Hey guys, this post is an addition to The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial, I posted a video in which you could see how I use the History Brush when I use color, but it didn’t seem too clear, so before we go on with the tutorial I will explain in detail what the history brush is, how it works and what applications it can have.

What is the History Brush?

The History Brush is a Photoshop tool used to “travel through time” to any event reflected on the History palette. At first it is hard to understand, but as we go further we will see a few examples that you will be able to perfectly understand.

How does the History Brush work?

Before we understand what the History Brush is, we have to understand the concept of History: every action we take in Photoshop is registered in the History panel as an event, being the top ones, the oldest. We can freely go back in history, something very useful to fix mistakes.

At the left of each event is a square, and in one of these squares there is an icon of a brush (on the original snapshot by default) that we can keep changing from location. This square is the one that sets the origin, the source of the History Brush.

If we mark a particular event as source and then we make changes to the canvas, with the History Brush we can “paint some areas of the canvas to make them go back in time” up to its original state or source. It would be like going back on the History panel, only that the changes don’t affect the whole canvas, only the area we have painted with the History Brush.

What use can I give to the History Brush?

The History Brush is a very powerful tool, you can give it unlimited uses; right on top of my head I can think of 3:

Example 1: suppose we have a color picture of a subject with a background and we want to leave the background black and white. We can desaturate the image and then with the History Brush we can put some of its previous stage back, I mean some color.

If we mark the event Desaturate as source and we paint with the History Brush again, the result will be that we are going to return the image back to black and white … we can do it at any stage in history.

Example 2: suppose that after painting a character I decide to make several tests. It happens that I like the head on the first test, the body on the second and the feet on the third. With the History Brush I could merge all the variants quickly and easily (although with some limitations that we will see later on).

Just take snapshots of every version and use the History Brush to join the parts you like from each version. Remember the History Brush works just by individual layers (see limitations below).

Example 3: I can use the History Brush as a selective eraser. I can erase part of a gradient or stroke, having the rest of the gradients and strokes frozen. Here is when we will connect with The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial.

Now I believe you have an idea of how powerful this tool is

Why is my History Brush not working?

This is one of the most frequent questions; the History Brush is a powerful tool that has its own rules:

1. It works on individual layers. If you want to make changes to several layers, either you do it one by one or you have to flatten the layers.
2. It works on existing layers on both sides of history (the event we marked as source and the current event). This means that if we mark an event and then we flatten it, erase it or if we create another layer, then the History Brush will not work on the affected layers.
3. The History stores a limited number of events, it may happen that you want to go back to a very old event and you find it is not there any longer (though the source event is always kept). This can be solved by creating a snapshot every once in a while. From the Photoshop’s preferences (Edit > Preferences > Performance) panel you can also increment the number of events stored, although it will use more resources.
4. It works both to go back to the past and to move to the future. Imagine that you make 10 strokes, you can go back to stroke 5 from history and mark stroke 10 as source, we would be moving to the “future”.

What is the Artistic History Brush?

It is a variant (less useful) of the History Brush, the concept is basically the same, only the result is artistic. It is useful in very particular cases in which we need some kind of texture, for example to paint clouds or give a painting finish to a photograph, or specific areas of a photograph.

I can´t figure any effective use, it just works fine if you need certain effects.

Let´s see if you got it !!!

If after reading this post and seeing the video again you can´t still figure the technique I use to paint complex gradients, don´t worry, within the next days I will go ahead with The longest Photoshop coloring tutorial and I will explain the proccess in detail.

Remember tweating and spreading the post if you found it useful.
See you soon!!

Hey buddies, I’m finally back from my “holidays” (they weren’t holidays really, I spent this time to move to Berlin). I’m already settled and ready to go on with the blog.

Today we have a post with some questions from the blog users: about copyright, confidentiality, how to improve our drawing skills and how to learn to design web pages.

So let´s go!

I’m in a rap band and I’ve designed a logo for it. And my doubt is whether I should register my design or not, just in case I could have any problems in the future.

