# Advice



## LouGore

Hi all!

I'm Louise from the United Kingdom, I'm 23-years-old and a Media Studies graduate. 
This being said, I have always had a passion for art from a young age and studied art up until I started university. 
I have been unsuccessful at securing a job so have decided to try and set up my own business selling my artwork and illustrations. I have no problems doing the art however, getting clients/customers is my main problem currently! I have a Facebook page with examples of my work, I have business cards on the way. I just can't seem to get any work coming in.

(Intro over) I just thought I would share with you some of my portraits I have done over the last 5 years up until around a month ago. I specialise mainly in portraits. Any feedback would be much appreciated!


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## Susan Mulno

Welcome! 

Wow! Great portraiture!

I am now studying how to break into sales myself. I don't think I will make a living at it but it would be nice just to round off the corners a little financially. Don't know if my stuff is good enough but there is only one way to find out! :biggrin:


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## Mel_Robertson

LouGore said:


> I just thought I would share with you some of my portraits



whats your medium ?


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## johnok

Hi,


Getting yourself online is important, but its not an easy thing to do correctly.

If your looking for work than I might also try LinkedIn. It is a network of professionals in ALL fields. Employers seeking new talent use this network.

Facebook is ok in my opinion... but just be careful what you post. I have a separate personal Facebook account from my professional one. I found that when old friends and buddies connected with me the conversations could very easily become "unprofessional". I don't link any of my personal friends or family on my professional Facebook account... at least not the potty mouthed ones.

You can set up a Business page on your Facebook account. You can do this with LinkedIn too.

This topic is a constantly evolving one. You need to stay current and keep posting new content and artwork, otherwise the search engines will consider your sites stale after a short while... and you'll rank lower in the search engine rankings.

That is just a few things to think about.

John


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## Susan Mulno

Thank you johnok, good points to keep in mind.


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## LouGore

I use oil paints and thin them out slightly with linseed oil.


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## LouGore

Susan Mulno said:


> Welcome!
> 
> Wow! Great portraiture!
> 
> I am now studying how to break into sales myself. I don't think I will make a living at it but it would be nice just to round off the corners a little financially. Don't know if my stuff is good enough but there is only one way to find out! :biggrin:


Thanks Susan!
Perhaps if we find something that works we could let one another know


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## LouGore

johnok said:


> Hi,
> 
> 
> Getting yourself online is important, but its not an easy thing to do correctly.
> 
> If your looking for work than I might also try LinkedIn. It is a network of professionals in ALL fields. Employers seeking new talent use this network.
> 
> Facebook is ok in my opinion... but just be careful what you post. I have a separate personal Facebook account from my professional one. I found that when old friends and buddies connected with me the conversations could very easily become "unprofessional". I don't link any of my personal friends or family on my professional Facebook account... at least not the potty mouthed ones.
> 
> You can set up a Business page on your Facebook account. You can do this with LinkedIn too.
> 
> This topic is a constantly evolving one. You need to stay current and keep posting new content and artwork, otherwise the search engines will consider your sites stale after a short while... and you'll rank lower in the search engine rankings.
> 
> That is just a few things to think about.
> 
> John


Hi John,

Thank you for the advice, I have a separate business Facebook account for the art as I agree with what you are saying with friends and family becoming a distraction so to say.

I will look into LinkedIn.


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## TerryCurley

Your portraits are wonderful. I have no doubt you will have a successful business once you get to be known. It's getting known that is the hard thing. One thing that I did was go to my local bank and asked if I could display a painting with a business card. There were other painters in my area doing this. I am not as good as you by any stretch of the imagination, I don't believe you will have much trouble getting your name known.


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## LouGore

TerryCurley said:


> Your portraits are wonderful. I have no doubt you will have a successful business once you get to be known. It's getting known that is the hard thing. One thing that I did was go to my local bank and asked if I could display a painting with a business card. There were other painters in my area doing this. I am not as good as you by any stretch of the imagination, I don't believe you will have much trouble getting your name known.


Hi Terry,

Thank you very much! The banks in the UK probably wouldn't allow you to do that, I looked into advertising in the local newspaper but that costs money I don't have. I may go to some local businesses and see if I can leave my business card with an example of my work there.

I have just looked at your work; it's very good! I'm no good at landscapes so you beat me in that department.


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## TerryCurley

Thank you LouGore. Any business that will display your work will help. It's getting up the courage to ask the management if you can display it....at least that is what it has been for me. I've gotten a lot of refusals and only one yes.


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## dvartist1

The reason no work is coming in, is because you do not draw well enough. It is a great style to copy from interesting photographs. But there are a million, literally million artists on deviantart.com who can draw perfect portraits and make them look real and not painted flat from photographs with no 3d type shading. If I were you I would take an online digital illustrators portrait course. If you practice that, you will do great. But ya, you need training. At your skill level, with no training in person or online from a professional illustrator, no one will buy from you, unless they think it is a cute picture of their kid or dog. 

I don't know what site to go to to learn. you can google "where is the best place online to learn to do portraits", to speed things up, if i were you, I would look up "chiaroscuro portraits" and see how they are lit. then, get good photos of your models with no distortion and use a light to light them up chiaroscuro style.., print them out black and white and trace them. then draw it upside down to correct errors. then right side up. sounds strange, but it is faster than getting taught.

for info on how to paint like an old master, or buy master materials and tutorials. check me out. good luck.

http://www.dvart.net


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