ARE YOU DABBLING AND DREAMING OR MAKING MONEY?

How much do you actually need to produce to earn a living with your designs? I asked four talented working artists about their approach to productivity.

Harriet Mellor sells her work to greeting card and gift wrap companies. She creates beautifully complex designs, rich with detail, that provide extractable elements for multiple products.

She works four to eight hours a day but aims to produce just two designs a week because she knows that a single detailed design can often be licensed to four or five products. She’d rather create fewer high-quality designs than bang out lots of less considered ones.

Claire Picard creates trend-driven artwork for greeting card companies and home-decor retailers. She’s known for her jewel-toned, exquisite collages which can be time-consuming. During a good week, she can produce five new designs a week, working six hours a day. She’s attracted most of her clients by showing her portfolio at trade shows and aims to produce a diverse range of themes to appeal to as many companies as possible. She says an important part of her art practice is to work consistently and continue to develop her design style and subject matter.

Nic Squirrell works mainly for Print On Demand companies which gives her a lot of freedom to use whatever subject matter she likes - which is often quirkily whimsical florals or birds and animals - always with a humorous twinkle in their eye. She produces seven to ten pieces of artwork a week, working seven hours a day but she loves drawing so much it feels more like a hobby than work.

Fresh, new work helps her business as it keeps buyers interested. On Print On Demand sites, new work has a better chance of being seen and encourages repeat customers that start to follow her and her work. Also the more art she makes, the quicker and better she gets at it.

Ohn Mar Win creates food-based illustrations for editorial, packaging and books.

She works eight hours a day, mainly sketching and painting with an incredible eye for the essence of an object. Her draughtsmanship and technique are admired by thousands of followers. Up until recently, she posted her sketches daily to social media. This practice garnered a huge amount of positive attention from potential clients. Now she focuses on continually practising her painting and drawing skills to make sure she can deliver what her clients expect.

Harriet, Claire, Nic and Ohn Mar have different goals and approach them in a variety of ways, but the common thread is that they’re all showing up every day, investing their time in the regular production of new work, understanding how important it is to a thriving art business.

There are days when they just don’t feel like creating. Nic says she takes the opportunity to switch to other work-related things, like uploading or key-wording, and Claire often visits her favourite retailers to research trends. Ohn Mar thinks, plans and researches and Harriet says she might be found tidying up her studio or tackling her accounting. There’s always something that needs doing.

I’ve worked at home as an artist/designer for years and early on I adopted a non-negotiable rule - no dishes, no laundry and no plant-watering during working hours - because I know the minute I allow the little things to creep into my day, my art business will stop being a business and become a pastime.

Turning your passion into more than a hobby means treating it like a job - a great job, but one that requires time, commitment and consistent planning, development and output.

Create Collections is running at the moment and the artwork is incredible. I’m posting it daily to my Instagram account - @victoriajohnson_createexplore and I think you’ll find it inspiring.

I’m running the course again in 2020 (it’s the same course I ran in 2019). Reserve your spot and sign up for the waiting list now!