So there I was, attempting to look interested at yet another boring marketing presentation. The head of department was droning through the introduction. My mind was on just about anything apart from the presentation.
What I didn’t know was that this one was going to change my life.
As the slides detailing the exciting restructure of the department ticked happily along, the realisation slowly dawned on me that I no longer had a job.
I’d just been made redundant.
I suppose that traditionally, this is where I should say that getting made redundant was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. That it was the final push that made me get out of my boring, repetitive, uncreative office jobs and finally follow my dream.
And in a way, it was. But life is never that clean cut, never that neat. Not by a long way.
Making the leap
Getting made redundant was one of the heaviest punches I’ve ever had to roll with. Because I’d done good work for this company, very good work. When they decided that, despite that, I still wasn’t valued and my input wasn’t required, it shook me to my core.
I think of that job in terms of an abusive relationship now. The thing is, these companies make you feel that you need them. They undermine your confidence as a matter of course, make you feel that you’re unable to strike on out on your own.
I don’t know why that should be, but every office job I’ve ever had was like that. It takes a huge leap of faith to go out on your own. Change is scary, of course. But I think that also, leaving your workplace and going out on your own is hard because one of our strongest human needs is belonging. Perhaps the very strongest, because we’ve evolved that need to help us survive.
So I was forcibly ejected from my group. It didn’t even feel much like a group I wanted to be a part of, but nevertheless it was my group. Although if you’d asked me, I would have told you that I was desperate to leave, it wasn’t until I was forced out and away from the warm fire that I started to seriously think that this might be the time.
So the first thing you need is the courage to make the leap, or, failing that, the circumstances that force you into it.
I didn’t even make the jump on my own. I was pushed. I may never have made the leap if circumstances hadn’t (at least partially) forced me into it.
I don’t have any pearls of wisdom that will help you find the courage to make your leap, except perhaps this: You never will feel ready. You may be more ready than you think right now. If you do decide to make the jump, you’ll need to accept a lot of uncertainty. But don’t spend forever waiting for the right time, because there is no right time. Just close to right is probably as close as you’ll ever get.
What do you have to give?
There are a lot of different ways you can make a living online, and many of them are relevant to an artist. But before you can get started with any one of them, I think you have to make a shift in your mindset.
Your initial idea may be simply that you’d love to be a full time artist, especially if you’re stuck in a boring office job.
And that’s fine. But if you’re going to succeed, you’re going to need to stop thinking about what you want and start thinking about what you have that other people want. No-one is going to pay you to be you.
I guess the dream for a lot of people is to be able to sell their work online. But there’s a very great difference between painting for yourself and painting for an audience. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to paint on a day when you really don’t feel like it. On that day, reality hits and it becomes work. If you can’t make it through that day and paint, you won’t make it at all and will be back in an office job before you know it.
Painting isn’t the only way to make a living as an artist, though. The online world is no different than the offline in that respect. Almost all professional artists that I know of paint and teach.
And in terms of making your living online as an artist, teaching is one of the most reliable ways you can do it. The reason is that you’re solving a problem for somebody, and that’s something that people are generally willing to pay for, if you can do it well and the problem is important enough to them.
So, when you’re thinking about living your dream and being independent, catch yourself. Start thinking instead about how you can help people. Because if you can find a way to do that, I think you’ll be much more likely to succeed.
How I actually make my living
So here it is, how I actually make my living at the moment:
- I auction paintings here on my site
- I have an online course that teaches artists how to use colour to model form
- I sell tutorial videos (I also give them away for free)
- I run a drawing practice membership program
Of those, by far the biggest contributor to my monthly income so far is my online course. If I take all of the teaching stuff and put it in one box, and put the painting in another one, the teaching box is much, much bigger than the painting box.
Personally, I’m fine with that because I love teaching. That’s why I’m putting so much emphasis on the mindset shift you’ll need to make if you want to make an independent living online as an artist. People are much more likely to pay you to teach them something useful than they are to buy your work.
That’s not to say that people won’t buy your work, they may. But if you limit yourself only to that, you’re probably giving yourself a more difficult task.
What you need
If you’re going to increase your chances of making it online, you need two main things:
-
A mindset that’s all about finding a way to help people – preferably in a way that’s different/better than other people do.
Even if you’re selling your work, looking at it from this perspective will help you make work that people actually want. I think we’re to used to thinking about our work as if it’s all about us. I’m not convinced.
