I making prints now; I've always known about this. My ex-girlfriend Beth and I had talked about this for years, and she had been working on that process for a long time. How to sell other works in tandem with a passive revenue stream from T-shirts, posters, and prints based upon original pieces of work.
Sady Starkiss Sticker “Blast Off!” on external memory drive.
My friend, the tattooist, had given me some information about a printer down in downtown Portland that I might want to get a hold of for making prints looking into that so I can see if I can make cheaper prints than where I'm going out right now. I need to get the cost of those prints down so I can make more of the artwork. Suppose I get more of my prints made out over social media. In that case, I can start swinging other ways from having to actually work out a 9-to-5 job and actually start making money off of passive income rather than active income. That was the most significant point that was a revelation to me. I've been fighting it and fighting it and fighting it for a long while now. I realize I could actually make more money off of making prints off of my work and making original pieces all the time, and then I can spend more time making original pieces there for making prints and then go from there.
The biggest thing that my friend also pointed out to me at the show was that they were the other artists I didn't see there at the opening. I was the only one there.
In the process, my artwork also stood out from the others on the wall, knowing this was his description, not mine. But massive black-and-white pieces have a tendency to stand out amongst most of the color stuff, so they definitely stood out.
At the same time, a lot of extra work was done on each one of these pieces, whether it be an 8 x 8, a 12 x 16, or an 18 x 24.
Baby Blue Escape. 8”x8” Scratchboard.
People can see the effort that's done in these individual pieces of work. That's the reason why my stuff has a tendency to grab people's attention. My friend had also mentioned to me that if you're doing the work just to crank stuff out, that's one thing. Still, if you're doing it because you're driven to it, which I know I am, I love working on the artwork; it makes me feel creative and whole and gets a lot of ideas out of my head on the paper or on the board in this case.
A whole mess of 8”x8” pieces being prepped for work.
Remember, I have often talked about in previous posts how some artists are stuck in the creative mode and are not trying so much to work on figuring out how to sell themselves. That's where I've been. I need to branch out if I'm ever going to make it as a successful artist. I need to branch out and start focusing on how to not only crank stuff out, putting great ideas out there but allowing pieces to breathe, and that means making prints, T-shirts, posters, and stickers.
Blue The Bulldog Sticker.