Law (in Spain) protects the artwork since its creation. Registry is not necessary, although it’s good evidence that you’re the author of the artwork.

The best choice would be to go to a copyright registry office, as far as I know it’s not very expensive.
But be careful, registering the design and registering the brand is not the same, the registry of a brand is much more expensive. Moreover, the name could be already registered, or be very similar to some registered brand in the same sector.

There are some companies dedicated to advise their clients in this area, although you probably don’t need them by now.

My client ask me to sign a NDA (non-disclosure agreement). It´s fair? Do you have any contract you can share?

I state in my terms of service page I don’t offer confidentiality by default (5th point) since my portfolio is my only marketing tool to promote my services. If somebdoy ask me to sign a NDA I charge a fee, it varies from 0-100% the standard quote depending on my workload, if I’m extremely busy I charge 100%, if I have no work in that moment I negotiate with the client and I even could accept it with no extra charge.

The client should ask the NDA upfront since the quote can vary, but sometimes he does when the order is already finished, then I just redirect him to my terms of service page. I always charge 50% of the order upfront, so the client has 3 choices:

1. He pays the fee: I sign the NDA and deliver the files.
2. He doesn’t pay the fee but he pays the remaining payment: I don´t sign the NDA but I deliver the designs.
3. He doesn’t pay the fee and doesn´t pay the remaining payment: I warm him he would loses the design and the down payment, I keep the files to sell it as stock images or for personal projects, I never resell the designs as custom work.

This is not set in stone, if he’s a good client and he’s easy going you can make exceptions, but you need to cover yourself for worst case scenario.

A confidentiality contract and a copyright transfer, are they both the same thing?

No, they aren’t, a NDA is a document for confidentiality while a transfer of rights contract is a document where you agree it´s a work by hire and the client owns all rights about your designs, though a contract can include both of them.

While I don´t offer confidentiality by default, I always transfer all rights to the client, whenever a client ask a contract I provide it.

You can download some contracts here.

How can I learn to give expression to my characters? I usually draw them all with a psychopath face.

I’m afraid there are no magic tricks to improve your drawing skills, just practice, lots of practice… and lots of observation.

I have a file of facial and corporal expressions, and photographs and images from other artists as well. At first I used to copy a lot, with some time you’ll create your own style.

My advice is to search different sources so your style can be as rich as possible.

I’ve read your tutorial about creating a web page. It has made some things clear for me but, how did you begin? Did you use any tutorial in particular?

I’m afraid it’s not that easy, but you can make it with some patience.

1. Create a portfolio in some online community, Deviantart for example. This way you have something to show and you can make yourself a name. Besides, there is an area to create a portfolio independent from the community. It’s not perfect but suitable for a start.
2. Learn to use Dreamweaver, it’s a good program, very easy to use and you can design web pages visually. It’s not the ideal but a good training for the next step.
3. When you’ve get to have a good command of Dreamweaver, you’ll have basics of HTML. Try to improve and understand the meaning of each tag. You can continue using Dreamweaver or just the Notepad.
4. Learn CSS to separate content from presentation. It’s a simple language, the main inconvenience is to manage to make your web look the same in the different browsers (cross browsing).
5. Learn about usability, study the trends and practise a lot.
6. The next step would be to study PHP and MYSQL to add functionality to your web.
7. If you want to go further, you can learn Rubi, Ajax, Javascript…

If you enjoyed this post, please tweet it!!!

Hello buddies, time for a very special tutorial, I will try to write the more detailed tutorial you have ever seen about how to color in Photoshop, SOSFactory color style. I will post the tutorial by issues, every issue will have his own video on real time from my Youtube channel, voice courtesy of Anita Nagu (since my English is quite poor), when we are finish I will offer a pack:

• The full tutorial in PDF format.
• A video compilation in high resolution and comments in English and Spanish.
• The high res PSD file under creative commons license (for personal and commercial use).
• The PSD layered for your own research.
• And the color swatches, some Photoshop action…

I think 5-10US$ for the whole pack would be a fair price… what do you think? think running a blog like this is not for free, and I need to spend lot of time and energie. Would be a nice way of support, so I can continue offering good quality content.

