But with a graphic drawing you can earn money. Practical implementation of the idea

Modern technologies They destroy the stereotype of a constantly hungry and poor artist, whose work is seen only by the walls of his studio. Mann, Ivanov and Ferber published the book “Create All Day” by Lisa Congdon, which shares psychological and practical tools for the successive steps of working in the creative industries: from finding sales channels to choosing a shipping company. T&P publishes several chapters along with real stories of people refuting the myth that it is impossible to make money as an artist.

Lisa Congdon

artist and illustrator from California. Designs books, stationery, fabrics and household utensils. Participates in many exhibitions, speaks at professional conferences, and writes a popular blog about life and work.

Research different sources of income

So, your ship leaves the pier, taking you into the stormy seas of an artistic career. The shape your creative business, must be determined from the very beginning. You have several options, which we will talk about in the pages of this book. For example, you can sell originals of your work or prints, do illustrations and provide usage rights. But where to start? My words may sound like a hackneyed truth, but best advice The message I received when I began my career in art was: “Follow your heart.” There is no one way that will work for everyone; so the decision about what is best for you personally is determined by the unique circumstances of your own life, yours strengths, goals, resources and experience.

Some artists are completely self-sufficient by focusing on the only source income, for example from illustrating or selling works of art. But in general, in our time it is common to have several such sources. Income diversification is a great way to keep your art venture interesting and dynamic, plus you won't be dependent on the only way earn a living. When one of the sources begins to dry up, another will come to the surface. In addition, you can temporarily turn to another type of income if you get tired of a particular way of selling your work. Once the original drawing is sold, the option of receiving passive income, such as granting the right to use, will not require much extra work, while you will be able to receive income from this source for many years and continue to work on new original works.

As you read the next chapters of this book and evaluate your possible sources of income, consider which ones will give you more satisfaction and be a better fit for your job. Don't allow yourself to choose one or another potential option just because you think it looks more profitable. If your source of income doesn't align with your values ​​or makes you unhappy, it will end up demotivating and leaving you feeling unfulfilled.

The smartest approach is to start with something small, especially if you have other work besides art. If you start with too many sources at once, they can overwhelm you. Therefore, it is better to limit yourself to one or two, and having found the main channel and starting to earn money, start thinking about others. You may find that running an online store takes up too much of your time, and that communicating with customers who buy your illustrations gets in the way of the creative process. If one of your sources of income does not work for you, do not worry, this is in the order of things. Research process in various ways Realizing your work or generating income from your talents requires repeated attempts and a lot of time, and mistakes are inevitable. But with patience and openness to the world, you will eventually find your personal niche.

Drawing up a marketing plan

I recommend creating a marketing plan for every quarter throughout the year. Depending on the season, your career aspirations and what you're working on this moment work, your marketing plans will look different for each quarter. For example, in the third quarter, when you're busy leading up to the holiday season, you can focus your marketing efforts on getting new orders, and in the fourth quarter, you can focus on increasing in-store sales. If you're starting your career as an illustrator, it's best to start promoting in the first quarter so your cards don't get lost in the holiday rush in the editorial offices. Think strategically, do marketing every day, not just during slow times, and your efforts will pay dividends in the future.

Your marketing plan should take into account all components of the advertising campaign, including press releases, posts on your blog - right up to a large campaign in in social networks. Make a table for each quarter, planning in it marketing events by week. List all the actions you need to take and the deadlines for completing them. The better you organize your advertising campaign, the more impact you will get from it.

How to find your niche

If you're considering getting into illustration, ask yourself, "Which segment of this market would my work be best suited to?" or “Which field of illustration interests me most?” When I first started, I created a special “inspiration board” for myself, where I noted what kind of work I would like to do and the areas of illustration that corresponded to my passions. Since the main thing in my works is color and cheerful attitude, and not conceptual content, I understood that it was best for me to work on the design stationery and household items. In addition, I was attracted to illustrating books, so I had to work on the plot and thematic component of my portfolio.

Taking the time to explore the potential areas of your talent and where you'd like to focus will help you decide which areas of illustration to target and what changes you'll need to make to your work.

How to make full use of your downtime

The key word that characterizes the career of a free artist is unpredictability. But even when business is slow, there is always an opportunity to get things in order, learn something, and lay the foundation for future growth. During such periods, it is important to regularly certain time at work and develop your art business in the following areas:

Create a portfolio. This is one of the best ways to use your downtime. Start creating new artwork that you can later use on commercial products, such as planner covers or tea towels. In this way, you will enrich your portfolio with samples of work that future clients may decide to use in the manufacture of their products. In addition, you can contact the gallery and arrange a showing of your new works.

