We recently connected with Alexandra Volkov and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Alexandra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

For a young illustrator entering the creative industry and looking to get noticed/ boost freelancing opportunities, social media apps like Instagram can be a marvelous asset. Honestly, what could be more useful to a person who draws than a highly popular app that shows the world your drawings? Free exposure, countless potential followers, and the ability to display, market, and network all at your fingertips. Any small business owner is likely to rave about the benefits of making the most out of social media because– let’s face it– there are many.

The problem is, blossoming artists aren’t the only creatives who’ve discovered the best ways to reap the rewards of social platforms. There is a looming threat out there to the profitability of freelance illustration, and it comes in the form of the online scammer.

In my opinion, scammers and hackers are more dangerous now than they’ve ever been. As technology continues to advance, so do the very scams that exploit it. Frauds that were once relatively easy to recognize are now becoming much, much more crafty and malicious. They can steal your work, your money, or your identity. Of course, anybody is at risk of being scammed on social media if they’re not careful, but I’ve come to learn that there has grown a whole breed of scammers solely dedicated to ripping off unsuspecting artists. During my years doing freelance, I’ve come across an appalling number of unique scams (thankfully I was always extra careful and subsequently able to avoid becoming a victim myself), but perhaps even more disturbing, I encountered a staggering number of young artists who didn’t know what they should look out for.

From what I’ve seen, scams seem to follow their own trends, just like clothes and books. For a while, there was a wave of scammers who would hijack people’s accounts and direct message their friends through these stolen accounts. Victims would receive a text (supposedly from someone they knew) asking them to click a link, and voila, now their own accounts have been hijacked. From there, the scam has evolved to even further abuse the victims’ sympathies; users receive guilt-tripping messages from “friends” asking for help, pleading with them to vote on their poll so they can complete a school or work assignment in time, or win a competition. Perhaps the scariest I’ve seen is when someone sends you a link and asks you to, rather than click it, screenshot it and send it back to them. That screenshot is all the info they need to gain access to your account.

For artists specifically, a popular scam exists where the scammer (oftentimes posing as a middle-aged or older woman) will reach out asking if you are able to complete a commission for them. If you say you are, they will then launch into what can oftentimes feel like a very convincing request. One scammer asked if I could paint her daughter celebrating her birthday, surrounded by all her favorite characters, including Cinderella and Bluey. Another requested that I paint her beloved pet parrot, “Zeus,” and even sent me photos of the bird for reference. The thing that tipped me off was that this same scammer had actually contacted me a year prior, with the exact same request and the exact same bird. Luckily I turned them down then, too.

I especially remember one poignant moment when a friend from school contacted me looking for advice. According to her, she received a dm from someone who was supposedly so “inspired” by one of the works posted on her Instagram page that they were asking her if they could borrow from it for their own mural painting. My friend saw that I was following this person and thought I might be able to tell if they were being legitimate. I identified the person as a scammer, as I had received an identical message from a different account about a month prior. In the end, my friend and I both blocked this person.

These days scammers are sneaky– they’ll ask realistic questions, like how long a painting might take you to make, or what your price points are. They’ll have realistic-looking photos posted to their accounts, and may even have some followers.

So how am I able to flag so many scams? Here are my tips:

