We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Annika Koser a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Annika, thanks for joining us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)
The best investment I’ve made so far was buying a printer so I could make all of my own prints. I’ve seen a huge difference in just a couple months in how much I’m able to keep out of each sale instead of spending so much on getting the prints made. It used to cost me around $24 per print (including plastic sleeves and shipping tubes) to outsource them but now I can make them myself for around $7, so a big difference! It’s also been really nice to make them to order instead of ordering a large quantity and hoping they sell then being stuck with a stack and not selling enough to even cover the cost of the initial order. Investing in a nice printer (I have the Epson SureColor P900, for anyone else that may be thinking about investing in their own!) was a huge way to cut down my expenses and allow me to keep more of my earnings!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m an artist based out of central Pennsylvania specializing in photorealistic motorsports painting. Acrylic paint is my go to medium, and I started practicing around six years ago; I’ve loved to draw all of my life and my art education only extends as far as three years of drawing classes in high school, so when I came home from a year at college and wanted to spend more time creating art again I reached for acrylic paint because I didn’t have much practice in it and wanted to get better at it. I love spending time at the racetrack on the weekends (and have worked at one for almost 10 years now!) so that’s where the subject of my art focused. The first car I painted was of a local driver that had just passed in a racing accident and when I shared the painting online it reached sprint car fans across the country and I started getting messages from people asking me to paint their favorite drivers. That developed into people asking for prints of finished paintings and having a list of more than ten commissions lined up at any given point! Due to the amount of details I pack into a painting they take me around three weeks to complete, which means that I was booked for months in advance. As my work reached more race fans I was able to charge more for originals and sell more prints, and eventually I quit my job to make art my full time focus- that was almost exactly two years after my first photorealistic painting. Since then my work has reached three countries and forty two states! I’m most proud of how much detail I pack into a piece; it’s taken thousands of hours of practice to be able to do the smallest details and match shades just right and I’m proud of how I’ve taught myself different techniques to create effects to make a painting so lifelike. Many times when I’m doing in person shows I get the reaction of “did you take these photographs?” then get to see the shock on their face when I tell them it’s a painting! My work is also currently sold out of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum, which is something I’m incredibly proud of and would have never guessed would happen when I first started!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
The biggest struggle for any creative is getting paid appropriately for their work. The time that they spend on an individual piece, but also the amount of years that they put into practicing their craft to put out the level of quality that people expect adds up to much more than people are willing to pay for a piece. Then when you add the cost of materials to the equation it gets even worse! That’s where I’ve struggled the most since making art my full time job, is pricing my work where I feel like it’s fair to myself but that people are willing to pay it. I’ve had folks look at a painting and go “I don’t know, that’s a lot for a picture.” on a $1,200 painting that I spent three weeks creating! I’d love to be able to break down for them the amount of hours put in plus cost of all my supplies so they understand how much I’m truly earning after all of that is factored in.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is knowing that I’m totally in control of my success. There are times that I have to work extra hours or do the not so desirable parts of running a business like bookkeeping and keeping my website up to date (I am no tech wizard!) and figuring stuff like that out but I realize that if I suck it up and invest time in that, that it’ll allow me more freedom and flexibility of my schedule. When I put in the extra hours and watch it result in more sales or new customers and I get the feeling that art can be a sustainable thing for me it feels incredible and I’m really proud of myself for figuring things out to where I can have that kind of freedom as a result of doing something that I loved to do with my free time anyhow!
Contact Info:
- Website: annikakoserart.com
- Instagram: @annikakoser_art
- Facebook: Annika Koser Art
- Twitter: @annikakoser_art