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Journal about me!
5 months ago
Howdy!
I don’t often talk about myself, so I thought I would for once!
I do have some projects, big and small, and would like to talk about them ^v^
The first and main one is an idea that has been going through my brain recently: living from my art.
It can seem stupid considering my current situation. My job is a fairly simple computer job I got thanks to my studies. It is a good one. It gives me enough time to draw a whole lot, is well paid and is very safe. Heck, I could keep it until my retirement if I wanted. But I don’t see myself living the same life forever. I need new projects, and living from my arts is a big one. It would allow me to have things I can’t have right now:
- Living close to my family (500km away from them right now)
- Living in the mountains (I’m all for hiking and biking, not something you can do much next to Paris)
- Deciding when I take my vacations (would allow me to go to conventions more)
- Having a pet (certainly a doggo)
The huge drawback would of course be to win a bunch less money. But I’m either way not someone that spends much in general, and that’s why I have a comfortable mattress right now. But I’m also someone that needs to be in a comfortable situation, and there’s no way I can handle the artist's life with having a loan over my head, and I need to make sure I can make enough money. So first, I will need to do these two things:
- Save enough money to buy a flat plus a few things
- Make sure I can make enough money to live from arts
I consider I would need at least 3 years for the first one, making the project only viable for 2028. That’s why I’m thinking of running a “test year” in 2027, where I would run some kind of “stress test” to see if my audience can provide me enough revenue to live.
Cause yes, as of now, I consider myself ready to work enough on arts. I love drawing, and I much more like to work for others than for myself. BUT I’m unsure about the demand. As of now, I’m not optimizing much, I have short openings and still refuse a bunch of comms every time. And there are other things that could be better. So here would be a few things I could do:
- Regular openings, right now thinking 5 or 6 a year, and longer
- Raising prices a bit… mostly to compensate taxes ^v^” (around 20% here, so that’s around how much I would raise), but not before 2027 as I said
- Advertising Patreon more. It has been at 250/month since forever, and I’m pretty sure I would get more just by advertising it better. Possibly new tiers/more projects… will see!
- Opening an online shop for all I could sell (books, original sketches, prints, etc…)
- Going to conventions and making some money there (the previous EF was promising on this). Would like to add prints and some goodies to what I sell, the main stuff still will be the books and on-location sketches
- Getting the books to make some money. As of now, it’s very much in the negatives x3
Overall, all the support I can get will be welcome! If I get enough, then I will for sure make the big move~
The book series is the other current big project!
It is a joy to work on something artistically different and that gets very good returns. I do have stories to tell and characters to develop, and I want it to be the “other big thing” I do in life. But I’m a lot less proficient at advertising books. I also want to up my game in what I offer, making my books more accessible and visible. This would include:
- Better visibility on the networks (mostly bsky)
- Better advertising (like on KDP and other websites)
- Gathering more reviews
- Getting audiobook versions
I’m happy with how the first book did but it was with my newbie effort. It is time to do better!
For the news, the second book is almost done, it is in the hands of my beta readers right now, and I can already say it should be even better than the first entry! I would like to release it around September, along with a new version of the first book. I didn’t know what I could do a year ago, and would like to add some goodsies, like character arts, descriptions and a map!
So yes, lotsa projects!
Other than that… been doing rather well x3 How about you, guys? =3
I don’t often talk about myself, so I thought I would for once!
I do have some projects, big and small, and would like to talk about them ^v^
The first and main one is an idea that has been going through my brain recently: living from my art.
It can seem stupid considering my current situation. My job is a fairly simple computer job I got thanks to my studies. It is a good one. It gives me enough time to draw a whole lot, is well paid and is very safe. Heck, I could keep it until my retirement if I wanted. But I don’t see myself living the same life forever. I need new projects, and living from my arts is a big one. It would allow me to have things I can’t have right now:
- Living close to my family (500km away from them right now)
- Living in the mountains (I’m all for hiking and biking, not something you can do much next to Paris)
- Deciding when I take my vacations (would allow me to go to conventions more)
- Having a pet (certainly a doggo)
The huge drawback would of course be to win a bunch less money. But I’m either way not someone that spends much in general, and that’s why I have a comfortable mattress right now. But I’m also someone that needs to be in a comfortable situation, and there’s no way I can handle the artist's life with having a loan over my head, and I need to make sure I can make enough money. So first, I will need to do these two things:
- Save enough money to buy a flat plus a few things
- Make sure I can make enough money to live from arts
I consider I would need at least 3 years for the first one, making the project only viable for 2028. That’s why I’m thinking of running a “test year” in 2027, where I would run some kind of “stress test” to see if my audience can provide me enough revenue to live.
