Your skillset to be creative and expressive by yourself without words can develop into a passion for art or just something you do to while away time when you’re free. But, do you know that your art can actually fetch you money? How to sell art online and make money?

Well, yes, your artworks can be converted into cool cash in your hands. Many people would love to sell their art for money but do not know how best to go about it. If you fall into that category of people, then this post is for you! 

This article narrates a detailed step by step process towards helping you to sell your art, promote your artwork and start making money

How to Sell Art Online?

Here is a list of steps to sell your art and start making money from art.

Step 1 – Define your strategy and set the objectives
Step 2 – Define your purpose
Step 3 – Create an artistic statement with a strong sense of individualism
Step 4 – Validate you Why? What? and How?
Step 5 – Define your approach and start your efforts
Step 6 – Create an artist brand
Step 7 – Decide the platforms that you want to promote your art – online, offline or hybrid
Step 8 – Create a pricing strategy around how to make money from your artworks
Step 9 – Create a marketing strategy
Step 10 – Create Social Network profiles
Step 11 – Build a Content Marketing strategy
Step 12 – Try Crowdfunding
Step 13 – Advertise
Step 14 – Sell your product and prints on Demand
Step 15 – Measure

Step 1: Set the objectives.

The first step towards monetizing your art is to define a strategy and set the objectives that you want to achieve

In this context, probably, the most important thing is to define a specialty – Yes, Carve a niche for yourself. 

Express your personality vividly through your art.

For your personality to be well captured in your art, you must first have a well-defined personality for yourself. This will, in turn, helps you to give your artworks a personality.

Sit back and give a thought to certain factors like who your target audience is the messages in your art, the purpose of your art, and the style of art that you do. Why artists make art?

Step 2: Define your purpose

Making money (it is one of the outcomes) shouldn’t be your purpose, rather, find a more objective reason that you wanted to make art

Once you decide to sell your art, it is just another product on display in the market. So, to have an original art or thinking out there is so important.

All of this is well thought out, will help you define the way you want to position your art.

For instance, one of the primary objectives of pop art remains to be a strong response towards the complacency and mass consumerism of the modern world.

While looking art Frida Kahlo’s paintings, it is all about her lust for life.

Even now, you will see the transcending pain of Frida’s life on her paintings

Are you doing art to make an impact in the world and strictly to pass messages across? 

Or, Do you want to just freestyle and do art for commercial purposes?

Consider that making money is one of the many outcomes such as fame, brand identity, satisfaction, interdependence, etc. 

Know your vision. This is the first step towards answering the question – How to Sell Art Online And Make Money?

Your vision helps you to answer the ‘why’ questions. 

• What kind of artist do you want to be seen as?
• What impact do you intend to make with your art?
• Are you making art with the intention of changing the world or making money?
• What are the greatest things you can actually achieve in the art space?
• What message does your art carry?

These are things you should think of and have answers to as your answers will help to put your vision together and make it easy to create.

The significance of being able to pin-point the reason you want to do art, cannot be overemphasized.

Step 3: An Artistic statement with a strong sense of individualism.

An artist’s statement is the first line of communication between an artist and his viewers.

It comes in handy and will be made use of when you submit your portfolio to competitions, galleries, and even museums.

Sometimes, it can be displayed when people view your works on a site or in person.

If one were to just take a look at the artworks of Salvador Dali online, you would know immediately this was no ordinary individual. 

With his crazy mustache and bizarre quotes, he expressed his opinion constantly, and especially through his artwork.

If you have your artist statement online, it is sure to be read by people all over the world.

Your artist statement helps you explain the how and why of your artworks.

Step 4 – Validation

The ‘How’

The ‘How’ simply talks about how you created the art.

Quite a number of visitors are interested in knowing the artistic process leading to the creation of an artwork. 

So you should tell how you came about it, the colors you made use of, the kind of lines you used if you used the blending techniques to ensure there are no lines at all.

If your art is photography inclined, you might want to state the tools you used and which ones are the most important to the process of creating your drawing or art.

The ‘What’

Tell us about your work.

You may decide to follow a style – Abstract Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Realism or Impressionism – to represent your work.

Decide on it early, because at collectors of all kind like to go for a niche and this is one of the powerful ways to promote your art

Are your paintings real or abstract? Are they in a portrait view, or you do landscape as well? Do you take photos of landscape?

What is your imagery?

What is the best way for people to describe, what do they say if they were to describe what you make? Allow your content to flow from how you work to what you create.

Lastly, the ‘Why’

Why do you choose to create the kind of art you make? What link is there between your art and your life?

Does your art say something about your life or does your life say something about your art? 

What are the symbols you use, and why do you use them?

Why do you want to make money selling your art?

Tell us the influences behind the meanings of your works.

Answering these questions is important will help you guide arriving a clear action plan for the bigger questions about selling your artwork and earning money

Step 5: Mobilization of selling art online

This talks about the various means through which you can let people know about your art.

It involves putting certain things in place to gain more ground in the market and make your presence known.

There are certain steps you should take to ensure effective mobilization in your art business and they are listed below.

Step 6: Create an Artist Brand

The word ‘brand’ is often taken to mean the same as the word ‘logo’.

A brand is far more than just a logo. A logo is just a simple tool through which you can conveniently convey your brand to your customers.

