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Failure vs. Sell Out

Lesson 56 from: Creating a Fine Art Series

Brooke Shaden

Failure vs. Sell Out

Lesson 56 from: Creating a Fine Art Series

Brooke Shaden

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Lesson Info

56. Failure vs. Sell Out

Brooke shares how the most successful artists straddle a line between personal work and consideration of audience.

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

07:25
2

Overview of Brooke’s Journey

20:13
3

Your Timeline is Nonlinear

05:37
4

Using Curiosity and Intention to Build Your Career

03:26
5

What Factors Dictate Growth

08:24
6

Organic Growth vs. Forced Growth

05:18
7

Niche Branding

04:57
8

Brooke’s Artistic Evolution and Timeline

24:27
9

How Can You Get Ahead if You Feel Behind?

10:02
10

Ideation and Conceptualization to Identify Meaning in Your Art

05:54
11

Idea Fluency

10:33
12

How to Represent an Idea

07:01
13

How to Innovate an Idea

07:07
14

Creating a Dialogue With Your Art

05:48
15

Conceptualization For a Series vs. a Single Image

03:43
16

Transforming a Single Image Into a Series

03:12
17

How to Tell a Story in a Series

03:28
18

How to Create Costumes From Fabric

07:20
19

Brooke’s Most Useful Costumes

02:19
20

Using Paint and Clay as Texture in an Image

02:56
21

Create Physical Elements in an Image

10:22
22

Shooting for a Fine Art Series

05:45
23

Conceptualization: Flowery Fish Bowl in the Desert

04:08
24

Wardrobe and Texture

04:54
25

Posing for the Story

05:32
26

Choosing an Image

01:23
27

Conceptualization: Rainy Plexiglass

11:34
28

Posing for the Story

04:17
29

Creating Backlight

02:37
30

Photo Shoot #1 - Creating a Simple Composite

17:51
31

Photo Shoot #2 - Creating a Dynamic Composite

06:31
32

Photo Shoot #3 - Creating a Storytelling Composite

07:40
33

Shooting the Background Images

06:14
34

Editing Samsara Shoot #1 - Working With Backgrounds

24:35
35

Editing Samsara Shoot #1 - Retouching the Subject

04:20
36

Editing Samsara Shoot #1 - Color Grading

02:45
37

Editing Samsara Shoot #1 - Floor Replacement Texture

15:24
38

Editing Samsara Shoot #1 - Final Adjustments

03:21
39

Editing Samsara Shoot #2 - Cropping and Editing Backgrounds

05:25
40

Editing Samsara Shoot #2 - Selective Adjustments

03:55
41

Editing Samsara Shoot #2 - Adding Texture + Fine Tuning

03:21
42

Editing Composite Shoot #1 - Compositing Models

06:58
43

Editing Composite Shoot #1 - Expanding Rooms

02:17
44

Editing Composite Shoot #1 - Selective Color

02:47
45

Editing Composite Shoot #1 - Selective Exposure

04:04
46

Editing Composite Shoot #2- Masking Into Backgrounds

10:45
47

Editing Composite Shoot #2- Creating Rooms in Photoshop

06:11
48

Editing Composite Shoot #2- Compositing Hair

05:07
49

Editing Composite Shoot #2- Global Adjustments

04:49
50

Editing Composite Shoot #3- Blending Composite Elements

05:00
51

Editing Composite Shoot #3- Advanced Compositing

08:46
52

Editing Composite Shoot #3- Cleanup

03:34
53

Materials for Alternative Processes

06:20
54

Oil Painting on Prints

05:41
55

Encaustic Wax on Prints

03:09
56

Failure vs. Sell Out

05:14
57

Create Art You Love and Bring an Audience To You

03:35
58

Branding Yourself Into a Story

05:40
59

The Artistic Narrative

05:26
60

Get People to Care About Your Story

03:36
61

Get People to Buy Your Story

11:36
62

Getting Galleries and Publishers to Take Notice

03:41
63

Pricing For Commissions

06:43
64

Original Prints vs. Limited Edition Prints vs. Open Edition Prints

02:11
65

Class Outro

01:00
66

Live Premiere

16:14
67

Live Premiere: Layers of Depth 1

04:41
68

Live Premiere: Layers of Depth 2

07:12
69

Live Premiere: Q&A

16:10
70

Live Premiere: Photo Critique

47:33

Lesson Info

Failure vs. Sell Out

We're going to talk about the business of fine art, and there is a lot to talk about when it comes to that, because fine art again is just personal work. So how do you set up an entire business around something that's completely personal? What are you supposed to do with that? Well, we have to talk about branding, because personal work means that we're putting ourselves into the work that we're doing. So we have to create a very special narrative all around us. And if you're uncomfortable with branding yourself into your business, think of it as more of your essence rather than you yourself. You have the choice of how you move forward with branding. We're also going to talk about galleries creating original prints, creating Siri's prints, limited edition and open edition prints. So all of that is going to get covered right now, and I'm really excited to dig in because it's one of my favorite topics ever. The first thing that I wanted to bring up is this idea of being a failure and bein...

