Eye Balloon Logo version

Choose a direction

Dream on little dreamer

Follow all of your signs

You gotta gather up what you need

You gotta choose a direction

And when the moment is right for you

You gotta go

Above & Beyond feat. Zoë Johnston - You Got To Go

As some background to the following. I have a really good 9 to 5 job making graphics for mobile/cell phone games. It's a great job but because the product isn't based on my IP, I always have an urge to do something artistic in my spare time that's 'my creation'. Something that gives me a shot at being known in my corner of the universe as the guy that created "this collection of cool things".

I realised yesterday that I had nine different ways that I wanted to spend my spare time. Mistakingly, I lumped them all under one heading "be a visual artist". So I was getting myself tied up in knots trying to find time outside of the 9 to 5 to "be a visual artist". I started many art projects, in different mediums, some I knew how to do already, some that required me to learn new skills. I ended up being artistically paralyzed by choice and multiple desired outcomes, taking place in multiple potential timeframes.

Last night I did an exercise that was ruthlessly pragmatic. I listed all nine of my desired 'side hustles' and gave them scores, 0 to 5 for seven different categories. I then added up the scores for each of the nine side hustles and discovered the first, second and third things I should be spending my time on, that will give me the best combination of positive results returned, versus effort, expense and time.

Before I get into the details of my exercise, I'll put you out of your possible misery and say, it worked. I know have a clear purpose and set of goals. I know what to spend my spare time and effort on.

I can't remember where I learned this but competence leads to confidence. The better at something you become, the more confident you become. At first the confidence is confined to the exact task you've gained competence in but soon that confidence spills over into related areas and starts creating a positive feedback loop. You're really good at one thing which means you attack something related with excessive enthusiasm and become good (competent) at this new related thing. Take this extra confidence and repeat the process.

I'm pointing this out because in my exercise to find out what area of art I should be concentrating on, I have heavily factored in my current competencies so that what I choose to do generates positive results as soon as possible. I want that feeling of 'yeah I'm on the right track' as soon as possible.

So here are the nine types of artistic expression (side hustles) I wanted to explore. If you're not into computer graphics or art in general, these might not mean much to you but I want to present the actual real life examples when I show how I went through this exercise.

The side hustles are;

• Acrylic / Oil painter, painting popsureal paintings and posting the process videos on Youtube

• 2d concept artist using Krita & Photoshop, for the TV and film industry

• 3d concept artist using Blender3d, for the TV and film industry

• hard surface modeler \ Look Dev. Artist in Maya, for the film and TV industry

• create and self-publish Indie graphic novels

• create Indie animated short films using Blender3d

• create Indie, quirky video games

• create 3d assets for the Unity Asset store

• create 3d assets for Turbosquid and similar 3d model market places.

I said there were seven categories that I judged each of the above possibilities against, giving each one a score between zero and five.

I'll explain each category (in no particular order of importance)

How much of the skills to do this, do I have right now?

Do I already possess the skills needed to do this type of Art side hustle right now? If 'yes' that's five points, if I will have to spend a lot of time picking up new skills to do this type of Art, that's a negative to me and scores a zero.

How much potential is there to make me famous doing this?

Now this probably seems a very vain attribute to consider. But I included it after listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast where he interviews Derek Sivers  Derek has a set of "do this" edicts under different categories. Under the category "How to be helpful to others" he has "be famous". The logic is that the more well known you are, the more useful you are to the people you care about. The opposite state of 'hiding yourself away' is not useful to anyone.

How much potential is there to make me rich doing this?

Again, a question that like the fame question, seems quite distasteful but it another of Derek's "do this" proclamations that come under the category of "How to be helpful to others". On a more personal level, all the nine artistic side hustles I was choosing from have some form of revenue generating potential. I would like to eventually be able to earn enough money from these side hustles, to be able to dictate how I spend my own time and where I spend my own time. That's the ultimate goal and this attribute attempts to rate how quickly I could reach this state of nirvana.

Is the potential income passive in nature or do I have to trade time for money?

This is related to the "Will I get rich doing this?" question but defines how the potential wealth will be generated. If the side hustle in question involves me trading time for money in direct one-to-one correlation then that would score a zero. If a pursuit involves me creating assets once, that sell multiple copies while I'm asleep, then that would score a five.

Do I get to use MY creativity and IP for this?

Quite an important question. If I ended up doing something that's dictated purely by market pressure (make a 3d model of this real world object and we'll buy it) then that will score a zero or a one.

If the pursuit involves me having carte blanche to create whatever I want, without outside editorial input, then that would score a five.

Is there industry employment available doing this?

I initially thought this was quite an important question in that if my 9 to 5 goes belly up suddenly, will my side hustle enable me to apply for another 9 to 5 position with little disruption to cash flow? But then it occured to me that I was thinking from a scared, scarcity mindset. I will detail this more in another post but I 'played safe' in my career for the last decade and a half and it didn't make me immune from redundancy or disruption of cashflow. More importantly, playing safe made me miserable and unsatisfied. So it suddenly became important to me that whatever side hustles I choose to focus on, need to favour artistic expression and fulfillment over whether I can easily walk into a 9 to 5 studio job.

