3 Point Perspective: The Illustration Podcast

Comic Cons & Art Fairs Comic conventions and art fairs take place all over the globe, with almost every major city in the United States hosting one. With the large audiences that attend these shows it is a good place for illustrators to show their work and start selling. In this episode we will cover what the world of comic conventions and art fairs is like, ways to get into shows, and the differences between them. This is one of the easiest ways (depending on some conditions) to make money as an artist. Lee White has experience showing at art fairs, whereas Jake Parker and Will Terry have experience with the comic convention circuit. Money range [5:32] The amount of money an artist can make at a show depends on a lot of variables such as location of the show and the types of products being sold. At Lee White’s best art fair show he made $24,000 USD over a three day art fair. On the comic convention side, at Jake Parker’s first convention he made enough to cover the cost of the show and for travel. At Jake’s best comic convention he broke $9,000 USD gross. His average is $5,000-$6,000 USD gross. At Will Terry’s best convention he made $19,000 USD gross. His average is between $7,000-$9,000 USD gross. How Lee, Will and Jake started showing [8:38] Lee got his start showing at art fairs with Crafty Wonderland. He was invited to show when a table opened up. Following that experience he started actively looking for art fairs to attend. In his mid 20’s Jake was in the comic anthology, Flight. The editor of the book purchased a table at San Diego Comic Con, and invited the other artists to use the extra space. Jake went to sell prints and books. After getting a taste of what it was like to table at a show, he decided to do his own show. His first show outside of San Diego was CTNX. Following that success he knew it was possible to be successful at other shows. Will Terry’s first comic convention was a disaster even though he spent two years researching how to sell. Through that experience he learned how to be successful. He now has an assistant that takes Will’s art around the comic convention circuit. Will only personally attends 3-4 of the shows. Will has a series of YouTube videos where he goes into detail about his first experience tabling at a comic convention. Will Terry’s comic convention video series: Lee White: “It’s worth it as an experience. You cannot anticipate how much energy these things take. They are really hard.” Having extra people to help you is really helpful because there are so many factors involved. Doing this full time as your only source of income can be really consuming. For Lee, Will and Jake they use art shows as supplemental income sources. Artists who do this full time can go to 30-40 shows a year. Differences between art fairs and comic conventions [21:05] Art fairs are typically during the summer. Usually outside in parks, but sometimes in convention centers. Artists purchase 10 foot by 10 foot booths. The average attendee at an art fair is older (50 years-old to 70 years old). There are not a lot of collectors, it is mostly people looking for artwork to put on their walls. They want to purchase originals. Prices for pieces at art fairs range from $50 USD to $20,000 USD (higher end of that scale are people buying originals). Lee White: “The more specific the story in my image the less likely it is to sell. The bigger the character in an image, the less likely it is to sell.“ Lee focuses more on environment elements and doesn’t get too specific with storytelling. In order to be successful at art fairs you have to strike a nice balance between illustration and fine art, and create images people want to hang in their homes. Lee’s Secret Sauce for Art Fairs: “[Illustrate] a moment that people can interpret what’s happening versus showing them what’s happening.” Create images that two separate people can view and come up with different stories. Just give the audience a hint of the story. James Jean is a good example of this principle. His work transcends illustration and taps into the art fair market. Website James Jean Instagram Comic conventions [30:40] Comic conventions are focused on popular culture. There is an artist ally section where artists can buy tables to show and sell their work. Attendees typically have $100 and spend that across maybe 5 different artists. What sells the best at comic conventions are things people already know such as characters from popular films, tv shows or cartoons. Comic conventions products typically sells from $4 to $70. There is also a commission market, where attendees will pay artists to draw their character or some other character doing something specific. Some artists open their commission list before the show, whereas others only do commissions during the show. Jake does commissions at show and works on them during down times or at the hotel. He can make an extra $2,000 to $3,000 USD depending on what he is charging. Commission from artists at comic conventions can range from $20 USD all the way to $600 USD. Jake uses fan art he sells at comic conventions to get people to come look at his table where he also has pieces from his original stories. He uses this as a way to expand the audience for his original content. How to start [47:23] When trying to get into art fairs or comic conventions it is really important to understand the market. Lee tried to sell at CTNX with Jake and Will and his art did not fit that market. Step 1: Go visit the shows not as a fan but as research. Take notes, take photos, be detailed and focused. Step 2: Make inventory. You can’t do a show if you don’t have things to sell. Start with prints, prints are cheaper and easier to sell. Make sure to use archival ink and paper so your work doesn’t fade. Jake Parker says “every sell is a person you touch.” When you sell a print you are building a relationships with that person. There is a lot of repeat customers, so if you use cheap stuff you lose that future business. Prints generally have low overhead cost with a high markup price. T-shirts per-unit cost are higher and they can be hard to sell and keep the proper sizes in inventory. Stickers are also harder (higher per-unit cost and lower markup price). People often just want the image so they will buy the smallest size just to get it. Don’t lose sales by selling products with higher per-unit cost. Jed Henry is a good example of this, at shows he only sells one size. Ukiyo Heroes Start small and work your way up. Both with what show you start with and with your inventory (not small products but a smaller product list/inventory). Check to see if there is a show within an hour of your home. This is a good way to start small because you have lower overhead costs. Lee white: “Stay local until you get your market figured out and then start branching out.” It is important to know there are different niche markets in each show. So know your work and who it appeals to. Comic conventions are generally easier to show at then art fairs. Art fairs are curated so. For example, Lee only gets into about half of the art fairs he applies for. List of every convention in the USA Specifics on how to get into art fairs [01:06:29] For art fairs start with craft fairs, they are easier to get into. These shows are usually in the winter and indoors. Art Fair Sourcebook. Has art fairs sorted by region, how many people attend and how much they spend on average. This source is expensive, but it is good data to have when catering to an audience with a larger budget. Zapplication is another good resource. Horror and success stories [01:07:55] Will Terry: For his first show he printed 1000 of each print, 23 different pints, so 23,000 prints total. He couldn’t even fit all his inventory in his car. Printing alone cost him $5,000 USD. He figured he would be showing at a lot of conventions so he was offsetting the cost. At his first show he only made $1,500 USD. After that he was pretty nervous. But luckily he was able to make it up over time, but it was scary after that first show. Lee White: At his first show he sold an original, but didn’t bring any bags. So had to give the customer his original art in a trash bag. At a different show, Lee was busy setting up his booth, running to and from his car. When he was almost finished he realized the fanny pack he kept all his money in ($3,000 from his last art fair) had been open the whole time. Almost all his money flew into the wind before the art fair even started. Jake Parker: At a show in 2018, one of his tables was set up against and facing the wall. So he moved the table. Luckily no one told him to move it back even though it was obviously extending further out than anyone else’s. Also at that convention he had made a display structure out of foam core to hang prints. It kept falling over and he had to keep taping it. Overall it was just bad presentation. Convention etiquette You have to learn convention etiquette. Watch out for ‘booth barnacles,’ they are attendees who stay for way too long and get in the way of making other sells. Jake has a polite way to remove booth barnacles. He waits for an opening in the conversation and sticks out his hand and says “It was so nice to meet you thanks for coming.” After that they usually leave. Also don’t just bring your portfolio to show and expect artists to review it. Always ask if there is a time to show them, don’t just assume. A good way to get a very quick and honest critique is to ask “what is the one main thing I should change in my portfolio?” For more information on critques listen to [Episode 10: Critiques] (https://www.svslearn.com/3pointperspectiveblog/2018/8/8/episode-10-critiques) Gear Information forthcoming. LINKS Svslearn.com Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews. If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

The Caldecott is the most prestigious award a children’s book illustrator can receive, and it’s an award that, once received, changes each recipient’s life. We will discuss what the award is, how it is chosen, some patterns with books that have received this honor, and some tips on what you can do to try and become a more Caldecott-worthy illustrator. What are you working on? [01:17] Will Terry: Bonnaparte Falls Apart Part 2, and a new board game in his digital painting style. Not the best pay, but he has complete creative freedom and so it’s worth it. Lee White: Just moved to Nashville, Tennessee from Portland Oregon. Still working on two books, one that he is writing and illustrating himself, and still working out the deal for illustrating someone else's story. “Cain’t never could do nothing.”