I get a lot of email from kids asking, "How can I become
an illustrator?" Here are some tips that might help.
For most artists, skill is the product of hard work. Some
ability is important, but you must have the dedication
to refine your talent. Few are born with amazing abilities.
It sounds cliché, but perseverance is paramount.
You should develop your skills as an artist first. Always
look for opportunities to improve.
You should also nurture any relationships with publishers,
newspaper editors, magazine writers—people that work
in areas where illustration is used. Don’t be overly
ambitious about it, but understand that these are the people
that can recommend you when the need arises.
As a new artist, you should start small. Get your foot
in the door by contacting a local newspaper or weekly magazine.
Ask them if you can do an illustration for an article.
Maybe they have a story coming up that you can do something
nice for.
Don’t plan to make any money off it. Just tell them
you’d like to be an illustrator and you need some
pieces in print for your portfolio. Let them know that
you’d like their input and if they don’t like
it they are under no obligation to run it. This includes
them in the process, and takes the pressure off.
More than likely they are going to want to see some work
first. Don’t show them too many things. Show them
three things that are amazing. You’ll get more jobs
from one amazing piece of work than you’ll ever get
from a hundred half-finished doodles.
If they give you a shot, be easy to work with, friendly,
even cheerful. Even if your work is dark and brooding,
you don’t have to be. I’ve worked for magazines,
newspapers, and ad agencies. The people that continually
get work are both talented artists and easy to work with.
Prima donnas rarely get work, and if they do, they rarely
get a second job. Look up the word “pretentious”.
Don’t be it.
If you bring something back, and they don’t like
it, be prepared to take their comments with a smile. No
one wants to work with someone that gets their feelings
crushed by constructive criticism. Everyone gets rejection.
More at first, but it never goes away. Ultimately the person
paying for the work wants to have a say. If you’re
a team player, criticism is part of collaboration. It’s
just part of the business.
If you spend a lot of time on something for a local paper
and they decide not to run it, don’t sulk about it.
Ask them if there’s an artist they like. Maybe you
can imitate them. Study that artist. Examine every detail
of their work. You want to develop your own style, but
at first it’s more important to focus on your technical
skill. Focus on getting better before you take another
shot.
Draw often. Consider every level of detail in objects,
people, anything you might draw. Our minds naturally want
to strip away levels of complexity. It’s natural
to reduce the world. Fight it. As an artist and illustrator
you should revel in detail. Even a tin can has folds and
creases you’ve never explored. Learn to draw them
from memory.
Don’t give up, but increase your skill considerably
before you exhaust all your local avenues of opportunity.
Once your technical skill has reached a threshold, people
will respond to your work.
Don’t waste your energy on fancy leather portfolios.
Focus on your work. Your artwork should be the presentation.
If your work is good, people will respond. No one is going
to turn away a great artist because his/her work wasn’t
in a leather portfolio tote.
If you’re a pleasure to work with, and have great
work to show, people will hire you. Just be positive, and
stay with it. Anything worth having is worth working for. |
