How I Make Money As An Artist (with exact numbers and expenses breakdown)

2022 Financial Report |10 Ways I made money as an Artist | 240k in 2022

00:00 - Intro
00:40 - Income Sources
00:55 - Conventions
01:58 - Etsy
03:10 - Teaching
03:38 - Freelance
04:07 - Commissions
04:31 - Wholesale
05:30 - Kickstarter
06:13 - Youtube
06:26 - Reels
07:15 - Digital Products
7:51 - Expenses
15:05 - Cons But Why?
20:17 - Outro

Music by Streambeats

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[kyletwebster]

It's so important for artists to make these videos. Art is a business, and the business of art should be taught in every art school. And not just for one semester. Thank you for taking the time to share all this information with your community.

[Lovetocreateart]

No wonder why he makes a lot of money, he is an amazing professional, he achieved a master illustrator level, and he knows the business side. His art speaks for itself, and he is 100% dedicated to his art. I can tell he works really hard! I edit to say, this guy is the real deal, great illustration work, no gimmicks!

[Hugop_arts]

Met you at Anime LA (I was dressed as Waluigi and bought your box w multiple prints). This past year I made more money on the art as my side gig than my main day job so it’s really inspiring seeing the opportunities ahead of me.

[sarahbecker]

Thanks a lot for the transparency! I'm trying to get my foot in the door as a small artist with cons and an online shop, so seeing how more experienced artist do this is super helpful and gives me motivation and hope to make this work ✨

Also, can I say... Your clothing style (and art style of course) is just so good. Inspiration on so many levels ✨😌

[mariobros]

Thanks for covering this topic man. I think a lot of artists (including myself) need to learn more about running a business and money in general. Cheers!

[l.e.phillips]

This is one of the better breakdowns like this I’ve seen. I appreciate that isn’t all “courses and printables!”

[otter-pro]

Dude, you busted your butt off to get where you are. You deserve the success. I think this video will help a lot of artist with financial expectation, especially the hidden expenses.

[ChristianMartt]

This level of transparency is so refreshing and motivating to see. Thank you, I really respect it and I hope everything goes even better for you in the future ❤️

[markkelso]

Appreciate your openness and insight into how you tackle the business of being an artist. I've been a professional artist for 31 years now and have a VERY different formula for making a living (working predominantly with fine art galleries and museums.). It's fascinating to see how others do it. Cheers!

[waifuart]

I deeply appreciate this detailed breakdown. I'm a smaller artist but I've been doing 4-5 local conventions each year and have been debating whether it would be worth it to travel out of state to do more conventions and this has helped a lot with making my decision (no i dont think wanna lol). Income aside, one of the hidden boons of conventions is the warm glow from folks saying nice things about your work, and purchasing it with their hard earned money, then displaying that work in their homes. At my last con, I had a couple of folks come up to me showing stickers on their phones and water bottles that they had purchased from me years ago and were still intact and loved. I could never go back to my day job.

Thank you for these well made and informative videos! Can't wait to see more from you.

[HelyaRavn]

It was really helpful to see you break down not only the profit but also your expenses and talking about where to find a more profitable audience when it comes to picking which cons to go to. It certainly gives me a better idea what to put my focus on. Thank you :)

[jakeparker]

This was a great video Dustin. Thanks for the transparency on the gross and the net. Expenses for this path are REAL. But man, the independence and the possibility of exponential growth really makes an indie creator an appealing choice for the artist that has a little grit and a willingness to take on some risk.

[ijustdoit]

The best transparent NO BS vlog I ever watched... Thanks.

[ninja_sketch]

Your videos are great! And you’re not lazy in the slightest 😅 all your videos are edited so great, plus your art is incredible ! 🤩

[mrs.quills]

I really am so happy YouTube shared your channel with me. I’m a very small artist and while I work full time in a creative field, I am at a point now where I wanna do my own thing. I have an Etsy shop and tbh peeping at yours made me feel so much better! I feel like you’re supposed to have hundreds of listings and such, and you have such beautiful stuff. I really need to get to work on fixing my listing photos and doing a better job at marketing. I feel like people forget that Etsy also does sales tax collection for you too. A lot of people shit on them and I get it, but where else are we supposed to go? Also, I want to do cons one day too, but not until I am more established and have more consistent online sales.

[chrisf]

You are a sharp young man. Don't be discouraged that so much of your revenue went towards expenses. you still have an amazing profit margin, most businesses don't have nearly that high of a profit margin. Good for you my friend. Keep up the great work.

[o_lilium]

I love the breakdown and all of the info, you presented it all so clearly that it wasn't overwhelming! I'd love to see a video on how you manage your time. Doing so many shows all over the country seems like it would leave little time to work on new stuff, but I know you are often producing new work, so I think it would just be a cool video to maybe help people (like me) who suck at managing their time. 💜 Great video!
P.S. I'm wondering if the show you made so little at was THE show 👀 the one we were at together lol

[MyFishFillet]

Wow thank you so much for the video. This was actually so amazing to see. I love how honest and transparent you are with your advice and showing your numbers. I think it really helps the space too for independent artists. It shows that its possible to make just as good a salary as some of these studio artists while having a good majority of it as passive income and without the dependency issues that come with being a studio artist. Thank you so much for sharing, like actually. You helped clarify something' that I've been thinking about for sometime now.

[SketchingWithSarah]

Thank you for being so transparent and giving other artists hope that they can support themselves with their passions! Lots of great tips and I’m excited to learn more! ☺️

[amalathisdreaming]

I absolutely love how transparent you are in all of the videos.