Poll: Pick Your Favorite Faerie or Foes
Please can you and your friends all vote for the Angel Fairy, she's number 24.
Pleeeeease! :)
Friday, 21 January 2011
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Prefer Another Style
If I got money every time someone told me they prefered another style I could make quite a lucrative living out of it. I've even started ammassing a collection of emails in case that day ever comes when I'll get paid for the backlog.
It annoys me so much every time I get it too, got one this morning if you hadn't figured it out. Didn't just suddenly wake up and think hey now it bugs me. No, I had a message from one of the many creative freelancing type websites I'm a member of, it was actually the potential client's second response. Their first response yesterday was that they were rejecting my offer of work because my bid was too high, so I knocked a few quid off it in the hopes of landing the job anyway and lo...today I get a message telling me they're rejecting my new bid because, they prefer another style.
If they had just stuck to their guns and said it was too high, it wouldn't have bothered me so much. I could have just thought, well they're pushing it if they think I'm going to reduce my costs any lower some other schmuck can work for nothing if they want to. It wouldn't have bothered me. But it's the fact that they "prefer another style" that really sticks in my craw, don't they realise that I work in a variety of styles? There's only room on the website to attach one image to your bid to give the potential client's a flavour of your work, out of all the images in my portfolio I have to pick something relevant to the task at hand. He was looking for someone to design a fun, friendly map so I sent him an attachment of a map I'd already done. Granted, the map I sent him was more "Treasure Island" than "Magic Kingdom" but I thought, at least he can see I've done maps before, obviously I can make them more or less realistic depending on the needs of the client. It's not like you ask me to do something new and I'll fall onto the floor twitching and frothing at the mouth or anything?
I have a range of styles for goodness sakes, a range of styles. I can do things realistically, cartoony, delicately, boldly, graphically or paintedly...my style changes to suit the needs of the client so why do they all seem to think that if I haven't already created exactly what it is they're looking for, it's something I will be unable to do. Are they that narrow minded? Do they really believe I'm lacking in any brain or talent whatsoever that I can't follow a brief?
Infuriating it really is. I know, I KNOW, I could do the project he's asking for, I could do it really well. But because I haven't already done it, it would seem, I'm not the style he prefers.
*long drawn out sigh*
Back to the drawing board.
It annoys me so much every time I get it too, got one this morning if you hadn't figured it out. Didn't just suddenly wake up and think hey now it bugs me. No, I had a message from one of the many creative freelancing type websites I'm a member of, it was actually the potential client's second response. Their first response yesterday was that they were rejecting my offer of work because my bid was too high, so I knocked a few quid off it in the hopes of landing the job anyway and lo...today I get a message telling me they're rejecting my new bid because, they prefer another style.
If they had just stuck to their guns and said it was too high, it wouldn't have bothered me so much. I could have just thought, well they're pushing it if they think I'm going to reduce my costs any lower some other schmuck can work for nothing if they want to. It wouldn't have bothered me. But it's the fact that they "prefer another style" that really sticks in my craw, don't they realise that I work in a variety of styles? There's only room on the website to attach one image to your bid to give the potential client's a flavour of your work, out of all the images in my portfolio I have to pick something relevant to the task at hand. He was looking for someone to design a fun, friendly map so I sent him an attachment of a map I'd already done. Granted, the map I sent him was more "Treasure Island" than "Magic Kingdom" but I thought, at least he can see I've done maps before, obviously I can make them more or less realistic depending on the needs of the client. It's not like you ask me to do something new and I'll fall onto the floor twitching and frothing at the mouth or anything?
I have a range of styles for goodness sakes, a range of styles. I can do things realistically, cartoony, delicately, boldly, graphically or paintedly...my style changes to suit the needs of the client so why do they all seem to think that if I haven't already created exactly what it is they're looking for, it's something I will be unable to do. Are they that narrow minded? Do they really believe I'm lacking in any brain or talent whatsoever that I can't follow a brief?
Infuriating it really is. I know, I KNOW, I could do the project he's asking for, I could do it really well. But because I haven't already done it, it would seem, I'm not the style he prefers.
*long drawn out sigh*
Back to the drawing board.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Always on the go...
