I run my own business selling art for children; hand-drawn name art for christenings, births or birthdays, cards, posters and I'm working on a book. It's called drawnbyhand.com - the business, obviously, not the book. I thought I’d tell you about it because it isn’t anything I thought I’d do for a living - even if I wanted to be an artist when I was a kid. After a 12 year career doing something else I just fell into it by mistake!
I had a reasonably high powered job with a multi-national transport company but I got made redundant. I didn’t take it well. It felt like the world had ended. I suppose the fact I was cited by the MD as the ideal role model for his junior managers on the Friday and made redundant on the Monday didn’t help (although it made for a funnier story to tell my grandchildren).
It’s quite a niche industry and I lived in absolutely the wrong part of the country to continue in my chosen field – I was already commuting 100 miles to the nearest one and since they had let me go, the next batch were up north. My husband was a bona fide high flier and had always earned a higher salary than me and of course, we were positioned in exactly the right part of the country for his job. That made it difficult to ask him to move somewhere that would make his working life more difficult when he was the one earning the bulk of the cash anyway.
So I was going to have to go back to the bottom in a new industry and work up. I started doing contract work and applying for jobs as and when…
About that time, my mid thirties, my friends began getting pregnant left right and centre and I began looking for presents I could give them to mark their new arrivals. However, one, in particular, proved difficult.
It was for a lovely couple, my old boss and his wife. She is great and he was very kind to me when I worked for him. I owe most of my confidence to him and therefore a huge debt of gratitude so I wanted to make sure I found something really special for their daughter - something that would show I had spent as much time, consideration and effort on her as they had on me but at the same time, something that wouldn’t be so obviously expensive as to embarrass them.
After looking or ages I realised I was getting nowhere. For the most part, the gifts available either fell into the embarrassingly expensive bracket or they were so tacky and cheesy I’d have been embarrassed to give them. If I was into schmaltzy poems in swirly writing, pastel shades and had a tendency to use the word “special” a lot I’d have been laughing. I’m not though, so I was a bit stumped.
In order to show that I’d spent time and thought selecting their daughter’s present – but not an awkwardly large amount of cash – I decided that maybe I should find something hand made and it was only a short step, from there, to deciding that since I’ve always drawn doodles and stuff I might be able to squeak a decent painting.
I bought some lightproof, permanent inks so that it would last for the rest of the little girl’s life if she wanted it to and then I spelled her name across the top of the page and illustrated each letter alpha-bravo style, A is for angler fish S is for spaceship... that kind of thing. While it was in the framer’s waiting for me to come and collect it another customer saw it and commissioned one for their son.
It’s kind of snowballed from there. I love drawing and painting but I’ve never been able to earn a living out of it until now – I’m not flash with cash by any means but I do earn enough and I enjoy my work and that has to count for something.
It takes anything from two hours to a day to draw an illustrated name and costs from about £25 for a four letter name to about £45 for the Georgina’s and Francesca’s of this world! On one level, it’s not much for a morning or a day’s work but once you add framing, which adds around £15 to the price, it can turn into quite a substantial outlay for the buyer. If you want to be an artist, it’s definitely worth finding a source of reasonably priced frames and mounts, or learning to make them yourself.
Strangely, customers fall into two camps. They either think they are paying an absolute arm and a leg, or they think my work is dirt cheap – either way, there seem to be very few people who think it’s about right. Perhaps I should review my pricing strategy!
That said, here is something that’s unique and it’s totally flexible. When people commission a painting they can customise it however they like so if somebody knows what they want me to draw for each letter then, obviously, I draw what they ask for. I like the fact I can tailor each painting for the kid in question and I like the fact I can do my work sitting down, with the radio on!
Because the cost can mount up, I try to give something away, free with each painting to make it better value. Usually this is an A3-sized print of the final artwork, laminated so it can be used as a place mat.
There is a small range of off-the-shelf stuff, alphabet flashcards – printed laminated and cut by me from scanned original drawings for £10 plus P&P they take as long to do as an actual name! Then there’s a printed alphabet poster which is £5 (plus p&p) and I’m working on something with numbers. I also offer printed names which are computer generated using archive images taken from paintings I’ve already done as I can do these for £20 each, framed.
And of course, with all these lovely sites like Lulu and zazzle, you have to dip a toe in the water of cards and books don’t you? Only time will tell…
So why am I telling you this story? Well I guess it proves you should keep an open mind because you never know where life will take you or what opportunities will arise. Don't worry about finding the right career, eventually the right career will find you.
As a kid, I always wanted to be an artist, preferably an animator but I never even tried because when I was looking to go, you had to have a maths pass at o’level to get into art school… At that time, it was far easier for me to find something else with my life than to bring my attempts at passing Maths O'level up to double figures.
So I went to university instead because you didn’t need maths to get in to all the universities and because I can also write… and now 20 years later, here I am doing what I always wanted to do with my life but never believed I could... being an artist.
Funny how things turn out...
