Read on Twitter
A piece of advice that irks me, that I've heard over and over, regarding finding success in illustration or the arts, is that you should just keep doing what you're doing and that that will be valuable and enable you to have a career. While I agree with the general sentiment that
finding your own voice and creating work that is unique to yourself is important and valuable, in terms of career advice, it's so paper thin and means next to nothing. Just being told to keep on slogging through being poor and not getting work in the hopes that eventually you'll
get noticed by some big company just doesn't acknowledge the reality of trying to create personal work while making a living in an expensive city. You have to be lucky or privileged in order to slog through the beginnings of any arts career.
I've heard professors say this advice and recently heard it in a an artist talk re: getting work as a storyboarder.
It's not that this advice isn't true, because I am sure it can be, but that this advice doesn't acknowledge the reality that there's no guarantee you'll ever get the work you want for any odd reason. It's all a gamble and it involves having the ability to do so.
I could only justify making A Gleaming Pt. 2 because I have no student debt, I worked my through school, had family help me with my first years of education, I worked a full-time job while freelancing, I am in a position where I can live cheaply and save any extra money I make,
AND I received two grants in order to complete it (1.5k and $500). In the reality where I didn't have external help, i would never of been able to quit my coffee job to devote the time to a personal project. I have the privilege to invest time and money into my work.
I'm constantly squeaking by and I am happy to be, but I'd never advise anyone to do what I do. I am constantly trying to balance personal and professional projects and there's no guarantee that my personal projects will ever lead to the exact work I want to be doing.
I know the advice means well! It's just that of any of the 1000's of people listening to the talk on storyboarding for Cartoon Network there are so few people who will ever end up in that position that they're specifically dreaming of. In that context, that advice feels hollow.
