Digital Products for Your Caricature Artist Business
As a caricature artist, most of your income comes from live events and commissions—but digital products let you generate revenue while you sleep. These products leverage your expertise and artistic skills without requiring you to be present for each sale. A caricature artist can create instructional content, templates, design assets, and reference materials that appeal to aspiring artists, event planners, and clients who want to learn your techniques or use your work as inspiration.
Digital products also build your brand authority and create additional touchpoints with potential clients. Someone who buys your caricature tutorial might hire you for their next corporate event.
Caricature Drawing Tutorial Course
What it is: A step-by-step video course teaching your caricature technique, from facial proportion distortion to inking and coloring methods. Include real-time demonstrations and before-and-after examples of your own work.
Who buys it: Art students, hobbyists wanting to improve their skills, and aspiring caricature artists looking to start their own business.
How to create it: Record yourself drawing 8–12 caricatures at various skill levels, narrating your process and explaining your approach to exaggeration and likeness. Edit the videos, create downloadable worksheets with facial feature breakdowns, and compile everything into modules. This typically takes 20–40 hours to produce properly.
Where to sell it: Sell on Teachable, Gumroad, or your own website. You can also list it on Skillshare or Udemy, though they take a larger cut of revenue.
Realistic income: $200–$800 per month if you actively promote it. A course priced at $37–$67 needs 5–20 sales monthly to reach this range.
Facial Feature Reference Guide (PDF)
What it is: A downloadable PDF showing 50+ variations of eyes, noses, mouths, and ears with caricature-specific exaggeration examples. Include your annotations explaining proportions and distortion rules.
Who buys it: Beginning artists, illustrators wanting to improve character design, and other caricature artists looking for anatomical references.
How to create it: Draw or photograph different facial features, scan or digitize them, and compile them into a organized PDF with clear labels and your notes. Add a section comparing realistic vs. exaggerated versions. This takes 8–15 hours depending on depth.
Where to sell it: Gumroad, Etsy (digital downloads category), or your own website. These platforms work well for lower-priced assets.
Realistic income: $150–$400 per month at a $7–$12 price point. Reference guides typically see steady long-tail sales with minimal marketing effort.
Quick-Sketch Gesture Drawing Workbook
What it is: A printable PDF workbook with blank spaces for sketching practice, including prompts for 2-minute gesture caricatures, proportion grids, and face-shape templates specific to your style.
Who buys it: Art students, practicing caricature artists, and hobbyists wanting structured daily practice.
How to create it: Design the workbook pages in Canva or Adobe InDesign with your grid systems and prompts. Include 30–50 practice pages with varying difficulty levels. Add a quick-start guide explaining how to use the book. Production time is 6–12 hours.
Where to sell it: Etsy, Gumroad, or your website. This type of product also works well offered as a lead magnet on your email list at a low price or free.
Realistic income: $100–$300 per month at $4–$8. High volume with minimal customer support.
Caricature Business Starter Checklist & Template Kit
What it is: A bundle of templates and checklists for running a caricature business: pricing calculators, event proposal templates, invoice designs, equipment shopping lists, and a simple marketing calendar.
Who buys it: New caricature artists starting their business, artists transitioning from hobbyist to professional, and people considering launching a caricature service.
How to create it: Document your own systems and convert them into editable templates using Google Docs, Word, or Canva. Include a pricing guide based on your real experience (event length, group size, complexity). Compile everything into one downloadable folder. Takes 10–18 hours.
Where to sell it: Your website, Gumroad, or Etsy. This works especially well on your own site because it can drive people toward your caricature booking page.
Realistic income: $250–$600 per month at $29–$49. Buyers are serious about the business, so conversion rates are often higher than cheaper products.
Custom Caricature Portrait Commissions (Digital Versions)
What it is: High-resolution digital caricatures you create on-demand and deliver as downloadable files (JPEG, PNG, or PDF). Clients can print them, frame them, or share them digitally.
Who buys it: Corporate clients needing personalized artwork, individuals wanting a memorable gift, social media influencers, and people unable to attend live events.
How to create it: Offer a simple order form on your website where clients upload a photo and specify details (style, size, background). Create the caricature digitally using your usual software, then send the final file via email or download link. Turnaround is typically 3–7 days per commission.
Where to sell it: Your own website with a simple shopping cart, Etsy, or through a Gumroad storefront.
Realistic income: $300–$1,200 per month depending on price and volume. Digital commissions priced at $50–$150 each with 5–10 orders per month generate solid supplemental income.
Caricature Event Planning Guide for Party Planners
What it is: A guide written specifically for event planners and business owners explaining how to hire and work with a caricature artist, what to expect, setup requirements, and tips for maximizing guest engagement.
Who buys it: Event planners, corporate event coordinators, wedding planners, and venue managers who want to understand caricature services better.
How to create it: Write a detailed guide (15–25 pages) based on your experience working events. Cover logistics, budget estimates, timing, guest flow, equipment needs, and best practices. Add testimonials from happy clients and before-and-after event photos. Takes 12–20 hours to write and design.
Where to sell it: Your website, Gumroad, or even Amazon Kindle for wider reach. This product has a built-in audience of people who might hire you for events.
Realistic income: $200–$500 per month at $19–$37. This attracts serious professional buyers with higher willingness to pay.
Digital Caricature Brushes and Design Assets
What it is: Procreate brushes, Photoshop brushes, or Clip Studio Paint assets designed specifically for caricature work. Include custom brushes for exaggerated features, inking, and texture.
Who buys it: Digital artists using the same software as you, illustrators, and other caricature artists wanting to speed up their workflow.
How to create it: Design or customize brushes in your primary software, test them thoroughly, and export them in the correct format. Create a quick video showing the brushes in action. Takes 5–10 hours to develop a full set.
Where to sell it: Gumroad, Etsy, or specialized marketplaces like Creative Fabrica.
Realistic income: $100–$400 per month at $8–$15 per asset pack. This is passive income with minimal ongoing work.
Getting Started With Digital Products
- Start with the Facial Feature Reference Guide. It requires the least production time (8–15 hours) and leverages work you’ve probably already done. The PDF format is simple, and Gumroad or Etsy make uploading straightforward.
- Set up a Gumroad account (free to join) and upload your first product. Gumroad handles payments, delivery, and minimal customer service.
- Price it at $7–$12 and share it on your social media channels where you already have an audience.
- After your first product sells 10 times, create your second product—either the Quick-Sketch Workbook or Digital Commissions, whichever aligns with your available time.
- Add digital products to your website as you create them, linking them from your main menu or blog.
- Promote each new product through email (if you have a list), your social media, and mentions on your main caricature booking page.
- Track which products sell best and reinvest profits into creating more of those types or improving existing ones.
Pricing Your Digital Products
Price digital products lower than your live services—a one-hour caricature event might cost $500, but a tutorial course should be $37–$67. Buyers expect digital products to be more affordable because they require no personalization or your time after creation. However, don’t underprice: a course or guide created by you, an established caricature artist, is worth more than a generic drawing tutorial. People buying from you are paying for your proven style and professional perspective.
For bundles and kits (like the Business Starter Checklist), position them as time-saving tools that would cost much more to hire someone to create. Price them at $29–$49 and emphasize the hours of experience reflected in their content. For reference guides and asset packs, $7–$15 is standard, but don’t go lower unless you’re building your list for other sales channels.