What kind of job can I find after learning to paint?

I once studied painting. What do I do now?

Clerk in the Party Work Office of a state-owned enterprise.

At 8:30 in the morning, I make tea in a thermos cup, write materials, organize meetings for party members, and engage in trade union activities. I leave when the time comes and never work overtime. This is my day job.

In the evening, add ice cubes to the glass and start painting.

-?

When I was a child, my dream was to draw every day and raise a lot of cats.

When I was in fifth grade, I picked up a kitten and kept it for nine years. At that time, I didn’t know how to raise cats at all, so I fed them cat food bought in the supermarket. During the summer vacation of my freshman year, it suffered from the only and last disease in cats. Reluctant to eat, the big cat, which originally weighed more than ten kilograms, was reduced to a handful of bones. Bile duct obstruction, kidney failure, fatty liver, heart failure, severe dehydration and anemia, the doctor issued a critical illness notice as soon as I went to the hospital.

The doctor said there was little hope.

I said I must save him.

But how much money can a freshman girl have in her pocket? The treatment costs several hundred a day, and her savings are quickly used up.

Friends who knew me earlier may still remember that it was at that time that I started selling paintings. I felt so tragic at that time. I took it to the hospital for treatment every morning and hung water with it. When I got home at night, I wiped my tears and drew pictures. I woke up at any time in the middle of the night, afraid that it would suddenly leave.

In fact, it only lasted more than a week. The disease finally took away my kitten.

"Selling Paintings to Save Cats" received help from many pet parents -

However, the hand-painting business has continued to operate, which kept me from being inactive during college, and also gave me something to do. With the ability to provide good supplies for cats that are later adopted, and to participate in rescuing stray animals, you no longer need to consider whether there is enough money in the card.

Try different tools and materials for painting -

The people who paint the most portraits are couples and families. Each time before writing, they would share their stories with me.

A customer made my paintings into wedding invitations, and sent letters and wedding candy when they got married.

There is a customer who has come to me to customize a custom painting for his wife’s birthday every year since we met, fell in love, got married, and had children. This is now the seventh year.

A customer asked me to combine the individual photos of her family with her wedding photos into a family portrait. The relatives who had left her were smiling and standing with her again.

Almost all customers stayed on WeChat after finishing the painting and became my online friends. Some will send me gifts; some will talk to me when they encounter problems; some will send me funny videos after seeing my depressed circle of friends, and then tell me that everything will be fine.

Choose packaging boxes and decorations for the paintings I sold

Perhaps because of this, in my first resume after graduation, I submitted it to a wedding company and became a wedding planner. Planner.

If painting a portrait is to record memories, designing a wedding is to create memories. To listen to emotions, to feel emotions, to attach my understanding and blessings, whether it is the creator or recorder of beauty, makes me feel extremely happy.

Later, because wedding planning work often required staying up late and working overtime, and my body couldn’t bear it, I turned to a part-time job as a wedding hand painter, and found the stable and boring job I have now. Portrait painting, which had previously suspended taking orders because it was too busy, has also reopened.

Feel and express the emotions in the paintings -

On the day when I sent out the circle of friends for new orders, many old customers placed orders.

They said welcome back, they are finally waiting for you.

I said welcome, this time, we will never close.

When I usually browse social software, I will see many students who want to try to take over drawing orders. As an "old school sister", let me share some experiences with you.

As mentioned above, I started doing portrait painting in college. At first it was just for fun, not for profit.

In 2013, WeChat stores and WeChat businesses appeared. I also registered a WeChat store and put up a simple avatar of "3 yuan a head" in the store. Some friends also bought mini avatars just for fun. After they put on a new avatar, people in their circle of friends who were interested in it also came to buy the avatar... In this way, I accumulated a number of customers who were "interested in hand-painted things". Then I added categories such as "a bust for 10 yuan" and "two heads for 15 yuan".

The small avatars I drew back then

Double small avatars

After a while, I felt that the audience for virtual products was not very wide, so I added another 45 yuan of real ones. The style of the products and works also began to change, from simple to more realistic. The photo frame was mounted and the price was increased to 80 yuan, which was the prototype of today's portrait painting.

From black and white line drawing

to color

Every subsequent price increase is based on the improvement of my painting skills. You can set the price based on the complexity of the work, the time spent, and your own painting level. Therefore, we are not here to encourage everyone to make reservations at a bargain price. We must also have some skills in pricing and price increases, so that customers who have purchased before can see the reasons for the price increase and feel that it is worth it, so that we can have repeat customers.

Change in painting style

More refined

Let’s talk about how to protect customers.

We have the habit of scrolling through WeChat Moments every day. In addition to getting closer to others through likes and comments, in my free time, I will select a selfie from the beautiful women I see on Moments. It should be a little surprise to draw it down and share it on Moments for her to discover by herself. The beautiful woman being painted will usually be very happy. If she shares it in her circle of friends, it will be another wave of publicity. In addition, for old customers, I promise that they will never increase their prices. The price you bought it for the first time will still be the same price the next time you buy it. In this way, I gained the long-term trust of some friends.

The most important point, I think, is to do something well with sincerity and happiness. I insist that everything I do is for the purpose of gaining happiness and a sense of accomplishment.

Keep working hard~ After all, I still have 91 years to go before I can build a century-old store.