Well, I've made a big step that I've been working towards since I graduated from University waaaaaaaaaay back in 2003: I've finally quit the day job and am now an officially freelance illustrator. A lot of factors have stopped this from happening sooner over the years such as not having much money after graduation, taking a few wrong turns, etc. But the last 5 years years have been pretty much nothing but solid work towards this goal and I can't believe that it's now actually happening!
2012 has been a huge year for me; I've pretty much been working on a book a month for the year, and that doesn't include my own self-published work. I got to work on a dream job (which I will be able to announce soon) which has now been extended to early 2013 and maybe (big maybe) beyond that. Hopefully this will lead to more work with the publishers in question, and it's also looking like I can justify a trip to the San Diego Comic Con next year as the publishers go every year, my books will be there (yeep!) and my partner currently works for IDW who will also be there.
I'm expecting things to get harder now that I don't have a day job to back me up, but I only see this as a challenge to work even harder than I have been and this will hopefully lead to more work in 2013. I've put in a lot of work over the last 5 years and I feel elated that it's finally paying off. There was a time when I would sit and hope that work would fall in my lap but I started to learn that the more I put in, the more I got out and that's certainly been true for the last couple of years. I've had a lot of support from my amazing partner, John-Paul Bove , who is also enjoying some success after putting a lot of hard work into his writing and colouring career. Considering he also has a full-time job, this is also a huge achievement in itself!
I cannot imagine doing anything else but this for a living now and I hope that I can prove myself worthy of the title of Freelance Illustrator! :P
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