Business of Illustration class is live!

[Lee White]

I'm so glad you guys are enjoying it! To answer some of your questions:

• My originals are typically painted at 18x24 which fits in a 22x28 frame. This size is a good one for both traveling and keeping the art at a reasonable size. Small paintings aren't any easier to do and don't get near the price the bigger ones do.

• I get the editorial work from the postcards I originally sent 10 yerars ago. They have been a loyal group and I like working with them. I don't currently send out anything because I'm overbooked right now and have been for the past 5 years and actually want less work. That sounds like bragging, but I assure you it's not. It's as real a problem as not having enough work and can lead to burn out or low quality work. Being overbooked can kill your business too strangely enough.

• Glad you are enjoying the time management tips. They are great for gettting you back on track. Once I click that little timer I go into super focus mode and it just tells my brain to WORK ON THIS ONE THING right now. Don't be too hard if you don't hit all of them. THat's just the way it goes. I live by the 80/20 rule. If I hit 80% of what I write down, then I'm typically doing fine. There will always be unexpected interruptions, etc. and that needs to be accounted for as well.

I was worried that the video might come across as "scary" or intimidating because I don't candy coat any of it. I scared the hell out of the college class I spoke to, but I still think honesty is what's needed. The way I see it is the industry does offer many opportunities if you know how the system works. I know many illustrators making a great living at this.

[evilrobot]

I did have a question about the Photo Deck website you set up. It looks amazing. Was wondering if I'd need to know a lot of web design to set something like that up or if that's pretty easy to set up through their system.

[Lee White]

Photodeck is made to be set up by people who don't know anything about website design. They have easy to use templates, etc. That said, I'd plan on spending a week or so to figure it out. I set mine up a few years ago, so maybe it's even easier now. I remember it being fairly intuitive but not totally easy. They have good instructions and you can see how each thing works on your site as you go.

I have the pro plan which is sort of expensive. it's $29 a month I think. It includes some things you probably don't need right now. Also, you may just want to not use them just yet if you don't have a body of work that will generate licensing sales. You can always experiment and then cancel if you aren't getting the work from it.

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

@Lee-White I think the fact that you don't candy coat things is hugely beneficial. I went from having an agent who loved everything and wanted to cast such a huge net by including so much including old work that is actually hurt my chances. It took you 5min to chop my portfolio down from 25 pieces to 9 and it was the best decision I could have made to agree with you and actually do it!!! PS I'm not going to say it didn't hurt a little bit.

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

@Lee-White You really do have to train your brain not to run off on a minutes notice to draw a bear riding a unicorn. You know the one that must be drawn right now! That is totally me! lol

I am off to buy a timer. I think splitting your day between two different projects as you showed us is great too...it helps to keep things fresh, especially for big projects like a book.

I'll take a look at Photodeck and you are right I may not need it just yet since I haven't even marketed to the licensing market or have pieces that are appropriate for it. In due time!!

@Rich-Green

"I need to take a good hard look at my portfolio - rework some of it and see what happens at a professional critique I have coming up at the SCBWI Wild Midwest Conference. Let the voice of the "customer" speak on where I really stand and if I have what it takes artistically."

I think it is awesome that you are going to an SCBWI Conference. I think it will help if you focus your style and really gear things towards children's books if that is ultimately what you want. Right now your stuff is a bit too scattered which I think you are aware of anyway. You're exploring which is perfectly fine too, but when you present it make sure it has more focus. As Lee said, don't share everything on your portfolio. I would also think about really diving into watercolor....after looking at your portfolio ...the Chicago piece REALLY stands out. Now you would have to figure out how to make that work for childrens books too but you seem to have nice watercolor instincts so you may want to explore that more if you love doing it. Luckily, you have an ace watercolor instructor here in @Lee-White to help lead the way!

You also seem to have a bunch of mini-portfolio's on your landing page and there is some really cute images there but I think if children's books are the way you want to go then you need to have your main landing page focus on that market. One or two styles that you love to work in and that compliment each other. Then maybe work the other images/work on to a secondary page where you explain what each project was. Someone else may have better advice here but those are my first thoughts.

Also ultimately, only you can decide if you have what it takes to make it artistically...are you willing to put in the time and effort it takes to keep jumping to the next level. My stuff from 3 years ago is no where near what I am doing right now. I could have easily walked away and traveled a MUCH easier path but I loved it too much to listen to my own self-doubt or the negative opinions of people around me. Being stubborn helps too!

You have to decide how much you are willing to do and sacrifice to get what you want....PS it is NEVER boring!!
I hope this helps and doesn't confuse you....keep going and keep creating!!

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

This is the kitchen timer I found for my studio #cuteness!! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E9M3BSI?keywords=Owlet kitchen timer&qid=1457465585&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

He'll go nicely with my Daryl Dixon Bobblehead from The Walking Dead.

