If you’re new to the world of digital art, here’s a rundown of the various careers available, as well as some examples of successful digital artists.

When you’re used to selling physical artwork like oil paintings or pencil drawings, selling digital art can be perplexing; if the art is digital, you’re not producing anything physical, so how can you sell it?

Does digital art sell-Ways to sell Digital Art

The more I learned about digital art, the more I realized that not only does it sell, but it sells REALLY well – I now understand how large its market is, how well it sells, and how rapidly it is growing.

Digital Art DOES sell, in many forms and in many industries, in price ranges that vary wildly and on multitudes of products around the world.

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It competes with traditional, physical art and is much more commercially successful in some industries; digital art is a very viable career path, but it is not the same as selling traditional art.

What is digital art?

To begin, I should define what I mean by “digital art”; most people, including myself, will associate it with 2D work, primarily drawing and painting, as well as illustrations and graphic design. 

However, it is important to note that digital art also includes 3D work and animation, and within both are numerous different disciplines, such as modeling and sculpting, texturing, rigging, animating, and so on.

While fine art tends to be a market for traditional art such as oil paintings or clay sculptures, digital art dominates the market of the entertainment industries such as film, television, and games. Book covers are also a thriving digital art market.

There are many different ways in which artists monetize and sell digital art, and lots of platforms they sell their digital art on, including but not limited to:

Some industries prefer digital art over traditional

Digital art has some distinct advantages that make it ideal for commercial projects: because it is digital, it can be easily stored, delivered globally in seconds, and reproduced infinitely, allowing it to be shared and worked on by multiple artists all over the world at the same time.

Digital art has a much more flexible creation process; if something in the art needs to be changed quickly, it’s very easy to do with digital art, but a complete nightmare with traditional art.

Digital art can also be created with very little equipment (an iPad with a stylus is actually sufficient for commercial work), whereas traditional art necessitates canvases, easels, paint, and me

Because of these benefits, digital art is highly valued by the entertainment industry as a whole, including video games, board games, card games, wargaming and miniatures, movies, television, novels, comics, advertisements, and probably a lot of medium racks, and sand.

Is there really a  True market for digital art?

There most certainly is!

According to Statista, digital art purchases soared in 2021, and the art industry was valued at $13.3 billion in the United States alone. I believe it is reasonable to say that the favorable trend of online art sales will continue.

How much money can be made with digital art?

The price of one oil painting versus another can differ greatly, and the same is true for digital art. 

The amount of money you can make with digital art is determined by a variety of factors, including:

What exactly you’re selling – are you selling commissions, t-shirts, prints, tutorials, or all of the above? All of these earn very different amounts of money.

How popular your work is. The greater the demand for your work, the higher the price you can charge.

The industry in which you work, as well as the intended use of the art. Novel covers frequently sell for tens of thousands of dollars, whereas pet portraits rarely sell for more than a few hundred dollars.

What are the rights to the work being transferred from you, the artist, to the purchaser? 

Just because someone purchased your art does not give them the right to start printing it on t-shirts and mugs. If they want that right, it usually comes at a cost.

How quickly you can create art – obviously, the more art you create, the more customers you can have!

How much time do you have to devote to your art and business? Art and marketing both take time, so the more time you have for them, the more money you can make.

Some examples of various types of successful digital artists
Artists who work as freelancers in the entertainment industry can earn a good living.

The future of digital art

Keep in mind that digital art is still in its infancy in comparison to traditional art; the very first pieces of early digital art were created in the 1950s, whereas the very first pieces of early traditional art were created tens to hundreds of thousands of years ago!

 I realize it’s not exactly a fair comparison, but you get the idea 😉

Digital art will only grow in popularity and as a medium – consider how the iPad has completely transformed the digital art market from where it was in 2010, making digital painting much more accessible to everyone.

This doesn’t mean that traditional art will die out – in fact its value may actually increase if more and more artists switch to digital and traditional art gets rarer in time.  

It’s impossible to say what the future holds, but I can say it looks bright for all artists, everywhere, digital artists included.

So, do you think you’ll be able to sell digital art?

Hopefully, you can see that digital art is a viable medium, and whether you work with digital art or traditional art, there are numerous career paths available. 

