Transcripts
1. Intro: Hi, I'm artist Adam Palmeter. For the last few years, I've been traveling around the world working as an artist without a studio. From mural painting, writing and illustrating children's books from my iPad or performing stand-up comedy in clubs across 17 countries, as a creative remote worker, I pursued different ways to monetize my skills and painting murals is one of my best sources of income. I paint all around the world in some pretty interesting places. As the nomadic artist, it just doesn't make sense for me to have a studio. So my artwork needs to be just as mobile as I am. Canvas can be a real headache when you travel all the time. Now, I've needed plenty of practice to create murals, just like this one. That means finding a lot of walls just to build a portfolio. In order to paint a lot of walls, I've had to find a lot of walls. What do I do to find these walls? Over the past few years, I've developed a game plan that's allowed me to show up in a new city, find walls, paint murals and post art exhibition. In the past few years, I've gotten plenty of new work and commissions because of the relationships I've made with businesses, gallery curators, bar and cafe owners, office managers, lots of artists and tons of weirdos, but the good kind of weirdos, just like you and me. Walls, think of them as pieces of advertisement real estate and as you'll learn in this class, the most important thing and real estate is location. In this class, you will learn the tips and tactics I've used to get you painting your artwork on walls to help you build a mural artists portfolio. In fact, the project for this class is a photo of not only what you've painted but where you've painted and how you found the wall. I'd love to hear your tips and tricks so I can pass them off as my own. Just kidding, but I love a good story and unique artwork. So impress me. If you've made it this far into the videos and you've already passed the test of being able to listen to me. So finding a cool place to paint shouldn't be too hard for you. Now, join me in this Skillshare class as I show you how to get those walls, paint those murals and build your artist portfolio. Let's get to class.
2. Finding Your Audience: Who should I be asking to paint their walls? This is where the whole process begins, where to paint. Where do you find walls? You can't just walk into a place and ask. Yep, you sure can. In fact, that's the easiest and fastest way to find out if you can paint a wall or not. Just ask. That's the end of the class. Thank you for taking it. Goodnight. Just kidding. But you can just walk into a place and ask. Now, a fancy boutique hotel may have already spent thousands of dollars on an interior designer, so chances are pretty slim they're going to let you paint an artistic portrait of SpongeBob. However, there are loads of places you can that will be an easier sell, but we're going to take a deeper dive into that a little later. For now, let me share some of the places I usually look for, cafes and coffee shops, bars and clubs, restaurants, co-working offices, barber shops, salons, schools, hostels, even outhouses, or even public parks and municipalities. In these past few years, I have had to look at it like every opportunity is an opportunity, and it's given me a chance to really understand what works for my artwork. Not all walls are created equal and through experience, you'll have an understanding as well, but first, you got to have the experience. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something, and those hours don't just happen. Will I accomplish 10,000 hours of painting murals? Of course. But I don't need 10,000 hours to start finding walls and getting paid for artwork. One of the easiest ways and my favorite way to find a wall is to grab my bag of paint, my iPad, brushes, a giant cup of coffee, and head out looking for a space to paint. Comfy shoes is the name of the game, and I do a lot of walking, but it might be the best way for me to explore a part of the city and get me closer to businesses than I would if I was driving along a street. Finding the right place for your art takes a few considerations, but it all starts with finding places, so I approach people all the time. Over the past few years, I've been finding walls to paint, and you're asking someone to use a piece of their business real estate. Trust me, they are nervous, but it can be exciting. Do some work to come up with ideas, have a vision, and get them to share it with you. It can be a big risk for them if the mural was not what they had in mind, so be sure to be clear as to what your ideas are for the mural that will fit their wall. Now that we've gotten some ideas for who we are asking to paint their walls, let's have a chat about what we are painting in our next video. Let's go, keep it moving.
