How can I figure out what my artistic niche is?

You discover your niche through basis of comparison, which only comes from consistently getting your work out there. If you create different bodies of work but never share them publicly and see how people respond, you’re just creating as a hobby. To find your niche, you need to share your work consistently and pay attention to what people engage with, what they buy, and what they ignore. Think of it like a restaurant: if you’re a cook trying to figure out your specialty, you need to serve different dishes to customers and see what they order repeatedly. When people keep choosing the fish over the steak, you know you’re a seafood restaurant. The same applies to art - only by consistently sharing your various works and seeing what resonates can you identify what your true niche is. You’ll never discover this through introspection alone.

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Asked by an artist trying to identify their niche · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2025-06-20