3 Point Perspective: The Illustration Podcast

In this episode we swallow some pride and take a look at some of our less stellar moments. These are the times we wish we had a rewind button for life and could do things over. We have take away points from each story so you don’t have to make our mistakes again. Hopefully, none of you are as dumb as us! Story 1: Will’s Phallic Tortoise [01:31] Take away: When you’re learning how to draw it’s a lot like a golf swing. To do a golf swing right there’s 50 things you’ve got to know how to do and you can’t be thinking about them all at the same time. They have to flow naturally. And so you can concentrate on 5 of them at the same time. As an illustrator there’s 50 things you’ve got to know how to do to make an illustration, and one of them is composition. Make sure you’re composition isn’t set up in a way that it compromises the entire piece. Story 2: Lee’s Name Critique [7:45] Take away: Do your homework on who you’re meeting with. Take some time to understand what they are about, what they do, and why they want to meet with you. Don’t advise them to change the name of their company! Story 3: Jake’s Edgy Style vs All-Ages Style [11:43] Take away: Take a long look at your work and see how it might influence others around you. If you’re not happy with what your work is doing for the world see how you can change it for the better. Story 4: Will’s Feminine Hygiene Job [16:14] Take away: Just...don’t be a Will. Be happy you don’t have to be tied to a phone any more to get work. Also, you don’t have to take every job that comes your way. Story 5: Lee’s Alphabet Book Debacle [21:14] Take away: If you’re hired to do a job specifically for your style, maybe don’t subcontract someone else to do it for you. Before you commit to do a job, take a good look at how much work needs to be done and see if your schedule can handle the workload. You want to avoid opting out of the job after contracts have been signed and money’s been paid. Ask questions up front about what exactly is needed for the job. Get all the facts and cross check them with other professionals to make sure you’re not getting into something that you won’t be able to finish on time. Be willing to say no to a high paying job if you don’t think it benefit your career. There are more important things than a paycheck if the job you take doesn’t really further your career. Story 6: Will’s Fax Machine [29:00] Take away: Get all the information BEFORE the fax comes in :P Make sure you get all the information on the job that you need in order to finish your job. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and take good notes on your calls. Story 7: Lee Unknowingly Rips on the Boss’s Daughter [36:15] Take away: Remember names! Do your homework and know who you’re talking to. Story 8: Jake’s Big Meeting [40:20] Take away: Don’t waste an important meeting. If you’re in the position to meet with an important editor or client do whatever you need to to have a killer pitch, presentation, or idea to share with them. Be prepared! Story 9: Will Zones Out [46:16] Take away: Be present and paying attention when you’re talking to a client or editor Story 10: Lee’s bike ride [49:00] Take away: Plan your day. Make sure you have time to do everything you’ve set out to do. You don’t have to do everything. Look at ways that you’re making you job harder than it actually has to be. 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. 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.

Ship Happens Today it is all about shipping something and getting it out into the world. Often we talk about what the difference is between a professional and an amateur, the art is one difference, but another difference is professionals "ship." Link: Merlin Man Podcast When people are successful, one big hallmark of that success is that they actually ship things, which means that they finish things. They don't just finish things and keep it in their house but they share it with others, they ship it. Also, Seth Goddin, Linchpin Make sure you don’t just start a project and let it fizzle, don’t start one after another and let them fizzle.  Look at all of your artistic heroes under the lens of finishing things and shipping things, what you find is a constant project based mentality. Where their projects go further than they do, they have to figure out how to publish it, and look at who it is going to go to. Lee’s Story: After school, Lee needed to try and get work, so he did the postcard thing. His idea was to create and send out 6 postcards a year, to 600 clients. He sent the first card out, and nothing happened, then he sent the second, and the third... and he was getting no responses. However, his goal was just to get those cards sent out, they had to get out into the world. He decided that he was going to go on a trip to New York and he felt that he needed to have have something more substantial than a postcard to give to publishers so he made these really nice custom build books and custom mailers and sent them to 21 dream clients. 13 of them had him in for an interview. Earlier he felt like he was just sending his postcards out into the void and was seeing no results, however, as he went around to meet with different publishers he noticed that a lot of the publishers had his postcard on their wall.  