Well, it’s only taken nearly a year to follow up this post with the promised Part 2. Good things & waiting etc? I hope so.
The idea behind Part 2 was to concentrate a little more on the practical side. I think this will be a much shorter post, because there’s not a lot I can tell you that you won’t find out yourself along the way (and maybe finding out yourself is the best way).. But, I hope there’s something useful… Here goes:
1) Being a commercial artist requires you to access two distinct parts of your brain. The creative side (obv) and the practical side. Like most creatives, my practical side is minuscule in comparison - but it’s absolutely necessary. You are an artist yes - but you are also a Service Provider and an Intellectual Property Salesperson. For the former, you need to learn the most effective ways of advertising your service (let’s call it ‘Visual Problem Solving’), pulling in clients and up-skilling in order to provide your service more effectively. For the latter, you need to learn the lingo of Licensing. This practical knowledge will help to monetise your creativity - all of these things feed the other and the more your progress in both, you the more you gain in both.
2) Further to this, you need to understand how commercial art works in terms of IP and Licensing. The work you create is your Intellectual Property. The client wants to purchase permission to use your creation on their product. So you agree a fee based on usage (what’s the creation for?), time (how long do they want to use it?), exclusivity (do they want it all for themselves and no one else?), geography (what territories do they want to use it in?), and medium (what do they want to put it on? Print? Online? TV? etc.. this is kind of the same as ‘usage’. Maybe it’s the exact same. I never really got that). Sometimes the client will want the dreaded ‘Work For Hire’ - this means your creation is their IP from the get-go, and they can do whatever they like with it - you don’t own any rights to the work. It’s best to avoid this - but it’s very common, particularly when creating art for existing IPs, eg Star Wars. I prefer not to of course, but sometimes it’s unavoidable and getting some bill money in outweighs the desire to own the work. This might be contentious (best practice is to retain the rights to your work, so you can earn from it forever) - but when the time comes you should weigh it up for yourself. Do you want to do Star Wars? Then you won’t own the rights to the work. Need to pay a bill and they’re offering 50% advance but it’s WFH? Up to you.
3) Really, there are wiser people who have explained the above better than me. The AOI especially, and their book ‘The Illustrators Guide to Law & Business Practice’ is an essential purchase. You need to learn this stuff! Which leads me swiftly to point no.4…
4) Join a professional body for commercial artists. In Ireland we have Illustrators Ireland. The AOI (mentioned above) are amazing and an essential part of your professional life. There’s also the European Illustrators Forum or if you’re in the US there will be equivalent bodies, and wherever you are - look into it and find the one that suits you. They offer all kinds of services like pricing advice and even more importantly - legal advice on those gobbledygook contracts. They are full of people in the same boat as you, and seasoned pros who want to help. The best money you will spend all year is the membership fees.
5) Get to know the contract-speak a bit for yourself. The book I mentioned above will teach you that. Follow its advice to work with ‘Acceptance of Commission’ forms, learn how to spot rights-grabs and other pitfalls. Don’t be afraid, ever, to negotiate a contract. If they don’t budge, fine - you decide if it’s still worth it. But ALL contracts are negotiable in some way. Fight your corner (pleasantly and professionally).
6) Improve your service. Meet your deadlines (always). Be courteous. Helping the Art Director by doing your job well will vastly improve (if not guarantee) future commissions from them. They hired you because they like your stuff, but they have a client (or a sales department) to please at their end. So help them out, and they will help you. Always look to skill-up - for one it makes your work (service) better. For another, it makes your work quicker. And that is a good arrow to have in your quiver.
7) You don’t have to work digitally, but you need to know how to. In this day and age, our product is delivered digitally. This means we call sell our service to clients anywhere in the world. Learn about RGB (for screens) and CMYK (for print). Those brilliant blues and hot pinks might not translate to print! They look like that because there’s a big light in your screen. Learn about DPI, bleeds and preparing PDFs for print. Learn Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign (or their equivalents in other applications). Learn about Layer Blends and Clipping Masks. These will help your work to look better, open up new ‘looks’, save you time and more. NB You don’t have to know each Layer Blend and what it will do at whatever opacity… I just (frank admission) go through them all until it looks good. There’s so much more that I haven’t mentioned but the point is - get your head around this stuff because it all helps you do a better job.
8) Broaden your skills as much as you can. Learn new applications. For example, learning After Effects meant ‘Animation’ is now on my CV. Learning a bit of 3D (I use Blender) has completely transformed how I work for the better. I learned some stuff through Lynda.com, and some from tutorials on YouTube. You can learn anything you want with the magical Internet. Maybe less digital stuff and more traditional mediums? Screen Printing? Watercolours? Sculpture? - anything really. All will help your work evolve and seeing that evolution is both satisfying and fun.
9) In the age of social media, a portfolio site is maybe less necessary than it used to be. But it’s still necessary. And when you create your folio site, keep the customer in mind. It’s ‘The Commissioner’s Journey’ - think of how to effectively get them from your homepage to hiring you. Keep it simple, put your best work front and centre (be ruthless) and make sure to include and prioritise professional commissions (when the quality is up to scratch) - it shows you know your job, you’ve been trusted in the past and can be again.
10) Have a think about what industry you’d like to work in. At first, the answer is ‘anyone who’ll pay me’ and that’s fine. But that lack of focus leads to all kinds of problems. Honing in on your targets helps your work and your chances of getting hired. Want to work in publishing? Make some book covers off your own back. Film? Make some posters. It’s ok if these targets change as you go (mine do all the time) but the key is to have them in the first place.
11) Less practical, and harking back to more emotional stuff from Part I, but so important it’s worth repeating: don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t worry about how many followers you have. Don’t worry if someone crapped on a piece you just posted. It’s not about how many like it - it’s who likes it. Your focus is on expressing yourself visually, getting better at that and finding customers for it. Enjoy the process - you’re drawing for a job.
So that’s it I think. I probably left loads of stuff out. Maybe it’s bad advice? Feel free to let me know in the comments! I hope there is something useful in here for someone who’s starting out on the rocky - but incredibly fulfilling - road of commercial art.
Keep It Lit!