I work very closely with an organization called the Diva Day foundation.
I’m putting together a 2011 calendar to sell to raise money for them. They put on performances and operas to benefit domestic violence shelters.

I’m hoping I can find 11 or 12 illustrators who would be willing to donate their time to create an illustration for one of the months. The work is tax deductible for the value of the piece you provide.

If you’re at all interested please contact me at ShadedAreas@gmail.com for more information.

Deadline for participation inclusion is August 15th.
(Deadline for art delivery is September 15th)

There are no certain paths to take for better efficacy in presenting yourself to potential employers… but common pitfalls exist by the dozens. Since I’ve spent all week preparing my work for scrutiny while at Comic Con International next week I figured now is as good a time as any to share some pointers from some of my peers and some techniques I’ve absorbed built into 5 sections.

1. Deciding to get out the door
2. Doing your research
3. Picking your work
4. Packaging your work
5. The final once over

Step 1: Deciding to get out the door

Let’s open up with one of the most fundamental aspects courtesy of illustrator Sonia Metheny:

Publishers are more likely to pick up artists that actively try to promote themselves and their work. It let’s them know that they won’t have to do all the advertising themselves. Going to cons to try to network is a good way to show that trait.

I’ve seen some very talented artists just never get up the courage to get out the door and try to put in the time and energy to sell themselves. Really you can read and practice all you want on tactics and style and what not but if you’re not getting yourself out there and making yourself known, it might just not be enough.

Step 2: Doing your research

One of the biggest mistakes I see made is that a person will make one universal portfolio for all. Running around and spamming everyone with one package of your 10 best pieces isn’t the worst thing you can do… but unless you’re a natural genius… it won’t payoff as much as it should for the work and money put in.

Conventions and organized gatherings provide you with fantastic resources in their vendor and booth lists. Go through the list and mark off which companies you want to work for that will be present. Then go through and peruse each of those companies’ websites.

There are two reasons for this depth of investigation. One is to see what kind of work they’re using and see if what you have is up to par. The second is because often times companies will announce their presence at conventions and put information regarding what they’re looking for in submissions.

Noting these guidelines and style/work preferences are a more professional approach and will get a better reception than if you just did things your way and expected them to bend to it.

Step 3: Picking your work

Once you know who you want to impress and what they look for, go through your work and try to pick 30 samples of your absolute best work.

Now most people will tell you to aim for about 10 pieces as this is the appropriate amount of work to try to get some loving from your potential bosses without bogging them down. This is absolutely true. So why am I suggesting you go overkill? Well if you’d be patient I’ll tell you.

Take your marked companies and make lists of 8 to 12 of those 30 pieces that fit each company. You will use these target lists as guides. Instead of having one set portfolio for all, you will reorganize your port specifically to each stops needs and expectations. Make sense? Good.

And of course everyone stresses a focus on your best work being important to include… however Patrick McEvoy, illustrator extraordinaire, brings an easily forgotten counter point to light.

Your WORST portfolio piece is the BEST you can ever do, in the eyes of an AD.

This is vitally important thing to remember. Some people will try to slip in some  less impressive work by sandwiching it between their better pieces just to get to a 10 count. If you can’t find 10 pieces of suitable and quality work to include you should take one of two alternate paths.

1) Feel free to talk to them about their wants and expectations but wait until next year to try to present to that company. Spend that year putting some more effort into filling in the gaps with quality.

2) Bring the fewer quality items to them but approach them asking for a review of your work and advice on what to work on to better suit their needs instead of trying to sell yourself to them.

Step 4: Packaging your work

Clearly, because you’re going to be shuffling your work around for each engagement, you’re going to want to choose a portfolio made for that sort of use. I personally use a standard binder style portfolio at about 11×14 inches with the ability to add or remove sleeves at will so I can make sure I don’t have more slots than pieces.

As for organization all I can really say is that organization is important. Everyone has their own style and priority of what they want shown. Some people open with their most finished work and close with their most popular. Some in reverse. Some show their line art and work up in color complexity. The important thing is that you do want to have a logic to it. If they notice a pattern it shows you’re thoughtful about such concepts. Thoughtful is always a good thing to imply.

Also you want to choose your presentation with the reviewer in mind. Nothing too bulky. Nothing too un-sturdy. Something easily flipped through even if standing. Loose pages are a no-no.

Patrick McEvoy chimes in again with something even I would still not have thought of if he hadn’t mentioned it:

Put all your pictures facing the same way so the AD doesn’t have to rotate your portfolio while leafing through.

