r/artbusiness

Okay so I had a friend recently tell me I should set up adoptable character designs- I mean, yeah sounds fun, I'd love to, I'm good at making up designs but...

I have no idea how. At all. Like no idea even where to start on this QwQ

How do they even work, what should I do, how do I even promote the idea of them? Help Qwaq

I will post a picture in the comments, I edited bit in some places I'm missing things but should be there. I feel like that my table looks a bit flat but I don't know how to make it look better or more appealing

I’m struggling to find clients for illustration, and don’t know where to go starting out as an artist. Don’t get me wrong I know it’s not gonna be easy but I just need a little direction on where to go at the start of my career. Any advice helps

I’ve been struggling with working from home as an artist. At home, I’m comfortable, and I’m answerable only to myself. Apart from the pressure of needing to create work that I can sell to earn an income, there isn’t much external accountability. Lately, that has become a real challenge because I’m starting to dip into my savings.

For 28 years, I worked as a graphic designer, and a photographer and for about 18 of those years I worked successfully from a home studio. As a consultant, I never really needed an office. Clients came to me regularly, I delivered good work, hired locations when and needed, and I built a reputation for being very good, and reliable. While I never expanded my business in a significant way, it served me well for a long time.

Now I’ve made the shift to becoming a full-time artist, creating and selling my own work online. Ironically, the workspace that supported my previous career no longer seems to support this one.

I’m finding it incredibly difficult to be productive at home. I feel like I need to get up every morning, leave the house, and go somewhere that exists purely for my work. I think having a dedicated studio that I pay for would make me more accountable. The extra expense would also motivate me to make the most of it.

I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced something similar. Has anyone reached a point where the workspace that once worked perfectly simply stopped working? Have you found that stepping outside your comfort zone and into a different environment changed your productivity and creative output?

I don’t know if it’s an age thing, a career stage thing, or simply the nature of the transition from being a service provider to building something entirely of your own. I’m somewhere in mid-career, and for the first time I’m seriously considering renting a studio outside my home. I imagine waking up, going to work, and then coming home to a space that is just that—home.

I also think it would allow me to reclaim my personal life. Instead of my home being a place where I’m constantly trying—and often failing—to work, it could become somewhere I genuinely enjoy living. I could entertain friends, spend more time with my pets, relax, and create a richer domestic life that supports me instead of competing with my work.

I love what I do. I love making art, and I genuinely believe I have the ability to build something meaningful. But I’m struggling with the guilt of spending money on a studio when it feels like I should be saving every penny. At the same time, I wonder if that expense isn’t really the problem at all. Maybe what I’m actually missing is a change of environment—a reason to get up, leave the house, and create some momentum.
I’m looking for that second wind. That fire in my belly that reminds me why I chose this path in the first place. Maybe a dedicated workspace isn’t just another expense. Maybe it’s the investment that helps me move into the next chapter of my career.

Has anyone else made this shift? Did it change the way you worked—and more importantly, did it change what you were able to create?

An ongoing pain point for me is photographing my work for web and print purposes. I find that I constantly question the outcome, and really struggle to make the images match the depth and energy of the actual painting. It always looks so flat to me.

I’m using a DLSR and Krita to edit. It’s not a tools problem, it’s a me problem. I’d love to know your best hacks for things like not catching (or editing out) too much glare against the tooth of the canvas, etc.

It looks like I can’t attach photos to this post as an example, but you’d notice that my full shots tend to look more washed out than the close up shots from the same photo sessions. The close ups are more true to color saturation, I think, because I can angle off to the side and miss the glare. I’ve tried different lighting arrangements, though, and can’t seem to find one where editing out some glare isn’t needed.

Hi everyone, I’ve never posted here but any advice is appreciated!

I’ve been doing art as a hobby for a long time. I work on boats so I draw a lot of inspiration from coastal themes and scenes and work primarily in watercolor. I’m not creating masterpieces by any means but I think my art is good enough that it would sell, and I’ve had offers from strangers to buy my work in the past. I want to explore selling art more seriously but I have no idea where to start.

