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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/starving_artist.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:A Starving Artist [[SequentialArtist by a]] Starving Artist[[note]]Carl Spitzweg, "The Poor Poet"[[/note]]]]
3
4->''"I'm a trained actor reduced to the status of a bum!''"
5-->-- '''Withnail''', ''Film/WithnailAndI''
6
7They've got [[PerpetualPoverty little money]], and lots of talent (or [[GiftedlyBad not]]). Being an artist isn't a career with steady pay, and art supplies are [[CrackIsCheaper expensive]]. Artists that haven't quite reached commercial success (or haven't gotten picked up by a wealthy patron) often live poorly.
8
9Due to [[TruthInTelevision several influential artists having historically been starving artists]], the inherent dramatic potential of being talented but cash-deprived, and the appeal of living a life without material possessions, these portrayals are often quite romantic.
10
11If they've got all of the starving but none of the talent, they're GiftedlyBad. If they are still in art school they are also a StarvingStudent. If they wear shabby clothes and eat mac & cheese because they're actively ''trying'' to project the image of being a struggling artist, they're probably a {{hipster}}.
12
13Because MostWritersAreWriters, the Starving Writer is a common protagonist in these circumstances. If combined with OneHourWorkWeek (as it often is), the reader may come away with the impression that they'd have a better chance of making money if they ''[[BrilliantButLazy ever did any writing]]''.
14
15If the Starving Artist has relatives, expect them to be pushing for the character to "grow up" and "get a real job". Generally, if success is elusive, expect them to eventually take up a [[WaitingForABreak steady but unfulfilling job]] with a boring, bourgeois lifestyle, or to [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth die tragically]].
16
17Related to BrilliantButLazy, for the genius who has no money because they don't apply themselves. See also ReclusiveArtist, SensitiveArtist, and EccentricArtist for other artist stereotypes.
18
19----
20!!Examples:
21
22[[foldercontrol]]
23
24[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25* In ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'', the title character and Nobita go back in time to help a starving artist at least once, and on another occasion tried to use time travel to buy the works of a now-famous (and obscenely rich) painter. [[spoiler: They ended up buying a painting made by Nobita's father, who apprenticed under the artist as a college student.]]
26* Satoru Fujinuma is one in ''Manga/{{Erased}}''. He's had one hit manga but has mostly been in a slump, with his editor telling him that his stories don't seem to connect for some reason. He works part-time as a pizza delivery driver to help make ends meet in the meantime.
27* In ''Literature/{{Gate}}'', Risa is a doujinshi artist, but she can barely afford to pay her electric and heating bills and often has nothing to eat but soy milk and cereal.
28* ''Manga/TheGodsLie'': Natsuru Nanao's mother Ritsuko is a widow who tries to make money writing light novels; each time we see her at home, she is suffering WritersBlock, and what little Natsuru gets to read indicates that he doesn't find her writings that interesting. As a result, the two of them frequently have cheap take-out and microwaveable food for meals.
29* Kia Freeborn from ''Anime/HeatGuyJ''. He works several odd jobs while trying to become a famous guitarist. Incidentally, Kia once ''did'' lead a very comfortable and pampered life (also, Kia is ''not'' his birth name), until his father (a famous musician) fell victim to the SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll trope, and eventually left his wife when he got TheMistress pregnant, and started a new life with ''her'', leaving Kia and his mother in the lurch.
30** Another character is a (supposedly talented) poet who borrowed money from TheMafia, ostensibly to work on his poems and make a better life for himself and [[YamatoNadeshiko his girlfriend]], but ended up [[TheGamblingAddict gambling it all away]] and having a huge debt to pay back. He tries pleading with Clair to allow him to either get an extension on the repayment or get the debt forgiven. Clair agrees, on the condition that the poet writes him a poem that's to his liking. (None of the poems are, needless to say. To be fair, they were pretty painful to listen to, but it's unlikely that Clair, being the SmugSnake that he is, would have forgiven the debt even if the poet ''had'' written genuinely wonderful poems.) The poet gets a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Clair and is (literally) thrown out the door where his girlfriend is waiting.
31* Inverted in ''Manga/MakeTheExorcistFallInLove''. Imuri is a world-renowned artist whose paintings are so beloved that she is said to be one of the wealthiest people in the world. She claims to have an income rivaling the top 3% of earners.
