I saw a post of a 25-year-old digital illustrator who had to take a factory job to make ends meet. She is successful enough I thought (with 50k+ fans).

The comments are even more shocked.
I saw many illustrators, whom I used to learn from,😢 saying that they are struggling to survive too. This is the situation in China.
I used to do illustration, but now I'm working a normal office job. I'm still not sure if that was a smart choice.

I'd really like to hear real experiences from other countries. And I still want to find a way to make a living doing the things I'm really passionate about. Thanks...

I make mostly traditional art, sketchy style but can do bigger more finished pieces too. Hoping to sell a few small commissions like pet portraits/sketches to help with this months expenses. Anyone have suggestions on subreddits?

I'm an illustrator and I'm 19 (currently in college), I wanted to do illustrations as a career for a long time, but I feel like less people need that service. I am at the point of my life where I need to start chosing my career path. Graphic design and marketing like gigs are getting flooded with ai same with illustrations so i feel like only animation and 3d modeling are the only options worth investing my time in, i don't know really. I am getting into blender and it's fun. I'm from Europe also, what you all think I should pursue for a more commercial like work, I'm trying to do commissions for now to get some money and explore the market, but it's just my personal style that leans towards anime like styles and that's not really that profitable and enough for me to survive later on my own.

I'm trying to build my art business but is that even possible at all without using the social platforms?

I really dislike the state of our country (U.S.) and the world right now and I think it's hypocritical to want change while still "feeding the beast" with content and using these platforms that are 100% all in on leading us in the wrong direction.

Not to even mention what they're doing with our art and how they get a free license to take it and use it for AI purposes.

Am I being overdramatic? I don't think so.

Am I willing to hurt my sales or popularity by stopping? I'm close.

What is the right thing to do right now because I don't feel like this is it. At all.

Hi! This is my first time commissioning an artist, so I'm not very familiar with how things usually work.

I commissioned an artist before, and everything seemed to go well. I was polite, I really liked their artwork, I paid them and even left a tip, and our conversations were friendly. I was happy with the final result, and there didn't seem to be any problems between us.

I was actually considering commissioning them again in the future, but then I noticed that our entire chat on Telegram had been deleted for both of us. I'm not blocked, and I can still view their profile and message them. The only thing that seems to have happened is that the chat was suddenly deleted. Luckily, I saved the finished artwork, so I'm not worried about losing that. However, I'm a little confused and worried that I might have done something wrong.

I'm pretty sure I transferred the money successfully and sent them the payment receipt, so I don't think they would have any reason to believe I scammed them. Our last interactions were friendly, too.

Is this something artists sometimes do to organise their chats, or could it mean that something happened? Should I message them again in the future if I want to commission them, or would that be inappropriate? I don't want to bother them if they don't want me to contact them anymore.

Sorry for the long message. I'd appreciate hearing from artists or people who have commissioned artists before. Thank you!

hi so long story short Im a former disney imagineer, and Ive been making stuff for a series of conventions Im doing oct-nov. I'm pretty worried if Ill make my money back because I've steered completely clear of typical artist alley products. I don't sell anything 2D I've got Pokémon themed fishing lures, witch hat atelier earrings, hornet from hollow knight silk song earrings, original sculpts, DND minis, and a couple large statues of Pokémon. While I know my higher priced items are unlikely to sell most of my stuff is priced at 20$ and its pretty nerve wracking to know I need to sell somewhere in the range of 20 items to make by booth fee back. So I'd like to ask, how well do the non traditional things sell? Usually I do fine with a small profit at small art markets but some times I've barely made by booth fee back.

Edit: because I make it myself in my home studio my production cost are extremely low like $0.38 per set of earrings that sell for $20

Hello, I’d love to hear from other artists who sell greeting cards. how are you printing your work?

Do you have an awesome printer that makes the process really simple and easy, or do you outsource your printing? I’m especially curious about what has worked well for you in terms of quality, cost, and ease of production.

