Cool and Rad Options to be an Artist and Actually Make Money

Hey artists, remember that thing that a lot of people say all the time about how “you can’t make a career out of this, you’re not gonna be the next Van Gough, this is just a hobby and you need to figure out what you want to do for a REAL job”? Did you know that’s 100% garbage and those people have no idea what they’re talking about at all? Most of those people are still stuck thinking that the only way you can make money as an artist is to get super famous like renaissance painters and make a million dollars, otherwise you’re gonna starve. What a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that art makes up a huge part of the entertainment industry and that there are tons of realistic jobs for artists.

Have you considered Storyboarding?

Big companies like Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network need people to make their cartoons. You don’t have to have your own original idea for a cartoon, you could work for the crew of an already existing one and do the storyboards. That’s the bit where you draw up the key frames before it gets animated. Those companies are going to continue making shows and movies for as long as people are willing to watch them. Essentially what I’m getting at is that there’s always gonna be a demand in the entertainment industry.

Wanna work for yourself and not a big company? Do it.

YouTube is a thing. Before you laugh and say, “that’s not a job though,” there are tons of people that do it as their full-time career and make livable wages off of it. I know it seems like it might be hard to get to that point, and you might not be the biggest name out there right off the bat, but, like, there’s a whole community of people that have made it work. The Animation Community has plenty of examples of people that make a living just by doing YouTube: JaidenAnimations, SomethingElseYT, and TheOdd1sOut are some of the huge ones that you might have heard of

Don’t animate? Not a problem, there are tons of other types of art channels too. People like to just watch others create sometimes. You could put up speedpaints where you just record yourself drawing or painting, for example, but it doesn’t just have to be drawing either. One of my favorite channels right now is Bobby Duke Arts, and he does amazing woodcarving and sculptures. If you work at it, you can grow a channel and monetize it

Unsure how you feel about the reliability of YouTube’s monetization? You can always do commissions and people can pay you for specific individual projects! You get to make your own prices and schedule, almost everything about commission projects is based on your own terms. Anyone can start an art blog, if you just keep doing what you love then people may take notice and want you to make things for them too.

Don’t let people tell you that you can’t make a living doing what you love. Depending on the route you take it may not be easy, but if you’re willing to put in the effort then you can absolutely make it work.