/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

Anon, all I can do is share my own path:

I sustained myself for 4 years with my own art, it was a frugal/barebones living, but it was independent. Even helped my parents financially a little.

Then Covid hit and I came back to my parents, they sustain me. They don't pressure me to find a job or anything, but there's always this silent aura/implication that yes, I should find a job so I don't become some homeless old man.

However, my art was not profitable anymore and I didn't do anything for 2 years.
Every time I got a gig, the comments would be the same: "Only that much? Even a house maid gets paid more for a day's worth of work."

Every single time. And that is not only with jobs. When I started exercising physically, my sedentary brother commented: "your form is all wrong, it'd be better not to exercise at all".

In short, no one is urging me to fly, but every time I BEGIN to take off, there is questioning on why I'm not at the highest heights yet.

This took a big toll on me, to a point where I didn't feel like drawing at all, but also didn't want to work with anything else.
I finally found a job last year where I can be comfortable (language teaching) and my pay was around half minimum wage.
I got a lot of criticism for it, but for the first time it wasn't just a job for peanuts, it was a job for a small, but real salary.

And that gave me all the motivation I needed to go back to drawing, now with zero guilt about having to make some profit off of it.
Now, if I ever open dirty cheap commissions, they will not be all I have and I will not feel bad for making so little: they are bonuses, I have my own, separate wage that doesn't depend on my art.

Right now I'm making 150% of minimum wage with my job, by the way, so there was an improvement.

Keep studying, OP, that's what I did with my free time (but languages) and now it's paying off. Just beware about attaching your self-worth to your skills too much. And don't wait until "perfect" if that holds you back.