Art Ways to make money from your art?

I was talking with a new friend of mine today, and she told me how she did paintings for fun over the summer (not super amazing paintings, but just fairly simple stuff). The interesting part was that she sold them on eBay, and all of them got sold! It makes me wonder if I (or anyone else) could make money so easily with art.

Then I hear about some people who make anime fanart and sell them at conventions or craft fairs. That would be interesting, but aren't there copyright infringements? I'd enjoy selling drawings at fairs but I'd only make original characters.

Finally, there are some websites out there where you can make t-shirt/poster designs that people can buy. I'm planning on doing something like that, even if the only people who buy my designs are my friends (or myself, if I buy them as gifts for people). I just gotta work on the pics for them yet.

Anyone else have ideas on how to make a lil money using amateur art skills?

 

deviant art has a print thing running. of course they take 50%....
conventions seem to be a good way to go, i've heard from lots of ppl who've sold stuff at them.
competions could be a good option too....

 

DeviantArt for reals? I haven't explored that place that much yet. So you can make designs there and sell em as raw drawings, or do they go on t-shirts or something? Another site I once saw can sell shirts with your designs for at least $13 each, and you can bring up the price of your shirts so that you get more profit.

 

if the hamster book you're talking about includes those illustrations in your gallery then you shouldn't have any problems ser!.

 

If I were to make a page-sized (8x10 inch) drawing to be sold, how good would just a photo-copy of it sell? Would it be worth it to have it matted then raise the price? I'd think that matting an image or just sticking it in a picture frame would make it look professional and more appealing. Do people even sell their drawings as just a sheet of loose paper?

 

i think you can sell both, just the raw sheet, and mounted or framed. mounted or framed would be more professional,and fetch more, but you couldn't do that for postage. if it's a loose bit of paper it would have to very nice quality paper, and probably a 600dpi print to be of any real value. i don't think a xerox at the local library would be really good enough imho.

i'd probably mount it for a pro look at very little cost. a solid piece of mount board, with a semi-transparent overlay for protection can look very nice. this is what lots of pro desingers use as presentations.

 

i'm workin a part time job besides university in a company called edges "menhaj" as a 2D animator, also i do some freelance jobs at home, like books, illustrations and many things... so i think you can make money of caurce! but it depends on how much your skills are.
in ma country manga or comix is no popular thing. so i'm not thinkin to start any manga business in jordan.^_T poooooore me!!
all I can say that i wish you luck seraphinx! ^_0

 

Actually, as far as Deviant art, there are a few things you should know:
~You MUST buy an annual membership
~You only get 50%
~You set the prices, but anyone successful usually has a $1-$25 price range.
~Selling things is not as easy as it looks, you gotta be popular
~If you get popular, you'll have serious recognition, and your art will be used for all kinds of tings from calenders to t-shirts.