8x10 underpaintings of Bancroft and Flora
Art for Exposure
“I’m writing this totally cool book; I’d like you to illustrate it. Do you have to be paid, or will the exposure be enough?”
We were recently asked this question at a comic convention. Like many of you, I’ve heard this several times in my career and it still shocks me every time I hear it.
“Wait, you are wanting me to work …. for free? In the hopes that this mystery project of yours will be a New York Times #1 bestseller and I will somehow get famous for it?”
I find that it happens more often at comic shows. Perhaps this is because so many struggling artists attend and get artist alley tables in the desperate (and understandable) hope of being noticed by a publisher. And here unscrupulous people prey upon them.
Before I begin, let me clarify: This is not about all free work. There are certain times when it is right and good to do free work.
Briefly, a few examples of free work that are exceptions here:
A Charity or Cause
Perhaps it is for something you truly believe in and want to support. (Like being asked to contribute art to the Society of Illustrators Microvisions show, the proceeds of which are dedicated to student art scholarships.)
For A Loved One
Perhaps it is for a close personal friend who you truly believe their book needs to be illustrated. Perhaps it is your mom, and you love your mom. (Note: These are almost always bad ideas to accept, but they are exceptions and people are absolutely allowed to do crazy things for their loved ones.)
For Your Artist Representative
An Art Rep is someone who you have agreed by contract to provide art for so that they can market you. In this case, you already agreed to provide art for exposure. But an art director isn’t trying to get you to illustrate his project. He is trying to put together your portfolio. He only makes money when you make money from actual clients. So this is very different, and until you get work, you should be doing everything in your power to improve your portfolio.
And this is also not about work where there is some form of profit-sharing being suggested. That is a different article entirely.
No,
This is about providing free work, given in exchange for the dubious promise of "exposure."
Providing skilled artwork in exchange for exposure is an exchange of services. You provide art, and they provide marketing for you and your brand.
It is not that this is an inherently bad exchange, it is that 99.9% of the people who promise this 'exposure' cannot deliver on their end of the bargain.
Here is why you NEVER take these projects:
1. Someone who offers exposure for art does not understand the industry. If they did, they would know that they HAVE to pay you. Someone who offers this will have NO idea how to get the project produced. And therefore won’t be able to deliver on their promise of exposure.
2. Someone who offers exposure for art lacks the capitol necessary to produce and market the product towards a successful end.
3. Someone who offers this lacks respect for you and for creative professionals in general.
They will be miserable and extremely demanding to work with.
4. It is insulting to you and to creative professionals everywhere.
By taking the work, you are supporting an evil and manipulative market and furthering a corrupt mindset that devalues the art of illustration and dehumanizes those who practice it.
If you are still tempted, ask yourself:
Could you use the time you would spend on this project to do your own, much cooler project?
Could you use the time you would spend on this project to further you art education through classes? Could you use the time you would spend on this project to improve your portfolio so you have a better chance of getting ACTUAL, paying commissions?
Do you have even a shred of self-respect?
If you said yes to any of these, then don't take the project.
Keep this in mind:
If their project is so great and is going to be so successful, then they can go sell an investor on it, and he can put up the money to pay you a fair rate for your work. Let the sharks handle that. You make sure you get paid.
What to do when someone asks you to do work for free:
Kindly, politely, educate the person that this is not how the world works.
Perhaps they didn’t mean to say something so horribly offensive to you.
Perhaps they didn’t mean to suggest that you give up 3 months of your life for no pay because they think of you as something inferior to themselves.
Perhaps they just don't understand art.
Or perhaps they didn’t whole-heartedly agree with the abolition of slavery.
So take a moment and explain to them that illustration is a professional skill, acquired through years of difficult training and practice. The execution of it takes time and great effort. Illustrators are just like other professionals, and they expect to be paid for their work, and to work under similar working conditions of any other human being in our society. Perhaps when they understand that you are a working human being just like them, they will change and become someone who can support the arts in a more honest and helpful way.
NEVER take unpaid work for the promise of exposure.
