But then I thought, wait, I do have all those black and white illustrations I have been working on for the kickstarter project to illustrate computational thinking of abstract ideas! So, there was a page of samples right there!

It shows consistency of style, which is important in textbooks if they need multiple images using the same characters. It shows a visual expression of a concept. So, I put three of my favorites onto a page. Now I just needed 9 more pages. I personally think 10 pages is a good number of pages to show what you can do. You can focus on a particular style, but also include a few different ones, to show your range.

While certainly not a textbook illustration, I decided to include this illustration which is a mash up of two shows, Project Runway and The A-list. I used to work with the designer at the company, she knows my sense of humor, she’s also got a wicked sense of humor, so I knew this one wouldn’t cause a problem.

I have an InDesign file set up ready to make a PDF. I can swap out images and pages as I need. While doing this I realized something. I have a lot of new images to show. And while some of them may have been done for Next Magazine, they certainly could show my ability as an illustrator, without the content being questioned.

I was really happy I was able to switch out what I had started to see as the Same Old Samples I’ve been showing for years. I had new samples, which I felt were much better then my old stuff. I had pieces from clients I’m rather proud of. Like the images I did for MIT.

And finally, I included some of my own stuff, which I did to explore new directions in my style and to learn a few things, and on these pieces I felt I was very successful with that.

Putting these samples together, and looking back over the last year, I felt really proud of the hard work and time and focus and energy I put into pushing myself as an illustrator. To me, these new samples represented a visual history of my growth as a commercial artist. For many years, I wouldn’t call myself an artists or an illustrator, simply because most of the time, I wasn’t even drawing. I wasn’t doing anything. I also feared being told that I was a fraud, or a hack or not talented.

All these illustrations have been done in about the last year. In the last 6 months I’ve done close to 85 illustrations. Honestly, that’s more then I had ever done before that over the years, combined. When I compare that first illustration I did for Next Magazine back in may, to the one I just did in October, I can clearly see improvement.

Not only that, I remember that first illustration (Pirates of the Caribbean mashed with a street festival featuring dance) taking for ever, and me stressing out over every aspect. The Antonio Banderas in the sauna took about 3.5-4 hours to complete. In the Pirates one, yeah, that looks a little like Johnny Deep as Captain Jack Sparrow and that girl pirate in the movie…oh yeah, Penelope Cruz. Back in May, I was ever so freaked out about having to draw famous people and have them look like the person. I thought for sure, people are going to tell me that I was simply copying photographs! (I wasn’t).

Sometimes, stress and tight deadlines have lead to coming up with some great solutions. Not every illustration has been a gem. I’m thinking of a few that I haven’t ever posted to my facebook or google+ page. Not everything you do is going to end up being amazing, even if you give it your best. The illustrations below didn’t come out as good as I wanted, and if I had time, I would love to go a second round with them. I sometimes think I will, but in the end, you never seem to have time to do that.

Learning to spot red flags is just a skill that everyone has to develop over time when you work in creative services.

I believe in using social networks as a way to get your work out there, and potentially get new work. An old co-worker from when I lived in Chicago saw me posting my art on facebook and contacted me. She was now the Art Director of a Legal Magazine, and started giving me work.

The chances of this happening are small, which is why you should use every venue that you can. But doing so will also attract more people you probably don’t want to work with.

Recently I was contacted by someone through an online social network, who saw I was an illustrator. He was in need of such a person. We talked, and over the phone, and he said he would send me an email later that day.

I got the email, which raised a bunch of red flags.

The first red flag was that without looking at my stuff, or anymore conversation, I was on the project, or at least talking like I was. The quicker they are to hire you, the more you should take a step back and wonder. More so when you are starting out, and have no name recognition. There are people out there that do love hiring people new at this, because they can take advantage of them.

If they contacted you, knowing your work and can tell you where they saw your work is a different story. Them just stumbling onto you, and after a brief conversation, they are telling you that you are the right person for the project, more so when you know you are not (but could do the work), is a red flag.

The second was the time in which they needed the work done. In this case, midnight. The tighter the deadline, the redder the flag. This guy’s plan was that we hole up at his office, and just bang it out, because he needed files by midnight, if these pieces were going to get to the printer on time.

Professional people that work with illustrators and designers a lot, generally have a network of such people they contact in advance of starting that stage of the project. Chances are, this guy could have been stepping outside of his job to try and show what he can do. He never said anything along the lines of “My old designer had to leave the project, or I fired my old designer”. Both of which are also red flags.

