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you've got to make money making your art. You can't make just anything. You have to put stuff out there and test the market. You have to do market research with your art. Keep creating art and putting it out there. Eventually you'll find something that sells. Do more of that. I know it may not be what you like most to do. Sorry about that. You stumble on your niche, more often than not, and very often you end up not liking everything about what you end up doing to make money.

If you sell art for a living you need a decent product, unless you are a superb marketer - and even then I suspect you'll need a decent product. If you are an artist, dependant on selling your art or finding someone else to sell it for you, likewise, you will need a good - or better yet great - product. The best way I know to come up with that is to create the art, put it out there, listen to the feedback, and modify what you do, or amplify what you do, if you are getting positive results; that is, if you are selling, figure out what you are doing and do more of that.

That sounds like a lot of hard work. Yeah, I know. Welcome to the world of being a professional artist. Now, if you want to make art but not have to make a living selling it, that's different. You can do whatever you want. And I'm not saying that those of us who are professionals cannot do whatever we want. I have more freedom to create the art I love to create because I have a product that I like well enough to create and that brings me money and allows me to continue to develop myself as an artist.

So you will have to do research. But you can also look at what is selling out there. I have to laugh (inwardly) when I hear someone talk about how much "crap" is out there and how he or she could do better. I have the same thought quite often. But it should be no surprise that what is selling is selling. It's not always the marketing machine behind it. Often enough, the crap out there doesn't have the big marketing machine. Still, it sells. Why? Mainly because - you might hate hearing this but it must be said - the people who create that stuff recognize how to give their audience something their audience wants, and what the audience wants is not always a bunch of lies. Sometimes that's what we want. Sometimes we want schlocky crap and overpolished, hollow inside junk. But just as often, maybe even more often (I say this because I am an optimist) the audience out there wants...something fun, or cuddly, or sweet - whatever. We want stuff, stuff that satisfies a need. Maybe we want to laugh, or cry, or sigh, whatever. We want value and meaning. Sometimes the seemingly meaningless crap can provide because at least it notices us. It notices us a lot better than the ego driven art that may be real, real good, but doesn't offer us anything.

If I am going to buy art, I'm more likely to buy art that addressess a need I have and doesn't talk all about the needs of the artist. I guess I don't really care about the artist. Who does? If you can't appreciate the art, what do you care about the artist? If you do care about the art, then that's different. Then you want to know the artist. Most of the time. At least have a glass of wine or cup of coffee with him or her, be able to say "I met the artist".

Learn more about this author, Beau Smith.
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