the story i'm going with is boris and the quest for the golden teddy bear
here, our protagonist Boris wish's he could return home and leave the vile pirates
Friday, 30 March 2012
IF: return
Currently doing a entry piece for the macmillan children prize
the story i'm going with is boris and the quest for the golden teddy bear
here, our protagonist Boris wish's he could return home and leave the vile pirates
the story i'm going with is boris and the quest for the golden teddy bear
here, our protagonist Boris wish's he could return home and leave the vile pirates
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Hey Kyle,
Thanks for your email, hope your good? Sorry for the delay getting back to you, it's been really hectic lately. I have answered your questions below:
1. Are you with an agency? Have they found you alot of work? I am with an agency but unfortunately they haven't found me much work yet. I was with one before my current agent and they were not very good at finding me much work either. Think I may have had a bad batch.
2.Is being an illustrator a full time job or do you have another occupation in your life? I am doing a 5 day a week tattoo apprenticeship as well as illustration. At the moment I don't get enough commissions to support myself with just illustration.
3.How many hours a day would you spend on a illustration? It really depend if I working on a commission or just illustrating for personal work but it is usually about 2 to 3 hours a day.
4. What sort of events have you found most useful for networking your work? I have done a few exhibitions and craft fairs in London that have been really good for making contacts. Also I have done a live drawing event in Exeter which is really quite good for getting people interested in your work.
5. What would you say is the best way of getting your work recognised? In my personal experience I have found that keeping a good online presents is pretty essential to getting people interested in your work. Emailing people you would like to work for with examples of work, can be a good way to get commissions. Without hassling people too much, it's always good to updated people with new work. Sending out a kind of mini portfolio round to places can also be beneficial because it's not as disposal as an email can be, if you send a collection of portfolio type post cards they can hang around the office or studio and remind them of your work or get circulated between there colleagues which can also be beneficial. Hope these are so some use to you. Kind regards, Phil
Phil is a local illustrator who i contacted through a friend of mine. With phil's situation it doesn't sound too good, as it seems his main area of work doesn't get him a lot of money or help him survive financially upon his drawings, but then again looking at scott's reply and hearing about other people stories, getting a part time job seems to be a common occurrence which i suppose is the best thing to keep you financially safe so you can afford equipment, rent tax etc. The main difference between the two illustrators is in my opinion, they both come from different countries.
It sounds like illustration is more acceptable and more keen on over in america as its more of an advertising state where its more of an advertising world where selling stuff is more important then anything else, and i think america is generally a more accepting state then england is. The agency problem has occurred once again with phil, with the theme "are agencies really worth joining?" but as phil said he may have picked a bad batch with the agency he was with (but then again hearing from another illustrator Jack teagle, his agency didn't help him out alot either, unless this is a local thing or its because the agencies over here are pretty poor)
Thanks for your email, hope your good? Sorry for the delay getting back to you, it's been really hectic lately. I have answered your questions below:
1. Are you with an agency? Have they found you alot of work? I am with an agency but unfortunately they haven't found me much work yet. I was with one before my current agent and they were not very good at finding me much work either. Think I may have had a bad batch.
2.Is being an illustrator a full time job or do you have another occupation in your life? I am doing a 5 day a week tattoo apprenticeship as well as illustration. At the moment I don't get enough commissions to support myself with just illustration.
3.How many hours a day would you spend on a illustration? It really depend if I working on a commission or just illustrating for personal work but it is usually about 2 to 3 hours a day.
4. What sort of events have you found most useful for networking your work? I have done a few exhibitions and craft fairs in London that have been really good for making contacts. Also I have done a live drawing event in Exeter which is really quite good for getting people interested in your work.
