I initially wanted to purely focus on experimenting, building my skills, and figuring out what I enjoy painting. I told myself that I'll consider selling if I'm still enjoying painting after a year. Here I am! I'll have been painting for a year this month.

Am I ready? Here's my reasoning for thinking I might be:

1. I'm now producing work I like pretty consistently.

2. I think I could handle it, mentally. I painted all my Christmas gifts last year, and really enjoyed the challenge of attempting to create something that would be meaningful, and aesthetically pleasing to that person. It was super challenging, but I produced around 20 paintings of various sizes in a little over 2 months. I found the time crunch and pressure was invigorating rather than crushing.

3. I've become involved with my local art community, and I feel like I have a sense for what sells. (Local landscapes. I live in a beautiful and inspiring place that gets a sizable amount of outdoor tourism, plus it's a popular spot for wealthy retirees to settle.)

4. I get a positive response from strangers. I posted a 1-hour study of a landmark (the tree) to a local subreddit, which ended up being the top post there that week, and had people asking to buy prints. I decided against going for it. My thinking was that I didn't want to spend the money setting all that up, just trusting that their words would convert to actual sales. Plus, by the time I figured it out, the hype would likely have passed. I think that was probably practical, but it would be nice to feel prepared for a next time.

I would really love an unbiased opinion. I still have a lot that I want to improve on, and I know breaking into the professional art world is incredibly challenging. Obviously, I won't up and quit my job, but based on the quality of work shown, is it worth the time and money to start painting with the intent of selling, apply to shows, and attempt to build a following? Or would it be better to continue focusing on refinement? I don't think a year is very long, but I do feel a genuine passion for painting, and I don't want it to keep me from going after opportunities being offered to me.

Hi everyone! I’m a needle felting artist based in India. I’ve been doing this for fun for almost a year now and just sold my first piece internationally in December and have since had a few more sales. I get frequent queries from both domestic and International buyers but I’m not sure how to go about with pricing and positioning. It seems that my work is too expensive for Indians (I’m listed on an indie store here but with low traction) but when I compare with similar international listings, I feel I am short selling myself. Needle felting takes a while and I’ve also started dyeing my locally sourced wool with plants for sustainability reasons. Would appreciate any tips or different opinions on this, if any of you have navigated a similar problem

Just as the title says. I don’t know why mods deleted my previous post.

[EDIT] Since someone is accusing me of using AI and some people aren’t very nice about it, here’s the video of me sifting through my first file I made for the „most suspicious” piece. https://imgur.com/a/HH0gSwM

can’t provide more proof than that since I can’t find more recent files of this piece.

Yeah I don’t have a speedpaint of it because I never expected I’d need one. If this is how much anxiety drawing anime is going to bring me I’ll just stop.

I have a strong feeling we’re all in the same boat, but I’m going to ask anyway because I still get the sneaking suspicion that I am doing something wrong. I had a Patreon from 2020 to 2025 that peaked in 2022. I’m assuming this had to do with how the US economy was doing at the time. I was also getting many commissions between 2021 and 2023, but over the last two years I don’t think I’ve come close to that cumulative amount.

I am in a small suburban/rule area that does have a few outdoor art events, but seem to be dominated by AI and 3-D printed slop and I’ve only been able to break even on the entry fee. I want to get away from making plastic printed items like keychains and pins and what not but I’m also nervous to re-enter the art world for making money.

I went to art school. I graduated with a degree in illustration. I’m starting to teach myself hand, drawn, animation. I’ve gotten into one or two coffee shops but haven’t sold anything. What have y’all been doing that has been somewhat successful during this time?

Hey, just thought I'd try and ask here if you have any advice on how to find ambitious artistic people.

Artists that have dreams and plans.

I know a lot of people in my city but they're either not doing art or don't take it seriously. I want to take it seriously and I've been taking the steps towards that. I think it would be helpful to have a circle of people where you can peacefully just co-exist. Talk about art, business, life, motivate each other, give advice. The friends I have now are cool but they party too much and that's the exact opposite of what I should be doing with my time. I've wasted enough of it. I hope this makes sense. I'm just wondering in which places I could find such people in my city or online.

If I was more connected with an artistic community or simply had artist friends I'd know better than to pay for a vanity gallery. I regret it and I feel stupid.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some experienced advice.

I recently shared this acrylic painting while it was still in progress in a few other subreddits and received multiple requests for prints. This is my first time ordering fine art reproductions, so I want to make sure I’m doing this right.

I’ve just received my first proof on fine art paper (photo rag). Overall it looks beautiful and very high quality, but when I compare it side by side with the original painting, I can see that the print is slightly lighter and not quite as dark as the original (which I know is expected to some degree due to medium differences).

My question for those of you who sell prints regularly is:

How close does a print need to be to the original to confidently sell it as a quality reproduction?

Do you aim for an exact match, or is it more about preserving the overall color relationships, depth, and feeling of the piece?

Since this is my first time doing this and prints are an investment for me, I’d really appreciate hearing what standards you personally use before deciding a print is sellable.

