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.

Rocco Buttliere

I have been making a living as a LEGO Artist since finishing my architecture studies at IIT in Chicago in 2017. I would say that the thing which distinguishes my trajectory from others who have taken similar paths is that I had managed to carve out a niche for myself well before I ever decided to pursue my creative work full time. You see, it was back in 2009 when I first combined my emerging love of architecture and my lifelong love of LEGO. The results since have been an ever-growing body of work consisting of 1:650 scale pieces depicting various world landmarks and landscapes. Read more>>

Veronique Medrano

I have been able to understand how to make money in a better and more efficient way, now that I’m working in the creative field full-time. It started in 2016, when I was let go from my part time job and I began to paint and gig as a musician. At first I didn’t think anything of the money coming and going from the expenses and it wasn’t until the end of the tax season, when I got a call that I owed a good bit of money and realized that comfort and ease of the years expenses and financing my own projects. Read more>>

Hollis Brown Thornton.

I graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BFA in 1999. I started school as a business major, with the intention of working at a family business, but was interested in art growing up as a natural hobby and I eventually gave in to the desire to be a full-time artist. It was a decision that took about 2 years to finally decide upon, which I made halfway through my junior year. I then spent several years out of school commuting from my parent’s house to a studio out of town and then living in a family lake house without heat and air for over a year. Basically surviving and going through the process of developing outside of the university environment. Read more>>

Hannah Hall.

I was doing photography for ~4 years primarily as a hobby and occasionally for commission, the first two in and around Little Rock, AR and those last two in Nashville, TN. I don’t know that I really fell into the realization that I could do it as a career until a local band by the name of Wild Love, whom I’d done a couple of photo sessions for before, reached out to me asking if I’d ever consider directing a music video. Read more>>

David Lawrence.

I started taking photos for fun using a film camera in 2011. A year or so later I bought a digital camera and began photographing my friends and roommates. I had quite a few friends who were wedding photographers and I was determined to follow in their paths. So, when a roommate of mine got engaged I asked if I could do their engagement photos. After that they asked me to photograph their wedding. Read more>>

Broly Su

As a Graphic Illustrator at Digiday and an independent illustrator represented by Spinning Yarn Illustration Agency, I currently earn a full-time livelihood through my creative work. My immediate reaction upon graduation was to pursue a creative position in the industry to support my ambition to continue making graphics and artwork. The job search process is quite stressful for me, so I applied to every company on LinkedIn that was seeking a Designer/Illustrator at the time. In retrospect, I wish I had been more selective in selecting fewer companies and reached out to their creative directors via email or direct messages instead of sending applications without a specific target. Read more>>

Alexandra Hopkinson

I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work as a makeup artist for over a year now. It was not like this since day one, and one of the biggest obstacles was trying to find a starting point. I attended a makeup school to get certified, but after graduation, I did not feel like I had a clear path to actually getting started in my career. Read more>>

Migdalia Quintana

I have learned over the years that life consists of stages or steps, learning and growth as long as we are wise in our processes. I started my full time art career in about 2008. At first I didn’t sell my paintings, I just dedicated myself to sharing it through art exhibitions . First in Puerto Rico, the island where I was born and where I lived most of my life, then I moved to Chicago where I had several art exhibitions and currently I live in Jacksonville FL where I have a permanent exhibition in my own art gallery: Artis by Migdalia Quintana . Read more>>

Richard Cook

I was 25, full time active duty air force, then sometimes in the evenings, I tattooed. After I got out of the Air Force, I didn’t think I could sustain a living by only tattooing, so I got a job as a lineman at a Golf Course, installing and laying pipe. I had been struggling for about 4 months to pay my bills and live a happy life, when there was an accident at the Golf Course where I almost lost my thumb. It got me thinking about how much money (or little) I made and how it wasn’t worth the risk of not being potentially able to tattoo, so I ended up quitting my pipe laying job that day. Read more>>

Devyn Buschard

Upon entering the industry, I had an idea of what to expect (my Mother being a Cosmetologist and salon owner) but when it becomes your reality, it’s a different game. I love the joke “I quit my 9-5 job so I could have the freedom to work 24 hours a day” because it’s so true. When you’re an independent artist, you’re not just an artist- you were 20 different hats. Read more>>