- Southern Saying We might be doing a live workshop later on in Nashville, but don’t quote us on that, all 3 of us would be there. Keep your ears peeled. Jake Parker: Has been crazy busy and gone a lot. He did a Comic Con in Denver, a workshop up in Boise, and a workshop here in Provo, and did a bunch of work for Snowplow 2; and, Skyheart is at the printer in China! There has been some translation issues that have slowed the process down, so we’ll see if the books get here in color or black and white! Today, we want to dive in and see if what sort of a role awards play in the life of an illustrator or comic book artist, and does it play a role in developing your art. If you are an illustrator, new or old, we hope that we can shed light on some of the illustration awards and what impact receiving different awards can have on a creatives life.. What are the Awards? [11:00] There are specific awards that we want to dive into on this podcast. The Caldecott Award, conceived in 1937 by Robert Caldecott. The Newbery Award, given to Young Adult Fiction, it’s an award for writers. The Eisner, given for creative achievement in comic books. Eisner Award: the Academy Awards of Comic. Given to different categories, i.e. Best Publication, Best Writing, Best Art, Best Short Story, etc. It’s an award and the publishers love it because they get to put the special award sticker, and whoever won the award has a prestigious bargaining chips for future projects. It’s important to understand the audience for each of these awards and oddly enough the for the Caldecott, they are librarians. Will hated school growing up and the last place he would imagine being is a library convention. But as fate would have it, he ended up going to one, and he has now been to three of them. American Library Association (ALA) hosts a conference where illustrators and librarians collide. Librarians matter because they are the ones who will be recommending your books! The Caldecott [15:00] The Caldecott is the biggest most prestigious award for children’s books. The Caldecott is determined by a committee of 15 people and 8 of those people are appointed by the ALA. These people are composed of librarians and school teachers. They are supposed to primarily focus on the artwork, but there aren’t any poor stories that win the Caldecott. Art is a component but other components like story are a factor that enhance the children's book. Look for patterns. Think about the patterns of the wards winners. Lee likes to look for systems and commonalities to help inform success. There is often strategy to most things we do. Even when playing Monopoly! Since 2000, only 4 Caldecott winners have different writer and illustrator. It means that more Caldecott winners not only illustrate but also write their book. Is this a coincidence? Committee members like to promote and celebrate 1 person. If you win this award you are the “Miss America” of illustration for the next year. Can winning one of these awards change your life? [22:06] There are over 200 children’s books awards but they are not life changing like the Caldecott. Almost every state has one award and they are sometimes narrow and specific. Will won the North Carolina book award one year. In Utah there is an award for Best Mormon Illustrator. Any award is great to receive but are not on the level of receiving a Caldecott. These awards are great but the Caldecott is different. You will be known and introduced as a Caldecott award winner, and the book will be in print for the rest of their life, which translates to a lot of money. There are over 200,000 libraries across the US and stock Caldecott winners. Sometimes one library could buy 10 copies of 1 Caldecott winners book, and restock every year. There are also people that collect Caldecotts. It is a fail safe for the libraries and bookstores because these books have a stamp of approval and popularity built into them. There are Caldecott honorable mentions that also reap the reward of this honor and Lee has a friend that recieve $75,000 in royalties. Jon Klassen is an illustrator/writer that has been raking in the Caldecott. (Jon Klassen)[http://jonklassen.tumblr.com/] (This Is Not My Hat)[https://www.amazon.com/This-Not-Hat-Jon-Klassen/dp/0763655996] If you were to win a Caldecott, publishers try to lock you into your next book deal. You become known for this award and it makes you a distinguished illustrator. There are Caldecott terms to book deals that stipulate how payment changes if you were to win a Caldecott. Should you change your art to win? [31:40] Will feels as if you need to change your art style to win a Caldecott but Lee sees that Caldecott winners of the past have very different styles and are really all over the place. There are books that are Caldecott material and there are other books that aren’t but are still wildly successful. Why is I Want My Hat Back distinguished and Fancy Nancy not? Fancy nancy is extremely commercial and sells well but not as literary. (Fancy Nancy)[https://www.amazon.com/Fancy-Nancy-Jane-OConnor/dp/0060542098] There are books that have a balance of the two like Olivia. Olivia won a Caldecott and also became very commercial. (Olivia)[https://www.amazon.com/Olivia-Caldecott-Honor-Book-Falconer/product-reviews/B0018SYWI4] There are many things that precede winning a Caldecott. There is networking and knowing someone that can get you in the right circles and in the right places. Being connected and known is very important. Dan Santat is a great example of a person that has been around the block before winning the Caldecott. He spoke at conferences for years and was really well known along with producing great work. (The Adventures of Beekle)[https://www.amazon.com/Caldecott-Medal-Dan-Santat/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A6288856011%2Cp_lbr_one_browse-bin%3ADan%20Santat] It’s true that winning a Caldecott seems as likely as being hit by lightning. Step One: Write your own stuff Step Two: Be Jon Klassen Step Three: Speak at SCWI Actionable item [41:29] Here are some actionable things that might not get you a Caldecott but moves you in the right direction. Believe in your work and keep moving forward with it. Think about what is the type of creator you want to be and what best fits your personality. You don’t need to be award winning to be successful. If you are just trying to mimic other people you will always be a few years behind, of course you can learn from others but really do what you love and develop your own unique style and voice. Do the thing that you love to do and that you are good at and eventually the world will catch up. Nuances of a Caldecott [50:04] There are so many books that are great and when it comes down to choosing a winner the committee starts considering the nitty gritty. They start to think what doesn’t work about the books- does the book’s cover have room for the sticker, what is the paper quality like, what is the font, what is in the end paper etc. Things to consider [53: 56] Be like Jon Klassen in the sense that he was trying to be himself. If you are trying to copy someone that has won you will be always be behind. Create the thing that only you can create. Also consider that design matters and having a good sense of graphic design is important for the whole package. Chris Van Allsburg is a great example of this. He combines his art with design to create a great book. His pieces are beautiful and leave room for type. Great artists have a great graphic design sense and some create their own fonts for their books, i.e. Jon Klassen. The Caldecott can be a motivator, and can push yourself to create on a higher level. You can ask yourself, “Is this Caldecott worthy?” Chris Van Allsburg Summary [01:07:00] Consider writing Be unique Consider the details Drive yourself to create something good and worthwhile! LINKS Svslearn.com Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews. If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on. LINKS Svslearn.com Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews. If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

Have you ever wondered what your life might be like if you were an illustrator? In this episode we want to give you a sneak peak into the secret life of illustrators. We will go over what a typical day looks like, some of the biggest frustrations with this lifestyle, and some of the reasons being an artist is so wonderful and rewarding. Sorry, we just wanted to apologize for the audio quality of this episode; Lee has been moving across the country and didn’t have the best set up when we did this episode, but we loved the content so much that we decided to release it anyways. Finished, not perfect, right?:) And correction: when we mentioned Milton Glaser, we actually meant Philip Glass. Enjoy! We want to talk about a day in the life of an illustrator because when you are choosing a career as an illustrator you are essentially choosing a certain life, and a lifestyle that goes along with it. Lee and Will will be discussing the life of an illustrator from the book illustration side, while Jake will be commenting and focusing more on the entertainment side of things. Lee always gets up really early each day and gets t work on a project. As an illustrator you don’t have hard deadlines, so you need to make up your own arbitrary deadlines. There is a final deadline but you need to break it up into smaller steps. So he spends the beginning of his day scheduling what to do. Then he goes right into working on one of the books he is working on. Schedule: when you are able to schedule your time wisely, that is really going to pay big dividends in your career. At a studio, Jake would get told what he would do and the schedule was laid out for him. It was a big adjustment when he became an independent artist and had to start managing his own schedule. He started with to do lists, to keep track of what went on during the day, then he started scheduling those tasks throughout the week, and now he has a full weekly and monthly plan and that really helps him with accomplishing his goals. You need to learn to manage the small micro steps, and learn about your work flow and how long it takes you to perform certain tasks. Jake divides his work into two categories: creative time and administrative time. Creative time is during the morning when he is fresh and alert, then administrative time comes in the afternoon when he is more tired and burnt out. Deep Work Lee is the same. When Lee gets a project he typically gets an email from his agent that someone is interested in working with him; he writes back and tells them that he is interested; the agent will start to work on the budget and negotiate back and forth with the client; they go back and forth and agree on a schedule; then he gets started on the project by doing some research and development. “A good beginning is half done.” Great advice from a fortune cookie. It is really profound, though! If you can start goodt it will influence and pay dividends throughout the project. At the beginning stages of a book try to stay open to a lot of different influences. It doesn’t have to be so linear. After reading the manuscript stay open to different ideas, styles, or influences, from anywhere and everywhere. For entertainment, typically if you are on the development team doing the early early pre production work and working on ideas, then you might be doing that for weeks to months at a time, fleshing out ideas. A lot of times before Jake would go to the studio he would stop by the library for a half hour before going to work and maybe checking it out to use at work that day. Usually there is a weekly meeting where you meet with the director and show it to the group. As an illustrator you don’t want to attach too much value to your work early on. Nothing is sacred or precious, you can’t get too attached to your drawings and paintings. Otherwise it will become a hindrance to you. If you are uncomfortable with showing people your rough sketches, then entertainment might be hard for you. You have to show everything, and you don’t know what the director is going to respond to. It might be a 5 minute sketch that you did, or it might be something you spent a few hours on. You go through stages as an artist: you draw something realistic, then you start drawing characters and diving more into the story and narrative side of things. You don’t just move forward with your first sketch. You need to do push it more. Step 2 is where Lee will start thinking about storytelling, and this is his favorite part about being an illustrator: thinking about what the story is really about. Everything needs to serve the story, including the style. The story should dictate the approach, not the other way around. Entertainment: Usually the early development team is made up of an art team that is made out of artists with different styles that will help direct the story. The Art of The Incredibles There is a lot of overlap between movies and book images, probably because there is a lot of storytelling. To recap Lee’s process of getting started on a project: Email and express interest, email about the budget, analyze the story, then do very loose sketches that thumbnail the book (2 weeks), then he tightens up the loose sketches, and start painting. What is the process for you, Will? Once he did a book in 3 months but that was awful, usually a book takes 6-12 months. A life as a children’s book illustrator: you need to be comfortable with these really long deadlines. You need to be comfortable working on a 9 month long project, if you are at a studio then you might be working on a project for 2 years plus. This is one of the reasons that Jake wanted to leave the studio work life: the early blue sky stages are super fun, but other times you have to work on a single scene for months and constantly got revisions and sometimes it became unfulfilling. Jake has been away for a while, and has thought about going back, but realizes that he has the lifestyle that he wants already. One of the big pros of being a children’s book illustrator is that you are in control. You have control of the product. Ultimately, when you have the final product in your hands it is largely all yours. It is very satisfying. Lee loves to use