How To Make Your Art Hobby Into a Career

So, you want to be a professional artist. The good news is that it has never been easier for the average person to find an online and profit off of their artistic endeavors. That being said, going the independent route may make an artistic more possible, but it also makes it more work. Here’s what you need to know in order to achieve an independent art career.

Starting a Business

While it might seem premature to consider your current artistic work a business, making it a business on an official business will actually help you immensely. For example, declaring your work a business means that you can effectively make the whole operation more affordable, because this will allow you to consider all of the purchases necessary for you to keep working as tax deductions. It will also allow you to codify things in a more effective way than if you were simply trying to grow an audience and occasionally work on commission. For example, receiving payment for your work as a business, no matter how small, will make it more difficult for a particularly problematic client to attack you financially. The steps to start a business will vary depending on your intended business model, but it generally always starts with developing an informed and thorough plan. Start by gathering some essential market data and seeking to construct your business in such a way as to address the desires of the market.

Developing Your Skills

You might be considering this career path specifically because you already possess some amount of talent and skill in the arts, and you might think that that will be enough to carry you. However, there is really no point in the development of any skill at which your work is done. There will always be more to learn, and developing your skills to their limit is a noble goal, if nothing else. However, it’s not only a noble goal for your self actualization, but also a good business strategy. Rule number one of making art on commission is to develop your skills in a wide range of styles, because a client will only pay for what they want, and sometimes they’ll want something you may not be particularly skilled at producing. It helps immensely for artists of all kinds to practice a variety of styles and techniques, and even illustrators that prefer working in a simplistic style will be able to integrate the benefits of studying realism into their work, all while preparing them to accept commissions in a more realistic style.

Building a Following

Part of what makes it so much easier to develop an art career out of whole cloth these days is the ability of amateurs to market themselves via social media. Your social media accounts will serve a few essential functions that will help you get your name out there in order to build a following. For starters, your social media accounts can function in much the same way as a traditional portfolio, and this can be supplemented with a website and a proper, static portfolio. This will serve as the most direct testament to your abilities. However, it also helps you to establish yourself if you can get the ball rolling with some client testimonials. Before you’re established enough to get paid for your work, consider offering it to a select few “clients” free of charge. This will allow you to benefit from positive reviews that will allow your name to be directly associated with a product before you’ve even started charging for it. It can also help you adjust to working with clients before money complicates matters.

Starting your own business is always a mixture of anticipation and anxiety, but there are always proven methods of shifting the odds in your favor if you know where to look. These tips can help you take the first steps into an art career of your own making, but the rest is up to you.