The Making A Mark Poll - Resources for Artists

The November 2010 Making A Mark Opinion Poll asked the question What price is affordable art? in two different denominations - £ and $.

In very broad terms $1 = 64pence and £1 will get you $1.55

Read What price is affordable art? (Poll Results) for more details about the results and the analysis of what they mean

The numbers 500 and 1,000 are hugely influential in terms of people's perceptions of what are the big price hurdles.
* Both produced a peak and very similar values in terms of percentage responses
* after which there was very little activity until the next price hurdle was reached.

The important point is that these are completely different prices due to the exchange rate!

The results suggest that in terms of pricing art
* you can get more people to buy your art at higher prices in the UK. Artists based in the USA should be assessing whether they should be marketing original artwork at serious prices to the UK
* there is much more resistance at lower price points in the USA when compared to what is experienced in the UK. UK artists need to think very carefully how they price artwork when marketing to the USA

Read the blog post to find out what is affordable priced art

It turns out that the readers of my Making A Mark blog are pretty similar. Which is probably something to do with the fact I write long and detailed posts!

Here's a summary of what people reading Making A Mark do when they are not being an artist
* the professional and managerial classes dominate the readership. Some 41% are professionals (23% are non-teaching professionals; 11% are teachers) and 7% are managers.
* 38% are reading from home because they are either retired (20%) or a homemaker and parent (18%)
* 19% have a full time involvement with art - 12% as a 100% practising professional artist and 7% as a professional art teachers
* just 3% are involved with crafts
* those working in less skilled occupations, on the land or in the forces are few and far between

Most artists reading my Making A Mark blog are not too comfortable using numerical performance indicators to track trends in their progress and achievement

The top three performance indicators

* the number of works you've produced - the primary focus of most artists was on their work - and how many pieces of art they had produced. 32% said this was their main number they looked at.
* the number of works you've sold (this year) - 18% kept a close eye on how many works they've sold in 2010.
* the number of art competitions which include your work

What are artists NOT interested in?

none of the following are a primary performance indicator
* number of exhibitions including your work
* number of press previews you've received
* number of collections your work is in

You can see all the detailed results and read the analysis in Which numerical performance measure matters most to you as an artist? (RESULTS)

In August 2010, we saw that there had been a significant shift in the popularity of the main sales channels used by artists between 2009 and 2010.

Here's a summary of the main changes compared to raw 2009 results.

* Gallery artists with commercial galleries are seeing increased sales. Are galleries and professional artists are working harder at their marketing? Or is this relative and sales outside galleries have been hit hard?
* Income from Commissions reduced by over 40%. This is a discretionary purchase and one that can be deferred - and many people are until they become more confident about future income streams
* Artists found that their online sales and sales from studios were both down
* In terms of commercial sites sales via eBay were down and sales via Etsy were up
* Some artists are generating significant income via print on demand galleries

You can read the detailed results and analysis in

The July Making A Mark Poll suggests that 80% of artists want a dedicated space in their own home:

* nearly 45% would be perfectly content with a dedicated room in their own home
* while 35% would prefer a dedicated but separate building at home

1 in 8 artists who would happily work away from home.

* Only 10% want a dedicated studio in a building with other artists
* 1.5% want a separate building away from home and
* less than 1% would work anywhere but at home.

The Poll had two parts. In the first part I asked Do you have a subscription to a magazine for artists? and 68 people responded.
* 61% have a subscription at present to an art magazine
* while 32% no longer have a subscription but have had one in the past
* only 5% of those responding had never had a subscription to an art magazine
The second part of the poll asked What's your FAVOURITE magazine for artists? The results are as follows:

* The most popular mazagine for artists is International Artist(18%)
* a significant number of artists now prefer online content to art magazines (13%)
* The top USA based magazine is The Artist's Magazine (15%)
* The top UK based magazine is The Artist (9%)
* Pastel Journal has a very respectable following for a niche interest (11%)

The headline results of this poll completely contradict the direction art instruction publishers have been taking of late - towards 'dumbing down' and ever simpler books for beginners with lots of pictures and very little text.

Of the people who responded to this poll:

* over 90% emphatically do NOT want books for beginners! Less than 10% wanted books about basic principles or step by step basic books
* over half of you (53%) want 'how to' books which target the 'advanced' level of artist
* just under half of you (47%) like 'how to' books which address a specific topic
* over half of you (53%) like books about an artist
* around a quarter of you collect exhibition catalogues

In other words the 74 people who provided 229 responses to the poll on this blog are artists who have moved quite a long way beyond first base, who want to improve their art but who look to the art and practice of other artists and advanced level instruction to do so.

