FEBRUARY: MAKING GNOMES
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Are you one of those Sims who prefer being your own boss? Then there is a great variety of home businesses available to you, and in our new series of articles we will focus on their possibilities and restrictions. This time we suggest the painting business with related assets.

Painting is something most of us relay to with joy and not really a job, and many households already have an easel for recreation. Is it really possible to live from painting, turning this hobby into a home business? Yes!

Skills and equipment
So who can start a painting business, and what does it take? Painting do require your creativity to be worked on, but the good thing is that this 
skill will be developed as you paint! In other words - absolutely no wasted time reading books before you get started! In addition this activity can be exhausting to some Sims, because you stand on your feet all day. You will need a good physic, but also a very comfortable chair for your breaks. But if you don't plan to work extremely hard, this is no big problem.

Painting has one more good side, it IS fun, especially if you don't require miracles to get amused.

The equipment needed to get started is basically the Easel which costs around §250. On the many web shops you can find a great assortment of different easels, which will be useful if you need to switch motives.

Your painting studio - or corner - should also include a comfortable chair, a coffee machine and perhaps a radio. And because of the risk of spoiling your clothes while painting, you need a frock or some old clothes. Don't forget good light, or large windows if you work during daylight hours.

Becoming the new Simardo DaSimski?
So you would like to start painting, but are not sure you are talented enough? Then you will be happy to know there are many different kinds of work where the easel can be used, not only painting for the galleries. You don't need to dream of becoming the new Simardo DaSimski, you don't even need to want to call yourself an artist. Most painting Sims working at home do paint traditional paintings for the walls, probably dreaming of fame and glory, but you can also do technical sketches for others to compile. Get in touch with the companies Downtown, they might need your ideas and sketches for a lot of things. You can design logos and entire profile programs, you can even paint calendars.

When you sell your painting you might never see it again, because it will not show up in the local catalogue, and your neighbours will not put it on their wall. What happens is that you sell your work to the huge SimNation Art Agent that will then decide whether your work is interesting for the market. The problem is that thousands of Sims do paint the same motives and the market is flooded by these works, lowering the value. This will not affect your earnings though, because the SimNation Art Agent do pay you a standard sum no matter what you paint.

If you want to really put your signature on the art business by making sure your work is made available in the catalogues, you will 
need to fulfil the framing and marketing process yourself. With a computer, any image program and the technical tool "SimsArtStudio" (provided by Maxis) you can deliver completed art works without too much extra work. It will not pay you any extra.

The paycheque
Working at home can never be compared to a top level job elsewhere, but if your home is satisfyingly equipped and you don't need a lot of Simoleons right away, painting will pay pretty well. You get paid per picture according to your creativity skill level, which will be maxed out soon enough. From then you get up to §166 for each of your completed works. Kids will not build their creativity skills from painting, so either they are talented or not, and a talented kid might get §100-§166 for each painting.

It is possible to paint 2 pictures in one day, but in the long run you should not base your budget on more than 1 painting per day, which will take about 3.5 hours, but longer if you are not in the mood for painting.

There is the risk that you on some days won't feel inspired to work at all, which might become a problem if you are short of money. This will normally happen if you are very bored or sad, but who wants to work if their life is in chaos, any way?

From the neighbourhoods
In Simmerville there are several residents adding to their household budget from painting. BB Hanssen has her own studio where she paints motives for her wallpapers. Artist Chris JB paints for his own art gallery, and Cassie Moulino do paint sketches for a SimNation company that produces wrap-in paper, paper bags and other products for the shops. Painting has actually been the main income to the Moulino household, and with 6 children Mrs Moulino has worked very hard to support them all. The Moulinos are still isolated as they are affected by the plague virus, but via e-mail Cassie Moulino told me that if it wasn't for their most talented kids it might not have worked out that easily. Kids drawings provide good ideas for wrap-in paper, but their help will of course not be valued as much for all kind of painting businesses. In their case 3 painting household members did secure a minimum income even if Mrs Moulino needed a day off, and the kids were never forced to paint more than they wanted. She also recall a situation when she had to paint a picture in order to feed her hungry family of 8.

Photo top: Many Sims do spend their days painting at home. Running your own painting studio can be what you miss in your life!