Weekend Forum: What Do You Wish You Knew When You Started?
(Illustration by Frank Hansen)
Hello everyone,
Welcome to this week’s Weekend Forum discussion topic. Last weekend’s invitation for everyone to share a link to their blog was a big hit, so thanks to the 200 or so artists who participated.
This time I’d like to ask you all to share something that you wish you knew when you first started out as an Illustrator, and give you the opportunity to be included in a future eBook about freelance Illustration.
As creative professionals, we all have to learn certain things the hard way, and I’m no exception. It’s different for everybody, but the simple act of sharing these little lessons can help your fellow artists a great deal. Whether you’re new to the game or have been at it for several years, I’m sure you can think of some piece of knowledge that would have made your business, and your life, a lot easier had you known about it from the start.
Want to be included in a future eBook?
EFII will be publishing an eBook in the near future (Shhh…), and one bonus feature of that book will be a section where Illustrators will share something they wish they knew when they started out. If you’d like to be included in that part of the book and help to educate your fellow artists, please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post. Be sure to include your full name and a link to your website, because I’ll be publishing this information along with your stories. If you’d rather not be included in the book, that’s okay. Just let me know in your comment.
While you’re here, be sure to participate in the Illustration Friday Challenge and enter to win Drew Struzan’s new tutorial DVD!
Related Posts:
- Illustration Friday Challenge
- Share Your Blog!
- Share Your Illustration
- What’s Your Twitter User Name?
- Share Your Social Networking Profiles
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I’ll get things started.
When I first started out, I wish I knew more about how to price my work. More specifically, wish I had had the confidence in my work that was necessary to demand a fair rate for the value that I was providing to the client. It’s easy to forget that as an artist you are supplying with your clients with something of great value to their business or their personal projects.
Having a good knowledge of industry standards and confidence in the value of your time and energy are essential elements that can help you to quote an accurate and fair price for your services.
What about you?
Thomas
I wish I knew the value of networking, persistance and how fleeting time is. I think it’s very common for young people first starting out to assume they have all the time in the world. It’s very easy to NOT see time slip through your fingers.
As far as networking goes…. Escape from Illustration Island is a perfect example, for the simple premise of realizing others go through the same struggles and failures as well as success. It’s important to have the validation and input of your peers regardless of location.
Thirdly…. the notion of putting your promo out there and then waiting for the revenue to come pouring in is such a huge huge mistake. It’s work, reminders and more reminders. The net has to be cast wide and often.
Thanks for your input, Marty. I completely agree with your take on promotion. Repetition is key, along with walking the line between staying on the radar and going overboard.
I’m glad you’re finding some comfort and a sense of community here at Escape From Illustration Island. The simple act of sharing our ideas and stories like this helps us all to feel like we’re not alone with the challenges of running a freelance Illustration business.
What I wish I’d known before becoming a Freelance Illustrator:
When I started freelancing full time, I got incredibly excited about all the work I’d be receiving, the fun aspect of working at home, and dreams of doubling my income and making a name for myself. In other words, I let the fantasy overpower the reality, and learned some hard lessons about what it really takes to make a living as a freelancer. At the start, I jumped headfirst into taking projects on, quoting extremely low prices in order to gain a client base. While this can be necessary when you start out, to grow your portfolio, be careful not to make the same mistake I did, quoting too low for a project that’s way bigger than you realized. Let’s put it this way…for my first project, I quoted $300 for a 5 minute cartoon animation. And I’m STILL working on it, a year later, because the client keeps changing their mind on what they want. But because I hadn’t yet created a contract, I’m kind of forced to comply. Because I jumped into working before I had developed contracts, accurate pricing, and hourly rates, I’ve lost out on a lot of time and money that I should have gotten for that animation work.
