The notion of the starving artist is still engrained in the head of many creatives. But the truth is you don’t have to struggle to make it as an artist. There are plenty of ways to make money with your art, so no one needs to stay that broke artist. In this post, I’m giving you 5 hands-on tips on how to stop being a starving artist! Let’s get abundant! ☺︎
Are you tired of living the life of the “starving artist”? Do you finally want to take your art to the next level and learn to break out of the cycle of struggle and deprivation?
Then this post is for you! This article is for all creatives living like a starving artist and no longer want to.
I believe that hard work pays out. But if you struggle so much as an artist that you are not able to support yourself financially, it’s about time for a change!
Let’s face it. Broke artists cannot follow their passion and serve the world.
If you cannot sell enough of your art to feel safe and have peace of mind, creative inspiration cannot come to you. Or, at least, it will be much harder for you to feel inspired, if you are constantly worrying about how to pay your bills.
The truth is there are plenty of opportunities for artists to make money with their work. You just have to seize them.
In this post, I have some hands-on tips for you on how to stop being a starving artist!
Every artist can go from broke to abundant. So let’s get into it.
What makes someone a starving artist?
The concept of the starving artist is still engrained in the head of many people. It has been passed down for generations throughout history, with many famous examples. Van Gogh, Monet, Modigliani, Rembrandt, Vermeer—the list goes on.
In fact, the concept is so popular that many creatives strive to live like a starving artist to conform to the stereotype: exceptionally gifted, celebrated and adored—but as poor as a church mouse.
But in reality, the starving artist notion does nothing to empower artists to take their art business in hand.
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What’s even worse, the starving artist trope also keeps many budding artists from following their calling, because they are scared of not being able to provide for themselves.
How many creative endeavors have been nipped in the bud for the fear of not getting your artwork seen and sold? Countless.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s important to realize that times have changed and artistic success isn’t synonymous with suffering any longer.
The new generation of artists shows you how to do it: they are talented, acclaimed—and they are making a fantastic living with their art!
How to stop being a starving artist?
There are endless resources on the web that teach you how to stop being a starving artist. But sometimes, the biggest problem for us creatives is that we shy away from marketing our art.
Deep down, we feel that marketing is not for us—we are artists and not marketers. Plus, marketing is often associated with that fishy and fake feeling of tricking people into buying something they don’t need.
But that’s completely wrong. Fact is, as an artist, you need to have skills in both areas: in your creative craft and in marketing. Creating art and promoting your work go hand in hand. That means every creative should also learn how to market their art in order to make a living.
Learn more about marketing: Online Marketing For Artists: Use The Rule Of Seven To Your Advantage!
With that said, it’s important to note that you should always have several income streams. For example, you should never solely rely on selling prints of your work or even original artworks only. This would considerably limit your income potential.
By diversifying your income streams, you are allowing the universe to reward you through multiple financial avenues!
Right below, I have five hands-on tips for you to thrive financially that every artist can apply!
5 Hands-on tips to stop being a starving artist
Tip #1: Get your own website
This is a real game changer. Having your own artist website opens up so many opportunities to monetize your work and position yourself in the market that you might have never thought of!
When posting your work on social media and art sharing sites, you will always be at the odds of that platform. They can change their algorithms any time, they can promote or restrict your posts at their sole discretion, and so on. And when such a platform disappears, your art will disappear along with it!
Your own website, on the other hand, gives you full control over everything. You decide what you post, when you post it, how you present your work and yourself as the artist—and you have many more possibilities to promote your art!
I created this website using WordPress, which admittedly comes with a learning curve and can be a bit tricky at times. But there are lots of easier to use website builders out there that don’t require you to have any techy skills at all.
Squarespace is one of the most popular website builders for artists because it comes with plenty of pre-designed templates for visual creatives. It’s super-easy to operate and provides you with all you need to showcase and sell your art!
Other great website builders for artists are Weebly, Wix and Pixpa. For more information, check out the best website builders for artists.
Best Website Builder for Artists
Tip #2: Start an art blog
Starting a blog is something I absolutely recommend to every artist. You cannot only provide your audience insights into your creative process, but you can also write blog posts to create exposure.
A blog post has the potential to go viral and attract thousands of visitors within a short period of time. In return, you have a manifold higher chance to get eyeballs on your work and make some sales. This is one of the best ways to stop being a starving artist, if you ask me!
What’s more, you can monetize your blog through affiliate marketing, paid ads, and others.
To help you get your art blog up and running quickly, the Beginner’s Guide to Creative Blogging by Anne Butera on Skillshare is an excellent starting point!
Best Course to Learn Blogging
Tip #3: Open your own store
Of course, you can sell your art on Etsy, RedBubble, Society6 or Fine Art America. But, you will always have to share your profit with the platform and, except on Etsy, you have no say to how your product is being packaged and shipped. You cannot customize the package or add a personal note.
When a customer orders something from your own store, however, you have full control over everything. For example, you can use packaging that matches your artist brand and you can include a hand-written thank you card to the buyer.
That’s such a better customer experience! But the best thing: you can keep your entire profit!
All of the above website builders like Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, and Pixpa allow you to add an online shop at just a couple of clicks. When you are using WordPress, you can create a web store for free using WooCommerce. If that interests you, check out my Ultimate Guide To Selling Art With WooCommerce.
Tip #4: Offer art prints, commissions & licenses
You’ve surely thought about selling prints of your art. But have you also considered offering prints in different sizes, on different papers, and in different quality?
There are various papers for printing digital art, you can offer glossy prints, matte prints for framing, and superior-quality giclee prints. The more you diversify your art print range, the better your chances of making sales!
To drop-ship prints of your art to customers in different countries, services like Printful or Printify are great because they will attend to everything. You just need to place the order. For Giclee prints, I recommend using a specialized Giclée printing company like Giclee Today, The Stackhouse or the Prints Giclee Shop.
Best Printing Service For Artists
Learn more about selling art prints:
But apart from prints, there are more ways to make your art available for purchase. One option is to offer art commissions. A commission is a work of art that you create for someone else.
Because they are personalized, commissions can give artists a good monetary return. From that perspective, commissions are great to stop being a starving artist!
How much you can charge for art commissions depends on the difficulty of the particular project.
Another idea is to license your art. By licensing your art, you sell the virtual files of your artwork for specific purposes. For example, you can allow the buyer to use it for personal purposes, such as creating a print for themself. You can also release your work for commercial use, meaning the buyer can use it to create new products and sell them.
The best way to let the buyer know what they can do with the image is by defining the usage conditions in a digital image license agreement. You can find a complete overview of the image license types here.
- Grab your FREE License Agreement Template
Tip #5: Sell your knowledge
My last tip for you on how to stop being a starving artist is to sell your knowledge and experience in creating art!
When you’ve been in your craft for a while and gathered experience, you can start sharing your knowledge with other, upcoming artists. While you might think that the art you create is “nothing special,” I’m sure there will be newcomers looking up to your work and wanting to learn from you.
You can share your knowledge in many different ways. For example, in eBooks, audio books, online tutorials, courses, etc. Great platforms to sell such resources are Sellfy, SendOwl, Gumroad and Podia because they are particularly tailored to creatives.
Another way of showing other artists how it’s done is through video courses. Having an iPhone and a good microphone is often enough to record a decent quality video. There are special e-learning platforms where you can upload your course to a huge community of learners.
Skillshare is a popular learning platform that many creatives use to enhance their skillset. Other platforms worth checking out are Udemy and Teachable.
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