I think it’s about what we can contribute, and that’s a much healthier perspective to take on it.
-
An audience. This is perhaps the hardest part – or at least, the part that takes the most time and effort.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve built up an audience for this blog over a long period of time. Still, the best thing you can do if you want to build an audience is to start with that mindset shift.
Fine, blog about your creative journey. But when you do, ask yourself constantly how what you’re doing is going to help someone, and you’re much more likely to succeed.
Although I already have an audience, I’m aware that if I want to stay in business I’m going to need to reach more people with what I have. So I’m planning some experiments shortly in audience building, which I’ll be reporting on in detail here. Because – yes – I think (and I hope) it will be helpful to people.
An historic opportunity
I truly believe that we’re living through a time in which the paradigms on which our cultures have hitherto been based are radically changing, a change being driven mostly by technology.
This change is creating great opportunities for artists to find new ways to support themselves. With little more than a $1000 laptop, an Internet connection and a reasonably well-functioning brain, you can certainly support yourself.
I try look at what I’m doing now as an experiment. This is uncharted territory, and you have to figure it out as you go.
Certainly it can feel daunting at times. But imagine a world in which a lot more artists are making their living independently online, contributing to a global artistic community instead of wasting their time, energy and creativity on soulless office jobs.
How much better a world would that be? I keep hearing that the future belongs to small business. It would be great to think that a lot of those small businesses could be artists, doing what they’re really there for instead of plodding through their days, hiding their light and just getting by.
And you know what? I think one of those artists could be you.
Best wishes and thanks for reading,
Paul
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Bravo Paul!! I am the Studio Director of the Angel Academy of Art, Florence, and I applaud what you are doing. We teach professional Realist painting at the academy, and one of the things I make sure that our (70) students learn is that “professional” means painting for money! Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, Titian, Leighton, Bouguereau, Alma-Tadema, Carpeaux … all painted and sculpted for their markets.
Buon lavoro, John Angel.
Thanks John. It’s an honour to have you visit!
I couldn’t agree more. I think in many ways, the Romantic movement still pervades western thinking (even post modernism) which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s easy to forget that a lot of the best work of the masters of the past was done for commission with quite stringent requirements from the client. Somehow they found a way to produce beautiful work that transcended those limitations whilst still working within them. It’s a thought that I find almost as sobering as the quality of their work.
Great post. I like to read your perspective of being an artist. You are very honest and I appreciate that.
Thanks Krislyn. I do my best 🙂
I wish I had your courage!!!!
You do have my courage, Rachel. I know that because I’m not particularly courageous, I don’t think. Somehow you just have to find a way to do the things that have you quaking in your boots. There’s plenty of time to be brave about them afterwards!
This is inspiring, thank you! ♡
You’re welcome Yusra, I’m very glad you found it so.
I’ve been following you for about a year now, and I appreciate how much you share about your methods and your creative journey. Yours is the most open and honest blog I’ve found for artists. I look forward to hearing about your experiments in audience building, because that is my next challenge as an artist who is just going pro. Good luck!
I can’t tell you what that means to me Becky, for you to say that. Thank you so much. I’m about to try facebook ads although I’ve always regarded any form of advertising with deep suspicion, even revulsion. And I find it very, very difficult to sell, as I think a lot of artists do.
There’s a post coming on that soon, too 🙂
Thank you always for your encouraging and inspiring words! I’m starting to look into other more independent teaching opportunities since my corporate art supply chain store was just so overwhelmingly EXCITED to hand me a 67% pay cut.
You’e very welcome Carol! That’s quite outrageous. I hope very much that what I post here over the next few months will help you to make up some of that shortfall.
If there’s anything you’d particularly like to hear about, email me at paul – at – learning -to-see.co.uk, or leave a comment here.
Good luck!
Thank you for your thoughtful input. I’ve had enough of working in “rat race”. I want to sell and teach as you suggest. Will keep you posted if successful and if not why not.
Please do keep me posted Allison, and share anything you learn. That would be wonderful.
And, I know exactly how you feel.
Just what we all needed to hear – at least what I really needed to hear. Thank you so much for the insight and guidance. You are a terrific teacher/mentor, Paul.
You’re welcome Nasreen, I’m really glad there was something useful in there for you. Part of the reason I write here is that I need to hear this stuff myself, too!
