Episode Details

MY ART IS GREAT, WHY WON’T ANYONE HIRE ME?

Will got a really long letter from an artist who felt that they had done everything they were supposed to, they felt that their work was great, and they were frustrated that they still weren’t getting work.

Jake and Will looked over this artist’s work and felt that the work was pretty good but not great. It was missing the style that fit the market that the artist wanted to go into. The style didn’t match the genre. You can’t do characters that look like they belong in World of Warcraft for a children's book.

Often, it’s not that you can’t draw or paint, but that you are missing the mark on where you need to go. Your style isn’t hitting the mark with what you want to go into. Your style needs to match the intended audience.

WORK ON YOUR CRAFT

Sometimes we feel that when we can render something nice, we have arrived, and we feel really good about ourselves. While that’s a great start, and an important step, this is really “fool’s gold.” There is a lot more to good illustration than just drawing well, and making things look 3-dimensional.

You never “arrive.” There is always an area to further grow or to better master.

Never convince yourself that there is nowhere else to grow.

There is a difference between drawing well, and creating a very engaging product.

The first step in getting professional work is to work on your craft, develop good drawing skills, good perspective, shadows, and light and color.

After mastering your craft, the second step is discretion. To not over render things, to not add too many highlights. You need to learn what to leave out. You need to learn what to illustrate and add. The artistry is figuring out what to put down, and what to leave out.

CONDUCT A SELF-AUDIT

You need a combination of a self audit, and a professional audit.

You need to conduct a Self-Audit, as outlined below:

You need go through this honestly, it will take some time.

• Study the published things in the realm that you want to go in, and have the “right heroes”
• Pick 8 top illustrators, who are getting their work published, by the big publishers, i.e. Harper Collins, Random House, Scholastic, etc.
• Make a 9 Square grid. Put your best piece in the middle and surround it with a piece from those 8 illustrators that you admire
• Identify what you like about it. Don’t just say, “I love this!”, you need to verbalize specific things that you love about their work, create a specific list, and write it down. These are the things that you need to work on incorporating into your work.
• Hang the list by your desk in order to remember these principles and to try to incorporate them.

See Bart Forbes.

When you have an image that you really like, really analyze it, and dissect it. Don’t just say, “I like this image” and then move on. Really dissect it and look for specific things that are working well for you. Ask yourself, “What am I responding to?”

COPY, COPY, COPY

Many people have the attitude of: “I don’t want to look at other people’s work because I want to be original, I don’t want to copy.”

There is a false idea about originality that says you shouldn’t look at others people’s work, or that you shouldn’t copy or take inspiration from them.

Jake still looks at others work for inspiration. All great artists do.

You really don’t need to make it as hard as you’re making it! You say it comes from within, but really it comes from without and you process it and make it your own thing. Find the right artists to look at and let them flow through you. There is no way you can perfectly copy all things all the time, at some point you’re gonna mix something with something else, and with a little bit of yourself and a little bit of this other person, and you