How to Find Jobs for Artists

Finding Artist Work with the Internet

May 21, 2007
Alina Bradford

An Artist Resume - Alina Sandor

Article on finding work as an artist. Sell your skills, paintings, illustration work and more. Find out how to make an artist resume, portfolio, and search websites.

Making money from art is hard. It really is. Especially so if you’re not taking full advantage of the resources out there.

The easiest way to make money with your art is to take full advantage of the internet. There are sites to find jobs, places to set up portfolios, and sites to show off your resume. Here is all you need to know to keep from being a starving artist.

Resume

The first thing you should do when looking for work is to create a simple, straight forward resume that can be emailed, downloaded, printed, and posted on websites.

To make this possible, you need to stay within one, 12 point font, single spaced page. Don’t use any HTML coding, different colored font, or cutesy pictures. (To get ideas, look at the author’s resume, below.)

Keep it simple.

List your art work history, any art organizations you are affiliated with, schooling, and/or a link to your online portfolio. Also include your email address and phone number. Feel free to leave off your address. Leave that for a need-to-know bases.

Portfolio

Having an online portfolio is crucial when looking for a job online. There are many great sites where you can set up one for free.

Photobucket.com

This is a site where you can upload photos, videos, and images for free. You can also make slideshows and remixes of your work, link it to social network profiles, auction sites, web sites and blogs, or send them by email, IM, or mobile phone.

All Creative Portfolios.com

This site offers free electronic online portfolio that can be emailed. Portfolio thumbnails of your art are sent within the email, which makes for easy viewing.

To learn about more ways to promote your art through portfolios please see:

How to Promote Your Paintings

and

MySpace for Artists: How MySpace Can be a Valuable Tool for Your Art

Job Sites

There are a lot of great job boards out there for artists. Some of them require you to bid for work, others let you email potential employers.

Most jobs are freelance, but sometimes you can find full-time work from boards.

The best way to learn about job boards is to just bookmark them and use them every day. Don’t pay for the "exclusive professional packages". You don’t need them. The basics are all you really need.

Here are some really good art job boards: