Digital Products for Your Art Lessons Business
Digital products let you monetize your expertise without creating new lessons every week. Unlike live instruction, which trades time for money, digital products scale—they sell multiple times with minimal effort after creation. For an art lessons business, this means leveraging your curriculum, techniques, and teaching experience into downloadable resources that students and other instructors will pay for.
The beauty of digital products is that they complement your core business. A student taking your live classes might also buy your painting process guide. A teacher in another region might purchase your lesson plan templates. You’re not competing with yourself—you’re reaching different segments and income streams from the same knowledge base.
Digital Product Ideas Specific to Art Lessons Businesses
Step-by-Step Painting or Drawing Tutorials (PDF or Video)
What it is: A complete guide breaking down a single painting or drawing into 15–30 manageable steps, with reference images, color swatches, and technique notes. This might be watercolor landscapes, portrait drawing, acrylic abstracts, or any specialty you teach.
Who buys it: Self-taught artists and hobbyists who want structured guidance without committing to ongoing classes.
How to create it: Film or photograph your own work at each stage, or illustrate the steps clearly. Write concise instructions for each phase. Bundle it as a PDF with images or create a short video series (5–15 minutes total). Spend 4–8 hours per tutorial depending on detail.
Where to sell it: Gumroad, Etsy (digital downloads), your own website, or Skillshare. You can also sell directly to your email list.
Realistic income: $8–25 per download. If you sell 20–50 copies per month, that’s $160–1,250 monthly per tutorial. Most creators make $200–600/month from one well-marketed tutorial.
Lesson Plan Templates and Curriculum Outlines
What it is: Ready-made lesson plans for specific skill levels (beginner to advanced) and mediums (watercolor, charcoal, digital). Include learning objectives, material lists, timing guides, and assessment rubrics.
Who buys it: Other art instructors, homeschool parents, and art teachers in schools who want professionally structured content without building from scratch.
How to create it: Document the lesson plans you’ve already developed. Format them clearly with headings, checkboxes, and example images. Create a 4-week or 8-week curriculum bundle. Spend 6–10 hours creating a full curriculum template.
Where to sell it: Teachers Pay Teachers (largest education marketplace), Etsy, or your own website. TpT audiences are primarily educators actively seeking classroom resources.
Realistic income: $5–20 per download depending on completeness. TpT creators with multiple lesson templates report $300–800/month from this category alone.
Reference Image Packs and Pose Collections
What it is: Curated collections of reference photos organized by category—hand gestures, facial expressions, figure poses, animal anatomy, landscape composition examples, or specific themes like “emotions in portraiture.”
Who buys it: Artists of all levels who struggle finding good references or need variety for practice.
How to create it: Source or photograph your own references. Organize into folders, add brief notes on what makes each useful, and license correctly if using any non-original images. Creating a 100–200 image pack takes 3–5 hours.
Where to sell it: Gumroad, Etsy, your website, or artist communities like Patreon. Digital artists and portrait painters are your primary audience.
Realistic income: $3–12 per pack. Selling 30–100 packs monthly is realistic, earning $90–1,200/month if well-marketed.
Technique Guides and Master Class Workbooks
What it is: In-depth guides on specific techniques you specialize in—glazing, stippling, perspective drawing, color mixing, blending, or composition. Include exercises, before-and-after examples, and troubleshooting tips.
Who buys it: Intermediate to advanced students wanting to deepen one specific skill without enrolling in full courses.
How to create it: Write from your teaching experience, including the mistakes you see repeatedly. Add illustrations or photos demonstrating the technique at different stages. Format as a PDF workbook (20–40 pages). Budget 8–12 hours per guide.
Where to sell it: Your website, Gumroad, or Patreon (where you can offer it as a tiered benefit). Email marketing works well for this product type.
Realistic income: $12–35 per workbook. Niche appeal means smaller volume but higher perceived value. Expect $250–700/month per guide.
Video Course or Mini-Course Library
What it is: A short, focused video course (3–10 lessons, 30–90 minutes total) on a single skill or medium. Less production-heavy than a full online course but more valuable than a one-off tutorial.
Who buys it: Serious students wanting structured learning at a lower price point than your live classes, plus learners globally who can’t access your in-person instruction.
How to create it: Outline 5–8 lessons, film yourself teaching at a reasonable quality (phone camera is acceptable), edit minimally for clarity, and upload to Teachable, Kajabi, or Vimeo On Demand. First course takes 15–25 hours; subsequent ones are faster.
