I recently read the book "The Sold Out Painter.

Today we have a book for you.

Author of "Sold Out Painter": Kenta Nakajima

I am not a painter, but I read this book because I thought it might have some necessary tips for me as a washi artist in the accessory industry, which has low barriers to entry.

After reading the book, I found the business perspective very informative. I read the book twice in a row, replacing the words "painter" and "artist" in the book with "washi artist Hiroya".

Now, from the contents of the book, here are some passages that caught my attention from my own standpoint as a manufacturing company.

• Painters can't make a living" is an excuse.
• I feel that the entire industry has used "painters can't eat" as an excuse, even though "it's hard to do any work professionally."
• It took me less than two months to create this work. It was the first picture I painted after returning to Japan with the desire to paint, and it was the first work in which I was able to directly express my motivation to paint.
• In retrospect, my strategy in life is to fight where there are few or no people to compete with. If you fight where there are no people, you have a better chance of winning. It is the same in business. I am good at finding niche demand, and I don't really like to fight head-on.
• A painter is not issued a certification by someone else. So how can one be considered a painter? The answer is to make self-consciousness a painter.
• Connections are necessary. However, if young people want to make connections, they must remember that the shortest way to do so is to work with sincerity.
• What is the reason why the prices of paintings in the industry have so far been stuck at 100,000-200,000 yen per issue? One reason is that there is no clear rationale for the price.
• I believe that "to sell one's work" is to "meet someone who cares about one's work more than oneself.
• There have been many times when a work that I myself was not so convinced of has struck a chord with someone else. It is an artist's ego to think that only he or she can understand the quality of his or her own work.
• The key is to determine where your ability to sell things fits into the field.
• Start where you can change things.
• Win the "cute" and you win the world.

Above.

I enjoyed reading this book as it was a great study of painting and exciting for me.

Sold-out washi artist."

Cool!

It's a long road, but in my own way, one step at a time!