I've been earning from my talent since senior high though it's not the best way to earn, you can still make a profit while enjoying your work.

Drawing and painting is already part of my life since I was a kid. Perhaps the reason why I'm good at it is that I'm an anime lover, shout out to all anime fans out there!

I started making arts through drawings as early as 5 years old and made it my hobby until junior high. I indeed love to draw and my friends are aware but they know I don't join school contest so only a limited number of people knows about it more specifically, only those who are close to me.

As far as I've remembered I already made hundreds of drawings. Some of them are still in my possession and I gave the rest to some of my friends as a gift. To be honest, I wasn't that active in drawing until senior high when I started to learn how to make a profit out of it.

Usually, portraits such as solo, couple, and family portraits are in demand but paintings are a good source of income as well so if you love both then that's good for you. Paintings are way expensive- in my opinion.

How to start?

Ask yourself first, are you satisfied with your artworks? If yes then you can proceed to the next step.

Try to make as many arts as you can then rate yourself, will these levels of arts be enough to attract customers and appoint you to make some arts for them? If yes then you can proceed, if not practice more and try to find your weaknesses and strengthen them. You can rely on tutorials in social media but I suggest you find your strategies and develop them, that way you can push further comfortably and with confidence.

The next step is to market your arts. Don't think that it's hard to market. Simply post your works on any social media platform. You don't need to put touchy captions or whatsoever, your work will do that for you it's up to the audience whoever they are to interpret how ironic and beautiful your works are. The more they appreciate it the more they will likely come to you and take note they may also share to their friends how good are you, you know the news always has feathers.

How to put a price on your artwork?

Well, it depends on you. Your materials and your experience as well as your name.

If you are a beginner like me, then you can start at the lowest possible price but don't make it too low because sometimes price defines your confidence- at least from the customer perspective.

As a beginner try to gauge your eligibility as an artist can you satisfy the customer or make them proud of your work if yes then don't be shy to put higher prices just make sure it's not too much. Pay attention to your time of work and to the materials you used.

As for me, I started accepting portrait commission and charge the customer as low as possible. The first time I made a transaction the price ranged from 350-450 per head. 350 for A4 size and 450 for 9x12. However, it's a different story if it's a couple or more than one person portrait, for example, if it's a couple of portraits, I'll apply the first method of pricing but I'll add another 50% for the other head. Fair enough if you'll ask me.

When it comes to painting, it would be like per square inch, you can acquire that knowledge in YouTube so go ahead search for the painting pricing method. As for me, it's still cost-based.

If you're wondering how much I've earned, well take this as an example.

The picture above is worth 850 Philippine pesos and the size of that one is 9x12- sorry for the bad picture quality.

This one is around 1,500 because it was made on canvas. Although I originally offered it at 1,000 the client added more. I don't know why?

As for now, I'm still working on the other paintings which were commissioned to me by a client in the last quarter of January so, I'm still working on the price.

The following paintings are yet to be delivered soon although I can only show two because of the limited number of pictures required.