Photoshop romped home by a mile and had its feet up and was enjoying a cup of tea with its junior siblings PS Elements for PC and MAC long before we got to the 31st March

There were 137 responses over the course of the month. Of these

* 72 (53%) use the full blown version of Photoshop - albeit I gather there are maybe a few versions involved in that response.
* 23 (17%) use PS Elements for PCs
* 8 (6%) use PS Elements for Macs
* 9 (7%) are using free software not otherwise identified in the poll.

The free software which did best in terms of named software was Picasa. however I suspect I should have included gimp (for windows) in the listing judging by comments.

The February Making A Mark Poll looked at Where do you start when making art? The headline results show that:

* 57% are influenced by life and what they see around them
* 43% work from their own ideas and concepts
* 38% are stimulated by their own reference photos - rather than those taken by other people
* nobody seems to want to take account of current trends or whatever seems to sell!!!
* 134 respondents had an average of 2.42 options which influenced where they started when making art.

You can read more about this poll in Where do you start when making art? (MAM Poll RESULTS)

The Making A Mark Poll for January was about how you archive your images. The results show a very marked preference for use of external hard drives for archiving images - and a significant number of people with no archive at all!
* 60% use an external hard drive as one of their archive methods and this was by far the most popular option for an archive.
* 18% archive on their internal hard drive ONLY. I personally wouldn't count this as an archive at all as computers have a habit of failing.
* CDs and DVDs were the second most popular method of witing images to an archive - but people were split evenly as to their use of rewritable and write once only formats.
* 20% archive to a USB Memory Stick. I was quite surprised by the number of people using this format - mainly because of my experiences of knowing people who lose their USB memory stick!
* Use of the Internet as a method of archiving images appears less popular - but in my opinion is likely to grow.

Read more about the poll reuslts in How do you archive your images? (MAM Poll Results)

Having read the poll results will you be changing your archive practices?

Four options competed for the most votes.
* the best gift an artist could get for Christmas turned out to be an extra dollop of talent! (17%)
* your very own concept - unique, satisfying & marketable (16%)
* more time in the studio to make art' (16%)
* Sponsorship to travel and paint overseas (14%)

Practical aspects came low on you agenda - few wanted a studio assistant (5%), only a few wanted their art business accounts to have a healthy bottom line (5%) or help with their marketing (2%) and none of you wanted expert help in getting your framing done!

Prestige and status were low on your agenda - few wanted an invite to teach art in a prestigious location (2%) or only a small number wanted more recognition - for example through winning an art competition (4%).

In conclusion, the overall emphasis of the results is that your desires mainly revolve around self-improvement.

See MaM Poll (Dec. 2009) Results: Which art gift would you like for Christmas?

Six top characteristics of a Good Art Teacher

Out of the 12 attributes identified, the top six are as follows.

A good art teacher is

* Encouraging - providing constructive feedback (72%)
* Good at demonstrations and explaining techniques (65%)
* Enthusiastic and passionate about art (57%)
* an effective communicator (53%)

A good art teacher also promotes independence in their students through:

* learning and self-evaluation (56%)
* originality and creativity (not just copying) (54%)

For a more in-deth analysis and comparison with the same poll last year see MAM Poll (November 09) Results: What makes a good art teacher?

The main influence on your style of art is YOU! 60 people responded and provided 160 responses in this month's multi response poll - giving an average of 2.7 responses per person

What's the main influence of your style of art?

* The top influence on your style is the way you prefer to work - 21% of you voted for this as being their #1 influence on their style of art
* 16% of you were very influenced by the way you prefer to make marks

For a more in-deth analysis and comparison with the same poll last year see MAM Poll (October) Results - What has influenced your style of art?

Three responses dominated the September poll which aimed to identify your style of art. Although there was a healthy minority of responses across a wide range of different styles.
* 37% prefer to characterise their art as 'realism'
* 23% think their art is done in the impressionist style
* 13% prefer to produce art using expressionism

For a more in-deth analysis and comparison with the same poll last year see MAM Poll (September) Results: Preferred style of art

The three most important ways you've sold art between September 2008 and August 2009 are:

* via traffic to/from your own website and/or blog (21%)
* through commissions (21%)
* via a gallery - as a gallery artist (15%)

It's an emphatic reinforcement of the need to make sure you are organised around direct sales and don't rely on third parties to make the sales for you. Only if you are a gallery artist can you hope to make serious sales via third parties.

For a more in-deth analysis and comparison with the same poll last year see MAM Poll (August) results: the MAIN way you've sold art in the last 12 months

This chart shows how all the 306 responses by 147 people were distributed across different media. It indicates the percentage share each medium has of the total people who practice using different media.

