Think-tank on: squeezing all possible financial juice out of self-commissioned pieces

[Journeyman]

Can anyone suggest paths (unbeaten or conventional), that might enable one to create only works of one's own design and choosing (self-commissioned), and to reap LUCRATIVE financial benefit many times over from a single work... "making money while you sleep"... peddling a single work many times over, in may forms/venues, rather than just once??? All wildly unconventional suggestions are enthusiastically welcome! Thanks muchly!

[Szyslack]

i once heard of an artist from japan (whose name eludes me)
that did paintings of characters (a sort of anime style) and then made sculptures of them.

that might be something. anyway, just a thought.

also you could do like thomas kinkade. make a painting and then do print runs. something along those lines.

[Journeyman]

Thanks. I've been hearing as of late, that the print market is dead for many artists outside of the Fantasy/Sci-fi art field... (artists whose original work sells really well). Is this also the case for artists within the Fantasy/Sci-fi field?

[artkitty]

I have seen a lot of fantasy/sci fi artists successfully selling prints. These aren't high-quality but usually 6-color inkjet. At conventions they are more likely to sell 20 $5 prints than one $100 original, plus they keep the original to make more prints! However, if you don't have much of a fanbase you won't sell a significant number of prints. In other words, the more eyeballs on the art, the more money you will make. Get your art in some 'net galleries and get folks interested!