INDEX

• Day 1: download the lineart and let´s get started
• Day 2: extracting the lineart
• Day 3: making the flat colors template
• Day 4: painting basic areas
• Day 5: painting complex areas: the history brush

Day 1: Download the lineart and let´s get started

Some of you already did a try on the lineart, I suggest you color it again following this tutorial, would be nice seeing how you improve your coloring skills. If you didn´t try yet, you can download the lineart here:

So we are ready to start!
See you in a couple days, stay tunned and don´t forget tweeting the post if you like it.

Day 2: Extracting the lineart

The best method to color a drawing is by extracting the lines, because we will have the possibility of coloring them later very easily. Download the drawing, open it with Photoshop and follow these steps:

1. Open your image with Photoshop.
2. Go to the Channels panel and CTRL+click on the blue channel.
3. Select the Magic Wand (W) and right click, choose Select Inverse.
4. Go to Edit > Copy (CTRL+C) and then Edit > Paste (CTRL+V). The lines are already separated from the background.
5. On the "Background" layer, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (CTRL+U) and put the lighting at +100 to obtain a completely white layer.
6. Rename the new layer to "Lineart" and CTRL+U again, this time put the lighting at -100 to obtain completely black lines.

As you can see, the drawing is ultra-clean because I drew it digitally. In this tutorial we will only focus on the color, so if you´re interested in obtaining clean lines you can visit this post to learn how to ink a drawing in Photoshop.

Some advices to get clean lines:

• The best way to ink is digitally, wether it be with a pen tablet or with the vectorial drawing tools.
• Always work in high resolution, the higher the better. Make sure at least about 2.500 x 2.500 pixels.
• If you decide to work from a drawing on traditional paper, scan it in grey scale mode or convert it to grey scale in Photoshop before extracting the lines.
• Have a look to this post about How to ink a drawing in Photoshop.

Resume of the day

See you soon!!

Day 3: Making the flat colors template

Let’s create a new layer between the "Background" layer and the "Lineart" layer, and name it "Flat colors". Through this flat colors layer we can:

1. Choose our colors template.
2. Isolate the different areas to make quick selections with the magic wand (W).

The quicker way to paint our flat colors is making a selection of the area, using the Magic Wand (W) in question the "Lineart" layer (this one of the advantages of having such a clean lines). After this, expand the selection so the edges don’t look jagged (Select > Modify > Expand: 3px). Now choose the colour you like and click with the paint bucket (G) on the "Flat colors" layer:

Some advises to make a good flat colors template:

• Although you’re always in time to make changes, visualize the finished design and try to define your color sketch.
• Use medium colors, neither too saturated/desaturated, nor too bright/dark.
• Rename the layer as "Flat colors".
• Lock the pixels of the image in the "Flat colors" layer, this way you won’t paint on it by accident.

Resume of the day

Today we made a flat colors template to make quick selections and increase the workflow. And we decided our color sketch too.

See you in a couple of days!!

Day 4: painting basic areas.

Finally, our design is ready to color

Let’s begin with something easy like the eyes to explain the technique, and as we go forward the tutorial will become more complex. Considering that many people don’t own a Wacom tablet, today I’ll use the mouse, the vectorial drawing tools and gradients. You’ll see the result is the same, but we’ll have to invest more time. The rest of the days I’ll use my Wacom to go faster, if you need any help you can check this post about how to draw using vectorial drawing tools in Photoshop.

First of all, let me explain a piece of theory. You’ll find this very useful when it comes to apply a correct lighting:

As you can see in the image, I placed the source of light above and slightly on the left. This means that the illuminated areas will be on top and the shadows below. On the shadows, we’re adding some reflections to give volume. We’re not looking for a realist finish, but it must be coherent.

Step 1: shadows.

Let’s create a new group of layers. Name it "Eyes" and create a new layer inside it, on which we’re painting the shadows. Name it "Shadows" and put it in Multiply blend mode.

