12 tips for New Illustrators and Art Students Part 3
Artist Paul Mann hard at work in his studio.
-1 Things I’ve Done as an Artist
Getting What You Want as an Artist
There are people out there who ask me ‘Other than being a big mouth and starting a YouTube channel what have you done?’ (And if there aren’t there should be, because it’s a valid question)
I started Folio Academy with my good friend Wayne Andreason, where we sell video tutorials. I have made 3 e-books, (see here, here and here) which have sold over 50,000 copies on amazon and Barns & Noble.
A story app called “I Eat You” for iPad and iPhone.
The school of visual storytelling. With Jake Parker, where we teach live online classes.
Now I am working on an app called Gary’s Place, about a gopher who lives beyond his means. I am working very hard on that right now. (Fall 2013) I even have my son Aaron learning how to program and animate for that. Yes I’ll pay him for his work.
These are things I’ve picked myself, and I’ve decide that I will try, and if it fails then so what? I can move on to something else.
Now as for helping you, I want to tell you.
2- ‘Wealth is created in your spare time.’
Think about that a little bit, and my follow up is, I want you to ask yourself what you think you need.
If you could look into the future and see yourself after you’ve finished an amazing project. That is having great commercial success. And aside from all the money you’re making, and the conferences you’ve been asked to speak at, and the recognition and awards.
Now after seeing all that, if you could see what it took to get there,
Would you give up some of your Friday and Saturday nights to work on your art?
Would you live in a smaller apartment or house so you could work less at a job, and work more on your art?
Would you go for a cheaper cell phone, and save money to apply towards your art projects?
Would you spend less time watching TV and movies for your art, and I mean a Lot less time?
Would you play fewer or no video games for your art?
And if you are not willing to give up those things then I want you to say this and see how it sounds and feels coming out.
“I would rather hang out with my friends, spend this money, hang out with friends, watch TV, and play video games than have my dreams come true about becoming a (state your dream here)”
I see a lot of my students wasting time, and I’ll come clean I used to be addicted to Star Craft. I lost two years of my life to that stupid game. I have come to the point that if a game is really good, I can’t play it, because I don’t have the time for it.
You need to be able to fall in love with your art and creating your art. Not the things that will keep you away from it.
3- Make Great Art
The first step, as author Neil Gaiman said is ‘Make great art.’
That’s the first step, but it’s not the only step and it’s not an easy step. It takes a lot of practicing, and work, a lot of NOT surfing on the internet. A lot of just sitting down, drawing and painting and working on your craft.
If you’re starting out right now, you may not be making great art. Nobody starts out great. The idea of child prodigies in art is a debunked myth. An artist like Mozart who has had movies made about him, and books and is really well known was virtually unknown for the first ten years of his career.
Next step is…
4- Create Every Day
Create every day.
Every single day create something, even if for just fifteen minutes. Take a sketch book everywhere. If you use an iPad carry it like it’s connected to you. Carry it EVERYWHERE and NEVER leave home without it. When your sitting at the tire shop, sketch the tires if you can’t think of anything to draw.
5- Consume great art
You can’t make it if you don’t know what it is.
When I was a kid I remember thinking that ‘if I was looking at other people’s great art then be copying.’ Who wants to be a copycat? You do! YOU SHOULD COPY. I didn’t want to look at other people because I wanted to be original, and I was 180 degrees from where I wanted to be.
You can’t make it if you don’t know what it is. If you go to New York Academy of Art, and a lot of other art schools, they make you copy. Copying will make you better.
There is skill to be learned, yes. But if you want to be original you have to find your own spark, but you need to be inspired. All of those masters from the past, their originality will help inspire you towards your own.
6- Create Quality
Learn from your mistakes, Create Better Quality, Learn some more, and continually improve.
You will make a piece that will be better than anything you’ve done before. And you’ll amaze yourself, and for a while that will be your best, but all of your work will have slowly improved, and after a while you will amaze yourself again, and that is how constant effort and improvement work.
Never settle for the level that you are currently at.
Only when you are sick and tired of what you used to do, will you be able to improve. When you are completely satisfied with what you do you will stop improving. I mean enjoy what you’re doing, but don’t stop improving. You can’t be afraid to make mistakes. We LEARN from our mistakes. If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t pushing yourself, and there for you aren’t growing.
7- One step at a time
If you are working on a big project, it can be overwhelming.
Don’t look at the whole project, find what you need to do on just that day, and do it. Just find what you need to do every day. That is how the biggest projects are finished, a little at a time.
You can accomplish amazing things when you set out to do a little something every day.
Well, that step was a lot shorter than the others so let me make it longer by asking, how do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time. Okay on to the next step.