This never crossed my mind before but it makes an insane amount of sense. The less attention their brain has to put into balance and movement the more they can focus on your work.

If you think you get through the build and all this is accounted for… you’re in a good position.

Step 5: The final once over

If you’ve gone over each step in it’s completion you’re probably pretty tired of looking at the finished product. So go take a break. Get a coffee. Watch a cartoon. Grab a meal out.

When you get back you still won’t be psyched about more port work but it’s important to know you’re not yet finished. Take the book and prep it as if for a potential employer. Then hand it to someone. Anyone. Then just watch. See how they hold it and flip through it all. Watch how it handles. Then when they hand it back, take it apart and put it back together as if for another client. How long does it take to shuffle the pages? Were your notes easily understood in as to what was coming out and what was going in? Are your pieces clearly marked so you can reorganize them based on your notes without confusion?

If all the answers are satisfactory then there is a final test. Pack it up however you’re going to be carrying it and just go out and run some errands with it in tow. Go buy some groceries or do some laundry or something time and task consuming while lugging it around. Try to take it out and put it back in the bag a few times while in the middle of doing something else. If it doesn’t annoy you to carry, if it doesn’t get in the way of the tasks without taking it off and if it’s easy to access your port without looking clumsy… then you’re ready to go show off.

Now all you have to do is learn how to break the ice. But I’ll touch on that another time.

Thank you again to Sonia Metheny and Patrick McEvoy for chiming in on this.

If you’ll be at SDCC and want to touch base, don’t be shy. Otherwise, I’ll catch you on the next flip.

-Griffin

How cool is that? Here’s my entry. Feedback is always loved. Thanks to my friend Erica for giving me some ideas to start from.

You can vote for my entry here. I’d love the support.

Also, if you’re in the Boston area come check them out this Wednesday.
“School’s Out”
Middlesex Lounge May 12th
Door’s at 9:00pm. Show starts at 10pm.
(21+ $5 cover)

Now for prints.

Four different pin ups now available of the Rogue Burlesque cast available at the links below.
Prints : $60.00 – 12 x 18
Original : $250.00 – 24 x 36

This article is cross posted at Silver Circle
Titled: An Illustrator not an Artist! Wait…I AM an Artist…UGH!
credited as: S. Griffin

I commonly have people ask me if I’m an artist. Granted it usually occurs when I’m drawing at a bar or cafe. The person is looking for a reason to make small talk. (Which kind of annoys me anyways since they’re only choosing me because my gear is out so they know they have a captive audience. But I digress.) So while they’re looking for small talk they see me drawing and they fall into the common default icebreaker. “Hey. Are you drawing? Oh that’s cool. Are you an _______” the blank is filled in 20% of the time is “artist” and 79% of the time with “art student”. Maybe 1% of the time someone will have the mind to ask “What do you do with that?” which is a much better question. Having strangers predominantly default to asking me if I’m an art student is partly belittling but I understand that living in Boston it’s just a matter of context. There are a lot of art schools in the area so it’s pretty easy for them to hear “I’m an art student” often enough that they jump to that conclusion in future conversations.
All that being said… when I respond to people and tell them I’m an illustrator they tend to need an explanation. I’ve run into this so often that I figured I’m not the only person out there who has run into this. So before I go into my explanation of the difference between an illustrator and an artist I figured I’d allow some of my peers to chime in.

Andrew Finnie (AndrewFinnie.blogspot.com) had this to say on the topic:

As far as I am concerned, Illustrator is a subset of Artist.

For myself, personally, as an Illustrator I aim to “Illuminate’.
By that I refer to the traditional meaning of ’shedding light on a text’.
But it’s not always necessary for that text to exist before the illustration is born.

Making ‘art’ makes you an ‘artist’.
But being an ‘artist’ certainly doesn’t make you an “illustrator’.

André Castelo (AndreCastelo.com) says:

In my opinion, illustrators belong to the artists group, they are artists. But not all artists are illustrators. There are concept artists, storyboard artists, comic artists and illustrators, for example. Illustrators tell a story through a single picture.

So there seems to be a consensus amongst illustrators themselves that suggests they view themselves as a specific type of artist. This is completely understandable given that some of the definitions of the word artist are:

1. a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.
3. a person whose trade or profession requires a knowledge of design, drawing, painting.
5. a person whose work exhibits exceptional skill.

