How do you know?

[DevilNeverCry]

I've read the FAQ section, and gotten some advice from more experienced artist alley artists, and I know to bring my five best prints for the first time appearing in the alley.

But I still have a question about this.

How do you know which works are your best? Are they the ones that you feel strongest about? the ones that your general audience enjoys more, or is there some other criteria?

I only ask because I was looking through my gallery trying to pick five works that don't involve artisan crafts... and I can't decide. I was thinking of looking up the statistics for the works, but I know that the image in my gallery that has the most ammount of views isn't a legitimate work of mine - or one that I even like for that matter, as I was told to do it a year or so ago under duress from a friend of mine.

And some of the works that are in my gallery were done on an older computer that is now defunct, so going by some of my strongest, I'd have to re-download the image.

I was just wondering how it was that other artists decided what to bring with them at first, if there are any that remember the thought process that they used, as I can imagine this was several cons, or in some cases, several years ago.

How do you do it?

[mystcloud]

I don't really remember the number of prints i brought with me to my first con, but i would say it was more than five. If you have more than five pieces you like and think are great, and that other people might think are great, I don't really see why you shouldn't invest a few more dollars and have a wider variety of prints. Especially if you have a bigger body of work to draw from. I mean, the more stuff you have the more likely one of them will catch someone's eye. Of course, don't bring stuff just to make your print binder fatter, that's no good.

And when deciding on what is your "best" work you should really base that off of what you like the best, what is technically the best, and what you think others will be interested in. I mean, the goal is to sell your artwork to other people, so it is generally a good idea to give the people what they want. But I also usually print out a few things i know probably wont sell but i really like, and every once and awhile someone does buy one of them. You really never know what people are looking for.

[Kogarashi]

With a larger body of work, I would say bring more of the five you think will sell best, fewer of a handful of others, and then just the portfolio copy of the rest (with their printable files on a flash drive if you find one is gathering a lot of interest, so you can run to Staples across the street for emergency prints). If prints are all you have, you have a little more display room at your space, but if you've got other things like crafts or bookmarks/tags/etc. of your work, then space is at a premium and you would only really want to display the best pieces (the ones that get the most interest).

For that, I usually gauge by a few things. First and foremost: which pieces are my favorites? I generally feel most strongly about pieces I really liked doing, and they tend to be some of my best work. I display those to showcase my skill, and because I hope that others will like them just as much.

Second: which pieces seem to get the most favorites per day on my DeviantArt gallery? These are probably the ones that are going to sell better at the conventions as well, and they don't always line up with the first category. I have one piece that was one of the first computer-coloring jobs I ever did, which still gets a lot of faves and commentary and tends to be a top seller for me.

Tird, and less important than the other two: which pieces are from popular shows? Unfortunately for us artists, our popular-show stuff will likely sell better than the stuff we really like. Great if the two overlap, but frustrating when you think you have some awesome original characters or landscapes or even obscure-show pieces and all anyone can ask is if you have Bleach or Hetalia art. (Yes, experience there. ~_^) I'm not saying you should compromise yourself and do popular shows if you don't want to (I don't do fanart for anything I haven't seen unless commissioned to do so), but if you do have work from popular shows, you should probably display at least your best one and maybe have a few prints of it to sell.

For my display and prints, I usually put two or three fanart pieces and two or three original pieces up on my display. For the fanart, I post my most popular as well as one or two that may be more obscure but still good. I've had at least a few sales because I had a Saiyuki fanart on display when almost no one else in the Alley had any Saiyuki fanart visible. For my original pieces, I pick the ones I like the best and think show some good skill (or are at least eye-catching). I then try to make sure I have at least a few prints of each piece on display, more of the fanart than the original, as well as a few other pieces I've found to sell over the years. I keep files for the rest of my portfolio on a flash drive so I can send my assistant to Staples as necessary, and will also take orders of prints I don't have in stock to be shipped later.

If you don't want to try to pick out your best pieces yourself, you can ask around. Poll people on DA, ask friends and family (but take the latter's opinion with a grain of salt), and don't stress too much over it. So long as you bring your portfolio, you'll have a good chance of finding out which pieces seem to get the most attention so you can earmark it for the next con.

[Mara]

My creative decision-making is 100% self-indulgent and ego-driven, ha ha ha. I make the things that *I* like and I sell the sorts of things that I'd want to buy and am then pleasantly surprised when other people want them and even want them such that I make a profit.

Mind you, this is my experience for putting stuff in the art show; I've never had AA space until this coming year, but I say go with your gut. If you think your macaroni relief portrait of Char Aznable is your strongest work, bring it.

[DevilNeverCry]

Thanks so much everyone, this was a really big help. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to poll my watchers on dA, but luckily alot of the works that I really like are pretty popular as well.

I'll make sure I have prints of all of the AA worthy works, just in case. ^_^

[kmcwilliams94]

you could also lurk the forums and see whats popular

andyour the one making the DWMA soul eater shirts right? if so id like to commishion a medusa one, you could pm about it

[tkawaii]

I dont really do fan art much but my fan arts tend to sell out fast.

so for rules of original work, high contrasts between elements, dynamic use of negative space and really nice coloring. I sell my posters at 15$ and those tend to sell higher because people looking to find art that fit their room decor. so best to keep to 1 dominate color and 1-2 lesser colors.

other types of art to sell is sub genre art, like steampunk, asian, faries, ect.

Another type is telling a story with in the picture. since no one knows your character (and why fan art sells so much) if you create a story with in your art people might relate better.

[Kogarashi]

[quote=tkawaii]Another type is telling a story with in the picture. since no one knows your character (and why fan art sells so much) if you create a story with in your art people might relate better.[/quote]
Quoted for truth. Fanart sells well because there's already a connection with the customer, so original art has to find its own way to connect. Telling a story is an awesome method. Tricky to pull off, but awesome method.