My Path from Mechanical Engineering to a Full-Time WebToon Artist Career

explodikid

Early Artistic Aspirations and Parental Pressure [0:00]

• The speaker developed a love for drawing as a child. [0:08]
  • Her parents initially indulged her art but later became concerned when it became a serious passion.
• Parental expectations pushed her towards stable, lucrative careers in STEM. [0:33]
  • Her parents were adamant that she become a pharmacist, engineer, or doctor, explicitly not an artist. [0:35]

    

  • They filled her days with academic extracurriculars to divert her from art. [0:43]
  • They made it clear they would not support her if she chose art professionally. [0:48]
• Suppressed artistic dreams led her to pursue a conventional path. [1:10]
  • She was accepted into a prestigious university on a full scholarship as a pre-med biology student, aligning with her parents' wishes. [1:20]

University and Rediscovering Art [1:31]

• A gradual awakening during college. [1:31]
  • She began to break free from her parents' influence and rediscovered her creative identity. [1:38]
  • She realized how much she missed art and started drawing again, initially finding herself rusty. [1:42]

    

• Confronting personal desires versus parental expectations. [2:01]
  • She realized she didn't genuinely want to be a doctor, but was still scared to lose her parents' support despite being financially independent through scholarships and odd jobs. [2:04]
  • This realization prompted her to think more independently. [2:37]
• Strategic career pivot to Mechanical Engineering. [2:41]
  • She switched her major to mechanical engineering, viewing it as a lucrative, stable, and creative career that still satisfied some of her artistic needs. [2:47]
  • She excelled in her engineering studies, maintained a high GPA, and secured internships and co-ops, setting her on a path to a stable, high-paying career. [3:03]

    

The Turning Point: Crisis and Commitment to Art [3:35]

• A profound personal loss triggered a major life reassessment. [3:35]
  • She suffered the greatest loss of her life, leading to a mental breakdown and a realization of her deep unhappiness in engineering. [3:38]

    

  • She felt she was lying to herself about her career choice and hated engineering and her job. [3:49]
• Art became a vital coping mechanism and path to survival. [4:06]
  • She compulsively turned to drawing on her iPad, finding it the only thing that brought comfort during her grief. [4:09]

    

  • The decision to pursue art felt less like a choice and more like a necessity ("either I draw or I die"). [4:42]

Self-Education and Creating "Covenant" [5:08]

• Intense self-study to improve artistic skills. [5:37]
  • Acknowledging her art wasn't commercially viable yet, she committed to serious self-education. [5:32]
  • She learned from art YouTubers, attended figure drawing sessions, and practiced drawing from life. [5:50]

    

  • She focused on private improvement without posting on social media, treating it as her own "art fundamentals boot camp." [6:18]
• Maintaining a safety net while pursuing her passion. [6:33]
  • She continued her mechanical engineering studies, aiming for bare passes, to keep a backup career option alive in case art didn't work out. [6:35]
• Launching "Covenant" to develop diverse skills. [7:12]
  • To accelerate her progress and learn various industry-relevant skills, she decided to create a webcomic. [7:18]
  • This project aimed to teach her character design, background drawing, storyboarding, commercial coloring/shading, and large project planning. [7:29]

    

  • She published her webcomic, "Covenant," on WebToon, receiving positive feedback and connecting with an audience who resonated with her art and storytelling. [7:48]

    

Breakthrough: WebToon Deal & Full-Time Artist [8:10]

• Taking a leap of faith and gaining validation. [8:10]
  • Her progress in art and "Covenant" led her to take a semester off university in Fall 2019, much to her parents' dismay. [8:17]
  • She attended Lightbox Expo, a convention for artists, and sought advice from professional artists. [8:29]

    

  • Professionals encouraged her, confirming her potential in the industry. [9:20]
• An unexpected offer from WebToon. [9:58]
  • Shortly after the expo, WebToon offered to publish "Covenant" as an original series, providing a full-time job with weekly pay. [9:58]

    

  • She accepted the offer, seeing it as a unique alignment of circumstances. Her series was only months old at the time. [10:27]
• Navigating family and financial independence. [10:52]
  • Her parents were skeptical but couldn't deny the decent income, especially for a first job without formal art education. [10:52]
  • During COVID-19 lockdown, she moved back with her parents, which helped financially while she worked intensely on "Covenant." [11:11]

    

  • She diversified her income by starting a Patreon and an online store, which grew as her audience and skills improved. [11:47]
  • This allowed her to move out again and become completely financially independent through her art. [12:01]
• Sustained success and professional growth. [12:11]
  • She quietly dropped out of university, and her parents eventually accepted her career choice when presented with her actual earnings. [12:11]
  • "Covenant" became a massive success with millions of readers and is now a published graphic novel series. [12:23]
  • She has grown as an artist, taking on freelance gigs, acquiring a literary agent, and regularly participating in artist alleys at conventions. [12:32]

    

  • She now earns more than she would have as an engineer, and has been for several years. [12:44]

Reflections and Advice [13:00]

• Dispelling common assumptions about her success. [13:00]
  • She clarifies that she does not come from generational wealth, is not neurotypical, and does not rely on a spouse's income (with a brief exception of moving home during the pandemic lockdown). [13:02]
  • She acknowledges the privilege of living with parents during the pandemic but emphasizes regaining financial independence within a year. [13:16]
• Critiquing "quit your job" narratives and offering genuine inspiration. [14:01]
  • She expresses frustration with clickbait titles from individuals whose success is clearly supported by external financial means. [14:04]
  • Her story is offered as inspiration for those seeking to pursue their dreams independently. [14:28]
• The value of human authenticity in art. [14:33]
  • Despite concerns about generative AI, she believes it increases the craving for authentic, genuine, and human art and stories. [14:36]

    

  • People want to connect with human stories, like that of an engineer becoming an artist. [14:57]
• Practical advice for career transitions. [15:09]
  • She does not recommend rash decisions like dropping out or quitting jobs immediately. [15:09]
  • Instead, she advocates for taking step-by-step actions with "railguards and safety plans" in place to mitigate risk. [15:34]

    

  • The core message is to take that first step towards a desired career, regardless of the field (comics, animation, games, etc.). [15:52]