Where to sell it: Your own Teachable or Kajabi site (recommended for credibility), or platforms like Skillshare, Udemy, or Creative Live.
Realistic income: $17–47 per student. Selling 20–50 courses monthly generates $340–2,350/month. Udemy caps prices and takes 50%, so pricing strategy matters.
Coloring Pages, Sketch Pages, and Practice Sheets
What it is: Blank or partially drawn pages designed for student practice—adult coloring books, anatomy practice sheets, still-life composition grids, or blank perspective grids.
Who buys it: Your current students, hobbyists, stress-relief seekers (coloring), teachers, and parents looking for quality art activities.
How to create it: Design or draw original artwork, create grid versions or line-art printables, and format as PDFs. One sheet takes 1–2 hours; bundling 20–50 sheets into a book takes 6–10 hours.
Where to sell it: Etsy (strong market for printables), Amazon KDP (print-on-demand coloring books), or Gumroad.
Realistic income: $1–5 per download. High volume is key—200–500 downloads monthly earns $200–2,500. Coloring books on Amazon KDP average $300–800/month per title.
Resource Bundles (Tools, Brushes, Textures, Fonts)
What it is: Digital assets for digital artists—Procreate brush sets, Photoshop brushes, texture packs, pattern libraries, or custom fonts designed for lettering and illustration.
Who buys it: Digital artists and tablet painters, particularly those using Procreate or Photoshop.
How to create it: Design 20–50 brushes or textures within your specialty software, test them thoroughly, and package as downloadable files. Takes 8–15 hours depending on customization level.
Where to sell it: Gumroad (easiest), Creative Fabrica, Etsy, or your website. Digital artist communities and design forums are good marketing channels.
Realistic income: $5–20 per bundle. Niche audience but high repeat buyers. Monthly earnings: $150–600 per product.
Artist Business Templates and Pricing Guides
What it is: Practical resources other art instructors and freelance artists need—contract templates, rate-setting worksheets, invoice templates, social media content calendars, or marketing checklists specific to art education.
Who buys it: Other art teachers, freelance artists, and aspiring instructors building their own business.
How to create it: Create templates in Google Docs or Canva, based on systems you’ve used. Add guidance notes and examples. Bundling 3–5 templates takes 5–8 hours.
Where to sell it: Gumroad, Etsy, or your website. Market to art business communities, teaching networks, and your email list.
Realistic income: $7–25 per bundle. Expect $200–500/month for a well-targeted product.
Getting Started With Digital Products
- Start with your easiest product: Choose a step-by-step tutorial for a painting or drawing you already know inside-out. You’ve taught this before, so creating the guide is mostly documentation, not new work.
- Create and test it yourself: Film or photograph the process. Write clear instructions. Ask a student or friend to follow it and give feedback. Refine based on confusion points.
- Choose one platform: Start with Gumroad or Etsy—both are simple, require no technical setup, and handle payment processing. Pick whichever aligns with where your audience already shops.
- Price competitively: Research similar products. Price 10–20% lower initially to gain sales velocity and reviews.
- Write a strong product description: Use your teaching voice. Explain what they’ll learn, what level it’s for, and what they’ll create. Be honest about time commitment.
- Promote to your existing audience first: Email your students, post on social media, and mention it during class. Existing customers convert fastest and often leave reviews.
- Create a second product within 4–6 weeks: One product generates inconsistent income. Three to five products across different price points create stability.
- Automate delivery and support: Set up automatic download links and create a FAQ document answering common questions. This saves you time handling inquiries.
Pricing Your Digital Products
Art students and teachers understand that quality instruction has value. They’re accustomed to paying for classes and supplies, so they expect to pay for professional resources. Price based on depth and perceived outcome, not the time you spent creating it. A comprehensive 8-week curriculum guide can command $25–45 because it replaces hours of lesson planning. A single practice sheet might be $2–5 because it’s utility-focused.
Don’t undercharge to compete. Low prices attract bargain hunters who don’t value your work, leave poor reviews, and create support headaches. Mid-to-premium pricing ($10–40 for most products) attracts serious students who appreciate quality, use what they buy, and provide positive feedback. Test different price points on similar products, measure conversion rates, and adjust based on what sells consistently, not what theoretically “should” sell.