Success Is Just Beginning

Hey There,

This is my very first blog post ever. No lie, I am a bit nervous. I don’t feel like I am the best writer which has always kept me from writing. As a new business owner, it has become my job to tell my story, so here it goes. 

I am a 34 year old full-time graphic designer for an association in Washington DC. I live alone except for my two fat cats and I spend most nights drawing. I started in college with a fine arts major, I was going to be a painter. I have parents who always look out for me and I didn’t realize it at the time but their fear of the “starving artist” persona made them convince me to shift my major to graphic design. As a graphic designer I design flyers, posters, booklets, etc. It is a nice job as a replacement for a fine art career but the items I make aren’t necessarily very creative. I am following guidelines, using specific colors and fonts, and the creativity can be limiting. 

Around a year and a half ago I realized that I had completely stopped drawing or painting and was spending my evening sitting on the couch watching tv or playing Animal Crossing on my Nintendo Switch. So, I bought myself a new sketchbook. I used to fear the blank page. Instead of just drawing I would be worried about what would end up on the page. What if it wasn’t good? But the reality was this sketchbook was for me, I wasn’t going to show it to anyone, I don’t know why I was so worried about what I was drawing. It was holding me back from starting.

Turns out it is as easy as taking the pencil and making a mark. Welp the page is already messed up might as well draw something on here. 

So I began drawing and I thought about how much I missed my college art classes and looked into classes that I could take. Of course they were all during my working hours. That’s when my friend suggested Skillshare. I paid for a subscription and told myself if I was going to invest in this then I needed to make myself go through one class a week. I had so much fun learning from the instructors. I learned different drawing techniques. Then I learned watercolor techniques. Then I learned how to draw on a tablet. And then one day I came across a class about drawing patterns.

I thought it was interesting so I gave it a try. I was hooked. I learned all about surface pattern design and that it is actually a job where an artist can develop illustrations and patterns and basically “rent” them to companies to have them printed on products. What?! This is amazing. This is an actual job? 

Here I am a year later on my journey to move from a full time graphic designer to becoming a full time entrepreneur as a surface pattern designer. It’s a slow process, I work on this in the evenings and weekends but I’m still determined. 

All that to say, just begin, like I’m doing with this blog. Success doesn’t happen overnight, I’m still working toward mine. But hard work and determination will get you anywhere you want to go.