How to Make a Living as an Artist

Make a Living as an Artist

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Making a living as an artist is just about the dream of every artist: Being able to get paid for what you love to do. Unfortunately, this is the exception, not the rule. For most artists there’s a lot of paying dues before their craft brings in any sort of reliable paycheck. Here’s how to make the dream a reality.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

An art portfolio
Website/promo materials
A business plan

Step1

Cut down on your costs. You’re not going to be selling paintings (or other medium) for Picasso-like figures, so you’re going to want to cut down on your monthly bills. While you want to take the “starving” out of “starving artist,” you should cut down on food costs, as well as rent. There’s a reason that artists converge in low-rent areas, which then eventually become the hottest real estate, like Soho in New York City.

Step2

Make a career plan. Remember, if you’re trying to turn your art into a business, you’ve got to think like a business. This means having a business plan: Setting both short and long term goals. Make sure these are realistic goals. So long as you’re progressing, this is good news. You can’t expect to be self-supporting immediately. You need to devote several hours a day to the business-side of art, not just the creative side.

Step3

Create a portfolio, not just slides, but actual photographs. Send the portfolio to galleries and art dealers. Check out artdealers.org or local listings of art galleries. This is the toughest road for aspiring artists because getting gallery placement is extremely challenging. Instead, bypass the dealer system by selling your art independently, on and offline.

Step4

Determine your audience. This will go a long way in targeting how you market your artwork using the next three steps.

Step5

Find innovative ways to sell your artwork. Social networking sites like Myspace or Facebook are good for getting the word out. Also register with Art.com to sell artwork online. Check other directories as well, like the Open Directory Project. Design a Web page of your own that has high-quality jpgs of your work. Post regularly on forums like the Pauper Café. Blogging regularly is also a good way to generate a fan base.

Step6

Use auction sites like Ebay: Growing in popularity as a place for selling artwork. Provide good-quality images of your artwork, as well as a short bio. Price the artwork at a reasonable rate. Check to see what other artists charge for their artwork.

Step7

Register at arts and crafts fairs. There are literally hundreds of fairs to choose from, but choose wisely. It takes a fair amount of preparation, and money, to set up a booth at a convention. Make sure you’re going to have a chance of selling your type of artwork. Check to see what type of work is generally displayed, as well as how many people are expected at the convention. You want there to be artists of a similar style on hand, but not so many that it becomes overly competitive.

Step8

Design other promotional materials: Business cards, post-cards, and catalogs to hand out or send out. Make sure to always have a mailing list sign-up available, both in person and on a website.

Tips & Warnings

Try to get a job that has a flexible schedule. It’s why actors usually wait tables. It gives them the time to go on auditions. Try and find a job that flexes your artistic muscles, though not so much that you’re exhausted when you get back to working on your own projects. A musician can give music lessons, a writer can be a copywriter, and so on.
At art fairs and conventions, be personable—-people will want to buy a piece from someone they like personally.
Be persistent and thick-skinned. Rejection is a part of the game. Keep creating and growing your body of work. The more you produce, the better your chance of reaching potential art-buyers.
The truth is that a minority of artists--actors, painters, poets, fiction writers, musicians—-make a living as an artist. You’re likely going to need to get a day job.
Mixing art and business can be a tough balance: You don’t want to take the fun and inspiration out of the artistic process by being overly business-minded.
Note: Copyright your work before posting it online.