[Lee White]

I use a digital one on my mac. Here's a link: http://xwavesoft.com/pomodoro-timer-for-iphone-ipad-mac-os-x.html

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

@Lee-White Wow, it even tracks your progress...look at you all high tech! That is not surprising. Mine is cute, but it doesn't do any of that and you have to manually turn it! LOL it did come in assorted colors though

Do you keep your to do list on that too?

[Lee White]

I keep my list in ical which is easy and I can change it pretty quick. You want a system that is adjustable and can adapt to your changing schedule.

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

@Rich-Green Here is an illustrator who uses watercolor and ink well with relatively loose lines and somewhat simple characters and watercolor washes. I'm not sure if he is working traditionally or digitally or both and I'm sure it is harder to accomplish than it looks but his work is really appealing in the children's book market. He doesn't over complicate it. http://www.matthewcordell.com/work.html

His style reminds me a bit of Quentin Blake http://www.quentinblake.com/ Loose line and watercolor washes but really interesting characters etc

I'm a fan of watercolor and ink....can you tell?

[Rich Green]

@Charlie-Eve-Ryan - Funny you should bring up Matthew Cordell - he actually did my first ever portfolio review at a one day SCBWI Conference back in November. And I had met him prior to that when he came to speak at one of our monthly meetings. He is from the area and a tremendously nice guy - and quite successful in this industry as you might imagine.

I did not have any of the watercolor stuff I had done in my printed portfolio so it was not anything he would have been aware of me working on to offer me advice/input. But he did pick up on the same thing that Lee had told me about my piece with the kids staring into the sea lion tank at the zoo - where the characters were too flat/outlined in comparison to the depth of the way I had painted the backgrounds. That is a piece I was considering revisiting for my portfolio update by changing out the characters to the newer way I render things without the outlines.

My printed portfolio does vary some from what is currently online - as I can not publicly post much of the work I am currently doing for the client projects yet - until they share it online or the books come out. But that said it is all currently being done in the rendered style of the images with the kids in them more or less.

I think you are right though - maybe I do over complicate the scenes with shading/texture/rendering technique details. But at the same time I find myself so drawn to work that has that sort of stuff in it. I just keep pushing to get better at it.

Since being laid off from my former 17+ year career when they shut down our office a few years ago - I, like you, have spent all of my time and energy in the past 2 and a half years focusing on getting better and trying to build a name for myself in the world of illustration. I too have seen a tremendous amount of change and improvement in that time - and honestly even with in person courses at School of the Art Institute in Chicago - it is the SVS courses and watching all of the critiques and 3rd Thursday reviews that had the biggest impact.

I realize now that I have given up way too much of my time on projects that provide little income and less ability for me to do my own thing. And that is definitely going to change as I mentioned. I may have to consider some sort of "day job" as my savings has lasted me far longer than I would have imagined since being let go - but it wont last forever. The only sacrifice I do not want to have to make is my house, I really want to keep it as I am down to 9 years left on the mortgage now. But otherwise I have cut out so many things to try and pursue this dream - and I am not giving up on it yet!!!

[Dulcie]

@Lee-White Thanks very much for doing this class! It actually means a lot to me to hear people like you and @Will-Terry (in his videos) talk about running a business as an artist like it’s not a bad word or a sell-out thing to do, and that having a business mindset is a good thing…because I feel like I’m in the minority to be creating products myself, and sometimes I’ve wondered ‘should I be doing this? It’s not an ‘arty’ thing to do!’ ...it is very commercial and I have to please my customers rather than myself… I’d like to carve out some more creative freedom by working in other areas too (e.g. books) ..because right now it all has to be cute or pretty…I’d love to do more quirky things for money too! Nevertheless, it’s given me the income to do art full-time.

I’m only 45 mins into the class, but enjoying it a lot and definitely recognising what you are saying from our own experience of starting/running a business. For example, our first ever product, (eight years ago now) did not sell well - after so much effort! - and we had to go back, ask questions, refine the product, and try again. (and it worked better! ..and better, and better, the more we learned..)

The other thing I really like so far is seeing how you organise your website, with the licensing options. Even before I watched this, it’s been on our to-do list to create a licensing website, which would be separate from our current (craft-focused) website…

You see, I create paper packs like this…each one needs 12 separate designs and I spend a LOT of time doing original art to make them, but we don’t currently do anything else with the designs, apart from creating this one product (and some giftwrap), which is not maximising the possible income…and I have a huge library of other designs. So seeing how you do your website is really interesting. I’m sure the rest of the course will be just as interesting!

