If you love art so much that you’re considering making it a career, there’s no doubt you have asked yourself, how much do artists make, at some point.
After all, regardless of how much you love what you’re doing, no one wants to work for free.
There are all types of artists in the world, so it’s best to break down the average salaries into groups according to what these artists do, and that’s what we’ll do right now.
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Commercial Artists
Commercial artists work for a business and usually have jobs such as drawing for catalogs and other promotional items, as well as some occasional non-artistic jobs you may be asked to do.
You can either work for these employees directly or on a freelance basis, depending on their needs and how you wish to get paid.
Just like any other job, commercial artists can make a lot of money or very little.
A lot of it depends on your level of experience and how much the business can afford to pay you.
In 2017, art directors, who are usually the head of the entire art department, made roughly $92,000 on average.
Typical commercial artists during that year averaged a $48,000 salary.
Graphic Design Artists
Graphic design involves many things, including creating logos, designing publications such as newsletters, and designing the perfect website.
Graphic artists use special software to do this type of work, and the software is multifaceted to accommodate everything the artists have to do.
Many graphic artists have their own business, while others work directly for the company.
Average salaries for graphic artists range from around $28,000 to roughly $82,000, although the median salary in 2017 was around $47,500.
Illustrators/Cover Artists
Cover artists and illustrators draw for the covers of books or magazines and sometimes even the content inside of those books.
If a company needs a user manual, assembly instructions, or something similar, they will hire a cover artist to do the artwork.
Many cover artists work on a freelance basis and generally charge a per-cover fee. Or they can charge per project if they like.
This is a good way to make a living and offers salaries that average around $300 per cover.
In 2017 the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that these types of artists had a median salary of roughly $49,500 a year, which means half of these artists made less than this amount and half made more.
Teachers
Artists who teach for a living have salaries that vary greatly depending on whether they teach K-12 students or at the college level.
You can usually find out what the average salary is for teachers in your state, but on a national level, the average salary is from $47,000 to around $56,000 for K-12 teachers.
Of course, you can also teach private lessons and charge $20 to $50 per hour, depending on the type of art being taught.
Just make sure you have well-thought-out lesson plans and stay organized because more and more wanna-be artists are now taking these lessons online.
Visual Artists/Commission Artists
These artists create personalized, unique works of art for their clients and work for themselves on a per-project basis.
They are hired to do portraits of people, landscapes, and so on.
Commission artists have clients they work for, while visual artists are usually creating their own projects in hopes of selling them afterward for a profit.
As you can imagine, the salary ranges vary greatly with this type of work.
According to the BLS, in 2011 the range was $19,000 to $90,000.
The average income for visual or commission artists was roughly $54,000 during that year.
What Does the Salary Depend on
When you ask yourself, how much do artists make, a lot of it depends on how your business is set up, which usually means being a regular employee versus being a freelancer.
Both of these have pros and cons, and they also depend on your own personal preferences.
For example, when you work as an employee, there is guaranteed work for you to do, but you will only get paid what the company can afford to pay you.
A freelance artist, on the other hand, can charge the going rate for the project at hand, even though the work may be sporadic and you won’t get any company benefits.
This doesn’t mean that freelance artists have to struggle to get work; indeed, they usually have plenty of work to do.
It just means that as a freelancer, you’ll have to continuously be looking for your next project, which is unappealing to many artists.
Yet another aspect that can affect your salary is something called popular appeal.
All artists have their own niche and types of art they do best.
When you’re deciding which type of work you’d like to do, you have to consider what the current trends are and what most of your clients will want.
If you’re still stuck on a type of art form that people are no longer buying, nothing else will matter because you’ll likely find it very difficult to find steady work.
Some Final Comments About How Much Do Artists Make
When you’re an artist, a lot of your decisions regarding your work will be based on whether you wish to work for a company as a regular employee or as a freelancer.
Once again, both options have pros and cons, and you can make good money regardless of the one you choose.
Naturally, it’s best to choose the option that you think will keep you happy and productive as an artist.
Like most jobs, it is also possible to work part-time when you’re an artist.
In fact, many artists who wish to “break out on their own” will take a regular job to pay the bills and then do freelance work on the side.
This can provide you with the confidence you need to go out on your own because if you do find out that working for yourself isn’t for you, you won’t have lost anything.
Popular Art Marketing And Sales Tutorials
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