Commercial Art 101 – Things To Consider

So - you’ve decided you’d like to become a commercial artist!

What you’ve actually decided is that your artwork is good enough to make money from. Fair enough, but there are some things you should consider.

To begin with, where did you get this whole affirmation of your talent?  This is worth asking yourself, because there’s an extensive list of significant others whose opinions mean almost nothing. As a matter of fact, the more significant they are, the less their opinion is likely to matter!

Some of the saddest - and most frequently - posted forum comments are statements like “All my friends say I’m really good!”

And sadder still, “My mother says…” Unless you know with certainty that your mother does not love you, you can safely dismiss any critique of hers regarding your artwork.

Other opinions of questionable value:

Your wife or husband, your kids, your relatives, your friends, your co-workers. Basically anyone who loves you, likes you or - at the very least - does not want to hurt your feelings.

Now here’s the thing. They may be right! You may actually be pretty good. Your work may be great! But because of the connection these people have with you, their opinions may be suspect.  There is an old saying: “Never ask the butcher if his meat is fresh.  Confirm his claims elsewhere!”

Ideally what you’d like are critiques from people who scarcely know you at all - and preferably with some artistic talent, or an eye for it. The Internet has made it a lot easier to obtain critiques these days, than in the past, and I’ll discuss Internet forums a little later.  Briefly, however: If you post your work on an Internet forum and receive a lot of positive feedback from people you don’t know, that’s good. If you receive a lot of negative feedback from people you don’t know, that’s not great, but it is useful. If you receive no feedback at all, that’s bad.

The truth is you don’t really need anyone’s approval to pursue a career in art. The only person who must absolutely believe in you - is you. You need to be a little careful in that regard though, lest you become an example of the second greatest tragedy in all the world (related to me by my father).  And what is this second greatest tragedy?

People who think they have talent…but do not.

Why is that a tragedy? Because they spend their lives pursuing something they will never achieve. They are playing a game they can only lose.

Let’s assume this is not your case. Let’s assume you actually have some talent (we’ll talk about talent later). How do we turn this into cash?

We Network.

Why?

Here’s another old saying (I like old sayings):  “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”  Well, it’s not even that. It’s “Who knows you!” Until you start networking the answer is Nobody. 

I actually have a saying of my own that I came up with some time ago. 

It goes like this. (drum roll please!)

Do the MIN to get the max

MIN does not stand for minimum. It’s an acronym, not an abbreviation. MIN stands for

M – Manage

I – Improve

N – Network

I’ll go through this in greater detail later, but my bottom line: I felt that if I wanted to grow my business, I would have to be doing these things continuously.  The operative word – continuously!

You may be thinking that you’d really rather get a job for now, and think about starting your own business a little later once you have some more experience under your belt. Join the club.  It’s not that it’s a bad idea; it’s just that jobs for commercial artists are not as plentiful as you might be hoping. 

Here’s a “Fun Fact” for you:

Every single commercial artist I know personally - and I know quite a few - is self-employed; and that means freelance!  Every single one! 

The reality is that most companies that use art don’t have enough work to justify employing an artist full time.

Of course there are companies like Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, and others that are in the business of creating artwork; and while a company like Disney may have many artists on its payroll, what it typically doesn’t have are a lot of openings. Everybody wants to work for Disney! Disney has a lot of money. They can hire anybody they want, and they want the very best!

Don’t get me wrong. If that’s ultimately what you want to do, then by all means apply to those companies. Just know that they pick from the best of the best, and if you’re not quite there yet, you may want to supplement your income in other ways while you’re waiting for your big break.

In my next post, I’ll provide more detail and depth on some of the points raised here.

Oh, and the greatest tragedy in the world?

The person who actually has talent - but does nothing with it.

Why is that a tragedy? Because then we all lose.

Curt