I submitted a few paintings to a juried art show but they were rejected, and I’ve reached out to a couple galleries and provided pictures of my art but didn’t hear back. If there’s a technique to trying to get art into galleries that I’m not aware of, I would love to hear advice from people who have been through the process. Thanks!!

Hi! I've been thinking of doing comissions for a very long time and the only thing stopping me was always payment method. PayPal isn't available in my region so I've been thinking about a Stripe account. To keep it brief, I'd like to ask for advice from anybody using Stripe, since I don't want legal trouble, mainly regarding fees and taxes. My main concern is how fees/taxing works and how high they can get, since I don't believe I will earn much money anyway. I'd also like to know if there's a minimum amount that can be payed and how transactions work. Everything I've read so far is confusing me and I don't know anyone with any experience regarding online payment services. Thank you so much in advance, hope I haven't been too vague.

I currently own the printer and a pack of 25 A2 luster sheets (Canon Pro Luster paper). My initial plan was to print and sell my own designs, but now I am considering approaching other artists who want to sell their work as prints, and managing the printing and shipping myself. How and where do I approach these artists? (not poster makers, but artists who want to sell their art as Giclée prints)

I wanted to know how others deal with online privacy with art business stuff. I really like to keep pretty much the entirety of my online presence completely separate from my real life identity. I post my art online for fun, I have a webcomic that I don’t intend to print or sell that’s all on accounts that aren’t connected to my real name or anything, and I’d really like it to stay that way. BUT I’ve recently been thinking a lot about when I eventually (hopefully. Crossing my fingers) get to selling printed copies of a graphic novel, I’d obviously have my name on it. So I feel like I wouldn’t be able to reasonably stay anonymous online anymore, which honestly scares me a bit. Even if I don’t mention anywhere on my anonymous socials that I have a book, since it’s art, someone might still recognise the look of it and connect the dots somehow.

Idk, I guess I just want to know how people who post art online not under their real name, separate from their business, keep everything private (or as much as you reasonably can in this day and age) without worrying about someone recognising your art. Or if that’s even possible at all.

(Also if there’s a better sub to post this in, please let me know. I really wasn’t sure)

i am considering making some canvas prints to display because some of my originals are either too big for me to fit into my car and/or i don't want to sell the originals. these canvas prints would be between 11"x14" to 16"x20". however, it would be great if i could sell them as well.

i currently charge $40 for 8"x10" matted prints and they are selling at that pricepoint.

what makes sense for canvas prints that are 11"x14", 12"x16" and 16"x20"?

i haven't seen anyone sell canvas prints, but i do know someone who sells 11"x14" framed prints for $100.

I'm pretty new to everything including artist alleys and markets stuff like that, I have my supplies and designs but I was looking for any help or advice with stuff like what apps should I be using/trying to use for editing and printing? How should coms work at artist alleys? I'm fairly new to all this stuff and I do have a lot of supplies I'm just not exactly sure on how to use them (like what app should I be using for my circut and stuff. So far I have designs for post cards , prints , stickers , etc but I have no idea where to start and I find selling also slightly confusing like how should I be selling and keeping track of customers stuff like that. If you'd have any advice on anything I'd love to hear it, I've already signed up for art events but I just don't exaclty know how to start without expirience

Hello; I was wondering how I can begin networking in the art field? I'm an Iranian artist inside Iran; it makes networking so much more difficult and the Iranian art "market" is bizzare to say the least because of very heavy censorship and AI

I’ve (36F) been working professionally in art and design for 14 years. I’ve had the highs (six-figure years) working for AAA brands, and the lows of freelancing, but for the last 10 months I have been fully unemployed with almost no contract or full-time opportunities despite consistent applications. The market feels completely dead right now, and I’m starting to seriously question whether I can keep doing this.

Beyond the job hunt, the long-term toll on myself has been significant. I’ve also dealt with exploitation and mistreatment along the way — situations where I felt taken advantage of or harmed, but didn’t have the energy or resources to push back. I just feel wrung out.

