Jobs to work while building art skills?
3yr
William Horton
I am just so sick of working in grocery stores or garbage Mexican restaurants, It brings my mood down every day I work it's always so depressingly boring I get in my car and scream after every shift just to get out of this funk they put me in. I was working at a fuel center attached to a Kroger (Which is just some texas based organization similar to Tom Thumb or Albertsons) and it was my favorite job so far just because I sat in front of a window, and with the sun pointing at me, I doodled in a sketchbook and sold grumpy, wrinkly trailer trash people cigarettes, So of course when I find some sort of balance between doing something I enjoy with something I have to do for a living, they throw me out. And it WAS NOT because of the drawing, the reason why is unrelated, but I got fired nevertheless. I always look for jobs online that pertain to my interests but they're always in another state or require knowledge I just don't have yet. (I can draw cartoons and basic perspective, but the moment you ask me to draw a portrait I'll be completely stumped) so...
TL;DR : I want advice on any sort of job that I can pursue my own interests while working. Like a job where you barely do anything at all, or leaves you with lots of downtime to just doodle in a sketchbook. It's a childish request and I understand that. I'm frustrated today and I want to ask around for an answer to my troubles.
I found in the past working at a kiosk or small store in the mall that sells things you have an interest in to be quite nice. They tend to be slow so you can doodle or do your own thing in the downtime usually and being in the mall seeing people helps give something to observe for sketching from life type exercises. I worked at a Sunglass Hut because I have a thing for sunglasses (i have like 10 pairs and that's me trying to keep it under control). You don't make a lot, but probably about the same as grocery stores and the like.
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3yr
Hey, @William Horton! It’s been a few weeks since you’ve posted this, and I hope you’ve been able to figure something out, or at least that you’ve been having better days lately.
I’m not familiar with current job offers and demands in the US, so it’s hard for me to give specific suggestions, but I was wondering if you’ve tried looking for a job in art-related places. Maybe an art supply store, a gallery or museum, a comic book shop, a tattoo studio - any place where you could be surrounded by art-related stimuli of some sort. Even if your job position in one of those places wouldn’t be directly related to art-making, for someone who wants to pursue an art career, I think it might feel better than other types of jobs and also bring you somehow closer to a more creative or “artistic” environment in a way.
As an additional suggestion, perhaps try to also fit in some dedicated time during your day or week to just study - a moment that’s separate from your working hours and from your sketching time and during which you could take some courses or study from books. Have you tried that already? It doesn’t need to be a lot of time - if you have a half hour every day or a couple of hours on the weekends which you can dedicate solely to learning new things and deliberately focus on honing your craft, you’ll be amazed by how much of a difference this can make over a few months if you’re able to maintain consistency and regularity.
Hope this helps!
Please let me know in case you’d like to discuss anything further.
Take care! Best of luck!
Thanks for the post :) I've already been applying to places like Micheal's and other local comic book places. I'd LOVE to work in a smaller business with people that share the same interests as me, but it only ever seems like garbage grocery stores with high quitting-rates ever want to hire me. Any time I ever apply to anywhere I'd actually be fine with working I get radio silence, unfortunately. I haven't given up yet, though. And I do set aside time daily to just draw for a little bit, sometimes that hour ends up being 6 hours of drawing and other days it's only 15 minutes. Guess it just depends how well the first 5 minutes of drawing go that determine whether I keep going or I stop. When I get into the zone of it though I really do love doing art, that's why its so infuriating to me that I struggle so hard with turning it into a living, because I reaaallly do not give a shit about 100% of the places I've worked at. I get like 3 months in and I start getting bitter and resentful and I call in sick and stuff I shouldn't do but it's so hard to care when it goes against everything I'm actually fascinated with. I always fantasize about how cool it would have been if my highschool Animation class led into a job, but that never happened unfortunately and I feel like I've been blindly fumbling through my 20's, mostly unemployed during all of it. I'm still keeping my head up, though. I know I'll find something that makes me happy eventually.
You can work as a manga or comic artist on webtoon. That way you can draw but at the same time it's not very easy and requires time and creativity for the story too
Could that be a reliable source of income, though? I've never been on that site before.
