Acrylic painting, pricing and more; need your thoughts on a few subjects

[Creepy Doll]

Right, so I have a few questions to ask to anyone with an opinion of or information on the subject at hand. They're diverse questions regarding, or related to, different aspects of the visual arts. Let's begin:

Subject 1: Acrylics
I've been painting pretty seriously with acrylics for a few weeks now. I don't really have any specific questions, but would gladly take any suggestions from people who have experience with the medium. Mixing colours, washes, brushes, brands of paint (using Lukas acrylics at the mo'), etc. etc.

Subject 2: Pricing
Again no specific question, just looking for some thoughts on pricing your works, whether they're paintings or illustrations done in pencil or something else.

Subject 3:
I'm planning on taking my works to a local market held once every month to try and sell them. I've gone once already (the Sunday a week ago) and it didn't go so well. Mostly I think it's because all I had were paintings, and they tend to be a bit pricy. I want to expand the products on offer, maybe have something smaller and cheaper to gather interest, and was thinking I'd do some pictures in pencil on small pieces of paper (10.5x14.8 cm). I've also taken some photos and am getting some prints of those.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps people don't want pieces of art they can't hang up or let stand on a table... I'd need to frame these smaller works But frames would drive the cost of these works up, something I'm not willing to do. Any thoughts on this?

Really just looking for any thoughts you may have on this subject. Got any ideas for smaller-type works I could use to expand what I have to offer? I'd love some good ideas, 'cause I'm empty.

[Markham]

All know from things I've heard is that you can use cheap brushes if you take good care of them, and that brushes last longer if you wash them with shampoo and conditioner,

[Katatafisch]

i cant give you professional tips but for the start i would never make your stuff too expensive, first you need the reputition, when you see your work sells really good, raise your prices
for the framing i would totally add a frame for each painting, with a passe partout, coz they look alot better if framed with passepartout, its up to you if you want to frame your work, but its definately a plus, try it on some of the pics you like most and you will see the difference

acrylics, im having some probs with acrylics, coz they dry so damn fast, you cant smoothly mix colors, or only if you have alot of experience(which i actually dont have) using a retarderis a good way to keep the colors wet, acrylics are awesome for all kinds of paintings, if you draw with much of the paint or almost aquarellic, or inbetween acrylic look good
my problem with the acrylics is that in comparison to oil the colors do not look as brilliant as in oil, but acrylic dries fast, which can be a plus but can be a terrbile minus, im using "schmincke" acrylics and theyre really good! no exp with lukas, sry
cheap brushes can be very useful, but they musnt, they often lose hair, they cant carry much paint and theres no big variety of them, i have some special acrylic brushes and you can feel and see the difference, for some parts and such cheap ones are enough but especially for detailed parts and fine rendering more expensive brushes are better(in my opinion)

again with the pricing i wouldnt go too high in the beginning...depending on how good you like the painting yourself and what others, friends, family or sbd else says you can try to figure the best price for a beginning artist so you have material cost covered and the working hours, if you see your pics dont sell, make them cheaper, if they do sell really good, raise them ^^

the market idea is perfect, that way you get people to look at your art and seeing the prices, dont expect people going crazy for your art right from the start
haha, thats what you need to consider if you want to sell your art...why do people buy art?!

idk im not experienced with selling art at all, but im planning too, some time in the future xD if i have a bunch of paintings to show :S

if you have some informations what you do and if you sold paintings, it would be really interesting for me if you could post a small pic of the piece and the price, only if you want

good luck on the next time! i hope youll sell some things

[Creepy Doll]

if you have some informations what you do and if you sold paintings, it would be really interesting for me if you could post a small pic of the piece and the price, only if you want

Well I've only sold three paintings so far. Here's two of them:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a275/Puppetsj/Paintings/New%20Beginnings/mlverk05.jpg 30x30
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a275/Puppetsj/Paintings/New%20Beginnings/mlverk07small.jpg 20x50

First one sold for roughly $60 US, and the second for roughly $95 US. Of course since I'm in Iceland that price is after a currency conversion so might be a bit meaningless... or at least the meaning is hidden in the different states of the US and Icelandic economies.

Basically my pricing strategy so far has been roughly 10 ISK per square centimeter, then add or subtract based on how much paint and time went into the painting. Didn't go over so well at the last market so next month my paintings are going to see a bit of a drop in price.

[Katatafisch]

how much time did you spent on those?! theyre nice, and stylish, but look at paintings that sell for high prices....


there is either an incredible work with composition, some special color or some really detailed work

you didnt use much colors, you didnt use much details, the second one "mlverk07" looks better, coz there is something going on, some sky perspective, some grass, some movement, some different colors, try to increase that a bit, so far they arent bad, but not thaat special to buy for such a price, sorry if it sounds harsh, but its my honest opinion please dont take it personally, hope you understand that

theres a list of the best paid artists of the year, of all times and so on, i found it in a newspaper some years ago, but if you search the internet im sure youll find some details, or online art sales, look at the art and the prices they want for it

thanks for posting the pics up, cant wait to see some more, if you sold some more
but actually you can be lucky, i mean you earned 155$ on just one day :O

[Creepy Doll]

how much time did you spent on those?! theyre nice, and stylish, but look at paintings that sell for high prices....

Well I do try to price my works according to my ability, or at least so they're lower in price than those of local artists I admire. I'm not yet as good as people here who have been painting for many years so I spent a while looking at their works and what they were selling them for, then I worked out my pricing strategy from those observations.

My paintings do lack detail though. Or perhaps detail is the wrong word... I finish them too soon, I don't put enough care into making them "perfect". I need to learn patience and take more than a couple of passes to complete a painting. Looking over all the paintings I've done over the last month since I began I don't think any of them took in total over 3 or 4 hours.

[H@m]

Mind if I sort hijack this thread a little bit and ask "What is an appropriate price for a frame?"

How much would and should it cost for someone to frame a picture of mine? And if I save allot of money by framing my own, how much and where would I acquire the materials?
I've kept my eye out for crap prints and second hand ones that I could just take the picture out of and replace with mine. Most of my stuff will probably need a glass or similar front.

[tommo]

Good topic.  I would like to know also.
It seems hard to toss up between no frame and frame.  Because frames usually cost a fair bit and especially with glass.  So you would need to jack up the price, but then you don't know if people will pay that much!

[H@m]

Well I went to a local "Discount Warhouse" and bought some pretty large for frames for about $8 each. And Now I just cut the paper to the size of the frame, sadly the design of the frames are quite boring and traditional, but for less than $10 I'm not complaining.