/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>5166891
>>5166881
I've done editorial illustration since 2015. I got my first job the same way I've gotten all my major freelance illustration gigs:
1. Put together a curated, cohesive portfolio of your best work on a real portfolio site (wix, Squarespace, Wordpress, custom built, etc.)
2. Identify the business/publication/etc that you want to work for or get published with
3. Look up the contact info of the art/creative director (usually on their website)
4. Contact them to pitch your illustrations and to be considered for future projects
5. Rinse and repeat forever.

Social media is largely unnecessary. It is a passive approach to self promotion and should be supplementary to your more proactive marketing efforts. You do not need a large social media following to work freelance.

>>5125815
>What are your art goals for this year?
Earn $55,0000 for the year, update my IG twice a week, continuing to learn After Effects, land more illustration and motion graphics jobs, invest savings
>What are your plans for making it happen?
Create a backlog of fast but appealing drawings I can share on IG when I don't have much else to share.
Keep on doing my paid AE courses, finish them by the end of March
Finish new motion personal works with newfound skills for updated portfolio - also by the end of March.
Recreate old (but popular) illustrations in newer style, update portfolio again
Reach out to old & new clients (5 a week), pitch illustration (and/or mograph stuff), take on better paying freelance projects

>>5116668
me too. im also gay. pic related is me btw

>>5054840
Ha! You guys play ELECTRIC GUITARS??? I only play classical guitars!

>>5027845
>>5028691
>>5028689
>muh DiGiTaL pAinTinGs
>muh SexXy GiRLs
Lame. Ruan Jia is a creatively bankrupt hack.

>/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>5003106
Below-average characters on a flat, empty background, repeated as nauseum. For 35 years old, you should be better and more ambitious than this.

>>5003329
Same issue - bland drawings with no appeal.

>>5003724
What is this shit? You're a literal hack.

>>5004442
Very amateurish when you start rendering and coloring.

>>5004655
Nothing to say to someone who's not taking it seriously.

>>5006264
>doesn't create a click-able link
No one is going to go through the effort of googling you to check out your awful garbage

>>5010288
Your solid skills are wasted on awkward and generic pin-ups

>>5010447
Low-effort and super wonky.

>>5010464
Some imaginative ideas ruined by a bad technique and a god awful control of the medium. Stop being so careless and stop smudging your work so much.

>>5010720
Consistent, complete and overall pretty good.

>>5012120
Imaginative ideas ruined by poor linework. In the mushroom guys post, there is a red mushroom with less linework that looks so much better than everything else you do. Consider doing more stuff like this.

>>5012230
Pretty lame, generic 'trippy' art.

>>5012314
I don't know what to make of this. Do you consider these comics? The text is bizarre. It'd be a lot better if you hand-drawing the type, and not using the most basic, generic typefaces in the world.

>>5012539
Forgettable and low-effort

>>5012566
Sketchy and incomplete. Style is consistent and appealing, but it'd be nice to see something than has more time and effort put into it.

>>5013588
Pretty solid paintings. Keep it up, anon, but don't expect any significant social media success with this stuff.

>>5013728
ugh

>>5014822
Best so far. Very consistent and the style is well developed and appealing. Inspirations are obvious, but there's enough there to make it your own. What are your longer term goals with this? I think you will struggle achieve any real financial success with just private commissions.

>>4922889
Genetically Modified Incels

It feels good, especially when your momentum builds and your financial situation becomes more reliable and stable. Though "making it" is completely subjective, and means different things to different people.

The #1 tip I could ever give anyone who wants to "make it" is that they need to understand that making your way as an artist is a lot more entrepreneurial than you might think. Being good is not enough in itself. You have to learn how to hunt down the right opportunities that are relevant to what you do. For example:

Artist A: Mediocre artist who took the time to create a cohesive, professional portfolio, and who regularly networks and promotes themselves to a targeted list of relevant potential clients
Artist B: Very skilled artist who keeps some halfassed social media blog and sits around all day expecting opportunities to come their way.

Artist A will most definitely see much more success than Artist B, despite being a 'worse' artist. Point being that your success in making it has less to do with your skills and more to with having the right work and showing it to the right people at the right time.

Another tip is that stylistic cohesion to your portfolio is incredibly important. If you have work that is inconsistent and all over the place, then you will have a harder time landing opportunities than if your portfolio was more focused.

>>4798410
Contrary to the other posters, I'm not going belittle you OP. If you keep getting bored halfway through a drawing, it may be because you don't enjoy the technique or style that you're drawing in. It's possible that you're a fan of the look of a finished digital painting (for example), but you don't like actually rendering things out. It's okay to admit this and to try something else.

I used to have this same problem. I doubled down on making work that was grounded in simple, bold line art. However, I kept struggling to see work through to completion. It took a long time to accept this, but my problem was that I loved the look of good line art, but I was forcing myself to go through the process of actually doing it. I've since switched over to working with more flat colors / shapes and less linework, and I've haven't been this productive in long time - like my creative block has finally been lifted and the process is finally fun again.

Enjoying the journey is just as important as enjoying the destination. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, it's worth experimenting with other styles and techniques to find something that may work better for you.

Good luck, OP :^)

>>4737319
>>4737319
I know this is an unpopular opinion on this shithole board, but I like this style. Most folks here think it's generic corporate trash, but then go on to praise fantasy/sci-fi/concept art as if it isn't also soulless, generic, corporate trash.

>>4496544
Just one more thing, is it the real world?

>>4476137
I hold off and do it every once in a while. One of my biggest struggles is being disciplined enough to consistently & regularly self promote myself to relevant art / creative directors who could use what I've got. After doing it for a while, it's really not hard to do at all, but the combination of tedious admin/office work as well as the depressing aspect of self promoting and sometimes seeing it bear no fruit makes it not a fun thing to do at all (IMO). Though it's much easier and way less pressure to self promote once you understand exactly what it is you need to do, and when you have more & more published work on your portfolio site.

>>4476153
Sounds god fucking awful. Though I'll be getting married soon to someone who has a nice, stable job and great benefits, so hopefully I won't have to deal with any more shit insurance.

>>4476939
I won a poster design contest in high school when I was 18. Receiving a few hundred bucks for that (which felt huge to me at the time) helped me realize there's money to be made and that working as an artist can be an "acceptable" path to go down (I grew up being taught that STEM, etc. was the way to go). Parents were supportive and I went to a 4-year uni that had a decent art school. When I graduated, I jump right into self-employed life. I spent ~2 years not making a whole lot of money (~$10-15k/yr). Around 2.5 years of working at it and trying to figure how to move forward, several things clicked and I started getting better work and making more money.
>Right now I can only draw for three hours everyday
Honestly, that's totally fine. Obviously, if there's freelance work to be done with a tight-turnaround time then you'll need to draw more, but 3 hours a day is perfectly acceptable (depending on what you want to do). I personally draw anywhere from 2-6 hours a day. Many days, I just don't draw anything at all.

>>4421100
>this thread
/ic/ has the taste of old white bread. I bet you all think classic rock is the epitome of music too. Go comment on some Motley Crue videos and say "they don't make music like this anymore! my generation is the worst XD"

>>4377466
>>4376979
>>4376954
>>4376941
That's it? Is that all you've got? Weak.