In summary, DO YOUR RESEARCH. It’s easy to get sidetracked by the fun of creating art, but you really need to have a good idea of how you’ll run your business before you “open the doors.” Buy a copy of some books that outline contracts and rates like “The Graphic Artist’s Guild Book of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines,” and frequently check web pages and forums that discuss the business of illustrating. ASK FOR ADVICE. Know your competitors; visit their websites and see what makes them successful. Sometimes other freelancers are even willing to help you out, sharing their contracts to help you develop your own. Most importantly, TIME YOURSELF creating a piece of art that’s similar to what you think you’ll be creating the most, like a logo or a one-page children’s book illustration. That will give you a good idea of how long it will take you to complete in the future, and will help you determine an hourly rate that will make your time worthwhile.
Finally, BE FEARLESS. It takes a special kind of person to successfully run a freelance business. Yes, there are a lot of steps you need to take in order to guarantee your business won’t fail, but it also takes a lot of enthusiasm and positive thinking. Don’t get too overpowered by the details, though it will be hard at first. Remember why you love creating art in the first place! Don’t forget to take some time out and create art for yourself, too. Good luck!
Laci Morgan
http://www.lacimorgan.blogspot.com
http://www.lacimorgancreations.com
Hi Laci,
Thanks so much for your thoughtful response. I think a lot of us can relate to letting our ideals and dreams take over and make us think we’re going to be rich and famous Illustrators.
As for your current situation with the cartoon project, I think it would be perfectly acceptable to request that you re-negotiate the terms by requesting more money to make further revisions. If the client isn’t willing to work with you on this, it might be worthwhile to at least consider leaving the project, otherwise you may be still giving up your valuable time and energy another year from now. It’s important to not let your clients take advantage of you, and sometimes that means making some tough decisions.
Whatever happens, it sounds like you’ve learned some valuable lessons. It’s funny how we can sometimes be grateful for bad things happening because of the ways they make us better at what we do moving forward.
Thanks again for sharing your story.
Oh yes, the price has DEFINITELY gone up since my initial quote, haha! It got to a point where I just couldn’t justify making all those changes for the amount of time it took without raising my costs, and luckily the client agreed. But on the positive side, I’ve gained a lot of experience and business-savvy from that project, so I guess ya live and learn! :)
“What Do I Wish I Knew When I Started?”
1) Start an IRA (or something similar) and have it automatically pull $25 to $50 a month from my account.
2) Take 20% or $20 dollars of each paycheck and reinvest it into my own studio. I must admit, I started doing this about my 2nd or 3rd year into design and it enabled me to build up a great creative reference library of books in less than a year. Also a great way to save up for materials, software and storage media.
3) Study Marketing and the business side of Graphic Design / Illustration relentlessly.
4) Sit down with an accountant and figure out all of my tax writeoffs. Admittedly, I did this from the beginning and the annual tax refunds (U.S.) were generally enough to buy a new computer or something of comparable value.
5) Always keep a bound sketch journal handy. Reflexions makes a great one that is 8.5″x11″. I keep a 12″ long metal ruler in it and a Raffine Pencils set with it.
6) Every time you move to a new computer, keep the old harddrive. Even if it has so-called “crashed”, 90% of the time there are ways to retrieve some (or all) of the data on it.
7) As soon as you complete a design project for a well-known client, get testimonials and letters of recommendations right away. If you’ve done your job right, you’ll end up making those people look like rock stars within their organization and, sooner than later, they will get promoted to other positions — or move onto other companies.
8) Get your business license and set up your company as soon as possible, even if you are not actively working to win clients. The longer your freelance company has been a business on the books, the better.
9) Whether or not you’re in college, take one or two Technical Writing courses and at least a basic Business course. When it comes to doing business and winning clients, the basic skills picked up in these classes will prove to be priceless.
10) When it comes to drawing, always strive to keep your analog skills as good as your digital skills.
11) If you work out of the house, get into the habit of working out three times a week. Get into the habit while you’re young because it’s a b**ch to get started with that once you get into your 30s and 40s.
Wow, Max. Thanks for taking the time to share all of these great insights. These are all great tips that I don’t think most Illustrators think about when they take the leap and start their business. I definitely recommend that our fellow artists pay attention to the items on your list and consider making them a part of their business plan.
