Help! Posting my illustration work makes me cringe 😬

The Good Ship Illustration

The hosts discuss the psychological and practical challenges of marketing illustration work, specifically addressing the 'cringe' factor of

Key takeaways

• Narrowing your niche makes marketing easier; being a generalist can lead to obscurity.
• The 'Two Cars' concept: You must balance time in the 'creative car' (craft) and the 'business car' (marketing).

Main topics

• Marketing illustration work
• Overcoming social anxiety/cringe

Notable quotes

You don't have to get married to it and do it forever. You can try something out, see how it goes.

Conclusion

The episode provides actionable advice for artists struggling with sel

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:24) We have got Speaker 1 (0:24) good businessy questions to answer, haven't we? We have. It's a shame we haven't got Tanya here, but Tanya's off in Naples having a fancy time eating pizza and all the delights of Naples. Speaker 2 (0:36) That's Speaker 1 (0:36) a Speaker 2 (0:36) good business lesson in itself, have time off. Have time off, exactly. Speaker 1 (0:41) I've just got a new studio and the studio manager, I didn't realise, she'll stop doing this very quickly, but I'm sure she'll realise, was saying which... people in the studios were the most engaged. If you're at your desk, you're working. It's all right. She'll learn. She'll learn. We've already been saying in the WhatsApp group, I'm going to an exhibition. It's research. But yeah, time away from your desk is vital, isn't it? Speaker 2 (1:07) It really is. I feel like that thing of sitting at your desk all day. Like for me, if I sit at my desk all day, I'm not useful all day. I'm just sitting faffing about. But if I sit down with, okay, I'm going to do a concentrated burst and then I'm going to go off and enjoy myself, I have a better time and I get way more done. I completely agree. Speaker 1 (1:25) And when I was just doing the last salty book just now, I've just finished it, but it was a really tight deadline and I just put time aside. I would only do that. But when I say only do that, I mean, my brain would only be engaged with that. I don't mean sit at my desk all hours every day. I didn't do that at all. I would get up, I would do something to be fit, go for a long walk. eat something nice, do four hours of really intense work that was really productive. And then as soon as my body and my brain started to feel seized up, I just knew I wasn't going to make any more good work. I had to get out and do something that reset me, like physically reset my body so it felt loose again and I could make nice loose work. So I worked really intensively for a short time, but I didn't work long hours every day. I can't work like that. Speaker 2 (2:11) It's not sustainable. Speaker 1 (2:13) And Tanya gets really recharged by travel, doesn't she? So it's really important for her that she, and you. Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:20) Something magic happens when you're in a new place. Yeah. Do Speaker 1 (2:22) you feel it as well? I feel like everybody gets Speaker 2 (2:24) recharged by Speaker 1 (2:24) travel. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Yeah. And I really like drawing on location in new places. It feels really exciting drawings when you, yeah. And I think Speaker 2 (2:34) even if Speaker 1 (2:35) you can't afford to go on holiday, doing something like getting Speaker 2 (2:37) on the bus when you don't normally get on the bus, that can be so exciting. Speaker 1 (2:40) Do you know what I've started doing? Every Thursday, I have an appointment in Newcastle. And after it, I usually get the tube back into town and I do some drawing. But sometimes I stay on the tube and I get off at a stop I never got off at before and I draw there. How exciting. It's like a wild adventure. Raucous. Speaker 2 (3:02) Have we got some questions? Yeah, let's do the first one. I just put a thing out saying, has anybody got any questions about marketing, getting word out about your illustration work? And the first one was the best one. It said, where to start? I just don't know where to begin. Speaker 1 (3:17) I wonder what kind of illustrator they are. Although there are things that go across the board no matter what area of illustration you're in, aren't there? Yeah, but that thing can be really helpful just figuring out what you Speaker 2 (3:29) do. Because when I was starting out, my error, my big mistake was that I was like, I will draw anything for anyone. Like whatever you need, I can do it. And I thought this is going to be brilliant because I can work with anyone. I'll have loads of customers, loads of clients needing illustrations. But really it just meant that nobody really knew what I did. They just knew that I vaguely drew pictures, maybe, and I didn't get any work. And it wasn't until I narrowed it down a little bit that I made it way easier to market. Speaker 1 (3:56) Yeah, Speaker 2 (3:56) you were an expert Speaker 1 (3:56) in your area so that people know they can trust you in that area. I did the same. I didn't know what type of illustrator I was. So I tried different things out. Because I didn't know absolutely for certain that picture books was it. It took me a while to work it out. And I tried doing magazines and newspapers, a bit of editorial. And I tried that on for a while and got some work like that and then realised that wasn't me. I think it's important to know you can change direction. Just try some hats on and take them back off if they're not a good fit. Speaker 2 (4:28) Yeah, because people Speaker 1 (4:29) get really Speaker 2 (4:30) scared, don't they? When you say narrow it down, they go, oh, but I do loads of exciting things. But yeah, you don't have to get married to it and do it forever. You can try something out, see how it goes. If you hate it, you can change again. And then that would be the starting point. Speaker 1 (4:42) Figure out what you're doing. Figure out what you're doing. And then I think there's a certain amount of time you spend honing your skills in that thing. But as an illustrator, you also need to tell people you can do it. So we think of it sometimes, don't we, as having two cars. One's your creative car, drive that forward a bit, and then you run out and you get in your business car and you drive that forward a bit. Yeah, you've got to do a bit of both. There's no point becoming the best picture book maker you could be, but nobody sees it. Or the other way around. Speaker 2 (5:13) Yeah, there's no point yelling about something and it's not that great. I think that's something I see people for. If it was a normal business, I'm using inverted commas, if the product was rubbish, no amount of marketing