I can credit part of my freelance work because I got involved with a figure drawing group. I came to the group when a friend asked me to go with her to a Meetup group that met in Central Park to draw. I looked through the other members profiles, to get a sense of the people in the group. I found a couple figure drawing groups, so I signed up for those. I have to admit, I was nervous about going to my first session. The guy who started it was running it from his in home studio, and is a pretty amazing artist.

I went, drew and felt good about it, even though I knew my skills were pretty rusty. I think it was also a right-time thing. I had been let go from my job in March, and had decided I would make sure that my unemployment, was FUNemployment, and really de-rust my skills and build them up. I talk a lot about goals. At that time it was improve my drawing skills. I know in the year since then I’ve achieved both those skills. If I hadn’t gotten involved with something outside of myself, I don’t know where I would have ended up.

I’m a firm believer that drawing is the base skills for most art. I also have a very open mind to what a successful drawing is. Looking “right” is subjective. However, the ability to convey your idea’s visually, and to work them out is really what going to the figure drawing group is about for me.

At first it was every other week, then we moved to a bigger space and it was every week, thanks to Kristen who worked with the artists who owned the studio. The owner went to China or Europe for a few months, so we found a new place. Jeff who had been coming to the group, offered his place. But after a few months, we outgrew that. One of the people coming (Liam) started organizing Saturday meetings, every other week. This week, Marc and I went shopping for stuff we need for the new stage the group has taken on. A professional space we are paying for. The money comes from the people who attend, it covers the cost of the models and space.

Around this time, I was reading a book, My So Called Freelance Life, by Michelle Goodman, which was recommended to me by a fellow cartoonists, Monica Gallagher. The book is more about changing the way you think about freelancing, rather then what you should be doing as a freelancer, such as mailings. One of the things it talks about, which I’ve written about, networking. Basically just finding people who want to do what you do.

Getting involved in the drawing group got me several new friends, who want to do the same thing as me, making a living off our creativity. We are all at various stages of that. So any of us can ask someone for advice or give advice. We formed our own network.

You don’t have to get as involved as I did. But doing something art related can’t hurt. I recommend groups more geared towards professionals. Don’t worry if you don’t see yourself as a pro yet. If your goal is to make a living as an artists of some sort, get in there with them. You also don’t have to find a group that does specifically what you do. If you want to be a cartoonist, you don’t have to find a cartoon drawing group. Chances are you aren’t going to find that.

Our group says we are for professionals and people serious about improving their life drawing skills. I’ve been asked how we determine that. We really don’t make any judgment about that. People come, if they feel it’s a good fit, they keep coming back, if they don’t, they find a group they like better. We are a fun group, but we are serious about what we do, and I think both come across during the sessions.

If you are worried about someone looking at you and saying your not a professional, only a real jerk is going to do that, and who wants to be around those people? If you are worried about people thinking you aren’t that good, going will soon change their mind as you get better. Like I said, when I first went, I was rusty and was worried what people would think.

Doing art is often a solitary act. But as artists it’s so important to interact with other artists. From going to this group I would say I’ve gotten the following out of it:

Better Drawing Skills
A network of fellow artists
Self Confidence to be a freelancer
More resources
New friends

There was some good timing and maybe a little bit of luck involved. I signed up for two figure drawing groups, both being run by talented artists. I only made it to one of the groups. What if I had went to the other one, and it clicked as well as this one did?

There is another factor that had nothing to do with timing or luck, which came from me, and that was my willingness to get involved, and following through. Looking back, some of what I did, seemed very natural to me, even though it wasn’t anything I had done before. But also looking back, I can see why in the past it had trouble trying to be a freelancer, be an artists and be the person I knew I was.

If you find yourself struggling and maybe a little isolated, get involved.

Don’t hack. If you take on a project, try your best. I recently worked with a client that probably won’t have a reason to hire me again, but if the chance comes along where they need my style of art again, I know they will come right back to me, no questions asked. Not only that, I’m sure if anyone they know needs my style of art, I’m going to be recommended. One of my best compliments came from this project, were I was told that it was the most professional and impressive leave behind they had done in 12 years.

