2023: The Year in Review | Part 1
Reflecting on the Past Year, Setting Goals for the Next
Just a quick heads up to my Newsletter subscribers: This review is long! While you’re getting this by email, it’s really written as a long-form blog post. Hopefully this helps you plan a time that works for you to read it. You can mark this email as Unread, use your email app’s Snooze feature, or simply find me later in your own way.
One thing that I do every year is write an annual review. This gives me a chance to reflect on everything that has happened in the past trip around the sun, whether amazing or agonizing, or somewhere in between.
Better late than never, right! With minus-one workdays left in March (this is the last weekday of the month and also Good Friday), it’s go time.
Actually, it’s now Monday, April 1, and I’m still working on this. So I’ve decided to break this into parts. This is Part 1.
So I will cut to the chase. Twenty Twenty-Three was a bad year for business and for my creative morale. It started with a sober reflection of the previous year (which was already trending in this undesirable direction), but I still had a lot of hope that things would turn around. I was just getting started with my new podcast, and I was only about a half year into my lease of a large studio space that I had hopes would turn out to be not only conducive, but absolutely crucial, to my creative business. Pouring rent money into the space turned out to feel more like an indulgence than a necessity — so much so that by July it made more financial sense to literally buy my own tiny backyard studio. I’ll explain more below, but at least that fail turned into a win!
The tagline for Thoughts on Illustration is A Podcast About Showing Up and Growing Up as an Illustrator. In this spirit, I had named 2022 The Year of Showing Up. Appropriately, I declared that 2023 would be The Year of Growing Up. Well, if it’s true that pain comes along for the ride with growth, I think I was spot-on. What will 2024 be called? I’ll figure that out by the end of this review.
Now, already I feel like I’m being too emo, and not offering any glimmers of hope. Growth is good, so, I guess, the pain that comes with it is in its own way good. 2023 was a good shake-up for me. My approach to hard times like this is, even though I’d much prefer good, easy times, I have to accept what I get and see what I can learn from it. If 2023 taught me anything, it was that past successes do not guarantee future ones, and that means we have to keep moving forward with diligence and a touch of humility. After year after year of success and growth, one starts to assume that more will come almost effortlessly. The most harmful part of this assumption is that one might stop really striving in the way that made them successful in the first place. One — I mean I — become detached from the deep feeling and connection to why, how and what I make in the first place.
So with these introductory thoughts out of the way, let’s dive into the review and see what made 2023 truly The Year of Growing Up. I’ll start with my Income Report, which I am certain will give you a more tangible idea of how the year went. Then, I’ll switch gears and share my favourite moments of the year in the Highlights section. After that, I’ll share some of my most challenging moments, and what I learned from them. Then, as I do every year, I will go over the goals I had set for the year and whether or not I met them. From there, I will declare what my goals are (and have been so far) for 2024. Finally, I will end with my conclusions for the year, ultimately asking: what did I truly learn in 2023, and how will I use this to keep going in 2024?
Income Report
This is where I break down my sources of income. While I will not give you dollar amounts, I hope that the relative proportions and percentages will still give you a picture of how things went for me, and a view in to at least one professional illustrator’s financial prospects. Should other illustrators share similar reports on income, you might find one thing in common: we don’t make our income solely from illustration! I think it is becoming much harder to earn a living strictly from our art. This might be because illustration budgets are shrinking; it could be due to a more competitive market; or it could be that there just happens to be more opportunities to earn a living outside the conventional illustration market — or a combination of all of these.
Income Sources
The following represents all sources of income, in terms of percentage. As has been the trend for 5 or so years, Skillshare is the largest single source of income, with actual illustration coming in second. Together, these comprise the lion’s share of my income, with all other sources this year amounting to under a tenth.
Monetization = mostly income from YouTube/Adsense and affiliate links.
Other = income from print and t-shirt sales, and similar sources.
Clients and Projects
I had 14 unique projects in 2023 compared to only 7 the previous year. The difference is that I had one huge project the previous year that alone surpassed my entire income from client work in 2023. Two of my projects in 2023 came from the same client — both in the edutorial space (this is what I call illustrations for editorial style publications for university/college clients, such as alumni magazines).
Royalties and Renewals
Alongside new projects, it was nice to see some income from royalties and usage renewals on past projects. While not life-changing, these amounts were not nothing either. Royalties come from agreements I have with publishers and retailers about how and where they can use my artwork in products they sell, such as books and greeting cards. Renewals, on the other hand, come from agreements with past clients about how, where and when they can use my artwork. Once a usage term has expired, if the client wishes to continue using the artwork in some way, they must pay a fee to extend such usage.
This is a public service reminder to build in set usage terms (periods of time) for your illustrations whenever possible. This keeps your older artwork working for you, without you doing any extra work. For example, a previous edutorial* client came asking if I could update a map I made for them about 6 years ago. I looked into the usage term and it appears they needed to renew in order to even use the original artwork. So out of this project I got both a small commission to make the updates and a relicensing fee. In terms of percentages of my Illustration income, here’s how royalties and renewals broke down:
*Edutorial is what I call magazine-style publications from college and university clients, such as Alumni magazines and, often, Student Guides and Viewbooks.
Change in Revenue
So here’s where things get interesting. When I started tallying up my income from 2023, I knew it was well below previous years. But how much, I couldn’t say for sure. So I put my bean-counter hat on and compared my gross income for each year, going as far back as I had on record — which took me all the way to 2015 (2 years into freelancing). So here’s a colourful bar chart of my income growth since 2015, when I earned my first six figures. Forgive me for being somewhat abstract — I don’t want to share my exact dollar amounts here.
As you can see, while the income from 2023 wasn’t terrible in itself, the trend is concerning.
Highlights
For all the downsides of 2023, there were many bright moments. Here I’ll share my favourite projects, some notable milestones, important insights, and a few changes for the better.
Favourite Client Projects
Client projects were scant last year, and there is a particular absence of major projects, aside from the kids’ book (which I will report on below). In terms of illustration, I was my own biggest client, spending most of my art-making hours on things like podcast episode art, and developing projects for my classes and Draw-With-Me sessions. That being said, I still enjoyed the following client-based projects:
Solar System Stickers and Print for Literati Kids
Literati is a cool subscription based reading club for kids. I was excited to illustrate a print and some stickers for their Solar System themed box. Sadly, I never received samples of the final products, but it was certainly fun to illustrate one of my favourite subjects (space) and be among a luminous cadre of fellow illustrators, including Jessica Hische, Andy J. Pizza and Isabelle Arsenault invited to contribute.
Mural Map of Mammoth Mountain Village for Limelight Residences
While I mostly worked on this in 2022, it wasn’t installed and ready to share until early 2023. The installation was actually delayed by a few weeks on account of the major snow storm the region this map covers experienced. My favourite thing about this project was simply that it got made big! I love maps, and I love murals!
Map of Kingston Print for Everlovin’ Press × Happy Thoughts
Here’s another map I did last year, and the second in a series of prints I’ve collaborated on with my friend at Everlovin’ Press, exclusively for sale at boutique retailer Happy Thoughts. I enjoy making maps of cities that are not necessarily on the map in terms of world travel destinations and learning about their hidden gems.
A Trusted Friend for Reader’s Digest
I think this is one of the most unique illustrations I’ve created in the last few years. I don’t normally go into such precision and detail with my scenes, but I wanted to challenge myself — and the toolkit of my colour palette, style, and various techniques that I’ve built up over the years. It was an honour to be asked by John Montgomery, the AD at Readers’ Digest Canada, to contribute to this ongoing series called A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World.
As a side-note, it was sad to learn that Reader’s Digest shut down its Canadian operations this March.
New Backyard Studio
You may remember from my 2022 report that I moved out of the laundry room of my house and into a lovely, spacious studio that happened to be just a mile away. I had big hopes for this space, including the possibility of hiring an intern or an assistant (or both), or perhaps sharing the space with local creative like-minds. I broke the new space in with a personal dream-project: a hand-painted mural.
The biggest advantage I anticipated was having a dedicated area to produce more frequent videos for YouTube. By early 2023, it became apparent that none of these things were materializing. I dabbled in having an intern, which didn’t work out, but which did make me realize it was time to stop trying to be a YouTuber and finally try my hand as a podcaster (a good move if I do say so myself).
