•Keep your day job while you work on building your art career. If you can, take up a second major in school that's geared more toward a technical, employable skill. •Experiment with many different styles and techniques until you find one that fits.
•Don't be afraid of new technologies (and don't let old school purist teachers tell you that they are bad). Play with them and see if their is something in them that you can use.
•Study old masters, but don't forget to also study your contemporaries. Make an effort to find a living artist who's work you admire, and look closely at the steps they have taken to guide their career.
•Be pragmatic but don't let pragmatism kill your artistic vision.
•As far as cheaper...good luck. All I can say is exercise your student discount while you have it. Use the resources at your school to the fullest while your there. In my senior year at school, I lived in the metals shop and created a line of hand made jewelry that I ended up selling for $500. That money allowed me to supply my small studio (i.e efficiancy) for a year and a half.
Jennifer, one way in which i save money is to not buy a lot of different colors of paints: you can get pretty much any color by variant combinations of red, blue and yellow. i buy the primaries in bulk, along with white and black. there are exceptions to this, of course, some colors are hard to mix, some are hard to mix with, etc. another way i save money is to take care of my equipment: find the best way to clean and store brushes, etc.
these aren't huge things, but what little you save adds up over time.
i hope this helps!