3. Your Style: Now we've found a wall. Congratulations. But as we've mentioned, walls are real estate. Let's stop and think realistically if your artwork is a good fit for the wall. Where is the wall? Who's going to see it? Are the owners of that wall going to be happy with giving you this opportunity and what you've chosen to paint? If you're painting a bloody werewolf with fangs surrounded by lightning, pretty cool. But maybe the daycare center isn't a great match for this brand of artistic expression. The same is if your illustration anime-style cartoons may not be the best fit for the trendiest cafe in town or my abstract line work would be a poor choice for the Mayan ruins. This is why it's good to scope out areas of a town or city where you are and get a feel for where your artwork would best belong. Remember, comfy shoes. Head down the road and start looking at walls as if they were canvas. Let's start to think about what we are painting. Now, for murals, I mostly paint an abstract organic style, so I keep my eyes peeled for a good fit for my artwork. First off, if a place already has murals or artwork displayed, that's a great sign. They might be open to you painting as well. They've clearly already worked with one artist. They might even be looking for an upgrade or to simply change up the theme. Here you come on your white horse to save the day. I also look for a modern cafe or a co-working office with that Scandinavian aesthetic. That means one of those cafes that are very minimal or even like 'are you guys even open yet?' look, you know what I'm talking about. But for me, that means they usually have a lot of bright open walls and perhaps they are bored of having a cafe full of nothing. If you have a style that might fit there, that's where I would start because that's where my style would fit. I can actually see it there and I even have my portfolio to show examples so the potential client has an idea as well. Stop and think about where you would expect to find what you would paint. There are all kinds of businesses out there and plenty of space for artists who can create fine art, portraits, mandalas or graffiti and street art. You know your style, so check out where you think it makes the most sense. You will start to look at places differently. Almost everywhere I go now, I instinctively ask myself what would be the best piece of art for this place and where would that painting go. Which brings us up to our next video. Let's talk about the importance of where we paint. There's a lot of factors that go into my decisions and they have been central for me in building this profitable portfolio. Let's jump right in.
4. Where to Paint: Where's the best place for me to paint my murals? Well, it depends on what your goal is. The purpose of this class is to build a portfolio. So the answer to where is everywhere. Ask friends or family members if you can paint on their wall, practice at home, and buy a can of paint that matches your wall if you want to start over. Ask a cafe or restaurant you go to. Ask. If you're an artist looking to paint places a bit more seriously, then venture out into the world or town. Usually, corporate chains like fast food or department stores are not a great option as they have to get a regional manager who's got to talk to another manager and they got to sign off and it's usually not worth the hustle for what we are trying to do. Personally, I need eyes on my work, and that means foot traffic. Painting murals all around a city is like basically dropping off very large business cards telling potential clients and passers-by where they can find me. When I lived in New York City, I would try and sell my artwork on some of the most touristy streets in the city because there was a constant flow of new potential customers who were in the market for something cool and very New York. Having that many people walking by only increased my chances of getting that sale. Even though I'm not selling art on the street anymore, I'm still trying to get that foot traffic. Think of what you might be able to do to optimize the amount of eyes on your work. Start by looking for places that are near the main tourist areas. Research areas where you may have the best chance of finding a place that fits your artwork and is a popular part of the city,. There's a better chance that you're going to find a more diverse and even international cross-section of people who just may be new social media fans of your artwork or even potential clients. Ps, I always sign with my social media handle, which is just my name very clearly, and people walking by can immediately see where they can contact me, check out my other work, buy original artwork, hats I've designed, or any of my designs available on hundreds of products through my print on demand websites. For me, finding places to paint that help me make local connections have had the biggest impact on my career, as well as my network of contacts. Schools, educational centers, or even businesses that you frequent that could stand a little help in the interior design department, these are great places to find walls. I've always made an effort to connect with the cities that I paint because I travel so much and in most cases, return to the cities where I now know people. But let's say you don't travel, there's still plenty of ways to connect with your own community. Honestly, that's probably easier. But you can research charitable or community organizations, see if there are opportunities. Remember, every opportunity is an opportunity. I've invested a little of my own money into mural donating and has led to lasting relationships that have gotten me other work. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who's got a friend, they went to school with, this guy's cousin, they met at a summer camp 10 years ago and lives with Jennifer who's dating Ron and they just open a new cafe and they have a wall that would be perfect for your art. Pretty far-fetched example, but it might work. But this is how networking as an artist works. You never know, you only know that this interaction will not happen if you don't paint. Also, try to trade. I found that this creates a fun dynamic art for whatever the company or business does, big or small as you want it. With free murals, I've learned to barter artwork for meals, haircuts, tattoos, tacos, co-working memberships, naps, lots of naps, and even more naps and sometimes even long Airbnb stays. By being flexible with negotiating within someone else's terms, you don't leave empty-handed. I've been able to nurture relationships that have helped me along the way traveling the world. Think of this as that profitable practice that we mentioned earlier. Side note, in the class projects, maybe you're into this idea for trading, please show me what you've traded artwork for. So again, I can steal your ideas and pass them off as my own. Let's move on to the second part of where, as in where is your wall, indoor or outdoor?
