If you are artistic in any way, there are plenty of opportunities to make money from your talent. The biggest challenge is probably in finding the right way for you that allows your talent to shine and be seen by lots of people.
This can be done online or offline, depending on your preference and also largely whether or not you want to get involved with sending completed orders through the mail.
In any event this blog entry will help you to see just some of the possibilities that exist with this particular avenue of talent, and they might just spur you on to create a whole business around your art.
So, what kind of art are we talking about here? Well you could include photography, but we’re really concentrating on drawing, painting, sculpting, perhaps cartooning… that kind of thing. Not everyone has a talent for this (although there are good books which actually claim to teach you how to be a cartoonist) but if you have there are certainly lots of things you can do to earn money from it.
Let’s look at some of these first. Sculpting is a little more involved arguably than many other types of artwork and you have two main choices here if you want to make some money. You can either take on commissions from individuals for unique pieces of work (for which you can charge quite a high amount), or you can create a themed series of sculptures on a particular subject that you think would be popular, and make casts of them so you can produce them on a larger scale.
If you are great at painting, drawing or sketching then you have lots of options. For example you could do a series of sketches and have them made into posters, postcards, coasters and all manner of other things. Just one example of this kind of business is Cafepress, which has a large and basic range of gifts that you can personalize with your own designs. A basic shop is free but even the paid version doesn’t cost a lot of money compared to the benefits you get.
If you don’t want to sell online you can always ply your wares in your local area by offering to paint or draw pictures of people’s houses, their pets or even family members. There is no end to the other possibilities when you really start to think about it.
If you are quick at drawing you could set up a stall at a local craft fair and offer to sketch people for a fixed fee, right on the spot. This can do very well, particularly if you have tourists nearby who frequent the area.
Whatever kind of artwork you produce and whether you sell online or off, it always helps to have your own website – even if all you do is set up a home page, a gallery showing some of your images and a contact page so people can get in touch with you when they are interested in finding out more about what you do for a living.
The key here is to think about the type of art you are best at, and how you can turn that into a valuable commodity that people will pay good money for. Once you have the answer – which will be different for everyone – you will be well away.
If you aren’t sure how to start, try looking back at some of your previous artwork to see if there is a theme there that you could capitalize on. That could prove to be just what you need to get started.
But before you do that, why not leave us a response by using the form below? It only takes a second and is much appreciated!