Some of those publishers, he is just now starting to work with. There was lots of stuff happening behind the scenes that he didn't know about. All of it came from him shipping things out.. Lee finished college where I was drawing and painting all the time. Then felt that after he was now just creating stuff to ship out. The shipping paid off. The Power of a physical object Jake been to every publisher and to Chronicle, he's been to all their meetings, and he can attest that their walls are full of postcards. One of the art directors told him, speaking of the postcards on the walls, “I don’t know if I’ll work with them, but I want to remember them, and I hope that our paths will cross.” Sometimes we think we need a broad audience and that we need to get our work out there onto the inter web, but sometimes something tangible for a small audience can be just as powerful as something digital to a huge audience. This was evidence to him of the power of physical objects. There is no guarantee of anything. It almost always costs more than what you might have anticipated. It’s terrifying putting yourself out there, you might be scared of failure. You might have thoughts or hear people say, “who do you think you are?” Will's Story: after finishing school he was planning on doing the postcard thing. His dad was doubtful and said “What are you gonna do? Send postcards to people? Without a cover letter? How will they know what it is for?" Despite his Dad's skepticism, he sent out postcards. It worked! He came home one day and his Dad was excited because there was a fax from Psychology Today wanting him to do work for him. It's very powerful when you ship something out into the world. If you haven't sent anything out, you might be wondering if it will pay off, and you don't know. But once it is out there it is moving and there is this serendipity that Lee has faith in now that good things will happen when you put your work out there. While there is not guarantee that you'll get work or that it will pay off the way you want it to, there is a guarantee, that if you get your work shipped out, you will learn things from doing this! Sometimes the value you want isn't going to be the value you get. Sometimes the value is the failure. Value in learning. Even putting your work out there digitally in a finished way i.e. creating a website, is valuable. Personal Takeaways Jake- never sent out postcards. Was going into animation and had an agent pounding the pavement to get him comic and illustration work. However, he had his first Missile Mouse Comic book. He made it at the copy center. And had to fold all of the 8.5 x 11 sheets, and get them all in the right order. It was a pain. He made a bunch of these "ashcan" booklets, and took a bunch of them to San Diego Comic Con in 2001 and started to hand them out to his art heroes. He gave one to Jeff Smith, the creator of Bone who was really excited and introduced Jake to Bob Shrek, the editor in chief at DC Comics. None of that panned out into anything but it gave him tons of confidence in his abilities, and led him to find other comic book artists at his same level, and they ended up making their own  Beginning of this Journey, and really the first step for me realizing my potential as a creator. It never would have happened if I didn’t finish that first book and have something tangible that I could hand to another person that they can handle and pass it along. Link: Finished Not Perfect Link: Jake's Traveler’s Print Jake's Goal for each piece: give it 3 lives.  For example, you could create a process video, there's the finished piece, it could be scanned into book, made into a print, or into a postcard. All this artwork has mini lives, you can even sell the original. Don’t just let a piece of art live and die in one version, it should live on in many version. Lee, has been entering into art fairs for about 5 years now. Then did his first one and all of his work sold really well, and he was doing prints, Lee then decided to find a way to sell the originals. Now when I make an image, I make it with a standardized frame size.  Another important thing he learned from comic and moving forward.  Jake, learned the value of letting something be finished, rather than trail off forever. Never being finished, always trying to find a perfection to it, rather have something tangible, that can be held, downloaded or a finished website, or in other words: Whatever finished is you need to get it to that point. Another word for finished is shipped. You can't ship something if you haven't finished it. You’ve got to get it to a finished state, what things to let go of, what things to hold on to to make it seem finished. Lee always finishes things: has a way of working that applies well with his personality and is fairly fast. Jake has a number of Projects not finished: i.e. Lord Balderben and the Infinicorn of Destiny. Started adding comic pages in between. So he put it on the back burner to work on another. It’s okay to not finish a project as long as you don’t make that what you do with all projects.  