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Today I want to share with you how I became an artist, as well as my history in the art world from childhood, and finally – what works financially for my art business.
Let’s get to it!
My Childhood & Art
I’ve been drawing and sketching ever since I can remember myself. My very first memory is of sitting at my grandparents’ porch and copying an illustration from a Dr. Seuss book.
I’ve been doodling on the side all through elementary, middle and high-school, and have once sold a sketch of a pokemon 😂 (for 5 shekels, the equivalent of about 1.2 USD back then.
I do want to mention that painting and working in color is something I got to much later in life.
More on that in a moment…
Young Adulthood & Art
During my military service I quit art almost completely. I spent so much time working and barely had any life.
However, in my 6 months of service I started figuring out what I want to try to do in life. And that’s when I got back to art.
I started a blog with drawing lessons, and later published my books, started my YouTube channel, Instagram, courses and so on.
From Existing Platforms to MY OWN Platforms
I got started selling stuff mostly on Amazon and Udemy.
Amazon is where I independently published and sold my books, and Udemy was where I created my courses.
But where I really started seeing some success was when building my own platform.
This is when I started to build my own website, marketing and sales funnel and courses.
This meant no one was taking a serious cut from my earnings, and I have to do the marketing.
Art Business Revenue Streams & What Works Today
With time, additional avenues started popping up.
Among them is selling my paintings (through the local art fair, galleries and directly). Another one is selling the foreign language rights of my books to various publishing houses. And others are Patreon / donations, YouTube ads revenue and more.
Here’s what works for me today…
The numbers are fairly inaccurate, but do give some kind of a picture as to what the main income sources of my art business are.
- About a third-half of my income comes from my various how-to-draw books.
- Another third comes from the courses
- The rest is divides fairly equally between the other sources I described.
Conclusion
So this is where I’m at right now.
I have a long way to go still, when it comes to pretty much everything – Improving my artistic skills, business development, personal growth.
Perhaps in another decade I’ll create a similar post and we’ll see where I’m at 😉
And if you want to reach out, you know where to find me…!
TikTok – @Liron.Yan
YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art
LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky
Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky
Instagram – @LironYanIL
Twitter – @LironYan