We were lucky to catch up with Casey White recently and have shared our conversation below.

Casey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

I have been lucky enough to pay the bills with my art, although in the 2020’s it is increasingly difficult for 2D artists to follow traditional paths towards a reliable income- we have to adapt and discover for ourselves means of revenue that work for us.

Personally my freelance career always felt like I was a survivor lost at sea, jumping from raft to raft. I found work at different animation studios that paid well, and illustrated books for different authors, all the while posting online and making commissions monthly. When the social media boom hit after the pandemic, I started doing more and more commissions, and my only limitation was how much I posted online.

I believe that the average experience for any artist who isn’t living in LA is to advocate for themselves online. Money will come and go. There are big projects that put a nice paycheck in your pocket for a while, but there will always be slow months too.

One major hurdle I found was learning to stand up for myself in how much I earn. The two lessons every artist must learn early is how to say no and how much their work is worth. If you can’t advocate for yourself in a project or know how to limit a clients expectations, you’ll get run over and burnt out. And if you don’t stand firm on your rates, or charge too little, the effort you put in will never feel worth it.

A good artist somehow always charges too little for their work, its 50% confidence and 50% experience. So a good step to knowing how much to charge is always double what you ask for in the beginning. What’s the worst that could happen? You must raise your expectations for yourself, and it really is a “fake it til you make it” mentality when it comes to asking for money for your work.

You are worth more than you think. That’s something that every artist struggles with, and we’ll probably struggle with it for our entire careers. If you ever wonder, “Am I asking for enough?” my golden rule is always “Meeehh… you can go a little higher”.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a 2D illustrator/animator who draws monsters and aliens on the internet, all the while drawing for commercials, shorts, and tv shows behind the scenes. I use evolution and nature as inspiration for alien sketches and post apocalypse characters, helping other artists with other tips and tricks along the way.

I graduated from CSU Long Beach where I studied animation and charater design, finishing a student film that won Best Animation in 3 different film festivals. I worked at different animation studios in LA until the pandemic hit, which is when I had enough clients and a large online following under my belt where I could begin profitting from a lot of my own work.

At my heart I am an idea guy. I have helped develop unique, inventive, and inspiring designs for clients making movies and shows. I try to create the illusion of an entire world with my work, and people follow me/hire me because my work feels truly alien yet cartoonish and appealing.

My background in animation has made my illustrations feel life like and helps my characters have a movement within them. I’m also proud to say that a diverse knowledge in the sciences has helped me become known for my speculative evolution of creatures, and my grounded ideas of anatomy help make my illustrations feel familiar no matter how bizarre.

I post short form content on youtube, tiktok, and instagram, while carrying a humble following on patreon for my more devoted patrons. I love making jokes and telling stories in videos about crazy science facts and drawing out strange but true creatures from prehistoric times. I also use these as oppurtunities to teach fellow artists tips for drawing in my videos.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In my first art class in college, the head of the animation department told us “If you want to be an artist in the industry, you will never have a steady job.” They were trying to prepare us mentally for the type of person we would have to become if we wanted to make money and only make money from art.

For a long time I believed I could ONLY be an artist. I rejected the idea of getting a “normal job” that would have a steady income. I worked as a freelance artist, desperately hopping from job to job, and for a while I made a good nest egg for myself. But as I grew up and gained more responsibilities, I couldn’t just subsist on a college diet and hand me down clothes.

My integrity as a self made artist and proud idealist was restricting me on my career path. The disjointed condition of the animation industry (in 2024 at least, fingers crossed) and how artists are treated by “algorithms” online is not conducive to a system that supports artists. The rise of AI art is a symptom of true artists losing support in the world.

This realization forced me to have to pivot, gettinga job as an art teacher, which is something I was conditioned to avoid out of stubborness. But now I have both, a life online that helps pay the bills and connects me with other creatives, while also feeling rewarded for teaching the next generation of animators. I’ve even found California education oppurtunities that pay more than my first jobs as an animator.

The lesson all freelancers have to learn is how to change their tune. We must always be looking for new apps to draw on, new social medias that primarily support artists, new mediums to show our art whether through short videos or comics online. Its a struggle, and it challenges you, but to survive we all adapt… and its always for the better.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I feel that the hiring process and oversight of the animation industry needs to be revolutionised.

We all pine for ye olden days where you only had to know how to hold a pencil to get a job at Disney. Today, there are a myriad of reasons why artists around the world struggle to get starting jobs in the industry.

One of the biggest problems artists face is standing out in the crowd, when thousands of resumes and portfolios are prescreened by an AI filter.

Every hiring company uses similar programs to quickly glance over resumes for “key words” and “important software skills”. If you dont use those key words, you could lose the job to the manager’s nephew. Even if you have ten years of experience in the industry, the inhuman disconnect between hiring staff and potential employees has created a noticeable dissatisfaction in starting artists. More and more we see indy companies and self made youtube channels becoming popular, because even though there are good artists out there with great ideas, they’ve had to look elsewhere for work because the system isn’t efficient at finding the right employees. Companies now only want easy hires, people they already know, and its even more difficult for new artists to get a foot in the door.

Not only that, but after multiple animator strikes in the industry, whether its tv, movies, or video games, a series of layoffs and penny pinching schemes has created volatile working conditions for anyone still working in their industry. Its now a common practice for animation studios to pile 3 jobs on one person, expecting storyboarders to do layouts, coloring, composition, and animation, well beyond their job description. To save money, they wont hire new people, just tack more responsibilities on the ones they already have. Even worse, some companies have begun posting empty “ghost” job openings on common hiring sites. Companies will say they have open positions when really they never plan on filling that role. This serves as a subliminal threat to their employees that they are expendable while also pretending to investors that they are a successful, growing business.

Artists graduating today are in uncertain times. Its no longer a certainty you can make it in the industry, so people have flocked to the internet to get followers and patrons in order to make ends meet themselves. It is rewarding to find a community that enjoys your work, so my advice to anyone trying to get jobs in art right now is to post frequently to your socials, treat them like your portfolio. Connect with artists online, stay in touch, and make oppurtunities for yourself. We have to fix the industry, but try to make a buck or two in the meantime.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cas3ysart.weebly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cas3yartofficial/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-white-483a59103/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cas3yarttv
• Other: Tiktok:
  https://www.tiktok.com/@cas3yart?lang=en