Earning a Living as an Artist

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Where’s My Money!
So, you’re now up and running with your online business and it is time to sit back and watch the money pour in – but where is it going to pour into?
“My bank account, of course,” I hear you say.
Well, unfortunately, it is not always quite that simple. If you are running an online business you will potentially be dealing with people from all over the world, some of whom may have bank accounts, but many of whom will not. International banking is a complicated business and fraught with issues in these days of money-laundering scandals etc. Besides, the fees involved in international transactions can be extremely high, especially if your online business is selling low-value products. The fees could be more than the price of the product. Nobody will want to deal with that.

As an unknown supplier, you are also going to run into trust issues with your customers. How can they be sure if they pay you the money, that you’ll send them the goods? It can get pretty messy to be honest, so in my experience, the best solution is to use a trusted middleman. There are often plenty of organisations in your country that will facilitate a payment system with international clients, but in my experience, the most trusted, easy to use and one of the biggest is PayPal. Now, PayPal has been around for close to 20 years and it is well established, highly trusted and in my experience very easy to deal with.
Setting up a PayPal Account is simple and something I would recommend you do immediately you start your online business. Just go to their website www.paypal.com and join up. They prompt you in all the right places so you set up exactly the type of account you will require. Two things I particularly like about PayPal are; 1/ They allow you to issue invoices direct to your clients and 2/ You have a permanent record of all your sales, for income tax purposes etc.

Like all these systems, they want their share of your transactions, so there are fees involved in most transactions. I think it is 5% of the net payment, which isn’t too bad for the convenience they provide. You can also receive payment in any currency and they allow you to convert that to your local currency (always, of course, taking their little slice of the action along the way).
You can easily withdraw your funds from PayPal in one of two ways. You can have it transferred to your local bank account. (They only charge a fee for this if the amount is below their relatively generous threshold) and the money takes only a couple of days, usually, to find its way into your bank account. The other option is to have your money transferred to a VISA card (note: only VISA – no other cards at this time). It is a nice easy way to get your money out of your PayPal account.
So, we’ve sorted out how to get your money to you, but how about paying for things online yourself? Many people either don’t have a Credit Card or are loath to use one online because of the inherent risks involved. PayPal can be extremely useful here also. Many websites accept PayPal as a payment option, so problem solved – as long as you have enough of the currency required in your PayPal account. They will convert your currency for you, to the required denomination, but of course, there is a fee involved. Their rate of exchange will be less than that advertised in the market. The other option is to get yourself a bank or other pre-paid Debit Card. These cards can be loaded with funds, in advance, and used just like a Credit Card, online. The two main cards available are a VISA or a MasterCard. Given PayPal’s preference for VISA, that’s the one I would recommend you use, as you can load it directly from your PayPal account.
So, that’s pretty much the easy way to handle those millions that will now be rolling into your online business, but before I go, I’d just like to relate a small anecdote to give you some idea of how convoluted running an online business can be from the perspective of international payments.

Now, I live in the Philippines, which has a banking system that is, shall we say, considered a little suspect by the rest of the world. At the moment, my main product is my books, which sell exclusively on Amazon. Now Amazon won’t pay directly to a Philippine Bank Account, so I have had to ask a friend to set up a bank account in the U.K. for my royalty payments from Amazon. So, each month, Amazon pays US$ to my British Bank Account, which then converts the dollars to British Pounds. My friend then transfers those funds to her PayPal account and transfers them to my PayPal Account, where I then have to change the British Pounds into Philippine Pesos, to transfer them to my Philippine Bank Account. At every step in this process, the bank or PayPal takes their little share – a whole lot of little shares soon add up, though. But, that’s the way it is and I have to live with it. Oh for the day when Amazon pays out to PayPal direct. I suspect eBay owning PayPal may have something to do with Amazon’s unwillingness to use PayPal for its royalty payments. Ah well, such is life!
Next time, I’ll talk a little bit about building your brand and getting your product/service out there and noticed. The “fun” part of online entrepreneurship – marketing!

GRANT LEISHMAN
AUTHOR, BLOGGER AND EDITORIAL REVIEWER

I am an expatriate New Zealander, now living in the Philippines with my beautiful wife and two lovely daughters. At age 55, after careers in Journalism and finance, I finally discovered my true passion in life – writing. I am now a full-time author who has written or co-written seven novels, across differing genres. 
 
My latest project is a Historical Romance set to the backdrop of the Philippine revolution of 1896, against the Spanish. 
 
I believe in the power of the written word and the mantra that I live by and finish each of my blog posts on my website with is: ​

CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!
EMBRACE THE OPPORTUNITIES LIFE PRESENTS TO YOU AND ALWAYS, ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS!
HAVE A GREAT LIFE AND SPREAD THE LOVE!
CHANGING THE WORLD – ONE READER AT A TIME

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Earning a Living in the Arts

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To earn a living in the arts you need to be able to create a traffic stopper.
You must captivate an audience, stop passing foot traffic in its tracks and rivet them on the spot, looking at your artwork.

