How To Be A Successful Artist
Stuck in a slump? Here’s how to be a successful artist.
* Updated December 2024
Every artist has a different definition of success: some dream of seeing their work produced commercially or featured on apparel for big fashion brands, while others would feel just as fulfilled with selling a few small paintings at craft fairs over the course of a year.
Art as a hobby and art as a job are two very different paths, and each have their own set of rewarding attributes.
For hobby artists the drive to create may come and go, ebbing and flowing as inspiration strikes and timing allows. Many creatives for whom art is a major part of their lives but not their main pursuit might consider painting, drawing, and ceramics as a hobby.
Other creatives pursue art as a career path. As a bona fide job, making art becomes something that they continuously work day after day in order to grow, evolve, and make money as an artist. For these career artists, the making process must be more methodical and structured.
Whether you are a career or hobby artist, selling your art and being a successful artist is easier than you might realize.
Self-Taught Or Old-School?
Have you gone through more jobs than you can count on your fingers? This isn’t uncommon for artists and creatives. Before you figure out how to be a successful artist, you might need to make ends meet by working odd jobs in order to pay the bills.
Here’s the thing: they don’t teach you how to make it as an artist in school. You’ll learn the tools and techniques of the trade, but you may not necessarily be set up for success by learning how to make money through your own art business.
For this reason, many self-taught artists might even have a leg up since they’ve been hustling for so long!
Looking for support from artists and creative entrepreneurs who have seen success on their own terms? Tune in to The Artist Business Plan, serving practical weekly business advice for artists from industry pros, all in around 30 minutes.
There’s no wrong or right way to be an artist, but there is one thing that all successful artists must do in order to be a successful artist: work diligently and invest in yourself.
Jessica Tenbusch, “Death in the Jungle” Image courtesy of the artist.
How To Be A Successful Artist
Learn the basics.
There’s no right way to learn how to become an artist. Many self-taught artists pick up all the skills they need from YouTube, while others may want to benefit from a live or in-person tutoring session. Being an artist simply means you have a strong perspective on something that you wish to communicate to the world.
Even successful artists who have formal training and degrees can still continue learning and honing their craft. For example, Jessica Tenbusch has a fine art degree, but never ended up taking a painting class during her time in school! There is always room to learn and improve when it comes to doing what you love.
Develop your skills by taking an art business class.
One thing self-taught artists swear by: online classes. Superfine offers all kinds of e-learning opportunities for artists to grow and improve their art business, including free webinars and limited-capacity masterclasses to help individual artists grow every aspect of their art business.
Want to find out how to be an artist who excels at art business? Learn more about successfully marketing yourself as an artist!
Identify what subjects you are interested in.
“I think every artist needs to figure out what they are offering to the world with their work.” – Jessica Tenbusch
Art goes beyond the creation of beautiful things. Art speaks to our brains and souls in a way that regular communication just can’t, through song or dance, spoken word, visual art, sculpture, land art, and more. There are no boundaries when it comes to art making, but successful artists have a specific point of view on a subject that they open up for exploration.
Superfine exhibiting artist Jessica Tenbusch has an incredible insight into the passion, learning and research that goes into creating an inspirational and impactful body of work. Her art, which investigates the natural world and the intersection of humanity and nature, is under constant evolution.
Explore your interests visually.
Make a sketch! Get what’s in your mind onto paper, on onto the computer, or in a drafting program. Ideas can be hard to synthesize when they’re trapped in the echo chamber of your mind.
We’ll let you in on a little secret: this step is the hardest part of being an artist, but it’s also the best part! Putting your ideas and interests down on paper is like pulling the plug on stuck materials and letting it all flow. Ever heard of “automatic drawing?” Consider trying an activity like that to let the ideas flow. You’ll end up with material that inspires and excites you soon enough!
And, of course, don’t forget: it gets easier the more you practice!
Define what being a successful artist means to you.
Success is a tricky word. Often when we hear it, we automatically assume financial security and dominance. But you’ll soon find that success means different things to almost everyone. Yes, it’s important to keep a financial goal in mind – but it’s even more important to keep your values in mind.
You may want to contribute to social change, or bring to light an often overlooked or underrepresented issue. With enough introspection, all successful artists can find a topic or issue that is important enough to them to make their work about.
Jessica Tenbusch, “Suburban Springs Starling” Image courtesy of the artist.
