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Wanted to leave my response to your query on freelancing here rather than on the boards:
I've had jobs like logo design, one book cover (that one was more of a technical exercise than a creative one, based on the nature of the book), some infographics, a cartoon here or there. Just finished working on a cartoon character design for an individual in India.
That's the other thing. You never know where your next client will be hailing from. England, Australia, India, your local neighborhood. Around the corner or around the world.
Elance has been a really good experience for the most part. Certainly better at this point than working with DA's commission widget. Sites like Elance and Odesk take a good chunk of the trust issues that plague online freelancing out of the equation through it's tools for structuring a deal (scheduling delivery and payment deadlines, verifying client's ability to make payment, a system of arbitration if disagreements arise - which thankfully they have not yet for me at least). A token allotment system that keeps us honest and from just bombing the job lists with applications, so we have to be selective. It just makes the experience a good one for both client and freelancer alike.
That said, freelancing presents its own sets of challenges. You have to be consistently motivated, you spend more time looking for your next job than you do working on the jobs themselves often enough, and then there's the differences in how one does their taxes (don't know how this may be handled differently in different countries, but in the US it means having to file them quarterly, file different forms as an individual business, pay your own social security and medicare taxes - things which your employer would automatically deduct from you paycheck if you worked for someone else, etc, etc)
And even then, I still have a long way to go before I can count on this and this alone.
On the plus side, I feel like I am at the point where I can figure out most any client's problem and find a solution (within the realm of design and illustration at least), and that confidence does help when applying for new work. Stuff you might have turned down before for thinking it too far out of your experience range becomes something you jump at.
If that sounds like your cup of tea, then welcome to the pool!
I've had jobs like logo design, one book cover (that one was more of a technical exercise than a creative one, based on the nature of the book), some infographics, a cartoon here or there. Just finished working on a cartoon character design for an individual in India.
That's the other thing. You never know where your next client will be hailing from. England, Australia, India, your local neighborhood. Around the corner or around the world.
Elance has been a really good experience for the most part. Certainly better at this point than working with DA's commission widget. Sites like Elance and Odesk take a good chunk of the trust issues that plague online freelancing out of the equation through it's tools for structuring a deal (scheduling delivery and payment deadlines, verifying client's ability to make payment, a system of arbitration if disagreements arise - which thankfully they have not yet for me at least). A token allotment system that keeps us honest and from just bombing the job lists with applications, so we have to be selective. It just makes the experience a good one for both client and freelancer alike.
That said, freelancing presents its own sets of challenges. You have to be consistently motivated, you spend more time looking for your next job than you do working on the jobs themselves often enough, and then there's the differences in how one does their taxes (don't know how this may be handled differently in different countries, but in the US it means having to file them quarterly, file different forms as an individual business, pay your own social security and medicare taxes - things which your employer would automatically deduct from you paycheck if you worked for someone else, etc, etc)
And even then, I still have a long way to go before I can count on this and this alone.
On the plus side, I feel like I am at the point where I can figure out most any client's problem and find a solution (within the realm of design and illustration at least), and that confidence does help when applying for new work. Stuff you might have turned down before for thinking it too far out of your experience range becomes something you jump at.
If that sounds like your cup of tea, then welcome to the pool!
Well at the moment I think it´s the only option. I have been working as an entrepreneur for quite a while now but not actually in this area. So I am aware of these taxes and other stuff. And I believe it´s not too easy to find those clients.
There is a lot of variety what you have done and that maybe is my biggest fear! Usually people want me to do something that I am most uncomfortable wtih. Also that motivation part is quite true. You have to come up with some new and great ideas all the time.
There is a lot of variety what you have done and that maybe is my biggest fear! Usually people want me to do something that I am most uncomfortable wtih. Also that motivation part is quite true. You have to come up with some new and great ideas all the time.
A lot of the differences people ask for within the boundaries of character work, illustration, and so on come down to things that on a foundation level don't have really that much significance. Style is usually a big one, but the deal with style is it's just the final icing on the cake. Strong foundations mean you can look at what defines a style and put it on top of the foundation and you're usually good to go. Having the analytical mindset to pick apart the tics of a given style is pretty much what defines the ability to do it, I think.
Subject matter can be another. Drawing inanimate objects, like cars and the like aren't something I enjoy drawing so I don't have any of them in my portfolio. I know (and have confidence now) that by applying the same principles I've learned doing figures that I can handle drawing cars just fine to the same degree. Granted, I tend to look for work that isn't object-heavy over person/character or story heavy anyway, so that particular one doesn't come up too much, but the style one does.
Convincing the client that just because you don't have that many examples of a particular style in your portfolio doesn't mean you can't do the style they want, is a hard sell sometimes because they seem to be of the impression that an artist's style defines his or her limitations. Then there's people asking for Anime-Manga style when I just can't bring myself to deal with because I have a fairly strong dislike for the asesthetic. (If they offered huge$$, I might change my opinion of the style, but that's a financial consideration
)
And on the artists' side there's the fear that you mention, but it's all the same foundation. If the foundation is strong, it can support just about all the variety you can imagine. Going more abstract here, organic over there. Shape driven here, or texture driven over there (like Frazetta's drawings, loaded with interior surface marks that do the heavy lifting in defining form), the door is wide open for anyone who wants to walk through it.
But I hear ya. Some days you have the imagination mojo working, others you don't. What's great about actually finding work for clients is that a good client will have a pretty clear idea of what they're after, relieving you of some of the pressure to find the boundaries of your project on your own.
Subject matter can be another. Drawing inanimate objects, like cars and the like aren't something I enjoy drawing so I don't have any of them in my portfolio. I know (and have confidence now) that by applying the same principles I've learned doing figures that I can handle drawing cars just fine to the same degree. Granted, I tend to look for work that isn't object-heavy over person/character or story heavy anyway, so that particular one doesn't come up too much, but the style one does.
Convincing the client that just because you don't have that many examples of a particular style in your portfolio doesn't mean you can't do the style they want, is a hard sell sometimes because they seem to be of the impression that an artist's style defines his or her limitations. Then there's people asking for Anime-Manga style when I just can't bring myself to deal with because I have a fairly strong dislike for the asesthetic. (If they offered huge$$, I might change my opinion of the style, but that's a financial consideration
)And on the artists' side there's the fear that you mention, but it's all the same foundation. If the foundation is strong, it can support just about all the variety you can imagine. Going more abstract here, organic over there. Shape driven here, or texture driven over there (like Frazetta's drawings, loaded with interior surface marks that do the heavy lifting in defining form), the door is wide open for anyone who wants to walk through it.
But I hear ya. Some days you have the imagination mojo working, others you don't. What's great about actually finding work for clients is that a good client will have a pretty clear idea of what they're after, relieving you of some of the pressure to find the boundaries of your project on your own.
It looks like you have really been thinking this matter.Thanks for sharing your thoughts!