Business of Illustration class is live!

karien · 16 Mar 2016, 06:33

I really love the idea of Photodeck but the pro-plan is a bit expensive if you want to start out.. Is there any other licencing webpage that we could try thats not so expensive?

Lee White · 16 Mar 2016, 13:32

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen You don't have to be doing work from stories per se. ABC books are great. The big idea is showing groups of images that go together. To an art director in publishing, a single image doesn't mean that much. But a group of images really lets them see how a project would look in terms of how they would use it.

@karien Unfortunately I haven't found it yet. I am beginning a new search this week to see what I can find. I don't like paying $30 a month that's for sure. But so far I haven't found it.

On that note, one big thing that will come up in the next video is that "It's much easier to spend less than it is to make more". It's a simple idea that is lost on most people in the United States. The less income you need, the easier all of this is. It is an extremely important idea that rarely gets mentioned in business because most are only concerned with the incoming money stream. Most americans are in debt and the idea of controlling spending as a business practice doesn't get mentioned much.

I'll let you know if I come across something

MOO · 16 Mar 2016, 20:57

@Lee-White Okay, thanks so much. I need to clean up and organize my studio, create a portfolio, finish my current project.... Lots to do now! I think I will organize my studio area and then create a map for myself to remind me where I put everything. I can't find my graphite stick for anything! Ha!

karien · 17 Mar 2016, 09:44

@Lee-White Thanks a lot!

jacs · 17 Mar 2016, 10:08

@lee-white thank you! It's so refreshing to get the straight info. The phrase 'fake work' is still ringing in my ears! Best get back to it... Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Ben J Hutchison · 18 Mar 2016, 13:14

@Lee-White Seriously a game changer of a course. So straight forward and concise. After watching I've already retooled my website, rewrote my about me page, and picked up the CWIM 2016 book from the library. On that note, how important is it to get the latest copy? I own one from 2014 but picked up the 2016 because I was afraid that the older books become irrelevant. Thanks for teaching Lee!

evilrobot · 19 Mar 2016, 13:16

sell media I found this plug in for Wordpress while I was surfing around the net looking for shopping cart add ons for my current website. Looks like it might be OK but you have to have a wordpress site to use it. Might be a viable alternative

Rich Green · 20 Mar 2016, 23:42

I got the following from a friend via facebook message earlier today:

"I've got a potential client for you... a colleague/friend of mine is editing a book, and he needs an artist to create about 20 line art illustrations for the book. He's envisioning them as quick-sketch sort of illustrations that visualize the various storylines - nothing in great detail (perhaps 30 minutes per illustration, that sort of thing).

Nearly all would be old western scenes, such as a couple in a buckboard, 2 men on horseback, an artist painting a western street scene... Does this sound like something you might be interested in?

I must've talked you up well, because once I finished describing your work, my friend said, "I don't think I can afford someone like that!" (smile emoticon) He doesn't have a huge budget but there is a budget!

Let me know if you'd like to learn more and I can connect the two of you. (He can send you a sample chapter and more information). Hope all is well on your end!"

Now I know my friends heart is in the right place and it does feel good to think that folks speak highly of me/my work. But you know what felt even better - politely saying No to this entire thing.

A few months ago I would have jumped on something like this and sold myself short in the process. I am currently working my way through two self published author books now, that I know will never make me a proper return on my huge investment of time to complete them. I have long been plagued by being an amiable personality type - friends with everyone, people pleaser etc. The problem with that is I continue to learn everyone else may end up happy when I do that but not me.

And I have learned so much from the you tube videos of @will-terry and this class from @lee-white, now to know that my time will be much better spent working on my portfolio, my own personal projects and staying the course to get proper work via publishers someday. And that the road to being successful in this business (and in life) sometimes means you have to say No! Politely but still No.

I never felt so good saying No to anyone ever. Because saying NO to this was really saying YES to myself!

Lee White · 22 Mar 2016, 18:14

That's great Rich! And smart!

