If You Love to Draw, Show it Off at Zazzle and Make Some Money Too

Many artists have put lots of time and effort into their work and sell posters which are beautiful and others offer cute little drawings of unique characters that look best as little cards or gifts. I tend to fall into that second category.

Fortunately there are many little items at Zazzle that work for this type of art, and if you can come up with a funny line or saying to go with your art, all the better. 

My parents were creative in their own ways. My mother liked to sew and play the piano. My father played guitar and loved to landscape the yard. Neither of them seemed to care too much about art and they never said too much about anything I drew.

My mother wanted my sister and I to play the piano, and I tried to learn guitar once, but musical abilities escaped me.  I just liked drawing.

My grandmother lived at the bottom of my driveway and we visited her and my grandfather almost every day. On weekends it was a morning routine to visit, and while the grownups drank coffee and chatted in the kitchen, my cousins, sister and I would sit in the living room and draw pictures. My Nana always had paper, pencils, pens and markers in a big, old desk for us to use. She also had a small chalkboard on the wall of her kitchen where we could leave a little note or quick drawing for her before we left.

What I remember most was her enthusiastic remarks about my work. She made me feel like I'd created something extra special each time I showed her what I'd drawn.

(Image credit: Pixabay)

I married young and began a family right away, so I did not take any college art classes.  In the 1970's it wasn't obvious to me how I could use my drawing skills to make a living.

I've been a very busy mother for most of my adult life, and raising four children while working and taking care of our home didn't give me much time to myself.  For a lot of years I wished I could have taken art classes, but it never happened.

Now, I live in an area of New Hampshire where the arts - of all types - are celebrated.  The MacDowell Artists Colony, a place where artists come from all over the world to be creative, is just down the road. 

I may take a class one day and learn to paint, but for now I am enjoying doing my own thing.

Posters are of course a great way to show off your art.  Cards and postcards also work well.  With the addition of many types of iPhone cases, I've noticed that unique drawings look great on them.  If the image you are selling is large enough, add it to a messenger bag and coordinating laptop covers and other electronics covers.

The cloth bags look great with a unique and colorful drawing and so do the coffee mugs and travel cups.  After looking around at the wide variety of products Zazzle offers, you will be the best judge of where you want your art placed.

My entire life, all I ever used to draw with was pencils, colored pencils, markers and pens. Computers were not a basic in anyone's home when I was growing up.  I had no concept of drawing using a graphic program, so when I began to draw for my Zazzle stores, I had to figure out how to get my finished pictures from my desktop into my images folder at my Zazzle store.

I finally figured out how to scan them, but I didn't know much about cleaning them up or separating elements of the image or layering and such things.  I also couldn't remove the background, so they all had a "white paper" look.

(Picture: My living room in the 1970's)