32* Subaru in ''Manga/MyRoommateIsACat'' is this because he's TheShutIn who gets so fixated on trying to meet his deadlines as a writer that he forgets to eat (or sleep). SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs and he ends up passing out due to lack of food the first time we see this. He winds up reflexively eating a bowl of Haru's catfood after she becomes so worried about him that she pushes it over to him after he collapses. All his friends and neighbors comment on how underweight he looks, too. As the series progresses, he becomes better at taking care of himself.
33* One VictimOfTheWeek in ''Anime/SailorMoon Super S'' was this trope. He was starving because his drawings were ''too'' realistic for people to believe them accurate (think self-delusion or inflated ego). When he collapses in front of Usagi, she takes him home and (for only the second time) cooks curry. In spite of its horrid appearance, he joyously scarfs it down. Few later he's "hired" by Cere Cere, who has targeted him under the disguise of a RichBitch; when he refuses to make a portrait of her on the grounds that there's something fake in her beauty and he won't paint it, she attacks him.
34[[/folder]]
35
36[[folder:Arts]]
37* ''The Poor Poet'' (pictured above) is a painting by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Carl Spitzweg]] that depicts this.
38* Many real-life painters lived near poverty and depicted their harsh living circumstances in their work: Creator/VincentVanGogh, Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec, ...
39[[/folder]]
40
41[[folder:Comic Books]]
42* In the satirical comic ''ComicBook/ArneAnka'', which is partially biographical and based on the artist's life as a Starving Artist in the early '80s, though unlike him, the main character Arne is a poet and writer rather than an illustrator. Arne's best friend Krille is a bit more successful, being a semi-successful director, but still often had money issues.
43%%* UndergroundComics artist Creator/DoriSeda.
44%%* Kuno Klecksel from Creator/WilhelmBusch's stories, sometimes
45* The Swedish edition of ''[[Magazine/{{MAD}} MAD Magazine]]'' ran a comic in the early '80s set in Konstfack, the University Of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. One of the classes shown was teaching the students this trope, such as surviving an entire week on a glass of ketchup and painting your semester final project, a mouth-watering oil painting of a three-course dinner made out of food-scented wax after a month of starvation. Needless to say, the students taking that class are somewhat worse for wear.
46* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': When Tim needed to hire someone to play the part of his non-existent uncle indefinitely he looked for actors who were good at their craft, looked enough like family to pass as such, and were so chronically out of work and broke that they'd be willing to take the bizarre job. He didn't have any trouble finding one.
47* Wallace from ''ComicBook/SinCity'' is an artist who has a great deal of talent but his perverted boss demands that he make pornographic artwork. He refuses and barely has enough cash to scrape together. Dwight, an aspiring photographer had the same problem with the same boss.
48
49[[/folder]]
50
51[[folder:Fan Works]]
52* Dame Lyra Heartstrings of ''FanFic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse'' is ''not'' this trope, but seems unable to convince her friend Dame Trixie that she actually does make plenty of money. Though even Lyra will admit that while her work pays well, the hours can be pretty random, and she does sometimes run into cash-flow problems.
53* Averted hard in ''FanFic/TheVictorsProject'': Where Luxe St. James, the most artistic of the victors, is also the wealthiest due to having been from an affluent family even before receiving his victors salary.
54[[/folder]]
55
56[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
57* ''WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseDeath'' focuses on Death meeting a down on his luck artist named Vincent; she even namedrops this trope.
58[[/folder]]
59
60[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
61* ''Film/{{Airheads}}'': The Lone Rangers start out this way. Rex works in a toy store, Pip works as a pool boy, and Chazz is unemployed, living off his girlfriend, who works as a secretary.
62%%* Creator/GeneKelly as Jerry Mulligan in ''Film/AnAmericanInParis''.
63%%* ''Film/WithnailAndI'' has the protagonists as such.
64* The protagonists of ''Film/DesignForLiving'', played by Creator/GaryCooper and Fredric March, are a starving painter and playwright respectively. March proudly declares "I write unproduced plays," and Cooper freely admits his annual salary is zero and that he survives "on miracles."
65* Reno, the VillainProtagonist of ''Film/TheDrillerKiller'', barely makes a living out of selling his paintings, which actually don't sell. This is just the start of his descent into a madman on a power-tool-fueled killing spree.
66* ''Film/TheElectricalLifeOfLouisWain'': Due to a string of bad financial decisions, including not copyrighting his art, illustrator Louis Wain descends further into poverty as he gets older. He is only kept from passing away in a dinky mental hospital by pure chance.
67* ''Film/GauguinVoyageToTahiti'': French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin decides to leave France for Tahiti, where he thinks he will be able to paint without having to worry to make ends meet.
