Art as a fastlane business?

[KJFast]

Hey guys, if you knew someone who was a REALLY good and I mean 10/10 artist who could paint things that you see elsewhere selling for £2000-£4000 a piece or even more.

What do people think of art as a way to make fastlane income?

I know making the art itself breaks the commandment of time but I think everything does to start and if you spend 4h on a painting that makes you £3000 that’s pretty close to a “fully automated” businesses weekly upkeep which could make you £3000 a week.

Next question is, how’d you recommend they start? I’m not the artist in question but can say their artwork is an easy 10/10 and skill level is super high.

 

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[Maxkaz]

Hey guys, if you knew someone who was a REALLY good and I mean 10/10 artist who could paint things that you see elsewhere selling for £2000-£4000 a piece or even more.

What do people think of art as a way to make fastlane income?

I know making the art itself breaks the commandment of time but I think everything does to start and if you spend 4h on a painting that makes you £3000 that’s pretty close to a “fully automated” businesses weekly upkeep which could make you £3000 a week.

Next question is, how’d you recommend they start? I’m not the artist in question but can say their artwork is an easy 10/10 and skill level is super high.

I am not an artist in any way, but this question reminded me about one line in one of the books of "dual-dad guru" Thou-Shall-Not-Be-Nameth-Here. The following is as close to citation as I can get from my memory (and I read this book many years ago):

"I once was giving an interview about my book`s success. And when the interview was over, the journalist, a young woman of 20-smth told me that she was also a writer, but could never put her novels out there. Inclined to help her, I carelessly gave her an advice to take some sales courses and even told her I can suggest a good one. She immediately sprang from the table and told me angrily that she won`t ever do something as dirty as sales. Then I took my book and politely asked her to read what was stated on the cover. It did not state that I was the best author. It stated that I was an author of a best-seller book."

 

[heman]

Hey guys, if you knew someone who was a REALLY good and I mean 10/10 artist who could paint things that you see elsewhere selling for £2000-£4000 a piece or even more.

What do people think of art as a way to make fastlane income?

I know making the art itself breaks the commandment of time but I think everything does to start and if you spend 4h on a painting that makes you £3000 that’s pretty close to a “fully automated” businesses weekly upkeep which could make you £3000 a week.

Next question is, how’d you recommend they start? I’m not the artist in question but can say their artwork is an easy 10/10 and skill level is super high.

Do you have any examples of this person's artwork? I've often heard people don't want to market themselves or sell their work expensively due to personal holdback (i.e. they mentally tell themselves they are not worth their asking price). Maybe through mass approval on social media, or by showing them similar artists who make a living from their work, they could be convinced otherwise.

 

[Lygia]

Hi there! I’m just speaking as someone who enjoys occasionally reading and researching art-related topics (not actual experience in the field), so of course take what I’ll say with a grain of salt.

Is it possible? Probably. Are there easier ways to reach Fastlane? Also probably (if you haven't already, I would suggest you read this post by MJ).

A small comment on your “it breaks time commandment”—maybe, but not necessarily. Just take a look at Andy Warhol’s Factory. There can be ways of taking a mass-production-like approach to it. In my humble opinion, I would say the biggest challenge would be to fulfill the “need” commandment. According to author Hans Abbing, “(…) classical music and modern visual art are considered art because people have conferred the characteristics of uselessness and luxury on them. Their only acknowledged purpose is the rendering of an aesthetic experience.” I would humbly add—not only an aesthetic experience but also an emotional one.

In general, the art field—cinema, music, and literature included—seems to obey a “winner takes all” market logic. An excerpt from Success and Luck by Robert H. Frank: “Winner-take-all markets generally display two characteristic features. One is that rewards depend less on absolute performance than on relative performance. A second important feature of winner-take-all markets is that rewards tend to be highly concentrated in the hands of a few top performers.”

What I mean by this is that their skill, while certainly imperative, isn’t the most important factor. Aside from marketing, branding would be crucial here. What is their target audience? What kind of person would enjoy their paintings? A middle-class young woman who wants a cute painting to decorate her bedroom or a multimillionaire art connoisseur? What makes them different/unique from what’s already out there?

When you know your target audience, then you go where they are and speak their language. An example: last year I remember seeing a twenty-something woman managing to sell her painting collection via constant posting on TikTok. Her paintings all had a cute, Gen-Z-like girlish aura, and one of her videos showcasing her art ended up going viral and getting people interested in buying it. She’s making paintings that speak to a specific audience, and she’s hanging out where they are.

Another question—perhaps the most important one—would be: do they want to do it? Are they aware they will have to learn to balance their creative vision with what the market wants? Are they aware that when their art becomes a business, they will have to (obviously) adopt a business-like approach to it and deal with the consequences, changes and nuances this will inevitably bring to their relationship with their own art?

Just my two cents. Hope this could help in some way. Best of luck!

 

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[StrikingViper69]

Run some ads for prints/posters. See if anyone buys them.

 

[KJFast]

Do you have any examples of this person's artwork? I've often heard people don't want to market themselves or sell their work expensively due to personal holdback (i.e. they mentally tell themselves they are not worth their asking price). Maybe through mass approval on social media, or by showing them similar artists who make a living from their work, they could be convinced otherwise.

I can give more examples later but here is one