5. What would you say is the best way of getting your work recognised? In my personal experience I have found that keeping a good online presents is pretty essential to getting people interested in your work. Emailing people you would like to work for with examples of work, can be a good way to get commissions. Without hassling people too much, it's always good to updated people with new work. Sending out a kind of mini portfolio round to places can also be beneficial because it's not as disposal as an email can be, if you send a collection of portfolio type post cards they can hang around the office or studio and remind them of your work or get circulated between there colleagues which can also be beneficial. Hope these are so some use to you. Kind regards, Phil
Phil is a local illustrator who i contacted through a friend of mine. With phil's situation it doesn't sound too good, as it seems his main area of work doesn't get him a lot of money or help him survive financially upon his drawings, but then again looking at scott's reply and hearing about other people stories, getting a part time job seems to be a common occurrence which i suppose is the best thing to keep you financially safe so you can afford equipment, rent tax etc. The main difference between the two illustrators is in my opinion, they both come from different countries.
It sounds like illustration is more acceptable and more keen on over in america as its more of an advertising state where its more of an advertising world where selling stuff is more important then anything else, and i think america is generally a more accepting state then england is. The agency problem has occurred once again with phil, with the theme "are agencies really worth joining?" but as phil said he may have picked a bad batch with the agency he was with (but then again hearing from another illustrator Jack teagle, his agency didn't help him out alot either, unless this is a local thing or its because the agencies over here are pretty poor)
quite an old bit of news but beginning of this year i decided to ask a few illustrators about their work, and thankfully a couple replied. heres my questions and heres their responses
posted this mainly for future illustrators who decide to go on this path in the world.
The illustrator i questioned was one of my friends from Illustration friday, Scott Spinks hope this helps :) Scott Spinks freelance illustrator Recently i've sent a few questions to a freelance illustrator called Scott Spinks. Got in contact with him through the artsite Illustration Friday, where he commented on one of my posts. heres the questions i asked and the answers i received
. Hi Kyle, I'm happy to answer these questions for you. :) Here are your questions, along with my answers...
1. Are you with an agency? Have they found you a lot of work? Yes, I am represented by Storybook Arts Inc, of New York. I receive approximately one to two job opportunities per month. Once I receive these opportunities, I am allowed to decide whether the job fits my schedule. If it does, I then submit examples of my work that fit the needs of the client more closely. At that point, if the client likes the samples, we will move forward with the project. If they refuse the samples, they may ask for more or they might decided to go with a different artist. In a competitive industry such as this one, just being considered is a big deal. So, I need to be sure I am showing them my best work right away.
2. Is being an illustrator a full time job or do you have another occupation in your life? Yes, I am a full-time illustrator, but I also write articles and short stories, in an attempt to make ends meet, financially. Being full-time is fairly new for me. At this time last year, I was working full-time as a trainer for a private college. I worked there to pay the bills and for health insurance. Then I would work evenings and weekends on illustrations and marketing for my art. Choosing to go full-time was not an easy decision and it’s far from easy. My wife and I have scaled our spending way back and we have been able to make it work for us. The good news is the risk I took going full time is beginning to pay off. I am starting to see an increase in projects and a significant flow of traffic to my Website. As I am sure you understand, word-of-mouth and viral marketing are two key points to the success of a freelance illustrator in today’s industry. There are many places to make money, but finding them takes a lot of planning strategy.
3. How many hours a day would you spend on an illustration? The magic question! J Before I was full-time, I was spending about 40 hours per week working on illustration work. Now that I’m full-time, I spend about 50 hours per week; but it goes much smoother and is less trying on my family. If you ever go full-time, you will find that illustrations take less time to complete, because you have fewer distractions. I found that not having to juggle two jobs made it much easier for me to enjoy being an illustrator, which in turn makes it easier to be a good illustrator. J As far as how much time I spend on a specific illustration…it varies quite a bit. I’ve had digital paintings take up to 100 hours and I’ve had quick ink-n-color jobs take two hours. For example, every Friday, I try to participate in IllustrationFriday.com. This Website gives a topic every Friday and illustrators from around the world submit their designs to the Website. It’s pretty fun to see everybody’s take on the same word. For Illustration Friday, I give myself two hours to take the illustration from concept to completion. This works well to loosen up my hand and to free my mind from whatever project I am currently working on. I strongly recommend it to all illustrators.
