Painting and Sketching

Alexzee

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2019
Messages
3,679
Reaction score
1,961
Credits
21,883
I've been oil painting for 18 years and working with polychromos colored pencils making colored pencil sketches for about 10 years and love it! However there are some things I've tried but they haven't worked for me.

I've posted all of my work over the last 5 years on Wordpress and none of my followers have e-mailed me to purchase any of my work.
https://catsartpics.wordpress.com/

I've also tried posting my work on Instagram as well.

I've read the documentation on e-Bay and ETSY but I just can't justify giving my bank information. Afterall, what if something goes wrong and they wipe out the whole bank account?
You wouldn't leave that to chance would you?

I thought about selling with Cafe Press but they insist on fees for this and fees for that. Cafe Press also takes a cut of the commission, which, IMO isn't fair when the Artist is the one who designed the art work to begin with.

Any ideas where I could go to sell my work?
 
Last edited:


I would suggest Ebay, but they have their own fee schedule. I can't remember the name of it, but about 6 months ago I saw an Etsy alternative that sounded pretty good. I believe it was out of Australia. I considered it for myself but wasn't ready to bite the bullet quite yet. Also, I saw an outfit called "Shopify" advertising on Pinterest. It's a monthly plan but it has some pretty good perks.

Whew! I just googled "sell my stuff online" and you wouldn't believe how many things came up. I can't recommend any of them since I know nothing about them, but it's something you could look into.
 
I read the terms and agreement for eBay and sadly they have a lot of fees.
There is a fee to list the item, a fee for keeping it listed and a fee when the item sells.
They also take a part of the commission and etc. so I don't think eBay is going to work.

I looked into ETSY and they have fees as well and want to tie everything to a bank account.
If something goes wrong they could empty one's account in seconds!

IMO linking a bank account could be a big security risk.

I'll check out Shopify and try "sell my stuff online" Thanks.:)
 
Shopify is good but a big expense to have an account with them.

In order to have a Shopify account you have to purchase a domain name, have a business license, purchase the POS Equipment, pay subscription fees every 30 days and pay transaction fees as well. This doesn't include taxes that have to be paid as well.

Too many purchase's for me right now-
 
my wife tried shopify , then dragged me in to sort out pages. Its got a very funny system regarding markup . you can't use custom fonts. There was something critical - ah yes I think for minimum payment it did not have a system in place where your products got to zero; from memory clients could pay for something that didn't exist. What ever it was it was something quite critical from my point of view , unless its changed
 
I once integrated REstapi php PayPal into a web site ; but found paypal a real pain. Developer code help wasn't kept up; next to know help on bugs. I have to say i hate Wordpress but if you want a faiirly easy way of having your own e-commerce web site then probably Wordpress is the easiest. Basically the two elements are "stripe plugin" and wooCommerce plugin. Stripe account access and use quite good. The main advantage of your own site is that you can talk in detail about your work, the motivation/emotion techniques behind it. One other element was setting up areas , that you would sell to taking into account geographical area and postage. So for instance you have to set rules so that someone doesn't buy from Hebrides island for flat rate postage.


You could just have pages talking about oil painting which would attract surfers
 
Wonder if it would just be easier to build my own website
I once integrated REstapi php PayPal into a web site ; but found paypal a real pain. Developer code help wasn't kept up; next to know help on bugs. I have to say i hate Wordpress but if you want a faiirly easy way of having your own e-commerce web site then probably Wordpress is the easiest. Basically the two elements are "stripe plugin" and wooCommerce plugin. Stripe account access and use quite good. The main advantage of your own site is that you can talk in detail about your work, the motivation/emotion techniques behind it. One other element was setting up areas , that you would sell to taking into account geographical area and postage. So for instance you have to set rules so that someone doesn't buy from Hebrides island for flat rate postage.


You could just have pages talking about oil painting which would attract surfers
Pay Pal is linked to either a credit card or a bank account which seems like a security risk to me.
Why a risk you ask? If something goes wrong they can wipe out the entire account.

I'll have to read the terms and conditions for Wordpress.

Thanks for your help and ideas.
 
Wordpress has reoccurring fees but they don't say how much they are unless I missed it.

For a simple account at $5.00 a month, billed yearly it's $60.00 for a personnel account.
I haven't yet found out the purchase price for a domain name.
It's $18.00 a year to keep a .com address.

Here's the link to the terms of service, if you want to read it.

I'll be thinking about Wordpress and may consider it but only after clarifying if I can that there aren't any got ya's:-
 
Here's the first 'got ya':

Fee Changes. We may change our fees at any time, or start charging fees for Services that were previously free.

If this is how they treat their customers that says a lot.
What do you think?
 
