256 avsnitt • Längd: 65 min • Månadsvis
Illustrators Will Terry, Lee White, and Jake Parker talk about illustration, how to do it, how to make a living at it, and how to make an impact in the world with your art.
The podcast 3 Point Perspective: The Illustration Podcast is created by SVSlearn.com. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
Can you make it as a comic artist in 2025? Is this a dying market? Shawn Crystal gives his take on the modern comic industry and shares his advice to anyone hoping to see their work in print. Join the conversation!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How many ways can you monetize one illustration? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry teach how to make art that keeps on giving, plus how to popularize your IP and more!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
The legendary James Gurney joins Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White to talk about his life as an artist, from a train-hopping twenty-one-year-old to becoming one of the most iconic illustrators of our time.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Is it possible to make art with kids at home? Anthony Wheeler, Sam Cotterill, and Will Terry share how to balance parenting and creativity (without feeling guilty).
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Should I create my passion project even if it won’t pay well? Lee White and Anthony Wheeler discuss how to select a project, prioritize tasks, and advance your career while keeping the love of art alive.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How can we harness the power of stories in our marketing? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry teach how to appeal to emotions and share the “why” behind your work.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
In this episode, learn how to prioritize quality over quick hits (even if it means slowing down). Jake Parker, Sam Cotterill, and Lee White give their tips for creating art you’re proud to share.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Feel like you’re always rushing to the finish line? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss how to minimize anxiety during artmaking and the keys to creating successful work more frequently.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Can you identify a bad contract (without a lawyer’s help)? Samantha Cotterill, Anthony Wheeler, and Will Terry discuss what to look out for, plus how to stand out in a saturated market and more. Listen in!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Can your relationship survive your illustration career? Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White share how they’ve maintained healthy partnerships on the wild ride of artistic entrepreneurship. Listen and learn!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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What does Tom Cruise getting stuck in a time loop have to do with becoming a great artist? More than you’d expect! Learn how to iterate, how to avoid generic character designs (EVERYTHING has been done before, no exceptions!), and how you can supercharge your art skills with an online education for WAY cheaper than a traditional art school. Only on 3PP!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Is the life of an illustrator all it’s cracked up to be? Samantha Cotterill, Jake Parker, and Lee White compare what they anticipated to how their careers have shaken out.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
In this best-of episode, discover our top tips on finding, firing, and working with agents, featuring Jake Parker, Lee White, Will Terry, Anthony Wheeler, and Samantha Cotterill.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Is it possible to be financially stable as an illustrator? How can I motivate myself to do work I don’t enjoy? Sam Cotterill, Will Terry, and Anthony Wheeler share personal anecdotes and time-tested advice.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
In this live-recorded episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry review their goals for the year, the projects they worked on, and the best lessons they learned in 2024.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Do you want to make 2025 a year you’ll never forget? In this episode, Jake Parker explains the Japanese misogi challenge and how it applies to your creativity.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
From feeling inadequate to worrying about career viability, illustrators face many fears every day. Anthony Wheeler, Will Terry, and Lee White share their greatest career fears and how they face them (and you can too)!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How good of an illustrator are you and why does it matter? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share how to measure your skills and continue to grow with the new SVSLearn online community!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Are holiday books and products worth making? Jake Parker, Samantha Cotterill, and Anthony Wheeler discuss the pros and cons, best marketing practices for seasonal work, and more.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Do you struggle with the hours of sitting still and repetition that accompany artmaking? Illustrator Samantha Cotterill shares how to change that.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Should I focus on making money or making art? Anthony Wheeler, Will Terry, and Lee White discuss the balance of art and entrepreneurship, finding your niche, and the importance of creative play.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Struggling to get work and not sure why? The answer lies in your portfolio. Samantha Cotterill, Will Terry, and Lee White discuss how to turn your portfolio around and start attracting work in just a few months.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
In this episode, Jake Parker, Samantha Cotterill, and Will Terry share lightbulb moments that have impacted their careers in illustration. Tune in and see what lights come on for you!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How do you switch from practicing techniques to completing real projects? How do you choose which markets and projects are best for you? How do you keep it fun all along the way? Samantha Cotterill, Will Terry, and Anthony Wheeler share tips for a rich and meaningful career in illustration.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
What advice would you give to a teenage illustrator? Will Terry, Lee White, and Jake Parker offer their tips to a young listener. Tune in for additional insight on mindset around failure, money, Kickstarter, and more.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Can you be an effective illustrator if you have attention challenges? Absolutely! Jake Parker, Samantha Cotterill, and Anthony Wheeler share their best tips to stay productive, maintain motivation, and meet deadlines (without losing your mind!)
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Robb Mommaerts joins Jake Parker and Anthony Wheeler to discuss his path from graphic design to illustration, how to stay interested in your work, what he’d do if he were starting over, and bonus Star Wars commentary. Tune in!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Is it possible to network outside of art school? Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White discuss building professional friendships, where to find community, and more in this episode.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How can I find an illustrator for my project? Will Terry, Lee White, and Anthony Wheeler discuss pitching projects, self-publishing, and retaining a love for art while building your business.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Are contests a true measure of artistic ability? What are the most essential tools for starting your illustration career? And what’s the best way to archive old work? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their perspectives.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How can I maintain my artistic expression while developing a recognizable brand? Lee White, Samantha Cotterill, and Anthony Wheeler share their insights on this and more!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Is ageism a problem in the illustration business? Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White discuss how to stay relevant as older illustrators.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
If you struggle to sit down and draw, this episode is for you. Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the fear-based roots of procrastination, how to overcome perfectionism, the importance of accountability with your goals, and more!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Are you sure self-publishing is right for you? In this episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss why you should think twice before taking this intense path.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Why do I feel jealous of other artists’ successes? Jake Parker, Anthony Wheeler, and Samantha Cotterill discuss turning comparison into inspiration, plus whether or not to become a full-time artist and more.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Client and art director relationships are a key part of your career as an illustrator. But how do you navigate those if you’ve never done it before? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry break down key questions to ask to ensure you deliver like the professional you are.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Sanford Greene joins Will Terry and Jake Parker to discuss the state of the comics industry, breaking into the field, AI-proofing your career, and more.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Does your sense of self-worth come from the quality of your art? Jake Parker, Samantha Cotterill, and Anthony Wheeler discuss practicing a growth mindset and defining success in art and life.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Join Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Anthony Wheeler for a laid-back chat about their latest projects, perspectives on risk and failure, business ideas, and more!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Listener Rich Murray joins Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White to discuss his controversial views on AI, staying relevant, and telling stories in the modern age.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker and guest hosts Samantha Cotterill and Anthony Wheeler discuss who should become full-time illustrators, who is right for entrepreneurship, the pros and cons of art school, and more.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
When should I start selling my work? Lee White, Jake Parker, and Will Terry share insights on starting your career, enjoying the student phase, changing illustration markets, and more.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
I got the art job but I’m unsatisfied; what should I do? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share the path to making work that aligns with your passions and values.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
What is the future of social media for artists? Should you leave Instagram? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry address the current situation with Meta’s AI and how to move forward.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss how to request mentorship the right way, why you can’t land work after years of consistent effort, and where to focus your creative energy as a beginner. Tune in!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Simona Ceccarelli joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss how she became a full-time children’s book illustrator, the keys to success in the industry, and the differences between American and European illustration markets.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How can I improve my portfolio so agents notice me? Lee White, Will Terry, and Jake Parker address this question and more in this episode.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Eric Castleman joins Will Terry and Jake Parker to discuss his late (but very successful) start in illustration, the benefits of critique groups, the opportunities around AI, and much more in this engaging interview.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Why is my digital drawing so much worse than my traditional drawing? What do I need to start a Patreon account? What’s the story behind the SVS rabbit? Lee White, Will Terry, and Jake Parker answer these questions and more in this episode!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Illustrator Karen Schipper joins Lee White and Jake Parker to discuss her journey as an entrepreneur, breaking into the greeting card industry, the courage to start something new, and more!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White discuss the keys to a six-hour workday, tax tips for illustrators, website advice, and more!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Do I need to learn digital art? How can I get excited about my work again? Am I ready to be a full-time artist? Lee White, Will Terry, and Jake Parker discuss all these questions in this episode.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Samantha Cotterill rejoins Jake Parker and Will Terry to discuss her new book, Look; seasons of productivity; defeating overwhelm; and several special offers just for our listeners!
Samantha Cotterill: website
Look, illustrated by Samantha Cotterill
Preorder Look and then click HERE to receive a free bonus (while supplies last)! Password: svslearn
Episode 109: Samantha Cotterill - The Focused Illustrator
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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We celebrated 200 episodes of 3PP with a live Q&A! Tune in to hear Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their biggest lessons from podcasting, the impact of their art on the world, breaking out of a drawing rut, and much more.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Can you believe we hit 200 episodes?? Come celebrate with us! Many thanks to all our listeners! We owe it all to you❤️
https://youtube.com/live/xKRwGFODxyQ
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
This week is Spring Break for SVSLearn! Jake helms a solo episode about why you need to be intentional about your art career and how you should maximize your time management skills to make every minute count.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Joe Sutphin joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss his leap of faith into full-time illustration, learning to love hard work, the dignity of risk, and much more. Learn from his mindset on this episode!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Brandt Woods joins Will Terry and Jake Parker to discuss his career as a muralist, how to land jobs, his approach to social media, and more. Don’t miss it!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss separating your identity from your art, introducing new work to your following, and the keys to drawing engaging stories.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Should I focus on my email list, portfolio, social media, or something else? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry teach what to prioritize as you grow your art business.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Lisa Bardot- entrepreneur, artist, and teacher- joins Will Terry and Jake Parker to discuss vision-based living, creative business, and making art for the joy of it.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Will I ever be able to fix my art on my own? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the necessity of getting feedback on your art. They also debate about unions and answer questions about their upcoming class, Self-Publishing Pro!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry weigh the pros and cons of working with publishers, the effect of unions, and the benefits of creating multiple opportunities for your artwork.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
We’re winding back the clock to this interview with illustrator Samantha Cotterill! Join Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss the pros and cons of social media, limiting distractions, adapting to physical challenges, and much more in this insightful episode.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
In this episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share strategies for reaching your goals, from growing an email list to improving your shading to finally landing an agent.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Anthony Wheeler joins Jake Parker and Will Terry to discuss risk in your art career, finding concepts worth illustrating, and whether or not wordless graphic novels are a good idea.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
In this episode, Jake Paker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their goals for 2024. They also debate the importance of niching down and the trajectory of AI art.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Take a journey with us through the best interviews, advice, and mind-altering moments of the year.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss how far is too far in children’s books, as well as the upsides of working for a studio or university, and more.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their highs, lows, and lessons learned as we wrap up 2023.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Lee White, Will Terry, and Jake Parker discuss art mistakes, how you can make your art better, and how kidlit publishing is too expensive.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Ryan Claytor joins us for a discussion about productivity for artists, finishing your art projects, how to make comics, and introduces his new book -- One Bite At A Time!
Click HERE for Ryan’s new book and Kickstarter!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss finding the best products to sell, altering your illustration style, and the pros and cons of author school visits.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker shares his recent experience at LightBox Expo, and Lee White and Will Terry join in to discuss how to set yourself up for success at art shows and conventions.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the dangers of art as content, how to tailor art challenges to your needs, and when to let small projects stay small.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How do I beat a saturated market, win over art directors, and inspire my students? Lee White, Will Terry, and Anthony Wheeler share the keys to these questions and more in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
They never paid! How to hold clients accountable, pick your career path, and discover your competitive advantage with Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry.
PATREON
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Would you do it all again? Illustrators Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share how they’d approach their careers if they were starting from scratch today. You don’t want to miss this!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
In this episode, illustrators Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their top advice for art school students. Tune in and discover how to get the most from your educational experience!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How do I break out of permanent practice mode? Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Anthony Wheeler address this issue- and update us on their latest projects- in this juicy episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How Do I Turn My Sketches into Finished Work? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their perspectives on this question, plus the efficacy of cons, and more in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Why are my paintings worse than my sketches? Can I grind and still take care of myself? How do I conquer imposter syndrome? Explore answers to these questions and more with Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry.
*FULL EPISODE AVAILABLE ON PATREON*
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Author, illustrator, and comedian Doogie Horner joins Jake Parker and Will Terry to discuss life as a multidisciplinary artist. Doogie shares how an audience impacts his work, his philosophy around illustrating comics, how he’s created a fulfilling career, and more.
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How can I succeed without illustrating children’s books? Any tips for entering the gaming industry? Why can’t I land a second book deal? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their perspectives on these questions and more in this episode.
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Illustrator Benji Davies joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss story building, childhood influences, and his solo show at Gallery Nucleus.
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How can I monetize my art? Can I create passive income online? Does my old work belong in my portfolio? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their hot takes on these questions.
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Should I quit my job to illustrate? How do you organize admin work? Can I take the stress out of taxes? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry cover the nitty-gritty of illustration business in this episode.
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Jake Parker’s Kickstarter: Ryder's Intergalactic Guide to Robots, Powersuits, and Mechs
Can I survive as an illustrator? Should I print overseas? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry cover these questions and more in this episode.
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Writer and illustrator Benjamin Schipper joins Jake Parker and Will Terry for a thought-provoking interview on expanding what influences you, creating from empathy, fulfilling your artistic mission, and more.
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Why is my art so boring? Can I get work overseas? How can I manage my time better? Learn all this and more from illustration experts Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry.
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How do I get rid of my nightmare agent? Lee White, Will Terry, and guest host Anthony Wheeler discuss boundaries in professional relationships, traditional art for publication, and success mindset in this episode.
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Animation artist Nathan Fowkes joins Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry to share his story of resilience, bulletproofing his artistic career, the keys to making meaningful art, and much more.
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How do I break into comics? What’s the best way to practice drawing? Am I allowed to change my style? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry weigh in on this episode!
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My convention table flopped- what now? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry address how to brand your art, find your audience, and keep going through discouragement, while testing out the new Adobe Firefly Beta.
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From unions and NFTs to the problem with preachy art (and what to do about it), join Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White for a vivid discussion!
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Illustrator, animator, and author Tony Cliff joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss tiny projects, the comic industry, and being a finisher rather than a perfectionist.
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Can I use AI to inspire my art? What’s up with NFT scams? Should I start a newsletter? Catch the answers to these questions and more with Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry.
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Can I learn illustration from online courses? How do I keep my creative fire? How do I start making author visits to schools? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share the answers in this live episode of Three Point Perspective!
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Critiques, anatomy, self-publishing, oh my! In this episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry dig into wide-ranging topics, with questions courtesy of our Patrons.
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Kesh of Keshart.in talks about sacrificing for your art, Youtube, and his overall career trajectory.
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It’s a self-publishing special! Join Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry for an inside look at the world of self-publishing: the pros and cons, marketing, and lessons from those who do it best.
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What’s the best illustration advice you’ve received? In this episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their answers, plus tips for marketing children’s books, developing new ideas, and more.
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Should I limit my colors? When should I learn digital? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer these questions, plus best practices for selling at conventions and more!
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Kelsey Rodriguez- painter, YouTuber, and entrepreneur- joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss her journey into content creation, keys to YouTube success, and creating a thriving art business online.
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How do I pick a niche? What should I remove from my portfolio? How do I conquer perfectionism? Join the conversation with illustrators Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry.
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Is my portfolio too niche? Is there a market for my passion project? What should I post? Illustrators Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry take on these questions and more in this 3PP Hotline episode!
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How do I raise my rates? Am I working too slowly? Is this a lousy assignment? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry give their perspectives on these issues and more in this episode.
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Illustrator John Hendrix joins Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry to discuss enjoying the process, forming community, drawing at church, and so much more. Don’t miss this juicy interview!
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Was I ripped off? What skills should I have before art school? Are brand collabs inauthentic? Get all the answers from illustrators Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry in this episode
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On this 3PP hotline episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share how to make your thesis project stand out, how to stop procrastinating and start working in your style, and so much more!
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How much pitching is too much? How can I stylize my work? What pitfalls should I avoid in my first book? Watch now to hear Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer all this and so much more!
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Illustrator Jason Edmiston joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss his artistic style, love of pop culture, maximizing your income on your work, and more!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Is Kickstarter the best way to launch my product? Will health problems ruin my career? Are pricey printers worth it? Jake Parker, Will Terry, and guest host Anthony Wheeler share their perspectives in today’s episode.
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… And that’s a wrap! In this episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry review the lessons, highlights, and industry headlines that made 2022. They also share their goals for 2023. Don’t miss it!
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The guys talk Pickleball aggression, Avatar speculation, and Andor!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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What’s better than a fancy degree? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss what it takes to succeed in illustration, how to balance your workload, and more in this episode.
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Should you start a Youtube channel? Is your digital art too perfect? How can you build confidence in your work? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry address these questions and more in this live Q&A episode!
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Are you the master of your career? Travis Hanson joins Jake Parker and Will Terry to share his wisdom about prioritizing your life, creating multiple income streams, succeeding at conventions, and so much more. Listen and learn!
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Am I talented, or are they lying to me? What does an art director do? In this episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer these questions and discuss how to pull off an outdated style.
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What does it mean to be a successful artist? What should I work on next? Listen in as Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry examine these questions, plus making time for play and much more!
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Anthony Wheeler joins Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry to discuss live streaming, his journey into illustration, and his philosophy about sharing the creative process. Don’t miss it!
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“Help! I’m feeling burned out!” In this live Q&A episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share how to protect your job from AI, overcome burnout, start illustrating late in life, and so much more.
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I have too many styles- how can I choose just one? Are my edges a mess? And how can I land a studio job? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry give their takes in this episode.
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Can I succeed without Photoshop? How do I balance all my projects? And how can I digitize my work for prints? Catch answers to all this and more with Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry.
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Do you need an agent? Literary agent Kelly Sonnack joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss finding, working with, and even breaking up with agents. From portfolio guidance to market trends, you’ll want to bookmark this episode!
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Join Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry for their first-ever live Q&A! From agent relationships to sketches to passive income, the guys answer your illustration questions on the spot!
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Why is my book getting rejected? Why can’t I get work? And what makes a great joke? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their perspectives on all this and more in this episode.
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What’s the difference between TV and film animation? Brandon Jeffords joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss Brandon’s journey to animation, breaking into the entertainment industry, storytelling, and more!
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Can I succeed as a jack-of-all-trades? In this episode, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry address finding your niche, the difference between pros and hobbyists, how to organize your business, and more!
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What is AI art? Is it a threat to illustrators? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share everything you need to know about this rapidly-advancing technology.
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What does it take to be a financially successful illustrator? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry explore the concept of 1,000 true fans, earning potential as a freelancer, and how to make a comfortable income as a full-time illustrator in this deep-dive episode.
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What’s it take to succeed in animation- and in life? Character designer Stephen Silver joined Jake Parker and Will Terry to share his wisdom from a career in illustration, animation, and teaching. From mindset to portfolio tips, you won’t want to miss it!
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Is my style too mature for kid’s books? Is design more important than drawing? What’s the big deal about shapes? Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White address these topics and much more in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Ever wondered who’s behind your Photoshop brushes? Jake Parker and Lee White sat down with brush designer Kyle T. Webster to discuss his journey to working with Adobe, plus meditation, self-doubt, hate mail, and more!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Kyle Webster discusses his transition from working as a freelance illustrator to working at Adobe, helping them improve the creative suite.
Full episode out next week!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How can I start small as a professional illustrator, and how do I move up when I’m ready? How can I stay motivated during long, challenging projects? Hear Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer these questions and more in this episode!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Ever wondered what it’s like to be a full-time caricature artist? We sat down with MAD Magazine illustrator Tom Richmond to learn about the art and business of caricature. From theme park concessions to big-name publications, Tom illuminates every angle of this illustration niche.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Should I return to traditional art? How do I make my digital work look natural? Are caricatures really art? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss all this and more in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Ever wondered what it’s like to be a lettering artist? Mel Cerri joins Jake Parker and Will Terry to discuss this illustration niche, plus tips for working while parenting, overcoming imposter syndrome, and more!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How do I overcome rejection? Are job sites worth it? And is free will real? From practical to philosophical, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry explore it all in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Who says science illustration is boring? Medical illustrator Mesa Schumacher joins Jake Parker and Lee White to explore the wide and fascinating world of science illustration: what it is, who it’s great for, and how to get started.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Should I quit? Am I overpriced? What should I focus on now? Get some perspective on all this and more from illustrators Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Artist and ArtJamz founder Michael M. Clements joins Jake Parker and Will Terry to discuss entrepreneurship, overcoming imposter syndrome, and the importance of having a higher purpose behind your work. You won’t want to miss this fascinating interview!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How can I rebound from distraction? When will I be good enough to freelance? Is my style too traditional? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry share their wisdom on all this and more in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Creative genius Kazu Kibuishi joins Jake Parker and Lee White to share his journey as a graphic novelist. Covering everything from Kazu’s personal projects to his philosophy that “You are what you do,” this is a conversation you won’t want to miss!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
What’s the best way to tell my story? How do I submit a book dummy to a publisher? Are print-on-demand services worth the hype? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss these questions and more in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Is social media ruining my creative practice? Guest illustrator Samantha Cotterill joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss the pros and cons of social media, limiting distractions, adapting to physical challenges, and much more in this insightful episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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What do I do if my friend wants free work — a tattoo design, specifically? How do you stay organized digitally? And how do I monetize my work? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer these questions and offer an impromptu portfolio critique!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Alexandra's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandra_hochreiter/
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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What’s wrong with my portfolio? How much work should I accept? What are the keys to negotiation? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry tackle these topics and more in today’s episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Amy Kibuishi joins Jake Parker and Lee White in today’s interview! Learn about the stories that drive Amy’s illustration, how she balances a career and motherhood, and the juicy details of her comic creation process in this deep-dive episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Is an art career for me? Should I use a nom de plume? Why are products better than projects? Join Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry for the answers to these questions and more!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
If you dream of writing or illustrating a children’s book, this episode is for you! Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss finding your best publishing method, how to hire (or become) an illustrator, and how the new Children’s Book Pro course can help you reach your illustration goals.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Illustrator, author, podcaster, and musician Vesper Stamper joins Jake Parker and Lee White for real talk about the artist’s calling, being outsiders, educating the next generation, and so much more. Grab a notebook and dive deep into this riveting conversation!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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How do I expand my creative bank account? Is the illustration market changing? How can I reach a wider audience? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry provide their perspectives in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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In this episode, illustrator Cátia Chen joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss art school, balancing parenthood and a career, and how what you do matters more than what you say.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Celebrate the 100th episode of 3 Point Perspective with Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry as they answer audience questions live. From daily art practices to the business of illustration, this episode is jam-packed with resources, advice, and wisdom.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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From building worlds to launching Kickstarters, illustrator Larry MacDougall is a treasure trove of imagination, artistic mastery, and down-to-earth practicality. Join Jake Parker and Will Terry to learn the keys to his success in this insightful episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How do you judge art you don’t like? Am I getting ripped off? Why is my client work so bad? Tune in to hear Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer these questions (and critique an illustration) in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Do I need to learn Photoshop? How personal is too personal? Should I take a pseudonym? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry offer their insights on these questions and more in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Jake Parker and Will Terry are joined by illustrator Cam Kendell to talk shop and discuss Cam’s story, his secret for project management, and how to enjoy a balanced life as a creative entrepreneur.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode's links and shownotes.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Should I give up on my book? Is social media essential? What’s the best way to make a master copy? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer these questions and more in this episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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For the first of a series of interviews, illustrator Rebecca Green joins Jake Parker and Lee White to discuss comparison, making art on the move, Patreon, social media, and much more in this engaging episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Am I stealing images? How should I approach an agent? And what if I’m too tired to make art? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry answer these questions in this week’s episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Can you grow an Instagram following without posting finished work? How can you start projects with confidence? And when are you good enough to teach? Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White explore these questions in this week's episode.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the ins and outs of self-publishing, Kickstarter vs traditional publishing houses, and how to improve consistently.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Can you make it in illustration if you hate storytelling? Do you need talent to be a great artist, or can you make it work without natural talent? And what if your agent doesn’t give you the jobs you want to work on? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry go over these questions and provide their answers.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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What kind of art should you make for a living? How do you balance learning with working? Is teaching art the right path for me? And how do you learn a new illustration program like ProCreate? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the pitfalls and struggles with working in academia, teaching art at a college level.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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How do you STAY in the illustration business after you start getting work? How can you tell if an art school is good? How long should a book dummy take, and are you slow or fast? And when is the best time to upgrade your Cintiq? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the answers to these questions and give an update on Children’s Book Pro, the new course from SVSLearn.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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What is trade and commercial publishing and which one is better? How do you avoid art scams? And should you list prices for the work you sell? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the answers to these questions and give their best advice on dodging scams and pricing their work.
This episode was recorded in two sessions.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Should you post work-in-progress that you’re trying to publish? How do you get work when you start out? And how do you deal with the fear of success when a publisher shows interest? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the answers to these questions, as well as giving us a candid look into their ideal rock-band karaoke tributes (Only on Youtube!)
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Does Fanart belong in a portfolio? Yes, but also no. And should you change your professional name when it’s already established, or are you stuck with the screen name you came up with when you were 14 years old? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry dissect these questions and also talk about new TV shows and projects they’re working on.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Should you follow art trends? What compositions do you keep using? And is it too late to start illustration as a career? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the answers to these questions as well as offer a rant on the state of the American Cinema.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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How do you pay taxes as a freelancer? Should you switch from a lucrative career to your dream art job? What do you do when you feel your art just sucks? And what do Editors require: traditional art, or digital files? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry do a deep dive on these questions as well as give an update on Lee’s NFT scheme.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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How did Lee excel in art school without a background in it? How can you avoid wasting time and procrastinating? And if you’re brand new to art, should you learn to draw first or launch into painting right away? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss these questions and give you their answers.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss these questions and also outline an important petition against McGraw Hill.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Check out the official 2020 Inktober Prompt List:
https://inktober.com/rules
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Dave Kellett's Funny Kickstarter Video:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smallfish/the-new-pack-two-pack?ref=profile_created
Will Terry's kickstarter: What They Don't Teach in Art School:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/willterry/what-they-dont-teach-in-art-school
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Will Terry's kickstarter: What They Don't Teach in Art School:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/willterry/what-they-dont-teach-in-art-school
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here to find the links for this episode and to see this episode's illustration.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Click here to learn more and sign up for SVSLearn's 30 Day Trial: https://courses.svslearn.com/bundles/30-days-free
Will Terry's kickstarter: What They Don't Teach in Art School:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/willterry/what-they-dont-teach-in-art-school
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here to find the links for this episode and to see this episode's illustration.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Will Terry's kickstarter: What They Don't Teach in Art School:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/willterry/what-they-dont-teach-in-art-school
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Will Terry's kickstarter: What They Don't Teach in Art School:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/willterry/what-they-dont-teach-in-art-school
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
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Inktober Promotion: FREE 30 Day Trial of SVSLearn, includes all of our inking courses, along with 80+ other art related courses. Perfect for leveling up and getting ready for Inktober.
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Inktober Promotion: FREE 30 Day Trial of SVSLearn, includes all of our inking courses, along with 80+ other art related courses. Perfect for leveling up and getting ready for Inktober.
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Inktober Promotion: FREE 30 Day Trial of SVSLearn, includes all of our inking courses, along with 80+ other art related courses. Perfect for leveling up and getting ready for Inktober.
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Most creatives feel a pressure to be active on social media and to be building a following around their work. In this episode we talk about how to determine which social media platforms are best for you, how to use hashtags wisely, and how to best leverage the strengths of Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin, and E-mail.
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Everyone wants to improve and try new things, but why is change so hard? Sometimes we box ourselves into a certain identity or style and feel like we can't deviate, or we get comfortable and fear failure. In this episode we discuss why consistent improvement, experimentation, and change is so vital to creatives, and go over practical things you can do to create lasting changes in your life.
For more detailed show notes and links to things talked about during the episode: Click here
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"How much should I charge?" This is a common question that every professional artist needs to confront and understand, yet it is often talked about so vaguely which leads to a lot of confusion and mystery. In this episode we hope to shed some much needed light on the subject. We go over day rates, how much beginning children's book illustrators typically make, things to consider when pricing your work, negotiation tips, whether or not you should do work for exposure, and the benefits to having an agent.
For more detailed show notes and links to things talked about during the episode: Click here.
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This podcast is sponsored by, SVSLearn, the place where becoming a children’s book illustrator starts!
Oh The Places You’ll Go! This is the season of people embarking on the next step of their life journeys, graduating from high school, college, etc. In today’s episode we discuss ways you can move forward in your creative journey.
In the last few weeks Jake has been visited by a handful of high school kids and college underclassmen asking for advice on what they should do to prepare to get a job in the art world. In response to that, he asked a bunch of his artist friends at Emerald City Comic Con what was once piece of advice they had for someone graduating high school who wants to be an artist for a living. To watch that video click here
Lacking from that video was our advice. He has some things to say to people who have chosen to walk the creative path. If that’s you, then settle in. If it’s not you, please share this with a person you know who’s going to art school, or recently graduated. You can read it too, of course. This advice is universal and it just might help you no matter what stage in life you’re at.
To read Jake’s blog post: click here. Or keep reading since this show is a mix of Jake’s thoughts with Will’s and Lee’s, that’s why we call it 3 Point Perspective, of course.
A Career In Art Is Possible.
By now you’ve probably figured out that it is possible to have a career in art. Some art careers make more money than others. Some are more stable than others. But for anyone who has the skill, the drive to improve, a healthy work ethic, and isn’t afraid of the unknown it’s possible to get to the point where you can support yourself and even a family with a career in art.
In school there are grades and personal opinion that plays into things, but in the professional world it seems to sort things out. It puts everyone where they are supposed to be, the good people get work, the average people struggle to get work, and those that aren’t so good don’t get much work. It really rewards talent and drive and is pretty fair, there aren’t too many people who are super talented that aren’t getting work.
It also depends on what you classify as success. A lot of people land in art related jobs that weren’t exactly what they were aiming for but for those people they end up loving them. There are some who have book deals and who struggle to make ends meet between book deals, and there are others who struggle to get book deals but are really good at business and are making even more than those with book deals because they are good at freelance and are business minded.
There is a combination of being business minded and finding ways to generate passive income and those who are really good at the craft and struggle with the business side of things.
There are two sides to the coin if you want to really be successful as an independent artist.
This is mostly for independent artists. There are some people who have day jobs who work at studios. This is good for people who aren’t as business minded, you show up and provide a service to the company and they pay you for that service, and then you go home, and repeat.
If someone had sat us down and told us these things as a high school kid it would’ve saved us years of spinning our wheels.
1 - Focus on one path.
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose. “ -Dolly Parton
You need to be a heat seeking missile focused one thing. A heat seeking missile works by finding a heat target and then ignoring any heat signal that doesn’t come from that target. That’s why heat seeking missiles don’t just fly straight towards the sun when they’re launched.
Picking one thing to do does not mean that’s the thing you’re going to do forever. In fact, it’s very rare to be ONE THING you’re whole life. Steven Pressfield tells us of this truth in his book The War of Art:
“As artists we serve the Muse, and the Muse may have more than one job for us over our lifetime”
That said, you have to start somewhere, knowing how to do something. So pick something and learn what you need to master in order to get a job in that discipline. Learn how other artists got their job. Study the art of people who work where you want to work. That’s the bar that you need to reach. Visit the studios, meet up with the artists, acquaint yourself with recruiters. Do internships. Insert yourself into that ecosystem. Make it so that when you finally apply for that job, it’s a no brainer for whoever is hiring, to hire YOU.
As you go throughout your career you’ll probably do a variety of things. You won’t find success until you nail one thing and get good at that one thing and then can branch out from there.
We’re not saying, become the master of drawing eyeballs. There was a discussion on the forum about this, whether you should discover your personal voice and then decide which market you want to go for or to pick the market and match your personal voice to the desires of that market.
Becoming a jack of all trades comes from going down one path and focusing on one thing and then branching out. Jack of All Trades: they can design, paint, model, animate, storyboard, etc.
Pick a style, pick a market, pick an aspect of that market.
Jake’s example: he was taking art classes at a community college, and then he got a job opportunity and decided to leave and learned how to animate for 2 years.
When you pick one specific path, there are side benefits: he had to learn to draw the figure, understand dimension, shape, form, proportion, and style, because he was focusing on one thing.
On the other hand he could have said, “I want to focus on animation, and work on a comic, and do a children’s book, and try to come out with an animated short this year..” That would have lead to a lot of wheel spinning. Rather than going shallow in a bunch of directions, choose one path and really become great at it.
The side benefit to doing this is that whether you want to go into animation, illustration, video games, film, comics, or children’s books the skills you learn to do one of these jobs has applications for other jobs. If you get into it and realize it’s not quite for you, transitioning to another job isn’t going to be an impossible feat. Go deep in one direction, then you can be more prepared to transition to another thing later on. You can find work in that one thing and then you are better able to make any necessary transitions.
Lee had this experience, he was working on children’s books and then realized that his work could work for art fairs as well, he didn’t set out trying to do children’s books and art fairs.
You want to try and overlap your personal interest and what the market wants, this will give you a greater chance of success. You don’t want to be chasing a market you aren’t interested in, or be creating your own personal work in a vacuum oblivious to what the market desires.
The more you focus on one thing, the easier you are to hire. As soon as you get a job in art, that leads to so many things, because then you are working with people for 40, 50 hours a week who are just as good as you and better, and then you get to learn from them and with them. The sooner you can start getting work at something, the sooner you can insert yourself into that world.
A market is a semi-broad field: i.e. children’s book illustration.
2 - Learn your craft.
“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” -Archilochus
It’ll take you about 4 years to learn the fundamentals of art and then a full lifetime to master it.
Learn the fundamentals, and most importantly learn how to learn. It’s going to take a lifetime, therefore, it’s so important to learn how to learn, because the most successful artists we know are continually pushing the limits of their abilities. They understand that the levels that can unfold in art are inexhaustible. They aren’t content with the art style they learned in their twenties.
Draw things you’re not comfortable drawing. If you’re bad at drawing people, draw people. If you’re bad at drawing environments, draw environments. If you are good at drawing hands but not good at drawing heads, draw heads.
Learn everything you need to learn about your one focused path.
Read books on the subject. There’s an amazing amount of information stored in these relics.
Find a good school that can teach you these fundamentals. You’ll know it’s good if the work coming out of the school is good. If not the school, then find a teacher who knows her stuff. Your focus at school isn’t grades or a degree, it’s skill, portfolio, and friends. Those are the three things that matter and are going to stay with you as you leave the school.
Learn from your peers. It’s not who you know, it’s who you help, so look for ways you can help others succeed, and in return you’ll be made better for it as well.
Find a mentor. A mentor doesn’t have to be someone older than you, just someone more experienced than you. Again, see how you can help them, become a linchpin in their system, so that they need you as much as you need them.
When you get into that training mode, you need to treat it like something that is actually interesting. Some people go through it like it’s eating their vegetables and it seems like they don’t really want to be there. Sometimes they put numbers on it (i.e.draw 100 heads), whereas if you really are interested in something, you’ll naturally want to learn more about it.
Train your weakness. But you don’t want to only train your weakness. Be interested in it and find a way to love it, don’t just do it because you are supposed to. It makes a big difference in the result. Someone who is really interested in drawing the head will have much different results than the person who just draws 100 heads to try and check it off. Don’t just draw things to check things off.
When you get really interested in things it takes you on great paths. Lee feels really comfortable in value and it’s a strength of his, and he’s experimenting to see if you can create interesting images that when the color is all gone it’s just a grey square meaning, trying to push the boundaries and deliberately not lean on value.
Avoid contentment. Of all of the artists that Will knows that gave it a go and then gave up and became a realtor, the main thing in common is that they became content with their craft. Will knows this because he was guilty of that and felt like he had already achieved his style years ago. Art is about taking risks, if you aren’t taking risks and challenging yourself, then you will be stagnant or worse, experience art atrophy.
You need to be very forward thinking. Every drawing you do, every project that you finish should be better than the last one.
Carve out R&D Time. Jake would try and carve out R&D time each week to draw something new, a new character, vehicle, etc.
Recently Jake had been doing a lot of contract work and hadn’t really taken time to push himself creatively and he got out of shape from character design because and he sat down and it took him over twice as long to come up with a character in an interesting pose compared to how long it would normally take him. He had become rusty.
No matter what is going on in your day and week, you need to carve out some time each day to keep your skills and your creative muscles sharp.
He came up with a character and wanted to put them in a cool pose, it’s not that he couldn’t draw, it was that his instincts were rusty.
Even when you’re a pro, you still have to carve time out to train yourself. Sometimes there is a relief that comes when you can sit down and draw because you spend so much time taking care of contracts, emails, and administrative stuff.
The Batman Bruce Wayne principle, we went over this last episode, but to review: There’s no Batman without Bruce Wayne. There has to be a head in the real world and someone managing finances to support his night time crime fighting. The same is true here, you need to train and learn so that you can have fun creating.
3 - Get a life.
“It’s more important that you go off and learn what to make movies about, than how to make movies.” - Advice given to JJ Abrams from his father
You’re going to be learning your craft, and you will never “arrive”, maybe something that’s even more important is what you are going to use your craft to do.
Sometimes as illustrators we become so focused on beautifying things and making things beautiful but can make the story and the content take second priority. Some people fall in love with rendering. We can be in love with the craft and not with telling stories.
What to tell stories about? That’s why you need to have a life! You need to have experiences and live life to help inform and fuel your drawings. Don’t be shallow and vapid. You want to have some tooth and some depth to your work, when people leave they are changed and they are engaged by it.
Jake just drew his take on Darth Vader. If he just copied exactly how Vader looks in the film, it would be contributing nothing to Vader’s story, people could go online and look up a picture of Vader if they wanted to.
Instead, Jake thought, “Who is Darth Vader? He is mostly machine, he is mostly heartless, he is very intimidating and foreboding.” So Jake did a version of Darth Vader and really pushed those qualities and made a more exaggerated more comic book like version of him.
If the goal of mastering your craft is to be able to show the world your vision, then the goal of every artist is to have a vision that’s worth showing. In order to do that you need to live life and have experiences worth building off of and sharing.
Cut the fat, and live deliberately. Live less online, and more in life. Make friends. Date people. Get married. Go places. Whether it’s exploring the south side of town or the southern hemisphere, there’s something to be gained from every excursion outside of your home.
For more on this, be sure to check out our “Work / Life Balance” Episode.
The purpose of this is to fill your creative bank account with enough creative capital that you can barely contain it.
4 - Do one personal project a year.
“You make your place in the world by making part of it.” - Art & Fear
Just by creating something and putting it out into the world, you become a creator who creates. You can’t be the noun without the verb.
Every year, try and create a physical something and put it out into the world: i.e. a comic, a book, a new website, a print, etc.) Something tangible or something that someone can experience in the world.
The great thing about a personal project is that it encapsulates focusing on one thing, mastering your craft, and sharing from your own life experiences.
The way to get work is by creating work, by creating personal projects.
We often get asked, “My work is great, why won’t anyone hire me?” (which is also the topic we covered in our very first episode. If you aren’t being hired, you need to start creating that thing that you want to do and fill your portfolio with that type of work or even create a project or product that you can sell of the work you want to do.
Job offers from books that you’ve done on your own.
Take all your pent up creativity and use it by putting out a finished product at least once a year. Something tangible. Something you can point to and say, look, I made this thing.
Pump all your experiences, the craft you’ve attained so far, and your passion into this project.
You only become known for your projects you make, not for the craft you’re privately learning. No one will know the experiences your privately having unless you share them through your projects.
Oftentimes if you are a professional artist you will have people critiquing your work, asking you to make revisions, and everyone has their 10 cents to add. Personal projects can come to your rescue. Personal projects can help you hold onto your sanity.
A group in Singapore saw Will’s personal fanart, then they looked for him online and found his Youtube channel, then looked him up that he is a children’s book illustrator, and they are having a conference for children’s books and they are having master classes and they are having talks about maybe flying him out to Singapore.
Your personal project is going to give you a benchmark for yourself. This year I made this, and this is the best thing that I can make. This will give you something to aspire to beat with your next project. This will also be a calling card and something that other people can point to and say “look, this person made THIS.”
Some ideas for someone, maybe just out of high school. If you want to do comics or a children’s book, you don’t need to do a full 32 page story. Maybe just do a short story, with just 5 pages that tells a simple story.
Back in high school, Jake didn’t have energy and had a 20 page comic and so he just made it into a 5 page comic and at the end it said, “to be continued…” He printed it and gave it to friends.
Start out small.
5 - Share your work.
“An artists job is not to be perfect, but to be creating.” - Jeff Goins
The students we’ve talked to are a little afraid to share their amateur work. If that’s how you feel, quit thinking of social media as an art gallery with wall space reserved for your best work. Instead, think of social media as a peek into your studio. Invite them in, give them a glass of water and a comfy chair, and show them what you’ve been working on. No pressure there. Use twitter, facebook, or instagram as a way to document your progress online. Think of it as a public journal of your development as an artist.