It might be the due to the beauty or the excellence, which are the ideals I aim for I art. Some will strive for entertainment or shock appeal. Whatever your choice is, if you artwork cannot stop the passing traffic, it won’t sell.

The only way to know for sure your art will pass the traffic stopper test is to exhibit often to targeted buyers. If your potential market responds, and is drawn to the work, then you have achieved that traffic stopping success, and if all other aspects of presentation are right, clients will buy your artwork. 

Believe in Your Artwork.
Maintain Your Integrity and Calm.
There are Discerning Clients.

In the current computer age many people print out a photo and then colour it in parts and pass that off as portrait artwork. No wonder the ethical and trained artist has difficulty in finding people who appreciate their artwork when the untrained eye cannot pick a coloured in photo from a 100% genuine original painting.

A customer once purchased this lovely card I’d made from the print of my daughter Carla on her wedding day. I priced the card reasonably at $2. On paying me and receiving the card, she turned to her friend as said, ‘Look, an original oil painting, and it was only two dollars.’

You have to toughen up to be an artist.

Well, I am not a con-artist. I had distinctly called it a reproduction card. That information was also printed clearly on the back of the card. I didn’t want her to misunderstand, so I explained clearly, in a friendly and polite manner, that it was a print from the original. When I explained this, she threw the card at me, yelling that it ‘was only a print’ and that she was ‘highly offended.’
 
What? I took a deep breath and smiled sweetly. She was offended that I had not sold her an exquisitely detailed, miniature, original painting for two dollars?

I refunded the two dollars, bit my lip and did not say that I, as the artist of the original oil painting, was highly offended that she had expected the original for the cost of a print card. What would be the point of trying to explain the reality to her? This print represented forty years of training and experience and two hundred hours of labour or four weeks of full-time labour. It’s best to just laugh about it with those who do understand and to realise that this example will only be one of many such situations you will come across where you as an artist or your work will be insulted.

There is a gulf between the reality an artist knows and what many people may think is the value of an artist’s labour. Just don’t pander to that mentality. Maintain your pride in your work and belief that the right person will come along who loves the art you create, appreciates your labour and is happy to pay for quality art. 
Many artists carry within them the small wounds that come from feeling undervalued. I am telling you this because once you step out and declare yourself a professional artist, writer, musician or any creative person in the arts, you will be expected to create with the skill of an ‘old master’ for the fee of a speed painter by many people.

You will struggle not to become disheartened when you see mass production work made in factories being sold as originals for prices that you know you could not purchase quality paint and canvas to produce the item.

Hang in there; hold your head up and maintain the integrity of your artwork. BELIEVE. Believe in yourself. Believe in your artwork. You are not trying to paint to please everyone; you are painting to please yourself, and the right client will appreciate that you have artistic integrity and used the quality archival materials that last.
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If you get frustrated and feel unappreciated for your artistic endeavours, just remember that I had a customer who expected an original portrait of a woman in a wedding dress with a double image in a mirror for two dollars and have a laugh.
You have to toughen up to be an artist is repeated in several other Art Studio eBooks, including The Business of Art.

Keep up your training; keep up your spirits. I understand this can be difficult in an age when most people assume that artists cannot paint like the old masters. The reality is that not many clients are prepared to pay the true value of the labour needed to produce a masterpiece of the standard of the artwork shown next, that of Marie Antoinette at age thirteen.

A good artist who constantly exhibits his work before the public and prices it fairly will sell. This is not a get-rich-quick profession. If you provide a service for your clients, promote your work and charge a reasonable fee for quality service, there is work for honest portrait artists. 

A wax model was made from Marie Antoinette’s hand. From that original impressing, plaster casts were made. 

These plaster casts of Marie Antoinette’s hand have found their way into artists’ studios, including mine. Note the form of her hands and compare them to those of the adult Marie Antoinette in this plaster cast. 

It is on light and shade, tonal value exercises such as the above and those to follow that artists gain their traditional training for portraiture painting.

Alan Martin had me begin my portraiture training by painting black and white and grey squares and mastering my ability to see tones and shapes. This is good discipline training. I always warm up to doing any major work of portrait art by starting with these tonal practice stages. Most traditionally trained artists continue to paint these tonal exercises though their lifetime.

How to Price Your Artwork

How much is a painting that size worth?

I’ve been asked that a few times.

How long is a piece of string?

You can see the training required to develop your eye to see tone and shape. After mastering these skills, you must study paint chemistry and practice the technique of applying a clean edge or a blended tone to a section of a painting. Then there are the years of practice necessary to produce a truly beautiful flower painting, such as the one below from a gallery I once managed.
Before purchasing artwork (especially if buying online) beware of fraud.

A painting may be a real investment artwork from an old master. But it could be a screen print on canvas with a slap or two of paint, as most sold-online paintings are. If you saw a painting on feebay from an unknown dealer, would you be able to differentiate a legitimate work of art from a cheap imitation? I am not saying that you cannot buy quality artwork online. As a matter of fact, online is the primary channel I use to sell my work. I simply want you to make sure you are dealing with a reputable dealer if you are seeking investment-quality artwork.

Be aware that there is a style of rose painting called folk art that takes a fraction of the time of fine-art painting. With this style, roses are stylised, not painted in the fine art way that I teach. Obviously, stylised painting is craft painting and, unless accompanied by marketing bull..., should be marketplace and home decor, affordably priced. 

Formulas that might work for pricing work.

Price by Quarters method.
1/4 Raw materials cost.
1/4 Overheads
1/4 Advertising expenses or Exhibition fees.
1/4 for Artist's Living Wage.
So, if you need $25. in your county for a living wage, you would need to charge $100. per hour. If $25. an hour equals the costs of the raw materials, the overheads and exhibition advertising or commission cots, that might be a correct price.  Here are two examples where that formula might work.

Leading artist: Painting priced at $1,400.
Quality Belgian linen stretched canvas and the worlds best quality paints and a premium quality frame.  The total wholesale cost to artist $350.
Premium exhibition venue rental and adverting divided by sales $350.
Overheads and expenses as painting sales per year divided by annual overhead costs equal $359. per artwork. These overheads might be towards the cost of a computer, office supplies, travel for the landscape painter, the garden of a flower painter, camera equipment for a wildlife artist, plus studio lighting and air conditioning, ane an occasional assistant if required.
$350. x 4 = $1,400 for a quality work that takes the artist 14 hours to paint IF the living artist's wage in that location is $25. per hour and the value of the materials, overheads and expenses are all proportionate.
That formula, based on the above calculations, would be totally wrong for an artist using student grade paint, and a cheap chain-store canvas, none of which are archival value.
I'm using conservative figures here. An artist might be at the height of their profession and their work highly in demand. They might frame in hand-carved gold encrusted frames and display though high market, costly gallery space.  They may need to charge $100. an hour to clear $100. an hour they may have clients happy to pay $4,000. for a painting that took ten hours to paint.
However, a speed painting created it an Asian sweatshop factory where the painter earns $3. per day to paint with cheap acrylic paint onto a poor quality screen printed canvas, to be sold in the Western world as an original oil painting, is worth—what?
These paintings are purchased by number for a few cents, if small, and for a few dollars each, and are then fobbed off on eBay and at markets as the original work of the seller, for a 1000% markup.
Shudder.
Don't ever attempt to compete at that level. Just paint with integrity, and exhibit where you believe there will be clients who can tell the difference and don't expect that the world owes you a living because you chose to become an artist.  Being a professional artist is extremely hard work involving long hours of work and no job security. The rewards aren't financial, they are in working a job that's your passion, a job that you love.

Commercial or Amateur Artist. Painting priced at $40.
If the art materials for the painting cost $10.
If the overheads to complete the painting are minimal, say $10.
If the exhibition fee is only an eBay listing cost and fee on sale, or a local market, barely a cost of $10. per painting sold, and the artist whacked the work together as a speed painting, or it is an amateurish work, of no more value than a speed-painting, then $40. might be a fair price for that work, especially if it represents a flung together, painted to a price, craft work, speed painting rather than a work of original fine art.
If the customer cannot tell the difference, don't bother trying to convince them why one work is worth more than the other. Fine art appeals to slightly less than 2% of the population. If you want to create and sell fine art, don't try to do it in a speed painter's marketplace and expect everyone to understand that you spent more on the canvas than the speed painter can sell their work for. You cannot paint to please everyone.

Price by size method
Once you have worked out your overheads and exhibition and raw materials costs, and how long it takes you to complete artworks of varied sizes, you may be able to work out a price per size for our work. If you were to paint similar works, each taking the same amount of time per inch to complete, then that method might work for you. 

Calculate the painting size by length multiplied by width = size x by dollar value = price of painting.
Or.
Calculate the painting size by length plus width = size x by dollar value = price of painting.

With one of those methods there is a wider variation in price between your smaller and your larger paintings. I've heard artists who use the length plus width method say that they don't put that much more work into a large painting than they do a small painting. so those prices work for them.
12" x 16" = 192 x 7.5 (an average trained portrait artist's calculation) = 1,440. is not an unrealistic price for a skilled framed artwork of that size.
As my overheads are lower, but I use the wold's best quality materials and paint to a high standard and in a labour intensive way, I price as width inches multiplied by length inches, multiplied by five, equals my unframed artwork price, plus delivery costs.

That makes a a 12" x 16" painting such as this one above, AU$960. direct from artist and unframed. Those are the prices I've charged for portraiture standard work, and had no difficulty getting for the past couple of decades.  I generally will charge less if a painting takes me less time because it hasn't required the skill of a portrait artist.  Most artists will have their art bargains, lovely works, still painted with integrity, but of easier to paint subjects that took considerably less time to paint.