Adobe Indesign to layout his books, and it can seem daunting to learn to use a new program but it is definitely worth it; it can be really powerful for laying out a book, it is the way to go for multi page documents. Will likes to work on the ipad, it is his mobile studio. He uses it to look at all of the different pages too. He chunks out time and give his focus to the design work, sometimes even working in his car to keep focused. Biggest Pros and Cons of Being an Illustrator: The pros of being an illustrator is the freedom to make your choice of how your schedule looks. The freedom can be a blessing or a curse. You can go see a movie on a Tuesday morning, or go on a bike ride during the day if you want to! At a studio, that doesn’t fly. If you like collaborating, and working in that environment, with different people, and all of the bustling that goes along with that, then maybe Enough freedom is actually a bad thing. Here is an important point: most people don’t make their full living as an illustrator. The number of things that you You might do a couple Maybe doing art all the time isn’t the best way to make your art. Maybe having a real job where you are interacting with people in real situations will spark your creativity and it goes into something that doesn’t have so many strings attached. As an illustrator, everyday isn’t bliss. Sometimes you don’t feel like creating, or it may feel monotonous, but likely that’s how every job is from time to time. What would you do if you couldn’t do art? Teaching doesn’t count. Jake: fantasizes about managing and operating a bookstore, or working in concessions at a movie theater. Lee: physical therapist, or the guy that works in those little booths at a campsite. Delivering pizza was fun as a kid. Will, has fantasized about running a restaurant. The grass is romanticized on the other side. What’s the biggest frustration of being an illustrator? Will: sometimes when you read the manuscript from an author, even if you like it there are things that you would change. Another thing would be when you feel you really understand the story and the editor has differing views. A lot of the aggravation is based on our perception and attitude. Biggest pro is the flexibility. Don’t take it for granted. Jake: the biggest aggravation, or stressor is the lack of steady income. You might make 3 months income in one and then for the next 2 months, drip drip. The freedom in your schedule, is amazing. Jake had the flexibility to go and help his wife with a project, and he could stay later or come in early. Another thing: Jake has 5 kids, and insuring all of the family, is really expensive. It is a huge burden. To them though, having a family is more important than having a nice car. Jake barely remembers what his older kids were like during During the day, Jake could eat lunch with his kids and take breaks to play with them. The family life was a lot better. Biggest pro of entertainment job: consistent money, consistent job, and being surrounded by some of the most talented people in the world. TV has more layoffs. Usually at an animation studio you have a lot more stability. There is enough work that if you are talented and good with people, they will keep you on. There are a lot of people vying for animation jobs, although there are lots of different studio jobs there. There is no career path to being a book illustrator. There are so many gray areas. Lee: Early aggravation, of not knowing how to navigate the terrain. There are a lot of online resources, youtube, and huge sources of revelation. The art of books are so valuable. It is really rewarding to come in and get to work, and your whole day is spent trying to tell a story. LINKS Svslearn.com Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews. If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

Networking If you think that networking is manipulative, selfish, or all about getting ahead you are doing it wrong. In this episode, we talk about how networking is all about friendship, giving, and the people that you choose to spend time with. We talk about how to network and connect with people above, next to, and below you. The What and Why of a Network? Your network is your connection to a broader world, to opportunities, and to new ideas. Your network consists of your friends in the field that you work in. Your network is so important and who you surround yourself with will influence the type of person that you are and the person that you will become. This applies to your creative life as well as with every other aspect of who you are. Every jump in Jake’s career came from his network: animation, comics, publishing. Your network is your gate to so many Jake and Will started to get connected over lunch. Lee was deliberate and tried to connect with Will and Jake. Networking is like cycling, there is strength in staying in a group. Bikers encourage and support each other, and they draft off of each other. It is hard to break away and do it on your own. Choose friends and to spend time with people that push you to be better. A true network is not your “job hotline” it consists of your real friends, your buds. Put yourself in the right place and good things can happen [13:40] It is true that there are some places that are creative hubs where its easier to find people to connect with but ultimately your network is a result of how much time and effort you put into it. How much time do you spend getting to know other creatives that are like-minded, how do you make the first contact, and how do you deepen a creative relationship that you have? Consider these things as you learn more about creating your personal network and how to grow it. Question: Do you need to live in a creative hot spot to be successful [14:54] Many people have the false impression that it’s all about the location of an artist. Although each area has its own creative hub you can find creatives that are like minded just like you anywhere. You create your network and you can reach out to people in the area through web searches and hashtagging your area to find people that have the same goals and values as you. Instagram is a great platform to do research and learn about the people in the area and there will be people. How to build a network of friends in your area [18:00] Search online, check hashtags, follow & Like SVS Forum or general online forums Facebook groups Through these interactions online you begin to develop relationships, give feedback and receive feedback, and engage with others. You can make the effort to not only find creatives online but create the friendships and start conversations to grow your circles. SVS Forum Online interaction is good, but you’ll need to meet people in real life [22:54] Online interaction has its pros and has reach but there needs to be face to face interaction to solidify the relationships and contacts. This face to face interaction develops the real friendship aspect of networking. Go to networking events, Comicon, conferences, and presentations allow you the environment to meet people face to face with similar goals, values, and ideals. Often time if you have a clear vision of where you want to go you find people in the same boat as you. How to get over being nerves [24:06] Starting a conversation with a stranger is not easy but in the industry of illustration and artist, there are comfort zones that need to be broken. Talking face to face can be hard but there are many things you can do to overcome the fear of talking to someone you have never met. Put yourself in situations to interact with others. Sit next to people or stand next to them in line and create a beginning point of conversation like drawing next to them or talk about why they are there. Introduction and exit strategies [27:48] The more and more you stick your neck out to meet other people the more and more you will learn how to ignite conversations and end a conversation. You can begin by pointing out something on their shirt, comment about something that they have or ask about what they are doing here, or what awesome things they seen at the conference etc. Jake’s foolproof exit is “It was so good to meet you!” hint I gotta go. Form: Family, occupation, recreation, motivation(or message) [29:44] You can follow these guidelines to create conversation Family: Are you here alone, where are you from, are you the only artist in your family? Occupation: What do you do for a living, is it a hobby? Recreation: What do you like to do for fun? This then warms people up for this question: Motivation: What motivates you, why are you here, why did you decide to draw ….? Don’t forget the best questions: what is your worthless superpower? More ideas to meet people [33:11] Attend a lunch or dinner, or host your own Create a critique group In critique groups, you find artists that are motivated and like-minded. This group can meet once a month or once a week and help challenge you personally and grow with each other. Draw Lunch Go to the mall and get something to eat and draw. It’s as simple as that. This is a great opportunity to get face to face action. Set up one-on-one meetings [35:44] This is a very deep level of interaction and creating your network. What does your network look like [37:03] Your network is composed of mentors, friends, and followers. Mentors are people that are farther along and have more experience than you. Friends are the people at the same stage of life you are in and have similar experience level. Followers are people that look up to you. Keep in mind this quote: It’s not who you know, it’s who you help - Jeff Goins, Real Artists Don’t starve [38:27] Real Artists Don’t Starve Give and you will grow your network. Research before reaching out [41:00] You need to put the work into researching before reaching out to mentors and peers. Before contacting a someone that you admire purchase their material, watch their YouTube videos, read their blog, follow their social media. However, beyond that make sure you have put the time and effort into learning about the field you are interested in or researching about the questions you have. For example, if you are wanting to be a children's book illustration do your research before asking a professional for help and looking like a deer in the headlights. How to ask questions [41:56] Before asking a question to a mentor think it through. Ask the question AND provide three solutions to your question. This demonstrates that you have thought things out and have done your research. How to get a great mentor [43:26] Jake’s experience with Rachel Everette- First, Rachel went to a workshop Jake was hosting. Then they met again at ComicCon and she asked Jake to create one of her characters as a commission. This was great because it allowed Jake to be immersed in her art and get to know her. At their next Comicon, she created fanart art of Jake’s character. She also reached out to help Jake with Skyheart because she had time during school. All these connections allowed Jake to become invested in her. Jake had a contact at Marvel and reached out to them on behalf of Rachel and she is now at the beginning of her career working with Marvel. Rachel Everett How to make friends in the industry [48:06] It feels like common sense but find common interests- be a friend. Interact in thoughtful ways and then dig deeper. When you find people with the same artistic values and ideals stick with them and make time to connect with them. Being a friend also means being invested in other others success. Find in an environment, interact with people, plug into groups and communities. You need others to succeed there is no doubt about that. Finding followers [56:15] Don’t neglect your follower network. Take time to create your follower network by creating work and allowing your “tribe” to naturally manifest. Build and maintain and network. Connect and be authentic when interacting with your followers. Some things that help people feel connected is Sharing your process, ah- ha moments, and screw-ups. Allow people to be involved in your world. Promote projects and do shoutouts. Have a shared purpose of collective power. Building a universe one drawing at a time- Jake Parker. Build your brand around your shared purpose. Share Freely [1:00:38] People with good networks share freely. They don’t hide their secrets. This shows kindness love, and authenticity. Create a mantra [01:01:56] Jake’s is Finished Not Perfect - independent creators that are finished I.e. Draw every day Learn and Listen [01:03:43] Pay attention to feedback. Shift accordingly. Host meetups [01:04:31] You build a network by giving more than you take [01:05:14] This is essential, give and share. This is the key to networking: give. Be a giver more than a taker. Connecting other people together. Elevates the scene that you are a part of. If you group is not challenging you find different friends and create the group that you grow with! NETWORKING Challenge [01:07:46] At least one time this next week invited someone to do somethings related to illustration. Be the inviter. Post on the forum about the outcome of this challenge LINKS Svslearn.com Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews. If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

