The wonderful folks of CanvasRebel wanted to talk about my path towards earning a living as a creative. It was a nice opportunity to dust some stories from the past and share them again.

We spoke about my journey in the professional world of art. Hopefully my experience will help and inspire younger creatives.

Johanna, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Yes, I entirely dedicate myself to my creative practice, which I divide into pure art and concept development and creative design for clients.

My first steps were taken as an illustrator years ago. I was full of ambition and excited about finding projects and making business connections, so I reached out to most of the publishers of children’s books I could find in Spain (I was living in Barcelona at the time). I also reached out to British agents and found someone to represent my work.
Those initial efforts kickstarted a successful path for some years. I was working on several projects at a time, full time.

What made it a quick start for me was my steadfastness in getting a sample of my work in the hands of the right publishers.
I never said no to a project during that time. If I had to work with a dictionary at hand because the copy was in catalan, galician, or afrikaans I did.

Read full story here.