How I went from a server to a professionl muralist making over $100,000 a year.
Are you trying to make money off of your artwork but the “starving artist” term is having more of an affect on you than you’re having an affect on clients?
Airbnb in Bonita Springs, FL 2024
Where it all began
Back in 2019 I decided to move back home to Bonita Springs from Fort Lauderdale where I was living and going to school. I was 24 and had just graduated from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, living my days working as a bartender, staying up all night partying, and still managing to paint a self portrait of myself with oils before class the next morning. School wasn’t something I took too seriously at the time but I some how still managed to walk away with a degree and “Best Portfolio” in my class.
When I moved home it was really because my shitty jeep broke down on me when I was visiting my parents. One of my dads friend needed help opening a restaurant so I decided to stay. I left my house full of belongings to my roommate and started living with my dad full time. I worked as a server at a restaurant called, “Hampton Social” for about 9 months until they lost me to a decision they made.
Once my manager found out I had gone to school for “Illustration & Design” he asked if I could paint murals around their building, as they had been looking for a muralist to hire. I told them I had never painted a mural before but I certainly would! They proceeded to tell me “oh no, no, no we need someone professional as it is a big job”. I told them “let me paint one and if it doesn’t look good then I will paint over it and pay for the lift”. I went home and told my dad about this job opportunity. He said “that’s too big of a job honey”. So with all of this pressure I was still determined to get it done. How will I ever advance in life if I don’t do the things that intimidate me?
I painted the first mural and it came out PERFECT. My dad was taking pictures of me in the parking lot high up on the lift and it was one of my most proudest moments. My manager was sending pictures to the owner in amazement that I actually did it, and quick at that. The cooks were coming out from the kitchen and before I knew it the entire staff was in the parking lot. A couple days later the news came and interviewed me and wrote an article on it. From there on I painted the 9 murals, quit my job as a server and became a muralist.
Hampton Social, Dec. 2019
The work of being your own boss begins
From there on out I knew that I never wanted to step foot in a restaurant again unless I’m on the other side of the bar. I was willing to do whatever it took now that I have tasted freedom of managing work on your own and the wealth it brought. My first job painting “Hampton Social” I charged $8500 for 9 murals. After that I had to find out how I was going to network myself and that is work you have to be consistent with if you’re going to keep people interested in your business and well known.
A portfolio
First things first. You can’t advertise yourself without work to show you can do the job. Unless you come across the faithful type. They’re out there but not common. Find a subject that you believe will interest more than just yourself but also something you want to continue to paint for people. Don’t paint a mural of a dog if you don’t like painting dogs. Paint what you’re good at that will put people in awe. For a canvas I suggest painting your own walls, parents, friends, brothers, cousins, absolutely anyones wall you can get your hands on. If you know owners of businesses that wouldn’t mind a free mural that’s even better advertisement that will be seen by others. Sometimes you have to give some to get some. The first mural I “donated” got me on 6 news channels including national news, 3 newspapers, and a documentary. If you believe in good karma, go sell your soul, I promise it’ll come back to you.
WGCU News (Summer with daughter Nova painting “Legacy Tower”), 2023
Your first mural
This will be intimidating but I promise you, you will be more impressed with yourself after taking that leap of faith. Luckily for you there are tricks to hold your hand along the way. Use a projector. A projector you can use to put your image up onto the wall and trace it on. You can even leave it on while you’re painting if you want extra confidence. Its basically like you’re using a coloring book all over again yet you’re older, its on a wall, and it could make your rent check 4 times over.
Carini’s Restorante, 2022
Paint
I suggest going to Home Depot or Lowes and buying their “samples”. Pick out all the colors you want, take it up to them and ask for them in samples so you’re only paying $5-6 a piece and they’ll go along way although they’re small you’d be surprised how much surface they’ll cover. If you are getting paint for the background please just get a gallon, it’ll save you some trips. Or you can go to Sherwin Williams, start up a business account and have them set you up with $6 “samples” which are actually the size of a quart. Buy your brushes by the bulk on Amazon, you will go through them. Everything else you will learn that you need along the way once you have more of a strategy and idea of how you’ll be painting your murals.