If I could travel back in time and whisper a few things in my ear:
1. Even though you are a visual artist, your writing will be very important. Be concise, businesslike, and articulate. Spell everything correctly.
2. Always do what you say you are going to do. This is good business.
3. Follow up, follow up, follow up. Don’t just plunk work out there and then move on when it doesn’t get a huge response right off. You are trying to get the attention of people who have lives of their own, and you have to hit them at a time and place that is right for them. You don’t know when or where that is, so increase your odds by being persistent. Friendly, businesslike, non-annoying, but persistent.
4. The vast majority of your work is going to come from personal connections, or people who have connected with your work out there someplace you don’t know about. So give your work every opportunity to get in front of people who haven’t seen it before.
5. In a few years, you are going to waste a bunch of time worrying about your style. Don’t do this. Your drawings have a life of their own and are coming from inside you. So just draw a lot. Draw different subjects. Tell stories. Illustrate fairy tales. Apply yourself to things rather than pondering whether your style is “right” or not. It is what it is. You can get better technically, but it’s your personality and soul that will come through and connect with people.
6. You will also spend entirely too much time worrying that you are imposing yourself on people by drawing all the time. Don’t do this either. Talents are gifts that you give to others, and as long as you have this attitude there will be no limit to the benefits that you can put out into the world.
7. Try a lot of materials, pay attention to the results you get with them. Use whatever medium you feel most connects with you inside. Don’t draw vector graphics if that’s not how you draw. Try different papers. Try wash. Experiment more. The more different things you try, the more you will notice how your unique personality shines through them all.
8. One of your favorite quotes is going to be, “Tools are not talent.” As soon as you spend a bunch of time creating some elaborate Photoshop thing, you’ll see someone who has done something amazing with a #2 pencil.
9. Ask yourself every day, “How could I benefit someone with my drawing today?” This will keep you on the right path.
10. Art is how we as humans discuss who we are and how we see the world. When we look at ancient civilizations we look at their art to see how they fit the world together. Never forget you are serving an important purpose in what you do.
11. Draw with kids. It is an amazing experience and you will come away a better artist.
Wow! For a starting illustrator, like myself, these tips are a golden find. I’m still in the process of starting up, officially I’m still a student, busy with graduating.
There is one thing though, that I’ve learned and will never forget: don’t be afraid to ask for help! (as some already mentioned it above)
Unless you have two sets of brains to learn EVERYthing that has to do with freelancing, administration and all. I thought I would find all the answers on my own….
Thank God for people like you who would share their experience! I am really thankful :)
I wish I knew that negotiating can be fun. Sure there are a lot of pitfalls and traps, but lately I’ve began to think of it as a back and forth game, leaving things open ended…making options instead of demands and conditions and not seeing what clients present as black and white. Part of the reason I got into illustration is because it’s fun. Negotiating IS part of being an illustrator, so it can be fun to!
Also, asking for work is not the same as begging.
Or I could be wrong.
Hello Stan,
I really like your point about “options instead of demands”. It’s really beneficial to try and be creative when negotiating with clients. Often, there are options they may not have previously considered. What some creative professionals don’t realize is that you can apply creativity to every aspect of your business.
Don’t assume everyone that wants you to create for them is reasonable, get it in writing. I used to be afraid of asking for a contract. Some people are worried they are going to get screwed with a contract. I call them agreements instead, and that goes over much better.
To many times I would fail to even just write out what the work-flow would be. How many rough sketches would I provide? How many rounds of revisions. And I certainly wouldn’t put in anything about extra costs, for going over that, at the clients request.
So simple projects that should have been a few hours, turned into many hours, effectively reducing my pay to around $5-10 a hour. The worst is when they would ask for changes after final art had been delivered. There was nothing to say I could charge more, if they decided they wanted to change things. I was stuck.
I always have an agreement with the client now. Anything under $600, an exchange via emails works, over that I send an agreement. It saves so much time and frustration. When clients see extra charges if they ask for more, they tend to not ask.
