Rising prices

I went out for dinner to a friends house the other night. Its a house I go to regularly and always get pleasure from seeing the artwork on the walls there..... partly because one of the drawings is mine, and hangs prominently on the wall there. Its not an erotic one, just a vanilla one. And there was also another painting there, in the same room, done by an artist I've known for some years now and see occasionally. Its a lovely painting of his, with beautiful ethereal blues and hazy purples and I always take pleasure in seeing it again. And by coincidence I had been in his company the day before. He's a nice guy and we always have a how-are-you-what-are-you-doing-at-the-moment? type of chat. I had mentioned to him that I've finally found my niche in the artistic market, since I had last seen him, and was painting erotic artwork nowadays. He did the usual man thing of wanting to know my website address so he could view it!! Women generally go quiet and men generally ask for my website when I tell them I'm an erotic artist!! He also gave me a piece of very useful advice - about raising the prices considerably on my artwork - he said not to be scared of putting a high price on my artwork. He knows, as well as I do, that a higher price may put some people off and lose a sale, BUT it can also attract a different type of buyer. Someone who is looking for an investment, and knows the price will increase in value over time, as an artists profile is raised and the artist becomes more of a commodity. And later on, whilst eating dinner with my friends, who had no knowledge of this conversation I'd had with my artist friend, they jokingly made reference to them helping me to raise my profile, because they know that the picture they have on their wall will increase in value. Certainly, the price I charged them for it all those years ago when I did it, would certainly have a lot different price on it now if I did it. They know they have an investment already. That's good to know, that that's how they view it.

And on to what I'm painting this week - I've almost finished the first erotic landscape of New York and am delighted with how its going. It's been a slow process because it's been painted in oils, and I have to keep waiting for various areas to dry before I can do the next bit. I started off with an acrylic under-painting, then built up the colours of the sky, and the river before starting the detail of the skyscrapers. I realised soon after that that the sky needed to be darkened to make the skyscrapers stand out more, so I did that, and then put in the mid-tone underlighting of the buildings ready for the actual "lights" to be painted on top of. Then I was ready to put in the detail of the erotic couple, I knew that I would spend a lot of time getting them to look right, but they also needed to be subtly hidden within the buildings too. It was clear that the area they reside in had to be dulled down in colour and tone, so that the viewers eye wouldn't go immediately to it - so that's what I did. And ...... then........ the BIG and MOST important part of the painting - putting on the lights of New York! - they all had to go on in one painting session, so that they would look uniform in shape and colour and style. Deep breath....... and on with it............ and at the end the whole thing had that "WOW" factor - suddenly, the whole thing has come alive, and at the same time, the judicious use of lighting has simultaneously, hidden the erotic couple too!!!! Yay!!!! I'm really happy with it, and have almost finished it - just have to wait for this part to dry before I put the highlights on the water, and then spend time just looking at it and correcting any glaring imperfections, and it'll be done. Just got to think of a title now.......... I've got a few ideas already, I'm just mulling them over to see what feels right.......