Want to get paid to draw? Then you’re in the right place.
In this article, we’ll be diving deep into how to turn your doodles into cash with some of the best online platforms for every type of artist.
Whether you’re a graphic designer looking to sell vector graphics and cursive fonts, a cartoon artist, or a hobbyist illustrator, you’ll learn how to earn an income from your passion.
Why Should You Sell Your Artwork Online?
If you’re considering selling your artwork online, you probably fall into one of two categories.
Maybe you’re a novice in the field who has recently discovered a talent for design and wants to explore the possibility of turning your drawings into a side hustle or even replacing your 9 to 5.
Alternatively, you’re already an artist who has gone the more traditional route and showcases their designs at in-person events or displays them in galleries or shops and is looking for a way to expand their options.
Either way, if you’re not tapping into the internet as a source of income, then you’re missing out.
With over 4.6 BILLION users online, there are people in all corners of the world who are yet to discover your art and who would love to display it in their homes.
In fact, many modern-day artists find that the majority of their income comes from online sales. It’s also a prime way of making a global name for yourself without having to leave your home.
How Much Money Can You Make From Drawing?
The sky is the limit when it comes to making money for drawing online, as in most cases, you set your own prices.
As art is so subjective, you never know how much someone is willing to pay for your creations and you should play around with your pricing until you find the right balance between continual sales and making a healthy profit.
Some platforms work on a commission basis instead.
These are typically for stock vector image websites, where you can earn anywhere between 15% and 45% commission each time a customer downloads your illustration.
This means that while you can earn as little as US$0.10 per drawing, you may also earn up to US$40 per download, depending on the type of artwork you upload and the platform you use.
Tips For Drawing Online
While the most obvious way to get paid to draw is to sell your artwork through your own dedicated website, it can be challenging to build traffic to your platform, especially if you don’t have a sizeable social media following behind you.
While utilizing your own website as one way for people to find and buy your drawings is crucial in building a successful e-commerce brand, you should consider exploring the below platforms to diversify your options while starting out and ultimately, make more money.
When pricing your designs on one of these platforms, you should take into consideration the percentage of the sale that the website takes.
For example, if you will only earn 80% of the total transaction price after fees, you should price your drawings an extra 20% higher in order to make your desired profit.
Another tip is to automate your drawing business as much as possible.
Rather than creating, packaging, and shipping physical artwork, the best way to get paid to draw online is by turning those creations into digital prints and vector images.
That way, you can sell the same piece multiple times without having to get your pencil out more than once.
It is also the best way to create a scaleable business, as after all, there are only so many hours of drawing you can do in a day.
However, if you create a digital piece, there are no limits to how many times you can sell them, and you can automate a lot of your business so that you can even sell your drawings in your sleep.
How To Get Paid To Draw
There are a number of platforms that allow you to upload your artwork, either for free or a nominal fee, that will then showcase it to a large pool of potential buyers.
Etsy
The most popular place to get paid to draw is Etsy. Here, you’ll find all sorts of artists selling their handmade goods, from fine jewelry to pottery, and artisanal chocolates.
The marketplace is one of the largest in the space and attracts over 40 million buyers each year.
However, it’s not as simple as merely uploading your illustrations and raking in the cash. Opening an Etsy shop is a business in itself and you’ll need to put time and effort into market research, SEO, promotion, etc.
That’s not to say it’s not worth putting in this additional graft as those who can crack the code on Etsy are making six or seven figures annually, which means there’s plenty of potential for artists in this space.
On the site, you can get paid to draw by simply uploading your designs and sending the physical copies out to buyers.
However, a smarter way of selling is to turn your drawings into digital art prints, which you can send to customers via email automatically once they purchase, minimizing your workload.
You can also make use of Etsy’s integration with print-on-demand services in order to sell your drawings on t-shirts, mugs, phone cases, water bottles, and just about any other physical product you can think of.
Etsy charges sellers US$0.20 for each product listing, which lasts for 4 months.
After that, you can renew the listing for an additional $US0.20. You’ll also be charged 6.5% of the overall transaction price when you make a sale.
Artplode
Those wanting to sell physical pieces online should consider signing up for Artplode.
The site is designed to be a place for high-end pieces to be sold and as such, charges sellers a one-off listing fee of US$60 per piece instead of working on a commission-based pricing scheme as several similar platforms do.
This is great news for those looking to charge thousands for their artwork as they’ll keep every cent from their sale. However, those who are selling lower-end pieces may not be able to justify the hefty listing fee.
This site attracts high-paying clients so artists can easily list their pieces for up to US$20,000 and meet zero resistance from the buying community if the art is up to scratch.
If you’re struggling to get your designs seen, you can pay an additional fee to be included in Artplode’s featured categories.
ArtPal
If you’re just starting out on your artistic journey and are hoping to get paid to draw without meeting overhead costs, such as listing fees, then choose ArtPal to list your design.
This community of more than 240,000 users is completely free, charging neither listing nor commission fees.
Alongside drawings and other traditional forms of art, you can also sell jewelry, digital prints, and other multimedia pieces.
You can package and ship your original designs, or alternatively, you can make use of ArtPal’s print-on-demand service, which significantly reduces your workload, freeing you up to focus on creating new pieces.
With this service, you can also offer sellers the opportunity to purchase your artwork in a variety of different ways, including on other items, such as mugs.
Adobe Stock
Another way to get paid to draw is to upload your designs to a stock vector website, such as Adobe Stock.
These websites host millions of images, including photographs and artworks, from a network of artists, and users can pay to download and use images royalty-free.
You’ll generally make a commission from each download of your illustration, and the pricing on Adobe Stock varies depending on the type of item you upload.
You’ll earn a 33% commission for images, including photographs, illustrations, and vector files, which typically range from US$0.33 to US$26.40. Videos earn you 35% in commission, which can reach up to US$70 per download.
While you’ll typically make less per download on Adobe Stock than you would on some of the other platforms that are featured in the list, quantity is the key with this platform and you may be able to attract thousands of buyers to your profile.
The site has over 23 million users, meaning that there is plenty of opportunity to make thousands from each piece.
Other stock vector image websites include:
Creative Market
Similar in premise to Etsy, Creative Market is an online marketplace for artists to showcase their craftsmanship. The site mostly revolves around digital items, such as vector graphics, art prints, and fonts.
There are over 9 million users on Creative Market, however, there can also be strong competition so it’s worth considering what you’re offering and niching down in order to gain traction in the community.
You’ll typically make a 50% commission from your listings on Creative Market and you’ll set your own rates, so you should definitely do some market research before pricing your goods to ensure you make a fair profit.
Creative Market pays your earnings monthly and you can keep track of how much you’ve made on the easy-to-use dashboard interface.
Final Thoughts On Getting Paid To Draw
If you’ve got talent, there’s no reason why you can’t get paid to draw, and in this day and age, doing so is easier than ever.
With so many platforms to showcase your artwork on, you can make sales in no time, all while making your own life easier by turning your pieces into digital images and automating your income stream.
Whether you’re looking to make an extra US$100 per month or are reaching for the stars and hoping to make a seven-figure salary, utilizing one (or more) of the above platforms is the perfect way to get started.
Not an avid artist? Explore other ways to make money online here:
