The friends you make at the local level know about regional, state, and association events. Leverage time and experiences at local events into larger events. Think of it as laying the groundwork for future business.Īnd those pictures could become the reference materials for a new drawing or painting. If all you do is make friends and take pictures, you’ve had a good day. The purpose of attending such shows on a regular basis is to be seen and to see. If you’re working for a living and building an art career on the side (which most artists are), cutting costs wherever possible is a necessity.
#Professional portrait painter free
Local shows are often free admission and close by, which means reduced expenses all the way around. Photographs I still sometimes browse through. I rarely sold anything on-site, but it was time well spent, and I often went home with batches of new photographs. I got to be a regular and made friends among the horse owners. Sometimes I set up a small booth or just sat in the stands and sketched or watched. I went to those shows as often as I could. When I was getting started, I found regular horse shows hosted by the county fairgrounds in two neighboring counties. If you do dog portraits, look for kennel clubs and so on. Do you paint horse portraits? Check out the local saddle club, or county fairgrounds. Once you’ve identified your most likely clients, go where they are. An afternoon is usually sufficient.Īnd if the thought of finding a “target audience” is too scary, then just look for people who like the kind of art you make.įor more specific help in identifying your target audience, read 3 Ways to Identify the Best Target Audience for Your Art, which I wrote for EmptyEasel. It’s not necessary to spend weeks figuring this stuff out. It does you no good to promote your portrait work to other artists (a lesson I had to learn the hard way.) Nor does it do any good to promote your dog portraits to people who want portraits of their cats and their kids (unless you’re willing to step outside the box not usually a good idea when you’re getting started.) Three, they have money to spend and are likely to spend it on art. Two, they like art and prefer your style. Say, horses or dogs or classic cars (yes, classic cars, houses, and landscapes can fall into the portrait category.) One, they like the same subjects you like. Members of your target audience share three characteristics.
So what does a target audience look like? But it does mean those people are more likely to take an interest in your work.ĭoes that mean you never promote your work to other people? No, because you can never be sure who will buy something from you.īut best place to begin promoting yourself as a portrait artist is with people who like the type of art you do. That alone makes it easier to gain portrait work and name recognition.ĭoes that mean everyone in that target audience will become a client? Not at all. It’s important to understand who is most likely to hire you before you start marketing yourself.įigure out the people most likely to hire you, and you can focus on those areas from the start. If you don’t know your target audience, you’ll spend a lot of time and money promoting your portraits to people who just aren’t interested. Doing these things doesn’t guarantee success, but not doing them could hinder progress. There’s much more to becoming a portrait artist than we have time to discuss today, so I’ll begin with four basics.
Tips For Getting Started As a Portrait Artist But you can do a few things to make the process smoother.