An old saying that I repeat to my class is "Anything you sayng YES to means you are saying NO to everything else". So make sure your decisions move you in the right direction. Sounds like you have figured it out! : )

Keep up the good work!

Lee White · 22 Mar 2016, 20:19

@evilrobot That looks very promising, thanks for the link. I"m going to test it over the next few days and see how it works...

evilrobot · 28 Mar 2016, 17:08

Was wondering if there is a release date for the next installment of the series? Just wondering no rush...just make it as awesome as the first part...thanks;)

Jiří Kůs · 28 Mar 2016, 17:23

@Lee-White I was thinking and I was wondering where would you put "fantasy/sci-fi illustration for (board) games and books" in your "our customer" breakdown. Is it too small market? For example, can Magic the Gathering artist make enough for a living? I dont think I will ever be able to get to this level, but I was thinking illustrating for some smaller card/board game companies, book covers, RPG books could be a viable option. I still got day job so I dont need to make living by doing such illustration, but I thought it could be a good start.

Lee White · 28 Mar 2016, 21:32

@Jiří-Kůs a few people have asked me about that. From my understanding, Magic the gathering is basically the same as working in entertainment. EXCEPT they pay far lower rates. They switched to keeping all the rights a while back and still do. They have loosened the restrictions about artists using the work in their own art books (how generous). But ultimately the rates are really weak.

Now, you can still use that to your advantage. They have a HUGE audience and if you do a couple of jobs it can increase your exposure dramatically. Then hopefully you can switch to high paying entertainment work, or maybe get jobs where you own the work and keep the rights.

I'll do some more research and put it in the next video (which I am working on now).

In the meantime, here's some reading on the subject: http://www.vandalhigh.com/blog/2015/7/3/the-problems-with-artist-pay-on-magic

Jiří Kůs · 28 Mar 2016, 21:47

@Lee-White wow, that artice, just wow.

Leslie Walker · 29 Mar 2016, 21:27

@Lee White thank you so much for the eye openers. I have a studio in Phoenix and show in galleries but I have been really terrible at my business model. My art is all over the place. My website is a mess and I am awful at time management. I have started to implement the scheduling tips and I will be deleting all of my art from my website and starting over.

I did not go to school for art. I went for health care so I have been winging it for years now. I am really happy to have found the youtube videos that led me to SVS. I am looking forward to the rest of this series.

kamiqueiroz · 6 Apr 2016, 16:08

@Lee-White I just finished this class and it was amazing! Thak you so much! I have never thought bout my rights over the images, and It´s making me rethink the way I negotiate my projects. Unfortunately, I realised that i´m working on a great project, but with a really unfair payment right now But this was good to teach me and to take more care in my next jobs. Now I´m more than certain that I want to get out of entertainment and get into Children´s book area

I have a few questions about the class.
1 - How does the royalties work? Does the publisher have a stablished percentage above the product, or something like this?

2- What´s the amount of time you are used to spend in a Book´s project?
I know this depends on the ammount ou money and pages, but I only want a reference. Nowadays, I´m used to stablish my price based on my hour value, and I feel that sometimes it isn´t the great way to charge.

karien · 12 Apr 2016, 09:20

@Lee-White I have a question....If you load illustrations up on your webpage for licensing. Do you upload a JPG or TIff? and must it be CMYK or RGB?

Lee White · 13 Apr 2016, 00:03

@karien typically I upload a high resolution RGB file. That way they can use it for web if needed or convert to cmyk for printing

karien · 14 Apr 2016, 10:15

@Lee-White Cool thanks!

Lisa M Griffin · 3 May 2016, 15:33

I really enjoyed this class and have listened to it more than once. I find it helpful and encouraging how Lee discusses the practicalities of an artist having multiple income streams. Certainly the way he has designed his website is a smart one with the availability/access to prints and originals. My problem is I have squarespace and personally, it doesn't seem as easy to navigate the storefront option - pricey in my opinion and looks to be somewhat complicated to intricate paypal for processing.