Varoom 36: Career Rhythms

How do illustrators deal with the varied rhythms of a career?

The latest issue of Varoom explores these ups and downs with AOI member illustrators and an agent. A taster below:

Jay Cover ‘I throw myself into a project and apply pressure on myself, due to the excitement. Almost as if I don’t trust myself with the opportunity, I end up working too hard or too much – I overcompensate.’

Liv Wan, ‘Every month ‘How to make ends meet’ is always a very important task for an illustrator like me – I have no agent representing me, I have a young child, expensive childcare costs and I’m still working hard to try to establish my business.’

Jamie Coe ‘Having gaps of work coming in, which thankfully happens much less now than it used to, comes with the freelance territory – periods of too much work and then periods of too little work. Psychologically I manage it by being productive and emailing clients and looking for more work.’

Folio Art‘s Nick Dawe ‘Working with all the amazing artists is the great joy of being an agent, but the life of an artist has its ups and downs and we live that with them. There are times when an artist’s style might fall out of fashion, so we try to encourage them to develop or to find new markets for their work. Changes like this can be tough emotionally for artists and we try hard to be supportive and encouraging while offering pragmatic advice.’

See more in the new Rhythm issue

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