FantasyCon 2014 Report
Delicious Dragon Candy
We are back home from the first FantasyCon in Salt Lake City, Utah! It was an amazing event organized by Josh Patel who is an incredible patron of the fantasy arts. He commissioned a collection of large scale paintings from many fantasy artists (including some from Justin and I) for the show. You can see my finished piece here and Justin's here. Other artists included Brom, Donato Giancola, Jeff Easley, Christophe Vacher, Mark Poole, Eric Velhagen, Heather Theurer, and Rob Alexander.
On Wednesday, July 2nd, FantasyCon hosted an exclusive charity event: The Night of Dreams with Angel’s Hands, March of Dimes, and Make-A-Wish, to name a few. They unveiled a 3-story tall dragon with the help of Sylvester McCoy (Radagast in “The Hobbit” and the seventh Doctor Who) and some of the cast of Lost Girl. It was a truly remarkable event, and the kids were just thrilled to see it!
There was a huge emphasis on art at this show. Justin was able to see his Gryphon Hunters framed and lit in a special display they made to house all of the masterworks artists.
There were also a lot of animals at the show, including a great reptile/bug booth where you could learn about the animals. I was brave and decided to try holding one of the tarantulas.
You can learn more about the animals this group has on their website here
They were definitely one of the highlights of the show for us!
We got to visit with some amazing artists from the show, including Donato, Howard Lyon, Steve Argyle (and his amazingly sweet and thoughtful wife, Kat), Tara Larsen Chang, Heather Theurer, Mark Poole, Eric Velhagen, and Kimberly Kincaid to name a few!
There were a few things I have never seen at any convention before… like a rogue ball python who tried to swipe my last remaining business cards. An amazing falconer booth where we were able to get some great bird reference shots. And a dino booth with a paleontologist who was able to give us a lot of helpful advice on dealing with ancient carnivores... advice which is going to come in very helpful as we continue to work on our secret 2014 Sketchbook.
...More on that, and our road trip through Utah next week!
On the Easel Today
Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 3
We are back from Spectrum, and have finally had a chance to go through our photos from the show. It was an amazing event, and we are so honored to have been able to take part in it for its third year.
This was our first time debuting our full booth setup together.
On Saturday, Annie was able to participate in a panel about women in fantasy illustration with some pretty fantastic ladies in the industry.
Photo courtesy of www.spectrumfantasticartlive.com
(from left to right) Zoë Robinson, Annie Stegg, Camilla d'Errico, Kristina Carroll, Winona Nelson, and Rebecca Yanovskaya
Saturday night was the awards ceremony held in the beautiful Midland Theater.
(from left to right) Amber Chen, Annie Stegg, Ania Mohrbacher, Erin Godbey
Justin had a watercolor demo at the Lamp Post Guild booth during the show.
New video sneak peek, part I
A sneak peek of the newest piece in my "Daughters of Oceanus" series. She will be displayed in the Auguste Clown Gallery show, "Wilderness" 20th June- July 7th.
12x12
oil on board
Music:
Michal Hambourg
Chopin, Etude in A-flat, Op. 25, no. 1
The Smell of Venison
"The Smell of Venison"
18" x 24"
Oil on Gessoed Paper with Digital Modifications
I was inspired to paint this image for two reasons:
First, to celebrate tax season.
And Second to try and and do justice to an image that didn't work out like I had hoped it would the first time around. To compare this one against the old one and see if there is any improvement, check out the original here: http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/08/dragon-watercolor-and-final.html
All in all it was a very fun experience for me and I'm glad I did it. I feel a lot better about the story and characters in this one.
We'll be selling prints and displaying the original oil this weekend in Kansas City!
Spells Are Hard
"Spells Are Hard"
12" x 18" inches
Watercolor and Digital
A new image I will be selling prints of at Spectrum LIVE this weekend in Kansas City!
I have been doing a lot of oil painting recently and it has inspired me to do a scene celebrating the difficulty of doing anything well.
Crocale the Naias Nymph
Hey guys! I just completed the latest edition to the Daughters of Oceanus series. She will be on display at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live later this week, along with the pencil studies.
