Sometimes I Work For Me...

... And sometimes I work for other people. 

There are 3 types of art that I make. Before you guess - it isn't trees, cities, and toasters... Even though those are definitely recurring subjects in my art. It's actually art for personal use, art to sell, and art people specifically ask me to make. And they all look very different from each other.

I've mentioned it many times before, but my dear husband has pushed me to treat my art studio more like a business and less like a hobby. To quote him, "Stop giving your art away for free!" and of course the timeless, "You are the worst business owner ever!" (That second one was in response to me giving my art away for free.) So thanks to him, I don't work for free anymore. I even charge my mom for photo edits (if they are big enough to require a fair amount of effort, that is - if it's just cropping or resizing, I'll do that for her all day every day.)

There's plenty of art that I make for myself or family. A lot of the drawings in my sketchbooks will never be viewed by other people, and I'm cool with that. I put a lot of work into my dragon tattoo design, and that's just for me. Twice now I've painted portraits of my own houses, and those are visual versions of little love notes to those buildings that have been my home. I've done a few family portraits, too. 

Next I want to talk about my art to sell. I'll be honest, just about all my toasters fall into this category. 
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What, did you really think it was ME that has a fetish for toasters?! Or maybe Jon does? LOL! I've said it a million times, "It's not me that has a thing for toasters, it's everyone else!" So as long as people keep buying my toasters, I'll keep drawing and painting toasters. My illustrated books also fall into this category. I don't write and illustrate my books just so I can call myself an author. I want to sell copies of my books to other people! Don't mistake that for selling out, though. I believe in my books and believe they are worth what I sell them for. There's no cutting corners, I put uncountable hours of effort and planning into each one.

And finally, let's talk commissions. Someone has asked me to create a specific piece of art for them. I've illustrated five books for other authors, I'm currently illustrating some cards for a new trading card game called Revolt N Reign, and a few years ago I repainted a train mural. Am I so excited about trains that I wanted to paint a 40-ish feet long one on the side of a metal shed? No way! I was terrified climbing up on that 6 foot high scaffolding (don't laugh, I'm afraid of heights!)

Am I proud of my commissioned artwork? Hell yeah! I'm still going to do my best, create something that I'm proud of, even if it's not something I would have normally done myself. Plus, the money I make on commissions goes towards bills (in addition to paying for art business expenses.) I'll always be proud to say that my art income has paid more than one of our mortgage payments. 

Is art for sale any less than art that isn't? Nope. We just live in a capitalist country where people don't understand and therefore can't put a value on creating for the simple sake of creating. 

This feels like a great time to reference a post from a few years ago that talks about why art is so expensive. And someday I'll get real ranty about paying artists fair wages. But that's a post for another day. At the end of the day, all art is valid, regardless of the price tag (or lack of one.)