[Method]How to make money from drawing Portrait: Using SmartPhone app

Short Story:

I started drawing since 2005 (at the age of 16) but didn't get serious about until 2018. A friend of mine was having a birthday, I needed a quick gift, so I drew her and her family. She was very happy and surprised. I didn't tell anyone that I was an artist of any kind. So I practics for a few months to get better at my craft, and randomly on Facebook I came across an app called the Da Vinci Eye! This was the best-paid app ever costing only $3.99 but in the future, I would make over $300 bucks!

(If you don't like the Da Vinci Eye There is an app called Fino for the android system that will work but has ads placed in the most annoying spots)

About the app and how to draw:

When you draw an object you want to start with a basic shape of that subject, then follow up with Contour lines (final shape) then finish off with details like shading, and textures (the part that takes the longest)

For example,
The whole point of getting the shape is to help you draw out the contour line that will make-up the final form of the object. Like a human head could be made of two basic shapes. A sphere for the cranium and the jaw a triangular shape wedge. The form would be the contour lines that make up the final image such as details of the jaw and cheekbones. The details again would be the shading from light to dark, and textures would be the little bumps, hairs, or some other surface feature.

The Da Vinci Eye allows you to go straight into the detail phase of drawing. It works by overlaying a reference image over your phone's camera display. You would sit your phone on a tall glass and trace what you see from your phone onto a piece of paper.

Here are my set-up and some quick drawings


Those are just the tip of the iceberg.

Now, I have been drawing freehand for some time, but I think anyone who is starting with no experience could draw like this within less than a week. The only thing you would have to learn is how to draw in the shading and textures of your work. There are tons of YouTube videos on that very subject. Even within the Da Vini Eye app, they will have some starter videos for you to explore.


The Method, Resources, and Requirements:

My Method: Share what you do!
What I did was I started to share my practics drawing on my main Facebook account. Slowly, but surely people began to take notice, but not at all at once. See, I have over 600+ friends on Facebook but Facebook only shares a small bit of your content across your friends. However, as you receive more likes and interactions it starts to snowball into a lot of attention.

Do a few free portraits.

It didn't take long for people to start asking for portraits, so I did a few for free.
I started to make money once people started asking me how much would I charge them for a picture.
I would tell them I work off of donation. A few folks gave me 50 to 80 dollars on one picture that took me less than 2 hours to complete. One picture was less than 30 minutes because the reference picture was very poor, and yet this person paid me $50.


Keep on producing artwork no matter what!

So my clients were friends, co-workers, and one family member. I keep my kept my fees relatively low something like $35 to $45 for 12 by 9" sheets. 12 by 14" would be $50 to $65.

To scale-up is to go online!

That's my next step and I will keep you all in the loop for success. At the end of this post, I will share with you some of my ideas on this subject.

Setbacks!

The problem I had with doing this technique is that it doesn't help your skills drawing free handed. This is more of a tool to speed up drawings but not a complete replacement for the real thing.
My boss got winded of my abilities to draw and wanted me to do a giant painting on the inside portion of the store.

I ended up quitting before the due date was scheduled.

Since then I slowed down my little operation, and plan on moving outside my circle of friends.

What I learned from my experiment was Always target Managers, Doctors, Nurses, People with a profession that earn them lots of money. co-workers and friends won't cut it. I'll be lucky to get $35 bucks from a co-worker.


Requirements:
**need a BRAIN**
more or less will power and no excuses. I understand drawing isn't for everyone, but if your number one reason for not drawing is because you think you can't draw or it's some sort of special talent. You're wrong! And even more so now because there is an App that makes it even easier than ever.

Anyone can draw (with or without the app) It just takes practice.

**You need a drawing pencil and pens**

If you go for drawing pencils don't go too fancy or spend a lot of money on it. Order online! It's usually cheaper. Just get a pack of 4 pencils types. HB, B, 2B 4B. You can do a lot of work with just a small amount.

I use Mechanical pencils that are 0.5mm in lead diameter.
You can order different kinds of mechanical leads. 2H all the way to 4B.

Make sure to get a Carbon Pencil. Graphite pencils suck when it comes to making truly black shadows, and to worst off if you put too much on your paper you will get this annoying grey shine on your paper.

Pens are super cheap and easy to find. Get one that is 0.5 mm fine tip. Markers of the same type of point will do fine.

You can just use a plain old ballpoint pen. I have seen some cool stuff on Reddit from people who use ballpoints.

Get some gum erasers and white ones. Very handy.
Get an eraser pen *Optional*

** A Smartphone (iPhone or Android) and the apps mentioned above.**

If you have 2 smartphones more power to you. You can record a timelapse video of your drawing and post them on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Why I think you could even post this stuff On TikTok.

**Get a Tripod** Google it!. you don't need a pro or heavy tripod but get a cheapy 20 or 30 dollars with a phone mount on Amazon. My phone mount only cost me 8 bucks.

If you are cheap like me then just make one out of a
Pringles can.
Here is how: One Pringles can. some thin wood to act as a board to hold your phone over your paper.
Hot Glue and 3 screws.

Short Instruction:

**Art Paper**

You don't need to spend a lot of money here. Just get something that is rated 50, 60, or 70 lb paper.
70 lb is great for ink pens. If you are wanting to do watercolors then start off with 160 lb paper to 300lb.

Printer paper and Newspaper print should only be used for practice.

Resources

**EBOOKS**
I'm really trying my best to keep this post super short. There is a lot of information I'm trying to unpack but at the same time I don't want this to be a 50-page book so I'm going to refer you some ebooks that helped me out a lot, and I'm going to share with you how to get them for free!