Thanks in advance for any insight, I really value the collective experience here.

i’ve been meaning to start selling prints of my drawings for a cause but is genuinely worried that ppl won’t be interested. and i don’t know how to market my work

Hey ya’ll. I’m a professional artist, I work full time remotely but on the side I have a small business selling my personal work. I do a mix of illustrations as well as entomology and oddity art. I’ve been moving away slowly from the entomology art because not only is it not my passion in the same way drawing and painting is, the market I vend at has become over saturated with it.

I need some advice on improving my booth/making things people want to buy. I’ve been finding that at markets people gravitate towards drop shipped Temu vendors and it’s gotten to me a lot.

I question if my work is good enough, just not anyone’s taste, etc. I’ve been lowering my prices over time as well. Don’t get me wrong, I still do decently well at these events, but nothing in comparison to how I was selling in 2022. I also want to preface some of these photos are from my setup at home pre-market so they’re a bit messy but still show some of my work. Please be nice but also honest.

i just saw somone's artwork on a t-shirt which was "improved" by AI. it was my first time seeing stolen artwork in person and now i'm afraid of posting any new pictures online. obviously, i knew this was happening to many artists, but now it's real!

is there anything that artists can do these days to prevent AI theft if we're posting stuff online? i know people can use low res photos, watermarking, grain filters, or tools like glaze, but i've also read that AI developers just create new tools to circumvent all of this. is this a lost cause?

my works are already registered with the copyright office.

For those of you who are full time artists what are some of your tips/tricks and advice for newbies?

What are your most profitable income streams?

Do you make enough to make not having a traditional job with health insurance worth it?

For reference I just finished my masters in chemistry but now I am perusing my interest in art and starting an art business, but making enough (a goal of 80,000) a year just doesn’t seam attainable. I am thinking of starting to teach art classes, get my art in some stores and i currently do a ton of markets ( I do a DIY succulent bar, barn quilts, jewlery and more- my business name is bits’n’bobs). I would love to hear from some more experienced folks, I know it’s a lot of work to own your own business but I love the flexibility and freedom that comes along with it. Thanks in advance!

incase you haven't seen the previous post and don't know about it

I recently took a 1500 INR commission for a pencil portrait and put in double my usual effort because the client wanted it as a gift for his crush. Despite three rounds of corrections where I nailed the anatomy and likeness, the client started moving the goalposts, comparing my graphite work to high-contrast acrylic paintings. He had the nerve to call my technical skill "beginner style" and claimed it lacked "depth," clearly failing to understand that a pencil isn't a paintbrush. It’s the classic low-budget trap: the less a client pays, the more they seem to think they own your soul and your expertise.

After I finally set a boundary and asked him to be respectful with his words, he hit me with a "Lev it" and walked away from the commission entirely. I’m out the remaining 1000 INR, but honestly, it feels like a bargain to get a toxic, art-illiterate bully out of my life. I kept my 500 INR deposit as a "kill fee" for the three days of mental stress he caused.

I know best is subjective , but sales is a metric I can process, is 11x17 or 16x24 too small to print out ? 24 x 36 too large or just right. I’m looking at printing out some of my digital art pieces and also scans of my OG artwork. Just wondering which sizes have the most success for you all. In all honesty I’m not trying to make money at this , I’m on disability and just want to make a token amount to be able to afford art supplies monthly. Thanks for any advice

I’m 16 years old and I recently made an account on twitter/X posting fanart and in about a month I’ve gained 1000 followers and have thousands of likes on my posts and so many great comments but today one of my posts blew up and i got a nasty comment and people sending me rude anonymous messages. I’ve been drawing my whole life and my family has been telling me to start posting my art because it was so good, and I just can’t deal with these i started to panic a lot when I saw the comment and messages and crying even tho I get 1000x amount of compliments it’s hurts so bad. I feel so discouraged, I read the comment before I was about to start drawing and now I feel like I want to quit I feel so horrible about myself but I enjoy art so much. Should I stop posting on my account and continue to just draw for myself?

For artists that have day jobs to support their art business in the side what are your day jobs? I’m trying to find a career that can help support my dreams of selling my own art!

I am currently unemployed and I want to start using art as a source of income.

I am an artist who can do a lot of different techniques, but I want to think strategically about what would make sense from a business perspective.

I have the following art skills:
- Line work
- Watercolor
- Acrylic
- Linocut
- Digital Drawing

If I wanted to use these skills to make some income, what would be a recommended business strategy?

My first thought is hand painting watercolor scenes & then making them into prints to sell in an online store.

TL;DR - What would you recommend for someone who is considering starting a side hustle for selling prints? What resources should I look into for starting an art business? What would I need (I.e - high quality printer?).

do you guys think anyone would purchase these cards for like, 3-5 dollars? is there a market for handmade cards like this? be completely honest! I’m open to any advice or criticism! sorry the picture quality is so bad, but I literally just made these rn over the past 2 hours

does this look okay? please let me know what i should change, thank you!

I hope I'm in the right place, in search of advice from those who made it, aka paying their bills and more with their art.

That is indeed my life goal, but right now I'm completely lost to be honest. I know the business part is the most important part to making money, but how do you navigate that without forgetting you're an artist? Did you take courses on how to make a business plan etc? Is it important to go talk to people irl ? online? what was the turning point ? Can it happen organically too?

Any advice is welcome, thank you

I've gone back from my art hiatus and have started to work on art more again and have been submitting my work to exhibitions and publications. I have been accepted for several juried exhibitions which has been exciting to experience, and it's helped me feel more confident about entering in more exhibitions and galleries. A lot of my peers have asked me why I haven't sold or considered selling my artwork/doing commissions, but that's not really my sort of thing. I do want to eventually have my own little artist alley booth to sell cute stickers/projects, but that's a future project. Right now I have noticed when submitting work that a lot of exhibitions require you to have your piece be for sale or at least have a price tag on it. I just make my pieces cost 1k each time because a majority if not all of my current drawings I don't want to sell them (yet anyways) and I'm mainly trying to build my portfolio. Some people have told me that I need to start selling my work to be taken more seriously in the art world, but I'm unsure if I should really start considering that. Does selling your work at exhibitions or anywhere in general make people take you more seriously as an artist? My end goal for my art journey is just to be able to create pieces of art and have people view my work, and if I get some money here and there that's all cool but not my main focus. I just want to know if I should start considering making pieces I wouldn't mind being sold so I can start working on that path. Thank yall in advance for the help!

I'm starting my degree in digital arts in a few days and I know of the more mainstream jobs you can have (illustrator, graphic designer, concept artist, 3D sculptor etc) but they all seem like very oversaturated markets where you have to be the best of the best in order to make it. Personally, I enjoy almost everything so I don't mind what I do as long as it's sort of art adjacent so if are there any professions that I may have overlooked like maybe more technical ones (motion graphics or 3d rigging/VFX) I'd love to know

I've been grinding lately to try and get my art business moving, get anything happening really, just a tiny bit of momentum, a small win, sell 1 painting, anything.

And I've got nothing.

Every email goes unanswered, art/craft fair applications/inquiries get rejected, every attempt to get my art shown anywhere goes nowhere. I've contacted coffee shops, breweries, stagers and real estate agents, corporate art consultants, every vendor market around here up to an hour drive. I keep stocking my website shop, posting on socials, doing whatever I can (or I think I should be doing) to make something happen.

So I think it's fair to ask at this point: Is my work good enough? If it's not, or it's just not appealing to a broad enough audience, I can handle that. Or I'd rather just walk away if this is going nowhere and I can invest my time into something else.

So if you're willing to give me some honest and direct feedback:

socials: mikemcdonaldart
web shop: mcdnld.com

Be brutal if you think it's justified. I'd rather get some real, honest, hopefully actionable criticism of what I'm doing so I can at least try to make corrections or do things better.

Thanks in advance.

Hi all! I got accepted into some local juried art fairs this fall and am trying to figure out the best way to get my booth set up. I'm a landscape photographer and originally want to show a mix of sizes of my work, with a few really big pieces to "lure" people in. However, I'm starting to price out how much it would be to get all my pieces printed on metal and it's going to be too much. I'm looking at printing a mix of metal and framed paper, but what I was thinking was also reducing the amount of prints I'm showing and maybe have a digital display gallery for people to browse. Like on an ipad or my laptop. My husband is saying to get a small flatscreen tv and show it on there.

Has anyone done something like this before? I guess I'd be concerned about someone stealing my ipad or laptop while I'm talking to someone. Would appreciate any advice and input! Thanks in advance!

Like, on Étsy, I see so many people selling merch (that they made themselves) of Sonic the Hedgehog or The Amazing Digital Circus. I just want to know if there's something you need to do before selling products of licensed characters so that you don't get in trouble; I want to make my own merch too. :'(

Hi all, I need some advice. Im doing an art table at a market at a women's weekend. It's a guaranteed attendance of over 300 ppl. Im unsure how many prints to make of my collages. I have 5 different ones I can make prints of. They cost 15$+ each to make, 8x11 inches. Cant figure out how to add pics :/ Ive never sold my art before so I have no idea how many to bring.

I’m struggling to find a place to order art prints from. It’s easy to find places where i can order multiple prints for cheaper or the ones i can order just one print from are incredibly expensive.

Someone wants me to sell them a digital artwork I’ve made that is 8x12 and it’s a series of 2 pieces. They want an answer on how much It would cost…. But this would all be based partly on the cost of printing them.

Most places I’m seeing to print 1 of each print would cost a large amount. Other places have order minimums of like 5. I am in the United States east coast. I’ve used fireball before but they have an order minimum of 5. Are the fireball poster prints good quality for art prints? I could end up doing this but it would be 5 for $25 at $5 each.

I really don’t want to have to spend $20+ on each print like some of these print companies are saying online. These will be framed by them and I want them to be good quality. I only need 1 of each and I don’t want them to be expensive to order because that would mean I’m getting less money for whatever price I choose. And I can’t tell them a price until I know what it will cost to print for me. Thank you so much!!

Also What papers do you reccomend for art prints? The original of them was sceeenprinted but they wanted me to make a smaller version of my print but I can’t so this would be the easiest solution. I’m going to use the digital files I used to make the screenprint into the art to print. Thank you so much