8- Surround yourself with positive people
Blessed are the nay sayers, for they shall destroy your dreams.
People will always be willing to tell you that you can’t do something, that something is impossible. That nobody can do that, or that you can’t make money doing it.
So many people will project their fears, or are afraid that you can succeed where they haven’t, or something they haven’t tried. Some people are content talking about how the only option is failure, rather than to try something on their own.
You can’t hang around people like that. It’s hard enough to handle your own negative voices.
Surround yourself with positive people. And scrub your own negative language.
9- Partner up with talented people.
When your talent level gets high enough, and it doesn’t have to be super high.
Try to partner with other talented people. Because talent begets talent, energy begets energy, and integrity begets integrity.
You may not be able to satisfy all the disciplines it’s going to take needed to finish the biggest. Like drawing, writing, programming. You may be able to do a bunch of them, but maybe not all.
Right now I am partnering with Rick Walton, on my story app, he wrote an amazing story. He wouldn’t partner with me if I didn’t bring something to the table, and vice versa. Again getting a worthwhile partner goes back to ‘Make Great Art’, make great art and they will be found.
Other people are going to be around you. Other people are going to want to have what you have. Other people willing to work hard for their art.
10- How can I afford this?
A lot of you are probably thinking ‘I can’t afford this?’
How can I jump into a project that probably won’t make any money?
My advice is going to sound cynical. Figure it out.
Being a Starving Artist is a cliché for a reason. Find the time, and find the recourses and do it. Prepare for the big projects when you need to. You can’t be afraid to make great art.
There are fewer books being produced now then there were five or ten years ago. With more Illustrators and fewer jobs, people worry about finding a job. People wonder ‘How do I get my big start?’
If you’re an artist, be an artist. And be an artist in your spare time.
11- Be an artist in your spare time
A friend of mine, a very talented guy, had a few questions about pursuing his career. And he asked me.
“Will, should I quit my job at Home Depot, and get a Graphic Design job?”
So I asked him. “Do you like your job at Home Depot?”
“Yes, I love it there”
“When you get home from work do you like to work on your art?” I followed up.
“Yeah, I can’t wait.”
“If you became a graphic designer would you say that?”
“No.”
“Then don’t do it.”
Many people see being a graphic designer as a foot in the door to illustration. You won’t become an illustrator, you’ll become a Graphic Designer. And a lot of your creativity is going to be used up at work.
He stayed at Home Depo. He got a promotions, he’s making great money. And he has the time to work on his art.
Some people have hobbies; they can’t wait for the weekend. Maybe it’s soft ball, fishing, skiing, or something. Make art your hobby. Make it the most important thing you do when you’re not at work. Make interesting amazing projects, one after another.
And you might even be surprised how people see you, because it will have your passion, because you’re going to have your passion, your vision. And not waste your creativity on some crappy project your employer is having you finish.
12- You are going to find opposition.
You are going to find people who are stuck in the old ways, and how they were. There are a lot of people that have been picked, that don’t want you to succeed especially in the back door route, a way they don’t fully understand.
A lot of people in publishing will tell you ‘That’ll never work, that won’t make any money, that’s the wrong way. The right way is to work through us.”
That is one right way. Publishing is an amazing amplifier. It’s still a very viable way to go. Working with a publisher, an agent, a rep can be amazing for people who were picked.
Zack Bretts, is doing amazing. (His book, Too Much Glue) He is brand new out of school, and he’s doing fine the traditional way.
Right now there are so many right ways, and fewer and fewer wrong ways. I had a woman who commented on a How to Illustrate Children’s Books video course. (available at folioacademy)
She said (and I’m going to quote)
‘Children’s books editors much prefer that writers do not illustrate books they submit, unless he/she is a highly gifted illustrator like Eric Carle and Maurice Sendak.’
Well gee, how did Eric Carl, and Maurice Sendak become so ‘Highly gifted, and such great illustrators? They practiced, they worked at it. A teacher can’t make you a great artist, you have to find that on your own.
That woman is someone who is stuck in the old ways.
“You need to not do that because you’re not good at that.”
“You need to be good at something before you can start.” Or “It’s only for the gifted people, the Highly gifted people.”
I am here to say, that it has nothing to do with being gifted, it has everything to do with hard work, consistency and taking chances.
William Joyce (the guy who did Roly Poly Oly, and a few other things you may have seen)
“If you really love to write and you really love to tell stories and you really love to draw, you just have to keep doing it no matter what anybody says”
I would tell you this, If you don’t follow through with your dreams, in five, ten, fifteen years you’re going to look at other artist who did it, who probably weren’t even as good as you are. You might think. I could’ve done that. And you know what? You’d be right.
Thanks