This art adventure opened a new world of creativity for me. I am enjoying trying to get all of the ideas out of my head and “visible” for your perusing. 🙂 And, while I will continue to explore different forms and designs, the places where you can purchase them are going to change. Here is why.
Since I am new to the “selling my art” world, I do not have a big following at all. I am cutting back on the time I get to spend creating and am shifting more to my previous profession to make ends meet. Luckily for me, I have a passion for both! But, here’s what has been happening in the art and design industry.
Due to the recent AI surge, many print on demand (POD) services are changing how they operate. The problem is that people have started using AI to create designs rapidly and upload hundreds, even thousands, daily to the POD platforms. As you can imagine, this has put a huge strain on these sites. They now have to hold much more data files (the art files), which costs more, and also monitor these uploads for content.
This hurts artists.
I am not against AI, per se. I have seen some really cool creations! However, I do think that AI art should be labeled as such. Human artists take time, hours to months, to create each piece of art. AI creations take mere seconds — for multiple designs using the same user prompts!
If these POD platforms evolve in a reasonable way, there will be separate categories for artists and AI creations. If they can survive. The resources that these mega-uploaders are using is only going to increase. For example, on Society6, the artist uploads huge files for their products, from 3 (minimum recommended) to 10 (at least) large files for each design to offer on different products. Digital storage costs money.
If one is uploading one hundred AI designs per day to their Society6 store, that’s about 3,000 designs each month. (minimum 9,000 files uploaded) In 3 months, that’s 9,000 designs on your “store” to choose from. (minimum 27,000 files uploaded) Even if you have 5 (my dream!) that sell well, what happens to the other 8,995 designs? (minimum 26,985 files uploaded) The POD platform has to store them. You can see where this is going. The POD’s operating costs are skyrocketing.
One of the ways the POD businesses are responding to this is to charge artists (AI uploaders included) for uploading their designs (Many good sites didn’t used to do this.), while others are decreasing the commissions artists receive for sales.
This hurts artists. New artists especially.
Another major problem for artists is the oversaturation of these markets with exponentially more designs. Getting seen as a new artist becomes extremely daunting. Since I am very new and have not sold too much, it is cost-prohibitive for me to continue on sites where I do not already have an audience established and have to pay a monthly fee for different quantities I have listed.
For example, Society6 has a free plan for artists. This free plan allows for 10 designs (as of this writing) to be uploaded. Total. Not per month. I have widdled down my designs to 10 for their platform.
I will still have designs on POD platforms; but, they will be limited. I will update this website with my new creations and if you have your eye on something, just shoot me an email and I will try to put it on a platform you can purchase from.
Please, be patient as I retool this site to accommodate these changes. My goal is to make it simple for you to navigate and enjoy the designs. It is already very easy to contact me!
And, if you would like to sign up for a very occasional email newsletter, you will receive a free mandala coloring page from one of my books!
Thanks for taking the time to read through this! Kenna <3
