Episode 143: Finished Your Painting? Vital Next Steps Most Artists Forget To Do

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Honest Art Workshops

1:00Hi there.

Honest Art Workshops

1:00Are you an artist who's been painting for five years or less, and you're wondering how you can get your art to that fine art status? Or maybe you're an artist who is looking for your voice and your signature style. And I'm here to tell you, that's exactly why I created the Honest Art Workshops, and we have them in gorgeous destinations all over the world. And in them, we tap into you and to your voice. I only host a handful of them a year, three to five. So if you're interested in that, head to the link in the show notes to learn more.

Finishing a Painting

1:37Welcome back to the Honest Art Podcast. I'm your host, Jodi King. And boy, do we have a great podcast for you today. So I get a lot of questions from people that are like, okay, I just finished a painting, and you talk all the time about, you know, getting it out there. And they're like, we don't even know the next steps. So this podcast episode is for all of you out there who have finished a painting, but then you're like asking, now what? Because the thing is, is that when we finally finish those paintings,

2:08there's usually a sense of like relief, maybe a little giddiness, because we have gone through those stages of the fugglies, you know, or we've had, you know, wrestling with paintings sometimes, you know. So when you finally finish it, it is just the best feeling in the world. But the thing is, is that yes, we have finished the painting, but in some ways, it's just the beginning. So let's get started.

Photographing the Painting

2:37And I'm going to go through how you can finish painting, finish the painting, you know, just in terms of the studio. And then we were going to get into how you can market it afterwards. So if you're ready, let's get messy.

2:57All right. So you have finished the painting. It is all dry. And hopefully if you have any sort of, you know, charcoal or pencil or pastel or anything like that, you want to, you want to go ahead and use a fixative. I always use a matte fixative so that it doesn't show. And here's why, because your next step after the painting, before you even varnish it, is you want to get a photo of the piece.

3:29All right. So I always suggest that you want to get the photo in as little glare as possible. So weirdly, I like to turn all the lights off in my studio. I do have natural light that comes in, but I turn all the lights in the studio and I just use my iPhone to take the photo. Some people like to take a photo like more of like that, those early morning hours or the kind of dusk when the light is not glary or direct on the painting.

4:01But you want to get a really good photo. Again, you don't need to have a fancy camera, but you do need to have a well-cropped, color-matched image. Because in just a minute, I'm going to tell you some other things that we're going to do. But next step is getting that photo, a really good photo of the painting. Now, pro tip here, if you're somebody like me who really likes to use fluorescent in your painting, the fluorescent does not photograph usually as fluorescent.

4:34So there might be a little bit of a color adjusting that you can do, but be really mindful that you don't want to overdo the color correction. Because the whole idea is probably to sell it or at least to keep it or maybe give it away. And you want those colors to be accurate. So if you over color correct, like to boost the color, and then somebody, you know, sees it online and they want to buy it, then when they receive the painting, if the colors are not the same,

5:04they're going to ask for a refund. We don't want that. So just make sure your colors are accurate and the image is well cropped. And again, you want to, you want to take the photo before the varnish, because if you wait until after the varnish, there will very likely be some glare. And you want to avoid that at all costs. So next step is to take the photo. All right.

Varnishing the Painting

5:28Now let's move on to number two. And that is now you are ready to varnish the painting. Now varnishing is, you know, I'm talking about acrylic. I've also varnished oil. I always varnish my work. It is just a really good practice. It's great for sealing the painting. It's great for the color fastness so that it doesn't fade, especially if the painting is going to be in a well-lit area. It really helps to protect the color.

6:00So I just, I always varnish my work. Now here's the thing. You got to be careful when you varnish it. I have done this and I have friends who are artists who have done this. And that is, you want to make sure that you put on a few layers of varnish, but very thin coats. Because if you do like I have done and you put the coat of varnish on too thick, then it will likely turn milky. And you'll have this milky layer between the viewer and the painting.

6:33It's kind of the opposite of what you want to have. So it's much easier just to put two or three layers of very, you know, thin layers of varnish on the painting. I always go left and right across it. Then I go up and down and make sure that there's no places that I miss. But if you do those two or three layers and you're guaranteed that you're just going to kind of boost the color a little bit, but not make it too cloudy. Now, the other thing to consider is that it doesn't take that long for the layers to dry.

