I’m looking to start selling prints of my art and am just at the point of trying to figure out if I should just invest in a home printer or source out printing company to do it? in the past I’ve used vistaprint and it was terrible.

I’m looking for fellow artists advice regarding what they are doing for their prints? if you’re using your own printer, what type of printer are you currently using? if you’re having your prints printed, which site or business do you suggest?

thank you for your advice!

What about if the exhibitor is a small business?

So, I had a "failed" commission. We found each other online. The piece was a fully rendered nsfw piece. I was desperate for rent money, so I accepted $35. I kept them updated on the sketch and rendering, though I was a bit slow. Finally, when I submitted the final piece, they asked if it was a WIP and sent in their references again (which I had followed). Throughout the comm they continuously talked to me as a friend and even asked to stream with them? I shook it off mostly, just wanting to finish the art. Anyways, when I went to edit the piece to be more "accurate", I accidentally deleted a layer that contained the arms and my art program would not let me get it back. I broke it to them that I'm sorry, but this is the finished piece and I cannot edit it. Which, felt reasonable as the price was already low, I had went off a reference they provided, and it was nsfw. They had said something along the lines of "that's okay! It looks good. I wouldn't mind if you ever want to redo it." I kind of ignored that because they then switched to another topic. Since I finished the comm, I felt no obligation to redo a large majority of the piece that would take me another 5 hours.

Today they messaged me with a "checking in" and I realized, very horrified, that they're expecting me to continue to commission. As I said before, this person was a bit strange during the comm and it didn't help I was working for like $2 an hour (it took roughly 18 hours). Should I just block this client? Is it unprofessional?

Edit: Can't respond to the comment saw it in my notifs but won't appear. I gave them a finished piece WITH ARMS don't worry! It was completely rendered and on par with the rest of my work (though, I honestly didn't like working on it, but I pushed through). The arms got deleted post-finished comm when I decided to redo some of it for them. I did not tell them I was going to edit the piece, I just decided to. Therefore, they had no expectation affirmed by me that there was more to the art. Then, I told them honestly that what I sent was the final piece, as I had sent it in finished and had no way to edit it without putting in way more hours that weren't justified.

Hi all! Im currently a full time artist & small shop owner but for the past month and a half I have been practically unable to create. I think this is the longest bout of art block I've ever experienced. I've tried to pick up new creative hobbies, limit/cut off my time spent on socials, and taken breaks from drawing entirely. Nothing really seems to be working. I'm getting more antsy about trying to get my creative juices back because I have to meet a deadline for creating new products for a huge slew of vending events I have in August.

I guess all this to say, how long does art block usually last for you guys? Are there any other tips you guys have for getting out of this funk?

Hello everyone! I'm working on opening commissions traditional commissions online where I would ship the client the final piece. But I'm really lost trying to figure out the sales tax thing, and I'm wondering how other traditional artists have their commissions set up to handle that. (Also I'm USA based)

For some context, I am already registered with my local department of revenue and pay quarterly sales taxes for the in-person markets I sell at. I'm just really confused about how you handle sales taxes for out-of-state sales that I don't have a physical presence in.

I've been reading various articles on sales and use tax, so this is my understanding:

Sales tax is the percentage of the sale that needs to be paid to the local region where the sale occurred. For online sales, this would be where the client is located and receives the final product. But then there's Economic Nexus, where if you don't have a physical presence in that state, and you don't hit that state's threshold of sales/profit (which I don't expect I'll be hitting), then you're not responsible for submitting sales taxes for that state?

Use tax comes in when the seller is not responsible for paying the tax (like an out-of-state sale), but taxes still must be paid for that product, and the client becomes responsible to pay. So in this case, I think that would mean that the client would need to state the purchase on their own tax return? Or am I completely off on that? Honestly, I still don't fully understand use tax.

I know some people sell their commissions on an e-commerce site which would handle the sales tax for you, but I honestly don't want to deal with the fees. Plus I wanted to have the commissions linked to my portfolio site, and have full control of the look/set-up. Also, I was planning on taking payments through Paypal invoices. I think that's a standard way of taking payment for commissions?