Volunteer. Chapter 4 talked about the importance of getting involved in your local art community as a means of networking and making contacts that can later have a beneficial effect on your art career. So, the “low season” can be used to work at a non-profit arts organization, at an art venue, or as an intern at a gallery. Working in a gallery, you can learn a lot: how works of art are sold to collectors, how exhibitions are organized and held, what the relationship between artists and gallery owners is like. By volunteering for a nonprofit arts organization, you'll learn how to obtain grants, how to get your work included in planned exhibitions, and how to participate in large events such as auctions.

Do marketing. Use free time to get your name out there. Review your marketing materials: is it time to update your website information? If so, add samples of new work to the site, media reviews, information about awards received, and think about improving the design. How long have you been communicating on social networks? Take time to communicate on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and explore options for expanding your online presence. Haven't you written on your blog for a long time? Then start a new personal project and write about it. When you're in last time sent art postcards to your dream galleries and art directors? Take advantage of this new time to design a card featuring the best of your new work.

Nikki McClure

Artist, master of paper art, Olympia

At the very beginning of Nikki’s career, his “samizdat” annual calendar in his signature black and white brought him fame. fine style paper plastic surgery is the best practical demonstration of her advantages, including patience, the ability to work hard and take care of what is really dear to her. Nikki also produces posters, books, postcards and T-shirts. Nikki McClure is a shining example of how to live out your values ​​to thrive in art and business, and how to share through your writing with the world what you hold dear: the power of love and hope, the beauty of everyday things, caring for environment and about the opportunity to change the world for the better.

Lisa Solomon

Artist working in style mixed media

Lisa holds a B.A. applied arts University of California at Berkeley and M.S. fine arts Mills College. Her work, reflecting an interest in the combination of styles in craft and home furnishings, has been featured in exhibitions around the world, from the San Jose Museum of Art to the Koumi-Machi Kougen Museum in Japan. Lisa's work has been exhibited in various galleries, including the David Weinberg Photography Gallery in Chicago and art Gallery Garson Baker in New York. She currently works with Walter Maciel Gallery in Los Angeles, known in San Francisco as Fouladi Projects. Lisa's works were published as a monograph Hand/Made. In addition, she is the author of a book on the art of embroidery, Knot Thread Stitch. But despite her active creative pursuits, Lisa finds time to blog and teach art to students at San Francisco State University.

Esther Pearl Watson

Artist, illustrator, Pasadena

“When you are just starting a career as an artist or illustrator, it is worth agreeing to most of the orders that are offered to you - this is how contacts are made and a portfolio is formed. And, besides, this is the only way to understand which activities you like and which ones you don’t. Later, when you understand this, you can choose companies and projects about which you will be confident. We also believe that it is important to get paid well for your work. If a customer says: “You will get great fame, but we can’t pay you,” - for us it’s like a red traffic light! If we are already working on an order, we increase the reward amount. Extra work must be paid!”

Dolan Gaiman

Mixed media artist, Chicago

Dolan Gaiman grew up in the Shenandoah Valley, where he wandered the neighborhood, climbed into abandoned houses and collected various items. His childhood in the countryside left a strong imprint on his paintings and collages, which he creates in a unique pop-folk style. Dolan attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg, and after graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, he soon set off for Chicago by car, armed with a stack of paintings, a small supply of provisions and a fishing rod. Here he wanted to declare himself as an artist. Several years later, Dolan would create numerous works and prints. In addition to running an Etsy store and serving as a juror for art fairs, Dolan works with international retailers that sell his original artwork as well as the inexpensive art gifts and decorative items he creates. In addition, he licenses his works to companies such as Anthropologie, Fossil, Pendleton Woolen Mills and Urban Outfitters.

Creativity can be a profitable activity. This is especially true for creating custom portraits. Any artist can open a portrait painting business from scratch. You just need to organize your business correctly, thinking through all the technical and financial issues.

How to create a portrait painting business

Fine art is constantly evolving and becoming more diverse and modern. Therefore, artists who want to make money from their talent and skills can apply their skills in a practical way, including painting portraits to order.

Demand for interesting and unusual gifts is constantly increasing, so custom portraits do not lose their popularity. Contemporary artists can offer both the creation of one type of portraits and different kinds services.

The following are traditionally in greatest demand:

• portraits in oil, pastel, watercolor or pencil from life;
• any type of portrait from photograph;
• pop art portrait;
• gift options made in a certain style.

