Inspired by the experience of illustrators and artists around the world, I also decided to try selling my paintings on microstock. But what, I still draw every day, I already have hundreds of thousands of these drawings, many of them are very cute and I myself use them with pleasure in the design and design of websites and YouTube channels. I thought, why shouldn’t I also register on the most popular microstock and not get a small passive income from my work. But, as they say, it wasn’t there 🙂 In this post I will tell you what I understood after my work was not accepted for microstock. And you will learn exactly how to do it, if you still want to start selling on sites such as Shutterstock and Creative Market. Why did I choose Shutterstock and Creative Market? I already know about Shutterstock for a long time, this is probably the most famous microstock site, to which I had somehow uploaded photos some time ago, about 15 years ago, when I was going to be a professional photographer and studied as a photo artist. I don’t remember what went wrong the last time, but I never earned a cent on this site. Then my account was lost somewhere. And now, with my drawings, I immediately decided that Shutterstock would be the first microstock where I would upload images. When I began to read on the Internet and became more interested in microstock, more often than others I came across the Creative Market website, I also liked that there is a high level of work and good contributions to the authors. And recently, I shot a video on my YouTube channel about the sale of paintings, and what do you think, my viewer wrote me about this microstock:

Thanks for the video, as a self-taught artist I was very interested. 5 years ago, I also decided to do what I love and earn a living by drawing. I understand very well your doubts about the creation of “sales” work, at first I was very sick of it, but over time I found a way out. I divided the drawing into commercial and non-commercial areas. I study trends, fashion trends in modern design and choose the topics that I am most interested in. And I draw illustrations for sale with the same pleasure and inspiration as personal projects. I sell finished works at Shutterstock and the Creative market, and they feed me, which I’m very happy because I can’t go to work)) And in my free time I draw exclusively what my soul asks for with any materials and not thinking about trends) Maybe when – Someone will also buy my non-commercial works, or maybe not, this is not so important. All the same, drawing provides me, and I enjoy it in any form and upgrade my skill when creating “corrupt” illustrations. I wish you great inspiration and successful implementation of your paintings on Saatchi scarlet heaths

I clarified how the author managed to become a successful microstocker, and here is what she answered:

@Shtukensia Yes, how did it work … the first 2–3 years I just felt like a poop My illustrations were very sluggishly sold on Shutterstock, but I kept figuring pictures, looking for what I would be interested in drawing from what is in demand. Over time, I realized, for example, that watercolors are best sold to me, people need them, and – what luck! – I myself like to draw them. And about a year and a half ago, I passed the exam on the Creative market from the second attempt and opened my own shop there, things went much better. Creative takes 30% of my income for myself, but I don’t need to advertise myself, the site is already very active and regular sales. I like to create designs and illustrations, although I have to cater to fashion in some way, but people need my work, and it seems like I am doing a useful job)) And such drain sites like Shutterstock and Creative are generally good because your works are for sale unlimited number of times. Once painted, and the picture then brings income for many years, a penny drips from each sale. And I can allow myself to draw purely “for myself” in my free time, without worrying that I will die of hunger or return for a five-day period. The main thing is not to stop, and even invest a piece of the soul in commercial work and do it with love and inspiration scarlet heaths https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fvW70wJpJo

How not to get on the Creative Market? The site itself seemed rather incomprehensible to me, but I decided that it was a typical image aggregator, and most importantly, your work should be beautiful and of high quality. When you go to the Microstock website of the Creative Market, you are prompted to create an account, and after that you can click the “Open a shop” button to create your own store, you need to receive an invitation. To do this, you fill out an application on the site, attach links to your work that you are going to sell, and wait a day or two. In order not to get into Creative Marker, to reject your application with almost 100% probability, you need to fill out it without preparation, without spending enough time to figure out what exactly needs to be sent and in what form. I sent links to my website http://9go.ru and to my Saatchiart gallery http://saatchiart.com/shtukensia – thinking that I need to show examples of my paintings and works that are already posted on the Internet. My application was rejected. I only later realized what exactly needed to be sent. It’s best to send in your application either your cool profile on Shutterstock, or even better – a profile on Behance, where the works prepared in the style of the Creative Market website (a collection of pictures of the same subject with a beautiful cover) are laid out. Professional designers are purchased on the Creative Market microstock, so any small things and simple single pictures are not accepted there. You need to make a pack where you include 5-10 works in one style (font, backgrounds, brushes for Photoshop, icons, illustrations), in fact, Creative Market sells visual packages with your “corporate identity”. How not to get to Shutterstock? I created a profile on Shutter and uploaded the first 10 works for verification, selecting my favorite illustrations. I described each work in detail, added up to 50 tags (everything needs to be filled out in English). On the Shutterstock website you need to upload large-sized images – at least 4 megapixels (2000×2000 pixels or 1500×2500, etc.). About half a day passed and the answer came to me that out of 10 illustrations, only one was approved by me, this one:

The remaining 9 images were rejected for the reason: “There is no permission of the owner of the property for works of art: To send this material you need permission from the owner of the property for works of art, but it has not been provided. For materials that display works of art, such as paintings and drawings, obtain permission from the owner of the property for the property. ” I read about this permission, it turned out that this is paper that needs to be printed, filled out by hand, add the image of your drawing there (original?), Scan / take a picture and send it to the microstock, applying it to the uploaded image. This permission is indicated separately for the author of the work itself and separately for the person who photographed the work:

• Full name
• address
• phone
• date of creation
• instruments
• small picture itself
• signature

Such a procedure is performed for each image, which in their opinion is “similar to a work of art”, and the photographer and the author are probably different. In my case, this is all one face – I myself drew a picture, took a picture myself, uploaded it myself. But go and prove to Microstock that you are not a camel. I don’t know how often the pictures are wrapped in this way, it is possible if the illustration is made in digital format and, apart from the microstock, isn’t posted anywhere else on the Internet, then there will be no such problem. But it is not exactly. As a result, after several hours of work, I got one picture for sale on Shutterstock, and even then I still can’t find it by search, apparently, it is not displayed yet. I’m not sure that filling out papers for each work will at least somehow pay off by selling these illustrations. It’s one thing to upload and describe a picture that is already ready for me, and another thing is to spend an additional half an hour on papers for each work. And I have hundreds and thousands of them …. Here’s a story, friends. Share your successes and difficulties in earning money on the Internet with your creativity. I hope that after reading this article your case will go more successfully! Good luck and see you soon.