Episode 10: Critiques Critiques can be the wind beneath your wings that help you grow in incredible ways; or they can be the source of many tears, hurt feelings, and stomps out of classrooms. In this episode we will cover why you need critiques and critique groups, where to get them, how to prepare for a critique and what to avoid. [00:00:49] What have you been working on? We used to do this but got out of the habit and wanted to bring it back! What projects are each of us working on? Lee: Currently working on writing two books, and is trying to create a dummy book for both books, and trying to sell a two book deal, or at least have two options for publishers to choose from. Will: Working with four other teachers to create classes for SVS, working on character designs for a board games and a sequel to Bonaparte Falls Apart. Jake: Working on a figure drawing class for SVS that will be pulling the best from all of the figure drawing books to make the best class possible, on a sequel to “The Little Snowplow”, Jake and an author he worked with earlier wanted to do a sequel together and their agents were able to create a deal (stay tuned, we’re not able to announce it yet!). and sent the files for Skyheart to the printer in China. Wahoo! [00:06:10] Why art might not be right for your job? We wanted to briefly touch on this subject because of a letter that we received from an artist named, Mike, in response to Episode 03: Ship Happens. Mike brought up the fact that maybe for a lot of artists out there, art is better as a hobby than a career. Mike went through all the steps and got his first art job… and he hated it. After he finished a couple of art jobs he was wondering why he didn’t want to apply for any other art jobs and didn’t know why he had such little drive and motivation. He realized that for him, and he imagines a lot of other artists making art their job isn’t the best option for them. He is does a weekly webcomic, does art for a board game company, and engages with his audience and is super happy with his art. He thought it would be nice to share with the followers of this podcast that to kill yourself to flounder in the shallow end of the professional artist career isn’t always going to pay off and doesn’t equate to success or happiness. Mike realized that he needed to have his own personal goals and stick to them. Also, that he wouldn’t be happy working on other people’s stuff. He realized that his dream was to have a stable income outside of the art industry and then have the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do with his art. Mike brings up some good points, and essentially hit on the plight on an illustrator; that is, we spend a lot of time working for other people and helping them accomplish their dreams, while sometimes letting our own dreams stagnate. Super successful illustrators do one or both of these things well: Stop advertising for, stop looking for, or stop accepting work from clients that take them in the wrong direction. Or they start doing their own projects, or a combination of the two. To help see the perspective you can compare this to becoming a professional tennis player. With each level of progression there are nuances and changes that need to be made, and it sometimes becomes less about the fun, sometimes you just have to practice because you need to improve. You need to find art jobs that match who you are. Think about your skill level and what makes you happy. That’s a side note that we wanted to hit, now time to jump into today’s episode! [00:15:15] What are the benefits to a critique? You need to see things from the perspective of another and that’s what critiques help us do. Critiques are for students and professionals, alike. We all need feedback and critique. That’s how we grow. Jake was working on Skyheart and decided to redo the cover and when he posted it online he got a lot of feedback telling him that the original was better. [00:17:17] Why you might not get an honest critique? Sometimes we don’t get honest critiques because we don’t create the right atmosphere for the critiquer to feel comfortable giving us feedback. If they think that you want validation and not a real critique then often they’ll just tell you what you want to hear. [00:18:29] How to find a good critique? There are many people you can reach out to for good critiques such as previous teachers, professional artists, critique groups, small social media groups or pods, and artists at art conventional or art shows. Art students have their previous teachers as a resource but this relationship needs to be set up when they were in school. Have you created a positive relationship for them to want to critique you later? Be a good student and be involved, it will pay dividends. Like it or not we live in a transactional society. It helps if there is an exchange of time i.e. buying a print, helping to update their website, handle their social media posts, etc. Time is precious, see if there is something you can do for them. Maybe you only have a critique group of your peers: be the person that gives critiques and set the foundation of a give and take relationship with your peers. On the SVS forum it is great to ask for a critique but people will be a lot more willing to give you a critique if you are also spending time to give others critiques. You can also ask artists at conventions and art shows for feedback. Be courteous, and respectful of their time. It always helps to buy a print or something to compensate them for their time;) [Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators] (https://www.scbwi.org/) [00:28:22] Are you personally ready for a good critique? How can you prepare for a good critique? You can approach critiques with a vision and a direction. Think about what your purpose for the piece is, and that will help your critiquer point you in the right direction. Provide a frame a references. [00:30:31] Know what you need Understand what you are asking for. Maybe you just want to be validated or maybe you really need to level up the piece you are working on. Know what you need and ask for it. [00:31:15] Mel Milton's critique method Mel Milton has a critique method where he only praises people when they ask for a critique, unless they really push him to give a critique and really ask for it. If they really want a critique then the flowery praise won’t be enough and they’ll push for more feedback. Showing that you really want feedback allows the critiquer to take you seriously and tell you what they really think. Mel Milton [00:32:30] You never know how people will react to your critique. People sometimes cry, get angry or defensive and this is a sign that they are not ready for a critique. [00:34:08] What not to do during a critique Critique Repellent: Talking too much: cutting off their comments or not letting the critiquer actually critique. Getting upset Being distracted and unplugged from the critiques Arguing [00:36:00] What to do before and during a critique Know what you want the piece to accomplish- set a vision for where you want your piece to go Be specific- you can ask them, “what did I nail?”, “what did I get wrong?”, etc. Have more than one option open for critique- this helps provide a point of reference for critique and is extremely helpful Set limitations: "What are three things I could do to improve this?" This really helps the critiquer feel open to give you three things you can improve. Open the door for a total critique by saying “I’m willing to start this piece over” In contrast to the “repellant” above, these things really create a positive atmosphere for receiving a critique. [00:41:46] Break your critique into components Lee liked to use a rubric to help provide specific critique to his students. Maybe they nailed it with the rendering and perspective but the concept was weak, or maybe they had a great concept but the values could use some work, etc. Some fundamental things Jake looks at when giving a critique: Gesture Composition Design Volumes Rendering Understand your objective. [00:46:11] How to prepare for a hard critique When Jake worked at Blue Sky, his entire job was critiques. You would constantly draw and receive critiques. Sometimes character designs would have to go through 50 iterations before they ever settled on a final. Come into the critique being malleable and bendable. It will free you from feeling too attached to your work. Recognize that if you are making this a career there will be good drawings and bad drawings. Sometimes we are too invested in the time that we spent creating a single piece. Realize that one peace is a drop in the bucket of your lifetime of work. They say everyone has 10,000 bad drawings in them and so if you do a bad one, you’re like, “Sweet, I got one of those out of the way.” Then you can move onto the next drawing. Don’t spend so much time worrying about the one brick rather than the entire wall. Go into it knowing that this isn’t the last thing you are going to create. Don't rely on feedback from one single person, but if multiple people tell you the same thing, pay attention. You can start to understand the trends of your critique. [00:53:23] How to participate in or find a critique group Try to find in your area 3-5 people with the same goals as you do. As a group you will help each other achieve your goals. They could be in person or online and be composed of different creatives. Within your critique group find people who are at your level or higher, (preferably, you’re the least skilled in the group). Be accountable to this group. Warning: if the group gets too big they become more of a cheerleading group and people will feel less impelled or comfortable to give honest critique. Professionals need critique groups to level up and receive the feedback necessary to make work on that higher level. Try to find a local group with people who have similar goals. [01:00:08] 5 Things to Avoid Doing In a Critique Group Don’t show with work, but dish out critique Take without giving Being disrespectful Being late: it shows selfishness Not be overly negative [01:03:47] Quick note about posting online Your posts online can also be a source of critique. Based on what people commenting and also what is getting a lack of comments. If your art doesn't get any responses that is a form of a critique. It means that you can keep at it and make something remarkable (worthy of remark). [01:04:55] Giving a critique Knowing your biases in your artistic tastes. For example, Lee doesn’t really love symmetrical work or anime, so he has to take that into account when he is giving a critique. These things influence your critique and how objective it will be. Also, reach out to certain people for different types of critique. Any critique from anyone is helpful, and a fellow artist can give you a good general critique. However, if you want a critique on your watercolor techniques then you should talk to someone else who does watercolors and they will be able to give you a more specific critique. You can get more general and more specific critiques, and both are valuable. [01:08:17] Trust you gut. Sometimes, you will get critiques that don’t sit right, and ultimately you need to trust your gut. Don’t change your whole style based on someone’s critique if it doesn’t feel right. However, if you want work from someone and they are asking you to change something then you probably should if you want work from that person. Knowing what you want out of the critique will influence what you take away from it, and also the number of people giving you similar critiques. Get critiques and be wise, what can we say more? LINKS svslearn.com Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo forum.svslearn.com Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd. Show notes by Tanner Garlick. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