Branding is the process of making true your promise to your customers. Thus it is ideal for you to know who your customers are and what they need.

Business – as selling your art is now business, is simply about knowing or finding a need, and then providing it.

A strong and deep artist brand is the foundation of a strong sustainable model of making money from your artworks

It is providing solutions to people’s needs. The better you know and understand your customer’s needs, the easier it will be for you to make good your promise to them.

A brand should have a solid artist statement. This can be private or public but depends on the direction you want to take. The artist’s statement will be a reflection of the style, personality, and the worth of your work.

It is necessary regardless of what the purpose of building or creating art is. 

Having a website and social handler (one username across all social channels) will be helpful.

Based on the definition of your artist statement that you have been able to come up with, you would need to go ahead and build a brand that reflects your art and yourself.

While building a brand, here are some tips that might come in handy.

Be consistent in your messaging. Try to answer- what kind of art you plan to produce or create.

Your personality should be uniform and should adapt to your style of work.

It could be minimal art, pop art, abstract art, or any form of art at all. Read the most important art movements that really revolutionized the world and see a snapshot to understand art history on how has it evolved

If you intend to do various styles, ensure there is harmony in your branding and a good fit for your artist statement. What words are frequently used by your audience to describe your work?

All the assets you make use of I’m the social and real-world must have a visual idea about your brand.

Tell a story while you talk about your brand – This is the most powerful way to promote your art

One of the most crucial and important stages of your marketing as an artist is defining what your proposition is what stands out about you that is unique and distinguishes you from other brands.

An authentic sense of self and artistic direction can set aside a successful artist.

Branding yourself as an artist is important but, can we face the facts? 

Yes? Okay.

Great branding does not make you a great artist and being a great artist does not necessarily make you a profitable artist. 

To be successful, we need to create a strong balance between our art and our business because selling art is business as well.

The best way to create a balance between our art and business has not been found yet.

But after a few years, if devoting yourself full time to its pursuit, you will find a way towards building your brand.

One simple tip – KEEP IT REAL, STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF AND TELL YOUR OWN AMAZING STORY.

You should make sure that your colors, artworks, logos, and brand story that are consistent across the website and social networks. Most importantly, find a unique tone to convey the message of who you are.

Step 7: Decide the platforms that you want to promote and sell your art

This is purely driven by commercial interests. Here are three categories that mostly you could fall into. 

1. Gallery drove- $7500 and above (Type A)
2. Premium but mid-range- Online and offline. (Type B)
3.  Affordable. (Type C)

If you decide to work with type A, the strategy is entirely different and for types B and C, numerous platforms range from premium to affordable art.

While you’re trying to come into the art business, you’ll need platforms to help you with sales.

One great way to sell your art online and make sales is to work with an existing platform for sales of artworks.

This provides you with an existing audience, all of these platforms are unique in their way. Some of them are print on demand websites, while some are art galleries and others are art commission websites.

Before going ahead to work with any of these platforms, you should carry out your research and see which one suits the kind of art you practice.

Some of these platforms for sales of art are:

• Artpal
• Pyaarnation
• Displate
• Saatchi Art
• U-Gallery
• Absolut Art
• Tappan Collective
• Juniqe

For every business (which includes selling art), it is important to daily evolve, improve and find better ways of making sales, which is why we have put together this interesting post just for you.

Step 8: Create a pricing strategy

When you place prices on your work, your clients tend to value it based on how much they pay.

This can be applied in paintings, mixed media, illustrations, etc

Size of your art in inches (Sp)

For example, let’s say that for an artwork that measures a length of 10inches and a width of 8inches.

In this case, the area within your rectangle is 10×8 = 80 square inches.

Value per inch (Vp) – This is a unit value that you need to decide based on the medium, style and moreover your reputation. The most common price ranges from $2 to 25 dollar in an affordable art market. 

Cost of materials (Cm)– The total cost you spend to buy paints, canvases, oils, and other materials.

Uniqueness (Uq) – This is something that can be added as an IP fee based on the uniqueness of your work. Sometimes, your work may not fall into a usual figurative subject, rather it could be a work that you think has a strong relevance or message.

Here, you define a unit value in the range of $2 to $25. For instance, you might be drawing something which is just a figurative painting, where you may not apply Uq, rather you may apply this for a work that is very propaganda-driven- for instance, a theme around climate change and you think the uniqueness factor has a strong value.

Your total price will then be;

Total retail price = (Sp x Vp) + (Sp x Uq) + 2(Cm).

So for your 10 x 8 artwork, where you value per inch is $5 and you spent $50 for the material the net cost would be;

(80×5) +(80×0) +2(100)

The reason that we multiply the cost of materials twice is that, if you sell this via an exhibition or a gallery you might end up getting a commission in the range of 40-60% of the total value- in this case, you will recover the cost of materials.

Now, if your work has Uq value of $20, then the cost would be, (80×5) + (80×20) + 2(100)

Setting up the right pricing strategy is important before arriving at the answer for how to sell art and making money online

Step 9: Marketing

Do you know that period where someone has to be convinced before buying a product? That’s what marketing is. Getting your first sale online is a golden moment that you want to be embraced upon.

There are many marketing strategies that you should know as they would help you improve the rate at which your works are purchased.