5. Outdoor Walls: It's best to approach a wall by asking a series of questions. Is this wall porous or is it smooth? Is there a coat of paint already on it? Is the paint matte or is it gloss? Does it matter? How is the lighting situation? I don't want to paint in a dark corner. Is there a possible leak? Did I forget my dad's birthday? Shit. Dad. There's a ton of questions but don't stop asking them. All walls are different, but after gaining experience, this will become an easier process. Now, let's go over some differences an outdoor walls versus indoor walls. Outdoor walls, exposed. Think of the elements here. Sun. Will it get a lot of direct sunlight? That can be a factor if you're using cheaper water-based acrylics. Maybe check out how the wall looks at different times of the day, if possible. Rain. Depending on what your medium is, but again, not great for water-based paint, it could drip and smear and ruin all your hard work. To be safe, I would usually go with a latex-based acrylic that should get a few more miles and possibly years out of your mural. Fire. Try to keep your paintings away from fire. In fact, let's try to keep fire away from most things, it's dangerous. If you learn anything today, don't play with fire. That one's free. Because painting outdoors, they need to be durable walls. It can be rough bricks, cinder blocks, or it could be a smooth layer of concrete, but usually built for the outdoors. Using aerosol spray paint cans is a great way to make a brick wall look better, getting the most thorough and overall coverage of the painted area, and probably the best in terms of longevity of material after the mural is finished. At least better than most brushes. Brushes still work, but it can really depend on the condition of the wall, as well as the quality of the paint you are using. Enamels will dry hard and shiny like most spray paint, but will have a short-lasting but strong odor as the oil-base dries up. Pro tip, wear a mask if you're using enamels or aerosols. Inhaling large amounts of these paints is not good for you. Mask up like the one in the photo. If you're not using aerosol or enamels, I've found that latex-based acrylics work quite well. When they dry, they have a bit of a shiny plastic sheen to them, that does a good job of mimicking aerosols without the harsh smell. That's enough for the wilderness. Let's move indoors.
