Art-- Career, or No?
You know, for a long time I’ve considered going into illustration/general freelance art/ or concept art for games as my main career. And on the surface, it sounds like an amazing job. What artist doesn’t want to have a full career doing what you love? But then you have to consider these things: Doing art as your main line of work would mean you have to constantly be producing huge amounts of art at a breakneck pace. You aren’t allowed to take a few weeks’ break–especially if you have a boss. Your livelihood depends on you mechanically turning out piles of art pieces–many of them likely going to be rejected by whoever you’re working with. So basically you’re not allowed to have burnout. And many people aren’t immune to burnout, myself included. To those who don’t easily get burn out, power to them! I’m sure they will succeed! I’m just not one of those people. Of course, freelancing means you have a much more flexible schedule, and you can choose to take breaks if you want! But even freelancing has its downsides. You don’t have a consistent paycheck with freelancing, and taxes are absolute HECK as far as freelancing goes (yes, you HAVE to pay taxes on EVERYTHING you earn–and as a freelancer, you’re considered both employee, and employer, so you get smacked with DOUBLE taxes! I’m not making this up, go research it yourself.) And if you depend on a certain social platform for bringing in interest for your art and products (particularly Youtube and Instagram), then it’s far too easy to feel pressured into putting out as much stuff as you can, and looking at the number of followers/subscribers, and the number of likes you get, and constantly being jealous of other more popular art posters, and feeling bad about yourself because you feel like you’re stuff isn’t good enough to be popular. And that kind of focus really does a number on your creativity and motivation. Again, your livelihood depends upon how popular you are, and if you aren’t constantly putting things out, you’re often doomed to fall behind. So what’s the point of having an artistic career if it runs you into the ground and strips you of the original passion you had? And it gets so bad that you’re no longer able to even draw your own personal stories, or simply drawing silly doodles for fun? I love doing art! I truly do! I’d never give it up for anything! But I think my attempts to use it as a career have only rewarded me with anxiety and sometimes even moments of depression. I get too invested in the number of likes. Of feeling pressure to draw and post finished art every single day. Don’t get me wrong, the times I have gotten art commissions have been awesome, and feels great. But doing that full time? I don’t at all believe I can handle it. Is having a specific, professional career even worth it for me? Idk. Everyone seems to put it on a pedestal as the ultimate goal, but….is it worth surrendering all your time, energy, and mental health for it? So many professionals seem to struggle balancing their career with spending time with family and friends. Work seems to demand everything from them, and what does it give back? Money yes, but also even MORE work than before. Is money worth breaking yourself? I don’t think it is. I’m still going to advertise my commissions from time to time. But I’m not going to make freelance art my main line of work. It will be staying as a side thing. I want to put most of my work and passion into my personal art, my own ocs, my stories. What will I be doing with my life then? I still don’t know. Everything seems so uncertain right now. The only thing I can really do is pray that God leads me to wherever He wants me to go, and that I have the clarity and courage to see and follow.
