Eight Ways to Start a Creative Business With Your Art

After painting, drawing or creating designs for quite some time, you may start to wonder how nice it would be if you could earn a side income or start a small business with your art. Whether it’s an illustration or a surface pattern, if that idea came across your mind and you’d want to know what the opportunities are, then read on.  

As I grew up, I used to think of artists as someone who painted on big canvases and put their work up in galleries and exhibitions. Or someone who drew portraits live in craft markets for tourists.

That was kind of a very limited perception. 

Now I like to think of ‘artist’ as a general, umbrella term for people who consistently make art. 

Their art could be drawings, paintings, sculptures, surface patterns, music, costumes, collages, landscapes, floral arrangements, and so many more.

Their art work could be visually pleasing, emotionally triggering, or intellectually inspiring.

And there are numerous ways to earn some side income or even make a full living being an artist.

But for the purpose of this blog post, I’m going to focus on hand-drawn, hand-painted art using medium (eg, ink, watercolor and acrylic) or art created digitally (eg, illustrations drawn in the Procreate app, surface patterns designed in Adobe Illustrator).  

Here are eight ways, among many more, to turn your art into a creative business.

1. Sell your original art

Whether you create pencil drawings, watercolor illustrations or acrylic paintings, you can sell them as original art. 

Your original works are not just limited to art on paper or canvas, they can also be directly painted on other surfaces such as fabric (eg, cotton bag), ornaments (eg, Christmas baubles!), ceramic bowls and more. 

2. Sell your art prints 

Alternatively, if you don’t intend to sell your original artwork but would still like people to have access to your art, you can make art prints out of your paintings.

You would first need to scan and digitize your work, and then print them either using a printing service or print at home using your own printer. 

3. Take painting commissions 

Another way to monetize your artistic skill is to create custom work for people who request for painting commissions. 

Common custom work are such as portraits (eg, people, pets, houses), illustrations for kids’ bedrooms, food illustrations, landscape painting, wedding signs, monograms, and so much more. The possibilities are endless!  

4. License your art 

Did you know that you can ‘rent’ your art out to magazines, book publishers, wallpaper manufacturers, fabric and clothing brands, and many more businesses and industries?

Generally, when you license out your artwork–be it an illustration for a book cover, a surface pattern on window curtains–you’ll earn royalties based on the units sold. 

However, there are different instances where payment structure may vary depending on the industry, the type of license granted, the duration of the license, etc.

5. Print-on-demand platforms 

This is a similar concept where you can earn royalties from items featuring your artwork that are being sold. BUT, instead of licensing your art to a particular client/company, you are doing it on print-on-demand (POD) platforms, such as Society6 and Redbubble. 

A POD portal is basically an online marketplace where one can shop for a wide variety of products (e.g. art prints, canvas, stickers, notepads, curtains, clothing, phone cases, tote bags, bath mat, bedsheet, and more). The products feature designs from various artists. When you put up your designs on a POD site, you earn royalties when someone purchased an item with your design on it. 

Some advantages of selling on POD sites are that you can upload your designs onto your shop anytime, and you neither have to spend money to manufacture those products nor deal with shipping or handling customers.  

And the fun part? You get to see your art featured on a wide range of merchandise.

6. Manufacture your own products

If you prefer to handle the stock keeping, ordering and shipping processes yourself, AND have the means to invest, then manufacturing your own products might be something you want to consider. 

You get to examine and ensure the quality of the items you sell, as well as provide great service to your customers. Again, it’s fun to see your art materializes into tangible products that you can see and hold everyday. However, making your own products also requires more of your time, effort and upfront investment.

7. Share your knowledge and skills through teaching

While teaching is not exactly monetizing your artwork, it is a way to monetize your skills and expertise in making art. If you enjoy live interactions and seeing and mingling with students, you can teach in-person workshops within your community. 

You can also run online classes, which can be done in several ways, including:

• Teaching a live workshop using Zoom.

• Create classes for online education platforms, such as Skillshare, and earn royalties based on minutes watched.

• Create and host your courses on your own website or platforms such as Teachable, and sell the courses at prices determined by you.

8. Digital products

Another creative business that you can set up with zero to minimal cost is selling digital products based on your art or designs.

Digital products are downloadable files that one can instantly download upon purchasing. The files can be then printed at home or sent to a printing shop to have them printed professionally. 

Digital items that you can create from your art are such as downloadable wall art, printable affirmation cards, invitation card design templates, wine bottle labels, digital stickers for digital planners, and many more. You can sell these items on online marketplaces such as Etsy.

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There are certainly many more ways to start a creative business using your art and designs, I’m listing just a few that I’m more familiar with.

So, have you decided to start a side hustle using your art, or which idea have you been considering? Share with me your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to know what exciting plans you have!