The realization that I had been treating art like a hobby instead of a career blindsided me early in the morning last Thursday. There I sat at my day job, wondering why all of my efforts to make art a full time venture just weren’t working. Wallowing in thoughts about if I was made of the right stuff to make this successful and what I was doing wrong, it hit me:

A career is the way you make your money, survive in the world, and create your livelihood. Ideally, it is supposed to be something that you truly love and cherish; something that makes you eager to get up in the morning to do.

A “hobby is an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.” (1)

In other words, a hobby is something that makes you happy that you do from time to time. An occupation or career is something that you drive at all the time, constantly whittling, improving, and polishing. I stepped back and looked at my own habits. What have I been doing with my art since I finished my degree?

A little here and a little there. Occasionally. To make me happy.

Well it’s no wonder I’m not going anywhere. I was serious enough about art to spend five years honing my talent at a university, yet I wasn’t serious enough about it make sure I had the same dedication towards it even after I had to get a day job.

Sure, I’ve been really bustin’ it on Vinny since December of last year, and sure it’s been going through tons of revisions and push backs, but what have I done for my OWN art and my own career? Of course I want Vinny to be wildly successful and have it help catapult me into comics success, but there are other things that I could be doing.

The problem I feel I have is that I don’t have the right education. No, I don’t mean I should have gone for a different degree. Most art schools focus exclusively on content production, movements, history, and honing a student’s skills. They may briefly brush on art as a business, but most schools don’t approach it in-depth, don’t give any marketing training, and most certainly don’t help train an artist on how to survive in the real world once that diploma is hot off the presses.

Some artists get lucky. But the ones that are really successful get smart. It’s all about your skills and who you know… but I also think it’s got to do with WHAT you know and what you do to make things happen. So we don’t have that part of our education? It’s up to us to get it, then.

Coming home from my day job and putting off painting or drawing because I have another hobby to feed most certainly isn’t getting me anywhere. Of course life has its own requirements: family, house, bills, pets, etc. But am I truly putting in my all when it comes to educating myself in how to get my work out there? No. I keep doing it for “funsies” and hoping that something magical falls into my lap. Reality check: I seriously doubt I’ll ever get anywhere doing that.

I need to learn more about business, more about marketing, more about freelancing, copyrights, licensing, the whole thing. I should be blogging more, getting my voice heard, and doing more art. Putting it out there to be seen, digested, critiqued, and hopefully purchased.

It’s time to shape up, learn, and be dedicated to my craft or I’ll be day-jobbing it for the rest of my life.

Any other artists (young or old) out there suffering this same problem? Anyone have any advice? It is my personal goal now to learn what I don’t know and do what I’ve been too lazy/depressed/bored to do. I’ll share everything that I discover along the way to help other artists find their way as well.

It’s time to make art my career, not my hobby.

Works Cited

“hobby.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 24 Sep. 2009. .