Max Banshees

in this interview, the painter anthony cudahy talks about how having a day job in graphic design for about a decade gave him the stability he needed to grow as an artist on his own time.

that made a big impression on me... when doing the same Questioning as you, i identified that a struggle of mine was having stability in my schedule and income. just working on art alone, trying to get into anthologies/zines to earn a meager amount of money per project, opening commissions that end up not being very artistically fulfilling, and fighting every month to get Something up on my shops has Not been working.

i had been working in retail throughout my time in college (supermarket/department store jobs), and at the time, it felt terribly restrictive and exhausting. looking back, through, having a job with a semi-stable schedule and income was really beneficial for me. i was able to buy a lot of the equipment and supplies i use now because of it (ex.: printing, shipping, bookmaking, and painting supplies), as well as not putting all of my brainpower and self-worth And financial hopes on my art.

so, right now, i'm applying to non-retail jobs in order to get some of that stability back.

now! there are other things i'm doing too, which you might find useful.

one thing is finding organizations that aim to support artists. one type i've looked at are grant-giving organizations, which your local government might have. i live in massachusetts, so i've subscribed to mass cultural council's newsletter, and applied to the grant for creative individuals that they had open earlier this month. (my portfolio teacher from college told me that at any given time, he was applying to at Least 7 grants... that always stuck with me.)

another organization i've worked with or have been a part of in the past is the cartoonist cooperative. this is a member run organization for comic makers that runs all sorts of events, grants, promotional campaigns, and has a central discord/forum for News Sharing and help requests. i'm not sure if you're a cartoonist, but even if you're not, i recommend checking out the founders of the cartoonist coop on social media, since they've very knowledgeable about what's going on in the illustration/indie/"Artists' Rights as Workers" world.

the third one is artist's communities in my area. this one might be more tough for you (it certainly has been tough for me!), but if you can find maker spaces, artist studios, art faires, farmer's markets that have art stands, etc., they Might be worth looking into. as someone who grew up on the internet and Pinned All Of My Hopes to making it as an artist online, i was either shy or dismissive about these things. but i've met quite a few fulltime artists who split their time between things like art faires, teaching, and/or corporate/non-profit clients. basically all in-person stuff. it sounds simultaneously harder and less glamorous than making a Hit Graphic Novel or Videogame or something, but... (gestures vaguely) it's something i've seen work for other people. maybe it could work for you!

now. all of this has been very income/community focused, since those are the Hardest things i've had to work at (and continue to work at) as A person who does creative stuff for income. but another thing that has helped me build a little bit of stability in my earnings, artistic output, and like. general sanity... is having personal artistic projects. with very defined formats that are not just loose illustrations or ideas floating in the wind. and also ideally with schedules.

in the past, i've focused on comics, artbooks, and zines that were intended to be printed at home. it both gets me Thinking during the creation stage about how i'm going to accomplish this thing, how it ties into the rest of my work, how i can push myself as a creative individual, etc. and when i do finish it, i have this Object that i'm able to speak about to other people with more complexity than "hey. i'm an artist that makes pretty pictures. can you trust me enough to give me money for a thing."

i went to college for illustration, and a similar exercise they would make us do was mock editorial illustrations for short articles. so, for example, we might choose an already written music review from Pitchfork, and then make a single illustration to go along with that article. in the graphic design department, they would do fake brand identities. in the games department, they have fake character/environment concept art. essentially, all of these exercises are meant to both show other people (especially corporate clients) how your work would look like In Context. it also gives you that sense of pride and understanding of how your work would look in a larger project. maybe you can try having these imaginary projects on your portfolio if you don't have them already? or, just more of them if you already do... especially ones geared towards a field, company, or project that you want to be on.

okay. last thing. more recently, i've been focusing on making paintings to sell on a specific date each month. this is more in the realm of Fine Art, which i don't know much about as an illustrator, so i've like. had to learn a lot about how painters Do Things Online. very basic stuff like them having an "available works" page instead of a shop (shops are usually for reproductions or stickers or whatnot.) to learn about how fine artists (and printmakers/book artists) Do Things, i literally just follow a lot of them on instagram and see how they manage their stores and whatnot. so, that's my final piece of advice... just like. keep on looking at more artists... check out their FAQs and stores and about/CV pages... things like that.

well. this has been really long! i hope Something in here is of use to you v_v and i said it before but i'm wishing you a lot of luck... thank you for the kind words and for taking the time to ask a question!!