Getting Back on the Horse

JetJet the Space Cadet- My Lesson Horse

A little  anecdote...

Last week I was at my horse riding lesson. I'm working up to jumping, doing the very beginning stages. I was instructed to ride in two point over ground poles with a small crossrail at the end. I was not used to riding in two point and encouraged the horse to trot too quickly. He started to canter then gathered himself into a full blown jump over this tiny 6" crossrail.

Needless to say, I didn't handle this too well. In non-horsey terms, I made the horse go too fast and I fell off. I was alright and escaped with just a small bruise under my eyebrow from where my helmet smacked into my glasses.

I was a little shaken up, but I hopped right back on and did the exercise correctly the second time- no problems.

I know I've applied this same lesson over and over again in my own business. When you run a business, sometimes it feels like nothing is going your way- clients aren't responding to their emails, business is slow and all of your marketing efforts aren't working.

Do you just stay down and give up? Or do you get back on the horse and redouble your efforts and keep moving forward?

Steal yourself, allow yourself to fall and feel bad about it, but don't stay on the ground. The sooner you dust yourself off and get back to work, the better your business will be!

What bumps and bruises have you had when trying to run your illustration business?

Friday Feature: Craig Spearing

Craig Spearing
Portfolio

I didn't realise it, but I've seen Craig's work before in many of the ArtOrder challenges. He has that vibrant, detailed style that really pops out at you. The movement and storytelling elements of his work are really impressive!

Be sure to check out his artwork on his portfolio!

Want to be featured? Feel a friend is deserving of the limelight? Send an email with a name, portfolio link and a sample of the work to be showcased on Colourisma!

"Improve Portfolio's Style" Experiment Week 2

Last week I assessed my portfolio and decided I could slim it down and remove extraneous pieces that weren't positively contributing to it. I also decided to work on a new piece to add to my portfolio and replace a current piece.

After some discussion with a fellow artist, I decided my time would be better spent improving some of the pieces already in my portfolio before making new ones from scratch.

I started off with my Monster Crab piece:

I worked this week on improving the sense of depth, the level of detail and some other aspects of the piece to push it up to the next level. I am still looking for feedback, but here is my update:

I think it's really important to be flexible when it comes to updating your portfolio. Don't set such a rigid path that you are unable or unwilling to change what you need to do to improve. Sometimes it's simply improving what you've already got, especially if it's a decent concept.

What have you learned from the process of updating your portfolio?

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The introductory offer for Find Your First Illustration Client... Today! ends March 1st, so be sure to pick up your copy for $9.99!

Check out the deal here while you can!

On Using Reference

When just starting out, artists can find themselves being confused about the various aspects of using reference for their art. A lot of this stems from not understanding what is and isn't "proper ettiquette" in the art realm.

I've met young artists or friends getting started in art who were terrified of using reference because they felt it was "cheating". They'd tell me their goals were to eventually draw so well that they wouldn't need reference. It seemed no matter how much I tried to explain that professional artists use reference all the time, and in fact, the best often use reference the most (James Gurney, for example), my advice went on deaf ears.

They were so caught up in the drama of their art circle, terrified of being accused of either using or not using reference that they had it stubbornly in their heads the only way to combat this was to look at other artist's work as little as possible and reference for what they were drawing even less, if at all.

This hurts you as an artist for a multitude of reasons:

• You stop learning. If you don't draw from life or photos, your brain simply can't remember all the intricacies of an object, leaving you with representational art (ie: a triangle equals a nose like how little kids draw) rather than informed, detailed drawings and paintings.
• You can't get inspired. Your brain is an amazing thing, it can come up with lots of things all on it's own, but I'd be willing to bet that's based on what you've seen and experienced thus far. Stop experiencing life, reference and art– your imagination runs dry.
• You're subject to subjective criticism. You will find yourself caring way too much about what "everyone else" thinks about your art. Critique is a wonderful thing, but depending on others to completely validate or invalidate your art is giving everyone else too much power.

What kinds of things were you scared of when you started drawing and posting your art online?

Friday Feature: Allen Douglas

Allen Douglas 

Portfolio

If you are a fan of high fantasy or different depictions of familiar characters, then you will love Allen Douglas' work. Already featured in Spectrum 17, his artwork shows a high degree of skill and has graced such publications as Penguin Putnam, Tor Books, Berkeley, Random House and HarperCollins. Be sure to look through his portfolio- you won't be able to stop from getting inspired!

"Improve Portfolio's Style" Experiment

So last week, I mentioned that art directors liked my illustrations, but continued to say my art was not in line with the style of their projects.

Here are the questions I asked myself and how I answered them.


Take a good look at my portfolio. Is there something I can cull from it TODAY to instantly make it more appealing to the types of places I'm submitting my portfolio?

First, I viewed my illustrations as thumbnails because I feel that doing so will quickly show the flaws in the portfolio that the art directors see, but I didn't.

Next, I wrote down some things that I felt I could improve upon, change, take out or add in...

I'm left with a more balanced portfolio and this step only took 5 minutes!

Consider the illustrations the companies are already using- how do mine not measure up?