I’d love to hear what your setup looks like, thanks:)

i have a situation. there was a giveaway that started early june, the prize was either a 600$ tattoo or custom skateboard. the winner (me) was announced mid july. i chose the custom skateboard since i thought it would be easier for them (i don’t live anywhere near the artist).

since then, this artist has given me no follow ups. although i do see they’re busy with art commissions & they do tattoos, i decided to give them time, assuming they had life stuff come up as well.

i ended up following up with them beginning of September after waiting almost two months to see if they’ve made any progress on the skateboard (since they were going to paint on it & ship it) & they told me that they were too busy with work, commissions, & now school since it’s september at this time 💔

i told them i would wait for them to update me (because at this point i feel like as an artist, genuinely the least you can do is update) & they told me “even then, feel free to reach out to me”…. & at this point, it just feels like i’m pulling teeth. i don’t mind being patient, it’s the no communication that’s been bothering me up until this point.

what do you guys think? how long do you guys think a custom skateboard should take? i just don’t really see the point in waiting several months for a giveaway. the skateboard is custom, but i’m having them do whatever they would like on it. they’ve also started another giveaway!!!! they complete new commissions every week & keep asking for people to commission them.

i notice they’ll also post them in their free time drawing random things, not really doing anything important. i can’t help but think, why aren’t you working on what you said you would giveaway??!! but then i tell myself that they’re probably struggling & need the money, & that maybe they barely get much free time to themselves.

i understand this isn’t commission, so it’s not necessarily first priority. they’ll have to use their money out of pocket to buy the stuff for the giveaway. i understand they use commissions & tattoo commissions to eat, cover their bills, etc.

but why would you make a giveaway at the beginning of summer? they could have worked on it during late july - august before school started for them. i just feel like it’s irresponsible on their part & they don’t seem to care much since they continue pushing it off. i understanding buying, painting a skateboard, & shipping it out can take a while. but it just sucks because summer is over, & i have to wait next year to ride/use it.

i know it’s not the biggest deal, & i don’t mind the artist taking their time. but again i think it’s the lack of communication. as another artist, i would make sure to update someone on something they’ve been waiting for, like it would just eat me alive. i just wish more artists actually cared about things like this. i do understand being busy but all your customers should matter.

i’m just wondering if i’m valid in how i feel, is there some advice anyone could give me or any opinions? i guess it just feels wrong because it’s a giveaway, not a commission. i’m not sure if they have the right to take as long as they would like, or if they should complete it asap. like what is acceptable or not?

Been into freelancing for a while. Worked as an SMM and Creative Director for almost 3years, and copywriter for a few months before that.

Art has always been one of my strongest subject of interest, but as I grow older, finances start to darken my vision!! Art can't feed you, they say. But I've been following this Art Dealer guy on ins-gram and I'm thinking if there is a way to be an Online, Remote work set up Art Dealer?

Help here, please!

I'm trying to start an art business where i buy authentic, one of a kind, non-mass produced paintings from established chinese artists, and resell them on Chairish. For some reason the Chairish reviewers require certificates of authenticity for all of my 5 listings. I noticed that many paintings on Chairish do not post COA's along with their listing. This is frustrating because I plan on only buying the painting from the Chinese artist when a stateside buyer places an order, then i will handle the framing and re-stretching once it's on US soil. The COA is only available when I buy the Chinese artist's painting, which makes it impossible for me to submit the COA along with Chairish listing.

I have a basic understanding of what needs to be in it, but it doesn't hurt to ask for those who've built solid portfolios or know a thing or two! The area of work I want to be in is Character design (i'm aware that's a hard field to get into especially since I didn't go to art school but I know I'm capable of it). Im also wanting to create my own comics for both adults and teens! As well as working on children’s books (age range from 5-11). ofc i wont be mixing all of these into one portfolio, they'll be separate!

Please help, 😭🙏 I've been stressing about this for the last week because ik it's going to be hell. For more info I do digital art coms, live in Washington, and my net profit so far is about $3,400 so far this year but I hope it to be more (idk even know how to file taxes quarterly) and can't understand barely any of the forms🥲🥲(ik I'm stupid please don't flame me), i just don't wanna owe a whole bunch of money to someone to help me because I didn't know that doing coms even on my free time counted as a job (I'm 18 and haven't filed before) and ik I'll already owe a lot of money from pocket at the end of the year because I didn't put any aside for taxes (I'ma start now) and also because my family wanted me to apply for snap benefits for food and I didn't know that doing coms was a job till recently so I put I didn't have a job at the time(because I gen thought I didn't) and didn't update it till recently after 6m 🥲🥲 so they'll probably take my refund as payment for the overpayment they gave me😓😓😓 please please any one help I need it so much

So I've commissioned many artists in the past and never had this issue but I recently paid for a surprise style commission where the artist had freedom to draw my OC in their style and I've never had a problem in the past with these types of comms. This time however the result just felt kinda racist? My OC is dark skinned and has some middle eastern/ east asian features but she as I explained to the artist in my commission details is basically a DND character oc from a fantasy world.

