Meet Ruth Hammond | Freelance illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ruth Hammond and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ruth, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Being brave and taking risks is such a scary thing to do, but it’s also something I attribute to the growth and success of my business so far. So I would say that if you want to grow your business then taking a risk is imperative as you’ll never find out if an idea can be a success and therefore push your business forward.

The biggest risk I have taken is to work full time on my business. Before doing this, I had been working part time at a day job, which had flexible hours, but as demand in my business grew, I started to struggle with balancing the two. I started my business because I wanted that to be my career that I could live off and do something I enjoy, so it made sense that that should be what I invest my time into, and so I left my day job. It was honestly terrifying, especially for the first few months, but it’s been so amazing to be doing something I love, and because I’ve been able to focus all my time into it, I’ve been able to sustain myself financially from it.

Of course, a risk is a risk, and not every one of them is a success, and I think being unafraid of failure is something you have to embrace. In our heads, we can make failure out to be the most terrible thing, when in reality it probably won’t be the end of the world, and there are always ways to bounce back from it. If leaving my day job had been a flop, I knew I could always find another job elsewhere to do alongside my business and take the leap at another point. I also have a supportive family and partner who I can rely on financially if I needed to. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case, but I have also made failed risky decisions in other areas of my business, but I’ve just learnt from the mistake and found another way round the problem, which has always turned out for the better anyway!

All of this said, I do think you have to be calculative with the risks you take. You don’t want to just quit your job immediately unless you’re certain you can make it work, or blow all your savings on equipment and stock without having some security that it’ll pay itself off. Having a circle of supportive friends and family to speak to can be helpful in these situations, as they can give an outside perspective, especially if they’re also a small business owner.

In the end, though, it does come down to your own self belief and having the courage to take the leap!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a freelance illustrator, creating artwork primarily for children. I mostly illustrate children’s books and am currently in the process of dipping gently into the world of writing and illustrating my own story for publishing. I also design and create my own products, such as art prints, enamel pins, stationery and ceramics, which I sell in my online shop.

While my work is my work, and is one entity, I see children’s books and running a shop as two different businesses, and being able to do both of these things hasn’t been (and still isn’t) easy.

I graduated university in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in illustration, with my focus being on children’s books. I immediately signed with a children’s illustration agency that year, as well as started a day job with an independent shop. I was lucky enough to move back in with my parents after university, which allowed me to use my earnings from the shop to open my own online shop to sell my work. I was fortunate enough to get two children’s book jobs through the agency, but we parted ways after a year, which wasn’t great, but it allowed me to focus on my shop and grow that, mostly doing portrait commissions.

I continued like this for another two years, in which I also got a few larger commercial commissions which were mostly editorial work for magazines, which was fun! By the end of 2018, though, my shop and portrait commissions had grown, and I was becoming overwhelmed with working two jobs and made the risky decision to go full time with my illustration career, so I left the shop I had been working at. It was terrifying, but was so worth it! I was able to sustain myself with just portrait commissions and general shop sales, which just kept growing with the more time I invested into it (especially portraits).

In 2019, I signed with P.S. Literary agency as an illustrator, and got my first two jobs with them the following year, illustrating one children’s book, and writing/illustrating 8 chapters of another book about illustrating children’s books. It was a really exciting time, and I realised that portrait commissions were becoming too much, so by the end of 2020, I decided to turn my focus to expanding on new products for my shop. This turned out to be a wise decision, as I illustrated four picture books in 2021, which was a lot of work, making it my busiest year yet. But because I was so busy that year, I ended up burning out a little towards the end of the year. I have now accepted that I really can’t do everything, which I think has been the biggest lesson I’ve learnt so far.

Getting to this point has taken a lot of long, long work hours, missed weekends and a relentless work ethic, which has definitely been good, as it’s pushed my business to where it is now, but I think it’s important to acknowledge and know your limits. Being burnt out is not fun, and can cause a lot of damage if you aren’t careful. During last year, I ended up developing repetitive strain injury in my drawing hand, on top of general burn out, and it is still something that flares up now, even though it isn’t as bad as it was!

My resolution for this 2022 has been to carefully consider the amount of projects I want to take on, work out what my priorities are with my business and what the best work/rest balance is to achieve my goals.So far, it has been going well! The biggest changes I’ve made is to make sure I have as many weekends off as possible to rest and recover from the week, exercise regularly, even if it is just a 15 minute walk outside, practise self care, and stick to healthy work hours during the day (for me, the best hours are 8:30am-4:30pm), leaving time to rest and unwind from everything I’ve done that day.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend starting your own business if you only want to put a bit of time into it. To make it grow and become something you can self sustain with really takes a lot of dedication and patience, but you do also have to know your limits! I’ve enjoyed my journey so far, even if I have over extended myself sometimes, but I’m definitely working towards a better work/life balance, which I think every business owner should be aiming for.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Firstly, there is Tom, my partner, who has supported and encouraged me since the day we met. He’s always pushing me and encouraging me to take my work to new levels, as well as being the best financial advisor, proofreader, motivator and all round cheerleader.

Also my parents, for always supporting the decisions I’ve made from the very beginning, and helping out financially when there’s occasionally been a piece of invaluable equipment I needed but couldn’t entirely afford. And also for listening whenever I’ve needed to rant or have had a bad day!

Thanks to all my friends for also listening to my rants, and offering advice even if they weren’t small business owners themselves!

And, finally, a huge shoutout to my agency, P.S. Literary, especially my agent, Maria, for believing in my work, handling my contracts and clients, pushing for the best deal possible, and giving me the most helpful feedback.

I wouldn’t be where I am without any of these people!

Website: https://www.ruthhammondillustration.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ruthhammondillustration/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbmoXKOb7P9bktfdBH1UY2w