What kind of art sells best?

As an artist who actually does a decent business selling fine art online, I often get into discussions with other artists regarding this question. While I haven't conducted any kind of formal research into the matter, I do spend a great deal of time every day looking what other artists are selling. I have a pretty good idea of what kind of art sells well online and what sells poorly. Keep in mind that these are just my observations. Individual results may vary.

Subjects That Sell Best

Icons

The art that I see sell the most by far online is what I call Icons. Of course the #1 subject of icon images of all time is Jesus. Other religious figures come in a distant second. However, this category covers secular icons as well: celebrities, popular fictional characters, athletes, popular musicians, historical figures, etc. One thing to be careful of though if you intend to make this kind of art is legal issues. You're welcome to try and sell your images of Mickey Mouse, but don't be surprised if you get a letter from Disney threatening legal action.

Landmarks

The next best seller I see is landmarks. I guess people like to be reminded of the places where they've lived, visited or dreamed of visiting. These kinds or artworks are especially good for selling online in that the name of the landmark makes for a good search engine term.

Landscapes

Historically known as the best selling subject for art, it still sells well online. I particularly see lots of images of beaches and of mountains selling - the extremes of elevation.

Animals

One of my favorite subjects is animals, but only certain animals sell well. By far, the best selling type of animal art online is that which depicts horses. Other great selling animals include giraffes and dogs.

My best selling piece happens
to be a Native American themed one.

Native American

Native American themed artwork also sells quite well, but be careful to be respectful of the culture. If you publish an artwork that is insulting, the amount of negative response can sink your whole gallery.

Themed Still Life

Generic still lifes do sell, but the ones that sell best have some sort of theme going. I see lots of what I call "Occupational" still lifes moving, that is, artwork depicting the tools of some profession or hobby.

Art That Sells Poorly

Manga

These are the Japanese cartoons. They are a VERY popular style, especially for beginning artists, but manga art just doesn't seem to sell. Also, keep in mind, that there is floods of this stuff on the web. If you decide to try and sell manga art, you have a huge amount of competition.

Fantasy Art

Fantasy art, dragons and elves and such, is another one of those subjects that is very popular with artists, but just does not sell well. The exception is art depicting popular characters which would fall under my "Icon" subject above.

Abstract

Here is a form of art that may do well at art shows and brick-and-mortar galleries that just does not do well online. My theory is that this has to do primarily with it being hard to describe with good searchable keywords. People looking for stuff on the internet use text based search engine. That means the title and description of artwork that you are trying to sell on the web should be rich with good concrete searchable keywords. The nature of abstract art just makes this more difficult.

Nudes

This is another one of those favorite subjects of artists that I just don't see selling that much. It might attract lots of visitors to your online gallery, but the conversion rate to a print sale is low. People may want to look at this kind of artwork, but getting them to hang it on their walls is a challenge. This subject might also suffer from safety filters on search engines.

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Now I'm not saying you, as an artist, should only make art with the subjects that sell well and avoid those that don't. Some of those very things that don't sell well may still attract visitors to your online gallery. Fantasy images my not sell well, but people still like to look at them. You can still use these kinds of art to bring attention to your gallery, but you may need to seed your gallery with some more better selling subject matter.

One more thing...

One thing that any artist aspiring to sell online should consider above and beyond the subject of a piece of art is how it looks as a thumbnail image. The first view that the vast majority of potential customers sees of any of your art will likely be a thumbnail. Cluttered images with poor composition may not shrink down well. Keep this in mind when you are making art for sale online.

Regards,
Daniel
P.S. Don't forget to check out my gallery: DanielEskridge.com!