This was originally a response to a young illustrator who contacted me a few years back asking what she should do to prepare for an illustration career. Today I spent bit of time reorganizing my thoughts to post in response to a blog post from one of my college teachers asking the same question for the benefit of his current senior class. Sooo much more could be said on the topic but here's my response to what I feel is most important for an illustration senior to consider as they contemplate entering the "Real World".
Don't Say 'No' and Try New Things
I’ve learned that you should never
say no to a project until you find out as much info as you can even
if that means spending some time conversing back and forth just to
figure out if you can work something out with the client. Sometimes
the people who start out wanting you to work for free or for a split
profit situation is the one who ends up paying you the most if you
only take the time to talk with them and be honest about your
pricing. It can also be instinct to say no if they want something
done sooner than you could provide it. Always ask them if they are
willing to wait a few months if you already have a project going as
you’ll be surprised how many will wait. Sometimes the initial gig
may be too small or not of interest to you but I’ve had logos turn
into more work and I had a CD cover that lead to my first book. I
think in a way it’s best to start out a bit ignorant as you will
have less fear to try new stuff. I’ve done a bunch of random
contests and illustration work for individual clients in between
books to stay in business. Everything from sign painting, logos, pet
portraits, architectural renderings, Point of purchase display
illustration, landscape painting etc. etc. Some things you’ll enjoy
and some you’ll never do again. I did some portrait paintings and
quickly learned that wasn’t my best skill but then discovered a
particular style of caricature that was more in my comfort zone. The
one place I would advise to say no for sure is if they want you to
work for free or for some sort of split the profit scheme and won't
budge on that. don’t do work for free unless it's a competition or
you are getting compensated with something comparable to the worth of
your work. Children's illustration for example is filled with self
publishing authors who want you to work for split profit scheme but
who may never even figure out how to get their books published in the
first place.
Get a Website and Build a Portfolio
The number one
thing I can suggest is to build a website or at least a blog to post
your art. No one will hire you if they can’t see your work samples.
Every single illustration gig I ever received started with me sending
a link to my illustration portfolio for potential clients to view.
Most potential clients are looking amongst tons of illustrators at
once and most illustrators already have websites and such so if you
don’t have one, the other illustrator’s will beat you every time.
I built an easy website on freewebs.com now called webs.com . If you
don’t have time to worry about designing your own website then get
on blogger.com and post some pics onto a blog to send potential
clients to. There are of course large illustration portfolio websites
but you want your own little nook on the web to send people to where
they wont be tempted by the work of thousands of talented
illustrators.
Do your best in
college or in your current state to make the best art you can, so
that when you branch out into illustration as full time career and
build a website, you will already have some great pieces to show to
potential clients and not just some paintings of fruit and nudes. I
wish I could show you my very first website and the images I launched
on it so you could see how far I’ve come over the past few years.
Post what you have and just keep working at it and make more and more
new and better stuff to replace the old stuff. When you start looking
back on the old stuff , and can see all of the flaws , you’ll know
you’re making progress.
Even most art competitions are
debatable as many are just out to get your money. For the first few
years of my career, winning competitions kept me in business but I
did my research and tried to only enter competitions I felt I had a
chance to win where the judges would be interested in my style of
art.
Learn the Major Illustration Digital
Software
If I had to say one program to learn,
Adobe Photoshop would have to be the one. Adobe Photoshop elements is
a smaller version that basically does everything I need it to do and
is much cheaper. I got a free copy with a cheap digital camera and
more recently got a copy with a new drawing tablet. You can also get
free photo editing software online like Gimp. That will let you
re-size and crop art for the web as well as a ton of other stuff I’ve
come to rely on it for. In the past few years I made the switch to
digital art using photoshop to create final art. The majority of
publishers are only interested in digital art in my experience as its
easier for them to request changes, it's faster and they don't have
to worry about scanning/digitizing the original art. More recently I
started working with vector art software called Inkscape which is
basically a free version of Adobe Illustrator. That software is great
for logos and images that will need to be scalable for banners, truck
decals etc. and of course many artists use it for more graphic styles
of illustration or for creating smooth line drawings.
Constantly Promote Your Work
I would also say it’s important to
constantly promote yourself and search for your next gig while
working on your current gig so you won’t be out of work for two
months in between each project. In college we were told that it
wasn't the most talented who would succeed but rather the most
persistent and those with the best contacts. Artists tend to be a
very quiet folk who keep to themselves. In order to break into
illustration you really need to be able to self promote constantly
and almost have to overcome your own desire to sit in a corner and
draw, without others seeing your art. No matter how good you become
as an artist you simply won't get the jobs unless you let people know
who you are.
You could start
with something as easy as doing marketing e-mails about your
progress. I used to send them out once a month but these days it’s
getting to be more like a couple of times a year. That basically
lists art competitions I’ve entered, galleries, book reading events
coming up, new blog posts, projects I’m working on and sometimes
helpful websites and advice for my art friends on the list. I include
friends, family, past clients etc. as a way of keeping me and my art
on people’s minds and hopefully generate more work. It’s also
been a great way to hear back from old friends about what’s going
on in their lives.
During your senior year you are asked
to create mailer postcard illustrations. At first it can be tempting
to think those won't amount to much but My first real publishing gig
with a brick and mortar publisher came as result of those mailers I
did my senior year. That client has now hired me three times.
Another way I've started to get
recognition for my work in my hometown is by attending various craft
fairs and having gallery shows of my work. I generally don't make a
ton of money at the actual events but I do often meet people at those
events who become good clients asking me to work on small projects
every now and then. Give out tons of business cards and chat with the
other artists at the events to learn from them. I've had people buy
stuff on my etsy store who I met in person at a craft fair, one guy
has commissioned me for about $500 worth of work over the years, A
lady from one gallery book reading event later contacted me to do a
book reading at a local school which paid $200 plus sale of any
books.
You'll find many ways to promote.
Just do your best to post your work all over the web on sites like
artwanted.com, deviantart.com, craig's list ads, facebook, linkedin,
children's illustrators.com, zazzle, etsy, tophatter etc. etc.
