Is DD’s art work good enough to sell.

[themotherhoodproject]

NC for this as a regular user of MN and this is fairly outing but looking for peoples unbiased opinions.

DD is an A level Art student, it’s actually not where her love lies she is hoping to apply for BIMM’s university In Bristol to peruse music and she also does performing arts.

However she is very talented in her painting and blows me away weekly with her work, we have had a few extra special things from her (some of you might remember the snowman Christmas card, it seemed very popular) and lots of people on here saying that they would buy if able too.

Another few months have gone by and we just had another cracker of a card from her (a thank you card for a friend) and well I just think it’s wonderful and have said she should really think about taking on commissions.

We live in a very rural area so lots of horse and dog lovers and I honestly think she could make a bit of pocket money to put away for uni life or fritter away on gigs noodles and vinyl

Can I ask what people think, she is only a year into A level art and will have lots more of technique to learn but maybe £15 a painting she might have some takers?

This is definitely much better and shows a higher level of artistic skill! The depth and detail of the tree leaves, the sweeping effect and colour balance is excellent.
Did you show us portraits OP because you think there might be more of a market for that?
Can she do some local beauty spot paintings perhaps?

She has talent which she can develop and while a card or cheap portrait would be happily received, I don’t think her work is saleable at the moment but it will be in the future!

It's relevant from the marketing angle. As I stated upthread , I'd be happy to buy something to support a talented young person.
16, this level of work, a low price for someone I know, fair enough. I wouldn't pay more than £20. And I wouldn't buy from a stranger on FB.
A 10 year old . Very talented. I'd pay much more.

I've bought work from people on Etsy. And I've no idea what age they are.

It's irrelevant.

Well that's you and you're presumably buying it because you want it. I'm happy to spend a bit encouraging people even if I wouldn't normally buy something

Well yes, that was the point I was making. As in, there are other artists at similar points in their development who do manage to sell a few portraits, but as I said, not a lot.

What I didn’t say - because I’m trying to be encouraging and not overly demoralising - is that I’ve seen many, many young artists of this calibre get dejected because they don’t get many sales, but they see other portraits selling. I’ve also seen many young artists jerked around by demanding clients who, despite having seen the standard on offer, expect their pet portrait to magically become exhibition quality.

And as I also said, you have to be properly set up to sell. It’s a lot of prep work if you don’t go on to sell a lot.

The OP’s DD has a real talent but OP did ask for opinions. I wouldn’t want to see a young and talented artist waste her time or even worse, feel a sense of failure if they don’t sell.

I think the OP and her DD have a lot of positives to take from this thread - everyone agrees she’s got a talent. She could absolutely give it a whirl now but personally I’d hold fire for a bit.

I know someone who’s arty and does pet drawing commissions in pencil only for £10 a pop and is quite popular within the people we know. She has Etsy too but I don’t think she sells much on there. I think she’s a great person but personally I think her drawings aren’t great at all, nowhere near as good as your DD’s. I wouldn’t buy what your DD has drawn but I do think there could be a market within people you know and also if she sets up an Etsy store.

Sell? You can sell whatever you like. There's people selling paintings on Instagram that are probably something resembling a painting your daughter did aged 5. It's all very subjective.
However I would expect at A Level the standard of painting to be higher than that, esp if painting is her primary method. It's also not really about painting from a picture or imagination. Painting from a primary source would be the key eg sitting and observing a bowl of apples, sketching that then painting it. She may find she gets more marks doing mixed media as it'll be less time consuming to get the level of work she needs.

Also, playing around with different types of paints is good too if you have the money for that. Adding slow drying medium to acrylics helps with blending as they tend to dry fast. Oils you can get water soluble ones which are less intimidating for beginners.

I think she's great, OP. I like her style. I do quite regularly buy art - I'm not really into realistic style paintings so wouldn't purchase anything linked to so far by other posters (though I can see they are skilled versions). I like originality, colour and feelings/impressions in the paintings I buy.

Like other posters have said, help her continue creating an individual style and this will help her stand out.

My DH is an experienced ' hobby' artist and has done some 'pet portraits' for family and friends. He does it for cost of materials ( and sometimes his mum gives him extra when he's done it for some of her friends- he's 50!). I think if it's for experience and to cover the cost of materials, £15 for a pet portrait would be fine for friends/ family, or maybe she could ask the cafe she works in if she could sell some cards etc? As someone with eleventy million drawings/painting hanging round the house, sometimes it's worth doing it and selling them so you can just keep up the practice and pass them to someone else.£15 isn't really going to cover the time, the cost of materials and give her much leftover.

Lots of hobby artists get told they could sell their work but this extra pressure can make it a less enjoyable past-time especially with commissions where are restricted to producing what the client wants and may provide less than idea photo references to work with. As she's studying it's a risk if it does dull her enthusiasm and creativity.

