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alexiuss — F-ING BEE. HOW TO BE A FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR
Published: 2012-02-06 08:45:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 55912; Favourites: 2096; Downloads: 496
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A TUTORIAL OF INTEREST PER FAN REQUESTS!"HOW TO BE A FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR?"
Step 1: CREATE AND POST!
So you has drawing talents?
Don't be scared to post work on deviantart and other websites such as conceptart.org or cghub
Post as much art as possible. Draw 10 hours everyday.
Post an artwork daily or once per week minimum if the art is really detailed.
Forget all other jobs if you want to freelance. It takes incredible amounts of time, dedication and a massive portfolio to be a freelancer.
You will need at least 1-2 years for just drawing and posting. Nothing but drawing. I don't care how, but it must be done. Draw and post work.... everyday... for a few years to get your work known!
Stuck in an art block? Don't know what to draw?
Want to get really motivated by your own watchers from DA?
Start a livestream session and have fun drawing whatever silliness your friends ask of you! It's great practice!
Get some energetic music to go with it!
Want to promote your work nicely on DA?
A collaboration is the best kind of feature on deviantart and they're not hard to get unlike daily deviations!
Ask well known deviants if they would like to collaborate with you!
Their features will give you hundreds to thousands of new watchers, depending on how famous a deviant-artist is.
If they feature your painting, it will get 10'000-100'000 views! That's better than any art gallery in the real world!
For example - want to collaborate with me? Send me a note!
Also, submit your work to groups. Groups is a great way to get watchers.
NEVER, EVER UNDERVALUE YOUR WORK!
CHARGE 100 TIMES WHAT YOU THINK IT'S ACTUALLY WORTH!
Once you start charging 20 dollars for an artwork you will be in a spiral to client hell, where clients give a pittance and expect a masterpiece and then direct similar ass-hat clients your way that propagate the same horribleness that makes value of your art worth very little, providing nothing but shame.
Instead of wasting time arguing with clients/working for a pittance do collaborations with other artists and expand your portfolio as much as possible!
Don't waste time on "ART PROGRAMS in universities". Very often, they will teach you almost nothing and put you in hideous debts, especially if there are a lot of "liberal studies" involved in the course.
Look into colleges or private lessons instead, of you have money to spend and need motivation.
Instead of wasting $50'000+ dollars on a degree, live with your parents and draw non stop everyday, trying new styles, creating new paintings, collaborating with new artists. Make friends on da- as many friends as possible. Learn techniques from experienced deviants!
STUDYING ONLINE IS EASY! Browse AND TRY OUT ALL TUTORIALS: [link]
HOW MUCH TO CHARGE CLIENTS FOR ARTWORK?
Here's an archive page for association of illustrators:
[link]
[link]
Generally you should charge around $250 to $10'000 dollars per artwork. If you're charging less, you're severely undervaluing yourself and bringing down the art market.
The lower range of $250 should be charged for small, easy commissions like personal portraits, simple interior illustrations.
The higher range should be charged for big companies that plan to do something with the work - print/distribute it worldwide, or want to get full exclusive rights for the work, or want "work for hire" (basically they won't credit you), etc. If a corporation makes money off your drawing skills, charge them well for it! Corporations can afford to pay lots, if you know how much your work is REALLY worth to them.
I state this again- it is better to draw personal paintings or collabs than to work for a pittance for companies!
You can sell personal or collab paintings as prints FOREVER and no client will ever tell you what you can/cannot with your OWN work.
A nice personal painting can make you $10'000 dollars in your lifetime if you sell prints of it successfully online!
Found this tutorial of interest useful or enjoyable?
+fav it to spread the word!
WANT ME TO ADD SOMETHING ELSE TO THIS TUTORIAL?
ASK QUESTIONS IN DEVIATION DESCRIPTION BELOW!
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Comments: 312
link me to whatever you've had taken down, host it on imageshack or something.
I know all of DA's rules, I might be able to explain why.
If not, then it deserves an article from me.
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i remember back in college i was asked to do 100 drawings in an hour - actually found that quite easy - especially when its life drawing
So you say we should draw 10 hours a day..... i could do 1000 drawings.....dear god
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The first step is the hardest xD Really helpful! : )
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watch out for the first step! it's a dozy! x'D
I agree tho, it's really good advice
I don't draw nearly enough tho >_<;;
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dunnou I get asking 250$ for something like full scenario with paint in 300 resolution in 5000x5000 pixels...
but something like over 30$ for meager conceptual art or sketch? or for someone who wants a head shot and body shot with flat colors of their OC?
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This.....this is a joke....right D; ?
'Instead of wasting $50'000+ dollars on a degree, live with your parents and draw non stop everyday'
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well know artists just Jason Engle or Adonihs never wasted time on art university programs.
when it comes to freelancing degrees are utterly useless.
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but....won't people want to hire you more for work if you have a decent portfolio, which uni can help you make and create and give you job placements, help, techniques and the skill you need to work in the real world?
don't get me wrong i'm sure people can self train, but i don't think saying that living with your mum and dad like a basement dweller and just drawing all the time is...you know...the best of plans for a life.
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only a really good, rare type of college program would provide job placements.
There's some programs that provide internship, but those internships are lies and scams where the intern doesn't get to draw anything and just serves coffe to the real designers.