7:09A lot of people are like, well, it's going to take a day. I'm like, no, actually, I use Liquitex varnish and it takes maybe, maybe 10 minutes at the most. But you do want to make sure that those layers dry in between the time to reapply. So I use Liquitex. Like I said, I like satin. They have a matte, they have a satin, they have a glossy and a super gloss, I believe,

7:40or gloss and super gloss. And years ago, I really liked the look of super gloss because it was, I don't want to say it was a cheat, but it was a little bit of a cheat in that it, that gloss is kind of like a lot of people use resin now. It really boosts the color. But what I, what I found was I had a couple of collectors reach out to me who had bought the paint, you know, a couple of paintings. They had hung it in rooms that had a lot of light and therefore the super glossy was creating

8:14a lot of glare. Like they're like, we can hardly even see the painting because of the reflections from it. So the good news is, is if that happens, what I did was I just got the painting back and I went over it with, because it was still a Liquitex product and I went over it with a matte varnish, same Liquitex, but the matte version versus a super glossy. And then that was able to cut back that glare a lot.

8:45But now what I've settled on is I would just really like the look of satin. And I still want, uh, I still want a little bit of a touch of, of shine, just not too much. That's why I don't use the matte. Um, but yeah, you just, next step is the varnish. You get that on there, let it dry and you're all set. Now I maybe should have mentioned this before the varnish, but you know, you definitely want to sign your work and get questions about this all the time. You know, where do you sign it? That's really, um, artist prerogative, however you want to do it.

9:18I like to sign my paintings with a, um, a paint pen on the front of the painting. I do it in the bottom right corner and I do that, um, uh, vertically up and down so that if the collector wants to turn the painting once, then that signature wouldn't look weird in the, uh, I'm sorry, I, I sign it on the bottom right-hand corner of it vertically. That way, if the collector wants to turn the painting, the signature would not look odd

9:51or out of place or upside down on the bottom left. So I, that's where I sign it. But I know people that like to sign their name in wet paint with the back of a paintbrush. I know people that, um, sign it with paint. They sign it with Posca markers. Um, I know people that don't want anything on the front. So they, uh, have one of those thicker frames and they sign it on the side. Uh, still other artists don't want either one of those and then they just sign it on the

10:23back. So it's totally up to you. So, uh, I always like to see an artist's signature on a piece because especially if I love the art, I want to see who painted it. So up to you, but make sure you sign that work. That is kind of like, it's your way of putting your stake in the ground saying, yeah, I did that. So that one would normally come before the varnish, but I have had times where I varnished it and I went, oh shit, I didn't sign it. And then I went back, um, and I, and I went ahead and signed it and then later just put a little coat of varnish over it.

10:54Now that we have got those two things done, we are going to want to wire, um, and hang the, you know, put the wire on the back for the hanging. Now, listen, um, I, I know a lot of you use, uh, sawtooth, um, hooks and especially if you have those smaller paintings that sawtooth is, is what a lot of people use. When I first started selling my work, I was selling 16 by twenties and I did the sawtooth and I can tell you that once I, uh, presented to some higher end stores, so those were usually

11:31in gift stores. The gift stores didn't care so much about the sawtooth, but once I started selling my work in more elevated places, like really nice furnishing stores, um, designer stores, uh, with designers, art consultants, and galleries, um, none of them wanted sawtooth hooks. They always wanted a much more professional presentation and they wanted the D rings with wire. And by the way, if any of this is confusing, we will put a PDF in the show notes of how to

12:05wire and hang paintings and, you know, everything that you need. So, um, uh, one tip about the D rings, um, the, the D rings will come with, um, you know, you can buy like, um, a, a giant bag of them like on Amazon and they're the cheaper ones. I'm going to say, don't do that because we did that once, um, trying to save a little money and the, the, it's like the metal was too soft and it would just, uh, when you tried to put

12:35a screw in there, it would just, it would just, um, strip, it would totally strip. So don't do that. We always recommend using OOK, the brand OOK OOK. I'm not getting paid by them, um, but I have found that they're the best. You can also get the D rings in like a smaller size and then a medium size and a little bit larger size and the smaller size is great, especially if you have those smaller paintings again, get the PDF in the show notes. It'll tell you all of this, but you're going to want to, uh, wire the painting on the back.

13:07Make sure that wire is taut, that there's no give in it. I mean, there's always just a little bit of give, but you want it to be as taut as possible. Um, I delivered some paintings to an exhibition once, a juried show. It was the first time I had been accepted by, uh, a juried show of this caliber. I was so proud. Um, and I had to, uh, drop off the paintings that were accepted and I was promptly called

13:39back to come and get my work because they would not accept it as it was wired. And the way it was wired was there was quite a lot of give in that wire. So what happens is if it's not taut, um, or tight, taut, tight, if it's not tight and there's a lot of give when that wire stretches, it can come up sometimes from the back of the painting. So then you're, you got a painting hanging, but you can see the wire at the top of it.