If you are ONE day from the completion of a project, and the designer/illustrator is getting on your nerves, a professional just bares it out, gets the project done, and then never hires that person again. There does get to be a point in a project where firing the person, is going to screw the project over.

The third red flag was that there wasn’t any talk on how much I would charge, or how much he could pay. It was all, lets get this work done! take a step back. Before you spend a whole day, holed up in an office with anyone I don’t know, I want to know for how much. And more then likely, I need half up front, just in case you forget about how I gave a whole day up for this.

Again, professionals always bring up the subject of money, even if it’s just, “Can you give me your rates?” While what to charge is a whole separate subject, being hired or given a project without that conversation, is a red flag.

Other things that raised red flags. Why did I have to come to his office? Does he have all the software I would need to do the project? What if I would need illustrator or Photoshop and all he has is Microsoft Office? Anything he would need, I would be able to do from home, and heck, we could even Skype and he could see what was on my screen. If the deadline is that tight, why waste time with me traveling?

There are many, many, many red flags. Each one is unique to the situation. For example, working in an office has it whole own set of red flags you might not encounter as a freelancer. Most of the time, it takes experience to learn to spot them.

What I like most was how C said if it doesn’t take off, that’s ok too, hell just move onto something else. I know people that don’t want to draw unless they know it’s going to go somewhere, or when they do, they really hope that this is the one that finally clicks. It always gives me the feeling that they are more concerned about what happens after, then about doing the art.

Edwards view was that if he does it, it doesn’t work and he moves on, he will take everything he learned and bring that with him to his next project. That’s a great attitude, and one that I have. Just do the work, and see what happens. Be true to yourself.

Just do the work.

Make no excuses. To often artists let themselves get tripped up in issues outside of doing the work. Recently I said, “a good artists always sees how they can improve on the past, but uses it to create the future”. Someone responded to that saying when they make mistakes, they get so frustrated they don’t want to make a new piece of art.

That makes me wonder if they really are interested in making art or creating or whatever. The only way you get better is by doing, and all that entails.

If you want to be a freelancer, you need to work on that just like you would your art. Website out of date, schedule time to update it. No excuses. If you keep it simple, it should be easy. Are you a designer? Then don’t worry about having some amazing design that makes people go HOLY SMOKES! Have a design that people go HOLY SMOKES when they look at the art on your site.

Just do the work. It might take time to see results, but you won’t ever see results if you don’t do the work.

I will have mugs, t-shirts and prints of Kool Aid getting drunk at the bar for sale, along with my book. Hope to see you there.

My interview.

Talent is were we all start, and each of us have different amounts of talent.

We take our talent and develop skills.
Skills allow us to create pieces of finished art.
Finished art is what we show to get work.
Work sharpen our skills with practical applications
Which in turn generates more work.

The amount of talent you have, and the direction you want to go in, factor into how much skill you need to develop. If the type of art you want to do involves the figure, you naturally would take figure drawing classes. But you would also probably study color theory, perspective, composition and much more.

Art isn’t just talent. Surprisingly there are “rules” to art. However art is one of the few disciplines where you can achieve success by breaking the rules. Break the rules of science and they are scrapping bits and pieces off the ceiling, or hunting down mutant rats.  Breaking the rules of art pushes the boundary of what art can do and be.

Talent allows me to draw the form of the figure, skills tells me how what kind of line to make, what to leave in, and to leave out.

Skill and talent overlap in a way that it’s impossible to completely separate.

For me, and I think a lot of people starting out, the first step is the biggest stumbling block. How do you develop the skills needed? I don’t think it’s anything you can teach in a simple step by step course. Technique’s can certainly help. I advocate drawing every day to sharpen your skills. I’m certainly always looking for new tips and tricks for the computer programs I use.

My skill as a production artists has given me a knowledge of how the entire Adobe Creative Suite works and how those programs integrate. If I want something like a tiled floor, it’s going to be faster if I put something together in Illustrator and bring that into the art as a guide, then try and work it out in Painter.

Ultimately, I think skill is a unique mental process for each person. Your progression in developing skills is a mixture of your intelligence and how much hard work you are willing to put into it. To me, learning to draw means learning to control your hand to create the line you want. Just like you learned to make your letters as a child, you would sit and write them over and over. Drawing is somewhat similar. You have to actually draw to get better. The more you draw, the better you get.That’s increasing your talent.

The more you learn, the better your art is. That’s increasing your skills. I think this is harder, since it involves seeking out information, breaking it down to understand it, and then using what you learned and applying it. Being able to think past the examples you studied. It’s one thing to learn the rules of perspective, it’s another to apply them in practices. Color theory is just that until you try it.

