Hello, Darlings

[Mr Anonymous]

Thanks for the compliments. I will always do traditional drawing for practice, to keep my skills good. I love folk art and folklore very much, and I'm sticking to that style for now.

It's a choice that shines in your work, pretty much what drew me to it. Absurd as it sounds, but you actually look happy doing it - it's something in the quality of the pieces. Hard to define exactly, but there nevertheless. And a good choice it is to - with your exact sort of cultural background and heritage to draw upon, not only do you come with source of inspiration ready built as it were, it's a particular niche market western art collectors find both highly charming and collectible. Pass you're folio around a few of the smaller modern galleries, I don't think you're going to find much problem getting a bit of gallery space...

Ok, to be honest, it's just as tough here as it is where you are. When I graduated, I thought getting a job would take only a couple of weeks. My buddies take only a few weeks to find a job; although they come out looking for any job and end up with a position that's nowhere near their professional goals. I sent out resumes, called, and visited every day for two months and got positive responces only from start-up companies that offered unpaid internships. Printing is expensive and nobody wants to trust the design to someone with no experience (well, duh). They always say polite words, but their tone of voice is such as if they're wondering why the fuck you're calling. I came across an art director that was talkative and phoned her once a week and begged her for a chance. I'm very lucky that she needed an assistant. And my luck is enormous, because the publishing house is owned by another one in Britain, so I'm a few steps closer to my goal than I was initially hoping to be. I've only been working for a couple of weeks, but I've learned a good deal already and I'm dancing in glee every day. I guess it will be easier for me to get work as I gain experience.

Oodles more, believe it and if you enjoy your current position as much as you say, the longer you stick with the company the better placed you'll be for applying for in-house positions. Toughest thing is always getting your foot through the door - once you have and you find your actually talking to a human being, things start moving. I'm very, very pleased for anyone who not only gets a break but has the smarts to know how to use it - plus, actually enjoying your work - bonus.

I've also heard art directors say that they only work with artists who have representing agents. It'd help if I'd have one because I have no connections, but I decided that I'll find myself a rep. after I earn some money. A rep. would want to advertise in those annual promotion books and that's very expensive.

Well, first off, do always bear in mind - it's your agent who is supposed to be the one promoting you - that means they pay, you pay them back on a percentage basis based on sales only. Hear anything at all about such-and-such a place expecting money upfront for promotional work and politely tell them to swivel.

Yes, picking up adequate, let alone half descent representation - tricky. Very. Personally I ended up getting so sick of being either arsed around and/or fobbed off with crap from my early experiences with them I walked and never went back. This isn't to say I don't still to this day look back and still keep my ear to the ground, but I just gave up on the fine art market years back and concentrated on commercial/graphic work instead. You work for am editor or art manager, demonstrate your a can-do sort and they come back to you and take you're call when you're fishing for a commission. It's very hand to mouth, not to everyones tastes I'm certain, but I can honestly say I'm still learning through working and every job I get under my belt teaches me something I never actually knew before.

The education process really never stops, just the academic side of things.

You can get by admirably well without an agent: its contacts you need and favourable opinion regarding what you do and how you do it. Granted, your own art director may not want to show you around too much - but that you can always interpret as a good sign. If they like you, they'll really like you and want to keep you for their firm, no one else's.

In the meantime there are dozens of publications in NY, magazines. periodicals etc. They all use freelancers, you can increase both your folio and your visibility by getting a couple of them to take you on as a feature illustrator.

Pick a mag you like, pick a feature from it you like, recomposit it with a style and presentation you feel both suits the magazine and what you enjoy doing - make a few calls, see if anyone minds you running a couple of jpegs over to them. You don't need representation and, unlike what it says in all the books, get in touch by phone with the editor first and enquire if they're in the market for viewing your work. Oddly editors like people with pluck who deliver and on time. At the end of the day, it's all they really care about. Some will undoubtedly just pass you on to their art editor, but others take a more hands on approach. Ultimately its these people who have the final yay-or-nay on everything.

