Art by Braden Hallett
How do I overcome rejection? Are job sites worth it? And is free will real? From practical to philosophical, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry explore it all in this episode.
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SHOW LINKS
Lee White’s Drifting Moon tarot deck
World Illustration Awards Instagram
Raúl Colón
Marcos Chin
Character-Driven Illustration Domestika Class
Arch Apolar
Mike Mignola
Arthur Rackham
Shaun Tan
Lane Smith
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Focus less on self-promotion and more on honing your craft; when you become world-class, your fans will share your work for you.
Leverage pop culture: give people something they already want, but with your fresh spin.
Follow opportunity and bring your passion with you.
QUESTIONS
Navya asks, “I have been taking online classes alongside my full-time job and building my portfolio since 2018. I got represented last year and worked day and night on my portfolio for a job I really wanted. The art director of that project approached me for a sample. I worked very hard on it but got a rejection. How do I move forward from this?”
Getting rejected can hurt, especially when you really want the job, but it’s not all bad. It means you’re doing the work necessary to find jobs and get clients. Try not to hinge your success on a getting single job or project; if something falls through, move on to the next opportunity. Don’t measure your self-worth by the amount of success or rejection you receive. Just keep making and shipping work and continually improve your craft, and eventually, you’ll land in opportunities that are right for you.
Justyna asks, “I’m not attracting many commissions with my personal work, and many in the industry have recommended that I go into children’s books. Should I keep developing my personal work, try children’s books, or do both? I want to get commissions, but I don’t want to spread myself too thin.”
View Justyna’s work at justynagreen.com.
There’s value in listening to voices within the industry. If you get consistent feedback that your work would suit children’s books, it would be worth your time to investigate why. It’s possible that jumping into picture books could give you enough publicity to get more commission work.
On the flip side, don’t make a career move just because other people are nudging you in that direction; make the choice that’s right for you. A good question to ask yourself is, “What problem do I want to solve?” Editorial illustration, children’s book illustration, licensing illustration, etc. each solve different problems. Find one that calls to you and make work that can resolve it.
Will all the possibilities ahead of you, remember to follow opportunity and bring your passion with you!
Marina asks, “Can you tell me your opinion of websites that promote illustrators and illustration jobs, such as hireanillustrator.com and childrensillustrators.com? They claim to promote illustrators and offer to find jobs but have an annual subscription fee. Are they any good for finding illustration jobs or just a waste of money?”
These sites are a mixed bag as far as quality goes. Art directors don’t want to waste time sifting through mediocre illustrators in search of diamonds in the rough; they’d rather go directly to rep sites like Shannon Associates where the quality is consistently high. It won’t hurt you to sign up, but it probably won’t yield the kind of work you’re looking for either.
If you really want to get your work seen, the best thing you can do is make art so good you can’t be ignored. When your work is world-class, you can spend much less time promoting yourself because fans will share your work for you. For now, focus less on finding the perfect way to promote yourself (whether on one of these job sites or social media) and more on perfecting your craft. This could mean taking some classes, joining a brutally honest critique group, or refining work repeatedly until it meets your high standards. Then, when you’re ready to share, others will be wowed and willing to spread your art for you.
LINKS
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
Daniel Tu: danieltu.co.
Lily Howell: lilycamille.com
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