The story takes place about 5 years ago,
when I earned a Master’s diploma in architecture and could finally start to develop my illustrator’s career. I had knowledge about design, drawing skills, tons of energy and... a business plan! What could go wrong? Well, pretty much everything.
My business plan looked more or less like
this (don’t try this at home!):
1. An illustrator needs an online
portfolio. But wait… I already have a well-developed portfolio on DeviantArt,
hurray!
2. Writing a blog is a great way to present
yourself to your watchers and potential clients. Naturally hundreds of people
would wait impatiently for every new post (because they have absolutely nothing
else to do) and I’d surely earn some money of it (there are many professional
bloggers, right?).
3. Now the most important point: I should
join a team of awesome, experienced and enterprising people. They will create a super-popular product (a game/book/music CD/whatsoever), and hire me
as an illustrator. Well, “hire” is not the most precise word, as I would work on a profit share basis, but that’s ok! This super project will surely
be my springboard to success, make me recognizable and... bring me money.
4. And one more brilliant thought at that time: Even if I won’t earn serious money, that’s fine, because I
love drawing sooo much.
...........................................................................................................
However, there were a few small bugs in my
elaborate plan:
1. If you want
to do something professionally, you have to make an impression of a
professional. While DeviantArt is a great (and highly addictive) platform for
social networking with other art lovers, it’s not the best place to show
yourself and your works to potential clients. Let’s be honest, all these
emoticons (which I love) and a little bit chaotic interface don’t make a great
impression at first sight.
TIP: Make
your own website and/or create an online portfolio on www.behance.net . Behance is a great place to
present your projects and resume in a professional way and I got many good job offers
from people who found my works there https://www.behance.net/ElwiraPawlikowska .
2. Most of the
people earning money through blogs are those who write about… earning money
through blogs. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but in case of illustrators it doesn’t really
work anyway. However an idea of running a blog to let your watchers know
you better is still fine! Who knows, maybe they will be keen to support you in
your future endeavours?
3. I could write a whole dissertation about absurdity
of working on a profit share basis (unless we’re talking about gigantic, well
established publishers). First of all, if someone is unable to collect money for an illustrator, he/she won’t be able to run the project and the marketing
process in order to make the product popular. Marketing a product requires strong
entrepreneurial abilities and people with such abilities are able to gain some money to
pay an illustrator for the job, trust me (or not, the choice is yours J )! So, by “working” on profit-share basis for a group of enthusiasts
(yes, yes, it applies even to those super-experienced guys who have been developing
discussed project since high school) you are going to achieve neither glory nor decent
money. To discourage you even more I’ll
mention, that (based on my own experience) many such projects are NEVER EVER
PUBLISHED. Eventually they are printed on demand and thus, they reach only
friends and families of creators (which means no new fans, as your mom already
knows that you’re brilliant J).
A SUPER IMPORTANT TIP: If you want to
expand your portfolio, focus on your own projects. Illustrations attracting most clients to me are my personal works:
4. There is no rule saying that you are entitled to monetary compensation only if you hate your job. Unless you want to live with your parents for
the rest of your (or their) life, you just have to earn money from what you’re
doing. Good luck!
PS: Right now I'm doing fine J
If you
found these reflections valuable somehow, you’re very welcome to share this
article!
I was curious to know how your game project worked out. It seemed like an exciting thing for you, so I'm sad to hear it didn't work out. I guess the most valuable lessons are the hard-learned ones. I knew I was terrible at marketing myself so went into physics instead of art, and just do things on the side for fun. The money I spend on my projects is just money I would probably have to spend on therapy if I didn't have art. I also have a game system that I've had kicking around since college and always wondered what it would be like to develop it into a commercial product, so I was especially interested in seeing how yours worked out since it looked so professional. But, I guess looks aren't everything...
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