January 16th, 2007 | Posted in Freelancing
Way back in August I wrote about my very first freelance job and how it went horribly awry. I promised more nightmare stories in the future, but honestly there aren’t that many of them. Most jobs have a few challenges mixed in, and as a professional I have to roll with the punches at times to get the job done. Few have the hallmarks of a nightmare job. Most of the real problems that might arise result from the very beginning… meaning the art director of a project made the wrong choice in choosing a certain artist for their job. That doesn’t mean they got… READ MORE
November 13th, 2006 | Posted in Freelancing
Some time back I wrote a long winded answer to the commonly asked question: How do I get started as a freelancer? One of the points I touched on was self promotion, or how to get your work out in front of people who would want to use it. Freelancing itself is a scary way to make a living. There is no comfortable, bi-weekly paycheck to count on. You often do not know how much income to expect from month to month. That’s a hard way to pay the rent, let alone raise a family. The biggest problem with freelancing is figuring out how to… READ MORE
September 10th, 2006 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: How much should I charge for an illustration? A: I get individual e-mails occasionally asking for advice on what to charge on this project or that kind of job, and the problem is that the question in basically unanswerable. It is always “that depends”. By the letter of the law the discussion of how much to charge for the same kind of service or product between two competing sources of said service or product is called “price fixing”, and is quite illegal in the United States. Realistically there needs to be someplace to begin for illustrators just getting into the business. For those people… READ MORE
August 31st, 2006 | Posted in Freelancing
Working as a freelance illustrator is never boring. While the majority of the jobs I do work out fine in the end, with a few kinks thrown in here and there, sometimes jobs go bad and end up being total nightmares. These usually stem from expectations being unrealistic or just plain wrong on either my part or the part of the client. Over the years I’ve gotten better at sniffing out these potential disasters but some still slip through the cracks. Occasionally I’ll tell some of the stories of these freelance nightmares here, as they often have some entertainment value. When appropriate, I will change… READ MORE
July 30th, 2006 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: How do I get started doing freelance illustration? A: Making a living solely on freelance work is a tough and scary thing to do. There is no steady paycheck, and sometimes waiting for that phone to ring with a job seems like it takes forever. Other times you are so swamped you can’t keep up. It’s not a life for the faint of heart. First, I’d suggest for beginners to find a secondary source of income so your freelance work is not what you rely on to pay the rent. I used my live caricature work and businesses for this purpose, and it allowed… READ MORE
