This is a really important post for me! Thanks for sharing.
Currently working as a creative instructor at a makerspace. I get to dabble in anything and everything from illustration to typesetting on 400 year old letterpresses to set design for puppet shows. It’s an incredible role - tons of variety - but I’m getting to a point where I’d like to dig back down to find my roots and replant myself in a spot where I can focus on writing and illustrating kidlit.
It’s always been in the back of my mind. I do it for fun in my spare time. But I’d like to actually give myself a chance to hone in on that over the next few years, if I can.
Oh, that sounds kind of wonderful! One of my daughters is currently doing an Art Foundation year (not sure where you're based - but in UK this is a sort of pre-uni/intro to uni year where you get to try out lots of different art mediums to help you work out which uni art course is best for you) and I am soooooo jealous. My ideal, if I didn't have to / want to make money from it, would be to just play around and jump around all the time, to be honest.
Ain’t that just the way! That sounds like a great opportunity for your daughter. I’m based in the states and work at a University, but ours doesn’t offer anything like that. The creative center in the university is free for students in any discipline, though! Of course, the pay isn’t the greatest (typical for universities lol) - which is why I’m also looking to hone in 🤭
Oh, that sounds great that this is offered for anyone to use. Not so great for you if the pay's rubbish, of course. Hope you get some traction from honing in and niching down! Yes, foundation years are great, especially if you take them in the right way, because then they're free (well, a small fee for materials, but that's it). And it gives a taster before you have to pay out for the full courses.
This is a super interesting conundrum and I have so many thoughts on it hahah. One - yep, I totally keep thinking ‘oh what about ceramics, oh what about murals, oh what about……’ and I’ve accepted that’s part of being an artist, and an avid adhd enjoyer, I guess :)
In subject matter while I definitely admire people who do architectural drawings, or interior drawings, or all sorts of other things, for me it’s only ever worked out when I focus on the natural world, so plants and animals. And not even all of those, like I feel no draw towards mammals, almost at all. So in that sense I definitely have my niche, and it’s sort of naturally occurring.
In terms of markets I have always just made my stuff and whoever wanted it wanted it… it’s been everything from fashion to advertising to book covers to packaging to quilting fabrics to wallpapers and home decor to probably something else I can’t now remember. Now it’s a lot of nothing, so maybe I should have dug into a particular industry and worked on making solid connections.
For me a lot of variety will come from the actual textures… and I realize that may not count as variety for everyone hahah. But sometimes whatever I’m drawing is smooth and I try to capture that smooth shininess, sometimes it’s wrinkly, or chippy, or covered in tiny holes, and since I go all out on details those are always pretty challenging to figure out.
You absolutely do have a subject matter and style niche. I suppose there could be benefits in focusing on one or two specific industries to try to build regular repeat clients, which I think is a crucial thing to get in most freelance businesses. I had thought that was difficult in this one and it’s definitely harder than some, but I am realising that there is definitely still potential for it. I would think, for you, having a few design studios as repeat clients might work well. But licensing individual pieces once you’ve created them is also clearly good for you - but I think, even there, you have potential for repeat clients. Do you email the people who you have licensed to before with new work? (That’s something I am really rubbish at.)
I love that you have found a way to get your variety within your niche. That, I think is the key thing to do, if you’re someone (as I clearly am) who gets bored with too much of the same thing.
Yeah I’m rubbish at checking in with clients too. That’s definitely something I would focus on improving in the future… I’ve gotten better about tracking things in my life in general, like my various passwords, previous addresses, all the stuff that can come in handy. But it’s a work in progress for sure
I've been thinking about this niching down too, but just don't know how to approach it. It's hard for me because I love drawing many things. I guess I can narrow things down just for getting work? Question for you.... do you draw digitally or on paper? Thanks for this info too !
Oh, me too! And it sounds scary to have to niche down and risk not getting to draw lots of things. But there are ways to make it work, I think. For example, picking a niche that requires you to draw lots of things (e.g. children’s non-fiction). Or, stick with concentrating on the niche in terms of marketing, but accept some work outside of it and also do lots of personal work exploring other things - that way, you might discover and develop a new niche to add on or move to in a year or two.
I feel the mistake I have made is always moving to a new sector/subject matter/etc. too soon, rather than really embedding one first.
Most of my work is fully digital (iPad Mini + Apple Pencil + Adobe Fresco), but I do also draw analogue, but not as much as I used to.
I'm open to almost everything and I thoroughly enjoy seeing artists change up their game, etc. But that seems a bit unusual, especially in the business sense you've nicely explained. My aim for digital collage is to stay in that general direction, with any other approaches as a personal aside for the time being. Early days though, only being around 1.5 months in.
Thanks for the different freelancer links. That's another fun rabbit hole I look forward to going down!
I think your art would look great in Aquila Magazine. It seems so in keeping with the illustrators they use within their pages. Have you been in the mag before?
Thanks, Martin. I love Aquila Magazine and would be very happy to do some work for them. Maybe they'll do an issue about rooms! (I seem to recall hearing that their fees are quite low - though that's fairly common for magazines.)
This is a really important post for me! Thanks for sharing.
