How Can I
Sell My Art?
You already have the hardest part: finished work that means something. The rest — platform, pricing, presentation, cadence — is infrastructure. Learnable. Buildable one week at a time. Here's how it actually works.
You're not failing to sell because your art isn't good enough. You're most likely missing the other craft — presenting your work professionally, pricing it with a real formula, showing it to new buyers through video, and doing all of it on a regular enough schedule that buyers start to expect you. This guide is that system, written plainly.
Where to Actually Sell
The platform matters less than how well you show up on it. But the choice of platform shapes your starting strategy.
Etsy
Prints & reproducibles · $20–$300. Buyer-intent traffic already exists here. Competitive but reliable. Rewards consistent activity and strong mockup-based listing photos.
Originals & relationships · $200–$5k. Relationship-first channel. Reels bring new buyers; DMs close sales. Video is non-optional if Instagram is your primary platform.
Your Own Site
Long-term control · all price points. No fees, your data, your brand. Requires existing traffic — build this after you have an audience, not before.
Marketplace + Socials
The honest starting combo. Most working artists use two channels together. Pick one for passive discovery (Etsy), one for active relationship-building (Instagram). Master both before adding a third.
For originals: (hourly rate × hours worked) + (square inches × per-inch rate). Per-inch rates: Emerging $1–3/sq in · Mid-career $3–10 · Established $10+. Example: 12×16 canvas (192 sq in), 8 hrs at $25/hr, $2/sq in = $584. For prints: (production cost × 3) + (packing time at hourly rate). These formulas give you a floor, not a ceiling. As your reputation and demand grow, your prices should grow with them.
Why Your Art Looks Smaller Online
Your painting has scale, texture, and physical presence. On a phone screen, it's a rectangle. Three formats solve the three perceptual problems — and all three belong in your weekly drop.
Room Mockups
Your artwork in curated interior settings. Buyers see scale, context, and presence — not a flat rectangle.
Cinematic Reels
10-second HD video with camera movement. Gets 3–5× more reach than static posts. The closest thing to in-person viewing that online selling offers.
Portfolio Page
A single shareable URL that answers every buyer question. Your link-in-bio that actually closes.
The Weekly Drop Loop
1. Make
Finish or select a piece for the drop
2. Present
Mockups, reel, portfolio update
3. Publish
Reel + listing + link in bio
4. Convert
Reply with portfolio link
5. Reset
Next piece, next week
Gallery Mockups. Cinematic Reels. Portfolio. One Upload.
MOCKLIO compresses it: upload → multi-angle mockups → 10-sec reel → portfolio at username.mockl.io. Under an hour. No Photoshop. No separate portfolio builder.
Ten Steps. Start This Week.
1. Select three pieces you're proud of
Originals, prints, whatever you have. Three is enough to start. You add more as the system builds.
2. Photograph each piece clearly
Phone camera, natural window light, no flash, flat-on angle, neutral background. This is your source file — take it seriously.
3. Generate one room mockup per piece
Use MOCKLIO, Canvy, or Smartist. Twenty minutes total, not two hours. Matching the room aesthetic to the mood of the work earns extra points.
4. Generate one video reel for your best piece
If your tool supports it, create a 10-second cinematic clip. Save it to your camera roll.
5. Write your three-sentence artist statement
Who you are. What you make specifically. One thing that makes your work yours. First person. No exhibition lists in the opener.
6. Publish your portfolio page and update bio
MOCKLIO builds the page as part of the workflow. Set the URL as your link-in-bio on every channel.
7. List pieces on Etsy and/or prepare for Instagram
Include price, dimensions, medium, and a link to your portfolio. No hidden prices. No 'DM for info.'
8. Post the reel on Instagram
Caption: price, dimensions, one honest sentence about the work, 'link in bio.' Let the reel drive reach; let the portfolio close.
9. Post one static mockup to your grid
Different angle from the reel. Gives existing followers a new view without redundant content.