They aren’t hard to write. They don’t have to be swamped in legal speak. It’s just simply a matter of saying, I the artist, will provide X amount of rough pencils by DATE, client has X days to review and make changes. I will provide refined pencils on the chosen direction by DATE… and so on.
Agreements saves your sanity and time.
I wish I had someone to tell me to check my ego out the door when I was younger. When I was fresh out of high school I thought I was awesome, so the next two years in Fine Art school were spent being lazy and unproductive. Oh, what I’d be doing if I were in that silkscreen printing class today. What a waste!
I also wish I knew more about spec work and how it hurts the industry. I wish I knew that ‘exposure’ isn’t really worth anything when your work isn’t being exposed to anyone you’d like it to be. Unless it’s for a charity or worthwhile cause, it’s usually someone being ignorant of how the industry works or some schmuck trying to rip you off and take advantage of you.
Currently I’m learning the ropes of pricing my work, and it’s kind of tricky because in some cases I have no idea.
Thanks so much for all these useful tips. I mix a very small amount of freelance work in with a “day job” but I’d love to build my portfolio up and move towards a working from home full time illustrating life one day! Awesome to read how others have done it, thanks for sharing. :)
Wonderful insights and advice. I’ll have my own to add in a couple years. :) Thanks, everybody.
If I could go back to the beginning I would definitely save myself from burning out-I’d teach myself to say “no” when there’s too much work offered. I remember there were times I’d forget to eat, that’s how busy it was. It was my fault of course, no one made me take that much work…but I think it’s important to know one’s limits.
I really like Max’s point #11-workout! It’s essential because a freelance artist spends way too many hours bent over their work… I can feel the tension in my back as I write this ;)
Melanie, thanks for the insight: leaving the ego at the door. Expecting good clients and well paid project to come flowing in just because one draws well is not realistic…and there’s always room for improvement!
http://blog.bojanadimitrovski.com/
Unfortunately, I have nothing to really add to this post as I will only be beginning my career as a freelance illustrator this year, once I have graduated.
However, I am very appreciative of all the useful comments left by everyone. So thankyou. ^_^
Julianne
I wish I’d been aware of EFII (and several other invaluable networks) 3 years ago – I may have taken the plunge into full time freelancing earlier if I’d known that other illustrators are so helpful and friendly and welcoming to ‘newbies’.
wow great tips and advice… really very helpful :) I work as a freelancer one year only and what’s really hard for me these days is the time management…
My illustration work is still done in addition to my day job, so I’m still learning a lot of what is mentioned above. The issues of reasonable pricing and contracts are something I’ve had the hardest time with. That’s starting to work itself out as I learn more about the business.
Speaking of business, I really wish I could go back and tell myself to take a couple courses on business while I was in college. My mom was good to teach me a lot of how to handle personal finances, etc., but keeping track of things for a business is so different. You have money coming (or not!) from so many places – not just one employer. And keeping track of where the money goes out and how to invest it back into the business – while enjoying some rewards of that income – are things I wish I was doing years ago.
At my day job I’ve learned a little bit about spreadsheets (the “anti-art”), and I’ve seen what a great tool they can be to just keep track of things. Each year, I get a little more granular with the data I put into the forms. Not only does this help immensely at tax time, it also helps me see where things stand so I can make plans accordingly. There are many seminars and such out there for learning Excel… even if you use Apple’s Numbers or OpenOffice, a lot of what you learn about Excel can be carried over to these other programs.
Wow – I found that all really interesting.
The things I wish I’d known when I started were how to use time management tools like the ‘getting things done’ method and relevant programmes like ‘remember the milk’ to make proper ‘to do’ lists. It made me realise that time management was actually ‘action’ management and my life, time and head are much more productive with it – there’s no procrastinating or thinking ‘now…what do I do next?’ – all my actions up to the next twenty years are already planned and I know I’m working towards creating the circumstances in my life that will look after my future as well as organise my current business.
