Earn 100$ possible? / Drawing Business

[lvlingArtist]

I would like to make a test if it is possible at all to earn money with Drawing.
I would assume that it is a reasonable thing to try to earn 100$.

Can you give any advice, tipps, resources, roadmaps how to do that?
Is it possible (general and nowadays)?

What do you think how many people have any demand for drawings made by someone else?
If I imagine asking people in real life, I would assume nobody would like to pay money for that ever!

Let us say someone lives in a town with 100.000 people.
What do you think how many people need Illustrations/Concept Art and alike, and how often per year?
If somebody needed some Drawings, they also could make it themselfes, couldn`t they?
And if you drew a mascot for a little Shop or something alike, they would afterwards never need your service again(?)

[JosephCow]

100 dollars is nothing. You don't really need to test if it's possible. It's like testing if it's possible to make 100 dollars from carpentry, or any profession.

to put it in perspective also, if you are a graphic designer and you're hired to design the mascot, logo, or marketing materials for a company, you're looking at probably 500 to thousands of dollars, depending on size of the company. not a hundred. Unless it's like a small town bar that gets their friend to do it for basically nothing or something like that. They might not need your services again, but someone else will. All this to say, that art is a real profession that people make money doing. The reason it is worth so much is because it's a special skill, and it also takes a lot of time. In the fine art world, drawings are purchased because of their beauty, and the price reflects the artist's reputation, and how good the drawing is perceived to be. So it's not a simple utilitarian transaction where you need a drawing, so you get just anyone to do it, or do it yourself.

[lvlingArtist]

100 dollars is nothing. You don't really need to test if it's possible. It's like testing if it's possible to make 100 dollars from carpentry, or any profession.

I meant more like "testing, if I can get 100 dollar", not so much "testing, if anybody in the world can do it".

I have never gotten any 100 dollar, neither for drawing something nor for my carpentry up to this point.

[darktiste]

Earning 100$ at once or 100$ via multiple drawing in total...those are two different level.But you don't seem to make it very clear as to what you are aiming for.

A person who need a drawing couldn't necessarly do it themselve specially the more complex the idea is even with if they were to be help by Ai as of right now.Because to draw you have to use somekind of tool you need a minimum of knowledge and practice to use those tool to create even just a line .Even if let say you don't know how to draw at all and you would like to use ai to create something for you it only gonna give you an approximation so any further correction would require to imput new parameter you might not know how to adjust.So even using ai require an expertise of some kind expertise people are seeking. They are not that much interest by how it done but the result obviously.

So there is a demand for drawing.Because we are still better at interpreting what someone want than an ai is currently is because we can ask question and we understand popular culture to a better degree than ai do.An Ai will sometime for example add extra eye or deform face and they still have issue with the number of finger which is funny because artist also struggle with hand alot.That not very practical for someone who doesn't know how to draw because they are stuck with a image they can't really use even if it closely resemble what they ask from the Ai.

The reason someone want to hire you for a drawing can greatly varie but just because you draw doesn't mean you specialize in what the client is looking for.I would say the number 1 reason someone want to hire you to draw something is they saw your work or simply they saw your ad.It would be very hard for someone to want to hire you to do a drawing for them if you have no social present on the internet or in real life and it would be worst if you had nothing to show them what they might be able to exept.

You can always try to learn more about commision and look at website like fiveer which is a website where artist like to offer there service for cheap.

But i don't think you have the head in the right place you seem very prematurely looking into topic which are of no use if you can't draw properly.The craft require many month of hard work just to get the basic down.So if your already thinking about money right off the bat i am just gonna throw some water on your assumption.But i understand that you want an idea and a motivation of what you can exept after all the hard work.Here what i suggest Invest time in drawing and you might end up finding out you don't like drawing that much or learn that you don't like to draw what other want you to draw.

The danger of looking to far a head is that it might make your head spin sometime it easier to look alittle closer to where the road is.

Of course there is a space for every level of artistic talent but even if your able to draw there might not be a big demand for what you draw or you might not have the skill to draw what someone want you to draw.

So just draw there is a time for everything and if you think it right now then don't be scared of anything i just said. Also don't feel less just because you didn't sell anything yet it ok to be impatient or to want to prove your worth to yourself or just to show off but with impatience come reality which might be hard to accept and give you the opportunity to face the possiblity that your are not as ready as you think.

