I’m Bryce, and sometimes I draw.
Drawing has always been a creative outlet for me – but I lost that fire for a bit.
This is my story.
As a kid, I loved to paint and draw, illustrating my first book at age 4.
Drawing and creativity made more sense to me than reading, writing or arithmetic, and this became abundantly clearer to me at school.
I was always asked: “Why aren’t you doing your homework?”
My response? “I’d rather draw.”
My drawing didn’t always make sense, and some weren’t very good, but I had fun doing them and that’s all that mattered. Little did I know a shift was coming.
When I hit my teenage years, my drawing abilities reached a new level as I explored different conceptual ideas and drawing techniques. I was making a name for myself as ‘that dude who could draw’. And I was loving it.
But I needed to think about a career, and all I knew was I loved being creative. So, I chose a path that allowed me to do that and studied communication design at university.
This saw me merging my creative talents with the practicality and thinking of contemporary graphic design.
My drawing abilities also kept improving, finding a niche for figure and portrait drawing.
And being introduced to programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator allowed me to explore digital illustration, a skill that led me into working for brands like Headspace Australia and Bupa Global, where I designed illustrations for campaigns and the alike.
I’d really found my groove – I’d made my passion into a career.
But too much of a good thing can sometimes be bad.
The work was really good, but the volume of it wasn’t. And in the real world, time equals money.
It wasn’t long before the burnout began, and I realised it wasn’t fun anymore.
I had to change my relationship with creativity, and I needed to start being creative for myself again – drawing in my own time and without the pressure of making money.
I’ll let you decide whether they’re any good – but for me, they symbolise having fun again.
So, what’s the point of all this?
In a world where we can make money from almost anything, sometimes it’s alright to do something for the fun of it.