The universities I've been in don't provide crap when it comes to job placement and the techniques they teach are a)out of style, old and b)creating cookie-cutter designers instead of unique style-creators.
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It must be different over here in England then since most if not all universities offer at least the chance of job placement for atleast a year and in most cases people then go on to stay with the job after leaving education, I guess it depends where you live and your past experiences.
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England is amazing I agree. Everything is better in england from restaurants to education.
I visit there twice a year.
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The british are unable to cook worth a damn dude
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canadian/usa food is less tasty from my experience.
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Haha i woulden't say its better, though i don't know where you live so i can't compare, but i guess maybe our schooling for art related degree's is just run in another way.
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But it's abit scary for us little lesser known guppies asking a huge barracuda to do a collab, fear of rejection my friend. For who would want to waste time with lesser known artists? :I
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I have to agree with this.
If I wanted to do a collab with someone well-known, chances are the note gets lost in the dozens of other notes.
Not that I have the time anyways, since university eats all spare time. OTL"
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:I i know bro, it hurts doesnt it
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year, but at least, we 'smaller' artist have each other, bro
I've seen quite a lot of non-famous artists with great potential, you just gotta believe in it and do your best, that's what I keep telling my self every day ^^
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the big problem is make your art stands out another one.. Because, mainly in photomanipulation, they are all equal.. and majority is garbage.. so your work lose value because other people make garbage for free..
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good publishers can recognize garbage from not garbage. They're not total boobs to pay good money for good manipulations - ads in magazines always require photo-manipulators.
Just throw your work at as many publishers as possible and one is bound to start commissioning.
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so, did you start as manipulator?
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no, I started as traditional painter - I sold oil paintings in art galleries.
But I got bored with it and now I combine photography with Photoshop brushwork.
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Definitely some good advice here
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But....Is it alright to take art programs in community college?
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yes, because generally community colleges aren't overpriced like university programs which can put students into 50000 dollar debts.
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I'm actually a freelance writer myself. The reason I don't normally do collabs is because I detest the idea of compromising my ideas, but I see how this can be useful
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Will re-read description when less tired. Excellent advice!
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Thank you, Alexiuss. I'll try to pay a heed to it. Although it's difficult to be that active in posting, not because of time, but because rendering takes that long. But I guess, it just means to be more patient to gain some success.
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how do Collabs work? I don't understand it really.. ._.
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A collaboration is anything where two artists work together on one piece. Generally this involves one person doing a lineart, and another person colouring, but not always. Sometimes one artist will do the background, and another will do the figure/figures. Or each artist does a different figure. And so on.
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D'aww thank you so much for the help! I was wondering... I'm german and couldn't do anything with that word. Thaaank yooou <3
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Hah... having gone through an "Art Program in [a] university" myself I can safely say this is true. I don't feel like I learned anything I couldn't have learned on my own just as well, if not better. In some ways I think I would have done better if I never went to school for art. Go figure.
This was very useful, thank you! xD
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This is going to be very useful for me in the future. Just gotta feel motivated again <<
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Thanks for the advice! A great motivator for action! If a person persistently goes to the goal - all turns out. I'll think about this tutorial often. Perhaps something will turn out.
You are my favorite artist, and an example to follow.
With love from Russia)))
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Now I have proof that you are a good person!
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People constantly under value their work on dA, this website is actually famous for young, cheap artists.
The selling of exclusive rights is important. If you give away copyright and reproduction rights, don't give it away for cheap. The larger the distribution, the higher the price (i.e. charge more if the art will be seen internationally than just in your town/city). International exclusive rights get into the tens of thousands. 
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Well, thats useful, but since I barely had drawing in my life but who knows, it might work.
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sure, send me a note about it if really interested
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hahaha this is quite useful as i'm about to become a freelance artist in the nearby future, just sounds like it takes so long to actually get any recognition or- more importantly, MONEY!!!!!
ah well better then doing nout i spose
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250 dollars?!... 10 000 dollars?!?!?! 
Also I wouldn't underestimate art schools. I've had my own education and although I thought it was useless I see the worth of it now. I'm many steps ahead of those who are trying to train themselves. In school you have time to practice, you are forced to practice, you have people to watch and learn from and you have teachers to teach you. You can develop your perception and train with living models. Many make the mistake not ever to work after real life and they cannot really see through how 3D space and real light sources function, and this is a HUGE deficiency.
There are people who cannot advance after a certain level on their own, and they need art school. Sure, you won't always do what you want, but you'll get to know new techniques and try yourself at things you normally wouldn't. I totally miss my classes, they were really challenging
The only thing is you have to do it right in your head: don't think you'll learn everything there. They'll teach you anatomy, perspective, drawing and painting techniques, history of art etc. but most of it would be taught through a classical art approach. They won't teach you how to be creative or how to be famous, modern or popular, or how to earn money. If you're lucky enough maybe you'll have access to connections but that's it. Everything else depends on you. They'll give you a base that you can build your own art on. Inspiration and creativity cannot be thaught, this comes from the inside. If you're lucky enough to have such a force in you, it will take you the rest of the way.
At least that's my insight, don't know if it works differently elsewhere
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"They won't teach you how to be creative or how to be famous, modern or popular"
That's something whiting yourself.
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I'm not familiar with this expression... in other words?
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