My Illustration Story & Timeline

How long does it take to get going as a professional illustrator? Well, in my case, 25 years! The first ‘phase’ starting after graduating and then second ‘phase’ starting after a 8 year hiatus to bring up my two kids.

Honesty is really important to me and having been in the industry for over two decades I have ample experience to draw from. I think people who are starting out in illustration or contemplating it as a career deserve a realistic look at what it's like to build an art business. What I’m presenting is a candid timeframe of my career from my humble life as stay at home mum to the successful illustrator you see today. It’s taken considerable time and resources and I’m certainly not an overnight success story.

Some of you may have taken my Transition into Illustration Skillshare class or have followed me on Instagram for a number of years, so you may know parts of this story. I thought it would be valuable for you to see my journey laid out like the diagram below. This is just a quick overview of my particular journey to demonstrate the main events. I put the birth of my kids at the top, because for me they are always central to the considerations when I make big decisions. 

In retrospect I can draw this central line running down the middle, and the timeline looks incredibly neat and tidy with the major events for five years from 2013 till 2018… but the real experience was anything but linear, or smooth sailing. 

I entered college for a degree in Advertising and Design, but I switched to Illustration in the second year. After I graduated in 1996, I was an in-house artist at several London-based greeting card companies (including Hallmark) which I really enjoyed. I was also making a good income from editorial illustration for lifestyle and health and beauty magazines. The editorial niche was something I fell into by accident because I could draw people, but after a while I really started to resent the idealized forms I was expected to portray.

2006 

I gave up creative work, a year after my son was born. And then in 2010 I had another baby. That was the year Pinterest was launched—remember that, as I’m going to talk about it later. 

2012 

This year I started to upload old freelance art and icons to a Shutterstock image library and those became the seeds of my passive income. You can read more about passive income in this blog post.

2013 

My daughter became eligible for free nursery sessions, which I factored in when making the decision to step back into illustration. That autumn I took my first intensive 5-week online course called Make Art That Sells, which really set the ball rolling.

2014 

I began taking Skillshare classes to improve my skills and techniques. I created projects for hand lettering and improving my Photoshop skills.

This was followed by my first small but functional website. 

My love affair with They Draw and Cook (now called They Draw) and illustrated recipes started that year. Little did I know how unbelievably pivotal these projects would be in my career as I built up a niche illustration portfolio in my quest to become an in demand food illustrator. I used Pinterest to strategically share my art on this platform as I’d heard art directors and commissioning editors searched for illustrators extensively here.

2015 

February I bought my first moleskine sketchbook for watercolor practice. 

March I signed on with an art licensing agent. 

May I had my art at the Surtex trade show in New York. 

August breakdown of my marriage, and divorce proceedings. That was a hard time both personally and professionally.

November I wrote my first invoices under my own name for several editorial and packaging clients.   

Let's pause here, as I want to point out that it took just over two years from taking that initial online course to receiving payments for my illustration services. I’ve been told this is an incredibly fast transition to go from stay at home mum to earning an income from commissioned illustration projects. The combined total for that first year of trading from stock images and food illustration was £14,000—not really enough to live on as a single parent with two small kids.   However, the next three years saw an increase in large illustration projects that brought me up to a more decent income. 

2016 

Food branding projects:

- Marlene’s Market and Deli in Tacoma

- Toronto Market Company pop-up event

Books: 

The Healthy Hedonist Cocktail recipe book

Sugar Detox Me Cookery book

August of 2016 

My very first Skillshare class as a teacher: Create Your Own Fruity Illustrated Recipe, followed by four more classes that year.

2017

More food brand packaging for Tine Foods (Norway & Denmark)

And my jaw hit the floor when a project to work with UNICEF in Myanmar came through.

2018 

May

I exhibited at my first solo art licensing trade show in New York. 

I was up to teaching 19 Skillshare classes, including two that remain among my most popular:

Sketchbook Practice: Grow In Your Art Everyday 

Instagram Success For Artists: 2 Week Challenge To Grow Your Following 

I haven’t included everything from these years, like the endless classes I took, the books I read, the sketchbooks I filled… If I included all that, this post would be three times as long. These are the big highlights. I hope that by sharing some of the specifics of my personal journey, it may help you understand the length of time it took to establish myself as a successful artist and illustrator.

It would be nice if we had infinite time to pursue our dreams, but most of us are working within very real constraints. Mine were navigating a divorce and becoming a single parent, whilst holding down a mortgage.

Building an art business certainly requires a heck of a lot of patience when you’re starting out and you’re coming to terms with the multitude of directions you’re being pulled in. If you are prepared with patience, it gives you room to stay motivated over a long period of time.

