If your goal is simply more money, then you\'re better off investing in real estate or land development. Or perhaps a job in fast food. Seriously.
I\'ve never worked at a games company (well, not as a miniature painter, anyway -- in fact, not even at a games company that would be relevant to miniatures, but I digress). I understand that they pay very little for painting. Commission work from the top artists, if done on a regular basis however, is certain to be a greater amount than the salaries paid to staff painters. Take a look at the top ten on this site arranged by auction price.
The key problem to making money with painted miniatures is time invested. In a time versus earnings comparision, painting a single miniature tends to break down to less than minimium wage per hour. Therefore, painting one miniature at a time is simply not a good means of earning money. You have to improve the time versus earnings ratio while retaining a standard of high quality work.
For efficiency\'s sake, I usually have upwards of ten or twelve miniatures being worked on at once. While it takes longer to complete all of these than it would to complete a single figure, the ratio of time versus completion per figure actually drops significantly. On the extreme side of things, try painting a single fantasy figure and time yourself. Then paint an entire 40K squad and time yourself. You should find that the time to paint the squad is only a couple of hours more than painting the single figure, yet you have finished ten times as many figures.
Another key issue is getting known for doing good figures -- not necessarily online, or through winning a Golden Demon though that certainly helps. Just about all of my commission work at the moment is \"merely\" local, and it\'s been steadily increasing lately.
Kep
