This is what the last 8-10months’ work has all been leading towards. In the past year that has seen major life changes such as moving house, getting married (and helping my now-wife through a career change), it has been difficult to find time to paint. On top of that, did I also mention we got a cat? (he could be upstairs, hear my studio door at the back of the house open, and sprint down to walk all over art work and climb the painting racks before Usain Bolt has left the blocks…). Anyway, what little painting I did get done was even towards the Wedding, commissioned from said ‘now-wife’ that I’m still awaiting payment for!
However, this hasn’t meant I have rested on my laurels. Ever since finishing my architectural qualifications, I have strived to start painting again to develop my aspirations as a fledgling artist. But as this was not possible, instead of painting, I have focused on developing a business plan. This has involved a huge range of things, such as planning new ideas for bodies of work, sourcing materials, actually learning how to sell artwork, exploring competitions/exhibitions to enter and actually recording an inventory of completed works. This was no mean feat considering my work is currently spread across several addresses and my folks are still currently deciding which one of about 12 paintings they want to keep. This has only taken at least 3 years to decide so far and we’re still no close. The main focus however, has been on setting up the ability to sell prints of my work.
I love producing new work, either as part of my own artistic ideas, or as a gift or commission for someone. It is such a driving passion in my life. And amazingly, people do occasionally seem to like the work. Although my somewhat ‘comic’ friends are always keen to let me know that I’ve either let the paint run or that I have painted outside the lines - did my 6 years in architectural training teach me nothing?! Naturally, this led me to the idea to start selling prints, and, also naturally, there was so much more research than I initially envisaged. I wanted to get this right in my head before I started, rather than ‘winging it’ (as is sometimes my approach to painting!). After finally sourcing printers, framers, mounting suppliers and general bric-a-brac, I proceeded to explore through the ‘nitty gritty'. And by ‘nitty’ gritty' I mean the quagmire of calculating costs and expenses, whilst also attempting to learn book-keeping (correction: relearn excel to primary school level). Having finally cracked this, it was time to get listing.
Of course, I definitely had not realised how much photo-shopping was then required! In addition to sizing all the prints, the presentation and display images all needed creating (in addition to numerous sample and test images to actually figure out if I wanted a textured, plain, coloured and mocked-up background. Conveniently I was also designing my business cards and naturally it made sense to keep a consistency or identity to them. During the design process, I chose four key colours from selected art works for the card's colour scheme. These were to be used as the backgrounds to the display images on Etsy. The colours make a bold, yet complementary backdrop to the artworks that hopefully makes them stand out, unless you’re colour blind that is.
Overall it was a great feeling when the first test prints arrived. And mounting them in my studio really tied the finished piece together, despite the best effort of the cat’s attempts to get his grubby paws all over the pristine, clean finish. After all the hard work, seeing the final product of the finished print and all the listings uploaded to Etsy, which is now open for business, made the last 8-10 months all seem worth it.
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