Because the professional artists Today there are quite a few people offering their services, including in the field of painting portraits, it is necessary to immediately think about what the “trick” of the offer of a new market participant will be. One of these moments could be the design of portraits in a special style or the creation of urgent portraits and some other interesting ideas.

The main difficulty of a business in the field of creating portraits lies in the need for careful organization of activities: step-by-step planning and serious financial calculations are required.

The business plan should include the following main points:

• analysis of the chosen area of ​​activity: the level of demand for such services and the occupancy of this niche. Here you need to monitor existing offers and pay attention to the variety of services offered and the pricing policy of the main market participants;
• creating a strategy for the future business: you should decide what services will be offered to clients and set a price scale. At this point of the plan, conclusions are drawn regarding the target audience and the most effective methods of finding clients are determined;
• financial calculations: determine the nature and size of future investments, the total budget required to open a business and its further promotion and, taking into account the expected profit, calculate the profitability of the new business.

Since you can open a business from scratch for creating portraits of various types on your own, without hiring additional employees or equipping a separate room, working from home, the start-up investment will be insignificant.

The most significant costs will be the purchase of working tools, equipment and consumables; the costs of an advertising campaign may also be significant. If we calculate the approximate costs of organizing activities for creating portraits, then the purchase of canvases, easels, paints, pencils, brushes, containers for liquids, consumables and other small volume work on initial stage will cost between 100 – 200 thousand rubles . In the future, with the development of activities and expansion client base, which means an increase in the number of orders, it will be necessary to purchase more material and technical equipment. About 50 thousand at the initial stage should be spent on advertising the services of a portrait artist, the same amount on additional costs, including installation software, if the artist also offers portraits in modern processing or souvenir options.

As for possible earnings, you can achieve very high results in the first months of work. Thus, by setting at the initial stage a price of about 400 rubles for a drawing made to order in pencil and from 1,000 for a portrait on canvas, as well as a higher price for various souvenir options, you can achieve fairly high earnings, provided you have a high level of professionalism and active advertising campaign.

Portraits: starting a business, stages of development

When creating portraits of various kinds to order, you can avoid renting a studio, saving a significant amount and working at home. All you need to start such an activity is to choose a suitable organizational form and register a business entity, purchase all the necessary equipment, materials and tools and start advertising your services.

Once the type of activity has been selected and the range of services that the artist will offer to potential clients has been determined, it is necessary to purchase equipment for the work, tools and consumables.

So, to paint classic portraits on canvas or paper you will need:

• easel - table or floor, as well as wooden or metal;
• sketchbook;
• canvases and paper;
• palettes;
• brushes made of several types of materials - acrylic, synthetics, bristles, foam rubber and others;
• pencils for various purposes;
• paints;
• pencil cases;
• all kinds of accessories.

Artists who have not previously engaged in professional painting may experience difficulties at the stage of purchasing consumables and tools for work. Since there are quite a lot of stationary and online stores designed for artists, you should choose the one that has the optimal balance of quality and affordable cost. To avoid mistakes and choose high-quality tools and materials, you can use the advice of experienced artists.

If the creation of portraits will involve computer processing, you must acquire high-quality computer and related equipment and install the appropriate software.

Starting a portrait painting business on your own, over time, as the number of orders increases, you can take on an assistant or an assistant, or work in tandem with another artist. In this case, it is better to rent a shared studio, although you can continue to work from home online.

Competent advertising is the key to the success of a future business. When starting a business, you should first think about what the target audience will be and what potential clients you should target. As practice shows, in most cases, portraits are ordered as a gift - often such ideas arise from young or middle-aged people. And since the cost of painting a portrait is generally considerable, most of customers must have an average or high level income.

According to the experience of many artists, the best way promotion of its services will have its own website, which should contain all the information about the services offered, information about the timing and other details of order fulfillment. The most effective will be a detailed portfolio of works already completed by the artist, as well as customer reviews. It is better to entrust the work with the site to professionals: its design, development, optimization and further maintenance require the participation of qualified webmasters.

Additionally, placing contextual advertising, using the capabilities of forums and social networks and other functional resources will help with promotion. Ads in magazines and outdoor advertising can be useful, but these will mainly be auxiliary methods.

An artist who has never previously own business, can choose a simpler way to promote his own business: without being distracted from the creative process, he can entrust this task to specialists from an advertising agency. But in this case, there will be additional costs that should be taken into account when developing a business plan.

How to open a business: official registration of an enterprise

Many freelancers who work alone and do not open a permanent studio do not consider it necessary to register their activities with tax office. It is important to remember that when engaging in commercial activities and having fixed income, not reporting it to official structures without paying taxes is illegal. Therefore, from the very beginning of the activity of painting and selling self-made portraits, it is important to act in accordance with the law. First of all, the law provides for the design of one of the possible organizational forms. As a rule, for private entrepreneurial activity choose the IP form.

