Tips on how to sell my poker art?

Howdy' fellows!

Not having had too much success at the poker-tables, I am steering my focus towards an art-career instead.

Something I have noted is that there is not much good poker art around.

So I decided to do somethings about it and after months of work I now finally have two lithographies ready.

Here is 'Queen of Hearts' :




If people like these I may eventually also make the two remaining Queens.

I was wondering if you guys have any hints for a starving artist on how to sell them?

Would greatly appreciate all help!

Cheers!

Daniel

Ebay would be 1 option

Don't know how you would make the first contact but maybe a card maker too? I know they have all sorts of specialty sets, maybe you can go that route.

Your art looks very good indeed. You should start builing an email opt in list so you can email out every time you design a new piece of art. You can also give ebay a shot and see if anyone bites.

good luck.

How about poker related? (art of the game, pro's or paint a picture of a online table lol)
I dont think many ppl wud buy a new stly of cards as i think many ppl jus like to stick to the normal style deck when playin cards. Dont think they like to play with anything too fancy.
But nice pic.

TBH it isn't the kind of thing I would buy for my house.. but it is incredibly good. Stunning picture.

Very nice

Very nice,

You have talent. So, pursue it vigerously.

GL,

mange

Very nice work indeed. A couple comments...

Aside from the chair back, there very little 'heart' here. Even the little red swirl in the upper left could be more 'heart-like', bigger heart in her pendant. Maybe too late for this one, but if you do the others, I'd try to make the suit a little more obvious.

Also, if you're targeting to poker players, it might be a nice idea to finish the others, and market them as a set. Ya know, like those 'triptics' (spelling?), this would be a quadryptic maybe?

As far as where and how to market them, a search on Ebay turned up very little, mostly dogs playing poker, and nobody paying much for any of it.
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=poker+art&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Here's my best idea. I did a yahoo search on 'poker tables chips accessories' and came up with this.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&p=poker+tables+chips+accessories&SpellState=n-3157587289_q-EdQGsLxUq4arczA8s8iunQAAAA%40%40&fr2=sp-qrw-corr-top

People are really there looking for other things. But if they happen to see your fine artwork in 'accessories' or 'furnishings', they may decide to buy that too, to proudly display around the card table(s). If you work with the seller/site owner, perhaps you can cut a deal where you advertise through their online shop, and they get a cut of your profit.

Another idea, and not sure this is feasable, but may be worth a try. casinos - especially those with poker rooms. This is obviously where you'll find the deepest pockets. Not sure how big your artwork is. Lithographs are usually somewhat small. You'd think small good for home, big good for casino room. But who knows. Even a casino might have room to fill a small wall. I'd think they'd look most impactful 'somewhat' alongside each other. Just a couple ideas off the top of my head.

I'd probably avoid general art retailers. But I could be wrong. Good luck!

Like a couple others have said you have a couple things on the internet you could do. There's ebay, craigslist, and even amazon. There are a couple sites out there dedicated to artists/art, art-exchange.com is one of them. You can also try talking to some of your local art galleries or even hit up your local university/college and talk to someone there in the art department, alot of them will atleast have some resources to get you headed in the right direction. If you are wanting to do this on your own, your best bet would probably be to start with some of the online sites. I hope that helps a little bit atleast. Good luck your artwork looks great, I'm sure you will do well with it.

Whow you guys had a lot of good input here.
I will start by giving e-bay a shot and contact both galleries and casinos.
They are actually HUGE in real life (biggest size is 2meters tall) so Casinos is surely an option.

Divebitch - You made some good points there. The thing is I like to keep the suit a bit subtle. There are actually seven hearts in that picture, but i deliberately made it so they aren't overly noticeable at first sight
Also... the image you viewed was very small. The upper left swirl is a somewhat subtle 'Q' for Queen. The (half) heart is in the swirl below, completed on top right on the opposite side.

Here's a bigger one of 'Queen of Spades':





Again, loads of thanks for the tips and your encouraging words!

I appreciate it!

wow! i mean wow!!!
those are very fine works you got there daniel!!
very impressive it is!!

hope you can make your talent a profitable one with those
works of art of yours...

artofdaniel said:

Whow you guys had a lot of good input here.
I will start by giving e-bay a shot and contact both galleries and casinos.
They are actually HUGE in real life (biggest size is 2meters tall) so Casinos is surely an option.