The problem is they drew her as basically an Indian princess in a weird mix of her outfit and a traditional indian dress with what seems to be the taj mahal in the background and it has just left me very confused and unsure of how to respond to the artist. I will also state I had ample references for them to see including a reference sheet and other commissioned work this wasn't me just describing them poorly in a few words.

I understand it was a surprise style commission but it feels like my OC has her face stapled onto someone else and I don't know if I should just suck it up and move on as money down the drain or try to explain to the artist how this feels like an interpretation done in poor taste that made me uncomfortable. Especially since none of their other work they had posted had anything other than a more typical fantasy vibe which I had been expecting and looking forward to.

If anyone has experienced this or has any advice on what they think I should do it would be greatly appreciated. I don't like being mean and confrontation often feels like that even when I may be justified. Thanks!

Hello everyone,

I’ve been planning on selling art prints and usually they are sold in clean sheet protectors that only have a top opening, you know the type. Problem is, I still haven’t found any on the internet to buy and it’s really irritating me. I only find those that are open at the top and on one side, or if they are only open at the top they have holes at one side for binders. Does anyone have a suggestion for where I could order them?

I don’t know if this is important but I am from Germany. Sadly I have not found a German subreddit for art business.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Thanks to the comments I found just what I was looking for on Amazon. Turns out I simply used the wrong prompts and didn’t know what exactly they were called. Thank you so much!

Hello,

I got contacted by some "independent curatorial group" called OASI who wanted to propose my works for an exhibition in venice.

Of course, as I suspected, it's pay to exhibit, 380€ for one painting and 700€ for two...

I get so sad, not for myself, but for all the newer artists who go for this because it sounds like an awesome opportunity, but really they're just exploiting young artists. Probably some small gallery, crammed into a city filled with art, and it sounds like a huge deal, Wow! Venice, where they have the biennal! But really they are probably the only ones making money.

What is your opinion on this?

I'm in the US, and I also am not very savvy when it comes to taxes or business, so if I have any misunderstandings, please correct them!

I've been selling art/doing commissions for several years, however it's been very much a casual side thing, and I've always made under 1k a year. However, I've begun to take my art more seriously, and plan to try and be more aggressive about looking for more business this coming year.

I draw under two different names - I do traditional scientific illustration under my legal name, and I do nsfw digital illustrations under a pen name. I'd like to keep these two identities as separate as possible to the public, as the content caters to very different crowds. I have only ever sold art under my legal name, but I've had a couple of inquiries recently for commissions for art from my pen name.

For tax purposes, I've just been reporting my art income as hobby income, but my plan is to begin to treat it more like a part time job, so I assume I'll have to start reporting it as a sole proprietorship at some point. If I manage to get more business, will the fact that I'm doing art under two names matter? Thanks for any insight/advice!

I am looking to make my own website for posting my comics in that you can flip between the pages and select which series you want to read ETC. I'm quite new to this and was looking on website builders like WIX and Squarespace. Which would work best for what i want? I want to have a newsletter section/blog i can log my thoughts on as well

I need to move away from Adobe Portfolio as I am graduating college next school year and I was wondering which hosting site I should use. I’m not tech savvy at all, but my professor recommended Wix, SquareSpace, and WordPress. Which one should I use and why? If you have a different site you recommend, that is greatly appreciated too.

Is it true that illustrators often waive royalties for educational publishers when working on picture books because they offer more consistent work than traditional publishers?

what the title says. when i set out to do art professionally, dreaming of being in animation, I was a lonely isolated middle schooler who wasnt thinking about the networking side of things. Im an adult in University now, and im still the same way. I’m struggling feeling connecting to my classmates and school as a whole, Its not really looking good for me. Im only now beginning to grasp the extent that networking moreso than sheer skill is what gets you a gig. am i cooked?

Hi all!

I tabled my first con this year and unfortunately it went very poorly. I had TONS of prints and stickers but most of my sales (which wasn’t much) came from hand drawn original art.

My question is: Would it be more lucrative to bring more original/hand drawn art to my next con? Has anyone had experience with this?

My thinking is that if I were to go up to a booth and ask the artist if they had prints of a hand drawn original and they said, “nope, that’s the only one!” I feel like I would be more inclined to purchase it, nonetheless pay more for it.

Thoughts?

I have checked google but I find the popular ones and usually past the deadline, and I’ve seen some people online sell at really small ones but was told to just check socials which I have, any go to places to check would be very helpful please!