I decided to leave the world of engineering 1.5 years ago to pursue my passion as an artist.
Although my salary was a very good, competitive US rate at senior level, my artwork brought in more income for 2 years straight. I decided that it wasn't worth burning my candle at both ends any more, especially with a young child at home. Something had to give, and it was the job.
Now I still work like an engineer. I spend 4-5 hours a day programming and 2-3 hours managing my commitments and social media. My artwork is generative, so I use Javascript to build elaborate systems which yield visual artworks.
The stuff I do is much more diverse now. I just spent an hour totally leveling a table I built recently. I needed a custom table for my Axidraw pen plotter, which I use to draw generative artworks.
The pay is nothing, then a lot, then nothing. I'm white-knuckling it. At times it's very scary to not have a steady stream of income. But it allows me to be happy, and that's worth more than any amount of comfort.
Are you the artist from https://lostpixels.io/? If so I really love your artwork. I just got a pen plotter myself and I've been working on some original stuff, and yours is a big source of inspiration to me. Kudos!
Yup, that's me! And congrats on getting a plotter. That's how I got started on this journey too... I heard about plotters for the first time from HN, bought one, then 6 years later it's my focus.
I bought a plotter and began using processing, then P5.JS to make things for it to draw. This was really just all for my own amusement and curiosity. Eventually I began selling the drawings I was making on Etsy, and gained some attention by posting regularly on Twitter under #plottertwitter. Now days, that still exists, but the action is also on Discord, Instagram, and Tiktok.
Once I had a little bit of a following, Casey Reas reached out about doing a group exhibition with Feral File that he was curating. That was a big moment. The release was very successful, and I saw that this path could be viable. It took me another year to fully commit to full time art though.
I think just immersing yourself and starting from the ground up is really important. Learn the basics, don't rush it, and educate yourself along the way. Study past plotter artists and pioneers like Vera Molnar and Harold Cohen. Find your style and iterate.
I have tried a number of different things, including selling individual artworks, licensing, commercial projects, and NFTs.
By far NFTs have been my bread and butter. Cringe, I know. But past all of the scams, grifters, and bullshit, there are actually collectors and artists doing amazing and innovative work with code-based art. A lot (but not all) of the bad vibes have found something new to flip a quick buck on, and what's left are passionate folks. Not to mention places like Sothebys, MoMA, Christies, etc.
Why does generative art marry up with the blockchain? Because you can store code on-chain, and you can use the transaction hash to seed a PRNG. This allows the artist to issue a set of unique artworks all generated from the same algorithm.
To see what I mean, check out www.artblocks.io and fxhash.xyz.
Although my salary was a very good, competitive US rate at senior level, my artwork brought in more income for 2 years straight. I decided that it wasn't worth burning my candle at both ends any more, especially with a young child at home. Something had to give, and it was the job.
Now I still work like an engineer. I spend 4-5 hours a day programming and 2-3 hours managing my commitments and social media. My artwork is generative, so I use Javascript to build elaborate systems which yield visual artworks.
The stuff I do is much more diverse now. I just spent an hour totally leveling a table I built recently. I needed a custom table for my Axidraw pen plotter, which I use to draw generative artworks.
The pay is nothing, then a lot, then nothing. I'm white-knuckling it. At times it's very scary to not have a steady stream of income. But it allows me to be happy, and that's worth more than any amount of comfort.