14:10So that's why you want it tight. Um, um, you can, uh, also see in the PDF and the show notes that, you know, you, you, you put those hooks either a third or a quarter down from the top, but at any rate, you just want to do a nice professional job. And you might think that who cares? I'm just going to do sawtooth. It doesn't matter. Well, I mean, you can do that, but what if, what if you actually, um, start really selling your work and what if it's better than you even think? So just elevate your work, take some pride.

14:42And, um, I say do it right the first time. Hey, real quick while I've got you, I just want to tell you, I know that being an artist can be a lonely job and filled with self-doubt. So artists need other artists and we need painting techniques and the skills to sell our art along with it. So that's why I created the best membership group of artists on the planet called the Honest Art Society. And in it, you receive several coaching calls a month with me so that you can get your

15:12questions answered on business and on your art. You get monthly trainings from art techniques to marketing and business. You get exclusive art critiques as well as exclusive discounts on workshops and courses. And all of this is for only $47 a month and you can cancel at any time. So if you're ready to make your best art ever, along with a great community of amazing artists, I hope you'll join me in the Honest Art Society and you can find out more at the link in the

15:44show notes. Okay. So we've got all of these things done. Now what we're going to do is I always then try to log my work into artwork archive. You've heard me talk about artwork archive before. I have turned so many artists on to artwork archive. Not one person has ever said, oh, this isn't any good. It's amazing. It's artworkarchive.com forward slash JK. If you do the forward slash JK, you get 20% off your first year.

16:15But artwork archive, they say it's like just an inventory management system, but it's so much more than that. And all you have to do is now that you've already got that great photo of your work, you just load that photo into artwork archive. You put the size, you put the price, you put the medium, you know, what you've used to paint and on the sub and put the substrate. Sorry. And the thing is, is that, um, artwork archive, once it's got the photo and all of this information,

16:47it's got your artist name, it'll immediately create portfolio pages for you. So if you want to, if somebody, a collector, a designer, a consultant, whoever it might be said, Hey, can you send me a photo of that piece? You can send them a portfolio page and you look so fricking professional. It's amazing. And it's all just, it's just there. It's just available for you, um, from artwork archive. The other thing it does is that it will print out a certificate of authenticity for you with

17:19the image of the painting and all of those specs that you've added onto it. So, um, I, I always suggest artists using artwork archive, especially if you are kind of newer and you don't even have a website. So the other great thing about artwork archive is that you can change it to a public profile because otherwise it's very private. You know, it's your inventory management system. It will log sales and create invoices and it'll do all kinds of things, but you don't necessarily

17:54want that, you know, as a public profile, but you can, um, click a button and change it to a public profile and it can serve as a website for you. If you don't have one until you're ready to do it, uh, to do your own website. And, um, I have seen it be incredibly effective. I've mentioned about this artist who sold like 20 paintings and a few days and she did it not from a website. She did it from artwork archive. So it can just be, um, an amazing asset, but you want to have a way to inventory your work.

18:31You might think that, you know, you'll remember all of your work and you'll remember the titles and, or you'll even remember where they are. And, um, artwork archives gives you an ability to keep track of your sales, to keep track of where the art is. Like maybe you, you, uh, have, uh, loaned a painting out to a designer on, um, on approval. You know, you put all of that in artwork archive. It does it all for you. It is absolutely amazing. Like I said, um, I do, uh, have that code forward slash JK and you can get 20% off, but

19:06even if you don't do that, just go check out artwork archive. It is a game changer for artists.

Marketing the Painting

19:13All right.

Marketing the Painting

19:13So now you've done all of the things that you need to do, uh, on your end, on your internal side, right? You have wired it, you have photographed it, you have varnished it, you have, um, created an inventory management around it. Now let's talk about how you are going to let the world know that you have this amazing new painting. And I always say we need to do two things for sure when that happens. Number one, we want to post on social media.

