My first year as a full time artist
On Saturday 4th September, 2021, Felicity Franks Portraits turned one!
Gosh what a year it has been.
It’s odd looking back at who I was and what I thought this career would be when I first started. In many ways it’s exactly what I imagined - I get to be creative and make beautiful things - works of art which take a little bit of my heart with them. I get to work with lots of lovely people and learn all about their families and pets so I can create something special for them which will last a lifetime.
However, there are parts which have surprised me. I imagined I would be able to do a few hours a day and then switch off (I laugh at myself for thinking this - how naive I was!). Running an art business is a 24/7 job, as rewarding as it is, my brain never switches off. As I sit here typing this my children are running around causing mayhem and dinner is on the hob. Free time isn’t free time, as I’m always thinking I could do this or I could do that, or did I forget something (that’s the worst!). I think about social media content and keeping algorithms happy (for anyone trying to grow on social media - specifically Instagram - the algorithm is the worst isn’t it!). I often find myself doing three things at once and working until midnight to achieve everything I need to do that week.
Instagram is another funny thing though, I’d never used it before launching this business and I really didn’t understand it. However, for the most part I love it. There are so many wonderful art and pet accounts on there and so many lovely people who will cheer you on. I can be sat in my studio working away by myself and then a lovely comment or message will pop up (it literally just happened as I typed that line!) and it makes me feel like I have a team of people backing me.
I don’t know if you follow me on social media, but I recently posted a progress photo, showing the fox Christmas card design I did last year (2020) and the fox design I did this year (2021) and I was actually amazed at how much progress I had made. You don’t realise it yourself while you’re working away so much, you realise you have improved or you have had lightbulb moments where things make sense, or suddenly the pencil does what you want it to do, but when you see pictures side by side it’s this total moment of satisfaction and pride and just a moment of wow - I did that. That was a good moment for me.
The first time someone commissioned a portrait from me I did a little happy dance! I shared a bottle of Prosecco with my husband in celebration! It had been a month or so since I’d launched the business and it was very very quiet and then suddenly things started to happen. After that first commission, I found I was booked solid up until Christmas (the best feeling!). Gosh, the feeling of satisfaction I had when I put the pencil down for my Christmas break was wonderful. Knowing that I’d created so many presents to be opened on Christmas Day! What an incredible responsibility!
After Christmas lots of lovely feedback poured in and I thought, maybe for the first time, I am a real pet portrait artist! I’ve made people happy with my creations. To know that those paintings are hung up on walls around the world gives me such a feeling of achievement. I have now done several commissions for America as well as a few in Europe, it’s nice to know my work has reached so many corners of the globe!
As well as pet portraits I have also started working on original artwork intended for prints and cards, something else which has been a new experience in the last year - the joy of choosing anything in the world, whether from a reference photo or from my own imagination to draw and create has been so liberating! Speaking of challenges - figuring out how to scan and print artwork so it’s archival and will last for many years has been a real challenge and has involved a lot of research!
In April I was approached by @bake4mecfs to join in with The Pawfect Virtual Bake Off by donating a pet portrait to the winning bake. I’ve always been involved with one charitable cause or another so I was incredibly happy to help out. This opportunity proved to be a lot of fun and led to me helping come up with the theme for round 9 of the bake off - The Teddy Bear’s Picnic - and I’m now helping out on the judging panel with some wonderful ladies!
I also made it to the front page of the local paper through my involvement with @bake4mecfs!
More recently I have taken some time to build this new website and launch my first online shop!
A lot seems to have happened in the last year and I can’t wait to see what happens and how I feel when I look back on this post in a years time - what will have changed by then? In summary, if you’ve stayed with me until now - I thank you, the long and short of it is that launching this business is the best thing I could have done, I love my career and haven’t dreaded a Monday morning since I launched Felicity Franks Portraits! Long may that continue!
I hope to keep you regularly updated on what’s going on in the world of Felicity Franks Portraits, so please do check back here for more blog posts soon and you can always subscribe to my newsletter if you want to be the first in the know!
Thanks for reading,
Felicity x