Open Question: I'm an artist/writer & I need help with grants, fellowships, scholarships & awards to individuals- please help?

Hello. I'm an artist/writer and I want to get funding to get my own comics self-published and distributed. Is there always a best time to approach foundations with initial approaches about grants, fellowships, awards and scholarships? Can you apply for grants, fellowships and scholarships if you have defaults on student loans? I did research on funding a while ago, but I put off contacting any foundations regarding this stuff. I don't have any grant proposals written up. I've been focusing on dealing with sudent loans and going back to school. Am I making a mistake by waiting? I do not mean money to go back to school with, but grants, fellowships and awards and scholarships to individuals - for artists and writers, and for personal use. Has anyone here had any success getting funding for yourself? I've been out of scholl about 12 years. Please help me out. Thank you.