Linda & Chester Freeman

After decades in the corporate world, heading global internal and marketing communications and training, organizing massive employee conferences and writing rah-rah speeches for CEOs who all said the same thing, I was burnt out. I wanted to do something I felt passionate about, something I could do with my husband, and something that brought us and others joy. We had been swing dancing as a hobby for years, and many people had told us if we ever decided to teach, they would sign up. Read more>>

Genevieve Devries

I can happily say that I am earning a full-time living from photography. It all started out as a “side-hustle”. I maintained a demanding corporate job while growing my photography business until one day the decision to go full time was very, very clear. Read more>>

Amy Weis.

For several years I’ve been fortunate to earn a solid income from my voice over business, but it sure didn’t start out that way. Just like starting any endeavor there’s a lot to learn and financial costs involved. When beginning a voice over career you have to invest in recording equipment (and in treating the space where you’re recording so you can provide superior audio), coaching/training, marketing – there are many expenses. Read more>>

Chris Hollacheck

I’m still struggling to make a living doing it full time. I’ve had to work a lot of day jobs and side jobs to make ends meet. However I’ve run across an opportunity recently to where I’m gonna be playing the downtown Lower Broadway strip and eventually make enough doing what I love full time. It took me 9 years to get to this point, but better late than never! Read more>>

Tamara Dawn

Three years ago I started a Podcast as a therapeutic, creative outlet and I quickly began to learn a lot about Digital Marketing as I tried to promote my show. I also started experimenting with different design ideas for merchandise to earn some extra cash. Around year one of Podcasting I came up with an idea for an apparel brand called Melanintoxicate which celebrates the beauty found within Melanated people. As I researched how to protect the apparel brand, Read more>>

Heather Strong Brown

I started to get back into art after losing a job. I had a summer (2021) where I just didn’t have anything to do and so I started painting again. I started an Etsy shop and listed my original paintings on it, and created an Instagram just for my art. The only people who purchased anything from me in the first few months were family members. I went back to my part time job in the fall and continued to art in my spare time. I had one person purchase a commissioned painting from me for Christmas that year and it was so exciting and nerve wracking to give it to them. Read more>>

McKinzie Parr.

Being in the beauty industry can be looked upon as a mediocre job where all we do is make people pretty, and because of that I think that its misunderstood that we are able to make a very good living just making people feel good about themselves. At this point in my career I can confidently say that I am able to make a full time living doing something I absolutely love and am passionate about. Three years ago, I would have never thought that I would be able to that. Read more>>

Justin Tibbs

Not a full-time living, but I have done financially well as a musician. I started out back in college with my own group and then slowly started playing out with more groups. My name soon started to get around with some of the more popular local acts and then I started playing with them. It defiantly took some time to get to where I am now. I had to practice a ton and play with many different musicians in many different genres of music. I don’t think I could have done anything that would have sped this process up, playing with everyone I could help me develop into the musician I am today. Read more>>

Ris MoNae

I have been able to make full time income from being a social media influencer. It was not always like this. When I began I was creating, editing and posting every single day in hopes of growing a following and eventually getting recognized by brands. I would use products that I already had at home and use the sunlight as a way to make my videos look like they were quality. Even under the circumstances, I gained 10k followers in 3 months. Read more>>

Lee H. Alexander

I am blessed to be able to earn a full time living from my creative work. I just graduated from The University of Michigan last year with a BFA in Musical Theatre and minor in Performing Arts Management and Entrepreneurship. I am currently on The First Broadway Tour of Jagged Little Pill. It definitely was not a straight shot to get to where I am today and I still have so much farther to go. I moved to New York about a year ago to pursue my dream of being on TV or a Broadway Show. It was a year full of no’s and maybe laters, but eventually the industry broke open for me. Persistency and Consistency is rewarded in this business. Read more>>

Neal Hamilton

Yes I’ve been able to make a living on my creative talent all my life since I was 18 or 20 years of age. My parents and Grand parents noticed I had something special when I was very young, like the age of 3 or 4. My grand mother enrolled me into the advanced art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art when I was 11 years old. I wasn’t happy about that at the tie because my art classes were on Saturday morning and I wanted to stay home to watch the cartoons on Saturday lol. All my friends were outside playing on Saturday also so that was a bummer for me. But in retrospect I understand now how life changing this would be for me in the future! Read more>>

Priyanka W

Being born and raised in India, I had always been fascinated towards Henna Art. I grew up seeing henna application process as a part of Indian culture. During my teenage, I happen to pursue henna as a hobby. I had taken numerous short span Henna art hobby classes back home through local henna artist, with a simple desire to apply henna designs for myself and for girls. and women’s in the family on special occasions like family weddings and festivities. . Read more>>

Gabe Schillman.

