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How I Became an Illustrator

First off, I want to start by putting this quote in front of you. Read it twice. Giggle if you want to. An then let it seep in. Let it comfort you. “Nobody knows what the hell they are doing. (at least no one I know) You just prepare as best you can and make up the rest as you go.

What does this mean? Well, to me it means that no one is perfect or has all the answers. Me included. So therefore, this is not a story about how you can do your career…It’s just my account of my own experience. I hope that you get something from it, but it will be different for you. Just take what you can and make the rest up as you go down your own path. I think it seems easier (or at least less intimidating) when you realize that everyone does this-makes it up as they go-until they learn it.

I wish I’d known that everyone starts with very little knowledge when I was first out of college. I’d just graduated and gotten my first job at an advertising agency. And I was scared. Everyone moved fast and looked cool and said things I didn’t understand. Pre-pro who? What …my art needs to bleed? What was that about pms?

I have this memory of going to a production meeting and knowing only about 15% of the words that were said. That was definitely a case of “smile and nod”, which I did, while my heart beat so hard I thought I was going to faint. I don’t know what I was doing. I wanted to run. Fight or flight, right?

I fought.

I fought to learn what was going on. I watched and took in as much as I could. I mimicked. I tested. I asked dumb questions. I asked more questions. And slowly I learned about all these words I has no inkling of before. In fact, I made up a few new ones. Eventually, I even became the key go-to-person for the agency’s biggest account. And it started to be fun! I finally knew what I was doing. (Of course, in every endeavor there is always more to learn.)

Being an Art Director (AD) I used to get all kinds of fancy promos from photographers and illustrators. Letters and print samples and postcards would pile up on my desk. Most of them went in the trash, but some of them were pored over. Ooh…yummy art.

So I would pin them up on my bulletin board and go to their websites, looking for more. And it was all very inspiring. I hired a few illustrators for jobs. I saw how much fun it could be…working on these conceptual images for the AD to use. And I wanted to be part of it.

I wanted to do more of the art and less of the design or art direction. So I started to consider making The Leap. Definition: the scary transition of leaping from one career to another.

In preparing for the leap I first started using my own illustrations for my clients at the agency. I did children’s book wraps and bookmarks. I illustrated all the storyboards for the other art directors. I basically used my own illustrations anywhere I could.

It was good practice, because then I went out to seek my own clients, while still working at the agency. It started SLOWLY. I did work for friends and friends of friends. They commissioned me to do small cards or pieces for their kid’s rooms. I took anything I could get. I did a few jobs for businesses that paid me in compliments. But it all added up and slowly but surely I had a small portfolio.

I decided I needed a website to show my work. So I spent the weekend building one, including a blog, where I could track my progress and let off some steam.

Some other things I did to start my own business: went to the library and read every book I could find on the subject (how to run it like a real business, how to write a proposal, how it bill, etc.) and asked them questions. And I started working on promos for myself…

In other words, I was working day and night. During the day I would be at the agency, plugging away on whatever campaign I was working on, and then I’d come home and work on my illustration. It was tiring. I was pretty grumpy. And I couldn’t last like that much longer. So, one day I decided that it was harder to go on like this than it was to just get the leap over with. I’d have to quit my day job.

Again, I was scared. What if I failed? What if I couldn’t pay my bills? What if…what if…

What if I never tried?

I couldn’t live with that. So the following Friday I walked into work, asked my creative directors if we could grab a cup of coffee and I quit.

I say that so casually. Ha. In reality it was very difficult. My heart was pounding. They asked me a question…something about the weather…on the way out the door and I almost couldn’t answer because it wasn’t what I’d practiced in my head. We sat down to coffee and I handed them each a card I’d made that said:

“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.”

An I launched into my spiel about illustration and how I was going to pursue that full time and how I was really sorry and how I loved the agency and that this was a hard decision…And to my surprise, they both smiled and wished me good luck.

(I still love them and work with them, although differently today!)

Two weeks later I was on my own, wondering again what the hell I was doing.

Somehow I started getting more clients. Still small, but I cherished every one. They were giving me opportunity! It was great, but I decided that I needed more. So I started Illustration Friday

I started the site as a way to challenge myself with art, giving myself assignments and padding my portfolio. I did the work I wanted to do as a way of attracting more of that kind of work. I also started Illustration Friday as a way to connect with people. I found out really quickly that illustrating from your studio is very solitary.

I needed to talk to people and somehow have community…And Illustration Friday provided that. Turns out that lot of people love to be creative and want to be a part of a community too (thank god!) because now Illustration Friday is booming! We have a average of about 800 people a week now who play. And oh, it’s so great. It feels so good to be a part of that.

So, that’s basically how I made the transition. A lot of hard work, bravery and some dumb luck. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but I am enjoying making it up.

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