Can You Make Money Drawing?

Drawing has been around for as long as humans have. We are drawn to make pictures of things, and most of us think of it as a hobby, or something fun to do with our downtime. However, some of us are more involved in drawing than simply as a hobby, and you may have wondered whether there is any profit to be made with it. It seems almost too simple to be possible, hence the question. You can make money drawing however it is incredibly difficult to get into that space and be able to sell your drawings for anything more than a few dollars. How can one sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil and generate income with such simple tools? It is certainly possible, however it can certainly be difficult to get a following and make decent money. You have to be good at marketing your drawings through places like YouTube, TikTok etc. to drive traffic to your online store/shop to be able to make any sort of decent money. Art is an important part of today's culture and society, especially in America, and while some brand-building may be in order, it is definitely a possibility to make money drawing once you have built a following. To see the most popular art accessories just click here. Things To Consider When Trying To Make Money With Art There are several different things that you can do to try and sell your drawings. Putting together selections of drawings with a common subject, such as a compilation of horse cartoons, or a selection of different plant life such as leaves, bushes, trees, and grass, is a good way to present one's art. This gives the buyer a number of choices for their use despite only making one purchase. Etsy and Creative Market are good sites to consider with this type of drawing. Another option is Instagram. By slowly and surely developing a certain style and following you can build a name that you can then use to sell your drawings. What Kind Of Drawings Will Sell? It depends on where you go, but pretty much any kind of drawing will sell. Portraits can be done at malls or in public places. Cartoons can be sold to magazines, or to businesses looking to customize their brands with easily-viewed products. Illustrations can be done for websites, or children's books, or even magazines and business brands. If you're heavy on the avant-garde side of things, something personal is probably your best option, though it is likely to take more time in order to build up a reputation and a name. Can You Sell Drawings From Home? It is certainly possible to sell your drawings without ever leaving your house, though it may require a little extra work. The way to do this is to have your own website where your drawings are displayed. This way you have a face on the market, and also an opportunity to contact and take offers from clients. With clients now wanting to buy, you would find it much easier to sell from home. If you were selling from home, you would be putting together the packaging and shipping out your drawings on your own, which is a little extra work, and should be taken into consideration. A good site to look into being a part of is Bluehost as they offer a free domain name for a year, and then host for as little as $3.95 a month. You can also just list and sell your drawings on websites like eBay, Etsy, etc. but they will take a portion of the sale as fees. The upside to selling on places like this is there are already customers there so you can easily sell more drawings without having to do as much marketing. Whether selling on eBay, Etsy, or your own site, you will need to market your drawings to customers so that way they know that they are even available. YouTube, TikTok, and other social media platforms are great places to talk about or even show your drawings while they are being created. Then you can direct people to a product page where they can buy it. What Are The First Steps For Selling Art? One thing you can do when just starting out is you can search for online gigs at places like 99designs. Other potential sites to look at are Simply Hired, Dribble Jobs, and Indeed. These sites are not all exclusively art sites; however, they are more open to artists in general, and are more likely to give an artist a chance at selling something. Another thing you can do is simply start to draw. Having a large selection of drawings for customers to look through is preferable to a small selection, and improving your skill is a good and necessary idea if you are looking into getting money for your drawings. How Much Money Can You Make From Drawings? Artists in the 25th percentile make about $2700 per month; higher up in the 75th percentile, artists make around $4000 per month, about $50,500 per year. While it's generally full time artists that are being represented by these numbers, it's still quite a cash cow to consider when you think of how easy and simple drawing is once you have years of practice under your belt. Imagine that you only make half of what the 25th percentile makes by drawing in your off-time and selling it. It's still a thousand dollars a month for a side job, and it's fun and creative. Why Are Artists Paid So Little? Artists are often not paid much because it's hard to put a value on art. Because of this, an artist often spends an inordinate amount of time on a piece or project that provides very little income. The hard truth is that not everyone values your specific art pieces the same way you do. The way to combat this is to take a more business-like approach to being an artist. You have to watch carefully which of your art sells and what buyers like, and then focus on that side of your art more. You have to sacrifice some aspects of your drawing that you think are great, but the market says otherwise. Another reason an artist would be likely to be paid less is that artists are often independent, and their consistency and trustworthiness is not as obvious and settled as a big chains' would be. People are less likely to trust you or to look at your stuff because they simply don't know you. The more your name is out there, though, the more of a reputation you will build. How Should You Price Your Art? The best way to price your art is to combine the materials and time taken to make the drawing. If materials cost you $30 and you spent around ten hours on the piece at $20 an hour, that adds up to $230. If you want to ask for a lower hourly wage, it's up to you, but you are basically your own boss when it comes to getting paid. However, that means you also incur the risk of asking too much, or of putting too much value on yourself too fast. Don't undervalue yourself, though. Shoot high and you will probably be surprised by what happens. Is Being An Artist Easy? Nothing worth doing is easy. Art requires skill, passion, and perseverance along with many years of practice. However, if you have a love of drawing, and your genuine passion is to draw, it can certainly be done. Be patient, and be humble. Pay attention to the market, and to which of your drawings sell so that you can capitalize when the time comes.