Hello and welcome. Well I have really made any money from it. Not yet anyway. There are alot of people here doing it for a living. Really I think it just comes down to luck. If your at the right place at the right time or is
some that is someone see’s your work and likes it. I’ve done alittle reading
and some say you should spend about 90% of your time marketing your work?
So Lady luck isn’t on my side so more than likely it will never go anywhere for me. Hope it works out for you.

Shane

I have only been at it for a couple of months and have some paying jobs going. How? Automotive. the money is good if you can get a following.
Good luck……….
……..Billy…….

I’ve been making my living as an Artist for the last 14 years, and the first 12 of those were with the airbrush only.

Making a living as an Artist is something you have to work at 24/7 – you’re always on, but that’s pretty much the natural state for any true Artist; you’re always thinking about something creative, planning that next work, etc.

If you broke down the Working Artist’s life to it’s basic points, no sane person would choose to be an Artist – no benefits, no medical, no weekly paycheck as a rule, whenever the economy goes bad the first thing people do is cut back on the luxuries and Art is at the top of the list! The public is fickle – what’s considered mundane one day, can be genius the next and the day after that it’s trash and yet what you do and how you do it has not changed one bit from day one to day three – and yet if you’ve spent just the least bit of time making your living as an Artist, you can’t go back to doing anything else; you can’t imagine making a living any other way – you’d just shrivel up and die of a broken heart if made to do otherwise…

Being a Working Artist requires a commitment of your artistic abilities and perspectives to new ways of applying those talents. You have to learn the art of selling yourself – something many artists are uncomfortable with. You have to learn to recognize your strengths and your market and find creative ways to bring the two together. You have to be bold and turn every meeting and occasion into an opportunity to be utilized to further yourself as well as your art because the two are one and the same. One of the greatest things about the Internet and more affordable computer technology is that it has given us Artists more power to represent ourselves. A web site is your online, always there 24/7 portfolio – business cards with your web site address are that foot in the door and yet they serve as a benign sell – the people you give those cards to don’t feel pressured to look, they can look at their leisure in the comfort of their own home and privately without some gallery owner or eager Artist standing just over their shoulder – they are more inclined to discover an appreciation for your talents if allowed to come to it in their own time. We can print our own business cards, build our own sites and even publish our own works – all things to aspire to and all things that as they are attained make it more affordable to continue on as a Working Artist.

It IS a do-able thing – I know many of the new people who come up (in all the art fields) are looking for that discovery thing – my work is SO good I’ll be discovered and everything is gravy after that; all I do is create the art, and although I wouldn’t rule out the possibility no matter how remote, this is not the norm – as a good friend of mine says; “It’s a game of inches – you can’t win the game if you’re not in the game” It’s all about perception, even when you’re not doing as well as you would like, you have to project a positive image – the art buying public picks up on that; they are more likely to buy from an Artist who appears confident and successful, than one who shows that they are struggling and losing faith… If you were to go around and poll some of the biggest names in art online, each and every one will tell you they still work at it all the time, but remember – you’re working at a job you love and you’re doing what you were put here to do if you are indeed an Artist. What’s better than that!

Support is very important – knocking back with other Artists is very helpful. They don’t even have to be in the same field – creative people all function on the same basic principles, it’s just nice to be able to tell someone your woes who truly understands those woes, and often times you will find someone else may have a solution to a problem you’re currently facing. Support is a keystone to artistic survival. This group is a perfect example!

Hang in there – if you paint it, they will come…

So what your saying JW is I need to get my head out of my ass and start
doing something? I just may do that If I haven’t lost everything I own a month from now.
Penny I’ll have to check out that book. Another one is called “Art Marketing
101”. Don’t know who wrote it.

Shane

[FONT=Comic Sans MS] My 73 year old mom and I have our booths together. She has her antiques and I, my airbrushing. She has the hard job of selling for me when I am busy. She stands with the crowd while they watch telling them that she still doesn’t know how I do it after all these years. Doing mostly freehand airbrushing is not a typical sight in a mall or flea market where most airbrush artists have a standard set of designs and stencils for every one.
Today while I was airbrushing a baby shirt she asked me if I had my camera and where it was. I told here where and she said “I have to get a picture of this”. I just kept on with front side of the double sided angel bear on the 6 mo. size baby shirt. She came back and asked me how to work it as the owner of the market walked up. They went… somewhere… as I kept painting. The owner took the photos.
After I was through I asked her what it was about and she told me she had to get a picture of the crowd. I asked her how many people she thought there was watching. She said “25 at least”.
I took my mother’s hand and I said “Mama, Wait till we turn around and there is 200”.

Oh Denise Shoobee Doo[/FONT]

"You only have boundaries you make yourself or allow others to make for you.
With an imagination, determination, muleheaded stubborness, and lots of love, all is possible."

So what your saying JW is I need to get my head out of my ass and start
doing something? I just may do that If I haven’t lost everything I own a month from now.

Shane

What a strange place to keep your head – I would imagine painting would be easier if your head was in it’s usual place… :wink2:

Seriously, – as someone who makes a living painting, I’m just standing up on that side of the field to represent it can be done. I’d be lying if I told you there have been no rough times… when I first started I had exactly $200 to my name and everything I needed I either bought cheap, (garage sale airbrushes) used (CO2 tank) or made myself (lights, canvases, etc.) the ONLY thing I spent money on was paints and a proper regulator head for the CO2 tank.

Took 5 years but I built up a pretty impressive client list and had a good thing going – my wife was offered a job in California and we moved 3000 miles from Florida to CA. The client list did not follow so I literally had to start over again in the middle of a small farming community with no artistic outlets or venues but after another 5 years I had an even better client list than before and it was easier to get up and running based on what I learned the first time around.

In 2001 I had decided to get out of the ‘on demand/commission’ airbrush market, and move into fine art, and reproductions marketed through galleries and art shows. When you put on the brakes from one source of income and start trying to generate income from a different source, you have a vulnerable window there where you’re living entirely off your savings – it was in this period of time we suffered the 9-11 tragedy and as I mentioned before, in such times of uncertainty, people cut back on their spending and it had a profound effect on my business which all but went under – I was in the process of recovering from that and then the President has to go and pick a fight in Iraq and down goes business for a second time.

In 2002 we moved back to Florida, and when you’re going to move there comes a point where you have to stop your business, pack everything up, move, figure out how things work in your new environment, find a new studio space, unpack, setup your new space and start generating a new client base yet again! Lots of down time there with no income and lots of cash outlay.

I’m not saying this is the norm, but what I’d like to hopefully illustrate is that no obstacle is insurmountable if you have your Heart set on your goal. We’re all familiar with the saying; “Seeing is believing” but I think it is more accurate to say; “In believing we see” – if you truly believe in what you’re doing, you see possibilities that you might not otherwise notice… Every time some event or problem has come up, I have had more than a few choice words at those moments, but it never occurred to me not to try to figure out how to surmount the latest obstacle – somehow things always seem to work out – I don’t know how it works, it just does.

Hang in there!

-JW

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=RoyalBlue]Since it seems I have the bad luck to be misinterpreted… [/COLOR][/FONT]

I know I’m old and I’ve been known to take a nap (or two), I have to gum my food and have the attention span of a gnat, but I seem to have missed something here…

Given this topic was originally started by “disturbedair” regarding making a living off airbrush art, and this quote comes from your first response on this particular topic, in this thread – where’s the “misinterpretation” that’s referenced?

I’m confused – is it just me or is this confusing? :confused: