Is an Artist an Entrepreneur?

Is an artist an entrepreneur? How do you make money as an artist? These are the questions I get asked all the time. I want to help teens and artists be successful artist entrepreneurs!

Is an artist an entrepreneur?

Yes, an artist is an entrepreneur. Often artists, especially emerging artists, just starting out rely on another job like a part-time job to help support their art career as it starts. 

To learn more about being an artist/entrepreneur check out some

Being an artist is owning your own business. You are in charge of not only making art but finding ways to sell your art or creative ideas and make money.

Like any entrepreneur, it is important for artists to have an online presence like a website, social media and grow an audience. 

Having an email list as an artist is important to help you to stay in touch and communicate with your customers/fans of your art. 

It is smart to have multiple streams of revenue to be able to support you as an artist. I have listed different streams of revenue mentioned below. 

You want to have different streams of revenue because different times in the year might bring in different amounts of money. For example, you might sell more art in November before the holiday but less in January, so it is good to have a plan in place for other ways to make money instead of just relying on one income stream. 

Here are 21 Ways Artists Can Make Money as an Entrepreneur: 

1. Selling Original Artwork: Direct sales of paintings, sculptures, or other original pieces.

2. Commissioned Work: Creating custom pieces based on specific requests from clients.

3. Prints and Reproductions: Selling prints of original artwork, often at a lower price point.

4. Merchandise: Designing products like t-shirts, mugs, or phone cases featuring their art.

5. Art Licensing: Licensing their artwork for use in various products, advertisements, or publications.

6. Teaching Art Classes: Offering in-person or online art classes and workshops.

7. Patreon and Subscription Services: Providing exclusive content to subscribers in exchange for a monthly fee.

8. Public and Private Grants: Applying for grants offered by organizations that support the arts. You can read about how to get an artist grant here!

9. Art Residencies: Participating in residencies that provide financial support and resources for artists. You can read about how an artist residency works - here!

10. Gallery Exhibitions: Partnering with galleries to exhibit and sell artwork.

11. Art Fairs and Markets: Selling work at local, national, or international art fairs and markets.

12. Freelance Design Work: Taking on projects like graphic design, illustration, or branding for clients.

13. Online Marketplaces: Selling artwork through platforms like Etsy, Saatchi Art, or Redbubble. I sell on Society6 - you can see my store here!

14. Social Media Sponsorships: Collaborating with brands on sponsored posts or campaigns on platforms like Instagram.

15. YouTube and Online Content: Creating content for YouTube or other platforms, monetizing through ads and sponsorships. You can check out my acrylic painting YouTube channel here and subscribe!

1. E-books, Books, and Tutorials: Writing and selling instructional books or video tutorials. You can check out my animal drawing book for teens and preteens- by clicking here! You can also check out my art teaching resources store here!

2. Art Subscriptions and Memberships: Creating subscription boxes or memberships that deliver art to customers regularly.

3. Crowdfunding: Using platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo to fund specific projects.

4. Public Art Commissions: Receiving commissions for public artworks, such as murals or sculptures.

5. Collaborations with Brands: Partnering with companies for special projects or limited edition products.

6. Art Installations: Designing and installing art for events, exhibitions, or permanent collections.

Being an artist and an entrepreneur can be very rewarding and very challenging. 

It can be rewarding to make money for what you are passionate about and talented at. 

It can be challenging because it might be harder or take longer than you expect to make consistent money online. 

Often times you want to make art but you are being pulled in different directions and needing to focus not just on making art but how to balance your time to keep up with all of the tasks of being an entrepreneur. 

Here are some tasks that an artist/entrepreneur has:

• Posting on social media

• Updating your website

• Making art

• Selling art 

• Shipping art 

• Emailing your email list 

• Growing your audience 

• Marketing/advertising

• Tracking income and expenses 

• Managing your art inventory 

• Research and development of new ideas 

• Learning and implementing to become a better artist/entrepreneur

• Lots of administrative tasks 

• And so much more! 

Let me know in the comments what revenue streams you are interested in. 

If you want to be an artist -be sure to download my art portfolio tips guide that includes 10 tips to make your art portfolio application stand out and get you accepted into your desired school. 

Related Articles:

Subscribe to my painting YouTube channel!
Purchase my animal drawing book for teens!

Check out the art in my shop

Rainbow Field 4

CA$110.00

How to use Canva Pro as an Artist

Canva Pro is a great online tool to use if you are a content creator, small business owner or artist. I will share how to use Canva Pro as an artist and why Canva Pro is great for artists to use. You will also learn about the differences between Canva Pro and Canva’s free version. Find out why I love using Canva Pro as an artist below!

The Difference Between Canva Pro and Free Canva 

The biggest difference between free Canva and Canva Pro is the range of features and templates that are available. Canva Pro users have access to over 60 million high-quality stock photos, illustrations, and vectors, while free users are limited to just over 1 million. In Canva Pro, you can also better organize your digital files because you have more storage space and more compatibility to have unlimited folders. 

How to use Canva Pro 

There are lots of free Canva Pro tutorials online and on YouTube. I encourage you to download the free version of Canva first or use my affiliate link to try a 30 day Free Trial of Canva Pro to see if you like it first. Canva Pro is a great investment in my business. It is a yearly subscription that costs about $150 dollars a year. This isn’t much for the amount of time it saves in my business. I create a lot on Canva Pro so the subscription pays for itself! 

How to Use Canva Pro As An Artist

There are lots of features of Canva Pro that are helpful to artists. Here are some ideas.

• Use Canva Pro to make Pinterest Pins to promote your artwork - choose from Canva’s templates 

• Make instagram stories or reel covers to advertise your artwork - again Canva Pro has lots and lots of templates to choose from which will save you time.

• Save your brand colours and logo in Canva Pro to easily add them into a design 

• Create graphics for your blog

• Design a logo for your business

• Create YouTube thumbnails

• Design instagram or Facebook posts 

• Create designs to print on mugs, cards, stickers, t-shirts and more! 

• Create and store branding images for your website

• Create videos and animations for your website or social media 

• Create digital downloads or prints to sell

• Create Freebies for people to opt-in on your email list. 

There are so many possibilities with Canva Pro the possibilities are truly endless! Here is the link to try Canva Pro for 30 Days for free! (It is an affiliate link meaning I get a small commission each time someone uses my link)

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Try Canva Pro

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How to Make Time for Art

How to make time for art is an ongoing question I ask myself. I’m sure other artists ask themselves how to make time for art and maybe you do too. I want to share my tips with you for how I have time to make art and how I find pockets of time in my busy schedule to get creative. Learn how to make time for art below!

How to Make Time for Art- tip #1 

Track Your Time:

In order to have more time to make your artwork it is important that you understand how you spend your time. You can do this by tracking your time. Create an Excel sheet or grab a pen and some paper and start making note of how much time you spend on typical tasks. Once you have totalled how you spend your time you will be able to assess if there is any room for improvements that could give you more time to make art. 

For example, check your screen time usage on your smartphone. It is amazing to see that we spend hours (2-3) even more scrolling on our phone. Ask yourself how you can reduce it. Maybe set a timer. Check your email only once or twice a day, have an intention before going on social media so you avoid mindless scrolling. 

Another time waster is mindless tasks like folding laundry, or doing the dishes. I try to listen to a podcast or audiobook during this time or I give someone a phone call. 

A big culprit is watching TV. Again, it’s important to have an intention and limit your TV time. What could you be doing instead? Working out, painting, reading, making art?

How to Make Time for Art- tip #2 

Make a Plan

Now that you have tracked your time and have a better understanding of how you are spending your time you can begin to make a plan. Your goal is to make more time for your art. So ask yourself what can you give up or shorten the time to give you more time to make art.

You could agree to have a night with no TV and this day of the week could be a painting day. You could reduce your screen time by an hour a day. You could leave work earlier instead of staying late all of the time. You could wake up an hour earlier than normal. 

See how much time you can give yourself to make art. Start small with 30min. to an hour and see if you can add more time to make art later on.

How to Make Time for Art- tip #3

Make a Habit 

If possible try to block off time in your online or paper planner to schedule yourself time to make art. When making art make sure to limit your distractions. Put your phone on airplane mode. Tell your loved ones this is your uninterrupted time and they should respect that if this is something you truly care about and value!

Bonus Tip:

Habits help to stick when they are goals. Make sure you are clear about why you want to make art and why it is important to you. Does it bring you joy? Is it stress relief? Once you have established why making art is important to you -you should continue to want to strive to make time for it. Realizing why art is important and giving myself art goals has helped me to stay motivated in making art. For me the process of making art calms me down and makes me feel more relaxed so I try to fit it into my schedule whenever possible. You can check out my article about tips for achieving your art related goals - here! 

There will be days or weeks that you don’t make art and that is okay. Give yourself some grace and know that you will make art again! You can read this post about tips for adding freshness to a stale art practice here! 

Need some accountability to make art for your portfolio application - try my art portfolio coaching so you can create an application that stands out and gets accepted without the stress and overwhelm!

Related Articles:

6 Tips for Hitting Your Art Goals

How to Add Freshness to a Stale Art Practice

How to Stay Motivated as an Artist 

Sleeping Tips for Artists

If you found these artist tips make sure to join my community in the box below! I send tips, exclusive painting tutorials and special bonuses to my members every two weeks! 

Quit Feeling Like a Starving Artist TODAY!

Quit feeling like a starving artist today by working on your artist mindset. Mindset work is an ongoing process but I want to help you quit feeling like a starving artist because I know it doesn’t feel good and it sucks to feel that way! Quitting to feel like a starving artist when you have been feeling that way for a long time is a very difficult task and it won’t be a quick and easy fix! Just remember we all start from somewhere. This idea that a contemporary artist can’t support themselves through their art is frustrating and this “starving artist” story has been around for A LONG TIME! But let’s get rid of it for once and for all! Okay?…

I’m sure you’ve heard this before…

•  “You can’t make money doing something you love”

• “You will never make it as an artist”

• “You can’t make money as an artist”

• “Why don’t you get a real job?”

• “Only dead artists make money!”

Are you done feeling small? Hiding your art? Feeling like a failure?

The starving artist is a narrative that is drilled into our brains.

Enough is enough!

The number one trick to being a successful artist is working on your mindset. I believe this is true with any entrepreneur - you need to have a positive and healthy mindset. This is ongoing work that takes time and involves you to change how you think about things, how you see things and who you choose to listen to. 

So how do you work on your mindset to stop feeling like a starving artist? Read my 10 steps to quit feeling like a starving artist below!

Quit Feeling Like a Starving Artist - by following these tips!

Step 1:

You need to start thinking and feeling positive and successful in order to start believing. If you feel negative, like a failure, constantly thinking about how you don’t have art sales or exhibitions then that is the kind of energy you will attract. If you think negative, you feel negative and you  believe those negative thoughts to be true and that this is your reality. Thinking negatively becomes harder to change. So when you start thinking or feeling negatively about your art or your ability as an artist it is important to change those thoughts/feelings immediately.

Step 2: 

Be grateful. When you are talented and creative it is easy to take those abilities for granted. It is important to be grateful for your art talents, your business, your artwork and really remember why you became an artist in the first place. When you are passionate and excited you will keep at it and you will encounter your success.

Step 3:

Stick with it. It’s so easy to give up and say why bother? And I think that’s the difference between a successful artist and non-successful artist. As an artist you face a lot of rejection and a lot of criticism. It’s easy and normal to feel defeated. But your perseverance is what will pull you through!

Step 4: 

Consistency is key! Being a successful artist is about showing up consistently. Post consistently to social media like Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Share photos of your art- finished pieces, detail shots and work in progress. Start an email list and share an email to your members every week or every other! Create consistent routines for you like posting to social media every other day, one blog post a week, one email to your list every other week and then stick to those routines. When you follow a schedule for posting content you are seen as reliable and people can count on you when they have a question or will come when they are ready to buy. They will look forward to hearing from you when you establish a consistent schedule! 

Step 5:

Invest in yourself. As an artist you will need certain supplies. You need to invest in yourself and treat your art as a business in order to be successful. It’ s good to have a website where people can view your art and purchase it. You will need good clear photos of your work. Whether you have a camera and a tripod or you hire a photographer- great quality images are a must! You also probably need programs like Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop to edit and resize your images. You will need to spend money on art supplies, and materials you need for your practice. If you make videos for example you may need to invest in a better computer. Keep your receipts and speak to your accountant at the beginning of the year if you have any questions!

Step 6:

Reminders, affirmations and lists of achievements. Part of thinking positively and feeling positively is being reminded of what is possible. It’s helpful to post sticky notes with positive affirmations like, “ I am a successful artist” or “People love my work and are happy to pay for it.” These affirmations serve as visual reminders that can help build your confidence which will make it easier for you to feel and believe. When you feel confident it is easier for you to put yourself out there- to apply to exhibitions or to share your art and ask for a sale.

Step 7:

Know your worth. As an artist we are often promised exposure instead of money. While exposure is important you need to know when to say no. If you sell art on your website you need to consider your skills and expertise on the decisions you make for pricing your art. You can read more tips about pricing your art here! 

Step 8:

Know what makes you different. It can seem like there is a sea of artists. But it’s important to stay in your own lane. Focus on what makes you different or unique. Don’t copy someone’s art because it’s popular. Create and find your own style. Make art about what feels right to you. This is difficult and it will take time.

Step 9:

Practice and experiment. See your art practice as a journey. You won’t get overnight success. You need to practice and give yourself permission to experiment and test to see what works. You are allowed to change and grow. Remember that.

Step 10:

Get support and ask for help. Being an artist requires you to be many things like a writer, photographer, public speaker, marketer, social media expert, copywriter and more! Don’t expect to be perfect at everything and ask for help with someone with more expertise. Maybe you need to do research, read a book or invest in an online course. It’s also important to get support from friends and family. Ask people to like and comment on your posts. Invite people to look at your website. You don’t know what will happen if you never ask or put yourself out there. 

Too often as artists we are trapped in our heads or are constantly comparing ourselves to other artists. It’s important to follow these steps to help change your mindset from being a starving artist to a thriving artist!  Sometimes it helps just to start making art or to keep making art consistently. If you have been feeling uninspired lately - click here to read some tips that will help!

Related Articles

10 Lessons I Learned in Art School

Why I Became an Artist

The Struggling Artist Secret

Connect with me on Instagram @jackiepartridge_ and send me a DM if this resonated with you!

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9 Tips for Pricing Your Art

Here are 9 tips for pricing your art. Pricing your art can be very difficult. Especially when you start comparing what other artists are charging online. There are a lot of factors for pricing your art to consider. You can read my 9 tips for what to consider when pricing your art below! Feel confident in how to price your art.

But at the end of the day the best advice I received from an old painting professor in university was “you need to price your art at a price you are happy to let it go with”

This statement from my professor completely changed how I see pricing my art.

I think in the age of the internet it is so easy for artists or any entrepreneurs to look and compare other people’s prices – but it shouldn’t and doesn’t matter especially when it comes to art.

Although it is easy to compare it shouldn’t be justified because artists have different experience, education, ideal customers and are often working with different art materials.

You need to think about your factors:

• What is the cost for materials to make the art?

• Who is my ideal customer and what is their budget for art?

• What is your intuition telling you?

• Do you include shipping, taxes, a free gift, custom wrapping, tracking id (all of these extras cost more $$$)

• How much time did you spend on making the art?

• Is it framed or not?

• Do you have a history of sales- if you have a proven record of sales, a large fan base or are known in your region -you might be in demand and are able to charge more

Other things to consider: 

• Additional fees -like website fees, studio rental, equipment fees like a camera, Photoshop, Lightroom etc.

• What is my cost of living, what income do I want to receive for my art? Is this your full time job or a side hustle (if it is your full time job you should consider paying yourself an hourly wage – not minimum wage- don’t short change your experience, skills, education and value you bring!)

You need to price your art with what you are comfortable with. If you think it is priced too low then raise it! You have the ability to change your prices at any time! You should also adjust your prices on a yearly basis especially if you are lacking time to fulfill orders or as you become more experienced your prices should increase.

Remember people don’t need to buy art so the price of it varies hugely – do not compare your prices to the prices of others. Remember what makes your art different is you, your style, your effort, your decisions, your story and the experience that you serve your customers.

You don’t want to undersell yourself – you can always lower your prices and discount or provide a sale but it is harder to drastically raise prices when you started to low in the first place.

Check out my art shop here to see my prices!

Maybe you have thought about doing art commissions? Read this blog post here for tips!

What You Need to Price Your Art - 9 Tips - click image to pin for later

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