68* Nelson from ''Film/IfYouCouldSayItInWords'' is a struggling painter who longs for the opportunity to sell out, but nobody's buying. One scene has him listening to a series of messages on his phone about how he's behind on different payments.
69* The eponymous protagonist of ''Film/InsideLlewynDavis'' lives a hand-to-mouth, semi-vagrant existence crashing on the couches of acquaintances and relatives, at least those that he has not completely antagonized yet.
70%%* Émile Zola and Paul Cézanne are doing this in 1937's ''Film/TheLifeOfEmileZola'', to the point that the opening scene looks like a ShoutOut to ''Theatre/LaBoheme''.
71* ''Film/Max2002'' features UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler as a young artist after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, barely able to afford to eat.
72* The Bohemians in ''Film/MoulinRouge'' -- all of whom are so absinthe-addled and otherwise quirky that it's not hard to see how they can't keep steady employment even in world Montmarte.
73%%* The protagonist in ''Film/ThePianist''.
74* Tony Hancock's character in ''Film/TheRebel'' has a hard time getting by in Paris until a fellow artist's work is mistaken for his, at which point he becomes the toast of the town.
75* At the start of ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', Jerry and Joe are poor musicians in Chicago who have to sell their overcoats (in '''February''') to make ends meet after Joe makes a bad bet.
76* ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'' has Joe Gillis as a starving Hollywood screenwriter.
77[[/folder]]
78
79[[folder:Jokes]]
80* Two old actors are sitting on a bench. One says: "How long has it been since you had a job?" The other actor says "Thirty-two years -- how about you?" The first actor says, "That's nothing. I haven't had a job in forty years!" The other says, "One of these days we've got to get out of this business!"
81[[/folder]]
82
83[[folder:Literature]]
84* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'': Feyre, although she's not starving because she's an artist, she's starving because her family fell from grace. Still, Feyre loves painting and art, and secretly dreams of living a peaceful life where she can paint all she wants. Eventually she loses the "starving" part.
85* Jack in the book ''Literature/TwoOClockEasternWartime''. All three of the protagonists are-- one is a novelist, one is a man looking to have a radio show, and the other is a singer, and they are barely scraping together money to survive.
86* In one of Creator/MarkTwain's short stories, there are two starving artists who decide to con their way into getting money. They make a bunch of art and manufacture a story about how the artist who painted these things is fatally ill. [[DeadArtistsAreBetter Naturally, the artist in question eventually "dies", and his paintings become valuable overnight.]] (This really happened. Look up [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern_Malley Ernest Malley]].)
87* ''Scenes de la Vie de Boheme'' is a novel by Henri Murger about 4 different starving artists that served as the inspiration for ''Theatre/LaBoheme''.
88* The title character of Creator/FranzKafka's ''The Hunger Artist'' not only doesn't make much for his completely under-appreciated art form, but he also represents this trope in the most literal way imaginable by using self-starvation as his medium. Kafka himself was an example.
89** Though Kafka's art wasn't his livelihood, and he never even attempted to publish his works and ordered them destroyed in his will - a clause which thankfully wasn't fulfilled.
90** Also note that Kafka actually had a pretty well-paying and thoroughly bourgeois job as an insurance agent, which he, however, felt to be empty and unfulfilling, thus turning his passion to writing.
91* Creator/JamesJoyce lived much of his life in poverty, and by extension his AuthorAvatar Stephen Dedalus, in ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'', does as well.
92* ''Literature/OfHumanBondage'' has the protagonist and all of the supporting characters in this situation at some point; the view of the artist ranges from one committing suicide because they have completely starved, and the others romanticizing it and foolishly comparing it all to Theatre/LaBoheme.
93* In Creator/DorothyGilman's ''Literature/TheClairvoyantCountess'', Madame Karitska's landlord is this, which is why he has to have her rent on time.
94* The protagonists of the Literature/JasonKeltner mysteries start out as a starving musician, a starving artist, and a starving actor, and get drawn into mysteries when Jason is set up to take the fall or otherwise fail. Years later they become comfortable on steady commercial work; far from starving, but also far from what they envisioned as a success.
95* In ''Literature/VenissUnderground'', Nicholas starts the novel as an unsuccessful holo artist, dependent on loans from his sister.
96* Creator/KnutHamsun wrote the novel ''Hunger'' in 1890, telling the story of a writer who...
97---> Went around in Christiania, starving.
98* ''Literature/NinaTanleven'': Byron Fletcher is specifically referred to as one in ''The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed'', and identified as "following in the family tradition" because of it.
