Imagine yourself working as a Digital Artist – a day in the life of Icewreath

For some, working as a digital artist and making money from their craft is a dream come true. We spoke with Nathan Jones, aka Icewreath, a digital artist and small business owner, to learn more about the world of digital art, what a typical day in the life looks like for him, and what motivated him to work in the creative sector.

What does a typical day in the life look like for you?

“A day in the life is hard to nail down, as it's so varied, but I'll use my Monday as an example, as my Mondays are my most consistent day. I will always start Mondays by checking my Etsy store for orders and messages that have come in over the weekend. If I have had any messages there I will reply to those first, and then package up the orders and organise delivery. Typically, that takes me a few hours, and then I have the rest of the day. What I do next really depends on what's going on at the time, and what most needs my attention. My big task for this month really is packaging and shipping pledges from a recent Kickstarter I ran earlier, but I might also be working with a client on a commission, scheduling social media posts or engaging with followers, working on a new design for my shop, preparing to sell my art at an upcoming comic-con, I might be AT a comic-con, working with a manufacturer to create a new product, ordering a restock of a previous product, answering emails, working on my webcomic, uploading designs to print-on-demand sites, listing a new product on Etsy, the list really does go on.”

What made you want to work in the job you’re in now?

“In some ways I always wanted to, I just didn't know it was possible or existed. I knew I wanted to work on something I was passionate about, as I am easily distracted and quickly lose interest in things I don't care about. So I followed my hobbies, at university I studied Graphics for Games, thinking I would work for a games company as a 3D artist, concept artist, or similar. By the end of that course I ended up quite jaded about the games industry, and decided it wasn't for me, so I found a job as a cleaner to pay the bills and continued following my interests in my downtime. I started by making designs for print-on-demand sites like Qwertee and Redbubble, and at the start they were TERRIBLE, but I kept going. It took me a few years but as I continued working my skills grew and I discovered other things I could do. The big one for me at the time was working on commissions for people, and with that suddenly the time I needed for my art business expanded more than I could support while also working at my cleaning job, so I pulled the plug on that and went full time in January of 2020.”

What do you love about your job?

“The same thing that makes it so scary, the freedom and satisfaction of working for myself! Ultimately I'm responsible for what I'm doing day to day, and while that's scary sometimes, I love it. If I'm not feeling on working that project today and I can push it back, I'll do something else. Some days I have no creative energy and so I work on the admin aspects of the job or maybe I'll spend the majority of the day on something physical like grading enamel pins or packing orders from my shop. Alternatively, the next day I might work all day on my webcomic. And at the end of the day, whatever I've done, I know I've built the whole thing from the ground up.”

To view Icewreath’s work and portfolio, click here to visit his website.

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