Very nice. I think you’ve created a sustainable model for making a living as an artist using the internet. From the look of it, aside from content creation, there are plenty of services that allow a creater/teacher to create courses/demos/auctions without all the frustration (Gumroad, Thinking of, etc). I’ve been thinking about doing something similar for a while and may use your site as a good example.
Thinkific*
Hi Andrew,
Yes, I use both Gumroad (for videos) and Thinkific (for my online course). Both work really well. Hm, I should really blog about what I’m using too! (and why). Thanks for giving me the idea!
I’d be really interested to hear how you go.
Thank you for your consistent, inspiriting generosity, Paul. I love that you personify a trust in the abundance of the universe, and don’t cave into the fear and separation that has become a sad and destructive hallmark of our times. I am sure the positive, life-confirming field effect what you do is far far greater than you could ever imagine. So grateful you are here.
Thank you Sarah! What a lovely thought. I’m going to carry that around with me all day.
I’m starting to think that you have made this just as I am more confident than ever in being an artist. I still have a lot to learn, but I now have a better sense of what I can/could do. I’ve never thought of teaching anything either, but learning more about that interests me.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but teaching is the most rewarding of all the things I do to earn a living at the moment. It gives me a sense that I’m contributing something to the larger world of art, and specifically the revival and rehabilitation of realism. And when I see a personal transformation in someone that I’ve helped along in some way, well that’s just the most incredible feeling. I highly recommend it!
Thank you for this honest message. I have attended so many workshops that insist you must paint for yourself and ignore any audience. This set me back for quite sometime. I was really not satisfied at all with this approach and found no challenge in it. Any and all standards were suddenly okay because you are painting from the heart and for yourself. Ughhhh. I don’t dispute that building up confidence is important and so is personal vision but looking inward has its limits THANK YOU
That’s a great point Sue. Ultimately, I believe all art is about the communication of meaning. If something has meaning for the creator and nobody else, that’s fine, as long as they don’t actually expect anyone else to be interested. That’s not usually the case, though.
That way of thinking is also a good example of how the Romantic movement still influences so much popular current thinking about art. It’s an attitude that is especially entrenched in post modernism, ironically, (it’s art because I say it is) and it’s high time such unhelpful attitudes were left behind, in my opinion.
That’s a very honest post.
But what about approaching galleries? Making a “collection” of collectors?
Or selling through websites that sell art?
These are all on my list to try Oren, some of them higher on the todo list than others. Approaching galleries is at the bottom, currently. In any case, this post is about artists making a living online, specifically.
As far as selling work on websites that sell art goes, I haven’t yet come across one that looked sufficiently tempting to try, at least in preference to building an audience and selling on your own site – that’s a much better long term solution, I think, because if you’re on another site you’re dependent on them and their audience, which you may not always have access to.
Building a collection of collectors is starting to happen naturally for me, I find, as I sell work on my site. Some people have bought more than one painting. Perhaps when I’m further down this road I’ll have more to share on that score.
Hi Paul,
i love this post, its such an honest account of how you were pushed into doing the thing you love most and your bravery in taking on and making a success of a new way of being an artist and inspiring others! Wishing you the very best of luck,
anne mcdonald
Thank you Anne! I’m really glad you enjoyed it – there’s plenty more like this coming, I promise 🙂
Paul, thanks for the insight into the online art world. I have been on this threshold for sometime now; being member of online art sale portals, Facebook shop, approaching art galleries, etc. I have had little success till now. Reading your blog has given me new direction, I know now where I was missing the train; I never thought about “painting for the audience” , I was in the “romanticism” world. You are right, people want to buy what they like or what they can gain from, not what I like. It is an arduous uphill task-selling your work, the only thing that has made me survive this is “the complete happiness and satisfaction I get when I am painting” (even though I can’t make enough money) and my husband’s income! It’s sad sometimes I feel it’s easier to get an office job and get paid at the end of the month than think about creative ways to make money or jump-starting a career in art!
Paul,
I have been working at office jobs for years. I like what I do but there is more that I can do. My office job let’s in a little creativity but not a lot so I spend my ‘free’ (no such thing) time building my illustration work and trying to figure out what I need to do to grow my audience and start sustaining my life purely by my art. I am self taught and often times feel like I have NO idea what I’m doing. Your blogs help me remember I’m not alone. I work on my mind set everyday…it was the toughest but now it gets easier. Following you and your work was one of the best decisions I have made thus far. Thank you!