Marketing is a very important part of any business and its benefits cannot be overlooked, some tips to help you with marketing are provided below.

Arriving a clear direction on your marketing strategy is important to define your way forwards towards selling your artwork online, making money, and promote your art

Step 10: Create a social channel strategy to promote your art.

So, I heard you were making a list of impossible things in this century.

I have a new point for you to add- Not being on social channels at all these days is largely impossible. While collaboration remains one of the important foundations of these channels, it has evolved to a great medium to promote your creativity in all forms and start monetizing it

Almost everyone is there and one of the best ways to reach your customers and make sales in any business is to harness the benefits of online and social communities

There’s no avoiding it- if you want to sell art online and promote your artwork, its a whole lot easier if you make use of these kinds of new media to help you connect and engage with the people who will buy your work or help you sell it.

Social media can be a sensitive topic among artists as most of us are happier I’m the studio than in a market place and if you’re making use of these communities to help sales, then it is a market place – thus it is a strong medium to make money and start earning consistently

The subject of this new kind of media can be confusing and most people find it difficult to understand.

The truth is, if you go about social in the right way, you’ll see that it’s worth all the effort.

Do not oversell. No overkill

Collaborate. Posting your work will not help.

Instagram and Facebook are not the only options. There is a wide range of others like; Tumblr, Flickr, Reddit, Pinterest, Tumble upon, Digg, Snapchat, Swarm, and Twitter for you to try out.

Choose one standard username across social networks.

On every social network platform you decide to use, your username should be the same.

Tell your story. Why you create art?

Step 11: Content Marketing

Everywhere you turn these days, there’s almost always an advert or something. Its a breath of fresh air seeing a product that isn’t trying to make a sale and is useful to you. Content marketing can be a powerful means to promote your artwork

So where does that leave your art business? How to apply passive techniques to promote your art online and make money?

Cue content marketing. Content marketing is a way of advertising your business without boring customers who are tired of seeing another advert or promotion

From learning the benefits to which methods to use, we give you the rundown on content marketing. 

It is all about providing valuable content for your customers,

So, they enjoy what you have to say and are more persuaded to buy your work.

What is Content Marketing?

In simple terms, content marketing promotes your art business by making useful and interactive content available for your customers. It is a less traditional way of advertising your art, and more articles, videos, and images that entertain your art fans.

How to do it?

Create an art blog and use that platform to tell your story.

Why you create art?

What inspired you?

Just remember one thing. Your art is just one commodity, but you need to build a community, content and brand around it for your staring making significant money from it

Share your knowledge
Be a source of help to those that are looking for answers to certain questions.

Try using QUORA to share your knowledge.

Just go ahead write basic things – principles of art, how to draw, how to stay creative, or whatever you think you can talk about

Create videos or images
 It is no longer a secret that visuals are engaging and people tend to interact more with visuals.

This is exactly why you’re an artist!

So don’t stop at the canvas.

You can make use of videos and pictures in different ways to promote your art career.

Create a newsletter
Create a fan following and obtain email addresses. Keep them informed.

Host a Podcast-
Podcasts are a fun alternative to reading a blog post or article.

It’s a good idea for you to try and host your own.

You could tell an intriguing story, talk about what you’ve learned in your art career.

Invite fellow artists to talk about their experiences.

Whichever way you choose to go, your listeners are most likely to be held spellbound by you’re out of the box and extra creative content.

The self-publishing world is growing at a rapid rate and the quality of the final product gets better every year.

More artists, photographers, designers, and illustrators are taking book publishing into their own hands.

Step 12: Try Crowdfunding

In case you don’t yet have an idea of what crowdfunding is about, it is a way for you to raise funds for a project by offering rewards for those who would like to back your project financially.

It allows you to bring your creative project to life and still sell art during the process. 

You don’t need to be a popular artist, filmmaker, or arts collective to create a successful crowdfunding campaign. These platforms have become one of the powerful platforms for artists and creators to achieve financial independence 

Established crowdfunding platforms include; Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and GoFundMe.

Crowdfunding remains to be one of the most active ways of promoting your art online – and also helps to validate your idea with a diverse group of people.

Step 13: Advertise

The things advertising can do for you cannot be overemphasized.

It has a whole lot of benefits you just need to find an appropriate budget and make use of your online presence to sell your works or promote your art.

AdWords – In summary, AdWords lets you display an advert to sell your art so that it appears in Google’s search results when someone types something relevant to your art.

The great thing about AdWords is that it doesn’t charge you anything for showing your advert. You only pay if someone clicks on it.

Someone interested enough to click on your ad means there is a chance that they’ll be interested in your art when they arrive at your website or online shop. 

It doesn’t require you to spend a fortune to get new visitors and potential sales, with each click costing you very little. A lot of content creators are making money by leveraging these platforms. 

You can make use of AdWords to advertise yourself as an artist, offer portrait services, or directly sell original prints or artworks (you can show an image of your art beside your advert too).

Facebook and TwitterAds also offer great opportunities for artists to showcase their works and show compelling images of their work to people with similar tastes and interests. 

Affiliate Marketing – This is when you promote a company’s product and when someone buys that product through your referral, you earn a commission from it. You could promote your products, artworks, blog posts, and all, through such ad networks. This model is considered to be one of the most powerful ways of making money online

Amazon’s Affiliate Program, Shareasale, Zazzle are a number of affiliate platforms you can try out.

