how I started digital illustrating.

Like for so many, March and April of this year were a dark time for me. I was filled with anxiety and feelings of dread, and aside from scraping through eight-hour work days, it took all of the rest of my energy to shower weekly and change my clothes. I was sad, I was nervous, I was depressed. I was rotting my brain playing Sims 4 for hours on end just to keep my mind off current events.

Sometime in the beginning of April, after a month of feeling like a complete stranger in my own body, I saw a free digital illustrating class offer on Instagram and decided to click in to watch the video. Slumped over on the couch, TV blinking in the background, I felt my creativity stirring. I immediately began researching free programs similar to Adobe Illustrator so I could test out my raw skills and teach myself more, just to see if I was really as interested in learning as I felt in the moment. For the next four weeks, I spent every spare moment I had illustrating on my computer. By a month into this new hobby of mine, I splurged on an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, downloaded Procreate, and found even more love for digital illustrating when it involved drawing with my own hand, rather than my computer mouse.

In the middle of that first month, I started an Instagram account, @alessiaillustrates_, to share my work. I didn't expect anything from it, I just wanted the pieces to live somewhere. I could have never guessed that tons of other like minded people were also honing the same skills, creating a small, close-knit community of illustrators and designers on the platform that now feels like an extension of my identity.

I had gotten my groove back in a way that wouldn't have even occurred to me before March; I'd made new friends that, seven months later, I still talk to daily; and I've earned quite a bit of pocket money through commissions and a newly minted Etsy shop that I opened on November 21.

I'm still worried all the time and my general anxiety hasn't gone anywhere, but I'm a new version of myself that I could have never become were it not for that free class popping up in my Instagram feed. Nearly all of 2020 has been trash, but finding this hobby and forming this side hustle has been a bright spot in the all of the darkness, and I can't wait to see where it takes me in 2021. Come visit me over at @alessiaillustrates_ or check out my shop, and if you've already supported me in any way — whether it was a share of a post, or a purchased commission or print — I am so grateful!