Meanwhile, I was paying a lot for the rent — an investment that was not paying off as I’d hoped. I wondered what else I could be using that significant portion of my income for, and it suddenly became crystal clear: a backyard studio. The number one reason I even started looking for studio space outside the home was the increase in noise and activity from my kids being home over the summer, which made it hard to focus. I got in touch with my friend Aaron Zenga, the man behind Shelter Studio, and by the summer I had myself a little home away from home, but pretty much still at home, the Blue Studio.
It’s all the room I need to stay creative, and it’s quiet and private enough to allow me to focus. While I certainly miss having a permanent setup for recording classes, podcast episodes and the occasional YouTube video, I don’t miss being away from home so much, which started to become a huge problem for me. As a slow worker and with many things on the go, I work long hours. I would often work well into dinner time (arriving late at the evening meal), and then be back at the studio either after dinner or the kids’ bedtime.
I’ve been in the Blue Studio since July, and I have absolutely NO regrets about this investment. For all the hard things about 2023, this was not one of them. I know I am very privileged to have this as an option, and I do not take it for granted.
Two In-Person Workshops
Whether speaking on stages or teaching in-person workshops, I consider being on the roster at creative conferences and events one of the most satisfying accomplishments. To me it is a symbol of success that I am entrusted by event organizers to share my experience in some way to groups of fellow creatives. Of course, I truly feel in my element and connected to others when I am teaching and speaking.
Drawing is Important (DesignThinkers Vancouver)
In 2022, I spoke on Stage at DesignThinkers Vancouver. It was lovely to receive an invitation to come back and teach a workshop based on one of my favourite classes of all time, Drawing is Important. There is one consistent theme running through my advice and classes to those wishing to find their voice, develop their skills, and find audiences for their work: have a daily creative practice, and if possible, include sharing as part of it. For this workshop I shared briefly on why drawing every day is important and gave tips on how to start and keep it going. Then, I led some hands-on exercises that could serve as starting points for those who might feel stuck.
One nice thing that happened out of this event was the opportunity to be a guest on the podcast, Talk Scissors Paper with Diana Varma. Diana helped facilitate the workshop, and it was through this connection that she invited me to be on her show.
Illustration Improv (American Greetings HQ/Idea Day)
I was elated when American Greetings approached me to propose a workshop for their internal creative conference called Idea Day, which was held at their HQ near Cleveland, Ohio. I based this workshop on a recently published class called Illustration Improv, based on giving ourselves ways to think outside the box and find more spontaneous ideas.
This gig almost didn’t happen for me. Very sadly, my sister’s husband passed away just a week or so before I was booked to leave for Cleveland. It was a whirlwind of a week for me as I set everything aside to be with my family for the funeral (which was clear across the country), and then flew back to Vancouver for a day, put some finishing touches on my workshop, record an episode of my podcast, and then turned around to fly back basically to the east coast again the next day. I was dizzy with exhaustion after the funeral, but I pulled off two back-to-back workshops at AGHQ and quite enjoyed it. From what I hear, it went well!
Another Picture Book Completed
Back to Coaching
While teaching classes online is a great way to reach far more people than might be possible in person, I do miss connecting directly to individuals. I find that meeting with real people, one on one, is a great way to get a sense of what students want to learn or areas that need more attention. During the pandemic, I started my Patreon under the idea that I could provide direct illustration coaching as a main perk. That quickly became difficult to manage and, sadly, I had to end it.
However, I had enjoyed it so much that I kept my eyes open for an opportunity to start it up again, but in a more structured way (the way I had it set up on Patreon turned out to be very clunky and administration-heavy). So, I was excited when Skillshare invited me to participate in their pilot program of 1-on-1 coaching sessions.
Since I started in September, I’ve had the privilege of coaching many fellow creatives at different stages of their journey. While this does not constitute a major part of my income, it is now a key way in which I truly feel connected to my students as a teacher—it’s a way that I feel more like a teacher than in my classes. In fact, I kind of feel almost like a counsellor, which I quite enjoy and wonder if it’s something that I will get deeper into in the future. (I must emphasize the fact that I am not a counsellor or therapist in any official sense!) I truly look forward to coaching sessions.
Breaking All My Rules
As I progressed as an illustrator over the years, I had started to really tighten my creative process and create as much efficiency in it as possible. This meant, among other things, going completely digital with my tools. But I also became very strict about the colour palettes I used, and the visual language (style) in which I built up my illustrations.
Along the way, I started to feel a bit stagnant, creatively. Is it possible that I took my own advice of having a singular, focused style too far? I wondered.
Another way in which I felt like I was creatively limiting myself was in who I worked with. I had made a very firm decision not to work for free, nor for friends or family, and especially to not work for projects under a certain budget amount. Is it possible that I’m closing myself off to true creative opportunities by being so strict? I wondered. Is it possible that I’m actually losing connection to the people I really can make a difference with, by limiting myself only to large corporate clients and those with larger budgets? I wondered.
In 2023, I started to loosen up these boundaries in different ways, almost with reckless abandon. I created a tee-shirt, for free, for my trail running club. I illustrated with more detail and about as close to realism as I ever have in my Reader’s Digest piece, which I already shared earlier in this report. I took on an “influencer post” project for a foreign manufacturer of digital storage devices AND broke my colour palette and style rules at the same time.
While some of this might not register as rule-breaking to others, for me, these were all risks that ate up my time or ate away at my watertight sense of my stylistic and creative identity. To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure of how the pros and cons balance out with some of these ventures. But I can say that there is no better time to shake things up than when things seem to be breaking down anyway.
Toward the end of 2023, I started to have a true meltdown in terms of self-confidence as an illustrator and in my ability to enjoy my own creative work. Where did all this end up taking me? Now, 3 full months into the newish year, I am still working this out. What I can say is that I am now allowing myself to shoot from the hip a bit more. My mission this year is to loosen up substantially, but to somehow do this without losing control. I’m jumping ahead a bit here though. I can say that by making this deliberate decision early last year to loosen up on my rules, I prepared myself to let go and dive deep into the darkness that seems to be going on with me right now. (And by darkness, I do not mean badness, but simply the kind of darkness that one senses as they venture into the unknown, as into the depths of a forest or ocean).
Composition For Illustrators
After years of thinking about it, I finally did it: I made a class about artistic composition, called Composition For Illustrators. This one could easily be listed under Challenges. As someone who has never been able to make tons of sense out of traditional teaching on artistic composition, teaching on the topic was expectedly difficult. This class took well over 300 actually-tracked hours to produce, including researching, writing, and producing. How many additional hours did I spend on this outside of what I logged in Harvest, I do not know. It could be double.
The single most difficult part about teaching composition is that it is a very broad topic, while you can only learn it by applying its principles in specific ways. You can talk all day long about grids and proportions, but unless you have an actual problem to use them on, they remain abstract and rather useless. You cannot evaluate whether a composition “works” or not unless you understand where it is meant to go and what it’s supposed to do. There is no such thing as a “good” composition, only one that works for the intended purpose. In the end, I found a few ways in which to make this class more specific and user-friendly — most notably in making it about my own specific approach to composition, which is more flat, stylized and graphic rather than 3D, realistic, photographic.
I’m pleased to say that the work has been well worth it, even if it might be a while before I’m out of the red it terms of dollars earned per hour spent working on it! Not only is it a successful, highly reviewed class on Skillshare — and not only did it earn the coveted Staff Pick designation — I personally learned a TON about composition along the way. I truly feel like my own sense of composition and how to make stronger, more powerful images got better by having to teach it.
Draw With Me
In 2023, I really enjoyed my ongoing drawing meetups (called Draw With Me) with my Drawing Buddy ($8/month + tier) Patreon supporters. I’ve been doing this since 2022! My Drawing Buddies and I meet once a month to draw together, based on some kind of a theme. Not only is this a great way to connect to others with our shared love of drawing, it’s a great way to workshop new ideas for classes or even my own creative work. A highlight for me was the final DWM in late November, when we drew retro Christmas cards together.
And this is where we’ll end Part 1 of this review of 2023.
In Part 2, I’ll start by reflecting on the biggest challenges of last year. If all goes well, I’ll complete the review, and that will be that!
Thanks for reading so far.
—Tom
p.s. If you see two very redundant Subscribe buttons below this text, I have done everything I can to remove them, but Substack is buggy and won’t let me.
It's so inspiring reading your 2023 review. It made me want to do one myself. And it made me feel less alone with all my ups and downs as an illustrator. Thank you!
I love watching your journey, it helps me think about my own, I especially love the breakdown! - super interested in how Illustrators breakdown their activities!