Now make a selection of the eyes using the Magic Wand (W) on our Flat Colors layer, then let’s go back to the "Shadows" layer and paint an outline with the same blue color of the background (#92b6e6). Looks darker because the layer is in Multiply mode. As we said, the light comes from above, so the shadows will be thicker below.

TIP: the dotted lines of the selections can be bothering sometimes. You can hide them pressing CTRL+H.

Now we’re going to soften the outline we created. Let’s use a thick brush with soft edges. The key is to paint from a distance, to make the outline blur but not to dissapear. Once you’re finished, put the layer in Normal mode again.

Eyes are easy to make because their shape is quite simple. Unfortunately, the whole process is not that easy, we must learn how to use the History Brush for more complex shapes (we’ll talk about this next day).

Step 2: light.

Let’s create a new layer under the "Shadows" layer, and name it "Lightness". On this layer we’re creating a gradient from white to transparent, from above on the left until below on the right. The key is to make this sofly, not covering in white the whole eye.

Step 3: reflected light.

Now we’re creating reflections to give volume to the eye. Create a new layer and name it "Reflected light". Make a white outline that doesn’t cover the whole shadow area. Then merge the inner outline, this time using the Eraser (E). Be careful not to erase it completely, we only want to make it a bit transparent.

Step 4: painting pupils.

To paint the character’s pupils we’re creating a new group of layers named "Pupils"above the "Lineart" layer.

We’re painting the pupils through 3 layers as we can see in the image:

• Image 1: layer we’re naming "Glow", we create a slightly oval circle and apply gradient from white to transparent. Try to leave the oval with some transparency instead of fully white.
• Image 2: create a new layer and name it "Glow 2", do a circular gradient with blue colour (#10a4fa), and put the layer in Linear Dodge mode.
• Image 3: create a new layer we’re naming "Pupil", and paint something similar to the image with the same blue.
• FINAL Image: this is what we get when we activate the 3 layers.

Step 6: coloring the lines.

Finally, we create a layer above the "Lineart" layer, and name it "Color hold", we’ll use this layer to color the lines.

CTRL+Click on the icon of the "Lineart" layer to make a selection of the lines, and go to the "Color hold" layer. Choose a slightly darker blue color (#223171) than the one we used for the eyeballs, this way we make the line merge with the design, but it’s still recognizable.

Summary of the day

Today we painted a simple shape, like the eyes of our character. Next day we’re painting the teeth, which is more complex, so we’ll have to learn how to use the history brush.

I see you in a couple of days!!!

Day 5: painting complex areas: the history brush.

Hello guys, tomorrow I´m flying to Berlin and I´m going to take several days off but before I leave I would like to post the last video of The World´s most detailed Photoshop coloring tutorial.

For now there is no tutorial just the video where you can see how I color more complex areas thanks to our buddy the History Brush, I put lot of care so hopefully you will understand how the History Brush works by yourself, anyway I will post the tutorial whithin the next days, until then, enjoy the video.

See you soon!!

Time for another exercise, this time let´s practice our digital color in Photoshop over a profesional lineart made by SOSFactory. If you do a try, please email me a JPG of your final image, if you are interested I could post your image here and give you some tips to improve your coloring skills.

Here you can dowload the high res lineart in Photoshop format of the character:

In the next days I will offer the final PSD file layered for free download, so you can do some research to know how I did it or you can use it in your designs.

Entries

Some supporting tutorials

Mascot design in Photoshop tutorial for Smashing Magazine

Character design Photoshop tutorial for PSDTuts

Character design Photoshop tutorial for PSDTuts (need paid subscription)

Vectorial illustration with Illustrator

Hello buddies, at last Friday!! I´m getting ready for my monthly flight to Berlin but before I leave I want to share some pics. I just finished a project I was working on lately, this time I did a ton of character design for a non released yet dating site.

Here you have several of them, I hope you like it

Have a good weekend!!!
On next week I have scheduled a new tutorial.

Mascot design for webs is one of my specialties, in the last few years I’ve been designing dozens of corporative characters for webs. Clients are usually very satisfied with the design, but they don’t know how to make the most out of it.

Sometimes they have to use them at very small sizes, sometimes they are not well fitted in the context, very often they modify the design with disastrous results, usually they are too agressive with the compression of the image… and in many cases they don’t make a real usage of the designs.

Points you should have in consideration to make the most out of your mascot design.

• First of all, consider if you really need a mascot design. Is it adecuate for your public objective?
• Program your web in order to make the most out of your character design.
• Remember: the bigger you show the illustration (within reasonable limits) the nicer it will look.
• Leave margins around the illustration, let the design breathe.
• Make the mascot interact with the rest of the web, be creative.
• Apply your corporative colors to your mascot.
• Design a versatile mascot, this way you can use it for banners, avatars, T-shirts, or your "about" page.
• Choose a concept that matches your corporative values.
• Optimize the weight of the illustration, save it as JPG at 60%.
• If you have to make later modifications, ask the author of the design.
• Order your designs in high resolution (till 7000×7000px) or in vectorial format. This way you can print any size you need.
• Watch if your design fits the basic principles when it comes to design a mascot.

Characteristics of a good mascot design

• Memorable, it must cause impact.
• Easy to remember, it must remain etched in the memory of the observer.
• It must be unique, and easy to discriminate from the competitors
• Attractive, the character must be attractive for our target public.
• Iconic, the character must represent the corporative values of the brand.
• Functional, it must work in banners, in the headline of the web, in the logo.

Effective ways to integrate the designs of the characters in the web.

The use of the mascot integrated in the logotype is the most common way to integrate the character. This way we associate the character with the brand, it´s one of the most effective ways to use a mascot.

We can integrate the mascot very effectively by using it as an icon or integrating it in the buttons. We can use it in the "over" state of our buttons and animate it in Flash:

One of the most effective ways consists of using the illustration all the wide of the web. You sacrifice a lot of space but you get a great visual impact. John Cow’s web was a good example of this, too bad they are reducing more and more the size of the illustration instead of optimizing the remaining space.

We don’t really need to use the mascot in the headline of the web, we can use it to highlight certain elements of the design:

To finish, some banners with character designs:

PayPal is the standard online payment system for both selling and buying. It is very convenient, instantaneous and secure, that’s why it is expensive.

It can cost us up to 3.4% out of the money we receive depending on the country where you live, plus a 2.5% to convert the money to your local currency, so you might end up paying 600US$ for every 10.000US$ you get.

Pieces of advice to save money with PayPal

• Use a personal account instead of a professional one; they don’t have fees, but they have lots of limitations when it comes to move the money.
• Withdraw your money when the US$ is strong.
• Send your payments as a personal transaction instead of doing it as a purchase; you will pay a few cents, but the recipient will not pay anything.
• Send your payments using the mass pay option; you will pay up to 1US$ tops, but the recipient will get it for free.
• Use the cheapest online banking (see below).
• Check your monthly volume to access better fees:

Money Bookers

Advantages:

• It reaches some countries that PayPal doesn’t.
• It is very inexpensive:
  • Send money costs a maximum of 0.75US$.
  • Receiving money is free.
  • Withdrawing money costs a maximum of 5.24US$.
  • The money conversion into your local currency costs 2%.

Disadvantages:

• It is not well known, needless to say that imposing an unknown form of payment to your customers is like giving them a good reason to hire someone else, to delay the order or to never call us again.
• They say they offer support in almost any language, but it is limited to their web, customer support uses English only.

Epassporte

Advantages:

• They offer you a virtual Visa credit card (to be used online only) for free.
• It is pretty know for transactions with adult content.
• It is very inexpensive:
  • To send money costs between 0.3 -1 US$ per transaction.
  • Receiving money is free.
  • Withdrawing money costs 3US$ for US residents and 50US$ for Europeans.

