It has been FOREVER since I’ve posted something for illustration, but here is a quick sketch with some photoshop coloring for this week’s topic “Fierce,” which just totally reminds me of Christina Siriano from Project Runway :)  Enjoy! 

Owl Stuffie and Illo :)  This is one of those things that I’ve been working on for awhile, at least in my head, that I finally have gotten out into the real world.  Felt stuffie with an original illustration Cuteness, hope you like it!

Yeah so I realized after mulling over it last night that the last posted image of this painting really sort of sucked. My scanner really drained out the loveliness of the peachy colors, so I took an actual photo of it and this is really what it looks like :)  Still up for sale in my shop as of this posting

Poppy Fairy.  2×4 inch chipboard tag painted with ink and acrylic.  Available here.

As artist, the last thing most of us want to worry about is crunching numbers and keeping the books.  Unfortunately, we simply cannot escape those tasks, not just because the IRS wants us to pay them on a quarterly basis, but also because crunching those numbers will give us a better grasp on the just how well our business is doing and where all of our money is going. 

This post is by now means the end all be all, but it’s a basic starting point for those who are filing as a sole proprietorship.  Speaking of starting point, your best bet is the visit the IRS website where you will find special publications for keeping records and tax guides for small business owners.  Yes, it’s boring but it’s a wonderful starting point.  I also recommend looking at the actual tax return worksheets to get a better grasp on what you will need to file when the time comes.  I also whole-heartedly recommend Keeping the Books, a book to start you on your way complete with sample forms and packed full of actual examples. 

You will of course settle on your own accounting method eventually, but I’ll tell you what I’ve got set up after much reading and discussion.  If you plan on using an accountant, you might want to select one and speak with her/him right away just to see what sort of records you need to keep.

In my case, I use the simplest system I can find.  So I have a red file folder marked INCOME and a blue file folder marked EXPENSES.  Every time I make a sale or receive some sort of commission or consignment payment, I print out a receipt and slip in it the INCOME folder. Every time I spend some money on work related items including everything from sellers fees to shipping supplies and postage, I toss the receipt in the EXPENSES folder.  Easy enough, right? 

Now at the end of each month, I take each folder and plug all the information into a couple of spreadsheets very creatively labeled INCOME and EXPENSES.  These are just very basic spreadsheets of my own creation to help me track various things.  The income spreadsheet tells me what I’ve sold, who I’ve sold it to, their email address, the day it was mailed, where I sold the item from and how much I sold it for.  The expenses sheet tells me how I paid for something, where I purchased it from, how much I spent and what category the expenditure fell under.  After completeing those two sheets, I also make sure that my little inventory spreadsheet has been accurately updated to reflect any sales that I’ve made and any new work that I’ve added.  The finally, I completely a simple profit loss statment which really lets me see that state of my business. 

Once you’ve got this process or something similar set up, you’ll find that it takes no time at all to figure everything out.  After completing my spreadsheets, I print a copy of each one for my records.  I then staple everything to my receipts and records of income and then file away under the month and year. 

When tax time rolls around, I’ll be ready to grab my neatly filed documents and head on over to my accountants office, assured that I have all my receipts and such filed and prepared for her. 

Everyone loves to get mail and I especially love to get items from Etsy sellers.  Part of this is of course the thrill of getting something in the mail in this digital age and part of it is because I know there is something long-coveted inside that package.  But all of that aside, one of the best of parts of getting mail from Etsians is the love and care taken in packaging the items.  So many Etsy sellers are sweet enough to include some really great freebies even hand drawn illustrations and thank you notes.  And the packages are often so sweetly decorated. 

So although I have long included boring business cards and an occasional free ACEO in my packages, I’ve made some changes that I am so proud of.  First I orderd my first batch of Moo cards: 

which are of bunches of my favorite illustrations.  These have my shop info on the back and will now be sent out in place of the regular old business card.  I just feel like these Moo cards are so much more collectible and keepable, whereas most business cards either get trashed or shoved in the junk drawer never to see the light of day.  Moo gives it a little spin :) 

Then next, I’ve been making a HUGE batch of these little matchbook notepads with my illustrations on the cover: 

Along with the Moo cards, these are now being included in all of my orders and I just think they are the bees knees for sure.  And last but not least I order a BIG bunch of decorative tape from From Japan With Love to adorn the outsides of my packages so the outsides will rival the cuteness of the contents.  I’ve already sent out my first few packages with all these improvement and I hope their recipients are just as excited as I am. 

And now, last but not least, I just released a super cutie new bookmark in the shop: 

Enjoy!

You know that fantastic saying about not putting all your eggs in one basket?  Well, it definitely applies to your career as an artist or to anything that involves you being self-employed.  While we all dream of world in which we open a little shop on Etsy or elsewhere and just magically sell away Black Apple style until we are self-sufficient, it doesn’t always work that so you shouldn’t count on that dream

The majority of us aren’t going to find that one venue that just works, allowing more creative freedom and time.  Instead, we should seek out multiple sources of income.  By this I mean that you should be doing more than one thing to create cashflow in your world.  That may involve selling in a few online venues and maybe offering some work in a gallery.  It might also involve illustration jobs for magazines or greeting cards or novelty gift companies.  It could involve illustrating for other websites or even illustrating books.  Or it could involve selling at craft fairs and art conventions.  It really all depends on the type of work you do and how hard you are willing to work. 

