I Left the Business I Founded to Paint Full Time

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Victoria Hugo, a 28-year-old art business owner based in Surrey, UK. It has been edited for length and clarity.

After a decade as a content creator and running a social media business, I quit to start painting again.

At 17, I made a TikTok account posting videos about body painting, face painting, and canvas work. My channel grew quickly, and within a year, I had a million followers.

I realized brands weren’t on the platform yet, and I could help them get on it. So in 2021, I started a TikTok agency with two cofounders, working with clients across different sectors, from hospitality to beauty. By the time I left last year, we were turning over about £500,000, or about $675,000, a year.

I loved the challenge and the variety that the job brought me, but it left me no time for my art. I’m an all-or-nothing person, so if I could only give my art 5% of my time, it wasn’t worth it.

After nearly 10 years on TikTok, I thought, “I’m not sure if this is really fulfilling me in the happiness department.”

So I exited the business last year to paint full time.

Air ticket business

Last year, my husband and I took what we called a “honey year” after we got married and traveled to places we’d always wanted to go. I’m a raging ticket hoarder — boarding passes, little mementos.

After one trip in October, I had these Air India boarding passes, and I remember thinking, “I could just paint a moment from these trips on a boarding pass.”

At first, it was just for me. I didn’t think people would buy them. I painted the Taj Mahal on one of the passes, for a start.

I didn’t have all my old boarding passes, so I asked a graphic designer friend to create editable versions I could paint on. Then I painted more from my trips and posted them online.

A friend commissioned one for her husband, and then I posted a video in January. Within a day, it exploded. I had so many DMs asking how to buy one.

So since the start of the year, I’ve gone all in on this. I’ve received about 60 orders.

The painting itself takes between two and 10 hours, depending on its complexity.

If they want it framed, I mount and frame it before shipping it off. Overall, each piece usually takes between one and three days from start to finish.

I recently received a wedding order of 13 boarding pass paintings of places that were important to the couple. They didn’t have table numbers; rather, they had the “London table,” “Seoul table,” and so forth.

I then scanned those designs and created 100 individual boarding passes for the guests, each with their name and table assignment. I cut them all out individually. It was a long day, but it turned out great.

The risk is paying off

I charge £195 for an unframed piece and £245 for a framed piece, plus shipping. I’ve also added a fast-track option for people who leave things to the last minute, so they can pay £100 and guarantee their painting will be completed within a week.

Each one costs me roughly £50 to produce if it’s framed, but a lot of that is just time and labor.

In the first few months, it made more money than I earned in salary at the social media agency. I’m very confident I won’t need a second income.

I’ve had a few inquiries about events and wedding packages, and that’s where the big money comes from compared to the one-off commissions.

Funnily enough, the biggest challenge has been the mental block of not being confident that I’ve created something that’s valuable to the customer. I’ve just fallen into it, and it’s happened really quickly.

Unlearning the mindset of chasing milestones

Before, I was always chasing milestones, like getting verified or hitting a million followers on TikTok. In my business, the aim was to make it profitable. But with this, I have a completely different mindset, which I need right now as I’m pregnant with my first child.

I love that I have the flexibility to paint, plan, edit, or do admin jobs, and that I can take my foot off the gas and enjoy what I’m doing. I want to do it for as long as I enjoy it, and I want to see where it can go, like working with brands like tourism boards or airlines.

When people say, “I get to do my hobby for a job,” I thought they were kidding. Now, I get it.