So TL,DR: When you do a traditional commission and mail it to an out-of-state client, how are you handling the sales tax?

Hi all! I have a very popular tote bag design with 10 different colors and design variations that has helped my small business immensely the past few years to a point where I can now comfortably sell it many of them for $35 without complaints.

The issue is that it's gained traction online so there's bound to be dupes but I told myself as long as I don't run into them at an event I'd be somewhat okay with it lol. But low and behold one of the 15 other vendors at the big event I'm going to has one of them.

Now the issue is she's selling it at the event for $20. She only has 1 version of it fortunately out of the 10, although she's added pockets and embroidery on the front art instead of screenpressed like mine.

Many of my fellow vendors/artists and even friends have told me not to cut prices just because of this other person, but I'm wondering if I make some sort of bundle or how to handle this so it doesn't affect my business? I also worry if customers will compare us but my friends say they dont pay that much attention, esp if mine has the version they want, whereas she only has 1 version. Any help would be great!!

I've traveled all the way from the east coast to the west coast for this and worry about the potential losses for this situation.

Edit: Thank you for the comments! Some people posted to put a sign that says 'original creator' but my friends are nervous it will cause long term issues with the vendor space and host because ive created this environment of tension now. But also i dont want to be passive either ugh.

So recently I tabled at my first ever smaller anime convention at a university and sold a fair amount, I have however missed out on some sales for not having enough of certain prints. Recently, I was able to secure a table at a popular 3 day anime convention.

My question is, based on the items I sold, how many prints should I prepare for this?

For reference here is what my report sorta looked like (sorry I don't know how to attach pictures on mobile):

For my small prints:

Design A: 7 sold

Design B: 5 sold

Design C: 5 sold

Design D: 4 sold

Design E: 2 sold

Design F: 1 sold

For my large prints:

Design A: 2 sold

Design C: 1 sold

Design D: 1 sold

Design E: 1 sold

Full disclosure at the top! I am not rushing into this!! I'm looking for a discussion on how others have done it for themselves, or what others are doing to set themselves up for some semblance of security.

I ran my own illustration business for a few years, and got tired dealing with people commenting on the price of art, so I thought I'd get a degree and go into tech. I've been in tech 3 years now and it is not for me.

I'm trying to think of what I can do for myself if/when I quit/get laid off, what tools or structures to put in place to help me as best I can.

How to hold myself to account for producing again, cause we know we can just rely on inspiration 🤣

How to get "back on the horse" so to say, advertising, running an online shop front etc. it's been 8 years since I sold anything so there's so much more out here now, I feel quite out of touch.

How to get local work/support - I'm thinking of reaching out to local community centres, library etc to see what they have going on - but I feel this will need to happen after I'm not working 9-5 as I don't have an opportunity to drop in to talk to anyone during the week when they're quiet, or to even see what's on in those places.

I don't know what I could be over looking too, so does anyone have any experience with this? Does anyone have any advice? Anyone else trying to figure this out too? 😅

I'm looking for chats and discussions on this topic, not handouts or anything, like I'd love to have a proper conversation with a few people around this.

Thank you so much in advance!

I see so many artists gatekeeping their production sources, and it breaks my heart a little. I’ve been asked DOZENS of times for advice, and I remember exactly how overwhelming and difficult it was to find a trustworthy manufacturer when I was new to this.
I wanted to make this post to openly share my manu: Year Pins.

They’ve been incredibly fast, the quality is excellent, and their pricing is fantastic compared to other manufacturers out there.
Supporting other creators and being transparent about the business side of art doesn't take away from your own success. I’d love to see us all be a bit more open and helpful with our knowledge! 🖤

Hi everyone! I am new here and just starting my business. I am not sure if this fits the subreddit, but feel free to remove my post if the mods do not think it fits.

Anyway, I have already put my artwork on a site that makes it marketable without any investment, which I am glad I found since I do not have enough money to invest at the moment.

