Monday, May 3, 2010

Conundrum...

Not sure where else to post this; I only have a handful of followers, so I may not get the feedback I'm fishing for, but what the heck! We'll see what shakes out here.

The past year or so I've been struggling with myself, wondering what I should do, and how I should do it. Sounds pretty vague, eh? Okay, to fine tune my 'visionquest': I really want to do gallery (fine) art, but I'm leery to quit the commercial clients I've worked with for years. They're such good folk. And money, well, money is god-awful important. The e-book covers, mid-level collectible card games, the odd fantasy illustration or three...they've put change in my pocket for quite some time. It scares me to let them fall away. But if I don't, I won't ever have the focus to pull together a series of paintings to (hopefully!) peddle to a gallery. And I seem to have hit a plateau. I'm not improving the way I see my compatriots doing. Why? Dunno. Maybe it's lack of incentive. Maybe it's me, recognizing I need to head off in a different direction. Kinda scary starting from scratch again, though.

Has anyone out there done this? Scrapped your commercial biz in favor of fine arts and lived to tell about it? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Happy Monday, kids.

~C

2 comments:

Amanda Kelsey said...

I know that the folks you do covers for would be very sad to see you leave. You're so wonderful at what you're currently doing.

But then again, if you feel this is something you need to do for your own peace of mind. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Maybe instead of calling it quits for good you can just take a hiatus?

Good luck making your decision.
*hugs*
Amanda

Nicole Cadet said...

I can't offer advice specifically around art career vs illustration. I changed career from Teaching to IT and decided to keep the art as a side business - I think it was one of the best decisions I made - for me. There is no wrong decision. You could take a break with a fixed timeline to focus on your personal work - like set aside 3 months as a start (if money is not a driving factor). Good luck with whatever you decide