From time to time I receive interesting emails from newbie designers or illustrators, who are trying to open up this complex industry for themselves, but they don’t know where to start; they ask for my help and of course, I do my best to help them. It occurred to me that maybe, if I publish those emails, everybody could benefit from them and clear those doubts.
So now we are going to start this new section 
I’ll start with Evangelina’s case, beautiful name by the way. Eva is argentine but resides in the USA and wants to dedicate herself to the world of illustration, but she has lots of doubts and prejudices that I’ll try to clear out; at least orient her to walk her first steps. Here are the most interesting parts of that email:
I live in USA (I’m from Argentina) and I have wrote to many people with my heart in my hands, but not one of those people have found it in their hearts the willingness to help me. I think it is because they fear that I’ll get really good and that I might “steal” their customers if they told me their “secret recipe”, but…
Let’s start with the good news, you live in the USA; this will give you lots of opportunities that you wouldn’t have in Argentina; you are also optimistic and you really want to make progress. So you speak English and you’re eager, congratulations! You have the minimum requisites to start this difficult career.
Now the bad news
It’s not good to expect any help from people, don’t take me wrong, there will be lots of people who will be willing to help you altruistically, but that’s not the norm; it’s due to lack of time or energy rather than because they are evil. That’s why you have to keep in mind that every single triumph or failure you get will depend 99% in you, outside help is always welcome, but don’t count on it.
Forget about “secret recipes”, nobody will teach them to you because they simply don’t exist. The secret recipe is HARD WORK during a long period of time, applied to multiple fields: marketing, interpersonal communication, technical and practical knowledge… Also keep in mind that what has value for me might not have any value for your; you will have to find your own path.
This is a nice digital painting by Evangelina.
I am a completely “new” newbie. And I would like to start working as a freelancer. I have skills (no degree, though)…
Before venturing into freelance, I would recommend that you try to work for a design agency first; take it as a contact-making experience. I personally worked part time (4 hours a day) for 6 months at a local agency; the salary was really bad and those were the worst months of my working life, but working there cleared out lots of questions and I learnt a lot.
You don’t necessarily need to have formal training to be good at what you do; it might be harder that way, so you need to compensate your lack of formal training with willingness and a great portfolio. I recommend that you read a post I recently wrote about the advantages of self training vs. formal.
… but I believe I can create quality art.
This is your main weakness, design has an artistic aspect in it, but it’s not art; it has a function, its rules and a specific goal, while art doesn’t. Clients don’t pay you to recreate YOUR vision of the world; they pay you to recreate THEIR vision of the world for a targeted audience.
In other words, the artist creates without restrictions; the designer or illustrator on request has to adhere to some rules. So:
- Do you want to be an artist or you want to design/illustrate on request?
- Do you want to be economically stable and create with restrictions, or unstable (at least until you reach to the top), but with the ability to create freely?
If you want to be an artist I’m afraid I can’t help you; if you want to work by request, then keep reading
Very nice, but does it have a market?.
I plan to do lots of things, but I have to prepare my website and my portfolio first, I haven’t done it yet.
Having a plan is the first goal, so write down a list of tasks, organize them by priority level and get them done.
Like I said on the previous point you are confusing concepts, your portfolio is very artistic, there is no commercial intention, so you are going to have to radically change the direction of your work. A few pieces of advice to shift your portfolio to possible clients:
- Work at least 8 hours a day until you reach a quality product. If you don’t have a quality product then nobody will buy it.
- You already have a portfolio on Deviantart. The next step is to publish your own website.
- Choose your strength and look for its possible commercial use. If your strengths are landscapes, then instead of making traditionalist paintings, why don’t you get into the world of video games or films as concept artist? If you like portraits, why don’t you make caricatures on request?
- Discover reference artists inside your field and study them. What makes them different? Why are they so good? What kind of portfolio do they have? Who does it target? Try to discover their marketing plan.
- Make a list of potential clients and put yourself in their shoes. If you were a client, what kind of portfolio would you like to see? What type of work pieces would you be interested in?
- Don’t forget about the minimum requisites to work on the internet: English, PayPal and lots of promotion.
- Keep working at least 8 hours a day until you reach a quality product. If you don’t have a quality product then nobody will buy it.
What if a potential customer sees my portfolio and likes it? They call me and ask me, “What are your rates? How much would you charge us?” … What should my answer be? Probably what is preventing me from making any money right now is the fear of not knowing what to say to a potential customer.
