We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ken Ken Karl. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ken below.

Ken , 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?

I’m starting on my 6th year creating art for myself full time. The journey to this point has been equally a grind and a blessing. I am mostly known for my hand drawn on card 1/1 custom art card’s of athletes for sports card collectors. I’ve dreamed of creating sports art since I was a teenager, I am now living that dream. It has not and is not, a smooth ride however.

Back in 2018, I was searching through sports collecting groups trying to find a way to promote my larger sports illustrations. I noticed another artist had posted their 1/1 card art in card collecting group. It had gained a lot of positive attention. I thought maybe this is something I should try myself. So, I drew a couple of my own card’s and posted them to see what sort of feedback I would get. It was overwhelming. I collected over 30 card commissions in under 2 hours time. At this point I was still working as a graphic artist for a t-shirt company. So I had to create these cards at home on my free time. This led to many long nights as I pushed to complete the card orders I had gathered. Once that first set of cards was completed, I tried the whole posting process again. I collected even more new orders this time around. This set up my exodus from my regular job of 25 years. The next thing I knew I was a full time sports artist. First of all, before I go into the negatives I want to make it clear that I feel blessed to be able to do what I am now doing. I am living a dream. I want to make that very clear. That being said, the struggle to keep it going is real. When I started, I thought I had a realistic plan to make this all work. I soon came to realize, it was not as realistic as I had thought. First of all, at the prices I was charging at that time my business model was not sustainable. My original model had me creating large volumes of work at a very low prices. It was soon evident I could not produce that volume of work week after week. Not to mention, I had no way of knowing how demanding just running the other side of the business would be. Like marketing, communicating with customers, shipping and so on. It was obvious adjustments had to be made. The problem with this was, I had no margin for error. I still had to bring in so much income every week to support my family. I was working 14-16 hour days, 7 days a week and was still always behind. This also began to take a toll on me physically. All this new found work led to pain in my hands. There were days the first couple of years, that I could barely grip my drawing tools. I’ve had to find ways to adjust to this over time. It also led to neck and back pain, from scrunching over my drawing table for long hours every day. I’ve had to adjust how I sit when I create work. I’ve had to add stretching routines for my hands and back. I would have never guessed sitting and drawing all day would lead to physical problems. Those aren’t the worse issues, my eyesight has deteriorated badly during this time. I used to have great vision, now I have to use cheater’s and magnifiers to help create my work. There is a price to be paid to make a small business work. No matter how much work I have booked on my calendar, I never feel it is enough. I’m always worried that this could end any day. I’ve been told by other artists and business owner’s this feeling never goes away. This anxiety of securing the next project is something that I have never gotten comfortable with. It seems to always be looming over me.

As for steps to speed up the process, I definitely do not have the answer to that question. Here is what I have learned. Always bet on yourself. A lot goes into betting on yourself though. There is no one else to carry the ball for you, but there is also no one else to impede your path or vision either. Creating art full time is no different than life. You will get out of it what you are willing to put into it. For me, its about being better as an artist and person every day. Every day I want to create better art than I did the day before, the week before, the month before. I can now see that challenging yourself to be better at your craft leads to results that I never thought were obtainable. There will be misses and hard times for sure, just like in life. I have to constantly remind myself to not judge myself on where I think I should be and what I think I should be working on, but instead stay focused on creating the best art I can. I must stay resolved to improving each and every day. That is the only thing I can control. I have to stay positive to have positive results and ignore all the noise that leads to negativity for me. That is often hard for me, but my wife helps to keep me centered and on the tasks at hand.

I think everyone thinks when they go into something, whatever that is; that they will reach stardom immediately. We all assume we will be the exception. Unfortunately reality is most successful people have a story of hard work and perseverance as a foundation to their success. One thing I know for sure, there is no easy ride to success. It is filled with rejection, anxiety, and frustration. You have to be resolved and resourceful, you have to believe in yourself and stay positive each and every day.