There are a couple of really great things about having multiple sources of income and chief among them is less worry about where your next paycheck is going to be coming from.  Think about it:  if you choose to say sell only on Etsy alone so when summer time rolls around and sales go down a bit, your income will also go down a bit which will affect the amount of fun you’re having and probably the amount of bills you are paying as well.  Now imagine that you sold on Etsy, in a gallery, at a local craft show on the weekends, and you also had a few side illustration jobs.  Sure you would need to spend your time wisely to manage everything, but when one source of income slowed down or dried up, you would have another.  And as sources dried up permanently, you would have a plan to move onto something new. 

It seems that part of being an artist is really learning to transition and create new, exciting situations for yourself.  So even when you are doing well, you should be promoting yourself and always look for new challenges.  I started off selling on Ebay, then I went to Etsy then I picked up a few consignment deals with shops and then I added tubes/image packs through another website.  Now I am working on some stamp designs through a wonderful company and I’m also working on editorial illustrations, greeting card illustrations and hopefully a children’s book in the near future.  Yes, my time is precious and filled to the brim, but I am happiest when I am creating and when those creations provide me with the means to continue to do with I love so much. 

So I encourage you to use your market research tools and really find some opportunities for yourself.  Stick with it and eventually your plans will fall into place

Just come cute little flat notecards that I’ve been working on.  These are being sold in sets of five with my favorite brown Kraft envelopes in my shop right now.   I got the flats with rounded edges from Paper Source which is currently one of my favorite places online. . .also got some other yummy paper goodies that will soon be even more surprises for the shop!

On a sadder note, there will be a lack of Alice in Wonderland Small Greetings available in the shop for just a bit.  I actually just sold out of them and there seems to be a strange sortation of great glossy notecard stock available right now.  I’ll be looking into new printing options so they will return soon.  Although I like to keep everything printed in house so I can keep my little hands on everything going in and out of here, I’ve reached a point where time constraints might make it necessary for me to actually order notecards from now on. . .we’ll see what happens there :) 

UPDATE:  Funny, right after I did this post, I actually found the paper I needed to continue printing my small greeting cards at home!  woohoo!

Hi all-

This week’s art of business post is on knowing your market, which is yet another thing that I completely neglected when I first began my little art business.  Believing simply, that if I painted it, they would buy, I just painted things and stuck up them up for sale wherever I saw fit at the time or in most cases wherever it was easier to post.  When I finally managed to get my act together and narrow my focus, I began to have more success in general. 

It is important to note here that first and foremost, you must know yourself as an artist.  You should have a cohesive and recognizable body of work that truly expresses your artistic point of view, because it’s highly likely that showing/selling a random selection of different styles, subject matter and techniques won’t get you very far.  That said and done, you’re ready to begin your market research. 

Now at some point in developing your Business Plan, you should have narrowed down how you plan to make money from your work.  Are you selling in galleries?  Are you selling on Ebay, on Etsy or through another online venue?  Are you promoting your work to book publishers?  Are you trying to break into the greeting card market?  Since I both sell and promote my work online, I’ll give you a brief overview of some starting points for your own market research :) 

EBAY.  A lot of artists, especially self-representing artists begin by offering their work through Ebay which has it’s ups and downs.  The major market research tool you will find on Ebay is under Advanced Search and it gives you the ability to search completely listings for the last 30 days.  You do have to be a registered user to access this feature, but I highly recommend it.  Here you can search for art listings by any general or specific terms.  When I first started thinking about selling my work on Ebay I searched through general art listings, then ACEO listings, then fantasy art listings to get a grasp on what was selling.   The Completed Listings search shows you the ending price, the starting price, and of course you can view the listing to see what search terms were used and how the listing was set up so you can get some ideas.  This is a great indicator of what sells on Ebay and one of my favorite research tools.  It’s also a great way to discover some new artists :) 

ETSY.  Unlike Ebay, which supports a very broad range of arts and crafts, Etsy tends to be geared a little more towards the indie handmade crowd so you might want to really examine what’s selling there to ensure that you fit a niche.  My favorite tool on Etsy is Pounce, which allows to you randomly browse through items that were just sold.  It also allows you to view the next five items in the shop so you can explore what’s selling in general and then dig deeper into individual shops. 

ARTISTS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNERS MARKET.  For those who seek to either get into editorial illustration, children’s illustration or greeting card design, this is an invaluable resource.  The new copy comes out in October of each year and will set you back about $25 or so.  In it you will find artciles and information on promoting to different markets.  You will also find an exhaustive, updated list of markets and what they are looking for.  This is a great starting place if you are looking to build a mailing list to start sending out those promo postcards.  I started out by browsing a copy of this and highlighting everything that might fit my style.  And then from there I checked.. . . .

THE INTERNET.  In my opinion, this is one of your greatest research tools.  From Artists and Graphic Designers Market, you can visit any website.  Most publications and greeting card companies have samples for their current illustrators right on their websites so you can easily find out if your style would fit in with theirs.  You can also normally order back issues of magazines if you’re a hands on kind of person like am.  And you can review most artist guidelines on websites so you’ll know what to send, how to send it, who to send it to and what to expect after you’ve sent it off. 

In the end, using the above mentioned tools should help you on your road to artistic success by helping you find your way in a world of different places to sell and promote your work.  These are just starting places which will inevitably lead you to even more information, so if you find a great resource or have some personal tips, feel free to comment below. 

Our next art business post will be on the idea of maintaining multiple streams of income. 

Thanks for reading!   

Cupcakes :)  I can’t bake ‘em, but I can draw ‘em awfully cute!  Prints are available here.