BUT - if you're reading this article and want to try this exercise for yourself, it might be very important to you that you can walk into a new job if needed. That's why I kept it in.

How fast can I implement this side hustle and be up-and-running?

This is related to the skills question but also considers practical issues like startup costs of software, computer hardware and other equipment. Do I already own or can access the software and equipment needed etc.?

It's an important category because I need to choose side hustles that are going to show progress as soon as possible. I know myself and I know it's hard for me to keep momentum and enthusiasm for something going if I don't see concrete proof of progress, ideally everyday but at the least, every week.

Before I divulge the scores for each side hustle, I need to say that there was another factor that I didn't rate zero to five but instead, kept as a sort of 'tie breaker' factor, and that was 

Do any of these side hustles link nicely to one or more of the others?

Some of the side hustles I listed are either very similar to one of the others or complement another one because I can expend effort creating assets that work for both side hustles, with little or no modification.

Now I will list the nine side hustles again but I will provide their scores [out of a max total of 35] and list in order of best to so-so (no side hustle got less than 50% of max score though last place came very close)

30 points - create and self-publish Indie graphic novels

28 points - Acrylic / Oil painter, painting popsureal paintings and posting the process videos on Youtube

28 points -  create Indie animated short films using Blender3d

26 points - create Indie, quirky video games

25 points - create 3d assets for Turbosquid and similar 3d model market places.

23 points - create 3d assets for the Unity Asset store

23 points - 3d concept artist using Blender3d, for the TV and film industry

20 points - 2d concept artist using Krita & Photoshop, for the TV and film industry

18 points - hard surface modeler \ Look Dev. Artist in Maya, for the film and TV industry

So there you have it. I will be focusing on creating graphic novels with the occasional painting thrown in. You'll note there are joint 2nd place entries. The painting won the tie-breaker over the creation of animated short films because making graphic novels and painting pictures are linked like I was talking about earlier. Both use some of the same equipment but more importantly, I can give the graphic novels, fully painted cover art and I'm scratching the same urge to paint.

The way I will be blocking out the backgrounds in the graphic novels will be by using Blender3d which is a 3d modeling program. This should mean I end up with enough created assets, to make creating short animated films based on the graphic novels, very feasible. It's all about the linking of side hustles and re-using time and effort that I mentioned earlier.

Also, to explain the last place entry. I actually really enjoy hard surface modeling in maya but that side hustle lost points in the "Do I have the skills?" category because I'm quite rusty using Maya. It also got a zero in the "Passive Income?" category because this is a studio position, swapping time directly for money. And it got a two in "Do I get to use my creativity..." because this type of job involves being given specific reference and/or concept art which you're not expected to deviate from and add your own twist to.

A big take away you need to come away with is that I'm not saying I'll never do the lower scoring side hustles. Rather, it means I will take a more serial approach and tackle the top 1 or 2 side hustles and then gradually over time maybe move down the list if I feel it's the right thing for me to do.

Essentially, approaching the side hustles in a serial fashion stops me trying to approach them all at once in a parallel fashion. I know at some point in the next few years I'll have a crack at being a concept artist for film or TV so in the short term I don't need to partition a slice of brain power to wondering if what I'm doing today or tomorrow is getting me any closer to being a concept artist. That bridge is way down the road. Right now I will be concentrating on making graphic novels.

Being in the bottom of an Art rut

Every day or two I need to walk to the shops to get food (I don't drive a car). I like to take a backpack so that the weight of the shopping is even when I walk back.
Recently when I select which of my empty backpacks to take shopping, I start fantasising about packing the backpack with my small tent, gas stove, sleeping bag and other campning gear, and just walking in one direction until I'm in a spot where I can't see or hear another soul, and just sit, meditate and just 'exist'.

I don't even really want to take an art pad and pencils. I don't know what or who my art is for at the moment?

My usual excuse for not recognising I'm not immortal and churning out Art accordingly is, "I have a 9 to 5 day job that gets in the way! And then I have responsabilities on the weekend that need attending". All BS. I've just had two days off work and barely managed five minutes of drawing.

I'm not sure why I am not producing Art at the moment? My head wants to (or says it wants to) but my hands aren't moving a pencil, paintbrush, mouse or Wacom pen.

I know the practical steps I need to take to fix this (sleep, exercise, good food, social contact etc.) so will drag myself towards getting those corrected but I heard Tim Ferriss's first podcast with Seth Godin, for the second time yesterday and Seth tells people that everybody should be committing to blogging once a day.

Ok, this is day one of my daily blogging practise. I'll see if that helps lift me out of this Art rut.

Bad Bonsai 12x speed full process

My most polished video to date (not saying too much 😁) Please take a look! #surreal #lowbrow #artist #drawing #sketch #art #dream #nightmare #creature #design #illustration

mutant sketch 8x full process

FaceLift 12x speed up of full process

Critter and Seedling

My last entry for #Inktober2016