As if earning money from being a painter is not hard enough. You’ll also have to deal with people who would hate your painting. There will be people who would insult you and criticize your painting. Obviously you’ll be pissed off because after all your hard work, your great vision is just ridiculed. You’ll just have to develop thicker skins. Here are some advices to survive the barrage of criticisms that you might expect.

1. Do it the Van Gogh way – Van Gogh was treated very differently about his paintings during his time, but look at where his paintings are now? Just be proud of what you do and be callous about what other people say.
2. In the art world, subject matter is not criticized. It is the technique and execution that is criticized. If the subject is criticized you have the right to be pissed off. The subject matter is really what the artist would want to express from his thoughts.
3. As said earlier your painting is your own thoughts expressed in painting and drawings. So don’t lose faith on yourself after all the criticism. Those critics are not the one’s you want to impress. There will definitely be a niche market for your art.
4. Consider your creative nature as an advantage. That’s why when artists get criticized for their work; they will tend to withdraw originality. They will just draw what is marketable. There are fewer artists that show their originality now.
5. Try to think about ignorant people who belittle your painting as ignorant people. They criticize things that they don’t know to prevent people from knowing how ignorant they are.
6. Try to tell a person who attacks you personally “I have a very unique imagination and I’m pretty sure there is a market for it. Surrealistic paintings are not for everyone but maybe you could learn more about it too.”
7. It really is hard to be insensitive about the critics but be tough and keep your own voice.
8. The true goal of the artist is not to change his or her vision but to improve how he or she uses the mediums to create his vision. To have a counter balance to those critics, try to find the market of people who enjoy originality. Just tell critics that you had that vision because nobody had done it before yet.

Bottom line is that to be original you would need to be willing to accept much criticism. You would just need to develop a tougher and stronger skin.