This is the kind of work I find a lot of people try and skip. So did I for years. Not to make excuses, all the teachers I’ve ever had, always stressed exploration over training. But the two really go hand in hand. Teach me the rules of perspective, and then let me explore what I can do, knowing those rules. Teach me the human figure, and then I can explore how to make that work for what I want.

And there was never any discourse about the work of making art. I often heard the same concerns I had from other students, I want to know the rules, I want knowledge, I want to learn. If I understand perspective, my environments get better. If I understand light and shadow, my art becomes more alive. If I understand color theory, I can control the emotions in my art.

James Gurney, the artist and author of the Dinotopia books often writes about the techniques behind art, such as how colors look in moonlight rather then sunlight, or the Fibonacci sequence. Such information is really valuable to an artist.

With a low work load this week, I’m dedicating part of this week to working through some of the Gnomon DvDs I’ve had waiting to be watched.

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 also use think everything about me had to say WOW! Look at my bell and whistles. I hear this from other artists, on why they don’t have a website yet, or business cards, or more. Have to find the right image, the right design, the right WOW factor.

Well I’ve come to realize, functional serves more then WOW. Functional reaches more people then WOW. Also, functional is easier to get to then WOW. Wow will happen in time.

The first step is getting to a functional point where if you run into someone, you can give them a business card. So instead of making a WOW business card, make a functional one. No one is going to take your WOW business card and frame it, unless each one is an original work of art. (There is your WOW, factor now how long is that going to take you?)

You don’t need a website like Actor Jim Carrey. His site fits who he is as an actor. He also has the money for it (course if this is the kind of thing you do for a living, that’s different).

I wouldn’t say my site is WOW. It’s functional for what it needs to be, an extension of me, a tool to help sell me as an artists. To often, trying to be a freelancer in the past, I got caught up in trying to be WOW. Frustrated, I never really got my act together. You read in books about being a freelancer, getting noticed, and all that. More of the WOW.

But in many ways, WOW can come from just being functional and professional. It can come from being what it needs to be. After all, I want people to hire me to illustrate. Not design business cards, postcards or websites. So my WOW, as it should be is the art on my cards and site.

By taking a step back, and realizing that I just wanted to get my name out there and get work, made it easier. Pick the images, get the materials, and go.

Recently, I’ve had conversations with people that say they want to do something, but just can’t find the time, or don’t have the energy. Frankly, I find that to be an excuse. A fellow cartoonist, Melody Often, once told me about how she lived in a van for many months when she first moved to LA. She had a drawing desk, a light, a CD player, and a battery hooked up to run those. And she drew all the time. That’s pretty amazing. So when someone says they don’t have enough room to work, I just think it’s an excuse.

My friend Marc, tries to spend all his time painting and creating. I find that inspiring. We send each other screen shots of what we are working on, for feedback. Because we are both passionate about doing the best work we can, so we use each other (and other people) as checks. Sometimes you are just to close to see objectively, so having someone else give input helps a lot.

I’m a doer. Unless I’m actually doing something, I generally don’t talk about the things I want to do. I’ve got lots of ideas. But I only talk about that which I’m actually working on, and only in limited amounts. I’m a firm believer in putting the energy into doing the work, not talking about the work.

Passion allows me to accomplish a lot. I think it’s a real mark if a person is serious about being a creative type. At this point, even though it would be nice not to have deadlines, I can’t see myself not drawing. This morning, I finished the last details on a project, and then sent the final files off to the client. I said I would give myself an hour to read, before I get started on the next job, but that lasted on 20 minutes, before I started writing this. I really can’t just walk away from the drawing board (so to speak, since I work digitally).

Passion for what you do, is an amazing force.

Oh and here is the final version of that sketch of the guy breaking out of the ropes from my last post. Enjoy.

I have a host of smaller one off comics that I’ve scripted out. An idea for an ongoing comic that can be done in sections, because each section stands alone.

So, yeah ideas, I got. I have the desire and ambition, what I am building is discipline to sit here and work. Hence my new mantra. I wake up and I tell myself that. And I try and keep it in mind during the day. It’s easy to get distracted in this day and age. Internet gives the illusion of human interaction. Video games give the illusion of accomplishment (When it’s always just stick and carrot). TV lets you take your mind off the hook. Even our phones are a distraction.

The fact is, I’m never going to be the cartoonist I want to be if I don’t develop the discipline to work on comics, all the time, not just when the fire is hot. I am developing making the fire hot as much as I can.

You can apply that mantra to anything you want in life. If you want to lose weight, you need to do things to lose weight, if you want to be muscular, you must work out work and build your muscles.