How I made the jump to being a full-time freelance illustrator

August 28th, 2008 was my last day at my part-time retail job and since then I have been a full-time freelance illustrator. It's been more than ten years, which is crazy and weird and also awesome! While I sometimes still feel like I'm just starting out - perhaps because my sense of time is skewed or because this industry is ever changing, I also now officially have a decade's worth of experience as a full-time, self-employed illustrator (just in case you were questioning my credentials, haha!)

So how did I make the initial jump? I was recently asked this by one of my newsletter subscribers and I think this is the kind of post I would have liked to read when I was starting out so here we go! (Disclaimer: there are many ways to do things in life and this is just one of them.)

When I graduated from the BA illustration course at Kingston University in 2005, I knew I wanted to become a full-time freelance illustrator, no matter how hard I had to work or how long it would take. In hindsight, I think this was the most important decision of my career. No plan b and a lot of stubborn determination.

I found myself a job in retail 4 days a week and spent all my evenings and days off working on my illustrations. I assumed that somehow, you slowly get more and more work until one day, you have a steady income as an illustrator and can quit your job. This is also the general advice for transitioning from being employed to starting your own business: Grow your business on the side until you make enough money to live off and then quit your job.

However, at the end of 2007, two-and-a-half years after graduating I was perpetually exhausted. Working 7 days a week (something I'd done throughout uni as well), wasn't sustainable in the long run. Not knowing how much longer I would have to keep up this pace made me feel burnt-out.

By that point I had done some cool commissions - a book, magazines, t-shirts, greetings cards etc. But usually work was unpredictable. I either had loads of work on at once, or nothing for a while. It certainly didn't feel secure enough to quit my retail job. At the same time I couldn't help wondering how much more illustration work I could get if I had more time and energy to dedicate towards promotion and making more work.

So I asked myself in what situation I would feel secure enough to leave my job. I didn't want to just quit, only to have to look for a new part-time job after a few weeks or months. That didn't make sense. Thinking it through, I felt that if I had 12 months worth of living expenses saved up, I could leave my job without panicking immediately if I hit a dry patch or a client paid late. And I made a new plan: In 2008 I would save all the money from illustration commissions and save up £12,000 by the end of August and quit my part-time job. There wasn't much I could save from my retail job income - I was making £680 GBP a month, which, after rent, council tax and bills, left me about £100 for food and anything else and even in 2008 was tight to live on in London). Setting a date when I was going to quit my job renewed my focus and energy. I worked and worked and worked and squirrelled away all the money I made from illustration commissions.

I didn't quite hit my savings goal of £12,000, but I think I had about £8000 and some commissions lined up when I left my job at the end of August in 2008. (I added to these savings whenever I could and think it's always a good idea to keep 6-12 months of living expenses in case of emergencies. That way you don't have to panic when a payment is late, you can create with less stress and you don't feel pressured into signing contracts that contain unfair terms.)

Ever since then, I've been illustrating for a living and I've never had to go back to having any other job! Thank you to my younger self for coming up with this simple and effective plan. And thank you to the power of spreadsheets and being super organised with finances.

Are you planning to become a freelance illustrator? Let me know if you have any more questions. And if you've already made the jump, comment and share how you did it and if you have any advice you want to share.

Motivation Poster & My New Newsletter!

When I was in primary school I got REALLY into penpals. I had at least ten and I was writing and receiving letters pretty much every single day. Not surprisingly, this is when my love for stationery started, too! Ads for penpals were usually at the back of kids magazines but I also roped kids I met on holiday into becoming my penpals. Even when everyone was on the internet, I was exchanging snail mail with people I knew online. I loved writing the letters and making my own envelopes, adding stickers and little details. And I LOVED receiving post, too - I still do!

Nowadays I rarely have the time or patience to write proper letters, partly due to being busy and partly because after drawing all day I don't feel like also using my hand to write (plus, I write super slowly). But I still love sending birthday presents to friends in other countries - including lots of little gifts, wrapping them, decorating the box, etc.

