How Might you turn 3D printed sculptures into a liveable income?
Id love to make a business to create and sell my art as products that could be consistently sold. i do both 2D and 3D work But selling sculptures would seem like a more viable option then selling painting artwork.
But then it becomes what would i need to make that can become a sustainable income. I have ideas what id like to do, but what i like may not be at all what potential customers would like to buy.
Even though id love to do creatures, monsters characters statues. im not sure if many people would be willing to buy those as just decorative items.
But where i live 3D sculpting would be something new that i don’t believe anymore is doing in my area. So it does feel like an open market, But atleast from what ive seen not many people seem to buy artworks Unless its commission work but even commission work doesn’t seem to be a substitute for my current job.
Probably the route that will cover the most bases is a Patreon account (or other similar monthly subscription). I know a number of people who use that to sell the files that others can print themselves. You can set up different tiers that provide different products. One tier can be the files themselves so others may print, another can be a physical only tier where you print it for them. It may not be a sustainable income at first, but could have the potential if you’re sculpting things that are popular at the time.
Personally, I sell my sculpts through Instagram, but I also do a very niche hobby of action figure customization. I sculpt the head in Nomad, then print them at a certain scale and sell the physical prints to others so they can paint them. Or sometimes I paint them as well and charge more.
Hopefully some of this information helped. Good luck!
Yeah thanks that was helpful, i didnt even know patreon and instagram could be used like a business like that. Ill look deeper into it thanks again for the advice.
Idk if that helps but there is also private printers offering on „etsy“
some just sell STL files for homeprinting like on cults3d but the danger of it being re-sold might be high
Depending on what you make if you sell your own models i know some garagekit makers showcase on twitter and youtube as well (instagram and patreon too ofc ^)
For instance if you check via follows and re-posts you tend to find quite a lot of various style businesses and artists with all its faults you can still get a lot of reference on those social pages
Thanks @ohgoditsmomos I havent thought of using social media like instagram to sell before. Its a good idea.
And of course! how could i forget esty. Thall help too thank you. Im no where near as good as the artist youve linked but id love to eventually grow to do stuff that good.
with all its faults you can still get a lot of reference on those social pages