Turn Your Hobby into a Job: How Your Art Can Pay Your Bills

If you enjoy painting, you might think about how expensive it is to purchase all of your materials. In fact, all art can get pretty expensive when all the money you’re spending is a one way street. Luckily, if you’re any good, you can start selling your artwork and making a good living in the process. This allows you to buy all the materials you need for creating your art and have enough money to pay your bills as well. Don’t worry about losing all of your art as a result. Instead, you can sell some of your art and keep the ones you really like. This way, you can have fun making money without having to worry about whether you’re going to watch all your favorite pieces go away.  As an example, we love to ski and plenty of people have created businesses from the hobbies they love. 

Selling Directly to People Online

Art collectors go online looking for art to purchase all the time. Establishing these relationships does not have to require an art dealer who will only take a commission of what you’re selling, according to The Abundant Artist. When you’re ready to start selling, you need to take a few pictures of each piece. You’ll learn just how to make money from art in a very short period once you post your art on sites that cater as a medium between two people, the buyer and the seller. You can name your price and the buyer can negotiate with you. The payments are made directly to you either in person or through digital payment systems. This is a great way to make sure you’re going to get the exposure you need to sell your art, because the sites bring in all the traffic needed to see what you have for sale and you can leave your art for sale on the site for as long as you want to, or until it sells.

Create Your Own Website

Many artists find it’s helpful to create their own website when looking for how to make money from art. While you’re likely not going to bring in a lot of visitors to your site just by creating it and putting your art on the site, you’ll have a place where people can go to see what you have for sale and they can purchase directly from the site, or they can contact you to discuss the pieces they want to buy. It is recommended when you do this to either go to a web designer who can help you to create a great site, or you can use one of the many templates out there specifically for artists, according to Artsy Shark. Your site will gain popularity strictly by the people who are buying your artwork all the time. The best marketing you’ll have is other people seeing your art in homes across the world.

Sell in Art Markets

Throughout the world, there are art markets that form, according to The Guardian. These present great opportunities for you to sell your artwork in a fun and friendly environment. All you’ll need to do is bring along the pieces of art you’re currently selling along with any promotional material you want to hand out. So many people are drawn to these markets every day to find the art they’re going to hang up in their home that you’re all but guaranteed to make at least one sale every time you go to a market. Most markets will provide you a booth, but you should call ahead to see if you need to buy your own tent for the market. Either way, you’ll pay a booth rental fee. You’ll have an appointed time you have to show up to set up your booth and an appointed time it’s acceptable to break down. The great thing is, while you’re at the market, you can wander around and look at the other artists’ works.

Sell through Social Media

If you have a Facebook or Pinterest account, you have the two most popular formats for selling your art through, according to Smart Passive Income. You can take pictures of all your artwork and post it on the social media platform of your choice. You don’t have to mention the prices when you post the images, but you might find it’s easier when you’re looking to establish how much you’re charging for your artwork. Make sure whenever you’re posting a piece for sale online, or you’re going to show up to a market that you mention it in the social media platforms you’re using. The great thing about using social media to promote your art is the ability to reach not only the people you’re connected with, but all the friends of the people you’re connected to. Have fun and start enjoying the wonderful world of selling your own artwork for a living.