Are you passionate about creativity and making colorful art? Imagine turning your artistic skills into a reliable source of income, all from the comfort of your home. One commonly overlooked way to earn money with your creativity is by coloring.
Yes, you read that right. So many people love to color. I find it to be an easy and therapeutic way to relax and decompress after a long day or week.
If you’d like to get paid to color, you don’t have to be a seasoned artist. You just need to have some creative ideas and a solid strategy. This blog post will walk you through 8 realistic ways to monetize your artistic skills, from designing adult coloring books to teaching art online.
1. Create Single-Page Printables for Kids
If you’re an educator, artist, or homeschooling mom who loves creating worksheets for students, selling educational worksheets, coloring pages, clip art, fonts, and classroom decor can be a great way to make extra money from home.
Platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers, Creative Market, and Etsy make it easy for independent creators to sell their work online. You can sell single pages or bundle them together, and one of the biggest perks is that you do the work once and keep earning from it over and over again. That’s the beauty of passive income.
To get started, create your worksheets, save them to your computer, and convert them to PDFs. If you’re comfortable with graphic design software like Photoshop, you can use that too. Then, choose the selling platform that makes the most sense for you.
Creative Market is a great option if you have a strong portfolio. They’re selective, so they’re looking for high-quality, unique, and useful digital assets. Once you’re approved, you upload your designs, set your prices, and split the profits 50/50 with the platform.
Teachers Pay Teachers lets you get started with either a basic membership (a one-time fee of $29) or a premium membership (an annual fee of $59.95). Once you’ve picked your membership tier, build out your profile, upload your designs, and set your prices. With the basic seller plan, you’ll earn 55% of each sale, and with the premium seller plan, you’ll earn 80% of each sale.
Probably the easiest way to start selling is through Etsy. With Etsy, sign up and set up your storefront. Each listing you add to the site will cost $0.20 for 4 months, or until the item sells. When someone purchases one of your printables, Etsy will deduct a small transaction and processing fee.
All 3 of these platforms have built-in audiences, but Etsy has by far the largest, with 86.5 million active buyers. To be successful on any of these platforms, create high-quality, unique designs with SEO-friendly descriptions and high-quality product images.
If designing and selling printables sounds fun, but you don’t have natural design talent, check out this free online workshop from E-Printables, Earn Money Selling Printables. You’ll learn how to generate ideas, how to get started on Etsy, and how to make sales.
2. Design an Adult Coloring Book
Adult coloring books continue to be a massive trend, popular among adults looking to relieve stress and practice mindfulness. Designing your own coloring books allows you to share your art and creativity while earning passive income.
Start by picking a topic for your coloring book, whether it’s travel, nature, motivational quotes, geometric shapes, or something else. You can use Adobe Illustrator or free online design tools to create high-quality illustrations.
Then self-publish your book on platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), or sell it in a Shopify or Etsy store.
Self-publishing on Amazon is one of the easiest ways to sell your coloring books because Amazon KDP allows you to format and create a listing for your book in minutes. Amazon takes a small cut of the sales in order to help you produce coloring books, but you’ll have a massive reach of potential customers, as Amazon has 310 million active users worldwide.
3. Get Paid to Color Apps
Do you find coloring apps to be relaxing? If so, download a few GPT apps and start earning extra money with digital coloring. With apps like Mistplay, Eureka Surveys, Freecash, and Swagbucks, you can earn money by downloading and playing games on your phone.
For example, right now on Eureka Surveys, if you download the Get Color app, you can earn up to $70.92 for reaching various levels. On these GPT apps, new apps are always cycling in and out of their platforms. To increase your chances of getting paid to color, download multiple apps, and keep tabs on the new games they add. There is almost always a coloring app that will pay you a little money for downloading it, playing it, and reaching multiple levels.
4. Illustrate Children’s Books
Children’s books are often filled with bright, eye-catching illustrations that help bring the story to life. If you love to draw and create your own coloring content, you could advertise your services to children’s book authors who would rather outsource the illustration elements of their books. According to ZipRecruiter, book illustrators can make $27 per hour on average.