Don’t make your social media a monster that you have to feed with only your best most perfect work.
Don’t be shy, share your work.
Put out work, even if it’s a struggle.
Create daily, then use social media to document that. It will help turn some people into fans as they see you work, learn, grow, and struggle. Be honest, tell people who you are and what you’re about. Tell them what you’re going to be someday, and invite them to watch your journey.
What will happen is your audience will grow as you grow. They will be your online cheerleaders sharing your work with others, and first in line to buy whatever you make.
The [SVSLearn Forums]((http://forum.svslearn.com/) are such a supportive place, and you will find a community that is generous and always trying to help lift and encourage each other.
Be sure to check out SVSLearn.com, it’s the place to go if you are interested in learning to illustrate children’s books or to learn art fundamentals.
In review:
Focus on one path.
Improve your craft.
Get a life.
Do one personal project a year.
Share your Work
Lastly, I just want to share this quote from Bob Dylan:
“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night, and in between does what he wants to do.”
Remember, life is too short to be stuck doing something you don’t want to do, and it’s also too short to waste time doing something that isn’t working for you. I hope these five things give you a head start down that path of doing what you want to do in life. As the good doctor once said, “Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!”
Lee’s favorite quote, from a fortune cookie, “A good beginning is half done.”
Spend time being interested in the early part of an image and doing studies and sketches and stuff. Don’t rush to the finish. Start slow, build it up, and the nice finish and the portfolio piece will be a byproduct of that.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
3PP 29 Curating Your Portfolio
New class that launches this month!
Gina Lee’s Art Licensing Class: Part 2. She has artwork that she is still making money from, thousands of dollars, that she made in college, that is getting printed on bags, shower curtains, etc. If you want to learn how to do that, check that out at SVSLearn.com!
Because Will has his Youtube Channel, does this podcast, and teaches for SVS Learn, he often gets asked a lot to give people portfolio reviews.
Handout: A list of 100+ things to include in your children’s book portfolio, at the bottom of the show notes.
Portfolio Reviews
The main thing that Will will ask people when giving them a portfolio review is: “What type of work do you want to get?”
And he will normally get one of two responses:
I don’t know, I just want to work as an artist in some illustration market.
More specific: I want to do [comics, children’s books, graphic novels, or animation.]
Advice for people who don’t know: if you don’t know what market you want to go into, then there is no way you can make a portfolio that will please an art director and make them want to hire you. Art directors are pretty literal.
If you think that you are good at rendering, then you may think that you could draw anything well, and that the art director will recognize that because you showed your rendering prowess. That is not the case, you have to show it!
It really is so specific. Whatever you show, literally, that’s the thing you will be asked to do.
If you have a couple of illustrations with chickens in them, then you may become known as the chicken guy!
You as an artist know that if you can draw a human figure well, then you can draw just about anything. But that’s not how art directors see it. Art director’s have to protect their reputation. This is their career and they want to be well known and respected, and someday become creative directors. They don’t want a curveball. They will usually go for the sure bet.
You Need a Business Plan
Lee often asks the same question as Will: “What type of work do you want to get?”
That question says: How are you going to be in business? It drives the image and everything else: who the market is? how the market pays? how you get paid? how many illustrations you have to do in a month? how images are licensed? how the pay structure works? do you know how the business works and which direction you want to go in this business? Etc. This is important stuff to research and know ahead of time.
So essentially, when asking, “What type of work do you want to get?” We are asking, “What’s your business plan?”
This is a business and you need to have a business plan.
If you are at the point where you are trying to get work, it is vital that you understand this.
For example: You need to be able to say, “I’m going to work in editorial illustration, focused on these markets..., I want to work with these magazines…., and this is the type of work that they are doing.. Here’s my work and how it fits in there...” And then as a critiquer, we could tell you, “I would recommend, you take these 4 images and make them into post card mailers and send them out, and then alternate them monthly with this email marketing plan…”
The more focused and specific you are, the better advice and critique you will be able to receive.
A business plan is an evaluation of the current market and your particular direction.
Who’s getting work right now? Where is the majority of the work being hired? Are the rates going up or down? Who are your main competitors? What do you have that they don’t have? What’s your competitive advantage? What will help you get hired instead of them?
You need to be able to answer those questions. This is a very smart, logical way to approach your work.
To the person who says,“I don’t know what I want to do, I just want to work somewhere.”: You can always change it, but you will be treading water if you don’t have a plan. You need to have a definite plan.
So let’s get rid of the art side of this for a minute. Let’s say you have a $100,000 and your friend has a business plan that they want to pitch you. So you go and meet them at a cafe and say, “Okay, pitch me your idea.” They say, “I want to open a pizza place.” You say, “I’ve got $100,000 that I could invest in your place. Okay, where’s it going to be? How are you going to compete? What’s your secret?” “Oh, I don’t know.” “How much is it going to cost?” “Oh, I don’t know.” “What materials are you going to need? What’s your advertising plan?”? “Oh, I don’t know, I don’t have an advertising plan.” Would you give that person $100,000?
With what we are talking about it’s even worse: “I want to open a restaurant.” “Okay, what kind?” “I don’t know.” We have got to be smarter than that.
Artists do that, here is most artist’s 3 Step Business Plan: 1. Make an image, 2. Post image, 3. Sit back and pray that something happens and that they get hired. We’re only half joking.
Any other business would die with that model. They have to know their product and their customer.
We do have a product. With art, sometimes we get too attached to it, and it is really personal. People can get so personally attached to their work. However, ultimately if you want to make an income from it, it is a product and you have to look at it as such, as a product. That’s what it is and you need to think about, “how much it’s worth, where it’s bought and sold, etc.”
There’s nothing wrong with making art but you aren’t going to make a living at it.
If you just want to make art for the sake of making art, or just for fun, that’s totally fine and good, but you aren’t going to make a living with it.
To The Person Who Wants to Do Everything
Sometimes Will still gets the comment, “You keep telling me I need to pick a market to work in, but I just want to work in all of them. I’m just excited, I love comics, I love illustration, I love licensing, I love animation, I just want to get hired anywhere, I don’t care.”
Pick one as your main, and then dabble in the other ones. Then if you see success in one of those other areas then maybe you can start to lean there more.
Pick the one that you know you can actually make some money at and can support yourself in. Nothing else will exist if you can’t support yourself. You need to have some sort of financial engine to support yourself.
It’s like a Venn Diagram, one circle: the thing I’m good at, and the other circle, where there are opportunities. You want those to overlap as much as possible.
For example with concept art, The technical side of it is so difficult, but interest is high, but usually a person’s ability to do it is low, and it is also very, very competitive.
How many musicians are good at all types of music, how many restaurants are good at serving all types of food, how many karate studios teach all types of martial arts?
If you don’t know where you want to go, and you’d be happy anywhere, and art directors won’t hire you based off of your work, then do a focused project to help build your portfolio.
For example, let’s say your subject matter is all over the place, you don’t have any sequential art in your portfolio. However, comics, children’s books, and graphic novels are all based off of sequential art. So you create a project, i.e. write and illustrate a graphic novel, it could be a section or part of a graphic novel or a children’s book. It could be as few as 3-5 pieces of sequential art. Do that 3-4 times with a particular market. And then you have a portfolio that could attract an art director. You can focus on classics like your spin on Little Red Riding Hood, something that’s in the public domain, that the art director will recognize and have an emotional connection pre established with that story.
Make new images for portfolios, no matter where you are in your career.
Do research: i.e. List 5 people or companies that buy this type of work, look at how much these jobs pay, who are the art directors that work at these companies that do this type of job?
I.e. Concept board book, go to Chronicle in San Francisco, would start to look at what they had done in the past and art directors that worked on those projects.
You are in a sense, preempting what you want to do. You are doing research beforehand to tailor what you want to do.
A lot of people do scary stuff but it doesn’t really work for children’s books.
Editor, wants to see if you can carry a character from one page to the next, can you draw kids that are cute and appealing, can you draw different ethnicities and genders, can you demonstrate that you can use a variety of compositions, etc?
So if you show up with a Friday the 13th Portfolio, it won’t be a good fit for children’s books.
Phases of Your Art Career
It takes a long time to develop a portfolio.
Phases of your art career:
Phase 1, “Wow, I can make something look realistic!” Being able to make something look like it is jumping off the page.
Phase 2, “Wow, I’m better than my friends and family, I might be able to do this as a career”
Phase 3, “Wow, I’m even better than some of my art friends.”
Phase 4, “I’m not getting work yet, I need to get some critique.” That’s the stage where a lot of students that come to Will are at.
Phase 5, “Man, I have so much work to do to develop a great portfolio” Start to become humbled because they realize where they are weak and where they need to improve.
Phase 6, “I need to start publishing my own work, to get seen.” At this stage, a lot of people are really good and have great portfolio’s but aren’t getting noticed yet.
In publishing in the last 12-15 years there has been a pretty dramatic change, this has allowed people to skip the line. Before there were basically 2 lines, the authors, and the illustrators.
But now a 3rd line has emerged: the author/illustrators. I.e. Mo Willems, Dan Santat. It seems that the other two lines have slowed. While the 3rd line has sped up. It’s cheaper to work with a writer/illustrator.
When Lee graduated he had a hodgepodge portfolio.
Lee did a set of paintings his senior year of 10 people who set weird world records. But no one really asked him, what market they were for. Lee went to New York with some stuff that was children’s books, his world records paintings”, some landscape paintings, also a series of the Grimm Fairy Tales (darker stuff) that were all done in a children’s style. Basically it was hodgepodge of images that he liked.
He is glad that the people he showed work to could see potential in him, and he got some work and found his agent there.
Batman Syndrome
Batman Syndrome: some people want to be all Batman and no Bruce Wayne. They want to spend all their time having fun, fighting crime, and driving a cool car. But Batman doesn’t exist without Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, spends time in the real world, he foots the bills, and does research, networking, protects Wayne enterprises. All of that needs to happen for Batman to be able to go out and have fun fighting crime.
That’s how Jake was at the beginning of his career, he just wanted to have fun doing illustrations, graphic novels, working in animation, dabbling with 3D. But in order to really succeed you need to learn to embrace both the fun art side (Batman) and the less fun business side (Bruce Wayne). That’s what we are asking of you. The fully actualized version of you is the person who can kick butt at art, and also kick butt at business.
There is only one Batman, there is only one version of you as a fully developed “Batman”. You may not be there yet, there is no one who can compete with you because you have your own unique style, once you’ve arrived there.
To go with the Pizza thing, if you are trying to compete with all of the restaurants in the world, then that is hard to compete. There is this Pizza chain in the South called, Mellow Mushroom, it’s got this giant mushroom everywhere, it’s a very psychedelic feel, the servers wear tie dye, it’s still pizza, but they stand out with their presentation and branding, they attract a younger more hip crowd.
As an artist you have a better chance of separating yourself because you have your own unique voice.
It takes a while to come up with your business plan, and it takes a while to build your style and the quality of your work up to where you can beat someone out. If you put your head down and work then it’s only a matter of time. It takes a lifetime commitment to being an artist and if you work hard you can do it.
Some people come out of school and a few years later they have already bumped people out of line. For others it can take a decade or 2.
Recommendation: stop drawing for a little while, not a month or anything like that. Sometimes artists are constantly moving the pencil, and feel a need to keep creating images and posting to Instagram. That’s great to always draw. But back up and ask, why am I drawing? Back up, look at the whole picture, why am I creating art. Do research and try to step back and be a little more informed.
Trap with social media, “You need to feed the beast”, ultimately at the end of the day. Sometimes we spend so much time worrying about social media that we miss out on other things.
Jake used to struggle with this, and we probably all do in one way or another. What have I created or not created because I spent so much time focused on my Instagram account?
Take a step back, take a break from social media, do a dive on business and seeing how business works in illustration Go and see how business works, how it works with illustration.
You’re art is going to grow but this business stuff is just as important.
Where do you want to be in 5 years, 10 years?
Be Deliberate
A good example of pencil mileage and working smart is, Piper Thibodeau. She has worked for Dreamworks, Scholastic, and other publishers, it is all because of her daily paintings.
But it wasn’t random. It was apart of her business plan and she was very deliberate and did her research. She has been doing this for years now. Pencil mileage is a real thing but being business-oriented is also vital.
Sometimes people just create so much and don’t take time to think about and pilot their career.
Take Work That Aligns With You and The Work You Want to Do
Eventually you will be hired. But sometimes it’s not what you want. How do you decide what work you will take?
Will turned down a dream job yesterday, for a board game, they wanted 10 character designs, and they had a small budget, but the deadline was just too tight. He told them if they gave him more of a heads up he would love to work with them another time.
Lee has turned down more work than he has accepted.
Will has a specific direction right now, SVS. This job would have pulled him away from that.
We’re redesigning and reshooting our children’s book class, and expanding the sections, it will have better design, better filming ,better audio, better lessons, Jake and Lee will be teaching a lot more of it. We are going to be rolling this out starting in September dropping one course a month for a year. We will really parse what goes into it.
We would like to think of it as the most comprehensive children’s book class in the world for illustrators.
Anna Daviscourt, who Lee is working with as her mentor, she’s starting to get work and offers and Lee is helping her parse through everything and it’s easy to decide if it’s worth doing or not by seeing if it fits her artistic goals and style.
Making Your Children’s Book Portfolio
“Your work is a little too commercial for the children’s book market.”
If you get that comment it’s probably because they don’t feel like your work will fit in with the styles that fit with the market. It’s probably a little too slick or cartoony compared to what you might see in children’s books.
Want to do children’s books? Spend a lot of time at the library. What are your favorite 10 children’s books? Consume children’s books. Can you imagine a college basketball player who wants to play in the NBA but can’t name any of their favorite players?
Go to the library or the book store, make lists of what the best books have in common? What do they not have? You really need to be familiar with the different styles. Will’s best advice, create an amalgam of your top 5 children’s book styles.
Animation has a very specific look to it that isn’t a very great crossover, it wouldn’t work as well.
There are people who are in this no man’s land, between animation and illustration, they are not really desirable by either industry.
Not enough structure for animation, and not enough playfulness or approachableness for children’s books.
Mixture of not understanding illustration vs. animation.
Usually a student sketchbook, 95% of the sketchbook: faces and heads or bodies.
Need character in an environment. And Characters interacting in an environment.
Action and emotion that’s probably at the top of Will’s list for all pieces. Especially if you are wanting to focus on narrative illustration.
Recently, Will had a portfolio where it was obvious that the first piece was the best piece and there were a lot of awesome things about it that were missing in the rest of the work, it’s time to bring the rest of the work up to par.
Will knew a guy, Carry Henry, who redid his whole portfolio in 2 weeks. He went to New York, and the art director, told him that his work looked student and showed him what they were looking for. Carry spent 2 weeks in New York working on a portfolio, in a crappy Motel. He didn’t sleep for 2 weeks and was really serious about getting a job.
Have you ever had a time when art was the only thing that you care about for a certain period of time, and you put aside everything for your art career. Have you ever tried that?
Go to children’s book publishers websites, they show you what a successful children’s book illustrator portfolio looks like.
When you are new, your whole portfolio should cycle every 6 months.
Portfolio Perfection
100+ Things you need to include in your children’s book portfolio.
Formats and sizes: spot illustrations, vignettes, full page, spreads, room for text, covers
Color schemes: full color, black and white, monochrome
Ages: adults, teens, children, baby
Gender: girls, boys, men, women Race: asian, Indian, Hispanic, Caucasian, African
Groups Activities: families, friends, classmates, co-workers
Character Consistency: animals, humans, creatures
Animals: anthropomorphised: amphibians, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, birds
Creatures: robots, dragons, monsters, aliens, ghosts
Vehicles: cars, trucks, busses, boats, planes, construction equipment, submarines, space ships Props: household items, garage, kitchen, farm, office, food, bathroom, attic, school, games, toys
Environments: interiors, exteriors, modern, vintage, ancient, houses, apartments, land, sea, earth, outer space, dessert, forest, tropical, arctic
Seasons and weather: winter, spring, summer, fall, rain, lightning, wind, snow, fog, cold, hot Lighting: morning, noon, evening, night, spotlight, fire, ambient, on camera, on camera hidden, off camera
Surfaces: shiny, matte, textured, furry, translucent, rough
Action: falling, breaking, sliding, moving fast, running, jumping, flying, rolling, skidding
Emotion: anger, excitement, happiness, sadness, fear, confidence, curiosity, love, sleeping, pain
Scale: huge objects, tiny objects
Camera Angles: establishing, close ups, medium, distant, high angle, low angle, profile, dynamic, POV.
Complex Images: multiple figures, multiple objects
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
What if you could make money off of artwork you did years ago? That’s what Gina Lee does. She has a class on SVS where you can learn about how you can take artwork that you have already done or how to create new artwork that can be used for licensing (i.e. paper plates, decorations, etc.) You can check out that class here.
This next week we will be releasing a Part 2, which will cover: Trend forecasting, developing your personal style so it’s more desirable to licensers, and how to create vision boards to help direct your work for what you want to do for licensing.
Jake is reading, Keep Going” by Austin Kleon. One section is all about “Create For the Sake of Creating” and Austin talks about how you can sometimes just create something and then toss it, shred it or burn it. Create just for the sake of creating. It makes the creation all focused on the joy that comes from creating, not the end product. Sometimes we get so focused on the end product, whether or not we can scan it, share it, etc, that we lose sight of the joy of creation. Oftentimes kids only care about the experience of creating, they aren’t so focused on making something perfect. Sometimes it’s nice to not be so focused on the end product.
Our topic today is: How to Convey a Message or Story With Your Art
The Kick in the Creatives podcast covered this topic and they are tagging other podcasts to cover the same topic; we were tagged by them to go over this topic and they are wanting us to tag another podcast to then talk about this. Out tag is:(“One Fantastic Week”)(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/one-fantastic-week/id949599706).
Storytelling
As illustrators here, we are going to focus on how to convey a story with your art.
Jake overheard this experience, when Will was teaching a class with Brian Ahjar about creating great backgrounds. Brian is really good at telling good stories with his art. Will and Brian were critiquing students work in their interactive class and the problem many of the students were having was that they were telling story fragments. Brian’s critique on a lot of the pieces was: “I don’t know what the story is.” Oft times the illustration can confuse the viewer more than it communicates something clearly.
Just because you’re drawing a picture doesn’t mean that you are saying anything. That’s a problem you see a lot of times with amateur illustration work they just draw a character or an environment with no story in mind and oftentimes people don’t know what’s going on or have any deeper questions that they want to know more about after seeing the illustration.
That’s what we want to go over: how to tell a story and why that’s so important as illustrators.
Longevity, if something is going to be interesting for a long period of time, then it needs a story. On the other hand, sometimes people run into the problem where they tell too much story and it doesn’t give the viewer any work to do or allow the viewer to participate at all; there is a good middle ground where people can come back to it again and again, and depending on where they are in life, they can maybe read the image in a different way.
Sometimes people paint a barn that has really no story to it, and unless it’s just amazing if it’s not telling a story then it’s not going to be as interesting.
If you aren’t telling a specific story, often what you draw asks questions rather than answers questions. Sometimes you are asking more questions and making things more confusing than you are answering. I.e. Will saw this student’s illustration where there was this happy woman in the foreground looking over her shoulder and a happy dog trailing behind her, and then in the background there is a girl that is upset, but there are not cues as to why the child is upset. You might imply that this woman is the child’s mom and that she was happy from just disciplining her daughter. It seems that she almost has glee that her kid is upset, which probably wasn’t the illustrator’s intent. That’s an example of asking more questions than you are answering.
You are asking more questions than you are answering, that is starting to move away from illustration and more towards fine art. Which can oftentimes be a lot more abstract and wanting the viewer to ask questions and think more.
David Dibble does these amazing barn paintings, with terrific color, light and shadow, but when doing that these are more of a gallery piece, a decoration for someone with a lot of money to hang on their wall. They are a decoration. The piece’s purpose isn’t so much to communicate a specific story.
Your job as an illustrator is to tell a story.
Every image spurs a question in your viewer.
Every image should elicit some sort of emotional response from the viewer
It should make them laugh, or make them interested in the story or in the character, make them want to turn the page to see what is going to happen next, make them angry, inspire them, give them awe, etc. Really cool concept art: creates a feeling of really wanting to see the movie and make the viewer want to see those characters in the movie.
Sometimes it is an action that is not resolved until the next page and it makes you want to flip the page to see what happens next.
For illustrators, generally the response you want to evoke should be the same for a broad audience. I.e. a scary illustration for a scary book, you want everyone to feel the same way, there is some intent behind it. While for fine art they desired response may be more open and it may be a lot more open to interpretation.
Don’t make your images merely decorative. Will was giving a portfolio review and the very first image was really nice but it wasn’t telling a story. Sometimes as an artist you will make these “pinnacle pieces” that are better than anything else you’ve done. If you are trying to build a portfolio to do children’s book work, you don’t want to lead with a piece that isn’t telling a story. What are you saying to a potential client?
Why the need for a character? Even if it’s a landscape it could be a castle in the distance, or a rusty car in the corner. It is almost like we are programmed to look for people and stories. If there is no character or evidence of a character it is hard to connect with the image, it just seems like a travel photograph. When there is a “character” like a rusty car it gets us to be involved in the story and it helps the viewer start to become involved with the story.
An image of a snowscape is one type of scene vs. a snowscape with footprints in the snow.
Use small details to add more storytelling depth to your images. If Jake is drawing a character he will try and give a character a quirky addition to their outfit, or they are riding something interesting, or if they are riding a horse they are carrying something behind them, etc.
Why do little details help to tell a story?
They add character depth. Those little details tell a lot about the character and become very character building. All details are an extension of the character.
If you look at a brand new neighborhood most of the houses look about the same and have very little character. They look like Monopoly pieces. However, if you look at that same neighborhood 50 years later you will have a very different experience. Fast forward 50 years, the houses will have all sorts of details that tell a story about the people who live there, the houses and all of their details have become extensions of the characters that live there. All of the details point to the character and tell a lot about them.
Beginners often are resistant to using reference. It is an acquired skill to spend more time preparing for an illustration. Doing research before diving in and cranking out an illustration. Will used to have that disease and would just sit down and bust out an illustration in a couple of hours.
I.e. Will saw a student’s illustration where there was this street corner, with a more contemporary car by a bus stop but it had a bench that was totally made up out of the student’s head. It didn’t look like any bench Will had seen before. It totally took Will out of the image and became a distraction.
If you are draw a bench in a park, you could look at different periods of time or places and draw a bench that would feel accurate with the story that you want to tell.
Lack of details can distract from the story.
You don’t have to be a slave to your reference and copy it exactly. But let it inform your work. If you are trying to develop your own style, then make sure that all of the parts of your image match and feel like they are in the same world. You don’t want everything to feel informed and then have this wonky bench that doesn’t seem to fit in.
You can’t make up an entire universe that has no reference point for the viewer.
Lee illustrated this book called, Arctic White and the whole book is in a more rural setting with animal pelts, dogs, and bobsleds etc. and it’s about this girl who gets sick of the greys of her world and wants to see more color. Lee feels like when he introduced the new colors in the story he used the wrong color pallette and it felt like it was from WalMart and the colors were too bright and saturated, he wishes he had used colors that felt a little more natural, like ground up pigments, and that would fit in that world better.
Look at the details in your piece and see if any of the details are detracting from the image or enhancing the image.
Our April Art Contest is focused on that: “The moment before”
The sequel to a book Will illustrated, Bonaparte Falls Apart, is Bonaparte Plays Ball, and in this story there is a part where he hits a homerun. Do you want to show the ball hitting the bat or the ball having already been hit?
It’s actually boring to see the ball hitting the bat.
You want to show the before or after, “Is he going to hit a homerun?” Or “Oh! He hit a homerun!”
In terms of playing with the moment, Lee likes to think of the different sounds or level of activity that come with it. Whether something is quiet or loud. When you are thinking of pacing or if you are leading up to an action you can think of the different levels of “sound” that your images have. You can think about if you want your image to be loud or more quiet.
Right before an action there is a heightened sense of potential energy, but it is still more quiet. i.e. someone lighting a fuse of dynamite.
The actual explosion of the dynamite, is a loud moment.
The aftermath, it’s more quiet again.
You can think of the story and it’s pacing and what each moment need.
You want to have moments of quiet balanced with the louder moments.
You want to have the reader fill in the gaps.
What to leave out is just as important as what you leave in. i.e. The Road Runner cartoons: a lot of action is just implied and not shown. So much of animation is anticipation.
So much of what the Coyote does is just planning and scheming and building up the anticipation.
You can build up anticipation and make the viewer start to wonder what is going to happening? You want to leave some things to imagination.
The worst point of view to use is the mushy middle. Not at eye level, not at birds eye view, etc. When we are floating 12 feet above the ground looking down on something and it doesn’t feel intentional.
You are the director, you get to decide where the camera is facing.
David Hohn and Lee give a teacup and teapot assignment where students have to create 50 different images all playing with the camera and point of view. After the first 20 the students have to start becoming creative and that’s when the best stuff comes out.
POV: Point of View.
Compositionally, you can create an image where there is a visual hierarchy. Maybe there is an image with an initial focal point but then after seeing that there is a second or third layer of the composition that you then can notice.
I.e. Illustration of a deserted island with volcano erupting (first read), and then after further looking at the image you see villagers escaping to boats, and all of these other details, building a wall to help slow down lava, etc.
Add details that your viewer will find the more they look at and explore the illustration. Add details or sometimes hidden things, where as they look at the image they want to explore it more.
In Bonaparte Falls Apart, the main character is a skeleton, and there are lots of other scary characters like Blacky Widow.
When they introduce Blacky Widow (she’s a black widow) Will tried to add spiderweb motifs to the furniture. And it gives the viewer something to look like other than the action.
Where’s Waldo: it’s completely designed for exploration. Don’t be afraid to add those types of details to your illustration.
Lee read this book, based off of A Christmas Carol but it’s all mice and everything is made out of things that mice would use, he read this to his son a few times, and it wasn’t until he had read it a few times that he noticed that the human version of the story was taking place in the background at the same time.
Sometimes the detail is just fun stuff, sometimes it’s essential stuff. One time details weren’t clear in the text so Lee had to try and add details in the illustration to help make the story more clear.
Little Critters books: there’s like a spider or some sort of bug in every illustration. Richard Scarry does it too, it’s the gold bug.
Lee does a lot with time of day and seasonal cues but not so much with lighting or distinct light and shadow now.
Will did this illustration of an attic. But then he lit it as if there was a little beam of light coming through the window and just by adding a beam of light it hit 5 different objects and it told a different story because of the objects it was emphasizing.
The place with the highest contrast usually becomes the focal point, unless you have a spot of super saturated color that might stand out more.
The highest contrast point becomes the focal point.
Lee likes to do illogical solutions for logical problems.
Guy Billout: does something unexpected in each piece.
Always ask self, Why am I drawing this piece? How can I make this interesting? If it’s not interesting draw more thumbnails until it is. There needs to be interest to it or some sort of storytelling.
Lee tries to do something that is unexpected in each piece. There has to be some sort of hook to it, whether it is in the environment, etc.
In Summary
How to tell a story with your art:
Every image spurs a question in your viewer.
Every image should elicit an emotional response in the viewer.
Always include a character or some evidence of a character.
Use small details to add more depth to your images.
Don’t show the climax, focus on the before or the after.
Use composition and point of view
Give the viewer something to explore
Tell the story using lighting.
Show something impossible becoming a reality.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
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3PP 27, Work/Life Balance
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Work/Life Balance
Our topic today is Work/ Life Balance. We have gotten a lot of people asking us about this and we’ve talked about this before on our old webinar, which was the precursor to this podcast, hopefully we will be able to address it from a few different angles today.
This is something that everyone is concerned with and it affects all of us each day.
The Basics of Establishing a Work/Life Balance
We were thinking about going over what to do with your time once you have established a work/life balance, but we wanted to start with the basics of establishing a work/life balance and share some experiences from different phases of our lives. We thought that starting with the basics would be beneficial.
Is it possible to always have work/life balance?
No. There are some phases that aren’t going to have as great of a work/life balance. When Lee was at Art Center, it was like boot camp, he was doing art from the second he woke up to the second he went to sleep, and he didn’t have good working methods back then which may have helped alleviate some of that.
There were other phases where the balance was skewed, i.e. having a baby.
Balance is not the norm but there are ups and downs and ebbs and flows and rhythms to our work/life balance.
There are times for more work/life balance.
Life is everything besides work: Spending time with family, with your spouse or significant other, exercise, recreation, playing games, etc.
Learn to Do Hard Things
Will has noticed that for a lot of young people, including one of his children, that they struggle to do really hard things. When Will was young he participated in Boy Scouts, and for that he was in an axe competition that took all day chopping down trees till his hands were bleeding. Probably one of the hardest experiences he had was when he hiked a mountain in the winter time starting at 5am and they didn’t set up camp till 5pm. Experiences like that, where you push yourself and your body to the limit, it makes other things pale in comparison and seem less difficult.
Some people don’t have hard experiences like that to build on. Things that might seem easy to some seem impossible to them.
However, compared to others throughout the history of the world, Will has never done a full days work in his life. There are kids today, who have really never worked a day in their lives.
Lee was teaching a painting class and students were commenting on how they had spent 6 or 8 hours on their master copy painting, but when he was in school that was just the start most of his would take around approximately 12 hours long. That was the norm. Nowadays we lean towards that instant gratification mindset and 5 hours can seem like forever. If we change our mindset on how long we think something should take it can change our whole attitude towards the project.
Work/life Balance is not a balance so much as it is more like an ebb and flow. There are times where you need to put everything into work, there are times of life and times of the year, or the project, during those times your life becomes the work. There are other times in life where you need to focus more on family and on friendships and it’s okay to hold back on work some to focus on those most important things, maybe you just had a baby, or got married, or had a death in the family, etc.
There is a way to have that ebb and flow day to day as well.
The main rule is: be present wherever you are at and in whatever you are doing. When you are at work, be 100 percent at work. When you are with your family, don’t be on your phone, be 100 percent present.
Jake’s mom just passed away and that is one of those personal experiences that we will all experience in our lives. Jake went and visited her before she passed and had a really special time taking care of her, talking with her, and holding her hand. He came back to Utah and her condition was worsening. He had some rough days, and had been planning on going to Emerald City Comic Con and he was debating if he should go or stay in case he needed to go back to Arizona for his mom. Jake’s mom wasn’t the type of person who wanted to cause too many waves and wouldn’t want to get in the way of family or work. She was really cool about stepping back. Jake’s sister told Jake to go and that if there was an emergency they would fly him out. He went to the event and did his best despite the undercurrent of sadness and thoughts about his mom. He tries to be present and do his best wherever he is.
Work With Intensity and Focus in All Categories of Your Life
It’s a conscious choice, I’m here and I’m working. It’s a very important thing to think about and to apply to every part of your life.
Learning art can be overwhelming. There is this undercurrent to art, that you should be working all the time.
21:42
While in his early 20’s Lee’s Dad got Cancer at a young age: 54 years old. Lee was living in California and his dad was in Nashville. Lee had a lot of friends in Nashville and he was trying to schedule a time to go out there to visit his father but also be able to see his friends and get the most bang for his buck from the trip. Sadly, his dad passed away when Lee was en route to see him, and that is Lee’s one regret. Time is so precious. Lee and his wife, Lisa, took his 8 year old son out of school for a few days just to go on a trip with him, and he really just wants to treasure his time with him.
Nikola Tesla, and Steve Jobs they would wear the same outfit everyday so they didn’t have to waste any time thinking of what they were going to wear.
Will has always wanted to get to the point where he realizes that time is short and that time is really so precious. We have that luxury some with being an artist where we are passionate about what we are doing. Some other jobs where you just clock in and out feel like you are just selling 8 hours of your life to that company. When you are creating your own art and you are getting better, and you are inventing yourself as an artist etc. That should become your “video game.”
So many people get so addicted to games that they schedule it to where nothing else in the world will interrupt their game time. There are times as an artist where it needs to interrupt your pleasure time.
The better you get the more fun it becomes, then you are able to start realizing the dreams you have. The work you put down on paper starts to mimic the vision you had. It becomes more fun when you are able to visualize something and then create it. It becomes a lot more fun when you are able to get past worrying so much about your technique. That’s an important part of work life balance, when you don’t struggle with the technique anymore and it becomes just the vision of what you are trying to say. Struggling with technique doubles your time on any individual piece. Once that goes away, then you are off to the races really quick!
Jake’s Phases of Work/Life Balance.
Teens: All about have experiences and drawing.
Twenties: Got married and had kids, worked to master his craft. It was all: Family, work, family, work. Not much time for friends, health, or hobbies. That’s where he got really good at his style, finding tools he liked, exploring a lot of different things, etc. He experimented a lot: messed around with modeling, animation, comics, storyboarding.
Thirties: Refining. He had mastered a lot of these things now it was time to pick one path, and zero in on getting better with his health and family. Also to put into practice those things so you can go on your own path. Children's books, and comics, and freelance. Getting into a position to where you can do your own thing. Started SVS.
Forties: simplifying even more. Had a little more time for health and family. Now it’s Planning his trajectory to where he can do things like Will: stop working in the afternoon, and do something for his health/ a hobby for a couple of hours, and then spend the evenings with family.
There are different phases that you go through.
There will be some ebb and flow. Try and plan for it. Do things that will help give you that life balance. Don’t think you can maintain a constant. Be present and lean into your free time and lean into your work when you need to.
Different things that help give us work/life balance.
Lowering your expenses is so much easier than making more money.
If you have a full time job and you do that for 8-10 hours a day, and then you want to work on illustration at night and want to also spend quality time with your family. It can be difficult. There are only so many hours in the day.
For example, if you can cut your expenses to where you don’t have to work full time but can work part time, then you can spend those hours you gained back working on your craft.
Getting your financial life in order is a worthy pursuit. Start investigating it.
A couple of things to check out: Dave Ramsey has a great podcast. This really got Lee started on wanting to be debt free.
In the US you can have so much credit. Too much, credit, be wise and get out of debt.
Lee and his wife were really interested in the the idea of being debt free.
Lee’s wife came across a website called, Mr. Money Mustache which is all about penny pinchers to the extreme. For most of us, ultimately, we don’t like to work. Over at Mr. Money Mustache, those guys focus on early retirement, how to get off the treadmill.
This got Lee and his wife thinking, is it possible to do this?
So they started looking at where they spent their money. Some of it was ridiculous and easy to cut out immediately. Fast forward 8 or 9 years later from that point, they’re debt free. Which has made a massive difference. Now Lee can do what he wants to now. He still needs some money but it’s just so much different with how he feels about work. It’s just not as intense.
They now fully owns their house, 100%. They have a renter and now they are making a profit. The difference between now and before is about $3000. Before he was having to spend $2200 now he doesn’t spend anything and he gets a rent income of $1400 a month.
Lee’s our inspiration.
When you are in a financial bind it’s really difficult.
Will and his wife went through a time when they were not the best with their money and had a financial meltdown. He got to the point where he was waiting on some checks and he had to break into a coin jar he had collected to get money for gas and groceries, Will also had a big jar of pennies and they had to break into that jar to get some groceries: a bag of potatoes, bread, and a gallon of milk, etc. You shop differently when you’re in a situation like that; all while waiting for that check.
Lee’s in a really good financial situation. Lee doesn’t come from money. He had no help, loans, gifts, no big inheritance.
Their first home was 1 bedroom, 1 bath. He had a stated income loan. He is a success story from the time of the Great Recession. They were responsible with money. They didn’t buy a home that they couldn’t afford but just barely got in under the wire.
Jake was working at Blue Sky, working full time in the animation industry, making a healthy 6 figure a year income. He liked it but what he really wanted to do was to be independent, to work out of his home office, doing the projects he wanted to do. But he knew that if he did that he would take a drastic pay cut for years until he could build it up and get enough work and things going to match that. His wife said, we can’t live here in Connecticut where you have to have 6-figure income to afford the houses here.
So they decided to move to Provo, UT, which, at the time, all of the housing prices there were just dropping. They found this foreclosed home, the yard was trashed, the inside was trashed and they got it for a great price.Their house has never been a financial burden to them. It has made a huge difference in the amount of work that they had to take on, and it’s been a big blessing to them in the work life balance that Jake’s been able to find, for the past 8 years that they’ve been living in that house.
Be sure to buy a house that you can comfortably afford. Don’t spread yourself and your finances too thin.
Back to Lee: He and his wife started thinking about becoming debt free during a time when the idea seemed extremely outrageous. They had bought that first home (1 bedroom, 1 bath) with no down payment and now they had just taken on a $225,000 loan. Lee had barely any income. They bought this home in an area that was transitioning from being a dangerous place to becoming more gentrified.
Lee didn’t know how to do any home repair, so he went to Home Depot and got that orange book that teaches you how to do all home repairs. He redid all of the electrical, flooring, tiling, plumbing, they even tore out a plaster ceiling, etc. He was illustrating books by day and renovating his home by night. Lee noticed his neighbors were moving and he offered to buy their house, with no money. So they sold their 1 bedroom house and made a profit. Then they bought that other house and had a higher mortgage but still wanted to become debt free. He was a broken record back then about wanting to be debt free and all of his friends told him it was impossible.
Lisa’s grandparents had passed away and left an old beat up home. Lee and Lisa went and lived there for free in exchange for fixing it up. They rented their new home out to pay the mortgage on that home. They lived in their grandparents old home for free while his renters paid for their mortgage.
This gave them a taste for renting your house out. They started to make these huge sacrifices and huge strides to living debt free. They started renting their house out on Airbnb whenever they went on vacation.
The other thing is you need to get debt free is to live somewhere affordable. You will have a hard time if you live in Portland or somewhere extremely expensive as an artist and expect to get debt free. They moved out of Portland to Nashville which isn’t super cheap but much more affordable than Portland.
They spent 5 years getting ready to do that. They ended up buying a third home and spent 5 years fixing that home up getting ready to sell it. Lee spent 12 years, in total, fixing up houses. It took them those last 5 years to prepare to make the move to Nashville.
Lowering your expenses takes effort. You may have to move, you may have to shift things around, you may have to lower your standard of living, you may have to get roommates. But if you lower how much you have to make, your time will expand.
How do you feel today about having to take a job vs. the beginning of your career?
At the beginning of Will’s career he took everything that came in, he took all jobs. There were a lot of jobs he took in that he hated and didn’t want to do.
Now Lee takes jobs now that move him emotionally and creatively. He doesn’t take jobs for the money now. It’s vastly different.
You go through different stages in your career.
In the beginning Lee also would take everything, not just for the money, but for the exposure, “I need to be published.” You’ve got to have some credibility of working as a pro and meeting with art directors etc. You have to go through that grind.
As you get better technically, the jobs become more rewarding. As you go further along in your career and don’t have to take those jobs that don’t match up with what you want to do, as well. So this is a career that just becomes more and more rewarding as you go through it.
If you are in a position to provide for your family or for yourself as well, it doesn’t really matter where you make your money; it doesn’t have to be from art. If you have to side hustle and make money from Airbnb on the side that is just as respectable as taking on 3 extra illustration jobs.
All through his 20’s-30’s Jake’s mindset was: it has to be art, that’s all I’m good at.
But now his mindset has shifted, it could be helping his wife to start a business, or they get a rental property, or Airbnb, or flip a car, etc. There are many respectable sources of income apart from art. At some point, you need to do what you need to do to make ends meet.
Leave some portion of making art for yourself so that you can enjoy it and get something out of it, rather than just paying for the bills.
Some of our scheduling strategies:
Lee works for around 8 hours a day. He will work for 50 minute chunks and then take 10 minutes off. During those 10 minute breaks he will stand up and walk around and move. As illustrators we can work for hours and hours being stationary and it’s not good for our health.
As illustrators sometimes our posture can get really bad because we are always leaning over to draw and may not have the best chair situation. Jake switched to a stool and has been sitting on a stool for the past 6-7 years and that has helped him sit up straight and has helped him not have back pain. Lee has this climbing harness type thing that helps pull his shoulders back, the natural position for drawing is rolling your shoulders forward. If you do that enough, the chest muscles become contracted and the arm muscles on the back of the arm become elongated and your body can get used to being in that state. It can become hard to get out of that state because your body has adjusted to it.
It’s important to think about your health. All of the stuff we are talking about today are long term strategies because if we are going to be doing this for life we want to figure this stuff out.
You need to take time to look at your calendar and figure out what you are doing.
When Jake got started working for himself, he would look back at his day and realize he had nothing to show for the day despite having been in the studio for 8-9 hours, he didn’t even know what he had done. So he started doing a time audit where every minute of the day was accounted for. I.e. The last half hour, I confess I surfed Twitter, but then the next half hour I buckled down and got that illustration done, and then for these 3 hours I did this, then I spent 2 hours clearing out my inbox, etc. He did this for months, recording how he was spending his time, and making to do lists and checking things off.
Once he had done that time audit and could see where his time was being spent, then he could widdle out stuff that was unproductive. He used to think that he could get so much done at night after the kids went to bed, and that used to be the case because he was younger and had more energy, but now as he’s aged he’s noticed that for 3 hours spent at night could get that same amount of work done in the morning in just 1.5 hours. So he’s 50% less productive at night.