99* ''Literature/TheAmyVirus'': The reason why Cyan's father discourages her drumming and songwriting hobbies, and doesn't want her older sister Tam to go to Rhode Island School of Design for college, is because he believes that being a doctor is the only way to make a living in the current 2010s US economy. However, this belief also demonstrates one of the ways Daniel [[ControlFreak enforces his control over his family]]. Not only is he insistent that they attend Caltech, his Alma Mater, despite being other good colleges out there, but he also goes so far as to confiscate any of Cyan's music and instruments to keep her from practicing her hobby. Also, in Tam's case, she's planning on averting this by majoring in Industrial Design at RISD, which would help her find a very good career where she can use her artistry.
100* ''Creator/DickFrancis'': Varies from book to book. It Subverted in ''Shattered'', where Gerry Logan does quite well at his business. Played straight in ''Longshot'' (up to and including the leaking garrett.) In ''To the Hilt'' and ''In the Frame'', the artists live unconventional lives, but are far from financially strapped. Contrast with ''Reflex'' where the art (photography) is pure hobby.
101* Pierre Gringoire from Creator/VictorHugo's ''Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' is a Starving Poet, and generally the [[ButtMonkey laughing stock of Paris]]. He finally moves past this come the ending, where he [[spoiler: starts writing tragedies following the traumatic events of the main story.]]
102* PlayedForLaughs in ''{{Literature/Thud}}'', where one MadArtist was reduced to begging in the street... for paints to finish his masterwork.
103-->'''Curator:''' Well, he neglected his other work, you see. He was constantly moving his lodgings because he couldn't pay the rent and he had to drag that huge canvas with him. Imagine! He had to beg for paints in the street, which took up a lot of his time, since not many people have a tube of Burnt Umber on them.
104* At the beginning of ''Literature/TheSorrowsOfSatan'', Geoffrey Tempest is an ImpoverishedPatrician who tried to find work as a writer, but was unable to get any of his manuscripts published, and has recently been fired from a steady job as a CausticCritic for writing a positive review. By the time [[{{Satan}} Lucio]] enters his life, he's on the brink of starvation.
105* ''Literature/RosaleenAmongTheArtists'': During her marriage to Lawrence Iverson, Rosaleen works as an illustrator, but she can't bring in enough money to make ends meet, especially with Lawrence's expensive tastes. She's resorted to borrowing money she knows she'll never be able to pay back, even though it makes her feel humiliated.
106[[/folder]]
107
108[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
109* On a two-episode arc of "Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', Sally dates one of these. He seems more concerned with brooding about how depressing the world is, bumming food from people, and generally "looking like a tortured artist" than actually making any art. Harry, at one point, calls him this trope by name.
110* In ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Elaine's ex-boyfriend was an artist. She remarks that he's pretty fat for an artist. Most of the time when the GirlOfTheWeek was an artist on Seinfeld, there were remarks that it was probably why their work was expensive.
111* One PatientOfTheWeek on ''Series/{{House}}'' was an artist who couldn't sell any of his work and participated in clinical trials to get money so he could hide this from his girlfriend.
112* The blonde dad from ''Series/MyTwoDads'' was this and was called this by the brunette dad.
113* In an episode of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' Blanche gives money to an artist she meets in the waiting room at the mental health clinic who had burned all his brushes to stay warm. [[spoiler:He turns out to be a compulsive liar.]]
114* Richard in ''Series/CarolineInTheCity'', scraping by on being Caroline's colorist while waiting for his break. One episode addressed it directly when a doodle he made and accidentally sent in with Caroline's comic generated some interest, Richard flat-out refused. Richard said he didn't want to sell out; Caroline wondered if he wasn't just in love with the whole romantic idea of the Starving Artist.
115* Brian Topp in ''Series/{{Spaced}}''. His work is inspired by [[TrueArtIsAngsty "anger... pain... fear... aggression..."]] and is [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible "a lot more complicated"]] than watercolours. His PerpetualPoverty once left him unable to pay the rent and required him to make an, ahem, ''[[TheNoodleIncident arrangement]]'' with his [[AbhorrentAdmirer landlady]]. He's never been able to live it down.
116* When Caitlin gets a VisitByDivorcedDad in ''Series/CaitlinsWay'', he is a potter and his lack of money gets him blamed for a counterfeit scam.
117* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
118** The episode "Vincent and the Doctor" focused on the starving artist Creator/VincentVanGogh. As mentioned in the RealLife section, Van Gogh's paintings never sold well when he was alive, and the episode focuses heavily on the man's mental health on account of this, his depression, and his psychic visions which make him seem crazy.