10. Reply to everything with your portfolio link
Not a photo dump. Not a PDF. One clean link that pre-answers every question. The system does the selling.
What to Actually Remember
You're not selling yet most likely because of presentation and cadence — not talent or market size. Both are fixable.
Start with Etsy (passive buyer-intent traffic) and Instagram (active audience-building). Build one well before adding a third channel.
Price with a formula: (hourly rate × hours) + (sq inches × per-inch rate). This gives you a defensible floor — not a guess.
Room mockups solve the scale problem: buyers online cannot feel physical presence. Mockups provide the spatial context that closes the imagination gap.
Video reels get 3–5× more algorithmic reach than static posts and create the closest online approximation to in-person viewing.
Marketing is showing up with work, regularly, in a format the algorithm rewards. It's not performance — it's cadence.
The weekly drop — same format, same day, every week — builds audience expectation and compounds into predictable monthly revenue.
Tools like MOCKLIO compress mockups, reels, and a portfolio page into one upload — removing the production friction that causes artists to skip their drop.
Start with three pieces, not thirty. Publish, learn, iterate. The portfolio that exists beats the perfect portfolio that doesn't.
FAQ
Questions Artists Actually Ask
Start small and concrete: select three finished pieces, photograph them clearly, generate room mockups using a free trial tool, list on Etsy (prints) or post on Instagram (originals) with clear pricing, and repeat weekly. You learn by doing, not by planning to do.
Yes — Etsy is the most viable channel for selling art without social media, since buyers find listings through Etsy's own search. Pinterest is also worth considering for decorative and home-context art. However, Instagram Reels currently offer the highest return on consistent effort for building new buyer relationships.
The range is enormous. Etsy print sellers who are consistent and well-presented typically report $1,000–$5,000/month at mid-range. Original painting artists selling via Instagram often build to $2,000–$10,000/month over 12–24 months of consistent weekly drops. The most important variable is not talent but system.
Not hard — learnable. What makes it feel hard is not knowing the steps, not having the presentation skills (which tools now handle), and not being consistent long enough for the algorithm and word-of-mouth to build. Most artists who aren't selling have not yet run the system consistently for more than four weeks.
Prints and reproducible works sell in the highest volume — lower price point, no shipping damage risk, Etsy-friendly. For originals, abstract work, landscape paintings, and portraiture have the broadest buyer pools online. What sells best for you depends on your audience, your presentation quality, and your price relative to perceived value.
Not immediately. You can start through Etsy, Instagram, or a portfolio page (like username.mockl.io via MOCKLIO) before investing in a full custom website. A website becomes more important as your catalog grows and you want to own your buyer relationships without marketplace fees.
Photograph the painting clearly in natural light. Generate a room mockup so buyers can see it in scale. List on Etsy (for broader reach) or post on Instagram with price, dimensions, medium, and a direct purchase link. Create a short video reel of the mockup for Instagram. Reply to all inquiries within 24 hours.
Some artists make their first sale within days of their first Etsy listing, where buyer-intent traffic already exists. Building consistent monthly revenue through Instagram typically takes 3–6 months of weekly posting. The variable is not timing but consistency — artists who post once and wait rarely sell; artists who run the weekly drop for eight weeks almost always do.
Use the formula: (hourly rate × hours worked) + (square inches × per-inch rate). For prints: (production cost × 3) + packaging time. This gives you a defensible floor. Then ensure your presentation matches your price — a piece shown in a gallery-quality room mockup and cinematic reel can command more than the same piece in a flat photo.
A weekly drop is a repeatable system: present and offer a piece for sale on the same day every week in the same format — mockups, reel, portfolio update, social posts. It works because buying art is rarely spontaneous. Most buyers encounter your work several times before committing. A weekly cadence ensures they keep encountering you.
Your Art Is Ready. Now Build the Loop.
Three pieces. One platform. One clean weekly drop. That's how it starts.
Start Free on MOCKLIO →