It's a pity my art career never took off

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Drawing/ sketching was my first and longest obsession... Although I was discouraged from doing it...it never stopped me...what ruined it for me though was when classmates start asking me to do their projects for them....when 10 people ask you to do their project and you can only do 3...you end up with 7 people who hates you at the end of the day....

Thanks Midas, that's really encouraging! The way I see working as an artist now is that I just love to paint and draw - it's like a drug which calms me and makes me feel at peace, so I do it every day ragrdless of any idea of making money from it. If I could find a way to make a living at it I would but I can't work from home due to the legalities of the flat I own and due to the autism I'm not able to break any rules. So I'm back to teaching at the moment (which I also love, although it is exhausting). If I ever got the chance to work in a coop studio or place like that I'd certainly give it a go. If you've got nothing to lose why not have a try? Hope things work out for you!




Thanks - I'm really fascinated at the moment with ink - it's brilliant fun!



Thanks, I find the abstract stuff the most natural for me to paint, the representational stuff I'm working on is harder for my ASD mind to manage.



Super idea, I was wondering about that. We have a local art show in a village near here every summer in July. I could contact them and see if they would take any of it.

You're watercolour sounds brilliant - I'd love to see some of it if you were able to share it?





Thanks for your encouraging words. I know what you mean about not wanting to sell. Even when I'm working on painting/drawing something which isn't 'near and dear' to me, I get this intimacy to my subject to the point where it almost feels part of me, so selling a painting is like giving away a fragment of my self which is hard.

In terms of art snobbishness, I live in a very down-to-earth area so there isn't any art snobbishness to speak of here which does really help. Those stuck up and competative attitudes can really restrict how a person feels about selling. My advice (please ignore this if you don#t want to hear it)... keep painting and drawing what you love, sell it if you want to and ignore the competition and snobbishness completely - just do it for yourself.

I'm a graphic designer, have been since the age of 13 as I was put on a government course for it as I wanted to do media. I went to college doing games design and animation, then I started my own business selling things and realised there's more money in selling things and wished I'd went to business studies instead or something.

People often say I'm really talented but the truth is with graphic design - the competitiveness is unreal. EVERYONE wants to do that, there's so many creative people out there willing to make some quick money. Working for a graphics company isn't really that great either, it's low pay and usually those places are FULL of work place drama.

I nearly became a tattooist after realising all this, but then tattooing became the same as graphic design with competitiveness and drama so I gave up on that too because I made more money from selling stuff. It's definitely a skill that comes in handy a lot though, especially if you have to cater to your own business advertising and such or helping friends/family out.

If it's a passion then I say do it because you will enjoy it and get satisfaction from it but don't expect to become rags to riches from it like I did when I was younger. It's not a great way to sustain a mortgage/run a house with bills and whatever.

Hi Lunella,

Hey, you're a graphics designer?

I'm a technical writer, and let me tell you, we technical writers really admire graphics designers.

In the States at least, you wouldn't believe the number of times I've interviewed for a technical writing job and they ask if I can do the graphics. I always have to be honest and say, "Not from scratch, I always depend on the graphics guys to create them, and then I can tweak them or edit them."

I think it's possible to make money at it, it's only a matter of finding a company that values your skills. It could be that the employment picture is different where you live.

My artwork consists of fine art (photography and painting) ... If I could do graphic arts too ... I think it would really broaden my horizons.

...

i do see how you feel. that's my own attitude towards selling creations, they are a part of me, and i didn't mold them in my own hands for hours on end, to see them disappear.

but, money is always nice.

thank you for the encouraging words also my GF was in an art show with her family recently and she sold some pieces, maybe i can approach her to see if we can do something like that together sometime, i think it might be better for me than if i did it on my own.

Sounds like a good plan!

I've been on the verge of setting up an art busines for a while. Came about by accident, I've drew on and off since a was a child as a coping mechanism. I started painting 3 years ago and things have developed to a point where people are offering ok money for paintings. The painting would be perfect as its very therapeutic for me, the problem is being consistent enough to run a business around health issues etc. That's where the "on the verge" comes in. Was diagnosed with an ASD last year.

I've considered tattooing as the money is really good. Some local tattooists make £75-100 an hour. I'm not keen being around people so that's not going to happen. :0/

Lunella: Competitiveness is a big issue these days. What a world! As you say especially in the creative industries there are so many people taking up what is quite a small market really.

That's why I imagine I won't pursue art. I personally just don't have the motivation for it. Some people are more driven. I don't think it's my fate. At least I got some pleasure out of doing some paintings.

Has any of you tried spray paint art? ...it's difficult to master but once you've mastered it...it can easily be done in as little as 15 minutes....it's basically disposable art, to the artist at least...so if you have a market for it you might actually earn some extra money...

Competitiveness is EVERYWHERE these days. Not just in art. It's if you go for any kind of decent job at all. Or even temporary positions. More and more people looking for fewer and fewer jobs. So whatever I do, I just have to give it my best shot.

Thing is, my main motivation to create art is not the money, even though I do sell. I'm an artist because I felt called to be one.

Art for pleasure is its own reward, too. I like how you can do renderings of famous people.

I tend to be allergic to chemicals sprayed in the air, so I don't dare try,
although I've had the chance to do it.

why does obabo have a massive bruise?

Jo B1, I love your abstract paintings!

Aerosols tend to do that....

I really think you should look into it in this case, the more skills you have the more you are an asset to a media company basically. I can do photography, modelling touch ups, graphic design, 3D modelling, 3D texturing, painting, drawing, even sewing randomly came in handy a couple of times.
The more skills you have to support something the more valuable you'd be to a company because they wouldn't have to pay ridiculous fees for some other company to come in and do it when one of their own could just do it for a pay bonus. Not only that but the more skills you have the more people want you for other bits of freelance work on the side. It's definitely come in handy a bunch of times but for me it didn't sustain the amount of money I actually need but I figure you need to want to do that and be into it anyway. You should go for it if you think you have the patience to learn new things and stick at it until you've gotten somewhere reasonable.

I actually started out as a dev on IMVU back when IMVU first started out and I learned through that and other people on that site. It was a hobby which turned into a bunch of really useful skills.



You need to keep in mind, most places only employ 1 apprentice out of like 200 people queuing for that same position and you don't even start tattooing for a long time as you have to go through a lot of training before they let you permanently mark someones skin.

You have to be good enough to earn that kind of money - I've got friends who are on £700 a day and have tattoo'd celebrities but they only got there through serious hard work and practice. It's bloody hard work and not for the feint of heart. You need to actually have the patience to stick with it when it comes to tattooing, I mean it's definitely doable but you have to be like amazing at drawing for anywhere to even give you a chance because you're so easily replaceable in that industry as it's so competitive and so many people want to do it.

I mean, I have friends who got totally fed up trying to get employed somewhere and ended up just working some sh***y subway job and lived at their parents for a few years until they opened their own tattoo parlour and rented chairs out to tattooists while they also trained him up eventhough he was the boss at the same time lol. It's always possible but you need to decide how much you actually want to do it.

But yeah if you have a people problem then tattooing won't be for you - you have to work with the general public, even sometimes chavs and old people.



Honestly as long as you enjoy it that's all that matters, I enjoy all the other skills I have when I'm in the mood for them and I always am up to something creative. If you want to get better at drawing there are sooo many tutorials and things around the Internet. For me personally I just observed other peoples work a lot and learned from them how they did it, those speed painting videos were a god send for me.



I agree, everything is competitive in this day and age. It's more so in creative industries though because everyone wants to be some cool artist or musician or whatever.

The way I see it is, if you want money - go and sell things or get a job that's more logical mathematical minded. If you just want to be creative and earn a bit of money then jump into the creative work force world. It won't make you rich (unless you're like incredibly amazingly mad talented at it after years of practice) but it'll make you happy - it'll make you rags to moderate rags and lots of art supplies you don't ever use because they're so nice to look at.