This is a digital watercolor I recently put up for sale on my online store. Click the add below to visit the store.

This is a digital painting of a street musician my wife and I ran into a few years ago. I always wanted to do a painting of this guy and finally got around to it after almost 5 years. I often wonder what happened to this guy. He seemed to enjoy life and was really cool about us taking his picture. I hope he sees this some day.

Confidence, yes

Arrogance, no

Reading about:
The Atelier Method, and Hegelian Dialectic of bringing about change in a three-step process: Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis

Watching: 300

Producing: Kick Ass work, not Kiss Ass work...and they thank me  for it.

You are an artist and designer. First thing to do is remember to design yourself, packaging is everything. Set yourself up as an an LLC or a DBA and join the Chamber of Commerce of your local city/county and talk up your services at meetings. Don’t just drop off cards, talk to people. Network with other designers, artists, writers, copywriters, photographers and web programmers that belong to the COC. You can team up with them on jobs. Network, network, network, or not work.

Join up local job clubs, find a mentor through the S.C.O.R.E. program, visit creative agencies, join local artist guilds.

Other thoughts

Don’t stop at graphics, do web graphics, push your cartoons, tell people you will do all of their marketing collateral, print, web, mobile and multimedia work. Tell them you can provide copywriters, programmers and photography as well. Don’t say no to any job. If someone wants a website and you don’t know how to do it, sub-contract it out to one of the guys you met at the COC, be the art director.

People will pay good money for good work; especially after they’ve been burned by the housewife who did a brochure in Microsoft Word for them and used the same clip art as their competitors.

You have to sell yourself and make people believe you will make their life better. Gain their trust, be a salesman – they aren’t purchasing your graphics or artistic skills, they are purchasing you. You exist to… A) make their life easier, B) increase their bottom line, C) keep their boss’s boss of their boss’s back, D) answer the question “What’s in it for me?”, E) Make them believe they will earn $10 for every $1 they pay you, and F) Promote you, the Brand, everyday.

Set up websites for your services, post ads on Americantowns.com, craigslist, set up a Facebook fan page, there are plenty of free services if you can’t afford the hosting fees. Create a website for caricatures, one for graphics, one for cartoons. Update your artwork on facebook, set up a fan page. You have a lot of old stuff; show something new, or hide the dates on your work. Set up a Zazzle store, CafePress, Red Bubble, ArtyBuzz Wix.com and Deviant art page.

I realize this may come off as a little harsh and cynical but I a cynic’s imperfect vision causes him to see things as they are and not as they should be.

More to come, stay tuned.

We all have to compete — indirectly or indirectly — with the hobbyist with clip art and the idiot art student that works for free or for exposure and fame. Cheap clients prey on their ignorance.

They are bottom feeders and don’t care if you went to  RISD, studied under Frazetta , DaVinci, or if you are a 12-year old with a MAC book and a pirated copy of the latest version of the Adobe Creative Suite. These people believe they doing you a favor when they expect something for nothing. People who want something for nothing have nothing to offer, period.

Cheapies vs. Legitimate Clients

If you run into a cheap person, turn around and leave. Let them advertise on craigslist for untalented wannabees and insecure art students willing to work for free. Screw them. I’m sure they will enjoy dealing with the dopey kid, bored housewife, or the overseas designer who charges $10.00 an hour for a full-service website. Forget they exist. Let the wannabees deal with them. Don’t waste your time.

There are gobzillions of legitimate places and people that need graphics, design, multimedia, web, illustrations, etc. There are small businesses, banks, insurance companies, hospitals, non-profits, restaurants, and any number of businesses out there willing to pay for good work because everything with their name on it reflects their business and personal investment in that business. A legitimate business person will not place themselves in an at-risk position by hiring less than stellar people to help them grow their business. 

This is my virtual artbook, as published via Issuu.com. With Issuu.com you can collect, share and publish in a format designed to make your documents look their very best for viewing on the web. It's a free service worth looking into.

This is the latest incarnation of my home in the virtual world. This is the official site, accept no imitations. This is where I will promote, market, and control my brand identity. I invite you to visit often and learn about my latest projects.