So I was happy that I was living up to a goal of mine. I hadn’t always done that in the past.

I used to do some map illustrations for a boating magazine, which a friend was the managing editor. When he left the magazine, I thought, there goes that. But he left my name as a resource for maps, and in January, the new editor called to see if I had time to do a map. She asked if I did anything else, I said “Yes, I’m primarily an illustrator.” She looked at my work online, liked what she saw, and gave me an article to illustrate.

She loved the illustration so much, she’s given me more each month. On average I do one map and two illustrations. Each one has been well received. I’ve spent anywhere between 4-6 hours, which includes sketching and pencils, on them. I’m also able to charge a little more then what my friend was willing to pay.

By doing the best work I could, I’ve ensured a long working relationship with this magazine. I billed them $600.oo last year, which is about 5 total illustrations, which were simple ones. That’s about 1 every two months. I’m now doing on average 3 each month, and for more money.

I’ve learned clients seldom have problems with what you charge, if they are very pleased with your work.

There are things you can do to help make a client very pleased with you. I’ve always been an open communicator, it comes easy to me. I often hear art directors list lack of communication as something that turns them off with an artists. Mainly, they want to be kept up to date on whats going on. And if you have questions, send them. Unless you are asking hundreds of questions, I find people generally like answering questions.

I also start on the project as soon as possible. This was something I was very bad at. Oh, it’s not due for 4 weeks, and I wouldn’t start anything for 3 weeks. I start any given project the moment I can. If I get work, and I’m not working on another client’s project, I start right on that.

Several good things come from this I have found. One, ideas have more time to develop making them better and flesh them out while they consider the thumbnails. Then while I’m doing pencils, I can plan out in my head how I may tackle each particular section of the illustration for the final. How much details I may have to give any part, compared to the other, and color composition.

Also, the client thinks I’m on top and super excited to be working on the project, which I am. I may have 4 weeks, and know it will only take 1 total, why not get it done now? If more work comes in, I can take it on, knowing I can re-arrange my work load. I don’t like it when work piles up, because of me.

I also follow through on everything the client asks, so long as they are within reason. Since I always layout the terms of the work flow for each project, we can stay within them. I come across as friendly, but focused, which makes them understand that I’m open to stepping outside the agreement we have, so long as they understand what that means in terms of money. And, I don’t try and angle requests to always fall within the outline extra charges.

When I worked in a retail store, the store hired the handyman husband of one of the employees to do some sprucing up of the store. He hadn’t worked in months and the store hired him partly as a favor to the employee, but it became clear he was trying to milk the store for every penny he could, with ridiculous claims of what wasn’t covered in their agreement. He got them for an extra $400 above the estimate in the end. He also would never be able to work for the store in the capacity again, and certainly wouldn’t get a good reference or recommendation from them. His lost.

All my agreements say that changes to final art costs $XX.oo. If I get a change after I deliver final art, I weigh the request against charging this. Because if the change is minor, say a correction they missed, or a mistake, and it won’t take more then 10 minutes or so, I’m doing it for free. Basically I set out my terms, and then going off of that, see where I can give the client a little more then what they are expecting. So long as I’m not robbing myself. And I never charge a client to fix my mistakes. When I worked as a production artists in publishing I don’t know how many vendors would bill us the hours it took to fix their mistakes.

I have learned not to count the hours I work on any given piece so long as I am working within the deadlines. I’m mindful of the time I spend on a piece vs the amount I am getting. If I’m getting $150 for a spot illustration, and I end up spending 7 hours on it, but making an amazing piece, that will end up in my portfolio, I’m taking 7 hours, even though that means I just made around $21.oo an hour. I believe having amazing wow pieces to put in my portfolio has an investment in myself and future work.