The key findings are
* In general, people are more flexible about the media they use in a studio compared to painting plein air.
* Watercolour is the most popular and adaptable medium
* Traditional oils just beat acrylics for studio use.
* Acrylics are favoured for studio use: artists are much happier using acrylic in the studio compared to painting plein air
* mixed media artwork is five times more likely to occur in the studio

This chart shows how popular the different media were with the 147 people who responded to the poll which asked the question "Which is your preferred media for painting in the studio?"

For example, over a third of the artists who responded to the poll use watercolour in the studio for paintings

This month the poll allowed multiple responses and it was suggested that people limit responses to those media used on a regular basis.

In June we looked at which was your preferred media for painting plein air. MAM Poll June: Which is your preferred media for painting plein air?

You can see the complete results in MAM Poll June RESULTS: Preferred plein air painting media

The RESULTS: The top three media for painting plein air are:
* watercolour (29%) - way more popular than any other water-based media
* oil (24%) - continues to reign sumpreme over both acrylics and alternatives to oil paints
* pastels (16%) - possible a surprise for some?

Main Conclusions
The use of a particular media for painting plein air relates closely to how comfortable an artist feels using it. Artists stick to tried and trusted art media until they have a jolly good reason to change.

* If plein air causes problems, they won't use it.
* If they can't find media easily they won't use it.
* If they don't know how it works and/or have never received any tuition in its use they won't use it.

alternative / modern painting media is not used very much due to a general lack of knowledge about the media's properties and how to use it.

* Oils and watercolour and soft pastels are all traditional media which have been used for centuries by a lot of artists. There are also a lot of art tutors who can and will instruct those wishing to learn about how media properties and how to paint with oils and/or watercolours and/or soft pastels
* What it suggests to me is that there are major opportunities for those who want to educate artists about the use of new and alternative media. They won't attract a popular following quickly - and they won't attract a following at all unless both media and instruction is easy to obtain

This month the poll allowed multiple responses and it was suggested that people limit responses to those media used on a regular basis.

MAM Poll May RESULTS: Preferred media for drawing or sketching
In total there were 183 respondents who provided 532 responses - which makes an average of very nearly 3 types of preferred media which are used on a regular basis

The top three media for drawing and sketching
* a whopping 70% of all respondents use graphite - this was by far the most popular medium for drawing or sketching
* 42% of people responding like to use coloured pencils (possibly influenced by the fact that a lot of coloured pencil artists read Making A Mark!
* 35% of artists taking this poll prefer to paint with watercolour when sketching

Of those who like using pen and ink, there's a preference for using pen and ink the old fashioned way - but it's close!

* 27% of respondents say their preferred medium is traditional pen and ink
* while 24% opt for other forms of pen and ink - such as ballpoints, rollerballs or graphic pens
* just 12% like using marker pens for colour

Between the pastels there's an expected preference for soft pastels

* 17% of respondents use and prefer soft pastels on a regular basis
* while 12% use hard pastels or conte sticks
* and only 9% use oil pastels

People who use dry media quite often progress through diferent dry media. However if looking to use dry media to provide colour then

* 42% prefer coloured pencils
* while only 17% like soft pastels

The very traditional and the very new

* 22% like using charcoal - probably the oldest drawing medium of all
* while a third of this - 7% - like using digital drawing tablets.

What's your favourite subject matter?
What do you like to draw or paint the most?

MAM Poll April: What's your favourite subject matter? sought to identify people's favourite subject matter for creating art.

Of the 173 people who participated in the poll:
* 40% have a distinct preference for creating pictures out of people or animals.
This breaks out as:
* 24% of respondents who like portraits/figures the best
* 16% who like animals and wildlife to be the subject of their art

Of those who like more inanimate objects:
* 18% like to draw or paint scenes in the countryside, in town and of interiors
* 20% like their subjects to be smaller scale - with 12% opting for floral/botanical art and 8% preferring still life

15% like to drawn and paint anything and everything

A very small proportion of artists opt for what used to be a major emphasis of painting in the past:
* The work of only 5% is mainly conceptual or symbolic
* just 3% usually tell a story through a narrative based painting

Genres and the results of "What's your favourite subject matter?" comments on genre painting in the past and the importance of the hierarchy of genres

The MAM Poll for March asked the question How do you price your art? It examined your preferences across a range of different approaches to pricing art. It's a perennial question asked by new artists and a question which should always be kept under review by more established artists. It's also a question which I know is concerning a lot of artists as they try to work out an appropriate response to the impact of the recession.

