How could i earn money by being a illustrator/artist? -

i am a very creative and talented person who loves drawing- especially manga/anime. i would love to be a ilustrator and illustrate book but what i want to know is, how could i earn money by doing this and how much could i earn? also, what are other ways of earning money by drawing?________Get all of your best work together, send it to yourself firstly in the post- when you receive it don t open it, this is your proof of ownership. Then find out all the addresses of the comics you really like, ring them up and ask who to send your work to to see if they re interested. Also search for illustration agents on-line, like Advocate or Folio for example, and send it to them. Try also publishers of graphic novels. Not sure on what you d earn in this field but see if anyone is advertising similar work on websites and maybe they will list costs on their sites.________Hello, I would start off by getting together a few of your drawings (6-8 is a good start) and up load them to one of the following sites... www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/ www.warmtoastcafe.co.uk/ www.myartspace.com/ www.coroflot.com/ All of these sites are free so you don t have to pay an agency fee (vital if you re just starting out!) amp; coroflot has a jobs section! I m a fashion lecturer who struggled to get freelance illustration work until I uploaded my work on the above sites. This summer I have had a number of commissions and also had my work poblished in 2 books - The Big book of Fashion Illustration by Martin Dawber - he saw my work on warmtoastcafe, and Fashion Artist - 2nd Edition by Sandra Burke - she saw my stuff on saatchi-gallery! As for charging - well, when I first started out I was charging a pittance as I was a little embarrassed in case I was asking for too much but don t undervalue yourself - if your work is good, demand will grow over time and with the more commissions you get! I initially charged ￡75 per illustration but after having my work published I found I can now charge ￡150 per drawing (this tops up my poor lecturers salary nicely!) I would also recommend doing a night course or something if you haven t been to college before - you can pick up a lot of tips from your tutors and also get hold of invaluable contacts this way! I would agree with the answer about being more individual - there are loads of manga artists out there so it s a very competitive market. I would build on your strengths, wsork hard and DON T GIVE UP!! It s taken me 10yrs but I m getting there, and have just designed my own website! Good luck!________Find a book titled quot;Artist and Writers Market.quot; It has a good list of publishers and agencies that are known to work with freelancers. It has names and contact information and some details of what kind of work they need and the format in which they like to see it. By the way, the quot;mail it to yourselfquot; trick of copyright protection is severely limited in effectiveness. The mere act of creating a piece of work gives the creator the rights of ownership. Technically, this means that no one else has the right to copy or distribute the work without the artist s permission. However, if someone steals the work, and the artist wants to sue, only a REGISTERED copyright offers the full protection of the law.________get an art degree first! theres loads of talented and qualified people out there and its hard work getting to see the right people, you could have a lucky break, but as any Art student will tell you its not easy getting the dream job!! as for the money! how long is a piece of string??________you can start by putting your stuff on istockphoto.com to earn money and get some experience. Cheers!________I am a visualiser and lifes ok at my end. I used to airbrush artists impressions Visuals or whatever people like to call them. I work with 3D software now. 3d visuals required for many architectural projects these days and can bring in a decent amount of money if your good. My emails on. I can send you a link if your interested.________You won t be able to make money out of drawing unless you have your own creative ideas, stop copying other peoples drawings (magna etc) and start doing your own. Most illustrators are excellent drafts people, you will probably need to go to Art college, unless you have an unbelievable natural ability for illustration. There are a lot of jobs for illustrators, from comic books to conceptual artists for films- you can make alot of money for this, but the competition is very stiff, you really have to have amazing drawing skills and conceptual skills to work in the movies - Good luck