In our interview, Cristina shared details about her experience with creating products, promoting herself, and managing various income channels. She talked honestly about her mental health challenges, finding confidence and inspiration, learning that failing is okay, and the importance of staying authentic as an artist. This is the first creator interview on TC’D.
On battling mental health and the insecurities of beginners, and learning to fail and keep going
Petra: You haven’t always been a freelancer. What did you do before that, and why did you make that change?
Cristina: I was doing graphic design working in the family business and also freelancing for agencies, but around five years ago, I had a mental breakdown, experiencing anxiety and stress, and I started drawing as therapy. Then I said, okay, this is what I want to do. Essentially now, I’ve been working as a graphic designer for 15 years, but at one point I decided that I wanted to focus on illustration specifically. Today, I have my own business and I am my own boss.
Petra: How your mental health can urge you to make these big decisions…
Cristina: Yes, for me it was life-changing. I never thought about illustration before that because I originally studied fine arts and at the time I really hated illustration. I didn’t know how to draw. I didn’t want to know how to paint, I didn’t like it at all. Later, having these panic and anxiety attacks, I was wondering, what am I doing with my life. What is making me happy? Now, I’m happy, working as a graphic designer as my own boss.
Petra: When I talk to freelancers, everyone says that the beginning is so uncertain and it can also be something that sparks your anxiety differently. Did you have that period in the beginning?
Cristina: Yes. I think freelancing is like a very big adventure because you don’t know what’s going to happen. The same is true for other businesses too, but since I am my own boss, I have to start caring about things like how am I going to pay for my home, my office, my computer, my iPad, or my tablets if something happens. With that, you start thinking about how everything is going. How you’re going to find clients, people who are going to buy your creations. To me, the beginning was also stressful because I didn’t study exactly this, and deciding that I was going to start doing illustration was a new thing to explore on its own. I felt very lost at that moment, figuring out everything. However, this is the experience that probably makes you more confident to start making decisions. It’s both tiring and rewarding.
Petra: Did you have anyone to turn to in this period, or did you do some kind of research like looking at what other illustrators are already doing? Gathering information to help you out in this first stage?
Cristina: At first, I looked at Instagram and what other people, the top illustrators that everyone follows were doing. How do they sell their drawings, how do they handle commissions? It was really helpful. As a recent example, last year I joined Domestika [one of the largest creative communities with online courses] where other illustrators teach you how to manage your own business.
It’s also about accepting that you’re going to walk the walk and figure out things along the way.
Petra: Besides doing this kind of research, did you reach out to an illustrator specifically to get some advice or tips?
Cristina: No, I did it myself. I didn’t have the confidence at that point to reach out to my favorite illustrators because I was thinking, I’m no one here. I didn’t know if these people were going to pay any attention. I don’t regret it because I think you learn a lot when you do your own research as well. I’m happy about how I did it. Now that I have grown a bit, I feel confident to contact other artists and have conversations with them. On the other hand, if you’re not that shy in the beginning like I was though, ask other professionals how they do what they do, like how they price their commissions. I would encourage them to do it because I also always respond to questions like this.
Petra: It’s so nice that if somebody comes to you, you will answer their questions and help them out. This type of welcoming would be great in all industries and fields, for the more experienced people to say, come and feel free to ask questions. What are the topics that you now discuss with other illustrators? What do you need help with?
Cristina: A couple of weeks ago I was talking with another illustrator who is also from Spain, and we were discussing about if Patreon was working for us or not and how we have fewer patrons than years ago. We were talking about if there could be other but similar platforms to try. We have been discussing publishing too and if we know agents who can connect illustrators with publishing houses. We usually share what is working and what is not.
Petra: In the long term, this kind of knowledge sharing and helping each other is good for the illustrator community, right?
Cristina: Yes. I think the point here is that we don’t feel like the other illustrator is our competitor. Technically, on paper we are, but I don’t have this perception of them.
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Petra: Talking about helping… Can you share some key lessons you have learned for those who are starting their journey? What would you say to someone who would be sending you a DM on Instagram, for instance?
Cristina:
If somebody wants to be an illustrator, the first thing that they have to do is lose the fear of sharing their work. People will find you and reach you through your work. If you have a fear of sharing because you think your work is not valuable or not well-done, not as perfect as the ones you see on social media, then you’re not going to go anywhere. This is the first step, taking the leap to start sharing.
Then, if you decide to make a living from illustration, you have to start thinking about what kind of field you want to be in. You can be working in the publishing industry. You can earn money from private commissions. You can have your own webshop. You can create courses. You can do more than one thing, but at the same time, don’t do everything, it’s impossible — focus on a few things. For instance, if you like to teach, you can open a Patreon or a Ko-fi account and start sharing your tutorials. You have to figure out which channels are the ones that you feel comfortable with.
Petra: I think this is a really important message because you often hear that when somebody’s starting out, they immediately need to be everywhere and do everything. That on its own can be so frightening, and strategically it’s simply better if you pick some platforms and share your work and start communicating there. With more experience, better time and work management, you’ll always have the possibility to expand, and if you wish to. Don’t be afraid to start something simply because you think you have to do everything and everywhere all at once.
Cristina: Yeah, it can be very overwhelming, and also,
let’s remember that people can fail and they’re going to fail from time to time.
For example, I opened and closed my webshop many times based on whether people were buying my work there or not. Currently, it’s open and you can buy merchandise products with my illustrations on them but I realized that my character design doesn’t really work well with that format. On the other hand, people can commission me through my website too so that’s another channel where they can reach me. So my lesson right now is that commissions work well for me, but buying physical products, like hoodies and T-shirts with my characters on them, not so much. But that’s okay. You just have to start thinking and decide where you’re going to focus your business.