The requirements for a future individual entrepreneur are minimal: it is enough to have a passport, identification number, and also meet the requirements set by the tax service - age over 18 years and citizenship of the country.

The process of registering an individual entrepreneur for an artist privately engaged in painting custom portraits will be quite simple. First of all, you need to choose a suitable branch of activity, for which you turn to the OKVED classifier. In accordance with the current classifier, the code “Activities in the field of artistic creativity” is suitable for this type of activity.

To register an individual entrepreneur, you must pay a state fee at a bank branch, prepare a package of documents (copies of your passport, tax identification number and receipt of payment of the fee) and, after filling out an application, submit it to the territorial body of the Federal Tax Service. Deadline for consideration of application and issuance of certificate individual entrepreneur is up to 5 working days.

Since the level of earnings at first will be low, you can, in parallel with the status of an individual entrepreneur, switch to a simplified taxation system, which will allow you to pay the minimum tax and submit a reduced package of documents.

Sep 28, 2017 Sergey

But also receive moral satisfaction from your work. People do not want to exchange their lives for money, but want to realize their inner potential. World-class artists make millions from their paintings. However, creating a masterpiece is difficult. Therefore, you can simply draw for clients for money. After all, a custom portrait is an excellent gift.

Creation of portraits to order

Many portrait artists successfully make money from their skills. But it is not necessary to go to Arbat and offer services - it is much more expedient to paint portraits to order right at home.

A portrait is a good gift and a sign of attention to a loved one, friend, colleague, boss or just an acquaintance. Everyone is pleased to receive a portrait from a photograph for their birthday, made by hand on canvas or digitally using computer programs. So, how to make money doing what you love and turn art into business?

Portrait from photograph to order: inexpensive and high quality

It’s always difficult to start, but you just need to take the first step and there will be more chances for development. True, first you need to hone your skills and learn how to really draw professionally. In the first months you will have to devote all your free time to this. If you work hard on your skills, a custom portrait will begin to come out more “alive.” Then you can start offering your services.

Search for clients

Ordering a portrait on canvas for a gift is a rare occasion in everyone’s life, and there are usually few regular customers in such a business. To begin with, drawing a portrait to order inexpensively or without paying at all, in the form of advertising, is normal. If the quality of the work is decent, then you can ask the customer to post the resulting portrait and, perhaps, the clients themselves will decide to contact you.

You should not immediately name too high a price - at first you just need to establish yourself as a good craftsman.

Therefore, you don’t need to immediately ask for more than 150-250 rubles for paintings. The optimal price depends on the materials used and the complexity of the order. Therefore, a custom portrait made by hand on paper or canvas costs more, while conventional computer processing is much cheaper.

Of course, not everyone has many friends for internships and promotion, and you can’t ask much from them, so you will need to place ads on social networks, on various thematic ones, or even in newspapers. It is advisable to include a link to your portfolio and be sure to indicate the approximate cost of the portrait. So that later the price does not become a surprise for a potential customer. For calculations you can use a wide variety of .

It would also be nice to have a personal “trick”. This could be an unusual style, discounts, gifts, as soon as possible execution. After proper preparation, the appearance of clients will not be long in coming. Don't forget to make a schedule and write down when you promised to give the client finished work, otherwise there is a chance of being branded as an irresponsible person, which is unacceptable in any business.

Positive customer reviews are hard earned. An artist can make a custom portrait day and night, taking breaks only for lunch and sleep.

Often people think about a gift a couple of days before the celebration and ask to complete the order 24 hours in advance. But for urgency, you can issue the client a much more substantial bill.

Popular types of modern portraits

Choosing a painting style is one of the most important stages in the development of an artist-businessman who wants to paint a portrait to order.

You need to proceed from what you can do and what material you prefer to work with. Main styles:

1. Portrait in pencil- Perhaps the simplest type, which allows you to significantly improve your skills. Such works are always in price; any poor romantic would not mind giving his girlfriend an inexpensive pencil portrait - a trifle, but nice.
2. "Dry brush"– this can be a detailed oil portrait from a photograph. Such work takes the longest to order. The portrait can be black and white or color - it depends on the customer’s preferences.
3. Digital art portraits from photos to order became especially popular with the advent of computer programs that made it possible to create regular photography a real portrait printed on canvas. Then it is placed in a beautiful stretcher, which makes it even more attractive. But to carry out such work you need special equipment and thorough knowledge. Adobe Photoshop. All this requires a lot of effort, time, and, most importantly, investment. Digital grunge portraits are considered the most popular. Their distinctive features are vibrant, rich colors, blurry backgrounds and a certain unreality of faces. Portraits in pop art style to order are also popular.
4. Another type of digital portrait– imitation high painting. This is one of the most popular types of processing. You probably saw some friends in the portrait dressed as a general, a society lady, or a king. This technique usually involves subsequent printing and detailed drawing of the face. At the request of the client, imitation of paint strokes is possible.
5. Portraits on wood to order– requires skills in burning and working with wood.

