What it costs to be an artist - business plan:D

I recently see the posts about artists being asked to give away their art- be it paintings, music, written etc... so I found myself "playing with the numbers in my head".

This is a very primitive estimate about what is needed if You would like to take up painting:)

1. Computer, lets say we can pick up a basic laptop at R5000.  Computer is an essential as it is used to communicate with the clients and to see the reference photos. One can argue that it is possible to do all of that in internet cafe- well, it is, but I find laptop much more handy. And lets face it- printing in color these days cost quite a bit... especially if You need the same reference photo in different varieties. I tend to increase/ decrease color value quite a bit through the process- to understand the picture better;
2. Internet- again, can be used in internet cafe, but much easier to focus when one is at home. And if you are like me who like to paint at night- it is irreplaceable! I use about R150 a month in internet; 
3. Camera/ cell phone- to take photos and share your work. I would guess that R2000 shall do, if You don't have one already;
4. Paints - I would guess that about 20 colors should be enough to start with. I have about 35 tubes of acrylic paint and about 30 tubes of oil paint. Let's imagine you want to paint in oil paint. On avarage a tube of 50ml oil paint would cost you between R 45-70. You would by 20xR45= about R900
5. Brushes - the price on brushes is very variable, starting from as little as R5 for the small ones. 10 brushes would be a good start, R20 per brush = about R200;
6. Other materials like: as turpentine, linseed oil, detail, drying mediums, glazing, palette paper - just the basics would come to R600;
7. Canvas - of course the art will have to be painted on something... now this is hard to predict as it really depends on each individuals choices... An A3 stretched canvas costs about R50 (this is the one that does not need framing and can be hung as is). lets say You would use 2 in a months= R100
8. Easel- one should be able to find a free standing easel or easel-box for about R600
9. Website- well, this is not essential, but is nice to have:) self designed and private domain would can be found from as little as R100. 
10. Talent and painting classes- this really depends on each individual and can not be priced. 
11. Space and time- if You really wnat to paint, You will find it!:)

SO, what do we have here?

This all comes to R9650 + TALENT + Space & Time:)

The nice thing is - some of the items all of us already have at home and others can be bought one by one:) LET'S PAINT!!!

What do I need to start painting?
PS The cat and coffee optional :P