Cause yes, as of now, I consider myself ready to work enough on arts. I love drawing, and I much more like to work for others than for myself. BUT I’m unsure about the demand. As of now, I’m not optimizing much, I have short openings and still refuse a bunch of comms every time. And there are other things that could be better. So here would be a few things I could do:
- Regular openings, right now thinking 5 or 6 a year, and longer
- Raising prices a bit… mostly to compensate taxes ^v^” (around 20% here, so that’s around how much I would raise), but not before 2027 as I said
- Advertising Patreon more. It has been at 250/month since forever, and I’m pretty sure I would get more just by advertising it better. Possibly new tiers/more projects… will see!
- Opening an online shop for all I could sell (books, original sketches, prints, etc…)
- Going to conventions and making some money there (the previous EF was promising on this). Would like to add prints and some goodies to what I sell, the main stuff still will be the books and on-location sketches
- Getting the books to make some money. As of now, it’s very much in the negatives x3
Overall, all the support I can get will be welcome! If I get enough, then I will for sure make the big move~
The book series is the other current big project!
It is a joy to work on something artistically different and that gets very good returns. I do have stories to tell and characters to develop, and I want it to be the “other big thing” I do in life. But I’m a lot less proficient at advertising books. I also want to up my game in what I offer, making my books more accessible and visible. This would include:
- Better visibility on the networks (mostly bsky)
- Better advertising (like on KDP and other websites)
- Gathering more reviews
- Getting audiobook versions
I’m happy with how the first book did but it was with my newbie effort. It is time to do better!
For the news, the second book is almost done, it is in the hands of my beta readers right now, and I can already say it should be even better than the first entry! I would like to release it around September, along with a new version of the first book. I didn’t know what I could do a year ago, and would like to add some goodsies, like character arts, descriptions and a map!
So yes, lotsa projects!
Other than that… been doing rather well x3 How about you, guys? =3
I can't promise whether I'll be able to support you financially more then, as I don't know how things will develop with my current situation, but that's not the topic right now! :/
And the way I see things, I will do consistent openings earning a set amount of money, making things consistent.
I never had your skills, but I did get hundreds of FA followers in a couple months by advertising. I got artists in similar niches to make art for me, and grabbed ads on furaffinity. All for a book I was writing.
Et je compatis pour la montagne, ça me manque vraiment ici ><
No, the issue is that my job locks me in the current geographical situation and removes the abillity to organize my schedule. Things that a part time job wouldn't fix!
Really, the one worry I have is the demand. If I had an unlimited amount of people interested in my works, then it would be no issue to do the move, but I'm unsure of it. At least it is limited if I only keep to commissions, I gotta diversify.
Second one would be if I want to live from arts forever... but is a question that will only matter in 10 years or so x3
An online shop would be nice for also buying goodies and merch, and for the occasional Tshirt (if you were to design such things)!
What about price increases for food or Energy? Is there health insurance in France? If so, how much does it cost for self-employed people?
Let's say you have an accident and break your hand for three months. Can you compensate that with your savings from commissions?
AngelsView was just stripped of her Patreon funding due to false accusations. Do you have an alternative or would it work without this platform?
You want to buy an flat. How will you pay for any repairs or other costs?
I don't want to ruin your idea. Just giving you some food for thought. I'm sure you've thought about it a lot. Too many artists base their calculations on today's figures and forget about future developments.
Wish you much success.
- There is health insurance and it is much, much better than in the US. It is included in the taxes
- You'll also get paid if you need to take a sick leave. Afterall, that's what paying the taxes is for.
- I'll double my Patreon with a Subscribestar in the future. Not doing that for now due to lack of energy to multipost, but I will have a lot more time if full time arting
- I will start with a comfortable matress of money to cover unexpected expenses
- I will set money aside every month in savings like everybody should
- As I said to others, I have a good diploma and experience. I should be able to find another job if necessary
- For the future, I prefer to not look 10+ years ahead. May as well do nothing if you don't take any risks
So yeah, the thing has been though through. The main issue really will be to see how much demand I get.