I’m at the point where I’m genuinely considering walking away from art as a career, not as a temporary break but as a real pivot toward something more stable. At the same time, I’m scared — What if I walk away and later wish I’d stuck it out? Or what if the “stable” path ends up feeling just as draining?

For those who’ve been in (or are in) a similar place:
- Have you seriously considered or actually walked away from professional art?
- What helped you make (or not make) that decision?
- Any unexpected regrets or relief?
- How did you handle the identity shift afterward?

I’m not looking for toxic positivity or “just keep pushing” advice. I’d really value honest, grounded perspectives from people who’ve been through it.

Just debating between a rock and a hard place, and don't want to pick both options.

On one hand, sending it to a printer, and getting a high quality giclee print on archival paper is just an email away, on the other hand an original piece (say 1/50 quantity) is something that can't be copied by Temu, etc

My issue is that some of my work is being copied from my website, and they run it through AI or something, and sell it on another popular size for $2 as a digital download and others sell it for $25 as a print, however on my website I charge $250, so a huge difference.

I'm wondering if I should just get rid of reprint option and only offer original pieces? Increasing the price 3x-4x, but at least a person knows that it's made by hand versus just a print?

I don't know, but it sucks when I see my work, or my work with small changes being sold for 10% of what I charge. I can't compete with that.

This is one part curiosity, one part trying to figure out at what point it's reasonable to do some local fairs and such (as in, what speed are people working to have new/different works for various events?)

I do acrylic paint on canvas, typically in the 12x16 to 16x20 range, although I have a few smaller works. My work is mostly landscapes and nature/animals, although I've sort of dubbed my work "fantasy realism"- the style is extremely realistic, but the subjects lean more fantasy. For example, one piece is a very hyperealistic hawk pictured flying through a thunderstorm, and another is an extremely realistic unicorn running through a foggy forest. The landscape bit slows me down the most- I've done animal cameo-style portraits for decades but landscapes are newer to me.

These tend to take me what feels like FOREVER. Right now I work sporadically around my full time job, so it's like an hour here and there, but I'd put the "average" time it takes me to complete a 16x20 painting at around 60-80 hours (if I sat down and did nothing else, I could probably complete one in 2-4 weekends plus a weeknight here and there, but I rarely have that much time).

Is this extremely slow for this type of work, and should I expect that time to improve, or is that just "how it is" for that style, and I should just work to carve out more time to paint?

I would like to do a local fair at some point, (originals + prints, plus maybe some fun stuff like bookmarks etc) but have a hard time estimating how much of a "backlog" of work I should have so that I could do 1-2 a year and not only have the same pieces.

TL;DR: how long does it typically take other painters to produce new works, and what is a "reasonable" output to have in order to offer new works at 2-3 events a year? For my specific style/type of work, (acrylic realistic nature on canvas, 16x20) is 60-80 hours an insane amount of time per piece, and should I expect this to improve over time?

If you had to treat your job like a nine to five, how much time do you usually allocate to each task, and do you edit and/or post in-between filming, even if the art isn't complete?

I haven’t finished arranging the items yet and I haven’t made price tags/labels yet but I’m wondering if there’s too many different types of things going on here?

The two lavender crates both have prints but the left is linoprints and the right is digital/risoprint (I will label them as such) I’ve decided to separate them because buyers dont tend to notice when things are hand printed, but they do appreciate handprinted things.

Is it overwhelming if the same designs can be seen on the board display and also in the crates?

When I say overwhelming I’m concerned about both visual overwhelm and also I’m concerned about people feeling that there’s too much choice if that makes sense. There are quite a few prints available in the crates, as well as a lot of different mini postcard linoprints in that clear box front left. I guess people don’t HAVE to look at everything?

Thanks!

Like, on Étsy, I see so many people selling merch (that they made themselves) of Sonic the Hedgehog or The Amazing Digital Circus. I just want to know if there's something you need to do before selling products of licensed characters so that you don't get in trouble; I want to make my own merch too. :'(