Being a Profitable Artist Whereas Working in an Unrelated Job

Beginning a profession in floor design or illustration will be thrilling, inspiring, and fulfilling. It will also be complicated, overwhelming, and financially draining. I’ve skilled all of those ups and downs since beginning my enterprise 3 years in the past.

To make all of it work, I tackle initiatives as a advertising and marketing marketing consultant. Whereas that is generally loads to juggle, I’ve discovered the 2 pursuits usually complement one another. This publish seems on the challenges and advantages of working in an unrelated area, and a few hints and suggestions for balancing the 2. 

Discovering Floor Design

Like many individuals, I found floor sample design throughout the early days of the pandemic in 2020 once I had numerous further time on my arms and wished to discover my artistic aspect. Floor sample design held the promise of a dream profession, combining my love of drawing and residential décor with my advertising and marketing background.

I dove headfirst into courses studying this new trade together with many fantastic and informative courses by Shannon McNab right here at Sketch Design Repeat. I used to be frequently impressed throughout this era and had so many concepts and plans to construct my enterprise. 

I spent that first yr studying the technical aspect of sample making and bettering my Illustrator and Photoshop expertise. I performed analysis on the totally different classes of floor design and spent weeks designing my marketing strategy and dealing behind the scenes on my branding, web site, and on-line retailer.

I used to be stuffed with hope in regards to the earnings I might quickly generate by way of licensing offers and commissioned work. I began posting my designs on Spoonflower and different POD websites and was thrilled to make a number of small gross sales. 

A few yr after launching my enterprise, Wild Azure Design, I had a number of income streams from licensing gross sales, fee work, POD websites, Etsy gross sales, craft gala’s and wholesale clients. I used to be so completely happy to be making earnings as an artist, however I used to be additionally feeling overwhelmed and a little bit burnt out. Taking a better have a look at the precise income and realizing how little I used to be bringing in was truthfully a little bit miserable.

I knew it could take time to determine and develop my enterprise, however the monetary hit of giving up my day job was taking a toll on our household of 4. I wanted to re-evaluate what I wished to get out of this profession and what we wanted financially to outlive as a household. I felt responsible and a little bit ashamed that I wasn’t bringing in additional earnings with all the hassle I used to be expending. 

Monetary Actuality

Whereas cash is a subject that’s usually uncomfortable to debate, it’s essential to know what kind of earnings to realistically anticipate on this trade. Shannon’s annual Floor Design Trade Survey is a superb supply of knowledge on this subject. It’s clear after wanting on the survey outcomes that many individuals complement their incomes with different jobs, or have a companion who contributes financially. 

After studying the outcomes of the survey and speaking to numerous different floor designers, I spotted I used to be not alone. As a result of there are such a lot of courses selling easy methods to generate profits by way of floor design, I believed if I wasn’t making sufficient to financially contribute to my household, I used to be a failure. However for these of us who wish to pursue artistic lives, it’s essential to know that there are numerous methods to attain this. 

Writer Elizabeth Gilbert has some nice ideas on residing a artistic life the place she differentiates between a job, a profession, a interest, and a vocation. She factors out that the majority nice artists in historical past often had a “day job.” Her perspective helped me assume in another way in regards to the stress I had placed on myself to earn a six-figure earnings as a floor designer. 

Making It Work

Which brings me to my nice epiphany: I can use my background in advertising and marketing to tackle consulting and contract jobs whereas I additionally pursue a artistic profession in floor design and illustration. Earth shattering. I do know.

Nevertheless it modified my “both / or” considering. I may now see a manner ahead with “each / and” the place I can each pursue my artistic pursuits AND present the earnings our household wants financially by way of different initiatives.) 

For the previous yr, I’ve cut up my time between advertising and marketing consulting initiatives and my artistic enterprise. I’ve discovered a number of methods alongside the way in which which have helped me juggle these two roles and hope that sharing my expertise will help others discover a stability that works for them. 

Advantages

There are lots of advantages to working in one other area whereas pursuing a artistic enterprise. Extra earnings is the plain profit, however as soon as the stress to generate profits from my artwork was lowered, I felt extra freedom to discover initiatives I used to be serious about, not simply initiatives that had been essentially the most profitable. In a wierd manner, taking up extra conventional work freed my artistic aspect. 

I discovered that having different initiatives additionally helped me construction my days. Sarcastically, once I had extra time to focus by myself floor design enterprise, I used to be extra scattered. There was at all times one thing new to attempt, a brand new class to take, a brand new income stream to discover.

By having much less time, I needed to prioritize what actually labored and what I actually wished to do.

Working in a separate, however associated area like advertising and marketing has helped me develop complementary expertise that profit my floor design enterprise. For instance, I handle social media and e-mail campaigns for a few of my advertising and marketing shoppers and I’ve been capable of apply a few of these learnings to my artwork enterprise. 

My community has additionally expanded by way of my advertising and marketing work. I’ve picked up design and illustration initiatives for a few of my advertising and marketing shoppers since there’s a synergy between these two fields. 

Challenges

Hanging a stability whereas working a number of jobs just isn’t with out its challenges. For me, essentially the most tough half just isn’t at all times having management over my very own schedule. My advertising and marketing work often takes over when I’ve bigger initiatives. I’m at all times grateful for the earnings throughout these intervals, however I’m annoyed once I can’t spend as a lot time by myself artistic pursuits. 