So he decided to take the times where he’s most productive and put the most creative work into those hours, and to take the time where he’s least productive and that’s when he’ll surf Twitter, watch Youtube videos, read a book, watch a movie, etc.That way he’s not doing unproductive stuff during unproductive time. This has made a huge difference with how he sets up his schedule. The other thing with this is that he doesn’t want to stay up late watching Youtube videos so he goes to bed earlier, and wakes up earlier, and gets more work done before his kids get up in the morning. It’s an overall refining of his schedule and how he works.
Will doesn’t write things down but he knows what he needs to get things done and he thinks about it a lot. What Lee has learned about being a scheduler is that once you write it down you don’t have to worry about it and think about it but it’s just done. Will does use a to do list but he doesn’t put a timestamp down trying to figure out how long everything will take.
Jake’s perspective on Will: Will does have a to do list, he comes into work focused on his MIT (Most Important Task) and he is focused on getting that done. If anything else gets accomplished then that’s just gravy. Then he goes home. Sometimes he gets the thing done that he wanted to get done and he can leave. It’s pretty awesome and takes a lot of discipline.
Part of it is that Will doesn’t want to sit at a desk all day. He likes to break up his workday. Because his kids are grown he does a lot of drawing at home later on. He breaks his day into thirds: 1) morning/afternoon: work. 2) afternoon: exercise, shopping for the family, doing things with them. 3) nights) draw and get work done at home, especially the drawing aspect, he can do that anywhere with the iPad. Will has found a schedule that really works for him. Everyone should put a priority on that. Some people work better and are more creative at night. Some people, like Lee work better in the morning, etc.
Jake’s daily schedule:
4:30-5:00AM: Wake up, get an hour of work in.
6:00-9:00AM: Make breakfast, take kids to school, work out/go on a run, shower and head to the studio.
9:30/10AM-12:30/1PM: Straight creative time, do the most cognitively demanding work, same with his early morning work time.
1PM-5:30PM: Afternoon is focused on administrative stuff, recording podcasts, meetings, checking email (Inbox zero method), phone calls, meetings, etc.
6-7:30/8PM: Family Time. Dinner, spending time with kids, helping them with school projects, etc.
8-9PM: Decompressing, reading taking notes, maybe write a little for a comic project, then go to bed. Tries to get 7 hours of sleep a night.
Good schedules are something that are thought about. Not just random.
That was Jake’s weekdays. The weekdays are super focused but the weekends are not. Friday nights he will stay up late watching a movie with one of his kids. Saturdays he sleeps in and will go on a nice long run in the morning, does chores, house stuff, etc. Sundays are completely a day of rest, he goes to church, spends time with his family, plays board games, maybe they make a dessert, watches a Miyazaki film, completely unplugs, tries not to even look at his phone. Then after a weekend like that he is itching to get back to work and it’s no problem waking up at 4:30 in the morning to start another work week.
Lee’s Workday Schedule:
Lee is naturally an early riser, he tried to be like Jake and wake up early and go straight to work but was feeling some resistance there. Feel things out, if you are feeling some internal resistance, then try and change it up. He would wake up and try to work and would feel antsy, he couldn’t just stumble from his bedroom to his office and start working.
He wakes up at 5-5:30 and will do an intense workout, always something athletic, he will go on a run or lift weights, and will spend 1-1.5 hours doing that. Once he got on that schedule it was perfect for him and he would come back home or to the office, wherever he is working that day, feeling balanced, having burned through some of that weird energy and he’s ready to sit down and work because he’s already got some exercise.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: he has designated those days to be an illustrator, that’s when he does his book work. He has a separate studio away from his home and that’s where he does his illustration work. He will work there for 8-10 hours with his 50 minute blocks. He is focused, just does illustration, doesn’t answer the phone, it’s a very focused time frame for him.
Tuesday, Thursday: are for teaching, for doing SVS, for recording podcasts.
Lee can never do anything halfway, he gets intensely interested in things.
Avoiding a trip up with being a scheduler: Before when Lee would get out his calendar and start scheduling he would schedule out the perfect day and with no space for error, he was going to be the epitome of productivity, and then he’d get a revision or something unexpected would pop up and throw everything out of whack. Finally, after a number of frustrating years trying to deal with that he realized something: it’s so easy, don’t be idealistic, leave open space in between the projects. All of the sudden things started working out a lot more smoothly. Obviously, you have to account for things you don’t expect, but by not trying to schedule a perfect day enabled him to have perfect days, if that makes sense.
Don’t get frustrated if your schedule gets thrown out of whack. It’s still good to know what the the schedule should be so that if things start going off track and it’s your fault, you can get back on track. A good schedule is your armature to hang everything on. Be willing to dodge and weave as needed.
The calendar is a guide/ armature. You will never stick to it, some things take longer, some things are shorter. That’s an important concept, before Lee would derail himself and go from having a crazy scheduled day to no schedule and nothing else would get done. On the weekends Lee has nothing scheduled.
In order to be a good illustrator, it’s not about your craft, it’s not about your technique, it’s about your experiences that you are trying to share with people. It’s, what are you creating art about? What are you trying to share about? You can’t do that if you are vapid, if you don’t have anything inside of you. So you’ve got to have experiences, you’ve got to have a life outside of the studio, you’ve got to have hobbies or something like that. Once you get through that stage of life where there’s that intensity to master your craft and you get there, once you’re sort of on this track where you set your schedule and you’ve got some room in there for balance, it informs your art. Maybe even before then, you find a way that you can do stuff, you can travel (not traveling to Europe, but maybe just across town, or to that museum you’ve been meaning to go to).
You need to fill your creative bank account, you need to fill it with creative capital and use it to know what to create art about.
Jake’s family will always go on a summer vacation for 2 weeks to a month, depends on the schedule. They’ll do a road trip and go to New York to visit family. It’s a time to have experiences, to spend time with family, and just to have fun. The kids all sleep in a cramped beach house, and they get to play actual games like Cornhole that don’t involve buttons.
Jake also raises chickens, which is sometimes fun.
A lot people listening to this might be in school and not have the finances that we have. Back then Will would find time to exercise, and it was always running and that’s about it. Now he flies model airplanes, plays the bass, goes hiking, goes mountain biking, plays racquetball 3 days a week, sometimes he snowboards.
Really work hard in the beginning, you have more bandwidth and capacity to work hard then. You don’t see many 80 year olds starting at 9 in the morning and going until they drop at night.
You can do that when your are in your 20s, 30s, and even 40s.
What you do is as important as taking time to work on other things. Will can see a lot of his childhood experiences in his newest Bonaparte book. He’s putting things in there from his childhood.
It’s all about those raw experiences, you need to make time to have those meaningful and special experiences.
If Will could do it all over again, he’d have spent money differently in the beginning, and became more financially independent earlier on. He would have cut out half of the work that he did early on, because he did so much horrible work: jobs that were so heavily art directed that he wasn’t happy with the work afterwards, and the client probably didn’t care too much about it either, after the fact.
All 3 of us are later in our careers, where we’ve all been doing this for 20 years or more. Don’t get frustrated, if you’re like: “I’m never going to get there.” Jake never thought he’d get to where he is right now. There was a time in his life where he wondered if this was even possible. Will also questioned if he could do it early on too.
We work smart not hard. We don’t spend as much time spinning our wheels. The execution is quicker. We’ve spent all of that time making those mistakes before.
It’s like the guy who, when Will would help him move a couch, had already prepped the whole house, he had already put things away so they wouldn’t trip, and had tied the hide-a-bed down so it wouldn’t spring out and put a ding in the wall. He had done all that prep work so that when we would go to move, we would move it and it would be done, there weren’t a lot of mistakes made. Art is much the same way. When you’ve figured out your process, you just sit down and crank something out and it works out. It’s all about the mistakes you’re avoiding.
I.e. Jake did 2 character designs the other day in 3 hours, 10 years ago, it would have been a 10 hour job, but now he’s got a system down, he knows how he’s working, and his intuition is finely attuned, he knows whether or not he is on the right track or not pretty quick. So the sad news for a student is that when you’ve worked 10 hours on a project, don’t pat yourself on the back, because you’ve only worked 3 good hours.
Illustration is about experiences.
How do those experiences affect illustration?
Late teens to early twenties, Lee was really into competitive skateboarding. How he sees the world was changed. Even now when he goes down the stairs and sees a handrail, he sees it first as an obstacle, and second as a handrail. The whole world is like that.
He has noticed that others don’t see the world the same way as he does.
Skating was all about finding lines in these urban environments and it’s become a tool he uses now in his compositions. The way that he composes a picture has to do with the lines that he saw as a skateboarder. Each thing that you do complements other things that you do in life. And vice versa, how does illustration affect the way you see the world and other things in your life?
The same goes for intensity, when Lee works out he tries to work out with intensity. Each of these things plays off of each other and make each other better. Try and see links between things.
In Summary:
Work With Intensity and Focus in All Categories of Your Life
Lower Your Monthly Expenses
Be A Scheduler
Live Life
Quote: “Make a daily appointment to disconnect from the world so that you can connect with yourself.” -Austin Kleon
That’s what this work/life balance is all about: to disconnect from your world so that you can connect with yourself, so that when you are back to connecting with your work, with the world you know what to work on, what to talk about, and what your work is to be about.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How to Become A Better Children’s Book Artist
We want to go over some questions that Will has been emailed about that all revolve around the general topic of: How to become a better children’s book artist.
As a children’s book artist, do you have to speak and if so to what capacity?
Will got this email from a student who got a literary agent last summer and who was wondering if publishers require illustrators to do school visits and publishing conferences. Essentially they are afraid of speaking and were wondering: As an illustrator, do you have to speak?
Will used to be petrified of speaking, it probably doesn’t seem like that now because he has a Youtube channel, and speaks at conferences, and now it’s no big deal to him. However, before his heart would pound like crazy just thinking of an upcoming speaking engagement, if he had to speak or teach at church or in school. Maybe some of you also feel that way.
Do you really have to speak and if so to what capacity?
Jake has done 15 or so books through publishers and he has done school visits for 1 book in particular and it was completely optional. They asked if he would be willing to do it. He went to 6 different schools and didn’t know how much it actually helped his book sales? Ultimately, he doesn’t know how effective it is. You shouldn’t worry about it or let it hinder you from pursuing a career in children’s books.
Maybe if it’s apart of your business plan and you are visiting 50 schools a year and you have a line of books to offer for sale, then it might be much more effective. There are some people who do this and they make a lot of money from it. If you go out of state and visit 5 or 6 schools and line them all up and coordinate it so it works out then you can stack a bunch of schools next to each other. Some people will finish a book and then spend the whole next year doing school visits.
Once they were trying to get an illustrator to come and do a video with SVS, and he said no and the reason he said no was really really smart, and Lee thinks about this all of the time now. The reason he said no was “because he would come film a 2 to 3 hour video, but it would take a month or two to get ready for it, with rehearsing it, practicing it, writing the course, it takes so much time to prep it and he has learned that he doesn’t have the capacity to do that sort of stuff. Now Lee tends to fall along that line now when he is asked to speak at a SCBWI Conference etc. it’s exhausting and it zaps all of his creative energy out of him. So for Lee, it’s a mixed bag for him.
If you take 2 months to prepare a presentation and you can give that same presentation 50 or 100 times then it really pays off and is worth it. But if it’s for a one time or two time presentation it may not be worth it.
David Biedrzycki and Jerry Palada do school visits all of the time.
So maybe we’re not directly answering the question but these are all different ways to consider speaking and the benefits of it.
Average payment for a day is about $1500 and so if you do a few days in a row it can really add up pretty quickly.
For David, his wife does all of his booking, hotels, and airfare. And he is now going back to some schools that he went to a few years ago. Publishers like it and want to work with someone like that. It takes away almost all of the risk because if they are doing so many trips, the publisher should be able to at least sell the amount to break even. These guys make a lot of money.
How about speaking at bookstores?
You have to decide who you are. Some people love to travel and know how to work while they are out and they can keep their routine. It seems like a really lopsided investment and you don’t get much out of it.
Lee, works on a book and then it comes out six months later and he is already on to the next thing and he doesn’t want to stop all of that. The thing is book stores typically don’t pay, but schools do. So you’re paying to go and sign books and it’s not very profitable.
It’s really hard to make them worth the time. You might sell 10 books in 2 hours and with your royalty of 50 or 75 cents a book, you might make $7. Book signings work for the famous but not so much for the up and coming person.
Why You Should Learn To Speak Publically
If you do this job and you start to get work, at some point you will be asked to speak publically. So should you? Yes you should, at least learn to be comfortable speaking. Take classes or do a workshop to learn to speak publically. You will be asked to speak publically, or you’ll be asked to teach, or you’ll be asked to present, we get those offers all the time.
How to get good at it? Start saying yes to every opportunity where you can. Will used to be that guy that hated it. Will could barely speak when he was chosen as illustrator of the year for the California Teachers Association, and he had to go around giving speeches and he gave a speech in front of 1000 people in a ballroom and that was 10 years ago and he was so nervous beforehand but now today he has spoken so much since then that it doesn’t even phase him anymore.
One nice thing about this profession is you can use visuals and you don’t have to worry so much about people staring at you while you are talking.
The best advice is the advice that makes you a better person in the end, it’s what makes you more experienced and more capable.
So if public speaking is not your strong point, then do whatever you need to do to learn how to feel comfortable with it.
Believe in your work and take jobs that there is a passion there for. You see these people who are terrified of speaking but they are passionate about the work they do and so they push themselves to share that with others.
Maybe you aren’t passionate about puppy dogs and you did a book about puppy dogs, but maybe you are passionate about creativity and how a kid could grow up to become a creative artist. A lot of kids have roadblocks of parents or teachers saying that art isn’t a real job, and you speaking to them can become a driving force to help you overcome those fears.
Being a creative person, being someone who can draw for a living is such a rare privilege and is unlike any other job.
You Create and You Share
Part of that is to promote yourself and promote your work, your style, and your stories.
Somebody needs to hear your message.
Nobody is gonna hear it if you don’t start sharing yourself.
There is a person in you who is good at public speaking. You need to have faith in yourself.
Really good book:
Perennial Seller: The Art of Making Work That Lasts
1st half of the book: How to make a book that stands the test of time, that isn’t dated in 10 years, how to create something that is interesting now and in 30 years.
2nd half is about how to market the book and get it into the hands of the people who want to read it.
Jake read the book last year and marked it all up, and flipping through it right now there are a lot of great things.The book applies to anyone who creates work, it’s not focused on children’s books but there is so much that still applies.
If you get invited to speak, have some sort of takeaway that you want the audience to leave with.
Lee had a graduate school program and they had tons of artists come and speak but it doesn’t mean it was all effective.Some would just show art and have pretty meaningless commentary to go with it.
Have a specific topic or point you want to make and then have a series of images to show that topic and teach about it.
Tell stories about yourself, as humans we are interested in learning more about each other and we love hearing personal stories.
Will’s best talk he ever gave was speaking to almost 300 librarians, and he was told 9 months in advance about the presentation, and he kept a Google doc and he didn’t panic or anything but instead anytime an idea came to his head he would jump on his phone and jot it down on the Google doc. This helped him get all of his ideas down leading up to the speaking engagement.
His speech was all about “I was that kid”, he showed how he wasn’t the best student and how we shouldn’t write off these kids that are problems, because some of them are really creative and some of them are being forced into the school system. He spoke for an hour. Will sold a ton of books.
Don’t be afraid of speaking, if you do it a lot, you’ll get good at it. Anything you do a lot you can get good at it.
How to Draw Women Respectfully
Another email Will got was in response to a “3rd Thursday” a while back which was the precursor to this podcast. In it, Shannon shared how she was thinking about the issue that you they brought up that men struggle to draw females because they don’t want to sexualize them and they don’t want to over emphasize typical female features.
There is a big problem with the way that women are depicted. There are so many people doing “sexy” versions of classic characters. And the thing is those people get famous from it.
There was this artist who draws really sexualized characters and got chewed out online for it.
There is this endless appetite for it from consumers and artists and we can’t stand it.
Jake’s approach: he has a mom, sisters, a wife, and daughters, He doesn’t want to ever disrespect them. His test is, if I would be okay with any of these people wearing the outfit that I’m drawing then I’m okay to draw it.
Don’t shy away from the female figure, there isn’t just one female figure there are 100 different female figures. He will approach it from, “Who is this character?” What does she need to accomplish? What about her image will backup and support her personality and her role in the story? He will start with the personality and then will work from the inside out.
How do you draw a female character and make her look feminine without making her look sexualized?
For drawing children it’s super easy, he just beefs up the eyelashes a little more and then he draws her wearing clothes that look female, when he drops off his children at school he looks at what kids are wearing and thinks of what outfits look feminine and more masculine and then he will dress his characters accordingly.
If it’s an older women she will have hips, and a chest, not as broad of shoulders, any genetic thing that shows that this is a female and not a male he will try and put that into his designs.
Lee had a great figure drawing class where they would have both a male and a female model take the same pose and instead of focusing on the obvious differences in anatomy, they focused on the more nuanced differences in their gestures. The more subtle things.
I.e. A man in a neutral pose, arms will typically round to the outside. A women standing in that same position, typically her elbows will go in and her lower arms will go out. It is a distinctly different silhouette just based on what their arms were doing. In every pose there was always a subtle difference or separation in how males or females carry weight and balance and all of that stuff. So if you can lean on those other things then it helps it become a lot more believable.
Before puberty we all have pretty similar body types. There are some tricks that you can use to add to either the femininity or masculinity of your children characters. Will adds thicker lashes when drawing his female characters. He also sometimes uses a little bit more round or soft shapes for his female characters and uses some more boxy or square shapes for his male characters.
This is a political topic. As illustrators we are faced with drawing all sorts of characters. Male characters, female characters, young and old characters, animals etc. When you are going down the street you notice what makes someone look more feminine or masculine.
If it’s a female character then you need to make her look like a female character. If you’re drawing a male character you need to make him look like a male character.
There is a lot of crossover, there are some female characters that have some features that would traditionally be considered more masculine, and vise versa.
You really need to be really respectful of that particular character and portraying that character the very best you can.
Jake did this ABC book about apples and there was a lot of grey area in the story. He wanted to avoid the whole issue of making sure that there was enough girls and boys, and that there was the right level of diversity among characters and he just made all of the characters animals. It took away a lot of stress and helped him develop the story and push his designs more and he was able to get some great portfolio pieces from it.
One of the through lines was that the pig got to eat whatever he wanted and the bear was on a diet. It was a lot more fun, interesting, playful, and kid friendly.
It is a proven technique, drawing animals can help you not have to worry so much about some of those other sensitive topics.
How to Create Emotional Images
The third question we’d like to address came from another message Will got which was about, “What makes an image emotional?” Sometimes we over focus on rendering and miss the emotion.
Will just finished a class with Brian Aijar, and one of the things that struck him was that the students did great work but one of the things that they were weak on was coming up with a strong story for their piece. Instead sometimes it was a story fragment. They might say,” The idea for this one is that the person is looking off to the side… that’s the story.” But, why?
Another issue was that sometimes they would have things in the illustration that were confusing or distracted from the story. We would be giving critiques but didn’t know what the illustrator was trying to say.
Have a Complete Story Idea
The way to start to convey emotion in your piece is to have a complete story idea. Sometimes you can still overdo that and try to tell too much story with your image.
It needs to be a clear illustration. Here’s an example of a good story: Someone’s walking down the stairs and they are holding a huge birthday cake and you see at the bottom of the stairs child’s blocks, roller skates, or a ball, something they are about to step on. That is a complete story idea. You could show that story at beginning or middle or end. You could show them about to step on the ball, you could show them slipping and the cake going up in the air, or you could show the aftermath with the skate next to them and looking at it you could completely figure out what the illustration is is all about.
So in order to convey a human emotion or make your piece feel emotional and have someone to relate to it, you have to tell a story that everyone has experienced. But we have a hard time relating to a story fragment, like someone looking over their shoulder. With a story fragment you are asking more questions than you are answering.
Intent
David Hohn and Lee are teaching an illustration class right now. One of the big things they push is that students include keywords with their sketches. They want to know the intent of the piece. Too often, if students haven’t trained this way or just draw without thinking then there is no intent.
We frame it all on if they are hitting those keywords/their intent, or not.
I.e. You say you want this to be scary, but it doesn’t look scary and now let’s go over why, and we will go over the design of the piece, the gestures, the characters, etc. But without knowing that intent then there is no driving force.
Learn How to Tell a Joke
Learn how to tell a joke. Not just creating jokes out of thin air, but go find jokes and learn how to tell them. Learn the setup, learn the meat of the joke, learn the payoff. So much is going on there, jokes are just mini stories. The more you do that the more it translates over into your work and you aren’t satisfied drawing a character just looking to the left, but you want to know what drives that character.
The main thing is, a joke teaches you to establish a character, establish a problem, establish a situation, establish an environment that that character is in, and then how that problem is solved in a clever or funny way. All of the elements are there in a short joke that apply to illustrating, comic books, even public speaking, all of that applies.
The reason for illustration, what separates it from just art or just drawings: illustration tells stories, everything you draw should be one of these parts of the story: it should be the setup, the meat, or the payoff. You want to leave the person looking at it asking, “What next?” or “What just happened?”
Will also has his students write a sentence or two to describe their intent for their illustrations.
Here’s an example that he had from one of his classes: “Two girls gossiping about another girl.” This is a great start! And the story was working well in the drawing. It’s hard to put a definition on how far you need to take something.
However we wanted to know why they were gossiping about the other girl and as soon as we added a piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of the girl’s shoe, it became a much clearer idea and story.
Basically, we just helped Will answer his emails.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How to Make and Impact in the World With Your Art.
What work have you done, that has had the most impact in the world?
Meaningful Lessons
Will doesn’t write the children’s books that he has illustrated but he feels like he really is able to bring a lot to the table with his art and is able to make the stories more clear. One of those books is Bonaparte Falls Apart, and he is working on the sequel right now and it has an anti bullying theme that is not overt, in that the story holds up on its own. He loves and enjoys working on them and because the Bonaparte books have sold really well, even though the second hasn’t come out yet, the publisher has hinted that there may be a third book.
Pretty much every kid experiences bullying and even the kids who are bullies probably get bullied at home. It’s really an important message to help kids become empowered and overcome and deal with those emotions in a positive way and overcome. The Frances books have a kid who is a bully in them.
Will had an epiphany reading those books because he used to tease his sisters and sometimes he was a bully; in one of the Frances books he remembers that the sister goes off and is crying because of her brother’s bullying and it really tugged at his heartstrings and must have been pretty impactful because he can still remember that experience now over 50 years later. He realized that he was the bad guy in the story and it really changed him. It was a children’s book that taught him that lesson. I don’t think that you can quantify the impact of your art.
Sometimes it’s hard for us to remember where we have shared things and if we have shared stories before, so we apologize if we keep sharing some of the same things.
Gentle Reminders
Lee feels that where he has made the most difference, it was probably not with his books, instead he feels like it is the connection that he has been able to make with his one off images. Sometimes it’s a momentary thing and he strikes some inspiration and creates a fun print, and then he goes to art fairs to sell them.
One time, Lee was getting ready to close at an art fair when there was this woman who came to his booth and one of Lee’s prints caught her eye and she was holding it up looking at it. Lee was waiting for her to leave so that he could tear down his booth but he noticed that she had tears running down her face, she was crying, he wondered what he had done or what he should do. She was looking at this picture of this girl swinging really high on a swing hanging down from a tree. She shared that her sister had died when she was young and that she liked to swing just like that. Lee gave her a hug and she was just bawling and he gave her a print. It was just such a personal connection and one of the most powerful moments of his career. That’s just one experience.
On a more consistent basis, when doing art fairs, older people will come to his booth and they will stop and look around, and have this starry look in their eyes. One time this lady said, “I remember this”, not speaking of one piece in particular, they were talking about the feeling of being young. It wasn’t just one image or just one book, but the overall impression of Lee’s work.
Lee gets these ideas and likes to make images and are fun, whimsical, and capture a moment. He has seen that happen a lot, with older people coming to his booth and it gives them this shot of something they may have forgot and they leave smiling.
Unanticipated Impact
One of the things that Jake did that inadvertently had an impact on the world was start an art challenge called Inktober.
He didn’t set out trying to make an impact on the world but he gave himself this challenge to try and get better at his craft. He easily could have said, “I’m just going to do this challenge in ink and you guys can follow along.” However, instead he decided to make it a challenge and he invited other people to participate if they wanted to and he made some parameters or rules for the challenge: you draw an ink drawing every day for the month of October and share it online. What started out as a single person doing a self improvement art challenge turned into thousands and thousands of people.
He gets so many emails every year from people sharing how it has helped their creativity; it gets people drawing for themselves again, a lot of professionals share that they draw so much for work and Inktober helped them draw for themselves and remember the fun in drawing; people show how they improved so much from doing this and got better as an artist; others share how they got all of these new followers because they showed up and posted consistently on Instagram.
Jake had no idea what he was starting. He is trying to actively promote it more and participate more and try to make it more accessible for others.
He’s done childrens books, graphic novels, worked on animated films, but everyone views him as the Inktober guy. At first, he thought, “No, i’m so much more.” But now he accepts it and if that is his legacy or how he is known, then that’s great.
What work have you done that has had the most impact on one other person, not the world, but one other person?
13:00
Success leads to Success
Will: We have all been very fortunate. You have one success, and it leads to more success. Pareto Distribution A small amount of people setting out to do the thing that they set out to do and they experience success. It’s not from talent, its from getting little successes along the way and building off of those.
Will got started with editorial but now that market has dried up a lot. He would tell his students, “You can’t follow the path I was on, the water washed away the path.”
We’ve probably had a lot of situations where we have helped someone and had someone come up and share a testimonial of how we have helped him.
The one that has been especially meaningful to him is that a handful of times he has been at a comic convention and had someone come up and say, “I have a booth over there.” They would continue to share how the reason they have a booth is because they watched Will’s youtube series on doing comic conventions. Will’s Youtube Channel Will shared his experience with his first comic convention along with all of the failures, finances, disappointments, and successes he experienced when breaking into the con scene. He really documented his experience, both his failures and successes.
It is so rewarding to hear, “You changed my life, I’m here because of you.” It’s so rewarding, and the internet magnifies our ability to have a positive impact in the lives of others.
Doing what we do as teachers, we get a lot of emails sharing successes. Fairly frequently we get emails saying, “I got an agent”, “I got my first book deal”, it is so nice to hear of these successes and please keep sending us those emails and keeping us updated. We also get an email once a week or every other week talking about this podcast.
Success begets success. It makes it easier to be successful when you have successes along the way. What separates us from other artists just beginning their career is just the time that we’ve been doing this. I really do feel like anyone that sets their mind to anything, almost anything, can accomplish that thing. I mean you can’t grow and become an NBA player if you’re short. (however, that didn’t stop Spud Webb) But there are so many things that you do have control over. I think that the thing people are battling today more than anything, if you are listening and wondering if you really can make an impact in the world with your art, the answer is that you can and you will, but you have to be willing to make sacrifices. Especially early those sacrifices are painful but later on they aren’t as bad and you are able to have more of a work life balance.
Keep Working At It
For Lee and his books, he likes the books that he has done, but he hasn’t had the impact that he wants to on his audience yet. He feels he hasn’t done the book he was born to do yet, that is what drives him to write, and he is turning down a lot of offers, and he feels guilty doing so but he hasn’t done the book that he really wants to offer to the world yet.
That’s his “First world problem” Why you don’t want to do the thing that you have set up your life to do.
Over time your career becomes more and more specific. Early on in your career: someone could ask you to paint a window, work on editorial, or on books, but now, for Lee, it has become so much more specific. You might not set out to be that specific but it’s where your career takes you.
What work have you done that has had the most impact on you, personally?
For Will working on fanart has been a game changer. It changed the style that he does even in his children’s books, the book series he is doing right now is based off of the style he developed from working on fan art.
Will before fan art: Over illustrated. This has been an evolution/maturing process, before his priorities were misplaced. Lee could add a lot more detail and rendering but he chooses not to. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Will would have editors tell him his color stuff was cool but did he have anything else, they were basically telling him that he was putting too many colors in, and was emphasizing things that didn’t need to be emphasized. It made him really reevaluate. He went to comic con and realized that that’s what every artist does they try to really hit you over the head with a lot of color, and he didn’t want to fit in. He wanted to stand out, and so he thought of a style that would stand out, and it gave him a style he could use for children’s books.
Lee was really frustrated in school and right out of school. He had some successes, but he hadn’t found his medium: he tried acrylics, pastel, oil color, and then one day he tried watercolor. Then it was off to the races, and it really started to happen and he didn’t feel like he had to force it. It didn’t happen in one piece but it was a process. It was about discovering the right medium that fit his sensibilities. It was night and day from that point on.
Adding Good to the World
Jake’s answer to the most impact on one person question:
Jake came up with Missile Mouse, the graphic novel, and he put it out into the world. He was hoping it would be a great success, maybe become a New York Times Best Seller, Pixar love it and it would be made into movies and... It sold fine, but it didn’t have the impact he had wanted it to.
One day about a year later he got an email from a woman whose son was really sick and was hospitalized with some illness that you never want a kid to have to go through, she said that the one thing that gave her son pleasure and made him happy was reading the Missile Mouse comic and just wanted to thank Jake for making it and putting it out into the world.
That really stopped Jake in his tracks and he realized he was so dumb. It doesn’t matter how worldly successful Missile Mouse or any project you put out there is, so long as it makes someone happy or improves someone’s life to some degree, just one person, that right there can make it successful and worth it. That is one of his stories.
Another thing is his Youtube channel. He’ll get emails sharing how they have really helped people.
One of the things that Jake created that had the most impact on him?
The first real perspective drawing that he did in 7th grade. That was him learning a new technique or principle of art and then sitting down and trying to make this thing the best that he could make it. When he finished the piece he really felt like it was quite stellar, he was amazed that he could create something like that and his art teacher really appreciated it and gave him good marks. He saw that piece going through an old box a few years ago and thought, “Oh my gosh, I was proud of this?” There was nothing special to it.
But what it taught him was, he could learn to do art. Art wasn’t just a hobby, this is something you can learn to do and get good at and devote your life to. That piece had a huge impact on Jake.
Create Something
The reason we have gone over these three questions:
1.What work have you done, that has had the most impact in the world?
2.What work have you done that has had the most impact on one other person, not the world, but one other person?
3. What work have you done that has had the most impact on you, personally?
And the reason we shared them in that order is because there is a common thread between them. The main thing is, and the way that you will ever make an impact is you have to actually make something. You have to create something. It doesn’t have to be awesome, it doesn’t have to be good. Jake’s perspective drawing wasn’t awesome or good, it was okay.
It wouldn’t have gotten any likes on Instagram, (maybe a support like from his sister.)
The impact can only happen if you create something, if you make something and put it out into the world. Nowadays we have so many resources and ways to share things with the world.
The key is:
Learn your craft, and share it.
Create something, do something, or make something, and share it.
Teach people how to do the thing that you’ve learned.
Always be engaging with people, asking questions, answering questions, and be apart of the community that you want to be apart of.
What you create doesn’t have to be a full graphic novel, It can be a flat piece of artwork like the prints that Will and Lee would sell at art fairs and comic conventions.
You can create something that shares a message that you believe in. It can be a story that you want to pass on to people, it can be any sort of medium that you love and want to be apart of.
Lee’s Pet Peeve
The discount share: “here’s something I made, it’s not that good...”
The self deprecating share, where you are putting it down before others have the chance to put it down. It’s not putting your work on the line.
It’s the social media disease. So many Youtube videos start with: “This is how I would do it, but you don’t have to do it this way, you might think the way I do it is dumb, it’s just the way that I do it..” It’s all about acting like it doesn’t matter or you just flipped it out and so it doesn’t matter.
Instead, say, “here’s the sketch, here’s why I am putting it out there.” The sketch or the painting doesn’t have to be great. You just want to be authentic. We want it to feel authentic, and that you care about what you are sharing, how you feel about what you are sharing and your intent behind sharing it is a lot more important than if it’s awesome.
How do you avoid the terrible feeling that comes when someone comments and says it’s bad or not good. The one in a thousand voice. There is a sea of encouragement and that one negative voice can really hurt and stand out from the crowd.
Set a goal to be rejected. Lee set a goal to be rejected 50 times by publishers when he was getting started, and it made it not a big deal. “Alright, that’s number 7, on to the next one:)” Maybe set a goal to get 100 negative comments.
When starting SVS, we were introduced to Chatbooks which wasn’t an overnight success. Their original concept was you take the best pictures from your phone and you would get scrapbooks made of your best photos sent to you monthly or semi monthly. Basically people take pictures but they only see them online, and the owner was was trying to solve that problem. This guy developed the first generation of chatbooks and people said that it was a great idea and then no one showed up and it flopped, generation 2 came and he got the feedback that it there was too much work involved then generation 3 was him trying to make it as easy as possible. So they automatically print your pictures from your instagram. You have already curated the best photos and periodically they can send you a photo album of your best and favorite photos. It failed twice before they were able to get it right.
We have all done things that have failed and it’s the person who keeps going, they are the people who are going to succeed.
People criticize everything. It can be the most perfect thing ever, and someone would still say something. For evidence of this, find something you love and read the Amazon reviews for that thing.
Even our perfect podcast got a one star review a little bit ago. “For people who talk about being so organized, these guys aren’t organized at all.” It’s actually so true.
We all like the media and we consume different things. Some people may look at a show you like and say they hate it but for you and for others it’s perfect. That’s the same for our podcast. If we tried to make it so that everyone liked it it would fail, because we’d be trying to cover too many bases.
Our podcast is for people who want to listen in on a conversation between 3 people who love to draw and paint.
Failure: Jake was doing Inktober for 3 or 4 years before it actually took off. It was just Jake showing up year after year trying to stick with it and keep going and because of that, along with the timing and the rise of social media and artists starting to use Instagram, it helped Inktober become pretty big.
Do you make images to change the world?
The best way to not change the world is to make an image to change the world.
Lee was apprehensive about this topic, because he doesn’t think about how the rest of the world will be changed by the art, he is just thinking about the art!
Will’s author friend, the late Rick Walton, said something along the lines of: “If you set out to teach a moral in your story, you’ll almost always fail. You should set out to tell a really fun or interesting story, and if it teaches a moral then thats a benefit and you can use that moral to market it, but if you set out to teach a moral, almost always your story structure will fail.”
It makes it too didactic and predictable. It will feel like you
If you start out with a question, or statement, or proposition to get your story started then that’s fine. I.e. I just want to talk about money is the root of all evil, then that can inform your story but that doesn’t mean that it is your story.
Some Practical Tips for Getting Started
What do you need to do as a creator to make impact?
Don’t set out to make an impact. Just by creating, by sharing who you are, your stories, your experience you will make an impact.
Here’s a list of things that you can do:
Work towards being able to do an art fair or a comic con. You learn so much from doing this. So much work is shared online, and there is this digital wall separating you from your viewers. But when you are face to face with people you get a lot more genuine response to your work, and you will really learn how people respond to your work.
Start your own personal art challenge. Not with the idea of it taking over the world, but just to improve and learn yourself. You could even invite another friend to also take on the challenge and then you’ve already benefited another person. Maybe you try and do a drawing a day for a month, or a drawing every week/52 drawings for the year, or maybe you try and do a painting every day for 30 days, it could be a portrait challenge, etc. Start some sort of personal art challenge and share that with other people.
If you learn something about art, actually set up an appointment or get together. You could invite friends to come and you’ll teach them how to draw perspective.
Art Drop Day, one day out of the year, the first Tuesday in September. You create something and leave it somewhere with a note telling the finder that they have found your art and it’s theirs to keep. It’s a fun way to engage anonymously with the community around you. If you want to make some sort of impact, then do a little Art Drop, and leave it in your favorite book at the library or tape it onto the window of your favorite restaurant. And share some goodness with your community. It’s going to brighten someone’s day.
Final Note
If you reverse engineer someone who is super successful and is changing the world. Keep in mind that they had to start by learning their craft and doing the mundane stuff that wasn’t changing the world. Think about doing the the basics and fundamentals as your preparation for doing something that will change the world.
Now go and start creating and make an impact in the world with your art.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
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3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Have you ever felt stagnant in your life or your career? We all encounter roadblocks and in this episode we go over some very common roadblocks that are encountered by everyone from the most beginning student to the most seasoned pro. We talk about how to get those roadblocks out of your way and how to be great and reach your full potential.
Roadblocks to Success
We give a lot of critiques to students and also to pros. It’s interesting how many times the same things come up in a critique. That is what we want to talk about today, “Roadblocks to Success.” Lee has seen a lot of the same things happening, not necessarily in an art piece, b in different artist’s growth.
What gets in the way? Why don’t people logically improve consistently over time? If you look at an artist’s growth and career it looks like a stock chart with ups and downs. You see some of the same things happen from the most beginning student to the most seasoned pro. We want to talk about those things and how to get those roadblocks out of your way, how to be great and how to reach your potential.
Roadblock #1, No clearly defined goals or understanding of where they are going; they are trying to do everything all at once.
There are a lot of students who are working really hard but might not be as focused as they could be. They are going to life drawing, doing Inktober, and taking 3 classes in school, they are trying to do everything, or there is the early professional with everything in their portfolio.
Art schools are often patterned after the 4 year university curriculum, and they have all of these different skills and classes they require students to take and sometimes it just isn’t set up in the best way possible.
You need a target to be shooting for. Sometimes in school we have to do a character design, then a book cover, then a concept piece. You can’t do all things.
Lee would have students bring their business cards in and work on branding at the beginning of one of his classes, and students would bring cards up and they would say, “John Smith: Illustration, Concept Design, Storyboarding, Graphic Design, 3D Modeling.” you may have done each of those things but that doesn’t mean that you are able to produce at a professional level in each of those fields.
Sometimes that thinking continues after people graduate and they can flounder with their portfolio. They haven’t picked their market yet. Art is very business related.
Lee was judging January's SVS Monthly Art Contest just recently and got a great question. There was an honorable mention, for the topic “Big”, and in the illustration the artist (Aleksey Nisenboym) drew these leprechauns or gnomes around this giant glass of beer and they were all knocked out from drinking so much; the illustration was done in a children’s book style and the great question came: “Is this okay for a children’s book portfolio?”
This was such a good question because this artist knew the market and target that they wanted to hit. Look at how you can fit in a field.
There are two things here: There is focus and there is goals.
We sympathize with the young 20 something year old artist who is kind of good at everything, when you are kind of good at everything you could go in any direction that you want.
So you tend to try it all out. You try everything, you try some modeling, you do some illustration, some comics, etc.
Jake’s advice is: Have fun, try as much as you can, but see where there’s opportunity, and follow that opportunity if it aligns with your goals. If you don’t have a clear goal for where you want to see yourself at age 30 or where you want to see yourself at age 40, then you aren’t going to focus in on the right things.
Go out and experience those things and see what you are good at and see what you like, you may not be as good at that thing but if you enjoy it then that could mean a better level of success for you, in the long run. Then lean in on the thing that you like the most, the thing that you’re good at, the thing that you like and the thing that has those opportunities there for you.
Jake’s Venn Diagram: What You’re Good At, What You Like to Do, Where the Opportunities Are.
How do you figure out what you’re good at?
First, do it. Then see how people respond to it. Show it to a mentor, post it online, see how people respond to it.
Being good at something you don’t really care for. Lee did a bunch of architectural design to make money, even though he didn’t love it, but then was totally focused on children’s books and was always doing that on the side.
Short term goal: pay your rent this month. Long term goal: where do I want to be as an artist in 10 years?
Focus
Some businesses in Japan have like 100 year business plans (that’s just a ballpark number, it’s some big number like that). We need to do more of that. A lot of artists are kind of just doing their next piece and go from piece to piece not thinking about the underlying reason and how it fits with their portfolio. Sometimes we just go with the flow and draw whatever is most convenient and what we feel like rather than really being deliberate and focused on what we need to do for our portfolio.
11:40
Jake has this assistant (Tanner Garlick) and he was going to school and had classwork and part of that is making a portfolio to get a job and part of that is to get a degree. There were these different goals laid out in front of him: graduate and create a portfolio. Tanner worked with me and saw the projects I was doing and he came in one day after we had talked about the Draw 100 Somethings Project...
The Draw 100 Somethings project is great at helping younger artists discover their style, and it is a great project for really tapping into your creativity and really flexing your creative muscles. Pick an object where there is room to find variations in it. You don’t want to be too broad though, you want to be specific. You wouldn’t say draw 100 space ships, but maybe it’s 100 single seat fighter jets.
It’s not a TIE fighter one day and a star destroyer the next day, but maybe you do 100 different TIE fighters. How many variations of TIE fighters could you design if you did 100 of them?
Jake did this project with these little robots, who all had the same face, but they had different bodies and were all meant to do different jobs or tasks.