The concept of affiliate marketing might be a bit confusing at first, but the potential to earn passive income is high especially for the artist.

Step 14: How to Sell Art Online and Make Money via Print on Demand Websites?

Print on demand websites are getting more popular by the day and are now a popular outlet for artists and designers to sell their work online.

How to making money online? – Probably, print-on-demand is one of the easiest ways to test the waters and understand a pulse from a larger audience.

The most appealing part of the print on demand is that one you’ve uploaded a high-quality image of your artwork, the provider platform takes care of everything else- so all you have to do is to go ahead and make more art.

That high-quality image will then be printed on anything ranging from art prints to phone cases, t-shirts to pillows, and whatever you can think of. Few print-on-demand websites include

• Printful
• Zazzle
• Printify
• Redbubble
• Society6
• Threadless

Not every artist’s work can sit pretty on a phone case or duvet cover. Print on demand sites tend more towards graphic and illustrating styles but there are a lot of painters and fine artists selling their work too.

Remember it is up to you to promote your work on print and demand sites.

Step 15: Measure

Anything you do in your life deserves to be measured. Build the right performance indicators based on the objectives and purposes that you set during the initial step. These indicators can be qualitative such as personal satisfaction, fame, positive reviews or quantitative such as profit share, increase in sales, etc.

Closing Thoughts – How to sell art online and make money?

Art is creativity.

Making money shouldn’t be the ultimate purpose. As stated, earning money from your artwork is one of the outcomes.

A lot of features affect the value of a piece of art.

Selling your art and making money from it is all about how your audience appreciate your work

Appreciating art can feel very subjective. This often means that it can be hard to tell what exactly translates to art.  Read What Makes Art Sell?

Art is an expression without words

Make maximum use of your online presence.

Build your brand, and work constantly towards keeping your promise to customers and satisfying them all the time.

Eventually, your record of sales is about to turnaround for good.

Your daily existence can be much more colorful with the presence and influence of art.

It only gets better once you allow your own creativity and imagination to take a turn for good.

So go ahead and open yourself up to art. It will be worth the change.

The post How to Sell Art Online? – Guide to Sell Your Art From Vision to Execution appeared first on The Artist.

By definition, Contemporary Art refers to the work of arts made since the aftermath of World War II and is used to describe the works of artists still living and creating artworks.

The era of Contemporary works of art produced experimental works that affect a wider range of social, economic, and political issues.

This idea reflected the issues that affect the world today, which are in the form of racism, globalization, oppression, poverty, feminism among many others.

Over the last 30 years, we have witnessed a growing list of artworks that bring about awareness of the most important and urgent matters. They were all highlighted by video art, salons, object designs, graphical arts, and social media.

Contemporary Art – The Liberty and Diversity of Thoughts

As Modern art slowly evolved into Contemporary art, there came a movement known as ‘abstract expressionism’, which explores the process of creating artwork rather than just the contents and details of the painting.

Jackson Pollock, a renowned artist, made his artworks more of dripping paint and smearing across the canvas. It was more about the end product. The movement became the beginning of Contemporary art.

This change came in fully during the 1960s and the 1970s were we began to think differently about the way to create and reflect on art. Modernism art like the “abstract expressionism” was very firm on the idea of realism. And it limited the creative prowess of the artist. 

However, minimalism, conceptual art, pop art, and performance art pushed art movement into a new way.

Instead of beauty and form, it was now more about the concept behind it all. 

The movement then took a lot of different and distinct form onwards. These were in the form of video and performance art that never belonged to galleries and traditional art spaces in the first place.

The most important aspect of contemporary art isn’t found in the physical presence of the art like the strokes and colors of your paintbrush or the glittering marble on the sculpture.

It was rather about the viewer’s visual impression of the artwork. 

Distinct characteristics of Contemporary Art

Personal Expression

Through the mediums of sculptures, paintings, and performance arts, people can still be able to express themselves while communicating with the audience. 

It creates a channel to the artists’ thoughts and ideas which is valuable for societal communication and harmony. One of the greatest examples to quote is Convergence by Jackson Pollock – one of the earlier works of abstract expressionism and considered as one of the best bravest action paintings ever made.

Convergence is a huge painting (241.9 x 399.1 cm) and must be seen in person to acknowledge it’s grandeur. The painting was done during the Cold War, a period of crisis of war and it’s aftermath among the people. The freedom of expression by the artist reveals the call for freedom of expression

So, even for those who have little or no artistic talent in creating art, the audience can find it easier to relate to them in a better way. 

Aesthetic Value

Aesthetics can be a subjective term. When it comes to art, some may say that not all art is beautiful, that, in fact, it should not be beautiful, always. What is Beauty in Art?

From a subjective stance, beauty is what you make of it, what your preference is, what calls to your heart, soul and mind.

This has become the biggest benefit of Contemporary art. It has also been able to successfully evoke the viewing pleasure of the audiences. Although what is pleasing may depend on the viewer, this heavily depends on the medium or style used in creating the art. 

For generations, this has been used as a major choice of decoration in both private and public places. It is, however, accessible for everyone to view, which brings about social interactions and sharing of ideas.

