Selling Digital Art

I recently read an interesting article from Art Info. It was about selling digital artwork. There are a lot of new things I had to consider when making the switch to drawing and painting on an iPad. The idea of an original is completely different. It's just not tangible when everything is created digitally.

Everything that's printed becomes a reproduction. The original is the file I started with on the iPad. So the question becomes how do you sell something for $800 dollars when it's digital? That was the question I had right before my Broadway Suites Art Show. After doing some digging on Flickr I learned some things.

My originals will be considered the pieces I sign personally. My signature will give it value and differentiate it from the digital file. Reproductions won't have that. I'm in the process of building several online stores to sell my work. Keeping that in mind, my potential customers need to understand what I'm doing.

That's where certificates come in. Each piece of "original" art will have an art certificate complete with an edition number. Then the pieces become a part of a limited run. After the run is sold the digital file will not appear online or be sold anywhere else. This agreement will give value to the art and create scarcity.