When you hear the word painter, I bet the first thing that comes to your mind is someone who spends their days and nights creating art works. But the world has changed, and if you are a freelance artist like me, painting is only a small part of what you have to do, especially if you don’t have someone working for you.

For a freelance painter, the daily activities are not always related to art. Taking myself as an example, I have to plan, coordinate, and strategized about how, where, and when will I share my art. I am pretty confident that, nowadays, there is not a single living artist who doesn’t have social media accounts or at least a website, if not an online shop.

My typical day

So, how does a typical day at work look for me? Well, first of all, my art studio is in my house. I wake up early every morning (from Monday to Friday) and after I have my required two cups of coffee, I check and reply to emails. I know, you may be disappointed already, checking emails in the morning sounds like an office job, and honestly, it is an office job sometimes, as I do everything by myself.

After that, every Monday, I plan and organize for the upcoming week. The tasks and projects that I plan are related to the content I will be sharing on my social media and website during the week. Also, I spend a considerable amount of time researching possible art subjects to be able to plan ahead what I want to paint next. I am not the kind of painter who waits until the inspiration comes but I rather look for it everywhere I can.

Pros

• Most of the time, or at least in my case, you are your own boss. This means that you can manage your own time and pick the projects or commissions that you are truly interested in without having to report to anyone.
• Freedom. Being a painter gives you the freedom to explore, to be creative, and to move around. For example, today I live in Amsterdam and I get my inspiration from this city, but maybe tomorrow I will decide to go somewhere else and I can.
• If you are good and work hard you can grow very quickly and perhaps increase your income faster.
• Nowadays, artists have so many tools to promote their artworks. Basically, we are all just one click away from finding our next commission.
• Even though, it is risky to work as a painter, if you are successful the reward will definitely be worth it because you will be following your true passion. It is true when they say if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.

Cons

• The journey to get where you want to go as a painter requires a lot of commitment, hard work, and focus. It is not enough to be talented.
• We are living in the 21st century and nowadays everyone can do everything. If you go to YouTube and type how to paint, there are tons of videos showing how to do it. That means that the competition grows day by day, and to be successful you really need to catch up and update yourself and your work constantly.
• Working as a painter is not only about painting. Be prepared, to spend more time strategizing, planning, and organizing your time, than actually painting. At least until you become so famous and rich that you can afford to pay someone to do all these tasks for you.
• Art is subjective; hence it is difficult to market and to find your right clientele.
• You can be extremely talented and a terrific painter, but if you don’t know how to present yourself and your artwork, you will struggle a lot to succeed.

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