119** The Fourth Doctor, "[[ProductionNickname the bohemian]]", borrows heavily from the romanticised image of this character type in terms of his scruffy physical appearance, fashion sense, interests (art, poetry, music, acting - he is one of only a few Doctors who show any interest in creating art himself) and other superficial personality traits. The original concept for his costume design was the famous poster of Aristide Bruant by Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec. His actual personality is much weirder than this, though.
120* Wendy Watson in ''Series/TheMiddleman'', which is the plot driver for her to take the job at the Jolly Fats Wehawkin Temp Agency. To a lesser extent, her young, photogenic, animal activist room-mate Lacy Thornfield.
121* In ''Series/FawltyTowers'', Polly does sketches, but doesn't sell enough to let her quit her [[DysfunctionJunction hectic]] waitressing job.
122* The [=HBO=] series of the same name portrays the ''Music/FlightOfTheConchords'' as broke artists and plays it for laughs. In the episode, "New Cup", they can't pay rent this month because Bret bought a cup, not an unusual expensive cup, a regular cup. In the finale, they get evicted not because they didn't pay rent, but because they were paying in New Zealand dollars. Though [[StylisticSuck they're bad]] and not GiftedlyBad so much as comically bad.
123* in the ''Series/InsideNo9'' episode "Tom and Gerri", Gerri is an actress who's been unemployed for several months and owes her boyfriend a lot of money (which causes tension between them.) She's reduced to auditioning for the part of "D-Day Doris" in a play touring retirement homes because she can't find any other work.
124* Stuart from ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is a graduate of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and a talented illustrator, considering the quite stunning sketch of Penny he did back in season one. He's also spent most of the series' run stuck in PerpetualPoverty, as [[LocalHangout the comic store he runs]], which is also his primary source of income, tends to barely allow him to make ends meet. [[ThrowTheDogABone Occasionally his luck does improve, though.]] [[spoiler:[[RunningGagged Subverted late in the series when his financial status improves permanently, so that he no longer qualifies for the "starving" part.]]]]
125* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E08CrossroadBlues Crossroad Blues]]": George Darrow [[DealWithTheDevil sold his soul to a demon]] in exchange for artistic talent and spent the next ten years making amazing paintings... that nobody wanted to buy. Broke and alone, he spends his last days working on his final masterpiece and wishing he'd asked the demon for fame and fortune instead.
126* Mr. Jellinek on ''Series/StrangersWithCandy'' quits his teaching job to pursue his dream of being an artist and within days is homeless and penniless. Somewhat justified in that we pay teachers shamefully low wages so it's not unrealistic that he wouldn't have much savings.
127[[/folder]]
128
129[[folder: Music]]
130* ''Music/TheDillards'': "Ebo Walker" tells about a farm boy whose fiddle-playing hobby became a full-time vocation. He left Kentucky after his father cussed him out for failing to do any work on the farm. Afterwards, he wandered around playing the fiddle, living off food and drink from listeners.
131[[/folder]]
132
133[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
134* Funny J. Floyd of ''ComicStrip/{{Sam|s Strip}} and Silo'' is a poet who can't sell his books, wears shabby clothing, and at least appears to be homeless.
135[[/folder]]
136
137[[folder:Theater]]
138* ''Theatre/LaBoheme'', the famous 1896 opera, as well as ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'', its [[SettingUpdate modern update]].
139* ''Theatre/MySisterEileen'' and TheMusical ''Theatre/WonderfulTown'' have Ruth Sherwood, an aspiring young writer whose stories don't come back only when she can't pay the return postage, and her sister Eileen, a would-be actress. They don't get much choice in what food they eat and have difficulty coming up with money for subway and bus fares.
140* In ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'', Cyrano is a talented artist/writer. He's still dirt poor because he spends most of his time writing satiric letters that insult everyone he sees as false -- which is everyone. His willingness to spend an entire month's allowance on a single grand gesture doesn't help either. The poets who frequent Raguenau's company are less sympathetic examples: [[FalseFriend they claim to love his poetry]] but only want to eat his food for free.
141[[/folder]]
142
143[[folder:Video Games]]
144* Deconstructed with Kathy in ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert''. She wants to be a writer, but due to a lack of focus, she can’t write anything substantial, so she has a job waitressing at a diner to pay the bills in her “crappy studio.” She finally resolves to do better halfway through the story, and [[spoiler:in the “good” Kathy ending, this effort bears serious fruit]].