Given these interpretations it’s perfectly fitting that an illustrator consider themselves within the field of artistry.

However when posing the question to a few friends of mine outside of the visual arts profession I got these responses. I asked each of them “What do you think of when you think of artists?” then after they answered I asked “What do you think of when you think of illustrators?”

Nicole:

Artists are broody and emotional and erratic. I don’t really know what an illustrator is. lol.

Sarah:

Artists are like painters and sculptors. You know like Picasso or Michelangelo. Illustartors are like, the people who do the pictures in kids books right? Oh and fashion designer people.

I also got some more accurate answers from people who tend to be around artistic people but these two answers were better for displaying my point. There is a blind spot in the concept.

So finally, to clarify for people who may need the clarification. Art is typically created out of a need within the creator. Illustrations are fabricated to communicate something for the sake of the viewers. An artist, in the two-dimensional sense, is someone who expresses from themselves. They project their perspectives or feelings through a visual medium because they have a need to get something out. An illustrator is someone who translates the words or ideas of another person into an image that supports and/or expands upon the concept for the sake of the viewers understanding.

I hope that helps create a better understanding for those of you in the general population.

It stirred quite an uproar and eventually led to Dana attempting to justify the action which of course was met with even more of a rally. Eventually a CBS exec stepped in and made it clear that the action was incorrect.

Since this moment every illustration blog I’ve come across has done 2 things. Reiterated why this action is unacceptable or explained to artists why it’s important to copyright your work. Both of these things are insanely important.

The one thing that I have not seen is anyone address the misconception. Everyone has pointed out that the view is wrong. No one has gone into the reasons why the idea behind the behavior is wrong in a way that helps the general public understand it better.

When confronted about the theft Dana made a follow up post discussing being annoyed for being called a thief and explaining ways artists can protect their work. Aside from a lot of the protection concepts being severely outdated Dana expressed a mindset that shows the lack of understanding which is really at the root of this problem.

So through trial and error I developed a policy. I would try to use small versions of each image, just big enough to fit the space. I would credit sources. I would name them and link to them. If it was a piece of art or a poster that was being sold online, I’d link to the sales page. And I’d say nice things.

That usually works. Publicity is good. Art that isn’t seen doesn’t exist. But this week I ran into someone who hadn’t gotten the good word about publicity. He called me a thief.

Now it’s a fairly common belief that it’s acceptable to display non-competitive products and items in other mediums and that it’s okay because it’s giving them “free publicity”. After all… publicity is good, right? Who doesn’t want free publicity? However there is a reason that laws exist to regulate such things. It is the right of a product or brand or person or artist to decline being associated with something they feel might be bad for their image. Try writing a blog post about serial killers and psychosis and see how many children’s picture book artists will give you permission to use their characters. I’m willing to bet none of them. Yet people presume it would be okay to use them without asking?

In the first season of the TV show Heroes one of the characters sticks her hand down a garbage disposal and gets injured. They were sued by the makers of that garbage disposal because the company felt it made their product seem unsafe. While the article portrays this as being an absolutely ridiculous claim, it does leaves a solid point that sometimes publicity is bad for the image of the company.

Aside from the financial and intellectual questions… there is also a question of branding and image. So even if you don’t comprehend the financial reasons or the concepts of intellectual property… everyone in every business should understand the importance of getting a say in what your creations, work and name get associated with. If you’ve ever had someone take one of your ideas and run it into the ground by tying their own concepts onto it without asking… if you’ve ever been quoted out of context by someone and had to spend weeks convincing people that’s not what you meant… if you’ve ever put a bunch of work into something only to have someone else take credit and not mention your contribution… then you should at least be able to understand it from that angle.

In closing… there are laws to make sure people have some control over what their work get’s associated with. There are ways to make it more difficult for people to break those laws by stealing your work. However, not taking those precautions doesn’t make it any more legal for someone to steal your work to further their goals.

Here’s a couple of articles that give you a good concept of precautions:

• What to do when your artwork is used without your permission by Thomas James (April 9th 2010)
• 5 essential copyright resources for artists by Thomas James (April 9th 2010)

A change in thought,  process, efficacy, etc. that alters the way things are done. A lot of people get confused and use “innovation” in place of “invention” but this is incorrect. One is the manifestation of an idea while the other is the practical and successful application of an idea. Example being: The wheel and the combustion engine are both inventions. The combination of those items to create an automobile was an innovation.

