We were lucky to catch up with Rachal Duggan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rachal, appreciate you joining us today. Are you 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?

Yes, I have. After graduating from art school, I took full-time jobs to help me pay for life and my student loan debt. I also began freelancing as an illustrator. That work eventually grew over 10 years and balancing my 9 to 5 career and drawing career became pretty tedious. I never felt good enough to make it on my own without a full-time job. But then, in 2020 during the beginning of the pandemic, I lost my job. Something like that had never happened to me. It as brutal. But it also felt like the best possible time to be thrown into working solely for myself. So I did and 3 years later, I’m still my boss.

Rachal, 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’ve always been a creative person but it took me a while to figure out what creative field felt right. Growing up I’d always be drawing, crafting, painting, and using my imagination to have fun. During my college years, I began focusing on art history. The deeper I got into that subject, while fascinating, I really started missing making art myself. So, I pivoted and began drawing a lot. I weaseled my way into some senior-level illustration classes and everything came together for me. I have a very simple black-and-white style of drawing. It’s humble, quick, and direct. I’ve always created that way and it took a while for me to accept that as my style. Honing your style as an illustrator is one of the most difficult aspects because you want to be authentic but it also has to resonate with people if you want to get work. I draw custom portraits for people. Everything ranging from traditional house, family, couple, and pets to booty portraits. Yes, I draw butts for a living. I sell my custom portraits online as well as draw butts on-the-spot at public and private events. Additionally, I draw for companies needing branding illustrations of editorial works. Another venture of mine is teaching drawing workshops for all skill levels. It’s incredibly fun to share my passion with others in many ways.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

For most freelance artists, you are living through major peaks and valleys. It’s either feast or famine. Maintaining consistency with your work and finances is incredibly difficult. It is the opposite of having a job with regular pay and benefits. It’s hard and there’s no way around it. If you think an artist is doing incredibly well, it’s most likely that they’re achieving success in that moment of time but success is fleeting.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I’ve been posting drawings consistently on Instagram since 2010 and it has been incredibly important to my career growth. Through that consistency, testing out new drawings to see how people respond, and spreading the word about my offerings has opened many doors. I am also on TikTok. These tools are very powerful but the algorithm changing constantly is an invisible threat.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.radillustrates.com
• Instagram: @radillustrates
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@radillustrates patreon: https://www.patreon.com/radillustrates

Image Credits
The headshot photo credit: Katie Wash The book photo credit: Scott Richards