“Even more surprised to learn how little they were making.”
“Starving artist” has become a cliché, but it’s based on reality.
My oldest brother was a good artist and I never knew it until I happened to notice some of his high school notebooks had cartoon characters on them. I asked him and he had drawn them.
He said it was easy and showed me. I guess he got all the talent as I can barely draw stick figures.
His youngest daughter is a professional artist but I don’t think she makes much. She has had several shows of her work and on the internet it appears she has a lot of sales but it really doesn’t add up to a whole lot over a year.