145* Resoundingly averted with Amy from ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework''. She’s [[spoiler:a royal brat]] who doesn’t need the money from her Twitch channel, but she makes enough from the channel so that she can help pay for inexpensive student housing with her Twitch earnings.
146* Poor Stanislav from ''VideoGame/KrakenAcademy'' just wants people to see his commission sheet and share his art on Kraken-Net. He's by far one of the hardest working students and actually focuses on his schoolwork, and yet seems to be absolutely broke. He's even admitted that, in his desperation, he's accepted commissions of a [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog certain blue hedgehog]] doing "[[Rule34 things you wouldn't believe]]".
147* In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion1'', the MookMaker Vincent Van Gore takes this trope to both his death and his {{Boss Subtitle|s}}.
148* EmoTeen Meridian in ''VideoGame/TelepathTactics'' bemoans this fate, and discusses it with Harynx in one scene.
149-->'''Harynx:''' The way you capture the moonlight on those bushes...I don't know anyone who can draw like that. You've got talent. You could be an artist.\
150'''Meridian:''' No. I tried being an artist, and I failed. Talent doesn't mean anything if no one buys your work. You can't eat talent.\
151[...]\
152'''Harynx:''' I didn't need anyone's permission [to do what I wanted in life]. And you don't either. We're not slaves; we're free! We can choose to do whatever we want with our lives.\
153'''Meridian:''' Yeah, okay. Great. Are we free from hunger? From the elements? Are we free from the necessity of selling off our days to other, wealthier people for the money to keep ourselves alive? No slaver's going to kill me if I decide to return to drawing. They don't have to. Starvation's waiting just around the corner with a cudgel, and it's happy to do the job.
154* Richard, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Metaphobia}}'' introduces himself with these ExactWords. He acknowledges he does not "make much", yet [[UndisclosedFunds manages to afford anything he needs]].
155* Yusuke Kitagawa from ''VideoGame/Persona5'' is an artist who's literally starving, not because of any lack of skill or interest in his art, but because his mentor/adoptive father Madarame steals all the credit and profit from his work and leaves him overworked and poor. Even after Madarame is taken down by the Phantom Thieves, Yusuke [[RunningGag is still seen constantly eating in the background and gets excited at the mention of food.]] It doesn't help that he's also something of a MoneyDumb CloudCuckoolander and spends most of his money on art supplies and art-related impulse purchases (he once buys a pair of live lobsters- not to eat, but to ''paint''). He also, as a result of the abuse he suffered from Madarame, has severe issues with the idea of actually making a living through selling his art. A major part of his Confidant route is helping him come to accept that doing so does not make him some sort of monster or sell out.
156** Speaking of Madarame, he puts up a front of being one, wearing drab traditional Japanese clothing and living in a run-down atelier... but it's all an act. His Shadow later boasts that he has all the luxuries he wants under a mistress's name.
157* Laurel (Laurent in the NES translation) from Torneko/Taloon's chapter in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' is a [[TheBard traveling poet]] who decides to take up work as a mercenary because poetry doesn't pay the bills.
158* ''Passpartout: The Starving Artist Simulator'' is a game about, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a starving artist]] in France with an unhealthy addiction to fine wine and baguettes. The player has to draw the paintings themselves in order to pay their bills. No [[QuickTimeEvent quick time events]], no puzzles, not even a template! You have to draw from scratch, and a machine-learning AI judges your work accordingly based on pictures from the internet and your previous work.
159* The final murder victim of ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', Drew Misham, was a poor artist who turned to making forgeries [[spoiler: through his daughter Vera]] to make money.
160* In ''VideoGame/{{Arknights}}'', Dusk is one of these, being an incredibly talented painter who has no home or job. In fact, the entire "What Is Real?" story event where she is introduced involves her sister Nian bringing her to Rhodes Island so she'll have a place to live and work. This is easier said than done, as Dusk is not only a massive introvert who has little interest in the outside world, but she is also [[spoiler: [[PiecesOfGod part of a shattered god]], and her paintings [[RealityWarper can create objects, life, and entire worlds.]] It turns out one doesn't need a home or job when one can paint up whatever they need on a whim.]]
161* Averted in ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}''. All the professional musicians in the story are able to make decent (if not luxurious) livings with their music.
162* In ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'', there is a mod where you rap against a literal starving artist (with the mod name being the ¨Starving Artist Mod¨, no less).