Pleasure and Inspiration 

Art can bring about relaxation and peace of mind from negative thoughts and sometimes, anger. Art As a Therapy is an active practice to address the psychological frailties of our mind. It can also bring about the reduction of depression and anxiety because art helps people to witness and absorb what they see and then reflect on it.

Although this might apply to different minds than others, it is still a source of inspiration with its sharp commentaries on the world’s issues. This enables the viewers changed their perception on social matters and makes them better persons in the society

 Cultural Commentaries

Politics, social commentaries, and pop culture lead to the ability of the artist to make his or her views known to the audience. This can be done either figuratively or literally – apparently the reason why art is important.

In the form of imagery, shapes, and dialogue can also be used for a more engaging piece. A great example to quote here is Marat by Vik Muniz, produced in 2008. It eventually became part of a series called Pictures of Garbage, which recreate famous works using trash collected from the dump

Muniz’s works are considered to be politically and socially engaged art. The process of producing these works reflects the underlying propaganda calling out a powerful voice and greater representation from the marginalized segments of the society. Almost all contemporary art forms carry a lot of historical details and information which can be only seen in book store and computer searches. 

Contemporary art has its own record of history as well.  These can be in the form of facts, dates, names, places, customs, dresses, feelings, language and heritage. 

This can also serve as a new path to looking back and reflecting on the past and how it affects the present and the future. 

Pushing Boundaries

Aesthetics is briefly defined as to what makes something qualified to be called art. Some contemporary artworks make people ask questions about their complexity, and this makes them doubt their significance.

According to many art critics and theorists, the artwork is to be viewed as what it is. Social actions view it as only made up of the experience and the people who witness it. 

One such classic example is The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson – As per art critics, the idea is to gratify the masses and has a subtle objective of attracting a larger audience into the museums.

With the bold effect Contemporary art has made in changing our views on aesthetics, it shows that these artists are doing their jobs well. 

Since its introduction, Contemporary art has gone a long way in pushing the boundaries of art.  When the audience sees one and goes ‘is that art?’, that is the question the artist expects.

The post What is Contemporary Art? appeared first on The Artist.

Asides the fact that is found most times in email addresses, the sign has been in use before the advent of emails, though it was only used then to show the cost or weight of something.

So, with the advent of electronic mail, came the fame of this amazing sign.

Another intriguing thing about this sign is that it doesn’t have a name.

Yes, there are a couple of strange names used to describe this sign, but there is no official universal name for it and many times, what it is called depends on the language, some languages relate it to the name of an animal the sign looks like, for instance, a snail.

In 2010, The Museum of modern art acquired the @ sign as one of its collections, and it was described as a very interesting acquisition.

How is it an acquisition?

How is that even something to be proud of you may ask?

MOMA’s acquisition of @ goes beyond that. It is based on the assumption that possessing an object in its physical form is no longer necessary.

This acquisition will make curators feel free to tag the works and experience them and recognize things that cannot be possessed because of their size or whom they belong to and who can afford them.

The @ like any other art object is befitting of MOMA’s collection and the excellence and quality possessed by all art objects in MOMA’s collection, applied to it as well.

These and some others are the reasons for the acquisition of @ by MOMA and this acquisition has countered most people’s opinion of what a museum should acquire as the reasons and ideas behind it were quite interesting.

A symbol is not just an image but the other sides and uses of a symbol can only be recognized if we make use of symbols in the right way and with the right knowledge.

Being conversant with symbols like the @ sign, allows you to think fast, often thinking majorly in symbols and images. Through working with symbols, you can have access to experience the inner world and its meaning.

Symbols communicate better than words and do it directly

We live in a world of symbols. A symbol can be anything, however, symbols usually represent an idea. You probably patronize a certain brand because the symbol which represents that brand is one you’re familiar with that you see all the time.

We interact with symbols daily and our mind builds ideas that we are not consciously aware of. Without symbols, like the @, it would be quite a daunting task to make sense of the world around us.

The meaning of the @ symbol may be tweaked depending on the language, or its history in an environment or the contextual intent.

Though it is often said that symbols have made people lazy with speech and most especially writing, the value that symbols like @ add to our world cannot be overemphasized.

The @ sign came into existence first as a scribe’s fast way to write the Latin word ad, especially while compiling a list containing the prices of commodities. It is commonly referred to as ‘the at sign’ or ‘the at symbol’.

Though in some other languages, this sign has acquired many nicknames, none of them is recognized in English for now.

The History of the @ Symbol

It is speculated those medieval monks for want of shortcuts while copying manuscripts, seeing as there were no printing presses, and every letter of a word had to be carefully transcribed through writing, for every copy of a published book. They converted the Latin word ‘ad’ which means toward “a” with the back part of the “d” as a tail. It has also been said that the sign came from the French word for “at”, à and the scribes, working towards being more efficient, made an extension around the tip and the sides.

Another team of researchers has come up with the idea that this symbol came from an abbreviation and was used to represent ” each at” with the “a” being enclosed by an “e”. Its first record of use was in 1536 by Fransisco Lapi, a Florentine merchant who made use of the symbol to signify how many units of a wine amphora ( a unit of measurement), were shipped in large clay jars.

