Monetise My Passion

HoratioMills

Hi people,

I’ve watched a couple of videos recently on finding your passion and doing what you love. I remember as a child I used to love drawing buildings and designing the buildings in great detail. After 16 years of age, I stopped doing this.

I’m now 38 and I’ve never really known what I’ve wanted to do. I’ve decided to return loving what I did as a child - drawing beautiful buildings. I would like to create town centres with rows of beautiful buildings, showing different styles covering different eras.

I have a degree in Ancient History, but I know I can’t return to university full-time to complete a degree but I am prepared to spend all my spare time mastering this passion of mine and turn myself into a master.

My question is this - how can I monetise this? How can I draw beautiful town centres and make money from it? I would like to be able to influence how town centres are designed today - the post-modern garbage we see today depressed me; compared to the older buildings that had intricate detail and roots in classical architecture. People love to see these kinds of buildings that display beauty.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Lee.

pinknsparkly

Sadly, I'm not sure how you could influence the design of town centres, but you could consider selling your drawings as art on online market places such as Ebay, Esty, NotOnTheHighStreet, Facebook Market?

I assume you prefer drawing and designing "new" buildings? If you enjoy drawing nice existing buildings then there's a market online for drawing/painting properties based on photographs, for things such as wedding/anniversary gifts where the picture is of the wedding venue or the home of the person being gifted. Obviously, there's no guarantee this way that the buildings will be beautiful, but I would imagine most people who do this do so partly because the building is at least slight attractive!

KatrinaWaves

Sounds like something architectural or something in your local govt planning policy office would be along those lines. There obviously would be a lot more too it than simply drawing beautiful buildings as there are lots of considerations to make such as structural feasibility, skyline, working around current buildings and infrastructure, and I imagine there would be a necessity to study after getting in on a more admin ‘foot in the door’ job.

I fear your passion may be more in the artistic side than the actually legal legwork to push your ideas forward which is red tape all day long, consultations with the public, making sure all laws are complied with and that the money is there. You could make look for work in doing those ‘artistic impressions’ of up and coming building projects etc, alrhough I don’t know how much say those people get in the designs overall.

lincroft1710

I think you would have to look abroad.

UK town centre redevelopments are not going to happen as they did in the 1960s/70s, nor do there appear to be any more "new towns" on the horizon. Piecemeal redevelopment and "new villages" yes, but you would be competing with well qualified and well grounded architects and town planners.

Dox

Rather depends how good you are. With competition like Stephen Wiltshire you'd have to be truly exceptional if you hope to make a living from it.

What might be one way to start is to draw some local landscapes and offer them to card manufacturers as an alternative to photos. People are often happy to pay for something 'different' if the quality is good enough.

theoretica

What do you need to get into world design for computer games or other fiction? I have no idea, but it sounds fun.

Savvy_Sue

theoretica wrote: »

What do you need to get into world design for computer games or other fiction? I have no idea, but it sounds fun.

For the indie computer game scene, you need a portfolio and contacts - attending things like GDC. And you'd be well advised to have a certain amount of savings and very low living expenses on which to live while you make your name known, develop your contacts and hopefully sell your services.

This is an account of what it takes from a developer's point of view. He now collaborates with designers and musicians, because he's very good at what he does (designs puzzles for games), not so good at making them look pretty and sound nice.

Can't speak for what's required for the 'big' companies, but I believe it is not necessarily as much fun as you think it's going to be, ie repetitive, not that creative, budget driven.

Blatchford

There may be creative suggestions, but the basic premise is a non- starter. It isn't just "go back to university" - you need a relevant undergraduate degree (yours isn't) and at least a masters in a relevant planning subject. Then there are required CPD courses to develop to a stage, some years later, when you might get a chance to influence some design.

And whilst I have a lot of sympathy with your opinions, nobody is going to build intricate classical designed building and public realm these days - they are too expensive, too complicated, and require many niche skills in exceptionally short supply. Even if you studied planning and architecture etc for years, you wouldn't get what you want. You'll need to look to another way of using your passion.

shortcrust

It's very difficult to see how you could influence the actual bricks and mortar of town centres etc. That's the sort of thing that the overwhelming majority of talented, qualified and experienced architects and planners can only dream about. Such things are highly professional endeavours.

The architecture/planning thing really is a non starter - unless you're prepared to train for many years and work your way up - but there are of course many other creative avenues to explore, some of which have already been discussed. However, look at Etsy etc and you'll see that there are really huge numbers of people producing amazing art and making almost nothing from it. I know a couple of artists who are reasonably well known and get commissions to do things all over the world. It's taken them years and years to get to that stage and even now there's not much money left over once the bills have been paid.

Chances are the best you can hope for it to produce art that people enjoy for its decorative value and are prepared to pay a few quid for. It's probably pocket money at best.

I know this is a negative post, but it's realistic.

jonnygee2

I’ve watched a couple of videos recently on finding your passion and doing what you love. I remember as a child I used to love drawing buildings and designing the buildings in great detail. After 16 years of age, I stopped doing this.

You might be putting a bit too much stock into a few youtube videos. 'monetising your passion' sounds great but often meets hard reality. Sure, if your passion is computer coding then you are in luck. If your passion is drawing, though, that's a bit harder.

Even if you became an architect - you'd likely be disappointed. Most architects work for big firms who in turn are contracted by clients, so individual architects are unlikely to have a lot of say over the design styles. There's also practicalities like budget, fire safety, planning permissions etc. There're reasons people don't build neo-classical facades in, say, Croydon town center.

The only thing you can really do is try and sell your art. Although it's not impossible you'd do well, it's also not unlikely you would only make a bit of extra pocket money.

Dennis800

I think in the short term you can sell your artwork. The long term, that is, actually influencing the design of town centers can be quite a long process, with legal and many other considerations. But it’s possible!