You learn from things, even things like typography, and shipping. You learn about practical concerns. Lee realized that his books that were printed in China were coming to him on a boat and weighed 3000 pounds and he realized he didn't have anywhere for them. You really learn a process outside of the illustration process. Obstacles Not having an end product in mind. Jake did the Draw 100 Somethings Challenge, which pushes you to do something you aren’t familiar with, and pushes your creativity. He ended up drawing 200 somethings and then... that was it. Jake Realized, since that project, what’s the point of doing a project, besides getting better, if you don't have anything for the project to do, it isn’t helping you or another. Begin with some sort of physical object in mind, so you know you aren’t done until that thing exists. Want to maximize time, and get the most use and benefit from art. Fine Artist- The creator makes something and it doesn’t matter if anyone gets anything out of it.As long as you appreciate your work, that’s good enough. Illustrator- need to express something to someone else, a story or an idea, not as satisfied if you don’t get to express it something for someone else. You need to train yourself to “ship”, need to start small. If you have an idea, try it out, don’t just talk, walk the walk. You have to decide to do it and start. One key element: get used to the idea of “clumsy beginnings.” It all looks clear in hindsight. When you start it out, it’s really clumsy, you don’t know what the details are. It starts as a big clumsy mess, then you start figuring out problems, 1 by 1 by 1. They start with grabbing this thing, and this thing, you just go through and answer quetions. Will starts to do something and then realize what he should have done. The more you age, the more creating, the more shipping you do, the more thoughtful, careful, and methodical. Be a doer, a starter, a finisher. Little book, wasn’t anticipating such a People get paralyzed, Didn’t start with the small stuff, caught up in the “I can’t” Thinking mindset. Finished Project: Jake starts with the end in mind, starts on making the thing, and the little things. 2-3 days making the logo. What makes me excited about the shop  Link: Shoe Dog- wants to make a really good shoe and make it as good as it can be, forgot to figure out name and logo. People lose way by focusing on things that don’t matter too much and forget to focus on the meat, the important things. Lee likes to do thumbnails, then a finished piece. If lots of people are expecting to see it, then you will produce a lot more. Positive Pure Pressure. Good technique: have other people expecting it, develop Accountability. Kickstarter is great- accountability, timeline, parameters. One of the best things is Will’s Kickstarter failing. Hit self on the head with a new hammer, learn that way.  People will click “LIKE” all day, if you can’t get 1000 likes, then you won’t get 1000 people to give you a dollar. Then on second try, really did homework, asked questions,  You’ve got to start small, and have failures, you learn the lessons along the way. We have amazing projects within us, and we don’t even know what they are yet. Do what you need to do to coax those projects out of you. 10 Item List: How to take a project from start to finish: Choose Wisely: you have got to have an interest in it, a motivition. Is it something that people want? Do research in it, is there interest in it? You and Others? Resource Planning: Figure out how much time it’s going to to take to make it? Figure out how much money you’ll have to put into it? Figure out supplies, physical resources? Plan out key tasks: creation, design, putting it together, figure out who you need to work with. Plan it out, how long it will take, how long you can spend each day, how long timeline will be. Then put schedule on calendar. Create a Progress Sheet or Schedule. Announce it! Tell friends, social media, etc. “This is the thing I’m working on” Finished Not Perfect: at every step, how do I get this to a finished thing, not too hung up on perfecting everything, you’ll learn more by getting it out of your system than perpetually perfecting. Share progress, how did you have idea, what you’re working on now, show work, what you did this week, what inspired you to do that? You’ll build an audience. Stay on Target: Always keep a vision of the finished product. Why you started? Keep in mind what that thing is, so you don’t waste time in the weeds. Unlock Achievements: reward self for accomplishments. Have Fun! If you aren’t finding fun in it, and it’s just drudgery you are doing something wrong, doesn’t  You can hit eject at any time. Give yourself option to be able to pivot and do something else. Lee wishes he had 10 things told to him, when he was in school. Nobody will pay you more than yourself. Own your own IP, Business, Something, is so valuable. CURRENT PROJECTS Jake: Skyheart Update: still working on the coloring. Learning to attack a scene all at the same time. Speeds up working time, 10 pages an afternoon. 36 pages left to color. Will: Textbook project complete. Will is working with a Hero Illustrator on a class for SVS, it’s amazing to be able to work with somebody whose work he was looking up to for so long. Really excited to announce it.  Lee: Still working on Children’s Book, rough sketches are done, big aha moments are not as frequent for illustration, but they happen whenever someone tells him something about writing, he had a big aha moment with writing. Show not tell, make them feel it, not just tell. “Nico was nervous.” Tell. “Nico got a knot in his stomach, and his breathing tensed.” Show.  Now trying to go through manuscript and make it. You can also show things in pictures that aren’t even mentioned in words that complement text. 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.