The symbol went on to take on a very vital role in commerce and has been in use by merchants to mean ” at the rate of” – for instance, 2 packs @ $20  would simply be saying, 2 packs of the commodity would go for $20.

The machine age wasn’t favorable for @ as typewriters in the mid-1800s didn’t make use of @. It was also not among the symbolic array of the earliest punch-card tabulating systems first used during the 1890 US census, in the years leading up to computer programming.

The unfavorable season came to an end for @ in 1971, when Ray Tomlinson was faced with a problem of developing a way to link and connect computer programmers. His challenge, however, was how to successfully address a message created by one person and sent through Arpanet to someone using a different computer.

He figured that the address would require an individual’s name as well as the name of the computer which might serve many users. The symbol separating those two address elements was not yet widely in use in programs and operating systems to prevent computers from getting confused.

Tomlinson set his eyes on @ placed conspicuously above “P” on his Model 33 teletype. According to him, he was mostly looking for a symbol that wasn’t used much. There weren’t many viable options, an exclamation sign, a comma or even full stop or an equal sign could not be used because it wouldn’t have made much sense, so he settled for @ – “saving it from going the way of the “cent” sign on computer keyboards”, he says. In other words, the @ sign wasn’t going to be allowed to sit dormant. With his naming system, he sent himself an email that was sent from one teletype in his room, through Arpanet, back to another teletype in his room.

The @ sign separates the person from the machine for the internet and the email as well, it complied with Tomlinson’s requirements while he searched tirelessly for something to separate addresses and couldn’t make use of letters or a number.

If there would be any symbol going out of use anytime soon, it is not the @ symbol, the at-sign has come to stay and is very much established. The history of the @ symbol isn’t that something we reflect every day, but this symbol has become a very vital symbol in the technology world, used on social media and electronic mail to signify and differentiate addresses.

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The modern world has gone so wild in the civilization that this artistic skill is left almost forgotten.

Due to its primitive and simple nature, people are not focusing their attention on it anymore.

To escalate matters, the modern world is loaded with various computerized tools that can be used for creating artistic impressions.

These modern tools are not bad in themselves. However, no matter how colorful and radiantly beautiful as they may be, they cannot be compared with the pure work of art produced with the simplest of tools – a pencil and paper – to create a vivid representation of the world.

With a pencil and paper, anything can be drawn.

You can draw portraits, landscapes, forests, mountain ranges or anything that your imagination feeds you.

It is natural, simple and incredible.

This is why such an art form should not be left forgotten.

It should be embraced and used regardless of modernity’s sophistication.

Drawing is the basis of all visual art forms. It will help you to have a good grasp of other artistic skills such as painting.

It is a useful skill that should be learned.

Tools for learning how to draw

Your decision to learning drawing doesn’t need to be a world-changing one.  Start simple.

You need some tools to learn how to draw. They are common tools that you see around you every day. They are:

• A sharp HB pencil.
• Sketch paper of your choice.
• Good eraser.

The above are the necessary and physical tools you must have.

The final tool is however internal.

You may not learn anything without this internal tool being in form. This is an internal tool is your mind. It has to be ready and interested in learning how to draw.

Besides, you will need it immensely when you practice, because your mind is your realm of creativity.

Guiding principles for learning drawing

1. Holding Your Pen Firmly

How you hold your pencil will determine largely how your drawing will look like.

The best way of holding the pencil is to hold it firmly like you’re holding the charcoal, then using sides of the pencil’s lead to a draw.

Don’t use the point of the pencil for drawing.

Though, it can be used in certain situations to get some effects, grip the pencil firmly and draw with sides of the pencil’s lead.

2. Use of Stump for Soft Blending

How you blend your drawing is another factor that will determine your result.

Trying a blending stump will give you a soft blended effect.

Take good care not to blend too softly. Doing that will result in having another color which you have already layered on your paper.

3. Mixing Shading Techniques

There are several types of shading techniques.

Sticking with one only can make your drawing not quite appealing.

To give it a good look, mix up different shading techniques in your drawing.

Some examples of shading techniques are cross-hatching, hatching with parallel lines, contour lines, stripping and many more.

Mix them up in your drawing.

4. Trying Different Approaches to Outlines

Approaches to lines in the drawing are subjective. You can find an approach that is suitable for you.

Lines are very important.

How they are drawn can create diverse effects. For instance, it affects shadows.

5. Blending Mastery

Blending is a useful drawing skill that is used to achieve a certain artistic effect in the process of drawing.

The essence of it is to soften lines by carefully mixing several colors (two or more).

It gives your drawing a polished impression, giving it a finishing look.

You need to master it to give your drawing touch of elegance.

6. Suitable Paper Texture for Drawing

The kind of paper you’re using to draw must be of good quality in terms of surface texture.

A beautiful drawing can be turned to an eyesore if the paper’s surface texture is not good or suitable enough.

The surface texture of your drawing paper is also referred to as the tooth or grain.

Depending on the effect that you want, the surface or tooth can be smooth or rough.

7. Staring with an Underdrawing

Underdrawing is a preparatory sketch that you prepare before you start to draw.

It can be used as a draft, serving as a guide to finish your drawing.

Underdrawing is more like the foundation of your drawing.

It necessary may not be what you’re aiming to finally draw. It is just a guide.

What is important is that you allow your intuition to direct you.

