Tigersoap
The Living Force
After joda's post here
, I thought it would be good to share some advice about our respective freelance careers in the creative industry.
It is mainly based on my experiences so far and the voice of professional illustrators.
One of the main goal for an illustrator is to get as much exposure as possible.
Exposure means to have your own website or blog where you can showcase your “best” works for all to see.
If you don’t feel confident enough to do this yet, don’t underestimate the many forums, specialized websites or communities that are dedicated to this, it is a great tool to build confidence, discover other artists and receive feedback (ex: amateurillustrator, deviantart…)
There are many such places where you can have your own free portfolios and display your works. Even myspace is now commonly used by most illustrators.
The downside of this, is that the quality of works and people's attitude can vary wildly, for good or for worse.
Your works will be drowned amongst many others (teenage angst and mangas) and it is not necessarily a place where you’ll be picked up for a job but it might happen.
Finding potential clients is not always an easy task because it requires to know what kind of clients could be interested in your works.
To be able to check your style against other illustrators style could give you an idea of where your work could fit and go from there.
The best way to ensure clients is to self-promote your works by :
From my experience just waiting for things to happen is not going to get you a regular and steady inflow of commissions as I learned the hard way.
Your talent is not sufficient to attract commissions if no one knows about you and your work.
BUT this is not a guarantee of works in any case.
It seems that the law of accident is particularily having fun with this because I've seen talented people to quit the business event tough they did all these things and more.
It's difficult to keep a light heart, motivation and creative thoughts if you realize slowly but surely that it does not bring you enough money to live decently.
I have a hard time understanding what will work and not because sometimes it looks like a big lottery.
That’s where I have to be vigilant to my negative introject because I always find excuses to avoid promoting myself more actively because I am not good enough, I am not creative enough and so on…
Although I can tell you that sometimes it does pay to not listen to it because if I had fallen to his voice again, I would not have been published recently in a new book from a well known publishing company showcasing contemporary illustrators.
Also, many many people will try to take advantage of you because you’re an artist and make you work for practically nothing in hope of “exposure” and “many future works”.
They play on your fear and they charm you like your regular snake in suit.
I fell for it, many others have fallen for this before me and 99% of the time it is not worth your time or patience.
There are always exceptions of course but it pays to be cautious.
This is really bringing down the whole industry as I can see it through numerous blog and forums around the world where people are taking a stand against this kind of practice
(check out the no-spec.com website for an overview of what is now widely practiced by comissioners, not all of them, thankfully.)
Artists are supposed to “love” what they are doing so they should be just happy to work.
It does not surprise me because we’re living in highly ponerized societies were creativity is considered less and less and where the idea of neo-liberalism is driving economies and thoughts.
Sorry for the long post, I have many other things that comes to mind but I prefer to stop here.
And by the way If I missed or if I am too unclear about something, let me know, I'd be glad to help.
, I thought it would be good to share some advice about our respective freelance careers in the creative industry.
It is mainly based on my experiences so far and the voice of professional illustrators.
One of the main goal for an illustrator is to get as much exposure as possible.
Exposure means to have your own website or blog where you can showcase your “best” works for all to see.
If you don’t feel confident enough to do this yet, don’t underestimate the many forums, specialized websites or communities that are dedicated to this, it is a great tool to build confidence, discover other artists and receive feedback (ex: amateurillustrator, deviantart…)
There are many such places where you can have your own free portfolios and display your works. Even myspace is now commonly used by most illustrators.
The downside of this, is that the quality of works and people's attitude can vary wildly, for good or for worse.
Your works will be drowned amongst many others (teenage angst and mangas) and it is not necessarily a place where you’ll be picked up for a job but it might happen.
Finding potential clients is not always an easy task because it requires to know what kind of clients could be interested in your works.
To be able to check your style against other illustrators style could give you an idea of where your work could fit and go from there.
The best way to ensure clients is to self-promote your works by :
So basically there are quite a few things to do promote yourself but it requires work or money for some services.Your website/blog, links and word of mouth
Get the address or email of the Creative directors from magazines, books, children book or anything you think might fit your style and send emails, postcards or eventually a phone call.
Print postcards with your work on it and do a massive send-out to potential clients.
Register yourself to specialized websites that offers portfolios online either for free (ex: illustrationmundo) or for a fee (ex: designtaxi, altpick).
Remark : those asking for a fee can be more or less expensive (except hireanillustrator which I recommand) and do not guarantee at all that you’ll get a job but they are where the AD will go because it’s easier for them to find artists from places they already know about.
There are databases which can be purchased (ex:adbase (US)) with contact details for Graphic design companies, Advertising agencies, book publishing houses and so on. This is expensive and not everyone can afford them (I sure don't)
From my experience just waiting for things to happen is not going to get you a regular and steady inflow of commissions as I learned the hard way.
Your talent is not sufficient to attract commissions if no one knows about you and your work.
BUT this is not a guarantee of works in any case.
It seems that the law of accident is particularily having fun with this because I've seen talented people to quit the business event tough they did all these things and more.
It's difficult to keep a light heart, motivation and creative thoughts if you realize slowly but surely that it does not bring you enough money to live decently.
I have a hard time understanding what will work and not because sometimes it looks like a big lottery.
That’s where I have to be vigilant to my negative introject because I always find excuses to avoid promoting myself more actively because I am not good enough, I am not creative enough and so on…
Although I can tell you that sometimes it does pay to not listen to it because if I had fallen to his voice again, I would not have been published recently in a new book from a well known publishing company showcasing contemporary illustrators.
Also, many many people will try to take advantage of you because you’re an artist and make you work for practically nothing in hope of “exposure” and “many future works”.
They play on your fear and they charm you like your regular snake in suit.
I fell for it, many others have fallen for this before me and 99% of the time it is not worth your time or patience.
There are always exceptions of course but it pays to be cautious.
This is really bringing down the whole industry as I can see it through numerous blog and forums around the world where people are taking a stand against this kind of practice
(check out the no-spec.com website for an overview of what is now widely practiced by comissioners, not all of them, thankfully.)
Artists are supposed to “love” what they are doing so they should be just happy to work.
It does not surprise me because we’re living in highly ponerized societies were creativity is considered less and less and where the idea of neo-liberalism is driving economies and thoughts.
Sorry for the long post, I have many other things that comes to mind but I prefer to stop here.
And by the way If I missed or if I am too unclear about something, let me know, I'd be glad to help.