My Rocky Road To Becoming A Full Time Fashion Illustrator

Reading time - 10 minutes

Becoming a full time illustrator is rarely a smooth process, and people often feel like they need to study illustration at uni, then go straight into being full time after graduation and from there have a beautiful career.

But that really doesn’t happen often, everyones journey is completeeeely different and I think it’s important to share that so people don’t think that it’s either too late to make it happen or that a decision they made when they were 18 has stopped them from making their dream a reality.

So let’s do a deep dive on my journey to becoming a full-time Fashion Illustrator! …it’s convoluted!

I’ve drawn ever since I was a kid, pop a pencil and pad in front of me and I was happy for hours, I always knew I wanted to become an illustrator of some sort up until about 16, then I developed an interest in photography (developed, get it? I think I actually used that pun in my dissertation) so I ditched illustration for a few years.

I chose to focus on photography whilst studying a BTEC Art and Design at college, then went onto study Fashion Photography at university. Towards the end of my first year at uni I realised I didn’t really like photography as much as I liked drawing …oops.

That’s when I rediscovered drawing and fashion illustration, so I focused on it in my free time then incorporated drawing into my photography work to get through uni, so seeming mishap no.1 - not actually studying illustration.

During that time instagram just started so I began sharing my work online, became known as the ‘illustrator on a photography course’ and started getting a few bits of work here and there for magazines and blogs.

At this time I was still branding myself as a fashion illustrator and photographer, because I enjoyed combining both and thought it would make me stand out in industry, thought twice the opportunities could be coming my way!

But when I graduated and moved home, keeping up the photography side of things was a lot harder, finding studio space, equipment, models, make up artists, styling… so much goes into it that I just ditched the photography side after a while and went full in on illustration.

I was back home for a year after graduation, got the odd commission here and there whilst home but opportunities weren’t breaking down my door like university lead me to believe… so it felt like the momentum from a final year exhibition and graduating had fizzled out.

A year after graduating I moved to London, I thought everything was just going to magically fall into place… but I rinsed through my savings stupidly fast and had to find a job quick, work wasn’t just landing in my inbox even though I was now in London.

So I got an internship doing social media for a shoe brand, the work load wasn’t huge so it didn’t consume me, only downside was I had to be in an office 9-5… took me a while to fall into that routine, I’d gone through my holiday allowance for the year by the time March rolled around…

During this time I was just being a young, broke creative in London, I’d take time off work to go to fashion week, went to Paris fashion week because someone I just met let me sleep on their couch, just gallivanting around…

Such a wake up call to come back from fashion week and go back to sitting in an office for 8 hours trying to look busy. I was late coming in most days because I’m awful at early mornings and most of the time was up late drawing the night before… so during this time I would share my work everywhere I could and had a couple commissions coming in but still no bigger jobs.

Everything I learnt/tested on the job there to do with social media I’d then apply to my own profiles and my following grew from 3k to 10k during my time there.

After a year I moved onto a new job, one that paid a loooot better, but was waaaay more responsibility, instead of just social media I was now a manager for all of marketing, and running 4 social media accounts …was very sink or swim.

So after starting that job I didn’t even draw for 6 months, first one of many of my insta breaks!

But that job completely took over my life, trying to juggle the sheer amount of work, so any progress I was making on social media and networking at fashion weeks felt it had up and vanished.

After the first 6 months of the job consuming me I started to put myself first a bit more, making sure I made time for drawing, doing it evenings and weekends, I remember making sure I posted on Insta during my walk from the tube station into work, so that was ticked off for the day.

The whole of 2017 was just me spent working at that job and fitting in illustrations when I could, no real work coming in.

Something changed in 2018 though, I think after a year of posting consistently things started to fall into place!

I remember getting approached by Winsor and newton to work with them on a few things, Apple got in contact and wanted me to do a talk about my ‘career’ despite me still sitting around waiting for it to happen, I booked a job with Selfridges, worked with Axel Arigato, things just started to fall into place.

And because of that my focus was drifting from my actual job, I was thinking like omggg things are happeningggg illustration wise so anything to do with the other job I just felt like was an inconvenience, I quickly came to start resenting the other job.

So I’d be drawing in the office, coming in late, focusing on my own things, I was excited by the momentum happening …but it all came to a head when I made a massive blunder at work.

My mind was elsewhere and I was going to Venice for my birthday, we had a big campaign shoot the day after I got back, I didn’t see an important email whilst away and I forgot to confirm the location for the shoot, so the model, videographer, photographer all turned up to the location and weren’t allowed in…

So the company had to pay everyone for that day and rebook everyone to actually shoot the campaign the week after, so it cost the company double…

After that mess up my boss called me in for a meeting, and was just honest saying he didn’t feel like my focus was there anymore, wanted to know what’s happened and what’s changed?

I was honest and said I’m excited about my illustration stuff and that’s where my mind is and that’s what I want to do, he asked what would be the best solution? As they wanted to keep me on just in a capacity that would work for me as well.

So that’s when we decided I’d go freelance, 3 days a week for them and then the other days I can focus on my illustration work, so rent will be sorted and I get my arty time, perfect!

This was a huge leap, because I was no longer a contracted employee, so no holiday allowance, no notice period, no sick days… but I was so excited.

Then straight after going freelance, Alexander McQueen messaged me and invited me to a show, Vogue messaged me and wanted me to come into the office, it felt like I’d made the right decision.

For rest of 2018 I balanced doing arty things with actually doing my job, I got a few more clients, but it did feel like I was living two lives a bit.

Then in 2019 I started getting frustrated how much the other job was taking up time wise and how I wanted to just be a bit ‘free’. So March 2019 I gave up my job, moved out of London and went travelling for a month, technically during that time time you could say I was a ‘full time artist’ …but I wasn’t making any money… I was spending it like crazy though.

Came back from travelling after only a month away because I’d squandered £8000 on air bnb’s and restaurants, so I came back penniless… But I knew I wanted to go FULL in on illustration, I was fed up of half arsing it, I just needed a lil money to start.

Strangely enough my replacement at the old job had just quit, so very serendipitous! I took the old job back to save up money and return to London and went at pushing myself for more illustration work.

A month after I got back from travelling I was focused on getting an agent, so I emailed agents on a Thursday, on Friday my agent got back to me and Monday I was signed! So again it looked like things were meant to be happening.

I managed to move back to London in August 2019, worked with Winsor & Newton, Molton Brown and my agent was getting me work with Ted Baker, Armani and Samsung, felt like there was momentum again!

…then 2020 happened and thank god I still had the other job, as all illustration work just disappeared, so the other job kept me funded and kept me sane during lockdowns.

So other than the odd job here and there, in 2020 all the momentum just fizzled out for my illustration work, and towards the end of that year I started to question if I wanted to be an Illustrator or if I should just focus on the Art Direction work I was doing at the other job, so I took another Insta break, this time it was 8 months…

But during the insta break I moved into a flat on my own, as I wanted more studio space not just a desk next to my bed, and after some thinking I knew I wanted to do illustration and this time it was gonna be it, I’m gonna make it!

So June 2021 I came back to instagram and launched my first course, absolutely wild now looking back, I launched a business course about how to get work as a fashion illustrator after 18 months of barely illustrating or getting any work in…

But the course was focused on methods of getting work in and marketing yourself which by that time I’d already been a marketing manager, social media manager, social media consultant and now doing freelance art director, plus having an agent and getting work in myself I felt like it was a topic I could cover.

So the course launched and went down extremely well! Rated 10/10 across the board and everyone found it really helpful, happy days!

But at this time I still wasn’t bringing in enough money from illustration work to go full time.

At the time I thought it was my other jobs fault because with that my rent was paid and I was comfortable so I never had to rely on illustration work to pay the bills.

But I felt like the comfort was holding me back and after binge watching The Bold Type on Netflix, 5 series in 2 days …I quit my job,

I felt like I needed a sink or swim moment, take the training wheels off and all that, so September 2021 I was officially a full time artist!

I had a little savings to help me whilst I found my feet, and work was coming in due to it being the end of the year and events picking up.

But in November my old job needed me, as again my replacement had quit! So September and October I was full time artist then BAM, Nov and Dec I was back doing freelance for them and doing illustration events.

It felt like a little two month trial of what I’d always wanted, but I made sure that this was the last time and come January 2022, I was a full time artist …yet again!!

All this back and forth is crazy…

But January 2022 I was fully on my own, self reliant and needed to get work in.

Then February, Louis Vuitton work came in, it was my first luxury luxury brand and I felt like I was getting somewhere!

Then Dior got in contact, then Tiffany’s, then Givenchy, so again it felt like it was serendipidous, like I was being rewarded for taking the plunge, all I needed to do was jump and hope.

So 2022 was a busy year, working with luxury brands, I launched an illustration course, I doubled my Insta following, another time where there was momentum being built!

…then in December 2022 I went on an insta break …again, …for 2 years.

But that whole time I’ve managed to still be a full time artist and more about that is covered in this blog post here:

Did a 2 year Insta hiatus hurt my career?

Wooo, we made it! What a long ass story.

I wanted to share this to show that everyone’s journey is different, my degrees in photography, I was a marketing manager, I quit my job like 8 times, progress isn’t always linear …it rarely is.

Sometimes you seemingly take a step back, but all it is is readying you for a bigger leap forward, and you just gotta have the faith to take that leap.

I took a lot of the supposed ‘correct routes’. I went to Uni, I moved to London, I posted on Instagram, but it still wasn’t smooth sailing.

It’s such a convoluted journey, so many times I thought ‘THIS IS IT!’ then it just didn’t happen, but consistency does pay off, even if it’s not every day, but if you keep coming back it will still yield progress over time.

It took me 7 years from graduating to go full time.

And the journey that lead me there made me learn so much about marketing, sales, social media, graphic design. I wouldn’t have learnt all that if Illustration had just worked from the get go.

Never feel like time spent doing other things is wasted as you can always bring what you’ve learnt outside of illustration into your illustration, even working in a supermarket can develop your people skills and mean you’re more comfortable drawing and talking at the same time!

I’ve got a hand cramp from writing this all out, but a quick plug, my Career masterclass is launching next week!

It’s a brand new course that combined the business practises of my Business Course with guidance, and planning to help you understand and action the career you want to have.

So keep an eye out for that here

Anyway, I’m off to play Tomb Raider, toodles!

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