Hey. I used to work in a gallery that sold lots of art; something like 250 artists in the stable. Of the painters, even the most selling ones had a diversified set of products that they sold (original paintings and drawings, prints, posters, cards, books). About 1/5th of all the painters survived only as painters. The others all had art-related or non-art jobs of one kind or another, for all sorts of different reasons.
All the skills that it takes to make a great representational painting can be used in lots of ways. Strong color sense can translate to any task that needs an eye for color. Other art skills are similar: a friend of mine in theatre set design farms out his theatric flair and does store windows every holiday season for extra cash --
According to the National Endowment of the Arts, 75% of all artists in all arts fields take on some kind of non-arts work temporarily during any given year. It's normal that most artists do more than one thing to earn a living. This is sort of a 'dark secret' of the arts.
