I have a question for you...

NessIllustration

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thank you Nyrryl! That's pretty much where I am now - making a full time income but really needing to build a nest egg in case something happen. Right now if I were to injure myself or some such thing, I only have enough money saved up for 3 months!

NessIllustration

@krish-iyer That is really interesting insight, thank you Krish! In truth you really are the one helping me here hihi

Michael Angelo Go

Getting more stuff into my portfolio.
Getting an agent.
An agency.
An agent that will bombard me with work that will financially support me for 2-3 decades.
Financial support.

NessIllustration

@Michael-Angelo-Go That's interesting, thanks for your answer! Be careful not to put all your eggs in the agent basket though! It can take up to 6 months to get a first contract, and even now my agent finds me only about 1/3 of my work. It's still very helpful, but you cannot necessarily count on them for all your income, especially at first. I'm taking notes to include this information is the "Agents" section of my course! Thank you

Michael Angelo Go

@NessIllustration I know my 4th answer was completely unrealistic. But it would be a dream. Money is my biggest issue and motivator at the moment. Gotta pay those student loans somehow.

NessIllustration

@Michael-Angelo-Go That we do!

jdubz

@NessIllustration Surely!

For me, #1, 2 and 4 is Time! With 3 kids and running my business, I just don't have the time

#3 I don't really know if anyone can help me except for me. I've been moving towards pushing towards transitioning more into illustration work, but since I have such limited time, I've been doing it in stages. This year has been 100% working on my skills and my portfolio. I think 2021 is when I'll start looking to push and begin emailing people and looking for work, finding a critique group, and trying to begin shifting those hours away from my marketing work.

#5 is definitely having no regrets. I don't want to sit on my deathbed and know I didn't try to make the thing I feel like I've got something to share a bigger part of my life.

LauraA

Q: What is your #1 challenge to get your illustration career started?

A: Training my own perception, i.e., need of expert critique to have a good idea (both concepts and resources) of how to correct my own weaknesses. I can find online videos, but it's hard to find personal guidance when you're isolated, and I know how valuable it is. One thing I would like to overcome is that I am slow, but I think that's partly a vicious cycle because I am stabbing around in the dark.

Q: When you think of getting your illustration career started, what would be your first idea to accomplish it?

A: I see this as a different kind of question, one that is more about marketing. Once I get a portfolio website up, I want to look for an agent or start other marketing efforts. All I need at this point is a narrative sequence, which I am working on, and to correct/update a few existing pieces.

Q: Who would you go to to help you with that?

A: If we're talking about 1., I would look for online mentor, since I can't find what I want locally. I'm not sure how to do this, though. Right now I am going through online videos and getting student critique.

Q: What do you think would make it EASY for you to get your illustration career started? If only I had ____, then I would be able to do this!

A: I don't think there's a magic bullet! I think it takes a long time and a lot of hard work.

Q: What is your #1 motivation to get your illustration career started?

A: I just really love the challenge of it, and hope to eventually be able to produce some truly artistic work. But also, I would like to prove to myself that I can do it professionally and financially.

I had to change them all to Qs and As because when I tried numbers they all came out as .1s!

NessIllustration

@jdubz Thank you so much Josh! Time is a reaaaally hard one! It's the one thing we can't always solve. You've got one hell of a reason to keep going though!

This makes me think: the only thing I can possibly do in my resources to help is to try and create a method as efficient as possible, that takes an artist through a shortcut. Point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible, by eliminating all the time costly mistakes, time wasters, and getting lost on little side paths. I always have the instinct to add more things to my program outline, to give MORE to the person: more information, more bonuses, more worksheets, more tips. But maybe what I need to do is take out some stuff, to make the method as simple and fast to follow as possible. You made me realize that at the end of the day what people want isn't more information, is to get to point B as fast as possible! And that's all I need to do, not cram my course with a bunch of extra information to justify the price Thanks Josh, this has been really illuminating!

NessIllustration

@LauraA Thank you so much Laura for your thoughtful answers, you've given me much to think about
I've also heard from many artists they're having trouble getting into a local or online critique group or mentoring situation. That's what gave me the idea to try to start my online coaching program. What I was doing in the past is answer DMs and emails of people's questions every week, but I can only help a very limited amount of people and in a very limited capacity that way...