On the intricacies of promotion, getting the first commission, and working with sponsors
Petra: Would you say that you have a brand now?
Cristina: I think I am my brand in the sense that I am the person behind all the illustrations and designs and any related work, whether it’s for a book, creating a YouTube video, or writing a social media post. It’s me, from my home, I’m the one doing it and keeping it as simple as possible.
I’m proof that you don’t need an office to be a successful illustrator.
Petra: Do you think about what makes you different from other illustrators?
Cristina: There are always certain similarities between us based on follower base and prices, for instance, but the way we approach our work and style, makes us different. We all see the world in a different way, and with character design, for instance, we express ourselves differently through our illustrations. People, therefore, will resonate with different illustrators and like or buy their work for their own reasons, likes, and needs.
Petra: Have you made any big changes to your brand, to your products, to your commission packages since you started your business?
Cristina: Of course. For example, first, I was very lost because I wanted to take commissions and I didn’t have any idea about how to do that. I started taking payments with PayPal. Then I decided that I wanted to create a website and had to find ways to receive the payments via the website directly. Or, my Patreon is one of the channels that I’ve changed the most because it’s super easy to see there, what things are working or not. For instance, after a few months, I saw that I was charging less than I should have for my offering there so I increased the price a little bit.
Petra: Do you sometimes get feedback from the people who commission you or your community on Patreon?
Cristina: On Patreon, from time to time, I tend to do a survey, asking them, what do you like, what are you more interested in, or what things could I offer that I don’t at the moment? My community there is mainly illustrators who want to learn. I always keep up a constant communication with them and it’s super easy and interesting to get feedback. I try to find the sweet spot for everyone. If they tell me my videos are too long, I’ll make them shorter. But at the same time, others liked the long ones, so I decided to share a longer and a shorter version, and then everybody was happy with the changes.
Petra: So you positioned your Patreon in a way where other illustrators can pay to learn from you but you also take private commissions from people who are not illustrators and simply want something created in your style. Let’s discuss the second now. How did you get your first customers? What did you do to attract them?
Cristina: When my first customer contacted me for a commission, I didn’t do anything special to make that happen. I was there posting my drawings and someone just asked me on Instagram: Hey, do you take commissions? Later, I realized, as I said, that you just have to work on your drawings and show what you’re doing so people can find you. After a while, I also asked people to tag me when they shared my designs.
Petra: Have you used any tool to scale your business and reach a wider audience? What can you tell us about your marketing and promotional efforts?
Cristina: Social media is the only thing I use. For example, on YouTube, I can show the process of a drawing, and on Instagram, the final drawing. I also tried and ran some ads on social media but they didn’t bring any significant results to make me keep doing that. Last year I got contacted by Pinterest too to create some ads with $100 that I was given. I tried it but that also didn’t work in particular. I believe that my audience is there mainly because I post regularly. Plus, I saw that when I promoted something on social media, the engagement of the post turned out very low. I can have more impact when I simply post an illustration or do a drawing challenge where a lot of people share their work related to mine, as they participate. Direct promotion never works in my case.
Petra: I saw that did some giveaways, though.
Cristina: These days I do them through brand collaboration. With XPPen, for instance, people could win a tablet if they participated in a drawing contest.
Petra: Do these activities help you get more followers?
Cristina: Yes. I think the illustration business is different from a common business in the sense that we reach our customers first with our work and if they like it, they will start following you, then after a few weeks or months, they may decide to support your work on Patreon or share or buy your work. It’s not just a simple “I’m offering this, buy it”. It takes a lot of time to convert people from strangers to followers or subscribers and then customers. Activities like this can speed up the process of growing an audience.
Petra: Do sponsors reach out to you or do you contact them?
Cristina: I have never reached out to them directly. Brands write to me saying that they like my work and that our audience likely overlaps. They usually offer a product for testing which I can promote in some way if I want to.
Petra: Were there any partnerships that helped grow your brand?
Cristina: Yes. The brands I partner with share my work and give me exposure as their followers see what I do on my profiles. I can reach more people this way. I don’t get paid for these cooperations by the way, they send me their product that I can use and get to keep.
Petra: Have you had any sponsorship offers or commission queries that you turned down?
Cristina: Sometimes I reject sponsors if I feel that the offering doesn’t fit what I do, or wouldn’t fit my audience, or it’s not relevant in some way. It also happens that I don’t have the time to do the project. But otherwise, all of these collaborations are very easy for me. People tend to give me creative freedom. They come to me because they like my style. I can’t complain if I have to be honest.
Petra: I saw that you have these big publisher clients as well, like Penguin Random House and Scholastic. How did those partnerships come about?
Cristina: They also both contacted me, I was very lucky. They saw my work on Instagram and thought that I would be a great fit for their book collections. Penguin has recently reached out to me again for another project, so I’m very happy about these opportunities.
Petra: Do you enjoy these works more than the single commissions or the other way around?
Cristina: They’re different. If it’s single commissions, you have to cater more to the taste of the person who commissions you. They usually expect the drawing to resemble a certain person, their daughter, their father, or whoever, because they send a photo and want me to draw the person in the picture. With book illustrations, you have more freedom to create a character on your own and use your imagination more.
Read the second part of the interview with Cristina Gómez for more of her insights on juggling social media and income channels, the importance of staying authentic, battling self-doubt, and balancing life as a creator.
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Featured image by Cristina Gómez
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