Local Boston Artist Focuses On Taking His Abstract Drawings From the Paper to a Product

Mr. Wilson (a selfie photo of him is in the upper right hand corner of his artwork above) always signs every abstract drawing of his, most of the time in the bottom right hand corner. This one, a piece that I suggested he name “Lightning House”, reminds me of a lot of scenes all across Massachusetts and New England because of the lighthouse he placed in the background. The way he splits the image into separate shapes is on purpose…he says that he plans to have actual picture frames cut into each shape, and wall-hung in the same way the picture itself is drawn. Original image and photo, developed together with Kapwing.

“Your abstract drawings that you showed me are great,” I told the Boston, Massachusetts native. “All we have to do now is find out how to turn them into actual sellable items, and take them from the paper in your sketch pad to a product.”

“Yeah, I know,” the talented artist, Mr. Kenyatta Wilson, told me as we started researching the process. “It shouldn’t be that hard right? I mean, there are lots of tools out there to make it happen, I assume…”

“Yes, there are. In fact, there are so many methods that we need to narrow it down to just one or two ways that are unique to you, your style of artwork, the place you’re from, etc. I do think it would be cool to do business locally in Boston for now, you know, if you are planning on using an artwork conversion service, especially since there are several that are close to Dorchester and the other Boston neighborhoods.”

He nodded in agreement. “Of course. All I really need to do is develop a solid routine of developing artwork, sharing it, and selling it on the best platforms for my type of abstracts. Eventually, I’ll have enough to showcase a local Boston art gallery. But, for now, I just wanna test the waters, and see which of my art pieces the public likes the best.”

One of Boston’s Best Abstract Artwork Conversion Services

We did some looking around, and one of the best local places that I found was a print lab named Colortek of Boston. They weren’t very far away from Mr. Wilson’s neighborhood, and had awesome reviews on Google — over 140 of them with an average of 4.5 stars each!

I gave them a call, and told the lady who picked up the phone that I knew a local artist who needed his hand-sketched drawings turned into sellable pieces. Before I could finish stumbling through my explanation, she knew just what I needed.

Images from The Colortek of Boston Yelp Page, the Official Boston Arts Festival 2024 Website, and the Official Colortek of Boston Website.

The nice representative at Colortek told me that they could definitely perform for Kenyatta’s drawn art pieces an in-house conversion process, a process that I’d learned about after reading a Gelato article that was published earlier this year.

The article suggested that creators who develop artwork at a rate that’s as consistently productive as this Boston abstract artist (who’s admittedly new to selling his originally-developed artwork) should probably consider “choosing a print-on-demand supplier” (Gelato Blog, Feb 2024) that they can continuously depend on.

I thanked her for her information, told her we’d be seeing her soon, and, after hanging up the phone, started browsing the Lab Services Page at the Official Colortek of Boston website.

One of the abstract sketches that Mr. Wilson is planning on turning into a sellable piece in the near future. See more at his Medium publication, Kenyatta Wilson, Boston Abstract Artist. Original photo.

When I scrolled down, I noticed the section that had the heading “Scanning, Restoration and Retouching”, and saw that what it read directly reflected what the helpful woman had told me — that Colortek could “oversee the process of converting any flat art into digital files, which can be prepared for printing and/or publishing” (Colortek of Boston, 2024).

This is precisely what the imaginative abstract sketch artist from Dorchester needs. But, we still kept exploring, because we needed to find some places to actually sell his artwork!

Sketch Artist from Boston Makes Plans to Sell Abstract Pieces on Etsy

“Every artist has their preference for the type of work materials they use to create their artwork,” the creator of original abstract drawings told me. “I’ve used mostly colored pens and pencils. You have others who like to use colored chalk, paint, or whatever their creation calls for. In my opinion, it’s not the actual thing you are using, but how you manipulate the colors.”

Shout out to DIY Deanna…thanks for showing us that Etsy is a good place to sell downloadable prints. Shoot her some “likes” y’all! Video from the DIY Deanna YouTube Channel.

He was responding to the young lady who was doing the demonstration above on YouTube (shout out to DIY Deanna, much love…give her some “likes” y’all!) about how to turn artwork into prints that are downloadable for sale on the Etsy platform. “Once it’s complete,” she says with a smile in the video, speaking of the abstract drawing of a flower she was working on, “I’ll take a photograph of the art, upload it to my computer, and that’s where I’ll make the downloadable prints!”

According to an article in the website’s help section, Etsy “has no warehouse”, and is a platform that is specifically for independent sellers of “handmade, vintage and craft supply items” (Etsy Help Section, 2024), such as the lovely pieces of abstract artwork that the Boston-born artist, Mr. Kenyatta Wilson, continuously creates from his home art studio almost every week.

Image from Logo’s World.

Kenyatta will be developing more unique abstract artwork from here in Boston in the coming weeks, getting a lot of them prepared to be sold on Etsy and a few other places; you can keep up with what he’s up to here at his Medium publication, entitled Kenyatta Wilson, Boston Abstract Artist.