#5 When do you quit your day job?

I often get great compliments on my dog portraits; ' they are so realistic', 'I've never seen anything like this', 'I thought it was a picture!'.

 

Compliments like these always make me lost for words...somehow I can seem to comprehend that my own two hands actually practice the art of drawing. Especially since I never considered myself to be a socalled creative person.

 

When I tell people I struggle to find the time to draw because of my day job (I work fulltime as an office manager at an internet agency), they always react kind of surprised. Surprised that I still work a day job and can't manage to support myself with my art.

 

The problem is that there is always an uncertain factor when your income depends on commissions; one month you may receive 10 commissions, but who's to say what the next month will bring. I do know it will bring a stack of bills that need payment. Whether I managed to receive commissions or not...

 

Some days I think it would be easier to take the leap of faith if I would have a partner I lived with. Double income. Less financial risk. But then again I probably wouldn't be able to draw 8 hours a day, since I wouldn't be able to focus on my drawing when the bed isn't made, the dishes aren't washed and the room isn't vacuumed. And that does seem to come with the package. Oh, the struggle!

 

I currently live by myself. Well, that's not quite true. I live together with my Great Dane Noa, my muse. So no, not by myself, but with the best roommate a person could wish for! That also means I don't just have myself to take care of. She depends on me. She depends on me for walks, food, her medicine and lots of love. And of course she gets all of that. But that also means that working less hours with my boss, or quitting my day job all together, could have concequences for her. No, not the love and walks part, but she does have quite a gourmet taste and her meds are not the cheapest either.

 

Another part of the struggle is that bringing down the hours as an Office Manager would mean, besides spending more hours at the drawing board, spending more time with my girl. A typical win-win wouldn't you think? But on the other hand it would mean I HAVE to get enough commissions to fill the 'gap' in order to maintain our living standards. And that's a certainty I don't have. Damn, why are some things so complicated sometimes... Or do you think I just see bumps in the road?

 

At this point I think I will postpone the difficult decision to quit my day job until further notice. But the the fact that thoughts like these circle my brain tell me that I am almost ready to become an actual entrepeneur ;-)