When I was eighteen, I experienced a summer of change and uncertainty. I was living out the last season of my teenage years, and was anticipating my first year of art school in the fall. It was then when I would begin my first leg of my journey to live out a teenage dream: to become a graphic novelist and be recognized for the stories I told.
Looking back, I have to wonder if I was young and optimistic, or young and dangerously delusional.
During that same summer, I was given the chance to have a Numerology reading done. While the reading was in some regards accurate, I did scoff at one aspect: according to my numbers, I would be successful, but it would occur much later in my life. Having a high opinion of myself, I didn’t believe it. However, it did linger in my mind as a sign that life was full of possibilities and as a warning of what could happen if I wasn’t careful.
Since my time in art school was a series of ups and downs, this thought was always in the back of my head over those four years. During my final year, it was brought to the front of my mind when my portfolio teacher said during class:
“You only have so much time to get work as artists. Each graduating class is always going to be your competition and it’ll get to a point where art directors won’t want to work with you as you get older.”
That reading was only a mere four years ago and I wasn’t happy with the quality of my portfolio compared to my classmates. Was it a warning after all? Was I bound for failure? How much time did I have left to succeed?
* * *
As I’m reaching about to reach the tenth year in my “career” as an illustrator, there are many things I wish I could tell my twenty-one year old self. I’d love to squeeze his cheeks and create a time paradox to say:
“Your instructor isn’t telling the truth, trust me on this OK? I’m the upgraded, better version you’ll eventually become. I know things!”
But let’s avoid breaking reality and I’ll inform you that young buck was offered profound wisdom by another instructor earlier in his time in school. When it comes to one’s talent versus their skill and age, they never run in tandem to one another. Instead, they work like curvatures and eventually meet as you practice and execute your skills together with your talent. It takes time, in addition to motivation, to see it happen.
But despite having that knowledge, my young self panicked and reeled over his portfolio. He was worried that the work didn’t represent what he wanted to do. He had also made mistakes as a student (I wasn’t exactly a model student back then) and thought that no one would ever hire him because of his current work. However, that second teacher’s wisdom reminded him: it wasn’t too late, and these things do take time. You can learn from your mistakes and improve, but you can’t give up on yourself.
And so, a goal was set and the work continued after graduation. In a time where many students chose to give up and move on with their lives, I kept learning. I kept trying new things and making different things in order to catch up. I quickly discovered that even with my starting portfolio, I could land freelance work (and gain attention as well) working on comics, album covers and more. By the time I turned twenty-four, I looked back on what I had done and felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. I was proving that my talent and skill were coming together, but felt discouraged when I looked at what was left of my peers and seeing them excel and felt like a failure. As a result, the question always came back: is it too late for me to be successful or even enter this field?
* * *
This question really wouldn’t be answered until I attended a local pop-culture convention. I was working with two writers on an ambitious webcomic entitled “AFTERMATH” (which is now an abandoned project) and was promoting it in the artist’s alley over a weekend. During a lull in our traffic, I took a break to engage and network with the talent looking to promote themselves.
I was aware of who was there, and I had many people that I wanted to meet, such as Tim Chamberlain of OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS (OVC). If you aren’t aware, OVC is a single panel comic based off of things said by patrons of a comic book shop that are often hilarious and sometimes insightful. It took some time to navigate the floor but I eventually located his table, filled with OVC content and other work and confirmed that the man in front of me, was in fact the person I was looking for.
I didn’t know what Tim Chamberlain looked like, as he was working under a pen name and I had never saw a photo, but I was always under the impression the person behind the work was in the same age range as me. But when I met him, he felt older while staying accessible and genuine. I introduced myself as a fan and talked about the comic and I asked if he’d take a look at my work. He did and said that he liked what he saw in my portfolio, and offered his thoughts on where I could improve. I was appreciative, but felt compelled to ask if he thought it was too late for me to do this kind of work since I was a few years out of art school and no longer a fresh face. His reply (which has been paraphrased) was:
“Not at all! Look, we all hear stories about young prodigies getting into comics and it can feel that way, but they’re really few and far between. They’re almost like myths who don’t actually exist. I mean, I only started making my comic a few years ago and I’m certainly not young. It’s not real, just keep doing what you’re doing.”
I thanked him for his time, parted ways and felt better about my situation. But even after that conversation, the feeling that I was too old kept popping up...
* * *
As to why this kept happening, I’m unfortunately an insecure person and have dealt with self-confidence issues for most of my teenage and adult life. But anytime the thought rolled back around, there was always a counter-point stating otherwise.
To bring Tim Chamberlain back into the fold, I would later discover that he started OVC in his late twenties. While he was working in a comic book shop in Portland, Maine, he wrote down what people said and made these comics in secret. It wasn’t until his brother saw them and suggested he should post them that the comic really moved forward. By the time I met him, he was in his early thirties and was putting out a collected edition of his comics after half a decade of work.
Another example was brought up by the podcast “Three Point Perspective” (hosted by practicing illustrators Will Terry, Jake Parker and Lee White). In a very early episode, this very question about being too old to start something popped up and they agreed it wasn’t true and offered a surprising example: Yoko Shimuzu.
If that name doesn’t sound familiar, run her name through Google. If you did, you may have found a new artist to follow! Isn’t her work great?
Now here’s something surprising, she started illustrating at the age of thirty. According to Three Point Perspective, she spent her twenties working for a corporation, grew tired of the work she was doing and decided to become an illustrator. She succeeded due to her fierce drive to get her work out there.
Another excellent example is former wrestler and founder of DDP Yoga, Diamond Dallas Page. During an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, he pointed out that prior to his wrestling career, he was a club manager and didn’t even think about wrestling as something he wanted to do until he was thirty-four years old. While he did have some help along the way to joining the World Wrestling Entertainment, he admitted that being older and the life experience that came with it helped him to focus on fulfilling his dream.
There are many more examples of noteworthy individuals who got their start later in life across several different fields. With so many counterpoints to the idea that you’re never too old and that major success takes time, where does that place people like me?
* * *
Since finishing art school, my career has experienced peaks and valleys. Projects would come and go, connections would be formed and crumble and life would find a way to interrupt my progress. As I’m re-establishing myself as an illustrator and getting my work back out there, I know that my journey is going to be hard from here forward, but it’s not like it was easy to get where I am now to begin with.
What got me here was my own drive to make sure I wouldn’t become a “never was.” As I’ve gotten older, my skill and talent have met one another and allowed my work and drive to improve with time. Not only that, but by simply being older, I’ve learned a lot from my past mistakes in business, promotion, networking, etc. With all of that I mind, I feel much more prepared to be successful now than I ever could have been in my early twenties.
It’s important to realize that life plans aren’t one size fits all and life can throw many variables at you to knock you out of alignment. While we may envy the success of others, (a shortcoming I’m dealing with to this day) it is a folly to compare yourself against them. While we are all working to be successful, it’s important to realize it can happen at different points in your life and there’s nothing wrong with that. Being creative is a lifelong journey (something that can be hard to accept) and it is like a wine fermenting in a cellar. While there is a long investment of time, it does taste better with age.
If you enjoyed this piece, please follow Brenton Barnes on Twitter @brentonsquared.