I'm so thankful you did this episode. I feel like I'm on the right track now. I really appreciate hearing the validation of pursuing illustration as a part-time gig. I think I was caught up in a romantic notion that legit illustrators simply did nothing but illustration, and it's really heartening to actually hear that's not the case. I think I was undermining myself because I somehow wasn't "competent enough" to make this a full-time career. And for me, it never can be. So I think I may have been self-sabotaging my own development.
I'm 50 years old, and one of those incredibly lucky people that has the magic ticket you describe, I think. I have a "part time" (ROFL!!!) job as a costume designer in a theatre department at a university, but it's benefits-based. I've been there for almost 20 years, and my contract guarantees at least two more years of employment. I have a partner who makes more money than I do, and summers off to invest in my own self-education.
But I'd been operating under the assumption that if I can't do just illustration all the time, I was a "pretender" and suffering from delusions of grandeur. LOL! I needed this podcast. Deeply. On a personal level. Thank-you.