Want to pitch your artwork? Start with ‘why’.
When pitching your work to others, like your family, friends or an interested buyer, you need to have a clear pitch ready that will tell your story and inspire others to either help you with your business, or become a fan of your work. But because art is often a visual business and in a lot of cases we can only use words to describe it, there are some things you should focus on, and some common mistakes you should avoid.
“I’m a writer, and I write mostly novels based on things I experience in daily life.”
“I’m a painter, I draw portraits of people and sell my work in art galleries.”
“I’m an illustrator, I illustrate children’s books.”
While all of these sentences tell the truth about your work, it’s not something people will be inspired by and they would have a hard time connecting with you and your ideas very quickly.
“I’m a writer and I feel inspired by a lot of things in our daily lives that most people don’t see, and I think are worth reading about.”
“I’m a painter, and I love to see the beauty in every person, so I paint them and help them realize how unique they are as a human being.”
“I illustrate children’s books, I love to connect to the fantasy world that children have and adults seem to have lost throughout the years. These fantasy worlds are the inspiration to my work.”
See how these differ from each other? What did we do to change it from a factual sentence to something more personal?
We started with why. People connect to the ‘why’ behind stories more than to facts and often times when they hear a pitch without a why, in almost every case they would ask questions to get to know the reason behind your artwork. Give them a hand in this and tell the ‘why’ behind your work up front, so their next question will be one of sincere interest.
Have you figured out your why? Feel free to share your pitch in the comment section.
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