PK 121: How to Make it as an Artist, Even When They Say You Can’t! With Fashion Illustrator, Christina Burton

Want to know how to make it as an artist? In this interview, fashion illustrator Christina Burton reveals the hurdles she faced on her creative journey…and how you can overcome them, too.

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“When you have someone in your life who’s constantly saying you can’t do this, then you’re going to start believing it yourself. But if you have people saying ‘No, that’s crazy talk’ then you can actually become this person if you take the right steps.”

~ Christina Burton

Want to know how to make it as an artist?

The path to following your creative dream can often be a difficult one, with parents who want you to get a regular job instead, or teachers who just don’t believe in you.

Fashion illustrator, Christina Burton, faced all these hurdles in the early stages of her career. But with hard work, self-belief, and positivity, she smashed through all these roadblocks and found her true voice as an artist.

And, in this week’s podcast, she reveals how you can do the same…

How to Make it as an Artist – Christina Burton’s Story

Like most artists, Christina Burton was drawing from an early age, even taking her sketchbook to swimming galas at school so she could practice as much as possible.

However, her journey to becoming an artist was very much like diving in at the deep end. Although her friends believed in her, convincing her parents was another matter. And, when a fine art tutor dismissed her work, Christina almost started to believe her naysayers.

But, despite all this, she didn’t let this wave of negativity stop her. So, after deciding that a career in the military (on her parents’ wishes) just wasn’t for her, Christina took the plunge to follow her real passion in life – making art.

She says: “The funny thing is, I get my artistic side from my father, so I was just like: ‘You’re a really good drawer, my grandfather was a really good drawer, I’m a really good drawer…so why don’t I go after this?”

So, having made her decision, Christina went to work on her art. It wasn’t always easy, and she worked hard to practice her skills and improve. And it’s important to remember that it can take a long time to make good art – even now, Christina says her realistic portraits can take up to a week to complete.

But how should you promote yourself and your art to the world? A lot of aspiring artists get caught up in the trap of believing everything they post online has to be ‘perfect’, but Christina has found it’s your journey as an artist that really gets people excited – a fact borne out by her ever-increasing follower numbers on Instagram and the steady stream of sales and commissions she gets from this and other social media channels.

So, if you’re wondering how to make it as an artist (or even if you should be entertaining this ‘crazy’ dream!), we hope this podcast with Christina Burton gives you plenty of food for thought.

Listen now and learn:

  • How to build your social media following the right way
  • How Christina found her voice by experimenting with different styles of artwork
  • Why setting personal goals is so important for artists
  • How to conquer the fear of putting your art out there
  • Why your best work is always the work you love doing the most

We hope listening to this interview helps you learn more about how to make it as an artist and follow your true passion in life.

Have you ever had to face some of the same hurdles as Christina? Why not let us know how you dealt with them below and help other aspiring artists?

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Thanks for listening to our show! We’ll be back next Wednesday morning 8AM EST.

Cheers,

Mitch

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