We’ve seen way too many talented creatives quit because they couldn’t make it work financially. No doubt, the financial challenges of pursuing a creative or artistic career are daunting, but we felt there wasn’t enough discussion around how to make it work. So, we connected with artists and creatives who’ve been able to earn a full time living from their creative work and asked them to share their stories with our readers.

Lauren Grijalva | Content Creator and full time traveling RVer

I used to be a professional photographer who focused on family portraits and events. When I decided along with my husband to hit the road and started traveling full time in an RV, I knew I needed to figure out how to use my skills to make an income as we traveled. I started documenting our travels on our blog and my social media accounts, and grew an audience quickly. Brands started reaching out with paid opportunities to partner and help promote their items or services. Read more>>

Marwan Aridi | Designer/Artist

As an artist, I did not immediately align my own creative passion to monetizing my work. I was driven by my own vision. When completing a client-based design project, I was surprised that my customers reacted with appreciation and praise. It was incredibly gratifying, but also informative. I remember that project: an initial cap design recreated and reinterpreted from an old manuscript in the early 1990s. My fascination with old bibles and ancient illuminated manuscripts inspired me to create a collection of alphabets. Read more>>

JASMINE KEATON | FREELANCE GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Yes, I’ve been able to make a full -time living from my creative work over the last year or two. This year 2022 has been the beginning of being able to make a full-time living. It was very challenging at first. When you begin to step out on faith, get fired from a job you thought you would have forever; It shifts your perspective as in “Am i really made to do this?” As you being to embark on your journey, you tend to find out you were made to help solve problems and provide solutions to those problems. Read more>>

Michael Carini | Full Time Artist and Arts Advocate

We’ve all heard the term “Starving Artist,” and for the longest time, I despised that term. What I failed to realize though, was that it was my hunger that would be the driving force behind turning my calling into a sustainable lifestyle. As artists, regardless of your medium and style, we are creative. In that regard, we are capable of finding or creating creative solutions. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned throughout my life is that sometimes holding on and surviving to fight tomorrow is your progress. There will be ups and downs. There will be lulls. Read more>>

James Patrick | Photographer & Business Coach

A mistake that many make, including myself, is to be reactive in their marketing efforts. Reactive marketing could mean building a website and hoping people find it or establishing a social media channel and banking on being discovered there. It could also include purchasing advertising with the expectation of receiving a return on that investment. Proactive marketing, on the other hand, is direct manual outbound business development where you seek out and connect with prospective clients to offer your services. Read more>>

avinash kharat | calligrapher

My journey began fifteen years ago, in my hometown of Kolhapur, in Maharashtra. One day, I saw a man at gym holding the attention of a small knot of people using the Gothic script. Fascinated with the aesthetics of calligraphy and the symmetry between the letters in the scripts I began to practice. Then I started practicing in the Gothic and Roman style, moved on to Italics & Devanagari. After going at it for five years, I switched to the Copperplate and flourishing styles, which involve the use of pointed pens and writing in a 55-degree angle. I find lot of struggles to practice this new script but along the way my mentors Prof. Sashikant Pendse & Manish Soni sir helped me lot to find my way. Read more>>

Comedian Q | Comic, Promoter, Producer

Currently I am able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. This hasn’t always been the case, I remember leaving my job on Dec 6th 2019 with about 3k to my name. Little did we all know that in 3 short months the world would be very different. My plan was to do stand up full time and promoting/producing on the side. Because of the pandemic, all of my skill sets were pretty much useless, the gathering of people was my bread and butter. I basically had to come up with creative ways to survive. Read more>>

Jim Cline | Photo Tours Operator and Trip Leader

I began as a professional travel photographer. I realized a big reason that I was successful was that I had a knack for the travel side of things. I was good at connecting with the local people, and finding the best unique photo opportunities – deeper into the local cultures than typical travel photography. I made a name for myself in San Diego and began offering photo tours to some of the places I knew best, and had great local connections. The tours were very well received, and soon I had a loyal following of people who wanted to come on more tours with me. Read more>>

Cindy Rodella-Purdy | Illustrator / Designer

Yes, I’ve been lucky to have made a living as a creative my entire life. I feel blessed that I have been able to do this. Since I was a child, I knew I wanted art and design to be my life. My parents were very supportive, sending me to classes and lessons. Then I went to college for a BFA in fine art focused on commercial design. After college, I worked at a couple of agencies until I started my own company with a design partner in Pittsburgh called Ovation Media, Inc. We grew the company with some great people by our side for nine years. Read more>>

Chuck McPherson | Fine Artist and Creative Mentor

My latest iteration as a practicing Artist earning his daily bread has flushed out in helping other Creatives and painting in-between. In contemporary terms I guess you’d label that my artistic algorithm. Surviving on a self-generated art income is a near impossibility in today’s economy, yet hugely fulfilling when I can spread the wealth of my experience ~ using right brain imagining and deductively coming to workable solutions with my left brain. On a daily basis, time is filled with making myself visible enough for art-related gigs like show jurying, demonstrations, workshops and offering uniquely personal classes where I help Artists grow within their own skill set. I tried ZOOMing for a while, but it is a fairly flat experience. Read more>>