Selecting materials and setting prices for work

Most professionals charge a lot of money for their work. This is a pencil portrait from a photograph to order for 3,000 rubles or an oil portrait to order, the price of which sometimes reaches 4,000 rubles. It may be worthwhile to calculate the cost more adequately.

Firstly, it needs to include the price for canvas or whatman paper. Choose only high-quality materials so as not to jeopardize your reputation. As you know, paints apply differently to surfaces of different quality. Many artists have a good reputation for using domestic canvases and paper.

Secondly, you need to determine the cost of 1 hour of work, for example, it will be 80-100 rubles (initially 50-70 rubles). Note the time spent on a particular order and include it in the final price. Usually, on average, a total of 10-15 hours are spent on a portrait. And on pencil drawing and even less. It is very important to know how to spend time and money.

Conclusion

You can earn good money from portraits, but at first the income will be about 12-15 thousand rubles or even less. But in the future, with increasing experience, it, as a rule, increases several times. With a large number of orders, you can put together a small team of artists and divide the profits among everyone.

The main thing in any business is a strong desire. There is nothing stopping you from learning how to paint portraits so masterfully that there will be no end to clients.

St. Petersburg cartoonists have come up with a website for selling ironic images.

In order to " funny pictures"brought not only pleasure, but also some kind of income, cartoonists from St. Petersburg Vyacheslav Shilov, Victor Bogorad and Igor Aleshin launched the website Cartoonbank.ru. Without the slightest business experience, the three of them founded the Mediagraphics company, which sells original illustrations to newspapers, magazines and websites. Now on their website there are more than 32 thousand images from 88 authors from nine countries. Cartoonist and CEO of Mediagraphics Vyacheslav Shilov told the site about how the stock of licensed ironic images works and what the prospects for their business are.

46 years old, cartoonist from St. Petersburg, founder and CEO companies "Media graphics", developing a bank of cartoons Cartoonbank. Graduated from St. Petersburg State University, member St. Petersburg Creative Union of Artists. Co-founders of Mediagraphics: Victor Bogorad, 68 years old, cartoonist, graduated from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute, honorary academician Russian Academy arts; Igor Aleshin, 55 years old, cartoonist, graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Aerospace Instrumentation, works as a programmer.

How it all began

In the 90s, I worked as a full-time cartoonist in St. Petersburg newspapers, first in Nevsky Vremya, then in Evening Petersburg, and there and there I wrote a daily column.

At Nevskoe Vremya one day a plump package with drawings and an offer of cooperation from the USA arrived. This is what several syndicates of cartoonists in America did before the Internet era - they simply sent pictures to their editorial offices. I thought that since the technology exists, we can apply it here too. And he began sending drawings to newspapers all over Russia - by mail, in a large A4 envelope. About a year after the start of mailings to client publications, there were already at least a hundred. If the drawings were printed, they sent me money. After some time, I began to receive royalties from mailings - like several editorial salaries, and the growth continued until the crisis of 1998. Then all business across the country collapsed, and I also immediately felt it myself.

By the way, I even arranged “our response to Chamberlain” - at some point I plucked up the nerve, found a database of American newspapers and sent them an offer of cooperation by mail. 99% did not answer, but about five out of surprise published drawings by the Russian artist. It was funny - they sent checks from the American outback, I went to the Baltic Bank, they were also surprised, they checked them for a month, and then cashed them. And one newspaper actually sent a travel editor to St. Petersburg to write about the cartoonists of St. Petersburg. We are still friends with this journalist, many years later in America I met him again in an amazing way.

Drawing by Vyacheslav Shilov

When the Internet began to actively develop, I instead mailing lists launched email newsletters by opening a simple website Best-cartoon.spb.ru- and invited several of his artist friends to work so that the editors would have a larger selection of illustrations.