To get eBooks for free go to (Google) Library Genesis

you can draw in 30 days the fun easy way to learn to draw in one month or less (FUN BOOK)

Drawing Realistic Pets From Photographs
Lifelike Drawing in colored pencil
Lee Hammond

In fact, Lookup Lee Hammond ebooks

For practices on bodies freehand drawing style
https://www.zygotebody.com/#
http://www.characterdesigns.com/


Method Ideas:

So I hope your mind is buzzing with ideas. Here are a few ways you could make money online with this.

**Start a YouTube Channel**
requires 2 smartphones, a tripod, and a timelapse app ( I use TimeLapse Pro) however, some smartphones have a very good built-in timelapse program. It's up to use on what would work best.

Make sure to find an angle that doesn't show you using the app while you draw.

Here are a few tips

Stick to trends. For example, if an actor or actress dies, (OR is very very Old Like Betty White) DRAW them!
A person released a new Music video, draw them!
Any breaking News stuff Draw that person who is causing the breaking news. ( I would not draw gunmen or terrorist more like Billionaire Bill Gates is running for president Draw Bill)

*Use a Screenshot tool to take pictures of video scenes that look crazy or funny*
I use a great tool called Greenshot for catching just the right screenshot size for the right moments playing out on the screen. Just scrub through the video, pause at the very spot you wish to capture, and press the Printscreen button.

**Instagram, Twitter, Facebook**

You can't go wrong with Instagram. Make sure to post new pictures twice a day with 25 to 30(no more than 30) Hashtags related to your drawing niche.

Use Hootsuite for free Schedule postings
use all-hashtagDotcom for looking up hashtags.

With Facebook, make a new group or FB page and start to post your work in slowly.

If you are worried about the amount of time it takes you to draw stuff then my secret to you is to keep it small! You could draw a small piece of art on a sticky note under 10mins. That's good enough to be used in social media.

Need to find good Reference pictures to copy?
Go to Reddit! Look in the, I took that picture, Earth porn, or AWWW and draw whatever that is trending.

Finally, Use Etsy

Go to Etsy and search Drawing From Photo

Here is what you will find.



Do you see what's going on here?
People are charging money to draw them pictures of whoever! Family, girlfriends, dog, cat, any pets, whatever under the sun.

If they can do it so can you!





Before I would try Etsy Draw a handful of really good portraits of pretty beautiful women or handsome men to use in my sales page. Make sure to make up Lots of orders jobs to increase your chances of being found.

For example, I will draw your portrait (generic) I will draw your Dog(2), I will draw your family( Use family reference pictures) I will draw your mom, I will draw your cat, and so on...



I hope you found this post interesting.
There's definitely money to be made from drawing people and animals. With a little hard work, you can make some pocket change that can grow the second job that pays well.

If you can go viral that's a lot of money that could possibly change your lifestyle. If you have any questions definitely ask him here.


My current projects to work on YouTube
And to eventually set up an Etsy store but I encourage you to do the same thing if you want.

How do you earn cash under the table?

Some apps you light want to try is autodesk sketchbook. I love this one.
I have used it to make some pretty nice cash painting digital.

Amazing share bro, I won't even try as I'm terrible on drawing, by anyway, thanks, nice method

good share op, thanks for this

Such an 'Artistic' method.

Thanks a lot buddy. Nice share.

There are quite a number of people that have become successful by drawing images ont heir mobile phones. You do not need paint or anything. All that you need is a phone, a smart phone and a very good imagination. An example are potraits that you will find ont he android app called Walli. They were all made by people on the digital platform.

Good method if you have some affinity for drawing. I couldn't make a straight line even if my life would depend on it.

thanks all

mouser said:

How do you earn cash under the table?

Click to expand...

Sorry for the late responds. But yes you can!

I made money under the table by charging my facebook friends. People always ask me do you charge? And I will start off low like 25 or 50 bucks, sometimes I will use the donations option, saying, pay me what you think it's worth, and people have over paid me( from what I think is over paying me).

gleisser said:

Amazing share bro, I won't even try as I'm terrible on drawing, by anyway, thanks, nice method

Click to expand...

you need to practice. The cell phone app allows you get the feeling and the ability to draw out the outline of people at any paper size. Once you have the outline down you need to shade it in. You can still use the app for this but believe it or not the shading process is the easiest part, but takes the longest. The last part is textures and that can take some time depending on how many passes do you make.

Here is my work flow. for 12 by 9 inch paper.

Form outline: 10mins .
Shading in the Darks: 30mins
Shading in the mid tones: 30 to 45 mins.
Bringing back the highlights : 10mins.
Textures: 10mins or longer.


Most of my work takes about 2 to 4 hours to complete. It just depends how many passes do I make in the shading process.

Trust me You can do it. There are a lot of tutorials out there. Google.
Kirsty Partridge


It's not a bad idea to go for the $5 dollar a month patron deal.

Here is a huge money saving tip.

Go for the $9 or $5 dollar plague on Kirsty Partridge patron.
Make sure you are log into your YouTube account.

Once all of the patron videos are unlocked you will notice that all of the videos are unlisted YouTube videos.
Kirsty simply made a second account to place all of her patron videos as unlisted so that no one the outside can find them.

But you can save the videos under the Save tap on YouTube it self.



without your YouTube Channel you can make private lists and organize your now saved patron videos, and you can cancel the monthly subscription.

OF course, make sure to download any resource files inside the patron account.



If this for some reason is not an option then you have two other ones.

You can, of course, download all of the videos if you have an large enough hard drive/ cloud services.

Or you could just save all of the unlisted videos URL links to Notepad. Because anyone who has those links can view those videos.

The method works with anyone who choose to use YouTube as a way to host their unlisted videos on patron.