Disadvantages:

• This system is not well known.
• Their website is very confusing and difficult to navigate.
• Their customer service is bad.
• To transfer your money to European accounts you have to pay 50US$, also you have to request the transfer to be done in your name, which often takes a long time (last time it took a month).

Western Union

Advantages:

• It is less expensive than PayPal.
• It reaches lots of countries in which PayPal doesn’t.

Disadvantages:

• It is not as instantaneous as the rest of the online forms of payment.
• It is more expensive than Money Bookers and Epassporte.
• You have to personally go to their offices, wait in line and fill out forms. We have the online option, but it is a lot more expensive.

Fighting the US$ devaluation

Workers outside the United States have an additional problem that is the devaluation of the dollar, currency in which most online transactions are done.

The ideal would be to be able to withdraw our US$ from PayPal, Money Bookers or any other system you use, into a local bank account and wait until it revaluates. That way we have our money secure and in hand in case we need it, but I’m afraid it doesn’t matter which system you use; you will not be able to withdraw your money in a currency other than your country’s currency.

So, either you:

• Spend your US$ in US shops.
• Keep your US$ in your virtual bank until the US$ revaluates, which might take months, even years.
• Withdraw your US$ into your local bank, subsequently loosing money.
• Create a new bank account in the USA, where you will transfer your US$, which is not very practical and might not even be possible.

None of these alternatives are good, but we have another option which we’ll see next.

Multicurrency Bank Accounts

The only way to keep your US$ in a bank account outside the USA is by opening a multicurrency account in our local bank. Actually, it is two linked bank accounts, one in US$ and the other one in your country’s currency, and they work like any other bank account.

Advantages

• They are usually very inexpensive, they only charge a fee to receive the money, which usually is less than 10US$ (check with your local bank).
• You have the security and all the guarantees of having the money in a local bank.
• You can keep your US dollars until they revaluate.
• You can instantaneously convert them to Euros whenever you need them.

Disadvantages:

• International transfers may take 3 – 4 days.
• You need much more information to be able to make a transfer.

Conclusion

The best you can do is to get familiar with each one of the payment systems mentioned above, and offer several options to your customers, organized by preference; in my case it would be like this:

• My first option would be a transfer in US$ to my multicurrency bank account.
• If the customer is in a hurry or the amount is very small, I would offer the Money Bookers option.
• In case that the customer doesn’t have an account with Money Bookers and if I see that the order could be in danger, then I would offer PayPal.
• In case that PayPal is not available in their country, I would use Western Union.
• I would only use Epassporte to receive payments from work with adult content.

Theory says that a good logotype must be simple, clean, economical, versatile, etc, etc. This is a very pertinent principle but, is it still valid?

In my opinion, it is partially obsolete. The advance of impression techniques, the evolution of the consumers overburdened with publicity and the evolution of the mass media (Internet, Television, mobile phones, videogames industry…), have released the designers from many restrictions.

Don´t decorate, comunicate

The principle "don´t decorate, communicate" means that we must put the message itself before its aesthetic aspects, although we mustn´t leave them aside. I think this would be a more loyal version to its spirit: "Communicate first, then decorate", which is what it really means.

Applying this principle to corporative design we would have two opposite sides (using my own terminology):

• The ones who follow the principle of simplicity: text logos (Paypal), initials based logos (IBM), logos with graphic elements, iconic logos…
• The ones who don´t follow it: illustrative logos, the ones I like to design.

The art of decorating

If you know my work in SOSFactory, surely you already know I take this stream to the end. My logotypes have gradients, many colors, illustrative elements, sometimes even complex characters. I usually design for a web, so I have much more freedom to create. On the other side, my logotypes are not so versatile, although as we´ll see later, this problem can be solved adapting the logo to the other media.

Pros of illustrative logos

1. They cause more visual impact in big sizes.
2. More differentiation, they are more difficult to imitate or to mistake with other brands.
3. More effective for a certain type of consumer (children, for example), industry (videogames, clothing) or media (internet)
4. The "absorption" of the logo by the consumer is slower but more durable.
5. It´s easier to sell merchandising with our logo.
6. It creates a dependence relationship between the designer and the brand (this is "good" for the designer).