Bank of ironic images

Somewhere in the mid-2000s, the idea of ​​a more serious resource for caricature stuck in my head - a modern Internet tool for selecting ironic images. I shared it with friend and famous cartoonist Victor Bogorad. And he put me in touch with Igor Aleshin, who, at the same time, as it turned out, was also thinking about this topic. Igor is an excellent cartoonist, and part-time professional programmer, a great specialist who worked in the States under a contract (before his departure we met a couple of times, there was a casual acquaintance) and then returned to St. Petersburg. This is how our project for three happened - Cartoonbank.ru.

The domain was registered in 2006, the name was chosen by analogy with the English-language website of the magazine The New Yorker, a well-known humor resource. Cartoon is "caricature" in English. Literally it turned out to be a “bank of cartoons,” although we officially position ourselves as a “Bank of Ironic Images” - we have a whole list of categories on our website, from collage to strip.

We opened the LLC in 2010, and at the same time we launched the website privately. The start was delayed for four years - we fought with doubts and led preparatory work, didn’t want to create something low-quality and ill-conceived. Igor Aleshin took upon himself the entire technical side of the issue - the development and support of the site; I am responsible for documentation, content, groups on social networks, communication with authors, partners, advertising; Victor Bogorad - gave money for the start, 100 thousand rubles.

We didn’t even spend it all at once - we left a “safety cushion”. Paid for registration of a legal entity, hosting, domain, rent mailbox(we receive the originals of contracts with authors for it). We spent a little on contextual advertising, but didn’t see much of an effect and abandoned it.

There are now only two people on staff - me and my deputy, who has the right to sign documents so that my absence does not affect the company. Our salaries are purely symbolic. We don't have an office, we don't need one. We also use the services of an outsourced accountant.

How everything works

Our site is an intermediary between artists and editors. In essence, this is the same photo bank, only with caricatures, or rather, with ironic images. At launch, the site had 6 thousand images. Even before the start, we semi-secretly told our artist friends about the project, signed agreements with them, and taught them how to put drawings on the site.

From the very beginning we decided that the work would be of a certain level and quality. Yes, there were those who were offended or upset that we did not take his drawings, but we have a step-by-step selection process and the first step is accepting the author into the project. Currently, the site has accepted 88 authors from nine countries, but we have not accepted many more artists. Politely, but we refuse. The decision was made collectively by voting, and overall we like the result. We already have more than 32.5 thousand images.

Drawing by Victor Bogorad

According to the agreement, the author transfers to us his works non-exclusive rights. We transfer this right to the buyer - using a license for the selected image. A limited license costs 250 rubles - for websites and newspapers with a small circulation. 500 rubles - for publications with a circulation of more than 15 thousand copies. There is also an extended license for commercial use, for example, for advertising or printing on T-shirts or other media (in this case, you can print an unlimited number of copies for subsequent sale), it costs 2,500 rubles.

The artist's fee is 40 percent of the cost of his work

Moreover, we “save” up to 5 thousand rubles of total fees, and then pay them, otherwise it would be very confusing with documents - to transfer every 40 percent of 250 rubles. The amounts are small, and the bank takes money from each payment, this is simply reasonable savings. The rest goes to us: for resource support, accounting, taxes (we work “in white” and pay all royalties), digital image processing (we order such a service if necessary). In fact, there is little left.

A curious collision with foreign authors. We only make payments in rubles and we can only transfer fees to a ruble card. Yes, we have artists from the USA, Israel, Canada, but they are all former compatriots, and they have mothers, brothers or friends who have ruble cards issued by banks in Russia. So we transfer the fees to them. While we are solving the issue this way, we are trying to get out of it, they are writing powers of attorney. But a Brazilian, an Italian, a Portuguese asked to come to us at Kartunbank - and we can’t take it! Currency controls are holding us back.

At first, and we started with twenty sales a month, we had to chip in with our own money to cover expenses. We have not changed the prices for licenses since the launch, so now we are thinking of increasing them, as well as expanding the range of licenses. The authors begin to grumble, saying that you are selling it too cheap - and they are right from their point of view.

Today, an average of 100-130 sales per month is already the norm. In terms of money, this is 30-40 thousand rubles, which allows the resource to live fully and independently, but does not bring us any tangible profit. Although we didn’t expect huge incomes - we have a business at the intersection of art. We make a website for our own pleasure, and we earn our living in other ways, as before, before Kartunbank.

Drawing by Igor Aleshin

The maximum we were able to sell was 200 images per month. And we are still paying back those 100 thousand starting points - there is very little left. As a rule, people buy pictures more actively for holidays and election campaigns.

We connected the Robokassa payment system from the Moscow bank "Ocean", and a little later - Paypal, when it began working in the Russian Federation. The first clients worked only under a contract - we entered into a contract by bank transfer, allocated them “electronic money”, and they paid for the picture within a month. And now - at least with mobile phone Pay by SMS, although we also continue to work under contracts with legal entities.

