During this summer. I decided to try my hand at selling my artwork as a practicing artist. To do this, I had to be smart about who I sell to and the connections I can leverage from that. To start, I had to make my style of painting distinct and recognisable. I noticed a distinct theme in upmarket art trends being colour compassion in juxapostion to a space. A lot of English houses are modelled to be quite classical. the extra gently styled arcetecture of the Georgian sera London houses lends itself to creativity. To do this, I researched pop art colour waves and modelled The Contrasting but complementing colours of Andy Warhols screen prints. A distant style very popular in 1960s London. I decided to focus on portraiture. as I felt the commissioning of these pieces would provide a personal element to the paintings.
For my first commission I spent 182.68 on Two large 50 x50 canvases, five Winston and Newton large acrylic paints, and two brush sets, and a painting tray. My first commission experimenting with my newfound and market- researched style sold for 200£ . Meaning my revenue from the piece £17.32. although this was discouraging, the drive that selling a piece gave me the passion to drove me farther.
My second commission was two separate large scale pieces for a mother of her two daughters. For this commission, I used a different technique to communicate an ever evolving style. The colour schemes referenced were hand chosen by the customer to fit in her kitchen. The painting process took me a month from June- July for the both of them. For this Commission I bought a new canvas for 28£ making my total profits spent 210.68. For these two pieces I charged 1,180 pounds. Focusing on working a median of three hours a day for thirty days, Including weekends, That is 90 hours spent on these two images, meaning each hour of my work £13.11. Which I felt was fair as a beginner artist to be charging.
My Final completed Commission between July- August was for another London mother wanting portraits of their children as well. For these I purchased t20 more 50 x50 canvases at 28£, spending about 56£ on these pieces. The paintings maintained a similar time frame.So I charged £1,000 for both of these paintings. making my overall spending for my commissions £266.68. But also making my profit margins working as a commisioned artist this summer to be £2,733.32.
Moving forward, i plan on spending the rest of my august working on a separate portrait commission for a charity ball coming up. Where my painting will be auctioned and I will receive about 15% of the profit made. I am very happy I get to use my paintings to be able to support local charities in the area.