With crafts it's hard to get paid for time taken produce items anyway but they'll also have time spent on the business side to drum up sales, posting parcels, dealing with questions, awkward clients who may decide they don't like or avoid paying up ( most take a deposit). As young artist starting out and still refining she will likely get people who won't be willing to pay much and view it as a benefit to her portfolio so for the time /hassle involved she maybe better off sticking to a job that pays the hours worked and just painting what she enjoys and seeing if anyone wants to buy those.

It seems many full-time artists also produce tutorial content not just commisons to pay the bills and these may help your DD improve her skills as she clearly has talent. Some are free/low cost and does mean you can pick the subject/medium artist style that your more interested in learning.

The OP’s DD has a real talent but OP did ask for opinions. I wouldn’t want to see a young and talented artist waste her time or even worse, feel a sense of failure if they don’t sell.

Also to be learnt is discipline, practice and lots of experience. I think OP will know her daughter and will understand how she would react to not selling stuff or things being difficult.

Have you considered the sense of pride, achievement and fulfillment she would feel if she DID sell a few.

She's not trying to take over the world. She could maybe put up a poster where she works in the tea room.

Honestly if someone told me about their teen Art Level student doing the odd commission in their spare time and making a bit of gig money I'd think how enterprising. How great.

I wouldn't be expecting them to be earning big money from it or making waves among established artists or anything else. I can't believe the amount of cold water poured on this.

I wouldn't buy it. I think it looks messy and unfinished.

The pet portrait market is also hugely oversaturated as it is.

Everyone is an art critic these days!
Art is a journey. It takes constant practice and hard work.
You have to be willing to do the work and disregard what people think to find your own path. If DD wants to sell her work then she needs to get it out there but not become discouraged if it doesn't sell right away. Lots of excellent artists have trouble selling their work because selling art is just one part of the business. I encourage DD to focus on her work .

I like imperfect figurative art, it feels entirely expressive, like it has captured that specific horse’s nature/personality. I won’t say which one but I think on some of the other examples posted, this was entirely missing for me.

Royal academy of young artists, I personally wouldn’t bother comparing it as an artist it is not really relevant.

Sorry OP, that’s an endorsement from me.

No-one should work 6 hours for £15, let alone someone with talent.

Charge for time + materials + some profit. Nothing less.

No harm in starting an Etsy shop but I would consider it a hobby rather than a business as you need to spend a lot of time marketing for regular sales.

Are there any craft fairs in your area that your daughter could try and sell a few paintings at and advertise for commission work, to get an idea of whether it's possible? Some fairs can be hit and miss so may need to book in a couple to gauge a response.

I agree with this and tell your daughter to ignore the naysayers.

I wouldn’t buy it (horse pic). Not saying your DD doesn’t have talent. I can’t paint for toffee. But it’s a a long way off the horse paintings (race horses) I have. She is only 17 so lots of time to improve. I think quite rightly you are very proud of your DD but are overestimating where she is right now.

I like the Christmas card better if I’m being honest. I think there is also more of a market for them and birthday cards at the standard your daughter is at. She could sell them at Christmas markets whereas people aren’t necessarily looking to buy cards or paintings at village fairs etc., but most people go to Christmas markets looking to buy something (and nearly everyone writes at least one card at Christmas!). She had a great eye and you are clearly very encouraging which is so lovely to see!

Her work is good...she obviously has a talent. I don't think it's probably sellable at the moment. To be frank, there are lots of talented artists about who are probably better than her and struggle to sell their stuff.

That might be the standard rich people want to purchase. For those of us whose husbands don’t earn the fabled MN 6-figure salaries, the OP’s daughter’s style of picture is perfectly fine.

@themotherhoodproject I’m staggered (although I shouldn’t be) at the rudeness and sneering over your daughter’s art. I think it’s a lovely picture and I would happily pay her what you’re suggesting to draw my pets. I (and I’m sure many others) don’t need the levels of photo-realism achieved by 50 years of practice and training, and can’t afford the price tag that rightly comes with it. I’d be chuffed to bits with the sort of picture your daughter paints.

I would honestly just focus on painting as a hobby, it will probably improve her skills far more than just being boxed into pet drawings, at that price point it’s going to be awful to do, £2.50 an hour plus materials costs ( I too did the barely paid creative side job when trying to break in!) it’s miserable and it made me absolutely hate what I loved. It’s also incredibly hard to suddenly put up your prices to a living wage, so you’re stuck in this weird crappy pay even when you’ve improved.
I wouldn’t try and sell it as a product until she’s more confident in her skills and can charge a suitable price.

An awful lot of pet portraits seem to be done in coloured pastel pencil these days, copied ( almost traced) from
a photograph, with massive depth to fur texture and eye 👁 lights
The standard is very high for “ pet portraits “

But I bought these from an exhibition - and these definitely aren’t “ Photographic” style.

Royal Academy West of England years ago.

Possibly. There are a lots of artists- amateur and professional who do animal portraits, I can think of 3 ppl I know of who do this sort of thing. So its a v popular genre!