Swedish illustrators looking for work - how and where?
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Hello! I'm from Sweden, and I've just started my illustration business and begun looking for work. Are there any illustrators here who work in Sweden and have suggestions on how to get my first jobs?
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I would suggest starting with freelance websites to get your first orders and make a portfolio for yourself.
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Hey Arthur. If I'm not mistaken, I heard the guys answering your question on the Podcast two episodes ago, so I know you're looking for breaking into children's books, right?
I heard 3PP's interview with Simona Ceccarelli and she's a big fan of book fairs, especially for those of us living in Europe (if you haven't seen that one, check that out). And also, I remember you hearing on the podcast that you have an income buffer, as your spouse is taking care of the bills for the moment or something like that (I know it sounds like I completely stalked you but it's just that on the same episode they answered your question, they also happened to answer mine right afterward, so I heard that episode like 5 times already haha). So based on that I would leave the paying jobs for the future, and instead focus on building my portfolio super tightly so that I can make a good impression on a couple of them book fairs and hope to land a job or an agent from there. I did a bunch of jobs for the freelance sites when I was starting out, many years ago, and the only good thing I can say about them is that they help you cut your teeth by being a professional and interacting with clients and all that. If you already have that kind of experience from other areas, it's not worth that much the hassle, imo. You won't be paid nearly enough what your work is worth. That all being said, you can be the judge of whether or not that fits you,
I am in the exact same spot as you right now - with the difference that I live in Spain, not Sweden - so I'd love to see how things are working out for you in that regard, please keep some updates around here on how that goes.
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@Alicia-Bannon Thats a good idea, do you have any suggestions on websites?
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@Raphael-Berthoud Hey, no worries, I don't feel stalked. A lot of us are in the same boat; I've stalked my fair share of artists going through what I am. I understand that the freelance websites are not going to make me create high-quality work and are badly paid. But an idea struck me when Alicia mentioned this above. There is an illustration union in Sweden that has a portfolio site for Swedish artists. But to be part of that, you need to do 5 paid jobs first, so getting any kind of work would help me reach that goal.
Right now, after being in the podcast, I am planning to do more sequential art like they mentioned, and this seems to be a good thing to have in a portfolio. So, I'm writing small stories with like 4-5 frames and then I'm going to illustrate them. That's my plan now anyway.
Thank you for your advice, and I will try to post in this thread. Hope things work out for you as well; these are not easy times for artists.
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@Arthur-Campling As far as portfolio websites go, I've been building mine recently through squarespace, it's super user-friendly for me, having full control on every little detail with zero knowledge on coding so it's not intimidating. You will want to pay for your own website's domain name since what they give you for free is COMPLETELY random and hard for people to copy to find you.
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@kayleenartlover Yes thanks I've got a website on squarspace, it was as you said really easy. I've got it under my signature here
You have really nice characters on your website, well presented too. I'm going to do some projects now, so maybe I will do somthing similar with my homepage, where you can click on an image and come to the project.