They pushed him creatively and he learned so much from this project. You do the first 20 and you really feel like you are all out of ideas, so you put it on the backburner for a month and then you’ll have another idea that will spark another 10 drawings, and by the time you reach 100 you will have really grown a lot and learned so much about creativity. (Sidenote: Jake ended up doing 200 of those guys.)
So Tanner saw this and said that he wanted to do 100 Pirate animals, Jake thought the idea was cool and gave him his stamp of approval. And then as he started working on it and was planning out his year and seeing how he could fit this in, Jake said, “hold on, let’s take a step back for a minute, you have some important goals in front of you. You need to graduate, and you need to get a portfolio that is good enough to get a job. Is this project applicable to those things? Will it help you accomplish those goals?” And his assistant realized that Jake was right, and that working on this project would actually put off him getting his portfolio ready to get a job and would put off him being able to finish assignments in order to graduate. So he took a step back and realized that this wasn’t the time for him to do this and that he could do it later when he had more time to focus on it. So now he has zeroed in on his portfolio and schoolwork, and actually had an interview and accepted a job offer to work at a cool startup studio here in Utah.
So it comes down to what is your focus?
Just because it is something that you are good at, or interested in, or is fun, doesn’t mean that is the thing you should focus on to achieve your goals.
We gravitate towards easy. Some of the things we ask you in this project are not easy. Like what is your focus or what do you need to do for your portfolio, those things are harder and take a lot more thought. While on the other hand doing a Mermay drawing is easy, it is a concrete thing, the subject matter is already spelled out for you, it’s not abstract, you don’t have to worry about it. I’m going to go and do the easy thing, it’s not necessary easy but it is a more concrete and more spelled out and you can veer off of what the path should have been. Sometimes you have to choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong.
Lifestyle and Focus
You can get sidetracked with a different project. There are many sidetrack distractions. I.e. Video games. Downtime is good in moderation.
Will has had students who were focused and students who were not focused, and he likes to make analogies to non art people, because they are relatable but maybe not hitting too close to home.
Recently Will watched the documentary Free Solo, and in it, Alex Hammel, this incredible rock climber, has spent his whole life climbing and is living in a van (probably down by a river) and that is so he can travel and be closer to the rock faces that he climbs. His dedication to his craft, that pure dedication and what you have to sacrifice is one of the most inspiring things.
The documentary is all about his climb of El Capitan, that he climbed without ropes in Yosemite. People in that community are calling it, “the moon landing of rock climbing.”
When he started rock climbing, there was no contract saying that if he did this he would get paid. Sometimes as artists we say that we won’t do anything unless we have contracts. Although it is good to set up contracts to protect ourselves.
If you are an artist you do need to unwind sometimes. But for most successful artists, they have a period of their lives where their lives were maybe not quite balanced. There are usually a couple of years where you really have to lean into it, it’s not just a 9-5 in the beginning. You have to really sacrifice and “bleed” for your art.
This guy, Alex Hammel literally bleeds for his work. Endorsements, and the money all came secondary to the sacrifice. He had the goal and was already doing it before all of that.
Prior to doing the Solo climb, he completely removed himself from social media and decided he could not do anything that could become a distraction.
Maybe you need to zero in and finish your project and maybe for the next 6 months, it’s only once a week I am going to go out with friends, or once a week watch a movie, or play a video game. And the rest of the time it’s eat, sleep, and draw.
If you go to a skate park you see these kids doing amazing things on a skateboard. They were not born that way but they love it and they skate all the time and make plenty of mistakes in the process, and that’s where the real learning happens.
When you go into a college art class that should be our skatepark. Sometimes it seems like people are avoiding it, when that is their time to experiment, have fun, and really learn.
Those kids in these skateparks, more often than not they fall, they fail. These guys pay for it, for us as artists we just throw a bad drawing away.
Lee had a critique with the artist, Anna Daviscourt, one of the Adobe resident he mentors. They were talking about getting some quicker work because the children’s book industry can be so slow moving. They decided to focus on adding some book covers to her portfolio. They wanted to choose something that art directors would recognize, and she said she wanted to do Harry Potter covers. Probably the hardest thing possible, it’s been done twice recently and both times has been done really well, so it will take a lot to stand out. She did a bunch of thumbnails and showed them to Lee and he told her that they looked like Harry Potter covers, they weren’t great yet, she was imitating the look that was already there. He told her, “Here’s the story, but who are you in relationship to Harry Potter, what are you going to do to really stand out?” They had to really fight for it, she did some pretty good ones, but they weren’t as aligned with the nuance of the story. They kept working at it and eventually she ended up with something fantastic. It was great because they knew where they were going and they knew where this thing was going to live.
It was so interesting as they talked and got into what works and what doesn’t, the work was good but it needed to be better.
In school they want to keep you in the generalist category, they don’t want you to follow a specific style or artist too much.
Will had this student he taught in a workshop, who had worked at Disney and left California because he didn’t have enough to support his family. He was totally supporting his family but they really wanted to be able to get a house with a yard and stuff. He wanted to “undisneyfy” himself. Everything he did looked like Disney. He had been there for 15 years, and he really struggled with that.
The school are afraid of creating clones of another artist or of a teacher.
That’s why in school we say to not do anime and want to help you see objects and shapes in a new way and see how to interpret them.
It’s okay, early on to have some floundering. There is a certain amount of time for finding. If you are in that mode, then enjoy it and soak it up. The problem is when you are considering quitting your job but don’t know what you are going to do yet.
Experiment, try things out, find that thing that you are good at but also where there is opportunity.
Roadblock #2, Too much downloading, not enough uploading. Over conferencing, too many tutorials, looking too much, and not doing enough actual work.
Everyone deals with this. You spend an hour on Art Station, Instagram, Pinterest. You find and save things that you like. You are triggering some of the same neurons that you do when you actually create art but at the end of the day you haven't created anything. You are spinning your wheels.
Where you actually learn and improve is from doing the work; creating work and sharing it, putting it out there for people to see, that’s where the actual learning and growth happens.
Lee’s Red Light System
This is a system that Lee has developed to help him make sure he is maximizing productivity while minimizing distractions.
Green light, you are good to go, you have pen to paper.
Red light, you are reading the news, looking at Facebook, being distracted, or playing games. You shouldn't go there. If you catch yourself wasting time or being distracted, then head back to the green.
Yellow light, that is tricky. Often, you do need to find reference and gather images. The yellow light is flashing, and you don’t want to spend too much time in this zone; you need to speed up or stop and go back to what you were doing.
Avoid Over Conferencing
How do you avoid overdoing it with that stuff? Critique groups and conferences, etc.
“Terry’s Law”: The more you talk about doing work the less work you have actually done.
Will sees some groups of people who go to SCBWI who go more for the social aspect than for the work aspect. They go year after year but don’t really progress much.
Likewise, Will plays his bass for fun, but is honest with himself about it, he isn’t planning or hoping on going super pro because of it.
Lee’s wisdom for conferences:
Nothing worse than seeing the same person at conferences for 2-3 years in a row and they have the same manuscript or the same work. If you aren’t a professional tied up with lots of work, but if you are a student, you should have a new portfolio every 6 months. If you have a new portfolio every 6 months go to the conference and show that work off, you’re showing off an updated version of yourself. If you are bringing the same tired work year after year, then you need to work on creating new work, then when you are going to the conference you are really able to show off new work.
What about the person who is taking care of their family and doesn’t have the time to generate that portfolio every 6 months? Like we mentioned before if you are that family guy and don’t have as much time, just be honest with yourself, realize that it will take longer and chip away at it.
Long story short: Don’t replace real work with conferencing and tutorials.
Regardless if it’s your portfolio or if you are also professional or semi professional, don’t let a year go by without you doing some sort of actual project, whether it you paid for, or if it is a personal project or some research and development and see how people and the market like it, how did they respond to it. If it’s a year or every 6 or 3 months. A year should be enough time to finish some sort of project and put your stamp of approval on it. If gives you something that will ensure you are actually spending time working on it and making sure it gets done, you’re creating something you can point towards, you can put it on your portfolio or your resume, it shows your latest work, or it can be a calling card.
42:30
Be Student B
Please be student B, not student A. Will would have these classes where he would set up a still life and it was a class for beginners.
Student A, would get set up, and they might be painting an apple or a lime or something. Will would ask them to spend the whole 2.5 hours working on the painting. Usually student A would only paint for half an hour and spent the rest of the time talking and visiting with others. Will would have explained and showed the students things to look out for and things to focus on during the class. They were more concerned with being done. They wanted him to tell them what to do.
If you are going to play it smart, try to understand more of what is being asked of you. That is student B.Don’t just go through the motions and focus on just getting done, be willing to experiment, Be a tinkerer, be an inventor. Challenge yourself and always do your best work.
If you have teachers who don’t do demos, you need to go find another school. There is nothing worse than a teacher who isn’t willing to step up to the plate and swing.
Some teachers are either scared of their inadequacies, or they are just lazy. You should have teachers who are willing to demonstrate and show you what you need to do or possible solutions or ways of approaching a problem. Lee always did demos and all of his favorite classes included teacher demonstrations.
Shoutout to Perry Stewart! Whenever Will had a class after him, Perry would still be in the room helping students and sometimes would still be helping students even after Will had started his class. He was not getting paid extra, he was dedicated.
49:03
Don’t Only Practice
Another addendum to the over conferencing roadblock: students get into the practice mindset. Practice is good. But it’s not the best when you never really put it on the line and create something of consequence or something that is meaningful to you.
If you never put something out there, you never risk failing. Sometimes you need to say, “This is the best that I could do, I hope you guys like it.”
50:13
Getting Around Cliches
Lee sees cliches all the time, even at big conferences like CTN. Stuff like, “Monster Under the Bed”. Sometimes portfolios and things are just way to generic. You see this with style too, there is this LA animation style that is a modernized version of Marie Blair.
When 100 people are doing the same thing, how can you set yourself apart?
A good example of standing out is Cory Loftis. He is in this scene but he doesn’t do that flat painted style like a lot of other artists are doing.
He’s got this classic Bugs Bunny, Looney Tunes, Chuck Jones style, mixed with the stuff that Disney does, mixed with this edgy modern style that comes from his time working on video games.
He played a big part in Wreck it Ralph and Zootopia. He is really respected and looked up to. He is putting together dots.
We all have these dots that we collect whenever you talk with someone, have an experience, or learn something new you have a new dot that you can connect to other dots.
Whenever you create anything you are connecting dots.
You can see the same pattern that someone else has created with their dots, and you take those 10 dots and add or switch out a couple of dots. But sometimes it can still feel derivative.
A way to separate yourself is to find dots that others are not using.
Anytime Loftis does personal work it is always super out there and different from what everyone else is doing.
When Lee sketches out a concept in his sketchbook or on his iPad before painting it, there always this gap and he’ll spend a couple of days doing other stuff and then come back to it. He has this little list and he runs his concepts by this list before deciding to paint something. Lee always asks himself these questions:
What about this is interesting?
Has this been done before, and if so, am I adding any new information to this?
If I answer yes to both of those, nothing is interesting and it’s been done before. Then the only place to go is, “Am I trying some really experimental painting technique that will add something different to it?”
Monster under the bed? Yes, kids can relate to it. Has it been done before, yeah, a million times!
Jake’s friend calls this the Pixar Pass, when something has been done a hundred times but you can do it and make it cool and refreshing, then people will give you a pass for it. So, Monsters Under the Bed? They did Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. If you really knock it out of the park and do it in a really creative and interesting way, people will give you a pass.
The Incredibles is like the Watchman meets the Fantastic 4 with a fun modern art style.
If you do it right, you can make cliches feel really fresh.
Add Irony
Cliche topics, look and see what is out there and then add some kind of twist to it. In one of Lee’s character design classes they looked at different portfolios and realized that all of the monsters looked angry. So Lee gave them an assignment to make the scariest monster that you can and make it embarrassed or nice.
Another was a prop assignment where they were to take some benign innocent looking object that would turn into some dangerous mechanism. Irony is really powerful to create fantastic stuff.
Sometimes people just have poor tastes. Will saw how people drew faces, but wanted to do something original, and give people more geometric faces. Some sort of cubism.
Upon sharing his idea with his professor, his professor told him, “I’ve seen people try to pull this off before (Lesson 1, You are not original) and it never works (Lesson 2, because it is not appealing).”
Will was just trying to be different. Yes, it’s unique in a way, but it also has to be appealing.
Appeal is an “X-Factor.” It’s very important but can be hard to teach.
“Don’t be basic.”
In Review:
Roadblocks to Success:
You don't have focus, and you don’t have specific goals.
You are spending too much time going to conferences and watching tutorials, spinning your wheels and not enough time making actual work and progress on those goals.
You aren’t digging deep enough to be original. You’re taking too much of a surface level approach to your work.
Today’s episode is sponsored by SVS Learn.com. We’ve got a 7 day free trial, try it out and see if it’s the right thing for you and if you like the teachers and the teaching style.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
How to Be The Best Art Student
Will got a letter from a listener who shared that her favorite episode was the first episode, “My Art is Great, Why Won’t Anyone Hire Me?” She requested an episode where we focus again on that and expand more on that topic. She also said that “and by the way that is the best episode you guys have ever done thanks to Will Terry.” Will may have embellished the letter some!
She continued by saying something along the lines of, "The idea of self audits is great and I am taking to heart the idea of really honing my craft over the next year. I would like to know as an artist taking your classes the best method to take and absorb those classes since I only have a few hours in a day after work to learn and get better." So that’s what we want to talk about today.
We will split this episode into 2 parts:
Part 1: How to Be the Best Art Student
Part 2: How to Get the Most Out of Our Classes at SVSLearn.com and Online Learning
We did these things called 3rd Thursday’s and they were Webinars that we did live and then we would put the recording of it on Youtube. We put all of those webinars on SVSLearn.com. So we are taking some content from one of our Third Thursdays from a while back and presenting it in a more creative way.
Part 1: How to Be the Best Art Student, 5:35
Addressing Poor Mindsets:
“I’m going to art school to get a degree.”
First off, in all the years that Jake worked for studios and being apart of the process of looking at portfolios for people that they wanted to hire, never once did they ask if the applicant went to school. The portfolio always was first. They always would look at their portfolio to see if they could do the work and then they would ask what school they went to but wouldn’t check if they graduated or anything.
The degree, as far as the real world is concerned in concept art, in children’s books, etc. does not matter, what matters is that you can do the work.
It’s a meritocracy. It’s all based on ability. How well can you perform the task?
Would you say that people who have gotten far enough in a degree program should quit?
If it is your last semester and there isn't a job offer yet, then finish it out.
If there is a job opportunity that is available and it is what you are going for, it might not make sense to turn that job offer down just to finish out that last semester, and then if you are ever in a position to you can go back and finish that last semester. But we're pretty sure that once you are working in that field that you are wanting to work in and you are good, and already getting job offers as a student then you will keep progressing and odds are you’ll keep getting better and never look back. Unless you want to teach for a University at some point, if there still are Universities in 10 or 20 years.
Some job postings do require a degree. But really it all comes down to if you can do the work. If you have a great portfolio, and show you can do the work and especially if you already have some experience under your belt. There will be some companies that want you to get a degree. It's all about your portfolio and skill set.
You could have two people who graduate from school and they both graduate and get a degree, however one of them may have worked 2, even 4, even 10 times harder. That person will be so much more prepared for the job field.
If the prize was the degree then they will get killed in the job market. Maybe mom and dad will be happy about the degree, but it’s all about the learning. The mindset you should be trying to develop as a student is don’t have your eye set on the degree. The degree should be the byproduct of you trying to get the experience to get a job.
Looking at the college kids that Jake works with as assistants, everything they are doing to get that degree is totally going to help them get a job. But it is not about the degree, it is about the experiences they are getting as they work towards that degree. Your senior project or your final art show, that should be the thing that gets the employer’s eyes on your work and interested in you not the degree.
Will would give himself assignments or choose to do different assignments that he felt would get him closer to his goals in terms of portfolio. His classmates would sometimes get freaked out and ask him what he was doing and he would say that he was wanting to do freelance after graduating and that he was focused on preparing his portfolio.
There is a middle ground with ignoring what your teachers are asking you to do. Lee would ask for permission to adapt assignments and would shoehorn what the teacher said to what he wanted to do. He would do what worked best for him and his portfolio.
Jake had an assignment to draw himself as an animal and instead of doing a portrait, he did a landscape with animals in the background, because he wanted to do a piece that could become a part of his portfolio, and he ended up using the piece in his portfolio to get a concept art job.
What Animal?
We got into a random side note. What animal would we all be? Jake would be a horse, because that’s what he drew himself as in that animal self portrait assignment, plodding along in the distance. Lee would be a squirrel, like Scrat from Ice Age, he’s just scrappy like that and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Will would be a walrus, chill with cool facial hair.
Bonus, if you want to draw animal versions of us then share it with us, we’d love to see them.
“This homework should not take me more than 12 hours based on university guidelines for out of class, in class ratios.”
Some students are not willing to go beyond what the thing calls for. Some students are used to immediate rewards. Lee would have students come in saying, “I spent all night working on this!” And it turns out they had spent 3 or 4 hours, which is nothing. Lee’s average amount of time spent on a piece was 12 hours. Sometimes 9, sometimes 10 or 15 but the average was 12 hours from start to finish.
How long do you need? The answer is, as long as it takes.
Let’s say you spent 9 hours on a dud, and you budgeted 12, you have 3 hours to keep polishing that dud or you can start a new piece and sacrifice something else to have the time to finish it.
Another thing to be wary of is the ‘speed class taker’. They are trying to take as many classes as they can to try and graduate a bit earlier.
You should take fewer classes and allow yourself time to do the work, be able to mess it up and make mistakes and learn from them and do it again.
Jake did this drawing of animals flying and his friend, Scotty Young told him that it was good but nothing special. So Jake redid it and pushed it a lot further. He spent 2 or 3 times as long on the second iteration.
Jake’s first graphic novel was about 170 pages long and he timed it out the amount of time spent on each page was around 10-14 hour and that was around a year, while working a full time job. If you really want something you have to learn to get that thing done. Perhaps college is the best place to learn that, where you go from amateur to professional by one by one doing these assignments and after each one evaluate what you did well on it and what you can do better. How could you have spent more time on it, and better yet focused time. Until eventually you don’t even bat an eye if you have to redo something.
In a year: what is your percentage of illustrations that you feel are your best work and better than the rest, that you really love a lot more than your other stuff you did.
As a pro mostly everything you do should be at least okay, usually pretty acceptable. Then there are those ones that people really respond to and have that special quality to them, for Lee, he is stoked if he can get a couple really awesome pieces in a year.
Every year Jake does 1, 2, or 3 pieces where he feels he really leveled up and they act as a benchmark for the following years.
Even as professionals, the work created is still professional, but only a few pieces a year are seen as extraordinary compared to previous work. So if you are a student even if you are working very hard, not everything is going to be absolutely amazing.
So it becomes a game of numbers, if you want to get a some stellar pieces done you need to do a bunch of pieces and work.
Lee would review senior portfolios and he noticed that everything would look nice and cohesive but would usually come across one that was really over rendered. He learned that they came from the students rendering classes and they couldn’t give them up because they had spent so much time on them.
“This is how I make my art, it’s unique, the teachers need to help me with my vision.”
You can say that after you’ve learned the fundamentals; after you’ve learned composition, light and shadow, some color theory, some anatomy, perspective, proportion, and line quality.
Once you have figured those things out, then you have the freedom to say, “Now I want to do my style this way and this is how I draw.” Up until then that’s a crutch and you can use it as something to lean on.
Jake likes to compare art to music. You can’t just step up to a piano and pluck the keys with awful timing and make up your own stuff and expect it to be good.
You have to master the fundamentals. Once you can play the basics then you can start to mess around more.
“Don’t let your style be the byproduct of weakness.”
That is an out, it makes you feel good, but really it is a lie.
Mary Grandpre, you look at those and they are really well done, but perspective is not really all there. Some objects have dimension and there are objects that are more designy. She can draw that way if she wants to, but could draw them all “more correctly.” She does this deliberately and she can because she has earned it.
Student’s want the teacher to support their vision. How many students would enter a college level writing class, and argue that the teacher shouldn’t critique their work but support their vision. The teacher will surely point out bad sentence structure, bad grammar, too many main ideas in a paragraph, etc.
All art is the same, they all have a lot of similar principles.
You can’t get around it, you never will get mad because you have good draftsmanship and you learned to draw something well.
Even Jake is still learning. He has been working on relearning anatomy, he has leveled up a lot just since he started studying it more since a few months ago. He has already seen his drawings level up since he’s been studying this stuff.
If you think you’re done learning, you’re not. This is a lifelong pursuit, and you need to be committed to lifelong learning.
You need to have an open mind and be open to receiving feedback.
Will identified all of these problems that his students had.
Every year it’s the same: there are 3 or 5 that really get it and are doing really good, and then on the other hand there are a few who don’t get it at all and are not present, the rest are in between.
In 9 years teaching over there, he has only seen like 3 or 4 students who went from the lower or middle section to the high section.
He had one student who after school Will was really impressed with how her work had leveled up a lot, he asked her why she had gotten so good and she shared that, she looked around and she realized that her work wasn’t at the level as everyone else’s. So she decided to make a change.
Still doesn’t know why she was able to do that, while others really struggle.
Lee had a friend in school and they all shared their portfolios with each other that they used to get accepted to their program. His portfolio was not that great and it matched his classwork. He was pretty clumsy and not much of a stand out for those first couple of terms. And then around the 4th term he really started to stand out some more and started to have some pretty good pieces from time to time.
By the time that they left he was smoking, he was so good. He really did his very best with everything, every assignment, starting with the basics. And he just did it right, he really transformed as an artist.
It was not through talent, but due to sheer hard work and listening to feedback.
Will loves to see that transformation. Will went through that transformation himself and now he loves to see that transformation in his own students. The cool thing about teaching is that you can find teachers that really resonate with your learning style.
How to Know if You’re Good
5 Common Denominators that show you are getting good enough to start making a living at this:
People naturally gather around your work, without you having to point it out.
You’ll start to win things: contests, awards, etc.
You start getting unsolicited recommendations, “I want to introduce you to, so and so”, “You should consider applying to such and such.”
You start getting scholarships.
You start getting paid, you have people that start asking you to do things for money.
It’s the people who put their head down and just work. They don’t keep their head down and work in a vacuum but they learn from other people too.
Do Not’s
Will’s list of things you should avoid as a student (and as a professional).
Chronically late
Chronically unfinished work
Always talking and having side conversations during lectures
Always giving excuses and shifting the blame
Asking the teacher to change the assignment (if this is a norm, rather than an exception)
The last person set up to paint
Feel guilty because they haven’t made progress since the last time you were given a critique
Wearing headphones during class, half of your learning is going to happen from the people sitting around you. If you are not hearing side conversations or building friendships, you are missing out on a lot of learning.
Overly critical during critiques, but their work was unfinished or sloppy.
Packing up 15 minutes early.
Leaving class early.
Turning in scribble sketchbooks, if you don’t want to do it, just don’t do it.
The art director from Sony was giving a lecture on, “How to Make Me Hire You” and there was a student clickety clacking typing on their keyboard really loud and they weren’t taking notes.
Lee was furious and really got after his students after the lecture for being so disrespectful.
Pencil Mileage
Jake had this student that was just heads and shoulders above the rest of the class. Jake asked her why she was so good, and what her process was. She said that since the 7th grade she filled a sketchbook every month until now she was 22. So a lot of growth comes from pencil mileage.
Kim Jung Gi: he is the guy who can draw for hours creating a mural without any reference and draws with straight ink. We were talking about this and why he is so good and we decided that it probably came down to:
He just loves drawing, even more than those of us who really love it. He probably draws from morning till night everyday. He loves drawing to the point that his life is maybe not quite balanced.
Don’t drop the ball when people are counting on you. People who get hired are people who are fellow working student’s friends and people who did good on group assignments.
Don’t be a person who bombs it at a group assignment.
Part 2: How to Get the Most Out of Our Classes at SVS
Don’t treat it like Netflix and just have it playing in the background, instead watch the videos, do the assignments, get a sketchbook for notes, and take notes. Look at it as your school, and really take it seriously and treat it as your school. Look at your schedule and see what you can do daily and then try and have a day in the week where you can give 3 or 4 hours to apply what you are learning.
Really evaluate your goals. What do you really want to get out of it. A lot of people say that they want to work professionally. But do you really want to work professionally full time?
Maybe you just want to do some freelance on the side, maybe you are trying to get better to do a personal project, maybe it’s just a hobby. It’s important to take inventory on your goals so you can approach your education more wisely and strategically.
Attack classes appropriately.
Post and participate on the forum. Give and take. Take the classes that attack those different weaknesses that come up in critiques.
It’s not Netflix, there’s this weird phenomenon where when you are watching someone do something it seems so easy that you feel like you could do it too.
Lee would watch these tutorials, of Feng Zhu a concept artist on Star Wars, and feel that “Yeah i can do that!” Then when he would try and replicate it he would totally flounder.
You need to put the pen to paper and put some marks down to learn, you can’t learn just from watching it. Until your hand has done it, you haven’t learned it.
If you only have a couple hours a day, you shouldn’t put the pressure on yourself that someone who is in art school full time (9 hours a day of class). You should take one class at a time and really go through that class thoroughly. Sometimes people run through the classes and it doesn’t really show fully in their work.
We have talked about having illustration tests and that hopefully we would have enough staff at that time that we can give you a critique on your illustrations, like we do in our interactive classes.
Take it slow, when starting to post on the forum, and make sure you are looking at other people’s work and sharing comments and feedback. The atmosphere on the forum is extremely supportive. It’s a nice community
Sometimes it is hard to get an honest critique out of people, they might say, “Well, I’m not an instructor, but this is my opinion…” You don’t have to be an instructor to give valuable critique and feedback, your opinion is valuable.
You should go in there and read and engage and then people will be more willing and happy to give you a critique on your work.
Be specific about what you are looking for in a critique.
There are a lot of things that can be learned from this episode. If you are already a professional, you can look at it as how can I be the best professional that I can be?
Best of luck with being the best student and lifelong learner that you can be! We are all learning.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These p
odcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Today we are going to answer these questions:
What are the tools, the programs, and the apps that we use to create the art that we do?
What is not essential, what is nice to have, and what is essential?
Traditional Tools:
Jake: The last book he did was ALL digital. However, that is not the norm, usually he uses traditional at some point in the process. The sketchbook is where a lot of the traditional work happens for him but, a lot of times in the process he will go back and forth from digital to traditional at some point.
Jake’s Traditional Toolset:
Sketchbook, pencil, and a pen.
The reason these tools are so important is that they don’t have to be charged or plugged in. You can carry them wherever you go. You can use them to jot down ideas, to work on a character design or a composition that you are trying to figure out. A sketchbook is absolutely essential. If you don’t have one, this is something you should reconsider.
Jake used to work on loose sheets of paper, and that’s fine and all, however, sometimes he would lose an illustration or a drawing, or it was always hard to organize them by date. But now all of his sketchbooks are dated and kept in a drawer and are organized in order. Keeping a sketchbook makes it easy to organize your drawings.
The Moleskines Cahier Sketchbook
What type of sketchbook should you use? It all comes down to what type of paper you like to use. Jake has used a lot of different sketchbooks but his favorite is the Moleskine Cahier extra large plain journal, they are flimsy, and the paper is just good enough to keep his pencil, ink, and marker markings in place, they don’t smudge too much. It’s nice because with this particular sketchbook it doesn’t feel too precious, it feels like a good workbook where it doesn’t feel like every drawing has to be pretty but you can do nicer drawings in there if you want to.
PrismaColor Col-Erase Pencils
For a sketching pencil Jake wants something that works well with ink and doesn’t smudge with his hand, and the Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils are perfect. He takes an exacto knife with him in his tool bag for sharpening them, or a pencil sharpener in the studio. He likes the orange or vermillions, or the reds, they are nice because the ink stands out in contrast to the pencil while you can highlight things with the red or you can draw lightly and the ink will really stand out.
Pens:
Some sort of technical pen is essential. They are great for taking notes, a 0.3-0.8, maybe a 0.5 is good for jotting things down or doing quick loose sketches. Copic Multiliner 0.5 Pen.
Brush pens are great for going from thin to thick in one stroke, they are a tool that you can use to bust out a really nice drawing or illustration very fast. Jake’s favorite right now is the Copic Gasenfude.
Will’s Traditional Toolset: nothing is essential. Only the traditional aesthetic is.
Lee’s Traditional Toolset:
Sketchbook/portable workbook.
Mechanical pencil. There is nothing worse than trying to draw with a dull pencil. It’s a visceral experience, almost like scraping nails on a chalkboard.
Loves drawing on cold pressed watercolor paper. If you don’t sharpen your pencil it hurts your nice line quality. The mechanical pencil gets rid of that. Lee likes to use the .05 basic size.
Moleskine Cover Sketch Album, Plain
It’s a new experience when you have a horizontal sketchbook rather than a more narrow workspace. The wide one is awesome too.
There is another sketchbook that Lee likes.
Nice to Have: Lee likes to make a sketchbook with the paper he will use in the studio. Then when you work on your final piece it is just a one to one translation and you know already how i the paper feels because you’re using the same paper. In watercolor the paper is everything, you can use cheap brushes or paint but the paper dictates everything.
M Graham Watercolor Paints Great for use in the sketchbook and in the studio. The reason is because it is really easy to reuse the paint, if he just sprays some water on it with a spritzer it comes back like he just poured it out. This is great for when you are traveling.
Winsor and Newton are great but they don’t rewet very well. This is the brand typically everyone buys when getting started and then when they try and make a portable sketchbook it doesn’t really work because the paint doesn’t rewet or come back
Watercolor Pencils
Watercolor pencils are great, and Lee uses them a lot mixed with the watercolor. The difference between that and a regular pencil is that once the surface is wet a lot of color is released, you can even draw on wet paper. He’ll paint and draw right into the wet and it’s great.
Lee’s Favorite Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils: Tuskan Red or Indigo. Feels that other colors are too saturated.
Beat up Dip Pen
Reason for beat up is there is some oil on the nib from the factory., wash them with vinegar and water, or dish soap. Don’t use a lighter, it will ruin your pen. Dip pens are like guitars, there is something special about them when they are older.
Chip Brush
The worst, low quality bristle brush from Michaels, or at Home Depot.
Lee buys them for 59 cents, 79 cents, then he runs them over with his car or scrapes them on the sidewalk, you can get strokes with them that you can’t get any other way. They can make beautiful strokes like Chinese calligraphy or smooth washes. You don’t need a $100, $200 brush, people buy these expensive brushes for watercolor but they are unnecessary.
Lee uses the same things for studio painting but then has a couple more essential things:
The Incredible Art Board. That plasticy board that you can staple into. Lee has no patience for prep work, he wants to be painting, not sanding something. With watercolor, you have to tape it down to the board and wet it. He just puts the paper down on the board and then just staples it, the board can take staples over and over again. He has had the same board for 7 years. He’ll put the drawing down, wet it, and then staple it, and then just start painting it right there. From the time he had the idea to the time he can be painting is only 5 minutes, so very fast.
Liquitex White Acrylic Ink In combination with the dip pen. It’s great because it’s fully opaque and it’s great to get that full opaque white. If you’re a purist you’re probably cringing but Lee’s not a purist and mixes everything in there. You can get things back to white and you can paint watercolors on top of it because it’s an acrylic base.
Gouache Paints: Lee doesn’t love gouache, but uses it to add little opaque details back on top of the watercolor.
Gesso, also uses this to paint on top of the painting to get it back to white and then paints on top of it.
Paper
Canson Montval: Cheap student grade paper, has a medium to a lot of sizing which means the water color doesn’t go into the paper too much, so you can do some cool effects with it. But it can be hard to work with, it depends on your style.
Yeah, and that’s it! Haha, it sounds like a lot, but it is really only 10-11 things. Lee uses all of these in his studio and he has a more condensed list for travel. He can create almost any painting using these materials.
A Word About Quality
Will doesn’t work traditionally right now. But when he was teaching at the university, he had students who were using materials that could barely be called a brush or paper.
There are times where you can cut corners and there are times that you can’t.
With oil and acrylics paint there is Winsor and Newton: The Galleria Brand which like a lot of other paints is “student grade.” It’s watered down and doesn’t have as much pigment in it, so if you want to create thick impasto textures you just can’t do it. The same goes with brushes, if you want to make a graceful line, some brushes just can’t do it because they just are not the right brush.
Higher end synthetic brushes are what Will would use a lot.
In terms of paper there were students who would use low weight paper instead of heavy weight paper because it was cheaper. If the cheaper paper gives you the results you are looking for that is great. But if spending a little bit more on the nicer paper would make a difference in the quality of your work, in those cases it’s worth it to do that.
Sometimes students would tell Will, “I just can’t do what you are doing.” Will would reply, “I couldn’t do it either if I was using your equipment, so you have to forego a latte or something..”
A really good teacher can help you know what supplies you actually need. With traditional mediums you are dealing with physical properties. Going into an art store can be overwhelming because there are so many options. A good teacher can simplify that and help you know what you should get.
For example quinacridone magenta and alizarin crimson look the same. When you mix them with white or any other color they don’t mix the same. The quinacridone becomes really vibrant, and the alizarin, on the other hand, becomes quite dull.
Jake had a friend at Blue Sky who said that as an artist you have to budget as if you are poor, except with art supplies you need to switch mindsets and act like you’re a millionaire to get good tools. Maybe you need to make sacrifices to get the tools that you need.
Traditional Non-Essentials:
Millions of paints: all designed to separate you from your money. You only need a few and you can mix them to get the colors you need. Here are some of our color pallets that we use:
Will’s Color Pallette List: It’s on the intro page for his Smooth Blends with Acrylics- Dry Brush Technique Class.
Lee’s mom was taking a watercolor class and he was 3,000 miles away and couldn’t help, but she came home after the first day with a list of 21 different paints the teacher wanted her to get. Lee doesn’t know what he would do with 21 paints, let alone a beginner.
With just a dash of a color you can make almost any of those colors.
Using a small number of paints is great because when you make a body of work, and you used the same 5-7 pigments for all of them it will give all of your work a harmony because they are all made of the same pigments.
Electronic drawing desk: a sweet addition to Lee’s studio. Can raise or lower it to meet his needs. If he is using a big canvas he can lower it to be at hand level instead of having to flip it upside down like he used to. He got his for $350-$375 on Craig’s list, but it’s a couple thousand dollar table at retail.
Pencil Sharpener: Jake uses the Panasonic Autostop KP77N. It looks like it’s from an 80’s office, because it was. It sharpens pencils at such an angle that it is sharper than anything more modern. The engine is industrial strength.
Full Set of Copic Markers. Anything from 50-150, usually there are colors you can’t get with watercolors, really nice bright sharp colors, you can lay them in quick and you don’t have to let them dry.
Compact Watercolor Set with a Watercolor Pen. When traveling and want to get a full range of color.
It’s the equivalent of 50 markers in the size of a large wallet. It has these watercolor biscuits. The pen has water in the handle so you can flush color out when you want a new one and you can mix colors in the tray.
Pair this with a brush pen or pen that is waterproof.
6 pack carrier of your favorite soft drink, use that to carry around your markers, has a handle and everything!
Digital Tools
What’s the most essential tool?
A Computer, with a cintiq monitor hooked up to it, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Photoshop, and Procreate.
Will loves the iPad Pro. It changed everything. You can work anywhere on this thing. But he feels that it works as well for taking things all the way to finish like a Cintiq can. He likes the Wacom Cintiq, but doesn’t like drawing on a tablet where your image and where you are drawing are different places. The hand eye coordination is tricky.
However there are some artists, like Jed Henry and Jim Madsen who prefer the tablets.
But if he had to pick one between the Cintiq or the iPad, he would choose the Cintiq and Photoshop. There are other ones but that’s what Will likes to use. With the Cintiq you are tethered to the office. The reason Will loves the iPad is because you can be at home and Procreate has new tools like Liquify.
However, If you are a student don’t go to digital right away. If you are a beginner, or an up and coming artist. Then start with traditional and learn from your mistakes more. Digital, with all of the editing tools, can make it hard to develop your process. Unless you go into it purposefully choose to limit your tools.The problem that most students have is that when they start a drawing or painting digitally they might come out with something that they like but they can’t reproduce because the amount of tools and steps that went into it was so vast. Then when they try and do anything traditionally they flounder.
Procreate is great and made for the iPad.
Will does all of his initial thumbnails, sketches, and finished sketches in Procreate. He starts the process for getting them ready to paint. If he is going to do his color style then he will export it and paint it with Photoshop and the Cintiq. If he does his pencil crosshatch style then he will export it and do some quick color in Photoshop.
Will has the luxury of having both.
Lee uses the same things as will, but uses Astopad which turns his iPad into another monitor when hooked to his computer, and he can use photoshop on his iPad.
Jake finally got an iPad as his end of the year gift to himself. Now he has done more drawing at home than he has in a couple years, it’s so nice to be able to sit on the couch and do a nice finished piece. Was up until midnight drawing without even knowing it.
Can’t recommend this new version of the iPad enough.
Essentials for Jake: Photoshop on some sort of computer. He prefers Mac’s. He spent a lot of time for a couple of years on the phone trying to fix his old Windows computer. Now with his Mac he hasn’t had to worry about that.
A Cintiq paired with a computer is so essential.
There is this designer that Jake follows, and he had to save up enough money to get a computer. And so he went up to Alaska and worked at a resort scrubbing dishes and saved all he could to get the computer setup that he needed and that is what got him started.
Nice to Have: the iPad.
Essential: Epson Scanner. If you want to work traditionally and bring things into Photoshop.
Nice to Have: Good studio printer. The printer is something both Lee and Jake use quite a bit for professional work, making prints, and Lee uses it for taking sketches from his sketchbook and then he lowers the opacity and then blows it up and prints it on watercolor paper. It is so important to take the magic of the sketch into the final.
You can buy things used! People usually take good care of these things. Lee’s laptop was used, Will’s Wacom was used and he’s had it for 9 years with no problems. Wacom is having this problem where they made their products so good that they aren’t breaking fast enough.
Jake: iPad pro or Cintiq computer combo? The latter, the Cintiq computer combo. That’s where all of his professional work happens. It needs to be able to save and store all of those files.
An iPad is designed to last 3-4 years and the computer Cintiq combo should last a long time.
The Cintiq, Photoshop, computer combo is the standard. This is the grouping that will serve the most people the best. Will did a review on a cheaper non Wacom drawing pad and it felt like a first car vs a sports car when compared to the quality of a Cintiq.
With all of that said, you should be able to draw and create with anything. For a costume design class Lee brought in his son’s 64 pack of Crayola’s and did demos using those. You don’t want to be tied down to your magic pen. These essential things are nice to have but the important part is the art.
We use all of this technology but it is all about the image and the art. It’s what’s in your head.
It’s not the tools but then again it is the tools. There are nuances that you can only achieve with certain tools.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These p
odcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Failure
There are a few different types of failure:
Low-level; these are the daily upsets and letdowns.
Mid-level; they sting for like a week or a month.
High-level; getting fired, getting divorced, these are life changing and really can be cause for a lot of introspection.
Let’s start with a good quote, that’s how all good podcasts start, right?
“People who succeed are people who failed but they keep going anyway.”
Examples:
Mohammad Ali. He lost his first fight and then, after the fight, was claiming that he would be the heavyweight champion of the world.
Michael Jordan, didn’t make his 10th grade basketball team. This failure is the impetus of his success. This is what lit his inner fire.
Babe Ruth, he had the home run record and the strike out record at the same time. He went for it everytime, it was all or nothing. Babe Ruth was so confident that he would point over the fence to say he was about to hit a homerun before going to bat.
7:07
Low-Level Failures
When Lee started art school he came to it really without any experience drawing or painting. The first 3 or 4 terms were kind of rough. Every day Lee would sulk into class and he would have done his best on his paintings and then would look at what everyone else had done and he knew that he wasn’t at their level yet. It was a daily failure, for the first couple of terms. It was tough and he really struggled with it; it was quite disheartening. He came up with a way to get through it:
He was going to do 100 paintings and the wouldn’t start being judgmental of his work until he hit 100 paintings. He would keep tick marks on a sheet until he got to 100 and by the time he got there he was way better and more confident. By 100 paintings Lee was starting to find his stride and get pretty good, at that point at least it wasn’t daily failure.
One problem we have is that we look at failures as failures. We have also been conditioned to not look at trying and failing as a learning and forward moving experience. Everything in school is all about moving up, what grades did you get? Were you right or wrong? We’ve been conditioned to not use trial and error for learning. In school we don’t get a good grade for trying and failing. All the results we see with report cards are all about moving up. That conditions us in a bad way for being artists. That model is good for math, it’s either right or wrong, but with a painting there is not just a right or wrong way, sometimes you have to wipe the paint off and redo the painting but that failure was apart of the successful journey.
Will once had a student and they wouldn’t try anything with paint and were so afraid to make a bad mark, they were paralyzed. Will thinks that this was because they weren’t ever rewarded for trying and failing.
12:30
Be 100 Percent Responsible
Participation awards, now in youth sports there are always participation rewards, but kids know it is a game and there are actually winners. They know who won and who lost.