163[[/folder]]
164
165[[folder:Webcomics]]
166* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The Storyteller seems to do okay for himself given the CrapsackWorld in which he lives but his family, especially his ancestor Oggie, treats his traveling minstrel ways as not a real job to the point that Oggie gives the Storyteller's eventual wife a very valuable piece of jewelry and explicitly tells her she can pawn or sell it anywhere if her husband never gets a job.
167* There's a homeless artist ("Will paint for food") in ''Webcomic/LeastICouldDo''. The character is based on Lar [=deSouza=], a friend of the author who really was a homeless artist for a time. Years after the creation of the character, [=deSouza=] took over as artist for the comic strip.
168* In ''Webcomics/KoanOfTheDay'', the guru never [[http://www.koanoftheday.com/172/ has any money]].
169* Crusader in ''Jay And Crusader''.
170* ''Webcomic/LivingWithInsanity'': [[http://www.livingwithinsanity.com/index/ David]] has no day job, he just makes comics with Paul. But it's shown this nets them no income.
171* Creator/AndrewHussie of ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'' has a bit of this in that he needs to regularly put out new merchandise to cover the costs of all the bandwidth his fanbase generates.
172* In ''Webcomic/ThreeJaguars'', Artist would be this, if the Business Manager let her.
173* In ''Webcomic/SquidRow'', Randie ekes out a living from her jobs.
174* In ''Webcomic Name'', [[https://twitter.com/dorrismccomics/status/969312194059014146 one artist]] wants to devote their life to art, but in doing so, they don't have any income and they die buried under a [[GraveHumor tombstone]] that reads [[RunningGag "Oh no"]].
175* The titular band in ''Webcomic/Nova44'' are so broke they agree to a possibly deadly battle for gas money.
176[[/folder]]
177
178[[folder:Web Original]]
179* WebVideo/TheKeyOfAwesome's parody of "Somebody That I Used To Know" has an entire band of them.
180-->''We look so sad because we're starved\
181Tonight for dinner we're splitting a candy bar.''
182* In the ''Tokaido'' episode of ''WebVideo/TableTop'', [[Creator/WilWheaton Wil]] takes on the role of Hiroshige, an artist who gets a bonus to their painting skill. He starts with the least gold out of all the playable characters, has to give money to one of the other players due to going first and the game having a FirstPlayerAdvantageMitigation mechanic, and makes very little money over the course of the rest of the game due a combination of bad luck and the other players colluding to screw him over. On his final turn of the game, he arrives at the inn and realises he can't afford any of the food, and lays his meeple on its side to represent Hiroshige starving to death.
183[[/folder]]
184
185[[folder:Western Animation]]
186* After Squidward quits his job in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', he becomes a starving artist. [[PlayedForLaughs No one wanted his paintings so he had to eat them.]]
187* Music/FlightOfTheConchords play Art Camp counsellors in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. It turns out that when Art Camp is out they work at [[BlandNameProduct Sprubway]], where they get all the sandwiches that drop on the floor.
188-->'''Bret''': Unless we drop them on purpose.\
189'''Jemaine''': They have cameras on us all the time.
190* In the late 50s, Gene Deitch created Gaston Le Crayon for the Creator/{{Terrytoons}} studio. Gaston was an impoverished, unlucky French artist who made things come to life by painting or drawing them.
191* Discussed at the Academy of Art during ''WesternAnimation/DanVs [[Recap/DanVsS1E15DanVsArt Art]]''.
192-->'''Clerk:''' Are you trying to bribe me... with a sandwich?\
193'''Dan:''' Come on, aren't you a starving artist? It's a really good sandwich.
194[[/folder]]
195
196[[folder:Real Life]]
197* One example, in particular, is Creator/VincentVanGogh, who used the very little money he made to buy art supplies and lived on coffee and absinthe. As if his mental health wasn't bad enough, poor nutrition made his physical health that much worse.
198** This was [[DoingItForTheArt chiefly a personal decision]], though, as he largely lived on the support from his brother Theo, a quite successful art dealer, and didn't want either to inconvenience his brother too much, nor [[TrueArt compromise his artistic integrity]] for [[MoneyDearBoy more financially rewarding styles and themes]]. Had he agreed to make his art more accessible to the public of the time, he wouldn't have this much of financial problem.
199* Music/PinkFloyd aka David Gilmour fit this trope pretty well in his pre-Floyd days, to the point that he was ''[[http://www.megapinkfloyd.com/band_members_david_gilmour.asp hospitalized for malnutrition]]'' in 1966.
200* Music/NickDrake spent much of the latter part of his life living with his parents off of a £20-a-week retainer from Creator/IslandRecords. Eventually, that stopped too.
