Snowflake Challenge - Day 5

[dizzojay]

Challenge #5


In your own space, talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Back in 2007, I decided to start selling my artwork. I’m a pastel artist, and my pictures, the non-fandom stuff anyway,  are all animal based, with a bit of fantasy and a bit of whimsy thrown in.  Something to make them – hopefully – stand out from the crowd! I trade under the name of dapplegrey art.

I trade through my website www.dapplegreyart.co.uk , and on my stall at craft fayres, and other similar events.

Over the fourteen years that dapplegrey art has been trading, I’ve sold around forty original pictures and completed around sixty commissions.

I’ve always thought it would be nice to go full time and do art for a living. However, I don’t charge anywhere near enough to make that happen, also, I’d need to sell about five times as many pictures as I already do to give up my day job and enable that to happen.

I’ve always thought it would be nice to have a fandom arm to dapplegrey art as I’ve done a lot of pastel fanart which I don’t sell; I get it autographed at conventions.

Basically, I’ve realised I’m an artist, but not a businesswoman. I just want to draw all day. I draw for love, and money. But I’m crap at making money.

So that means there’s just love left. And there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

Comments

[tellshannon815]

Particularly loving that Dean Winchester one!

[dizzojay]

Thank you :)

art

[oldtoadwoman]

These are all fantastic! I was going to comment on loving the Dean Winchester one and then I scrolled down and... those animals are freaking adorable! So cute!

I'm constantly getting advice from friends and family who are not artists that "You should sell your art!" as if it just hadn't occurred to me to try to make money. They'll say it almost like they imagine people are lining up to hand me money and I'm the one not bothering to collect it. (I have also tried pointing out that I'm at the amateur-hobbyist skill level and there's a whole world of professional level artists already struggling to make a living, but that just convinces them further that I'm not trying hard enough.)

I finally figured out the way to get people off my back was to offer a cut if they could sell any of my paintings. Anytime someone tells me that I should sell my artwork, I offer them a 50% cut if they sell anything. I've never had to pay out and they stop pestering me after that.

In the movies, the artist always has a manager/agent who stops by their (spacious loft) studio to nag them about deadlines and gallery openings and the artist makes hand-wavy gestures when money is discussed because, "I don't care about money; it's all about the art!" I wish every artist had one of those people in real life (also those spacious loft studios always look pretty awesome).

Re: art

[dizzojay]

It is so much more challenging than people think. At the moment, I charge anything between £80 and £150 for an original. In order to make a living of this, I'd have to sell about ten originals a week, or charge about £500 for them. That would charge me out of most 'ordinary' peoples' price range, and I ould hate to be one of these elitist artists.

So for now, the art has to be a hobby business and the day job pays the bills.
(Plus I don't have a cool, spacious loft to do all my artwork in!)

[tsuki_no_bara]

oh my god that llama. it looks like a llama with a perm and it is ADORABLE. also the donkey, also also of course the lovely mr winchester. :D

[dizzojay]

Thank you :)

[vriddy]

Omg these all look so good!! I love that donkey, I want to pet its snout. I grew up not far from a field with a couple of donkeys, they'd always come to us and make that exact face, waiting for treats. Your art looks amazing! Making money from anything creative is never as easy as people seem to think. Everyone's been telling my mom to sell her upcycled artwork on Etsy whenever she shows them something, and now it's there and she made a couple of sales and has a huge stock she doesn't know what to do with. It's a different skillset, and a price fair to her effort and expenses would put it out of reach of most buyers.

[dizzojay]

Thank you, I'm glad you like my pictures.

The problem with making money through creative work is that a lot of creative people (I certainly speak for myself, anyway) don't have a great business head. As I said in my post, I love drawing and creating, but I loathe doing businessy stuff like accounts. Yeck!

[tjs_whatnot]

OMG! Those are all so great!

I've had so many "hobbyist" tell me the quickest way to fall out of love with a thing is to try and make it a living. It flies in the face of do what you love and you'll never "work" a day in your life, but after publishing a book over a decade ago and it not changing my life in any discernible way, nor as satisfying as I'd believed it would be, the desire to publish more isn't really paramount, I have to agree with that first argument.

As long as you're enjoying yourself and you're making enough to keep the habit fed, then the rest is gravy.

[dizzojay]

I couldn't agree more with everything you said!
Thank you, I'm glad you like my artwork :)

[spikedluv]

These are amazing! I'm dying over the llama. So cute! *g*

[dizzojay]

Thank you :)

[angelus2hot]

Your art, as always, is absolutely Stunning!
After having a look around your website I've come to the conclusion that I shouldn't have had a look. Because now I want them all!

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Well, that's very kind of you to say so! XD

[angelus2hot]

It's the honest truth!

[supernutjapan.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. Me too. A Teacher - not a business woman :P

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Thank you.
Yes, business is definitely not my forte! We both have too much soul for business :)

[fanspired]

Art for art's sake is definitely the best. As soon as it becomes 'work' the love goes out of it.

I love the alpaca especially! His grin reminds me of Jared :D (For some reason, alpacas always remind me of Jared/Sam :P

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Art for art's sake is one of those thing's that makes life worthwhile!
I think it's the long neck and the hair that make llamas and alpacas reminiscent of Jared/Sam! :D