9: How Much Will You Make In Illustration? How much will you make in illustration? [2:06] This is a question every student has, and the frustrating part is that it is often not discussed openly, or is just glossed over in school. Which, honestly, is a bit crazy! Some reasons for this may be that those who are teaching are making too little and are embarrassed to share that, or it may be that they are making a lot of money and don’t want to share that, because they are afraid of coming across as bragging. In this episode, we hope to cut through the fog of uncertainty and shed some real light on what the market is like and how much you can expect to make in illustration, in different fields, and in different stages of your career. Making a life in illustration [4:09] When speaking of how much you make in illustration and of the various fields of illustration we are are ultimately talking about different lifestyles. A children’s book illustrator gets paid differently than a concept artist at an animation studio; the same can be said for a gallery painter or an editorial artist, etc. Each comes with its own unique type of payment system and accompanying lifestyle. There are many different career paths and combinations of career paths and it is wise to consider the environment and the financial situations that come with each. Responsibility to talk about the business side too [6:44] Schools are put into a tricky situation, because they need to recruit students and promise them a great career but the topic of money can be glossed over because the schools can’t guarantee jobs coming out of school. Will finds it necessary to have a talk with about finances with his students in each of his classes, and each time the students tell him: no one else has ever talked to us about this! Comfortable to talk about how much you make [7:45] Money is this weird thing that sometimes people hold so close to their chest. And sometimes people are super secretive about it. It can be frustrating If you have artistic ability, the gamut of jobs available go from freelance out of your home to working full time at an animation studio and everything in between. Jake has taught at Brigham Young University (BYU), and feels as if the animation department there does a good job at helping students create connections with studios; they fly studios out to help conduct portfolio reviews and recruit. They try to get their students lined up with jobs and internships. The hard thing about Illustration is that it doesn’t have a central source providing all illustration jobs, it’s everywhere! You school could fly and editor out to talk to talk about publishing work but they can’t offer 5 years of work like an animation studio can. It can be a challenge to keep consistent work right out of school but there are things that you can do to prepare and gear yourself up to have consistent work; you can start trying to line up work, and start developing relationships to prepare. It can be frustrating when you have no one to talk to about the financial side of illustration but it really only takes talking with a few people to start to get a pretty good idea of what it is like. Hopefully, this podcast will be a good start for you in answering your questions. 6 factors that affect your income as an illustrator [12:26] It can be tricky to nail it all down, and don’t feel bad if you don’t fit into these categories. We are just going to ballpark some numbers and hopefully you can go from there! We’ll divide it up into 2 different categories with 3 different sub categories. Three different income bracket Early pro Mid level pro Pro, seasoned veteran Skill level Exceptional skill Average skill Below average skill It is important to know which you are talking about because if you use a seasoned pro like Chris Van Allsburg as a guide vs a student fresh out of school, you will get very different numbers. People like Chris and David Wiesner have won multiple Caldecotts and are definitely anomalies. You also need to distinguish your skill level with your career because there are students who are getting work in school and have an absolutely exceptional skill level, and these guys are super successful right out of the gate. Chris Van Allsburg David Wiesner Dan Santat We’ll try and focus a lot on average skill level, because people like those described above are outliers, and people with below average skill aren’t really going to be getting a lot of jobs. What you can expect from book publishing [17:23] Early pro $8,000-$10,000 for advances Mid level pro $20,000- $24,000 Pro $28,000- and up Educational publishers won’t be higher than $10,000 Small publishers offer less [19:27] There are smaller publishers and they don’t offer as much. This means you should really think about whether or not it’s worth your time to work with them, consider these questions: Questions to ask yourself before you accept work [20:13] Does it pay well? [20:28] Is it creative or challenging and taking you in the direction you want to go? [20:36] Will the final finished work provide extraordinary exposure? [20:48] Lee considers these three questions when taking publishing offers. Ideally the project will fulfill all 3 questions but if it fulfilled two out of the three Lee would consider accepting the work. Senior level in book publishing [22:16] As you begin to build traction and notoriety the figures start to increase. Book illustration and publishing are a long term investment. You can build a long term career with passive income. A published book doesn’t necessarily lead to royalties [23:33] Most childrens books don’t earn out. Consider that most books go out of print. Royalties are great when they do come but, a general rule of thumb you could adopt is to just assume that you won’t get any and seek for the best advance possible. Quick book advance explanation [25:11] Publisher gives you advances on royalties. So you don’t get any money on royalties until the royalties due to you cross the amount of your advance. The advance is really there to protect the artist and create incentives. Publishers can estimate how much a book might make in royalties and they give that money up front. It takes a lot of time to make a children’s book and you can look at this as high income short term rates and long term investments you need to think about this as a business. What you can expect to make within entertainment and concept art [27:00] There are so many options, such as: storyboarding, background art, background painting, concept art, etc. Entertainment industry [28:29] Main Industries Animation Video Games TV Live Action Feature animation, and feature live action pay more but TV might last longer like ten years. Video games can fluctuate but depending on the studio they can have pay rates similar to feature animation. Feature anything is considering those with top tear skill sets and you can anticipate $70,000 starting off but also consider the cost of living in the area where feature animation is i.e. California. Cost of living in California is very high and your income may not be able to sustain a life there. One of the reasons schools don’t talk about money [32:12] You need to understand the life that you are choosing because there is a lifespan to each project that you have. Movies are made within 3-4 years and the studios have the option to keep or not keep you. You should treat each job like it is freelance and think of your options. The are highs and lows in the industry. Benefits of working in the entertainment industry [34:35] In the entertainment industry there are great perks to think about like benefits, bonuses, and retirement. You can work around peers that help you and push you to level up your craft. The exposure of working in the industry also opens up other doors. Working in a company there is lateral movement like storyboarding or production assistance. Day rate for feature animation concept art [35:42] There are also opportunities to do freelance for animation, video games, TV, advertising, etc. The day rate is set by the studio or you can negotiate for it. For animation, the max is about $500/day. Think about your social needs [36:35] Are you social? Do you need to, or do you prefer to work on a team with people or to work more solitary? This is a factor you should consider with different career paths, some are inherently more sociable and some are inherently more solitary. Puppet Sanding to doing what you want to do [39:02] Lee said there is this joke that when people started at Laika, they would have to “pay their dues” and started off just sanding puppets, because someone had to, and then, after paying their dues they would move onto doing more art and creative projects. Sometimes you will do something you didn’t anticipate, and you may have to spend some time “paying your dues.” What you can expect to make at art fairs, comic cons, etc. [39:56] The estimated rates in one comicon: Early pro- $500-$1200 Mid pro $1200- $5000 Seasoned pro $6000-$30000 Will Terry Youtube, Comic Con Will, Lee, and Jake say that they could make a living off of just comic cons and art fairs but it would be a lot of work, and stress, and isn’t the lifestyle they want. By using different sources of income, you can create a sturdy “financial table”. Each leg is a different source of income that you have contributing to holding up the table of your finances; such as: art fairs, book publishing, freelance. If one leg “fall out” or is not producing income then you still have others to rely on. Whereas, if you only have one source of income, then if it falls, you will be in a lot more financial trouble. It’s great to have multiple legs to make sure your table is steady and strong. Working in one area or multiple areas [45:03] There are two types of artist. One, the artist that has reached a pinnacle in his or her career and and focuses in on one thing Or two, an artist that has to piece together different forms of income but still can make a living. Steps to take if you want to get into Comic Cons and Art fairs [50:47] Go to Comic Cons or art fairs Do research and development Understand setup and prints You can go and talk to people running successful booths and ask them a question or two but don’t sit there and take all of their time. Also, as a rule of etiquette: never get in the way of a sale. Be polite, and you and they will have a great experience talking. The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines [52:40] This book talks about how to quote but most artist don’t love the guidelines. This could be the starting book. Helps to have a ballpark of where the price range might be. Find peers that you can go to chat about pricing. Will’s YouTube video: Pricing Question: What’s the best route for making a living as an illustrator? [58:31] Have a day job that pays the bills first then you can transition into illustration. Think about the need in the industry and how applicable is your talent in the industry. Understand your target market, budget, and rights. Have a day job. Make great art and also understand how things are sold. Piper Thibodeau worked a corporate job and did art on the side before she was able to make the jump and be an artist full time. Piper Thibodeau Question: What are some financial things freelancers forget to think about? [1:05:19] Freelance artists need to understand that what you make is not what you get. Consider the amount amount your agent will take, taxes (30%), health insurance, investments, savings, etc. Quicken Self Employed is a great tool for freelancers! Quick overview Dollar Cost Averaging [1:06:25] If you make 1 dollar what happens to that one dollar? How much to you pay for your agent? Studio space? Taxes? Then you can start to calculate based off of how many costs eat into 1 dollar, how much you will need to make to be financially comfortable. LINKS Svslearn.com Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews. If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