There is another way to categorize failures:
Caused by you, and your choices
Caused by others, and their choices
Caused by external forces.
You can’t always control the outcome of the failure however, your reaction to failure is up to you.
Typically Jake’s goal, regardless of what caused the failure, he tries to take as much responsibility as possible for what happened, or for fixing the situation moving forward. Hopefully that’s the lesson from any sort of failure, you’ve learned something, if it didn’t work you can check it off your list, okay this didn’t work, and then you can keep moving forward.
No matter what happened you can check it off your box, whether or not you caused the failure. You don’t have to be a victim, you can choose learn, and then move forward.
15:00
Test Your Hypotheses
Art and life really is a lifelong learning process both on the micro and macro level. You’re always testing your hypotheses. You can always be learning. “I tested those theories and they didn’t work and so I am going to change the process, or change…”
That’s how Lee learned watercolors. Initially in almost every painting he would fail. Watercolors are really difficult to master. Lee would constantly fail in every painting and would get frustrated because he had to buy these big sheets of expensive paper. He decided that he would start painting with the mindset that each painting was a test. And then that shift in thinking really helped him, instead of “I wrecked that painting and wasted that piece of paper”, it was, “okay, next time I need to put more water down.” he moved from frustration to a growth mindset.
Rocket scientists almost celebrate when a rocket explodes. If the launch is successful sometimes they don’t know if they just got lucky. However, when it fails they get all of this data to learn from to solve the problem and then when the next launch is successful, they know that they were able to solve the problem.
Jake feels the same way and if something takes off he is a little uneasy wondering if he just got lucky or if it was really good.
Will was an early adopter of E books on Amazon and they his did really well and so he assumed that if he made interactive ebooks for the iPad they would see similar success and basically they totally failed, because people don’t buy iPad apps.
21:20
Failing Forward
Failing Forward
The subtitle of the book is: turning stepping stones into success.
If you want to be a boxer you have to take hits.
Your failures can motivate you and give you energy to persevere.
Will would get upset when, in college, he’d show work to his wife and she wouldn’t like it, and he’d get frustrated that he couldn’t even impress his wife let alone others. So he would analyze his work and then used that frustration to keep working and get better.
David Hohn, his wife was a graphic designer for Nike so he had a high bar to hit when he went home and showed her his work.
Lee’s wife, Lisa, always has critique on his characters.
Jake’s wife, Alison, always is straight up honest with Jake. Jake has to recognize that his target audience often isn’t his wife. But when it is something she likes she loves it and asks him why he doesn’t do more work like that.
Jake’s mom would always give him a good ego boost, but not really any helpful critique.
Sometimes your closest family will be your biggest fans or your biggest critics.
Lee’s mom on the other hand would give him brutally honest critique. He never really drew, but it was raining outside and he decided to draw a picture of his great dane, he showed it to his mom and she said, “He looks deranged!”
Will would always get critiqued that his drawings of children always looked too old.
He was frustrated because he didn’t know how to fix it.
He was putting the eyes in the adult places, and then he would add extra lines that are visible but unnecessary that would age his characters.
Hard lines for the collarbone or the sternocleidomastoid (neck) muscle really make characters look older.
One day he did a drawing that looked like a kid and his wife told him, “Now that looks like a kid!” But he lacked the skill to analyze it and figure out how he did it, so he used that drawing for reference and it took him a while to figure it out.
People can really do a number on artists feelings pretty easily.
32:00
Critiques
For more depth be sure to listen to: Critiques
What do you do when you don’t like it but other people do?
Skyheart cover story, Jake redid his Skyheart cover and asked for feedback from Will that he liked it better, and then most people online and Jake’s kids told him to go back to the original. Jake told Will, what everyone was saying and Will, said, “Yeah, I didn’t want to tell you…”
Now Jake makes sure that Will gives him his honest opinion.
It’s hard to have people around that can really give you an honest critique. We know how much of a letdown it is to get help and then have to change a bunch of things. But that critique is so important!
Usually for Will, his best work is the work that he got lots of feedback on.
Sometimes we just want to go into our secret lair and come out with a masterpiece, but often times it fails because we didn’t get help from other people.
Receiving other people’s critique and feedback really accelerates our growth and the the quality of our work.
Anna Daviscourt
She has a 1 year residency at Adobe working on a book for them right now. Lee is her mentor, and they have an open dialogue and critique which has made her book really good.
One of the reasons the Star Wars prequels turned out the way they did is because George Lucas was surrounded by “yes men.”
You don’t want to surround yourself with “yes men.”
Ironically, you need to surround your people who are willing to tell you “no”.
Put yourself in a position to receive critique and then listen to those critiques.
That’s a way to circumvent failures and then you can use those failures as stepping stones. It. Better to have a little failure than to wait and have a bigger failure.
39:45
Will’s Failures:
Beginning of Will’s career: we have this project and are looking for illustrators, are you available? He would only get 1/10 of those.
Puff the Magic Dragon
A Marvelous Toy
Will was really close to getting to illustrate the Marvelous toy book, which was a sequal to puff the magic dragon (which is still selling really well) Steve Cox got to illustrate the book.
This is so true, there are all of these jobs that get talked about, there are so many books that you hear about or that get talked about. Especially for the first 5 years but even later.
Lee would get all of these proposals and even some animation studios that were maybe interested in using his work to make a short, and then radio silence. It is quite disheartening.
How to Catch a Bogle: Lee did a sample illustration and a couple of sketches for the cover and he thought it was a no brainer that he would get to illustrate it, but then he didn’t get it. So these hopeful opportunities that don’t pan out are plentiful.
Mid Level Failure
Lee did a childrens book, did a whole dummy, it goes to acquisition and then you assume that
It’s a long letdown, it can cover 6 months of your life. It’s not like one painting
It’s out of your control, maybe marketing got these sales reports and they feel like another book would be better. Or maybe something really similar comes out.
If they had just rejected it right out of the gate, it would be easier
48:50
Jake’s Failure
He was working at Blue Sky and there is this unspoken hierarchy that character designers are at the top, and he was on a lower level. He got thrown a bone by the director, they needed some background characters.
Jake dropped the ball, he fumbled it. He did his best but basically they just yawned at his result.
He realized that maybe his character designs aren’t the best for this animation studios or for animation in general, but he realized that he wanted to move into a place where his designs could be appreciated.
Find the audience that appreciates it.
When people think of Jake Parker they don’t hink of him as a character designer but see him now as a comic book artist and children’s book illustrator.
Maybe now he is more experienced and would have done a better job on it.
Jake has put his effort, emotion and interest into projects that he gets satisfaction out of and if the audience gets satisfaction from it all the better.
54:50:
High Level Failures
Will’s High Level Failure:
Will was getting a lot of work but not as much as before, he and his wife were doing really well before while she taught school and he did illustration, but then she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and couldn’t keep working. He was still getting good assignments and money you could live on but because they had been living outside their means, and they didn’t have her extra income so they got into financial trouble.
Will saw these people around him making good money and he felt sorry for himself and felt like a failure, and that he was letting his family down.
So… he almost quit to become a prison guard.
All of the guys around Will were correctional officers, they were making 6 figures, and their wives worked and the central valley of CA is affordable. Will saw that these guys didn’t go to college and they have these really comfortable financial situations. Illustrators are more like dentists have to study and perfect their craft and he felt he should be making more.
He felt really sorry for himself, he wasn’t honest enough with himself to say, “We got ourselves into this situation.”
He went and took the PCA32 class and got unofficially hired but then he was talking to the CO’s in his neighborhood and heard all of these horror stories, they were telling him not to do it.
He felt like a failure he had a 15 year long career in illustration, it was a cop out. No one that did that job was having a meaningful career.
It felt like giving up.
How did you get yourself out?
He talked to his wife, his bishop from church, his neighbor who was a nurse at the prison, everyone was telling him not to do it.
His bishop told him that he saw what Will was capable of doing, had seen his children books, and that the gifts that he had should not be squandered this way, and that he had developed these gifts that would be taking away from people and he wouldn’t know what good he had done. Jake has really seen the positive influence on others through Will’s youtube channel, art, and on him personally.
Will and his wife were in a sticky financial situation and it really took learning to live within their means to help get them out of that. Just because someone else has something you shouldn’t get it just because they have one. Live below your means so you can save every month, you will experience lean times.
Carrie Henry, “I hope you are putting money away because this isn’t going to last.”
There are so many benefits to living within your means. Including happiness by not being tied to needing to have everything.
Jake had a great job at an animation studio, but wanted to develop an independent career. He had an opportunity to teach at BYU in Utah, where he could have benefits and health insurance along with a couple days a week to work on his publishing work. But that job at BYU disappeared because after a couple of years they told him they wanted him to have a degree. He didn’t have So he found a full time job and gave himself a year to get 6 months of work lined up. The year came and went and he didn’t have 6 months of work lined up, he was really stressed and he was really down on himself, he doubled down on himself and he started to post on social media and posted daily and tried to post daily. He then landed a really good job from Google that would last them a couple of months, and he knew if he did a Kickstarter, and he got another childrens book. He added it all up and realized he had his 6 months of work he was looking for. That was 5 years ago, and he’s been doing it ever since, but it hasn’t been smooth but it’s been a steady trajectory upwards.
It would have been easy to quit and just stay at that new job for 10 years, but he had a vision or a goal and he stuck with that.
You never know what the future holds in store. There are always curves and things you didn’t see coming. No matter how good you are you will still experience failures. This is true for life and especially for a career in art. Once you hit a certain point it doesn’t mean that those things will go away. Typically all failures have a silver lining. Use every failure to look at what went wrong, what you can do differently, and how you can learn from it and be better.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These p
odcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Projects:
We’re still working on a lot of the same things, and so from now on we’ll probably just give updates once a month instead of every episode..
A Year’s Worth of Lessons
We want to each share a couple of lessons that we had from this past year.
Concept is King, Will
At the beginning of his career, like most people, Will focused a lot on craft. And as he has matured he has learned that craft is what gets you through the door but what moves you forward is artistry, or the concept behind your piece. That is the most important thing. Craft validates you, but your concepts is what moves you forward.
It is all about the subtle things, the things that add to the story, the things that are left out of the illustration.
WillTerry.com, check out Will’s comic con drawings, a lot of time goes into making sure the concept is solid.
You don’t really get to see anyone’s real initial reaction when they see your children’s book that you illustrated. However, at the comic conventions strangers don’t know that you are the artist, so Will gets to see their natural reaction to his work and his fan art concepts. He has been able to really see, by watching it in real time, that people are not drawn to the craft but they are really drawn to the concepts of his drawings. The drawings with stronger concepts attract more attention from customers.
Will is trying to go through his Bonneparte book and make sure the expressions and everything add to the story. That those little details are adding to the story and concept behind each illustration.
Technique, perspective, etc: it all serves the story. Not the other way around. You don’t make the story about the perspective or about the technique.
Lee really likes his work to look raw, and has really gravitated to that look over time. He oticed that when he tried to make things look really rendered and realistic people talked a lot at how realistic his work looked rather than the concept behind it. But when he changed his approach and focused a lot more on concept and developed more of a raw style then people also began to focus more on the emotion and the concept.
Jake used to be very tight with his drawings using a technical pen, but has grown to not focus so much on that and instead uses a brush pen and it has given his drawings a more organic, hand drawn feeling. It’s more about bringing the drawing to life than making sure every part and mechanical piece makes perfect sense.
Ask yourself: What is the concept, and what is the emotional response that I want to illicit in the person viewing it?
With all of that it is hard to get noticed if you have bad craft. Having bad craft, is often from laziness. Will struggled with drawing and resisted getting better at it, and his excuse was that he didn’t want to hurt his style, but it was really just an excuse for laziness. Putting some effort at building your craft will help you better pull off any concept you want to tackle.
You need to still learn craft so that you are able to take on whatever artistic challenge comes your way. You want to be malleable, and adaptable. You need to be able to adapt to the times and not be stuck doing just one style.
In short, good craft will get you through the door, but good concepts and ideas will help you move forward.
20:00
It’s All About Lifestyle, Lee
This has been a big year for Lee and his family! They moved from Oregon to Tennessee and have been able to really lower some of their expenses which has taken a lot of stress from Lee to have to make as much money and helped give him more time.
They have been working at this plan to reduce costs for 3-5 years and it has really payed off, no pun intended.
Now Lee has a lot more time, and a lot less stress that allows him to be more creativity. Essentially, control your costs to enhance creativity.
There is a big relationship between what you want to do and the stress of making money. The more pressed you are for money the more likely you will accept work that you would prefer to avoid. The more financial freedom you have the more you can say no to those projects and work on the work that you want to.
Will was alive way back when not everyone had personal computers. He didn’t want to spend the money on one and kept putting it off but once he got a personal computer, that was a game changer for him.
If you need a particular tool to do the work that you need to do, that you want to do. Then get a job and work to save money for that tool.
If you are more wise with your eating expenses and your other flexible expenses, soon you could save enough money to afford an iPad or those tools that will help move you forward.
There are some practical things that you can do to help move you forward financially:
Don’t Live in San Francisco or another place with high cost of living; it will be difficult to move forward, starting off your career paying $2300 a month for an apartment.
Go through and try and take 20% off of your major bills: groceries, rent, etc.
Back in the 70’s you had to live in one of those big cities, but nowadays with the internet you can stay connected.
27:31
The Inbox Zero Method, Jake
Back in 2017, Jake had over 500 emails in his inbox, and he declared Email Bankruptcy, he took all of those emails and stuck them in a “Bankruptcy” folder.
This is his new Inbox Zero Method that he used in 2018:
Make a folder in your inbox called the “action folder”
Create different folders for different projects/categories.
Set aside time each day or every couple days to go through your action folder. I.e. send someone that file, or write that thank you response.
Any email that takes less than 2 minutes to respond to, just do that right away, if it takes longer then put it in your action folder.
Previously Jake would sometimes check his email 5 times an hour and then it fragmented his time and he wasn’t able to accomplish as much. The best work happened when he had 2 or 3 hours to get in the zone and focus on deep work.
Don’t live in a state of constant distraction. Don’t let the email control you, you control your email.
Lee has this program called Self Control and it allows you to choose the sites that are distractions for you: i.e. News sites, email, etc, and you can plug those sites into the app and create limits for accessing those sites. I.e. You can’t access any of those sites for the next 4 hours.
Lee’s Distraction Websites:
Instagram
Gmail
Facebook
Some news source
Craig’s List
So anywho, when he clicks the button on Self Control it removes those distractions.
Be Careful, Will
Story: One of his best friends runs the comic con side of his business and does all the scheduling, taxes, going to shows, etc. And then pays Will his portion.
Will and his business partner sent this person to run a booth for them in different parts of the country and this person had helped them $700 dollars. They sent him to another show and Will had a Facebook friend that tabling next to the man, and that friend emailed Will telling him that the person working for him was always showing up late to the show, and would leave the booth for hours at a time.
So when the guy running those shows came back Will and his business partner, Wane, talked to him about that email they received and he admitted that it was all true.
You really need to know the person that you are taking a chance on, and when necessary make sure there are checks and balances in place.
Storytelling differences:
Lee tells the point he wants to make and then gives the supporting details.
Will tells the story and and supporting details and then he gives the lesson or takeaway.
Jake likes to create orderly lists and bullet points.
Truly be a Content Creator, Lee
Being a content creator is where all of the fun and all of the income truly happens.
Lee is in the process of making patterns, and books to pitch and he is having so much fun.
He is making so much content that isn’t even being asked for, and then is going to see where it will go.
He’s having a great time and he hasn’t ever had this much freedom before.
Your ideas and your ability to come up with things will be rewarded.
Those who not only illustrate but also write their books have a better chance of being picked up by a publisher. Those who take the bull by the horns and go above and beyond just being an illustrator can do really well.
You feel like you are more in control of your future when you go the extra mile.
The best thing that Lee likes about having being a content creator nowadays, is that there is now a Plan B. Before you would have to just shop your work around to different companies and publishers, but now there is Kickstarter.
Worst case scenario: nobody wants it, then you can kickstarter it and make it yourself.
Jake disagrees that being a content creator over executing someone else’s vision this is the only way to be successful. More and more today people want visuals and good images to go with their company, and there is work for people who have craft. With that said though, don’t let your side projects die.
We aren’t saying that there is no more work for people who don’t create their own content and write their own children’s books, instead, we are saying that there are more opportunities for those that do.
You can become entrepreneurial. Will was not entrepreneurial, and now he is.
To do any personal project and have it be successful takes a lot more than just art. Each project is almost like it’s own business. A Kickstarter project involves logistics, marketing, etc.
You should learn some business skills to help out with the other side of things.
Be a content creator, it’s not entirely about getting work and being successful, it’s about reaching your full potential. Don’t just be a hired gun all the time, take time to do your own work too. There is something special about creating for your own project.
Not everyone has that itch to do personal projects and be entrepreneurial, some people love working at a studio or just having a real job. And for them that is all of the creative fulfillment that they need.
Making your own things, finishing things, and doing those personal projects gives you confidence that you can take with you into other endeavors.
Take Time to Just Draw For Fun, Jake
We all can get so caught up with deadlines, and drawing for specific projects that we forget to draw just for fun.
There is value in drawing for fun and you never know what may come from it.
Just take time to scribble and draw just for fun. Just like a kid, draw not for anything, just draw for fun. You never know what is going to happen.
Jake drew this robot and colored it and because of the colors he chose it ended up looking like an avocado robot. So he drew a bunch of other “food bots”, and they were all just for fun. Someone took his Hamburger Bot and made a 3D sculpt from it, and then with his permission made some real 3D printed statues from his design, and they have even been made into stickers for Art Drop Club . All of that just from Jake choosing to draw for fun.
2018 Remorses:
Jake wishes he had drawn all of Skyheart before the Kickstarter, instead of after. Jake feels like he could have been using all of that creation time of Skyheart as a build up to the Kickstarter. It would have been a better final product, and it would have saved him from a lot of stress. The great thing is that we can learn from our mistakes!
In the past, Kickstarter may have been more about helping to fund something that never would have been done. Now it feels like it has shifted to becoming more of a pre-order and the money is just needed to fund the production of it.
That’s it for today, we hope that some of the things we learned last year will be helpful to you with achieving your personal and artistic goals this year. Happy New Year, everybody!
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
3PP 20: The Stories That We Tell
Stories are as old as civilization itself, and as humans we can't help but tell stories. In this episode we share common plots, themes, and ways to understand and better come up with good stories. We also share some of the stories that have been influences on us and who we are as artists and storytellers.
Current Projects:
Lee, Is continuing on his book cover series; he also worked on creating 50 patterns to give to his agent to take to a convention in New York for licensing.
Will, Still working on the sequel to Bonaparte, and is working on a new Kickstarter, to be released in February or March. Stay tuned for details! Sidenote: in case you didn’t know, Kickstarters are exhausting!
Jake: Is all finished with his Skyheart Kickstarter and is still just rounding up any stragglers, so if you are a backer and haven’t filled out your survey yet, log onto Kickstarter and fill it out so we can get your reward to you!
SVSLearn.com, sponsor of this podcast! Free for 7 days. Click here if you are interested in learning more!
What stories do you want to tell? That is the question that we want to dive into with today’s topic.
The Stories That We Tell
In illustration there are some recurring stories and themes that come up with similar plots and basic story details. Lee did a deep dive on the internet to learn more about what stories keep coming up in the world of children’s books and here are the results from the first website he found:)
Basic Themes, Plots, and Actions
10 Basic Themes in Children’s Books:
Courage
Friendship
Belonging /Identity
Family
Loss/ Grief
Growing Up
Anger
Suffering
Jealousy
Love
Lee did a little more research by clicking on the next Google result, and found this:
(The 7 Basic Plots, Christoffer Booker)[https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Basic-Plots-Tell-Stories/dp/0826480373/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1546027154&sr=1-1&keywords=the+seven+basic+plots]
Overcoming the Monster, or overcoming some big thing
Rags to Riches: follows a rise to happiness.
Voyage and Return
The Quest
Comedy
Tragedy: riches to rags, follows a fall.
Rebirth
Jake’s 4 Different Plot Categories:
Winning
Escaping
Stopping
Retreating
These are the modes of action of the main characters.
I.e. Where the Wild Things Are, Max is escaping.
Little Bot and Sparrow It’s all about a robot that becomes friends with a sparrow and they grow in their friendship together, until one day the sparrow has to leave for the winter. The story is all about: Friendship, Belonging, and Dealing with Loss and Grief.
A subtle version of rags to riches.
Plot applies more to bigger, longer stories, stories with a 3 act structure. Children’s books can have a 3 act structure but often times they don’t.
Most stories: a problem that needs to be solved and then they find a creative solution.
The late Rick Walton: Come up with an interesting problem with a creative solution.
Are there things that you like to create?
Are there things that you like to create? What are you naturally drawn to creating?
If you are a student in school you should be creative enough when you get an assignment, you should be able to fit what the assignment is with what you want to paint or create.
Some themes that come up in Lee’s work and entertainment interests:
Kids that find something magical, and then that drives the story. Normal real life with a hint of magic, or one thing out of place. Like The Goonies, Iron Giant, and E.T.
With Harry Potter, he liked the details, more than the overall story.
3 Different Types of Creators:
World Building: get really caught up in the details, sometimes overlook the story and characters and can get caught up with plot points, etc.
Character Building: very focused on the characters and their development.
Plot Building: very focused on the overall story, but maybe doesn’t have specifics figured out with characters, the world, etc.
Jake loves Worldbuilding. What are the mechanics of the world?
It’s super interesting to have characters with conflict. I.e. A bad character who is forced to do something good.
The reluctant heroes, the anti-hero are very interesting and fun stories to follow.
What are you going to paint and create if you are left on your own?
Will’s goal is to become an Authorstrator.
Will and his wife were losing their home because of poor financial choices, and this was a direct influence on his story: (Gary’s Place)[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/garys-place/id778805132?mt=8]: What if this gopher decided to dig a hole and then added a whole bunch of rooms, and then the house got flooded because the Gopher dug too far.
What do I like to do in the winter time? etc, then you can start thinking about situations and character ideas.
Essentially the stories that you tell will come from your life experiences, your interests, and from who you are.
How to come up with a good story
Why a story starts and why a story ends is so difficult, the resolution is the hardest part, it is difficult to come up with a story that ends in a satisfying and meaningful way.
You can say, I know that I want the story to be about this..., but instead of thinking about how it starts, think about how it ends. Then you can work backwards and reverse engineer it.
Some stories are serious, and others are just fun jokes.
Like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.
The story is along the lines of a really good joke. It is simplified, toned down, and has a great punch line. Think about the jokes that you are drawn to. Funny picture books are just illustrated jokes. Every element is essential to help tell the joke.
[I Want My Hat Back] (https://www.amazon.com/I-Want-My-Hat-Back/dp/0763655988/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1546029594&sr=1-1&keywords=I+want+my+hat+back)
No David! It is very loosely a story, but there is this interaction and story, and then it ends with the resolution of his mom hugging him.
Writing a simple short book that is also satisfying is very difficult.
Dr. Suess was amazing at creating stories that were deep. He started off as a political cartoonist and a lot of that carries over into his children’s books.
There is a lot more to it than what you see on paper.
Horton Hears a Who, he is making a commentary about the U.S. and Japan after WW2.
The Cat in the Hat, his message and commentary on authoritarianism.
The Lorax, it is about environmental stuff.
He is so good at making a story that is interesting on two levels.
But with these stories the story isn’t overwhelmed by the message beneath it. The surface story is also interesting.
Too didactic, is a warning zone. Don’t make it too preachy!
You want it to be fun and not focused on preaching.
Jake has got this note, editors don’t want it to be too strong a message. It has to be more underneath the story.
You can’t be hit over the head with a message.
“Don’t Run into the Road!” It’s not a story. There was this big name author that tried to create a story about that, but it never really sold anywhere.
Preachy stories are really off-putting. Beating reader over the head never works. We don’t read children’s books to be preached at.
Early Influences
What are your top 3 books as a kid? Why? Why do you remember them now?
Will: The Francis books, Will was fighting with his sister, and in the book the brother was being mean to his sister. The book showed the perspective of the little sister and how she was really hurt when he was being mean to her. It really hit him and helped him see that he was being the bad guy. It made him self reflect, and had an impact on his life.
Rick Walton: if you set out to teach a lesson, that’s fine. But if you have to make the right decisions to make the story good, and those decisions take you away from that lesson, then follow the story.
Jake: Richard Scarry books, Where’s Waldo books, stories with the faintest of stories but lots of amazing visuals.
Early influences play a huge role on who you are as a creator. Those early influences stay with you for your whole life.
Lee’s dream: to listen to the radio in 30 years and hear that a book he wrote had an impact on someone.
Lee: The Pink Elephant with Golden Spots. These kids are in an empty house and they find these keys that open a magic wardrobe, and they discover a pink elephant with golden spots, that ends up being taken to the zoo where all the other elephants make fun of it, but all of the visitors want to see the pink elephant, and all of the other elephants paint themselves to look fun and crazy like the pink elephant. Lee still cherishes that book.
These things stick with you for the rest of your life.
Will: I Wish That I Had Duck Feet
We want to be unique. We want to stick out. This book is an influence on him and his work.
Jake, what inspired you to draw robots?
Yukito Kishero’s Battle Angel Alida was a big influence.
Appleseed was full of robots, and in the back the artist, Sherow, would show robot designs with cut aways showing the insides of the robots and how they worked.
Jake likes to offset the high technical, really detailed robots with cute little animals. Richard Scarry liked cute animals driving cars and Jake likes cute animals with robots.
Jake likes the engineering aspect, the form and function of drawing robots. Star Wars is amazing, and they have all of these books showing cross sections of ships and how things work.
How do you avoid being cliche?
You need to connect dots that haven’t been connected before.
Just write a great story, that is totally original. It’s that easy!
Anything that is unique and original, there is an element of the familiar and there is something that is unexpected. This is why it is vital to fill your creative bank account.
Where are some unlikely connections? What are the interesting things that you notice?
Notice the things around you. Look for things in your life that are unique to you. Look for problems in your life and find ways to solve them.
Lee’s real life question: “What if it didn’t stop raining?” Led to him creating a story about a girl who encounters that problem, it doesn’t stop raining. Find the problems that you are going through personally and then solve them in interesting ways.
If you are stuck on doing the monster under the bed something then you need to do something unexpected.
Seinfeld, comes from real life. There is a level of richness and charm that has to come from real life.
Have fun telling and coming up with your own stories!
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
3PP 19 Life Cycles of a Children's Book
Projects:
Will: Still working on the Painting Color and Light class. I’m gonna be working on it for a while. Loves working on classes, and loves having them. Loves it. It takes a long time but is very satisfying.
Lee: Going into the last week of his basic painting class, and it’s amazing the progress people have made between weeks 1 and 10.
Started a bunch of projects, and is working on a big series of book covers for his agent, he is trying to move into that genre, because children’s books take a long time, so he is trying to find things to do to supplement his children’s books.
Working on classic novels right now, and just did Lord of the Flies. His goal is to do 1 cover a week. Be willing to move without the ball. No one is paying Lee to work on this book cover project, but he is doing it because he feels that it will be good for him. Good things happen to those who take initiative.
Jake: Working on coloring his Inktober drawing. It’s a challenge, but it’s satisfying. Also is working on his Inktober book.
Life Cycle of a Children’s Book
Today we talk about where a book starts, what it does in its lifetime, how it ends, and all the hands that touch it.
There are two different branches to children’s books, and they are:
Author, illustrator combo.
Or an Author who is also the illustrator.
We’re going to focus on the first, and talk about how a book is made and published going through a publisher. Not self publishing.
The Manuscript
After a writer has gone through all of their ideas, and has a manuscript nailed down, they then submit that manuscript to their agent. The agent reads through the manuscript and decides if it’s something they think they can sell. Then the agent usually will give notes back to the author. If the agent is good, then they should know the market and what’s selling right now.
Once that stage is over, then the agent will take it to publishers and start shopping it around.
Should you chase what’s hot?
If you really believe in the story, then you can tell your agent to try and shop it around.
But maybe you aren’t super attached, and you don’t mind making the suggested changes.
Pick your battles. Usually Jake defers to people with more knowledge and experience than him. Often an agent’s suggestions are very valuable because that is their job and normally they have so much experience with this than you do.
The Agent Takes it to the Publishers
She takes it to publishers and gauges their interest. more often than not they will have a list of go to editors that they will show it to first. The publisher level might want to get on board too if it’s a really good idea. The editor takes it to the publisher and they bounce it around and see if it’s a book that this publisher wants to publish. They will talk to all sorts of people about schedule, etc. And if it all works out and is a good fit then they will come back with an offer.
There is a lot of work that goes into this and it’s something you may not see.
Victoria Jamieson, Roller Girl
She’s an author illustrator now, and she used to work in publishing. She had a wonderful slideshow that walked people through the process of how a book is made. There are like 100 people working on deciding if a book should be done or not. There are a lot of people that have to give their stamp of approval. It’s good to not know about all of the near misses because then you will be beating yourself up over them and spend way too much time worrying.
The money you are offered is a fraction of the money that will be spent making the book. There is printing, marketing, sales, etc. all involved. They all need to have a say to make sure it will work across all departments.
Would you trade this for a less free but more stable job?
Jake loved animation, but he is happier with the independence that his lifestyle offers now.
Will would get into lively discussions with his wife, because she was wanting him to have a “real” job. She was tired of gaps between checks and the uncertainty. But now she is grateful and is glad that Will stuck with being an independent artist.
Will has lived long enough to see people with regular jobs experience plenty of layoffs.
If there was a house style for picture books, it would take a lot of creativity out of the market.
The Publisher Strikes a Deal With the Illustrator.
Once the light is green. Once you get the green light, an offer is made, and you are in a good position if you are getting offers from multiple publishers. Then once the offer is made they will start looking for an illustrator. If you are an author then they will have a short list of
Then if you are an illustrator then you will get to look at the manuscript and decide if you want to take this project on.
Is this something I want to spend months on, will it align with my style and my brand. Is it enough money? Then if you choose to accept the book offer then they will give you a real offer.
They will give you a loose schedule and an offer.
You need to know your process inside and out. You really need to understand how long things take, comps, scanning ,etc.
At this point you should be thinking about your schedule. If everything feels good to you and looks good to you then you accept the offer.
Then your agent and the publisher will go back and forth about the money, royalties, do you have rights to the artwork, etc. Usually you want to retain rights to use it in your portfolio, and on your website. You want the rights in case the book takes off and they decide to make other products, like pajamas, mugs, posters, etc, so that you can get royalties.
Receiving Your Advance, and Getting to Work
Once all of this is squared away then you sign the contract and at that point you get an “advance”, this is upfront money. This protects you as an artist because you get money upfront to see you through the creative process.
This is how an advance works:
Let’s say you have a $20,000 advance.
There are two options:
⅓ signing, ⅓ delivering final files, ⅓ book is printed.
½ siginign, ½ delivering finals (more common).
The advance is against the royalties, so you would start making royalties after making the $20,000.
Then you get a check and it feels really good depositing it.
We like to be real in this podcast. And you don’t get the check immediately upon signing the contract. When you sign it, it still usually takes 1-2 months for you to actually receive the advance. Publishing is weird, horses still bring you your checks. This speaks to the idea that you need to be good with your money and learn to budget and plan ahead.
Also in the contract, it should outline the game plan for the actual production of the book. It is usually around a year or 2 years later. The reason is that once you have started creating some art, then they can use that artwork to start selling the book to bookstores, libraries, etc. This all happens well in advance. Stores and libraries all are projecting and trying to predict what will sell or what will not sell in the future.All of this starts to happen as you start sending them files.
Usually your production time is 6 months to a year.
It takes forever.
If you just sat down and just worked on the book and nothing else, you could get it done in maybe two months, but there is all sorts of back and forth, getting feedback, receiving notes, and making changes. Marketing people usually give lots of their feedback on the cover, they judge books by their cover.
Production Process
Process in a Nutshell
Send in initial rough sketches, get feedback.
Then do a final illustration and get that approved for the finished look of the book.
Receive approval.
Then once that is approved, final sketches.
Then do the rest of the final artwork.
Then turn it all in.
Then there are notes on the finished artwork.
Then make any necessary changes.
Then they get all of the work and they have a lot they need to do on their end with it.
It’s so simple, right?
It sounds complicated but they are directing it, and so all you need to do is meet your deadlines and respond to their emails.
You are working intensely with other people and so there are people skills. You work back and forth with a lot of different departments and people. You are apart of a team, and it’s not like you are just creating an image for a class.
Final Check on the Proofs
After all the art is in their hands, then they will go through and format it, they will format the type. They will prep everything for print.
At the same time, you will start bugging them and telling them that it is time for that second check.
You aren’t quite done yet. A few months later you will get proof back, usually you will get prints of the book, physically. And you will see what the book will look like in print. They are larger and are not cropped at all. You look through it and make sure that the color that they are printing is matching your screen. If it all looks good then you let them know or you can ask them
Lee will try and send in a couple of finished images and also color swatches of where the color should be. Lee sends a hard copy proof, and then they can match it as best they can. He sends them his intention for how it should be printed. Because if everyone is looking at screens, then they might all be getting something a little different, they are trying to hit a moving target.
After the proofs then you get the FNG’s, short for Folded and Gathered. These are the folded sheets, and it is what the book is really going to look like. This is where you can go through and double check everything. It’s probably too late to fix minor things but if there are major things then you can try and catch it before the book is printed.
True Story:
First time Will went to ALA, his publisher was sending him out there. His editor told him that he will see those “FNG’s”, and he couldn’t tell what was going on and if she was mad about something.
FNG’s. There is this lingo, and little terms that get thrown at you that you never learned in school.
Book Reviews
After the FNG’s are approved then you will receive some advanced copies. The finished book. Not just you but other people like librarians with a book review audience, book reviewers, other publishers and agents, all people who are connected to this book somehow will get the books so that they can start reviewing them and telling people what they should think of the book.
What you are looking for at this stage is for good reviews.
A starred review on Kirkus is usually a good sign. The reviews are usually heavily focused on the writing and is not as focused on the illustrations.
If you do not get a “starred review” not a 5 starred review, but a starred review, then people will look at the book as a miss, and it most likely won’t be a commercial success.
Reviews. A lot of reviews are kind of arbitrary because the people reviewing them aren’t artists and the reviews are being given by individuals.
Lee did a book and the review was saying that the book was quite poignant, and full of emotion, great. However, he drew a girl without a helmet, and got a bad review because on one page
Release Day
Book comes out, you are tweeting, and posting on Instagram about the book deal. There is some marketing that you need to do as author or illustrator and it all leads up to the launch of the book.
If they want to and if you can, then you may be sent on a book tour. This is quite rare though. Book tours are more reasonable when you are both the author and illustrator.
Publishers are hoping that at least one of the books they published will get an award. Every eighth or twelth book they publish is paying for all the others.
You go on a book tour, and then you go home, or your book goes onto a best-seller list. You usually find this out, a week or two after the book is published. These accolades are not essential but feel good.
Getting onto the The Best Seller Lists, sometimes it’s really easy to gain your way or you can sneak your way onto their lists.
Even more important than the Best Seller Lists for how your book is selling is the Amazon seller rank. If you are anywhere under 10,000 for best selling books on Amazon, then you are
Bonaparte Falls Apart is seasonal but it was in the 700’s.
David Hone’s Christmas book gets into the teens on Amazon’s seller ranking. Basically he is receiving off the charts royalties.
Periodically you will receive a royalty statement.
Gives you a break down of how many books sold in different areas.
It tells you how much you still need to pay off of your advance.
And if you have paid off your book’s advance, then you get a royalty check.
Death or Eternal Life for a Book
Then your book will either die and go out of print. Or it will continue to get royalties.
If it goes out of print, then you retain all of the rights and you can self publish it or you can find another publisher.
If it never goes out of print then you continue to receive royalty checks for it. You never know what’s gonna happen.
The publisher does a lot of work. They do a lot of heavy lifting. So you can look at it this way, you are getting paid to create and you are also receiving free advertising.
Big advance or big royalty?
Your sales record follows you around, if you have a big flop then it can hurt your future deals.
There is a balance between advances and royalties. If they can’t get a bigger advance, then you could ask for a bigger royalty.
School visits, Jerry Polada does a lot of school visits, the fact that he does school visits every week and that volume of visits and work he does can help him with getting books sold to publishers.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Alex Sugg: alexsugg.com
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Society of Visual Storytelling: Our show is sponsored by SVSLearn.com. It’s like Netflix for a high quality art classes. We love the guys down there at SVS. :) If you are interested in learning more, click here
Current Projects:
Will: Working on redoing a class for SVS, and originally the class was done live and so now he is giving it a facelift and making it more organized and coherent.
Lee: While waiting for a book project to start, has started working on a basic Digital Painting class for SVS. He has done 90 videos done so far. Also, took a week to dial in his studio, his process and needs have changed over time, so now he has taken some time to customize his studio and built things to streamline it. Fancy customization.
Jake: Just finished, Inktober! Yay! Finished all the Inktober posts, has been doing a ton of work on the Inktober posts, which is a ton of work. Did all of his personal Inktober drawings, plus another 20 or so to promote sponsors.
Cleaned the whole studio with his trusty assistants, Aaron and Tanner
Now is working on the Inktober book which is all about how to ink, how to do Inktober, and where do you fit in the world of Ink.
November Art Challenges:
Slowvember: taking time to slow down after the franticness of Inktober and just focus on making one thing beautiful.
Another popular art challenge is Huevember, combined with Sketchtember, and Inktober. People do sketches during the month of September, ink them during October, and then add color during Huevember.
Slowvember, all about creating an amazing
Last year Lee did 2 pieces during that month. 2 weeks a painting. In today’s world it seems like it is all about speed, so it’s so nice to slow down and work on a painting and give it 100% of what you’ve got.
It’s the last 20% that makes you a professional. Students can totally get to that 80% mark but they get stuck and don’t know what else to do. It’s that final 20% that is the hardest part and this challenge is a perfect way to work on getting past that.
We love this podcast! This is what are meetings used to dissolve to anyways, so we’re happy to share it now with you.
(time) Today’s topic is: How to Working with Art Directors.
The nuts and bolts of working with an art director is usually learned on the job and is not covered as much in school. So hopefully this will be helpful.
We have some questions that were submitted to us by a former art director who thought these would be helpful questions to discuss and consider.
How much creative freedom can I expect to have when illustrating a book?
For most children’s books that Jake has done he has been hired based off of a specific illustration he has already done. Some artists have only one distinct style and so if that’s the case the client most likely wants something in that style.
Usually Jake will email them and ask what type of style they want for their illustration. The freedom lies in how you can use that style to tell the story. You have to stay in that box of the style and work inside that box and all of the storytelling and design you do should fit in that box.
Usually Lee will ask the publisher why and for what reason they chose him. Then they will send some images that they like of his and start to describe the look and feel of the project.
Your creativity doesn’t change as much as your confidence does.
Lee feels that he has the same amount of creativity and capacity to have good ideas now as when he started, the difference, however, is his confidence and ability to pitch those things and more creative solutions to the art director or publisher.
We all need to overcome self imposed limitations of what we think the art director wants. There is a freedom to pitch things out there and see if they are received.
It took some time but now Lee has confidence to think outside of the box and to propose new solutions.
Talk to the art director like a person, and give them more options. Don’t only focused on “will they like it?” Focus on coming up with creative solutions.
Overcome self-censoring to do what is fun and exciting.
Here’s an example, for a book Lee gave them three different options of approaches they could take on it and listed the pros and cons of each option. Talk openly about all of those things.
Jake likes to think about the current children’s book as the calling card for the next one. So he tries to really push things as far as he can and do his very best on at least a few spreads so he can show that stuff to other publishers.
If you give them boring stale work, and that’s what they want and that’s what you’ll be continued to ask do for them.
Lee gets shut down all the time, and that’s okay, he understand and has developed confidence.
“I love the limited color, but maybe we go full color..”
Anything you draw is never wasted. Anything can be reused, shown, and you get to become better as an artist because you went down that path and explored that option.
Have you been as satisfied with your professional work as your personal work?
Lee has done 24, 25 books and still feels like he hasn’t been able to hit the mark of his best work.
Of all of Will’s books, Bonnaparte Falls Apart is doing the best. It was published by Random House and it is the book where he had the most freedom.
As a rule of thumb, the smaller the publisher, the less freedom you’re going to have.
Lee: is working with imprints of Scholastic and Simon and Schuester.
Jake has worked with Chronicle and Harper Collins.
These publishers are at the top of their game, they allow you to do your best work with creative freedom and they will give directional nudges, and are not overly micromanaging. Smaller publishers may micromanage and have silly requests.
Will will approach art directors and show them really rough sketches and tell them that they are for their eyes only, don’t show these to the editor. This allows him to pitch concepts without having to do a lot of detailed sketching.
You need to prove yourself with a new client and give them some nice sketches before you start showing them really really rough concepts, so they can know what your sketches entail.
The caliber of client does change the answer to this question of how satisfied you may be with working with a publisher. Some smaller publishers will micromanage.