I know your new job will be keeping you busy for the time being, but incredibly sooner or later you start getting on top of things and find you have more free time. Not going to happen over night and all that, but it's something to think about as the weeks pass on and work becomes more manageable, more routine.

In either respect, you continue to learn and as long as you get that sort of experience, with pay no less, life is better than merely average and that's the only way, really, to live it.

My very best,

A

 

[whitewolf]

Whitewolf:

How do you like city?

I'm rather fond of Union Square.

Union Square is awsome in Manhattan.

Are you guys in the neighborhood often? Perhaps we should go for lunch.

It's a choice that shines in your work, pretty much what drew me to it. Absurd as it sounds, but you actually look happy doing it - it's something in the quality of the pieces. Hard to define exactly, but there nevertheless. And a good choice it is to - with your exact sort of cultural background and heritage to draw upon, not only do you come with source of inspiration ready built as it were, it's a particular niche market western art collectors find both highly charming and collectible. Pass you're folio around a few of the smaller modern galleries, I don't think you're going to find much problem getting a bit of gallery space...

The entire world seems to be in a folk craze lately. Many feel that the whole globalization thing is a threat to individual identity, cultural differences, and so on. Unfortunately, this trend will disappear, like all other trends. I like folklore simply because it's so... colorful.

Oodles more, believe it and if you enjoy your current position as much as you say, the longer you stick with the company the better placed you'll be for applying for in-house positions. Toughest thing is always getting your foot through the door - once you have and you find your actually talking to a human being, things start moving. I'm very, very pleased for anyone who not only gets a break but has the smarts to know how to use it - plus, actually enjoying your work - bonus.



Well, first off, do always bear in mind - it's your agent who is supposed to be the one promoting you - that means they pay, you pay them back on a percentage basis based on sales only. Hear anything at all about such-and-such a place expecting money upfront for promotional work and politely tell them to swivel.

Yes, picking up adequate, let alone half descent representation - tricky. Very. Personally I ended up getting so sick of being either arsed around and/or fobbed off with crap from my early experiences with them I walked and never went back. This isn't to say I don't still to this day look back and still keep my ear to the ground, but I just gave up on the fine art market years back and concentrated on commercial/graphic work instead. You work for am editor or art manager, demonstrate your a can-do sort and they come back to you and take you're call when you're fishing for a commission. It's very hand to mouth, not to everyones tastes I'm certain, but I can honestly say I'm still learning through working and every job I get under my belt teaches me something I never actually knew before.

The education process really never stops, just the academic side of things.

You can get by admirably well without an agent: its contacts you need and favourable opinion regarding what you do and how you do it. Granted, your own art director may not want to show you around too much - but that you can always interpret as a good sign. If they like you, they'll really like you and want to keep you for their firm, no one else's.

In the meantime there are dozens of publications in NY, magazines. periodicals etc. They all use freelancers, you can increase both your folio and your visibility by getting a couple of them to take you on as a feature illustrator.

Pick a mag you like, pick a feature from it you like, recomposit it with a style and presentation you feel both suits the magazine and what you enjoy doing - make a few calls, see if anyone minds you running a couple of jpegs over to them. You don't need representation and, unlike what it says in all the books, get in touch by phone with the editor first and enquire if they're in the market for viewing your work. Oddly editors like people with pluck who deliver and on time. At the end of the day, it's all they really care about. Some will undoubtedly just pass you on to their art editor, but others take a more hands on approach. Ultimately its these people who have the final yay-or-nay on everything.

I know your new job will be keeping you busy for the time being, but incredibly sooner or later you start getting on top of things and find you have more free time. Not going to happen over night and all that, but it's something to think about as the weeks pass on and work becomes more manageable, more routine.

In either respect, you continue to learn and as long as you get that sort of experience, with pay no less, life is better than merely average and that's the only way, really, to live it.

My very best,

A

I still hope that the quality of my work will speak for itself. There's nothing that an agent would do that I can't do on my own. All I need is connections. So, after I'd get a few acquaintances, I'd drop the agent and proceed on my own. I heard they take about 25%.... So, it's whatever the miniscule amount I'd get for a job minus 25% for the agent minus taxes....

I realized I don't like begging for work. However, as a freelancer, I'm more free than a regular office worker. It's my dream to freelance and do picture books.

It seems more reasonable to freelance as a designer or an illustrator and also to sell the work in galleries. There are some good fine artists nowadays, but nothing comparable to Warhol or any of the demi-gods in history books; so there's room for talent and invention. It's possible to do that here, in US, because the copyright law allows the artist to collect money from every way in which a single work of art can be used. That still doesn't make artists rich, but it's enough to make them happy. I've often been told that fine artists don't regard illustrators as artists and vice versa. There are different programs for fine arts and illustration in colleges; in some, the fine arts curriculum is superior to illustration, and in others it's the other way around. Illustrators end up doing design work, too, eventhough the training for these two professions is different as well. I still hold the old-fashioned view that an artist ought to be able to do everything related to art.

I wish you lots of luck and success too. Do you have a web site? Can we view more of your work?

 

[Mr Anonymous]

The entire world seems to be in a folk craze lately. Many feel that the whole globalization thing is a threat to individual identity, cultural differences, and so on. Unfortunately, this trend will disappear, like all other trends. I like folklore simply because it's so... colorful.

Well, yes. Both colourful and charming, hence the appeal. But as a "trend" goes, as you put it, it's been a pretty consistent one for about as long as I've been knocking around - and that's been far longer than I personally like to tell.

It's not exactly a bubble which is going to burst anytime soon.

I still hope that the quality of my work will speak for itself. There's nothing that an agent would do that I can't do on my own. All I need is connections. So, after I'd get a few acquaintances, I'd drop the agent and proceed on my own. I heard they take about 25%.... So, it's whatever the miniscule amount I'd get for a job minus 25% for the agent minus taxes....

Depends on the firm and where your marketing. Don't forget, galleries can take anything from 25% -45% plus on sales on top of what your agent charges, assuming you use as such to help get your work placed. Additionally, read very carefully the small print associated with what your agent feels they are entitled to taking a slice of whilst you are under a contract with them - it can get binding and rather acrimonious.

I realized I don't like begging for work. However, as a freelancer, I'm more free than a regular office worker. It's my dream to freelance and do picture books.

It seems more reasonable to freelance as a designer or an illustrator and also to sell the work in galleries. There are some good fine artists nowadays, but nothing comparable to Warhol or any of the demi-gods in history books; so there's room for talent and invention. It's possible to do that here, in US, because the copyright law allows the artist to collect money from every way in which a single work of art can be used. That still doesn't make artists rich, but it's enough to make them happy. I've often been told that fine artists don't regard illustrators as artists and vice versa. There are different programs for fine arts and illustration in colleges; in some, the fine arts curriculum is superior to illustration, and in others it's the other way around. Illustrators end up doing design work, too, eventhough the training for these two professions is different as well. I still hold the old-fashioned view that an artist ought to be able to do everything related to art.

.. I believe this is something to do with faculty snobbery, and has very little bearing on anything much outside the confines of full time education. Well, strictly speaking that isn't entirely true - but it's all stuff that has little do do with actual artists themselves, more those who wouldn't know one end of a paint brush from another if their lives depended on it.

Of course, all artists draw upon , use and explore any and all available avenues when finding what works with little regard as to the particular provenience of whatever particular discipline they may be drawing from - art dictates itself, not the market.

Though, that in the history of ever, never stopped those that dictate the market from believing themselves in someway pivotal with regard to Art.

I wish you lots of luck and success too. Do you have a web site? Can we view more of your work?

Your terribly kind, thank you. Lamentably, not currently - or should I say, nothing I'd personally want to flog around and happily put a pseudonym to. Not at the minute at anyrate....