Last updated on December 20th, 2021
When to follow your passion? What is the right age to learn art? Is it necessary to join art college to learn art? If such questions burn your mind while stepping into the art world, then you need to know the answer. And, the answer is a big NO! Age, time, schools; these parameters don’t define your love for art. You can be an artist and enjoy being an artist at any point in your life. PrintShop by Designhill presents a series ‘Being An Artist’, an inspiring story of a non-artist working in an accounting firm turned to the pro artist who quit his job and everything to follow his passion.
He’s a great example of the statement that age and time are just matters of the mind. If you have the attitude to learn and follow your passion, then no one can stop you from driving your attitude to succeed.
Imam Afandi is a 33 years old man from Lampung, Indonesia who is a hand lettering artist and loves to share his work on social media platforms.
He was working in an accounting contractor company in Jakarta when he realized his love for lettering and decided to quit his job to follow his passion.
With the help of a friend, he started learning hand lettering and now is one of the known artists in the art community. Currently, he’s working as a freelancer and selling his best of artworks on print-on-demand marketplace, PrintShop.
It’s a print-on-demand marketplace where anyone can discover & buy 50+ unique products, gifts & artwork created by 150+ artists from more than 180 countries around the world.
It’s an online marketplace where 100+ new artworks are uploaded every minute to provide the new shopping vibes for customers.
We decided to get in touch with him and ask how his artist journey started. He said,
“It’s said that you’ll get to know what you want with your life when the right time comes. It truly happened in my case. In 2017, I knew a friend of mine who was a hand-lettering artist. At that time, I was still working in an accounting contractor company in Jakarta. Then, I saw my friend’s artwork on his Instagram. I really liked it and started to be interested in learning it. But, due to my busy working as an employee, I didn’t have the chance to learn it later. During mid-2018, I quit my job because I wanted to learn this art and stay at my residence. I started learning hand lettering in November 2018 and became passionate about it. Before I thought long about doing something that could be useful for myself and others then I decided to focus on learning the art of hand lettering. Now, it has become part of my job and I’m making money out of it.”
PrintShop: What’s your process of creating a piece of artwork and what tools and techniques do you use?
Imam: The technique that I often use beforehand is to draw directly on paper with a pencil and brush pen then I fill it with a pen. Then, I digitize it through various photo editor applications on Android.
But now, I prefer to save my paper and drawing tools by switching to painting software on AutoDesk and such on the computer. I think using my software saves me a little time and energy.
PrintShop: How do you find inspiration and stay creative?
Imam: Basically, I like to draw and on hand lettering. I can find myself and can write what I feel about myself and the environment. Every day, I look for references in various online media such as Instagram and Pinterest and articles about hand lettering.
PrintShop: Did you face any challenges in your artistic journey? If yes, How did you overcome it?
Imam: I feel it is in myself, I think I’m still a beginner who continues to learn and become proficient in the art of hand lettering.
For example, when I make my work think a lot when I want to share it on Instagram because I don’t believe this is a good work to share on social media but I’m lucky to have other artist friends who always support me and provide input to me.
PrintShop: What is the best advice you’ve gotten as an artist or the most important thing you’ve learned?
Imam: Keep on working, don’t be afraid your work is bad because the more you learn the more your skills will be honed.
Check out his latest work on PrintShop.
