Selling Artwork: Simple Ways To Add Value To Your IllustrationsAll Things Illustration and Design Resources

There are many things that can add extra value to your illustrations and give it that extra touch that inspires a buyer to purchase your work. You don’t have to rework your artwork or fix it in any way to make it more valuable to buyers. Yes, it is sometimes possible to fix a less than perfect design but in this article I am thinking more about techniques that don’t involve changing your artwork in any way. These are some simple ways to give potential buyers the incentive to purchase your work while also allowing you to get the most out of your creativity and effort.

Sometimes All You Need is a Good Mat and Frame -

Illustration Design By Andre Villanueva

Sometimes you just need a good mat job to finish off that perfect piece, and there is no doubt that the right frame can really help a slightly mediocre piece of art. If you need mats you can take your artwork to your local Hobby Lobby or other hobby store and they will measure and create the mat of your choice. You can also buy thousands of different styled frames on the internet from many websites that just specialize in frame, pictureframes.com and americanframe.com are good examples. If you are working with sculptures or 3D art, the way to display your work can play a big part in whether or not people buy it. So now you have your artwork displayed at its best. So what can you do now to help add extra value and buying incentive to your artwork?

Put Your Mark on it –

Illustration By BabyDollB

One of the first things that most artists already do that can add value to your work is just simply to sign it. It often annoys me when artists sign every little thing that they make, but when it comes to original works for sale or even professionally printed pieces, a signature can make all the difference to some buyers. A lot of people want to know who made the artwork that is hanging on their walls. The first thing almost anyone wants to know about any piece of artwork is who made it, what’s the name of the artist. So ideally, a signed piece of work is going to be worth more money than an unsigned one. In the case of digital work, it is very common to see small logos in the corner of illustrations.

Inspire Them With the Title –

Illustration By Dzeri29

Another great way to add buying incentive and value is with an inspiring title. A relevant title can spark moving emotion in buyers that can make your artwork a must have. When your artwork and title work together your artwork could become more moving and inspiring than you ever would have thought. Lets look at a great example on the popular art print’s site society6. You can see in the art print above by Dzeri29, they have created a great design of an old music player with a tree sprouting out of the horn. They have chosen a relevant and inspiring title in “Sound of Nature”. Many generic or bland titles could have been chosen, but the fact that a relevant title is used will help to tie the entire piece together and make it more interesting to potential buyers. I think the fact that 119 people have chosen to promote it proves that the print is doing a lot of things well.

Explain Yourself -

Illustration By Dean Russo

Along with a great title, your artwork would benefit greatly from having a short explanation that describes a little bit about what was behind making the piece. The more a buyer knows about a piece of work the more likely they are to buy it. A short explanation into the making of an illustration helps to make the buyer feel like they are more involved with the piece than another piece of artwork they know nothing about.

A description has no real rules or guidelines. You can write whatever you want. You could chose to tell people what gave you the inspiration for the illustration, or just keep it simple and explain the tools that were used. If you wanted to get really transparent, you could even get personal and talk about a story that might have been associated with the piece. However, the last thing that you want to do is tell the viewer how they should feel about your piece. Putting limitations on potential buyers will only drive them away and cause them to throw you aside completely. Really any information you give about your illustration is better than no information at all. It doesn’t matter whether the buyer understands your concept or not, it still makes it more attractive to them to know that there was an intention behind the original idea. So the next time your writing an explanation for an illustration, as long as your honest and real a viewer will more than likely embrace your artwork.

Sell Your Artwork With Other High Quality Works -

Illustrations From Society6

An extremely simple way to easily add value to your illustrations is to sell your work along with other high quality artwork. When people see your artwork showcased along with other great illustrators and designers they will soon start to think things like, “his art must be popular” or “it would be worth it to buy one of his prints.” A community a good quality work is great when building your reputation as well, which will give you more clout with art buyers. If your not the online art selling type, then finding a good quality gallery or art showcase is certainly the way to go. The last thing that you want to do is sell your artwork on a website or showcase that is just full of crappy work. It will only devalue your illustration and you shouldn’t have to settle when selling prints that you worked so hard to create.

Sell Your Illustrations in Limited Quantities –

Listing Source: Ebay

We’ve all heard the basic premise, “the rarer an item is, the more it will be worth.” Selling your artwork as a limited edition is a great way to add buyers incentive to your prints. If viewers think that only 50 pieces of a certain print exist, they will be much more inclined to jump at the chance to purchase one of your prints. The idea that only a small amount of a design exist is also a legitimate reason to charge more for your artwork, and serious buyers will fully understand that. On the other hand, if you are someone that is not churning out new artwork at a rate that doesn’t work well with the idea of limited prints you might not be able to make this idea work. It would also depend on what you idea of limited is. You might not like the idea of only selling 50 print of a certain illustration, but an increment of 100-250 might even work well also.

If you are creative, you will be able to employ many of these tips and others that you come up with yourself, to get the most out of your illustration and design. Some of these ideas might work better for you or not as well. Regardless, I hope that some of these ideas can help you profit from your artwork, which will in turn allow you to keep doing what you love. If you liked this post please share it with your friends and peers through one of the button to the left.