Don’t Give Up Your Day Job!

Why Picture Book Art Is Not Always a Full-Time Job

When I tell people I illustrate picture books, I often get the same delighted reaction: “Wow, that’s amazing — you must be drawing all day!” And while it is amazing, the truth is a little different. Like many picture book artists, I balance my creative work with other roles, commitments, and projects. It’s not because we don’t love what we do — it’s because the reality of the publishing world, especially in Australia, doesn’t always make full-time illustrating sustainable on its own.

Behind the Dream

There’s a romantic idea that being an artist means waking up late, sketching in a sunny studio, and working on your next masterpiece whenever inspiration strikes. In reality, illustrating a picture book involves months — sometimes years — of work, often for a single flat fee that’s split into stages and stretched across a long timeline.

Even if a book sells well, illustrators typically don’t earn royalties until much later, and even then, they’re shared with the author. Add in the unpredictability of contracts and the downtime between projects, and you start to see why many illustrators keep a “day job” — not as a compromise, but as a way to protect their creativity from financial pressure.

I’m lucky to work in a creative industry already — my design and illustration work for publishers keeps me connected to visual storytelling, while my freelance book projects allow me to explore more personal, imaginative worlds. It’s a balance that fuels both sides of my career.

The Joy of Having More Than One Creative Outlet

Having a day job doesn’t mean you’re not a “real” artist. In fact, it can provide stability, structure, and inspiration that feeds your creative work. Some of my best book ideas have arrived while I was designing educational materials or experimenting with a new digital art technique for another project.

Switching between commercial art and storytelling keeps my skills sharp — it challenges me to think about how audiences engage with images in different ways. And it stops me from falling into creative burnout, because I’m not relying on every drawing to pay the bills.

For many artists, the day job provides not just income but connection — to people, routines, and new ideas. It gives you space to be curious, to observe the world around you, and to bring those observations back into your creative work.

Redefining the Arts

There’s an old myth that being successful means working only on your art full time. But I think success looks different for everyone. For some, it’s illustrating one beautiful book a year. For others, it’s teaching, freelancing, or designing during the week and illustrating on weekends. What matters most is that you’re creating in a way that fits your life — not trying to squeeze your life into a single version of what “success” should look like.

Balancing multiple roles doesn’t dilute your artistic identity. If anything, it strengthens it. The experiences you have outside your art — your job, your family, your hobbies — all find their way back into your work. They shape your stories, your characters, and your visual style in ways that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

Keep dreaming

So if you’re dreaming of becoming a picture book illustrator, here’s my honest advice: don’t feel pressured to quit your day job the moment you get a book deal. Instead, build your creative career gradually, with patience and pride. The art world isn’t a race to go full-time — it’s a journey of growing, learning, and finding a rhythm that keeps your love of illustration alive.

I think of it like this: my “day job” gives me stability, and my book art gives me soul. Together, they make a life that’s both creative and sustainable — and that’s something to celebrate.

Hey, there! I’m Jasmine Berry, a freelance illustrator based in sunny Perth, Western Australia. Most days you’ll find me sketching away on my iPad or surrounded by pencils and cats, chasing new ideas. I like to think of myself as eternally optimistic—always seeing the fun, the colour, and the possibility in every project I take on. Send me a message if you would like to collaborate on a project.