“Seeing Red.” Digital Line Art Illustration. (c) 2014 Michael J. Barnes.
I am currently working up a series of email ads for a prospective client and this is the first of a set of line art illustrations that I am proposing to appear in the ads.
I have called this illustration Seeing Red. The concept of the ad is to buy the client’s product to help you ” Stop Seeing Red.”
I haven’t done a lot of line art work recently, so it was good to get back to my illustrative roots.
Needing to find new ways to attract clients, I decided to create and illustrate a heroic advertising campaign. Granted, this is not a new idea by a long shot. However, it is new for this type of product line. The idea was to develop cartoon heroes, heroins, villains, etc. who will prominently display the product. The “Superman”-like ad was the first I developed in this series. This campaign just hit this week, so it’s still too early to tell. But initial reports are showing that the campaign is receiving positive feedback.
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.