Blogpost: My Income Streams as an illustrator 😊✨💶 (Patreon)

Hi Everyone!

Last month I posted a blog post about my favorite tools. For this month I wanted to talk you through the income streams I use as an illustrator. For those who are thinking about making their job out of their illustration work, or those who just want to have a bit more insight what it's like to be an illustrator! 🥰

I personally think that it is very important to have multiple income streams as an artist, you don't want to rely on only one, because you never know what it will do.

For my business I use two separate names: Celyn Design & Celyn Art. Celyn Design is more about design work and digital illustration. Celyn Art is more about illustration and art education 🤗

Etsy

I think most of you know about Etsy. But for those who don't, Etsy a global online marketplace for creators and artists to sell their art. I use this to sell physical prints, cards, calendars, tote bags, etc. from my digital art. This style is very different from my Celyn Art style, and it's the style I started my business with 😊

Here you can find my Etsy page: Etsy shop Celyn Design

Orderchamp

Order champ is a digital business-to-business (B2B) wholesale marketplace that connects independent retail stores with thousands of European brands and makers. It's perfect to sell your physical products to retailers without having to reach out. The orders are bigger, but you also sell your products for a lower price.

Here you can find my order champ page: Orderchamp shop Celyn Design

Commissions

Sometimes people reach out to me for a custom illustration or a birth card design. Doing commissions is one of my favorite things to do, because of the contact I have with other people and to create something that they truly like. It makes a good income stream, but it is also a very insecure one if you ask me. I like to do it on the side, but not have it as my main income stream, because then you always have to find new commission jobs and I think that can cause a lot of stress.

Things I like to create and get asked a lot:

Birth cards

Wedding Invitations

Children books

Custom house illustrations/portraits

Other design things, like books, cute characters for brands, etc.

Good to know: people find me on Instagram or via my website celyndesign.nl

Affiliate

This is a very small income stream. I mostly use Amazon for affiliate links, but because I don't like to promote the affiliate links too much, I barely get an income with it. But if you do like to give this income stream more attention, I think it will be a great one 😊

Patreon

And of course, last but certainly not least, Patreon! This is one of my main income streams as well! I love to create content and share my work while educating others to create their own illustrations 🥰

The perfect thing with Patreon, is that it works with memberships and a shop. It does fluctuate, but most of the time the income every month stays a bit the same, drops a little bit or increases. The growth takes time, and you need some patience, but I think it's one of the best income streams I have! People can become monthly members, yearly members or can buy one of your collections in the shop 😊

Online Courses

This one is still in development, but I will add online courses to my income stream as well. I'm currently working on one, but because of the many commissions, it's a bit on hold for the time being. I hope I can work on it again soon. The nice thing with online courses is that you only have to create it once, and then you can sell it over and over again.

So this was a little insight in my ways to make an income as an illustrator! I hope you liked it, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me 😊

Celyn 🌸