Not Lucky

Why Describing Our Job as a Privilege can Undermine Our Value

It’s not uncommon to hear illustrators talk about how lucky they are to get to draw for a living. I have two main issues with this sentiment. The first is with the idea of luck, and the second is the dumbing down of what we do to mere drawing.

While I agree that illustration as a career can be far more interesting and enjoyable than the average day job (whatever that might be), the misperception that joy is the primary emotion we experience in our jobs can be damaging. At very least, it is simply untrue. At worst, however, it trivializes what we do and sets us up to be devalued, both by others and by ourselves.

When I take issue with the notion of luck, it’s not the element of good fortune with which I disagree. I believe there are in fact circumstances outside of our control that make it more likely for us to succeed as commercial artists than others. In that sense, I will grant that we are lucky (but only if we actually like the job). But behind the sentiment of “being lucky” is the belief that, because we have this “cool job”, we have somehow dodged the necessity to work for a living. In this sense, why might an illustrator feel so lucky? It’s that we don’t have to have one of those boring, “normal” jobs. What’s wrong with “normal” jobs? Tedium, meaninglessness, lack of autonomy, monotony, routine.

The next logical thing is to associate people who “draw for a living” as stunted adults — pencil-wielding Peter Pans and Pollyannas.

“When you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life”, goes the old saying.

But guess what: whatever you have to do every day to make a living in some way becomes routine. When you have a daily routine, whatever that might be, you inevitably come to a point where you forget its meaning, where it ceases to excite you in the old way. It’s like when you say a word too many times and it becomes a sound. You forget what the sound means and only experience the physical effects of the word hitting your ear drums. It all becomes noise. Whatever you hope to do for a living, you will have to do it more often and in greater quantities than you would…