Illustrator Tips
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.
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