201* Many webcomic artists and indie game developers tend to be this (or support their job with a steady job like retail). The few artists one hears about spending several years of pure work on something generally aren't as starving as one thinks. For instance, the creator of ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'', Creator/JonathanBlow, was able to spend the two years working on just ''Braid'' because he was able to spend 200K of his own money on the project. This is becoming less common as subscription-based services like Patreon are making it easier for artists to earn a steady living off their art.
202* Alfons Mucha, rather than keeping his cushy job with Gandegg, first studied in UsefulNotes/{{Austria}} and then at UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} where his subsidy was cut off. He lived on one meal every other day, making this exactly what it says on the tin. He [[DoingItForTheArt did it all For The Art]], and wished he didn't have to do so many advertisements.
203* It may only reference the trope, but there is a chain of cafes called the Starving Artist Café.
204* Music/KurtCobain was this for quite a while, and was not uncommon for him to sleep in other people's houses or his own car. Also, during their early days, the band had to spend the money earned from concerts in either the gasoline to get to the next gig or food.
205* Music/NeilYoung had an early period of this and after the Mynah Birds fell apart [[note]]Their manager used the advance money to buy drugs; then Rick James (yes, ''that'' Rick James) got busted for being AWOL from the Navy[[/note]], had to sell his equipment just to buy food.
206* Music/PattiSmith talks about this in detail in her first memoir, ''Just Kids''. She and her friend Robert Mapplethorpe were determined to make it as artists, so even though they usually both had jobs they spent most of their earnings on supplies.
207* Music/BruceSpringsteen went through this in the early stages of his career, often sleeping on borrowed mattresses with the rest of the E Street Band. And due to lawsuits after his album ''Music/BornToRun'', he didn't start really making money until the 1980s after the River Tour.
208* In his younger years Creator/JulesVerne was this, after he dropped from studying law, devoting himself to literature and Parisian Boheme, and his father, a wealthy provincial lawyer who hoped that he would inherit a family practice, cut the financial support. To feed himself and his new family, Verne had to turn to the stock exchange, where he had to make a living as a stockbroker until he had a big break with the ''Literature/FiveWeeksInABalloon''. Just as with Kafka above, while he was quite successful at this job, he hated it immensely.
209* Invoked by the father of children's book illustrator Creator/EzraJackKeats. Ezra's father worked at a restaurant and, while supportive of his son's love of art, was skeptical about him trying to making a living from that. He even went as far as to give young Ezra tubes of paint, claiming that starving artists traded those to him in exchange for food.
210* Creator/JKRowling was a divorced single parent on state benefits (welfare) and described herself being "as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain" before producing ''Literature/HarryPotter''.[[note]]She was never homeless, but lived with her family before getting government housing and assistance; and health care is of course free in Britain. So the UK received a billion-dollar asset, in exchange for providing a modest amount of help.[[/note]]
211* The Chelsea Hotel in New York did the opposite: owner and manager Stanley Bard took lodging out in exchange for art he could display in the lobby and sell. He might lower your rent or even give you a room for free. This also meant you could meet lots of other artists, musicians and poets. Patti Smith describes this in ''Just Kids.''[[note]]The hotel still exists; its current owners want to remodel it. It's not so much that the place didn't need work, although it's likely to end up an upscale, unaffordable luxury palace. It's the [[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/nyregion/chelsea-hotel-nyc.html deteriorated conditions caused by endless construction]], which has lasted ''over ten years.'' The remaining residents are putting up a fight.[[/note]]
212* Lillian Marie Disney, wife of Creator/WaltDisney, started out as this. She was the youngest of ten children, and her family was poor. They even set aside money for food to buy her art supplies.
213* Creator/SylvesterStallone was so broke when he wrote ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' that he had to sell his dog. Of course, as soon as the script was bought, he bought him back and had him play Butkus on the film.
214* Creator/HalleBerry slept in a homeless shelter and a YMCA when she was starting out in New York.
215* According to Creator/AbelFerrara, Creator/WesleySnipes was living in his car during production of ''Film/KingOfNewYork''.
216* Creator/JenniferSaunders was on the dole before getting into comedy, often staying in bed all day.
217* A HarsherInHindsight insight from [[Literature/OfHumanBondage Somerset Maugham]] for those who overly romanticize this experience: ''You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer."
218* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe never had much of a good life, and when he was able to move to New York and become a full time writer, he struggled financially until he died at the age of 40 in Baltimore.
219[[/folder]]

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