Are you ready for a Q&A?

Over the last ten years of being a painter and growing my business, my audience has grown a ton. And between having almost 200K subscribers on my YouTube Channel, over 200K followers on my Instagram and thousands of subscribers on my email list…I get a LOT of questions. So, I thought I’d boil it down to my top 5 most common questions and take the time to answer them here!

Q&A: The 5 Most Common Questions I’m Asked 

1. What supplies do you use?

This, by far, is the most common question. In fact, I was getting this question SO much that we made a super dope spreadsheet that has evvvvery single supply listed and/or linked. I also have an Amazon Storefront that has other things I’m into like books I’m reading, business tools, “mom things” and more! 

My supplies have been pretty consistent over the years with high-quality, synthetic sable brushes, cold pressed paper and professional pigments, but lately, I’ve been experimenting with gouache and ink pigments, so check out my Instagram for those updates!

2. Did you go to school for art?

Nope! I have a degree in Psychology. I’m actually really grateful I studied psychology, especially as someone who teaches on YouTube and in online classes, I’ve found my studies to be really helpful in the education side of my business. But when it comes to art, I scoured the internet in the early days for tips on supplies, techniques and more and I’m pretty savvy with researching. Growing up in a creative and inspiring household also helped, but I never had a formal art class, outside of Mrs. Zieger’s sixth period art class my sophomore year of highschool :). 

3. How should I price my work?

Well, if this isn’t a loaded question ;)! I wrote this blog post which is going to be wayyy more thorough in answering this question, but let me just say that pricing is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Pricing artwork isn’t a simple formula or exact science and it comes with a few questions:

Costs. What are your fixed costs and your variable costs?

Goals. What are your business goals and how much are you trying to make?

Competitor research. What are others in your industry charging?

Again, go read this post here for a more thorough explanation, but knowing the answers to the above questions is going to give you great direction and greatly impact what you charge!

4. I’m brand new and want to start a creative business, where do I start?

Starting a new business can be overwhelming and ten years ago when I was doing work for friends I had NO idea or training for what I was getting myself into. But, through trial and error and LOTS of mistakes, I’ve been able to learn a lot about starting a creative business. This blog post maps out the process of what you should be thinking about and first steps to take when starting a creative business!

5. How do I digitize my artwork?

If you paint or do any work by hand, then you know the struggle of digitizing your work. What scanner do I use? What tools in Photoshop will be the best for cleaning up my art? How do I get rid of the paper background after I scan? This free video course walks you through alllll of those questions and more and will show you the exact tools and process I use for my own work!

There you have it! My top 5 common questions answered. Did I miss yours? Leave it in the comments below!