Your Creative Bank Account What is The Creative Bank Account? We have mentioned it a lot in past episodes and it’s about time we talked about the source of all good ideas: what it is, how does it work and what are the best strategies for filling your personal creative bank account. A creative bank account is something that everyone harbors in their own minds. It is creative capital and you spend this creative capital every time you make something. Creative capital fuels all creative work: poems, drawings, artwork, writing, etc. We are unable to create in a vacuum or closed system. We need inspiration and stimulus from outside sources to fuel our creativity. That’s where the need for a creative bank account. Steve Jobs said that creativity is about connecting the dots. Activity: Begin by drawing two dots. Connect the dots. Then draw another dot. Connect them again. Draw ten dots. Connect them in any way. What is the outcome? This illustrates how as ideas come together it helps to create something new. The more dots you have, the more creative options and combinations you can create! Innovation and ideas occur at an exponential rate. Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of innovation What are the best ways to fill a creative bank account? Expose yourself and put yourself in the position to be around inspiration and creativity. Lee has just joined a collective studio that has bakers, architects, artists, and graphic designers under the same roof. It allows him to be around more creative energy than he would be at home or in an isolated studio space. Become productive and creative anywhere [15:16] It doesn’t matter where you are as long as you are “connecting your dots” and filling your bank account. The internet allows you to fill your creative bank account anywhere. Indirect and direct experience, why you need both [16:19] There are two sources of inspiration for your creative bank account: Indirect Experience - Experiencing something through the filter of someone else, such as film, music, movies, books and Pinterest. You are seeing and experiencing someone else's perspective. This allows you to be up to date and aware of what’s going on in the world around you. Direct Experience - Your own personal experience, for example travel and exploring. Why you should visit the a real library [18:11] Go to the library. It physically gets you out of your space. Libraries allow you to be exposed to material that you would not normally read or see. Going out into the real world [19:21] Interact with the world around you. Venture to new parts of the city and new places you’ve never been. Undoubtedly, there will be something for your creative bank account. Lee was having a really tough time feeling creative after months of getting his house ready to go on the market. Then he had this cool experience with his son by randomly deciding to check out a comic book shop called Cosmic Money. He hasn’t really ever liked comics but after going into the shop they found an amazing graphic novel that re-ignited his creativity. Cosmic Monkey The Lost Path Get out into the world and experience life! The benefits and opportunities of living in a boring place [23:46] It really doesn't matter where you live. There are experiences in rural areas and experiences in cities that fill creative bank accounts. However, being able to interact with other people more can give you a lot more opportunities to fill your creative bank account. It’s all about being proactive. Tips for increasing direct and indirect experiences [24:47] Jake’s artist friend, Jake Wyatt, says to always be reading three books at one time: Culturally required (classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Grapes of Wrath, etc.) Culturally relevant (current books you hear about on NPR, top selling books, etc.) Personally relevant to you (what are you interested in? Fantasty, history, etc.) By reading three different books at the same time you will see different dots and find connections that you might not have seen if you were to read them one at a time. Jake Wyatt Artist dates [27:39] Regularly set a date and set time aside to take yourself out on an artist date! Get out of your own space and normal routine to go to an art gallery, a museum, a bookstore, or out into nature. Go by yourself so you don’t have to filter your experience through someone else. Direct experience to pursue [29:44] To have direct experiences travel, explore, do community service, go to museums, etc. Community service allows to to change your outlook and puts you in contact with people or situations that are outside of your normal routine. Visit Family [30:36] Visiting family pushes you to be in contact with people that have different opinions and perspectives than you. You don’t know what will inspire you! Who knows, maybe your crazy Uncle Joe will inspire a new character. Get out of your comfort zone [32:31] Change the way you do things like travel from place to place or where you create. Take a different route home. Surrender control by getting rides with family on vacation instead of renting a car. Change your mode of transportation. Will says that changing your daily routine is a boost for your creative bank account. You don’t always see all the benefits of these experience all at once, but, if you are deliberate, over time you will notice the effects. Three steps to take after the direct and indirect experiences [37:24] Share what you experienced. Talk to someone, write a blog post or journal about it, condense the experience to a phrase/tweet. Take time to think. Will goes on bike rides or hikes almost daily. Jake and Lee like to run. Take time to listen to your thoughts. We spend so much time consuming that sometimes we don’t allow time to think and process. Keep a sketchbook or idea book. Jake started keeping one in the early years of his career and would write down any ideas he had. Now looking back on it, there are lots of dumb ideas but also lots of nuggets that help spark creativity in his art now. The book, “Choose Yourself” says to write down 10 new ideas a day. Jake has tried it and it’s hard. It really stretches you. Try it out! Creativity is a muscle - the more you use it, the better you get at it. Some ideas will be really dumb and silly, but still write them down, the good ideas will come. You can write down ideas for art, for new places to walk your dog, for a business opportunity you think Amazon could take advantage of, etc. You will become more creative! Choose Yourself! People with tons of ideas get published [44:31] The more ideas you have the more you push yourself. Will relates this to children’s books. He has seen that people with lots of ideas, rather than just one, get published. You have to generate tons of material and then refine. Be comfortable with changing course [47:00] Changing courses is part of the creative process. You will see what things work and what things don’t work and change gears accordingly. Sketchbooks [51:08] Don’t allow your sketchbook to limit you. Students sometimes feel as if a sketchbook needs to be perfect but Lee recommends calling it an idea book instead. Then you don’t have to feel pressure that each page has to look amazing, you can have lists and stick figures if you want! Rapid Viz: A New Method for the Rapid Visualization of Ideas IlLISTration: Improvisational Lists and Drawing Assists To Spark Creativity LINKS Svslearn.com Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White: leewhiteillustration.comInstagram: @leewhiteillo If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, and we’d love it if you left a review! These podcasts live and die on reviews. If you want to join in on this discussion log onto forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

Every time we get an offer to do a book we feel super grateful and flattered that someone would want one of us to illustrate a book for them, but for many reasons we can’t say yes. In this episode we get into the details of book publishing, including the economic, social, and career-building reasons we take on certain book projects, and why we say no to others. Here are Will’s 10 Reasons for "Why I Can’t Illustrate Your Children’s Book.” Some of them deal more with submitting a book jointly with an author to a publisher, or self publishing a book; they are all things to consider and reasons for why you may want to second-guess saying yes to that person you sorta know who wants you to illustrate their self-published book. Bad Protocol [5:40] This question, about how to deal with people asking you to do their children’s book, is talked about often at SCBWI. The Most Asked Question: how do I find an illustrator? Editors at publishing companies will tell writers, "You don’t need to find the illustrator, that’s our job." They take pride in this. One of the publisher’s major roles is to find the right illustrator and match them to the right manuscript. They have resources and lots of connections to find the best match. Some people jump to conclusions and think that just because someone can draw and someone has a children’s book idea that they should be paired to work together, without doing research beforehand to see if they would be a good match. You wouldn’t go around prescribing medication to people before learning what their symptoms are and it's the same with writing and illustrating children’s books. Publishers don’t want to be in an awkward situation where they love the manuscript but they hate the art, then they have to tell you and it can be something they just would rather avoid. They have more art and manuscripts than they can publish. They oftentimes will dismiss you, just because you are filing jointly, and the art is already done. As with everything, there are exceptions. There are many other reasons as to why publishers prefer to pair the artists and illustrators. One marketing strategy they often use is to match a more veteran author or illustrator with a newer author or illustrator. A new author with a new illustrator, or vice versa, is too much of a financial gamble. As you have more experience and become more well-known, you may have more power and influence over who you are paired up with. Little Snowplow Industry Perception [13:35] Another reason Will would be hesitant to file jointly with an amateur or work on a self-published book is that it may affect publishers’ perception of him. Even doing lots of projects on Kickstarter can look amateur. This is something that may be frowned upon merely because it’s a little more new. But sometimes books that started on Kickstarter can get picked up by publishers. Even your online followers on social media has an influence on how much of an advance you are allotted. One book that may be an exception to this : Rick Walton Frankenstein book They filed their book jointly and then 3 different publishers got into a bidding war over it. However, this is different, because they were two pros working together. So it’s not really an exception. We can’t think of an example of two amateurs who got a book published together that did super well. I Don’t Know You [19:10] When a publisher contacts an illustrator to do a book, the manuscript has already gone through a lot of rewrites. This is hard work and takes a thick skin. However, if you contact Will to do your self-published book, he doesn’t know who you are and what you are like. Manuscripts always have rewrites and edits. It can take a very long time to complete the project. He doesn't know if you are in it for the long haul. Award Submissions [22:32] This is not super well known: Publishers, at their own cost, often submit books for awards, such as the Caldecott, the Dr. Suess award, state awards, etc. It is a lot of work, they have to fill out all of the paper work and ship a couple hundred books to the right person at the right time. Getting these awards is what helps the book take off. It gets more publicity, and starts to get bought and recommended by librarians. This is more for self publishing but is another reason that Will wouldn’t want to illustrate a book with an amateur. Will has received 5-6 state awards. Jake has received a state reward. Lee received an ALA Award for a book: see link. And it made a huge difference. I Lived On Butterfly Hill, Lee White Reviews [27:06] Publishers have connections to get books reviewed. Which gets it on people’s radar. This is why I wouldn’t want to illustrate someone’s self published book. This doesn’t mean that a self published book can’t Opportunity Cost [28:13] If you say yes to this children’s book is saying no to something else. It takes months to finish a children’s book and in the end there might not be much Average time to complete a children’s book: 6 Months. Jake, Lee, and Will can get a book done in less time but this is a good place to