Meet Tim Heron

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tim Heron. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tim below.

Hi Tim, so happy you were able to devote some time to sharing your thoughts and wisdom with our community. So, we’ve always admired how you have seemingly never let nay-sayers or haters keep you down. Can you talk to us about how to persist despite the negative energy that so often is thrown at folks trying to do something special with their lives?
Growing up in the art world had its challenges. There was only a select few people that actually supported me trying to break into the art world and everyone else pretty much decided that it was a waste of time. I started getting more support after winning some awards and winning the Congressional Art Competition for my district in high school. Through my experience in college I realized that a lot of students around me didn’t have the work ethic I had and mostly lived for the “college” lifestyle. If you are coming up with excuses to not get your projects done on time, there is no way an artist will be that successful. Just like any other job, you need to work hard for it. During college I was either running on the XC team or had a job while still getting my work done, making sacrifices when I needed to get projects done. After college was rough especially graduating the March of 2020, right when the pandemic hit. I had to buckle down and stay focused on a goal. There were still people that doubted that I could be a successful artist including family and coworkers. I started my freelance business while working a full time job growing my clientele. It was very exhausting but one of the things I always remember is “nothing good comes easy.” I was able to hit my big break a year after graduating with the company I now work with, Travel Stamps LLC. I still continue commissions on the side and I am also in the process of building an apparel company. So to persist the haters, just put more effort in than everyone else. Most of the time haters are gonna hate because they don’t want to put in the effort to make something work. Get as much experience as you can. Life is hard but proving to those haters that you made your dream work is the best feeling in the world.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
For the past few years I have been working with Travel Stamps LLC as an illustrator. This job isn’t necessarily what I thought I would be doing for a career but I am very happy to be with them. I am a remote illustrator in Colorado and the company is based in KC. My main responsibilities are to create souvenir stamps and stickers the National Parks, Musuems, historical landmark and much more. This is a great job for me because I love nature and creating realistic scenes.

I also continue my freelance career on the side. This includes projects for publishing, editorial and music. This is a separate style for my stamp work because it is a lot more painterly and takes more time to complete. I enjoy doing these projects because I am able to be more creative and give my clients something that they would have never come up with. You can check out my online portfolio at theheronartist.com. Also included in the freelance business is my start up clothing company, Cryptid Skull Designs. I have been more drawn to dark themes for my illustrations and I wanted to combine this with my love of fantasy and the supernatural. I wanted to challenge myself to create different skull designs for cryptids and creatures that I haven’t seen before. To help support this effort or if you are interested you can visit cryptidskulldesigns.etsy.com.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Some of the best skills and qualities that I learned upon my journey were resilience, research and creatively. Resilience is pretty self explanatory, just keep going and you will be noticed. My journey was different than my wife’s. I had a big break earlier than she did and I could tell that it was a struggle for her but being supportive is useful and now we can both say that we made it. Research is a big part in expanding your knowledge. We all have our favorite artists that we strive to be like but we all have to be our own artist. Research is a big thing and I do hours of research on topics and other reference material before starting a project. This helps you find new avenues of approach and ultimately help you improve. Lastly is creativity. I wouldn’t say I was the best at this and definitely had to work on this. Research will help with this but learning to communicate your ideas through abstract messages and illustration takes time and expanding your mind. SCAD taught me to explore more ideas by teaching me to come up with more ideas than just your first or second thought.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
For me now I can pick and choose my clients that I work with. My ideal client is someone who is open minded and is willing to commit to my process. Some clients come to me with a specific image in mind that they want me to create but these do not turn out as successful then when I have more control over the project. Clients can have an end goal but I love to explore more by giving them multiple sketches to choose. Most of the time, clients are amazed when you come back with something that they didn’t think of. I will just say that most likely you are hiring an artist because they have the experience and knowledge to create a successful illustration, a client shouldn’t act like they know better than the artist.

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