What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

It's a question I was asked a LOT as I grew up. I started drawing at age four. I loved cartoons, and playing solo with my Kenner Star Wars and G.I. Joe action figures. I practically lived in my own imagination. At age nine or ten I bought my first comic book, and shortly after I would find myself in near constant supply of sketch books, pencils, pens, and markers for the rest of my life. When asked what I wanted to do from ages thirteen to twenty-three, I would have told you I wanted to illustrate comic books and/or graphic novels.
So what happened?

Adult denial and scoffing, taking advice from people who didn't believe in me and "had my best interests in mind", and ultimately the financial climate of the day. That's what happened.

I grew up in an amazing period of change and innovation in the comic book industry. I read all the best Marvel books throughout the 1980s, and saw my favorite creators pool their resources to create an awesome new company called Image Comics. The early 1990s (when I went to college) saw the advent of some amazingly spectacular visuals on the covers and in the pages of comics. The information I was gathering about the behind the scenes of that world, however, seemed less-than cool. I heard and read that if you were not a superstar artist, then you would be forever struggling to pay rent and feed yourself. I heard and read that the hours were rigorous, at best, and the work was non-stop until it would suddenly, and inevitably, stop all together. I heard and read a lot of horror stories that involved personality conflict and stress-induced drama. And outside those few fortunate (bold) enough to forge their own destiny, creators were typically denied any true credit or residuals for their creations. It was a different time, and I'm glad to see things are starting to get better on some of those fronts, but making comics was not for me.
I had the chops, but I listened to too many people who didn't believe in me, and I failed to be bold enough to go for it. Ultimately, it may have saved me hardship, but the truth is, I've had hardship all the same. The life of an artist is feast or famine, as the old saying goes, and my life has been no different.

So, let me ask you: What do you want to be when you grow up?
I don't care if you are a teenager, a college/university student, or a 40-something like me. What do you want out of life? More importantly, what are you willing to do to get there? What are you honestly capable of doing? How badly do you want the thing you say you want? What are you willing to do to prove it?

You see, if there is anything I have learned over the past twenty years it's that the only person you really need to prove anything to is yourself. People will either be there for you or they won't. That's on them. Sure, it feels good to have a cheering section, and to know that people believe in you, but more often than not they really don't. In truth, they probably just want you to be provided for, and hope you are well. They really don't care how you go about doing that as long as you don't hurt anyone else. So, forget about approval, or pleasing others, or even the unsolicited "sage" advice people might offer. Unless they are an expert with a ton of experience, they probably are guessing (at best), and even if they are an expert with a ton of experience, they may not see what you see. Potential and possibilities are things that often enough only we can see, and more often than not opportunities are forged out of nothingness. In other words, you make your own path as a creative. There is no set system or career path.

And the people? Well, the true people in your life will be there even if you fail. The people who are only interested in being around you if you are successful? Those are not your true people. Those are parasites hoping to elevate themselves by association. Cut the dead weight, and find genuine people.

So what about me? Yeah, I've been thinking about that.

It's time to do my own thing. I'll still take a few commissions here and there, but I have stories to tell. Some will be children's books, some will be games, some will be novels, and some might even be graphic novels. I'm still working on the specifics, but I have some things to say about this world of ours, and what it means to be a creative soul within it.

My #steemgig posting:
https://steemit.com/steemgigs/@har5h/create-professional-illustrations-andor-graphic-designs-for-you

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