How to Sell More Art

Create a Signature Style

What is a Signature Style?

A Signature Style is one that is instantly recongisable as your own. When somebody sees one of your artworks they automatically know who created it, even though they may not have seen that particular artwork yet, or even stepped close enough to see the signature on the painting.

You can think of your signature style as specialising.

A signature style can be a particular technique that you use in all your artworks. It could be a distinctive set of colours. It could be a specific style. It could also be a specific topic, like dogs or shoes that you create.

Good examples of strong signatures styles are the Cubist artworks of Picasso, the Pop Art style of Andy Warhol and the Impressionist style of Vincent van Gogh.

How Do You Choose a Signature Style?

1) Look at what you enjoy creating. Maybe you like drawing dog portraits. Then you could choose that as your signature style as you will never get bored.

2) Look at what you are good at. If you are a whizz at painting with a knife, then this would make a great signature style as you feel comfortable with the techniques already.

3) Look at what is selling. People must be willing to buy what you create, so always ensure there is demand for your signature style.

4) Ensure there is enough variety. For example, if you decide on tulip paintings as your signature style, ensure that you can easily paint thousands of different variations of your tulip paintings. Below you can see an example of a good and a bad signature style.

Bad Signature Style

This is not a good signature style because there are only so many colours you can use for the flower. The shape of the flower also doesn't allow for many variations.

Good Signature Style

This style on the other hand is perfect. Although it is also just of a single flower, the amount of variations we can add to the colours and petals is almost endless so you would never run out of different roses to paint.

Here are a few more tips you can use to choose your signature style:

How Does It Help You Sell More Art?

A Signature Style Allows You To Create Quicker

When you paint or draw in a new style or theme, you basically need to figure out how to create the artwork. You need to figure out which materials to use, which techniques to use, which are the correct colours to mix and so on.

All this figuring out takes a lot of time. To see this effect, try painting the same scene twice. The second time around you will complete the artwork in half the time because you now know what to do.

When you create along a signature style you cut out all this "figuring out" time, so can create a lot more artworks for sale in less time.

A Signature Style Allows You To Create Better Artworks

As you are creating artworks that are similar, you are getting a lot of practice in the techniques. We all know that practice makes perfect, so even though you can create your artworks quicker, you are also able to make them look better.

Customers want high quality artworks, a signature style allows you to give them this high quality on a consistent basis.

 

A Signature Style Makes Your Art More Memorable

Your signature style creates a common "thread" that is visible through all the artworks you create, so every time somebody sees one of your artworks, they recognise it as yours.

The more people see your artworks, the more likely they are to remember and recognise them.

Being remembered is how you build up your reputation as an artist. This is turn increases not only the amount of artworks you sell, but the value of those artworks.

A Signature Style Increases Your Profit

When you paint or draw in one style you are using the same techniques and materials to create your artworks. This allows you to purchase in bulk so even though this doesn't directly help you sell more, it saves you money. This means you are earning more money per sale, so in the long run is just as good as selling more artworks.

Learn More

If you would like to learn more about how to sell your artworks, then you can take a look at our course on How to Sell Your Art.

Nolan

About Nolan Clark


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