drawings: good enough to sell? *pics*

[77horses]

Hi everyone! Because I'm extremely busy this holiday season with school and other activities(sports, etc.), and I'm still pretty young, it would be almost impossible to fit a full-time or even part-time job in with my schedule. But the holiday season is coming up soon and I need a fairly quick way to earn a little bit of extra money to buy gifts for friends and family. I thought about babysitting, dog walking, raking leaves, etc. but even babysitting wouldn't fit into my schedule and there aren't any other opportunities around that I can find (trust me, I spent about 2 hours straight researching and couldn't find anything that would work...

)

But anyways, I like to draw. I'm kind of modest so I'll say that I honestly don't think my drawings are all that great, but I've had a lot of people tell me that they're really good (especially because I haven't taken any real drawing lessons before, so it's "natural talent" I guess you could say...

), and I've even had people tell me that I could sell them online. Whether they were being completely honest or just nice, I don't know. That's where you guys come in.

I would highly appreciate it if some BYCers could take a look at my drawings and give me some HONEST feedback/advice/opinions on them. I won't be offended if it's negative feedback, so be as brutally honest as you want. In the end, it'll probably help me to hear the truth than just sugar-coated comments.

Here are just a few of my latest drawings (sorry the quality/size isn't very good...also keep in mind that these pictures don't do the drawings very much justice because you can't see a lot of the details...)

Do you think I could get anything out of selling my drawings on websites such as Etsy.com, Ebay, etc...? And if so, for how much?

Thank you!

*Note: most of these, besides the parrot drawing, were just quick sample sketches that I didn't spend too much time on. They could probably be a lot better than they are if I was intending to sell them.

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

I think you could... not sure what kind of money you are looking to make but make sure you watermark or put some kind of copyright logo over the middle of your print if you put it on the network. You would be amazed how many people will "steal" someone else's work and sell it too.

You have a lot of natural talent - you had me at kitty!

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Yes I know about the whole stealing of artwork, I had my signature on these ones that I posted but edited it out so that my name wasn't on them...but it's sad what some people will do.

I'm not really looking to make much money, just seeing what I can get for some of my drawings. Besides, a little extra spending money wouldn't hurt...I mean I might as well put them to some use, right? If I enjoy drawing them as much as I do, I kind of wanted to share it with other people so they might enjoy it too.

Thanks!

 

[MetalSmitten]

it's really hard to sell art, especially online. people right now aren't looking to spend a lot of money on "luxury" items.. when the economy is down, art is always even harder to sell.

that said, if you could have your drawings made into christmas cards (look at zazzle.com for example) - that might work nicely! that way they have a "function" and people are more willing to buy

think of other types of fun, inexpensive things along those lines, and offer those in addition to regular drawings. your drawings might be what brings in the crowd to look, but the little usable items are what most people would walk away with.

as a side note, and sorry if you already know this, but see if you can get nicer quality scans/photos of your drawings

a lot of your detail is lost in these little images.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Good ideas! I definitely get what you mean...I guess a lot of people nowadays, due to the economy and everything, are looking to spend their money on things that could be of some use and not just for decoration or admiration? I don't really have much experience with cards and such, but I could probably learn! Maybe even put a few drawings on coffee mugs??? I don't know haha, I'll have to do some research on that. Thanks for the idea though!

And yes, when I took these it was with a poor quality camera. Fortunately, I recently invested in a canon rebel, which I plan on using to go through all my drawings to take retakes of them and then upload them onto my computer to replace the poor quality pictures. As soon as I get to that, I will see if I can post them here, too. And if I were to advertise them online, I would definitely use the better quality pictures, rather than the ones that I posted on here.

Thanks again!

 

[dmccann]

 

[aoxa]

If you personalized the items you could probably sell them

Like commissioned. Some people would pay you to draw/paint their own animals.

Very nice

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
that's what I would suggest--you do beautiful work!

 

[77horses]

thanks everyone!

 

[fuzzybutt love]

i consider myself picky with art, and i definitly liked these! Idk if it is cost-effective, but i like the idea of the mugs. Meijers does posters and plates, too... You could then keep the original and make them as people order them. And i do think people would commission you to do personal pet ones; i wonder if your local vet's office would go for this? Mabie you could "donate" a nice wall pic for their waiting room, then have them refer people to you when they ask who did that picture! (put somewhere on there that it was donated for...... cause, then people will know it's local! good luck!