BEGINNINGS WITH FREELANCING: AN ANTI-GUIDE

Who likes reading "failure-stories"? Everyone of ourse! It just so happens that I have one for you today. It could be titled “A Freelance Illustrator - My Ineffective Way to Financial Independence” (not very catchy, I know).

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!

Motivators

As I promissed a few days ago (or maybe as I planned a few days ago ), here's the next part of the article about making plans and executing them. Acoording to my assumptions there are three factors for succeding  in realizing a plan: 
-a logical, specific and feasible plan
-motivation
-luck (or at least lack of bad luck)

Here I'll focus on the second factor - motivation. My main motivation is fear (I know, most psychologists would conclude that it's a bad motivator). It's fear of not taking full advantage of my opportunities, fear of  mediocrity, misery and wasting of the only life I have. Believe me, it's a very strong inner motivator (however I'm still quite far away from achieving my all goals). And there are also many external motivators. Here are some of them!  

MOTIVATORS HELPING IN EXECUTING YOUR PLANS:

1. Writing down plans in a notebook. It should make you feel obliged to fulfill them, right? From that point they are not elusive, unspoken thoughts, but clear and real plans.

2. Telling your friends and family about your plans (in brief, it's a hardcore version of point 1.). It may seem to be a  very effective motivator, but it's also risky, if you won't choose the right listener. Honestly, I never do that. I've got a  very personal attitude to my plans and I don't need any additional incentives in the form of a possible shame in front of  acquaintances. Furthermore many people (including my relatives and mates) tend to have an ambivalent attitude to everything exceeding mediocrity and everyday life. Thus, their reaction can be more demotivating than uplifting.

3. Writing about your not personal plans online. This is a wonderful motivator! It would be kind of unprofessional not to fulfill what has been announced in front of at least hundreds of people.  Usually I get tremendous support from people , I haven't met in person, which really fills me with energy to work.

4. Developing a personal system of rewards and punishments for respectively efficient performance of a task and failure in performing a task (I limit myself to reward system :) ). My prizes are very small, like: "you can watch an episode of your favorite TV program", "have a coffee break",  "eat a muffin", or "you can watch an episode of your favorite TV program  while drinking coffee and eating a muffin" (excellent!).

In the next few entries I'll focus on presenting my latest illustrations, so there won't be so much to read. And that's a plan! 

How to Make Plans and Stick to Them?

Are freelance jobs a good fit for scatterbrained, unorganized people, who have problems with motivating themselves to get out of bed before noon? For some strange reason I was thinking so...  and I was wrong. I'm afraid, that for those people the perfect  "occupation" is being a proud heir of a fortune. Whereas those, who want to be masters of their time but still have to earn a living, need to be able to plan and organize.

Presumably there are  very few people with a natural talent for being well-organized. Mere mortals have to prepare an action plan to evaluate, segregate and arrange individual steps for achieving their goals. 

THREE STEPS OF PLANNING:

Planning system doesn't have to be very sophisticated. I've never been good at making multi-color notes, drawing schedules on a paper bigger than me  or hanging a whole bunch of notes on a corkboard.  My method is quite simple and not very visionary. But it has one strong point - it works!*

*(at least for me)

It's based on a system of long term goals and short term goals and it can be created in a standard planner (even if my long-term goals refer to the much more distant future). At the end of such planner there is usually a place for some notes, which I use for setting long-term goals. And that's THE FIRST STEP. Long term goals can be very general, like: "a stable source of income as a freelance illustrator" or "a healthier lifestyle". At first it may look like a wish list, letters to Santa Claus or a storytelling, but that's fine at this stage.

THE SECOND STEP is a closer defining of long-term goals and an attempt to transfer them into a sequence of short-term goals. It should help you to understand what your long term goals actually mean to you, for example does "a healthier lifestyle" means a better diet, more exercises, less stress or moving to a quieter place? Short-term goals should follow long-term goals and lead to achieving them. Let's say that to have "a stable source of income" you plan to establish cooperation with a few book publishers. Simplifying for the blog's purposes, the plan could look like this:

1 Creating a relevant portfolio.

2 Making a contact list of various publishers.

3 Preparing your own branding.

These actions can be loosely written on a separate page dedicated to a specific  month.

THE THIRD STEP involves dividing issues from the previous step into specific actions, estimating the time required to perform them and assigning them to specific days (and even hours) in a planner.

Regarding 1: Six children illustrations - one every two weeks. Estimated time - three months.

Regarding 2: Estimated time-a week (assuming, that you have other daily responsibilities).

Regarding 3: Building a website, sorting sample illustrations, preparing CV, resume and cover letters in a consistent style. Estimated time - two weeks.

That's how a vague idea of "having a stable income source" starts to take a clearer shape in a realistic time frame.

ADDITIONAL LOOSE TIPS:

1. It's easier to forget about writing an email than about drawing something, so I mark  all the tasks related with contacting people with "!".

2. After completing a task I mark it with "+" . If the task hasn't been completed, then... well, it shall be crossed out and moved to another day. It may seem that I have quite long delays, but I don't because:

3. I make plans for only 5 days/week. However, if some of my tasks haven't been completed on initially planned time, I tend to work also on weekends. It could lead to workaholism, unless:

4. I reserve some time for relaxing activities, like "10.00pm.-Midnight - reading a book" or Saturday 10.00am.-1.00pm.-a long walk + lunch in the park.

5. It's a good practice to have your planner/notebook with you. All the ideas for drawings can be written down in it as soon as they appear. From time to time (once every 3-4 months) I browse through these ideas to check, if they still seem so splendid as when I was writing them down.

Formulating a plan is one thing. The other thing is motivation to execute it. It would be an extremely long article, so MOTIVATORS HELIPING IN EXECUTING YOUR PLANS will be described later on this week.

New Year's Resolutions

It's never too late for New Year's resolutions... or maybe, rather, it's never too late for resolutions in general.  

Honestly, I've never made them before. I'm always feeling  downcast and burnt out at the end of the year and even more depressed at the beginning of the year.  At that time my future appears as a  sequence of disasters and failures, with no possibility of improving, but with many opportunities for deterioration. The advantage of this situation is that the worse my mood is, the better my works are (Hipp Hipp Hurray!) - strange but true.

After this short, personal digression, we can go straight to the point - my resolutions for this year:

1. to make a few  illustrations with people* (no problem,  this should be feasible)

*amendment: to make a few good illustrations with people (ok,  I'll do my best)

2. to make some character designs* (easy part)

*side note: these designs should be outstanding... or at least interesting (aha, here's the catch)

3. to write regular  blog entries* (yes ma'am)

*side note: "regular" means at least twice a month (hmmm, what's next?)

4. to develop abilities in digital speed paintings (absolutely!)

5. to start a video blog about drawing/painting (great, I was afraid that I would have to sing or dance)

6. to find a mysterious way to work more effectively and keep the right work-life balance (tough challenge)

7. to stop talking to myself (that was cruel...)

What a short blog entry! In the next article I'll describe how I make long-term and short-term plans and how I actually keep them :)

A Short Interview

Last week I was aked to share on my blog a little more information about me as an illustrator/painter. I got 5 tricky questions (just kidding) from a fellow artist Patience Brewster . Hopefully the answers are informative and who knows, maybe even interesting :)

1. As a child, do you recall a significant moment when you felt truly affected or inspired by any particular artwork or artist?

I don't think there was such a specific moment. Almost since I was born I've been constantly surrounded by books about art and I really loved to browse through them. My favorite ones were those about Old Masters:  Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. I have a  mathematical brain, so complicated designs of Piranesi's prisons and technical thoughts of da Vinci made an enormous impression on me. 

2. As an artist, what do you hope to convey with your work?

I'm fairly introverted, so my personal works are results of an inner pressure to capture what's happening in my mind. Especially in the past I loved to retreat into my inner world and imagine wandering through unknown realms and fantastical buildings. Painting was helping me to make them more "touchable" and real somehow. It may sound kind of egoistically, but I wasn't thinking about potential viewers back then. 

Nowadays personal projects  are largely sidelined in favor of commissioned artworks and in these cases I'm just making the best illustrations I can.

3. What memorable responses have you had to your work?

Most of responses I get are really worth remembering so I regret I don't have a better memory...

Probably the most (literally) memorable response is a tattoo based on my "Butterflies Tree", which one brave girl have on her back. She sent me a photo. Impressive!

In general it's really uplifting when my works are perceived as useful somehow.  For example when they take someone on a trip to imaginative places and help to forget about real-life problems for a while. 

Recently I was really glad to receive this comment: "There's a stark, grim chill present in your work that feels almost like Dr. Seuss, Edward Gorey and Edgar Allan Poe had a baby."

4. What is your dream project?

One of them is related with my personal paintings and it's kind of secret :) 

The second one would be making environment and architectural designs for some big projects: movies or complex video games. It would be great to see how, in cooperation with other specialists, ideas initially captured on two-dimensional sheets of paper are getting alive.

5. What artists, of any medium, do you admire? (Famous or not!)

My favorite painter was, is and always will be Zdzisław Beksiński. Actually his paintings inspired me to study Architecture (just like he did). Moreover on my list there are previously mentioned Old Masters. Finally I must also name Caspar David Friedrich and Lars Lerin due to their technical skills and an unique atmosphere in their works.

About Drawing Classes...

"The peculiarity of my temper is, ma'am, that I won't be swallowed up alive."

Charles Dickens, "Little Dorrit" 

Sometimes I'm asked about "a few tips on drawing buildings" or "a fast way to learn perspective rules". The only valuable "fast tip" which comes to my mind in such cases is "TAKE ART CLASSES". Yes, for me it's the best way to gain a solid base in drawing. 

Before I started to write this article I made a little Google-search to check out what other people think about attending such classes (just in case my notion was totally contradictory to the generally prevailing). It turned out, that there are surprisingly many (though maybe not SO surprisingly many) opinions maintaining, that attending drawing courses is quite redundant. Why? Because everything can be learned from YouTube videos and internet tutorials totally for free. I decided to test it (oh, how mistrustful I am) and typed "How to draw a cockroach". The browser found over 10.000 results... in a split second... I had no more questions.

Anyway I'm going to insist on my point of view and bring forth those benefits of real-life art classes, which you won't get from Internet:

1. Professional feedback (i.e. comprehensive, constructive criticism) about your own work. The truth is that you may make mistakes/encounter problems other than  the person presenting his/her own work on the Internet. A skillful teacher can notice  weaknesses, which you could never notice yourself, or at least would discover after a longer time.

2. High efficiency. Apparently it's best to learn from your own mistakes, but... mistakes of other course participants can also be very "developing". When you're watching your colleague getting remarks, a metaphorical warning light turns on in your brain. Thereby you become aware of many errors before you'll make them yourself. What a time saver! Initially, pointing out errors publicly seems slightly... embarrassing. But look at this matter from a different angle: the more remarks you get, the more conclusions you can draw. Furthermore your splendidly bad example will serve your colleagues :) (nope, it wasn't comforting to me either).

3. Necessity of drawing under pressure and awareness that your work will be evaluated. Maybe it doesn't sound like "oh so fun", but it helps to develop more "responsible" attitude to drawing. And it's not as unpleasant as it seems (though, after that, drawing at home is a pure relax).

4. It helps you to accustom yourself with  presenting your artworks to a real  audience (even if it consists of your tutors and other participants of the course). It's a completely different feeling from putting a drawing on the Internet. It also teaches you to accept criticism with dignity (i.e. you're able to hold back bursts of crying in front of strangers).

