How I Turned Illustration into My Full Time Job

Steph Edwards

April 4, 2025

So where did this wild ride all start? Back in 2021, we'd all been sat in quarantine for faaar too long (remember those days?!), and I started to notice something happening online. The energy shifted, and not in a good way. It started to feel like the pandemic was taking a mental toll on A LOT of people. It was getting quite dark; very doom and gloom.

Now to set the scene for you, around about this time, I was working as a manager in a bar and Photoshop art was my creative outlet; I would make fantasy self-portraits and I was even hired by some pretty big companies like Disney, Adobe, Oral B to create content. But something wasn't working for me, this outlet wasn't ticking all my boxes as a creative. Even though I literally featured in these pieces, they stopped feeling like 'me'. How odd, right? Looking back, I wasn't really saying anything with these pieces, they were pretty and fun to make, but there wasn't really a message, or a purpose to them. That's the part of me that was missing.

I needed a creative outlet in my life; my job was not what I wanted to be doing and it brought me zero satisfaction, but through my outlet I could find fulfillment and joy. I knew Photoshop art wasn't the right fit for me anymore so there was a void to be filled, it was time to move onto something new. It wasn't so easy to say goodbye to Photoshop art though. Over the years, I'd amassed a following of about 40K followers on social media, was I really about to throw that all away? I'd wanted to start digital illustration for years, but I feared what others would think. I could just imagine the eye-rolls and snickers as they thought 'I guess she failed at Photoshop art then', 'yet another outlet is it?', 'here she goes again, I wonder how long this one will last'.

But the void needed to be filled, and remember the bit at the start of this blog where I told you about the pandemic and its mental toll? This is where that comes in. I needed a creative outlet to bring me fulfilment and joy, the world needed more light in a very dark time... these two came together to create 'To You From Steph' - a little corner on the internet where I could create inspiring digital illustrations and hopefully be a little light in the dark for anyone who saw them.

So I threw away the 40K following and opened a new Instagram account under the name 'To You From Steph'. And you know what? It was actually really liberating to go back to zero; suddenly, there was no pressure or expectation of what I should or shouldn't create. I was free to be 100 percent me because no one was watching.

I'll never forget the day my iPad arrived in the post, it felt like Christmas morning. I remember sitting at my dining table, drawing my first ever illustration and feeling this adrenaline rush that comes to creatives when you're filled with new ideas. But I also remember thinking 'oh this is harder than I thought it would be'. I didn't know how to draw people, at all! Especially the hands and hair. But I gave it my best shot, and I didn't let that deter me. I didn't spend any time perfecting my skills before I posted, I was proud of my new hobby and I wanted to share my light with the world. I think I posted 3 times on that first day! Here's what I made so you can see where this all started (and how bad the hands were!).

These were posted on 14th April 2021, and my business was unknowingly born. On that first day, I had maybe 6 followers including my mum and best friends. These pieces got very little attention, but it didn't matter to me. I was feeling fulfilment and joy, I was spreading light. It felt good! What more is there? I didn't start with the idea of turning this into a business, it just happened organically.

I was obsessed with creating this new art, finding myself through it and spreading messages of hope and inspiration. I posted every single day for months. I spent every spare minute I had illustrating new ideas, refining my skills, altering my colour palette, and building an identity. I found my style amidst posting, I didn't post amidst finding my style. I never held anything back. Some of my ideas absolutely sucked I won't lie, did I still post them? Yep. Because I didn't know what my illustration style was, or what I was ultimately trying to say at first. So I threw stuff at the wall to see what stuck.

I want to share some of the examples of the early illustrations I made that 'suck' (in my opinion), because I know FOR SURE there are creatives out there, who are even possibly reading this, who don't post their art because they don't think it's perfect or 'good enough yet'. Have a look at these..

If you're one of those creatives, this is my advice to you: SHARE IT! If I held back like that, I wouldn't have had enough engagement to see the first actual good illustrations go viral. Then I wouldn't have understood which ones were working and which ones weren't and been able to refine my style, my voice, my colours. I guess another way to look at it, is like data. The more you have, the more information you have to make conclusions and forcast for the future.

I now look back on these and understand why they were bad. They didn't say anything. Or they didn't convey meaning or feeling. The comic strip was me trying on 'humour' for size, spoiler alert: it didn't fit. The rest were just a bit thoughtless. But they were still essentail to my journey.