It's similar with my Etsy orders, I love making everything cute so that when you open your order it's like receiving a gift!

Why am I telling you all this? Because these were the things I was thinking about when I decided to start my newsletter. I don't want it to be just list of 'news'. I want it to be like sending a letter/present to a friend. With lots of care about the details so that it's really fun to receive and open my emails.

It doesn't have to be one-sided if you don't want it to be - you can email me back with comments, suggestions and questions. After ten years of being an illustrator some things can seem really obvious even when they're not. So don't hesitate sending in your questions and I'll do my best to answer your questions and include a Q&A at the bottom of each newsletter.

In addition to that, I want the newsletter to be about motivation and productivity because I love those topics and many people joined in my '100 Days Of Productivity' challenge which I didn't expect! I think they're useful topics for everyone, whether you have a lot of projects you would love to do or whether you just want to get stuff done efficiently so you can have more time off.

That's why I've illustrated a free printable Motivation Poster for you, wohoo! If you sign up to my newsletter you will be taken to a page with the free downloads, there's both a colour and a b&w (which looks cool on coloured paper, I think) version. I hope you like it and I'm excited to start sending you my newsletters soon!

Freelance Life / Printable To-Do List

Hello! It's Sunday and I want to check in as my first week of my '100 Days Of Productivity' is almost completed. When I wrote the blog post last week, I kind of came up with the challenge in that moment, to keep myself more accountable during the cold and grey season. Especially since it was so short notice, I was surprised at how many people joined and printed out the chart from my blog post! It definitely motivated me to keep setting my alarm for 6am even though I was pretty tired as the week went along. And some sort of 24 hour stomach bug threw me off on Thursday and Friday. But it's ok, productivity isn't about being perfect and it definitely won't be perfect every day for 100 days.

I love seeing everyone's updates on Instagram stories so much! If you haven't joined yet, you can still start at any point. And if you're finishing your first week as well, let me now how it's going!

Here's another printable which is a week to-do list. It's always good to know what you want to/have to do in a week, so you can plan each day better. I kept it pretty simple so it works for everybody and you can use it in a way that works for you!

Download the free printable here: DOWNLOAD  •  PDF  •  TEMPLATE 

It's getting a lot colder now in London, and when I'm at my desk with blankets and a hot water bottle I can definitely use the extra push of this challenge. Thank you for keeping me motivated! Have a great week & remember to kick ass!

Freelance Life / 100 Days Of Productivity

The days are getting shorter, we're racing towards the end of the year and the urge to hibernate is real! Perhaps not  actual  hibernation but I find myself getting up later (it's just so cozy under the blankets, one more hour can't hurt, right?), skipping things on my to-do list, wasting time scrolling down Instagram and feeling a little more sluggish. It's been a busy year, maybe I should slow down and give myself a break? I think it would be totally fair enough. (And if that's your plan, go for it!)
Problem is, I have a whole bunch of projects and goals and things I really, really want to work on and what will make me happiest is to end the year with a lot of momentum and progress.

So I made the decision yesterday to start a  100 Days Of Productivity  challenge. The idea originally came from the study community on Tumblr: People were posting pictures of their work & workspace every day to hold themselves accountable and stick to good study habits. I find this concept really inspiring and of course it can be applied to anything, not just studying. You can (and should) make your own rules about what you want to accomplish and what productivity means to you. It should be fun!

Do you want to join the challenge? I made a printable chart where we can tick off each day that we've been productive. Yay! I love a good chart. And you can share your progress on social media if you want - I'n planning to post mine on Instagram stories.

My personal goal is to make sure I'm up before 6.30am every day and to stick to my daily to-do list without getting distracted by phone/internet/etc, double my productivity and get as many projects ticked off my list as I can!

You can start this at any time, but if you start with me tomorrow (22nd October 2018), the  100 Days Of Productivity  challenge takes us to the end of January and we will have started 2019 on a roll! Are you in?

Print out the free template  and you're ready to go:  

• DOWNLOAD  •  PDF  • TEMPLATE •