Freelancing
April 15th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Let me tell you how it will be; There’s one for you, nineteen for me. ‘Cause I’m the taxman, Yeah, I’m the taxman. Should five per cent appear too small, Be thankful I don’t take it all. ‘Cause I’m the taxman, Yeah, I’m the taxman. If you drive a car, car – I’ll tax the street. If you try to sit, sit – I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold, cold – I’ll tax the heat. If you take a walk, walk – I’ll tax your feet. Taxman! -The Beatles April 15th… Nobody in the United States over the age of 18 needs… READ MORE
April 11th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
I get the call in mid February from MAD art director Sam Viviano about doing the art for a five page TV parody of a show called “Samantha Who?” “Never heard of it”, I said truthfully. I’m not a big watcher of TV unless I get assigned a show or get hooked on one after I do the parody. “It’s a new sitcom starring Christina Applegate“, he informs me. Hoo boy. Here we go again. Some time ago I blogged a little about my first real job in cartooning, penciling a comic book for a Chicago based publisher called NOW Comics. NOW was primarily known… READ MORE
April 4th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
As promised, here is the newspaper illustration I did last week for the Minneapolis Star Tribune: It’s the cover of a special baseball season preview section that ran on Sunday. The giant players are (left to right) Jim Thome, C.C. Sabathia and Miguel Cabrera. This is a JPEG of the illustration in situ on the digital layout, sent to me by the art director. Printing on newsprint is tricky. The paper is porous and soaks up the inks. There is a certain amount of “spread” to the ink as well, creating a fuzziness to the image. The colors need to be garish to compensate for… READ MORE
March 9th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: When is an illustration completed ?? As a freelance illustrator and cartoonist for almost 25 years, I still have the problem not knowing “when to stop”. I sometimes OVERWORK my illustrations which means I start to loose the more spontaneous feel. A: I think a lot of illustrators have this problem. It’s easy to get very involved with what you are doing and overwork something. By “overwork” I mean to keep rendering or working on a piece, adding more and more to it, until you compromise the effectiveness of the illustration. Often that means making the piece too “busy”, where the eye can’t figure… READ MORE
February 26th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Here’s an entire illustration project from start to finish. The steps are not frequent enough for this to be a “how to”, but it does illustrate the process pretty thoroughly. The client is “The Marlin Company”, which produces workplace and employer communication subscription materials. Part of their products are posters that communicate important workplace ideas and concepts like “Teamwork” and “Quality”, etc. I do art for a humorous line of these posters almost every month. I get the concept and description of the ‘scene’ I need to illustrate. My job is to create an image that is humorous yet gets the message across clearly. This… READ MORE
February 17th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: What do you do to keep yourself motivated and avoid burn-out? A: That’s a tough one, because frankly I don’t stay motivated and avoid burn out. You would think that if you do something you really love to do for a living then working would be like going to a candy store every day. The reality is that no matter how much you like doing what you do, it’s still work and some days you just don’t want to work. I think this is especially true when you do creative work, because while it’s not ‘digging ditches’ it’s mentally and creatively exhausting. Sometimes you… READ MORE
February 10th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: After years of doing what you do, how often do you find you need to refer to reference photos? I’d expect it with celebrities or well know figures, but do you have to pull out reference for rather ordinary things from time to time (vehicles, houses, interiors, etc.)? Or can you can usually work mostly from your imagination (mental picture)? Your illustrations are often so detailed (even backgrounds). I’ve never been able to (nor really worked on) drawing from memory. I would hope with repetition and practice that it’s possible, but just wondered during a typical assignment how much reference you might need to… READ MORE
January 8th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
I love being a freelance illustrator. While it is challenging in many respects the work is interesting and the deadlines intense, and it’s seldom boring. I don’t punch a time clock every day, collect my paycheck every other Friday and have to conform to anyone’s routine but my own. As I have said many times, financially it is a little more exciting that it needs to be, what with the constant uncertainty about the next job, and how much income will be forthcoming in a given month (or week, or year for that matter). I have been very lucky in that I have other resources… READ MORE
