Contractual obligations..

I got this email from reader Ken (who often comments with useful information, thanks Ken!), asking a question about the business side of illustration:

“Do most illustrators try to get a contract signed with their client before starting
work, provide an estimate only or just start working on faith?

I have adopted the estimate, quote and invoice forms from “Business and Legal
FOrms for Illustrators” by Tad Crawford for the past several years.  The forms
are on an included CD and can be edited to tailor to your needs.  Having been
burned by an unscrupulous client who used my rough drawing and decided not to
pay me on one of my early jobs, I have always sent a PDF of an estimate, which
includes a description of the job, my fee and a list of boiler plate legalites
that are repeated in the quote and invoice forms.  Some of these include what
rights are being purchased, revision rights, cancellation fees and ownership of
any original art and sketches. “

What Ken does is really smart, and in all likelihood what I ought to do. In my experiences so far, I always ask if the client has a contract/paperwork to sign– usually they do, at least to sign once. A few have not, and depending on the situation (for example, I knew the art director for Yale Alumni Magazine before I did work for them, as he taught at the college I went to. Or if it’s a very rush deadline, sometimes I don’t bother) , sometimes I will do work without a contract (though I do discuss at detail the rights/ownership/other details). This probably is like riding a bike without a helmet though, and it’s something I need to improve on my business end, just to make sure that I don’t get burned and to be tip-top professional.  It’s hard to say who will and who won’t have a contract readymade for you to sign– I’ve had small local weeklies with contracts, and I’ve worked for big corporate magazines who don’t. You should always get this stuff taken care of, though– it’s part of the business. I’ve been lucky that every client I’ve had so far has been reputable and paid me– though occasionally due to some mixup they misplace my invoices.

Sometimes though, I don’t sign the contract right away– for example, if they send me a contract in the mail, I work on the sketches while I’m waiting. So I guess I work more on good faith, but I suspect I ought to be more by the book, eh?

What about you, have you done work without a contract? Or is it a major faux-pas?

Gotta keep this entry short, today I have to hang a lighting system to expose screens so I can screenprint again. Have a great weekend and happy illustrating!

The illustration process: sketches 101.

I got a very good email in from Alexis of greenbluegreen the other day, asking a couple of questions for the blog. I’m only too happy to oblige– it’s great to get emails from people asking things I don’t even consider, and in this way we kind of get a conversation going. Especially since I’m no expert, I always love to hear what
other people thing and get some kind of dialogue going.

So, she asked the following:

How rough should a rough [sketch] be? I would imagine that it depends on your own illustration process. I have found from experience that the rougher an initial sketch is, the more the art director is inclined to change it. But is there a general standard for what a rough should look like?

I wonder about this as well, but so far I haven’t really ever seen this happen. Usually I send along two roughs to art directors, maybe three, and sometimes only one. (Usually the latter occurs if I know the art director well and we have a general idea how it’s going to look beforehand.) My sketches are generally kind of rough — not as rough as say, Nate Williams’ roughs– but they’re not perfect usually. I’ve uploaded a couple here and here to show you as an example (the second one got scrapped for a different view of the subject, but I still have a spot of fondness for the kids in animal masks). Especially when we’re talking larger illustrations, I generally just work in a much smaller sketch. I don’t believe there’s a standard though– when I send along my roughs, I usually detail a short paragraph of things I think of that need to be changed or would be included, and explain it’s rough. Depending on how in sync we are with the concept, I might get approved, or I might get asked to make some alterations. Lately I’ve been getting more edits and revisions– but it usually works out for the better. Nothing seems standard though– I don’t mind the revisions so much (makes me love the times I get approved off the bat!) because it lets me communicate with the AD, and work out some ideas I might’ve not come to the first time around.

What about you, how rough are your sketches? And do you typically have revisions or do you nail the concept right off the bat? Help us out– maybe there is some standardization of roughs we don’t know about!

As an aside: does anyone know if there’s a way to put a form in WordPress for sending along questions? I think most people understand to email me with questions (as I’ve had a few) but I wouldn’t mind making it easier, if people had ideas of things they want to know about.

Stock illustration– your thoughts?

Earlier in the week a fellow named Jamie Tucker wrote me with some concerns, and I figured I’d address it here and find out what you think. He writes:

 ”My colleagues and I recently graduated from the Illustration course at Sheridan College two years ago. I have found many of them now keeping a profile at istockphoto.com and selling stock illustration for like 5 dollars or something like that. They sell a lot of it and are making approx. 400-500 dollars a month. This has led more people from my circle of friends to join up. I’m really against what they’re doing and have heated arguments with them over it. My one friend justifies it to himself by creating a different persona and illustration style for this work.
My personal view is that places like these are killing the industry. Because why would someone want to pay 600 dollars for an illustration when they can get one or a dozen for 10 dollars each. My friends are just saturating the market with their wares. They are talented people so its not like they’re churning out garbage. So people are getting quality work for pennies.
The allure to them is they think it is quick easy money. And it is a very strong pull, especially for strarving illustrators who don’t want to work full time at a 9-5 and Illustrate on the side. (which is what I’m doing)”

I’m torn how to feel on this subject to be fair. On one hand, I really don’t like stock illustration because yes, it does devalue the work that goes into it in some way, even though you do get the opportunity to use an illustration more than once and then get paid for it. But on the other hand, it seems to me that it doesn’t entirely kill the industry– it serves a different purpose. There are some art directors who treat illustration and photography as just another element to pretty up a page– it’s like picking out a font treatment. Or their topics are so common that a very typical image could personify it. Or their budgets don’t allow to hire an illustrator (although this last idea is more wishful thinking– I’ve done my fair share of work for alternative newsweeklies and they on a whole don’t have big budgets). But could we use stock illustration for everything? I don’t think so.  Moreover, I think other art directors dislike the idea of stock illustration and then as a result go and commission illustrators to make an image.  I may have a pretty close-minded view of the field I admit– I only have been doing this a couple of years, so I suspect there are some veterans out there with a better idea of how it actually works… But I think while I am not a fan of stock illustration and probably wouldn’t do something like sign up with a site like that, it serves its own purpose. I don’t like it, but fortunately illustration has expanded in enough ways that there are still people who want custom illustrations, whose purposes aren’t served by your every day stock illo.

Anyway, I’m curious of your thoughts as well– I guess I have a different view than some, much as I do on the whole ‘illustration is a dying animal’ topic. It doesn’t seem dead to me, but then again I’m not old enough to know how it used to be? But anyway, feel free to comment with your thoughts about stock illustration– do you like it? Hate it? Why? I guess if you can bang out a ton of stock illustration without a lot of effort, perhaps it’s worth it– but the way I work, it’d be pretty useless.