A good example of trust and a proactive solution mindset. Jake noticed when the book was nearing completion that they had left out a spread and were a whole spread shirt, so he proposed an idea for a final spread and the author, editor, and everyone liked his idea and let him carry it out.
The Twelve Sleighs of Christmas
Throw good creative ideas out there, if you don’t really have a good idea, don’t throw ideas out there just to throw it out there!
What to do if you don’t agree with the art director?
You can definitely push back more the more confidence and experience you have.
Would you do that as a beginning illustrator?
Pick your battles, it can’t be a daily thing. Every project will have issues. you know there is going to be some push back to what you do. You are going to want one or two of your ideas, to be really gutsy and push back. But it can’t be a daily thing.
When considering pushing back against feedback given, always ask, “Is this worth it? Is this more important than the other things that I really care about?” Pick your battles.
Check out our monthly drawing challenges at SVSLearn.com!
Be solution-oriented.
If you need to make a change and it’s not your idea, then you need to love the change or revision.
Will has loved something about a book and then had that thing changed and then he was able to love that new thing even more than the thing before.
We are resistant to change because we have attached value to something and then when that is attacked we feel unsettled.
Being a student, almost anything you pitch is accepted and your teacher just wants to see you create good work.
As a professional, that isn’t the case, many things you pitch won’t be accepted or agreed with, but you have to keep a positive and team player attitude.
When going into professional job, realize you are going to be apart of a team, it helps you have a better mindset.
In regard to illustration, Jake likes to have the mind of a mercenary. You are hired by the author and the editor and they have a vision, he will, 9/10, go along with their vision.
One good reason for this is that the editor has been through this process so many more times than you, and she works with a marketing department and has seen designs and books succeed and fail. Normally she or he knows what
they are talking about. Jake tends to go with their feedback, unless maybe it is something specific that he feels strongly about.
Push back on only a handful of little things. Trust their vision.
Have you ever refused to change something?
Jake, never done it.
Lee, did this once. Did icons for a magazine and they got caught in this ongoing never ending revision loop.
As artists we are all caught in this paradox where we are wanting to make money and also wanting to enjoy out art and this fun career path. Sometimes you need to know when to say yes and no.
Sometimes you say yes, because there is a really good paycheck.
Sometimes you say no, because it doesn’t fit with your brand or artistic vision.
Will lost his rep by saying no. The art director was really upset because everyone wanted Will, the illustrator to rewrite the book, and Will knew that wasn’t his job or responsibility, and refused to do so. He lost his rep but stood up for himself. Soon after that publisher actually went out of business.
Being an illustrator does not mean: “I will illustrate anything for anyone in any style.”
I.e. Lee doesn’t do likenesses in his illustration work.
Know what you’re good at and know what you’re not.
You don’t have to be a Jack of all trades.
But you also don’t have to limit your skill set but you can limit what you do.
Is there a way to feel out the publishing team before you do a book for them, to make sure you see, creatively, eye to eye?
Some questions to ask early on to help you feel out the your compatibility with the project and team. What images of mine did you see that made you think of me? Why did you pick me? How do you see this project happening? Am I primarily working with the editor or the art director. You want to know what you are getting into.
Will’s friend wanted him to do a logo, and Will agreed to do it but had his friend show him 3 of his favorite logos so that Will could get a feel for what his friend wanted.
Make them send you stuff that fits their vision, so that you have a better idea as to what it is that they want.
Sometimes you have to spend a lot of money on your furnace.
You have to stick with it having a consistent online presence, you need to build an audience a fanbase, when you are in need they will likely support you!
How long do you wait on getting feedback on thumbnail sketches?
It can take as long as 3-4 weeks.
Worst experience with an art director?
Everyone has nothing to share. Will already shared his.
How to become friends with your art director?
People like to work with friends and with people that they can relate to.
Will tries to make it personal, “have a good time… this weekend”, “I’m going to be doing this, this weekend” Be kind and be their friend.
Jake likes to follow them on twitter or to comment on their art if they are an artist to find connections and build friendships.
A lot of Wills art directors are return clients.
He has had 5, 10, 30 projects with the same art directors.
Think about it, if you do good for someone, then they will count on you and look to you as a go to person. Be fun, be interesting, be a good person, care about them, show interest in what they’re doing. They will want to keep working with you if you produce good work, and are easy to work with.
One more idea, send your art director or publisher a card or a print, and do something extra like that for them.
Lee sends his new publishing clients his Kickstarter book so they have a really strong taste of what his process and finished work is like.
We hope you liked this discussion, this is a good thing to talk about because working with art directors, it’s part of what we do!
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Most people think that in order to be a great illustrator you need to just be a great artist and storyteller, that's true. However, there is a lot more that goes into being a stellar illustrator and a more well rounded person. In this episode we'll go over 10 important skills that we all need to be developing, and we'll go over some of the reasons why they are all so important, and share some techniques and tips for improving your skills. "Art directors only want illustrators with great skills!"
Just a reminder that this class is sponsored by SVSLearn.com with a library of over 80-90 classes.
Here are some recommendations:
Lee’s Favorite: Visual Storytelling Techniques, it gives a why for all of the marks that you are putting down.
Will’s Favorite: Draw 50 Things, it’s hard but once you learn to swing a golf club then you can go forward knowing how to create images.
Jake’s Favorite: How to Draw Everything, Really proud of this one, it’s an intro to drawing, and it’s also great for experienced artists. It’s always a great thing to make sure that you are doing it right. It corrects drawing problems, and you learn a process by which you can draw anything you want!
SVSLearn.com is Netflix for art school. If you want to own a movie, you go buy it. If you want to have access to a library of movies you do Netflix. That’s how SVSLearn.com is set up, you can buy the class and own it indefinitely or you can subscribe to our growing library of great content.
Project Updates:
Will: Sequel to Bonnepart, still working on it and is on the second round of sketches.
Lee: Working on a new book with Simon and Schuster, it’s a doozy, because it’s based on a song and the song doesn’t have a strong narrative, and so he is trying to create a story through the images.
Great ideas come early in the morning. That’s when great ideas come. Working in the morning and then chilling at night, or some people like to work till late at night and that can be great too.
When you get into a focus mode, whether it is late at night or early in the morning, nobody is there to interrupt you.
Jake: Delivered all of the interior drawings for Littlest Snow Plow 2, and it ended up being 40 pages. Next up, is working on the Inktober Book with Chronicle: how to do Inktober, and how to ink, and Jake’s process.
The 10 Skills that Every Illustrator Must Have
Love Creating
You need to love creating art. Will has had students who he has determined don’t love art, people who would show up late, and talk to people, and take forever to get setup, and then they pack up and leave early. This is true for anything that you want to do. If you don’t love it then you won’t have the drive to push yourself and become great.
Art is great, it’s what kids get excited about in pre school, and we are so blessed to be able to “play” for our job.
Will had a friend who was admiring his iPad and asked about getting one, and then Will told his friend that he shouldn’t get one because he doesn’t love drawing. The friend hadn’t drawn really at all in the last decade, and was kind of offended at first, but then when Will explained why he said that, he understood that what Will said definitely had some truth to it. You’ve got to love it in order to excel.
Jake has 5 kids and all of them who like to draw. One of them loves drawing and is older, and has a younger brother who likes drawing but and is way more naturally gifted. Sometimes his older son gets jealous, however, the older one is way more passionate, and in the long run he will have the drive to grow and become an amazing artist.
You have to love it in order for it to be a career. It’s fine if it’s just a hobby and you only do it for a few hours a week, but if you are going to be creating for 40-50 hours a week, then you need to love it.
Unique Style
Too often people settle and just copy someone else’s work and they don’t develop their own unique style.
If you stick with it long enough, your style will emerge. You can be deliberate and coax your style out quicker with exercises such as collecting 5-10 illustrators that you really like, and then creating lists about the different things that make up their style.
If you want to get published you also need to develop a style that is relevant.
You need to be looking at what’s being published right now, and then you can push things, you need to be current. We’ll do an episode about this soon, because this is an episode in and of itself.
Communication
You have to talk good.
You have to be willing and bold enough to ask questions, and call your art director to clarify things. Back in the day everyone called people even when people didn’t see it coming. However, it makes sense that sometimes people are nervous and don’t want to look silly or incompetent to an art director, and therefore, are afraid to call and ask questions.
People are willing to help you. If they want to work with you then that means they value you and your art. You can be honest, “Honestly, this is my first time doing a job like this, and so what do you think would be a fair price?”, etc, people will find you and your humble honesty endearing and be there to help you.
Power of Persuasion, People Skills
Sometimes we look at persuasion as a negative term, as manipulative. But it’s not, and those things are different. It’s kind of like you get more bees with honey. Let’s say you’re a beginning illustrator, and the client asks if you can take on a project, you say, “let me check my schedule and get back to you.” When maybe your schedule is wide open.
Sometimes it’s a little bit of a game, “What’s your rate?”, well, “What’s the budget?” That’s a vital question if you want to make illustration a career.
You need to make your client comfortable, they’re nervous working with you if you haven’t worked with them before, do all you can to clarify and show excitement and interest, so that they feel comfortable and good about hiring you.
Will wanted to get a Yorkie, and there were 100 people who were wanting it.
Will wanted to try and get the owner to let him buy it, so he tried to reverse engineer the person’s perspective.
Ask yourself, “What would I want to hear, if I were them? What would I not want to hear, if I were her?”
Assess the situation and look for how it can benefit you and the person you are working with. Think win-win!
Show that you are excited, be human. Don’t be afraid to be excited and to show it!
Focusing on all of these relationships helps you see where you are at in your career and in your ability, acknowledge what you need to do to get better and enables you to help those who are further back on the path than you are.
As you help people who are further back, you learn and grow more. Your skills will increase as you have to teach people the process.
As you spend time with people ahead of you, they pull you up.
You’re the sum of the 5 people you spend most of your time with. That means you need to put people in your life who are better than you.
What to do if you are the best? If you are the rockstar of your group?
Jake was at an art studio, and eventually people above him had moved on and left, and one day he realized that he didn’t have anyone to look up to and to push him to be better, so immediately he started looking at higher up studios with artists light years ahead of him, and he ended up getting a job there and grew so much within just the first 6 months.
Healthy competition can help push you to be a better artist too.
Will’s case for why you should teach:
When you have to break something down, and have to explain something, then you are creating different pathways in your brain and you have epiphanies as you are teaching.
You are held to a higher standard: if you teach your students to do something then you are more accountable to try and apply what you teach in your own work.
Most of the most successful illustrators that he knows of, all have done something to teach and share their knowledge and experience.
As a rule of thumb, you should be out of school for 5 years before going back to teach, and those years of experience will validate you. You’ll be a better teacher and have the students respect. Students smell blood in the water and they can tell if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Your art will get better if you teach. Jake took a teaching job and right away his work got so much better.
Ship It. Check out our episode on this: Ship Happens
Not the continuous project on the side that never gets finished.
This is the only way to avoid burnout as a pro. Sometimes you just want to paint or draw something that’s just all entirely yours. Sometimes you do a personal project and it works its way into your professional work.
Personal projects and style are so interrelated. You can’t work on personal project without developing your style and artistic voice.
Sometimes they turn into bigger things.
Missile Mouse, a side project started in 9th grade, turned into graphic novel deals with Scholastic.
Little Bot and Sparrow, a 10 page story for a comic anthology became a children’s book.
Inktober was a personal improvement project, now it’s a world wide art challenge.
Will did Bonaparte Falls Apart, because Jake convinced him to do the fanart and his Little book style.
When you have a personal project you have to answer questions and solve problems that you don’t have to when working on a project for someone else.
From doing Kickstarters, having to work with printers, and having to prep files, it has helped Jake work better with clients.
So many people get to a point where they wonder where else they need to go.
Simona Ceccarelli: a good example of continually learning. She made it a personal goal, that her portfolio would turn around and be a completely different portfolio by the next year.
“Eternal student.” She was a scientist for years, but she loved art and started studying it. Be an eternal student.
Will’s interview with her.
Will was impressed with one of his highly experienced teachers in school who would constantly take notes whenever a visiting artist came to campus. He was humble and always trying to learn. Take notes.
You can have great art, but if no one can find it, then you won’t have any work.
Most illustrators that are doing really well have some sort of an online presence. You can find them easily, they have a website, they are present to one degree or another on social media.
Simona has gotten work from twitter and instagram. Not only can you find work but you can start to build your own personal fan base.
Personal projects can sustain you if you have an audience that wants to buy your work.
When Will looks at some of the best illustrator many do more than just illustration.
Strive to combine an additional skill with your illustration: i.e. writing, programming for a game you’re making, maybe it’s a board game so you’re combining it with your creative ideas for making the game, etc.
Develop another skill that you combine with illustration. You combine things and can create something that is more than the sum of its parts.
Some artists transcend the idea of being a hired gun, or “just an illustrator.”
You’re never going to be paid as much as the creator rather than just the artist.
You have to stand out in some way, you have to be unique.
It’s important to create that mindset that you are a creator, even if it’s not illustration, even if it’s something completely different. Sometimes while working on other things you’ll receive insights and inspiration for your art.
It’s all about how you define yourself. “Illustration is one of the things that I do, but I’m able to do lots of things.” There is so much more to life than just illustration. Be more than just an illustrator.
Taking classes:
Jake reads books and learns from them, art and non art, Jake did a marketing class, and went to a conference. Lee has this spark and wants to take some art classes, onsite.
John Love watercolor workshop Lee did it.
Will would like to get into Plein Air painting, has never done it, but wants to get into it.
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Our Current Projects:
Lee: is working on some fun little promos for his agent, and he is getting feedback and having different studios look at one of his books.
Will: Just submitted the second round of sketches for Bonaparte Falls Apart.
Jake: Super busy with Inktober and it now has several sponsors, which takes a lot of administrative work, looking over contracts, and providing content for them.
Also, shipped Skyheart, went to New York and talked with editors about working on future projects, and built friendships and connections.
Reminder Svslearn.com, is an online illustration school, and a sponsor of Inktober!
There are inking classes, and right now we have a Free 7 Day Trial going one, If you are interested please click here. Be sure to check it out!
Drawing Challenges
Have you guys ever done an art challenge?
Will created the Draw 50 Things Challenge, it’s a design challenge where you try and create an illustration that has at least 50 different recognizable objects in it.
Lee once did a 14 week long art challenge, painting a digital landscape painting everyday, 7 days a week. Which is a TON of painting!
Drawing challenge: you do something daily or you have a project you try to finish in a certain amount of time.
Take something you want to get better at and do it every day, for 30, 50 days.
Jake created Inktober, which is where you create an ink drawing ever single day during October.
How to participate in Inktober.
He also created the Draw 100 Somethings challenge, which is where you draw something and then draw 99 more different somethings, all within narrow constraints, i.e. 100 different dragons, 100 different pirate animals, the key is to not be too broad, the constraints will push your creative muscles!
Why You Should Do an Art Challenge
There are 3 main reasons:
Improve your life, and become more creative.
Improve your habits and develop your craft.
Get attention and exposure.
It is so important that you do it everyday, at first it’s really awkward and it takes time to get in the rhythm, but eventually it becomes second nature. When you first try something it’s harder and then when you do it again it gets easier.
Repetitive attempts drill it into you. You will become a better and more creative artist by the end of the challenge if you really do it justice.
While in college, Will got let into the illustration program on probation. He had to prove himself during the next semester to stay. He kept asking professors what he needed to work on and ultimately it was design. That’s why he made the Draw 50 Things Challenge, to help push people to sharpen their design and creativity skills.
Lee created the art challenge of Slowvember. You create something every day for Inktober and it is really fast paced, maybe you have then during Slowvember you slow down and spend time every day working to create and polish one amazing piece.
Lee is an advocate for slowing down and doing things right.
So many people can get paintings to 70 or 80 percent of where they need to be but it’s that last 20 percent that really pushes the painting to the next level and its that last 20 percent that takes the longest. Slowvember gives you the opportunity to push something to 100 percent!
Challenging Yourself in Different Ways
Inktober: you should have a vision for it. Think of how you can do it, have a goal.
Don’t do Inktober just do do it, but make it specific and have a goal. Be deliberate.
Don’t just swing at 10,000 golf balls, but have a specific target or goal you are trying to create, then swing for that. That deliberateness will help you learn and improve so much faster!
Maybe you want to do quick 30 minute sketches for Inktober with a goal to get faster at doing quick sketches, then that’s great! Just make sure you have a focused goal and you will get even more out of it.
For the vast majority of people who participate in Inktober its hobbyists, people who love creating but aren’t doing it professionally for their career. They come from all walks of life, from middle school to adults that all like drawing and being creative. Proportionally there aren’t as many professionals. If you fall into that category then for you it doesn’t have to be good it just has to exist. You’re building a habit of drawing and you’re trying to build the creative mindset. It gets you thinking. After 7 days you start to run out of ideas, and you have to push yourself creatively. There is value in just doing it, even if it’s not amazing...yet!
Are You Allowed to Do It Digitally?
Do you think that the guy with the turkey feather guy got mad when the guy with the metal nib pen came and drew next to him?
Will, Art is art, the tools don’t matter. It’s about what you make and how you make the viewer feel.
The problem with digital is when you don’t understand the traditional medium and the look that you are going for. When you know how to do it traditionally, then you can recreate that feeling and look, digitally.
Lee’s Challenge to Digital: Do half digital, and half traditional. That way you will get pushed and those two halves will begin to complement one another.
Jake was blindsided last year by Inktober contention over digital vs. traditional. Jake lives in this world of traditional and digital and going back and forth between both. He sees digital as valuable and the best thing that has happened to art; and that tradition is valuable and the best thing that has happened to art, there wouldn’t be any digital without it.
Inktober was created to focus on linework, don’t have to worry about color, but just keep it nice and simple. You can still do that challenge with a stylus, you can still make it simple and beautiful digitally.
There are certain lines you can’t do digitally that are easier to do traditionally, learning to create those lines digitally is a skill in and of itself. There is value in doing the Inktober challenge digitally. It’s a different skill.
However, there still are things to learn from stepping away from digital and doing traditional.
Jake did a post encouraging digital artists to do traditional, that offended some people. People took it as him saying that they wouldn’t be getting the full experience. However, there is value to both digital and traditional, they both have their virtues. Jake didn’t mean to invalidate people.
Jake took Inktober on as a personal challenge.
Lately Jake has tried to ink digitally more with the iPad and Cintiq, and saw how there is something special to digital, both traditional and digital are so useful.
Still should be simple with just line work and maybe a splash of color and don’t create full color paintings.
If you normally work digitally, try it traditionally!
Inktober, all about doing it daily and improving as an artist.
Be Creative
Will, don’t worry about what others say Inktober has to be. You can try to be different. There are not Inktober police.
When people are saying you’re doing something wrong then you are on to something.
After Picasso got others to start doing cubism, a cubism group quickly emerged and they kicked him out, however now he is the only one that is well recognized.
You don’t want to be an “if only” artist. You don’t want to be an artist who can draw “if only” they have the right gear with them. You want to be able to draw with anything around and draw and paint with them. You don’t need all this stuff.
Inktober for writers, there was a writer who writes a little story to go with each daily prompt, and there is a group of writers that have gotten together to share their Inktober stories. That’s great!
Well if Inktober means that you can just do anything, then it doesn’t mean anything. There is a reason for it, but you can be creative and do what you need to do.
Contests
Zebra, Adobe, Pentel, Blick, and Kingart are all doing Inktober contests.
There are contests. It could be that they are looking for traditional instead of digital or a dash of color.
If you are going to enter contests, be careful that they don’t own your work.
Pentel did a contest, they said that they own your artwork. They said that you could use it for anything they want to use it for. People were upset with it. Their lawyer looked at it and Inktober’s lawyer looked at it, and it has specific wording to be able to use that work to post it and share it on their channels, not to use to advertise on their products. They went in and adjusted some wording. Really be aware of what the contest rules are, just be aware.
If the contest is worth it, then maybe do artwork specifically for the contest for exposure.
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter has similar wording to these contests. There are some risks and things that you just have to deal with, that’s just apart of being an online artist.
The Power of Inktober
Jake never would have imagined that Inktober would have turned into what it is today.
He started the challenge to have:
Constraints,
Accountability, he tries to be a person who does what he says he’s going to do.
Wanted a way to get more exposure as an artist, and a reason for people to come to his art blog.
Inktober is still all about getting better at art, and getting people to want to come look at your work.
Inktober has changed a lot of people's lives, got them in the habit of drawing, and boosted their followers.
Inktober is like New Years, it’s a time when people say, “I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna make it happen.” It’s a line in the sand. Happy drawing!
Thank so much for listening!
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
Tanner Garlick:
tannergarlickart.com. Instagram: @tannergarlick
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Comic Cons & Art Fairs
Comic conventions and art fairs take place all over the globe, with almost every major city in the United States hosting one. With the large audiences that attend these shows it is a good place for illustrators to show their work and start selling.
In this episode we will cover what the world of comic conventions and art fairs is like, ways to get into shows, and the differences between them. This is one of the easiest ways (depending on some conditions) to make money as an artist.
Lee White has experience showing at art fairs, whereas Jake Parker and Will Terry have experience with the comic convention circuit.
Money range [5:32]
The amount of money an artist can make at a show depends on a lot of variables such as location of the show and the types of products being sold.
At Lee White’s best art fair show he made $24,000 USD over a three day art fair.
On the comic convention side, at Jake Parker’s first convention he made enough to cover the cost of the show and for travel. At Jake’s best comic convention he broke $9,000 USD gross. His average is $5,000-$6,000 USD gross.
At Will Terry’s best convention he made $19,000 USD gross. His average is between $7,000-$9,000 USD gross.
How Lee, Will and Jake started showing [8:38]
Lee got his start showing at art fairs with Crafty Wonderland. He was invited to show when a table opened up. Following that experience he started actively looking for art fairs to attend.
In his mid 20’s Jake was in the comic anthology, Flight. The editor of the book purchased a table at San Diego Comic Con, and invited the other artists to use the extra space. Jake went to sell prints and books. After getting a taste of what it was like to table at a show, he decided to do his own show. His first show outside of San Diego was CTNX. Following that success he knew it was possible to be successful at other shows.
Will Terry’s first comic convention was a disaster even though he spent two years researching how to sell. Through that experience he learned how to be successful. He now has an assistant that takes Will’s art around the comic convention circuit. Will only personally attends 3-4 of the shows.
Will has a series of YouTube videos where he goes into detail about his first experience tabling at a comic convention.
Will Terry’s comic convention video series:
Lee White: “It’s worth it as an experience. You cannot anticipate how much energy these things take. They are really hard.” Having extra people to help you is really helpful because there are so many factors involved.
Doing this full time as your only source of income can be really consuming. For Lee, Will and Jake they use art shows as supplemental income sources. Artists who do this full time can go to 30-40 shows a year.
Differences between art fairs and comic conventions [21:05]
Art fairs are typically during the summer. Usually outside in parks, but sometimes in convention centers. Artists purchase 10 foot by 10 foot booths. The average attendee at an art fair is older (50 years-old to 70 years old). There are not a lot of collectors, it is mostly people looking for artwork to put on their walls. They want to purchase originals.
Prices for pieces at art fairs range from $50 USD to $20,000 USD (higher end of that scale are people buying originals).
Lee White: “The more specific the story in my image the less likely it is to sell. The bigger the character in an image, the less likely it is to sell.“ Lee focuses more on environment elements and doesn’t get too specific with storytelling. In order to be successful at art fairs you have to strike a nice balance between illustration and fine art, and create images people want to hang in their homes.
Lee’s Secret Sauce for Art Fairs: “[Illustrate] a moment that people can interpret what’s happening versus showing them what’s happening.” Create images that two separate people can view and come up with different stories. Just give the audience a hint of the story.
James Jean is a good example of this principle. His work transcends illustration and taps into the art fair market.
Comic conventions [30:40]
Comic conventions are focused on popular culture. There is an artist ally section where artists can buy tables to show and sell their work. Attendees typically have $100 and spend that across maybe 5 different artists. What sells the best at comic conventions are things people already know such as characters from popular films, tv shows or cartoons.
Comic conventions products typically sells from $4 to $70.
There is also a commission market, where attendees will pay artists to draw their character or some other character doing something specific. Some artists open their commission list before the show, whereas others only do commissions during the show. Jake does commissions at show and works on them during down times or at the hotel. He can make an extra $2,000 to $3,000 USD depending on what he is charging. Commission from artists at comic conventions can range from $20 USD all the way to $600 USD.
Jake uses fan art he sells at comic conventions to get people to come look at his table where he also has pieces from his original stories. He uses this as a way to expand the audience for his original content.
How to start [47:23]
When trying to get into art fairs or comic conventions it is really important to understand the market. Lee tried to sell at CTNX with Jake and Will and his art did not fit that market.
Step 1: Go visit the shows not as a fan but as research. Take notes, take photos, be detailed and focused.
Step 2: Make inventory. You can’t do a show if you don’t have things to sell. Start with prints, prints are cheaper and easier to sell. Make sure to use archival ink and paper so your work doesn’t fade. Jake Parker says “every sell is a person you touch.” When you sell a print you are building a relationships with that person. There is a lot of repeat customers, so if you use cheap stuff you lose that future business.
Prints generally have low overhead cost with a high markup price. T-shirts per-unit cost are higher and they can be hard to sell and keep the proper sizes in inventory. Stickers are also harder (higher per-unit cost and lower markup price). People often just want the image so they will buy the smallest size just to get it. Don’t lose sales by selling products with higher per-unit cost.
Jed Henry is a good example of this, at shows he only sells one size. Ukiyo Heroes
Start small and work your way up. Both with what show you start with and with your inventory (not small products but a smaller product list/inventory). Check to see if there is a show within an hour of your home. This is a good way to start small because you have lower overhead costs.
Lee white: “Stay local until you get your market figured out and then start branching out.”
It is important to know there are different niche markets in each show. So know your work and who it appeals to.
Comic conventions are generally easier to show at then art fairs. Art fairs are curated so. For example, Lee only gets into about half of the art fairs he applies for.
List of every convention in the USA
Specifics on how to get into art fairs [01:06:29]
For art fairs start with craft fairs, they are easier to get into. These shows are usually in the winter and indoors.
Art Fair Sourcebook. Has art fairs sorted by region, how many people attend and how much they spend on average. This source is expensive, but it is good data to have when catering to an audience with a larger budget.
Zapplication is another good resource.
Horror and success stories [01:07:55]
Will Terry: For his first show he printed 1000 of each print, 23 different pints, so 23,000 prints total. He couldn’t even fit all his inventory in his car. Printing alone cost him $5,000 USD. He figured he would be showing at a lot of conventions so he was offsetting the cost. At his first show he only made $1,500 USD. After that he was pretty nervous. But luckily he was able to make it up over time, but it was scary after that first show.
Lee White: At his first show he sold an original, but didn’t bring any bags. So had to give the customer his original art in a trash bag. At a different show, Lee was busy setting up his booth, running to and from his car. When he was almost finished he realized the fanny pack he kept all his money in ($3,000 from his last art fair) had been open the whole time. Almost all his money flew into the wind before the art fair even started.
Jake Parker: At a show in 2018, one of his tables was set up against and facing the wall. So he moved the table. Luckily no one told him to move it back even though it was obviously extending further out than anyone else’s. Also at that convention he had made a display structure out of foam core to hang prints. It kept falling over and he had to keep taping it. Overall it was just bad presentation.
Convention etiquette
You have to learn convention etiquette. Watch out for ‘booth barnacles,’ they are attendees who stay for way too long and get in the way of making other sells. Jake has a polite way to remove booth barnacles. He waits for an opening in the conversation and sticks out his hand and says “It was so nice to meet you thanks for coming.” After that they usually leave.
Also don’t just bring your portfolio to show and expect artists to review it. Always ask if there is a time to show them, don’t just assume. A good way to get a very quick and honest critique is to ask “what is the one main thing I should change in my portfolio?”
For more information on critques listen to [Episode 10: Critiques] (https://www.svslearn.com/3pointperspectiveblog/2018/8/8/episode-10-critiques)
Gear
Information forthcoming.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
The Caldecott is the most prestigious award a children’s book illustrator can receive, and it’s an award that, once received, changes each recipient’s life. We will discuss what the award is, how it is chosen, some patterns with books that have received this honor, and some tips on what you can do to try and become a more Caldecott-worthy illustrator.
What are you working on? [01:17]
Will Terry: Bonnaparte Falls Apart Part 2, and a new board game in his digital painting style. Not the best pay, but he has complete creative freedom and so it’s worth it.
Lee White: Just moved to Nashville, Tennessee from Portland Oregon. Still working on two books, one that he is writing and illustrating himself, and still working out the deal for illustrating someone else's story.
“Cain’t never could do nothing.”- Southern Saying
We might be doing a live workshop later on in Nashville, but don’t quote us on that, all 3 of us would be there. Keep your ears peeled.
Jake Parker: Has been crazy busy and gone a lot. He did a Comic Con in Denver, a workshop up in Boise, and a workshop here in Provo, and did a bunch of work for Snowplow 2; and, Skyheart is at the printer in China! There has been some translation issues that have slowed the process down, so we’ll see if the books get here in color or black and white!
Today, we want to dive in and see if what sort of a role awards play in the life of an illustrator or comic book artist, and does it play a role in developing your art.
If you are an illustrator, new or old, we hope that we can shed light on some of the illustration awards and what impact receiving different awards can have on a creatives life..
What are the Awards? [11:00]
There are specific awards that we want to dive into on this podcast.
The Caldecott Award, conceived in 1937 by Robert Caldecott.
The Newbery Award, given to Young Adult Fiction, it’s an award for writers.
The Eisner, given for creative achievement in comic books.
Eisner Award: the Academy Awards of Comic. Given to different categories, i.e. Best Publication, Best Writing, Best Art, Best Short Story, etc. It’s an award and the publishers love it because they get to put the special award sticker, and whoever won the award has a prestigious bargaining chips for future projects.
It’s important to understand the audience for each of these awards and oddly enough the for the Caldecott, they are librarians.
Will hated school growing up and the last place he would imagine being is a library convention. But as fate would have it, he ended up going to one, and he has now been to three of them.
American Library Association (ALA) hosts a conference where illustrators and librarians collide.
Librarians matter because they are the ones who will be recommending your books!
The Caldecott [15:00]
The Caldecott is the biggest most prestigious award for children’s books. The Caldecott is determined by a committee of 15 people and 8 of those people are appointed by the ALA. These people are composed of librarians and school teachers.
They are supposed to primarily focus on the artwork, but there aren’t any poor stories that win the Caldecott. Art is a component but other components like story are a factor that enhance the children's book.
Look for patterns. Think about the patterns of the wards winners. Lee likes to look for systems and commonalities to help inform success. There is often strategy to most things we do. Even when playing Monopoly!
Since 2000, only 4 Caldecott winners have different writer and illustrator. It means that more Caldecott winners not only illustrate but also write their book. Is this a coincidence?
Committee members like to promote and celebrate 1 person. If you win this award you are the “Miss America” of illustration for the next year.
Can winning one of these awards change your life? [22:06]
There are over 200 children’s books awards but they are not life changing like the Caldecott. Almost every state has one award and they are sometimes narrow and specific. Will won the North Carolina book award one year. In Utah there is an award for Best Mormon Illustrator. Any award is great to receive but are not on the level of receiving a Caldecott.
These awards are great but the Caldecott is different. You will be known and introduced as a Caldecott award winner, and the book will be in print for the rest of their life, which translates to a lot of money.
There are over 200,000 libraries across the US and stock Caldecott winners. Sometimes one library could buy 10 copies of 1 Caldecott winners book, and restock every year. There are also people that collect Caldecotts. It is a fail safe for the libraries and bookstores because these books have a stamp of approval and popularity built into them.
There are Caldecott honorable mentions that also reap the reward of this honor and Lee has a friend that recieve $75,000 in royalties.
Jon Klassen is an illustrator/writer that has been raking in the Caldecott.
(Jon Klassen)[http://jonklassen.tumblr.com/]
(This Is Not My Hat)[https://www.amazon.com/This-Not-Hat-Jon-Klassen/dp/0763655996]
If you were to win a Caldecott, publishers try to lock you into your next book deal. You become known for this award and it makes you a distinguished illustrator.
There are Caldecott terms to book deals that stipulate how payment changes if you were to win a Caldecott.
Should you change your art to win? [31:40]
Will feels as if you need to change your art style to win a Caldecott but Lee sees that Caldecott winners of the past have very different styles and are really all over the place. There are books that are Caldecott material and there are other books that aren’t but are still wildly successful.
Why is I Want My Hat Back distinguished and Fancy Nancy not? Fancy nancy is extremely commercial and sells well but not as literary.
(Fancy Nancy)[https://www.amazon.com/Fancy-Nancy-Jane-OConnor/dp/0060542098]
There are books that have a balance of the two like Olivia. Olivia won a Caldecott and also became very commercial.
(Olivia)[https://www.amazon.com/Olivia-Caldecott-Honor-Book-Falconer/product-reviews/B0018SYWI4]
There are many things that precede winning a Caldecott. There is networking and knowing someone that can get you in the right circles and in the right places. Being connected and known is very important.
Dan Santat is a great example of a person that has been around the block before winning the Caldecott. He spoke at conferences for years and was really well known along with producing great work.
(The Adventures of Beekle)[https://www.amazon.com/Caldecott-Medal-Dan-Santat/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A6288856011%2Cp_lbr_one_browse-bin%3ADan%20Santat]
It’s true that winning a Caldecott seems as likely as being hit by lightning.
Step One: Write your own stuff
Step Two: Be Jon Klassen
Step Three: Speak at SCWI
Actionable item [41:29]
Here are some actionable things that might not get you a Caldecott but moves you in the right direction. Believe in your work and keep moving forward with it. Think about what is the type of creator you want to be and what best fits your personality. You don’t need to be award winning to be successful. If you are just trying to mimic other people you will always be a few years behind, of course you can learn from others but really do what you love and develop your own unique style and voice. Do the thing that you love to do and that you are good at and eventually the world will catch up.
Nuances of a Caldecott [50:04]
There are so many books that are great and when it comes down to choosing a winner the committee starts considering the nitty gritty. They start to think what doesn’t work about the books- does the book’s cover have room for the sticker, what is the paper quality like, what is the font, what is in the end paper etc.
Things to consider [53: 56]
Be like Jon Klassen in the sense that he was trying to be himself. If you are trying to copy someone that has won you will be always be behind. Create the thing that only you can create.
Also consider that design matters and having a good sense of graphic design is important for the whole package. Chris Van Allsburg is a great example of this. He combines his art with design to create a great book. His pieces are beautiful and leave room for type. Great artists have a great graphic design sense and some create their own fonts for their books, i.e. Jon Klassen.
The Caldecott can be a motivator, and can push yourself to create on a higher level. You can ask yourself, “Is this Caldecott worthy?”
Summary [01:07:00]
Consider writing
Be unique
Consider the details
Drive yourself to create something good and worthwhile!
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Have you ever wondered what your life might be like if you were an illustrator? In this episode we want to give you a sneak peak into the secret life of illustrators. We will go over what a typical day looks like, some of the biggest frustrations with this lifestyle, and some of the reasons being an artist is so wonderful and rewarding.
Sorry, we just wanted to apologize for the audio quality of this episode; Lee has been moving across the country and didn’t have the best set up when we did this episode, but we loved the content so much that we decided to release it anyways. Finished, not perfect, right?:)
And correction: when we mentioned Milton Glaser, we actually meant Philip Glass. Enjoy!
We want to talk about a day in the life of an illustrator because when you are choosing a career as an illustrator you are essentially choosing a certain life, and a lifestyle that goes along with it.
Lee and Will will be discussing the life of an illustrator from the book illustration side, while Jake will be commenting and focusing more on the entertainment side of things.
Lee always gets up really early each day and gets t work on a project. As an illustrator you don’t have hard deadlines, so you need to make up your own arbitrary deadlines. There is a final deadline but you need to break it up into smaller steps. So he spends the beginning of his day scheduling what to do. Then he goes right into working on one of the books he is working on.
Schedule: when you are able to schedule your time wisely, that is really going to pay big dividends in your career.
At a studio, Jake would get told what he would do and the schedule was laid out for him. It was a big adjustment when he became an independent artist and had to start managing his own schedule. He started with to do lists, to keep track of what went on during the day, then he started scheduling those tasks throughout the week, and now he has a full weekly and monthly plan and that really helps him with accomplishing his goals.
You need to learn to manage the small micro steps, and learn about your work flow and how long it takes you to perform certain tasks.
Jake divides his work into two categories: creative time and administrative time. Creative time is during the morning when he is fresh and alert, then administrative time comes in the afternoon when he is more tired and burnt out.
Deep Work
Lee is the same.
When Lee gets a project he typically gets an email from his agent that someone is interested in working with him; he writes back and tells them that he is interested; the agent will start to work on the budget and negotiate back and forth with the client; they go back and forth and agree on a schedule; then he gets started on the project by doing some research and development.
“A good beginning is half done.” Great advice from a fortune cookie. It is really profound, though! If you can start goodt it will influence and pay dividends throughout the project.
At the beginning stages of a book try to stay open to a lot of different influences. It doesn’t have to be so linear. After reading the manuscript stay open to different ideas, styles, or influences, from anywhere and everywhere.
For entertainment, typically if you are on the development team doing the early early pre production work and working on ideas, then you might be doing that for weeks to months at a time, fleshing out ideas. A lot of times before Jake would go to the studio he would stop by the library for a half hour before going to work and maybe checking it out to use at work that day. Usually there is a weekly meeting where you meet with the director and show it to the group.
As an illustrator you don’t want to attach too much value to your work early on. Nothing is sacred or precious, you can’t get too attached to your drawings and paintings. Otherwise it will become a hindrance to you.
If you are uncomfortable with showing people your rough sketches, then entertainment might be hard for you. You have to show everything, and you don’t know what the director is going to respond to. It might be a 5 minute sketch that you did, or it might be something you spent a few hours on.
You go through stages as an artist: you draw something realistic, then you start drawing characters and diving more into the story and narrative side of things.
You don’t just move forward with your first sketch. You need to do push it more.
Step 2 is where Lee will start thinking about storytelling, and this is his favorite part about being an illustrator: thinking about what the story is really about.
Everything needs to serve the story, including the style. The story should dictate the approach, not the other way around.
Entertainment: Usually the early development team is made up of an art team that is made out of artists with different styles that will help direct the story.
There is a lot of overlap between movies and book images, probably because there is a lot of storytelling.
To recap Lee’s process of getting started on a project: Email and express interest, email about the budget, analyze the story, then do very loose sketches that thumbnail the book (2 weeks), then he tightens up the loose sketches, and start painting.
What is the process for you, Will? Once he did a book in 3 months but that was awful, usually a book takes 6-12 months.
A life as a children’s book illustrator: you need to be comfortable with these really long deadlines. You need to be comfortable working on a 9 month long project, if you are at a studio then you might be working on a project for 2 years plus.
This is one of the reasons that Jake wanted to leave the studio work life: the early blue sky stages are super fun, but other times you have to work on a single scene for months and constantly got revisions and sometimes it became unfulfilling.
Jake has been away for a while, and has thought about going back, but realizes that he has the lifestyle that he wants already.
One of the big pros of being a children’s book illustrator is that you are in control. You have control of the product. Ultimately, when you have the final product in your hands it is largely all yours. It is very satisfying.
Lee loves to use Adobe Indesign to layout his books, and it can seem daunting to learn to use a new program but it is definitely worth it; it can be really powerful for laying out a book, it is the way to go for multi page documents.
Will likes to work on the ipad, it is his mobile studio. He uses it to look at all of the different pages too. He chunks out time and give his focus to the design work, sometimes even working in his car to keep focused.
Biggest Pros and Cons of Being an Illustrator:
The pros of being an illustrator is the freedom to make your choice of how your schedule looks. The freedom can be a blessing or a curse.
You can go see a movie on a Tuesday morning, or go on a bike ride during the day if you want to! At a studio, that doesn’t fly.
If you like collaborating, and working in that environment, with different people, and all of the bustling that goes along with that, then maybe
Enough freedom is actually a bad thing.
Here is an important point: most people don’t make their full living as an illustrator. The number of things that you You might do a couple
Maybe doing art all the time isn’t the best way to make your art. Maybe having a real job where you are interacting with people in real situations will spark your creativity and it goes into something that doesn’t have so many strings attached.
As an illustrator, everyday isn’t bliss. Sometimes you don’t feel like creating, or it may feel monotonous, but likely that’s how every job is from time to time.
What would you do if you couldn’t do art?
Teaching doesn’t count.
Jake: fantasizes about managing and operating a bookstore, or working in concessions at a movie theater.
Lee: physical therapist, or the guy that works in those little booths at a campsite. Delivering pizza was fun as a kid.
Will, has fantasized about running a restaurant.
The grass is romanticized on the other side.
What’s the biggest frustration of being an illustrator?
Will: sometimes when you read the manuscript from an author, even if you like it there are things that you would change. Another thing would be when you feel you really understand the story and the editor has differing views. A lot of the aggravation is based on our perception and attitude.
Biggest pro is the flexibility. Don’t take it for granted.