I was thinking about using Wordpress for a blog I'm starting. There's so much rigamorole in starting a blog, though, that I got overwhelmed and decided to just use my Facebook page to get started. I'm not looking to make money and I finally decided that's why there's so much to do. But I didn't know about all the fees and things. Puts everything in a new perspective.
 
I was thinking about using Wordpress for a blog I'm starting. There's so much rigamorole in starting a blog, though, that I got overwhelmed and decided to just use my Facebook page to get started. I'm not looking to make money and I finally decided that's why there's so much to do. But I didn't know about all the fees and things. Puts everything in a new perspective.
It's free to create a Blog.
Creating my Blog didn't cost me a penny.:)

Where it starts to get expensive is when you want shopping carts added, purchasing domain names and for Wordpress to host your site for you.:eek:
 
couple of things : using wordpress via their site where they are hosting your blog / shop is one thing but installing (free) wordpress onto your own hosting is something different. Worpdress is free to download if you want to install it on your own hosting . When i last worked out Shopify i found it cheaper to "install" wordpress onto hosting. in that case its only a case of paying for hosting . + % on transactions

The way i previously approached a web and blog system for someone who can't code (wife) was to write my own code for a CMS with a basic login and edit system . I did that here: https://ghanahomefood.com with a basic login : https://ghanahomefood.com/login

i wrote the system on top of fatfree framework but its stuck at 5.6 php so now having to do a simple system using codeigniter4 . codeigniter4 is not production ready but by the time i have down dev it probably will be
 
I've been oil painting for 18 years and working with polychromos colored pencils making colored pencil sketches for about 10 years and love it! However there are some things I've tried but they haven't worked for me.

I've posted all of my work over the last 5 years on Wordpress and none of my followers have e-mailed me to purchase any of my work.
https://catsartpics.wordpress.com/

I've also tried posting my work on Instagram as well.

I've read the documentation on e-Bay and ETSY but I just can't justify giving my bank information. Afterall, what if something goes wrong and they wipe out the whole bank account?
You wouldn't leave that to chance would you?

I thought about selling with Cafe Press but they insist on fees for this and fees for that. Cafe Press also takes a cut of the commission, which, IMO isn't fair when the Artist is the one who designed the art work to begin with.

Any ideas where I could go to sell my work?
@Alexzee
Have you given any thought to taking some samples to a local art dealer, get an appraisal, and maybe put them on consignment in their store?
My wifes' grandfather was an artist and we have worked with a local dealer on selling many of his works. You can see some of his work if you like; type in Mathias Alten in your browser search box.
Granted, they will get a commission on what they sell, but they surely do have connections to interested parties.
Just some thoughts from an Old Geezer, TC :)
 
@Alexzee
Have you given any thought to taking some samples to a local art dealer, get an appraisal, and maybe put them on consignment in their store?
My wifes' grandfather was an artist and we have worked with a local dealer on selling many of his works. You can see some of his work if you like; type in Mathias Alten in your browser search box.
Granted, they will get a commission on what they sell, but they surely do have connections to interested parties.
Just some thoughts from an Old Geezer, TC :)
That's a good idea, Thanks Tango Charlie.
I have an Antique dealer coming to my home in a few months to look at my paintings.

How's your grand baby doing?
 
At this point with all of the fees and got ya's that I keep running into ; I think I'll take the time to learn how to build and host my own website. Might take time but in the end I think it will pay off.
 
That's a good idea, Thanks Tango Charlie.
I have an Antique dealer coming to my home in a few months to look at my paintings.

How's your grand baby doing?
@Alexzee

I think you are making the right move to get a professional opinion and appraisal. We had a dealer here to appraise the paintings we have. While here, I had him look at a painting that my nephew did. He thought it was worth around $4,200.00. Not bad for a guy who has never had a lesson in painting.
Here is what he did:
Screenshot at 2020-02-27 16-02-17.png

Thanks for asking.
Great grandson is growing like the proverbial weed!
The latest we got was a video in which he looked like he wanted to talk, but couldn't quite form the words yet.
We'll be heading to Tulsa OK in about a month for our first actual encounter with him. The weather should be nice for travel by then.
Old Geezer
TC
 
well its sort of relevant to this thread and using maybe Wordpress. After a while you get lots of spam and end up paying for a spam blocker. You then get the same amount of spam from the people who who bought the spam blocker from telling you daily how much spam their spam blocker stopped !
 
The more I hear about Wordpress, the less impressed I am. I'm looking at Blogger right now and another one but I forget the name.

Congratulations on that greatgrandbaby, TC! Grands- and greats- are the greatest!!!
 

Staff online

Members online


Top