Many people wonder, is it too late? Or, am I too old to start? Will, Lee, and Jake talk about this age old question and discuss how it isn’t too late. There are many successful creatives that didn’t start until they were older. Lee shares his story and how he didn’t start art until later on in life. We talk about ways you can amp up and make the most of your early years if you are starting for the first time, or looking to accelerate your growth later in life. We discuss some of the benefits of age and the need for sacrifice and prioritizing to create a thriving career in art. Links: Svslearn.com, schoolism, CGMA Sang Jun, https://www.sangjunart.com/ Lee White, https://www.leewhiteillustration.com/ Zombies video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc Jon Klassen, http://jonklassen.tumblr.com/ Craig Mullins, http://www.goodbrush.com/ Design 100 Somethings, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxa01j9Ns7o Uncovering Your Style, SVS, https://courses.svslearn.com/courses/uncovering-your-style Yuko Shimizu, http://yukoart.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 http://forum.svslearn.com Podcast production and editing by Aaron Dowd. Show notes by Tanner Garlick. Am I Too Old to Get Started? Am I too old to shift careers? Am I too old to start as an artist? Am I too old to start this big project I’ve always wanted to start working on? What’s the average age to start working? If you grew up with an interest in art, drew all the time, and went to art school then most people start their art career maybe in their mid-twenties. Often people who get to art a little later in the game wonder, “Am I too old to do this?” Young people think, “When am I going to get that job?” Regardless of your age, you are probably comparing yourself to people older and younger than you, and wishing you had done something different when you were younger or feeling like you are so far behind. Examples of Successful Late Starters Sang Jun. https://www.sangjunart.com/ Didn’t start drawing until he was well into his twenties. Realized he loved drawing, and started practicing, went to art school, ended up getting a job at Lucas Film doing character design for Episode 3, and then became a lead character designer at Blue Sky. You don’t have to start in your late teens to make it. Lee White. https://www.leewhiteillustration.com/ Didn’t draw in twenties, or teens. Wasn’t interested until he was in his thirties and started drawing. Applied to Art Center of Design and got accepted with a scholarship, moved to LA, and graduated when he was 33. Then started getting his first books when he was in his mid-thirties, and that’s not the end, it’s just an on going thing. Miyazaki, the Walt Disney of Japan, in animation all throughout career until 40. That’s when he decided to start his own animation studio. He did a graphic novel at age 40 for Nausica that he wanted to make into a feature film, all of his great movies were done in his post 40’s. At age 40, you still have 25 years till most people retire, that’s a long time! You really don’t ever have to retire. Art isn’t like playing football, it’s not hard on your bones. Zombies video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZ0K3lWKRc As You Mature, Your Art Matures Greg Manchess was winning awards and competitions for years, and he came out to do a lecture, he had just done the cover for “Above the Timberline.“ Speaking of that painting he said, “10 years ago I could not have painted this” even though 10 years ago he was winning awards for the Society of Illustrators, etc. If you really are serious about being an artist and creating the best art you are capable of creating, you have to make it a lifelong goal. It’s not a sprint. You need a schedule for yourself. You need to have an actual goal, something to look forward to. Without it, nothing happens. Don’t judge results by if you are right on target. Say, you’re 35. 5 years will pass whether you like it or not. You’re gonna be 40 at some point. Wouldn’t you rather have done something interesting with those 5 years between 35 and 40, or and tried to do this thing? If time passes anyways, you might as well do it. If you are starting later, you won’t be creating the same work that you would if you had started younger. You have had so many life experiences: losing jobs, family, work, etc. Beauty of age, experience, which leads to more informed art. If you’re older, you’ve figured out how to work and developed a good work ethic. You don’t quit until the job is done. Broader perspective, more interested in learning than instant gratification. Gina Jane was a student going back to school. She turned in some of the best projects in the class, she had done a lot of graphic design stuff but hadn’t been drawing for a while. However, she had the work ethic, and she worked so hard at applying what she was being taught. She easily turned in some of the best pieces in the class. You can accelerate your learning with your experiences. Older students are more okay learning something without instant gratification. i.e. learning perspective, having a more broad perspective and being more willing to learn. Battle Plan For someone starting at, let’s say, 35-36.. Phase 1 or Year 1: Get good at it Draw for 2 hours a day. Enroll in an online school, SVSlearn, schoolism, CGMA. Learn the Fundamentals: Perspective,  Light and Shadow, Figure Drawing, Composition, Color, how to use Line/shape/tone Fill 6-7 100 page sketchbooks, during your 2 hours a day. Work on hands, head, the figure, landscape, perspective, shading, this is your your sandbox for practicing and applying what you are learning. Pick 5 of your favorite artist, do 20 copies from each of these 5 artists. Each copy, you will learn so much from trying to deconstruct what these artists have done. You want to learn how that artist did it. You’re gonna fail with some of them, but you try and learn from the masters by copying their work. Depending on what your goal is, it might change your approach. Jon Klassen. Does a lot more simple graphic design type work. http://jonklassen.tumblr.com/ Craig Mullins. Studied industrial design. He didn’t like the industrial design look. Then he went back to school and did illustration. http://www.goodbrush.com/ Seek advice from a professional: "these are my goals, what should I do?" Sometimes students want to become a children’s book illustrator but don’t really know any illustrators. During this first year, you need to educate yourself on this field. If it’s children’s books, every week maybe read 5 a week. If it’s comics, know what’s in comics, not just 20 years ago, but what is happening now. Fill your creative bank account with what people in the industry are doing. State your goal publicly: and then share your progress on the social media platform. That’s your Phase 1/ Year 1, it might take 2-3 years. Phase 2: Build Your Portfolio Draw 4 hours a day Intermediate classes, these online schools, and svs have more advanced classes. More one on one with teachers. 4 sketchbooks this year, not studies, concept art for portfolio. Illustrator: ideas for illustrations or childrens books Comic artist: ideas for characters, your take on Wolverine, etc. Complete the Draw 100 Somethings Challenge: boats, trees, flowers, gummy robots, dinosaurs, robots, etc. Teaches you to not be satisfied with first 2-3, or 20 designs. Teaches you that true creativity comes after you have drained all the low hanging fruit. Jake did 200. Just to prove that there is no end to the ideas you can do. 100 Somethings, Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxa01j9Ns7o Continue Studying. If you’re aspiring to do childrens books- keep studying children’s books. concept artist or animator-reading every word in the “Art Of” books. Comics, keep studying comic books. Social Media- post your 100 somethings. Post your sketchbook studies. Can start growing a following, cause you aren’t just practicing but sharing your own unique ideas and what you are bringing to this field you are entering. Choose your heroes. Educate yourself on what you want to do. i.e. children’s books, comics, animation. Post regularly, share your work, journal chart progress, share what you’re learning. Keep Studying Start to pay attention to stories. At the end of the day this is what will separate you. See what the story is about, not just the details, separate that. Eventually everyone will be able to draw and paint, and story is what will separate you. Ultimately, Star Wars is all about a family. It’s a family drama, that’s what it is about. Be able to see the broader view, what’s the story about, and how did they tell that story. You can really get some great insights to storytelling, story building, and how to tell your own stories. You don’t want to just be a vapid artist who isn’t saying anything. Key: Ultimately, it is your stories that you tell that will separate you from the others.  Be observant of stories in your life and all around you. What the story is all about, what is the broader view? How did they tell the story. Look at it separate from the details. They’re not saying anything, or they’re saying the same thing that has always been said. Be conscious of the style that you are developing. See "Uncovering your Style", https://courses.svslearn.com/courses/uncovering-your-style Phase 3: Make a Product. Kickstart and Create your comic, illustrate your book, concept out your idea. Create something that works for you. Reasons: Teaches you to Start and Finish a project.An actual product, suggests a finality to the project. Not just a project. Finished not perfect. Learn Marketing Learn Production Learn Salesmanship. Learn who prints things, and how to get things printed. Learn about how when things get screwed up how to fix it? You’ll be more educated and understand what’s happening behind the scenes. Year 3 is all about taking everything you are learning and create something with it. Enter contests, put yourself out there, step up to the plate, try it, and get work out there. This is the best that I have got, this is what I have to share. Helps propel you to a new step. Do your best, and then move forward. You need moments of finality and stair stepping, then you can ask, “Where to go next?” Keep finishing things, then you go on to the next thing, and keep doing your best, then you can decide where to go next. Don’t just keep a bunch of unfinished things in the drawer. Ultimately, we want you to teach yourself how to finish and present something. This will also help you flesh out a network. If you want to be successful, you need to build a network. People above, next to, and below you.You’d be surprised at what jobs and opportunities will come. Someone above may like your work and throw you a bone. Someone next to you may recommend you for a job.  Someone below you has opportunities too. Start building that network by building things and putting them out into the world. Get into the network/world that you hope to enter. Project creates a connection with people in that world, starts a network. Study a film a week, a graphic novel a week, etc. Will used to have though that “If I look at other people’s work I would be copying.” Originality comes from taking and combining, and studying. Will wishes someone would have grabbed him and told him that. Keep feeding yourself. All creativity is, is connecting dots. Connecting dots that other people wouldn’t haven’t thought to connect. In order to connect dots, you have to have dots in the first place if you’re not filling your brain, then you have no creative capital to work with, you have no thoughts. How Can I do This? You have 4 hours in a day. You work for 9-10 hours. You have 14 hours. Maybe you shave off an hour of sleep, maybe you stop watching a TV series. It really comes down to what you want to sacrifice. You shouldn’t sacrifice family, or your job. But there are some things you need to sacrifice to go down this path. Need to discuss this with your spouse or significant other.  I.e. “This is something I feel really passionate about, let’s work out a plan, maybe Thursday Friday nights are spent doing this, and you get me Saturday and Sunday.” Maybe it’s not 4 hours a day, and it’s 2. You can get a lot done in 2 hours. If you don’t prioritize it, it will never happen. Come up with a schedule. Maybe it is Thursday or Saturday. Early to Rise. Jake gets up at 4am to work on Skyheart. Lee wakes up at 5, works from 5:30-9:30 or 10AM. During that grouping of hours, stuff happens. You can get a ton of work done in that group of time. Pursuit of Happiness. The main character would drink less water, so that he didn’t have to use the restroom as often and could therefore make more calls. You’ve got to ask yourself, how bad do you want something? It comes down to that. I really want to play the guitar, but I didn’t sacrifice for it, I didn’t prioritize it. I said that I really wanted to play the guitar, but if you don’t sacrifice and prioritize it, then you don’t really want it. You can’t have good things without some sort of sacrifice or some sort of skin in the game. Yuko Shimizu, http://yukoart.com/ She had a full time corporate job, and kept her job until eventually she hit the tipping point and she quit her corporate job, and now is an incredible illustrator. Current Projects Jake: Skyheart, 60 Pages left to color, it’s coming along well! Lee: Working on illustrating some different subject matter. Do rough sketches, then Find 3 key beats or difficult passages, and does an illustration of those passages, cause that will set tone for the rest of the book. Not just page 1, 2, etc. and does those pages and then it influences all the rest of the pages. Will: Wrapping up Texture Painting class, Finished up the Alice in Wonderland series for Comic Con, and just finished a children’s book. http://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.