4. What sort of events have you found most useful for networking your work? I participate in a number of events throughout the year. As a children’s illustrator, there is nothing better than SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators). They have at least two national events each year and usually at least one regional event. My region is Minneapolis/Chicago, but they have regions all around the country. These events are great for banging-heads with other pros and are generally pretty fun. We see lots of great speakers, who talk about their successes and their failures. And we get to meet a lot of great people. The events offer portfolio reviews, workshops and critiques of both drawn and written work. I met my agent at a regional event. I am also a member of a couple local organizations. CBIG of MN (Children’s Book Illustrators Guild), KidLitArt (a Twitter group) and Meet-up Minnesota. Meet-up is an online organization that promotes study groups and idea sharing. I use this to find figure study groups, marketing “brainstormers” and anything I think will benefit my business.
5. What would you say is the best way of getting your work recognized? Fortunately, there is a surplus of ways to get your work recognized in today’ world. Here is a small sample of what I do: I have a Website, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a LinkedIn account, a YouTube channel (this is new for me), an agent page on the Web, a catalog of my work at three different online services and an online store. I also display my work at gallery shows four times per year (primarily in Minnesota). Recently I have begun selling work at a variety of fan conventions (comic book, horror movie and children’s entertainment). This doesn’t produce a ton of money, but it does get your work recognized by people in whatever industry you are trying to succeed in. On top of all of this, I am currently making arrangements to teach drawing classes to kids at a local art center. Ultimately, the best way to recognized is to do your best work and hopefully get published. No amount of blogging or elbow-rubbing is going to get your name and your work out there like a published book or article will. I have two publications coming out this summer and a kid’s book App coming out in the spring. So, as I said before; all the work is beginning to pay off. I hope my answers were helpful to you. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. I am happy to help. J Take care, Scott Spinks Cartoon Artist & Writer
The illustrator i questioned was one of my friends from Illustration friday, Scott Spinks hope this helps :) Scott Spinks freelance illustrator Recently i've sent a few questions to a freelance illustrator called Scott Spinks. Got in contact with him through the artsite Illustration Friday, where he commented on one of my posts. heres the questions i asked and the answers i received
. Hi Kyle, I'm happy to answer these questions for you. :) Here are your questions, along with my answers...
1. Are you with an agency? Have they found you a lot of work? Yes, I am represented by Storybook Arts Inc, of New York. I receive approximately one to two job opportunities per month. Once I receive these opportunities, I am allowed to decide whether the job fits my schedule. If it does, I then submit examples of my work that fit the needs of the client more closely. At that point, if the client likes the samples, we will move forward with the project. If they refuse the samples, they may ask for more or they might decided to go with a different artist. In a competitive industry such as this one, just being considered is a big deal. So, I need to be sure I am showing them my best work right away.
2. Is being an illustrator a full time job or do you have another occupation in your life? Yes, I am a full-time illustrator, but I also write articles and short stories, in an attempt to make ends meet, financially. Being full-time is fairly new for me. At this time last year, I was working full-time as a trainer for a private college. I worked there to pay the bills and for health insurance. Then I would work evenings and weekends on illustrations and marketing for my art. Choosing to go full-time was not an easy decision and it’s far from easy. My wife and I have scaled our spending way back and we have been able to make it work for us. The good news is the risk I took going full time is beginning to pay off. I am starting to see an increase in projects and a significant flow of traffic to my Website. As I am sure you understand, word-of-mouth and viral marketing are two key points to the success of a freelance illustrator in today’s industry. There are many places to make money, but finding them takes a lot of planning strategy.
3. How many hours a day would you spend on an illustration? The magic question! J Before I was full-time, I was spending about 40 hours per week working on illustration work. Now that I’m full-time, I spend about 50 hours per week; but it goes much smoother and is less trying on my family. If you ever go full-time, you will find that illustrations take less time to complete, because you have fewer distractions. I found that not having to juggle two jobs made it much easier for me to enjoy being an illustrator, which in turn makes it easier to be a good illustrator. J As far as how much time I spend on a specific illustration…it varies quite a bit. I’ve had digital paintings take up to 100 hours and I’ve had quick ink-n-color jobs take two hours. For example, every Friday, I try to participate in IllustrationFriday.com. This Website gives a topic every Friday and illustrators from around the world submit their designs to the Website. It’s pretty fun to see everybody’s take on the same word. For Illustration Friday, I give myself two hours to take the illustration from concept to completion. This works well to loosen up my hand and to free my mind from whatever project I am currently working on. I strongly recommend it to all illustrators.
4. What sort of events have you found most useful for networking your work? I participate in a number of events throughout the year. As a children’s illustrator, there is nothing better than SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators). They have at least two national events each year and usually at least one regional event. My region is Minneapolis/Chicago, but they have regions all around the country. These events are great for banging-heads with other pros and are generally pretty fun. We see lots of great speakers, who talk about their successes and their failures. And we get to meet a lot of great people. The events offer portfolio reviews, workshops and critiques of both drawn and written work. I met my agent at a regional event. I am also a member of a couple local organizations. CBIG of MN (Children’s Book Illustrators Guild), KidLitArt (a Twitter group) and Meet-up Minnesota. Meet-up is an online organization that promotes study groups and idea sharing. I use this to find figure study groups, marketing “brainstormers” and anything I think will benefit my business.
5. What would you say is the best way of getting your work recognized? Fortunately, there is a surplus of ways to get your work recognized in today’ world. Here is a small sample of what I do: I have a Website, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a LinkedIn account, a YouTube channel (this is new for me), an agent page on the Web, a catalog of my work at three different online services and an online store. I also display my work at gallery shows four times per year (primarily in Minnesota). Recently I have begun selling work at a variety of fan conventions (comic book, horror movie and children’s entertainment). This doesn’t produce a ton of money, but it does get your work recognized by people in whatever industry you are trying to succeed in. On top of all of this, I am currently making arrangements to teach drawing classes to kids at a local art center. Ultimately, the best way to recognized is to do your best work and hopefully get published. No amount of blogging or elbow-rubbing is going to get your name and your work out there like a published book or article will. I have two publications coming out this summer and a kid’s book App coming out in the spring. So, as I said before; all the work is beginning to pay off. I hope my answers were helpful to you. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. I am happy to help. J Take care, Scott Spinks Cartoon Artist & Writer
Friday, 23 March 2012
IF: swamp
Here is our friendly swamp neighbour "Sludge" who has kindly welcomed us to his home, what a kind.........swamp monster he is.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
sweet idea
Was bored after university, and decided to draw an experimental piece towards our latest topic - which was to design a label for sweets, and i chose to do pink Mice sweets,
enjoy :D
Saturday, 17 March 2012
IF: shade
While snoozing in the shade, casper the caterpillar wakes to fin d a startling sight, and possibly the last thing he see's.......
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Captain jack and his scally wags of pirates
"Yield the golden teddy bear to me lads, and i'll show ye what it's truly made off!!" shouts captain jack to his band of pirates.
Monday, 5 March 2012
a mechanical dragon!!!!
Was up til 3 o'clock this morning finally finishing oif this drawing that i've been meaning to now for along time
enjoy :D
Friday, 2 March 2012
Brotherly enemies
Every super hero intention in life is to save the day and help stop the evil villains from conquering the world
well thats the same story between these two
introducing: Sparx and Inferno
Brothers by blood, but natural enemies, inferno could never take the fact sparx was more popular then him (and like sparx keeps reminding him...better looking aswell) as soon as they're powers developed, they too developed a natural instinct to hate and despise each other
These two pieces are the results of artworks im currently submitting for a local competition where we have to come up with our own super hero's
enjoy :)
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Dragon badges are GO!!!!
Here are my first batch of hopefully fast selling badges that i'm going to sell at my Illustration class stall this month, fingers crossed they get well received :D
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