Think about the fact that every single one of us have gone through this and we have learnt from our mistakes; believe in yourself even when things go wrong, think that you have just discovered a way of NOT doing things, if you make mistakes lots of times, then you will have a beautiful catalog of mistakes that you shouldn’t repeat.
Be honest, tell the customer that you don’t have the experience but you are eager to do the right thing, ask them how much they are willing to invest.
Be realistic and don’t expect to get paid a fortune, sometimes they might not even pay you, take it as a semi-paid training session. With time, if you do things right, you will get paid according to your skill.
Concept artist Feng Zhu. This have a market.
I have done my research online to see how other people do it, but most artists don’t advertise their rates; they encourage their audience to contact them by e-mail or phone!
Designers with a lot of demand don’t usually publish their rates because it minimizes their negotiation margins. They calculate their overhead, based on their clients’ capacity and their needs; I recommend that you read this post about the pros and cons of publishing your rates. Needless to say that to reach this level you still have a long way to go, don’t worry too much about that for now.
A few final considerations
Well Eva, first of all thank you for allowing me to share your worries, I’m sure that you have helped lots of people. I hope I haven’t been too hard on you and that my words have been helpful to you, if you have any doubts just leave me a comment.
Finally, I would like to encourage you to keep working, it won’t be easy, there will be moments in which you will feel like crying, you will get disappointed or depressed and you will think that you are going nowhere … but don’t ever stop, keep going with passion and energy, because finding your path is just a matter of time. One day you’ll go to sleep with a smile on your face and you will understand that you are living your dream.
And when you get famous, don’t forget about us
Cheers!!!
How about you, are you also lost?
If you are a newbie designer and have doubts, contact me and I’ll do my best to clear them out for you; I’ll publish the most interesting emails in this section.
29 October 2009 at 4:07 PM
Hey, Sergio, este post es excelente
hay una parte que me inquieta:
“Antes de lanzarte como freelance, te recomendaría que intentes trabajar en alguna agencia de diseño a modo de toma de contacto….”. Quizá en el caso de Eva, pero para muchos , que no hemos podido terminar la carrera, no es fácil trabajar en una agencia de diseño formal, a lo sumo, trabajé en una pequeña empresa de diseño web haciendo los gráficos, pero amo la ilustración y ahí no necesitaban eso, la verdad decidí lanzarme como freelance ya que aquí no hay cultura del diseño, ya quisiera al menos trabajar como colorista o ilustradora de alguna revista, pero aquí no hay mercado para eso.
Yo también comencé como Evangelina, haciendo pinturas, dibujos al carboncillo, etc, pero me gustaron más los cartoons y el lado comercial del arte, el diseño pues.
30 October 2009 at 7:28 AM
Hello Diana, it won´t be the work of your dreams but will be a good starting point, no matter how small is the agency.
30 October 2009 at 2:18 PM
Hola, Sergio, te agradezco enormemente el que hayas tenido la amabilidad de contestar mis preguntas y de incluir mi caso en esta nueva seccion de tu blog. Me he puesto la meta de seguir los pasos que recomendas. Voy a buscar mi punto fuerte para encontrarle su lado comercial. Muy pronto agregare imagenes en mi galeria de DeviantArt para incluir estas cosas. Keep tuned …
Tu blog esta muy bueno!!
Muchos saludos,
Evangelina (Eva)
30 October 2009 at 5:38 PM
Al decir toma de contactos, ¿te refieres a conocer otros diseñadores o a clientes? Porque aunque ya he trabajado en una empresa, no agencia de diseño, como dices, nunca establecí contacto con los clientes, el que lo hacía era mi jefe.
30 October 2009 at 11:57 PM
Hola Sergio, la verdad esta nueva sección me encanta, y sobretodo porque me considero de uno de esos newbies que necesitan algún consejillo…
a ver si me animo, y te envío algún mail bien organizadito 
un saludo, y muy grande este blog y tu trabajo!! (no me cansaré de decirlo 
)
3 November 2009 at 4:01 AM
Hola sergio, soy seguidor de tu blog desde hace tiempo, aunque es primera vez que posteo.
Me gusto mucho esta sección, y me gustaría opinar como otro mas que esta empezando.
Creo que tal como dice Sergio, es muy útil empezar en una agencia o en alguna oficina de diseño o algo relacionado, aunque no tengas contacto directo con el cliente, en algún momento alguien preguntara ¿Quién habrá hecho esto o aquello? Y mas aun, si esa persona no te conoce y logra contactarte es porque realmente le interesa tu trabajo.
