Why Make a Living When you Can Make A Loving? ( Iknow it's corney )

I will give you the advice I received when I was in Junior High, It is nothing earth shattering and certainly it is not easy; in fact it has been a hell of lot of extremely hard work!

I have found this to be the key to an absolutely excellent and totally fulfilling life. So here we go:

Find out what it is you love to do, love as in you cannot live without doing it, in fact you would do this regardless of whatever is going on in your life for free, hell you'd spend your last dime in order to keep doing it. Whatever it is; and I mean whatever; find a way to make a living at it. Doing this creates an unstoppable synergy, by nature if you do what you love with passion you are bound to become unstoppable and you will blossom as an absolute expert and eventually an authority in this field.

As you grow, this may change, this thing that makes your motor run; I say, ‘so what’, do the next thing this way, with love and passion. I swear you will never feel like you have actually worked, instead you will find that you forget to eat (at times when I paint or sculpt or noodle a catch phrase or design a great building I find that I suddenly need to take a deep breath, why? I have forgotten to Breath!), you awaken where you were at work and then you pop-up and start in again as if you were only momentarily distracted. I am NOT suggesting you do this at the cost of all else, in fact this would be very unhealthy, it took me years of trying and a great deal of loving prodding but I feel I have struck a balance and to my joy this makes when I work even more fulfilling.

Look at all the folks plodding along in their miserable lives, oh but by the grace of God go I! This is the key to life, remember you only get one spin on this rock (sorry my Buddhist Mom and friends and the like; several spins I guess for those believers). One hour commute, I have a 10 second commute, so should you if it what you like. Love to travel, get good and teach workshops all about and get paid doing it. Love video games, design them. Love Rabbits, raise them, train 'em and take your show on the road. Whatever it is you will triumph whilst your fellows slog off to their 9 to 5 two week vacation whinny kids and nagging other 'cause they are miserable 'cause guess what so are you! I tell you, this is no way to live, you do this and you are in prison. Ever wonder why bureaucrats all seem miserable, they are.

There will be doubters, look at their safe puny lives, do you take advice from a vagrant on real estate, no I thought not. All the unhappiness and judgment in the world is all bourn from the misery of others in the midst of their pity parties, don’t join in. Refuse to participate, you are an adult, you make the rules.

DON”T BE A SLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember, money is not everything (sure is a nice lubricant though); Money will follow if you lead and allow yourself to be successful. To some this may seem naive, however this has created for me as wonderful and as perfect a life as anyone could possibly deserve.

How to price commision work

How much should you charge for a commission? You are not sure, you have a dilemma, from a marketing perspective you want to be able to "close" the sale at all times, especially at that critical point when having your commission meeting. On the other hand you don't want to either screw yourself or your patron; you must be fair to both. I have word...

...CONFIDENCE!

Easily said, right?

So let's discuss how you get it. Obviously experience helps, lots of artist clearly have it yet still have a very difficult time with this. I'd say it's mind frame, it is how you see your work. I would venture to say you when looking at your work you see lovely incredibly beautiful finished art object. I see time. Let's look at this through my marketing guy's / painters eyes. I am a proponent of sq inch pricing, this is exactly how I price my work. I to do commissions, I charge a slight premium, but for me it usually goes something like this, "could you do this pose and with that one but in these colors cause it will match my stuff better". Hardly high brow, I just think: a) will I enjoy this (meaning do I like it, maybe I'll do 2), b) how demanding are these pose(s) going to be, c) if I made this without parameters, what would I have charged? d) how do I get on with the commissioners (exactly how demanding, difficult, fun or interesting is the patron), e) is there a particular deadline I'll need to meet? This may sound complicated, but really it is so simple, it is practically automatic. So let's do some math:

Base price per sq. inch: $2.00

a) will I enjoy this (price up per pain level) answer, not going to love this…………1.00

b) how hard is this (number of long horns) answer, lots of longhorns 1.50

c) this is the base price so lets leave this with the starting $2.00 n/a

d) These are folks who are past patrons; I really like them, soooo -1.00

e) he almost forgot their anniversary, so he needs it NOW (said I liked ‘em, didn’t say he was smart) 1.00

Price per inch =5.50

Will this exact system work for you, probably not, but you could base yours on the stuff that makes you tick and the stuff that winds your clock a bit too tight.

I hope this helps,