Of the 146 people who took part in the poll:

* 21% price their art on per square inch or square cm basis
* 20% have specific prices for specific sizes
* 18% base prices on comparable art for sale where you live

What this says to me is that artists have tried very hard to be consistent in their pricing - in relation to size and place where it is sold.

The preferred order of different approaches to pricing art is as follows:
* per square inch or square cm basis
* Specific prices for specific sizes
* Based on comparable art where the artist lives
* Plucked from the air
* Based on comparable art on the Internet
* Cost plus (wage rate+materials cost+markup)
* No. of hours spent on the artwork
* Percentage increase each year

Results of "How do you price your art?" provides further commentary and also describes the various and different approaches to pricing

What's the most effective way of improving your art education? What have you personally found to be the most useful way of learning more about art?

These were the alternatives selected by those responding to the MAM Poll in February - in order of effectiveness

* short workshops with professional artists
* atelier method/private instruction
* regular local art class
* art instruction books/art journals
* higher education/an art degree
* membership of an art group/society
* online art blogs/projects
* museums & art history resources
* online art forums/projects

76 people responded to the poll and you can see the results in the chart. You can also read the views of some of the people who took part in MAM Poll: What's the most effective way of improving your art education? . Plus you can read a commentary on the poll results in MAM Poll results: Improving your art education.

150 people responded to the survey in January. The pattern of responses was consistent throughout.

Nearly half of all the people responding to the survey post to their blog on a persistent and regular basis - two to three times each week.
* just under 20% of you post 5 or more times a week. Of these around half (11% of the total) post virtually every day
* just under 20% post only once a week
* which means that 83% of us are posting at least once a week (or more)
* 1% take a minimalist approach and post about two to three times a month
* while 5% post less than once a month

30 people commented - and can be summarised as follows:
* posting on a regular basis is what makes a blog work
* most people have blogs because they enjoy it. I'm guessing these are the people who participate more in the conversational aspects of blogging
* some people link their blogs to their efforts to sell paintings - but for most that's not the main reason

frequency of blogging can be seasonal - depending on people's other activities
* people found they lost readers if their frequency dropped off
* gaining readers is a long haul - they build but it takes time (and good content helps)
* working out topics to focus on in advance can help you plan blog posts and generate ideas
* there's a perceived danger of the tail wagging the dog - of writing more than painting.

The main conclusions are:

two thirds of you create work in a series in order to explore and investigate
o very nearly 40% of you create art in a series so you can explore an idea
o over a quarter of you (27%) work in a series to explore your subject

some 20% of you work in a series for reasons often associated with art marketing
o 10% are creating an identity for their work
o 9% are working towards an exhibition
o just 1% are intentionally creating a collectible

Read more on MaM Poll: working in a series - final results

The main conclusions arising from the survey are that artists tend to collect art:

58% of the people responding have a collection or have started to collect

20% aspire to collecting with the great majority of these inhibited by finances at the moment rather than any practical issues to do with 'how do you go about building a collection'.

only 21% were not interested in collecting art - they only wanted to produce it

Read more at Final Survey Results for "Do you collect art?"

53% of artists responding to the poll say that the main way they sell their art is independent of organisations which sell art for artists. They sell most of their art direct - online or via their personal networks or personal studios.

Overall, the conclusion one might draw from this survey is that

* working hard at selling via your personal networks and your own blog and website can really pay off in terms of sales.

* If established artists become convinced of the merits and profitability of selling direct, then selling which has a high cost to sales ratio - through art fairs and galleries - might start to come under review if the economic situation worsens.

* By way of contrast, the "less expert" or "less focused" channels or those which do not market art as well as the artists themselves appear to be much less successful at generating sales.

* Artists using less successful options should consider how they compare to available alternatives which are more successful for some artists - and what they need to do to work at marketing their art.

* nearly 50% of those who responded failed to generate any income from their website or blog - half because they didn't try and half because they didn't succeed.

* 51% generated income through sales via their website or blog. Of these: 37% sold 5 items or less and only 5% of those who sold were achieving regular sales via their website or blog.

A lot of people are not achieving any sales income from their art, either through choice or because they're not putting work which is likely to attract a sale in front of the customer in the right sort of way.

People who haven't achieved sales have a lot of company! If you're not selling, there's probably scope for improvement - either in terms of the art your produce or the way you try and market it.

A very, very few people are very good at selling their artwork online. However, based on current practices it's unlikely that most people will be able to emulate their success. Those who are achieving regular sales via website or blog are obviously doing something right and it's probably well worthwhile to study those who sell well to work out what makes a difference.

Read more on MaM Poll RESULTS: How much art have you sold via your blog or website?