5 Places to Sell Your Watercolor Art
If you’re an artist in 2021, then I’m guessing you’ve noticed how Instagram has exploded the success of many artists. You might be wondering — how can make a career in art? Between the metaverse, Etsy handmade marketplace, and Amazon, you might be wondering which space will bring you success. If you want to take your art and turn it from hobby to full time, check out the 5 places that are putting cash into artists pockets. All of these spaces allow you to repurpose your art and create products, prints, or sell originals.
The 5 main places in 2021 to sell your watercolor art are print on demand sites, NFT art marketplaces, handmade marketplaces, community art centers, and large distributors such as Walmart.
Print on demand
First you need to decide if you will sell your own art, prints of your art, or a product with your art on it. If you’re new to making your fine art into prints or digital art, I have an article walking you through the basics here.
If you’ve got that first step covered then you’re ready to start researching platforms, marketplaces, and social media spaces. If you’re looking to sell products with your designs on them, Redbubble is a great place to check out. Redbubble allows you to put your artwork on physical products such as tote bags, clocks, bedspreads, and pillows. The best part about Redbubble is that you can use the mockup images from Redbubble to display your art on your website, social media accounts, or portfolio. Redbubble also allows other users to purchase your work on these products.
Sell Originals as NFT Art
With the NFT craze, new opportunities arose in 2021 for artists to make a name selling original art. Non fungible tokens allow artists to mint artwork. The person who purchases the art can display it in digital spaces such as metaverses, on digital monitors, and in their own home. Digital ownership is a new concept.
Rarible is a marketplace for purchasing NFTs. If you’d like to find out more about how to make your first NFT, I have an article about it here. You can submit your art as an NFT and sell original minted works of art for a high price. If your work fits this style selling NFTs can be a viable income.
Marketplaces to sell your art
For entry level selling, Etsy is a standard marketplace for handmade items. If you’re looking to sell originals, listing your art on Etsy can really be a great marketplace. Etsy provides exposure to the handmade art space. If you’re not interested in using Etsy, you can build a shop on your own website. I have an article on how to do that here.
The number of platforms for printing on demand artwork or putting your art on physical products is numerous. DeviantArt, Craigslist, Amazon Handmade, Saatchi Art, Society6 are just a few of them. Spoonflower is one of my personal favorites. Spoonflower caters more to surface pattern design. If you don’t create repeating patterns, you’ll want to try one of the other platforms listed above.
Exposure for your work
A lot of communities rely on you to promote your own work and build an audience. I once attended an event that required me to sell tickets to it. These event scams take a lot of work and most of the time the audience attending doesn’t buy art. I’ve also gone to trade shows with my art. It’s all about thinking about your audience and what they want to experience. My conclusion from all of these experiences is the following.
Community art centers are a great place to get started if you do not have an audience.
Community centers typically have volunteers and art is displayed in a way that it can be enjoyed. You may not sell a lot of art, but the people who sign up to the newsletter genuinely want to see more of your work. I highly recommend participating in some of these events. They gain you exposure and build your email list.
Large distributors for art
Large distributors can gain you exposure and help you sell your work. Amazon and Walmart are two of the big distributors who have large amounts of traffic and mailing lists to promote your work. If you can put your work on a product, then you can apply to sell those products or designs to large distributors like Walmart. The only downside to doing this is that you have to have an LLC or business name in place to apply.