Category: General Art

We all know the obvious top three ways artists make money – selling paintings, teaching, and commissioned works. But we’re not talking about the obvious ways to make money for artists. We’re talking about side money. And more importantly, two of these methods will make you money in your sleep.

The beauty of two of the three of them is that you can upload them online and never have to do anything else other than collect money (assuming you’re either famous enough that people come to your page or you know what you’re doing when it comes to marketing). If you’re not famous yet, you’ll need to know a bit about marketing to actually make those specific two worth your time.

Online classes

I’m strong at A, B, and C, but weak in X, Y, and Z. However, I came across your website and saw that you have a course in Y. I really want to get better at Y. So I’m going to buy that course from you.

Online courses are where it’s at. I’ve taken quite a few. I’m currently taking Romanian lessons online. I’ve learned a lot of art tips and tricks from online videos or courses. And even books.

Whatever you’re strong at, have you ever considered an online course? You’ll have to know a little bit about lighting, sound, and video editing.

If any one of the three are bad (lighting, sound, or video editing), I’m going to be pissed and will never buy from that person again. However, if you’re teaching the subject matter well, and have good lighting, sound, and your video editing is decent, I may be buying a few more, or possibly even everything you have to offer!

Sound

The sound part is easy. Either have one of those mics you stick on your lapel or talk closely enough to the mic that you can record your sound loudly.

This is the part that I know well. You want to be able to record your sound loud.

From there, go to your computer and look for the specific mic. You’ll have a mic input setting. Talk as you’ll normally talk and check the mic settings. You want to record it loud, but not so loud that it “clips.” If it clips, it’s really bad because it will pop and crack when the person listens to it.

So you want to record it loud, but not too loud.

Also one hot tip – note how your s’s sound. I heard there is good de-essing software out there. That said, it’s much better to learn how to speak without smearing your s’s. If you do, don’t feel bad. Most speakers start off with bad s’s. It’s just something you learn with time.

Lighting

This is my weakest of the three. I shouldn’t be giving advice here so I won’t.

Video editing

I bought Adobe Premier Pro. It’s a $20/month subscription and that’s probably too much for people who only use it occasionally. I actually do a lot of work with it so it’s worth every penny for me.

Sure, there are cheaper and even free options. I won’t cover those because I don’t talk about stuff I don’t know about.

But I can tell you a lot about Adobe Premier Pro. They’re always adding new features and it keeps getting better every year.

I don’t use too many effects because it looks cheesy when people do. But it’s great for quick editing as well as you don’t want pauses or useless interjections. For instance, if you say “um,” “like,” or “and so” a lot, edit those out.

Not everyone’s a professional speaker. But with good video editing, you can certainly sound like one.

The more you record yourself…

The more you record yourself, the better you’ll get. You’ll learn to be fluid simply by doing.

Yes, it’s totally fine to be nervous at first. This may seem counterintuitive but I say power through it. If you have to, make 11 videos and throw the first 10 out.

I got pretty good at speaking on camera simply by doing it tons of times. I’d cringe though if I didn’t delete my first twenty or thirty videos and someone somehow got a hold of them and played them. They were bad! But like I just said, you learn by doing.

So try it. Think of some area you totally kick ass at and make a course showing exactly how you did it. Make sure the course is so good that you feel that it provides value to your customers. Don’t make a course just to make a course. Provide value.

I already have some ideas for online courses for next year. Right now though, I’m scrambling to get ready for a project so my online courses are a smaller priority.

eBooks

You have a collection of works. Have you ever thought of photographing your works and selling them as books?

Even better – you can sell them as eBooks.

I write all these fantasy short stories. I thought to myself “Roman, why don’t you illustrate them and sell them?”

So that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

You could do the same thing. If you’re not a writer, find a writer to work with and illustrate his or her works. Make an offer that works for both of you. If that person is broke, work for a percentage of profit. That will give you some incentive to let everyone you know know about the books as well.

Win/win. That’s how I like to think. I like to see my friends succeed too.

Contract work

I’ve done commissioned work. Same thing. Except online.