Drawing is a creative activity. Learning drawing is the first step towards it

Be guided by your intuition as well, not just by the Underdrawing alone.

8. Making Use of Suitable Eraser

Drawing can be accompanied with many mistakes, especially as a beginner.

Mistakes are inevitable.

You will come across them. This is why you must always have an eraser with you.

The essence of an eraser is to erase any error that may emerge in your drawing.

However, you must ensure to have a good eraser that cleans mistakes neatly, without blemishing the drawing with leftover lines that are not completely erased.

There are different kinds of eraser. Get the one that is suitable for you.

9. Colour Unification

How your colors are layered and presented matters greatly.

What gives coherence and cohesion to your drawing is how unified your colors are.

Colors have a way of portraying mood. Color psychology has an underlying and subtle towards our perceptions of a reaction.

Have it unified.

10. Take a Look at Your Drawing

In the course of drawing, you might have been marooned to a single spot, for a long time.

However, don’t forget to have a glance at your work every now and then. Learning drawing involves a lot of reflection, and it doesn’t hurt to step back and look at your masterpiece.

Doing this can serve as a guide against mistakes and imperfections which may be unnoticed until you probably finish.

Special inspection should be made especially when you are moving from simple lines to complex lines in your drawing.

This is to ensure that you have the correct format for your drawing.

11. Keeping Your Paper Safe

Your paper is a key tool that will determine the beauty and elegance of your drawing.

You have to ensure that your paper is kept intact and free from stains and defects.

Such stains can reduce the quality of your drawing. One of the ways your paper can be stained is through the sweats oozing from your hands.

It can muffle up your paper. To avoid this, you can keep a paper under your hand, so your hand won’t be having direct contact with your drawing paper.

This makes your drawing neat. You can also stamp your drawing paper on aboard.

This is relatively a good position as it will give you a chance to draw more conveniently.

12. Draw From Your Experience

Why we make art? – We make art to tell stories.

There is no limit to the number of things you can draw.

Anything you see in the world can be drawn.

The entire universe can be reduced to the four corners of your drawing paper.

Not only that, even things that have not existed before can be drawn by you.

That’s why it’s art! Draw from your experience.

The key thing you must master is perception.

As an artist that’s drawing, you must be someone that perceives the world around you.

Be inspired by those things you see or feel. Don’t be boxed in a corner.

Explore.

Draw from your experience.

Learning Drawing – Conclusion

Drawing is the most natural form of art.

It presents art to you in its purest form. Drawing trains you to see the world more clearly

Even photography, despite its precision and exactness in capturing images exactly as they are, cannot contend with the pure elegance of drawing.

Imagine a portrait of yourself drawn with a pencil. You can’t help but marvel at its beauty.

It is highly probable that you’ll cherish the portrait even more than a photograph.

Drawing is a gift you should nurture. It is rewarding and fun.

With the modern world slowly forgetting about it, you will have an edge over others for knowing this ancient skill.

Do you want to know the art of drawing?

It involves a lot of practice. Learning drawing isn’t a simple decision. You may be making some mistakes, but don’t walk away and give up. Just keep practicing.

With time, your hands will strike a deal with your pencil and paper.

To enhance your skill, you can practice the guides given in this article and color your paper with life!

• What Is Beauty in Art?
• Why We Make Art? What Motivates Artists to Make Art?
• Frida Kahlo Paintings – Her Lust for Life
• The Subject of Pregnant Women in Art – Hope II by Gustav Klimt
• 10 Awesome Acts That Can Radically Bring Out Your Creative Side.
• What Makes Art Sell

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The universe is everything you see and cannot even see.

Scientists make incessant researches to find more facts about the universe.

No one knows exactly how vast it is.  Many jaw-breaking wonders can be seen in the universe – stars, planets, meteoroids, comets and even the concept of gravitational force holding the universe together – are some of these wonders.

Consisting of billions of billions of stars, our solar system is just but a speck in the vastness of the universe.

The solar system, however, houses a planet that accommodates a unique set of beings. The planet earth houses a special wonder in the universe. These wonderful and unique beings are humans; jewels of the universe.

The Uniqueness of Human Beings

It is not a debatable fact that humans are the most intelligent creatures that live on earth.

Humans have demonstrated their uniqueness in diverse ways.

A look at the modern world is more than enough proof to showcase the creativity and exceptionality of humans.

Over centuries of existence on earth, humans have been able to unravel many concepts in various fields such as mathematics, psychology, sciences, arts, and medicine – this is one of the distinguishing reasons what makes us human

Moreover, the discoveries found in these fields are used to transform the world; from living in huts to living in mansions, from wearing hides and skins to putting on clothes made of wool and fabrics, from traveling on foot to animals and airplanes.

Discoveries in the field of medicine have helped humans in resisting diseases, thus ensuring good health. The most outstanding quality of humans is their ability to exhibit communication skills effectively. The most salient of these skills is speaking. Only humans are capable of speech production. These unique features are what makes us human

Humans as Social Beings

Humans can live and survive in isolation, however, it is the nature of humans to live as a group.

Imagine being the only person living in a place, you can’t help but feel lonely. However, loneliness is not the adverse effect of living in isolation. The things you know now, you could not have learned them if you had been isolated from other humans.

