If you really believe it is possible to be an artist AND put food on the table then you might just be naïve and pig-headed enough to carve out a successful career in the arts. Artists that don’t starve either have very rich relatives or they’re only pretending to be artists. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of ways to ward off those hunger pangs.
So, to keep you going here is our list of top 10 Innovative Ways to Make Money as an Artist. All of these Ways are legal. We didn’t want to encourage you to do anything that would result in bad karma.
1. Blog your bollocks off
Blogging is perfect for creatives because you get to make things up on a daily basis. Successful bloggers, especially, it seems, those focusing on celebrities, command respect from peers and big bucks from their sponsors. If you want to aim a little lower then you could try contacting Creative Weblogging, a company that pays people to write about stuff like VoiP, Mortgages, and, wait a minute, do artists know anything about Voip and mortgages? OK, moving on …
2. Take to the streets
Technically you could argue that begging is a type of street performance as it consists of a visual presentation that confronts the audience [passers-by] with the realities of the social divisions and the emerging underclass. However, there are endless entertainments that you can present from a pavement stage. Busking, miming, chalk drawing, and even juggling can all be good money earners if you find the right spot. Check out these tips from Badly Drawn Boy
3. Curate an eBay gallery
Using technology to promote your art and your self is de rigour in the 21st Century. There are nearly 5000 artworks listed for sale on eBay by self-representing artists. Paintings are the most popular (around 3000) but sculpture (34), prints (738), and photography (100) make an appearance. Several artists report regular sales although if you are considering curating your own an eBay gallery bear in mind that most items sell for under a hundred quid.
4. Set up a market stall
If you can make it you can sell it. Sound too easy? Well, that’s almost the motto at the All Saints Garden Art and Craft Market based in Trinity Street, Cambridge. Just about every major conurbation in the country has its own art and craft fairs. The benefit of holding your own stall is that you get to meet potential buyers, find out what they like and, so I’ve been reliably informed, pick up commissions.
5. Entertain the suits
No doubt there are some thespians that would consider corporate entertainment ‘selling out.’ Perhaps a more positive approach is to look at it as practice for the time when you’ll be cracking the boards at The Globe. Britain’s biggest corporate entertainment outfit, Laughlines, gives its performers the chance to take a variety of cheesy roles such as the characters from ‘Faulty Towers.’ It might not be your name in lights but at least it’s good experience.
6. Get rich quick
Artists are not immune to getting sucked into get rich quick schemes. Indeed, artists are often the targets for such schemes. But how can you be sure they don’t work unless you give them a try? Former struggling Blues guitarist Pat O’Bryan has written a book, Your Portable Empire, which he claims teaches writers, musicians, artists and actors how to make a fortune online. I can’t knock it because I haven’t tried it but I’d hazard a guess that the secret ingredient to success may be something like hard work. Still, it might be worth a go?
7. Write a book about how to be an artist
Have you ever noticed that most of the books written about how to make it as an artist are written by people whose art you have either (a) never seen, (b) never heard of, or (c) neither seen nor heard of. So what are you waiting for? Tell us how you might go about becoming the artist you are yet to become and wait for the moola to come rolling in.
8. Mobile DJ Jazzy Jeff
You don’t have to drive a Cortina and wear a fat medallion to be a mobile DJ. Playing hits from the seventies, eighties, and nineties might not be the same as pulling a phat jungle rewind at Fabric on a Friday night but it might give you a chance to try out some new scratching techniques on an unsuspecting and captive audience.
9. Sell your body
I suppose this is another one for the thesps although anyone with confidence and a really thick skin should be able to pull off being a life model. Minimum pay is usually about 10 quid per hour. Sessions last for about 2-3 hours or until you run out the door, red-faced and hysterical with your pride dangling down between your legs. If you think you’re made of sterner stuff you can register online at the UK Register of Life Models. And the best thing is that your body will be used to train future generations of artists.
10. Sell your soul
If all of the above sound like too much of a chore then you only have one option: get a real job. Artists have been known to work in fields such as law, medicine, politics, and the military. They eat well, drive flash cars, have homes and stable relationships, but ask yourself this, are they happy?
