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A Guide to Art Shops~

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Lycoris Kafka


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:02 pm


Hiya~ I'm Taku! I've owned a couple fairly successful art shops, so I'm here to offer you guys some advice! This is not intended to be an in-depth guide. If you want something more... ah... thorough, check out THIS guide!

"TAKU, GET ON WITH IT."

Okay! D :

Let's start with names. A name can say a lot about your art-style. people with bakery-themed names often have cutesy chibis and people with... more macabre names tend to have darker, more stylized art. But it's up to you, really! But please, please try to avoid doing these things when making up a name:

Using a trillion special characters ( ø ư я ω Ֆ թ)
Are you seeing rectangles? Me too. Chances are, so are other people. It's fine if you want to toss one or two into your title for decoration, but PLEASE don't make the whole thing out of special characters. I want to see your shop title, not ♱♱♱♱♱♱. Plus that's going to make it really hard for people to redirect other potential customers to your shop.

Put HQ anywhere in the title
Leave that up to the customers. It's not going to earn you more attention and it might actually drive people away because they'll think "Oh, it's HQ, it must cost 217896438754234 gold or something."

Being rude
Don't swear in your title. Please. Profanity didn't make you cool in middle school, and it's not going to make you cool now.

"Okay, I understand. What's next?"

Up next is post formatting! Yay~ Make your shop all prettylike c : There is SO much you can do! You can buy some nice graphics from other Gaians, you can set up codes, make up color schemes, the works~ I have a few tips to offer you, though!

Be legible!
Your grammar doesn't need to be FLAWLESS. Typos are okay! But oh crikey, please dont tink ur so coll cus u type like dis. That really shouldn't need to be brought up D : One more thing! Gaia doesn't let us change our font type. That's good because I don't have to look at comic sans and papyrus xD. Don't try to bypass it by using special characters where letters should be. How annoying would it be to see a whole paragraph of rectangles? Colors are important too! This brown font I'm using is nice. You can see it without needing to select it. But colors like these really bother people. Also, you're not an omniscient being with a cue ball for a head, so white text is unacceptable. <- requires highlighting

When you post your samples, use links or thumbnail previews.
Don't put your actual, full sample in one of your posts unless it's like, pixel doll small. It's makes things laggy for people with slower computers : c Plus it also messes up codes. On a somewhat related note, don't upload it to deviantart and then redirect people there. It's really hard on laggy computers. Photobucket accounts are free, and there are plenty of other free image hosting sites like tinypic and such.

Don't go to a banner making website.
If you really want a big hot pink rectangle with your shop name in comic sans for a banner, that's fine, but you can open a file in paint and do it yourself. Those online banner-making things often paste a logo in the corner.. oh, it's a bit hard to explain! Don't go to a website like this and make something like this. That's it xD we're moving on~


Don't use another person's art in your graphics.
Don't google a picture of an anime character and use it to pretty up your shop. That's stealing and you can get in big trouble for it! Using royalty-free stock photos is okay, but DO NOT use another person's art. It would also be good to credit the website that you got your stock photos from.

"Oh my gosh, you sound like my mom/dad stop it already."

Okay D : I'm not like, trying to write a religious doctrine or anything, I'm just giving some general tips so you don't look like a n00bzor OTL

Well, here's a few more general things ; u ;


Know what your art is worth
Posting 'bribe me' or 'name your own price' really gets on some people's nerves : c There's a pricing forum, and there are plenty of nice people there that can help you out if you don't know what your art is worth. Or you can post here and I or another artist in the guild could price your art?

Don't degrade/inflate yourself
Don't act all "My art is da poopz but I expect you to give me gold anyway." If you don't like your art, why should I? On another note, don't act all high and mighty either! "Dis muh art. If you don't like it, get out." It's rude and of-putting to customers

Don't put any tekteks you're questing in your shop
It just looks really, really n00bzy and unprofessional. It's fine to list a few items you'd like as payment options, but don't post tekteks that you're questing or like, your whole wishlist D : That's what the questing forums are for!

Post your samples on your thread!
Don't make someone dig through your photobucket/deviant art gallery! It's kind of a drag Dx Also, don't tell people to look at your profile or sig for examples. Just post in the thread.

"OKAY TAKU, DON'T YOU THINK THIS IS LONG ENOUGH?"

Uh... that's it for now I guess ; u ; if I think of more things, I will post them! But really, check out that guide I posted at the top! It's really informative and helpful~~
PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:03 pm


Reserved, just in case!


Lycoris Kafka


Shy Phantom

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Lycoris Kafka


Shy Phantom

17,075 Points
  • Gender Swap 100
  • Frozen Sleuth 100
  • The Wolf Within 100
PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:04 pm


Reserved also~
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 4:55 am


Takuitsu
Post here and I or another artist in the guild could price your art?

Heya hun, I was looking into maybe getting into doing an art shop but am really stumped as to what my artwork would be worth... cat_sweatdrop

These are the examples;
- Anime sketch (no colour)
- Anime bust (digital recolour)

ganchroi
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Lycoris Kafka


Shy Phantom

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 7:47 am


ganchroi
Takuitsu
Post here and I or another artist in the guild could price your art?

Heya hun, I was looking into maybe getting into doing an art shop but am really stumped as to what my artwork would be worth... cat_sweatdrop

These are the examples;
- Anime sketch (no colour)
- Anime bust (digital recolour)
Hm~ I'd say maybe 10-15k for the sketches, 20-25k for the colored bust? c :
PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 7:50 am


Takuitsu
ganchroi
Takuitsu
Post here and I or another artist in the guild could price your art?

Heya hun, I was looking into maybe getting into doing an art shop but am really stumped as to what my artwork would be worth... cat_sweatdrop

These are the examples;
- Anime sketch (no colour)
- Anime bust (digital recolour)
Hm~ I'd say maybe 10-15k for the sketches, 20-25k for the colored bust? c :

Awesomes - now to think up a shop name and get some graphics done cat_sweatdrop

ganchroi
Vice Captain

Benevolent Lunatic

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Lycoris Kafka


Shy Phantom

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 1:56 pm


ganchroi

Good luck, Gan xD Let me know when you open it~
PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:53 am


Takuitsu


Ms/Mr. Taku, I was wondering if you could help me price some of my art?
Please and Danke.

-CoupleLineArt
-Singular Colored
-Colored Bust
-Full Body Color

[Bell-chan]



Lycoris Kafka


Shy Phantom

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:56 am


[Bell-chan]
Takuitsu


Ms/Mr. Taku, I was wondering if you could help me price some of my art?
Please and Danke.

-CoupleLineArt
-Singular Colored
-Colored Bust
-Full Body Color
Hello there vuv Sorry,I don't think I can. The new economy has everything inflated bizzarely, and I haven't done a good job of keeping up with it e_e but! Your lines are very good, and you have a unique style, so you could probably charge in the mid-upper range~ If you work on improving your coloring, you could probably make a lot more gold!
PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:58 am


Takuitsu
Hello there vuv Sorry,I don't think I can. The new economy has everything inflated bizzarely, and I haven't done a good job of keeping up with it e_e but! Your lines are very good, and you have a unique style, so you could probably charge in the mid-upper range~ If you work on improving your coloring, you could probably make a lot more gold!


Yes, I'm working on my coloring.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean mid-upper range? confused

Thank you for taking the time, though?

[Bell-chan]

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