Hello from the worst season! Sorry, that's presumptuous. Maybe you're a rare breed who actually enjoys waking up to darkness, fierce winds whipping at your face, and busting it on the ice. If that's you, please show me your ways.
I usually languish in winter. Last year I released my quarterly newsletter in March, which should tell you something about my will to do much of anything in the colder months.
I listened to this NPR Life Kit episode on "How to survive, not just thrive in winter" which came out at exactly the right time when the sun started setting early in Philly but I could still alternate between my Letterman jacket and parka. Winter hadn't hardened me yet, and I was feeling emotionally receptive to a new perspective. The episode helped me open my heart up enough to enjoy Philly's first snow of the season. It also encouraged me to bully my husband into carrying home heavy firewood for our fireplace to establish a cozy house vibe. By embracing some of these winterisms, I'm thrilled to share that for the first time, I haven't felt that bitter about earlier sunsets – a miracle!
I haven't made any “proper” 2025 goals yet — that’s February or March's bidding, when I’m more adjusted to the year. My non-business desires include reading more books and either organizing or attending more spontaneous hangs with friends. Playing Clue with my neighbors, sipping tea on the couch with a new friend, and shopping my house like a bookstore to curate a stack of "new" books I forgot I bought months ago all align with my winter vision. Also, on that last note, I've found that reading with my phone in another room so I'll turn pages instead of Insta-scrolling has helped me actually finish said books.
When it gets dark out, I've been embracing it as a sign to whip out the crosswords I play with Nick and accept that an unfinished to-do list probably meant I was being more ambitious than I should be right now. Winter is for bare minimum work, meandering experiments, and moving more slowly, I've decided. Or accepted. I’m allowing as much buffer room as I can for each project so I don’t feel overwhelmed during a time of year when I just don’t function as speedily. East Coast winter will never be my favorite season, and I've made peace with that. But I'm taking a more curious approach to the coldest months this year, and it's helping! If winter is also your struggle season, I hope you find little joys until flowers start blooming again.
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An illustrator’s income in a year
I love the money pie chart breakdowns that fellow artists like Anoosha Syed have shared around Substack, and I’m excited to share my own this year.
I'm proud of how this past year shook out for me financially. Money is so subjective; what's a sustainable or successful salary for you may be completely different from my own criteria. But I entered 2024 hoping to make an income in the ballpark of my previous full-time salary by developing new income streams so I wasn't solely relying on public art commissions, which can be fickle and infrequent. I'm happy to say I was able to make that work! While public art was my largest income bracket for the year, as I’d expected, it was also a big year for teaching workshops for kids and adults, getting my first book advance (!), and illustrating for big brands and non-profits. That last category has petered out for many digital illustrators I know in recent years, so I’m fortunate that those types of commissions were still on the table for me in 2024.
I also feel proud that almost every project from last year was aligned with the type of work I wanted to do. For many years I took on temp work, babysitting, designing logos, and retail gigs to cobble together some semblance of an income. There’s nothing wrong with being resourceful with income streams, and I'm definitely open to other sources that aren't solely related to my art business in the future. But I was ready to enter a different chapter in my financial book for 2024.
I wanted to focus as much as possible on long-term, higher paying projects I could chew on for several months at a time, instead of small, low-paying projects that I poured a lot of heart into for little gain. I notice I come up with better, more creative work with more time, and I feel far less bitter when I feel commensurately paid for projects. Who would’ve thought?
Some money pie chart FAQs
Wait a second — is that content creation I see?
I’m as surprised as you are that a couple of paid content creation opportunities floated into my inbox last year. As I’ve mentioned on here before, I don’t label myself a content creator and have a complicated relationship with social media. But it was clear from initial pitch meetings that not selling stuff on Instagram all the time made me a better fit for some artist spotlight campaigns last year. One opportunity popped up during a time when I was deep in the design phase of other projects, so I was really grateful for a paid opportunity that exercised completely different brain muscles and didn’t add more coals to a fire of potential creative burnout. I’m finding that my career can often feel like playing tic tac toe in energy expenditure and trying to make sure projects aren’t all hitting the same phase at the same time. I don’t foresee content creation taking up a huge chunk of my future income, but I’d be open to more of these types of video projects for the right clients.
What is miscellaneous?
This included fees that I honestly could not justify as their own category because the line items were too specific and couldn't fit into other areas. They include things like speaker fees, design review fees, or an interview stipend.
Do you feel like this pie chart tells you anything about your future as an artist?
I create a lot of different things (murals, digital illustrations, comics, etc) and while this myriad of pursuits arose out of a joy and curiosity to make stuff, I also think that having many simmering pots of work keeps the lights on in my studio. Who knows — maybe I’ll get a project someday that pays me a big fat chunk of cash so I don’t have to worry about income for a long time. Wouldn’t that be a dream? Until then, diversifying streams has helped me keep my career sustainable. It was also so nice to finish one challenging mural, for example, and then switch gears to computer and tablet work for months at a time. I like variety. This year, I'm hopeful that teaching workshops, speaker engagements, some big chunk illustration projects, and perhaps some things that aren't even on my radar yet can keep me afloat as I focus on the nitty gritty of book art in the spring. The rest of the year remains a mystery!
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The Trinket House on 4th Street
It was so cool starting the year off with a mural for my friend, Kelly, for her store, At My House. I told her in passing that I'd be happy to make a mural for her when she revamped the store for the new year, and I was thrilled when she actually took me up on it!
I incorporated sketches Kelly and I both drew to create a dollhouse composition, in a play on the store's name. This was such a quick project - I put together the design over the holidays and painted it in three days while the store was closed. Go check it out at 760 S 4th Street if you're in town! The street is a hub for all of my favorite shopping in Philadelphia, and Kelly's store is such a sweet part of the area's culture.
Also, I'd love to do more store murals here and elsewhere - give me a shout if you're interested.
Last note: my website is all up-to-date with projects I enjoyed working on throughout the second half of 2024, including a comic I made for Washington Post about spending the holidays alone and some illustration work I did for the Philadelphia Museum and Target. Take a look!
With all of my best wishes for a cozy winter,
Cindy
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