We were lucky to catch up with Abi Park recently and have shared our conversation below.

Abi, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Just recently last year I was able to become a full time artist. Before I struggled with being a self taught artist and being full time in the food industry. I started doing art when I got into anime in my freshman year of high school. I know many artist have been drawing their whole lives but that was not the case with me. However once I started drawing I instantly feel in love with it. It was hard not to compare myself to others my age who were already incredibly talented, but I stuck with it. It took a long time of just traditional sketching before finally in softmore year my parents got me a Wacom sketch. I loved creating digital art though it was a struggle. I had to share on the family’s desktop and every time I sketched something my sibling would usually click out of it and I would lose the whole thing. I knew the biggest hurdle was to just keep drawing though and that’s what I did. I drew daily in my sketchbook and slowly overtime my skills got better and I was able to save up for an iPad. In my senior year of high school I started a small etsy account. I only had two stickers designs that I handmade and hand cut myself. I went to Denver FanExpo in 2019 and gave out many of the stickers I had created as a way to share my art and passion about the stories with others. I would give them to cosplayers and whoever I noticed liked the same things. Even the voice actors of the characters I drew. I received a lot of encouragement while I was there and that influenced me to keep going even if none of it was profitable. It would be another 3 years before I was able to make a full time living from my artwork. I kept practicing every day and slowly made more and more stickers. I even branched out and discovered my love for environmental art in my cute style. I think that helped my art grow a lot and found my niche through that. In 2020 I enrolled into a college for art and I was really exited about where it would take me. However I was only able to get one semester in before the pandemic came around and shut down all in school classes. During that time I was a full time cook just to be able to pay for the school. I had an hour and a half commute to get to the school on the days I didn’t work. It was a lot. Once the pandemic hit I felt completely worn out. It was really hard to do school online and feel like I was getting no feedback at all. Along with my food job just getting busier and busier as I was an essential worker. I had to quit school. I’ll admit it felt horrible only getting to do one semester in art school but I kept going. Every day once I got back from the kitchen I would draw. A lot of it was fan art and it was a way to relax after a stressful day. I found a lot of enjoyment from it. A year later I did a small convention at an anime store and it went really well. I was able to meet some other artists and started building up to table at conventions after that event. Before that I was just to nervous to. Which now I recognize held me back for a while. For a long time I considered myself as just an outsider who did not know what I was doing. I didn’t have any family or extended family into art. They considered art to be more hyper realistic stuff and didn’t like anime or cartoons much. I think that got in my head. Going to an event where people enjoyed my art and hearing that feedback in real life helped a lot. People enjoyed my art and it was worth buying to them. It was a large milestone for me. I kept finding jobs that would give me time to draw and continue to peruse my art. I made some mistakes. Working 12 hour days at Amazon so I would have days off to draw was to much and I often pushed myself to hard. I had the rise and grind mentality which I’ll admit is not healthy. However I don’t regret it. I left and got a line cook job at a taco truck. They allowed me to draw during the slow hours and I appreciated that. After two years I got a table at the same convention I used to give out stickers for free. It was a lot of drawing during any free time I had to prepare. Plus shipping out my Etsy orders it was like having three jobs. The month before the convention it all got to be too much for me. The truck was harsh. Working in a metal box the weather conditions were hard to work in and with how much stress I was putting on myself I finally left. I was an artist full time. It was terrifying but I had many blessings all pop up around the same time. I got hired to do a full calendar. That was a huge step for me. I opened up my commissions and they sold out on the first day. The convention came and it was a large profit for me I had never seen before. I was actually doing art full time. And I have been for half a year now. It still feels somewhat unreal. I have more conventions and way more exiting projects lined up and I’m incredibly grateful for where I am now. I’m going to keep working my hardest and be happy with what I have now and keep trying to grow. That’s what I have always done and it has failed me yet.

Abi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a self taught illustrator and business owner in Colorado. I create cute stickers and illustrations from the stories that I enjoy and of characters and environments that my clients come up with. I love to create environments that tell a story with an uplifting theme. My artwork aims to make people smile and have a good time finding hidden things I have put in the pieces the longer that they look at it. I find a lot of joy the more and more detail that I add into a piece and it’s like putting all the puzzle pieces together for me. My biggest goal is to continue to grow and learn with every illustration I create.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Artist do not be afraid to reach out and ask questions from other artists. For a long time I struggled with this as no one else I knew was an artist. Once I finally made that leap to chat with them it was wonderful. This community is incredibly welcoming and I’m happy to help with whatever I can if another artist needs any help. I think it’s really important to uplift the other creatives we interact with. It can seriously encourage a smaller artist to keep going. It certainly did with me.

There are many many resources for free online if you’re looking to become a better artist. The hardest thing with art is the discipline to practice. Never let not being able to go to school or feeling like your not good enough put you down. There are always ways to grow that don’t involve spending a lot of money. Use what you have to grow.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was growing as an artist I come from a community that didn’t really value the art I created. I had a few friends but for the most part when I showed what I made to others it was always responded with why can’t you do more realistic art. Or why can’t you make your own characters and be a “ real” artist and that was really hard for me to hear. For a while I tried to do that. Trying to teach myself portraits and realistic backgrounds. While it was helpful it really was not what I enjoyed doing. I felt way more burnout trying to create what others thought was cool instead of what I liked creating. It was difficult to give up on creating the more traditionally popular art and to continue with my niche of cute art. Even to this day I will just call my art just some cute little fan art as a way to dismiss it. I’m still trying to double tap undue that ( the procreate users will understand). I would say to anyone reading to create what you enjoy and not what others think is cool.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://abipark99.wixsite.com/the-nerdy-alchemist
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenerdyalchemist/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tnerdyalchemist

Image Credits
All art drawn by Abi Park/ The Nerdy Alchemist