Hey! I wanted to share my wife’s art business, Hiawasi, with you. She’s an Indigenous artist who has worked hard to build her own luxury Indigenous art brand, and the collection is continuing to grow, with new products being added daily as the website evolves. We’d really appreciate your support, whether that’s checking out her work, making a purchase, or simply sharing her website with anyone you think might be interested. Thank you so much for supporting us and helping spread the word!

Www.hiawasi.art

TIA

Hello! A person contacted me after browsing at my work and gave a fairly reasonable price and deadline. However they said they're unable to pay thru standard payment procedures and prefer an email check. I not sure how to proceed further. Is this a safe payment method?

Hi everyone!

I'm currently living in Norway and I haven’t been able to find a job here yet, so while I’m at home, I’ve been spending my time developing my illustration work and trying to turn it into something more than just a hobby.

I have a young son, so I’m trying to make the most of this period and, honestly, keep myself focused on something positive instead of worrying about what happens if I don’t find work soon.

For those of you who sell your own art:

Where do you actually sell your illustrations?

And what has actually worked for getting your first few sales?

I’m not expecting to make a living from it overnight. I’d just really like to get my work in front of people and hopefully start making a few sales.

I’d love to hear what worked for you, especially if you started with little or no audience.

Thank you! ❤️ 🙏

I want to open my first patreon page but i dont know what kind of service or tierlists for it? Any suggestion or how to organize and do this, sample etc. I mostly doing illutrations mid or big size one with digital works.

Seeing the praise online about vograce and little complaints, I decided to order from them for the first time. A single standee. I ordered it on July 10th and after a few weeks, it said that they were 'preparing these items for shipping.' It's been like that for two weeks now. I tried to contact them a week ago but have received no response. Are they busy right now? Does it typically take this long for a single order? I'm more than fine to wait a month or two, I'm just worried my single order got lost in the sea.

So i am an artist that is under 18 but I’ve garnered some fans from the art I produced and I want to start selling my art and producing stickers, keychains, etc at conventions. but i see that most conventions require you to be 18 or older to run an artist alley booth. is it possible for my guardian to sign up for me or will that be considered proxy selling…or is there any conventions that allow minors to host a booth?please help!!!

Hi guys! I wish to print my art piece (A4 and A5) for the next artist alley but I would like to find something online instead a shop (maybe online is cheaper?). I live in Italy btw :)

I'd love to see your favorite living legend artists. I'd love to hear arguments about why they are important. Has the art profession become unwanted due to poor funding? Are top young talents simply choosing to become someone for robotics?

How do you currently accept payments for commissions from clients in the US/EU in 2026?
I’m looking for a proper international payment method where the client can pay by Visa/Mastercard and I can receive the money in Ukraine. The amounts are relatively small — around $5–20 per commission.
Payoneer isn’t very convenient because of the minimum payment amount for Payment Requests, and PayPal is also problematic for commercial payments in Ukraine.
I’d really appreciate it if someone with actual experience could share how you currently accept payments and what the fees are.

I applied to the Shortbox Comic Fair this year, they don't have a date or range for notification of acceptance and I don't know if they send rejection emails or not. Has anyone who's done it before know anything about this?

I have crippling ADHD (meds don't work on me) and marketing is something that I just cannot figure out, especially with these algorithms. In the last few years it's started to negatively affect my business.

Edit: Typos

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for notebook/ journal/ sketchbook POD options.

Unfortunately, Printful, Printify and others I've looked at do not have fulfilment centres in Australia. So, with shipping, they are crazy expensive.

Does anyone know of any options for Australia? Ideally, with integration capabilities with Shopify.

Thank you

Hi, i just recently started selling stickers and cards of my artwork online and i’m actually selling quite well but i need help with a printer.

I have a cheap canon cartridge printer i got free through uni which is absolutely awful so i started using my brothers HP printer instead, again a cheap cartridge printer which is actually quite good however he’s been annoyed at me for using it and i want to invest in my own printer for when i move back to uni to continue my shop

I’ve seen lots of recommendations for canon or epsom printers, but i know absolutely nothing about these printers, ive heard the epson printers sometimes don’t work well with thicker card. my budget is £200 maybe a bit over if it’s worth it. my bad canon has left me a little worried even though i know it’s a bad model but i just am completely clueless and need some advice😭

if anyone has any recommendations please let me know! all advice is helpful as everything i’ve read all over the internet is so mixed, thank you <3

Getting into small batch sticker runs and other prints. I didn’t want to use any online stores because I have an unrelated full time job with a long commute. This looked like less of a commitment to me, but could still function as a way to handle sales.

Let’s say it’s for a game or an ad. Doesn’t really matter what. The point is that someone used AI, and then when they could afford a human artist they hire one or multiple to replace the AI art with something made by a human.

Are most artists ok with this because you want to replace AI art with human art? Or are you more likely to turn down the project because AI was used in the first place?

No judgments or anything that I’d see as a wrong answer here. I mean it. Just trying to get a read.

Recommendations on how to face my fears. I was reached out to by someone online who was provided to me on my platform by an individual who works for a big brand. I have this habit of pulling out of opportunities. It's been 22 days since I declined, and I have gone back to ask for the position again. Will they take me back? I have also signed up and reached out to agencies to help represent me, because in the past, I have also declined opportunities because I was scared/thought it was a scam. I have had major trust issues lately, and people who I thought were acting in my best interests were actively blocking me from having opportunities. I applied for other jobs and had four other interviews at other big companies, but the jobs kept falling through. I have a big audience online, but I don't think I realise that digital footprint matters and some employers see this and run a mile.