My following grew slowly at first, but it was quite early on that I started to receive DMs from people telling me my art made their day, or that it resonated with them, made them feel good etc. It was EXACTLY why I began, and it was EXACTLY why I continued. My heart felt full (and still does) every time I receive a message from someone who said my illustration helped them in some way, it's the kinda fulfilment I couldn't have dreamed of reaching.

One month in, I posted my first ever viral pieces:

See the difference? These offered value, they all have a strong and clear message.These all 'popped off' on IG and suddenly my following BOOMED. I grew to over 100K in my first 7 months, and by that point, the daily enquiries about where people could buy my art were so many, that I decided to open a shop.

Back in 2021, I had no idea what I was doing. I did as much research as I could, finding out information from online blogs of other artists, and DMing my fellow artist friends on IG to ask what equipment, software, resources I needed to begin. But honestly, the best teacher was practice. I got myself a printer, good paper, ink, a website etc. And I began. I made a tonne of mistakes, like not protecting my artwork properly for transit, or handwriting all the addresses on the boxes which was time-consuming, but I learned from them really quickly. I didn't have much space at the time, we were living in a small apartment on the third floor which wasn't ideal, but I wasn't going to wait until I had a bigger house or a studio, you have to work with what you've got. So I claimed a corner of the living room, set up my desk there and used the dining table to pack my orders. Thank God, Guido is so chill and let me basically take over the entire apartment with boxes and packaging in order to do this!

We moved house in 2023 and I got my very first studio! It was an old house so it wasn't glamorous, but it got the job done.

It was around this time that I landed a job as an English teacher at the local university here in the Netherlands. This was a big deal to me, because I live in an area where without fluency in the Dutch language, your job options are quite minimal. I was saved from my bar job! No more working my evenings or weekends (YAY!). But suddenly, yes working evenings and weekends, because now I had two jobs: my business and a teaching role.

It is not an understatement when I say that juggling those two was the most hours I've ever worked in my life. Some days I would be doing 14 hour days to keep both plates spinning, and although I was so grateful to the teaching role for saving me and providing stability, suddenly it wasn't my dream anymore. My business became the dream. It grew so quick and provided me with more income than the teaching job almost immediately. But I stayed with the teaching role until 2024 because, I'll be honest, I was sh*t scared to go all in on my business when I knew there wasn't many back-up options available if it failed.

So what changed? What made me FINALLY take that leap of faith in November 2024? My baby. I had a baby in December 2023, and when my maternity leave at the teaching role came to an end, I knew it was now or never. The fact of the matter is, if you're already working 14 hour days and you throw a baby into the mix... something has got to give. It wasn't going to be the baby (OBVIOUSLY) and so it was really a choice between my business or teaching.

I knew I would never forgive myself if I walked away from my dream in favour of stability. I knew it was time to bet on myself and to give myself the room to grow my business. So after quitting my teaching role, I signed a contract on my office in the city centre to give To You From Steph a real home, some real space to grow, and I hired my first employee!

I spent most of my time packing orders, and it got to the point where I was no longer creating new art or new products, I was just keeping up with tasks that didn't really need me to do them. My art needed me! So I hired Maricel to help free up my time, and that's where we're at in the process so far.

I won't lie, it's been really scary to go all-in on my business. I've worried over money for the first time in a long time, and I've questioned myself, my business, my longevity, my future... everything! But I'm also reminding myself that growth is uncomfortable. The anxiety that comes with it is my brain's way of trying to protect me from the unknown. We don't like the unknown as humans. BUT! There are so many possibilities within the unknown, it's also really exciting to think where the next 4 years might lead me.

So when I look back at my struggle to change creative outlets all those years ago, I'm so grateful that I overcame that fear and did it anyway, because you just never know what could happen until you try! Imagine if I let those fears hold me back... I would never have built a community of over HALF A MILLION like-minded individuals who resonate with my art. I would have never turned that art into a business that allowed me to work for myself and do something I bloody LOVE for a living.

Thanks for reading, if you're still here, you deserve a medal. Or maybe a discount code as my way of saying thank you! Here it is: COMMUNITY10 - pop this in at the checkout and you'll get 10 percent off your entire order. I hope this blog post inspired even one person to pursuit something that sets their heart on fire!