Illustration career advice I'd give you...

if I wasn't afraid of hurting your feelings 😅

Here it iiiiiis. The illustration career advice I’d give you if I wasn’t afraid of hurting your feelings.

You need to update your website - stop faffing about on Instagram (and if you don’t have a website, FIX THAT)

Yes social media can be great but not if you’re putting all of your illustration eggs into that one basket. Have your own bit of the internet too. Understand that the ROE (return on effort) is TINY on social media.

Don’t be scared to hire people to help you. One-off portfolio reviews, mentoring, web design - you cannot give yourself a good haircut. Let a professional help 😅

Courses too. If it wasn’t for online courses, I would still be a nanny.

If you niche down a bit, you’re much more likely to get consistent work (because people know what you do)

If niching feels too scary, you can just niche for now. You don’t have to get married to anything. Just focus your efforts a bit. Make it easy for people to hire you. Solve a problem.

The starving artist myth is bullshit

BUT

Please don’t quit your day job until you have a financial cushion and some traction eg. regular-ish enquiries or a few book deals under your belt (and 3-6 months of living expenses saved up = a great place to start). A part-time job is a secret weapon too.

There is no shame in keeping your part-time job forever. Having a bit of structured work time can squeeeze you into being productive in the illustration time that you do have. (Having a baby/toddler/child to look after does this too. It’s stressful but you become an efficient machine 😆.)

Things change. Constantly. If you’ve been successful but things are sucking right now, you might need to change too.

Blaming the industry or the economy only puts you in a helpless victim mentality. What CAN you control? Focus on that.

I have ✨ thoughts ✨ about AI too, but that’s another post for another day. Let me know if you’d like to hear ‘em and I might share if I’m feeling brave.

x Katie

p.s. The Picture Book Course doors are open at the moment over on The Good Ship Illustration. If you’ve had ‘do a picture book’ on your goals list, then now’s an excellent time to join (there are good bonuses).