Ken , 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 create sports art for collectors. My business is centered around hand drawn 1/1 custom art on trading cards. There is a large sports card group all over the world. Sports card collecting has an immense fan base. More than I ever knew before I stumbled into it. I create original, one of a kind works of art for collectors. Like in any form of collectible, the most sought after item is the rarest in existence. There is nothing more rare than an original work of art of a collector’s favorite player drawn on a trading card. They are true one of a kind collectibles. I draw them using markers and colored pencils mostly. I do mix in some acrylic paint from time to time as well. A collector will reach out to me and ask if I can create a piece of art around their favorite athlete for their collection. I will then mock up a few ideas that fit my style of art for them to choose their final image from. I feel this gives them some input in the creative process and adds a personal touch for the collector to that piece for their collection. Creatives can sometimes be difficult to deal with. I take pride in the opposite. I want my collectors to love every part of the process. I want my artwork to be the most treasured part of their collection. I feel every experience in dealing with me adds to their love of the end product. I take great pride in both my work and how I deal with people directly. It’s all about being better with each and every thing I do.

I take great pride in creating any piece of art. I want my collectors to love the end product. I want it to become the centerpiece of their entire collection. I take this very serious. I am a sports fan myself. I watch the games. I have felt the highs of fandom and the lows. I am my collectors, I am one of them. I feel that is my greatest asset when creating art for them. I am able to capture the athlete or subject matters soul in my art. Whether that subject matter is stoic or passionate, angry or fun-loving. I want to capture for my collectors what they love about that player for their collection. I want them to feel the essence of that athlete every time they look at my art. A perfect rendering of art will grow stale over time. Many artists can render subject matter flawlessly, many are better at that than I am. But few can capture the soul of a player like I can. That is the strength of my art. A collector will always feel the energy or vibe of my art, long after their appreciation of how well I drew or painted it wears off. I believe that is what my collectors collect from me and what appeals to people about my artwork.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’m sorry, I don’t really have anything to share of value to any of those questions exactly. I do have something I would like to share that I feel can be of help to all creatives and small business owners though. If you do not want to use this and prefer I answer one of your questions, please let me know and I will.

I think it is very important to stay positive and resilient. Speaking for myself, I have been broken many times on my journey. I have been defeated and have spent countless hours wrapped in self doubt and self pity. I feel it is easy to find yourself there, even natural if your passionate about what your doing. One thing I have learned though in my six years, is that this mindset is not helpful in any way. You have to continue to get back up, over and over again after being knocked down. We have heard throughout our lives that nothing comes easy. It is a saying for a reason. Negativity distracts us from achieving. It is an anchor that prohibits success. I have found that when I am able to stay positive, good things happen for me. My artwork is much better. New opportunities come my way. My personal life is better. I really do believe staying positive attracts positivity. When I am hauled down by negativity, I find it best to concentrate on the things I can control. I focus on producing better art and get lost in the process of creating it. I take a break from judging myself on perceived failures or missed opportunities. I instead focus on the next project I am about to start, the next mark or stroke I am about to make on a piece. I am not able to avoid frustration, self doubt and self pity personally. But I have found when I begin to get caught up in it, that I need to find my way back to a positive mind set as fast as possible. In the end, I am blessed to be doing what I love. I often take that for granted. If someone had told me this is what I would be doing and here are the struggles that go with it as a teenager, I would have taken it in a heartbeat!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal or mission is to just be better, each and every day. There is Nike commercial created by John Legend I believe, centered around the late Kobe Bryant’s death. This commercial has changed my life. It speaks about “being better.” sort of the mamba mentality. Being a sports fan, this commercial resonated with me. It is such a great message, “just be better.” Be a better artist, be a better person, be a better husband, father and so on. So simple, yet so hard to do. I have tried to adopt this mantra. I do try to create better art. I want each piece I create to be better than it was the day before. I push myself to do this. Sometimes that means creating a better final rendering than the piece before it, that one is obvious of course. Often for me, being better when creating art means something different. For me, it could be as easy as pushing through on days I don’t feel artsy. It can be trying a new technique or pose. It can be as simple as staying on task on a given project. All of this is “being better” to me. Just be better.

Contact Info:

• Website: kenkarlsportsart.com
• Instagram: ken_karl_sports_ art
• Facebook: Ken Karl Sports Art
• Linkedin: Ken Karl / Ken Karl Sports Art
• Twitter: @KenKarlArt
• Other: tik tok: @kenkarlsportsart