Although social media has been an asset in building my brand awareness over the years. I do feel it sometimes warps our perceptions on many levels. Some folks may underestimate the duration of time it takes to build a commercial portfolio that attracts paying clients. As you can see it took many years for me to see real and tangible results, like attracting a considerable following on Instagram or creating more than twenty-five Skillshare classes.

Becoming an illustrator will most likely take up a massive chunk of your time and energy as you travel from where you are now, to a point when you are comfortably supporting yourself with income from your art. Rather than feeling deflated by the prospect of having to work diligently for several more years, I hope you view my story as inspiration for what's possible with a vision, determination and strong values to guide you.

If you’re interested in making the leap into illustration, or you’d like to know more about my art journey, consider a 1-month free trial to watch all my Skillshare classes including my Transition into Illustration class. Use the button below to sign up (new members only).

What I've Learnt in the Last 7 Years - part 2

This is the second part of my blog detailing my top takeaways from the last 7 years of re-training and then making a career from illustration and surface design.

4 EFFECTIVE MARKETING

Part of my food illustration success is due to the fact that I know where the art directors and authors who hire me find my food work — 9 times out of 10 it’s Pinterest. (I know because I ask with every enquiry.) Pinterest is a powerful search engine that helps designers easily find references for projects and an invaluable creative resource (more so than Instagram) for the large foodie projects I enjoy. Early on I made it my mission to size all my website images to the optimal pin size of 2:3 proportion. It’s great for an engaging approach to self-promotion that I can see one image shared and collected on hundreds of pin boards globally. As a comparison, my latest analytics show that of my social channels 74.9% come via Pinterest compared to 21.1% from IG. Everyone seems focused on Instagram, but Instagram and Facebook work on a feed, so your images get buried quickly. Pins have a lot more staying power, with some of my pins appearing at the top of searches even after 6 years. The same can be said for my sketchbook art, which has been widely spread on Pinterest.

I have a class on using Pinterest for your Creative Business. 

Much of my IG success is due to consistently keeping 20+ sketchbooks (I’ve talked about this in previous blog posts)  I started quite late on IG and had a private account for the first year. Things didn’t take off until I started sharing my moleskines, which encouraged me to get in touch with people and in turn inspire others to explore their creativity. Having a large following on IG is useful for announcing or talking about my online classes (more about that later). So I am able to reach two different groups with two different marketing approaches, which I am still careful to maintain.

5 SHARING WHAT I KNOW

I receive messages daily thanking me for sharing my insights, thoughts, methods and techniques. Sharing leaves you open to feedback and connections, because you’re giving your audience a glimpse of your life and personality. Often the messages I receive are related to inspiring folks to pick up a paintbrush for the first time, or the first time in years. I love sharing what I know and inspiring others to be creative, and that sharing started to become a valuable part of my business when I began teaching on Skillshare in August of 2016. Over the last 4 years I’ve shared watercolour techniques, ways to overcome perfectionism, Pinterest strategies and all sorts of other topics in 20+ classes, which reach an ever-wider audience.

Networking is essential for working artists, and it has been made easier through having an online presence. Even now I go out of my way to keep active within my online community, because through them I learned more about art brands/business practices. We were always willing to share what we knew if others needed help or advice. This in turn builds more trust and camaraderie, almost like a fellowship as we continue with our creative journeys. 

6 SELF CARE

This has been the toughest to implement and one I thought was irrelevant and unnecessary for the longest time. I’m writing this during a general and social media break after 6 months of non-stop work, even during the Covid lockdown. I’m finally able to honour and accept that I am not a ‘super woman’ who can work 10-hour days or beyond midnight. At one point, I had succumbed to pneumonia 3 times in 8 years, the last time being in 2018. That illness was the wake up call that finally cemented the notion that whatever I’d been doing wasn't working out for me and wasn’t in the best interests of my family. I was totally drained, simultaneously stressed and exhausted. Furthermore I was dangerously close to burning out, no longer enjoying my art. 

Contemplating self care was a major shift in mindset and lifestyle for me, so in small increments, my life habits started changing. I began eating a lot more healthily, walking as much as I could, taking naps and drinking more water. Overall working on becoming a better version of myself so I could be a better artist and mother. 

Although I’m physically producing less art, I’m probably more productive on different levels and much happier. Making a definite decision to take better care of myself by making mental and physical health a priority when I did has paid massive dividends. For me, self care means managing my time so that I don’t get overwhelmed, and it lessens my general anxieties. 

