A lot of people are worried ai will steal their work. 

So I’m here to share a way to protect your career from ai, and I’m NOT talking about opting out of your imagery being used to train it.

Funnily enough, the fact my work might be used to train ai or be used in some weird amalgamation that’s spewed out after someone types in a few words, isn't what bothers me.

AI is a topic that I get asked about a looooot, I think there’s huge amount of worry around and rightfully so, it’s the unknown, but something pops up every few decades to disturb the entire creative process (photography, digital art, 3d rendering) and things shift and adjust, so this isn’t the first and won’t be the last.

Overall I don’t see live event work going anywhere anytime soon, because if the finished outcome was the most important part, then photo booths would be everywhere instead of me and my 457 markers.

But I do see the editorial sphere/illustration world adjusting to this new way of working, personally, I’m hoping humans catch themselves before it gets too far and realise lets just keep the AI for the boring stuff so we can be left with the fun stuff.

The second most asked question I get asked, other than ‘can you draw me like one of your French girls’ is ‘where did you study?’…

Which sums up how much emphasis the general public put on the requirement of having a degree and on how much credit your uni gets for your current skills or career.

I didn’t actually study illustration, which always seems to shock people!

Hello Illustrators!

Here with this week's topic, the dreaded working for free!

Should artists do it? should we not? Let's have a chat...

All the talk of 'don’twork for free', 'don’t back down on your fee', 'stick to your guns' etc, is all great in a motivational insta post, but the reality of the industry is slightly different...

Breaking news! You can make a living from art, despite what everyone’s parents and teachers think.

If I had a penny every time someone replied ‘I mean like, what’s your job job?’ When I say I’m an artist… offft.

I think it’s time to put an end to the starving artist trope because it perpetuates the myth you can’t make a living off art, and art isn’t something that has enough worth to make a living off of…

And the way we do that is by being a bit more transparent about the money side of things…

I remember when I first went full time freelance, I was arrogant enough to think I’d email a couple illustration agencies, name drop a couple clients, link my insta and one would snap me up immediately and I’d be good to go, career in the bag. Safe to say that wasn’t quite the case…

My first ever client (that wasn’t a family friend wanting a portrait of their niece) was actually a pretty decent name to start off my client list! I remember I was in my final year at Falmouth university studying Fashion Photography, I always used to look at the #fashionillustrator on Twitter as I’d seen a few other illustrators reply to call outs on there and thought I’d keep my eye on it in case anything exciting came up!

Doing your hobby and passion as your job can make for some sticky times, it’s not for everyone but if you can read this and think you got those traits then you also got this career baby!

1. Be Stubborn.

A career in the arts takes time, it took me 8 years to get to a stage where I could finally go full-time. Developing your work, building a portfolio, getting clients, getting repeat clients...

it doesn’t happen overnight.

You have to fight through any doubt and keep soldiering on.