/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

Bumperino

>>4475616
>Was it worth it?
Yes. Things were really slow to start but it got easier as time went on.

>Do you sometimes wish you had chosen something else?
Sometimes, yes. One of my biggest beefs with being a digital illustrator is the fact that you're stuck inside by yourself, staring at a screen all day. If I could do something else, I'd probably still do something art related but more real-world, such as painting, murals, etc. - stuff where I could be more involved with an offline community of artists. I look at some of my peers from art school who went this route and it just seems like more fun.

>Do you have any greeting left?
Is this a typo? What do you mean?

>What are your plans for the next decade?
Continue down the same path of being a freelance illustrator. I've been doing it since around 2012 and I hope to keep doing it for the rest of my life. I do a lot of editorial & branding work, so I hope to land larger clients working on better paying projects than I already do. I also want to continue to nurture a passive income. I want to get up to around $60-$70,000/yr USD, up from around $~45,000 right now.

>>4475669
Thanks for your answer!
With greeting I meant freetime, but apparently this word doesn’t exist anymore

>>4475730
No worries! I have a ton of free time available, if I want it. There's nothing stopping me from putting work off and doing whatever. However, if I have important client work that has a quick turnaround time, then I'll be sure to spend more time during the day/night on it. But beyond that, it's my call whether I want to do work or fuck around. By work, I mean creating more personal portfolio work, working on less important / less time sensitive client work, self promoting myself / sending promo emails to help aquire new clients, tending to my passive income, and keeping up to date with social media posts.

You could technically do nothing but work all the time and have no free time to yourself - that's your choice as the owner of a one-man-business. The amount of free time you leave yourself is entirely up to you.

>>4475616
it was kinda worth it.
I still enjoy the process of drawing but it gets very corporate when you have a mandated deadline, your manager likes to have regular updates and they will relay changes to a certain piece that need to be made you might not agree with, but hey they're paying you for it.
Don't underestimate the technicality of it though, in my earlier years i felt more like a computer technician than a illustrator, there's a shit tonne of advanced IT involved with it and i'd genuinely recommend an online competency course if your trying to break into a professional position, employers like to see both your artistic capability and pieces of paper that say you know how to use certain programmes.
I do reminisce about when i could literally just draw whatever i wanted when i wanted to as a teenager though.

>>4475815
If in Burgerstan, do you have health insurance?

>>4475824
Yes. I have a "Catastrophic" plan - the worst possible health insurance you can buy. Costs like $115/mo and covers very, very little and has a super high deductible. I'm late 20's and have no health issues, though.

>>4475910
right on, just curious
are you always looking for new clients, or do you hold off on the search every now and again when you have steady gigs?

>>4475910
Enjoy the plan while you can. I just turned 30 last summer and can’t get it anymore. The cheapest bronze plans are around $300-$400 where I am.

>>4475669
When did you start taking art seriously and how long did it took you to get there? Right now I can only draw for three hours everyday

>>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.

bumpan

>>4475616
I want to drive my 1989 CRX Si right into OPs picture with the moon roof open and New Order blasting.

>>4480908
Car nerds are so lame

>>4475616
I'm a freelance illustrator. It's worth it. I never wished for a different career path. Very happy with my current clients, the money is good, I don't really have any days off but at least every hour of work is properly compensated. In the next decade I just want to become a better artist, maybe open a small print shop or upload some vectors to Adobe Stock for extra passive income. I'm really thankful that I get to work in this field

>>4477615
STEM lord here who wants to transition from art school mentality of nudes and still life paintings to actually making something out of this whole artistic journey. Any tips, suggestions?

>>4482820
>actually making something out of this whole artistic journey
I can try and help, but would you mind just sharing more? A vague question often produces a vague answer, which may not be that helpful. Is there anything specifically you're interested in, that you enjoy doing? What don't you enjoy doing? Anything else you can share?

Anyone here a tattoo artist? I just started drawing again and found I enjoy it, and feel like I can improve quickly. What's should I practice before I get serious and buy a tattoo gun?

>>4485118
To tattoo? definitely drawing without construction and amazing copying abilities. Also try to look into how graffiti artists work though. People like Sam Lewis (Slew on YT) do fine arts but definitely could work in tattoos if they tried to just learn the gun. But first see for how long you can have fun making art! It's all about having fun first before you do it for money. Money should not be the goal but rather a reward of efforts. If you are good enough, it becomes the latter so please try to have fun!

>>4482800
Would you, freelance guys, wish for more stable work like being hired by a big company or whatever?

>>4482820
I want to study fine art painting, you guys have some advice about it?
It'll be my second career, is it worth it?

I always thought I'd be a homeless loser so I'm pretty happy I can pay my bills by drawing shit. Even if I hate it sometimes, it's called being a pro.

>>4487035
Hell no. Income is stable enough as it is. The reason working for yourself is so appealing is the freedom. I would hate to go back to a job where I was absolutely forced to come in and work. I much prefer being a 1-man business and being in control of what I do.

>>4487187
Depends on what you mean by "worth it". If you're looking for financial stability and success, then you should know that it's actually very possible to achieve that. What's more is that it - in many ways - isn't as hard as it seems.

If you want to be successful, then here's 2 qualities you'll need to possess:
1.) A strong, consistent stylistic identity in everything that you do. All the fine artists I know tend to do 1 thing and 1 thing only. It's their "brand" as a fine artist. This has little to do with your skill as an artist, but rather you having a focused vision. Many fine artists often use their own personality & life to draw audiences in. A good story & personality behind the work can really benefit you.

2.) A strong sense of entrepreneurship. The ability to seek out opportunity for yourself is critically important. Sitting around waiting for stuff to happen to you will result in your career going nowhere.

>>4487035
At the moment I am kinda in a kind of in-between arrangement. I work for 2-3 agencies and they give me gigs on a regular, but I can always decline if it's something boring or I'm too tired to do it. I would hate to come back to my full-time job where the manager kept assigning me mundane tasks and I had no choice but to do them. As for stability it's not much of an issue for me now, but just in case I keep enough savings to be able to live for a year without any work. Who knows what may happen.
>>4487187
Unless it's a well recognized art university, I'd say it's not worth it. I went to a local art academy because it was free and I had nothing better to do. I used the foreign exchange program to get my first job after 3 years of study, then quit college altogether. No one has asked me about my degree ever since. To me it was just a way to prolong childhood, but I wouldn't do it again now that I'm 24.

>>4477615
can you takl about self promotion? how exactly do you promote yourself?

>>4475669
How do you earn your passive income?