One of my best friends is a very good artist, and is interested in selling his work. He just draws random stuff in his free time, and he is incredibly good. He is the same age as me. He doesn't know if it is good enough to sell or not, and I told him I had some friends who could help him out.

Here is his most recent piece of work:

I need to find my magnifying glass to see that pic.

so he does miniatures?

if I were him I'd start by calling local art dealers and/or art teachers to pick their brains.

For some reason Photobucket won't allow me to make it bigger.

That was so terrible I nixed it.

In our area, an art teacher just has to have taken art in high school. And the closest thing we have to art dealers is, well, we have nothing close to that.

he can try, but I wouldn't get my hopes up that it would sell. Artists are a dime a dozen.

When you have your county fair see if he can set up alittle display and just see how it goes.

nordawg

Oh...........now I see...........I was getting ready to say.......

Art? I hate him.

Best bet would be to sell it on the internet. Blogspot is great for that kinda thing.

The rule of being a artist is to die before you sell much.

Very few are actually able to make a living painting and selling their work.

Pay for your supplies and the electric biil is a good goal.

Deep, Have your buddy see about the Artist Co-op out at the Lake.

I have seen artists do a decent side business marketing their stuff on myspace. If their stuff is finished and polished and buy-worthy. Not like that half finished picture you posted. I am talking about artists that have the capability of getting their art displayed in a gallery. That is for pictures themselves. I'm sure there are plenty of other kinds of art that can sell on the net besides gallery art.

But note that it is a side business and nothing to make a living at.

I can't see the picture very well but I assume we're not talking fine art? Meaning it's doesn't have a "narrative" or aesthetic singularity and isn't somehow trying to be relevant in some grander, tangential or abstract way to things going on in the world or the art world specifically? If it that's the case and he isn't trying to "go big" then I'd look to submit for stock art catalogs and on-line sites, dealers that specifically deal with hotels chains, corporate and public spaces etc. A good buck can be made if you're a pretty good hand and can make "pleasant" work that is well made but also recedes well.

I live in New York and half my peeps are artists, musicians, writers etc. Some well known, most are not. If he is trying to be taken seriously as a voice in the art world than god help him. There's a lot of factors not the least of which are... what's his back story, what tradition is he coming up in, what is he trying to distinguish him self in and how willing is he to practically set himself on fire to get attention. Not to mention the realities of sheer timing, fickle fashions and short attention spans. Very very very few artists can truly distinguish themselves in that world. Nor should they. Many belong in the first group and there's no shame in that, there's actually ok money if he's pretty good and can get an agent/dealer etc. Of course it still aint shooting fish in a barrel. He's got to put together a coherently unified body of work, not just a group of doodles. And then he's got to get prints, slides, a web site made and see what appointments with dealers & galleries he can get cold calling. After he gets his first show, no matter how dinky, he just has to keep hustling.

The most successful visual artist I know personally put together a cut throat business plan 30 plus years ago and he's stuck with it. He's like any other entrepreneur that way. That said, he's abnormally driven and of course talented. His work sells for tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars and he lives a life I wish I could have. But he was dirt poor for 10 years, put himself through school for it, immersed himself in the life and the people, and refined his vision and voice with passion and discipline. When he's on a tear he's in his studio for 12 to 15 hours a day, 7 days a week for weeks on end and no one can get a hold of him. But probably more than anything else he just is an artist. He's not a guy trying to be an artist or make it as an artist. If your buddy is an artist than he needs to commit, to live the life.

/rant. Hopefully he doesn't want to be the "fine" type. Stick with the corporate stuff. The brass ring is about a million times closer.

Yeah what he said. Especially the aesthetic singularity part.

Seriously. He's a kid drawing birds for God's sake. People make me laugh.

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I told him I had some friends who could help him out

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Who?