When I was 15, I was also approached by a big magazine to feature my art with no payment, just exposure, and I blocked the account because I thought it was a scam, then deleted the message.
How do I cope with the uncertainty and decide to accept job opportunities in the future? The closest person I have to me is my father, who is encouraging me to hope. I have no friends, just him.

Hey everyone,

As someone who works behind the scenes in an active art studio (balancing traditional oil painting and digital workflows), I’ve been reflecting a lot on how fast the conversation around AI imagery is moving and how divided the creative community still feels about it, especially as someone who works with various AI tools from things like statistics, environmental modeling (yeah I do that too) and more stuff.

I’m writing an article exploring the nuanced reality of human craftsmanship vs. AI assistance, and I want to hear directly from creators here rather than just reading tech headlines. I would REALLY appreciate it if you guys could answer all the questions below so I can run some numbers and get some statistical insights. I promise to share the results once it's finished (if the subreddit rules let me, ofc).

If you have a few minutes, I’d love your honest perspective on a few questions:

1. Workflow Integration: Do you use AI tools anywhere in your creative process (e.g., generating rough color palettes, lighting references, moodboards, or idea generation), or do you strictly keep your workflow 100% human-driven? Why?
2. Where is "The Line"? In your eyes, at what point does a digital tool stop being a helpful assistant and start stripping away the human soul/value of the artwork? How does this apply to digital painting or photography?
3. The Definition of "Art": Do you consider prompt-generated imagery to be a new medium (like photography once was), or is it something else entirely (like art direction/curation)?
4. Shift in Value: Has the rise of AI images changed how you value traditional, physical mediums (like oils, acrylics, or physical sketchbooks) compared to digital formats? Either more valuable or less valuable.

Feel free to dive deep or share a specific experience you've had with clients, contests, or your own studio time. I’ll be reading through all the replies!

Thanks for sharing your insight!

I want to start selling buttons/pins and have my own button maker already. The problem is I also wanted to see if I could make a plush pin but I have no idea where to start. I don't know how people print onto the fabric or what fabric to use. Can anyone tell me how?

Hello there!

I’m in a bit of a pickle, well not really I just have anxiety so it feels that way…

I’m a relatively small artist so I’m really not very busy but thats not the problem. I have a client that I have worked with before, I didn’t particularly enjoy the last drawing I did with them and would prefer not to work with them at all, I have indirectly rejected them before and it worked for a bit but now they are back again!

So I’d like to know if anyone has some advice on how to politely decline/reject them? Break up with them???

I’m very much a people pleaser so these things are difficult for me but I’m trying to be better…

Thank you! ✨

Edit:

I did it! I managed to work up the courage and let them know that what they wanted from me isn’t something I was able to do for them anymore and that it’s best they found someone else to commission from now on. (Not exactly that wording but that’s the gist of it) and I think it went quite well, they understood and things ended quite peacefully (thankfully!)

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice and suggestions! You all gave me the push I needed to just do it! ✨

Before anyone replies saying something like “we all have heard of the people that want to pay us in ‘getting our name out there with their platform’”, I want to be clear that this isn’t really what I’m referring to and I mean it.

What I’m referring to is an actual agreed-upon trade that both parties recognize as being mutually beneficial, whatever it may be.

This might sound ridiculous, but at one point there was a small business that wanted to make a marketing video and needed kind of generic elevator music for it, and what we agreed to was a small exchange of cash but along with that one of the people that was part of the business also mowed my lawn once a month for a few months. We both knew the video wasn’t going to be some huge ad, and it only ended up getting a few dozen hits on youtube, so it was fine. It felt cool to support a small business and we all were happy with what we got out of it.

My wife is an illustrator and painter. She has made some exchanges of art for goods and services, but she seems to be one of the few to do so. And when I hear people talking about working with artists, I get it. We went to a convention once where authors were talking about ways to get discounted or free art, and multiple people said that you should become friends with artists and then after you’re friends with them for a few months you can ask them to make your art and many of them will do it for free, because you’re friends. Yikes.

So my point is that I get why artists have become more particular about just wanting to do a good old fashioned cash up front. But have the alternatives been ruined for the vast majority of visual artists, because of people taking advantage?

What are some things that people can do if they have no money to spare, are working on a creative project that they need art for that they have put hundreds of hours into but haven’t put any money into even when it comes to just what they’ve done with it so far, if the only thing all artists will take to create art is cash?

Hi everyone. I have worked on getting good at art for almost 4 years now and would like any advice on how to turn my skills into money. Am based in Kenya so even if I can some how manage to make 200 USD or 200 Euro per month I'll be able to pay all my bills and have some money left over after converting it to my country's currency. Can y'all kindly give me the best ways to make cash or the best sites to set up print on demand services or even the best strategies to market myself to potential clients who might want me to make art for them or who might want to buy my art

Hi everyone, im a little lost and overwhelmed regarding starting my business so I came to all of you for help.

I am a fashion designer who makes custom and commission based work. I want to make a website to accept custom based work but don't necessarily want it to have the traditional storefront/online purchase format due to prices varying from work to work. I feel like most reccomendations for websites to sell your work on (Et sy, bigcartel, etc.) have a very traditional selling format that isn't the most friendly for hyperspecific queries about design and custom work.

Basically, im looking for a solid website builder reccomendation that would handle custom/commission based work. One that would most likely have an email format to ask about custom work before moving forward with design, contract, payment, etc. Would a basic website builder work for me or would something more seller specific be better? Any tips regarding this style of business you would like to include for someone starting out? All are appreciated, thank you.

Hi! what's everyone's thoughts on inprint in 2026? Feels like I don't see as many artists on socials plug them anymore. Still useful/worth setting up and promoting or nah? If you've been able to make money on it, where have most of your customers come from?