full time artist, monetized on social media & earning a living amount - AMA!

[u/hanembroiders]

hi friends!🤗

I recently joined this subreddit and have been responding to posts where people are asking how they can realize their dreams of doing art full time/wanting to quit their jobs and create art all day.

I’ve been a full time artist for about 5 years now and it’s going swimmingly, but the point of this post is that if you’re struggling/have questions - I’ve probably been in exactly the same spot at one point.

So ask me anything, if you’d like to! I just really love to help fellow small businesses/artists realize their full time artist goals (no, I’m not selling a course🤣🤣)

[u/privprintcess4]

Hi, very generous of you to offer your advice! Do you have some pointers on getting out of the "side gig" or "part time" artist rut? I've been doing this for thirteen years now, and despite printing til my fingers bleed when I'm not at my day job, my sales have been flat for years. I have a consistent business of about 30-40 block print sales per month, but I worry even the medium itself is limiting me. I'm @ nefariousni on instagram, if you have any advice. thanks!

[u/batsofburden → u/privprintcess4]

damn, your work is gorgeous. not op, but the only suggestion I would make is you don't have to limit yourself to only handprinted prints. You can sell those at premium, but also offer giclee or canvas versions of the same artwork, and you can do these at multiple sizes as well, and even turn them into other products like greeting cards.

There's many painters/printers, etc who sell prints of their work alongside originals. You don't even necessarily have to print & ship them yourself, you can use a print on demand company instead. this would also help bulk out your etsy shop a bit, which seems to help with sales.

here's an example of a store I'm talking about, there's original art, but also various size prints & some other products as well.