Jake: the biggest aggravation, or stressor is the lack of steady income. You might make 3 months income in one and then for the next 2 months, drip drip. The freedom in your schedule, is amazing.
Jake had the flexibility to go and help his wife with a project, and he could stay later or come in early. Another thing: Jake has 5 kids, and insuring all of the family, is really expensive. It is a huge burden. To them though, having a family is more important than having a nice car. Jake barely remembers what his older kids were like during
During the day, Jake could eat lunch with his kids and take breaks to play with them. The family life was a lot better. Biggest pro of entertainment job: consistent money, consistent job, and being surrounded by some of the most talented people in the world.
TV has more layoffs. Usually at an animation studio you have a lot more stability. There is enough work that if you are talented and good with people, they will keep you on.
There are a lot of people vying for animation jobs, although there are lots of different studio jobs there.
There is no career path to being a book illustrator. There are so many gray areas.
Lee: Early aggravation, of not knowing how to navigate the terrain.
There are a lot of online resources, youtube, and huge sources of revelation. The art of books are so valuable.
It is really rewarding to come in and get to work, and your whole day is spent trying to tell a story.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Networking
If you think that networking is manipulative, selfish, or all about getting ahead you are doing it wrong. In this episode, we talk about how networking is all about friendship, giving, and the people that you choose to spend time with. We talk about how to network and connect with people above, next to, and below you.
The What and Why of a Network?
Your network is your connection to a broader world, to opportunities, and to new ideas. Your network consists of your friends in the field that you work in. Your network is so important and who you surround yourself with will influence the type of person that you are and the person that you will become. This applies to your creative life as well as with every other aspect of who you are.
Every jump in Jake’s career came from his network: animation, comics, publishing. Your network is your gate to so many
Jake and Will started to get connected over lunch. Lee was deliberate and tried to connect with Will and Jake.
Networking is like cycling, there is strength in staying in a group. Bikers encourage and support each other, and they draft off of each other. It is hard to break away and do it on your own. Choose friends and to spend time with people that push you to be better.
A true network is not your “job hotline” it consists of your real friends, your buds.
Put yourself in the right place and good things can happen [13:40]
It is true that there are some places that are creative hubs where its easier to find people to connect with but ultimately your network is a result of how much time and effort you put into it.
How much time do you spend getting to know other creatives that are like-minded, how do you make the first contact, and how do you deepen a creative relationship that you have? Consider these things as you learn more about creating your personal network and how to grow it.
Question: Do you need to live in a creative hot spot to be successful [14:54]
Many people have the false impression that it’s all about the location of an artist. Although each area has its own creative hub you can find creatives that are like minded just like you anywhere.
You create your network and you can reach out to people in the area through web searches and hashtagging your area to find people that have the same goals and values as you. Instagram is a great platform to do research and learn about the people in the area and there will be people.
How to build a network of friends in your area [18:00]
Search online, check hashtags, follow & Like
SVS Forum or general online forums
Facebook groups
Through these interactions online you begin to develop relationships, give feedback and receive feedback, and engage with others. You can make the effort to not only find creatives online but create the friendships and start conversations to grow your circles.
Online interaction is good, but you’ll need to meet people in real life [22:54]
Online interaction has its pros and has reach but there needs to be face to face interaction to solidify the relationships and contacts. This face to face interaction develops the real friendship aspect of networking. Go to networking events, Comicon, conferences, and presentations allow you the environment to meet people face to face with similar goals, values, and ideals. Often time if you have a clear vision of where you want to go you find people in the same boat as you.
How to get over being nerves [24:06]
Starting a conversation with a stranger is not easy but in the industry of illustration and artist, there are comfort zones that need to be broken.
Talking face to face can be hard but there are many things you can do to overcome the fear of talking to someone you have never met. Put yourself in situations to interact with others. Sit next to people or stand next to them in line and create a beginning point of conversation like drawing next to them or talk about why they are there.
Introduction and exit strategies [27:48]
The more and more you stick your neck out to meet other people the more and more you will learn how to ignite conversations and end a conversation. You can begin by pointing out something on their shirt, comment about something that they have or ask about what they are doing here, or what awesome things they seen at the conference etc.
Jake’s foolproof exit is “It was so good to meet you!” hint I gotta go.
Form: Family, occupation, recreation, motivation(or message) [29:44]
You can follow these guidelines to create conversation
Family: Are you here alone, where are you from, are you the only artist in your family?
Occupation: What do you do for a living, is it a hobby?
Recreation: What do you like to do for fun?
This then warms people up for this question:
Motivation: What motivates you, why are you here, why did you decide to draw ….?
Don’t forget the best questions: what is your worthless superpower?
More ideas to meet people [33:11]
Attend a lunch or dinner, or host your own
Create a critique group
In critique groups, you find artists that are motivated and like-minded. This group can meet once a month or once a week and help challenge you personally and grow with each other.
Draw Lunch
Go to the mall and get something to eat and draw. It’s as simple as that. This is a great opportunity to get face to face action.
Set up one-on-one meetings [35:44]
This is a very deep level of interaction and creating your network.
What does your network look like [37:03]
Your network is composed of mentors, friends, and followers. Mentors are people that are farther along and have more experience than you. Friends are the people at the same stage of life you are in and have similar experience level. Followers are people that look up to you.
Keep in mind this quote: It’s not who you know, it’s who you help - Jeff Goins, Real Artists Don’t starve [38:27]
Give and you will grow your network.
Research before reaching out [41:00]
You need to put the work into researching before reaching out to mentors and peers. Before contacting a someone that you admire purchase their material, watch their YouTube videos, read their blog, follow their social media. However, beyond that make sure you have put the time and effort into learning about the field you are interested in or researching about the questions you have. For example, if you are wanting to be a children's book illustration do your research before asking a professional for help and looking like a deer in the headlights.
How to ask questions [41:56]
Before asking a question to a mentor think it through. Ask the question AND provide three solutions to your question. This demonstrates that you have thought things out and have done your research.
How to get a great mentor [43:26]
Jake’s experience with Rachel Everette- First, Rachel went to a workshop Jake was hosting. Then they met again at ComicCon and she asked Jake to create one of her characters as a commission. This was great because it allowed Jake to be immersed in her art and get to know her. At their next Comicon, she created fanart art of Jake’s character. She also reached out to help Jake with Skyheart because she had time during school. All these connections allowed Jake to become invested in her. Jake had a contact at Marvel and reached out to them on behalf of Rachel and she is now at the beginning of her career working with Marvel.
How to make friends in the industry [48:06]
It feels like common sense but find common interests- be a friend. Interact in thoughtful ways and then dig deeper. When you find people with the same artistic values and ideals stick with them and make time to connect with them.
Being a friend also means being invested in other others success.
Find in an environment, interact with people, plug into groups and communities.
You need others to succeed there is no doubt about that.
Finding followers [56:15]
Don’t neglect your follower network. Take time to create your follower network by creating work and allowing your “tribe” to naturally manifest. Build and maintain and network. Connect and be authentic when interacting with your followers. Some things that help people feel connected is Sharing your process, ah- ha moments, and screw-ups. Allow people to be involved in your world. Promote projects and do shoutouts.
Have a shared purpose of collective power.
Building a universe one drawing at a time- Jake Parker. Build your brand around your shared purpose.
Share Freely [1:00:38]
People with good networks share freely. They don’t hide their secrets. This shows kindness love, and authenticity.
Create a mantra [01:01:56]
Jake’s is Finished Not Perfect - independent creators that are finished
I.e. Draw every day
Learn and Listen [01:03:43]
Pay attention to feedback. Shift accordingly.
Host meetups [01:04:31]
You build a network by giving more than you take [01:05:14]
This is essential, give and share.
This is the key to networking: give. Be a giver more than a taker.
Connecting other people together. Elevates the scene that you are a part of.
If you group is not challenging you find different friends and create the group that you grow with!
NETWORKING Challenge [01:07:46]
At least one time this next week invited someone to do somethings related to illustration. Be the inviter.
Post on the forum about the outcome of this challenge
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Episode 10: Critiques
Critiques can be the wind beneath your wings that help you grow in incredible ways; or they can be the source of many tears, hurt feelings, and stomps out of classrooms. In this episode we will cover why you need critiques and critique groups, where to get them, how to prepare for a critique and what to avoid.
[00:00:49] What have you been working on?
We used to do this but got out of the habit and wanted to bring it back!
What projects are each of us working on?
Lee: Currently working on writing two books, and is trying to create a dummy book for both books, and trying to sell a two book deal, or at least have two options for publishers to choose from.
Will: Working with four other teachers to create classes for SVS, working on character designs for a board games and a sequel to Bonaparte Falls Apart.
Jake: Working on a figure drawing class for SVS that will be pulling the best from all of the figure drawing books to make the best class possible, on a sequel to “The Little Snowplow”, Jake and an author he worked with earlier wanted to do a sequel together and their agents were able to create a deal (stay tuned, we’re not able to announce it yet!). and sent the files for Skyheart
to the printer in China. Wahoo!
[00:06:10] Why art might not be right for your job?
We wanted to briefly touch on this subject because of a letter that we received from an artist named, Mike, in response to Episode 03: Ship Happens. Mike brought up the fact that maybe for a lot of artists out there, art is better as a hobby than a career. Mike went through all the steps and got his first art job… and he hated it. After he finished a couple of art jobs he was wondering why he didn’t want to apply for any other art jobs and didn’t know why he had such little drive and motivation. He realized that for him, and he imagines a lot of other artists making art their job isn’t the best option for them. He is does a weekly webcomic, does art for a board game company, and engages with his audience and is super happy with his art. He thought it would be nice to share with the followers of this podcast that to kill yourself to flounder in the shallow end of the professional artist career isn’t always going to pay off and doesn’t equate to success or happiness. Mike realized that he needed to have his own personal goals and stick to them. Also, that he wouldn’t be happy working on other people’s stuff. He realized that his dream was to have a stable income outside of the art industry and then have the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do with his art.
Mike brings up some good points, and essentially hit on the plight on an illustrator; that is, we spend a lot of time working for other people and helping them accomplish their dreams, while sometimes letting our own dreams stagnate.
Super successful illustrators do one or both of these things well:
Stop advertising for, stop looking for, or stop accepting work from clients that take them in the wrong direction.
Or they start doing their own projects, or a combination of the two.
To help see the perspective you can compare this to becoming a professional tennis player.
With each level of progression there are nuances and changes that need to be made, and it sometimes becomes less about the fun, sometimes you just have to practice because you need to improve.
You need to find art jobs that match who you are. Think about your skill level and what makes you happy.
That’s a side note that we wanted to hit, now time to jump into today’s episode!
[00:15:15] What are the benefits to a critique?
You need to see things from the perspective of another and that’s what critiques help us do.
Critiques are for students and professionals, alike. We all need feedback and critique. That’s how we grow. Jake was working on Skyheart and decided to redo the cover and when he posted it online he got a lot of feedback telling him that the original was better.
[00:17:17] Why you might not get an honest critique?
Sometimes we don’t get honest critiques because we don’t create the right atmosphere for the critiquer to feel comfortable giving us feedback. If they think that you want validation and not a real critique then often they’ll just tell you what you want to hear.
[00:18:29] How to find a good critique?
There are many people you can reach out to for good critiques such as previous teachers, professional artists, critique groups, small social media groups or pods, and artists at art conventional or art shows.
Art students have their previous teachers as a resource but this relationship needs to be set up when they were in school. Have you created a positive relationship for them to want to critique you later? Be a good student and be involved, it will pay dividends.
Like it or not we live in a transactional society. It helps if there is an exchange of time i.e. buying a print, helping to update their website, handle their social media posts, etc. Time is precious, see if there is something you can do for them.
Maybe you only have a critique group of your peers: be the person that gives critiques and set the foundation of a give and take relationship with your peers. On the SVS forum it is great to ask for a critique but people will be a lot more willing to give you a critique if you are also spending time to give others critiques.
You can also ask artists at conventions and art shows for feedback. Be courteous, and respectful of their time. It always helps to buy a print or something to compensate them for their time;)
[Society of
Children's Book Writers
and Illustrators] (https://www.scbwi.org/)
[00:28:22] Are you personally ready for a good critique?
How can you prepare for a good critique? You can approach critiques with a vision and a direction. Think about what your purpose for the piece is, and that will help your critiquer point you in the right direction. Provide a frame a references.
[00:30:31] Know what you need
Understand what you are asking for. Maybe you just want to be validated or maybe you really need to level up the piece you are working on. Know what you need and ask for it.
[00:31:15] Mel Milton's critique method
Mel Milton has a critique method where he only praises people when they ask for a critique, unless they really push him to give a critique and really ask for it. If they really want a critique then the flowery praise won’t be enough and they’ll push for more feedback. Showing that you really want feedback allows the critiquer to take you seriously and tell you what they really think.
[00:32:30] You never know how people will react to your critique.
People sometimes cry, get angry or defensive and this is a sign that they are not ready for a critique.
[00:34:08] What not to do during a critique
Critique Repellent:
Talking too much: cutting off their comments or not letting the critiquer actually critique.
Getting upset
Being distracted and unplugged from the critiques
Arguing
[00:36:00] What to do before and during a critique
Know what you want the piece to accomplish- set a vision for where you want your piece to go
Be specific- you can ask them, “what did I nail?”, “what did I get wrong?”, etc.
Have more than one option open for critique- this helps provide a point of reference for critique and is extremely helpful
Set limitations: "What are three things I could do to improve this?" This really helps the critiquer feel open to give you three things you can improve.
Open the door for a total critique by saying “I’m willing to start this piece over”
In contrast to the “repellant” above, these things really create a positive atmosphere for receiving a critique.
[00:41:46] Break your critique into components
Lee liked to use a rubric to help provide specific critique to his students. Maybe they nailed it with the rendering and perspective but the concept was weak, or maybe they had a great concept but the values could use some work, etc.
Some fundamental things Jake looks at when giving a critique:
Gesture
Composition
Design
Volumes
Rendering
Understand your objective.
[00:46:11] How to prepare for a hard critique
When Jake worked at Blue Sky, his entire job was critiques. You would constantly draw and receive critiques. Sometimes character designs would have to go through 50 iterations before they ever settled on a final.
Come into the critique being malleable and bendable. It will free you from feeling too attached to your work.
Recognize that if you are making this a career there will be good drawings and bad drawings. Sometimes we are too invested in the time that we spent creating a single piece. Realize that one peace is a drop in the bucket of your lifetime of work. They say everyone has 10,000 bad drawings in them and so if you do a bad one, you’re like, “Sweet, I got one of those out of the way.” Then you can move onto the next drawing.
Don’t spend so much time worrying about the one brick rather than the entire wall. Go into it knowing that this isn’t the last thing you are going to create.
Don't rely on feedback from one single person, but if multiple people tell you the same thing, pay attention. You can start to understand the trends of your critique.
[00:53:23] How to participate in or find a critique group
Try to find in your area 3-5 people with the same goals as you do. As a group you will help each other achieve your goals. They could be in person or online and be composed of different creatives. Within your critique group find people who are at your level or higher, (preferably, you’re the least skilled in the group). Be accountable to this group.
Warning: if the group gets too big they become more of a cheerleading group and people will feel less impelled or comfortable to give honest critique.
Professionals need critique groups to level up and receive the feedback necessary to make work on that higher level. Try to find a local group with people who have similar goals.
[01:00:08] 5 Things to Avoid Doing In a Critique Group
Don’t show with work, but dish out critique
Take without giving
Being disrespectful
Being late: it shows selfishness
Not be overly negative
[01:03:47] Quick note about posting online
Your posts online can also be a source of critique. Based on what people commenting and also what is getting a lack of comments.
If your art doesn't get any responses that is a form of a critique. It means that you can keep at it and make something remarkable (worthy of remark).
[01:04:55] Giving a critique
Knowing your biases in your artistic tastes. For example, Lee doesn’t really love symmetrical work or anime, so he has to take that into account when he is giving a critique.
These things influence your critique and how objective it will be.
Also, reach out to certain people for different types of critique. Any critique from anyone is helpful, and a fellow artist can give you a good general critique. However, if you want a critique on your watercolor techniques then you should talk to someone else who does watercolors and they will be able to give you a more specific critique. You can get more general and more specific critiques, and both are valuable.
[01:08:17] Trust you gut.
Sometimes, you will get critiques that don’t sit right, and ultimately you need to trust your gut. Don’t change your whole style based on someone’s critique if it doesn’t feel right. However, if you want work from someone and they are asking you to change something then you probably should if you want work from that person.
Knowing what you want out of the critique will influence what you take away from it, and also the number of people giving you similar critiques.
Get critiques and be wise, what can we say more?
LINKS
Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
forum.svslearn.com
Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
Show notes by Tanner Garlick.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
9: How Much Will You Make In Illustration?
How much will you make in illustration? [2:06]
This is a question every student has, and the frustrating part is that it is often not discussed openly, or is just glossed over in school. Which, honestly, is a bit crazy! Some reasons for this may be that those who are teaching are making too little and are embarrassed to share that, or it may be that they are making a lot of money and don’t want to share that, because they are afraid of coming across as bragging. In this episode, we hope to cut through the fog of uncertainty and shed some real light on what the market is like and how much you can expect to make in illustration, in different fields, and in different stages of your career.
Making a life in illustration [4:09]
When speaking of how much you make in illustration and of the various fields of illustration we are are ultimately talking about different lifestyles. A children’s book illustrator gets paid differently than a concept artist at an animation studio; the same can be said for a gallery painter or an editorial artist, etc. Each comes with its own unique type of payment system and accompanying lifestyle. There are many different career paths and combinations of career paths and it is wise to consider the environment and the financial situations that come with each.
Responsibility to talk about the business side too [6:44]
Schools are put into a tricky situation, because they need to recruit students and promise them a great career but the topic of money can be glossed over because the schools can’t guarantee jobs coming out of school. Will finds it necessary to have a talk with about finances with his students in each of his classes, and each time the students tell him: no one else has ever talked to us about this!
Comfortable to talk about how much you make [7:45]
Money is this weird thing that sometimes people hold so close to their chest. And sometimes people are super secretive about it. It can be frustrating
If you have artistic ability, the gamut of jobs available go from freelance out of your home to working full time at an animation studio and everything in between. Jake has taught at Brigham Young University (BYU), and feels as if the animation department there does a good job at helping students create connections with studios; they fly studios out to help conduct portfolio reviews and recruit. They try to get their students lined up with jobs and internships.
The hard thing about Illustration is that it doesn’t have a central source providing all illustration jobs, it’s everywhere! You school could fly and editor out to talk to talk about publishing work but they can’t offer 5 years of work like an animation studio can.
It can be a challenge to keep consistent work right out of school but there are things that you can do to prepare and gear yourself up to have consistent work; you can start trying to line up work, and start developing relationships to prepare.
It can be frustrating when you have no one to talk to about the financial side of illustration but it really only takes talking with a few people to start to get a pretty good idea of what it is like. Hopefully, this podcast will be a good start for you in answering your questions.
6 factors that affect your income as an illustrator [12:26]
It can be tricky to nail it all down, and don’t feel bad if you don’t fit into these categories. We are just going to ballpark some numbers and hopefully you can go from there!
We’ll divide it up into 2 different categories with 3 different sub categories.
Three different income bracket
Early pro
Mid level pro
Pro, seasoned veteran
Skill level
Exceptional skill
Average skill
Below average skill
It is important to know which you are talking about because if you use a seasoned pro like Chris Van Allsburg as a guide vs a student fresh out of school, you will get very different numbers.
People like Chris and David Wiesner have won multiple Caldecotts and are definitely anomalies.
You also need to distinguish your skill level with your career because there are students who are getting work in school and have an absolutely exceptional skill level, and these guys are super successful right out of the gate.
Chris Van Allsburg
David Wiesner
Dan Santat
We’ll try and focus a lot on average skill level, because people like those described above are outliers, and people with below average skill aren’t really going to be getting a lot of jobs.
What you can expect from book publishing [17:23]
Early pro $8,000-$10,000 for advances
Mid level pro $20,000- $24,000
Pro $28,000- and up
Educational publishers won’t be higher than $10,000
Small publishers offer less [19:27]
There are smaller publishers and they don’t offer as much. This means you should really think about whether or not it’s worth your time to work with them, consider these questions:
Questions to ask yourself before you accept work [20:13]
Does it pay well? [20:28]
Is it creative or challenging and taking you in the direction you want to go? [20:36]
Will the final finished work provide extraordinary exposure? [20:48]
Lee considers these three questions when taking publishing offers. Ideally the project will fulfill all 3 questions but if it fulfilled two out of the three Lee would consider accepting the work.
Senior level in book publishing [22:16]
As you begin to build traction and notoriety the figures start to increase. Book illustration and publishing are a long term investment. You can build a long term career with passive income.
A published book doesn’t necessarily lead to royalties [23:33]
Most childrens books don’t earn out. Consider that most books go out of print. Royalties are great when they do come but, a general rule of thumb you could adopt is to just assume that you won’t get any and seek for the best advance possible.
Quick book advance explanation [25:11]
Publisher gives you advances on royalties. So you don’t get any money on royalties until the royalties due to you cross the amount of your advance. The advance is really there to protect the artist and create incentives.
Publishers can estimate how much a book might make in royalties and they give that money up front.
It takes a lot of time to make a children’s book and you can look at this as high income short term rates and long term investments you need to think about this as a business.
What you can expect to make within entertainment and concept art [27:00]
There are so many options, such as: storyboarding, background art, background painting, concept art, etc.
Entertainment industry [28:29]
Main Industries
Animation
Video Games
TV
Live Action
Feature animation, and feature live action pay more but TV might last longer like ten years. Video games can fluctuate but depending on the studio they can have pay rates similar to feature animation.
Feature anything is considering those with top tear skill sets and you can anticipate $70,000 starting off but also consider the cost of living in the area where feature animation is i.e. California. Cost of living in California is very high and your income may not be able to sustain a life there.
One of the reasons schools don’t talk about money [32:12]
You need to understand the life that you are choosing because there is a lifespan to each project that you have. Movies are made within 3-4 years and the studios have the option to keep or not keep you.
You should treat each job like it is freelance and think of your options. The are highs and lows in the industry.
Benefits of working in the entertainment industry [34:35]
In the entertainment industry there are great perks to think about like benefits, bonuses, and retirement. You can work around peers that help you and push you to level up your craft. The exposure of working in the industry also opens up other doors. Working in a company there is lateral movement like storyboarding or production assistance.
Day rate for feature animation concept art [35:42]
There are also opportunities to do freelance for animation, video games, TV, advertising, etc.
The day rate is set by the studio or you can negotiate for it.
For animation, the max is about $500/day.
Think about your social needs [36:35]
Are you social? Do you need to, or do you prefer to work on a team with people or to work more solitary? This is a factor you should consider with different career paths, some are inherently more sociable and some are inherently more solitary.
Puppet Sanding to doing what you want to do [39:02]
Lee said there is this joke that when people started at Laika, they would have to “pay their dues” and started off just sanding puppets, because someone had to, and then, after paying their dues they would move onto doing more art and creative projects. Sometimes you will do something you didn’t anticipate, and you may have to spend some time “paying your dues.”
What you can expect to make at art fairs, comic cons, etc. [39:56]
The estimated rates in one comicon:
Early pro- $500-$1200
Mid pro $1200- $5000
Seasoned pro $6000-$30000
Will, Lee, and Jake say that they could make a living off of just comic cons and art fairs but it would be a lot of work, and stress, and isn’t the lifestyle they want.
By using different sources of income, you can create a sturdy “financial table”. Each leg is a different source of income that you have contributing to holding up the table of your finances; such as: art fairs, book publishing, freelance. If one leg “fall out” or is not producing income then you still have others to rely on. Whereas, if you only have one source of income, then if it falls, you will be in a lot more financial trouble. It’s great to have multiple legs to make sure your table is steady and strong.
Working in one area or multiple areas [45:03]
There are two types of artist.
One, the artist that has reached a pinnacle in his or her career and and focuses in on one thing
Or two, an artist that has to piece together different forms of income but still can make a living.
Steps to take if you want to get into Comic Cons and Art fairs [50:47]
Go to Comic Cons or art fairs
Do research and development
Understand setup and prints
You can go and talk to people running successful booths and ask them a question or two but don’t sit there and take all of their time. Also, as a rule of etiquette: never get in the way of a sale. Be polite, and you and they will have a great experience talking.
The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines [52:40]
This book talks about how to quote but most artist don’t love the guidelines. This could be the starting book. Helps to have a ballpark of where the price range might be.
Find peers that you can go to chat about pricing.
Question: What’s the best route for making a living as an illustrator? [58:31]
Have a day job that pays the bills first then you can transition into illustration. Think about the need in the industry and how applicable is your talent in the industry. Understand your target market, budget, and rights. Have a day job.
Make great art and also understand how things are sold.
Piper Thibodeau worked a corporate job and did art on the side before she was able to make the jump and be an artist full time.
Piper Thibodeau
Question: What are some financial things freelancers forget to think about? [1:05:19]
Freelance artists need to understand that what you make is not what you get. Consider the amount amount your agent will take, taxes (30%), health insurance, investments, savings, etc.
Quicken Self Employed is a great tool for freelancers!
Quick overview Dollar Cost Averaging [1:06:25]
If you make 1 dollar what happens to that one dollar? How much to you pay for your agent? Studio space? Taxes? Then you can start to calculate based off of how many costs eat into 1 dollar, how much you will need to make to be financially comfortable.
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Your Creative Bank Account
What is The Creative Bank Account? We have mentioned it a lot in past episodes and it’s about time we talked about the source of all good ideas: what it is, how does it work and what are the best strategies for filling your personal creative bank account.
A creative bank account is something that everyone harbors in their own minds. It is creative capital and you spend this creative capital every time you make something. Creative capital fuels all creative work: poems, drawings, artwork, writing, etc.
We are unable to create in a vacuum or closed system. We need inspiration and stimulus from outside sources to fuel our creativity. That’s where the need for a creative bank account.
Steve Jobs said that creativity is about connecting the dots.
Activity:
Begin by drawing two dots. Connect the dots.
Then draw another dot. Connect them again.
Draw ten dots. Connect them in any way.
What is the outcome? This illustrates how as ideas come together it helps to create something new. The more dots you have, the more creative options and combinations you can create!
Innovation and ideas occur at an exponential rate.
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of innovation
What are the best ways to fill a creative bank account?
Expose yourself and put yourself in the position to be around inspiration and creativity. Lee has just joined a collective studio that has bakers, architects, artists, and graphic designers under the same roof. It allows him to be around more creative energy than he would be at home or in an isolated studio space.
Become productive and creative anywhere [15:16]
It doesn’t matter where you are as long as you are “connecting your dots” and filling your bank account. The internet allows you to fill your creative bank account anywhere.
Indirect and direct experience, why you need both [16:19]
There are two sources of inspiration for your creative bank account:
Indirect Experience - Experiencing something through the filter of someone else, such as film, music, movies, books and Pinterest. You are seeing and experiencing someone else's perspective. This allows you to be up to date and aware of what’s going on in the world around you.
Direct Experience - Your own personal experience, for example travel and exploring.
Why you should visit the a real library [18:11]
Go to the library.
It physically gets you out of your space.
Libraries allow you to be exposed to material that you would not normally read or see.
Going out into the real world [19:21]
Interact with the world around you. Venture to new parts of the city and new places you’ve never been. Undoubtedly, there will be something for your creative bank account.
Lee was having a really tough time feeling creative after months of getting his house ready to go on the market. Then he had this cool experience with his son by randomly deciding to check out a comic book shop called Cosmic Money. He hasn’t really ever liked comics but after going into the shop they found an amazing graphic novel that re-ignited his creativity.
Get out into the world and experience life!
The benefits and opportunities of living in a boring place [23:46]
It really doesn't matter where you live. There are experiences in rural areas and experiences in cities that fill creative bank accounts. However, being able to interact with other people more can give you a lot more opportunities to fill your creative bank account. It’s all about being proactive.
Tips for increasing direct and indirect experiences [24:47]
Jake’s artist friend, Jake Wyatt, says to always be reading three books at one time:
By reading three different books at the same time you will see different dots and find connections that you might not have seen if you were to read them one at a time.
Artist dates [27:39]
Regularly set a date and set time aside to take yourself out on an artist date! Get out of your own space and normal routine to go to an art gallery, a museum, a bookstore, or out into nature. Go by yourself so you don’t have to filter your experience through someone else.
Direct experience to pursue [29:44]
To have direct experiences travel, explore, do community service, go to museums, etc. Community service allows to to change your outlook and puts you in contact with people or situations that are outside of your normal routine.
Visit Family [30:36]
Visiting family pushes you to be in contact with people that have different opinions and perspectives than you. You don’t know what will inspire you! Who knows, maybe your crazy Uncle Joe will inspire a new character.
Get out of your comfort zone [32:31]
Change the way you do things like travel from place to place or where you create. Take a different route home. Surrender control by getting rides with family on vacation instead of renting a car. Change your mode of transportation.
Will says that changing your daily routine is a boost for your creative bank account. You don’t always see all the benefits of these experience all at once, but, if you are deliberate, over time you will notice the effects.
Three steps to take after the direct and indirect experiences [37:24]
The book, “Choose Yourself” says to write down 10 new ideas a day. Jake has tried it and it’s hard. It really stretches you. Try it out! Creativity is a muscle - the more you use it, the better you get at it. Some ideas will be really dumb and silly, but still write them down, the good ideas will come. You can write down ideas for art, for new places to walk your dog, for a business opportunity you think Amazon could take advantage of, etc. You will become more creative!
People with tons of ideas get published [44:31]
The more ideas you have the more you push yourself. Will relates this to children’s books. He has seen that people with lots of ideas, rather than just one, get published. You have to generate tons of material and then refine.
Be comfortable with changing course [47:00]
Changing courses is part of the creative process. You will see what things work and what things don’t work and change gears accordingly.
Sketchbooks [51:08]
Don’t allow your sketchbook to limit you. Students sometimes feel as if a sketchbook needs to be perfect but Lee recommends calling it an idea book instead. Then you don’t have to feel pressure that each page has to look amazing, you can have lists and stick figures if you want!
Rapid Viz: A New Method for the Rapid Visualization of Ideas
IlLISTration: Improvisational Lists and Drawing Assists To Spark Creativity
LINKS
Svslearn.com
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo
If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews.
If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Every time we get an offer to do a book we feel super grateful and flattered that someone would want one of us to illustrate a book for them, but for many reasons we can’t say yes.
In this episode we get into the details of book publishing, including the economic, social, and career-building reasons we take on certain book projects, and why we say no to others.
Here are Will’s 10 Reasons for "Why I Can’t Illustrate Your Children’s Book.” Some of them deal more with submitting a book jointly with an author to a publisher, or self publishing a book; they are all things to consider and reasons for why you may want to second-guess saying yes to that person you sorta know who wants you to illustrate their self-published book.
This question, about how to deal with people asking you to do their children’s book, is talked about often at SCBWI. The Most Asked Question: how do I find an illustrator?
Editors at publishing companies will tell writers, "You don’t need to find the illustrator, that’s our job." They take pride in this. One of the publisher’s major roles is to find the right illustrator and match them to the right manuscript. They have resources and lots of connections to find the best match.
Some people jump to conclusions and think that just because someone can draw and someone has a children’s book idea that they should be paired to work together, without doing research beforehand to see if they would be a good match. You wouldn’t go around prescribing medication to people before learning what their symptoms are and it's the same with writing and illustrating children’s books.
Publishers don’t want to be in an awkward situation where they love the manuscript but they hate the art, then they have to tell you and it can be something they just would rather avoid.
They have more art and manuscripts than they can publish.
They oftentimes will dismiss you, just because you are filing jointly, and the art is already done. As with everything, there are exceptions.
There are many other reasons as to why publishers prefer to pair the artists and illustrators. One marketing strategy they often use is to match a more veteran author or illustrator with a newer author or illustrator. A new author with a new illustrator, or vice versa, is too much of a financial gamble.
As you have more experience and become more well-known, you may have more power and influence over who you are paired up with.
Another reason Will would be hesitant to file jointly with an amateur or work on a self-published book is that it may affect publishers’ perception of him.
Even doing lots of projects on Kickstarter can look amateur. This is something that may be frowned upon merely because it’s a little more new. But sometimes books that started on Kickstarter can get picked up by publishers.
Even your online followers on social media has an influence on how much of an advance you are allotted.
One book that may be an exception to this :
They filed their book jointly and then 3 different publishers got into a bidding war over it. However, this is different, because they were two pros working together. So it’s not really an exception. We can’t think of an example of two amateurs who got a book published together that did super well.
When a publisher contacts an illustrator to do a book, the manuscript has already gone through a lot of rewrites. This is hard work and takes a thick skin.
However, if you contact Will to do your self-published book, he doesn’t know who you are and what you are like. Manuscripts always have rewrites and edits. It can take a very long time to complete the project. He doesn't know if you are in it for the long haul.
This is not super well known: Publishers, at their own cost, often submit books for awards, such as the Caldecott, the Dr. Suess award, state awards, etc.
It is a lot of work, they have to fill out all of the paper work and ship a couple hundred books to the right person at the right time.
Getting these awards is what helps the book take off. It gets more publicity, and starts to get bought and recommended by librarians. This is more for self publishing but is another reason that Will wouldn’t want to illustrate a book with an amateur.
Will has received 5-6 state awards. Jake has received a state reward. Lee received an ALA Award for a book: see link. And it made a huge difference.
I Lived On Butterfly Hill, Lee White
Reviews [27:06]
Publishers have connections to get books reviewed. Which gets it on people’s radar.
This is why I wouldn’t want to illustrate someone’s self published book. This doesn’t mean that a self published book can’t
Opportunity Cost [28:13]
If you say yes to this children’s book is saying no to something else.
It takes months to finish a children’s book and in the end there might not be much
Average time to complete a children’s book: 6 Months. Jake, Lee, and Will can get a book done in less time but this is a good place to start.
If You’re Going to Partner or Work With Anyone, Be Clear About Who Owns the Rights to the Work. [33:16]
You need to go in with your eyes wide open.
Lee had an idea for a book that he brought an author on to help him write the story. He knew what the story was and was struggling with the words. So he brought this very very well known artist on. His assumption was that they would co-write the book and he would do the artwork. Her assumption, however, was that she was now the author and owned all the content, and that he was someone now illustrating her story. Long story short, It didn’t work out.
For any joint venture: have a clear expectation and maybe even a conference maybe even for a critique group. To protect yourself and them as well.
Ideas are not “copyright able.”
Be careful and go in with your eyes wide open.
Honestly, if it’s the authors first time doing this, they don’t know what they are doing. And that can be another red flag as to why you shouldn’t do their children’s book.
Authors usually don’t know how to art direct and don’t have the skills to give art direction.
Lee’s Story:
Lee decided to help illustrate a self published book and he did some character sketches and showed them to the author. One of them was a anthropomorphic cow, and the lady said, “My mom would never wear that.” And then got into how the cow represented her mom and how it needed to look like her. Lee saw that there was all sorts of subtle things things like this and took it as a warning to get out of there and not do the book. Because it would be very hard to work with this author as an art director when they didn’t know what was important or how to art direct.
Then there are a whole bunch of things in the production side of things. Margins and type, etc.
Will will get these short emails from people telling him that they like his work and asking him if he will illustrate their book for them. And he wonders where their business proposal is.
It’s hard to have a long career as an illustrator living off of just the advances received, you want to be getting royalties as well. You want to see books stick and generate royalties and income for the long term.
God Gave Us Christmas, David Hone
Lee was complaining about his small royalty check ($13), hoping to have company in misery. Then David Hone told him how much his check was (4-5 figures) and Lee was blown away by how much he had made.
Then there are the Brett Helquists who have funded their own retirement and their kids retirement off of all he royalties he’s made through Series of Unfortunate Events.
With self publishing there is a trust issue as to, how are you going to track sales and royalties. The publishers now have an online portal where you can login and monitor your book’s sales.
Jeff Smith, while self publishing “Bone”, ended up buying the house next door to house all of his book inventory.
Distribution is a ton of work! (no pun intended.)
Self Publishing authors are not distributors. They don’t have relationships with distributors. And so that’s one more downside.
One other side note:
Foreign rights. Lee has had books go into Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Publishers know how to distribute in those markets.
Will asks Lee and Jake to name their price, to do a self published book with a terrible manuscript.
Lee often gets 30K+ advances, Will is a little under that, and Jake has gotten both under and higher than that.
An advance is money publishers pay you in advance against the royalties. So you get money when you sign the contract, and then when you turn in sketches, and then when you submit the final work (1/3, 1/3, 1/3; or 1/2, 1/2). Then you don’t get money on royalties until that amount is reached, on what you would have got?from royalties if there wasn’t an advance, then once you reach that point, you start to make money off of royalties.
And Lee said he would do a self published book for $50,000 (and that is if he liked he book). Lee would charge this much because of opportunity costs, where
If he didn’t like it, they would have to pay up in the 6-figures range.
This conversation could be misconstrued to be three ar
Part of the problem is perpetuated with the publisher. Because there are some books like “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” that are super successful with very simple drawings, and so people think that anyone could do something like that and it would be easy.
What about for a family friend?
Jake might help illustrate a book for a family friend, but it wouldn’t be as detailed or
Will and Lee are against illustrating for a family member or friend.
You should love the project, and really like it.
When you set up your agreement, because you will set up a contract of course, make sure you don’t
They probably won’t pay you a ton. Go ahead and set up a big royalty. Do
How to answer this question, “Can you recommend someone?” [1:00:06]
That’s a hard question because you might not know what they want, or what they
Lee has a new technique for saying no to these offers. And one of the things he has learned is that you don’t always have to respond to every email.
Maybe for a high school student it could work out.
Graduation Commencement Neil Gayman
He sees his goals and aspirations as a mountain in the distance, and as long as your going there then you are doing something good.
Make great art.
It might be different if you are in college or based on your circumstances.
Honestly, it comes down to: does it fit your needs, or does it point you in the right direction. Another thing is if you really feel that this will be something that will help someone, you can.
The reason creating art you don’t want to make is because your mind can’t escape it.
LINKS
Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
forum.svslearn.com
Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
Show notes by Tanner Garlick.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Our first mailbag episode! Lee, Will, and Jake will be answering questions that people in the forums have been asking; there are lots of great questions, some fun questions, tons of insightful answers, and even some differing opinions.
Link SVS Forum
Check out the SVS forums. You do not have to be a subscriber to participate in the forums. It’s a safe space with a super helpful community, where you can post questions or your work (anywhere from sketches to finished painting) and get feedback from the SVS community.
Q: Where do we (Will Jake and Lee) see themselves in ten years? 4:00
Having a 10 year plan is advantageous. It allows you to have direction. You can even have a 1, 2, 5, and 10 year plan (Jake likes to do this). It’s best to make your plans project focused. Make sure that in those plans you are planning big projects. Maybe it is a project every year, or every two years.
Some people get so involved with just one big project and they noodle at it and go back and forth and keep going back and fixing things as they improve and they can end up spending 10 years on a single project with no finished product to show for it. Try to apply the concept “finished not perfect”.
Jake’s Finished Not Perfect YouTube
Making an actual plan helps you get the things done as you work to advance your career.
Jakes 10 Year Plan: 10 children’s books finished and 5 more graphic novels drawn. He also wants to see where he can take some of those projects and see if they can advance to another form whether it’s a movie, video game, or TV show.
Will’s 10 Year Plan: Has matured to the point where he really values the projects he is working on, more than just pumping them out.
Has gotten Bonnepart Falls Apart out and he wants to get the next book out and see if they can keep this series going.
Will Terry Bonnepart Falls Apart
WIll loves teaching and organizing concrete information to help students, where sometimes in college you get bits and pieces of the content. Over the next 10 years he’s going to be trying to create provide a solid curriculum and sees himself doing this within the next couple years. He also wants to start writing and illustrating and getting his own books out.
Lee’s 10 Year Plan: Wants to start focusing on the quality and the meaning behind the work and slow down. He enjoys writing books and creating content for the illustrations. He wants to be writing in 10 years and writing his own books, maybe 1 book per year. Also, loves the freedom that comes with online teaching and wants to try to teach 2 classes a year and recruit other teachers. SVS allows Lee to create the classes he thinks will be valuable.
SVS Learn Website
While Jake, Will, and Lee, matured in their career they came to realize what work became fulfilling to them. Focus on meaning and quality. Consider the questions: what does your ideal day look like and what brings value to you?
Q: How to do get ready for a Comic Cons or Art Fair? 14:03
Big question! We are thinking of creating a class to go over this, because all three have done these events and gone through mistakes and have a lot to share.
There are a lot of principles to learn. Here is one:
Start small- go to a convention. Start observing and go into research and development mode.
You want to reverse engineer the convention. Ask yourself:
Which tables are you afraid to walk up to, and why? Which tables do have no problem approaching, and why? What made you attracted to a booth? what made you stop in your tracks? Why did you buy from this person? These are the things to consider.
You can approach people and ask questions. I.e. Where did you get this banner printed? Find out where you can start. Be respectful of artist’s time.
Understand the difference between Comic Cons and Art fairs.
