Encouragement For My Struggling Illustrators
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If you have yet to be published or feeling down because you’re not sure if all your work is going to pay off know that I’ve been in your shoes. I’ve done the all-nighters in high school/college, missed out on family hangouts, rushed to my grocery store job after attending college classes and fell asleep on the toilet more times than I'd like to admit, had to say no to friends who wanted to game, felt down because Instagram’s algorithm changes every day, unsure how I will make enough from art to quit my day job, and so on…
I’ve been subscribed to SVS on and off since it was started, picking from the buffet of classes when I had time and choosing ones based on what I needed to improve on like digital painting, contracts, color, etc… Alongside these classes I went to Community College for 2 years, and art school for 1 year without getting a degree at either college. But luckily for us illustrators degrees don’t mean anything in our field. It’s the work that matters.
But since leaving college in 2017-ish I’ve signed on with an agent, currently have 6 books published (with 2 more finished and at the printers) with Simon and Schuster/Penguin Random House/Tilbury Publishing and was lucky enough to be on the NY Times Bestseller list.
I’m not here to brag, far from it. I still struggle with finding inspiration, comparing myself to others, juggling family time with work time, eating/exercising habits, earning enough income, etc... But in the end I believe it's been worth the struggle because I look forward to working/creating everyday. And most people can't say that about their jobs.
I just wanted to share part of my art journey with every aspiring illustrator here to encourage you all to keep going and if you truly love the process of creating don’t give up! You got this.
Sincerely,
A Fellow Struggling Illustrator
(who needs to stop procrastinating and get back to drawing
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@Dan-Tavis Love the last part where I felt you read my mind and told me to stop wasting time and get back to work
Jake's had also said something similar on their podcast, that doing art is mostly a psychological battle (not this exactly but this is what I got from it).
Pursuing art has been a struggle to me, I had done some freelancing illustration but nothing serious/big yet and to be honest, even if I have the opportunity I wouldn't take it, I would feel stressed and pressure about insecurities. I guess that means that my psychological battle is still on work but I hope to keep going
.Thanks for your inspiring post!
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@Dan-Tavis oh my god I love your work! Thank you so much for sharing your struggles. And for your positive words of encouragement! It’s nice to see someone who’s done so well for themselves whose also been apart of the svs community, reaching out to us!
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@Dan-Tavis I love your work and thank you so much for this message. It means a lot
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@Dan-Tavis Congrats! Thanks for the encouragement. Your work is great. I really like the calendars. Did you start doing those on your own or did someone come and ask you to do it?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiminyrose/
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@Dan-Tavis Thanks for the encouragement, Dan!
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@Dan-Tavis Thank you so much for sharing the encouragement!! Congratulations on your achievements!
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@Eliana-Bastidas Thank you for sharing Dan, some of us really need to hear this sort of success stories from time to time to stand back up
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@Dan-Tavis Thank you so much for sharing this Dan! I had no idea you were a subscriber to SVS, but it makes me love this platform even more since I've been an admirer of your work for a while now
I saw Noodle the the No Bones Day in Times Square (from a photo online) and I thought wow I remember when he was making fan art of Winnie the Pooh and how much you deserved to have this kind of success - there is such a warmness about your art, and clearly a lot of people feel that when they see your work (including myself
)Thanks again for the words of encouragement!
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@Dan-Tavis This is encouraging, thank you! Your work is amazing!
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@Kim-Rosenlof I started doing them on my own. I find calendars to be a nice break from book work, and it's incredibly encouraging to create something totally by yourself (other than the printer printing the calendars) and have people actually by it year after year. No better feeling
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@Kristen-Lango Thank you Kristen for following my work for so long!
I love creating fan art still, will probably create more Pooh stuff in the near future xD
