How to Make Money with Artwork

The biggest question for any aspiring artist has to be how to make money with artwork. Times have certainly changed and so have the methods for getting your artwork in front of potential buyers.

Once upon a time, you had to schlep your work all over town to galleries, art fairs, and the like. These days, social media has provided an avenue to get your work in front of (potentially) hundreds of thousands of people.

The methods for making money with artwork are definitely easier in some ways than before, but they still require work. (Photo Credit: 123RF.com Image ID: 51337298 Copyright: Freddy Cahyono)

As great as that sounds, it hardly guarantees your work will be flying off your easel.

You see, while the internet provides an easy means for getting your work out there, it also provides that same ease to a million other artists. The internet is a level playing field for all artists of every level as long as they’re using the proper hashtags.

The hashtags you use pull up your work along with everyone else’s, from much more experienced artists to much less experienced. Don’t get me wrong. Hashtags are important. You just need to realize that anyone who uses the same tags will also pull attention.

I know quite a few artists who are quite successful using platforms like Instagram. Many of them use Instagram to direct potential buyers back to their websites where the sales process begins.

I also follow a number of successful artists on YouTube. They also post to social media, but when it comes down to how to make money with artwork, YouTube is the real money maker for them. For those that succeed with YouTube, they often venture into the realms of Patreon. If you’re not already aware, Patreon is a platform which allows artists to post their work, videos, how to’s, and such in exchange for a small monthly fee. This can be in a number of tiers with members in the most expensive tiers getting the most stuff. In essence, this is a site for modern day artists and patrons.

Sounds great, right?

It sure beats the old way. I couldn’t agree more. However, though the internet can give you a far greater reach by getting your work in front of people on the other side of the world, it still requires a ton of work.

Not only do you have to create your artwork, but you must devote time to posting regularly on social media. In addition, you also have to make videos and edit them. Depending on how you create your videos, editing may include doing voice work separately in order to explain your methods step by step for each work of art. It then circles back to getting the message out about each new video via more social media posts.

In other words…it’s still a LOT of work.

Are you willing to put in the time and effort? It helps if you can recruit friends or family to help with posting or video editing. But if not, it really is all up to you. Another thing to keep in mind is most of these artists are making a living with the content they post as opposed to the selling of actual artwork. This can still be done by directing followers to either your site or another art site which showcases your work for you and creates prints on demand.

How to make money with artwork isn’t rocket science. But if you mean to make a living doing this, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

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