~If they insist on paying you up front, it’s a scam. They may offer a sum much larger than what you’d normally charge. This is how they gain access to your bank info early on.
~If they can only pay in the form of an “online check,” it’s definitely a scam. They may try to coerce this option by saying they can only afford to draw from their child’s savings account.
~Check if they have a very sparse number of photos posted to their page with little to no followers. Some real people’s accounts actually do look like this, but you can usually tell it’s a scammer if the photo captions are vague and impersonal, or have all been posted within the past couple of days.
~Don’t be afraid to put your customers in the hot seat. Grill the person who reaches out to you about what they really want to see in their commission. Ask them about what colors they’d prefer, what materials, what other artists they enjoy, anything you can think of. If the user is unable to be detailed in their descriptions, or doesn’t even seem to be aware of the type of art you make, that’s an enormous red flag.
~Don’t trust a person who types bluntly or makes frequent and glaring grammatical errors. Scammers rarely have time for niceties. If the person is talking in a way that feels rushed and impersonal, not bothering with emojis or even a “please and thank you,” you know something’s up.
~Never ever no matter what forever open a link someone sends you, or send one back. Seriously. Just don’t.
~It’s ok to play spy. Most people have at least some online presence these days. If you are questioning the legitimacy of a stranger who reaches out to you, don’t be afraid to do a quick google search to see if their name or face is on other platforms. Or do what my friend did and ask someone you trust for advice. If your search comes up drier than the desert, you are likely dealing with a fake account.
~Do your research and keep up with scam trends. Thankfully there are plenty of websites and articles that expose these scams for what they are. If you receive a message that feels in any way off, don’t hesitate to consult the web to see if others have received something similar, or if new scam trends are overtaking your favorite social media platforms.
~Consider opening up a personal website store instead. Commissions are an easy way to get started, but staying vigilant and filtering out all the phonies can get exhausting. A personal store is a sexy upgrade, and would allow you to only sell work you’ve pre-approved, set up a protected payment method, and help minimize sketchy customer interactions.

Online scams can be scary, but they shouldn’t deter you from using social media, especially if you’re an artist looking to grow your business. As long as you stay vigilant, there’s no reason you can’t make the most of what these free apps have to offer!

Alexandra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, it’s so great to be featured on CanvasRebel! My name is Alex, and I’m a freelance watercolor artist currently residing in the beautiful, southeastern part of Pennsylvania. I’ve recently graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with my B.F.A. in illustration, and am now back home focusing on expanding both my portfolio and social network.

Of all the art forms I’ve tried over the years, watercolor painting was always the one thing I kept finding myself going back to. It was the medium that always felt the most right in my hands. Now I love spending time on pieces that are intricate, finely-detailed, and vibrant, with just a hint of geometry that gives them a neat, organized feel. I’ve also always been fascinated by nature and animals– both the real and the fantastical– so you’ll often see them included in my work; everything from frogs and fish to griffins and dragons. Many of my works are stand alone pieces, but they are also capable of being applied to all sorts of surfaces (like tote bags and wrapping papers).

I discovered my love of watercolor late into high school, but back then my work looked a lot different than it does now. I was still just learning to understand the material, and only painting whatever was at the top of my head. When it came time for college, my first pick was a liberal arts college that advertised a very good freshman study abroad program. My first three months of uni life were spent in London, England, and I loved it there very much. The city was incredible and rich with culture, and most of the art museums were free, meaning I could visit every weekend if I wanted (which I certainly tried to do). Unbeknownst to most people, London’s Shoreditch has an amazing street art scene, ranging everywhere from massive, hyper realistic murals that take up full walls to delicate tags painted on people’s discarded chewing gum. My time spent in another country was the coolest experience of my life, and I don’t regret it for a second.

Returning home, unfortunately, was a different story. Upon coming back to my university’s campus in the U.S., everything seemed to start going wrong. For a plethora of reasons, my mental health was rapidly declining. I’d always been a shy, anxious person, but for me, this college seemed to make everything worse. I’d been recruited to play on their tennis team, but some subtle bullying resulted in me needing to take a break my second year. Despite making some nice friends at that school, I felt lonely most of the time and struggled with chronic depression. And my classes, although I worked hard and earned decent grades, offered little direction and only left me more confused about what career I wanted to pursue. My depression was getting in the way of me enjoying the activities I used to love, and ultimately I reached a point where I felt incapable of making any art at all. I had just started considering changing my major to something other than painting when, out of nowhere, Covid hit.

Lockdown hit hard for many people, but if I’m being honest, it helped my personal mental health journey a lot. With digital class sessions, I could just focus on myself and not worry about the stress of other people, or of how out of place I felt at my school. Instead, I had time to catch up with old, trusted friends, exercise in the park with my dog, work at jobs I enjoyed, and try out new hobbies like baking and rollerblading. Combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy, my mental health began to improve and I started to wonder: what if I transferred schools? Would a change of scenery be enough to bring back the love of making art that I once had?

