Using my artwork as a sidegig or, and passive income.

[GilbertB]

Hello,

I've been searching small side gig idea, I've been trying to find out what I am good at, or was good at and can become good at again.
Something that is compatible with me being 50% of the time at sea and my house being in the middle of renovations.

For the long term, I thing I'll be doing premium baby and children furniture. As I can make a nice profit selling Fine wood furniture for the price of the badly painted MDF crap found in stores theses days!
However, the garage being full of building supplies and boxed furniture, this is a no go in the short term.

So, onwards to plan B!
Selling stuff based on my artwork!

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away (Madrid 2001) I was a pretty good illustrator, and also did the odd acrylic portrait  for cash too.
Moving to Paris, life, computers, moving to Belgium, children, studies etc - all got in the way, so I have not practised in years.
I am practising now (see included examples), right now I take about 5 hours to do something that should take me 1 hour and the quality is not there yet...
I think I'm still a good 6 months of daily practice from reaching the speed/quality to make this viable.

The base plan would be selling posters, Tshirts, mugs etc, based on my artwork!
I'll even part with the originals for a price (on Etsy or similar)!
Or do one off art based on a picture provided by the client (no copyrighted stuff).

So right now I'm trying to find vendors that could print, package and ship for me.
I know it's less profitable, but I'm at sea for 6 week stints, people don't wait 6 weeks!
If I can get 5€ net on a 30€ cost to the client for an A3, I'm happy.
Another option is to film the process to monetise via Youtube - as a bonus passive income.

I will focus solely in Pre 1946 airplanes and "Space Fantasy". If one does everything, one is know for nothing!

My objective will be to get 500€ net, for an hour of work a day, in the first 6 months.

I'm also posting a "Draft a Day" on a basic blog to keep me accountable: http://scifimeanderings.blogspot.be/

Anybody got any experience with "all in one printer" or wants to point out gapping holes in my business plan?

[GilbertB]

As a side question, what blog provider would you recommend with the idea of monetisation in the future.
Blogger is easy to use, but does not exude quality...

[VeggieGirl]

Hello,

I've been searching small side gig idea, I've been trying to find out what I am good at, or was good at and can become good at again.
Something that is compatible with me being 50% of the time at sea and my house being in the middle of renovations.

For the long term, I thing I'll be doing premium baby and children furniture. As I can make a nice profit selling Fine wood furniture for the price of the badly painted MDF crap found in stores theses days!
However, the garage being full of building supplies and boxed furniture, this is a no go in the short term.

So, onwards to plan B!
Selling stuff based on my artwork!

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away (Madrid 2001) I was a pretty good illustrator, and also did the odd acrylic portrait  for cash too.
Moving to Paris, life, computers, moving to Belgium, children, studies etc - all got in the way, so I have not practised in years.
I am practising now (see included examples), right now I take about 5 hours to do something that should take me 1 hour and the quality is not there yet...
I think I'm still a good 6 months of daily practice from reaching the speed/quality to make this viable.

The base plan would be selling posters, Tshirts, mugs etc, based on my artwork!
I'll even part with the originals for a price (on Etsy or similar)!
Or do one off art based on a picture provided by the client (no copyrighted stuff).

So right now I'm trying to find vendors that could print, package and ship for me.
I know it's less profitable, but I'm at sea for 6 week stints, people don't wait 6 weeks!
If I can get 5€ net on a 30€ cost to the client for an A3, I'm happy.
Another option is to film the process to monetise via Youtube - as a bonus passive income.

I will focus solely in Pre 1946 airplanes and "Space Fantasy". If one does everything, one is know for nothing!

My objective will be to get 500€ net, for an hour of work a day, in the first 6 months.

I'm also posting a "Draft a Day" on a basic blog to keep me accountable: http://scifimeanderings.blogspot.be/

Anybody got any experience with "all in one printer" or wants to point out gapping holes in my business plan?