There are lots of ways to get additional work, which generally results in a few extra jobs a year, and you really shouldn’t plan your business strategy on them. To date, I’ve gotten 1 job from a friend telling a client that I would be better suited for the project. I’ve gotten more jobs from just doing good work and people recommending me. Doing an amazing job on every piece has never failed to pay off in some manner. It can be more work from the same client, it could someone new seeing it and hiring me, or getting the attention of fellow illustrators increasing my network, and finally the most important one, improving my skills as an artist.

I’ve always had good work ethics, and when I started adding in a stronger, Get-It-Started and Do-Better-Then-the-Client-Expects attitude, things really started to fall into place. Good work is key, and I feel that how you interact with your clients, is part of that good work. It’s just as much my job to make them happy as it is to do good artwork.

UPDATE:

“I’ve learned clients seldom have problems with what you charge, if they are very pleased with your work.”

A few days after writing and posting this, a client asked me if I had time to do more work for them. This time it was a normal illustration, plus 5 smaller illustrations to go with the article. I came up with a price, broke down what that price included. The editor came back and said, she was going over the budget to see where she was.

I replied I am open to going a little lower, because I was really excited about doing the illustrations. She replied back:

“I would love to do all as outlined originally, but I don’t expect you to cut your price like that. I value your work and know it’s totally worth the $”

It’s always great to hear that, and know that by doing your best possible, you have earned someones respect.

I added this, since this is my first book I’ve done that I’m sending to a professional printer, rather then printing it off myself. I felt that I should do something special for that, to mark this step forward in my work. Also, the printer said if I could up the page rate to 40, it would make it cheaper. So more pages, better per unit price, fin with me.

I had the idea for Son of Kool Aid when I was writing KAGF, and last year ran out of copies of it. So I began working on the story in full. I spent the last few days (7) doing all the illustrations. It was very intense, and wonderful. I would wake up, sit down, and get to work.

While I had written out the text many months ago, it wasn’t sold on every word that I had used, and the ideas for each page. And honestly I didn’t have the final page written or even what it would be. So I started with the pages I knew were right. As I worked, I kept thinking about the pages that weren’t quite right, and the final page.

I rewrote a couple of pages, and finally came up with the ending. This was how I worked for KAGF. I outlined the pages, then  write the page, then plan it out, then draw it. Generally I would be planning out the next few pages while working on the current page. Since I had a roadmap of where I needed to end up, this method worked.

I find that I can have some really good inspirations when working under a deadline. I also think these inspirations happen because my mind is so active during this time.

The book arrives around April 2nd, a week before MoCCA, the following weekend. The book will be available to order here, with payments acceptable via paypal, or checks send to me. The price will be $5.oo  plus shipping and will come signed and a drawing of Kool Aid (Not for retail orders, unless asked).

A special thanks and love to the following people, Tim Howard, Tim Fish, Monica Gallagher and Marc Scheff.

- Chuck Close

Someone quoted that this weekend, I had never heard it before, but it’s something I believe in, and have for years. It’s not good enough to just sit around waiting for a good idea. In fact, I tend to have more inspirations when I am doing something, over doing nothing. Being active makes the brain active, which causes ideas. Just like anything in this world, use it or loose it.

Inspiration can come in many forms. Secret confession, I watch Project Runway. Not for the fashion so much, but because I like Tim Gunn. I see him as a very positive, problem solving, encouraging person, who is genuine. He goes with his gut feelings, but channels that into thoughtful questions and is very open to a wide range of ideas.

So, I enjoy watching someone like that, because I work towards being like that in who I am.

I find inspiration in Sarah Palin, in how not to be as a person. She is a horrible person, because she is a hypocrite. She talks about how society needs a strong roll model and leadership. And yet every time someone says some thing insulting or degrading about her, what comes back is on the same level, insulting and degrading.

In short, she has never shown me that she can rise above, and be better. Which, to me takes her lower then the person who originally insulted her. Because she knows she’s doing it, and goes ahead and acts that way on purpose. Maybe not, which is sad, because that means she has no self awareness.

I’m only mentioning these public figures as examples of how inspiration can come from anywhere. Currently I’m working on 10 full page color illustrations for Son of Kool Aid, need to be done by March 9th. I’m doing good on getting them done.

There are lots of things motivating me, but one thing in particular, are people that always complain about not being able to ever get work done. But they never just sit down and do it. There is always something in the way. Tired from work, which I would accept, if they were lumberjacks. They have boring jobs, that dull their minds. I’ve been there.

I write these blog entries for myself, really. Why? To remain positive. To motivate myself to looking at things in a forward way. There is no room in these entries for complaining and bitching. I may talk about a bad experience, but it would be about how I learned from it. There isn’t any reason to come here and vent.

As I work on these illustrations, I find inspiration comes naturally. But it’s also because my mind is very active. It’s like working out. Keep doing it, and you will see results.

So don’t wait till you have the inspiration to do something. Do something and the inspiration will come. Not only that, your skills to execute the inspiration will be sharp, making it easier.

Here are some sections of the illustrations I’m working on. Enjoy.

Picasso agrees and quickly sketches her.

After handing the sketch to her, she is pleased with the likeness and asked how much she owed to him.

Picasso replied, $5,000.

The women screamed, “But it only took you five minutes!”

“No madam, it took me all my life.” Replied Picasso.

Recently my idea of what it means to be an artist/writer/dancer/actor/musician has changed. To be an artist/writer/dancer/actor/musician you must always practice your passion. Only the rare prodigy comes forth as a fully functional artist. The rest of us talented folk have to sharpen our skills. For me being a cartoonist means drawing all the time, and not just comics. Drawing sharpens my eye and hand. Much how you learned to write your letters, drawing them over and over, till now it’s so built into you, you don’t even realize it.

I’ve mentioned that I attend a weekly figure drawing session. (if you live in or near Brooklyn, I suggest checking it out.) It’s been about a year, and I’ve definitely noticed improvements in my figure drawing. Other benefits I’ve seen is I’m able to sketch out a layout or a thumbnail for an illustration idea quicker and cleaner. That kind of benefits comes over time, and is some what passive, it just happens.

I’m in the middle of a project (which I got with the help of my good friend, Marc, an amazing artist), working on the pencils. I’ve got a lot of reference material on the human figure, which I refer to, when doing action poses. But one panel, I really didn’t need to refer to anything, because I knew how the figure was going to look. It was a straight forward shot of the character busting out of the ropes holding him. I knew how the shoulders connected into the pecs, where the line between them and the biceps would be, how the arm would connect to the chest.

I’ve drawn similar poses in the course of the drawing session. What I had been practicing, I was putting into action, in an active way. It was very clear that what I was doing in the drawing sessions was having a direct impact on what I was doing, both passively and actively. It was pretty cool to have a moment where I could see both happening.

Some one once asked me, “Does anyone ever get good enough to not have to use references?” I seriously doubt it, save for the prodigy mentioned earlier, or people who draw the same thing over and over. And even then, all that happens is that you probably rely less and less on reference material for what you know. But if you have to draw something such as Washington Square Park, wouldn’t you look at a picture?

Also, this project has been a good one for re-evaluating my composition. Take the above image again. That is not how I originally drew the inset panel. This is how I drew it:

How boring. Very boring. The same idea is in both, that hasn’t changed, but how I executed the idea has changed. This in fact happened several times. One panel in particular, I redrew about 5 times, over the course of many hours. I had a lot of trouble finding a pose to reference* that I really liked. Eventually I found something that lead me to the final solution.

For me, being a cartoonist and illustrator doesn’t mean that I make money doing that. It means the way I think about it, the way I approach it. I need to always look for ways to expand my talents, what I know, and the information I can bring to each project. Being an illustrator/cartoonist is more then a full time job, since all the work I do to be a better illustrator isn’t done for direct pay, and comes on my own time, after the time spent on paying work.

*When I reference an image, for me that doesn’t mean copying it, but using it for a guide on how things line up on the body. Especially for hands and feet.

Here is the basic shape of the boys that I am going with. Sure there will be variations but the basic average boy is based on this sketch.

When I’m working on my comics, it amazes me the amount of pre-development you need to do for any given aspect. It’s easy enough to write down “SoKA being picked on by school mates”. What do all those school mates look like? I think that’s often were I spend the most time staring at the screen. It’s a good process, as I will get an idea. It might be “Fat Kid”, then I start working out what kind of fat kid. “Mean Girl” or “Nose picker”

A friend on facebook recently asked, should he plan out all the aspects of a website, sketching it out, or a few parts, and then just start to building pages, making things up as he goes along. The over all response was, sketch it out, keeping it flexible, that making it up as you go along doesn’t really work.

Planning out your art and creative process, more often then people realize, determines if you will succeed or fail.

One thing I’ve learned, make samples as you go. Regardless of the end use of any particular piece, I create it at 300 dpi. If it’s going to be used on the web, I reduce it down once it’s finished. I’ve also taken to making a sample page of my work, in the form of a PDF. Everyone you work with should be able to open and look at a PDF.

I keep all the PDFs together, in a samples folder. When someone asks me to send samples, I can pick the ones I want and make a PDF that they can open and page through, rather then having to open a bunch of files.

I keep my samples organized by what they were, my own comics, comics I’ve colored or illustrations. I do page production from time to time, so I have a bunch of PDFs of books I’ve worked on.

This way, I don’t have to worry about making up some samples when asked, I just pull from the ones I have ready. And I’m always adding to my samples.

I had been getting a lot of compliments about my colors in my own work. Another cartoonist and personal friend, Tim Fish asked if I would color a 5 page short story for his next book, Trust/Truth, and I was happy to do it for him. It came out great, and I did get some exposure for it. Tim told me he was pitching stories to Marvel and wanted me to color one of them. That fell through, but Marvel asked if he wanted to write a story for their next Nation X anthology, a Northstar story.

When Tim mentioned this, I asked him if I could color it, and he said he would ask the editor, who it turns out was someone that I had meet once before. The editor saw the work I did for Tim’s book, loved it and wanted me to do the coloring for his Northstar story.

That was some good PIE.

I had some bad PIE as well. I heard through the internet of a published comics author looking for a colorist for his next book. We talked, I was familiar with his past books, understood the terms of the work process, which was casual, 2 of the 3 stories hadn’t even been drawn yet. I would get paid, but his deal with the publisher was advancement on delivery of final pages, and I would get 20% of what he got from sales over 7 years, paid once a year. Now that sounds like a great deal, and it is if the book does very well. But it was a book of gay erotic comics. Small audience.

I got the first story and started coloring. One thing he had made clear that I should put paying work before his, but this attitude changed, and the professional relationship came under strain and combined with other factors, I decided it wasn’t worth it anymore, and put him in contact with a few other colorists, who would actually like to work in erotic comics.

See, I really don’t have any interest in doing gay erotic, and I was going to use a fake name for this. I wasn’t excited about it like I was coloring Tim’s story or the comic for Marvel. I was enjoying it, and committed to doing the best job possible. At the time I started, I wasn’t doing anything in particular, and thought, I’ll make contacts after the work comes out, there could be some money too. But I couldn’t show my work, because of the nature of it. So I would have this awesome work, that I could only use to get more work doing the same. Work that I didn’t want to do.

So PIE needs to also something that you want to do. In fact, PIE should only be done if it’s something that you want to do, because otherwise you end up with work you can’t do anything with. The Exposure part goes out the window. Now if I did for the experience learned from coloring a long story, that would be a different matter.

But I can get that experience elsewhere, even on my own.

So if you get a chance to work for PIE, keep in mind, it has to be Exposure or Experience in a direction you want to move in, other wise you are just giving your work away for nothing. Don’t do that.

Here are pages from each of the 4 stories in the book.

Enjoy!