Smaller market means fewer purchases

The author himself puts his pictures on the site, we have developed detailed instructions. For him, this is an archive of images that is available at any time and anywhere in the world. There is a dependence: the more pictures are displayed, the higher the sales.

The same picture can be sold nine to ten times, we have such hits. The leaders are Viktor Bogorad and Igor Kiyko; over the entire existence of the project, they have sold more than 800 cartoons each, and they receive several payments a year. And one of the reasons for this is that they put the most drawings on the site, and were not lazy.

In total, about 7,000 licenses of various types were sold during the project’s operation.

Initially, we focused mainly on newspapers, although we realized that the press was moving to the Internet. Recently, the situation in the media market has changed significantly not only better side. About 15 years ago, the media market was saturated, they were happy to print cartoons on sensitive social topics, and even published humorous Friday supplements. Nowadays the Internet rules more, and newspapers are being closed en masse.

The trend does not please us: a smaller market means fewer purchases. In addition, those publications that are still afloat avoid caricatures. The reason for this is political leapfrog. The Charlie Hebdo scandals, artificially inflated by propaganda, have an unpleasant echo in our country. The editors began to be afraid of caricatures - as if something might happen, such an unconscious fear and a generally unhealthy situation, a wary attitude towards caricatures.

Some are unpleasant and strange laws, adopted by our State Duma in recent years, also do not add optimism. You could say all this is hitting us as a business. We have already put the 18+ badge on the site out of harm's way. Now we’re thinking about how not to desecrate someone’s feelings - we have quite sarcastic cartoons, Yolkin alone is worth it, there are ones about religion and about our celestials.

Drawing by Sergei Yolkin

We even posted a warning on the website: if you, dear visitor to the project, suddenly experience an uncontrollable attack of resentment, write to us, we will definitely consider your case! Yes, it’s getting ridiculous, but what to do? But they haven’t contacted us yet - apparently, they’re too lazy to write or no one wants to make a fool of themselves yet.

And at the same time, we have a circle of regular customers: there is a site that consistently buys up to 30 images a month for its humor department, we have our favorite friends - the magazine “Krasnaya Burda”, regular customers. Among the newspapers that constantly cooperate with us are Novaya Gazeta (St. Petersburg), Trud, and Parlamentskaya Gazeta; they even buy from distant Birobidzhan. Works are also downloaded from abroad - from Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland; We don’t know who, we think they are former compatriots.

More than a website

Cartoonbank also works as a brand - organizers of exhibitions and conferences contact us, our artists have traveled to Poland, Germany, they participate in international seminars as representatives of the project. I was invited to China as a project manager, and at the animation institute I gave a lecture where the work of our artists served as an example - I talked about the gags that they use in drawings. So “Kartunbank” is, in many ways, an image project.

Drawing of Boris Ehrenburg

Some authors write to us with gratitude - we started drawing for people again, and not for the table! This is like helping artists, as a point of application for their creativity. During our work, unfortunately, three authors have passed away. We re-signed an agreement with the relatives of two of them - and we pay them 50 percent, that is, in fact, we don’t earn money from them ourselves, but this is support for the families, and it’s as if this author is still with us, through his pictures.

How else can you earn money

We have several opportunities to earn money, in addition to selling pictures in the media, and we are very focused on these forms of cooperation. True, we thought that everything would go faster and more fun - and orders would pour in when we collected a large number of images. However, we do not observe a constantly intense flow. Why? In my opinion, there are several reasons. The first is stagnation due to the attitude towards caricature, which has generally changed for the worse. Secondly, many pictures are simply stolen, unfortunately. Third, there is insufficient “promotion” of our capabilities, despite the fact that there are many of them.

1. Printing our images on different media- bags, T-shirts, mugs, etc. We have a partnership agreement, but only with one site that does this. There is a “button” on our resource - the client can immediately see how the image will look on the item and place an order. Our partners produce everything on a turnkey basis, ours is just a picture. By the way, there are visits from this partner’s website to Kartunbank, and they also promote the service. The cost of a picture for these purposes (and this is considered an individual order, and not an unlimited edition for sale) is 250-500 rubles.

2. You can order a full-fledged exhibition from us. Any subject. Buy licenses - make prints, frame them - and you're done. So, for example, with the Gatchina Museum we had a joint project, and with the Museum of the Leningrad Region - both are quite successful. There was a project with the Planetarium - there the works were shown in exhibition mode on a huge screen. Any organization can put up an exhibition - be it a dental clinic or a gold mining company: they hung it in the office or held a conference with such an unusual addition. We have drawings - for any request. The license costs only 500 rubles (for now).