The goal is to make something better. However none of this is possible without inspiration. One must be able to see how something can be improved before they can execute it. So what am I getting at? Sure I’m talking about vaguely interesting abstract concepts… but why? Do I have a point?

I just spent a wonderful weekend at Boston Comic Con trying to peddle my wares and doing quite well at it, all the while taking mental note of all the people who had terrible ideas that they created something out of and tried to sell as an innovation along with even more people who had these flickers of inspiration they clearly were going to procrastinate into oblivion. The concept disappointed me. The only thing that redeemed was the people who really were moving towards innovation and seemed to be unphased by the slow and steady progress in spite of the age of immediate gratification.

Sure… inspiration is difficult, however, innovation is even harder. How do you get from one end to the other? That comes down to grit. People don’t wake up with an idea only to have opportunity swagger by and drop a grant in their lap with a production team waiting at your call. These concepts evolve and refine over months and years of little victories found amongst crowds of naysayers upon piles of turmoil.

Whether you’re a creative, a logistical, a strategist, an engineer, a cog or a gopher… the most important skill you can obtain is grit. The ability to adapt to your surroundings and keep pushing forward is invaluable. That form of dedication is what produces results. Anyone who claims to be an overnight success at producing any form of innovative progress is lying to you. If Thomas Edison is correct that ”Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration” then innovation is the success that a moment of pursued genius culminates toward.

In closing… here’s two more quotes to reflect on.

“The great successful men of the world have used their imagination…they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building.”
- Robert Collier

“Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.”
- Earl Nightingale

I’ve been getting a lot of good advice from @templemane on twitter regarding social media marketing. Since I’ve been making such quick and notable strides in progressing my professional image I’ve been getting hit with a number of questions regarding what I’ve done and what I’ve found unnecessary. I figured making a blog post was way more functional.

1. Deciding on your image.
Most professional or commercial artists understand this concept from working on branding for other companies.
If you need a bit of a crash course : http://freelanceswitch.com/the-business-of-freelancing/the-dangers-of-personal-branding/
For a more expansive resource: http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/
Check out that article. The important thing is to view yourself with an outside eye. Think of how you look to someone seeing you for the first time and adjust from there.
Would you hire you? What key words come to mind or stand out?
These are all things to consider.

2. Forging your image.
This phase is something a bit more visual. A bit more conceptual. You need to figure out your professional values and the wording best to convey that. You’ve already decided on an image. Now you’re going to show that image to people you trust. Not your friends necessarily. Just professionally conscious people who will not sugar coat their advice and responses.
The important thing to do here is remember to not let your ego get involved. You’re not building this image for yourself. You’re creating an avatar, a representation for the world. You don’t want to get attached until it’s refined. So stay flexible. Don’t be sensitive.
Rework your wordings and image schemes to best represent your ideals.

3. Promoting your image.
This is where the grind begins. Opening accounts. Creating profiles. Entering in the same information over and over and over. It’s like creating your resume…. in multiple formats…. from scratch…. until your eyes bleed. It’s very tedious but quite necessary.
Besides the obvious places like facebook and twitter, you should also find multiple communities designed for your specific area of freelancing expertise. If possible set up a shop or two and no matter what… create a blog.

4. Unifying your image.
This is probably the most annoying aspect of the process. You go through all of those accounts and profiles and make sure all of the key images are the same. All the sites link to one another. Etc. You want to use that same profile image for all the accounts. You’ll want to have the same color scheme when possible. You’ll want to have the same basic information though you’ll likely have to reword it multiple times based on restrictions.

5. Personalizing your image.
This is the most important part. Now that you have an identifiable image branded, you need to create a soul to go with that body of presence. If you’re representing a group then you need to account for such but for most freelancers this is simply the act of watering down your personality into something charming enough to get people to talk to it but no so dimensional that anyone thinks they really know you.
Talk about things that interest you but keep them on or near the main focus of your work. The idea being that it implies that you live your profession. No one’s going to hire an illustrator that spends all day on twitter posting about political gripes and movie reviews. They might hire one who seems to keep up with trends in the business.
You want your posts and comments to be interactive. Instead of just tweeting “I made a new image today. link.” try “Here’s a medieval piece I’m finishing. I don’t know how I feel about the castle roof. Any thoughts?” Follow?

Over all that’s the idea. Create a solid image with a clear purpose and a personality people can associate with and you’ve got a better shot at moving forward.

Hopefully that helps.

-Griffin