When these intervals come up, I remind myself that, whereas I could also be busy now, this work permits me the liberty to observe my artistic pursuits in the long term. I additionally attempt to nonetheless sneak in some artistic time every week. This could possibly be something from happening a stroll and taking reference images of crops to sketching in Procreate within the night.

These little artistic moments make me really feel linked to my artistic work and hold the momentum going till I’ve extra time. 

Associated Article: Juggling Your Artwork Enterprise & Household Life

Hints and Suggestions

With a number of priorities, unpredictable schedules and common life juggling, there are a number of methods which have helped hold me productive and sane. 

Scheduling Methods

There are such a lot of choices for scheduling programs, from a easy Google calendar to a characteristic wealthy mission administration platform like Shannon’s favourite, Airtable [AFFILIATE LINK] and her Airtable for Artists class will help you leverage it too.

No matter you select, discovering a system that works could be a lifesaver. Extra essential than the actual system is utilizing it constantly. I’ve tried my hardest, however I’m not a type of individuals who has a strict routine holding every little thing organized. Due to the character of my work and my character, every week is barely (or very) totally different.

Nevertheless, I’m nonetheless ready to make use of a number of programs that work to maintain me on observe. One among my only programs is an easy calendar alert on Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Since my schedule and priorities change every week, these weekly check-ins hold me sane. 

At the beginning of every week, I take 10–quarter-hour to have a look at the week forward and write down my high 3–5 priorities. If I must deal with particular initiatives or schedule round actions, that is once I block out time to get issues completed.

On the finish of the week, I overview these priorities, observe their progress, and add something new to the record that must be completed within the following week. These two weekly check-ins hold me grounded when there are a number of priorities, child’s actions, shoppers, and private initiatives happening. 

Workflow and Batching

I’m a giant fan of batching work to save lots of time, particularly in my artistic work. Most of my artistic work follows an analogous movement that lends itself to batching. These steps embody one thing like concepting/brainstorming, analysis/exploration, manufacturing, advertising and marketing. 

Just lately, I’ve gotten into print making and carving stamps for artwork prints and playing cards. Moderately than making one picture at a time, I used to be capable of make a collection of 5 in about half the time it could have taken me to create them individually by batching the workflow. Right here’s an instance of how I apply these steps to printmaking. 

Concepting / Brainstorming: For my newest print collection, I brainstormed a bunch of spring flowers and got here up with a closing record of about ten flowers that I wished to print. I sketched some free compositions with totally different preparations to see which of them would work greatest as prints. After creating numerous choices, I narrowed my unique record down to 5.

Analysis / Exploration: With 5 closing designs in thoughts, I hung out reference supplies and refining my compositions. I did most of this work in Procreate, figuring out which sections can be carved, which might be printed, and what particulars I would come with. 

Manufacturing: That is the place I begin working with my closing supplies. For the prints, I hint the ultimate composition and switch the drawing to a carving block and carve every layer within the print. I often experiment with ink stamps to play with colours and ensure the carvings are correct earlier than rolling and printing with ink. For the ultimate piece, I combine and roll coloured ink onto the stamps and create my unique prints. 

Advertising and marketing: That is the place batching actually saves time. I can repeat the primary few steps till I’ve a collection of 10–20 items that I wish to use on numerous merchandise, like artwork prints or playing cards. With the ultimate artwork full, I put aside a number of hours to scan and clear up digital recordsdata and place them in product templates. As soon as the merchandise are designed, I spend a number of hours creating mock-ups and advertising and marketing photos after which add every little thing to my on-line store, web site, Pinterest web page, and different advertising and marketing channels. 

I can work on a number of items on the similar time in every of those steps, so once I’m scheduling my week, I search for blocks of time once I can deal with one of many steps within the workflow and over the course of a month I can have 10 new items created. 

(Virtually) Each day Artistic Follow

Since my schedule is totally different nearly day-after-day, I attempt to have a number of constants. A every day artistic follow retains me shifting ahead even once I can’t decide to massive initiatives on a regular basis. Generally all I can get out are a number of thumbnails or concepts for patterns or illustrations. Different days, I can spend hours exploring and enjoying with totally different supplies.

So long as I’m doing one thing most days, I can see the progress and development. This has been particularly essential once I’m pulled in too many instructions, or get annoyed once I can’t spend as a lot time as I’d like on my artwork. 

Give Your self a Break

There are days once I don’t spend any time on my artwork or artistic enterprise. Throughout these instances, it’s simple to check myself to others and really feel like I’m not doing sufficient. So my final tip is to present your self some grace. I attempt to take a second to keep in mind that I’m creating the life that I need, not the life that others have. I’m working with goal based mostly on what works for me, and for my household. And if it begins to really feel prefer it’s not working, I can change it.  

You Can Do It!

Residing a artistic life is so rewarding. Even when it doesn’t appear like what everybody else is doing, discovering your personal path is feasible. Combining a artistic enterprise with work in unrelated fields supplies a terrific stability between monetary stability and inventive achievement.

Written by Kelly Miller

Web site: www.wildazuredesign.com
Instagram: @wildazure

Kelly Miller is an illustrator, sample designer and the artist behind Wild Azure Design. Her designs are impressed by the outside, journey and a love of journey. The Wild Azure fashion is trendy, but playful, incorporating free expressive watercolor, with hand drawn particulars.