You can sell your labor on sites like Fiverr or their competitors. Frankly, I’m too busy to do something like that. But you may have some extra time. If you do, it might be a good way to make a few extra bucks.

Honestly though I don’t think it’s worth it unless you’re just getting started or you’re flat broke. Online contract work is a lot of work for not that much money. Unless you can get a contract through an established company or someone with a good net worth.

So consider those three possibilities. I’m definitely going to do the first two next year in addition to continuing to sell paintings and take commissioned work. Artists should be busy!

At the age of 42, I still got intimidated by the drawings parents put on the fridge that their bratty kid did. Yes, those brats were more talented than I was.

But, I finally said to myself I wanted to learn to draw. I was sick of being outdone by children. Yes, I was that bad!

So I scoured the internet for help. I came upon this one lady artist who said that if you can’t draw, draw lines and circles an hour every morning until they look good.

It took me over a month. Every day. First thing in the morning. Well, actually third thing in the morning. Coffee first, then guitar, then lines and circles. Over and over again, lines and circles.

This is key. If you can’t draw lines and circles that look good, you need to continually draw lines and circles until they look good.

Yes, that sounds boring as hell. Did I say it would be easy? I don’t remember saying that.

If you’re serious about learning how to draw, then don’t be a whiner. Just do your lines and circles over and over again until they look good. Heck, you might be able to do it in less than a month.

Step two

OK, you’ve had your coffee and spent the past month drawing lines and circles. And now they look good. Now what?

Excellent! You can move on to step two.

Buy yourself a notebook and some pencils that fit your hand comfortably. I used to used American made #2 pencils. I’d also buy those erasers that you put on top of pencils.

Then, I just drew everything and anything. That tree looks nice. That mountain is pretty cool. Hey. I like that cloud.

Then a friend will come over and I’ll ask her to smile and I’d draw her for a bit.

This year, I switched over to mechanical pencils. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you draw. Constantly.

While inside the house, I practice drawing on cheap copy paper. It’s great for drawing practice. And it’s cheap.

Outside the house, I bring a notebook and a pair of pencils everywhere. I never bring my mechanical pencil to anyone’s house though. I’m weird – very attached to that pencil.

Practice will give you technique

I draw exactly what I see. And constant practice gave me all the technique I need.

My wife retired this year. So in celebration, I took her on a Caribbean cruise.

I wake up before she does so before she woke up, I’d do my walk around the ship, then find a quiet place to draw. Every single day, I drew, even on vacation.

All you need is a sketchbook, pencils and an eraser. If you’re old school and using regular pencils, you’ll need more than one as the tip will always break off at the worst possible time.

I’m an extrovert and I love going to bars and talking to random people. Great place to bring your sketchbook.

I’m married, but if I were single, I’d bring my watercolor journal to a bar. Just start drawing in it.

People are curious. They’d want to see your work. You’d have completed watercolor doodles as well as the incomplete penciling you’re working in now. Would be a great way to meet chicks.

How good do you want to get?

Now, shading is a different story. You can easily learn how to shade via a YouTube video or a $20 book. I personally love Dover Publications because they’re cool people and have lots of art instruction books that are good.

However, I don’t shade when I draw. I do all my shading via watercolors. Plus, I never know where I’m going to put my light source until I start the painting.

Perspective? Once again, you can learn Classical perspective from a Dover book. They have books that go into intricate details.

I’ve even met hyperrealism artists who taught themselves how to draw. If you don’t know what hyperrealism is, the art literally looks like a photograph. You have to do a double take to realize it’s not.

Working with live models

If you got the money, I strongly suggest you hire live models and paint them. You can teach yourself anatomy.

I have an advantage over most artists. I used to both fight and do massage.

Fighting will teach you the body like nothing else will. I did both Muay Thai and wrestling, so I know how to really hurt someone.

No, I’m not a tough guy any more. I’m old and slow. But the knowledge is still there. I can tell you every major muscle group and I know anatomy quite well. I know which way to bend limbs if I had to break one. I also know what parts of the body will buckle with a good knee or an elbow.