Cool illustrations! There's quite a few print on demand vendors that will print, package and ship for you - zazzle, cafepress, society 6, red bubble. I'm sure there's more. It's easy to open a store on any of those sites so there's a lot of competition. Might take awhile for sales to happen unless you already have a following. I'm just starting on zazzle myself...

[VeggieGirl]

As a side question, what blog provider would you recommend with the idea of monetisation in the future.
Blogger is easy to use, but does not exude quality...

I say a self hosted wordpress blog, quality and still easy to use. :-)

[GilbertB]

As a side question, what blog provider would you recommend with the idea of monetisation in the future.
Blogger is easy to use, but does not exude quality...

I say a self hosted wordpress blog, quality and still easy to use. :-)

Thanks!
I'll check out the Wordpress and your recommendation of printers.

[LovesToTravel]

Check out Merch by Amazon -- Amazon will print your designs on t-shirts, on-demand as they are ordered (you get a listing on Amazon for each design).  It takes awhile to get approved to sell via Merch by Amazon (I've been waiting for my approval for 1 or 2 months), but I've heard good things.  Huge audience; Amazon prime benefits, etc.

https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/post/Tx3504078FRYE5I/Announcing-Merch-by-Amazon:-A-New-Way-to-Generate-Revenue-with-Branded-T-Shirts

Very nice artwork, by the way!

[Smokystache]

This may not fit your lifestyle at all, but is there a way to combine the childhood furniture and your art skills? Could you create custom painted furniture, murals, or paintings? Perhaps even using pictures of the children and incorporating them into the furniture. Parents and grandparents seem willing to pay crazy money for custom items for their children.

Perhaps something like this, but you could customize it to the child and charge even more?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/71506641/vintage-airplane-toy-chest-custom?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

Just a thought. Good luck!

[GilbertB]

This may not fit your lifestyle at all, but is there a way to combine the childhood furniture and your art skills? Could you create custom painted furniture, murals, or paintings? Perhaps even using pictures of the children and incorporating them into the furniture. Parents and grandparents seem willing to pay crazy money for custom items for their children.

Perhaps something like this, but you could customize it to the child and charge even more?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/71506641/vintage-airplane-toy-chest-custom?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

Just a thought. Good luck!

Thanks for the cool idea, but furniture building is not possible in the short term.
I would rather do that than art, purely because the wage per hour is far higher and the result much easier to sell.
And I can sell direct, in my town, avoiding having to share profits with Etsy or others.

[Steelers1982]

Can you draw animals well?

There's a decent market out there for people who want art work of their pets.

[Smokystache]

This may not fit your lifestyle at all, but is there a way to combine the childhood furniture and your art skills? Could you create custom painted furniture, murals, or paintings? Perhaps even using pictures of the children and incorporating them into the furniture. Parents and grandparents seem willing to pay crazy money for custom items for their children.

Perhaps something like this, but you could customize it to the child and charge even more?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/71506641/vintage-airplane-toy-chest-custom?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

Just a thought. Good luck!

Thanks for the cool idea, but furniture building is not possible in the short term.
I would rather do that than art, purely because the wage per hour is far higher and the result much easier to sell.
And I can sell direct, in my town, avoiding having to share profits with Etsy or others.

Oops. I wasn't very clear. I thought you mentioned that you found and re-sold baby/children's furniture. I was thinking that you could find a yucky piece of furniture, work your magic on it with a custom painting (instead of just refinish it - which many people can do), and then sell that. But now that I type it out, it still sound like a lot of work.

Or perhaps something like this - buy a board or slab of wood and paint on it: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/397442735847507806/

But it may not be up your alley.

[GilbertB]

Can you draw animals well?

There's a decent market out there for people who want art work of their pets.

Yeah, but I can't do everything! I already have problems focusing on stuff, so I must really limit myself!
And if I do pets (babies, parents, houses etc), this tends to require the original artwork... a bit difficult because I'm at sea half the time...

If the basic idea works and I start being able to draw FAST, I might contemplate secondary objectives, but under a different brand etc.

Thanks for the idea!