Being a Profitable Artist Whereas Working in an Unrelated Job

Beginning a profession in floor design or illustration could 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 tasks as a advertising and marketing marketing consultant. Whereas that is typically quite a bit to juggle, I’ve discovered the 2 pursuits typically complement one another. This publish appears on the challenges and advantages of working in an unrelated subject, and a few hints and ideas for balancing the 2. 

Discovering Floor Design

Like many individuals, I found floor sample design in the course of the early days of the pandemic in 2020 once I had loads of further time on my fingers and needed 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 lessons studying this new business together with many great and informative lessons by Shannon McNab right here at Sketch Design Repeat. I used to be regularly 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 abilities. I carried out analysis on the completely 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 filled with hope concerning the revenue I might quickly generate by means of licensing offers and commissioned work. I began posting my designs on Spoonflower and different POD websites and was thrilled to make just a few small gross sales. 

A couple of yr after launching my enterprise, Wild Azure Design, I had just a few income streams from licensing gross sales, fee work, POD websites, Etsy gross sales, craft gala’s and wholesale prospects. I used to be so joyful to be making revenue 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 earnings and realizing how little I used to be bringing in was truthfully a little bit miserable.

I knew it might take time to ascertain 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 needed to get out of this profession and what we would have liked financially to outlive as a household. I felt responsible and a little bit ashamed that I wasn’t bringing in additional revenue with all the trouble I used to be expending. 

Monetary Actuality

Whereas cash is a subject that’s typically uncomfortable to debate, it’s vital to know what kind of revenue to realistically anticipate on this business. Shannon’s annual Floor Design Business Survey is a good supply of knowledge on this subject. It’s clear after trying 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 loads of different floor designers, I noticed I used to be not alone. As a result of there are such a lot of lessons selling easy methods to make cash by means of floor design, I assumed 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 vital to know that there are numerous methods to realize this. 

Writer Elizabeth Gilbert has some nice ideas on residing a artistic life the place she differentiates between a job, a profession, a passion, and a vocation. She factors out that almost all nice artists in historical past normally had a “day job.” Her perspective helped me assume otherwise concerning the strain I had placed on myself to earn a six-figure revenue 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.

But it surely modified my “both / or” pondering. I may now see a method ahead with “each / and” the place I can each pursue my artistic pursuits AND present the revenue our household wants financially by means of different tasks.) 

For the previous yr, I’ve break up my time between advertising and marketing consulting tasks and my artistic enterprise. I’ve realized just a few methods alongside the best way which have helped me juggle these two roles and hope that sharing my expertise might help others discover a stability that works for them. 

Advantages

There are various advantages to working in one other subject whereas pursuing a artistic enterprise. Further revenue is the plain profit, however as soon as the strain to make cash from my artwork was decreased, I felt extra freedom to discover tasks I used to be considering, not simply tasks that had been probably the most profitable. In an odd method, taking up extra conventional work freed my artistic aspect. 

I discovered that having different tasks additionally helped me construction my days. Paradoxically, once I had extra time to focus by myself floor design enterprise, I used to be extra scattered. There was all the time one thing new to strive, 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 needed to do.

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

My community has additionally expanded by means of my advertising and marketing work. I’ve picked up design and illustration tasks for a few of my advertising and marketing purchasers 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, probably the most tough half just isn’t all the time having management over my very own schedule. My advertising and marketing work sometimes takes over when I’ve bigger tasks. I’m all the time grateful for the revenue 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 comply with my artistic pursuits in the long term. I additionally attempt to nonetheless sneak in some artistic time every week. This might be something from occurring a stroll and taking reference images of vegetation to sketching in Procreate within the night.

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

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Associated Article: Juggling Your Artwork Enterprise & Household Life

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Hints and Ideas

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

Scheduling Programs

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

No matter you select, discovering a system that works generally is a lifesaver. Extra vital 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 conserving all the pieces organized. Due to the character of my work and my character, every week is barely (or very) completely different.

Nevertheless, I’m nonetheless in a position to make use of just a few methods that work to maintain me on observe. Certainly one of my best methods is an easy calendar alert on Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Since my schedule and priorities change every week, these weekly check-ins maintain me sane. 

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

On the finish of the week, I overview these priorities, word their progress, and add something new to the listing that must be executed within the following week. These two weekly check-ins maintain me grounded when there are a number of priorities, child’s actions, purchasers, and private tasks occurring. 

Workflow and Batching

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

Not too long ago, I’ve gotten into print making and carving stamps for artwork prints and playing cards. Reasonably than making one picture at a time, I used to be capable of make a collection of 5 in about half the time it might 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 last listing of about ten flowers that I needed to print. I sketched some free compositions with completely different preparations to see which of them would work greatest as prints. After growing quite a lot of choices, I narrowed my authentic listing down to 5.

Analysis / Exploration: With 5 last designs in thoughts, I frolicked taking a look at reference supplies and refining my compositions. I did most of this work in Procreate, understanding 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 last 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 normally 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 authentic prints. 

Advertising: 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 varied merchandise, like artwork prints or playing cards. With the ultimate artwork full, I put aside just a few hours to scan and clear up digital information and place them in product templates. As soon as the merchandise are designed, I spend just a few hours creating mock-ups and advertising and marketing photographs after which add all the pieces 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 identical 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. 

(Nearly) Each day Artistic Observe

Since my schedule is completely different nearly each day, I attempt to have just a few constants. A every day artistic follow retains me shifting ahead even once I can’t decide to huge tasks on a regular basis. Typically all I can get out are just a few thumbnails or concepts for patterns or illustrations. Different days, I can spend hours exploring and enjoying with completely different supplies.

So long as I’m doing one thing most days, I can see the progress and progress. This has been particularly vital 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 occasions, it’s simple to match myself to others and really feel like I’m not doing sufficient. So my final tip is to offer your self some grace. I attempt to take a second to keep in mind that I’m creating the life that I would like, not the life that others have. I’m working with objective 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 individual path is feasible. Combining a artistic enterprise with work in unrelated fields offers an incredible stability between monetary stability and inventive achievement.

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