Not Your Starving Artist: Making Money in the Arts

By Vicki Lau

It's time to shatter the taboo of making money in the arts.

 

Were you ever told that it's stupid to become an artist because "you'll starve?" Perhaps you've been brought up to believe that all creative endeavors are lost causes when it comes to making a lucrative career out of them.

 

As a not starving artist with 10 years of experience in the unconventional craft of visual effects (VFX), Vicki Lau made her way from conservative Singapore to working as a profitable artist on numerous Hollywood blockbuster titles such as "The Walking Dead," "Guardians of the Galaxy," and "Aquaman," among other notable credits, successfully shattering the stereotype of the "starving artist" (along with other taboos to boot).

 

This book will help you:

- Leverage your industry to get ahead (and get paid) as an artist

- Implement personal financial management strategies

- Maximize your earning potential in all ways possible

- Keep the money coming to you throughout your journey

- Master the true reality of an artist's life

 

If you are tired of being broke, ashamed of being condemned as a "starving artist," and want to elevate your financial game, Not Your Starving Artist is your asset.

 

Money will never be your dirty word as an artist ever again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vicki Lau
• Release date: Jan 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201200107

Vicki Lau

Vicki Lau is a VFX artist/generalist, virtual reality (VR) developer, TEDx speaker, entrepreneur, and educator from Singapore who broke into Hollywood as an outsider. She has worked with over 20 studios and filmmakers on major productions such as AMC's “The Walking Dead” (Season 4), “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “Aquaman” and teaches close to 90,000 students worldwide. She is a winner of the WinTrade Award for Women in Tech and the WeAreTheCity Rising Stars Editor's Choice Award and a global finalist of their Rising Stars Global Award for Achievement and the She Inspires Women in Leadership Award. Vicki is also a bodybuilder.

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Copyright Page

First published by Vicki Lau, 2022

Copyright © 2022 by Vicki Lau

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

Vicki Lau asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Vicki Lau has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will

remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks, and

registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

First edition

ISBN: 979-8-789-56156-0 (paperback)

ISBN: 979-8-201-20010-7 (ebook)

Introduction

So, you want to be an artist.

Perhaps it has always been a lifelong dream of yours to work as an animator at Disney or to be the next Bob Ross in a line of wannabe Bob Rosses. Regardless of the artistic path that you choose, you are simply drawn to that imagined lifestyle of an artist: work whenever you want, play whenever you want, and reap the rewards (while alive or posthumously) that the life of an artist brings. There is only one problem – a big problem:

The arts aren’t exactly a lucrative career choice – or so you thought.

Your parents/family/friends/significant other(s) don’t condone the idea of you risking and wasting your life toiling away as an artist only to starve to death in the cold, dead winter days – or so they think. You won’t be able to find a job out of art school or you will most likely have to hustle your way as a waiter at several seedy restaurants before you land your first big (and high-paying) break – or, again, so you thought.

You see, there is a massive stereotype of artistic careers being nothing but dead-end paths (or paths that failed individuals take) and horrendous financial options in terms of being able to actually live your life (even if you practice minimalism), but I’m here to debunk that myth of the starving artist to tell you that no, just because you decided to become a painter, a writer, or a musician doesn’t mean that you have to starve yourself for decades or that you won’t make any money for years to come.

No.

In fact, if anything truly stands in your way, it is your own belief in your chosen path and, ultimately, your own belief in yourself.

Hence, whether or not you believe you have to starve in order to undertake a career in the arts, your traditional-minded relatives don’t believe that artistic paths are smart options for making money, or you personally believe that money is the root of all evil, this book will lay out exactly why all of those assumptions and beliefs are dead wrong and antiquated – and how you can make money in the arts. Sure, you won’t be conventionally rich as an artist alone, but you will most definitely not fit the starving artist trope you see in films and television shows all the time (if you do it right, that is).

In "Not Your Starving Artist," I will break down exactly what you need and what you have to do in order to not become your typical starving artist: how to play your industry like a fiddle (based on real-world scenarios), understand your personal sources of leverage, and actually succeed financially as an artist in any endeavor. Now, if you happen to be one of my fans or are actually familiar with my work (my previous book and/or visual effects work), then I am sure you have a pretty good idea of how this book is written and the stylistic preferences I will be making here. However, if you are totally new to my work, first let me officially welcome you: hello, new reader.

