MAKING *REAL* MONEY USING PAINTING SKILLS

[dogfacedboy uk1]

I know of an awesome sculptor who makes cake toppers for wedding cakes, prices between $250-$2000 for likenesses of the bride and groom. Last year he was turning work away apparantly. His name is Troy McDevitt or google Troyboy. Normally does a lot of superhero sculpts. He is stupidly good. This is a field I d like to go in since my stepmum is awesome at sugarcraft and can make flowers that look real dried flowers. Maybe when she retires I can persuade her to go into business doing wedding cakes and I can make an insane fortune from doing the toppers hmmmm.....money. I like the smell of it in the morning.

dfb

 

[PegaZus]

Originally posted by dogfacedboy uk1
I know of an awesome sculptor who makes cake toppers for wedding cakes, prices between $250-$2000 for likenesses of the bride and groom. Last year he was turning work away apparantly. His name is Troy McDevitt or google Troyboy. Normally does a lot of superhero sculpts. He is stupidly good. This is a field I d like to go in since my stepmum is awesome at sugarcraft and can make flowers that look real dried flowers. Maybe when she retires I can persuade her to go into business doing wedding cakes and I can make an insane fortune from doing the toppers hmmmm.....money. I like the smell of it in the morning.

dfb

Had to look him up -> http://themcdevittstudio.com/

And I can see how the cake topper thing would be big business. That\'s something that more than likely will be in a box or on display for a long time. Mine still is and it was a cheapo from the retail (took bear topper and repainted it into pandas, my wife\'s fav). All you\'d really need to start is to talk with the wedding planners and wedding cake people and ply them with some samples (maybe even of the planner themselves so THEY carry it around as something that can be done).

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Originally posted by Gearhead

In a similar vein (seriously) I\'ve heard that pricing something really high can make people - rich one\'s - think \'ooooohhh, with such a high price it MUST BE worth something.....gotta have!!

Too true, which is part of what I had in mind. I wasn\'t really kidding; there are truly stupid amounts of money to be made by fooling rich idiots into thinking you\'re a genius artist.

$140 MILLION :drunk::drunk::drunk:lollollol

 

[Aliengod3]

I went to school with someone that purchased a boat load of small canvases (like 3 inches X 5 inches) for a couple hundred dollars and then he painted some images on them and put them all on ebay and made enough money to go travel the world for a couple of years. Give that a go!

 

[Gearhead]

Jackson Pollock is utter crap.

 

[Dwight Fry]

Originally posted by PegaZus

Originally posted by dogfacedboy uk1
I know of an awesome sculptor who makes cake toppers for wedding cakes, prices between $250-$2000 for likenesses of the bride and groom. Last year he was turning work away apparantly. His name is Troy McDevitt or google Troyboy. Normally does a lot of superhero sculpts. He is stupidly good. This is a field I d like to go in since my stepmum is awesome at sugarcraft and can make flowers that look real dried flowers. Maybe when she retires I can persuade her to go into business doing wedding cakes and I can make an insane fortune from doing the toppers hmmmm.....money. I like the smell of it in the morning.

dfb

Had to look him up -> http://themcdevittstudio.com/

And I can see how the cake topper thing would be big business. That\'s something that more than likely will be in a box or on display for a long time. Mine still is and it was a cheapo from the retail (took bear topper and repainted it into pandas, my wife\'s fav). All you\'d really need to start is to talk with the wedding planners and wedding cake people and ply them with some samples (maybe even of the planner themselves so THEY carry it around as something that can be done).

Oh yeah its seriously big business, but as awesome as they turn out dealing with wedding clients is sometimes not worth the pay. I\'ve done catering for weddings in the past. Yeah the money is awesome, yeah I loved what I was doing, but dealing with people making INSANE demands, and changing their minds and then changing them again, and getting all nervous and crazy is a huge headache.

From the cake end, its not all decorating and the fun stuff either. You have to be very efficient and building with food can get technical.

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

I PM\'ed Troy on another forum early this year speaking with him about all this and from what he said it does seem like athe best option to use mini painting skills to make some money and earn a living. Even if you made some stock bodies and sculpted accessories, bases and maybe likenesses seperately I think the fee you could charge would be worth the effort you would have to put in and the pay would actually be realistic representation of the work that actually goes into the sculpting and painting. I ve often seen ebay auctions of some nicely painted minis go for seriously low money and it does seem quite depressing (and hell I havent even done the work!!)
Troy simply started off selling cheap -$500 ish for his best work, then used the money to invest in full page wedding magazine adverts and attendance at fairs and so on and it all paid off for him. So I think this would be the road to go to make money from the skills you learn in this hobby.

dfb