Crocale the Naias Nymph
12x16
oil on board
May 2014
Pencil on toned Canson paper
Thumbnails
The Dragon Doc
The Dragon Doc
9 x 12 inches
Watercolor on Hot Press
This little fellow is one of a number of new watercolors I have been working on for Spectrum LIVE this year. I've been having a lot of fun with them. I will post a few more of these over the next 2 weeks leading up to the show!
Tiny Traveler
Spectrum Fantastic Art Live is quickly approaching, and I have been busy preparing new works to display at the event! I finally completed my latest piece in the Thumbelina series, Tiny Traveler.
Tiny Traveler
18x24
Oil on Belgian linen
I will be posting more work in progress shots and sketches of the works I will be bringing to the show over the next two weeks.
The Lady of Lórien
The Lady of Lórien
18x24
Oil on Belgian Linen
Hey guys! I was recently commissioned to do a portrait of Galadriel for a private collector. I had a lot of fun with this one, and was really able to loose myself in all of that foliage! For me, it can be very therapeutic to spend time on the tiny details.
RE_WORK: Waterfall Dragon
The following painting was such a let down for me that today I am resigning from my career as an illustrator and am taking up agribusiness and I have ordered my first pair of llamas:
(APRIL FOOLS)
Kind of.
The painting is in fact, a terrible let down. And I may, or may not have illegally acquired a pair of llamas.
The reason the painting is such a let down for me was not just that it fell short of some internal artistic goal, or that the story I had hoped it would tell didn't communicate well; it was mostly that it failed to truly convey awe-struck I was upon beholding a particular waterfall in Switzerland a few years ago.
I hiked up it for several hours one day. There was something about the thunderous roar of the water and the way the water coiled down the mountain that made me think of some vast, terrible dragon. It was an awesome force of nature. One wrong step on the slippery, moss-covered rocks and I would be ground up and eaten.
My little sketches might one day have been found and they would have pieced it all together. (Sir, we've deciphered it. It was aliens, aliens riding dinosaurs that got him.)
Something about this place put the image of this dragon snaking his way down the mountain into my head. I would later scribble down a tiny thumbnail of this to remember it and since then have made several unsuccessful attempts to paint it.
This time I have decided to try it from a slightly different angle.
By flipping it horizontally. NOBODY WILL SEE THIS COMING.
Actually there is more than that. My favorite thing in representational art is story, and in particular when a piece of art draws you in and makes you tell the story yourself as you walk around inside of it.
In the previous attempt my story was rather one dimensional. (Warrior with sword fight big dragon! Painting smash!) At the time I felt it was interesting but on further consideration I wish that I had thought a little longer about it before painting it.
In this one I wanted to do something a little more fun and hopefully more interesting. Since it was tax season the following story seemed to dovetail nicely with the original theme. (The title is the key... More on that next time..)
The Plan: Pencil and acrylic on paper, then sealed in matte medium and the color painted in oil. 18 x 24 inches.
In general I hate to retread old ground and would always prefer to plow on to someplace new, but this time, I am really excited to see where this leads.
Original Waterfall Dragon post here: http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/08/dragon-watercolor-and-final.html
Some New Work
By Justin Gerard
Here is some sketching and a watercolor for some new work that Annie and I are doing for Spectrum LIVE in May.
We have been working on some new story ideas and have been having a lot of fun with the development recently.
We will have a few new pieces from the series as well as some surprises for everyone at Spectrum.
My initial plan for the surprise was to ride in on 7 angry bulls, wearing a flaming linen canvas and a crown of paintbrushes. All while many dozens of otters in capes scampered here and there.
That plan fell through.
So it will be slightly less ambitious than all that, but still pretty intense.
We will be posting more about the development as it happens here at GalleryGerard.com.
Until then, I give you: Undersea Mayhem!
The Search for the Pearl
12" x 16"
Watercolor on Bristol
A Show of Hands
I did a post back in 2011 on different ways that different artists painted eyes. So for today's post I thought I would revisit this theme, only this time, to see how some of my favorite artists paint hands.