For the last 6 years, I’ve been fortunate to earn my living as a full-time professional artist. My career as a visual artist began when I was given an old bag of oil paints and I decided to paint a portrait- I painted songwriter and artist Tom Waits and the painting didn’t turn out too bad. I had no idea what I was doing. I used Dawn Dish soap as my cutting agent and dollar store watercolor brushes. That was about 7 years ago. Read more>>

Daniela Perez.

Yes I do! I feel so lucky everyday to get to do what I love the most. I believe im a very passionate person for everything I do. My journey with makeup started in 2014 when I used to do my friends makeup and photoshoot for fun, I was the photographer, stylist, makeup artist lol.. the things we do when we love the journey. I think it all happen by the fact that I wasn’t seeing things as a hard journey or thought route. It was 100% passion and action. Taking every oportunity and having fun. it was always like that from day one pure passion and fun, I think that’s the key for anything you do. Read more>>

Katie Pope

I am really lucky to have worked full-time as a freelancer for 4.5 years! I certainly wouldn’t say that I’ve always made a good living doing this work, but constantly striving for that has given me motivation to keep going even when I feel uninspired or stuck on a project. I started out doing some work for free or for very low cost to build up a portfolio and client base. I’m glad I was able to do this, but deciding how and when to raise prices as my experience grows has been a huge challenge. Read more>>

Rikki D

Ever since being a young girl visiting the salon with my mom, I always knew I wanted to be a hair stylist. I admired the way they were unique in their styles, how they made people smile, and their diverse personalities. Upon graduating high school, I dove into beauty school at The Paul Mitchell Academy in Long Island, NY. Right after I graduated, at 18 years of age, I attended Vidal Sassoon academy in Santa Monica to expand my education. Read more>>

Aaliyah David

Earning a full time living surprisingly didn’t seem like it took too much time, however, I was working so hard, I didn’t realize how much time did go by… Once you have some goals set up for yourself and a strategy, it’s inevitable that you’ll reach them before you even know it. It definitely wasn’t like this in the beginning, but when you’re so hungry, once you start earning and putting up, you can’t stop! Being focused, committed, and consistent is what truly got me to the position I am in now to fully live off of my creative work. Read more>>

Stephanie Reisner

I always knew I wanted to be an author. I just didn’t know how it would manifest. My father told me many years ago that creative people needed to have a “real” job so they could earn a living in the world because most creative careers didn’t pay anything, and he was one hundred percent correct about that. I worked toward a publishing career for the better part of nineteen years while working a full-time job (making no more than $12,000 a year at it) before my writing took off and I opened my publishing company to publish other authors. Read more>>

Aaron Calafato Calafato

It’s been a bit of a winding road but after 15 years of grinding away, I’ve been able to leverage the art of storytelling into a full-time living. It all started with telling stories at a young age. In the early 90s, shortly after my parents divorced, my dad bought me one of those Fisher-Price karaoke microphones. I came with a microphone and a blank cassette tape. I started recording myself telling stories and making pretend radio shows. I remember thinking about how amazing it felt to archive my stories and share them with family and friends. Read more>>

 

Shanel Howard

I’m so grateful to be able to use my skills to do something that I love every day! Honestly, I never imagined that I’d be teaching let alone teaching high school. I guess everything comes full circle. I’m originally from Buffalo New York and I’ve always had a thing for food. I used to sit on the phone with friends watching the Food Network in its early days. One of my first “real” jobs was working as a cashier at Tops grocery store. I loved seeing all the items fully stocked on the shelves and getting some insight on how people planned to prepare ingredients I was unfamiliar with. Read more>>