Human communication is learned only in the environment of humans, not in isolation.

Also, moral values are ingrained in you as a result of your inclusion in the society of humans.

You can know what is right from wrong, make a reasonable judgment in required situations and even show emotions because of your relationship with other humans.  All these cannot be learned in isolation. This is why we are social beings. We live as a group, as a society, and that what makes us human

It is our sociality with one another that differentiates us and makes us have a sense of belonging to one tribe or country.

Society of people brings about the emergence of a culture which is the total way of life of a group of people. This culture shapes the behavior and attitude of individuals to the world.

The culture of your society where you’re groomed will determine your behavior and experience of life. It is through its lenses that you will view the world.

Culture can be acquired through teaching, learning, imitation and other means of cultural transmission.

This cultural integration and transmission cannot be passed from one human to another in isolation. It can be transferred only within the confines of a social group or setting.

This is why humans are social beings.

Introspection Ability of Humans

As humans, we can examine our emotions and thoughts inwardly. This is a thinking process that is unique and peculiar only to humans.

It is one of the things that makes us human. Introspection is the means through which you know the processes that occur in your mind.

It is an examining process that enables you to know your very personality through the way only you can understand. The concept of introspection is a key topic in epistemological philosophy.

Psychologistically Egoistic, Then Altruistic

As humans, we need certain things for survival. We need food, clothing, and shelter. The absence of these basic needs can make survival narrow and difficult.

It is only natural that we take care of ourselves by finding these basic needs for ourselves before others. For instance, should you hear the sound of a bomb, the first thought that will cross your mind is to run for shelter to protect yourself, you may then think of others. This is what makes us psychologically egoistic. We aim at safeguarding and providing comfortability for ourselves first before others. It is a trait that can be found in all humans.

Moreover, despite our psychological egoism, we can also be altruistic. However, chances are that we can exhibit this trait if our interest has been satisfied first. Egoism and altruism are the interest of psychology and philosophy.

The Human Brain

The human brain is the center of intelligence where creativity and imaginative power of humans reside, probably, one of the logical reasons of what makes us human

Researches from the neurological field and other related fields have shown that no human being has been able to potentially use it fully.

The brain is so complex that it is more sophisticated than the universe itself, as stated by Norman Cousins, “Not even the universe with all its countless billions of galaxies represents greater wonder or complexity than the human brain.”  It is the center for mental faculty functioning such as imagination, intuition, introspection, thinking, reasoning and innovation. It is used every moment of our lives. Without the brain, survival is impossible.

It is the brain that gives us clues for survival. It is a special organ that gives us uniqueness.

Humans’ Connection to Art and other Creative Pursuits

The human mind is creative and innovative.

Creativity is one of the demarcating landmarks that differentiates us from animals. It is what makes us human.

Owing to the complexity and organization of our brain, we can think logically and rationally than any other being on earth and the universe. This thinking ability gives us the enablement to figure out things and solve problems.

Through creativity, we can bring to life what never existed before. In the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval period, there was no such thing as a cell phone. However, the soaring rate of technological innovations in the present modern world has not only produced cell phones but cars, computers, robots, artificially intelligent machines and many more. Innovation and creativity can rightly be said to be the weapon of survival for humans.

Moreover, being an emotional and sensitive being, we have a deep connection to art. Art is life. If there is anything that brings out the creativity embedded in us, it is art. There is a deep connection between a painter and his paints.

That is why a legendary painter like Leonardo da Vinci can paint Mona Lisa.

There is a deep connection between a musician and sounds. This explains the reason why great composers like Ludwig Beethoven and Wolfgang Mozart can compose breath-taking musical pieces.

All humans have a connection, however small, to art, apparently, one of the reasons what makes us human

Connection with Literature & Music

Literature as an art is the mirror of life.

It reflects the way of life of a group of people. Literature has three genres which are drama prose and poetry. Each of these genres is the means through which writers exhibit their creativity in writing. Through these genres, writers creatively express human life experiences and behaviors. The essence of life and even its vanity is explored in the realm of literature.

One of the prominent genres of literature is poetry. It expresses emotional feelings. Literature is everywhere. It is through connection however that it can be drawn out. Through creativity, writers connect to the realm of literature and bring out its power.

Same applies to music. The connection of humans to music is intense and almost indescribable. We naturally love it. It is hard, if not impossible, to find someone that has an abhorrence for music.

Although people can be choosy about the “type” of music they prefer to listen to, the point is that every human is a lover of music. Music is a powerful medium through which creativity can be expressed.

Music composers and instrumentalists, through their connection to music, display their creativity by producing pleasant sounds capable of stirring different emotions in the mind of listeners.  However, you don’t have to be a musician before you can have a connection to music. The connection is inherent. The fact that music is capable of effecting an emotional change within you shows you’re in a way connected to it.

This is what makes us human.

Closing Thoughts

Humans are a special breed in the universe. Our uniqueness is a function and result of possessing the most sophisticated organ in the universe – the brain. Through the effective use of the brain, we can make rational decisions and improve the world around us.

We can create and innovate things through our creativity. We are also drawn and connected deeply to art where we express ourselves through creative writing, painting, drawing, dancing, music, sculpture and other creative pursuits. This display of creativity and connection to art is what makes us special.

It is what makes us human.

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