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I was wondering if a few people here lived from their art, buy selling it or if they work somewhere their creativity becomes handy. Would you try living from your art? why ? how? why not?

Mouldy Sponge:

NO. Never. As soon as your hobby becomes a job it creates stress and boredom in your life and you begin to hate it.

Zakeena:

youhou... I haz one response. No one else dares to respond. they're scared I guess; I think you might be right but on another hand that may be a way for some to keep in touch with their art and bathe in it to feel good.

Lunar Eclipse:

I would not try.

First, in terms of money, its unlikely to be a reliable or good source of income (particularly compared to other alternatives).

Second, what Mouldy said: It might first sound like living from a hobby you love, but as long as it stays just a hobby you have complete freedom, which would vanish if you intend to live from it. Of course it is like that for most kinds of work, but with art it is special because it is more personal. Similarly to sex which is something personal and just because someone likes it that not necessarily means it is a good idea to try living from it and become a prostitute.

(And »I would not try« doesn‘t mean I‘d complain if it just happened because people gave me lot of money…)

Mouldy Sponge:

I like Lunar's prostitute analogy.

LittleFawn:

Hi everyone! <3 Living off of my art something that I've always dreamed of doing! Frankly, I wouldn't want to do anything else.

I'm beginning to take my first steps from vocation to the avocation. However it's a huge challenge, especially now that I'm still at the get-up-and-go stage and I've yet to see the results. Faith in Allah, belief in myself, and getting encouragement from close friends helps me to push on. I do get those depressing moments in which I feel like, "What am I doing", but I just keep pushing on.

From a financial point of view, I believe that branching into different artistic fields might lead to more success, at least to sustainability. Prints, Tee-shirt design, children's books/apps, children-book illustration, children's how-to-draw books... These are all things that are up my alley, however I can only focus on one thing at a time.

It is a struggle certainly but so is life and I have only so much energy, and I'd want to spend it doing what I love doing. Art. :)

"We long to be here for a purpose, even though, despite much self-deception, none is evident."
Carl Sagan
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