Hey @Jake-Parker @Lee-White you guys said you’d like to hear of other illustrators we’d be interested in having interviewed. Well i recently discovered illustrator paddy Donnelly he’s done a handful books, I’d love hearing more about him, he’s got such a fun style!

This episode made me sit up and realize that I’ve been making products, not projects. That is, the perspective Ive had all along was “I have a day job so can keep drawing. I draw for my side projects which I happen to sell on Etsy”. Never truly seeing the forest for the trees as I’m not making any substantial income from my Etsy shop. So my mindset was always stuck in the box of “side projects”. Thanks for that @Jake-Parker!

It was also a nice surprise to find that new episodes have been coming out on a weekly basis lately. At first I thought it might have been a mistake 🙂 A nice highlight for each week.

@lauraa , @demotlj That's reassuring and great insight! I should go listen to that podcast.

@kim-hunter That’s super interesting. Didn’t ven know you could find something like that out there. 🙂

I just wanted to thank you guys for bringing a mom onto the podcast! I appreciate that the interviews give us the opportunity to hear from other successful illustrators and their challenges that the three of you don't face quite directly.

I currently have a 3 and 5 year old and like Catia I also had to make the decision to move to somewhere more cost effective as i was living in a city that was even more expensive than Brooklyn!

it was nice to hear from someone experiencing similar struggles, thank you!

Apparently I needed this podcast more than I thought.

Last night I had the brilliant idea to remove instagram from my iPad, to reduce distractions in my life.

Apparently it was very late at night, and my thinker wasn't thinking clearly.

This morning, I woke up and discovered I had removed Procreate instead.

Yup, all gone. All my work from the last several weeks, just gone. Not so handily, I had stopped syncing with the cloud since I had no desire to use that much space, so no back-ups either.

As I poked through empty space, I had to chuckle as I opened the side tab, and saw this podcast there, with it's encouraging title.

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Nowhere to go but forward. The good(ish) news is that I've only been using this since Christmas. Also, a weird but satisfying outcome is that it's kind of refreshing and freeing to have a completely clear canvas...Inviting me to create rather than reminding me of the many projects I had on the go!

Persistence is key.

Cheers,

Cayleen

@Pamela-Fraley don't even get me started on possum vs. o'possum!

@melissa_bailey I think this article has made it worse. Now I will be wondering not only about pants but about scissors, sunglasses, and tweezers all of which I previously was able to say without a second thought.

Can’t express enough how helpful this episode was. The live q&a made for some great advice, I was taking notes the whole time. If live q&a episodes could happen more often that would be amazing.

@davidhohn That image makes me nostalgic for Arthur. As an adult that grew up with that show, this seems like pretty good marketing, pulling on those deep imbeded dreams of being an artist that I held as a child. I don't know if that was his intention at all, but that's what it does for me.

@holleywilliamson good question! Right before the holiday, I sent Christmas cards to some editors and ADs I have been in contact during 2021. All of them working from home at this moment obviously. I will let you know if I hear from them about receiving my card.

@jthomas said in Cam Kendell: The Balanced Illustrator:

It always seems like those that want it obsessively don't get it or it takes forever and those that dabble or get into it way later in life have it easier. Is it this just some mental voodoo?

I think it does happen that way- but the majority of the time? I have no idea what the stats on that are. The variation on people's nature and life circumstances, as well as art career paths don't make me want to guess.

I just don't think that early and singular passion for art and nothing else is a good indicator on if someone can navigate into and sustain an art career. I also wonder how many people actually fall into this first and only category? Passion gives no indication on all the other baseline elements that can contribute to a career. It doesn't mean someone will be good at art or know how to improve. It doesn't mean they'll work on it consistently or that they'll even enjoy it. It doesn't give them a personality conducive to networking, enjoying social media, or handling rejection well. It doesn't give them financial, organizational, or business skills. It doesn't mean they'll have financial, emotional, or educational support. A person who may develop an interest in art later, who could be happy doing other careers, might have a good baseline of various elements that will help them get an art career easier and faster. In fact their experience dabbling in various areas in life, may give them a leg up when it comes to their business sense and even the appeal of their art work. The mix and balance of everything will differ from person to person, it's never going to be an even playing field, and I think it will come to some people easier for sure. I can't think of anyone who doesn't have to work for it though.

@Jake-Parker @Lee-White @Will-Terry - You guys had mentioned a list of "gear" in the show notes. I just discovered your podcast recently, and have been binging on the earlier episodes (great stuff, BTW). I looked in the notes on the YouTube video, and followed the SVS-show-notes, but neither of those contain said list.

Do you guys have that list handy? I see a bunch of people asking for it on here, as well as one or two Youtube. If you have a list but just need it cleaned up/made presentable, I'd be happy to take that on and post it for you if that would be helpful.

@lauraa I also am in my late 40s and I find that it's physical stamina and 'adulting' obligations that are putting limits on my creativity. Like those all-nighters I used to pull when all the inspiration starts to fire up in the wee quiet hours, you know? Realistically I can't do that now because I have to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for my day job and my eyes go blurry at 9:30pm. I agree with other posters that creativity is a skill that gets better with practice and experience. Also something that goes with it is practicing the workflow of generating ideas without censoring them, and exchanging critique with colleagues. I am still working on that - not being afraid of making bad art and putting it out there to strengthen it.

@Jake-Parker , @Lee-White , I really loved this podcast, especially the humility and lightning round of questions at the end!

Looking forward to more interviews!

Good feedback @carlianne, James Clear wrote in Atomic Habits to make it easy to avoid decision fatigue.

With regards to posting on social media, I've notice how anxiety would kick in everytime I had to stay on top of my upload schedule. I do get some job inquiries via dms so I didn't want to let go of instagram.

I've been using Facebook's scheduler app to batch my content weeks in advance and it has help my mental health so much. I have felt like I've gotten less likes and followers since I don't share the post on stories anymore but... I have to remind myself that I’m an artist than an influencer 😅

@versaceian Same here. I always drew cartoons and my own comics since I was a little kid. I added cartoons and comics in projects at every chance I had throughout school — projects, essays, all over my binders, cassette and CD labels (even floppy disks), even in chalk on my uniform (I got bawled out by a teacher for that one).

It wasn’t until post-secondary when I took proper art classes so it was always a passion thing for me. My talent, I think, came from having read a ton of Peanuts comics as a kid. Or at least, that’s how I learned to draw and set up scenes.

@Annaaronson Thank you so much for these immensely important insights! I definitely am working on specific things that I believe will help me towards my goals but you've definitely pushed me in a more purposeful direction with this. When I ask about filling 7 sketchbooks, it's more of me trying to gauge how much practice I should be aiming for in the coming year and halfish. I do plan on filling these with the fundamentals and intersperse that with copies of favorite artists and experimental pieces alongside some attempts at prompts. When the fundamentals feel solid enough, I will hit the rudder much harder towards attempting prompts and telling stories. It'll be a lot of: do art, analyze/get feedback, drill the weak areas, repeat. (Made in part by your recommendation to read "Ultralearning" these 9 points seem to have a lot of awesome applications here. Anyways, thanks again, I appreciate you looking out for a person in the early stages 🙂