I've been really busy recently, working part time in a job which is fun, plus I'm doing a lot of illustrations in my free time. No surprises there. Working on a new series of images at the moment, it's all very hush hush but I'm planning on putting a whole heck of a lot of effort into this, the plan is to seriously market these images on calenders, notepads, coasters that kind of thing and see what happens. Fingers definitely crossed.
I've also been given a commission to do which has me head over heels with happy if everything goes ahead without a hitch. Although I have learned by now not to count my chickens before they hatch, the best laid plans have an alarming tendency to go horribly wrong at every turn so, I'm not holding my breath on the commission until money has changed hands and I'm definitely hired. Everything up to that point is just idle promises really isn't it, no matter how friendly they sound. I'm really hoping I'm not going to be let down, really hoping.
If you've got any tips, tricks, feedback or leads I can follow for illustration opportunities then please let me know, I'm trying out every angle I can attempt. I've got the dream and I believe I've got the drive, so hopefully the combination will mean that my ultimate goal of working five or six days a week designing illustrations for people will be achieved in the not too distant future.
Watch this space, as they say.
I've also been given a commission to do which has me head over heels with happy if everything goes ahead without a hitch. Although I have learned by now not to count my chickens before they hatch, the best laid plans have an alarming tendency to go horribly wrong at every turn so, I'm not holding my breath on the commission until money has changed hands and I'm definitely hired. Everything up to that point is just idle promises really isn't it, no matter how friendly they sound. I'm really hoping I'm not going to be let down, really hoping.
If you've got any tips, tricks, feedback or leads I can follow for illustration opportunities then please let me know, I'm trying out every angle I can attempt. I've got the dream and I believe I've got the drive, so hopefully the combination will mean that my ultimate goal of working five or six days a week designing illustrations for people will be achieved in the not too distant future.
Watch this space, as they say.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Branching Out
Decided to try and broaden myself, do some painting for a while. Usually my work is hand drawn and then computer coloured but the last week or so I've been sketching and painting in acrylics. I don't usually paint, it doesn't have the lovely bonus of an "undo" button, you've got to go with the mistakes you make. So far though, seem to be going alright, no major mishaps and the finished results aren't half bad. I'm posting them up onto my website and as and when they're finished and dry, I've fallen a little behind actually, I've only posted up two out of the the four I've done so far.
I'm also working on the illustrations for a fantasy novel that's in the works, it's aimed at a twelve to fifteen age range and it's about magic, adventure, that sort of thing. Lots of illustration opportunities, always fun. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I wasn't drawing, I think it's one of those addictions that you never have to feel oblidged to get rid of. Maybe as a new year's resoloution I should endevour to draw even more than I do now...although that would really be quite hard as at the moment I tend to be doodling away for anywhere up to fourteen hours a day.
I know what I'd really like to happen this year, well, aside of course from surviving the hike in VAT which is really unsettling, and aside from not catching the dreaded flu which is actually sweeping round and causing people to die, and aside from the wish that I always have enough money to pay bills and buy some food...
As long as all those things are covered then what I'd like to happen this year is to really start to make some money doing what I love to do, art. I'd love to sell my art. Either as illustrations or framing on the wall type pieces. Of course I know you can't just sit on your backside and wait for something good to happen, you have to go out there and make your own luck, I just need to figure out where "there" is and the best way of getting to it...
Hum...
I'm also working on the illustrations for a fantasy novel that's in the works, it's aimed at a twelve to fifteen age range and it's about magic, adventure, that sort of thing. Lots of illustration opportunities, always fun. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I wasn't drawing, I think it's one of those addictions that you never have to feel oblidged to get rid of. Maybe as a new year's resoloution I should endevour to draw even more than I do now...although that would really be quite hard as at the moment I tend to be doodling away for anywhere up to fourteen hours a day.
I know what I'd really like to happen this year, well, aside of course from surviving the hike in VAT which is really unsettling, and aside from not catching the dreaded flu which is actually sweeping round and causing people to die, and aside from the wish that I always have enough money to pay bills and buy some food...
As long as all those things are covered then what I'd like to happen this year is to really start to make some money doing what I love to do, art. I'd love to sell my art. Either as illustrations or framing on the wall type pieces. Of course I know you can't just sit on your backside and wait for something good to happen, you have to go out there and make your own luck, I just need to figure out where "there" is and the best way of getting to it...
Hum...
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