Do the Things You Enjoy
Before I got started in digital illustration, I always knew that I had an affinity towards digital creation. I was already familiar with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and spent my childhood and teenage years messing around on sites like Paint and Picmonkey. I always felt an indifference towards art, because I wasn’t the best at physical mediums like painting and pottery. My elementary and middle school art classes didn’t fulfill the digital art instruction that I needed (and didn’t find until my freshman year of college).
If it wasn’t for my Intro to Digital Design class during winter term in 2017, I definitely wouldn’t have went down the path of being a digital illustrator. Before I gained knowledge of Illustrator, I was relying on free or inexpensive websites to create designs for my non-profit’s socials. I knew that my skills could improve if I had better software to use, but didn’t know that the software I needed was Adobe products.
Luckily, learning Adobe programs was pretty easy for me. I started to expand on my skills with simple typography (and gained an obsession with downloading fonts and color palettes), but wanted to do more. I noticed a lot of creators online were making cute handdrawn illustrations, and tried to follow the trend by using the trackpad on my laptop to draw things. I liked how they looked, but knew that if I was able to somehow transfer what I could draw in real life that it’d look better.
Towards the end of 2018, more and more digital art accounts arose. I started to follow some as a lot of mental health organizations I followed were reposting their work. Then I realized that I could jump on the digital illustration boat. I had an old iPad mini that I hadn’t used for years, and downloaded Procreate (my absolute favorite app).
I tried drawing things with my finger but it obviously wasn’t producing the results I wanted. I begged my mom to take me to Best Buy to check out styluses, and settled with a rubber stylus for the moment. Within the span of a month, I learned the program and felt more creative than I had in years. I eventually was able to get a new iPad (the 12.9in Pro) and an Apple Pencil, which helped expand my skills even more.
In the past year and 4 months, I’ve been able to find a part of myself that I didn’t think existed. I’m close to reaching 100,000 followers on GMF Designs, an achievement I didn’t think I would accomplish so fast. Sometimes I doubted myself and my art skills, as I’ve only ever self-taught or had minimal instruction with art, but kept pushing through my own negative thoughts.
I deserve to just do the things that I’m passionate about. And so do you. It doesn’t matter if you’re good at something or just beginning. If you enjoy something, you should be able to do it without worrying about the criticism and feedback of others. We deserve to have hobbies and activities in our lives that don’t depend on our skill level.
We also don’t need to make everything a side hustle. I’ve thought for so long that I have to create products for GMF Designs and make a profit out of my work. I’ve waited so long to do it until I genuinely wanted to create a shop. But even though I’m taking the route of making GMF Designs a side hustle, doesn’t mean you have to make whatever you’re doing into a business.
I feel like a lot of people feel pressured to find something they’re good at to turn into a side hustle right now because of everything going on. You’re allowed to do things because you genuinely enjoy doing them. Don’t worry about finding a side hustle, we’re literally in the midst of a pandemic. You deserve to focus on prioritizing your physical and mental health, and giving yourself the proper self-care you need. It’s not wrong to use this time to try new things or put more time into hobbies you may have already tried/forgot about, but don’t feel pressured to start a side hustle.