However, I do not have an audience yet to help grow my business and I am not sure how to get started. I would love to build my business from scratch without an existing audience, so if anyone with experience has any tips on how to build an audience organically and for free, I would really appreciate it!

I don't wanna wait until I have tons of items ready before dropping everything at once, I want to build it gradually while also promoting it everytime a new item is out.

But I also want the shop to look like it's "ready"... And not like an experiment...

Hi all — I’m considering selling my art and had a question for other artists. I’ve been painting on wood boards and canvases from Michaels, like Artist’s Loft products. If I start creating pieces to sell, are basic canvases from Michaels generally considered good enough quality, or should I invest in higher-end materials?

I'm a junior in high school (16), and I have to figure out what I wanna do for my bachelor's degree. I'm very much a jack of all trades, I sculpt, draw, play many instruments, and, in general, like making stuff. I'm a STEM major rn studying mathematics, but I'm thinking about switching to economics since, with it I have the chance to get into one of the best schools in my country and graduate with a business degree (marketing management etc) or i can stay in math and study engineering which im not sure it would suit me. what should I do? Im struggling with this decision and idk what careers Id get into with a business or marketing etc

Hi everyone, we had to disable images in stand-alone posts because we were being flooded with "what do I price my art at?" and "is my art good enough to sell?" posts. It is difficult to give people advice on how to price their art, and many of the comments reflected that. They were very much self-promo as well, sometimes masked by "I sold my first painting" or some such. We just aren't the subreddit for that, historically.

Many of the other image posts were really good, like the art market set ups, but sadly we were just unable to moderate the flood of the pricing/pseudo-promo posts which were taking over our subreddit.

There is a megathread for pricing but people just don't seem to use it very often, or if they do, others do not comment. I am not sure what the solution is to this.

There is another subreddit, r/ArtistAlleyConnect , where you may post your market photos. For now we are keeping this subreddit discussion based only. You may still leave photos in the comments of course!

If anyone has a solution to this let me know!

- Management

Vou aceitar uma encomenda e o cliente pediu para manter os direitos autorais, mas que eu pudesse adicionar a minha arte ao meu portfólio. Gostaria de algumas explicações sobre isso e dicas sobre o que devo fazer. the client is asking for the copyright and saying it's only for him and a few friends, and is also offering me a deck (for commissions and deck art). This sounds kind of strange to me, even though I'm relatively new to this. 👁️👁️

Hello friends!

What are the professions and real work careers that an artist could do instead of any job (dishwasher, waiter, resource support) etc?

I'm considering making an In*** account for my paintings, but I can't help but think..."why?"

I'm aware that expecting people to be able to find my portfolio site without help is silly, but SM is terrible for driving sales unless your work is very pop-culture oriented (mine isn't). There are so many bots and AI posts that I can't imagine anyone still uses it for serious art or networking. I often feel like the only reason I'm even still thinking of it is because of the fact that having an account is just EXPECTED in the arts.

I'm considering doing some adopts for these because I wanna get some practice in while I'm still working on my sona. I have no idea where people do adopts now that amino is dead, so if anyone knows if there's a place that would like something like this please send me that way.

I have been entirely unable to get a v-gen account thus far so at the moment that answer is not helpful. I have no idea how to get an audience on th so if you have knowledge on that - I'd accept it lol

Hello again 😭, I need more help 💔

How to calculate the value of simple illustrations of I 55 playing cards, 52 normal 2 jokers and a cut card In addition to the copyright of the illustrations

I haven't the slightest idea how to calculate that.

This is artbusiness subbreddit and i read a lot of posts, but i don't find anything about art monetization in case of some art events, for example - to organize some event like: "Oil painting course with a scenic view of the rocks". Is this option not that profitable, or is it too difficult to assemble a group? Or is it difficult to organize? My wife is an artist and is thinking about starting a business like this. Can anyone tell me if this is a good idea, or, on the contrary, a waste of time and money that will ultimately lead to losses? Tell me about any difficulties you've encountered.