Topics we’ll cover
Today we will talk about:
- Chameleons and frogs
- Fantasy — various fairy tale creatures and themes
- Psychedelic art
- Snake art, in general about snakes
- Countryside
- Funny cats and foxes in clip-art style or illustrations
Topic 1: Chameleon
Let’s start with the very first — it’s a chameleon. I can’t tell you anything particularly cool or interesting about chameleons, besides that there was demand — we saw something like this over the last five years. But, when you really visit Etsy, you always need to check.
There are stores with very high sales — a real flow. In such stores, it’s best to look: where are the chameleons? There are none. There’s a shell, there are birds — but no chameleon. So you can look at popular painting types based on their sales.
Topic 2: Frog — A GOOD NICHE
So, a frog — this is the best niche. Look, on Marmalade, it’s especially insensitive, shows nothing — there are some searches — 33, with low engagement, competition is, let’s say, okay, but for such demand — 8 thousand. But if you look at actual stores selling frogs, you’ll find things like popular now, bestseller. Well, a bestseller, by the way, is not a very good indicator because it might be something that sold last year, right?
But when you see something like popular now — here, by the way, with frogs, it often happens that both bestseller and popular now are present — so I wouldn’t exclude them. But they probably should be framed. I see that miniatures of frogs are sold. And generally, in stores illustrating frogs, I see quite good sales. That’s a good sign. Not 1–2 sales like with the borscht, as you remember — like 1 out of 6 thousand stars. That’s a completely different story.
Two frogs together. Don’t forget that in America, a very popular fairy tale for children is Frog and Toad — two frogs, two friends, and their adventures. It’s just the most popular children’s book. By the way, I want to tell you a little tip: words like signed oil painting will sell better — there is search demand and attraction. Don’t look at the competition now, because we’re not talking about a specific genre, type of painting — it could be still life, portrait, or anything — right? It’s about the fact that it’s signed oil painting. Just as an alternative keyword to add to your list.
Topic 3: Fantasy Painting
Okay, let’s move on to the topic of fantasy painting. First of all, I need to tell you: your imagination based on your folk tales or movies is a completely different kind of fantasy. And your fantasy won’t be bought — the buyer will buy their own fantasy.
What’s the fantasy of an American buyer? Here it is:
- Dragons
- Enchanted forest
I specifically tell you these words — enchanted forest. It’s, for example, extremely popular in the book Lord of the Rings. Be very careful with Lord of the Rings. These things become bestsellers. The books themselves and original paintings will be out of copyright only on January 1, 2044. And until then, they are under copyright. So be careful. Your personal interpretation as an artist is allowed if you don’t use something from the original books or movies.
Picture recognition on Etsy works. If you create such a painting and do not use words that are copyrighted, it’s still like Barbie core — do something in pink dress, and it will still come up in searches because of picture recognition. So, avoid using words under copyright. If you want to do something like that, I highly recommend researching this process thoroughly first.
Remember your photos. Here are just brilliant photos — showing how it looks, where the print is placed. Several options of frames for the painting are given. High-quality images are shown. When I look at the additional photos in this listing, I learn something new each time:
- Various interesting interiors
- Different ideas for walls where it can hang
- How it looks better
- What else could be added
- How the packaging of the painting looks
All of this is useful information to help your conversion rate. Let’s check Marmalade for what’s going on with dragons. Nothing special, really. Remember, 2024 is the Year of the Dragon by the Chinese zodiac. But that doesn’t mean dragons will remain popular until the end of this year. People are already looking towards next year.
Topic 4: Snakes
The demand in June was nonsense. My prediction, based on sales and rising demand, is that snake themes should be popular. If you look, the competition on Etsy is about 5.8 thousand, and it might grow. Notice what’s sold — there are sales in stores, and there’s popular now, and bestsellers. It seems this theme is just starting now.
Topic 5: Enchanted Forest
The next theme is Enchanted Forest. Note that I didn’t include a long word or even ‘painting’ — there can be a million different products under Enchanted Forest. Competition is as described, but it varies over the last five years, and there is demand.