Being A Successful Artist In The Real World
Michigan-based painter Jessica Tenbusch is a successful artist with a clear vision for her art business. We spoke with her about her fine art career, finding inspiration, and where she sees her art practice in 10 years.
Superfine: Where are you based, and what do you love most or are most inspired by about your location?
Jessica Tenbusch: I am based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which is next door to Ann Arbor and about 35 miles outside of Detroit. I was born and raised in Southeast Michigan and spent a lot of my childhood within Detroit and the immediate surrounding suburbs, where my family is from.
My work is in many ways inspired by my sense of home, specifically the plants and animals that grow and thrive in human-made environments. My childhood home was full of many different animals and hundreds, literally, of houseplants and garden plants. I get inspired by not only the plants and animals people chose to live with in their suburban and urban homes, but also those species that eke out a living in the margins and niches.
In Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, I'm surrounded by so many amazing artists. There is a lively art community here that extends into Detroit and Toledo, Ohio that is incredibly supportive and inspiring.
S: What are some of the biggest influences that inform your art? For a current series, body of work, or what you do in general.
Jessica: The two biggest influences on my work are all the books I read, mostly ecology, urban ecology, and posthumanism philosophy, and what I see outside my window or just walking around my neighborhood. I'm equally inspired by the random weeds in my yard as well as the spray-painted markings used in construction to denote where utilities are buried and how those two things shape us as human animals.
Some artists and art I'm inspired by are Rachel Ruysch and other Dutch Golden Age still life painters, Albrecht Durer, Audubon, Walton Ford, Barnett Newman, and, weirdly, video game glitches. Glitches where two 3D models clip into one another, like when a character looks like a tree is growing out of them, make me think about what it means for two things to occupy the same reality. Humans are literally butting up with other species, we occupy the same space as them for better or for worse.
S: Describe your art-making philosophy.
Jessica: Equal parts science, exploration, and communication. I think every artist needs to figure out what they are offering to the world with their work. My work strives to open people's eyes to the natural world around them, to get them to accept their place in it and work towards kinder and more thoughtful relationships with other species.
I want to create a space for calm acceptance of what we have done as a species so that we can move forward more positively. I want to use my work to experiment with the pictorial space as well. I want to see what happens when subjects occupy the same space. And think about what it means to flatten three dimensions to two and expand two dimensions to three.
S: How do you describe your artistic process – from start to finish. What are the steps between putting your ideas down on paper to execution?
Jessica: All the things I read and research, the plants and animals I see, and my own memories and relationships with different species, hang around in the back of my mind. When I wake up in the morning and just lie in bed for a bit before getting up or as I'm taking a walk, my subconscious synthesizes all that information together and ideas just pop into my head. Those ideas get written down into a notebook for me to think about how I want to execute them.
When I go to begin a piece, I spend a good amount of time taking and researching reference photos. I will then do a few thumbnail sketches to nail down the overall composition. I draw out each element separately, trace them on to smaller pieces of tracing paper and tape all the elements together to figure out the final composition. I find it easier to have physical pieces to move around on the paper, like puzzle pieces, than to figure out the final composition through drawing alone. Then everything gets transferred on to the paper.
At this point, I do all of the colored pencil work, working section by section. Once the drawing is finished, I move on to the painting of the lines. I don't always have a solid plan for them, I like to respond to the drawing rather than decide early on in the process. This gives me a chance for spontaneity as I go back through the process of thumbnailing, experimenting, and execution with the paint. Plus, it keeps me from being too precious with the drawing since there are sections I'm going to be covering up with paint later on.
S: What drew you to apply for Superfine!?
Jessica: I had been interested in other ways to reach my audience aside from gallery shows. To get the chance to meet the people that are interested in my work and have deeper discussions with them. You know, really make those connections. I felt that Superfine! was the type of fair that those interactions could happen.
Early on when I was thinking about Superfine! I was able to talk to James on the phone and he was so helpful and great with answering all my questions. I felt like Superfine! really took care of their artists and that I would be a part of a team.
S: Where do you see your art in 10 years – are there ideas or avenues you are looking forward to exploring, mediums you want to try, places and spaces you’d like to see, or any famous people you’d like to collect your work?
Jessica: That's so hard to answer because so many things can change in 10 years! I would like to learn more about painting. In all my years in art school, I somehow managed to never take a painting class. I would love the chance to do some illustration work, especially a book cover. I also plan on creating an art book themed around a specific idea I want to explore. I'm really open to what opportunities might come my way as I get my work out there more.