There is so much to learn by seeing how different artists tackle the same subject. Comparisons like this can allow us to see the effect that an approach can have when working on your subject. Do you want to refine your subject down to something extremely soft? Or would you rather thrash brushwork into the canvas in order to achieve texture and character? How does leaving an outline around your subject change the way it is seen? Seeing how other artists solved these problems and the effect it can have on their work is always fascinating.
Can you guess who the artists are here? I will be posting the actual names tomorrow!
Link to the Original Post: The Eyes Have It
Back from FaerieCon West
They used Annie's painting "Secluded Blue" for the program guides and flyer
We are finally back from FaerieCon West in Seattle, WA. This weekend was our first time showing as guest artists at this event and our first time showing at a convention as a married couple (woo!). Unlike our regular show modus operandi, we packed everything for our booth in some checked and carry on bags, and hopped on a plane. We were both a little nervous about flying with original artwork, so our booth was, unfortunately, a bit limited. We only brought prints and books to this show.
Despite this, we had a blast at the show! We were able to participate in some fun panels, hang out with friends and family, and eat lots and lots of food.
The hotel
The beautiful sunset view from our room!
Some cool glass elevators
Justin with some coffee
Annie and Justin and their booth via Rob and Jean Carlos
Krab Jab Studio had a room at the event to show off the latest pieces from their new exhibition, Faerie II. You can see all pieces from the show in their studio until February 27th.
Annie Stegg and Charles Vess
There were some great images taken from the opening of this show via Tara Larsen Chang.
Happy Valentine's Day!
For my sweetheart...
5x7 oil on paper
February 2014
On the Easel Today
Justin Working on classical map for the world of Andrew Peterson's Wingfeather Saga.
New working Thumbelina piece
18x24 oil on belgian linen
It's been a long time, but I am finally starting to work on new pieces for the Thumbelina collection. I've been excited to work on this image in particular. The imagery in Hans Christian Anderson's passage is so beautiful.
The little fishes who swam in the water beneath her had seen the toad and heard what she had said. So up popped their heads to have a look at the little girl. No sooner had they seen her than they felt very sorry that anyone so pretty should have to go down to live with that hideous toad. No, that should never be! They gathered around the green stem which held the leaf where she was, and gnawed it in two with their teeth. Away went the leaf down the stream, and away went Thumbelina, far away where the toad could not catch her.
Thumbelina sailed past many a place, and when the little birds in the bushes saw her they sang, "What a darling little girl." The leaf drifted further and further away with her, and so it was that Thumbelina became a traveler.
A lovely white butterfly kept fluttering around her, and at last alighted on the leaf, because he admired Thumbelina. She was a happy little girl again, now that the toad could not catch her. It was all very lovely as she floated along, and where the sun struck the water it looked like shining gold.
-Hans Christian Andersen (1835)
I began working on this piece last year, but became discouraged with the size and decided to repaint it a little larger this time around. Thumbelina would have probably ended up being actual size if I stuck with the original dimensions!
It was a hard decision, because I liked the underpainting I had started for it. And also because... who wants to completely repaint something over again once you have already started!? I almost abandoned the new piece a dozen different times during the first few days. But in the end, I think I'm happy I decided to start over.
The good news is that because I had a value study to use as reference, I was able to begin painting immediately with color on the new one, which sped things up a lot. I hope to get some of the depth back with glazing once these layers have dried. And to tone down the green.
I also happened to stumble upon some great mossy patches in the mountains last weekend and was able to get a few reference photos. I am really excited to see what I can incorporate into this. I'll post some more updates soon!
Battle Skull
This guy was for a super fun commission that I had the pleasure of working on recently for Tom Travers. Tom has had the really cool idea to ask a number of artists to do their own renditions of his character Battle Skull for a book he will be self-publishing.
It was great fun working with his character here for the drawing. And it was oddly relaxing to work with someone else's characters for a bit.
You can see more of his work on his blog at: http://www.traversart.blogspot.com
