Is Money Everything!

This is NOT a comment about your art - this is a comment about life - don't quit your day job.

Do both? just a thought. Do art on weekends.

If you like, let us know how the art side works out for you.

art is hard, get a real job, and buy a scanner because these won't print.

not many can sell and make a living and it's not a steady income. you have to scan the images in so they are presentable, then advertise yourself outside the site and seek people who might be into your stuff.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

This works ;-))

You have all the money you need,.............................................as long as you don't buy anything

The good news is you enjoy construction work.

While you are here, your images have presentation issues which will not allow printing. Without looking any further you have to crop correctly.

Remember to adjust your lifestyle along with your income. Otherwise, I've been self employed all my working life. Too many of us attach our 'identity' with our paycheck.


EDIT: It just so happens, here is the tweet from Pope Francis today ( @Pontifex ).

"If we are too attached to riches, we are not free. We are slaves."

Money isn't everything but it buys most things and is needed in a Capitalist society. This is a commercial art sales site so let's not get too philosophical about it.

Nice platitude from the head of the Vatican Bank, Frank. Was he wearing his gold robes when he tweeted I wonder? ;-)

Richard -- I could have posted just the words of encouragement, but then you would think they are my own. So, lets get back to the topic of the thread, please.

Your life will still be good, even if you go get another job in construction, which you enjoy.
Do it today. You have a family depending on you. Man up.

I posted 2 sentences. The first as a direct response to the thread title. The second as a reply to your (literal) pontification. Where's the digression? :D

I enjoy my day job but I love art! If I can do what I love for a living then I'm not working anymore I'm living. Does anyone have advice on what kind of scanner to buy?

i use a v600 epson perfection, its a photo scanner, but it's over kill for drawings. almost any scanner will work for that, you'll have to do research. but even loving art - until you start selling, get a real job. do the job in the day, do the art at night. it could take years before anyone knows your even here. and be aware that if you have no keywords - not a single person will find you.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Marlene I can get a job when ever I want and I have never let my family down. I Always man up! I'm just trying to follow my dreams!

Thanks mike

Blaine -- with regards to scanners. I'm in groups on Flickr a lot and most it seems have an Epson.

I did a search here on FAA discussions for scanners and found these helpful tips http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2048458

Hope this helps to answer your question. Enjoy your day!

Lots of artist are trying to follow their dreams.....and most have discovered that a day job provides money to cover your basic needs. In your spare time, you can scribble all you like for your own enjoyment..but don't count on that providing for yourself and your family in the most basic of ways.

The Epson v600 is currently available refurbished from Epson with free shipping for $145 http://goo.gl/KFKYEj

- Richard Reeve
ReevePhotos.com

How big of picures can u do with the ebson?

the epson, i think has a native size of 6400dpi, or something like that. however for a full size sheet (letter size), its about either 1200-2400dpi. but that will make an image about 150mega pixel or so. every 300dpi is times 1. 1200dpi would make it 4 times larger. but all this needs to be stitched if it's a large piece. and it takes up a lot of drive space and memory to make images that huge.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

i chose the epson because it has a good depth of field, so i can do scanography with it if i wanted. it can also scan slides pretty well.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Today money is everything.
For millions of people who are starving money is food for their children. For a few dollars can survive or not.
Money isn't everything only for people who already have enough to live in dignity.
Artist is someone who has the knowlege and skill to produce a work of art.
An artist who wants to sell prints of his work on a POD site like FAA knows how to produce high quality digital images for printing.
If you want to be an artist try first to educate your self and then show your work. These days with internet it's easy to find knowledge for any subject if you search.
So my advice is search, don't post.
Good Luck.

Blaine...Nothing wrong with following your dreams but while doing that I assume you need income.... you have heard the terms "Don't quit your day job" and "Starving Artist" ? Do the art because you love it... and then do the math. How much art do you think you will have to sell to pay all your bills and feed your family? I agree...money isn't everything... I would quit my day job today....and happily do art 24/7...but I like to eat and living in a box does not appeal to me.

Blaine, like I said earlier, you would need a LARGE format scanner. Typical flatbed scanners are made for documents, not large size papers.

Mike told you the scanner he has, google it to learn the size of the flat-top. Also as Mike said, that scanner isn't right for what you need to do.

I have a large format scanner at home - when I get home I'll tell you the brand name. I have to fly out of this friggin snowstorm today (in DC), so I may not be home tonight.