Home in Bonita Springs, 2022
Setting up a professional website
Once you have art to showcase go set up your portfolio. When setting up a professional website you want to keep it simple and straight to the point. You don’t want a website with all of your old drawings from high school that were cool once upon a time. Take a select amount of your best work and make it the first thing people see when they find your page. Write about yourself to make people feel more personal with you but don’t write too much, they don’t need to know about your siblings. You want to stay up to date with your website making sure its always being updated with new work. Search other muralists websites and observe how others showcase their work and what seems to work for other competitors.
Business cards
Once you have a portal that viewers can see your work on you’ll need to have business cards made with your contact info and possibly a picture of your best painting on the front. When doing this it’ll be the first thing they see when you hand them your card. They see that you can for one paint, and for two paint good. It’s an immediate interest
Social Media
Social media is so important nowadays considering mainly everything revolves around it. I have a Business Facebook page, Instagram, and TikTok for my mural business. They say that you should only really focus on one platform and post to it EVERYDAY but I have three due to the age and following I have on all of them, plus, I’m a go getter. Timelapse videos are something that almost everyone enjoys watching so it is important to me that I show the process of each mural and post them for people to view and share on different platforms along with photos of the project. It’s an easy way to be assured you’ll have viewers. Always be sure to use hashtags at the end of your posts as well so that it will reach other audiences.
Another important step that’s gotten me many jobs is finding your towns Facebook page to post to. Its a way of networking your business in your area and for people to find clients. Most of them don’t allow you to “sell” anything so I simply just post the mural I did in that town that day and “share” art with others. Ive had many clients reach me through local Facebook pages in my town and towns around me for murals for their homes and businesses.
Step out of your comfort zone
Back to selling your soul, this is the part that wasn’t always my favorite but so damn important. I go into businesses, restaurants, etc. that I see need some work. Sometimes I even take a picture of their building, go home, put it on photoshop and start designing murals for their buildings without even talking to them first. Then I go in with the designs and basically tell them they need me to give their building some TLC and I’m willing to do it for a great price because this is my home town and I want to be the one to do it. Just be yourself with a little extra confidence. Bringing in designs I feel like gets me the job 80% more than it doesn’t. You can go in and tell them you’re a muralist and blah ball that jazz but when you come in meaning business and showing you want to do it so bad that you’ve already done free work towards it, shows initiative. To some people maybe they’ll take it the wrong way, there’s always a negative Nancy but you don’t want to work with those type of people anyways.
At-home marketing
When it isn’t a business I necessarily want to go in and talk to or if it is out of town then I will market from home. I send emails to local attractions such as malls, new restaurants opening, art societies, marketing agencies for the town, hotels, etc. offering my business. Sometimes I will offer discounts for certain organizations or businesses to get the ball rolling or make them feel like they need to take up the opportunity. Offer your services everywhere, get out there and find your niche. I’ve painted vans, race tracks, sheds, fences, schools, logos, warehouses, windows, etc. Wherever I could find work when I was starting out I hoped on and that’s what kept me practicing and let people see that I mean business and I want to work. Once I was more established is when I would pick and choose the jobs I wanted to do but even when I was busy, I never turned down a job. I will paint anything, anywhere.
Murals 2021-2023
Thumbtack.com
If you are still having a hard time finding local jobs or don’t feel like you’re getting around much by word of mouth then there are a few sites you can keep up on to find jobs. Thumbtack.com was the first site I used when trying to find jobs which I certainly did and still do from that site. I don’t like the price you have to pay to get leads but they do send you jobs and that job could be $1000-15,000 which pays off whatever you’re paying when you don’t get a lead that follows through. My highest paid job was $15,000 from Thumbtack only two years into painting murals.
Callforentry.org
Callforentry.org is a platform that displays tons of jobs in so many different art fields all over the country. There are deadlines to apply but most of them are free to apply to but they do require some work as you have to make yourself a resume, bio, and most require you to submit artwork directed towards that specific job so it takes more work than Thumbtack but some pay really good and can get you well known.
Once you’re hired
Once you start to get some murals commissioned, the marketing work gets so much easier and eventually they start coming in without you having to put in the effort. Before you know it you’re booked out for 3 months and overwhelmed about where to put all your money.
Stay up to date with my blogs as I will go more into depth of the mural process from setting up for jobs, contracts, deposits, to how to get known more publicly.
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