Illustration Struggles

That was a tough year!

It’s been a dry 12 months on the illustration front. I thought it was just me at first, then I noticed a lot of people talking about a lack of projects. I didn’t pay too much attention at first, but then 2025 was so stark in relation to 2024 that it couldn’t be ignored.

Concentrating on all the reasons why this shift is happening right now isn’t going to help. It’s not productive for me to wallow in that way. All I can say is, AI is here to stay. I don’t like it, but there we are. I saw an article from Pan Macmillan about the government scrapping the proposed copyright exception for AI training. This brings hope and a little bit of protection for creators like me, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I’ll be making moves to keep myself busy, happy, and calm.

I thought I’d share a little bit about how I’ve been doing that and laying down foundations in different areas. It’s been a bitty way of working and takes a lot of getting used to after the ultra-focused nature of illustrating children’s books flat out every day. This isn’t a complaint about that, it’s just an acknowledgement of how hard illustration can be mentally and - my back would say also - physically. Especially when you have a year like I did in 2024…

The conundrum with illustration is that while you’re busy, you’re also wishing you had time to do all these other things. Then when you’re not busy, you spend that much time worrying about not being busy that you don’t do the things you wanted to do anyway. So I decided that this time, I was going to give myself the space to just get on with them. Here’s what I did:

• I officially started up a company called Lonely Arts Club CIC. It’s a Community Interest Company and its work has to be beneficial to the community. I’ve started planning projects, networking, and making initial funding enquiries. This has been a LOT of unpaid work, but hopefully it will all have been worth it as my community needs a lot more provision for people looking to make friends and create art in safe spaces. I started teaching my own art group for adults in 2023, and the idea grew from there.

• I rebuilt my illustration website from scratch. It’s still a work in progress, so if you spot any errors, give me a nudge. It’s really nice to have something fresh and new there!

• I started a profile on ChildrensIllustrators.com. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for actual YEARS, but never got around to it. I’ll keep you updated on whether or not it pays for itself.

• I planned my next Kickstarter for later this year. I’m really excited about this one - a set of Goddess oracle cards. One of the reward tiers will allow a handful of people to commission their own Goddess and be a part of the deck. If you go over and have a look, please follow my project.

• Ladybird (Penguin) asked me to write an article for their blog and newsletter about my Easter prep routine which is a nice connection to my book with them ‘Dear Easter Bunny.’

• I wrote a new children’s story ready for development.

• I did a bit of portfolio development work.

• I took some illustration and art courses and took time to develop new techniques.

• I started researching how to build my own online courses.

• I been building up my Tiktok account and committed to posting on my Facebook page and Instagram again.

• My next step is to upload some of the original art I’ve been creating to my Etsy store.

This has kept me busy, the bills are getting paid, and I’m doing things that are making me happy. All of this is work as a freelancer. It’s all important. It just falls to the bottom of the to-do pile when deadlines are looming.

I’m about to start on a really exciting illustration project with Ladybird that I feel thrilled to be a part of (more on that soon). In the meantime, I hope this sparks some ideas for anyone that finds themselves on the quiet side and feeling a bit ‘What now?’

And if you’d like any advice on how to start up your own community art group, just ask and I’ll help if I can.