6. Indoor Walls: Now let's talk about indoor murals. Indoor usually means climate control. Don't have to worry about the elements like fire. Most walls are usually a sheetrock or something nice and smooth made for painting. Have a look at the next wall you seeing, give it a touch. Don't get weird, but see what the wall feels like. I usually get a sense of how a painting will look once I get up close and have a good look at the wall, but most times you just end up painting any wall. Try to make a test patch, if possible, in a corner so you can even get a better idea of how the paint will hold against that wall. The benefits of that is there is a better chance of that mural being around for a while and not exposed to the elements. Again, I generally use a water or late-text-based acrylic for indoor murals. It's tough to use spray paint as the strong fumes could be a concern for the business, so I generally use high-quality standard acrylics that are water-based so they don't smell as they dry, the way spray paint and other oil-based paints might. Here's another thing to consider. Your miracles are not forever. This is about building a portfolio of photographs to document your work, but walls of pieces of real estate and real estate changes pretty quickly. Art on Canvas usually stays art on Canvas, but unfortunately, these walls ain't loyal. One day a younger, more talented, and attractive artist will come along and steal the heart of that wall and your wall will be painted over. I thought we had something. Or the business closes and new landlords want a fresh start. Either new landlords or a new artist or a thousand other reasons my murals get painted over all the time. Because I'm constantly on the go, many times the day I finish a mural is the last time I'll see it. So keep in mind that this can be a good exercise and letting go. We had to paint over your mural. What? That lesson is free, you don't even have to pay for that, but here's why you need a good photograph. We are building a visual portfolio. Most phones today have a fantastic camera, so that is usually the easiest option. I have had professional photographers come and photograph my work for shows, and that does cost money or try and trade for a painting. Go on, try, but the end result of hiring a photographer have always been worth it for me. If you don't have access to a photographer, maybe the business where you're painting does. Use their network as much as your own, so many people have nice cameras and they may or may not know how to use them, but it's not that hard to track down someone with a good camera. When I started, I use my phone for showing examples of my portfolio, and that worked just fine, but if you have access to a good camera, get the best shots you can, even do a little saturation editing if you can make the photos pop just a bit more. I won't tell anyone, but our goal is to create a portfolio. If you're on the run like me, always get a photo when you're done. So take all these ideas into consideration while you're out hunting for walls. When you see one that fits, you'll just know because in our next video we discuss when to approach these businesses and how to ask, I'm excited, are you excited? You should be. This is exciting. That's good cough syrup.
7. Your Elevator Pitch: The time to talk about business is during business hours, right? Maybe. I generally go out during business hours to find walls of cafes, restaurants, and co-working offices. This gives me a sense of what their business looks like, and I can envision my work a bit more clearly when it's done. There's usually a better chance that a manager or supervisor is even around at these times for me to speak with personally. Come prepared with your elevator pitch about your artwork and why their establishment caught your eye, your iPad or tablet with examples of your best work, those dope photos we just talked about. No one wants to look at your work through the screen of a cracked iPhone. Please don't do this. The embarrassment I experienced was unbearable. Smile, this is sales. Act like you want to sell. If you don't have any examples yet, sketch something out. You should be able to give an idea of what you want to do in order to get permission to paint. This is like door-to-door cold call sales, but you have an advantage because most people like artists. Plus, I usually introduce myself with my iPad in my hand showing my lead example. I make my lead photo already visible to the client because it will draw their eyes to the best example of my art as I'm explaining who I am and why I'm bothering them at work. I would recommend about five or six examples of your best work that really helps to capture your style and give the client an idea of what to expect. Also, be nice. They can go along way. Business cards, I'm a big believer in business cards. Why? Everyone has an Instagram page and a website. They're old-fashioned, boring. Yeah, maybe for boring business people, but you're an artist, and this is a great chance to design something cool. Think of it as a little homepage that somebody can hold in their hands. Here's mine, black and white with a nice contrast, a design I did years ago of a little city skyline, and people generally like them and take them. But it has my name, a quirky title, Art Pusher, and my social media and contact info, real simple. Like again, real simple. Again, treat it like a homepage you can hold. Always leave your info and get a number or email address so you can reach out if they don't. Make a polite follow up if they don't get back because sometimes they won't, and you never really want to come off as pushy. There's a wall out there for you. Just as they say, there are plenty of walls in the sea, or something like that. You'll probably hear a lot of rejection, and it can hurt. No, thank you. I'm just not interested. I'm sorry. I just don't like your art. Please leave my store. How did you get in here? Why are you wearing my clothes? But trust me, there are plenty of opportunities out there, and you will find several walls. We're going to get a little bit deeper into your elevator pitch along with some other ways to get walls. But for now, let's move on to our next W, why.
