“I am leaving to pursue my own career in art! If you have any tips for an artist starting out, please share!” This came in an email from an art director I’ve been working with recently. Replying to this was a great opportunity to remind myself of some important principles that support me in my illustration career. Here’s what I told her… and me… in reply:
The first bit of advice I would give is to really treat your art career as a business. Make contacts. Learn from other successful artists, be a strong leader, manage your money well, use good equipment, master your art form. Constantly develop and improve your systems for admin, sales, shipping, production, etc. Anything you have to do a lot of is worth automating as much as possible, like invoicing, contracts, client education.
Think big... take on large projects. It takes almost as much time to sell and administer a small project as to do the same with large ones, so you save a lot of time there. And grow your leadership so that you can grow your business. Those large projects might require help of all kinds. I often hire other artists and designers to help meet demand or do things I don't have adequate skill in, like graphic design or animation or accounting. I'll probably want an admin assistant eventually too.
I know a very successful glassblower who is an excellent designer, and he and his spouse grew his talent into a large multinational business with several highly skilled glassblowers on staff who he'd arranged to import from Eastern Europe, managed their visas and housing to make it easier for them to take the job, hired a manager who spoke their language to help lead them, and had a large warehouse on-site to hold his inventory, with an admin and sales staff too. His business also served his community by hiring some at-risk people and working with them to develop their skills and success in the business. All in a beautiful small town he loved. That's an artist who thought big.
Learn from others, and also trust yourself. Your unique approach to your work will be what interests your audience and buyers. It's fine to change your style or have more than one. Whatever you do will be coming through your unique way of being. You don't have to do anything difficult to have a unique approach unless you have a challenge with second-guessing yourself... then the hard part is being unsure but trusting yourself anyway. In your art but also your choices around other things, like your business model, your leadership style. Let your ego fuel your success, it's a powerful driver but put it aside in your relationships with the people you serve, and the people you lead... and anyone else you care about. Take care of yourself, and lift others up.
You don't want everyone to love your work, that is a futile endeavor. You'll be more successful with serving niche groups of special fans who love what you're about because you are sharing yourself with them and relating with them together as a sort of community. If everyone likes your work you're probably making it too generic, which will be boring for you and won't really make a strong brand for you. Put yourself out there and if you have haters, celebrate that, because that means you're doing something special and bold. People don't buy high quantities of things they just like, but they will invest in things that they really connect with. I heard one quote recently that said, "Don't listen to the critics... don't even ignore them". Find your people and serve them with all your heart.