Cost effective ideas for artists - a series of articles for "The Artist" magazine

In 2016, The Artist magazine (in the UK) will be publishing a series of ten articles by me on the theme of 'Cost effective ideas for artists".

The first one is in the February 2016 edition - published on 31 December - which is now available in the shops or online as a digital edition!  It's very easy to find - on page 66 - the last page of the magazine.

The top of the first article - which is about buying art materials

Cost effective ideas for artists

This series of articles has been a bit of a slow burn and I decided not to say very much about them until the first one was published.

I was approached by Sally Bulgin, the Editor of The Artist, to do a series of 'tips' articles related to the business side of art some time ago.  Of course publishers plan their articles way ahead of when the magazine is published! So I met up with Sally to discuss how it might back in February last year and this particular article was sent off to Sally last September. (Anybody thinking of doing an article for magazines might like to note the time lags involved!)

I decided to try and adopt a 'workflow' approach to the topics within the series - so it starts with art materials and ends with VAT! Mind you I keep coming up with more ideas for articles so you never know - there might be more!

My article - which appears on page 66
(the last page of the magazine)

The first article is '20 tactics for buying art materials' and identifies some dos and don'ts organised around two themes:

• how to organise yourself
• how to deal with suppliers

If you’re organised when ordering and storing your art materials and keep an eye on what you spend, you can save money, afford to experiment with new materials and find exactly what you want when you want it! If you are trying to make money from your art, the bonus of adopting some of these practices could mean the difference between making a profit or a loss.

There are nine more articles in the series focusing on:

• framing
• exhibitions
• getting your art online
• copyright and how to protect images online
• posting and shipping artwork
• printing artwork
• pricing your art
• business expenses and tax allowances
• vat

They all focus on brief "do and don't" bullet point tips about how to behave in a more cost effective way - or avoid practices which will seriously damage your bottom line!

So a quick read - on the last page of the magazine - with a payoff!

My first article is in this February 2016 edition

The Artist Magazine

There was a time when you had to wait weeks to get an art magazine posted to you if you lived in another  country!

However we now have digital magazines  which can be accessed via digital magazines.

If you'd like to read my series of articles - and the rest of what is an excellent magazine - you can access the different ways to subscribe via the website.

Alternatively you can browse a selection of pages taken from the December issue of The Artist below

  

BONUS: This is the edition which also has the 24 page supplement about art courses and holidays in 2016 - always a favourite with very many amateur artists!