[JosephCow]

Hmm I see. Well, I have to pretty much agree with Darktiste. It's certainly possible to make money even at a basic skill level, the right person just has to come along and buy something. But it's not necessarily advisable. There's kind of a big curve with drawing, where you won't really make money right away. And that's because unlike other jobs, your basic skills that you may learn in the first few months are not going to be of much use until they are expanded upon. Where the money is at is really when you can offer something that is good enough for someone to really desire it. Even if you're doing decent enough work for you, it'll take some time to get there.

[lvlingArtist]

Do you have examples of clients, who regularly buy "art"/Drawings, so that one can look at their demands?

Do you have examples of artist, who get commissioned regularly, so that one can look at their portfolio and how good they are?

[Pubic Enemy]

Do you have examples of clients, who regularly buy "art"/Drawings, so that one can look at their demands?

Do you have examples of artist, who get commissioned regularly, so that one can look at their portfolio and how good they are?

You can see examples of both on places like this: https://old.reddit.com/r/HungryArtists/

And here's an example of an artist who does commissions frequently, mainly in the DnD-character-illustrating realm, who has a very thorough website with prices: https://www.ryuutsu.com/order-artwork

You will see a lot of variability in the price estimates that artists give (which I think is 99% to do with the value of USD in their country, unless some of them are just children), and a lot of variability in skill level in the ones that are popular. Getting to the point of getting commissioned frequently usually takes a lot of time and effort, and artists often raise their prices once they get some demand.

Keep in mind that this is just the online digital art world. Here are Heather Rooney's prices for photorealistic portraits (in this case, nearly 1:1 copies of photos in graphite or colored pencil) from a while ago. I wouldn't be surprised if her prices are higher now:

[Tribulator]

Yeah, it's possible to earn $100+ from drawing. The trick is finding your niche and marketing yourself effectively. Social media, local businesses, and online platforms like Etsy can be great places to start selling your art. I've seen people hit success with commission work, digital art sales, or print-on-demand services. Demand exists. Just look at company logos, ad campaigns, book covers, and illustrations in many fields... art is a ubiquitous need. True, some people might attempt to do drawings themselves, but professionals generally value time and quality. Your point about a 'one-time-only' need like a mascot is valid. That's why offering diversified services is key. Say, mascot design, product illustrations, concept arts, etc. One way I've been monitoring trends and demands in various industries is using this Facebook adspy tool. It helps me know what's selling. Thought it might help you gauge the demand for your art.

[lvlingArtist]

Do you have examples of clients, who regularly buy "art"/Drawings, so that one can look at their demands?

Do you have examples of artist, who get commissioned regularly, so that one can look at their portfolio and how good they are?

You can see examples of both on places like this: https://old.reddit.com/r/HungryArtists/

And here's an example of an artist who does commissions frequently, mainly in the DnD-character-illustrating realm, who has a very thorough website with prices: https://www.ryuutsu.com/order-artwork

You will see a lot of variability in the price estimates that artists give (which I think is 99% to do with the value of USD in their country, unless some of them are just children), and a lot of variability in skill level in the ones that are popular. Getting to the point of getting commissioned frequently usually takes a lot of time and effort, and artists often raise their prices once they get some demand.

Keep in mind that this is just the online digital art world. Here are Heather Rooney's prices for photorealistic portraits (in this case, nearly 1:1 copies of photos in graphite or colored pencil) from a while ago. I wouldn't be surprised if her prices are higher now:

The question about your example of the artist Heather Rooney is how many people commission him.
It is one thing to make a website, that says "1 portrait - 1200$", but how many people would pay 1200$ for a portrait each month?
Maybe only 1 person commissions him once a year and the rest of the year he/an artist is broke (?)

[JosephCow]

I don't think that's correct. I don't know Heather, but even I do more than one commission a year and I'm nobody. For a popular artist, they can for sure get a commission once a month, plus make sales from prints, patreon, and teaching. She probably does one a month and gets money from prints and youtube. I'm pretty sure Heather Rooney is a lady, btw.

The fine artists I know actually have a lot of repeat clients. A client might buy one of their artworks and then later hire them to do another one as a gift for a friend. There are also art collectors that are really interested in paintings and they will buy up and commission work from favorite artists just to have it. So you might be surprised how much repeat business you can get from a single client.