start. If You’re Going to Partner or Work With Anyone, Be Clear About Who Owns the Rights to the Work. [33:16] You need to go in with your eyes wide open. Lee had an idea for a book that he brought an author on to help him write the story. He knew what the story was and was struggling with the words. So he brought this very very well known artist on. His assumption was that they would co-write the book and he would do the artwork. Her assumption, however, was that she was now the author and owned all the content, and that he was someone now illustrating her story. Long story short, It didn’t work out. For any joint venture: have a clear expectation and maybe even a conference maybe even for a critique group. To protect yourself and them as well. Ideas are not “copyright able.” Be careful and go in with your eyes wide open. Professional Production [38:24] Honestly, if it’s the authors first time doing this, they don’t know what they are doing. And that can be another red flag as to why you shouldn’t do their children’s book. Authors usually don’t know how to art direct and don’t have the skills to give art direction. Lee’s Story: Lee decided to help illustrate a self published book and he did some character sketches and showed them to the author. One of them was a anthropomorphic cow, and the lady said, “My mom would never wear that.” And then got into how the cow represented her mom and how it needed to look like her. Lee saw that there was all sorts of subtle things things like this and took it as a warning to get out of there and not do the book. Because it would be very hard to work with this author as an art director when they didn’t know what was important or how to art direct. Then there are a whole bunch of things in the production side of things. Margins and type, etc. Will will get these short emails from people telling him that they like his work and asking him if he will illustrate their book for them. And he wonders where their business proposal is. Royalties [43:13] In creating all the art for the book, the author and illustrator are creating intellectual property (IP). And if the book takes off and becomes a big selling book, or a TV show, or a cartoon, or a movie, then the illustrator wants to go along for the ride and make money off of all of the things their IP is used for. It’s hard to have a long career as an illustrator living off of just the advances received, you want to be getting royalties as well. You want to see books stick and generate royalties and income for the long term. God Gave Us Christmas, David Hone Lee was complaining about his small royalty check ($13), hoping to have company in misery. Then David Hone told him how much his check was (4-5 figures) and Lee was blown away by how much he had made. Then there are the Brett Helquists who have funded their own retirement and their kids retirement off of all he royalties he’s made through Series of Unfortunate Events. With self publishing there is a trust issue as to, how are you going to track sales and royalties. The publishers now have an online portal where you can login and monitor your book’s sales. Distribution [46:53] This is a lot of work and for Will, Lee, and Jake something they have all dealt with doing their Kickstarters. Thousands of books take up space. They have had their basements and garages filled with books. Lee’s shipment of books was 2500 pounds, he literally had a ton of books. Now Lee and Jake have storage units to keep all their books. And 2-3 thousand books isn’t even a huge amount. Jeff Smith, while self publishing “Bone”, ended up buying the house next door to house all of his book inventory. Distribution is a ton of work! (no pun intended.) Self Publishing authors are not distributors. They don’t have relationships with distributors. And so that’s one more downside. One other side note: Foreign rights. Lee has had books go into Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Publishers know how to distribute in those markets. Money [49:50] People may think, “oh it’s just $500,” and don’t realize how much an illustrator needs to make from illustrating a book. Will asks Lee and Jake to name their price, to do a self published book with a terrible manuscript. Lee often gets 30K+ advances, Will is a little under that, and Jake has gotten both under and higher than that. An advance is money publishers pay you in advance against the royalties. So you get money when you sign the contract, and then when you turn in sketches, and then when you submit the final work (1/3, 1/3, 1/3; or 1/2, 1/2). Then you don’t get money on royalties until that amount is reached, on what you would have got?from royalties if there wasn’t an advance, then once you reach that point, you start to make money off of royalties. And Lee said he would do a self published book for $50,000 (and that is if he liked he book). Lee would charge this much because of opportunity costs, where If he didn’t like it, they would have to pay up in the 6-figures range. This conversation could be misconstrued to be three ar Part of the problem is perpetuated with the publisher. Because there are some books like “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” that are super successful with very simple drawings, and so people think that anyone could do something like that and it would be easy. What about for a family friend? Jake might help illustrate a book for a family friend, but it wouldn’t be as detailed or Will and Lee are against illustrating for a family member or friend. You should love the project, and really like it. When you set up your agreement, because you will set up a contract of course, make sure you don’t They probably won’t pay you a ton. Go ahead and set up a big royalty. Do How to answer this question, “Can you recommend someone?” [1:00:06] That’s a hard question because you might not know what they want, or what they Lee has a new technique for saying no to these offers. And one of the things he has learned is that you don’t always have to respond to every email. Maybe for a high school student it could work out. Graduation Commencement Neil Gayman He sees his goals and aspirations as a mountain in the distance, and as long as your going there then you are doing something good. Make great art. It might be different if you are in college or based on your circumstances. Honestly, it comes down to: does it fit your needs, or does it point you in the right direction. Another thing is if you really feel that this will be something that will help someone, you can. The reason creating art you don’t want to make is because your mind can’t escape it. LINKS svslearn.com Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo forum.svslearn.com Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd. Show notes by Tanner Garlick. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

Our first mailbag episode! Lee, Will, and Jake will be answering questions that people in the forums have been asking; there are lots of great questions, some fun questions, tons of insightful answers, and even some differing opinions. Link SVS Forum Check out the SVS forums. You do not have to be a subscriber to participate in the forums. It’s a safe space with a super helpful community, where you can post questions or your work (anywhere from sketches to finished painting) and get feedback from the SVS community. Q: Where do we (Will Jake and Lee) see themselves in ten years? 4:00 Having a 10 year plan is advantageous. It allows you to have direction. You can even have a 1, 2, 5, and 10 year plan (Jake likes to do this). It’s best to make your plans project focused. Make sure that in those plans you are planning big projects. Maybe it is a project every year, or every two years. Some people get so involved with just one big project and they noodle at it and go back and forth and keep going back and fixing things as they improve and they can end up spending 10 years on a single project with no finished product to show for it. Try to apply the concept “finished not perfect”. Jake’s Finished Not Perfect YouTube Making an actual plan helps you get the things done as you work to advance your career. Jakes 10 Year Plan: 10 children’s books finished and 5 more graphic novels drawn. He also wants to see where he can take some of those projects and see if they can advance to another form whether it’s a movie, video game, or TV show. Will’s 10 Year Plan: Has matured to the point where he really values the projects he is working on, more than just pumping them out. Has gotten Bonnepart Falls Apart out and he wants to get the next book out and see if they can keep this series going. Will Terry Bonnepart Falls Apart WIll loves teaching and organizing concrete information to help students, where sometimes in college you get bits and pieces of the content. Over the next 10 years he’s going to be trying to create provide a solid curriculum and sees himself doing this within the next couple years. He also wants to start writing and illustrating and getting his own books out. Lee’s 10 Year Plan: Wants to start focusing on the quality and the meaning behind the work and slow down. He enjoys writing books and creating content for the illustrations. He wants to be writing in 10 years and writing his own books, maybe 1 book per year. Also, loves the freedom that comes with online teaching and wants to try to teach 2 classes a year and recruit other teachers. SVS allows Lee to create the classes he thinks will be valuable. SVS Learn Website While Jake, Will, and Lee, matured in their career they came to realize what work became fulfilling to them. Focus on meaning and quality. Consider the questions: what does your ideal day look like and what brings value to you? Q: How to do get ready for a Comic Cons or Art Fair? 14:03 Big question! We are thinking of creating a class to go over this, because all three have done these events and gone through mistakes and have a lot to share. There are a lot of principles to learn. Here is one: Start small- go to a convention. Start observing and go into research and development mode. You want to reverse engineer the convention. Ask yourself: Which tables are you afraid to walk up to, and why? Which tables do have no problem approaching, and why? What made you attracted to a booth? what made you stop in your tracks? Why did you buy from this person? These are the things to consider. You can approach people and ask questions. I.e. Where did you get this banner printed? Find out where you can start. Be respectful of artist’s time. Understand the difference between Comic Cons and Art fairs. Art Fairs have a different crowd. It is much more fine art based. Where people are looking to buy more original art to decorate their house. Whereas Comic Cons are indoor and you sell a lot more work at a cheaper price. You should ask yourself why you want to do this: is it to receive validation? To make money? To build a more personal fan base? You can measure success with you own personal answers to these questions. Q: What are your methods and approaches for time efficiency and consistency for a long project? 22:15 This has been address in a Third Thursday. 3rd Thursday Find short-cuts. I.e. If Will needs to do a lot of grass for a project he will do a whole page of grass and then copy and paste it, and use it throughout the project rather than hand paint each strand on each page. Also, for character consistency he will do head studies for characters you’ll see a lot and then throw them in the right place. I.e. high angle, low angle, straight on, etc. Q: How do you get motivated when you lose steam halfway through and don’t feel motivated? Lee: starts with his favorite spread and then prints it out nice and hangs it up, it acts like a beacon for the rest of the project. He then will do the page he dreads the most because he still has energy. He also mixes his projects in a day and tries to have some other fun projects or paintings. Every painting in the book doesn’t have to have equal value, some pages are just necessary and get you through the book. All spreads don’t bring the same enjoyment. Jake: Create visual checklist/boxes. I.e. layouts, rough sketches, line work, ink, color, for each page. Finds satisfaction in the bubbles being filled. Time yourself, see how long you spend on a page, etc. And then you can budget your time and plan some other projects for the middle so you don’t get bored. Jake like Lee also likes to pick a fun spread to start off with that he is looking forward to, and this also helps the publisher get a feel for the art and makes sure it’s inline with their vision. Ask for more time if you need it but when setting the deadline anticipate more than you really need. Often the client is willing to give you some extra time. Q: What are the differences to being an illustrator or content creator? 