Currently working as a creative instructor at a makerspace. I get to dabble in anything and everything from illustration to typesetting on 400 year old letterpresses to set design for puppet shows. It’s an incredible role - tons of variety - but I’m getting to a point where I’d like to dig back down to find my roots and replant myself in a spot where I can focus on writing and illustrating kidlit.
It’s always been in the back of my mind. I do it for fun in my spare time. But I’d like to actually give myself a chance to hone in on that over the next few years, if I can.
Oh, that sounds kind of wonderful! One of my daughters is currently doing an Art Foundation year (not sure where you're based - but in UK this is a sort of pre-uni/intro to uni year where you get to try out lots of different art mediums to help you work out which uni art course is best for you) and I am soooooo jealous. My ideal, if I didn't have to / want to make money from it, would be to just play around and jump around all the time, to be honest.
Ain’t that just the way! That sounds like a great opportunity for your daughter. I’m based in the states and work at a University, but ours doesn’t offer anything like that. The creative center in the university is free for students in any discipline, though! Of course, the pay isn’t the greatest (typical for universities lol) - which is why I’m also looking to hone in 🤭
Oh, that sounds great that this is offered for anyone to use. Not so great for you if the pay's rubbish, of course. Hope you get some traction from honing in and niching down! Yes, foundation years are great, especially if you take them in the right way, because then they're free (well, a small fee for materials, but that's it). And it gives a taster before you have to pay out for the full courses.
This is a super interesting conundrum and I have so many thoughts on it hahah. One - yep, I totally keep thinking ‘oh what about ceramics, oh what about murals, oh what about……’ and I’ve accepted that’s part of being an artist, and an avid adhd enjoyer, I guess :)
In subject matter while I definitely admire people who do architectural drawings, or interior drawings, or all sorts of other things, for me it’s only ever worked out when I focus on the natural world, so plants and animals. And not even all of those, like I feel no draw towards mammals, almost at all. So in that sense I definitely have my niche, and it’s sort of naturally occurring.
In terms of markets I have always just made my stuff and whoever wanted it wanted it… it’s been everything from fashion to advertising to book covers to packaging to quilting fabrics to wallpapers and home decor to probably something else I can’t now remember. Now it’s a lot of nothing, so maybe I should have dug into a particular industry and worked on making solid connections.
For me a lot of variety will come from the actual textures… and I realize that may not count as variety for everyone hahah. But sometimes whatever I’m drawing is smooth and I try to capture that smooth shininess, sometimes it’s wrinkly, or chippy, or covered in tiny holes, and since I go all out on details those are always pretty challenging to figure out.
You absolutely do have a subject matter and style niche. I suppose there could be benefits in focusing on one or two specific industries to try to build regular repeat clients, which I think is a crucial thing to get in most freelance businesses. I had thought that was difficult in this one and it’s definitely harder than some, but I am realising that there is definitely still potential for it. I would think, for you, having a few design studios as repeat clients might work well. But licensing individual pieces once you’ve created them is also clearly good for you - but I think, even there, you have potential for repeat clients. Do you email the people who you have licensed to before with new work? (That’s something I am really rubbish at.)
I love that you have found a way to get your variety within your niche. That, I think is the key thing to do, if you’re someone (as I clearly am) who gets bored with too much of the same thing.
Yeah I’m rubbish at checking in with clients too. That’s definitely something I would focus on improving in the future… I’ve gotten better about tracking things in my life in general, like my various passwords, previous addresses, all the stuff that can come in handy. But it’s a work in progress for sure
I've been thinking about this niching down too, but just don't know how to approach it. It's hard for me because I love drawing many things. I guess I can narrow things down just for getting work? Question for you.... do you draw digitally or on paper? Thanks for this info too !
Oh, me too! And it sounds scary to have to niche down and risk not getting to draw lots of things. But there are ways to make it work, I think. For example, picking a niche that requires you to draw lots of things (e.g. children’s non-fiction). Or, stick with concentrating on the niche in terms of marketing, but accept some work outside of it and also do lots of personal work exploring other things - that way, you might discover and develop a new niche to add on or move to in a year or two.
I feel the mistake I have made is always moving to a new sector/subject matter/etc. too soon, rather than really embedding one first.
Most of my work is fully digital (iPad Mini + Apple Pencil + Adobe Fresco), but I do also draw analogue, but not as much as I used to.
Thank you … good insights. I would like to really hone in on one style and expand to others
I'm open to almost everything and I thoroughly enjoy seeing artists change up their game, etc. But that seems a bit unusual, especially in the business sense you've nicely explained. My aim for digital collage is to stay in that general direction, with any other approaches as a personal aside for the time being. Early days though, only being around 1.5 months in.
Thanks for the different freelancer links. That's another fun rabbit hole I look forward to going down!
I think your art would look great in Aquila Magazine. It seems so in keeping with the illustrators they use within their pages. Have you been in the mag before?
Thanks, Martin. I love Aquila Magazine and would be very happy to do some work for them. Maybe they'll do an issue about rooms! (I seem to recall hearing that their fees are quite low - though that's fairly common for magazines.)