Cons of illustrative logos

1. They are less effective in small sizes or at far distances.
2. More cost of production (though printing is more and more cheap).
3. More time needed to identify the brand.
4. More difficult to copyright as a brand.
5. Redesigning is more expensive
6. It creates a dependence relationship between the designer and the brand (bad for the brand).

The adaptation to the media

We can solve most of these negative aspects by adapting the illustrative logo to the different media and sizes. Obviously, this requires more time, which means a bigger inversion

This way, on one side we have an illustrative version to use it on the screen, where the size of the application is usually bigger (web, tv, mobile phones) and on the other we have a simpler adaptation for possible printed applications, or for the use in smaller sizes.

A good corporative kit would include:

• Bitmap versions in JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, PSD formats, and vectorial files AI, EPS.
• Versions of the logotype in high and low resolution.
• Versions of the logotype in RBG and CMYK.
• Adaptations of the logotype with and without illustrative elements.
• Adaptation of the logo, to 1, 2 and 3 colors, full color and grey scale.
• Adaptation of the logo on dark background and light background.

Different adaptations of the same logotype: full color, 1 color, 3 colors and grey scale.

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:

1. 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.
2. You already have a portfolio on Deviantart. The next step is to publish your own website.
3. 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?
4. 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.
5. 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?
6. Don’t forget about the minimum requisites to work on the internet: English, PayPal and lots of promotion.
7. 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.

If you´re a designer, probably you have lots of unused graphics, webs, loops and Flash files, and you don´t get any profit from them. You could sell the rights of use of these designs (stock design) for a very low price but lifetime. You won´t become a richman but some extra income is always welcome, don´t you think?

Imagine you earn 100US$ a month, this would sum 1.200US$ a year… Enough to buy a good new computer.

Advantages of selling stock resources?

1. You can make some passive income, this means you work once to create the resource and you sell it very cheap, but forever.
2. It´s a social network, so you can meet other designers. And other designers will use your designs. This facts can help you to make yourself a name.
3. It´s a market test. Looking at the sales, you can check which product or style has the most success.

Disadvantages of selling stock resources?

1. As a designer working by order, I had some doubts about this kind of business. Maybe it could impoverish the industry, maybe it could be counterproductive for my business.
2. You´re letting your resources at the reach of the competence.
3. Your clients can choose stock images instead of works made by order. In my case I´d have to sell 300 times each design to match the income provided for a single design made by order.

Where to sell your designs?

My prefered place is from the Envato network, creator of such great webs as PSDTuts, Vectortuts, AETuts, Nettuts… and owner of some marketplaces:

• Graphic River online marketplace for graphic resources.
• ActiveDen marketplace for Flash developers
• Theme Forest html templates, WordPress, Joomla, Flash Sites
  PSD Templates, Javascript, PHP Scripts…
• Video Hibe video resources.
• Audio Jungle same for audio.

How does it works?

You simply have to create an account, fill in a test (quite simple) to demonstrate you´ve understood the terms of use of the web and you´re ready to upload your graphics.

The web itselft sets the prices, quite affordable, and negotiates the whole process.

How much can you earn?

If you sell your graphics exclusively in Graphic River you´ll get 40% of the sales, which is quite a good percentage comparing with other similar webs. If you sell your resources in other sites as well, then you get 20% of the sales.

This web hasn´t been working for a long time, but seems to be as effective as the other ones in the net; for example Flash Den, where some users have earned thousands of dollars selling their resources in Flash.

There is a referral program too, after you create your user you are provided with links like this: http://videohive.net?ref=SOSFactory. Whenever somebody click on it and deposit some money I would get a percent of it.

My advise

As a marginal business I think it´s not a bad idea for designers. You can make some easy money, but be careful not to share your best weapons.

I´d sell old works, designs you don´t use anymore, failed orders or made in your free time, experiments… and I would keep the high quality ones for my own clients.