I was scared to do it at first, and part of me wondered if me running from my current school was just a sign that I was a quitter. However, deciding to switch to a different college wound up being 100% the best choice I could’ve ever made. I applied to SCAD and was overjoyed when they accepted me (even if they didn’t take all the credits I had previously earned). With some help from my advisor, I began the process of sending necessary documents and transcripts over. Covid was still in full swing, so my first year at SCAD was fully online. Nevertheless, I loved every minute of it. All of my illustration professors were creatives themselves, and they shared a kind of empathy with their students that I hardly ever saw at my previous institution. The homework load was ridiculously rigorous, but I found the increased challenge motivating. I can recall working as a janitor at my local gym at the time, feverishly sketching anatomy assignments in the break room between shifts! In the following year when lockdown let up and in-person classes started again, I met so many amazing classmates on campus in Savannah, Georgia, each with their own quirks and talents. Everyone was welcoming, supportive, and, most importantly, a little weird, so it was very hard to feel out of place there. I also began meeting with a therapist in Savannah who had worked with many other SCAD students and was understanding of my struggle to feel connected to my art. With so much support all around me, my love of watercolor bloomed once more.

Savannah was a really pretty city, with lots of color, foliage, and wildlife. It was impossible not to let the surrounding scenery influence one’s work. I was also presented with many wonderful opportunities to challenge myself, including an art exhibition held by the UGA Marine Center and Aquarium, and SCAD’s annual sidewalk arts festival. I was also working as a Resident Assistant at the time to help pay for housing, and that was a leadership opportunity that opened dozens of doors for me as well.

Now that I’ve freshly graduated, I feel confident for the future. My college journey showed me that big changes and uncertainty aren’t always bad– they can sometimes be just the thing that you need most to help you succeed! It also taught me that it’s absolutely okay to walk away from something that your heart is telling you is wrong. For me it was my old school, but for someone else it could be a job, a living situation, or even a business partner. Choosing to leave these things doesn’t make you a quitter, especially if your goal is to strive toward getting better. At the end of the day, I’m proud of the decisions I made and how they have altered the course of my life and my work. Nowadays I feel much more confident in myself, and I’m ready for whatever big change comes next.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I would say that the most helpful thing in building my reputation within the illustration market has always been the development of strong bonds with others involved in said industry. When you view fellow creatives not as competitors, but rather as potential collaborations waiting to happen, it opens so many doors!

Building a widespread reputation from scratch within the art world is difficult enough on its own, especially when there’s already so much mind-blowing work out there. On busy social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn, it’s easy to get swallowed up by the algorithm, get lost in the sea of billions of other artists who are all searching for the same opportunities as you. That’s why strong connections are so utterly important– they’re people you can rely on to recommend you to others, to reach out to you when they need your specific skillset, or to even call upon yourself when you’re looking for a teammate. Every momentous achievement that transpired during my art career can in some way be accredited to the generosity, collaboration, or support of others. Professors who pushed me to submit my work in exhibitions I wasn’t previously aware of, or classmates who partnered with me in shows and competitions. It was even a fellow creative/ former coworker who recommended me for this article (a very talented photographer by the name of Aaron Williams; I strongly recommend checking out his work if you haven’t seen it)! Yes, there is appeal to wanting to be an independent artist with a strong sense of self. However, that doesn’t mean there’s no benefit to inviting other people in on your journey, and maybe even being a part of theirs, too.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

It might not be the most satisfying answer (though I’m sure plenty of other creatives share the same mindset), but no, I wouldn’t really say my creative journey is driven by any specific goal or mission. I’ve never been the type of person to stick with any one passion for too long, and I aim to challenge myself in new ways constantly, so I think my future endeavors will forever fall in much the same fashion. I think the thing that really drives me to keep going is the curiosity of seeing how my work will transform and strengthen over time as I continue to put new stuff out there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alexoctopus6.wixsite.com/alex-volkov-illustra
• Instagram: thegildedstag@instagram.com
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/alex-volkov-b64604164