How to become one of the best live illustrators around.
Them: To become an artist/illustrator, you need to come from an art background, studied art, and be fancy pants etc etc.
Me: All you need is a love of illustrating, consistent practice and the desire to keep going.
I recently read Atomic Habits (I know, I was very late on that bandwagon), and this quote has stuck with me:
“The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty.”
This Mother’s Day, La Prairie commissioned me to draw 249 people over the space of about two weeks. It was a marathonnnnnnnnnn and my best friend asked me if I’m getting sick of it. I paused to think, but my honest answer was ‘No, I’m still proud of every single one, and I imagine how they’ll react when they see it.’ (People pleasing is a strong motivator for me.)
The La Prairie portrait marathon - not even all of them!
I truly believe one of the reasons I’ve reached the level of success I have, and worked with the brands I have (Tiffany & Co, Dior, Miu Miu, La Prairie +) isn’t because I’m any more talented than other illustrators in Sydney, but because I haven’t quit. If I’ve drawn hundreds (if not thousands) of women over the last 5 years and still not gotten bored - it’s because I’m not sick of the act or ‘routine’ of live illustration.
A few reasons for this:
I’m extroverted - though the ‘event’ follows a relatively predictable process, the people are always different. And I thrive on interacting with those people, and the clients. Every job is fun for me!
I don’t mind the ‘same same’. I’m one of those (weird) people who can eat the same meal for breakfast for years and not get bored. So drawing women over and over again, week after week, year after year doesn’t bother me in the slightest because - every person is a new chance to delight. It comes back to my love of people, every time.
I compete with myself. Sometimes I find photos of some of my early live illustrations and… they’re not great. With every event, I improve - sometimes in my illustration style, or the client process, or through onsite skills. So while I’ve been doing the ‘same thing’ for years now, I see improvement from where I started, and that’s satisfying!
Main takeaway: To be the best at anything, don’t quit from boredom. If you are getting bored, tweak it so you don’t. eg. Every now and then, I’ll draw someone I admire, a celebrity etc and challenge myself to get their outfit textures to pop/hair to look super shiny etc. Or draw flowers, animals etc. Change it up so it doesn’t bore you! Boredom is your enemy to be the greatest.
Hope that helps!
- Bel