Today we’d like to introduce you to Hadia Bjornbak.
Hi Hadia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve always loved to create ever since I picked up my first crayon. I took as many art classes as I could in school, but otherwise, my parents had me primed from a young age to be an engineer. I trusted my parents were right, and enrolled myself in advanced math classes early on. However, I would read ahead so I didn’t have to pay attention in class, so I could draw in my planner instead. When I was 16, I unexpectedly went temporarily blind due to an allergic reaction. I was pulled from school while I healed, but even that didn’t stop me from doing art. That’s when my parents suspected my devotion to art might undo their efforts to make me an engineer. I was officially banned from doing art at all. I stopped because I wanted to keep the peace.
8 years later, it turned out nothing could keep the peace with my family–not even my Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Michigan. I estranged myself from them entirely, but still inherently felt like I needed to continue my engineering career because I had invested my whole life into it. My boyfriend (now my husband), his family, and his friends really encouraged me to get back into art. One of his friends invited me to sell my art with his comic books at the local comic con. That’s when it really began for me.
I continued to do comic cons on weekends while maintaining my day job as an engineer. I met the most wonderful, supportive people along the way. There was no gatekeeping about how to grow as a business or even just as an artist. This really felt like something I did for myself. It showed me that art is so much more significant than I realized it was. More importantly, it showed me that my particular voice in the industry really mattered, and I need to continue to follow my dreams.
Fast forward a few years later, and I ended up getting laid off from my iron-clad secure engineering job due to “restructuring”. Now, the income that kept me afloat was money I made from my art. It was such a Daliesque experience being able to eat because someone paid for me to share what I love with them. I continued to look for another engineering job, but more and more art opportunities kept coming my way, and I couldn’t keep up both job hunting and growing my business.
So this year, I decided I am going to stop job searching and put my all into art. I joined an art marketing community online and I worked hard to make connections everywhere I went. Suddenly, my sales have quadrupled from what I made last year, and that doesn’t even come close to the value of all of the people I’ve met along the way and how many opportunities have landed in my lap. Now I’m even illustrating a comic book for one of my favorite creators. Following my dreams has been a very surreal and worthy experience. I am so blessed to have been able to return to my true passion.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It certainly has not been a smooth road, but it taught me so much on how to pave the road smoother for myself.
As I mentioned before, my family didn’t support artwork. They didn’t think it was productive or valuable. They kept similar company around, so when family friends talked down on art as a profession, I thought my parents were right. After estranging myself from them and that community, everything changed. I learned just how much community matters, and I never let myself be around bad company again.
My first few commissioned pieces didn’t go well. From friends expecting artwork for free to businesses who offered exposure instead of payment to customers demanding refunds and the painting, it taught me that I really need to stand up for myself. I learned how to value my time and effort, and then reflect that accordingly with any new customers going forward. I’ve not had a “bad customer” since then.
My biggest impediment might just be my own lack of ability to believe in myself and my art. Even though I started selling artwork as a side thing, I didn’t think I could make any serious money from it. When that started picking up, then I thought I couldn’t learn how to do marketing or any other administrative/business work. Eventually, I had to look at myself in a mirror and go, “Girl, you have a bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering! If you can push yourself through that, you can learn how to market on Instagram!” I actively work on my mental health now, and I can tell my paintings are getting better from this.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a proud Jill of all trades. I just love to create, and there’s so many crafts out there. It didn’t start out that way.
When I was in grade school, I would hang out with my elderly neighbor. She taught me how to bake, knit, and crochet. I kept that up all of these years. Art class would teach me how to sketch, draw, color, sculpt, carve, photograph–you name it. I loved it all. I kept that up too.
When I was in high school, I discovered an artist online who was extremely talented with doing realism in colored pencils. I was so impressed, I wanted to do it too. I was living in Singapore at the time, and couldn’t find colored pencils at the local grocery store where my mom shopped–but I did find oil pastels. This was my forte, my specialized craft. I wanted to do oil pastel portraits until the day I die. But when I started to think I should sell my art, it changed once again.
I started off doing commissions. I stated on all of my advertisements that I will do any medium, any subject, any size. This had people wanting marker art or pencil sketches instead of oil pastel portraits. When it came to painting, I also learned that pastel can be hard to sell because it never dries, so it needs to be protected behind glass. This moved me to learn how to oil paint, which is now what I sell the most. While rushed orders require something that dries faster like acrylic paint, gouache, or watercolor, I know how to do multiple styles in each of those to match what a client is looking for.
Recently, I’ve picked up digital art (not AI), blacksmithing, and sewing, too. I have weaving, lacemaking, and wood carving on the list. My current projects include painting a Viking family portrait, illustrating a ninja comic book, and sewing a Victorian dress.
The subject that I do the most frequently is fan art. This comes to me naturally because I love stories and can get very invested in the details. Fan art is also the gift that keeps on giving, because I can sell prints of it at comic con for others who belong to the same fandoms that I do.
I am the most proud of sticking with doing commissioned art. I also believe that’s what sets me apart. Initially, I was only going to accept commissions until made enough capital to paint what I want to paint, and then just sell prints of that. I was so wrong. There are so many beautiful people out there with the most brilliant ideas, but not enough time to cultivate the skill required to depict those ideas in creative form. That’s where I come in. Someone will have a vision they want to share, they translate it into words to communicate it to me, I interpret that vision in my own mind’s eye, and then I coordinate with my hands. I think of it like magic — someone else creates the spell, and I have the ability to cast it. It’s such an intimate form of communication that I naturally fall in love with whatever comes my way. I will never give that up.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
As it turns out, anything and everything can turn into a successful career if you really want it to. You really can do whatever you set your mind to–and as you do, you will find that there are others who value that too. There are all types of people who appreciate the same things you do, but you won’t find them unless you go out and try to. This is not just from my own success, but from others I’ve met along the way. There’s no particular industry that provides more security than others. For crying out loud, there’s a man on YouTube who has assorted rubber chickens that scream at different pitches, and he plays it professionally as an instrument at weddings. What I’m trying to say is; the only thing that separates “success” from a “dream” is the determination to follow through with it. All I did was persevere through the hard times. If I can do it, anyone can.
I also want to say, brace yourself. You’re about to find out who really truly supports you versus who doesn’t. You will often find more love from strangers than you do of your own family and friends — and that’s okay. Please be kind to yourself and remember that you can do it regardless of what others may think.
Pricing:
- $4.50/sq inch for an original painting
- Any art prints up to 11″x17″ are $40
Contact Info:
- Website: Website will be updated by July 1st– if published after that, the website is artsbyhadia.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artsbyhadia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artsbyhadia
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtsByHadia
