Abigail Larson
Abigail Larson is one of my favourite Illustrators and I have been following her work for a few years. It is not the style or competence of her drawing that I appreciate it is her concepts and influences; they are very similar to mine. In realise this I have managed to track and learn from how she has promoted herself over the years; going from creating a following using Deviant Art and Facebook to creating her own Gothic brand. I think by analysing and defining her practice I will be able to greater understand how I might go about marketing my own work.
On Deviant Art
She is always active on deviant art, not only concentrating on her own work but looking, favoring and drawing attention to the work of others; in doing so she has creative a large following that way. Deviant, despite bad press is a brilliant way of gaining followers. However, you have to sift through the bad to get to the good, make sure you tag things correctly and most importantly spend time paying attention to the work of others. It took her a long time to use deviant this effectively, it's not a quick process.
http://abigaillarson.deviantart.com/
MAIN PAGE
This page is an opportunity to make links, put in an autobiography etc. Using it the same way as a website in ways. I use mine similarly.
http://abigaillarson.deviantart.com/gallery/12236484
COMMISSIONS
I have gotten a few commissions this way; she has a direct way of leading people to her email address should they want to commission her. I do not think she would accept commissions via deviant-neither have I- but people surely see her work and then follow the instructions regarding commissions. This gallery shows clear evidence of this.
http://abigaillarson.deviantart.com/gallery/12476312
FAIRY TALES
http://abigaillarson.deviantart.com/gallery/
This page is important to draw attention to because the content is similar to my own. FANART is a brilliant way to promote yourself via your interests. For example, a drawing of 'Harry Potter' will be searched for far more than your own conceptional landscape drawing. It is a quick way of getting your style out there to more people. After that, you can start doing your own stuff!
Disneyland and Fanart
NOTE: SAW A POST ABOUT SOMEONE WHO WORKS AT DISNEYLAND DRAWING IN THE GROUNDS. THEY PERFECTED THE DISNEY STYLE AND KEPT A TUMBLR BLOG. THIS WAS SEEN, AND THEY WERE GIVEN THE CHANCE TO WORK IN THE PARK, ON COMMISSION, SKETCHING STORYBOARDS AND CHARACTERS FOR THE VISITORS. PERFECTING THEIR FANART HAS BROUGHT THEM STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE. WHEN THEY HAVE MADE SOME MONEY THEY WILL BE ABLE TO PRODUCE MORE ORIGINAL WORK.
On Etsy
Lots of people use Etsy. I don't want to promote my work in this way but it's useful to see whats being sold there. She is only just re-starting her site here so it may be worth looking at other shops.
MAIN PAGE
https://www.etsy.com/shop/perfectlyhorrid?ref=si_shop scott campbell
Work For Sale
MAIN PAGE
http://society6.com/
HER PAGE
http://society6.com/abigaillarson
On this page she has a wide variety of promotional items. I think most are very successful, especially the T-shirts and tank-tops. They work to further promote her brand as opposed to simply being sellable T-shirts. She has picked uni-sex images; arguably her best work. I think my work would take well to this, on plainer backgrounds. Things like the baby onesies, although cute , don't seem to fit her branding but you could argue that once you have 'made it' you will probably sell anything.
Website
MAIN PAGE
http://www.abigaillarson.com/
ABOUT
http://www.abigaillarson.com/p/g-l-l-e-r-y.html
She uses blogger for her website and it works really effectively. She has manage to customise it, showing no sign of it being a blogger page, including a copyright notice and attaching it to her domain name. I have used Weebly for my website but I could use blogger similarly to produce a splash page in the same way.
J SCOTT CAMPBELL
Another artist who's work is very similar in content to my own is JS Campbell. It is always fairy tale themed and he has managed to create a brand for himself. This is something I admire and I think I can take a lot from how he has marketed himself and apply it to my own promotional strategy.
http://j-scott-campbell.deviantart.com/
He started off as a comic book artist and now his work is used for many things; specifically calendars, books and other publications.
He uses Deviant art as a free online gallery, as far as I can find he uses no other Gallery site. I think he appreciates how interactive it is on Deviant, as he is always uploading , updating etc.
I use Deviant frequently, I feel it forces me to pay attention to the work of other too, which is important. You can also organise your gallery into projects and sections, which would appeal to someone who wants to upload comic books etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk6VviMYxkQ
Bobby Chiu
2011, Jan
31/03/2104
http://site.jscottcampbellstore.com/
His shop is similar to Larson's in set up but it is very much selling his publications. Merchandise etc is less of a big deal for him. He has also been around the Industry for a while, so his work is well known and well circulated. Even if you don't know his name most people would recognise his work from somewhere.
https://www.facebook.com/jscottcampbellfanpage
His fan page and his own page on FB. I have just started following the fan-page but it is similar to Deviant, which I prefer to use because you can see exactly what work is new etc .
http://www.jscottcampbellstore.com/
Another shop. Most of his income comes from books and his own publications. Hiss 'RUFF STUFF' sketchbooks are limited edition and really hard to get hold of. About £40 when they first come out and hen they get more expensive because people sell them on. Once again, his work targets a niche market, with hard-core fans who buy all of his stuff.
http://j-scott-campbell.deviantart.com/
- branding (nike tick)
- fanart and creating a following
USING FANART TO CREATE A FOLLOWING
If I had been aware of all of the things I have learned from this project at the beginning of the year I would have changed my research project to something Fanart Driven. Here are the things I have found out.
- Fanart has a massive Following: lets use ABC's 'Once Upon a Time' as a TV show example.
- I could create an image for OUAT once a week and then use Twitter FB Deviant and Tumblr to circulate the image . I could Has-tag it to the Show, so more people see it and do the same, tag in FB, pin the image, share it and use the correct keywords in Deviant.
- You keep going in this way until you have a specific following and occasionally start throwing i bits of your original work; for your followers to see.
- At this point you can slowly filter away from fan art into your own work; if your followers are loyal they will continue to view your work etc.
This process has worked for these people.
http://thatmadgray.deviantart.com/
http://achen089.deviantart.com/
http://alicexz.deviantart.com/
http://vika8d.deviantart.com/
Below: example of the Fanart I produced, still in keeping with my research project. So it served both purposes.
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