Business 101: If You Believe It, It Will Become
Like most things in life, making a living as an illustrator takes time. Sure for some it comes quicker, but for others it takes years and years of hard work and focus until they can fully say ‘I am making a full time living as an illustrator’. Daunting isn’t it? Ok, but it doesn’t have to be.
The concept of time is a hard one to become comfortable with and accepting it is a major obstacle that young illustrators have to face. It’s the first hurdle and if it cannot be cleared you will never move on in the race. To clarify, when I say ‘get comfortable with it’ that by no means implies you should put the drive in cruise control under the assumption that a full time career will take a ‘forever’ to reach. Still try hard, bust your ass, be frantic (but professional!), be anxious; just respect the effort it will take.
To get over this hurdle and others like it we as business owners (regardless of success) need to be able to play mental games with ourselves. The point here being the more you say something the more it begins to feel real. From day one treat illustration like a job. Sure it’s an amazing job that is a whole lot of fun, but it’s still a JOB and you are still running a business. Tell yourself that. Tell yourself constantly. Get up 5 days a week (although I would suggest more), start working at the same time each day, take 1 hour lunch breaks, hell, buy a punch clock if you have to ( I know people who do that), but most importantly tell others. When people ask what you do tell them. I don’t care if you have a part time job at Pet Co. or the local bar, tell them: “I have two jobs, I am a freelance illustrator and work a few days at Pet Co.”. These things sound awkward and trivial, but I promise it will make a huge impact on your attitude. Soon enough, after saying it out loud enough times it beings to settle in your brain that you are actually working as an illustrator regardless of making any money or not. As soon as you start believing that you are truly a working illustrator, the sooner the goal of being a financially sustained working illustrator will feel achievable.
On paper, working as an artist, getting paid to make pictures, sounds too good to be true. As a result many people don’t understand how it is possible. Overcoming that isn’t going to directly put cash in your account, but it is one piece of the puzzle to put you down the path that will.
Jonathan Bartlett is a New York based illustrator with a knack for metaphor and the drive to find solutions to visual problem that may otherwise be unexplored. illustration / twitter
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Hey Jonathan, great article, man. Really resonating advice that strikes home in the heart of the creative community. Thanks for writing this. Sometimes, people just need to hear that said to keep going towards their dream. This post could just be the push they need.
Sometimes I downplay things that I do. When I work on my novel, I say I’m “just fiddlin” with words. When I’m designing, I’m “trying to figure out this program”. I think people will laugh or second guess me because I second guess myself. I will never learn to be comfortable in what I do if I don’t start with my own brain. Because of this article, from now on I’m not going to say those things. I’m going to record a new “voice in my head” for future use…something like this:
Hello, I’m Emily. I’m a graphic artist and author. How are you?
This is wonderful. The advice is spot on and can (and should) be applied to many creative positions. Rob said it first, but thank you for writing this!
Thanks gentlemen, its nice to have this wonderful outlet to publish such musings…
I had to do this when first starting out as a freelancer.
So true!
Hello Jonathan,
I completely agree that Illustrators, and other creative professionals, must diligently monitor their own brains to be sure that they are their own best motivator. Artists have the uniquely effective ability to psyche ourselves out. I have interviewed many successful artists who speak of the simple step of moving forward with confidence and a clear vision of their destination. Thanks for adding to this type of conversation.
Thomas
I gave just this advice to a friend about a month ago. Even with a full-time web development job, I told him to start referring to himself as “a musician/guitarist who’s doing web development in the meantime”.
People love to bash “positive thinking” advice like this, but even just some cursory research into the concept of cognitive dissonance shows that indeed our minds are looking to find an equilibrium between our “inner world” and our “outer world”.
With a negative thought-process — or one that matches our current state — it’s easy enough to achieve that equilibrium. But when one begins to envision and refer to themselves differently (and ideally more positively), that new mindset will result in a change in behavior that will eventually produce results.
Referring to yourself (mentally, or to others) as “a pizza delivery guy that wants to be an illustrator” is a result easily achieved, since it’s already true. But to reword that as “an illustrator working temporarily part-time delivering pizzas” makes the mind uneasy — if you stick with it, your behavior will change to match this statement. You’ll need to still work hard, but hopefully that cognitive dissonance will work to spur that behavior change on.
Another thing to think about: referring to oneself as “a pizza delivery guy” is identifying yourself with that job; “a guy delivering pizzas” is more of an action you are performing. The words you use —either mentally or verbally — have a tricky way of defining you, whether you realize what’s happening or not.
So-called “positive thinking” isn’t a replacement for honing your skills and marketing yourself, but rather a way to get yourself doing those things unconsciously.