Thank you Christy! When you look at the whole thing, it’s just too big to comprehend. the thing is to decide an a small step that you can take that you think will take in the direction you want to go, and focus just on that taking that step.
Thanks so much for this post and your blog overall Paul. I really enjoy and am learning from it (and you!) I think I’d really enjoy starting to do some teaching. I’ve taught other subjects in the past, but not painting. Any pointers for where to start on developing the curriculum plan/course outline for how to get started?
Barbara
You’re very welcome Barbara.
I think the best advice I can give you is not to take too long developing a curriculum. I think the best way to do it would be to run a couple of free drawing or painting workshops, and talk to the attendees. I think the curriculum will develop itself if you base it on the things that you hear people struggling with.
I should add that I haven’t taken that advice myself! I went pretty much straight into teaching online, apart from the odd workshop, but I have been talking to artists via email and comments on the blog here for a long time. So that helped my to find the overlap between what I felt I could teach well and what people really wanted help with.
I do intend to start teaching face to face as soon as I possibly can, I think you learn the most from interacting with people in the real world.
Great advice (as always!) Thank you Paul. I appreciate all your shared wisdom. You have a great way with words and are very generous to share so much of your hard earned knowledge with the rest of us!
Barbara
Thank you Barbara! You’re very welcome.
I’m reading through the comments and they’re all saying what I’m thinking, especially Sarah Hatcher’s. Watching your online teaching I get a real sense of your genuine desire to help fellow artists along the way, without the ego that sometimes creeps in with some others! Thank you for quietly sharing such valuable information and for always leaving me pondering and setting me off on interesting tangents! I’m imagining that the health challenges you faced/face have played a part in your “seize the day” attitude – a tough thing to go through but we need and love to grow.
That’s absolutely right, Caroline. Getting so ill forced me to reassess a lot of things. It certainly doesn’t mean that I have everything figured out, far from it, but I do feel I have more clarity about what’s important now. For me, one of the most important things in life is to make a positive contribution, in whatever way that might be. So it was wonderful to read your comment. Thank you.
What really, really, shines through your entire site and blogs Paul, is that you are an excellent communicator. You keep it simple, and integrity is at your very core.
This makes me wonder whether you are fully aware of just how special are these talents that you have? They are the bits that make you so much more than “just an artist”, and why you are building such a following.
The bad news is that these extra talents do make you a harder act to follow. Perhaps the courage comes in playing to all our strengths, as you have done, by trusting our intuition?
I hope this makes sense . . . .
Thanks Graham, that’s a really lovely thing to say!
But yes, I agree, the thing is to follow your own strengths, do what feels right to you. There’s no one right way to run a blog. I think the main requirements are to be authentically yourself, and to help people as much as you can. Everything else will take care of itself.
Paul you are truly inspiring. I was made redundant some time ago and understand the punch that gives you. I however do not have your courage or capacity to communicate and I also feel that being older limits my potential. You are an amazing person and I feel so very lucky to have found your site. When I am able I shall be buying one of your courses. You are a tremendous mentor. Thank you. I feel I have grown as an artist since reading your blogs and watching your videos.
Hi Sarah. Firstly, it’s absolutely wonderful to hear that you feel you’ve grown through what I put out here. Nothing inspires more, thank you very much for letting me know.
As far as courage goes, I don’t think I’m a particularly courageous person. Desperate, maybe, and that helps 🙂 But, you just need to find a way to do the stuff that scares you despite the fear. As with pretty much anything difficult I think the best approach is to start small. Take one, very small step and then move on from there.
Being old doesn’t limit you at all. You can learn new skills at any age. The latest developments in neuroscience prove this. I’d advise yu get hold hold of a book called Soft Wired by Micheal Merzenich if you doubt the truth of that – and actually, even if you don’t!
Here it is:
https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Wired-Science-Brain-Plasticity-Change/dp/0989432823/
What a great post! I am with you on this one, living the same thing (well, without the horrid redundancy experience, ugh) and loving it. Painting, teaching, blogging. Finding the right path is hard but I know it’s there and it is worth finding it. Pleased to have found your blog – will follow!
Paul, thank you for your insight and and generosity of thought. As an artist you extend yourself beyond what you see, creating and occupying that space and at the same time, holding out your hand to others. It is very encouraging.
You’re very welcome, and thank you!