MY ART IS GREAT, WHY WON’T ANYONE HIRE ME? Will got a really long letter from an artist who felt that they had done everything they were supposed to, they felt that their work was great, and they were frustrated that they still weren’t getting work. Jake and Will looked over this artist’s work and felt that the work was pretty good but not great. It was missing the style that fit the market that the artist wanted to go into. The style didn’t match the genre. You can’t do characters that look like they belong in World of Warcraft for a children's book. Often, it’s not that you can’t draw or paint, but that you are missing the mark on where you need to go. Your style isn’t hitting the mark with what you want to go into. Your style needs to match the intended audience. WORK ON YOUR CRAFT Sometimes we feel that when we can render something nice, we have arrived, and we feel really good about ourselves. While that’s a great start, and an important step, this is really “fool’s gold.” There is a lot more to good illustration than just drawing well, and making things look 3-dimensional. You never “arrive.” There is always an area to further grow or to better master. Never convince yourself that there is nowhere else to grow. There is a difference between drawing well, and creating a very engaging product. The first step in getting professional work is to work on your craft, develop good drawing skills, good perspective, shadows, and light and color. After mastering your craft, the second step is discretion. To not over render things, to not add too many highlights. You need to learn what to leave out. You need to learn what to illustrate and add. The artistry is figuring out what to put down, and what to leave out. CONDUCT A SELF-AUDIT You need a combination of a self audit, and a professional audit. You need to conduct a Self-Audit, as outlined below: You need go through this honestly, it will take some time. Study the published things in the realm that you want to go in, and have the “right heroes” Pick 8 top illustrators, who are getting their work published, by the big publishers, i.e. Harper Collins, Random House, Scholastic, etc. Make a 9 Square grid. Put your best piece in the middle and surround it with a piece from those 8 illustrators that you admire Identify what you like about it. Don’t just say, “I love this!”, you need to verbalize specific things that you love about their work, create a specific list, and write it down. These are the things that you need to work on incorporating into your work. Hang the list by your desk in order to remember these principles and to try to incorporate them. See Bart Forbes. When you have an image that you really like, really analyze it, and dissect it. Don’t just say, “I like this image” and then move on. Really dissect it and look for specific things that are working well for you. Ask yourself, “What am I responding to?” COPY, COPY, COPY Many people have the attitude of: “I don’t want to look at other people’s work because I want to be original, I don’t want to copy.” There is a false idea about originality that says you shouldn’t look at others people’s work, or that you shouldn’t copy or take inspiration from them. Jake still looks at others work for inspiration. All great artists do. You really don’t need to make it as hard as you’re making it! You say it comes from within, but really it comes from without and you process it and make it your own thing. Find the right artists to look at and let them flow through you. There is no way you can perfectly copy all things all the time, at some point you’re gonna mix something with something else, and with a little bit of yourself and a little bit of this other person, and you’re gonna find your own style that fits into this world that you want to get into. When you are at the level that you want to be at, then find the right people for your work. I.e. Landscape painters will find the right gallery, not a children’s book publisher. Do you know anyone who is going through med school? What is their total work hours per week? Basically, if you are in med school and are doing well, you pretty much have zero life, and have tons of focus, attention to detail, etc. And if you do well in school, you pretty much have a good job waiting for you with a good salary. Illustration is every bit as hard, to develop a unique style and a product to beat out other artists for jobs, and there is not a guaranteed job waiting for you. You should be treating it like you’re in med school.   You won’t get paid to learn and do research. You need to find the motivation within. No one will tell you everything you need to do. You need to make a schedule yourself and be self motivated. After you develop the skills it becomes more and more about making an interesting image, something that people grab onto. Extra element of storytelling, interest. The idea behind it. Am I bringing something new to this subject matter, some new idea, some kind of unique viewpoint, or perspective? See Chris Applehans. ADD INTEREST TO YOUR LIFE There is nothing interesting there? It may be because you aren’t an interesting person. But you can become more interesting, you need to have a rich life outside of art. Art is just a way to express the interestingness that’s inherently inside of you. If your work’s not interesting: go out and do something, talk to somebody, travel, go to the other side of town. You need to fill your creative bank account. You have gotta have creative capital. If you’re dry and empty, your just gonna have dry and empty work. The lazy man doesn’t get too far, the perpetually busy man doesn’t get much farther. Some people are just drawing, drawing, drawing, without much thought. Stop, what kind of images am I making? Is there something better or more interesting that I should be creating. Don’t just draw and draw without any direction, you need to be more deliberate. You can’t just exhale, you need to inhale. To summarize: If you're not getting work: Audit yourself, audit your work, evaluate your work based on others. Work on craft, do master studies, copy. Add interest to your life. Find an outside source who can give you some honest critique and create a feedback loop (get feedback, improve it, then get more feedback again.) You have to work towards getting your skin thick enough to beg for a really honest critique. A pat on the back is not a critique. 4 Step Process to Evaluate If You are Really Good People naturally gravitate towards your work. People put up work, people naturally are drawn to it. Online, people naturally gather around it. Mom, or significant other doesn’t count. People start seeing work and recommending you for something or to others. You’re gonna start to win things: contests, scholarships, free classes, etc. People will start paying you. WHY SHOULD I COPY? Top art schools have there students create master copies. It’s a proven exercise. Steps: Create a master copy, the more exact the better. Then do a new original piece as if you were that artist. When you get stuck, look back at their work and try to figure out how they might solve the problem. What would ______ do? Keep a copy sketchbook, this is a sketchbook that you can just throw away when your done. That’s it, don’t need to show it to anyone. The most valuable thing from doing these master copies is what happens in your brain and your muscle memory. The most valuable thing is inside you. When kids start to learn to play piano, the teachers don’t say, “Alright, just make a piece of music, just write whatever you want!” The kids start by playing other peoples music and learning to sight read other people music. The same is with martial arts, and with sports. They teach you moves. They teach you what the greats before did. STORY TIME Jake was working on an illustration of Santa’s sleigh being pulled by a bunch of different animals. He got an honest critique from Skottie Young, and Skottie told him that it looked like the stock image version of what Jake was trying to do. So Jake went to Pinterest and started looking up cartoon animals, made a Pinterest board with cartoon animals and saw, “oh this is how you would do a killer whale… oh this is how you would do a llama… I wouldn’t have thought to do that..” Then took a little bit of this guy, and then took a little bit of what they did in this drawing, etc, and mashed it together and made it his own. But really it was from absorbing from all of those different artists. There are pinnacle and milestone pieces where you have breakthroughs. Eventually you get to where you can focus a lot more on the creative and imaginative side of things because you don’t have to worry so much about how to actually create it. Eventually you’ll get to where you don’t have so much hurt from something not working out. You need to learn to not take it personally, or take an emotional hit; to be able to I don’t mind looking at something and saying, “Ahh, that’s not working out” and then you go back without taking an emotional hit, and say, “you know I can make this better.” Sometimes you will ask, “Why am I not impressed with what I just did? If you yourself aren’t kind of impressed, then no one else will be. You should be stoked, not trying to convince yourself, “uh, it’s good, it’s good..” There are times where Jake has worked on a piece for a few hours and then had to scrap it because it just wasn’t up to par. You need to get to the point where if your dog chewed up your piece, that you don’t mind because you know you can create it again or maybe even do something better. A WORD TO THE PROS If there is a professional illustrator out there, or close to professional who has great work and you are saying, “I’ve done this guys.” Then maybe your problem isn’t your craft, but your network. If you don’t know people in the field you want to go in, then you need to find mentors, get your work out there online, and up your game. Current Projects (What are you working on?): Jake: Skyheart, finishing things up there. Will: Reading Book, about a bunny that out foxes a wolf. About to start the sequel to Bonnepart Falls Apart. Lee: Writing a children’s book about natural disasters, and just came up with a dummy, and is learning a lot. Important Links: svslearn.com Jake Parker, mrjakeparker.com | Instagram: @jakeparker Will Terry, willterry.com | Instagram: @willterryart Lee White, leewhiteillustration.com | Instagram: @leewhiteillo forum.svslearn.com 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 on to forum.svslearn.com, there is a forum for this episode you can comment on. 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.

Welcome to the 3 Point Perspective podcast. This is the podcast about illustration; how to do it, how to make a living at it, and how to make an impact in the world with your art. Your hosts are Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White. For the last 25 years, they've all worked with just about every major publisher and every publication in the biz. They've collectively published about 50 books, and have all taught at universities. Each week, they're going to tackle a subject related to illustration from their three different perspectives. Sometimes they'll agree, sometimes they're gonna argue, but you are gonna learn something new every time. Here are some of the questions that will be discussed: How do you get discovered as an artist? Once you're discovered, how do you negotiate a deal if you've got a job? How do you get an agent to represent you? What are the tools that illustrators use (computers, software, pens, pencils, brushes)? Why do you create? How do you stay motivated? How do you battle creative block? How do you balance work and life and still have a successful career and have a successful family life? Message from Jake, Terry, and Lee: Thanks for checking out 3 Point Perspective. We'd love it if you would subscribe to our podcast so you'll know whenever new episodes drop and you'll be able to listen to them right away. We would also love any sort of feedback you have. Did you like how the topic was presented? What's your perspective on the topics? What are things that you wanna learn about? What are questions that you have about illustration? Please hit subscribe and join us for future episodes of the Three Point Perspective podcast, and we will see you in the next episode. Jake, Terry, Lee Visit SVSLearn.com to learn more, or subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts. 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.