We recently connected with Nikolas Ilic and have shared our conversation below.

Nikolas, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?

Earning a living from my creative work is very rewarding, especially as a full-time freelance artist. It can definitely be challenging at times but is all worth it in the end. Being versatile is one of the key factors when it comes to earning from my creative work. I work primarily in animation as a character designer but I also work in children’s books as an illustrator and author and sometimes even commercial work. Being diverse in the creative field helps give me the ability to work in different outlets that lead to more projects which leads to more earnings. As a freelance artist sometimes you are working on multiple projects at once and sometimes you have no projects so its can fluctuate quite a lot so time management becomes a thing you have to learn how to juggle and manage.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Nikolas Ilic and I graduated from Sheridan College in 2011 receiving my bachelors degree in animation. Ever since I was a kid I loved drawing and creating art. Since then I have worked for some of the top animation studios in the industry, book and commercial clients. I primarily work as a character designer in animation and as an illustrator/ author in children’s books. In 2018 I decided to become a full-time freelance artist so I could work on numerous projects that were not just in the animation field. It has been extremely creatively rewarding to have made that switch but also challenging in other aspects. I’m most proud of the style/brand I have created associated with my name. When clients come to me for work and say they want to see your take or the”Nikolas Ilic style” towards the characters it’s very validating to hear and makes me continue working hard towards what I love to do.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In 2018 I made the tough decision to go from a full-time employee to a full-time freelance artist. It was something I know I wanted to do but it was challenging decision to make none the less . Being a full-time employee there are lots of perks that come with that. Job security, a steady wage, social settings and healthcare to name some. So why leave something like that? Well, creatively I was not the most fulfilled. I felt like I had more to offer and was getting opportunities but could not pursue them as I did not have the time with the full-time job. When I made the switch it took awhile to get the hang of things, now I was in charge of my own time and projects, it was something that took awhile to get used too. It has been 6 years now since I have made that decision and the amount of different projects I have been apart of as been so rewarding and reminds me that I made a positive creative decision for my career.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me the most rewarding aspect of being a artist is the ability to create living and breathing characters full of personality. Bringing a character to life from a written description is very satisfying and seeing how people react to the characters is rewarding. There is a certain feeling when designing a character you get when you feel like ‘thats it!’ or when when you captured the characters essence that feels right. Seeking that feeling each time you design a character is also very rewarding to me and is a reminder to me that I love what I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nikolas-ilic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikolas.ilic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtofNikolasIlic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikolas-ilic-8431ba33/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nikolas_ilic