Now, who am I to be speaking to you about this subject? Well, I am basically that artist who has not only managed to not starve but has also managed to accrue large sums of money (though to add some context, this might not seem like much if you come from Wall Street – but hey, it is what it is) working in the arts – more specifically, in the visual effects niche of the filmmaking world. In fact, a quick Google search will result in plenty of supporting evidence of my forays into this field as well as my successful exploits in film and television (having worked on major blockbuster films and shows such as AMC’s "The Walking Dead," Marvel’s "Guardians of the Galaxy, Aquaman, War for the Planet of the Apes," and so on and so forth). I could name-drop these titles all day long, but I am sure that you, new reader, are intelligent (and curious) enough to do your own research. So, I’ll leave you to do just that.

Having been through what you are likely going through right now (or perhaps are anticipating going through as a new, wide-eyed artist), the writing of Not Your Starving Artist comes from my own personal disdain for the traditional belief that art is a job for poor people or that you will never make money working in the arts.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and disgustingly wrong.

Not only have I met many artists from all walks of life who don’t appear to be living in their cars, several of them even appear to have a lot of extra cash lying around (or at least they appear to from the outside). From that well-dressed architect I met at a high society club meeting, to that visual artist who managed to organize and appear in multiple art galleries across New York City, they certainly don’t strike me as damsels in distress or broke, starving artists. Sure, while you won’t necessarily make as much dough as the engineers, bankers, or even your run-of-the-mill plumbers (yes, plumbers apparently earn a lot of money – and so do truckers), it is not unreasonable to make a decent living from the arts or – if you’re anything like me – make a preposterous killing from one niche alone. Speaking from personal experience, I cannot imagine doing anything else other than the arts and would not be in the liberating position (both financially and in terms of the freedom of time) that I’m in today had I, let’s say, decided to take the Asian path of becoming a lawyer or a banker (or in my case, I actually received plenty of suggestions to become a court judge or politician/government official).

Now, what this book isn’t about, however, is how you can become super famous and super-rich as an artist. Sorry, but there ain’t nobody who has actually achieved that kind of notoriety in their field who is genuinely willing to share their secrets with the world for the price of a book. It’s just the way it is. So, if you’re looking for those shortcuts to shoot straight up to fame or have long been attempting to unlock the secrets to success by following a bunch of random gurus online, well, this book is not the right fit for you. What I will do in this book is lay out the nitty-gritty details of what it takes to get your artistic career off the ground by your bootstraps, based on my actual personal experiences and insights drawn from my almost decade-long (at least as of the writing of this book) life in visual effects. So, whether you’re starting out from absolutely nothing (no background in the arts, maybe even a student loan or two hanging over your head) or are currently struggling to make ends meet as a fledgling creator, I am absolutely certain that you will learn a ton from my own historical record of success as an artist alone.

While I agree that there is an overwhelming majority in the world who believe that artistic careers tend to lead to terrible job prospects (and rightfully so), honestly, I find that this conclusion tends to be drawn by individuals who are themselves not involved in artistic endeavors or who happen to know one or two starving artists, giving them the personal justification they need to thus paint all artistic industries as wanting in financial stability. Sure, some artistic endeavors are unjustifiably expensive (think professional filmmaking), impractical to scale (think location-based arts), or even generate an initial low return on investment (basically almost all artistic endeavors), but if you are hell-bent on taking the artistic path, then at least you’ll do so knowing that you’ll be fulfilled spiritually and emotionally ... and financially, with the guidance of "Not Your Starving Artist," ha.

With that being said, I shall not waste any more time dwelling around here. Let’s get to it.

1

Know Your Craft (Intimately)

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Alrighty, I am sure the title of this chapter comes as no surprise to you. After all, if you are really serious about getting into the arts, you’ll want to be the one to know your craft intimately. And I don’t mean know it just well enough – you’ll want to know it as well as you know yourself (at least, I hope you are self-aware enough to know yourself very well) or, if that was a bad example, you’ll want to know your craft in the same way that you will want to uncover every single detail and piece of information there is to know about your partner. Something like that.

