolutions. I love the chance to look back over the past year and evaluate what's worked versus where I need to improve. As my first year in business, this is an especially useful practice because I was testing out a lot of ideas. I now have months of first hand experience to gauge what I want to maintain as offerings and processes. For example, photography is still my guiding passion, so I want to make sure I get in more photoshoots in 2018. I am also driven by the chance to help more artists, so I've come up with a list of ways in which I can continue to build my business in support of what I love. Some of these may resonate with you or even inspire you to add to your own resolutions. Undoubtedly there are things I missed, do if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

Art Event Application Best Practices

While we just hit summer, we're officially in the season of important application deadlines for winter and holiday art events. In Austin that means Blue Genie Art Bazaar, Cherrywood Art Fair, East Austin Studio Tour and more. Knowing that many of you artists and crafters sell the most during gift giving occasions, I wanted to highlight a few tips for entering art events so you have the greatest chance at acceptance. In future posts we'll move on to how you can be successful once you're in a show. I want to help you demonstrate to the organizers and jurors why you'd be a great fit!

Staging Your Art Photographs to Entice Buyers

In person, the best artwork speaks for itself; craftsmanship is easily visible. When sharing your work virtually, be it on your website, through social media or in art show applications, the photography must bridge the gap. As I've mentioned before, your images can make or break the perception of your buyers. Do yourself justice by helping your audience see the passion and work you put into each piece. It's even more powerful if you can set a scene that entices your fans to envision owning, wearing, using and/or displaying your pieces. How do you achieve this? Strategic staging!

1) Crescent City Couture                          2) Jamie Spinello                               3) Jason Hooper

Lighting for Quality Arts & Crafts Photography

The most important consideration when photographing your Arts & Crafts is showing each piece in the best light, both figuratively and literally. I'll talk more about backdrops and staging in a future post so you can create the right context for your art, but for now let's focus on the most basic element that can make or break your photograph, how it's lit.

 Images from Zapplication.org

Types of Photography Every Artist Needs

Agree or disagree: Every Artist needs photography of their work? If you say "Yes," keep reading to learn more about the most important types of images you should have to promote yourself. If you're not sure, please feel free to check out my previous post on the value of photography and how to get great shots of your pieces. No matter where you are in your artistic career or what Medium you've chosen, you can all benefit from the following list of photographs to showcase your Art.

Do Artists Really Need Photography?

Interesting question... The answer to this is one of the most important things I can share with you, not only as a Photographer myself, but also as a Marketer, a fellow Artisan and even more simply as a potential Buyer. Let me paint you a hypothetical picture:

You're a talented Artist, and you make beautifully crafted pieces that catch the eye of quite a few buyers. You find that your work sells really well when people see it in person, but you struggle to get enough opportunities to sell. Maybe you apply to every art show in your area, hoping you'll be accepted for at least a few. How great would it be if you could be accept by most, if not all? Then there are those of you who decided to take your offline success and have a go at online sales, but your work isn't moving. Other artists with equal talent seem to be selling. What are you lacking?