Tal vez algunos no compartirán mi opinión, pero creo que el diseño y la ilustración están lejos de ser algo “comercial”, cada diseño, personaje, etc, tienen una intención que va mas allá de lo comercial, van al hecho de satisfacer necesidades básicas, tanto del “cliente” como de su público, ya sea generar confianza en una determinada marca, o lograr que se sientan identificados con una empresa o sus productos o servicios generando seguridad, etc. En gran parte es responsabilidad de quienes nos dedicamos a esto, que nuestros clientes se den cuenta de la importancia de nuestro trabajo y no lo vean como un valor agregado o un lujo (o un simple “monito” o “dibujito”), En la medida que esto suceda, la gente valorará realmente tu trabajo y comenzarán a buscarte los clientes que valgan la pena y que quieran invertir en ti.
Por último y para no alargar más, creo que sobre todo tenemos que tener paciencia. En mi caso, llevo 1 año trabajando en una agencia muy pequeña, donde tengo contacto directo con clientes, y recién este último mes he comenzado a hacer contactos que me podrían permitir lanzarme como freelance, pero todavía dependo de un trabajo estable para sobrevivir, asi que solo queda tener mas paciencia y seguir adelante.
3 November 2009 at 7:24 AM
Interesante
pero creo que por Internet también se pueden hacer contactos valiosos, no solo en la empresa, de todas maneras en las agencias toman en cuenta estudios formales y ese no es el caso de muchos. Y en mi opinión, el diseño y la ilustración son comerciales, a menos que lo hagas por hobby, no regalaría mi trabajo, ni por amor al arte 
3 November 2009 at 5:44 PM
Creo que no se entendió esa parte… no digo que tengas que regalar tu trabajo, todo lo contrario, es deber de nosotros mismos lograr que nuestros clientes sepan valorar lo que hacemos, demostrando que sirve de algo, y no solo es un “adorno”. A partir de ahi podras comenzar a cobrar más y comenzaran a reconocerte mas a ti y a tu trabajo.
3 November 2009 at 6:17 PM
Hola Juan Pablo,
antes que nada agradecerte que te animes a comentar
Diseñar un logotipo para ponerlo en el salón de mi casa sería arte, pero no suele ser lo normal. Cómo bien dices, se diseña para transmitir unos valores pero si vamos más alla, lo normal es que detrás haya una motivación económica.
Quizás en el ámbito de la ilustración está linea sea más borrosa.
Respecto a lo de trabajar en una agencia, la idea es rodearse de gente de la que aprender respecto al trabajo en sí y respecto al trato con el cliente. Por Internet obviamente es más complicado.
3 November 2009 at 6:44 PM
Pues sí que entendí, pero al fin y al cabo si a alguien le gusta tu trabajo, te contrata, no esperes que te valoren porque sí.
12 November 2009 at 3:43 AM
hola una preguntica, hay algun tutorial de corel painter, la verdad lo he “cacharreado” como decimos en bogota, pero aun me falta mucho por aprender, conoces de uno?
12 November 2009 at 12:24 PM
Pues me temo que no, no conozco ninguna web de calidad.
12 November 2009 at 3:10 PM
Hola jknventive,
Hay un tutorial bien completo del autor John Derri en Lynda.com. Lynda, por si no lo conoces, es un sitio web en el que podes aprender de todo, y ellos tienen un tutorial que se llama “Painter 11 Essential Training”, pero todo esta en ingles, asi que tenes que dominar ese idioma para poder entender las explicaciones.
Te puedo decir que sin lugar a dudas ese es el tutorial mas completito que hay sobre Painter 11.
Buena suerte,
Evangelina
14 November 2009 at 9:45 PM
gracias evangelina
28 November 2009 at 4:49 AM
Hey Sergio, You know in your coloring tutorials how you normally use the airbrush to rub things out to give it that ‘gradient’ look. How do you do that? do you put the opacity down or put pen pressure on with your tablet?
Thanks!
7 December 2009 at 4:35 PM
Hey this is beautiful article. It was pleasure to read it
Thank you very much.
7 December 2009 at 11:10 PM
hola
queria aprender a hacer mascotas estilo sos *-*
ya ice una pero siempre dejo el trazo negro al rededor por que no se como acer para que quede bien
como ago? ;D
9 December 2009 at 2:14 PM
Sergio,
your dope – this is exactly what i was looking for. You answered alot of my questions and relieved some of my insecurities of being a newb.
Thank you.
12 January 2010 at 5:07 AM
hola Sergio la verdad q me encanta tu blog y este post en particular… estoy estudiando diseño y los tutorial es un plus para mi… un saludo tambien desde Argentina