Hmm.... I get this in terms of wanting to go off on ALL the possible illustration (and pattern design!) tangents. I got into a zone and was making money from pattern design (not a living, mind you) and, instead of digging deeper into that and pushing and promoting, I veered off toward illustration because it looked fun and because I thought I could do it, whereas before I couldn't have. And then I got book deals and, while I did keep pushing and promoting there, I also started veering back toward pattern design, at the same time as digging into other areas of illustration (because I didn't want to miss out on those opportunities either).
BUT... First of all, I can't switch off my educational publishing stream of income and work that I have built up for decades UNTIL I can consistently make enough money from illustration. In the same way as I didn't go freelance until I had enough freelance clients/jobs to know I could make a consistent living from it. In 8 years I probably could, because the kids will have left home and the mortgage will be paid off and we can concentrate only on what we need to survive. I can't and won't risk losing our house (etc.)
AND... Second of all, I built a successful (in my terms - i.e. gives us a comfortable standard if living) business by providing a variety of different services (within a specific industry niche). I didn't just concentrate on editing and proofreading, but branched out to indexing and typesetting, and then to design, and then to digital development, and then to typesetting PowerPoints and Word files, and then to creating 'typesetter illustrations', and then to editorial management, and then to project management etc. etc. My multi-faceted experience and expertise within the particular industry make me a go to supplier for multiple educational publishers and for multiple different types of projects, meaning downtime is less frequent than it was at first.
SO... I think it is possible do all of the things, as long as you niche down in ONE way (i.e. for me in my initial career, this was UK educational publishing). For you, it might be children's illustration (allowing the expansion into illustrating for products and home décor etc. and possibly also educational books, rather than JUST children's books) or it might be book illustration (allowing the expansion into adult, for example). For me, in my illustration career ... Yeah, I really really do need to settle on some kind of direction and focus! But what if it's the wrong one????
Hmm.... I get this in terms of wanting to go off on ALL the possible illustration (and pattern design!) tangents. I got into a zone and was making money from pattern design (not a living, mind you) and, instead of digging deeper into that and pushing and promoting, I veered off toward illustration because it looked fun and because I thought I could do it, whereas before I couldn't have. And then I got book deals and, while I did keep pushing and promoting there, I also started veering back toward pattern design, at the same time as digging into other areas of illustration (because I didn't want to miss out on those opportunities either).
BUT... First of all, I can't switch off my educational publishing stream of income and work that I have built up for decades UNTIL I can consistently make enough money from illustration. In the same way as I didn't go freelance until I had enough freelance clients/jobs to know I could make a consistent living from it. In 8 years I probably could, because the kids will have left home and the mortgage will be paid off and we can concentrate only on what we need to survive. I can't and won't risk losing our house (etc.)
AND... Second of all, I built a successful (in my terms - i.e. gives us a comfortable standard if living) business by providing a variety of different services (within a specific industry niche). I didn't just concentrate on editing and proofreading, but branched out to indexing and typesetting, and then to design, and then to digital development, and then to typesetting PowerPoints and Word files, and then to creating 'typesetter illustrations', and then to editorial management, and then to project management etc. etc. My multi-faceted experience and expertise within the particular industry make me a go to supplier for multiple educational publishers and for multiple different types of projects, meaning downtime is less frequent than it was at first.
SO... I think it is possible do all of the things, as long as you niche down in ONE way (i.e. for me in my initial career, this was UK educational publishing). For you, it might be children's illustration (allowing the expansion into illustrating for products and home décor etc. and possibly also educational books, rather than JUST children's books) or it might be book illustration (allowing the expansion into adult, for example). For me, in my illustration career ... Yeah, I really really do need to settle on some kind of direction and focus! But what if it's the wrong one????