Meanwhile do some research on large format scanners and you'll see the price problem, they can be very expensive. Mine was moderate and works well.

you don't need a huge scanner, just stitching software. i can scan an 18x24" image on it, by scanning it 8 or more times then stitching it later. it takes more work, but the difference in price and space it needs on the desk, it pays off. and since your just starting i wouldn't invest very heavily in large things.

actually umm.. the phillip? some place you mentioned your scanner. it might have been in the blurry head thread, towards the top of the skip.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Unless you are going to live in a cave in the mountains and hunt and scavenge money is unfortunately a necessity. The primary key like some say is to live modestly, and have no debt. I live modestly, but I'm comfortable enough. I rent a duplex which I get for about the average cost of a two bedroom apartment around here, (I got lucky, good land lords too.) I drive a 15 year old car that I paid cash for 5 years ago, but I chose carefully, if I take care of it this car should easily last 300,000 miles. I don't have a smart phone or tablet, I do have basic cable but that's only because it's cheaper to buy a bundle instead of internet alone. I don't even have a TV. I'm living like this now while I have a job so I can save up as much money as possible so I have some shot at doing this art thing full time some day. I can tell you POD isn't likely to make you a living, very few can pull that off, and I don't believe anybody that focuses on modern art does it. I'm finding the hardest part of it is the marketing, I hate marketing but to become a full time artist you have to spend at least half your time on the business. Bottom line, you need to find another construction job first and then work on developing your art career in your spare time.

"Money gives you choices".

I agree about the scanner. I use a letter size Epson and use PanaVue Image Assembler (which is a free download for their basic version) software to stich the scans together.

the hardest part is finding your audience. and this kind of work will only fit into so many decors, so it may be a very tough sell.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike, I have a large format scanner for scanning the old photo prints my dad made years ago, and an epson for scanning slides.

After the discussion on the jazz photo, I'm researching an upgrade to a true film scanner. Hard to find well-written reviews for those products.

the v700 has a full lid scanner in it - it passes light over the entire bed, the v600 has a strip. you have to line slides or negatives manually if you want to scan more in at a time. there probably won't be a ton of reviews, scanning in old film stuff is a daunting task because its usually never labeled, it has to be organized and sorted out. i scanned in my grandmothers pictures, hoping to find a gem in the bunch (my grandfather liked photography). and after scanning in, it must have been over a 1000 images, i found like 3 or so i liked. but they labeled a lot of their stuff so i was able to sort it all out.

but in any case, many don't really transfer that way. and its simply harder to find a scanner, that doesn't print, fax and toast bread. you can try amazon though, the reviews there are usually pretty good.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Ignore the negativity. They only appreciate what they want to see. Be yourself. Keep creating.

I bought a dedicated film scaner 5 years ago. Was not a good decision for me. Very slow procces, too much time, too much scrach and dust and with so-so results. I don't use it anymore.
Finaly a couple of years ago I discover that is more easy for me to use my DSLR camera and copy some images from my old films with acceptable quality.
The folowing photo is from ilford 35mm film that I have copy using my DSLR and 105mm macro lens.

who exactly is being negative?


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Seems as if the primary advice has been get a job and keep creating. That is the advice I ended up following in my life. I chose to teach art since I could stay involved with art on a daily basis. Many people choose commercial art of some kind.I don't regret my direction I think it was a smart thing for me to do, but ask yourself "If Paul Gauguin had of followed that advice what would have happened?"

For ever Paul Gaugin how many artists ended up on the street and starving while trying to make a living on art alone? If a young person with little or no responsibility and nothing much to lose wants to take a shot at being a full time artist he should go for it. But an aspiring artist that is also the primary bread winner for a family should wait until he's built up a healthy art business on the side and enough savings to make up for periods when sales are slow.

Sometimes the only thing you can do is let people starve a few times in pursuit of their dream. They'll either find a way to eat AND grab the dream, or they'll let go of the dream.


Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

"Is Money Everything!" SIC

If that is a question, then the answer is No.

Neither is art... good or bad.

Good Health is everything in my book.

Then the other stuff.

Chuck Staley Concept Art

I spent about six years of my life just painting with no compromise to what the market was. Very romantic I must say! Results? Great way to be hungry, wonder where you are living etc. Tons of stress just from ones day to day existence. I'm far too old for that these days and am happy with what I do and my life style. If someone wants to starve and live the dream, who am I to stand in their way? So I must say I agree with Dan on this one!