32:18 Writing is hard, it takes time. There is a lot of hard work that goes into the writing process. You’re creating a world, and the characters, and there is a lot of nuance to it. If you are a content creator, you are ensuring your own longevity. You aren’t dependent on others always giving you work, and you aren’t sitting around. If you don’t have work you are still moving creating content. This often leads to more paid work. There is a difference between creating the entire visual world vs. just visualizing the world. Contents creators are able to move forward. The writer illustrator understands what needs to be in the text and what can be only illustrations. Success comes easier with these artist/writers that understand the process of perspective, creation, and building of the story. Be apart of the creation and make your own thing. Comes down to failure. Failure is a part of the process get use to it! Q: What is your process in doing master copies? 41:35 Start by studying the image. Start from the ground up. Learn the gesture, structure, shadow, light, and color. Studying process books that break down the steps. I.e. Art of … books. Understand the pattern of what is going on in the master copy. Lee: Understand why you want to do a master copy of this art? Ideal portfolio assignment:Choose 10-20 pieces of work that you wish you did. Look for the consistency and theme. What medium pops up the most. Find approach. Find similarities and difference. Find Go in more informed before actually starting the master copy. Master coping is a great artistic exercise. Understanding the artist and their thought process. Consider: why did they make certain discussion in their art? How did the solve certain problems? How did they figure things out? Don’t just draw a lot but draw with a purpose and be deliberate. Master the basics/ foundations of art. Q: If you can illustrate a small story based off a favorite song what would it be? 50:10 Music is inspiring and provide really great creative inspiration. Challenged to illustrate how a song feels. This could be a artistic challenge. Lee: Tom York without Radiohead. New Order is a classic. David Hone and Lee have an assignment- pick a song a illustrate the song, then the class gets to listen to the song and guess which art fits. Will and Jake are hipsters and listen to London Grammar, Florence and the Machine, Foster the People. Jake: Help by the Beatles would be a great children's book. Will: Permission to love. Will’s Peguin’s Dancing to Permission to Love Beatles YAY or NAY?!?! Q: What is the biggest mistake that amateur artists and students make? 57:38 With the art: Artists need to do the groundwork, previsualization work, character studies, scene studies, color studies, and little tests. Create drafts and sketches, work out all the problems, think about what the image is trying to say, is the image working are a narrative? Amateur artists and students don’t do this will or enough. With the career: Fail to do... Artists need to do the groundwork of understand the field that they want to get into or think they want to get into. Know where you want to be and what it takes to be there. Understand the job whether that is illustration, animation, freelance, and etc. Consider what illustrators do you like, what is the job like day to day, what are some nuances of the job, and what is the job market like. Amateur artists and students don’t do this will or enough. Q: How can I do better in contest? 1:04:20 Enter contest and be comfortable putting your work out there. As a content creator you need to get use to this. With contest- yes, enter them but read the fine print. If you enter and lose learn from the experience. Deconstruct your work and the top art pieces. Be humble enough to look at the winners and think about what they did better and implement those principles into your own work. Q: Do you recommend going to college for illustration? 1:05:50 There are so many factors and this is a complex questions. Jake: If money not a problem do it but if you don’t take what you do have and make a self learning program. Be smart, self motivated and get you can receive the same or better education for much cheaper. Lee: With technology now you can custom build your education from the whole world. There are a lot of choices now. The school is not guarantee to work. Build your portfolio. LINKS svslearn.com Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo forum.svslearn.com Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd. Show notes by Tanner Garlick. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.

Today we tackle the subject of fan art. We discuss what it is, what it isn't, whether or not you should do it, and the legality of it. We definitely are of three minds on this one so get ready for some arguing! Legal statement: Will, Jake, and Lee are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. However, they have experience, thoughts and options on the topic of fan art. If you are looking for real legal counsel, speak to a lawyer that specializes with Intellectual Property (IP). What is fan art? [3:00] Jake’s definition: Any drawing or illustration by a fan of a character or IP that is owned by another company or person. What if someone did fan art and it become successful and gets traction on a social media platform i.e. Reddit? Give credit where credit towards that artist or to whoever owns the IP. In reality the fan art topic is more directed towards taking IPs that have great popularity already. There are these massive IPs like Marvel, DC Comics, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. There are lots of people at conventions and online who are selling prints and merchandise using these IPs. So the question is, “should you do fan art of these IPs?” and “should you sell it?” Fan art comes in 4 Categories: [10:50] Derivative Work: something that you draw which is pretty much based on the character, your version of the character. The character in your style. Parody: focused on the humor aspect, doing something funny with the character, needs Plagiarism: creating a copy, or using actual artwork and reprinting it (reprint on paper or a t-shirt) Transformative Work: take something that was created and transforming it into something new. i.e. A book review, a drawing of something that hasn't been visualized What is the actual legality of it? Where is the line? [13:28] Hard Line: if you don’t own the character, you need to be careful with the IP. It is illegal. Grey Line: If the company or person who owns the character will care, prosecute, or send a cease and desist. Jake’s thoughts [14:00] If you have a piece of original art, that you created, on a physical piece of paper, you can sell it. That piece is a one-off the original. However, prints and t-shirts become more grey area. You have created a derivative that the company hasn’t created. Ultimately, using another IP but if it became a parody in some way than it is in a “safer” zone i.e. SNL, parody, t-shirt or print. If it has a strong point of view or a strong stylistic design, that couldn’t be mistaken for a licensed work then it’s a better situation to be in BUT best practice is to contact the copyright owner and ask for permission or to buy a license for the IP you want to use. Sometimes larger companies are hard to get ahold of and request legal use of the IP. It is not in the companies economic interest to pursue legal action such as Jake Parker’s Iron Giant prints. Jake Parker Iron Giant Print It is hard to say what is going to happen if you do fan art. There are instances that artist received cease and desist and there are also instances where the owner of the IP likes the fan art and wants to purchase the IP for it. Lee’s thoughts: [18:03] It is very clear who owns the IP of certain art. The grey line starts to work against you once dollars start to get involved- if you start to actually make money off of the art that could go against you. If you just gave away your art it wouldn't be an issue. Lee clarifies Transformative art- There was a case where a photograph was used to created a sculpture (that was very close) and this case was not deemed illegal for the photography. Fan art opens up problems and developing the mindset “I can grab what I want to”. Limits the artist and builds false notoriety and is illegal. The question is whether you will be prosecuted or not. And ultimately, if it’s not a parody it is illegal. Another point to look at is: how much of the project or work is under a copyright? If you take out the copyright work, how much of your project is left over? Does the art still stand if the copied images are taken out. Example: Jake's sketchbooks. Jake Parker’s art books WIll’s thoughts: [22:58] There are forms of fan art that art legal and it depends on the degree in which you recreate the IP. Some fan art is definitely not original and  pure plagiarism but there are IPs that have been exaggerated and are protected under law. Dominic Glover (started illegitimate and became legitimate) Totally Legal Fanart video Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.- Parody in a court of law recreating “Pretty woman walking down the street”. Campbell won because they were appealing to different audiences. Wills 5 degrees of fanart [32:00] (From bad to good) A pure copy Copy reference but they change the style i.e. watercolor- Rendering has changed Come up with New original pose, and in your own Your own pose, style, and add a concept or something completely different i.e. Will creates known characters into children Completely original pose, style, environment, and genre. Every single thing has changed. Why not create you own thing? [36:00] Will- It’s rewarding aspect to recreated two ideas but there are pitfalls if not careful. Sometimes artist become reliant on fan art. Do it for the right reasons. You can ask- Do i do it for the love or doing it for financial gain? Jed Henry is an example of creating “level 5” fanart. It is original and merges the IP and Henry’s style and vision. Jed Henry’s Ukiyo-e Heroes Could someone young make fanart and avoid these pitfalls? [45:30] Often times fan art is done for economical reasons and to gain tractions. However, young artists need to be mindful. Don’t lean on fanart. Doing fanart allows for great exposure but shouldn’t be that bulk of your work. Fanart can also be an interesting exercise as an artist to grow and learn. Consider WIll’s 5 step evaluations. How much did you change it? Are you selling it? How close to the line are you? The closer you get to the line, the more you are going across the ethical and legal boundary. Do the fanart to learn, get exposure and sometimes to get work but don’t let it be you main thing. Maybe for every fanart piece you do, do 5 original personal pieces. Don’t sell you soul to fan art. Jake found another artist’s list that puts your fanart at risk [51:00] Kirawara Fan Art Risk List: Used original logo Makes it tasteless, sexual, or slanderous Little or no difference Does not have a parody or influence of parody If you sell a high number of prints or commission If it caters to the same market as the copyright owner i.e. Marvel prints don’t exist As an official (career) Marvel artist, you can sell prints and consider them official Marvel art prints. It helps to supplement those artists income. Other artist eat into this market- a thing to consider. Another “pro” fan art point [55:00] In the end, it’s still illegal, but it help keeps the popularity of the IP alive. Whether or not you get in trouble for it is entirely up to the IP owner. LINKS svslearn.com Jake Parker, http://mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44 Will Terry, http://willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt Lee White, http://leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo forum.svslearn.com Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd. Show notes by Tanner Garlick. 3 Point Perspective Podcast is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, the place where becoming a great illustrator starts!Click here for this episode’s links and show notes.