Lillis Werder | Fine Art, Event, and Portrait Photographer

I attended Georgetown University in Washington, DC majoring in Economics and Political Science within the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. I had never intended to one day become a professional photographer or creative artist. I initially worked for IT companies, including the famous IBM. After a few layoffs in that industry, I decided to work at creative field. I had always travelled extensively as a child with my grandmother, spending most summers in Europe, so my love of travel was instilled at an early age, and along with the travel, there was always a camera in my hands. Read more>>

Kirstie Jones | Photographer

I started my photography business in 2013 as a side job while I worked a career in finance. From the beginning, I priced my sessions at the amount I would need to replace my full time income. I didn’t look at it as “side money” or “extra money.” I was intentional about setting profitable and sustainable prices. When I went full time with photography in 2017, I was able to immediately replace the income from the job I left. Every year since I have increased my revenue. Read more>>

john pototschnik | Artist, Fine Art painter

I have been a professional artist for 50 years. For the first 10 years I worked as a freelance illustrator with all of the major advertising agencies and designers in Dallas. By 1982, I noticed many name illustrators were leaving the field and turning to fine art. I was tiring of the illustration business by then, so seeing them do it gave me the courage to make the leap also. I thought the switch would be easy, I would just begin painting the things I was most interested in, and charge the same price I was receiving for illustration work. I discovered very quickly that plan was not working. Read more>>

Deron Cohen | Teaching Artist

I have somehow scraped up enough money together each month to be able to say I earn a full-time living from my creative work. I am able to do this by diversifying what I do. I wish I could say that I make my living solely from selling paintings and prints, but that hasn’t been the case for me. I have branched out in a few different ways. I started putting my images on all sorts of products from clothing to bedspreads to shoes and these items, along with my prints, help supplement my income. Read more>>

Janice Tunnell | Makeup Artist For Feature Film & Television

Before working as a Makeup Artist full time, I was a Tax Accountant. I did Makeup jobs in the evening and on weekends for about 5 years before working full time in Makeup. I worked weddings, makeup counters at Nordstrom, local television, commercials, and independent film. Working these jobs helped me to get into a union where I was then able to work on feature film and television. I would take weeks at a time off from work to work out of town and locally in Maryland on movie and tv projects. In January of 2005, the Tax Dept. shut its Baltimore offices down and moved all of the work back to the New York office. Read more>>

Elsa Victorios | Artista, Director and curator of Victorios art Gallery and Studio

I studied art since I was very little, my parents started me to have art classes with different teachers. Everyone said that I was very talented because of my creativity and ability to draw and paint. It was always easy until I started studying fine arts at the National University of Colombia. I studied different branches of the arts in different art schools. I already had all the possibilities to live from art. I came to this country as an immigrant! Al though in the beginning it was not easy to earn money from my art , I helped myself by teaching art classes and I worked in a company where they did design consultancies for interior decoration . Read more>>

Jessie Strazzeri | Wedding + Portrait Photographer

It took me a long, long, long time to get to a place where I felt aligned with pushing my photography full-time. I felt trapped in corporate and like most of us was made to believe that making a living on my art wasn’t “realistic”. In fact, during a photography internship in High School the photographer told me, “you’ll always be living hand-to-mouth in this industry.” Blatantly discouragin me from exploring my passion. I’d been in love with photography since middle school and even studied it in college. But for a minute there I totally stopped using my camera. Read more>>

Diego Salterini | Artistic Director

Honestly I have been very lucky, I started studying dance late but through a series a fortunate circumstances I started working in dance right away. In Italy, where I am from and where I lived until I was 31 in the 90s, Television was where most of the professional dancers would work. There was a good amount of variety shows that hired pretty large casts. As usual in the world of dance, men are always in high demand, so once I reached a decent level of proficiency I started to work in TV variety shows and did not stop until I moved to the US. Read more>>

GREGG DIAMANT | Magician

Returning to the U.S. after 30 years abroad as a Christian missionary family, I needed to find a way to support ourselves. Skill sets that I had learned and used in our work were video production and children’s entertainment. Being the best video producer in Uganda did not translate into doors swinging open in the talented market here, so I tried entertainment. It was a very slow start with balloon twisting at I-Hop and a few magic shows for about a year. Then my magic show referrals started to grow exponentially and soon that was all I was doing. Eventually the show became so popular that I decided to train someone else to handle the overflow. Read more>>

