First 4 steps to take to become an artist

THE BEGINNING

How do you become an artist when you’re just starting out? After making the choice to finally pursue your creative passions, you have to start taking action. Great. But which thing should you do first?

In this article I’ll walk you through what’s most important in the beginning of your artistpreneur journey. 

1: MAKE YOUR INTENTION KNOWN

Making your plans known seems so small but it’s really a big step. Deciding in your heart that you want to become an artist is one thing, but stating it out loud to your parents at dinner is a whole other beast to tackle. 

If you’re not willing to proclaim your creative dreams to everyone, then you’re not serious enough. 

Speaking it out loud makes you shift your mindset to take it seriously, makes other people take you seriously, and it helps hold you accountable. Now if you don’t do it, your failure will be mildly public. The pressure is on. 

Telling people what you want is also the best way to get what you want. If you never tell your friend you want to paint for a living, how will he ever hook you up with his cousin that owns a gift shop (that would LOVE to sell some new stuff)? People want to help you. But you’ve got to let them know what to help you with. 

So first things first, let people know about the big decision you’ve made to become an artist. 

2: GET INVESTMENT CASHFLOW

Secondly, scrounge up a few extra bucks to invest in your artist endeavor. 

For steps 3 and 4, you’re gonna need it. 

The best way to raise some money is to sell your first painting. (If it’s not your very first one, even better!) Sell one to your friend, your mom, through Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/Tiktok, at a yard sale, on Craigslist, wherever. Be scrappy about it. Don’t be afraid to be the person on the street downtown selling custom caricature portraits for $15 a pop. 

If your customer is far away, you can accept payment with Cashapp, Square, Venmo, PayPal, heck, even Facebook can transfer cash these days. Ship in a waterproof box or mailer and you’re good to go. 

If you end up with a spare $100, you’re doing great. 

3: APPLY TO AN ART SHOW

With the investment money you’ve earned, apply to a few art shows. Many application fees will run you only $20. 

Make sure the booth fee is small ($30) or nonexistent. If you’re a millionaire already, still go for the cheaper show first. These events are smaller and easier to handle for a new artist. Art shows with booth fees around $300 will attract thousands of people and it can be overwhelming or a sharp learning curve for new artists. Do a small art show first. 

Apply on sites like ZAPPlication to events in your area. 

When you’ve submitted your art and paid the fee, you’ll feel like you just applied to your dream job. In a way, you have! But don’t sweat it.

Once accepted, you can prepare for your first show with the knowledge in this article here — it’ll tell you everything you need to bring as an artist vendor. 

The reason doing an art show is one of the first big things you’ll do to become an artist is that you’ll learn so much about your art. You’ll learn the type of person who buys it, what type of painting sells best for you, what to say when you close a deal, how to network, and where you need to improve. 

Working an art show is like going to school for how to sell your art and be an artist. You learn many of the fundamental skills like marketing, sales, communications, and presentation. 

Art shows are also the easiest places to make money with art. I sell more at events than I do online. I sell more to strangers at events than I’ve ever sold to my friends or family. It really boosts your confidence to gain knowledge and get your work in the hands of real people. 

You’ll learn a ton that’ll help you with the rest of your artist journey and you’ll make more cashflow that you can invest in the next step. 

Art shows are non-negotiable. They’re a huge shortcut!

If you want more details on finding events, the application process, what to do when you get there, and how to wrap up after, download The Complete Guide to Your First Art Show. It’s an ebook that maps out the entire path from start to finish.

4: BUILD AN ONLINE SHOP

Once you’ve done a few art shows, you’re almost ready to become an artist full time. Next, you’ll need to take what you’ve learned and bring your sales online. 

It’s important not to skip right to this step, because you’ll end up making a lot more mistakes and it’ll take a lot longer to bring your shop success. 

First, decide on a platform. This can seem overwhelming. Etsy, Redbubble, Society6, WordPress, BigCartel, SquareSpace, which to choose?

My strongest advice is to build space on a platform YOU OWN.

You don’t own Instagram, or Etsy, or Redbubble. Someone else owns that website and they just let you sell things on their space. They can change their terms and kick you out at any time. 

Invest the time and money into buying your own domain to be built on a good content management system like WordPress, SquareSpace, or Wix. Make sure your website is self-hosted using a service like BlueHost (that’s what I use). 

When you build it this way, you buy and own that space. You can make your own terms and conditions, you can never be kicked off of it, you don’t have to deal with listing fees in your own shop. You can avoid confusing algorithms and build reliable SEO instead. 

If you want to read more on this topic, I wrote a whole blog post on why you should build your own custom website. 

For me, building my online art shop took the most time. I’m completely self-taught in all my artistpreneur skills, so I surfed Google and YouTube for a few months, practicing trial and error until I got it right. Truth is, I’m still tweaking it. 

If you can hire a web designer, please do that. It’ll save you a lot of time. 

But it’s important to know how your website works, why it works that way, and how to manage the items in your shop. Even if you hire someone to help you set it up. 

If you want to use what I use, you’ll be building your site on WordPress and it will be hosted by Bluehost. It costs roughly $200 a year for the security features, domain name, hosting, and my WordPress subscription. There are other bells and whistles I invest in, but you don’t have to worry about that yet. To get started tackling this mammoth step #4, just Google “WordPress shop tutorials” and “WordPress BlueHost hosting” until you feel comfortable to dive in. 

Once you begin, you can design your shop based on the type of customer that buys your work and the type of art you sold the most, leaning on what you learned from your art show experience. You’ll know how to word your copy, craft your sales pages, and what type of photos to shoot to attract your customers — because you’ll have met them already! The function and design of your website is SO MUCH SIMPLER when you know what you should be selling and who you’re talking to. 

MARKETING, LEGALITY AND MORE

After you’ve got your foundations settled, you’re an artist! Hooray! (I mean weren’t you always?)

Stating your intentions, getting some investment cash, selling at art shows, and creating your online shop set the foundation for the rest of your artist journey. Who knew it would take these four simple steps to become an artist?

The next steps include a lot of marketing, a lot of legal stuff that upgrades you to being a real business owner, and a lot of mental exercise. 

If you need further reading into what to do next, I encourage you to read about my first year as an artistpreneur. This outlines some tips for the intermediate stage of this journey. 

Congratulations on starting your quest to become an artist! Now let’s get started!