One month after my debut, my etsy shop lift-off has seen a slow start. So far, I’ve been supported by my loved ones and encouraged to fill up my empty shop slots with more artwork! With a bit of time here and there, I’ve whipped up a few new exciting pieces that I have fallen in love with and decided that there is nothing better to paint or draw than something you are super passionate about. That includes:

A pretty young lady trying out her new camera – this picture was just a sketch on my desk for the last 6 months.

A portrait of my favorite season of them all, dressed up in an autumn wreath and a cute steampunk dress.

I found that looking through your etsy shop stats can be extremely helpful!  I had many visitors find me through search terms for ball-jointed dolls, so I decided to paint another one: Minora’s pretty red hair was perfectly accented by green eyes in honor of the Christmas season.   I love green and red together.

Pirouette, my one and only BJD pic in the store, has indeed been earning me a number of shop hits; but I think she is long overdue for a new portrait.  I painted this one year ago for my dearest friend Karen (who got me started with dolls) and I think I could do a better one of her this year.  :)   Improvement is always the goal!

Re-Vamping My Shop for Success

Ultimately, reading up on etsy blogs for advice and looking through seller stories has taught me a LOT about how to make my shop better this weekend.  I’ve re-written my profile and a number of item descriptions to give them better personalities.  I must admit, I think that’s something I have been avoiding–painting is easy; writing about it is the hard part!


I took a few pointers from one spectacular etsy seller:  Berkley Illustration.  What do you know, they are merely a couple in Portland that have generated detailed animal portraits with amazing stories, and that’s earned them 30,000 sales in just four years!  I am totally inspired by their success :)   Someday I hope to also have enough artwork to have a stall at the local Saturday Market or annual Crafty Wonderland fair.

Finding a shop THAT successful has sparked me to get in gear and really start filling up my own shop with artwork that has a specific trademark personality and a focused subject matter.  However, I’m torn between what I love and what will probably sell:  the number one search term that has brought people to my artwork is “rainbow.”


Rainbow Wedding Dress Sketches, at 300 hits, was just intended to be a store filler as nothing more than a lazy day’s brainstorm.  The next most popular was my unicorn BJD print (shown above), with 100 hits.  Distressed Wedding Gown, cued in by the term “corpse bride” (another HUGE search term), was an old art project I did for a class in college in 2009 that I sold as a Halloween costume.  I’m not even sewing anymore– come on, people!

What I mean to say is, my heartfelt love for artwork lies in female figure drawing and anthropomorphizing my characters.  On the other hand, cutesy things and dresses (both wedding and corpse) may be exponentially more popular to etsy buyers than girls with antlers.  This puts me in a weird position when my goal is to paint what I love, and to try not to lose money doing it.

This data is just a snapshot from a very short period of one month, but I certainly feel like I should be integrating more rainbows, unicorns, and (zombies?) into my paintings if I want to attract more internet attention.  That sounds boring to me, but it is my job to be creative and maybe I will be taking my art in a new direction. XD  Certainly, I think it is apparent that my pictures should demonstrate a bit more focus, but that may come with time as I graduate from novice to someone with a bit more experience under her belt.

Comments and suggestions appreciated!  What do you think?  How do you find buyers without compromising your style?

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