Since I have taken on the task of resurrecting my freelance career, I have been posting feverishly my latest illustrations in several locations with the hope that someone will like my work and ultimately hire me. While doing these posts, I realized that I made multiple mistakes that really may have hurt my marketing efforts. I am listing these errors so maybe it will help any new artists, as well as myself, overcome any further advertising missteps.
Take the illustration below. Although I was very please in how it turned out, in a marketing standpoint I realized that I made several mistakes.
Whenever I post a new image I always add the name of the work, a copyright and my name to the description of the image. Always a good idea. However, upon closer inspection I discovered any real lack of marketing my talents.
I’m Batman. Digital Caricature.
I often peruse multiple art/illustrator websites, blogs, and forums and noticed multiple submissions of Batmans in many of these sites. I realized that I never have created my own Batman fan art. Well, here’s my submission.
Now that I have added ZBrush to my illustration toolbox, I found myself looking for any source of tutorials and tips to help me improve my 3D illustrations. The Pixologic website (www.pixologic.com) is a great source of information for learning how to use the ZBrush software, as is ZBrushCentral (www.zbrushcentral.com). The lessons in these sites have been invaluable. But my brain always yearns for more. Especially when it came to texturing tips.
For the past twelve months, I have delved into my new 3D modelling program ZBrush to learn how to sculpt highly detailed models. When I first looked into this program, I knew that it would be a perfect addition to my arsenal of illustration tools. Creating Wilkommen was by far the biggest challenge I faced since using Zbrush.
This was an illustration I knew would involve a lot of detail, meaning this would take a lot of time. I figure creating this image took me a total of approximately 60 hours over a three week period. But boy, did I have fun working on this project.
Pre-painted model created in Zbrush.
My original plan with this piece was to just design and sculpt a beer stein. When I was young, I had painted plaster and ceramic beer steins as a hobby. I have always been fascinated with steins. But as I finished the stein, the image just looked incomplete. Hence, the addition of the barmaid.
As a graphic artist and illustrator, often times I turn to my color wheel to help me determine which hues best work with my work (as I am sure many artists will do as well). The color wheel I own is printed on a 12 pt. card stock with a grommet in the center to hold the two pieces together — as most color wheels.
Recently I discovered a website called Color Scheme Designer 3 colorschemedesigner.com. It is essentially an online color wheel.
On-line color wheel at colorschemedesigner.com
This site has proven to be a great asset in my work, as my “paper” color wheel has become somewhat “used” (mangled) over the years. The site works just like a color wheel, and with a click you can choose “mono,” “complimentary,” “tertiary,” “analogic,” and “accented analogic.” This app provides a preview of hues within the chosen color scheme. And for web design, displays web page color examples. I don’t do much web design any more, but I still find this to be an indispensable app and I just wanted to share this info.