I also learned how to heal. So I literally know the body hands on. If you don’t want to go to a live dissection, I strongly suggest massage class as an alternative. You get to know every muscle group, how they move, how they feel, what looks healthy, and what needs hands on love.

This translates very well to art. By the time I started using live models, I already knew the body quite well.

When I had the falling out with my previous model, Allie actually offered to model for me. Then Roxy did. So I have two very close friends modeling for me. Plus, I occasionally use other models.

I’ll see Sophia again next week. That’s her in the front of what will be a dragon. Three girls on a dragon? Why not?

Are you having fun or what?

I strongly think that once you get past that boring ass lines and circles stage, you should be having fun. I never drew the banana, apples, and grapes in a bowl. Boring as hell.

I feel like once I got past the lines and circles stage, I earned the right to enjoy drawing. Not make it an exercise.

So of course I choose live models. And fantasy art because I love fantasy.

You and I are not the same people. Find what you love to draw. And draw it.

You should never get tired of drawing if you’re drawing what you love. And I guarantee that if you keep drawing what you love, you’ll eventually get really good at it. Talent only means you have to put in 10% less hours than the rest of us. That’s all it means.

So don’t ever use lack of talent as an excuse. I don’t buy it.

You’ve probably heard of Type A and Type B people. If you’re a Type B person, you can probably skip this article.

I’m classic Type A. There’s a deadline for everything. And when people walk slowly and get in my way, it drives me nuts! I’m very forgiving of older or injured folks. But young, healthy people who walk slowly and get in my way?

Everything I do, I do fast. If I don’t learn something fast, I get frustrated. That’s probably why I get frustrated learning foreign languages. I really struggle.

The good thing is the older you get, the more you learn to play to your strengths. Type A people get a lot done in life, then die young because we burn out and collapse. But, we’ve sure accomplished a lot!

Yeah, life’s a trade off. No such thing as a perfect life.

Anyways, drawing. Drawing is the root of all art. If you can’t draw, your art will suck. I detest Modernism as most of these people are hacks.

Sure, I love certain pop artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Gil Elvgren, Mel Ramos, and especially Frank Frazetta. That’s totally different. They actually had talent.

But the ones who just do abstract crap and can’t even draw? Those aren’t artists. They’re hacks.

5 minute sketches

So I do everything I can to be more like my heroes and less like those hacks. The best thing for me is a daily routine, which includes a 5 minute sketch as a warmup.

I take a picture. I’ve used a lot from Game of Thrones. This one is of Paulina Rubio because lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Spanish music, trying to regain the Spanish I used to know.

I love music. Paulina Rubio is a Mexican pop singer. A lot of her songs are actually pretty good. They make you want to get up and dance.

Plus, she’s hot, which definitely inspires me to draw her.

Was it any good? Of course not! It’s a five minute sketch. Had I had 15-20 minutes, it would be pretty good.

But that’s not the point of this exercise. The point is to increase your speed and efficiency. You learn not to waste time.

Does she look like Paulina Rubio? Sort of. Paulina looks way better than my five minute sketch. But that’s ok. Once again, it’s an exercise to improve your speed and efficiency.

Note the focus

Note what I focused on for this five minute sketch. Paulina Rubio’s three strongest characteristics are her eyes, her lips, and her hair. She’s known for her hair. How many pop singers have hair that can rival Paulina Rubio’s?

She also has the loveliest eyes and lips. I’m really going to emphasize them.

A year from now, my five minute sketches will look much better. I actually wish I had been doing this exercise all along. This is something I recently started doing.

But since you only got five minutes, focus on the characteristics that make the subject special, whether you’re painting a bowl of fruit, a seascape, or a person.

Super easy

Anyways, a 5 minute sketch is super easy. You set the timer on your watch or phone for 5 minutes. And then you draw.

You learn efficiency. You learn not to waste time. And you learn to just draw.

It helps your focus and your speed.

I like getting things done. It drives me nuts if at the end of the day, I feel like I haven’t accomplished something. That’s a horrible feeling to me. Guts me at the core of my being.

Yes, I’m classic Type A. Like I said, this article wasn’t meant for Type B people.

I sometimes envy them because they can do this thing called “relax.” That’s something I’m not capable of without a stiff drink.