Since then, I’ve learned a lot about being a freelancer, and getting work, so I thought I would write about that.

Network

By networking, I mean with others who are trying or are doing what you want to do. I learned this from personal experience and from reading the book, My So Called Freelance Life, by Michelle Goodman. I started going to figure drawing groups which lead to getting to know other artists and making connections. This kind of network gives you support and information. Got a problem with a client, ask your fellow artists if they have ever had that problem and what happened, how did they work it out? You may also get work. If someone is to busy to take on a new client or a client wants something they don’t do, they may recommend you. Your style might be just what they are looking for.

Not to mention, it’s awesome to be able to talk shop with friends who do what you do. It’s a real learning process, hanging out with others. The figure drawing groups gives me a social and creative outlet. I’ve seen my skills improve with just the once a week meetings, and now I’m looking for other outlets for this same type of activity.

Use the Internet to your advantage. Facebook and twitter are great for networking. Twitter more so, I think. Find artists that you like who twitter. Follow them. I’ve gotten several jobs via twitter. Artists fall through and sometimes people will twitter looking for an artist. I responded, we chatted and I got some work. For me, I follow people in the comics industry, and comic authors mostly. Someone that draws comics isn’t going to need a cartoonist often, maybe a colorist.

Facebook is a great way to show off your art. More on that below.

Actually do what you love, regardless of pay

You have to work at what you want to do. The people that seem to create effortlessly, probably do so because they spend much time creating. Want to draw, then you need to draw. Want to paint, then you need to paint. Much like how you learned to write, repetition is the key. You learned to write your ABCs by writing rows and rows of letters, the same goes here.

It’s not often that we get work that can also translate into a portfolio piece for whatever reason. So when not working, work on something for your portfolio, that you feels shows off your abilities. I know, it’s hard to just come up with ideas. Pick up a magazine that uses a lot of illustrators, pick an article you like, and come up with your own take on how to illustrate it.

Working all the time, for me teaches me how to do things better, work faster, and keep my focus for longer periods of time. That’s something I can have trouble with, keeping my focus. I’ve come up with tricks to try and help keep that. My favorite, set a timer, and you aren’t allowed to do anything but the task at hand till the timer goes off. I generally find that I will be at a point that I don’t want to stop when the timer goes off, and end up working a few more minutes. Then take a little break, check your emails, and all that, then set the timer again.

Show your work

I hear to often from people that they don’t like what they did, and don’t show their work. You will never get feedback, nor will anyone stumble on your work if you never show it. Unless you tell people, they will never know that what you ended up with, wasn’t what you had in mind. One rule I have, work a piece until it’s done, regardless of how it’s coming out. If it’s for myself, I don’t stop and start over, I work through. And I try to learn from it. Finishing a piece is important lesson to learn. That’s another thing I hear from people, they don’t finish what they are working on.

If you get an online portfolio, don’t let people know about it till it’s ready. That means no sections with “Content to come”. Just don’t put that section up. You can always add it later. Having multiple sections on your site isn’t going to make you look any better to clients, but empty sections make you look unprofessional. If all you have is 10 samples of your work and a resume, put that up and make it easy for someone to look at it. Don’t put an entry page, go right to the main attraction. Don’t put a blog if you really don’t intend to blog save once a month at best.

It doesn’t take much work to post something once a week and it can’t be “So, not much to say this week”. If you are drawing/sketching/painting/whatever several times a week, post that and talk about it. Did you like what you did, any realizations about it? Do you feel you improved? And try and keep it professional. Personal is fine, so long as it’s not bitching. Really complaining about the world at large and all it’s injustices are best suited for a private personal blog.

Can’t afford a site of your own, or a professional one? Use facebook, and make a fan page, or deviantART to at least get your work out there. The thing with these is that some art directors don’t go to these places to find work, but might be willing to go look if they ask you for samples. It’s best to just have your own site I think.

Those are three things I learned well the past year, trying to feed myself as a freelancer. Hope it helps.