How do you deal with envy in your creative career?
Art agent Lilla has decades of experience and shedloads of wisdom to share. She works hard to nurture creative people, both her students and her artists alike, and her courses often explore the psychological side of carving out a career as an illustrator.
In her Illustrating Children’s Books course, for example, as well as a ton of incredible content about children’s book illustration, she also shares handouts on topics such as being yourself, dealing with competition, creating routines and more.
Lilla has worked as an art agent, an illustrator, a speaker, a columnist, the creator of a national jewelry craft line, an educator, an author and more, and she has tons of wisdom to share.
At the end of last month, we shared how we’d been asking Lilla some of the Big Questions about life as an illustrator. In March, we asked her about how we can keep creating with joy in difficult times – if you missed her answer, read it here.
Today we wanted to ask Lilla about something that will be familiar to many artists: envy. How do you deal with envy in your creative career?
Q: Lilla, how can I deal with my feelings of envy when I see so much amazing work around me, in class and on Instagram, or I see other artists being more successful than me?
I want to be supportive of my fellow artists. They deserve their success. But I work hard too – when will it be my turn?
Art by Make Art That Sells student Ifiyenia Kamperi on abundance for MATS MBA (Money BadAss).
A: Lilla replies: It’s absolutely normal and common to feel envy at another artist’s success or amazing work.
Artists don’t talk much about their personal feelings of envy. I don’t know why. Maybe we’re uncomfortable with admitting to having petty negative feelings? Step back and remember that there is room for everybody. Art is actually not a competition. The more great art that’s out there, the more people buy more great art!
Let someone’s success inspire you, as in: Oh cool! I want that! I admire what this person has done. I’m curious how they got there. Let me try x, y and z.
My best advice for dealing with envy is this: rather than focusing on others, just keep focusing on your relationship with your work. Follow your passions where they lead you. No-one can ever compete with your own unique vision. Remember, your uniqueness is something that has no competition. I tell my kids, just get really good at what you love and there will be people who want it. Do what you do best and have fun with it.
One person’s success increases the size of the pie. Let me explain what I mean. Old thinking says that a finite amount of opportunity is out there for the taking. Another way of looking at this is that as more talented people get into the field, opportunity itself expands. The pie expands, and everyone’s slice is as big as they like.
Art by Lydia Graves, an artist who Lilla now represents after seeing her work in class, for a Make Art That Sells course.
It’s never a bad thing to have a lot of great creative successes out in the market. For example, if a whole bunch of great movies come out at once, you are probably going to get yourself to the movie theater and see a movie that weekend. We want to fill the market with exceptional art. The more that’s out there, the more art becomes a bigger part of our culture and artists become more successful and begin to enjoy the livelihoods they deserve.
One more thing: You can make yourself crazy with the pressure to get even better. “Oh my God, I’ve got to make more art! I’ve got to have fun with it! I’ve got to social media the heck out of it!” And you make yourself crazy with exhaustion.
How do you manage that pressure? You sit down and have a nice chat with yourself over a cup of tea. You get out a piece of paper and a pencil and write down realistically on a schedule what you’re willing to do (and not willing to do) in terms of time and energy. What are you willing to allot to your creative career? What won’t make you sick?
Some of Lilla’s illustrations from her days as a successful full-time professional artist.
You ask yourself, “Am I operating out of a sense of panic and fear, or joy and bounty?” What I mean is if you’re terrified that you’ve got to make great work, it’s a recipe for disaster. If you do it out of passion, fun and joy, and just have a good time with it, you really and truly cannot fail. I guarantee that the more fun you have with your work, the better your work will be and the more your career will succeed without you having to worry much.
So next time you look at an amazing piece of art, say, “Cool!”
And know that as you get more successes, it gets so much easier. Trust me
Thanks Lilla. We hope that that helps. And don’t forget, if you’ve got a question for Lilla then get in touch by emailing [email protected].
- Monday, May 20th: Create a complete ready-to-send picture book illustration pitch in just five weeks in our hugely popular, career-changing LIVE course, Illustrating Children’s Books!
- Monday, May 20th: Join Lilla and Zoë for a FREE live Zoom event on the first day of Illustrating Children’s Books. Set a reminder now!
- Next newsletter: Get your FREE download with tips and advice on creating fantastic characters for children’s book illustration from brilliant children’s book art director, picture book author and Make Art That Sells co-teacher, Zoë Tucker!
Lots of love
The Make Art That Sells team xxx