The truth is that the medium you choose will have little impact on whether or not you make any sales or achieve success.

No matter what medium you use, an art career requires skill, persistence, and a commitment to creativity and self-improvement.

If you can meet that standard, you will be able to sell your digital art.

Does digital art sell-5 Nifty Ways to sell your Digital Art

Keep in mind that digital art is still in its infancy in comparison to traditional art; the very first pieces of early digital art were created in the 1950s, whereas the very first pieces of early traditional art were created tens to hundreds of thousands of years ago!

 I realize it’s not exactly a fair comparison, but you get the idea 😉

Digital art will only grow in popularity and as a medium – consider how the iPad has completely transformed the digital art market from where it was in 2010, making digital painting much more accessible to everyone.

This doesn’t mean that traditional art will die out – in fact its value may actually increase if more and more artists switch to digital and traditional art gets rarer in time.  

It’s impossible to say what the future holds, but I can say it looks bright for all artists, everywhere, digital artists included.

So, do you think you’ll be able to sell digital art?

Hopefully, you can see that digital art is a viable medium, and whether you work with digital art or traditional art, there are numerous career paths available. 

The truth is that the medium you choose will have little impact on whether or not you make any sales or achieve success.

No matter what medium you use, an art career requires skill, persistence, and a commitment to creativity and self-improvement.

If you can meet that standard, you will be able to sell your digital art.

Tips to sell your Digital Art:

Prepare your digital files

With Etsy.com Or Gumroad.com, you may prepare up to  20 + files per product, eliminating the need to upload each product individually. 

Or, if you prefer to distribute your product as a single or several compressed folders, you can create.zip or.rar compressed folders.

Etsy, Creative Market, Design Cuts, Society 6 & Gumroad.com, and many more such art platforms also support all static file types, and the maximum file size per product is 10 GB. Additionally, they can offer limitless bandwidth and storage!

2. Establish an Etsy shop to generate income and sell art online

The next step is to build an Etsy shop in order to sell your artwork online. I’ll demonstrate how to construct and personalize your business in less than 5 minutes!

3. Upload digital products & make mockups

Now that you’ve established your own website, you may post your artwork! 

Find the ability to add digital products in the PRODUCTS area of your dashboard. Then, select the Add new product button and upload your product files.

Selling in a marketplace such as Etsy as opposed to your own web store

To sell art on online markets or not to sell art? This is the question many artists will have when searching for an online art marketplace.

To maximize their revenues, some artists would even sell on both a marketplace and an eCommerce platform.

Where can I sell my Digital Artwork?

If you are the creative type, you could make more money this year by selling your design work on the Internet. 

There is a demand for high-quality designs, and there are a variety of ways that you may sell your work directly to the general public regardless of whether you are an art director, an illustrator, or a 3D artist.

 It is currently easier than it has ever been to sell items online, whether they be books, prints, T-shirts, 3D files, or any other type of commodity.

1. Creative Market

The well-known website Creative Market You may sell your web designs, including fonts, images, print templates, and other designs, on Creative Market, which is an excellent marketplace.

If you are interested in selling your designs online, Creative Market is an excellent option that is highly recommended by designers. 

Put whatever it is that you’re making – whether it is graphics, typefaces, pictures, or even 3D assets – online at Creative Market, and it will be displayed in front of a membership base of five million people. 

You are free to determine your own rates, and you will keep seventy percent of the proceeds from each sale. There is no exclusivity lock-in. Set up shop as a Creative Market vendor right here.

2. Etsy gives off the impression of a massive virtual craft show.

Etsy is a global e-commerce website that caters to the requirements of creative individuals who are interested in selling design work. 

The company’s primary focus is on handmade goods, vintage things, as well as art and craft materials. In its most basic form, it can be thought of as an extensive online artisan market.

Etsy is the craft-driven retail site that has the most popularity, and it offers the kind of million-strong worldwide audience that the majority of creatives would struggle to reach on their own. 

Listing an item on the website for four months (or until it sells), which costs $0.20 (approximately 13p), and commission fees sit at 5% (plus VAT) on each purchase, which are both included in the low cost of using the website. The website is available to all vendors.

There are, however, a few drawbacks: because of its popularity, there is a lot of rivalries, there is very little in the way of quality control, and staying on top of changes may be a time-consuming process. Set up an Etsy business in this location.

3. Design Cuts, which sells high-quality assets.

Design Cuts is a community website that provides designers with high-quality assets that are sold at prices that are both cheap and discounted. There is a plethora of sleek elements, including patterns, brushes, backdrops, fonts, graphics, and more. 

They informed us, “We’re very exclusive, and we work with only the best designers in the world, curating the highest quality marketplace around.” “We’re very exclusive, and we work with only the finest designers in the world.” 

Design Cuts instructs visitors to get in touch with them via their Contact page if they would want to have their work published on the website.

4. Society 6

Society 6 is another online marketplace that provides creative individuals with the opportunity to sell their design work. 

This marketplace focuses on “cheap art prints, iPhone cases, and T-shirts.” The setup is completely free, and all of the product production, shipping, and management will be handled for you; all you will be responsible for is the design. 

Because the site only takes a tiny part of what you sell back, this is an excellent location for designers and creatives who are interested in having their work published on a wide variety of products because the site only takes a little percentage of what you sell back. Learn how to sell on Society 6 by reading this guide.

5. Redbubble

On Redbubble, you have the ability to determine your own profit margin rate.

Redbubble gives its users the ability to determine their own profit margins across the board, protecting them against questionable percentage cutbacks. In addition to this, it features a wide variety of artist groups that often hold competitions to encourage creative expression.

It does not cost anything to sign up, and the site will send your earnings to you on a monthly basis. Here you may find out more information about selling on Redbubble.

NFT art market statistics

According to the Art Market Report, more than 75% of the entire volume of NFT transfers is made up of transactions with a value of less than $10,000. 

Alongside the development of the cryptocurrency market, the NFT industry is heading in the direction of large players amassing art collections for investment purposes. 

During the period from February to November 2021, it is projected that around 360 thousand owners of digital art had a total of approximately 2.7 million NFT tokens.

The Marketplace for Digital Art

Digitization is not a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination, but it was put to good use during the pandemic. 

The process of converting any kind of data from its material form into its digital equivalent is at the heart of digitization. 

Examples of this process include the recording of a physical sound or the scanning of an artwork. The development of this technology has resulted in the creation of extensive online catalogues of digitized art and has propelled the market on a worldwide scale.

The general public can now access some of the most significant collections in the world through the Internet. 

Art Basel and FIAC, two of the most prominent international art fairs, both provide listings of galleries online where art enthusiasts can visit virtual viewing rooms and take part in live chats. 

The development of new techniques that are currently available on the market is a significant step forward in the combination of art with digital technology. 

These new techniques include VR/AR/3D/AI art, net art, interactive and immersive art, and many more.

How do you charge money for digital art?

So, how much can digital art be sold for? Since pricing for digital artists tends to vary considerably, I’d say it’s entirely up to you.

In general, though, a value-based pricing structure seems to work well for art or any form of the digital product.

This is why:

According to a study conducted by ResearchGate, value-based pricing is the optimal pricing strategy for artists seeking to maximize profits.

With value-based pricing, quality is prioritized over quantity. Instead of basing the price of your artwork on its production and distribution costs, you price it according to its true worth or value.

Should you sell your digital work as NFts?

Due to the rise of cryptocurrencies, there is a surge in NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Many budding artists are currently pondering if they should sell their work as NFTs in order to earn money.

As always, I believe it is prudent to examine the statistics:

The Statista Research Department reports that the total sales value of NFTs reached a high point of 11,16 billion USD in 2021. According to Decrypt, NFTs initiated a digital art revolution and are here to stay; they’re not going anywhere.

Even a cursory Google search will yield ludicrous tales of independent artists earning thousands of dollars from the sale of NFTs. 

If you’re already familiar with cryptography and that’s something that interests you, I don’t see why you shouldn’t give it a shot.

Resources:

Check out the Comprehensive List  of  NFT Related Blogs 

• Where Do you Store NFTs?Securely Storing Your NFTs: A Complete Guide
• Common Questions about NFTs 
• Are you perplexed by NFTs? We go over everything you need to know.
• NFTs, Blockchain Crypto art-Explained
• Is Your Art Good Enough to Sell? how to know when you are ready to sell your art work

References:

Statista Research