5. New exciting friendships - for many people it's a BIG PLUS to meet individuals with the same interests. Well... as an extremely alienated teenage girl I hadn't benefited from this aspect. In hindsight I  regret it a little, but, as written above, we learn best from our mistakes.

6. Maybe you have some insights on art classes? I'd love to get to know them! 

After rereading first 4 points I got a strange impression, that attending drawing classes can appear as series of stress and humiliation... I have no idea why. But in reality it's not that bad! (in most of cases)
  

At the end here are some of my works made during art classes (long, long time ago):

 

SILENCE

"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers (...)Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?"

"Trainspotting", movie

    My recent (haha) silence on this blog might indicate that I gave up drawing and sank into idleness...

Or, what's even worse, that I got a "real" job.

But during that time I was  swamped with making illustrations for commercial commissions, which I cannot reveal until they will be officially published as images for magazines, books, cd albums etc. So several posts (and illustrations) are still waiting patiently on my computer disc for release to the Internet. 

P.S. What you  can see on the top of this post is nothing but a rough photomontage. I NEVER watch TV.

    Moje milczenie na blogu ostatnimi (haha) czasy mogłoby wskazywać na to, że zarzuciłam rysowanie i pogrążyłam się w błogim lenistwie...

Albo, co gorsza, zajęłam się "prawdziwą" pracą.

Tymczasem ostatnie miesiące to ciągłe ilustrowanie na potrzeby komercyjnych zleceń, których nie mogę opublikować do czasu ich oficjalnego ukazania się w postaci grafik do czasopism, książek, płyt itp. Tak więc kilka wpisów (i rysunków) czeka sobie cierpliwie w moim komputerze na uwolnienie do Internetu.

P.S. To, co widzicie na górze tego wpisu to ordynarny fotomontaż. NIGDY nie oglądam telewizji.

INTRO

"Nikt prawie nie wie, dokąd go zaprowadzi droga, póki nie stanie u celu."

                                                              J. R. R.Tolkien

"Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come to its end." 
J. R. R.Tolkien

...Dobrze jest rozpocząć  mądrym zdaniem. Teraz będzie pod górkę, ponieważ pisanie traktowałam zawsze jak najgorszą karę. Jeszcze w latach szkolnych perspektywa poparzenia wrzątkiem napawała mnie mniejszą grozą  niż wizja pisania wypracowań. 

That's a brilliant sentence, but from now it’ll be only harder because I’ve always treated writing as the worst punishment. When I was in highshool the necessity of writing an essay threatened me more than a perspective of burning myself with boiling water.

 Dla tego zamiast masy tekstu znajdziecie tu głównie moje rysunki i będziecie mogli zobaczyć, jak krok po kroku powstawały. Nie obędzie się również bez tutoriali. Ku mojemu (jakże przyjemnemu) zaskoczeniu  otrzymałam sporo wiadomości, że są przydatne, a ja bardzo lubię czuć się potrzebna (chyba, że chodzi o pomoc w gotowaniu, sprzątaniu i temu podobnych, nikomu niepotrzebnych drobiazgach). Wreszcie będę tu zamieszczać szkice koncepcyjne i fragmenty pewnego większego projektu, który, mam nadzieję, niedługo ujrzy światło dzienne.

That’s why instead of a lot of text you’ll find here mostly my drawings and you’ll be able to see how they were created step by step. It won't do without tutorials. To my pleasure surprise I’ve gained a lot of messages that my tutorials are useful and I just love to feel needed (unless it's about cooking, tidying and other unimportant trifles). Finally I’ll be putting here concept sketches and parts of a bigger project which will see the light of day soon (I hope so).

Oto kilka moich prac (w celu zachęcenia Was do regularnego odwiedzania bloga):

Here are some of my works (to encourage you to visit my blog regullary):