Drawing by Oleg Dergachev

3. You can print calendars with our designs. There were also such orders, but you can count them on one hand.

5. Our artists can give master classes on caricature. Once we were asked to hold a master class for children in Erarta, it’s a museum contemporary art in St. Petersburg, for not very much, but money. Another time they asked us to officially “select” caricaturists for a street festival to draw cartoons. We were even invited to Smolny once, to a conference for the media, we were partly promoting ourselves there, but the authors were paid as for participation in the project, according to the contract.

6. You can publish an entire humor magazine with pictures from Kartunbank, and, imagine, a publisher once approached us - and even released an excellent pilot issue - with a circulation of 10 copies. However, things didn’t go any further for him; he started organizing concerts rather than collecting advertising for the magazine. However, the possibility remains!

7. You can print cartoon postcards. We have our own experience - one of the authors (I also helped him, it was interesting) invested in printing postcards - a total of 38 items, spent 60 thousand rubles. The cost of printing one postcard, it seems, was 3 rubles back then. They were sold for 15 rubles apiece to stores, and they increased their commission, and the postcard reached the buyer for 30-50 rubles. The money was “recaptured” quite quickly. There seems to be a prospect, but this is a separate area of ​​business that needs to be taken seriously, and neither my partner nor I had the time or energy for this. We are also artists - we work with our personal customers all the time. But this line of business, in principle, can be developed by anyone through Kartunbank - buy a picture for 2,500 rubles (and with a discount system it’s even cheaper) and print at least 10 thousand postcards for sale - I’ll give you an idea!

Drawing by Vyacheslav Shilov

8. Using our illustrations you can design books- we sell pictures for books for only 250 rubles.

9. Our drawing can be integrated into a permanent website design, but this will already be a commercial license for 2500 rubles.

10. When was the country active political life, during the elections, cartoons were often bought for leaflets, 2500 rubles each, also as political advertising. They asked for a package of documents - licenses, an agreement - we always provided this without any problems. There has been no activity in this regard for the last two years, but the opportunity itself has not disappeared.

They say, a real artist must be hungry. But, for sure, none of them will agree with this. There are many ways to do what you love and still make good money. Many people just don’t know how to do it. Or they are too lazy to look for options. For them and all other artists, we offer 7 ways to make money on the Internet.

Services website

The easiest way to introduce yourself to a wide audience and show your talent is a personal website where your portfolio will be posted and the services offered will be described. Of course, you can’t do without competent promotion of a web resource, but Internet marketing can bring quite significant results. Don't forget about groups on social networks and your personal blog!

Freelance exchanges

If, in addition to artistic talent, you know how to express your thoughts clearly, then you should think about writing specialized articles. To do this, you need to register on freelance exchanges, fortunately, there are a great many of them, for example, fl.ru. There are always orders on the topics of drawing, photography, art workshops and the like. Your personal experience, knowledge and, of course, desire will help in revealing any of them. So, we find the order, write the text and receive payment! Such services also post advertisements for the search for web designers, illustrators, as well as private advertisements: many are looking for craftsmen who can draw a portrait from a photograph or a reproduction of a painting.

Photobanks

These are special services where any artist can offer their works for sale in electronic form. In this case, the same drawing can be sold several times, but the photo bank itself will take a small commission from you.

Creation of information products

Websites selling hand-made works

There are a lot of online platforms where you can sell handmade works. The most popular on the Russian Internet is the Crafts Fair. In addition to your personal online store, you can maintain your own blog, share news, and publish your own master classes. Among foreign sites, it is worth taking a closer look at Etsy.com, which is the largest in the world. The “live” community includes more than 30 MILLION (!!) of your potential buyers. In addition, the Russian interface allows you to quickly figure out what’s what.

No one will argue that creative process mesmerizing. So why not show the world how you create masterpieces? Shoot a video for 2-3 minutes, add some special effects, music and don’t forget to indicate your website or group. A large number of views and “likes” are guaranteed to you.

Specialized sites

Probably, this point should have been put first, since specialized sites for selling artwork are the easiest and quick way make money from your creativity. But we act on the principle “Through thorns to the stars” and do not look for easy ways, right? So, the three most popular resources where you can post your works for sale: Illustrators.ru, Hiero.ru and artmagazin.ru. Don't thank me) You're always welcome!

To successfully operate on the Internet, self-promotion is necessary. Register on forums, join communities, post your work, comment, discuss - become noticeable! And don't forget to draw!