The Making A Mark Poll - Resources for Artists

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?