[Jiří Kůs]

Great class, Lee! You really dont hear this stuff anywhere, I thought I have some good knowledge from watching Jakes, Wills and Oatleys videos/podcasts, but you went even deeper. Its funny that I originally subscribed to watch Jake draw robots...and then...hmmm new video by Lee, might watch it aswell

I have lots of thoughts now, lots of doubts, but the goal is still the same, finish the goddamn portfolio

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

@Dulcie Love your paper craft licensing art! That sounds like a great way to go while you build your children's book work.

I have people say you should do licensing, too and I say maybe someday, that could be fun...but it is a WHOLE different animal...entirely different market audience with a whole different portfolio and set of contacts lol. People have a tendency to think everything is easily interchangeable. I'd have to dedicate a boat load of time to make it fly.

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

@Rich-Green That's awesome that you got to meet Matthew Cordell, he does seem like a pretty great guy via social media etc...really awesome style.

All these questions about which way to go are all hard. I've spent many a night as you have too, trying to figure it all out. I've also watched your progression for sometime and it has been really great to watch. You should be really proud of all the time you have put in and what you are putting out.

One of the things I've done and it is a plus and a minus is I became really aware of my weaknesses ie perspective and detailed backgrounds. Keeping things simple from a design POV really helped.

When you look at my portfolio for the most part I'm highlighting my strengths ie simple designs/textures and people sort of, but at the same time as @Lee-White pointed out it highlights my weakness (perspective and backgrounds...I focus on characters way more then setting) so I'm working on fixing that in order to jump to the next level and let's be honest perspective may always be a bear for me. We may never ever get along! LOL But, besides maybe the forums, those illustrations where I am practicing techniques or experimenting a lot won't make it into my portfolio until I am much much more satisfied with the outcome.

I don't have any idea if that is the right way to go and Lee may say something different but I think for a portfolio overall you want to really analyze your strengths vs your weaknesses.

Does any of that makes sense?

Also if you love highly rendered styles keep pushing for it...overall I think it is a harder mountain to climb because it is way harder to pull of successfully and the level of competition is higher and since it takes longer can eat into your profit margins. Ultimately, you have to do what you love doing every day. What makes you wake up and put the brush to the canvas!! BTW, I LOVE your Bambi!!

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

@Lee-White I can certainly understand how being overbooked can spiral quickly. It's no wonder you set up a good time management plan, that is a ton to juggle.

[Charlie Eve Ryan]

I'm watching it for a second time. When you broke down all the ways to sell one image that blew my mind too and made me realize I should start doing more traditional paintings in addition to digital.

[Sarah LuAnn]

Just got finished listening (finally, haha). Lots of great info! But now I'm feeling nervous since I got through school with mostly B's ;-). I'll keep moving forward, though.

Definitely think the next thing on my list has to be to step back and not push myself to work for a week so I can get my office organized and functional, as well as setting a clearer schedule for what I want to do when. I'm pretty bad about keeping things organized but I definitely understand how it can help me.

I also wanted to share, for those who get easily distracted on the internet like me--I have a mac computer app I use called "self control" which helps me a lot. Basically it allows you to make a list of sites you want to block, and then you set a timer and it will just not allow you to use any of those websites for the amount of time you put on the timer. I bet this could work great alongside Lee's pomodoro technique--just set it for the 50 minutes or whatever that you want to focus on work, and you literally can't look at your email until the timer is up.

[A Former User]

Thank you so much for this class @Lee-White the information was great. My degree was in Fine Art, and I wonder what difference it would have made if a tutor had said to us "This is a terrible business model". It's so refreshing to hear honest and practical advice.

My biggest takeaways are that I definitely need to simplify my work process, put more figure work in my portfolio, and prove to potential clients that I would be a "safe pair of hands" for their project. The pomodoro timer has been amazing - it's like having a fitbit for creative work! Looking forward to the next videos!

[Rich Green]

It has been a few days since I watched this video and it is still having such a big impact on things here. I went into watching this course never expecting the section on being productive and efficient in your workday. I have been putting my version of the Pomodoro technique into use each day since and I can't believe how much I have gotten done. But even more so how much less stressed I feel too. I built in a daily walk with my dog, time out for exercise and a full day of work and it has been going so well so far. In these past few days alone I sketched and completed another full color illustration with the real life photo of a girl in it (this one was Alice in Wonderland) and it is probably some of my best posing/action of the illustrated characters along with some of my most detailed rendering work. I have completed many more of the base drawings for pages in one of the books I need to get completed. I am only a few pages away from having all 32 of them drawn out and ready for rendering. Here again some of my best work to date - taking into account perspective, character, environment - the list goes on and on but its all things I have been working on and become "aware" of from all of these courses here.

I have not yet figured out how I am going to approach rebuilding my portfolio just yet - but I am feeling so much more encouraged today than earlier this week. Thanks @Lee-White for such a great thought provoking class and @Charlie-Eve-Ryan for all of your input/comments here in this thread. It's all been so helpful!