You don’t have to be a trained artist to do this either. Just be creative and own your ideas and concepts. I have a friend who wrote a book on farm life and illustrated it herself by drawing and coloring chickens, cows, and other animals in her own creative style. Were the pictures perfect? No, but they were fun, a bit unusual, and stood out in the book.
Think of other popular illustrations from children’s books, and you’ll notice how each person’s style is different but works effectively to enhance the overall book.
To earn money illustrating children’s books, you’ll need to build a portfolio to showcase your style and versatility. Then, network with authors and publishers on platforms like Reedsy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and various social media platforms. You can even attend local publishing or authors’ conferences to network and market your services. You can also offer freelance illustration services on sites like Fiverr and Upwork.
5. Sell Your Artwork Online
If you’re talented in the art department, platforms like Saatchi Art, Artfinder, and Etsy make it easy for artists to sell their artwork online. You can create paintings, prints, sculptures, drawings, collages, photos, printable coloring pages, and more!
It helps to have a theme for your store and artwork so you can narrow down your target customer. A few summers ago, my son participated in a children’s entrepreneur fair and sold some of his artwork and sketches. He loves certain anime TV shows, so many of his artworks reflected this, and some of the people who purchased his drawings shared the same interests.
You can set your store’s theme to sell subject items like plants, animals, or landscapes, or sell by medium, like watercolor or pencil, or by style, like abstract, urban, or pop.
6. Start a YouTube Channel
Starting a YouTube channel is another way to get paid to color from home. YouTube is a popular platform that anyone can use to grow an audience and a community that supports their creativity.
You’ll need a theme for your channel so viewers know what to expect from your videos. This could be anything from discussing and showcasing your art, reviewing coloring products, and providing recommendations on the right materials for certain projects, ASMR coloring videos, or drawing tutorials.
Growing a YouTube channel takes time, and it’s not guaranteed, but if you can meet the requirements to monetize your channel, you can make money from ads through Google. Another way to earn money is through affiliate partnerships or an art brand ambassadorship, where you get paid to share a product or service that will benefit your audience.
This is a flexible option to earn money since you can work on your YouTube channel whenever you want, but you’ll need consistency to see results over time.
7. Teacher Art Online
If you enjoy guiding others, consider teaching art online. Platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, ThriveCart, Udemy, or Skillshare make it easy to create and sell an online coloring course to art enthusiasts and creatives. You can brainstorm your own curriculum and supplies students will need, whether it’s support pencils, coloring materials, or paint supplies.
Online course platforms will pay you a percentage of the sales made from students who sign up. But these sites make it easy to market your class to others who are interested.
If you’re interested in branching out to serve your local community, check with community centers, local businesses, or your park district to see if they are interested in partnering for seasonal art classes or would like to buy new coloring games to distribute to students’ families.
8. Virtual Interior Design Consulting
You can further explore your love for color theory by working as an online interior design consultant. Online interior design consultations are an excellent way to leverage your design sense by helping clients select color schemes and decor that represent their creative expression.
You can market your services on sites like Upwork and create a dedicated Facebook page or website to share more about your services. Then, consider offering remote consultations via Zoom or email and helping clients choose wall colors, furniture, and decor accessories. Use software like SketchUp or Canva to present mock-ups.
It’s not required, but having a bachelor’s degree in interior design or a related field could be helpful. You could also consider getting an interior design certification or taking some courses to gain knowledge of basic design elements if this will be a completely new industry to you.
Get Paid to Color: Summary
Monetizing your love for art and color can take many forms, from publishing your own coloring books to teaching a coloring workshop. With today’s digital tools and online marketplaces, coloring doesn’t have to be just a simple hobby. It can be a great side hustle or even your full-time job.
While it can be a great way to boost your mental health, turning your creative side into income is more than possible with these ideas. Just take the first step by exploring the option that resonates most with you. Remember, the key to success, especially when working independently from home, is consistency and staying true to your creative style.
Great article, I was really inspired by it.
Glad you enjoyed it, Nea!