g a sellout, because very, very often artists get branded as one or the other, and it is a massive problem, in my opinion, because both of them have negative connotations for things that most people will have to do in the industry to survive. So let's start with failure. What does it mean to be a failure? Well, first of all, it essentially means that you didn't reach your goal, but as we talked about with the timeline goals and timelines and setting dates for your success is pretty arbitrary. So I don't necessarily like to talk about failure in terms of not meeting a goal by a certain time. We often think that were a failure if ah goal isn't met or if an image doesn't work out or if success doesn't come in the way that we think that it's going thio. But those are all things that will necessarily happen on the way to success or to quitting. So failure is a stepping stone, of course, and it's often the thing that forces people to stop their business or to never start one. So if you want to make money from fine art, you have to recognize that failure is part of that process, and the more you can incorporate your failures into your brand the more likely you're going to be to move forward through those failures rather than letting them stop you the next term that I absolutely hate. ISS sell out and sell out really just refers to somebody who changes their style or their values in some way to accommodate outside influence and to make money. There should be nothing wrong with changing something about the way that you work to put more wealth into your life unless you're going against your moral code. So this is where there's a lot of confusion in terms of how do you make money from fine art? Because artists more than any other profession, I would argue, are expected to be humble and to stick to their own values and never compromise, even though almost every other profession is allowed to acquiesce to other people's demands or, um, anything that they want really, for getting the product out to them. So this is, in my opinion, one of the biggest roadblocks when it comes to artists having a career in fine art, which is not wanting to be labeled as sell out as not a really artist, but also feeling like a failure when you don't get to that point where you're making money from your art. It's a little bit of a Catch 22 because either you're compromising in some way usually to sell your art or you're not selling anything, so you haven't reached that milestone. I think that some compromise in art is probably a necessity for a lot of people to be able to sell their art. Now that does not necessarily mean changing your style, changing your concepts, anything like that. So I'm not trying to say change what you do to please a crowd. That is not what I am saying. But I think that if you're willing to make some slight changes for connectivity gain, so to connect better with an audience or for monetary gain, I don't necessarily think that we should be able to sell out for doing that. So then think about this. How often do you think does somebody cell substantially without making any compromise or taking the audience into account? How often do you think people are selling Ah lot without thinking about the market that they're selling? Thio? I think it's quite little and I think that the artists who have been able to create anything that they want and still sell that still have a brain for branding. And they're thinking about how that work is being presented to an audience. You might call that sellout. I call that smart, and it's okay if we disagree about that. But I want to make something clear, which is that if you want to make money from your art, it's very beneficial to think about how you're going to get that art into the hands of who's going to buy it. That's part of marketing that's part of branding, and some might say that's part of selling out, but I don't think so. It's all about this willingness to consider the customer.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Worksheets.pdf
Student Practice Images (large 1.9gb zip file)

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Brooke never fails to deliver. I found this course superb from start to finish. From exercising your creative 'muscle', demystifying taking self portraits, and showing that they don't have to be perfect before you begin editing, to walking you through her editing process and how to price your work. Brooke's enthusiastic personality and excitement about the work shines through it all. Definitely recommended!

Søren Nielsen
 

Thank for fantastic motivating an very inspiring. The story telling and selling module was very helpful - thanks from Denmark

Rebecca Potter
 

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Brooke for this amazing class. Inspired and so full of practical knowledge, this is the best class I've ever watched. You have given me the confidence to pursue what I've always been afraid to do. Watch this space!

Student Work

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