Here are some tips from Marmalade for this keyword:
- Enchanted Forest Painting — a good tip
- Enchanted Forest Background — for wedding or birthday photos. Backdrop, a large photo
- Enchanted Forest Invitation — you can hand-draw a magical forest or create a digital invitation. Very low competition here
I already mentioned fairy tales should be American, and the theme should be clear for the American buyer. Just look around — I see that the Fairy Tale Painting theme, especially Enchanted Forest with mushrooms, castles, fairies — do your own search to see what sells best in this theme. I can tell you it’s a good topic.
Topic 6: Trippy Art / Psychedelic Art
Since we’ve started with mushrooms, it’s logical that one leads to the other. This is Trippy Art. Psychedelic or hallucinogenic mushrooms. The effect they give to a person and their vision — such paintings sell very, very well.
See:
- Trippy Space Art — where the person flies into another dimension
- The word Psychedelic Art — very high competition, I don’t know
- I personally prefer the word Trippy Art
Again, this is a very broad term, and the best way is to go to Etsy, search for Psychedelic Art, and look at the crazy sales in stores.
Topic 7: Countryside Painting
Moving to the next topic — Countryside Painting. These are paintings of villages, farms, fields, landscapes. It might be hard for a new artist to break into this niche. You’ll need to invest a lot in advertising and show good conversion from the start on Etsy to get promoted. Of course, there is demand. Landscapes are the number one popular painting in America.
But note that Marmalade shows some other options — Urban Painting. But it’s a completely different theme, not related to Countryside. Then I started doing more interesting searches, like Highland Cow Painting. Right, it’s also about grazing cows. And I understand now — there are searches for cows, engagement was even recorded last fall. So, perhaps it will grow this fall as well — high likelihood. Competition is about 5000, which is a different story altogether.
In essence, it’s mainly classical oil paintings for French country homes or in a beautiful golden ornate frame. The demand is high. Don’t be surprised by large sales in stores. Just look at the first page, right?
Topic 8: Cowboy Boots
But if you delve deeper into the theme, women cowgirls — that’s a whole different story. Flowers in cowboy boots, like in a vase, are the peak of the season — wow. Pink cowboy boots and paintings with cowboy boots are really in demand. If you choose from Western themes, focus on blue and pink women’s cowboy boots.
Another inspiring shop I recommend as an example is Fomenko Art by Lena Fomenko. She doesn’t show her sales, but that’s okay. Just look — she focuses. She paints with watercolors, and she creates collages of three paintings with a hat, a cowboy bottle, and boots. She follows trends.
Another store, very different, focuses solely on cowgirls — women in mini-skirts, white or pink boots. And there are sales there, but it’s posters, sold at very low prices. Still, we don’t know how much it costs her just to print these images.
Topic 9: Funny Cat Poster
The last niche I want to discuss is funny cat posters. Funny cats, specifically posters. I chose not illustrations or other, only what I found. There was good demand in May and August — 17 thousand competition, engagement, so there is potential. Competition on clip art is huge, but I did a search — Funny cat illustration.
Make it really funny. Often with food — coffee, pizza, mushrooms. Combine themes, for example:
- Cat in cowboy boots
- Combine several themes
- A cat in this enchanted forest
Understand? Combine multiple themes — instant double hits, two target audiences.
Topic 10: Fox Illustration
Fox illustration — not very good, of course, unlike cats. Competition is quite high. Search recently shows some activity around May last year. Not much else overall. So, not a very popular topic. Also, keep in mind, when we say fox in Ukrainian, it’s usually feminine — a clever fox from fairy tales. But in America, fox — masculine. It’s usually a fox, more often a male character. Not always, but mostly in stories and everywhere else, it’s masculine.
I think it’s a good topic. I see there’s popular now. Stores have sales of foxes. I believe it’s a good, interesting theme despite Marmalade’s data suggesting otherwise.
