Creating a Mobile Independent Artist Business - Part 7: Maximize Your Art by Creating Variations

Last post I showed you how to reproduce your traditional 2D art as a high quality digital file. Using the digital file you can create variations of that artwork with very little effort.

For example, The Cage Monster artwork I created in previous posts was intended to be reproduced on the bottom of skateboards. With a little bit of color replacement magic in my photo editing software I can create versions of the same image with different background colors should a potential buyer not be a fan of the original color scheme.

Just by changing the background color my Cage Monster
Art can appeal to a wider audience. The original is
shown on the far left for comparison.

Why stop there? Using your photo editing software you could change the entire color scheme of your art with just a few setting adjustments. Turn a daytime, landscape painting into a night time scene, perhaps? All it takes is loading your images into your software and start playing around with all the various settings.

These recolored variations were created in minutes using Photo Fix filters
in my editing software including (from left to right); Blue Tint, Etching and
Sapphire (with the tint turned up and the temp turned down!).

This image was created by
running the top and bottom
half of the same image
through Prisma then stitching
together the two images in
my photo editing software.

If you're not getting good results experimenting yourself, why not run your images through an app like Prisma. Prisma is available for both Android and iOS devices and includes more than 30 filters that can redefine your images using the style of other famous artists. See what your work looks like through a Picasso filter! (Note that at the time of writing Prisma only supports square images and watermarks them with their logo).

Search around online and see what other apps you can find to filter your art through.

Your own photo editing software may even have some artistic preset filters built in.

Creating variations doesn't just stop with adjusting color schemes. Your digital image can be used to create new art using collage like techniques. 

Say you have two images with sections that you think would really look good together. Now you can use your photo editing software to easily remove just the sections you need, combine them into a new composition and, suddenly you've got a new artwork. (Congratulations, you've just taken the final step into creating artwork that exists first as a digital composition).

Once your work is digital the possibilities for
how you use it are really endless.

Once you start cutting and combining artworks there are literally thousands of possibilities for variations and new compositions. Each one only taking hours or even minutes to create.

Why Create Variations?

Once you have all these variations you can sell each version as a digital print (we'll look at options for this in a later post), giving your artwork wider appeal to a greater number of potential buyers. They may not be sold on the original image but one of your variations may be the right combination to trigger a purchase.

One way to use this new found knowledge of creating variations is to not release hundreds of variations all at once to your buyers. Hold back. In between creating all new artworks, you could release a series of variations of previous artworks, every now and then, giving your buyers some new choices to consider while they await your next completely original piece.

It's an especially good technique to use if you typically take a long time to create your art. In between regular updates of your progress you can remind people you still have other art available to purchase through the periodic release of new variations. In this way you are giving buyers something new to look at while reminding them of your previous works of art.

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Now that we've spent some time exploring the creative side of your mobile, independent artists business, in the next post we'll be returning to the more business side of your endeavors.

This post is part of a series called Creating a Mobile Independent Artist Business. Read earlier parts at the links below:

Part 1: Introduction and Equipment
Part 2: Business Software
Part 3: Creative Software
Part 4: Social and Marketing Software Plus Your Website
Part 5: Documenting and Sharing Your Work in Progress

Part 6: Photographing and Preparing Your Art for Printing