That's fine for a person without dependents Ronald...but this guy says he has young kids to feed.

Warhol started as a commercial artist and come out fine.

In my opinion. IF you can live a comfortable life and save money to send the kids through college I say go for it. IF you can't its wise to work until you can support yourself and your family wholly on your art. But be warned, just working as an artist will take almost all of your time. You'll spend more hours at art and marketing than you would at a day job. Its hard work and has me working into the wee hours quite often. Just sayin

Valerie, how that works is up to him and his wife. For all I know she is the primary bread winner.

"If I can make enough doing this to make a living "

Certainly not in short term. Takes years to build up a new business from scratch.

Ok I appreciate all the advise you all give me. I want to tell u a little about me. I Live in Seattle Wa and I'm a union Iron worker. I have a nice house and family and they always come first. I'm good with my money. I started coloring with my kids 6 months ago. I then went to my local art supply store and bought a set of pastels. I had no idea I could draw before this or that art would grab me like it has. Now I have at least 100 pieces! There everywhere,I stacked about 20 in a box and put parliament paper inbetween them and they got all messed up! I started framing them but that got expensive. Now I buy bulk oversize pizza like boxes and put one pic in each one with double sided tape and stack them in my addict! Art forced me to get computer savvy and I've learned so much even though I still only have a tablet and I phone 6. I'm buying a Mac air book tommarrow. If I work my same line of work for the rest of my life its ok. Art is a healthy good hobby now for me that I enjoy and has made me a more sucsessful man at life. Thank you all for the advise and have a good day😀

My wife is a stay at home mom

Anything that sparks exploration and learning new things is a good thing. I'm glad to hear that art was your path to more self discovery.

Your next challenge is learning to scan your work. Another challenge and another learning experience awaits!

I glad I found this web site!

Your avatar is sideways. Open it in an editing program, save it and reupload it to fix that.

choose an avatar and stick with that. it's very confusing otherwise and it will be hard to build a brand.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Money will buy you happiness!

I think you should talk to your wife first and ask her to work and support the family and you stay home to be a full time artist.

be sure to buy the beret, it's really a staple to own for most artists. a red striped shirt helps as well.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Love is all you need but money sure helps.

Alfred, if I could find a woman willing to do that for me I just might consider marriage. lol

I used to do art full time but then decided to get a 9-5 career and do art also. I couldn't be happier.

In fact, I feel like I have more freedom with art now because I'm not under the pressure to make sales. I can paint totally what I want and not have to worry if the piece will sell or not so I can eat.


--Roz Abellera

David, I been working full time as an artist for 25 years, my secret is never marry and don't have any children!

Money is not everything; but it helps a lot.

This thread (and your other threads) are really quite entertaining. Somewhat odd as well.

I don't think anyone mentioned this, so here goes...

Don't forget that being an artist does not give health insurance, nor does it contribute to your retirement fund.

Speaking of retirement funds, having a good financial situation is only the beginning. One needs to plan for the future, such as when one wishes to retire, what sort of lifestyle one wants in retirement, how much money will be needed to cover that lifestyle to end-of-life, having additional money to cover health problems later in life, additional money to cover long term disability, and the tax ramifications for withdrawing money from retirement fund(s). Next, and certainly not of lesser importance, are the kids. Do you plan to pay for their education, health care, etc.

An additional curveball that needs to be planned for: What happens if America's economy goes into deep recession like Japan? Your retirement fund(s) can be cut down quite quickly. The market is very efficient to responding to threats, which we saw with the housing bubble and the tech bubble. What happens if you need to withdraw money from retirement funds during a recession? You have to take a larger proportion of your nest egg and you still get taxed on it the same (except for Roth IRA of course).

So I find the original post's question, and the thread itself, interesting in a way. Yeah, money IS everything, because everything revolves around money and everything is impacted by how MUCH money one has. Just ask homeless people. Being creative is wonderful, and leads to happiness, but one has to also be able to afford the tools that enable creativity to exist, while balancing all those other things mentioned above.

That's what's nice about the union hall I can always go there and get a job until I figure the rest out!

If you want to figure out all those financial balance issues, I can recommend what I believe to be the best site in existence for such issue. Many of the contributors have written books about these topics, and most people there are highly educated on such issues.

If you use the site, you'll have to follow their rules -- you can't ask vague questions like you do here. You have to enter actual data in order to receive answers from people. Members of the site follow the financial approach of Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard.

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php