It seems to be a given that if you decide to make art your career that you are going to be always scrounging for money. Artists don’t make money until they’re dead, they all say.
Well, in this day and age, you can make a living with your art. With some hustle and by learning some marketing techniques, there’s no reason for you to be a starving artist any longer.
There are so many ways to make money so all you have to do is find the ways that make the most sense for you.
From doing bespoke portraits to teaching art, there is a lot of money out there just waiting for you!
Apparel
Most art out there would make a great t-shirt. It would be something different that would appeal to people who love wearing their art or just like the idea of art being an everyday item in their life.
But, hold on, you don’t know how to do screen printing! It doesn’t matter. You can design your own t-shirts and have them printed by somebody else.
Companies like Rush Order Tees let you send them your own unique design where they then send it to their Philadelphia t-shirt printing location. Then they are shipped to you and you can sell them wherever you like.
Use your Instagram page to market and sell them, or you can go to art fairs or flea markets to do it.
Print on Demand
There are companies now that will print to order your artwork that you upload to their platform. They will print out posters, greeting cards and even pillow cases.
The best part is that you never have to carry any inventory. You just have to learn some marketing to get the art out there where people can see it to make sure they can buy it.
You can set up your own Shopify or Woocommerce store and link your orders to the printer platform so all orders flow right to them and they are shipped directly to the customer.
Etsy is also a very good option that requires less marketing as they already have a large marketplace with lots of shoppers. Though, when you can direct traffic to your product page you’ll sell more.
Teaching Art Classes
Your city or town may have an adult education program in which you could apply to run their art classes. If you love to teach others to find their creativity then this could be a very good way for you to make extra money.
To make even more money than would be possible by doing lessons in person, you can make up some online courses.
On your own website, there are plugins that allow you to run a class with videos and lessons online. There is no schedule you have to keep and the number of students is unlimited.
Conclusion
Those are just three examples of how you can now make money as an artist that were not available to other generations of creatives. You’re a creative person who only needs to think in that creative way to find avenues of revenue to make a viable living out of your art.