Article written by Caitlyn Saliba.
It’s the lifelong dream of any creative to be able to make a living from their art. But more often than not it is one of the hardest things to actually accomplish. There are so many different forms of visual art and each form comes with its own perks and disadvantages when it comes to making money. Everyone has the ability to sell their artwork, but is this really enough to make enough money to support yourself? The answer, probably not.
So, let’s just define visual art for a second here, I mean we can all probably think of the main ones. But I’m going to go through them anyway, and hey, maybe there’s some here that you might not have thought of. So the main types of visual art that everyone thinks of are drawing, painting and photography. These forms are taught in high schools and primary schools all across the country. Personally, they’re the most aesthetically pleasing to me, for someone to create something from a blank white canvas or page, and turn it into this incredible work of art is amazing to me, more than amazing, it’s like a kind of magic.
Some of the lesser known and taught visual arts are sculpture and graphic arts, sculpture is a true test of endurance in my opinion. It shows how you can take a shapeless lump and turn it into something fantastical and something with a full figure. Graphic arts is a relatively new art form, using computer technology to create artworks, comics and even business logos and website designs. While sculpture is harder to monetise, graphic design is easier and easier to make money from as it can be more corporate than other art forms.
Some ways to make money from art can be rather unconventional, even in art terms, but some of them are more realistic, in even the corporate sense, same as any other person trying to make money from anything. So why is it so different with each different form of visual art? To put it basically, because each art form has a different following, a different set of people looking for that kind of art. Some basics for every art form is a website where you can showcase and sell your artwork, I’ve heard of a few websites that allow you to do this for free such as Etsy, Wix and many many more that you should check out if you don’t have these yet. You should also be active on multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr etc.
For drawing, sketching and painting, the money making opportunities is roughly the same. The most obvious way to make money from your drawings or paintings is to sell them. There is the opportunity with these media’s to be able to open a gallery of your work, but for this to be successful, the gallery needs to be treated as a business, a company. If it’s not treated like this then it can fall through and just be another money sucker. There are also plenty of internships in this specific area. This could include being illustrators for novels, magazines, cartoons or comics. These internships not only give you money, but they can be important for networking and finding clientele. And last but not least, teaching, of course, this requires a degree, but being an art teacher means being able to teach your own techniques and preferences to a new generation of artists, as well as making some money on the side and being able to make art at the same time.
For photographers, apart from the basics, photoshoots are a good way to make some extra cash, you could do the new born photoshoots, maternity shoots, family shoots, wedding photography etc. There is some serious cash to be made in some of these fields. Another way to make some money is to sell or lease your photos through stock photography websites. You can also do some freelance work for newspapers, magazines and other websites. There are plenty of contests for photographers out there and a quick google search will show up an anthology of a massive amount of contests around our country that you can enter.
Sculpture is a bit harder, there is a more limited clientele for this type of art. The only advice I have to give to all the sculptors out there is to form a clientele, show at places which are selling work like yours and mingle with those who are buying. Another thing that might be of use to you is to start a youtube channel. Show your potential clients what it is that you do, how you create these masterpieces. This is sure to engage potential clients.
Graphic art is something that is a little easier to make money off, as I stated earlier it can be applied to more corporal settings as well as more creative ones. Outside of getting a job in the graphic art industry, there are a few ways to make some extra money. Some of these are selling unused files, consulting for companies, using LinkedIn, and hosting a skillshare class. This last one is a good idea if you’re confident in your work (and I’m sure I have a lot of artists laughing at me by now because, I mean, what creative is actually ever confident in their work?) but if you’re a little less confident like the rest of us, using LinkedIn and even creating a blog.
So I hope at least some of these tips have helped some readers get a few ideas and starting points to get some extra cash from your passions. If you have any other tips and tricks for artists fell free to let us and them know in the comments section.
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