Taking time to think over and write down what I have gained and understood as an art business has put into context my experiences as a solo entrepreneur with my own unique challenges. Some of my points may not necessarily apply to you or feel relatable, but I hope just one aspect has you thinking about aiming for a successful art career. 

5 Tips for Developing Your Self-Discipline

With self-discipline, most anything is possible.” - Theodore Roosevelt

This blog post is a more detailed interpretation of why self discipline is important for success (read the overview HERE)

I’ve always lived with the belief my art could be better. Some of you might find that hard to believe but for me creating art is a lifelong pursuit, over time it will improve with practice, just like blogging, urban sketching or creating patterns (all of which were new to me at one point) These require the habits of drawing, painting, or writing and posting regularly which in turn require self-discipline if you want to become proficient.

I would like to remind readers that I only started this phase of my career 5/6 years ago. So I speak and share here from personal experience of building up a art business during that time. I am firm believer that self-discipline attracts opportunities, and if you use discipline to develop your skills and make a concerted effort towards your ambitions, there is no doubt that exciting opportunities will inevitably open up for you.

In its simplest form self-discipline is the ability to do what you need to do; even when you really DO NOT want to do it. To achieve artistic success you need to develop the discipline to KEEP following the direction of your goals and to step towards that desire every day even when you want binge watch You Tube or scroll through social media.

5 Tips for Developing Your Self-Discipline

In any business or creative endeavour you will need to develop habits and practices that you have to repeat over and over, in order to progress as an artist or designer. The more we can improve it, the better we become at sticking to our goals and in turn the more we will achieve.

1. Remember It takes time

First off this is very important point to remember. I was (and to some extent still am) disorganised and lacking in focus in any given week. Being patient with yourself when working on improving your observational drawing skills, to finding a style, to learning how to make a technical repeat pattern, is one of the most important ways to build self-discipline, especially while living in a world of 'now now now’ and we all want to be successful now. Change seems to be something that never happens as quickly as we would like; it takes time, courage, and patience in order to see the change you seek. It could be especially challenging as it could include some aspects of our personal lives, pushing us beyond our comfort zones…so no rush, take it each day and week at a time.

2. Self-discipline is a like a muscle

Self-discipline is something that can be taught, and just like a muscle, the more you use your self-discipline, the stronger it becomes. When you first start trying to build your self-discipline muscle, start with one small habit at a time. Trying to do too much at once will not only overwhelm you, it will lower your chances for success. Too much too soon isn't sustainable.

One of my goals of this past year was to complete my Morning Pages/ journalling (I’ll blog about this soon) I set my alarm to wake me up 10 minutes earlier each day - this made a world of a difference and wasn't too difficult to do. Its the same with losing weight or trying to get fit. I started by running for spurts of 3/4 minutes then built it up over several months to run 10k.

3. Know your distractions

To keep your eyes on the prize (building a portfolio, website, social media following ) requires determination and refusing to be distracted by things that are going on around you - focus on doing what you set out to do. Many of us have young families, laundry, cart kids to after school clubs etc. But many creatives accomplish their goals because they can identify and act on the things that get in their way. To start, identify what are the things that easily distract you. What makes you stop what you are doing such as scrolling through IG/ FB, checking for emails or binge watching Netflix…insert whatever here…you know what they are…am I right?

4. Create a daily routine

After you have cut down on your distractions from your working day, you will often see how much extra time you have. We all get 24 hours in a day, and we’ve always had this time, we just might not have used it intentionally before. Try to block off specific chunks of time to paint, sketch, create, read, learn, whatever will bring you closer to your goal. One other point I want to make is when you work at home, the work-life boundary often blurs (again I know this from personal experience) So you may have to be extra diligent in creating your personal work schedule, set goals and stick to them. It will help you in keeping the work-life balance along with self-discipline with your work.

5. Opportunities for self discipline

No matter what improvements you want to make in your creative life, you need to have the self-discipline to apply yourself consistently to the work that will be involved. There will be good days and bad days in your life, but its best not to follow in those and allow them to hold you back. Self-discipline is something which you can use in every area of your life with opportunities each day to practice, from taking 10 mins to sketch for fun, or a taking a walk to remove yourself from your iPad or desk.

Success in any area of life or business requires long, sustained periods of focused effort on a goal, and the determination to stay with it until it is complete.  Self-discipline is on the surface is often seen as having to be harsh on yourself, being limited and restricted in your life but I’ve reframed it to mean self-control, which is a sign of inner strength. So you can control your actions and reactions even when you may feel most things which happen in this world are outside of your control. Seek out these opportunities to exercise that self discipline so it becomes a habit, and a useful skill.