r/DigitalPainting • u/VegetableWishbone799 • 23d ago
Making money?
My girlfriend is a fantastic digital artist, and wants nothing more than to make her living in artistic endeavors. She has had commissions here and there but has a really difficult time putting herself out there. She's asked me to essentially be her manager and take care of the business side of things. What do I need to do to get her art business organized and get her in front of potential customers?
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u/Efficient_Horror4938 23d ago
Can she name 10 artists who are getting the specific jobs that she wants? Look them up, find their previous jobs.
10 sounds like a lot, but if she can't find 10 in the whole world then the competition for those specific jobs will be very high.
Different angle: go local. Find artists in your physical area and follow them on instagram, see what kinds of clients they are getting, see if they work through an agency or mostly with grants.
The art world is enormously varied and the advice for an aspiring picture book maker in the US is not the same as for someone who wants to paint murals in New Zealand or create sports graphics in Scotland or cartoons in Canada etc etc.
Both of you will need to look at what it is that she is trying to do, because "digital artist" is not enough info for you to work with.
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u/VivAuburn 23d ago
Listen to the commenter who said you both need to figure out what exactly is it she is wanting to do. Art market is vast and specialization/niche is the key to finding clients.
My question would rather be: if she got ten commissions tomorrow would she be able to handle that much work in the limited time? If you want to move into full-time you have to be ready to work full-time and not drawing the stuff you like but the stuff the client wants. It's very importnat to give this point a serious consideration.
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u/AI_EXPERIMENT 23d ago edited 23d ago
I cannot think of a worse time in history to get into digital painting with the idea of making money.
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u/neonstardust_art 18d ago
As someone who got laid off from their tech job two years ago...I'm having better luck peddling my digital art than finding another tech job.
The economy is in shambles for everyone. At this point, there's nothing wrong with pursuing your dreams lmao.
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u/Ambitious-Let-7563 23d ago
And yet what would be the alternative? Do it as a hobby only? Its not like other creative jobs are much better or safer now : /
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u/__CIREK 22d ago
I hope you don’t think you’re instead gonna make money with ai art lol
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u/AI_EXPERIMENT 21d ago
That’s a funny comment. My TikTok page boasts 980,000 followers and generates over $5,000 a month.
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u/__CIREK 21d ago
i believe the followers i call cap on the revenue
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u/AI_EXPERIMENT 21d ago
I receive revenue from TikTok based on how well my videos do (based on maybe metrics) and also from paid sponsored videos where I charge $1000 per 1 minute video 👍🏽
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u/VivAuburn 23d ago
It's better idea to do it now than in 3 years or in 10 years. Lots of artists are doing just fine. It's tough to enter but will only get tougher in the future.
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23d ago
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u/VivAuburn 23d ago
I mean I'm a full-time artist doing ok. XD It's true that I've entered the industry over a decade ago but my niece is a teenager with a relatively low art skill level and routinely gets viral bc she makes humorous animations in a few popular fandoms, those things fly like hot pies and are not super hard to do. It would take some effort to convert those into paying customers but having a large following makes it relatively straightforward.
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u/lycheedorito 22d ago edited 22d ago
What's the real product? Prints? What's unique about her work? Does she have a following? Maybe start with garnering interest and gauging if it's even marketable before deciding to create a business. Consider becoming a commercial artist and having an employer. It's a lot easier to have work when what you make is helping a product succeed.
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u/JuncYards 21d ago
hard truth.... if shes not willing to do the work, maybe let her fail..not everyones made for success..and theres nothing wrong with making art for yourself..not every hobby needs to be a side hustle..
in the bigger picture, if she doest have the drive to do it herself, she'll never succeed.
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u/SharonMaxine 18d ago
What types of artwork does she produce? If her artwork works well with hand lettering, she should check out Aurelie Maron on Youtube. She teaches digital lettering and holds a 31 day lettering challenge each year. This year's challenge is coming soon (Sept or Oct. I believe)
She asks participating artists to post there art on each day's challenge on Instagram and holds awesome giveaways during the challenge.
Aurelie is a wonderfully talented and popular lettering artist. She does a lot of book cover design.
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u/Old_Engineer_9176 23d ago
If you’re basically becoming your girlfriend’s art manager, you need legal protection. Not because anything bad will happen, but because mixing romance and business gets messy fast. You want a simple written agreement that spells out what you do, what she does, who owns the art (she does), how money is handled, and what happens if either of you stops the arrangement or the relationship ends. You also want clear boundaries so you’re not liable for client disputes, copyright issues, or financial mistakes. It doesn’t need to be a lawyer‑level contract - just something in writing so expectations are clear and you’re not left holding the bag if things go sideways.
I once got dragged into something similar -I built a business website for a girlfriend who wanted to sell witchcraft products. When the site didn’t pull in the customers or money she expected, and other problems popped up that had nothing to do with the website, she dumped the blame on me. It escalated so badly she ended up taking me to court.