19:45All right. Now I know that can be scary for a lot of people, but people love to see what you are up to. And they especially love to see when you have created new work. So don't be shy about posting on social media. But remember, if you're going to do that, you're going to need to include a short little story about it because remember, if, if you just post an image of the painting and maybe

20:16the size, some people don't even do that, or maybe just the, the title, that's really not how most collectors buy art. There are so much research that shows that people buy from an emotion. So they buy the story. And especially if you're somebody who paints, um, abstract work, so many people can't, they don't understand what the piece is about. So if you can add a little story, tell them what the piece means to you, tell them what

20:48it meant to you while you were, while you were creating it, any sort of, of story that you can write that creates an emotional connection for the viewer is going to help you sell so much more art. Now, I don't want you to think that you have to write paragraph upon paragraph, especially not for social media. Sometimes, um, I'll just write a couple of sentences about what it means for me, and that will be enough to help it connect to a collector, but you don't leave out that.

21:21Okay. Don't I, I, there is a, a company out there that I'm not going to say their name, but they, they tell artists that if you just sign up with them, they will handle all of their, your social media posts and you can get prints from them. And like, you know who this company is. Um, but sadly, when they post on social media, all they put is the painting and maybe the title. And, um, I can't tell you the number of artists that have come to me and they've said that they've

21:53actually lost followers, um, and they've lost engagement because they use this company. And the reason that's happening is because it, there's no opportunity to tell a story. There's no opportunity to connect with that collector. So don't skip that part. Okay. But you also need to have these other things. You also need to have the size of the piece because especially if it's on Facebook or Instagram, everything is like this big, right? So you don't know what that could be a postage stamp or that could be on the side of a building.

22:26Nobody knows the size. So put the size, put the title because that often will help to sell the piece of art. Put the price, please put the price. I was just telling, somebody was just telling me a story about how, uh, they were, had sold consistently last few years, like a hundred thousand dollars in art. And then, then last year they found that they, uh, were up 30%. They had sold $130,000 worth of art.

22:58So they did some research and they were like, what did I do differently last year that I hadn't done before? It turns out what they had done, the only thing they did differently is they put a price on their work on social media and on their website. That's it. And just putting a price alone helped to sell 30% more work. And I've seen this across the board. If you don't put a price, people are going to assume they can't afford it. So always put the price. Okay. And then finally, um, please put how they can purchase it.

23:29We got to really hold people's hand in this, um, and let them know. So maybe they purchase it by, um, DMing you. So now they don't have to be shy to DM you because they already know the price. They could, um, go to the link in your bio where you, maybe you're, it's linked to Shopify. Uh, maybe they, you have your email in your bio, you say, email me, whatever, but tell people how they can buy that art. All right. So super, super important now, aside from, or in addition to, um, to social media, and

24:04this is, I would really say definitely in addition to, if you have an email list, you also want to let your email list know when you have a new painting. Now you may not want to send a, um, an email out every single time you have a new painting, but if you can make a habit of just doing, you know, like, um, painting of the week or painting of the month or something like that. And you just keep those email subscribers, you know, just current about what you're up

24:36to, then when they are ready to put a piece in their home or maybe in their office or whatever it might do, you are top of mind. And here's the thing is if they are on your email list, they are already like what we call a warm audience. They are already digging what you do. They already think the sun shines out your ass. So not sending this new work and, you know, putting that in an email is really doing you a huge disservice, but it's doing a disservice to these people who absolutely love your work.

25:10You know, we love looking at art and especially in times like when all you see across the news feed or social media is negative and scary and messed up. Oh my gosh, just getting a painting on your inbox. People, people want that. So don't deny them the opportunity to see the new work that you are, are creating. And then finally, uh, I want to say if you are wanting to work with designers or you're wanting

25:44to work with galleries or you're wanting to work with art consultants or whomever that might be, when you have a new piece, let them know. Uh, I mean, designers are always looking for fresh art for their clients. And you guys, there are four times as many designers as there are galleries. So if you can just, maybe you just collect of a list of maybe five or six designers in your area or five or six designers in your state.

26:14And you just say, Hey, I'm just gonna, I just wanted to let you know what I just finished and what I've been up to just, you know, make that a habit once a month or so to either reintroduce or just kind of stay current with those people that can be just, um, a huge, huge leg up just to say, stay top of mind with those people. So there you have it. Lots of things that you can do once that painting is finished. Like I said, you think that's the end, but it really is just the beginning. Uh, and let people know about your beautiful art.

26:47I mean, you, you're excited. You finished this piece. People are excited for you and we want to see what you're up to. Um, all right. Thanks so much for watching. Listen, if you are watching this on YouTube, I would love it. If you could like, and subscribe to the channel that helps me out so much because it gets this content out to more people. And if you are listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, oh, it'd be amazing. If you could give us a five-star review at five stars and a review. Okay.

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