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Most of us were told the same thing. Make something every day, share it, and the people will come.
But what happens when you do exactly that for years, the numbers stall, the platforms change the deal, and the thing you love starts to feel like homework for an algorithm?
In this episode, we talk with illustrator, teacher, and author Tom Froese about building a very public career as a self-described introvert. It starts with camera presence and resting dad face, then turns into a bigger conversation about owning your audience, scaling back, and why any of us spend our lives making commercial art in the first place.
It is part career audit, part wardrobe therapy, and part airport-gate conversation that wanders into ghosts, aliens, and faith.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Why Tom is pulling everything under one roof after years of spreading himself across Skillshare, YouTube, Patreon, Instagram, Substack, and a podcast, and why every channel now has to point somewhere.
- Why he moved his daily drawing practice off Instagram and onto Substack to protect it, especially once the joy started to erode.
- Resting dad face, eyebrow pencils, and the plaid shirt uniform and why being on camera means playing a slightly stylized version of yourself.
- Why "if you build it, they will come" may not hold anymore including what Tom thinks actually works now, and Dustin's case for owning your list instead of renting an audience.
- Aliens, ghosts, and the spiritual realm and a candid conversation about faith, doubt, and doing your work for a reason bigger than money.
Whether you draw every day, quietly wonder if social media is still worth it, or just want permission to make the one-brush version of your thing, this one comes back to a question Tom asks his own students. You're spending most of your adult life making commercial art. Why?
ABOUT THE CREATIVE
Tom Froese is an illustrator, teacher, and writer based in British Columbia, Canada. His work borrows from printmaking, with limited colors, overprints, and letterpress-style texture, and it shows up in maps, editorial work, and picture books.
He is one of Skillshare's top teachers and has taught more than 150,000 students. His book Drawing Is Important: How to Start a Lifelong Daily Drawing Practice came out this spring from Rockport. It is not a how-to-draw book. It is a why-to-draw book.
Website
https://www.tomfroese.com
Drawing Is Important
https://www.tomfroese.com/book
Classes and Drawing Club
https://www.commercialartistry.com
Substack
https://mrtomfroese.substack.com
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mrtomfroese
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Brad Woodard
Brad is an illustrator and designer behind Brave the Woods, a full-service studio working with clients like PBS Kids, Ford, Target, and USPS. His bold, playful style and heart-led storytelling shine through everything from brand campaigns to children’s books.
Dustin Lee
Dustin is the founder of RetroSupply, a shop for retro-inspired brushes, textures, and digital tools used by tens of thousands of creatives from indie artists to major studios. He shares what it’s really like to run a creative business while keeping it small, weird, and intentional.
Credits
Audio/video editing: Clara Wright
Cover art: Brad Woodard
Intro animation: Seth Austin
Intro music: “Snakes and Fire” (Instrumental) by Pär Hagström