8. Power of Portfolios: Why do you need a portfolio? Well, you need a portfolio if you are planning on taking this as a serious art-venture. The easiest way to get more work is to do more work. Practice makes perfect and perfect makes profits. Someone famous said that probably. But having a portfolio that you can not only show people but send people is something that art shows, festivals, and galleries are going to ask for a digital portfolio. If that is your goal as an artist, start today. Now you can go door-to-door just like this and find walls or you can get walls to find you. Let's talk about how I create opportunities for painting murals, how it's led me to paid gigs, put together an online exhibition, or even how I hosted an art show in a city I had never been to before. Stay tuned after this short commercial break. There's no commercials. Stay tuned after this commercial-free break and join us in the next video.
9. The Inside Scoop: Now here's the inside skinny on how I've successfully found tons of walls, jobs, opportunities, connections, and even hosted art shows in cities around the world that I've never even been to. Even if it's not your goal to host a pop-up art show, you can still use all these tips to broaden your network and get more walls. Again, ask, contact schools, charities and local municipalities and ask. But the one tactic that has the most reach is Facebook and social media. Make a Facebook post to Facebook groups. Whenever I'm traveling to a new international city, I look up and ask to join the groups for English-speaking expats and foreigners living there, as well as the digital nomad groups full of international people coming and going. Now, depending on the city, there could be several different groups and that means several different eyes. The goal here is to access other people's networks, so the more eyes on your Facebook post the better, especially if you have a very engaging post. But let's say you're not traveling, look local. Find artist and art-related groups and pages. There are tons out there. Find Facebook groups that promote neighborhood or city happenings and state your intentions. It doesn't have to be directly art-related for people to appreciate it and to reach out. Again, think of where your art might fit and find groups that may be related to your style of artwork. Here's an example. I basically put my elevator pitch in an open Facebook post and add six of my best pieces of work, and how to get in contact with me. Make it public, so people can share. When people comment on your post be sure to write back and engage with them. This helps the Facebook algorithm to ensure that more people will see your post. Simple. I asked people if they're interested to please send me photos of the wall they had in mind, as my first filter of possible walls. Ask them to send videos or close-ups of the spaces as well to help you get a better idea of what the wall looks like. One photo could be a bit deceiving so ask for a few angles of the wall. You can spend a lot of time chasing down places that for whatever reason just won't be a good fit and now you've lost a bunch of time. Time is all we have so make sure you're spending it wisely. Serious clients will respect your time. Then I just cut and paste the same Facebook post over and over again to different pages. I usually receives some more followers on social media, many compliments, as well as offers for walls in my inbox. In fact, I'm filming this class right now in a co-working office called Bunker right here in Playa del Carmen, Mexico where the manager found me and wanted a mural. I had a chance to sit down and ask him about it. I'm here with the manager of Bunker Co-working space, David Leo. He actually found me on a Facebook post and asked me to come here to paint this mural right behind us. Isn't that correct? Yeah. There you have it. Thank you, David. See, it can actually be that easy. Make those Facebook posts, but also consider donations. That same Facebook post brought me some pretty cool experiences in an animal sanctuary here in the Yucatan. [FOREIGN]. Turns out I love animals and it was a great opportunity for me to not only paint for an organization that also cares about animals, but they have a production team, which means I got some pretty good photos and videos that I can now use for my portfolio. Posting on Facebook groups is also an opportunity to ask the community, hey, who has any connections to schools or charity organizations that might be interested in a mural donation? It's a great way to make that local connection while not having to worry about a language barrier as much. So posting on Facebook is one way, but you can also get more engagement and walls in how you frame your ask. Now let's get into how to frame.