Divebitch - You made some good points there. The thing is I like to keep the suit a bit subtle. There are actually seven hearts in that picture, but i deliberately made it so they aren't overly noticeable at first sight
Also... the image you viewed was very small. The upper left swirl is a somewhat subtle 'Q' for Queen. The (half) heart is in the swirl below, completed on top right on the opposite side.

Here's a bigger one of 'Queen of Spades':

Again, loads of thanks for the tips and your encouraging words!

I appreciate it!

Click to expand...

Yes, that Q was subtle, but it's perfect. I can be a little dense, afraid subtlety is not my strong suit (no pun intended). Not I can see it all, and it's beautiful the way you worked in not only the chair and the designs in it, but the umbrella, the cleavage, and the fan. Subtle indeed, and all very classy. Do I see the death element of spades in her funeral going hat?

Now that I know how big these are, casinos seem a definite option for several of these ($$$$), as opposed to 1 taking up an entire wall in one's home. But the little ones will add up. I'm sure these will sell with the right marketing. Good luck. Let us know how it's going.

Very nice work daniel. Another option you might be able to look into is maybe online casinos with their stores. Or some of the other online poker communities(I won't name any, because CC is obviously the best one).

Like if you go to the FT Store or UB Store/Auctions, they have all kinds of things in there, both poker-related and not. These works of art would fit in perfectly with a lot of the other items on there, and you might be able to get them to buy a stock of them if they are popular enough. The one thing is that I am not too sure on how you would contact the person in charge of the sales, that might take some work to figure out, but might be worth it. Good luck and I would love to see some more.

Just out of interest.. what is something like that worth?

He has the prices on his website, but here they are for the sizes:

Medium - 26"x40" = $205
Large - 38"x60" = $416
Royal - 50"x79" = $707

Very nice work, Good Luck. I hope you do well

absoluthamm said:

He has the prices on his website, but here they are for the sizes:

Medium - 26"x40" = $205
Large - 38"x60" = $416
Royal - 50"x79" = $707

Click to expand...

Sounds quite reasonable for lithographs, especially of that size, quality, and beauty. BTW, in the Q of hearts, the subtly of the heart on the bodice, her knees, and folds of the dress on the heart...very, very nice.

On the casino idea, your work may not only be confined to the likes of the poker room, but lobbies, restaurants, etc. If your serious about this, I'd take a trip (fun & business combined) to Vegas and/or Reno, Atlantic City, and check out the artwork everywhere. I could be wrong, and I know the economy is bad, but I doubt you'd have much competition. Been in several poker rooms in AC, wish I could remember what I saw on the walls, if anything. Certainly nothing that caught my attention, as these would have.

I also think perhaps the FT/UB store route might be an okay idea, but many of the items there are so jacked up. FT sells their own T-shirts for $27 on Ebay. Maybe it can't hurt, but my guess is that in order for it to be profitable for them, it won't sell at a price low enough to pay you off.

Just wanted to say absolutely gorgeous.

I would buy one just for my wife. They are wonder full. art. It would also look good in my card room. Keep me informed as to when these are available.

I saw some of them well looking for photos on google... I must say they are wonderful.

rugby0 said:

I would buy one just for my wife. They are wonder full. art. It would also look good in my card room. Keep me informed as to when these are available.

Click to expand...

I am assuming they are available right now, just look at his website. I already listed the prices...

icemonkey9 said:

Just wanted to say absolutely gorgeous.

Click to expand...

Me too.

and the art is very nice too.

Whats a lithograph or whatever the word you are using is? Are these pictures painted or what since they are real classy

switch0723 said:

Whats a lithograph or whatever the word you are using is? Are these pictures painted or what since they are real classy

Click to expand...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Lithograph

Okay the pics look digital to me. I'm not saying the printing process isn't a lithograph process, I'm just saying that the art itsself looks digital. This isn't an art forum so I'll neither kiss your butt, nor tear your work to shreds. I'm quite capable of both.

What I will do is tell you that if you don't want vultures making money off of your art then you'd best remove it from the internet and add a more obnoxious watermark. Theives can and will crop out your subtle logo and put this stuff on everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs without a moment's hesitation. That's not counting the cross-stitch jerks, tubers, and the out and out plagerists who will post said work on internet galleries that you don't even know exist, only to lap up praise and/or venom that's rightfully yours. Oh yeah and the plagerists will sell prints and stuff too.

So yank it from the net, add something obnoxious on all but thumbnails, and repost.

Had you posted while the works were in progress, well then, I'd be more comfortable helping you sell them.