How to Increase Art Sales

If you're going to promote and sell your own artwork, being a talented artist is half the battle!

In this post I will show you how to generate art sales by superimposing your artwork (using photoshop) onto a wall setting. By doing this, you are facilitating a visual for the art buyer of what the piece could look like hanging on a wall. 

To begin, search for a stock image or free image on google of a particular room you think your artwork will look best in, i.e., a bedroom, bathroom, hallway, office, etc. Make sure to select images that are clean and free of clutter; you want the artwork to stand out! In addition, be sure to choose room colors that will compliment your piece and not compete with it.

Once you have selected the right image, next, I recommend you photograph your artwork in natural light. Take the piece outdoors and lean it against something, make sure there are no shadows. Once this process is complete, upload the photo and crop in to only display the art.

Example:

Photograph taken in natural light

Cropped in tight on all four corners

Now you're ready to superimpose. Take the image  you have selected to impose on and your newly cropped painting, and open both in photoshop. 

Keep in mind that there are various ways to go about doing this. I am showing you the way I find to be the simplest. 

Note that the wall image I have selected, already has a blank space that I created by simply selecting a small square area with the 'select tool', and then painting the area in white. This will be the location where I will place the painting. 

The next step will be to drag the painting with the 'move tool' onto the wall image. This tool is looked on the top lefthand corner of the tool menu bar. 

Clicked on the image of the painting with the 'move tool' and by holding down the mouse pad, I dragged the painting onto the wall image. 

Now that the images have merged together, it is necessary to scale the painting to fit into the designated blank space. 

It is important to try your hardest to make the image of the painting look true to size. Since photoshop enables  you to scale the image to a much larger or smaller size, try to use your best judgement here so that you don't falsely advertise the size of the actual painting. 

To scale the painting, click on Edit on the top menu bar, scroll down to Transform and from there, click on Scale. By holding down the 'shift' key, drag in on one corner of the painting until it fits within the blank space. 

What I did in this scaling process below was leave a white border around the image by making it a bit smaller then the actual space provided. This created the illusion that the painting is framed, giving it a more finished look. 

There you have it!

In just 5 easy steps you are that much closer to increasing art sales. Providing a visual for the art buyer not only allows them to see what the painting could look like hanging in a room setting, but also makes your work stand out and look professional. 

Happy imposing and good luck selling your art!