10. Frame Your Ask: Now let's talk about framing your ask. I frame posts with different headlines to engage members further. I've made posts such as "Mural painter in town looking for work." "Mural painter in town looking to donate murals to schools and charities." "Mural painter is bored and looking to paint your wall", and the ever-popular, "Free murals." But the one that has provided me with the most connections and eventual sales through networking has been, "Mural painter looking for walls to paint for art exhibition." People love to be a part of an art show. I framed this not by asking if they want a mural, but if they would like to participate in a citywide artist installation in part of an online exhibition at the end of the month or whatever time frame you might have. This is a fun one, but it takes a bit more of work and creative thinking, but you're an artist and we were built for creative thinking. You can organize an online photo album into a virtual art exhibition that you can put on your website or social media where people can go and see all the work you've done. Tag all the people, places, businesses, pets, aunts, uncles of whoever was involved, and then get those places to repost and share your online exhibition. Now you're really tapping into their networks and it's not costing you a thing more foot traffic. Or you can take it a big step further and find a place to host an art show. Have your photographs printed out for a pop-up art exhibition. If you're local and have canvas to sell, this could be a good opportunity to not only show off your recent mural work, but also try and get some sales for work you've completed that is on canvas or umbrellas or whatever you've been painting. Always have your information clearly available. This may be the most valuable tactic if you're a mural painter just starting out and looking to get walls. Remember, no one is going to do it for you, but you can make sure that your efforts to get as many people looking at your artwork and getting those walls are optimized. Now that you've got your plan of attack, it's time to get out there and start building that portfolio. Well, this has been a really fun class and I'm hoping that this gives you a bit more insight into how I get these walls. Actions speak louder than words, so now it's time for you to get out, find those walls. But before you do that now, I've got some final nuggets of wisdom to share with you on this new art venture.
11. Story Time!: Okay, now I want to talk to you about how I was able to have an art exhibition in a city I had never been to before. I arrived in Lisbon, Portugal without knowing anyone, and was still able to pull this off. Let's go through step-by-step of what I did. This one might have caused a bit of money, but I was able to offset most of the costs by leveraging my artwork for free stuff. First, most importantly, I made my post for walls. I got to the Facebook pages for the ex-pats, and the digital nomads in Lisbon, and stated my intention of, in one month's time, wanting to have an art exhibition, and I needed their walls. Once I made that post, I got so many offers for walls, I didn't know what to do with them all. This is the first time I was doing it, so it was a learning experience, but I had plenty of canvas to work with. Then, I had to begin searching for a place that would host my art show. Luckily enough, a new co-working office around the corner from my apartment called Outside, had just opened up and were interested in hosting certain kinds of events. This was one of them. After a month of searching for, and painting walls, I had to plan my opening night for my art show. There are a few considerations, including a DJ, and where to get drinks for my attendees. For the wine, I was actually able to paint a wall in a wine shop which traded me 10 cases of delicious Portuguese wine. Bam! I had drinks for all my attendees. Two, I had to find a DJ to come and entertain my friends. A friend of a friend of a friend, who happened to see this very Facebook post, reached out and said they would like to DJ this event. Drinks, DJ, event, everything's falling into place. The night was a huge success, and I had a great time. Even though I didn't sell tons of artwork, or make a lot of money, I was able to broaden my network of friends and contacts in that city, so much so that I came back the following year to host another art show. This is an example of the power of your network, and what it can do even just to put on an exhibition. That being said, let's jump into some final thoughts.
12. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I really hope this gave you enough information to start to get out there and find those walls. Building a portfolio is one of the most important things an artist can have if you want to get paid and make this your lifestyle. I hope a lot of these tips and tactics really resonated with you, so you can get out there and start painting walls just like I have. It may not be easy, but it's not impossible. I believe you can do it. Don't forget to follow me on Skillshare just by clicking the simple Follow button above. That means you'll be the first to know when I launch a new class, or have an important announcement to share with my students, just like you. Again, that Follow button is just up top. You can also follow me on Instagram @adampalmeter, and find out where I am in the world and what I am up to. Come and check out the walls I'm painting. I can't wait to see what you put in the class projects. I want to see, where you painted, what you painted. Impress me. I want to see something cool. Please, feel free to share your experiences from this class in the class project folder. If you want to learn to paint a mural, just like this, check out my class on how I painted literally this mural. To find that class, just go to my profile page and you can see all the classes I've done, including, when I painted this bad boy. If you enjoyed this class, please leave a review. I read each and every one of them, and I appreciate your time writing it. All right, guys, time to wrap this up. I appreciate you taking the class, but, hey, I got to get off this wall and on to the next one. Peace.
Adam Palmeter, Artist / Comedian / Teacher / Author