Shaun Baker | Photographer & Comedian

Back in 2007, I was working at a fine dining restaurant in Manhattan. A job like that made it easier for me to try to get my photography business started. It allowed for a lot of flexibility in my schedule so that I could always be available for a photoshoot at a moments notice. As a young photographer just getting started, I needed to build a solid foundation of work that would attract the type of clients that would best suit us both. In order to do that, I was accepting every inquiry that came through. Read more>>

Michelle Penington | Oil Painter/Artist

A question we artists get asked a lot is ‘You’re a full time artist, how do you pay your bills?’ I suppose the life of the “starving artist” is a little more intreguing than learning you can make income from your passion! An art career requires more than just talent. Some of the most intelligent and well rounded people I know are fellow artists. My story begins by turning what was an innate need to create from the time I was a child on. I spent most of my childhoood dancing ballet and drawing. Read more>>

Joe Milton | Singer/songwriter,producer/performer/studio owner

In 10th grade, I was hired to teach harmonica in a music store, eventually ending up with 40+ students and studio opportunities, as well as learning guitar. I became the lead singer in the main high school rock band, mostly because no one else auditioned. Went to U of North Texas, formerly North Texas State U which was perhaps the #1 rated music school in the world. It just happened to be in state and 30 miles from where I lived. Being one of the few in state/in country students, the competition propelled me to new heights. Joined a band out of college, and ended up on the road for 10 years writing and performing. Read more>>

Sebastian | Sleight of Hand Illusionist

I started performing professionally at the age of 13. It was at that time that I knew I wanted to be a full-time professional magician. My journey has been filled with quite a few twists and turns over the years. In 2011 I opened a magic theater called the Red Spade Theater. I offered public performances in a small intimate theater on Friday and Saturday nights. All of this came to a halt on March 16, 2020, when the global pandemic forced me to shut down. Read more>>

Aaronlwsn | Cinematogrpaher & Video Editor

I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work and it definitely hasn’t been easy, but it was always worth it. It took me only 2 steps to get here Retainers – a lot of creative struggle with constant money flow coming in, the solution to that problem is placing clients on retainers, and a retainer is simply monthly money coming in to create Word of mouth-this step was very important to me, because 5 years into creating videos I never posted or shared any of my work, and was constantly getting booked, coming to shoots on time, giving great energy, and always trying in most situations to give more and always have fun, your client will be able to tell if you’re doing this for monetary benefits or you actually like to create It wasn’t like that from day one and in order for true growth there needs to be a process, just like a plant, you can’t put the seed in the ground and expect a plant the next day. Read more>>

Chaz Kemp | Fantasy/Sci-Fi Illustrator

The last three jobs I had as a graphic designer (working for other companies) were incredibly frustrating. I was underpaid, woefully undervalued and, being a person of color, I experienced racism. Systemic racism is something I was used to dealing with, but I came to the realization that there was very little I could do to change it. I struck out on my own because it gave me more control over my fate, my career, my salary and my life. Furthermore, I immediately gained the one thing that I longed for – respect. Read more>>

Shaneen Elefante | Wedding Photographer

Let’s rewind to the beginning of my journey… It was 2010 and I was new to the area of Greer, which is located in the White Mountain of Arizona. The little town stole my heart the very first time I visited. I had been in the wedding industry so when the opportunity was presented to be the wedding coordinator for the historic lodge and accompanying venue property I didn’t even hesitate to say “Yes”. I was working with the best vendors in the industry and mastering my craft. I had always brought my camera with me to every wedding and would take photos behind the scenes, but I was just another wanna-be with an entry-level camera shooting in auto mode. Read more>>

Laura Jorden-Krolczyk | Designer

Earning a full-time living with a creative business takes a lot of hard work and dedication. I often hear people say they want to become an entrepreneur to take control of their own time. The truth is when you become a creative business owner, you actually spend MORE time working. In the beginning, you may work 8 hours a day or you may find yourself working 10-12 hours a day. You are almost never prepared for the amount of time it actually takes to run your business. Read more>>

Lance-O | Int’l MC & DJ

We have been able to earn a full time living from our creative work most of our life. We did it by being adaptable and catering to people’s needs and wants within reggae muzik. We basically created most of our own outlets and those braught the business with us. We started out in radio in 1985 and immediately became a DJ. We always played good muzik then we learned how to mix the muzik properly so we could keep the vibe going. Radio exposed us to a larger audience. We definitely could have sped up the process had we been a bit more of a risk taker and invested in ourself more. We were very humble and did not realize how popular we were. Read more>>

Jorge A. Perez | Mixed Media Artist

Earning a full-time living is no easy task in the creative world, especially when you work as a independent contractor. I have learned the importance of saving for a rainy day, that said it’s important to always celebrate your wins no matter how small or large they may be. I will never forget the first time I made money from doing a shoot for someone, I never thought it would be something that would grow into an evolving career with mixed media. I mean imagine going from someone who was always in-front of the camera to going behind it for fun & then getting asked to shoot for a reputable business. Read more>>