I find that my portfolio says, "I do fantasy and sci-fi work, primarily centred around creatures." I submit to a lot of fantasy and sci-fi companies, so I find the subject matter fits. However, something isn't working, so I decided my portfolio could use more human or humanoid characters to show off the fact that I can do character design.

Style isn't something you can necessarily change overnight, but I do think that a lot of the times when people (even art directors) say "style", they can actually mean subject matter. I think contributing more character-centric pieces to the portfolio will help.

I feel the weaknesses in my current portfolio lay in lighting and contrast. I can tend to go overboard with contrast or the opposite- everything ends up washed out and the image looks too uniform with no definition. Some practice sketch sessions are in order!


Do a piece that isn't a direct copy of the company's already established illustrations, but more closely appeals to their product line and style.

I felt the piece that was probably the weakest was the Mystic Flame Studios Cover illustration. I want to leave it in my portfolio until I am finished with another to replace it as I do like the fact it has a lot of characters in it.

In my replacement piece, I think I will choose to do a small band of fantasy adventurers in an appropriate setting. I want the figures to stand out from the background and to have the right level of contrast- as well as being a dynamic and interesting image overall.

Next week, I will post my work on my portfolio piece. I will continue to pick out the weakest pieces in my portfolio until I've replaced them all. Eventually I will have a whole new portfolio to share with art directors.

Are you following along in the challenge? What are some challenges of reworking your portfolio?

Find Your First Illustration Client... Today!

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Should you work for free?

I found this awesome chart. Take some time to read it through, it's a great walk through to this important question that all to often we say "yes" to! (Look how many "yes's" are on there, by the way!)

Friday Feature: Cheong-ah Hwang

Cheong-ah Hwang
Portfolio
Store

I saw Cheong-ah's work earlier this week and just had to feature it! I absolutely love papercraft and when pieces are so excellently crafted, they deserve a bit of limelight. It was really hard for me to pick only one piece to feature, as the rest of her gallery is full of just as intricately done, wonderful pieces. Be sure to check out her portfolio!

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Since I am revamping this blog, I thought I'd take a minute to explain "Friday Feature".

I want to help support and highlight my fellow illustrators. I thought a feature on the blog might help bring new people to various artist's portfolios and help shine a light on the artist's artwork.

If you'd like to submit yourself or another deserving artist for the Friday Feature, please send your name and a link to your portfolio to colourisma@gmail.com! I will check out the portfolio and pick the piece that I feel is most representative of the body of work and post it on the blog along with the artist's name and portfolio URL.

Experimental Wednesdays

Thanks for following my updates so far! I've been thinking about ways to help fellow illustrators and one thing I thought to do was work on a project that usually I'd do privately, but make it a public experiment.

For the first experiment, I want to improve my portfolio. Specifically, I've been getting a lot of feedback lately from various art directors that while they really like my fantasy illustrations, they don't feel they match with their product line. After about 4-5 emails of this type, I think it's time to take stock and improve my illustration business and develop a plan of action to solve this issue.

What am I gunna do about it?

1. Take a good look at my portfolio. Is there something I can cull from it TODAY to instantly make it more appealing to the types of places I'm submitting my portfolio?
2. Consider the illustrations the companies already are using- how do mine not measure up?
3. Do a piece that isn't a direct copy of the company's already established line, but more closely appeals to their product line and style.

Now, feel free to watch, learn or even follow along in this experiment with me and post your results. I'd LOVE to get your feedback- things I could try next, things you tried and worked for you (or didn't)... I figure that in the worst case scenario, if the experiment flops, lesson learned and I made the mistake so you don't have to!

I'll check in next Wednesday to let you know what happened with my action plan from this week!

Plan on following the experiment with me? Comment to let me know!

Find Your First Illustration Client ebook Countdown!

Next week, I will be launching the ebook Find Your First Illustration Client... Today!

If you are frustrated when...

• No one seems to mention exactly how they find their clients.
• People suggest vague, unhelpful information like "Keep trying!"
• You are feeling like you are making no progress.

I'm really excited, as I feel this ebook will help a lot of people in the illustration community. Targeted toward beginners and artists having trouble finding clients alike, it shows you exactly what to do to be able to find and contact your next client!

Launch Sale!

In order to kick things off, the ebook will be available for $9.99! This sale only lasts for 2 weeks after launch, so be sure to mark your calendar ;)

The party starts in....

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New Year, New Beginnings!

Some rights reserved by rod amaru 

It's time for a new year... making resolutions, revisiting old ideas and making them fresh and new again. One of my resolutions this year is that I want to give something to the greater illustration community.

I know over the past year, I had a lot of questions about certain topics and I couldn't ever find the answers and had to learn how to do everything the hard way. Plenty of places offer advice on how to make your portfolio better or how to become a better artist, which are definitely important topics, but no one wants to really talk about the boring day-to-day business side of being an illustrator.

I want this site to be for freelance illustrators- to specialise in the nitty gritty stuff of the art world. Blending aspects of marketing, finance, accounting, and various illustration markets.

Here's to a new year!