Yeah, I’m flawed. But at least I’ll never lie to you.

Try it

Anyways, try it. 5 minute sketches. First thing in the morning. You wake up, grab a picture you like, set the timer for 5 minutes, and draw!

Then when the timer stops, you put the pencil down.

This is a lifelong thing that I actually love doing. A year from now, my five minute sketches will actually look pretty good.

I’ve been in tons of bands. No, none you’ve ever heard of. The most money we’ve ever made a night was a whopping $43, that we had to split between four people. Yay!

In other words, we starved. But that’s the fate of 99.99% of bands. They starve. Then they break up.

However, I learned a lot. We did covers of some excellent songs – Megadeth’s Holy Wars, Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Ozzy’s Mr. Crowley, the Ramones’ I Wanna Be Sedated, Slayer’s War Ensemble, Iron Maiden’s Aces High. Tons more. I’m not going to list every cover song I’ve ever performed live.

I will say that nothing teaches you an instrument faster than copying your heroes.

The same goes for painting. I do homages every once in awhile. For instance, I did my own version of an Alphonse Mucha painting back in June. This time around, I’m copying the style of Mel Ramos.

You’ve seen Mel Ramos’ paintings

If you don’t know him by name, you’ve seen his paintings. He’s done everything from superheroes to naked girls in martini glasses. He’s a fellow pop artist.

Yes, I’m a pop artist. Not a fine artist. Musically, I’m venturing towards real Classical music. But my art is for fun. I love doing it. It’s therapeutic.

But that’s the route I’m going down and I’ll probably always stay there artistically. I simply like it.

Mel Ramos was a Californian pop artist who was also influenced by Gil Elvgren. Elvgren influenced most of us pinup artists either directly or indirectly. It’s just like every American guitarist borrowed from people who borrowed from people who borrowed from people who imitated that strip of land in the Deep South that created the Blues.

I’ll do an homage to Elvgren later. For now, here’s my friend Jin modeling for my homage to Mel Ramos. He did a whole series of these keyhole pinup paintings.

And yes, if you’re wondering, her body really is that lovely in real life. I painted exactly what I saw.

Process is what separates the amateur artists from the professional artists. You’ll see a professional artist with an excellent process. It will look fluid and easy reproducible.

But the question is – how did they get to that point? And how long will it take?

Just paint. You learn by doing.

This picture may look funny to you. But it’s after years of honing the painting process. And note, it’s not just years. It’s actually hours. Someone who spends one hour a week painting for ten years will look like an amateur next to someone who paints five hours a day five days a week for only two years.

Do the math. You’ll see how much more the second artist paints than the first artist.

I’ve written before on how I get skin tones in watercolors. Well, here’s a perfect example of my process in action. I paint seven total layers. The fifth one always looks the funniest because this is where I add the darker tones.

Once the seventh layer is down, it will all make sense. And it will look fantastic.

This is the thing though. If you want to build a painting process, you need to paint.

You could study textbooks. You can watch videos on painting. You could read every blog post on the planet on how to paint. But your painting is going to look like shit until you actually start painting a lot.

This is a serious problem with smart people. Smart people think too much. Too many smart people try to overthink anything.

Then some average guy comes along and passes them up because Mr. Average was busy doing.

You learn by doing

Action matters. Sure, it’s nice to read up on the right way to do it. But to really know the right way? You got to actually do it.

I’ve made several huge changes since I started painting. I developed the skin tone process by complete accident. I was trying to copy someone else and found that I couldn’t stand the way they did it when I actually tried to execute it. Sure, theirs looked fantastic. But when I tried to copy their methods, my pinup girls ended up looking like zombies, not hot chicks.

So I developed my own method.

The second major change – I originally used pencil. But pencil doesn’t look as cool as ink. Now, I take inking my watercolors very seriously. I think nothing looks quite like ink. I like how it makes my pinup girls pop.

Now, I’m only using my own methods as an example. Note that I’ve changed. I’ve tried out different things until I found out what works better for me.

You’ll end up doing the same. Just keep painting. The more you paint, the more you’ll hone your process. And the better your process will get.