Collecting original artwork has developed a reputation to be a hobby reserved for the rich and famous, but in reality, it can be done by art enthusiasts on any budget. If starting a personal art collection interests you, this article will provide some tips and tricks to make the collecting experience enjoyable and affordable.

1. Consider Your Motivations

The first step to collecting original art is determining your motivations for your collection. Are you looking for investment pieces, to support emerging artists, for a specific style to match your home or all of the above? What inspires your collection will affect how you find art to purchase, which leads us to our next piece of advice on finding original art for sale.

2. Take Time to Develop Your Taste

Developing your collection should be a gradual experience. As you acquire more pieces, it will become easier to understand your taste as an art enthusiast, so take your time. You can begin by browsing through museums and galleries to see and keep track of what catches your eye. Art books and magazines can also be helpful to establish your preferences for various styles or mediums.

3. Experiment at a Lower Price Point

Treat your first few art purchases as trial runs; the success or failure of these purchases will provide you with the insight necessary to move forward with your collection. Lack of experience with collecting can result in a greater risk that you may be dissatisfied with your art purchases. Because of this, it is important to begin with a budget that allows for a greater margin of error. Art marketplaces such as Bidgala are ideal for beginners looking to purchase art because you are able to experiment in a lower price range as you are exploring the art of emerging and up-and-coming artists.

4. Value Quality Over Quantity

Once you have a general idea of the type of art you are looking for to begin your collection, you can alter your budget in a way that will allow you to prioritize quality over quantity. Remember that it is not about curating the entire collection at once - rather, it is searching for pieces that will contribute the most to the goals of your collection. Furthermore, consider whether you are aiming to build your collection in a consistent fashion or if you prefer to purchase more organic discoveries.

5. Logistics

Finally, don’t forget the logistics of an art collection. Aside from budget, is there ample space in your home for the purchases you are making, have you considered mounting and framing, and how do you plan on preserving the longevity of your artwork? All of these considerations require ample research and planning, so be sure that you are ready to commit to your collection.

6. Continue to Explore Art

Don’t be afraid of your taste changing as your collection develops. Variation in your preferences is natural and should be embraced. Replace displayed pieces you no longer love, take risks, and indulge in your inclinations towards different styles and techniques. Art collections are ever-evolving as will your exploration of the art world.

The art of looking at things from a different point of view always opens up new ideas. This is a common task that every creative person and art enthusiast practices to develop their artistic skills. The above-shown picture clearly portrays an example of seeing a dry leaf as a person’s face. The veins and the patterns in the leaf are seen as part of the face. There are plenty of ways to come up with ideas and there are no limits to it.

Getting inspirations from nature:

The moment we step outside, we are connected with various inspirations that are very simple yet effective. If you’re someone who loves to document minor details, then this is the best exercise to develop your creative skills.

One of the many things that artists do is take cues from nature for their artworks. As an art lover, you can take inspiration from nature. If you’re a person who loves watching sunsets, then you can take advantage of the amazing and vibrant colour palettes that can be captured as the sun disappears below the horizon. The gradient and the slow tinge of bright sun rays are a treat to watch and get inspired by.

There are a lot of other sceneries like a scene from a park with a lake view that can give a palette of cool blues and grays. A walk along the neighborhood can open up to a palette of green shades. Nature always reveals beautiful colours of different hues that one might wonder about how they naturally exist.

Character development from objects:

Developing characters from objects that are lying around us can be a great exercise to unveil if you are a comic artist. It can be anything from an oil container to a watering can. If an art enthusiast looks at an object, they can see it as a person with a stretched arm or something else entirely. It all depends on unlearning things and looking at our surroundings from a different perspective.

This is a fun experiment that takes a short period of time to come up with ideas. Capturing the basic shapes and elements of the object would be the first step of the process for any art lover. This can be followed by tracing the outline of the object and sketching the facial elements of the character. The final step would be filling out the colours and adding any necessary details to it.

Inspiration from books and songs:

Most of us enjoy reading books, articles or newspapers. Have you ever tried sketching out a scene from a text that you read that really inspired you? Your sketch doesn’t have to be perfect; it can be random and reflect the exact way you imagined the scene to be. Besides reading, another common daily activity is listening to music. There are a plethora of ways for art enthusiasts to get inspired by music. Songs with beautiful lyrics are one way to get inspiration for your future artworks. While some artists just go with the flow when they're creating their art by listening to a particular playlist.

This illustration was inspired from a song of which the lyrics go by

“By the foothills there are trees, near which there is a small house surrounded by loneliness around…”

The above song is translated from another language and by the Artist - Yuvan Shankar Raja

Improving our imaginary skills and sketching them out can be a fun exercise to practice. What was the last book that you read or the song you recently listened to, that you can sketch out right away?

1. "Visit to Picasso"

Versatile Belgian director, Paul Haesaerts's 1949 short film noir documentary, "Visit to Picasso'', follows a medium shot of the venerable, multidisciplinary Spanish painter's techniques, as an inverted camera shot of his gentle yet seamless brushstrokes across a glass canvas visualizes a series of abstract imageries, fades in lap dissolve scenes of his final product. An enthralling, melodramatic, non-linear narrative capturing Pablo Picasso's intimate creative process with eloquent cinematic compositions to showcase evocative details of his signature African Art and Cubism aesthetics.

2. "The Agony and Ecstasy"

Eminent English director, Charles Reed's 1965 American historical drama film, "The Agony and Ecstasy", set during the turbulent religious climate of the Italian Renaissance, a resurrection of intellectual, philosophical, literary, and creative movements, encompasses the vivid rendition of the esteemed sculptor, Michelangelo Buonarotti's biography (Charles Heston). After Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison) commissioned the eclectic artist to produce 40 marble statues for his tomb, instead reconsiders a mural of the Sistine Chapel, an unanticipated turn of events that shadows skepticism in Michelangelo's abilities who consequently renounces. Nonetheless, a climactic series of tribulations following a divine epiphany imbued his novel artistic flair and motivates his return to the preeminent mural, but rebelled against the austere pope's ideal vision. The film's entirety is a chronicle of monarchical ferments and reformation efforts to usurp the Catholic church’s transcontinental dominance during the 16th century with astute visuals, epitomizing religion as an ethos for cultural progression and collective ethnic identity, paralleled throughout historical art movements.

3. "Painters Painting: The New York Art Scene"

Revered American director and political documentarian, Emile de Antonio, widely distinguished for his activist film oeuvre which produced a gamut of formidable time capsules, shedding light on prosperous aesthetic epochs. Yet, his 1970 production "Painters Painting: The New York Art Scene" is a particular cinematic canvas, illustrating unique stories of preeminent figures such as William de Kooning and Andy Warhol. He deftly captures America's vibrant artistic milieu by exploring the advent characteristics of abstract expressionism into renowned Pop Art Movements, notably espoused in Hard Edge and Color Field techniques.

4. "Seraphine"

French director, Martin Provost, largely renowned for his 2008 drama film, "Seraphine", unravels the tumultuous, emotionally-riveting biography of French painter Seraphine de Senlis Louis. Actress Yolande Moreau exceptionally plays as an aspiring Primitivist painter whose fingers are drenched in animal blood, church candle wax, and dirt, as she fervently strokes vivacious shades of life into an array of trees and flowers, engraved on material creations infused with her spiritual sentiments. Trapped in the impoverished toils of a maidservant for bourgeois residents in Senlis, yet decades of procuring her hidden creative flair was fortuitously discovered by an influential German collector, Wilhelm Uhde, determined to enrapture the art world with Louis' ingenious works.