Art Fairs have a different crowd. It is much more fine art based. Where people are looking to buy more original art to decorate their house. Whereas Comic Cons are indoor and you sell a lot more work at a cheaper price.
You should ask yourself why you want to do this: is it to receive validation? To make money? To build a more personal fan base? You can measure success with you own personal answers to these questions.
Q: What are your methods and approaches for time efficiency and consistency for a long project? 22:15
This has been address in a Third Thursday.
3rd Thursday
Find short-cuts. I.e. If Will needs to do a lot of grass for a project he will do a whole page of grass and then copy and paste it, and use it throughout the project rather than hand paint each strand on each page. Also, for character consistency he will do head studies for characters you’ll see a lot and then throw them in the right place. I.e. high angle, low angle, straight on, etc.
Q: How do you get motivated when you lose steam halfway through and don’t feel motivated?
Lee: starts with his favorite spread and then prints it out nice and hangs it up, it acts like a beacon for the rest of the project. He then will do the page he dreads the most because he still has energy. He also mixes his projects in a day and tries to have some other fun projects or paintings.
Every painting in the book doesn’t have to have equal value, some pages are just necessary and get you through the book. All spreads don’t bring the same enjoyment.
Jake: Create visual checklist/boxes. I.e. layouts, rough sketches, line work, ink, color, for each page. Finds satisfaction in the bubbles being filled.
Time yourself, see how long you spend on a page, etc. And then you can budget your time and plan some other projects for the middle so you don’t get bored.
Jake like Lee also likes to pick a fun spread to start off with that he is looking forward to, and this also helps the publisher get a feel for the art and makes sure it’s inline with their vision.
Ask for more time if you need it but when setting the deadline anticipate more than you really need. Often the client is willing to give you some extra time.
Q: What are the differences to being an illustrator or content creator? 32:18
Writing is hard, it takes time. There is a lot of hard work that goes into the writing process. You’re creating a world, and the characters, and there is a lot of nuance to it.
If you are a content creator, you are ensuring your own longevity. You aren’t dependent on others always giving you work, and you aren’t sitting around. If you don’t have work you are still moving creating content. This often leads to more paid work.
There is a difference between creating the entire visual world vs. just visualizing the world.
Contents creators are able to move forward.
The writer illustrator understands what needs to be in the text and what can be only illustrations. Success comes easier with these artist/writers that understand the process of perspective, creation, and building of the story. Be apart of the creation and make your own thing.
Comes down to failure. Failure is a part of the process get use to it!
Q: What is your process in doing master copies? 41:35
Start by studying the image. Start from the ground up. Learn the gesture, structure, shadow, light, and color. Studying process books that break down the steps. I.e. Art of … books. Understand the pattern of what is going on in the master copy.
Lee: Understand why you want to do a master copy of this art?
Ideal portfolio assignment:Choose 10-20 pieces of work that you wish you did. Look for the consistency and theme. What medium pops up the most. Find approach. Find similarities and difference. Find Go in more informed before actually starting the master copy.
Master coping is a great artistic exercise. Understanding the artist and their thought process. Consider: why did they make certain discussion in their art? How did the solve certain problems? How did they figure things out?
Don’t just draw a lot but draw with a purpose and be deliberate. Master the basics/ foundations of art.
Q: If you can illustrate a small story based off a favorite song what would it be? 50:10
Music is inspiring and provide really great creative inspiration. Challenged to illustrate how a song feels. This could be a artistic challenge.
Lee: Tom York without Radiohead. New Order is a classic.
David Hone and Lee have an assignment- pick a song a illustrate the song, then the class gets to listen to the song and guess which art fits.
Will and Jake are hipsters and listen to London Grammar, Florence and the Machine, Foster the People.
Jake: Help by the Beatles would be a great children's book.
Will: Permission to love. Will’s Peguin’s Dancing to Permission to Love
Beatles YAY or NAY?!?!
Q: What is the biggest mistake that amateur artists and students make? 57:38
With the art:
Artists need to do the groundwork, previsualization work, character studies, scene studies, color studies, and little tests.
Create drafts and sketches, work out all the problems, think about what the image is trying to say, is the image working are a narrative?
Amateur artists and students don’t do this will or enough.
With the career:
Fail to do...
Artists need to do the groundwork of understand the field that they want to get into or think they want to get into.
Know where you want to be and what it takes to be there. Understand the job whether that is illustration, animation, freelance, and etc. Consider what illustrators do you like, what is the job like day to day, what are some nuances of the job, and what is the job market like.
Amateur artists and students don’t do this will or enough.
Q: How can I do better in contest? 1:04:20
Enter contest and be comfortable putting your work out there. As a content creator you need to get use to this. With contest- yes, enter them but read the fine print.
If you enter and lose learn from the experience. Deconstruct your work and the top art pieces. Be humble enough to look at the winners and think about what they did better and implement those principles into your own work.
Q: Do you recommend going to college for illustration? 1:05:50
There are so many factors and this is a complex questions.
Jake: If money not a problem do it but if you don’t take what you do have and make a self learning program. Be smart, self motivated and get you can receive the same or better education for much cheaper.
Lee: With technology now you can custom build your education from the whole world. There are a lot of choices now.
The school is not guarantee to work.
Build your portfolio.
LINKS
Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
forum.svslearn.com
Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
Show notes by Tanner Garlick.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Today we tackle the subject of fan art. We discuss what it is, what it isn't, whether or not you should do it, and the legality of it.
We definitely are of three minds on this one so get ready for some arguing!
Legal statement:
Will, Jake, and Lee are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. However, they have experience, thoughts and options on the topic of fan art.
If you are looking for real legal counsel, speak to a lawyer that specializes with Intellectual Property (IP).
What is fan art? [3:00]
Jake’s definition: Any drawing or illustration by a fan of a character or IP that is owned by another company or person.
What if someone did fan art and it become successful and gets traction on a social media platform i.e. Reddit?
Give credit where credit towards that artist or to whoever owns the IP.
In reality the fan art topic is more directed towards taking IPs that have great popularity already.
There are these massive IPs like Marvel, DC Comics, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. There are lots of people at conventions and online who are selling prints and merchandise using these IPs. So the question is, “should you do fan art of these IPs?” and “should you sell it?”
Fan art comes in 4 Categories: [10:50]
Derivative Work: something that you draw which is pretty much based on the character, your version of the character. The character in your style.
Parody: focused on the humor aspect, doing something funny with the
character, needs
Plagiarism: creating a copy, or using actual artwork and reprinting
it (reprint on paper or a t-shirt)
Transformative Work: take something that was created and transforming
it into something new. i.e. A book review, a drawing of something
that hasn't been visualized
What is the actual legality of it? Where is the line? [13:28]
Hard Line: if you don’t own the character, you need to be careful with the IP. It is illegal.
Grey Line: If the company or person who owns the character will care, prosecute, or send a cease and desist.
Jake’s thoughts [14:00]
If you have a piece of original art, that you created, on a physical piece of paper, you can sell it. That piece is a one-off the original.
However, prints and t-shirts become more grey area. You have created a derivative that the company hasn’t created. Ultimately, using another IP but if it became a parody in some way than it is in a “safer” zone i.e. SNL, parody, t-shirt or print.
If it has a strong point of view or a strong stylistic design, that couldn’t be mistaken for a licensed work then it’s a better situation to be in BUT best practice is to contact the copyright owner and ask for permission or to buy a license for the IP you want to use.
Sometimes larger companies are hard to get ahold of and request legal use of the IP. It is not in the companies economic interest to pursue legal action such as Jake Parker’s Iron Giant prints.
It is hard to say what is going to happen if you do fan art. There are instances that artist received cease and desist and there are also instances where the owner of the IP likes the fan art and wants to purchase the IP for it.
Lee’s thoughts: [18:03]
It is very clear who owns the IP of certain art.
The grey line starts to work against you once dollars start to get involved- if you start to actually make money off of the art that could go against you. If you just gave away your art it wouldn't be an issue.
Lee clarifies Transformative art- There was a case where a photograph was used to created a sculpture (that was very close) and this case was not deemed illegal for the photography.
Fan art opens up problems and developing the mindset “I can grab what I want to”. Limits the artist and builds false notoriety and is illegal. The question is whether you will be prosecuted or not. And ultimately, if it’s not a parody it is illegal.
Another point to look at is: how much of the project or work is under a copyright? If you take out the copyright work, how much of your project is left over? Does the art still stand if the copied images are taken out.
Example: Jake's sketchbooks.
WIll’s thoughts: [22:58]
There are forms of fan art that art legal and it depends on the degree in which you recreate the IP. Some fan art is definitely not original and pure plagiarism but there are IPs that have been exaggerated and are protected under law.
Dominic Glover (started illegitimate and became legitimate)
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.- Parody in a court of law recreating “Pretty woman walking down the street”. Campbell won because they were appealing to different audiences.
Wills 5 degrees of fanart [32:00] (From bad to good)
A pure copy
Copy reference but they change the style i.e. watercolor- Rendering has changed
Come up with New original pose, and in your own
Your own pose, style, and add a concept or something completely different i.e. Will creates known characters into children
Completely original pose, style, environment, and genre.
Every single thing has changed.
Why not create you own thing? [36:00]
Will- It’s rewarding aspect to recreated two ideas but there are pitfalls if not careful. Sometimes artist become reliant on fan art. Do it for the right reasons. You can ask- Do i do it for the love or doing it for financial gain?
Jed Henry is an example of creating “level 5” fanart. It is original and merges the IP and Henry’s style and vision.
Could someone young make fanart and avoid these pitfalls? [45:30]
Often times fan art is done for economical reasons and to gain tractions. However, young artists need to be mindful. Don’t lean on fanart. Doing fanart allows for great exposure but shouldn’t be that bulk of your work. Fanart can also be an interesting exercise as an artist to grow and learn.
Consider WIll’s 5 step evaluations. How much did you change it? Are you selling it? How close to the line are you? The closer you get to the line, the more you are going across the ethical and legal boundary.
Do the fanart to learn, get exposure and sometimes to get work but don’t let it be you main thing. Maybe for every fanart piece you do, do 5 original personal pieces. Don’t sell you soul to fan art.
Jake found another artist’s list that puts your fanart at risk [51:00]
Used original logo
Makes it tasteless, sexual, or slanderous
Little or no difference
Does not have a parody or influence of parody
If you sell a high number of prints or commission
If it caters to the same market as the copyright owner i.e. Marvel prints don’t exist
As an official (career) Marvel artist, you can sell prints and consider them official Marvel art prints. It helps to supplement those artists income. Other artist eat into this market- a thing to consider.
Another “pro” fan art point [55:00]
In the end, it’s still illegal, but it help keeps the popularity of the IP alive. Whether or not you get in trouble for it is entirely up to the IP owner.
LINKS
Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
forum.svslearn.com
Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
Show notes by Tanner Garlick.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
In this episode we swallow some pride and take a look at some of our less stellar moments. These are the times we wish we had a rewind button for life and could do things over.
We have take away points from each story so you don’t have to make our mistakes again. Hopefully, none of you are as dumb as us!
Story 1: Will’s Phallic Tortoise [01:31]
Take away: When you’re learning how to draw it’s a lot like a golf swing. To do a golf swing right there’s 50 things you’ve got to know how to do and you can’t be thinking about them all at the same time. They have to flow naturally. And so you can concentrate on 5 of them at the same time.
As an illustrator there’s 50 things you’ve got to know how to do to make an illustration, and one of them is composition. Make sure you’re composition isn’t set up in a way that it compromises the entire piece.
Story 2: Lee’s Name Critique [7:45]
Take away: Do your homework on who you’re meeting with. Take some time to understand what they are about, what they do, and why they want to meet with you. Don’t advise them to change the name of their company!
Story 3: Jake’s Edgy Style vs All-Ages Style [11:43]
Take away: Take a long look at your work and see how it might influence others around you. If you’re not happy with what your work is doing for the world see how you can change it for the better.
Story 4: Will’s Feminine Hygiene Job [16:14]
Take away: Just...don’t be a Will. Be happy you don’t have to be tied to a phone any more to get work. Also, you don’t have to take every job that comes your way.
Story 5: Lee’s Alphabet Book Debacle [21:14]
Take away: If you’re hired to do a job specifically for your style, maybe don’t subcontract someone else to do it for you.
Before you commit to do a job, take a good look at how much work needs to be done and see if your schedule can handle the workload. You want to avoid opting out of the job after contracts have been signed and money’s been paid.
Ask questions up front about what exactly is needed for the job. Get all the facts and cross check them with other professionals to make sure you’re not getting into something that you won’t be able to finish on time.
Be willing to say no to a high paying job if you don’t think it benefit your career. There are more important things than a paycheck if the job you take doesn’t really further your career.
Story 6: Will’s Fax Machine [29:00]
Take away: Get all the information BEFORE the fax comes in :P
Make sure you get all the information on the job that you need in order to finish your job. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and take good notes on your calls.
Story 7: Lee Unknowingly Rips on the Boss’s Daughter [36:15]
Take away: Remember names! Do your homework and know who you’re talking to.
Story 8: Jake’s Big Meeting [40:20]
Take away: Don’t waste an important meeting. If you’re in the position to meet with an important editor or client do whatever you need to to have a killer pitch, presentation, or idea to share with them. Be prepared!
Story 9: Will Zones Out [46:16]
Take away: Be present and paying attention when you’re talking to a client or editor
Story 10: Lee’s bike ride [49:00]
Take away: Plan your day. Make sure you have time to do everything you’ve set out to do. You don’t have to do everything. Look at ways that you’re making you job harder than it actually has to be.
LINKS
Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
forum.svslearn.com
Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Ship Happens
Today it is all about shipping something and getting it out into the world.
Often we talk about what the difference is between a professional and an amateur, the art is one difference, but another difference is professionals "ship."
Link: Merlin Man Podcast
When people are successful, one big hallmark of that success is that they actually ship things, which means that they finish things. They don't just finish things and keep it in their house but they share it with others, they ship it.
Also, Seth Goddin, Linchpin
Make sure you don’t just start a project and let it fizzle, don’t start one after another and let them fizzle.
Look at all of your artistic heroes under the lens of finishing things and shipping things, what you find is a constant project based mentality. Where their projects go further than they do, they have to figure out how to publish it, and look at who it is going to go to.
Lee’s Story:
After school, Lee needed to try and get work, so he did the postcard thing. His idea was to create and send out 6 postcards a year, to 600 clients. He sent the first card out, and nothing happened, then he sent the second, and the third... and he was getting no responses.
However, his goal was just to get those cards sent out, they had to get out into the world. He decided that he was going to go on a trip to New York and he felt that he needed to have have something more substantial than a postcard to give to publishers so he made these really nice custom build books and custom mailers and sent them to 21 dream clients. 13 of them had him in for an interview.
Earlier he felt like he was just sending his postcards out into the void and was seeing no results, however, as he went around to meet with different publishers he noticed that a lot of the publishers had his postcard on their wall. Some of those publishers, he is just now starting to work with. There was lots of stuff happening behind the scenes that he didn't know about. All of it came from him shipping things out..
Lee finished college where I was drawing and painting all the time. Then felt that after he was now just creating stuff to ship out. The shipping paid off.
The Power of a physical object
Jake been to every publisher and to Chronicle, he's been to all their meetings, and he can attest that their walls are full of postcards.
One of the art directors told him, speaking of the postcards on the walls, “I don’t know if I’ll work with them, but I want to remember them, and I hope that our paths will cross.”
Sometimes we think we need a broad audience and that we need to get our work out there onto the inter web, but sometimes something tangible for a small audience can be just as powerful as something digital to a huge audience.
This was evidence to him of the power of physical objects.
There is no guarantee of anything. It almost always costs more than what you might have anticipated. It’s terrifying putting yourself out there, you might be scared of failure.
You might have thoughts or hear people say, “who do you think you are?”
Will's Story: after finishing school he was planning on doing the postcard thing. His dad was doubtful and said “What are you gonna do? Send postcards to people? Without a cover letter? How will they know what it is for?" Despite his Dad's skepticism, he sent out postcards. It worked! He came home one day and his Dad was excited because there was a fax from Psychology Today wanting him to do work for him.
It's very powerful when you ship something out into the world. If you haven't sent anything out, you might be wondering if it will pay off, and you don't know. But once it is out there it is moving and there is this serendipity that Lee has faith in now that good things will happen when you put your work out there.
While there is not guarantee that you'll get work or that it will pay off the way you want it to, there is a guarantee, that if you get your work shipped out, you will learn things from doing this! Sometimes the value you want isn't going to be the value you get. Sometimes the value is the failure. Value in learning.
Even putting your work out there digitally in a finished way i.e. creating a website, is valuable.
Personal Takeaways
Jake- never sent out postcards. Was going into animation and had an agent pounding the pavement to get him comic and illustration work.
However, he had his first Missile Mouse Comic book. He made it at the copy center. And had to fold all of the 8.5 x 11 sheets, and get them all in the right order. It was a pain. He made a bunch of these "ashcan" booklets, and took a bunch of them to San Diego Comic Con in 2001 and started to hand them out to his art heroes. He gave one to Jeff Smith, the creator of Bone who was really excited and introduced Jake to Bob Shrek, the editor in chief at DC Comics. None of that panned out into anything but it gave him tons of confidence in his abilities, and led him to find other comic book artists at his same level, and they ended up making their own
Beginning of this Journey, and really the first step for me realizing my potential as a creator. It never would have happened if I didn’t finish that first book and have something tangible that I could hand to another person that they can handle and pass it along.
Link: Finished Not Perfect
Link: Jake's Traveler’s Print
Jake's Goal for each piece: give it 3 lives.
For example, you could create a process video, there's the finished piece, it could be scanned into book, made into a print, or into a postcard. All this artwork has mini lives, you can even sell the original. Don’t just let a piece of art live and die in one version, it should live on in many version.
Lee, has been entering into art fairs for about 5 years now. Then did his first one and all of his work sold really well, and he was doing prints, Lee then decided to find a way to sell the originals. Now when I make an image, I make it with a standardized frame size.
Another important thing he learned from comic and moving forward.
Jake, learned the value of letting something be finished, rather than trail off forever. Never being finished, always trying to find a perfection to it, rather have something tangible, that can be held, downloaded or a finished website, or in other words:
Whatever finished is you need to get it to that point. Another word for finished is shipped. You can't ship something if you haven't finished it.
You’ve got to get it to a finished state, what things to let go of, what things to hold on to to make it seem finished.
Lee always finishes things: has a way of working that applies well with his personality and is fairly fast.
Jake has a number of Projects not finished: i.e. Lord Balderben and the Infinicorn of Destiny. Started adding comic pages in between. So he put it on the back burner to work on another. It’s okay to not finish a project as long as you don’t make that what you do with all projects.
You learn from things, even things like typography, and shipping. You learn about practical concerns. Lee realized that his books that were printed in China were coming to him on a boat and weighed 3000 pounds and he realized he didn't have anywhere for them. You really learn a process outside of the illustration process.
Obstacles
Not having an end product in mind. Jake did the Draw 100 Somethings Challenge, which pushes you to do something you aren’t familiar with, and pushes your creativity. He ended up drawing 200 somethings and then... that was it. Jake Realized, since that project, what’s the point of doing a project, besides getting better, if you don't have anything for the project to do, it isn’t helping you or another.
Begin with some sort of physical object in mind, so you know you aren’t done until that thing exists.
Want to maximize time, and get the most use and benefit from art.
Fine Artist- The creator makes something and it doesn’t matter if anyone gets anything out of it.As long as you appreciate your work, that’s good enough.
Illustrator- need to express something to someone else, a story or an idea, not as satisfied if you don’t get to express it something for someone else.
You need to train yourself to “ship”, need to start small.
If you have an idea, try it out, don’t just talk, walk the walk.
You have to decide to do it and start.
One key element: get used to the idea of “clumsy beginnings.”
It all looks clear in hindsight.
When you start it out, it’s really clumsy, you don’t know what the details are.
It starts as a big clumsy mess, then you start figuring out problems, 1 by 1 by 1.
They start with grabbing this thing, and this thing, you just go through and answer quetions.
Will starts to do something and then realize what he should have done. The more you age, the more creating, the more shipping you do, the more thoughtful, careful, and methodical.
Be a doer, a starter, a finisher.
Little book, wasn’t anticipating such a
People get paralyzed, Didn’t start with the small stuff, caught up in the “I can’t” Thinking mindset.
Finished Project: Jake starts with the end in mind, starts on making the thing, and the little things.
2-3 days making the logo.
What makes me excited about the shop
Link: Shoe Dog- wants to make a really good shoe and make it as good as it can be, forgot to figure out name and logo.
People lose way by focusing on things that don’t matter too much and forget to focus on the meat, the important things.
Lee likes to do thumbnails, then a finished piece.
If lots of people are expecting to see it, then you will produce a lot more. Positive Pure Pressure. Good technique: have other people expecting it, develop Accountability.
Kickstarter is great- accountability, timeline, parameters.
One of the best things is Will’s Kickstarter failing. Hit self on the head with a new hammer, learn that way.
People will click “LIKE” all day, if you can’t get 1000 likes, then you won’t get 1000 people to give you a dollar.
Then on second try, really did homework, asked questions,
You’ve got to start small, and have failures, you learn the lessons along the way.
We have amazing projects within us, and we don’t even know what they are yet.
Do what you need to do to coax those projects out of you.
10 Item List: How to take a project from start to finish:
Lee wishes he had 10 things told to him, when he was in school.
Nobody will pay you more than yourself.
Own your own IP, Business, Something, is so valuable.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Jake: Skyheart Update: still working on the coloring. Learning to attack a scene all at the same time. Speeds up working time, 10 pages an afternoon. 36 pages left to color.
Will: Textbook project complete. Will is working with a Hero Illustrator on a class for SVS, it’s amazing to be able to work with somebody whose work he was looking up to for so long. Really excited to announce it.
Lee: Still working on Children’s Book, rough sketches are done, big aha moments are not as frequent for illustration, but they happen whenever someone tells him something about writing, he had a big aha moment with writing. Show not tell, make them feel it, not just tell.
“Nico was nervous.” Tell. “Nico got a knot in his stomach, and his breathing tensed.” Show.
Now trying to go through manuscript and make it.
You can also show things in pictures that aren’t even mentioned in words that complement text.
LINKS
Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
forum.svslearn.com
Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
Show notes by Tanner Garlick.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Many people wonder, is it too late? Or, am I too old to start?
Will, Lee, and Jake talk about this age old question and discuss how it isn’t too late. There are many successful creatives that didn’t start until they were older. Lee shares his story and how he didn’t start art until later on in life.
We talk about ways you can amp up and make the most of your early years if you are starting for the first time, or looking to accelerate your growth later in life. We discuss some of the benefits of age and the need for sacrifice and prioritizing to create a thriving career in art.
Links:
Sang Jun, https://www.sangjunart.com/
Lee White, https://www.leewhiteillustration.com/
Zombies video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc
Jon Klassen, http://jonklassen.tumblr.com/
Craig Mullins, http://www.goodbrush.com/
Design 100 Somethings, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxa01j9Ns7o
Uncovering Your Style, SVS, https://courses.svslearn.com/courses/uncovering-your-style
Yuko Shimizu, http://yukoart.com/
Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
http://forum.svslearn.com
Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
Show notes by Tanner Garlick.
Am I Too Old to Get Started?
Am I too old to shift careers? Am I too old to start as an artist? Am I too old to start this big project I’ve always wanted to start working on?
What’s the average age to start working? If you grew up with an interest in art, drew all the time, and went to art school then most people start their art career maybe in their mid-twenties. Often people who get to art a little later in the game wonder, “Am I too old to do this?” Young people think, “When am I going to get that job?”
Regardless of your age, you are probably comparing yourself to people older and younger than you, and wishing you had done something different when you were younger or feeling like you are so far behind.
Examples of Successful Late Starters
Sang Jun. https://www.sangjunart.com/
Didn’t start drawing until he was well into his twenties. Realized he loved drawing, and started practicing, went to art school, ended up getting a job at Lucas Film doing character design for Episode 3, and then became a lead character designer at Blue Sky. You don’t have to start in your late teens to make it.
Lee White. https://www.leewhiteillustration.com/
Didn’t draw in twenties, or teens. Wasn’t interested until he was in his thirties and started drawing. Applied to Art Center of Design and got accepted with a scholarship, moved to LA, and graduated when he was 33. Then started getting his first books when he was in his mid-thirties, and that’s not the end, it’s just an on going thing.
Miyazaki, the Walt Disney of Japan, in animation all throughout career until 40. That’s when he decided to start his own animation studio. He did a graphic novel at age 40 for Nausica that he wanted to make into a feature film, all of his great movies were done in his post 40’s.
At age 40, you still have 25 years till most people retire, that’s a long time!
You really don’t ever have to retire.
Art isn’t like playing football, it’s not hard on your bones.
Zombies video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc
As You Mature, Your Art Matures
Greg Manchess was winning awards and competitions for years, and he came out to do a lecture, he had just done the cover for “Above the Timberline.“ Speaking of that painting he said, “10 years ago I could not have painted this” even though 10 years ago he was winning awards for the Society of Illustrators, etc.
If you really are serious about being an artist and creating the best art you are capable of creating, you have to make it a lifelong goal. It’s not a sprint.
You need a schedule for yourself. You need to have an actual goal, something to look forward to. Without it, nothing happens.
Don’t judge results by if you are right on target.
Say, you’re 35. 5 years will pass whether you like it or not. You’re gonna be 40 at some point. Wouldn’t you rather have done something interesting with those 5 years between 35 and 40, or and tried to do this thing? If time passes anyways, you might as well do it.
If you are starting later, you won’t be creating the same work that you would if you had started younger. You have had so many life experiences: losing jobs, family, work, etc.
Beauty of age, experience, which leads to more informed art.
If you’re older, you’ve figured out how to work and developed a good work ethic. You don’t quit until the job is done. Broader perspective, more interested in learning than instant gratification.
Gina Jane was a student going back to school. She turned in some of the best projects in the class, she had done a lot of graphic design stuff but hadn’t been drawing for a while. However, she had the work ethic, and she worked so hard at applying what she was being taught. She easily turned in some of the best pieces in the class.
You can accelerate your learning with your experiences. Older students are more okay learning something without instant gratification.
i.e. learning perspective, having a more broad perspective and being more willing to learn.
Battle Plan
For someone starting at, let’s say, 35-36..
Phase 1 or Year 1: Get good at it
Draw for 2 hours a day. Enroll in an online school, SVSlearn,
schoolism, CGMA.
Learn the Fundamentals: Perspective, Light and Shadow, Figure Drawing, Composition, Color, how to use Line/shape/tone
Fill 6-7 100 page sketchbooks, during your 2 hours a day. Work on hands, head, the figure, landscape, perspective, shading, this is your your sandbox for practicing and applying what you are learning.
Pick 5 of your favorite artist, do 20 copies from
each of these 5 artists.
Each copy, you will learn so much from
trying to deconstruct what these artists have done. You want to learn
how that artist did it. You’re gonna fail with some of them, but you
try and learn from the masters by copying their work.
Depending on what your goal is, it might change your approach.
Jon Klassen. Does a lot more simple graphic design type work.
http://jonklassen.tumblr.com/
Craig Mullins. Studied industrial design. He didn’t like the industrial design look. Then he went back
to school and did illustration. http://www.goodbrush.com/
Seek advice
from a professional: "these are my goals, what should I do?" Sometimes students want to become a children’s book illustrator but
don’t really know any illustrators.
During this first year, you need
to educate yourself on this field.
If it’s children’s books, every
week maybe read 5 a week.
If it’s comics, know what’s in comics, not
just 20 years ago, but what is happening now.
Fill your creative bank
account with what people in the industry are doing.
State your goal
publicly: and then share your progress on the social media platform.
That’s your Phase 1/ Year 1, it might take 2-3 years.
Phase 2: Build Your Portfolio
Draw 4 hours a day
Intermediate classes, these online schools, and svs have more advanced classes. More one on one with teachers.
4 sketchbooks this year, not studies, concept art for portfolio.
Illustrator: ideas for illustrations or childrens books
Comic artist: ideas for characters, your take on Wolverine, etc.
Complete the Draw 100 Somethings Challenge: boats, trees, flowers, gummy robots, dinosaurs, robots, etc. Teaches you to not be satisfied with first 2-3, or 20 designs. Teaches you that true creativity comes after you have drained all the low hanging fruit. Jake did 200. Just to prove that there is no end to the ideas you can do.
100 Somethings, Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxa01j9Ns7o
Continue Studying. If you’re aspiring to do childrens books- keep studying children’s books. concept artist or animator-reading every word in the “Art Of” books. Comics, keep studying comic books.
Social Media- post your 100 somethings. Post your sketchbook studies. Can start growing a following, cause you aren’t just practicing but sharing your own unique ideas and what you are bringing to this field you are entering.
Choose your heroes. Educate yourself on what you want to do. i.e. children’s books, comics, animation.
Post regularly, share your work, journal chart progress, share what you’re learning.
Keep Studying
Start to pay attention to stories. At the end of the day this is what will separate you. See what the story is about, not just the details, separate that.
Eventually everyone will be able to draw and paint, and story is what will separate you.
Ultimately, Star Wars is all about a family. It’s a family drama, that’s what it is about. Be able to see the broader view, what’s the story about, and how did they tell that story. You can really get some great insights to storytelling, story building, and how to tell your own stories.
You don’t want to just be a vapid artist who isn’t saying anything.
Key: Ultimately, it is your stories that you tell that will separate you from the others. Be observant of stories in your life and all around you. What the story is all about, what is the broader view? How did they tell the story. Look at it separate from the details.
They’re not saying anything, or they’re saying the same thing that has always been said.
Phase 3: Make a Product.
Reasons:
Teaches you to Start and Finish a project.An actual product, suggests a finality to the project. Not just a project. Finished not perfect.
Learn Marketing
Learn Production
Learn Salesmanship.
Learn who prints things, and how to get things printed.
Learn about how when things get screwed up how to fix it?
You’ll be more educated and understand what’s happening behind the scenes.
Year 3 is all about taking everything you are learning and create something with it.
Enter contests, put yourself out there, step up to the plate, try it, and get work out there. This is the best that I have got, this is what I have to share. Helps propel you to a new step. Do your best, and then move forward.
You need moments of finality and stair stepping, then you can ask, “Where to go next?”
Keep finishing things, then you go on to the next thing, and keep doing your best, then you can decide where to go next.
Don’t just keep a bunch of unfinished things in the drawer.
Ultimately, we want you to teach yourself how to finish and present something.
This will also help you flesh out a network. If you want to be successful, you need to build a network. People above, next to, and below you.You’d be surprised at what jobs and opportunities will come.
Someone above may like your work and throw you a bone.
Someone next to you may recommend you for a job.
Someone below you has opportunities too.
Start building that network by building things and putting them out into the world.
Get into the network/world that you hope to enter.
Project creates a connection with people in that world, starts a network.
Will used to have though that “If I look at other people’s work I would be copying.” Originality comes from taking and combining, and studying. Will wishes someone would have grabbed him and told him that. Keep feeding yourself.
All creativity is, is connecting dots. Connecting dots that other people wouldn’t haven’t thought to connect. In order to connect dots, you have to have dots in the first place if you’re not filling your brain, then you have no creative capital to work with, you have no thoughts.
How Can I do This?
You have 4 hours in a day. You work for 9-10 hours. You have 14 hours. Maybe you shave off an hour of sleep, maybe you stop watching a TV series.
It really comes down to what you want to sacrifice. You shouldn’t sacrifice family, or your job. But there are some things you need to sacrifice to go down this path.
Need to discuss this with your spouse or significant other. I.e. “This is something I feel really passionate about, let’s work out a plan, maybe Thursday Friday nights are spent doing this, and you get me Saturday and Sunday.”
Maybe it’s not 4 hours a day, and it’s 2. You can get a lot done in 2 hours. If you don’t prioritize it, it will never happen.
Come up with a schedule. Maybe it is Thursday or Saturday.
Early to Rise.
Jake gets up at 4am to work on Skyheart.
Lee wakes up at 5, works from 5:30-9:30 or 10AM.
During that grouping of hours, stuff happens.
You can get a ton of work done in that group of time.
Pursuit of Happiness. The main character would drink less water, so that he didn’t have to use the restroom as often and could therefore make more calls.
You’ve got to ask yourself, how bad do you want something? It comes down to that.
I really want to play the guitar, but I didn’t sacrifice for it, I didn’t prioritize it. I said that I really wanted to play the guitar, but if you don’t sacrifice and prioritize it, then you don’t really want it.
You can’t have good things without some sort of sacrifice or some sort of skin in the game.
Yuko Shimizu, http://yukoart.com/
She had a full time corporate job, and kept her job until eventually she hit the tipping point and she quit her corporate job, and now is an incredible illustrator.
Current Projects
Jake: Skyheart, 60 Pages left to color, it’s coming along well!
Lee: Working on illustrating some different subject matter.
Do rough sketches, then Find 3 key beats or difficult passages, and does an illustration of those passages, cause that will set tone for the rest of the book. Not just page 1, 2, etc. and does those pages and then it influences all the rest of the pages.
Will: Wrapping up Texture Painting class, Finished up the Alice in Wonderland series for Comic Con, and just finished a children’s book.
http://svslearn.com
Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
forum.svslearn.com
Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
Show notes by Tanner Garlick.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
MY ART IS GREAT, WHY WON’T ANYONE HIRE ME?
Will got a really long letter from an artist who felt that they had done everything they were supposed to, they felt that their work was great, and they were frustrated that they still weren’t getting work.
Jake and Will looked over this artist’s work and felt that the work was pretty good but not great. It was missing the style that fit the market that the artist wanted to go into. The style didn’t match the genre. You can’t do characters that look like they belong in World of Warcraft for a children's book.
Often, it’s not that you can’t draw or paint, but that you are missing the mark on where you need to go. Your style isn’t hitting the mark with what you want to go into. Your style needs to match the intended audience.
WORK ON YOUR CRAFT
Sometimes we feel that when we can render something nice, we have arrived, and we feel really good about ourselves. While that’s a great start, and an important step, this is really “fool’s gold.” There is a lot more to good illustration than just drawing well, and making things look 3-dimensional.
You never “arrive.” There is always an area to further grow or to better master.
Never convince yourself that there is nowhere else to grow.
There is a difference between drawing well, and creating a very engaging product.
The first step in getting professional work is to work on your craft, develop good drawing skills, good perspective, shadows, and light and color.
After mastering your craft, the second step is discretion. To not over render things, to not add too many highlights. You need to learn what to leave out. You need to learn what to illustrate and add. The artistry is figuring out what to put down, and what to leave out.
CONDUCT A SELF-AUDIT
You need a combination of a self audit, and a professional audit.
You need to conduct a Self-Audit, as outlined below:
You need go through this honestly, it will take some time.
See Bart Forbes.
When you have an image that you really like, really analyze it, and dissect it. Don’t just say, “I like this image” and then move on. Really dissect it and look for specific things that are working well for you. Ask yourself, “What am I responding to?”
COPY, COPY, COPY
Many people have the attitude of: “I don’t want to look at other people’s work because I want to be original, I don’t want to copy.”
There is a false idea about originality that says you shouldn’t look at others people’s work, or that you shouldn’t copy or take inspiration from them.
Jake still looks at others work for inspiration. All great artists do.
You really don’t need to make it as hard as you’re making it! You say it comes from within, but really it comes from without and you process it and make it your own thing. Find the right artists to look at and let them flow through you. There is no way you can perfectly copy all things all the time, at some point you’re gonna mix something with something else, and with a little bit of yourself and a little bit of this other person, and you’re gonna find your own style that fits into this world that you want to get into.
When you are at the level that you want to be at, then find the right people for your work. I.e. Landscape painters will find the right gallery, not a children’s book publisher.
Do you know anyone who is going through med school? What is their total work hours per week? Basically, if you are in med school and are doing well, you pretty much have zero life, and have tons of focus, attention to detail, etc. And if you do well in school, you pretty much have a good job waiting for you with a good salary.
Illustration is every bit as hard, to develop a unique style and a product to beat out other artists for jobs, and there is not a guaranteed job waiting for you. You should be treating it like you’re in med school.
You won’t get paid to learn and do research. You need to find the motivation within. No one will tell you everything you need to do. You need to make a schedule yourself and be self motivated.
After you develop the skills it becomes more and more about making an interesting image, something that people grab onto. Extra element of storytelling, interest. The idea behind it. Am I bringing something new to this subject matter, some new idea, some kind of unique viewpoint, or perspective?
See Chris Applehans.
ADD INTEREST TO YOUR LIFE
There is nothing interesting there? It may be because you aren’t an interesting person.
But you can become more interesting, you need to have a rich life outside of art. Art is just a way to express the interestingness that’s inherently inside of you.
If your work’s not interesting: go out and do something, talk to somebody, travel, go to the other side of town. You need to fill your creative bank account. You have gotta have creative capital. If you’re dry and empty, your just gonna have dry and empty work.
The lazy man doesn’t get too far, the perpetually busy man doesn’t get much farther.
Some people are just drawing, drawing, drawing, without much thought.
Stop, what kind of images am I making? Is there something better or more interesting that I should be creating. Don’t just draw and draw without any direction, you need to be more deliberate.
You can’t just exhale, you need to inhale.
To summarize: If you're not getting work:
You have to work towards getting your skin thick enough to beg for a really honest critique. A pat on the back is not a critique.
4 Step Process to Evaluate If You are Really Good
People naturally gravitate towards your work. People put up work, people naturally are drawn to it. Online, people naturally gather around it. Mom, or significant other doesn’t count.
People start seeing work and recommending you for something or to others.
You’re gonna start to win things: contests, scholarships, free classes, etc.
People will start paying you.
WHY SHOULD I COPY?
Top art schools have there students create master copies. It’s a proven exercise.
Steps:
Create a master copy, the more exact the better.
Then do a new original piece as if you were that artist. When you get stuck, look back at their work and try to figure out how they might solve the problem. What would ______ do?
Keep a copy sketchbook, this is a sketchbook that you can just throw away when your done. That’s it, don’t need to show it to anyone.
The most valuable thing from doing these master copies is what happens in your brain and your muscle memory. The most valuable thing is inside you.
When kids start to learn to play piano, the teachers don’t say, “Alright, just make a piece of music, just write whatever you want!” The kids start by playing other peoples music and learning to sight read other people music.
The same is with martial arts, and with sports. They teach you moves. They teach you what the greats before did.
STORY TIME
Jake was working on an illustration of Santa’s sleigh being pulled by a bunch of different animals. He got an honest critique from Skottie Young, and Skottie told him that it looked like the stock image version of what Jake was trying to do.
So Jake went to Pinterest and started looking up cartoon animals, made a Pinterest board with cartoon animals and saw, “oh this is how you would do a killer whale… oh this is how you would do a llama… I wouldn’t have thought to do that..” Then took a little bit of this guy, and then took a little bit of what they did in this drawing, etc, and mashed it together and made it his own. But really it was from absorbing from all of those different artists.
There are pinnacle and milestone pieces where you have breakthroughs. Eventually you get to where you can focus a lot more on the creative and imaginative side of things because you don’t have to worry so much about how to actually create it.
Eventually you’ll get to where you don’t have so much hurt from something not working out. You need to learn to not take it personally, or take an emotional hit; to be able to I don’t mind looking at something and saying, “Ahh, that’s not working out” and then you go back without taking an emotional hit, and say, “you know I can make this better.”
Sometimes you will ask, “Why am I not impressed with what I just did? If you yourself aren’t kind of impressed, then no one else will be. You should be stoked, not trying to convince yourself, “uh, it’s good, it’s good..”
There are times where Jake has worked on a piece for a few hours and then had to scrap it because it just wasn’t up to par.
You need to get to the point where if your dog chewed up your piece, that you don’t mind because you know you can create it again or maybe even do something better.
A WORD TO THE PROS
If there is a professional illustrator out there, or close to professional who has great work and you are saying, “I’ve done this guys.” Then maybe your problem isn’t your craft, but your network. If you don’t know people in the field you want to go in, then you need to find mentors, get your work out there online, and up your game.
Current Projects (What are you working on?):
Jake: Skyheart, finishing things up there.
Will: Reading Book, about a bunny that out foxes a wolf. About to start the sequel to Bonnepart Falls Apart.
Lee: Writing a children’s book about natural disasters, and just came up with a dummy, and is learning a lot.
Important Links:
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Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd.
Show notes by Tanner Garlick.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
Welcome to the 3 Point Perspective podcast. This is the podcast about illustration; how to do it, how to make a living at it, and how to make an impact in the world with your art.
Your hosts are Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White. For the last 25 years, they've all worked with just about every major publisher and every publication in the biz. They've collectively published about 50 books, and have all taught at universities.
Each week, they're going to tackle a subject related to illustration from their three different perspectives. Sometimes they'll agree, sometimes they're gonna argue, but you are gonna learn something new every time.
Here are some of the questions that will be discussed:
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We would also love any sort of feedback you have. Did you like how the topic was presented? What's your perspective on the topics? What are things that you wanna learn about? What are questions that you have about illustration?
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Jake, Terry, Lee
Visit SVSLearn.com to learn more, or subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts.
3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!
Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.