Either way, you’ll want to know enough about your craft to start your journey and continue to learn more about the nuances of your craft in order to sustain your journey. Of course, don’t make the mistake of being that one person who has to know every single detail there is to know about a craft or an industry before jumping right into that field – trust me, you’ll never know it all upfront and there will always be something that will catch you off-guard even if you spend ten years learning about something before starting. The important takeaway here is to know just enough about your craft and then take your start in it immediately. You’ll find that you’ll learn more about what there is to know along the way.

So, unless you are extremely afraid of making mistakes or you’re a risk-averse Asian (just kidding about the latter), just start once you know enough – you’ll learn more about what you need to know along the way. It’s really like dating: you’ll never know everything there is to know about your partner or potential love interest upfront until you start something with them first (after knowing just enough to decide whether to do so or not).

Now, I am deliberately bypassing the typical question of why are you doing this or know your why in this chapter because I am assuming that the fact that you are reading this book already presupposes that you know which artistic path you want to pursue. Hence, I’m not going to waste your time talking about finding your ‘why’. You’re here to learn how to make money out of the arts.

And, I get it, money is something I am sure most artists generally don’t discuss because, for some reason, money is such a taboo topic (potentially even considered a vulgar or dirty word) in most artistic spheres; but hey, just because your job involves a lot of creativity, expression, and passion doesn’t mean money shouldn’t be a factor. Hence, you’ll have to learn not only how to intimately understand and know your craft but also how to understand the financial prospects and possibilities of your chosen field.

The different types of creative careers

Now, in order to dive deeper into your craft, we first need to understand and differentiate between the different types of creative careers that exist today. After all, each type of creative career offers its own unique set of challenges in terms of attaining financial stability or profitability – and sometimes, these differences establish enough of a differentiator from a creative career that actually pays you quicker and larger sums of money versus one that takes some years to accrue any sort of financial return. Yes, creative careers that pay well do exist – you just need to be more aware of their existence than your usual careers in the arts.

With that, let’s start with our list right here:

Traditional Arts

So, this first category is not a surprise. In fact, the traditional arts are the go-to artistic vocation for most naysayers of any career in the arts to bash. Oh, you’re never going to make money with a degree in sculpting! is actually partially true (but only partially) and I’ll explain why in a later sub-chapter. For now, allow me to enlighten you with a short list of roles that I would generally classify as traditional art forms (and of course, this list is not exhaustive):

Painting

Sculpting

Drawing

History/Art History

Anything involving the traditional mediums

Basically, these are your careers that generally first come to mind whenever someone says they have a career (or are planning to pursue a career) in the arts. Does your neighbor paint portraits of people on canvases for a living? There’s a traditional artist for you. Know a friend of a friend who happens to craft some incredible wood carvings as miniature souvenir gifts for their little shop down the street? That’s another traditional artist again. Photography could also fall under this category, with a bit of crossover into technology-based arts, depending on the desired outcome of the photographer/artist.

If you are ever confused about whether what you are doing falls under the umbrella of the traditional arts, I would generally classify anything that involves gathering physical or raw materials (whether they’re in their primary, unaltered state or simply recycled materials or pre-existing art pieces), transforming them into a second form (such as by hand or the execution of a skill on your part – like sculpting or drawing), and then polishing them for display or for another use (such as for sale) as part of the traditional arts category.

Linguistic-Based Arts

This category generally includes anything that involves the written or spoken word. With this category, you’ll typically have careers in writing, language translation, and so on and so forth. Perhaps this short list of examples will give you a rough idea of what can be classified as linguistic-based arts:

Writing

Examples: philosophy, fiction novels

English literature/poetry

Languages

Anything involving words

As you can see, any creative career that loosely involves the written or spoken word falls into this broad category. Now, this does potentially cross over into what I would consider to be the human/organic arts, but for crafts and artistic paths solely in this category, you have your poets, writers/authors, lyricists, and even professional translators.

