Those freelance job sites for illustrator - yeh or neh?
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I use Upwork to hire people - and I would never go there to offer work. Upwork is dominated by freelancers who live in countries where 10 dollars a day is enough to live well. I only hire on Upwork if my budget is too small for a local provider - and so does everyone else, I’m afraid.
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Ι'll have to agree with you all. I used Upwork a few times in the past and my experience is nothing but good. I took 1-2 jobs, nothing special but after that as I was looking for job, the prices where too small! Especially, for artists.
But my struggle is... where can you find freelance job as an artist?
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I say neh, I did a job on Freelancer once for the same reason, to "dip my toe in". Basically the person was looking for an illustration for a T-shirt it was pretty simple. Essentially it was an open competition and if they picked your art you would get paid. Most submissions were manipulated stock images, original illustrations that were submitted were then taken by others and manipulated and resubmitted for the same job. A manipulated stock image was eventually chosen. Other illustration jobs on the site were very cheap. You'd be better off spending time doing your own personal project.
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@christinakal have you tried the postcard route. Send a load out and see what happens.
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@Jason-Bowen No, actually I haven't, because to do that I really need to have a solid portfolio to sent. This is my main focus right now. Studying here at SVS and build my portfolio. But, after that I think this is a good way to go!
Most likely you send samples of your work to potential clients/ agencies?
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Thanks everyone for responding - I had a feeling that was the type of stuff it was -little pay or very bad experience. Good to know
Cheers! -
@christinakal yes that's right. I'm not sure if there is any resources, classes on here to show how to set up a good postcard to promote your business? @Lee-White @Will-Terry @Jake-Parker
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@Jason-Bowen No, I haven't seen any, but the guys here on the forum are very very helpful when I need any help!
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@jason-bowen one of the classes does talk about it and mailing lists I think it is the portfolio class or it may be a third Thursday video
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I checked those website out but didn't accept any jobs as the pay was way too low. I think I once saw someone wanting to pay $100 for a 32 page children's book....
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I once had a fiverr and upwork account. Upwork shut down my account because i wasn’t getting any work because all of the job offers i was getting were very low budget and unrealistic so i declined them all. while fiverr’s rates of $5 per gig was just laughable. My simple illustration gigs take about a day to finish. How can i live off of 5 dollars per day? Sadly, i would not recommend it.
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I joined Upwork (as Elance before) and Fiverr. I done 2 jobs from Upwork some years ago but after that I never take any jobs from there anymore. From my experience, most of the jobs there are low budget. Even for me who lived in Indonesia, is not possible to make living of it. But I think if you have a stable day job and illustrating only a side job (like I used to do), those websites are worth to try as a starting point. What you need to pay attention is some clients are scammer (my sister got some), see their reputation before taking any job.
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@jason-bowen @christinakal I've been reading through the following link about illustrators and their postcards. Its very informative and it gives a lot of different perspectives from illustrators.
Sub It Club Postcard Post