I realised that marketing is really important too – it’s just about the other 50% of your business and no matter what your skill level, if no-one sees your work, you’re in trouble.
I wish I knew how much more effective sending out mailers and cold emails is compared to replying to random job posting onlines.
that’s really interesting…i find it very scary to do ‘cold calls’ but if it is more efficient maybe it’s worth getting over the nerves!
I think that learning and living through your business mistakes makes you appreciate when you do something RIGHT that much more. It’s all part of the process. That said, the one thing I wish I knew before I started was better marketing skills. So much of my own art school days was spent learning the drawing skills I’d need to become a freelancer, yet so little of that time was spent on self promotion. Thus when I opened my studio doors I had little to no idea how to get my customers. Thankfully I’m the kind of person who is inspired by the words “NO THANKS”. I’m hopeful that other artists don’t give up after receiving their own rejections. Learn from each one and realize that a NO doesn’t mean you’re not good. Rather the timing of your submission was simply off.
This is a great topic! Sometimes, it’s a no-brainer when it comes to pricing a simple spot illustration, etc. But as a beginner, I wish I had learned not to give a price quote on a first-time, client phone call for those more complicated illustrations. I now think it over and consider all the options. Then I email my estimate to the client an hour or two later.
When I first started out, I wish there was Escape from Illustration Island. Period. I’m super glad it’s here now.
Hey thanks Linda. Glad to be of service. Is there anything in particular that you’ve found especially useful?
!! I AM just starting out, and am so glad that I found it! I really do feel significantly less isolated. (My island is pretty nice, though!)
Seeing as I am only a lowly high school student, I don’t think there’s a lot for me to say.
I wish someone had told me how many and what sort of art classes I needed to take outside of school (if any), as our school is athletic and we get practically no art funding.
This is all really great information – thanks to everyone for sharing. I’m just starting to make a serious attempt at freelancing and it’s great to get advice from people who have been there.
EFII and other illustration podcasts are one of my favorite resources – spending so much time alone at your desk can be really isolating, and being able to listen to podcasts really helps stave off the crazy.
This place is pretty cool :).
I dont have much to offer, because im at the beginning stage myself, but if I could go back to when I first started to take art seriously, I would tell myself not to be intimidated by the non-hobbyist online art communities…and if I could go back a year, I’d tell myself to practise my people skills, because I’ve talked myself out of a job more than once D:.
I wish I’d had the capital, guts and persistence to go into painting (gallery work). I’ve had success with it when I was doing it for a while, but like any other venture it takes time and investment to get it rolling to build a following and make it stick.
The difference is that painting, you do what you want, the way you want to, while illustrating you seem to be at the whim of many bosses, art directors who don’t communicate with their bosses, a lot of confusion and misdirection… of course there are as many good jobs, but some of the snarky ones are real prize-takers.
Cover your butt, get a paper trail, and $ up front. Standard practice is usually a third on startup (if they want your work, why do anything at all for free… if they put up their $ it means they are ready to roll for real) a third on submission of comps/tight sketches + a third on delivery. A standing understanding of the difference between corrections and changes and the amount they will be charged for them.
The advice about building your savings as you go is priceless.
I wish I’d known that it’s a bad idea to do work for friends or family. It always leads to bad feelings–either theirs or mine. First, the money question is so awkward and weird. Then there’s the “do they like it or not?” element. If they like it, they’ll probably ask for more or tell others, who will then expect the same favour, and it’ll be hard for you to say no. If they don’t like it, they’ll be in the awkward position of having to say “It’s great!” or “Will you change it?” If they lie and say it’s great, they’ll have to decide whether or not to use the art for its intended purpose. If they don’t use it, they’ll be hoping like mad you won’t notice, which is awkward for both of you. Finally, it’s wickedly hard to say “yes” to one friend and “no” to another. (It’s a small world, and word gets around.) In my opinion, it’s best to have a policy: “No, sorry, I don’t do work for friends or family–not because I don’t love you, but because I do!” I wish I’d known that when I started out.