If you are ever confused about whether what you are doing is classified as a linguistic-based art, ask yourself the following questions: does your work involve dealing with any type of language (including sign language interpretation and the like)? Does your work involve using words as a creative outlet or as a means of expressing one’s ideas and thoughts without the use of a second form of medium (such as accompanying visuals meant to be part of the delivery of said art)? In that case, your work is most likely based on linguistics. Remember – art pieces involving words or typographic designs are not actually linguistic-based arts and are more like traditional or new media forms of art, depending on the medium by which the art piece is delivered. In that example, the words are used as raw materials to be transformed into a different form whereas linguistic-based arts involve the formation of a string of words, with the expression and use of words being the art in and of themselves.

Technology-Based Arts/New Media

Now, this is an interesting one as a few creative jobs that once would have been classified in a different category would now be categorized as technology-based or new media arts. Technology certainly has a way of moving industries forward (I’ll discuss that later), but for now, here is a quick and non-exhaustive list of the types of crafts you’ll generally find in this category:

Technical Arts

Examples: computer graphics, computer games

Most Arts and Sciences crossovers

Example: computer-based installations

Architecture

Anything involving in-depth work with or on computers

As seen above, the range of crafts that can be classified as technology-based or new media is diverse and broad. In fact, you’ll most likely find more artists in this category today than any other category of the arts due to each upcoming generation’s familiarity and comfort with computers and technology. From digital manipulation of photos as a legitimate career to digital poster or billboard designs and 3D printing, even your run-of-the-mill interactive installations at malls can be classified as a creative work executed and delivered by a bona fide new media artist.

Arts and crafts in this category are easy ones to spot if you know what to look for. However, if you are ever confused, just know that anything that involves using a computer to assist, execute, or render a final result (whether or not that result is intended to only be viewed via computers or be received and interacted with in the real world) can generally be classified as a technology-based art form. Yes, even museums that exhibit interactive canvases or art pieces fall under the umbrella of new media arts (while simultaneously being classified as traditional arts as well).

Human/Organic Arts

And last – but certainly not the least – human/organic arts, defined as any kind of arts involving human expression, performance, or interpersonal engagement and interaction. Primarily dealing with human bodies, human emotions, and human beings as the only materials involved in the craft, here are a few examples to illustrate the crafts generally considered as human/organic arts:

Performance arts

Examples: stage or screen acting, dancing, fashion modeling

Vocal performances

Examples: musical performances, voice acting

Anything organic or involving direct human contact

Examples: coaching, public speaking (some may not consider this an art, but we’ll bypass this debate for now)

Now, there is clearly some overlap with linguistic-based arts in the sense that several of these crafts use words as their form of expression and method of delivery as well. However, in this category of art, this is often accompanied by some kind of emotive expression or non-verbal performance on the part of the messenger/artist. Basically, there is a bit of acting and non-verbal communication going on in these crafts that are key to the execution and delivery of said crafts. You can also include podcasting and YouTubing (if there is such a word) in this category if you’re unsure where to place them.

If you are starting to notice that some of the crafts could potentially overlap with other categories of the arts (such as podcasting, which generally requires the use of a computer, in order to execute and deliver audio files), then you’re absolutely right in the sense that there will be crafts that will fall under multiple categories. There really is no one way to classify a craft.

The amount of category overlap, of course, will determine how easy or difficult it is to make money in the craft – in addition to the types of advantages and disadvantages generally conferred by each category of the arts. Since we’re on the subject of the art of podcasting, let’s go with that as an example.

Podcasting is one of those crafts that intersect the technology-based arts and human/organic arts by using a computer to record, edit, and render the final art piece (the hopefully polished audio file) while at the same time relying on the performance and delivery of the host and guest(s). Sometimes, depending on the podcast genre, these episodes could be as complex as well-formed narratives involving sound effects, voice acting, and organic performances akin to what you see on your television screens.

Now, let me ask you this: how many podcasters do you personally know – asides from Joe Rogan, Tim Ferris, and Gary Vee, all of whom I don’t believe you personally know – are actually making real money from podcasting alone? And when I say real money with that amount of italicized emphasis, I mean money that could replace their full-time day jobs as whatever it is that they do as their full-time day jobs.

Do I hear crickets chirping?

Exactly. Hence, even if a craft such as podcasting is a technology-based art form, its most dominant category is actually the human/organic arts, which tends to be one of the hardest categories of the arts to turn a profit on unless you happen to be lucky. Even with intersecting categories, such crafts will have a dominant category at