Freelancing?

[SourRobot]

Honestly you can pick up opportunities everywhere and anywhere. I make a point to always let people around me know what I do. I don't believe in the hard sell, I don't push my work on people or spam advertisements, but how can they hire you if they don't even know you're for hire? I think I've sold things on pretty much every internet community I've ever been a part of, including this one.

And seconding the above, about Etsy being for crafts/jewelry and not for art. I personally don't use it much, but just about every crafter I know swears by it.

Oh, and this is just my opinion, but really you shouldn't do spec work. A lot of people asking for it are dishonest and abuse artists who don't know any better, I don't like to encourage that. If you need to practice and increase your portfolio there's no reason why you can't make things for friends, for family, just because, or even for imaginary companies you invented just to design for them. I'd rather do any of that than let somebody get into the habit of taking advantage of desperate new artists.

That's true about Etsy. Most people who make stuff seem to have success with selling their crafts on that website, so I would use that for my jewelry business. I would go with another website for art, though, unless my stuff was already framed and ready to be shipped.

Spec work is something that is pretty iffy. I still don't know if I want to do it or not. I've heard more people talking against it than for it.

I have operated in the fringes of the art world for years and there are a couple of basics I want to throw in.


1)If you want to get treated like a professional, you have to act like a profession. You can work for cheap, but dont work for free. Have a Twitter/ facebook/email address with your name. It doesnt look good if you are hotcartoonist209348@hotmail.com.

2)Getting a domain and a cheap hosting site is important(name cheap has some great deals..http://www.namecheap.com/) because it is a great way to showcase your art. Nothing says amateur like a deviantart or a free website.

3)Define the market you are aiming for. If you are a webcomicer/cartoonist/comic book artist, read things like fleen & daily cartoonist. research the types of portfolios you need to have for a comic convention and put you work up to be seen. If you are looking for graphic design, start checking out the CG forums for info. Define you market and research it.

4)You are your own biggest cheerleader. In my experience, I have several friends who everyone thought just burst onto the webcomics scene, they didnt. They worked hard, promoted themselves and it took time.

5)Read a lot! Books by Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, & Chris Guillebeau. These guys have a lot to say about how to put yourself out there. start here, read this and see what you think.....http://www.scribd.com/doc/45533704/T...uillebeau-2008

Thanks for the link!
I'm pretty tempted to make myself unavailable for free commissions on DA. I'm tired of doing work and not getting paid for it. I thought that by doing these free commissions, I would get more people to view my page or get the word out for me, but not much has improved. I do have a price list that I made a while ago, I'm going to start advertising that more.

And Taxguykarl, I just might send you a PM. I don't think I have any questions now, but I'm sure I will soon.

[Seshat]

I haven't seen anyone mention this, so:

* Include the time and money spent on non-art work when you're figuring out how much to charge for pieces. If if takes you half an hour (on average) of other work for an hour's worth of art jobs, you'll want to make sure your labour-per-hour charge actually covers an hour and a half worth of working-time.
Let's see if I can make this clearer...
Your income-per-hour as, say, a fast-food worker, is $X.
Eventually, you'll want your income-per-hour as an artist to be at least $X. Preferably $X+Y!
If you charge $X/hour labour for your art, you're not getting $X/hour income - because you're actually working half an hour of not-actually-art-stuff for each hour of art. So you need to charge $X+(half X)/hour labour, to get $X/hour.
Make sense?

Similarly, you have to average out the costs of tax preparation, accounting, business cards, etc etc, and include the costs of those in the 'supplies' part of your calculation.

And don't forget depreciation!



Also, here's some thoughts:
And you thought pro writing was easy

Underbilling doesn't do anyone any favours

[SourRobot]

I haven't seen anyone mention this, so:

* Include the time and money spent on non-art work when you're figuring out how much to charge for pieces. If if takes you half an hour (on average) of other work for an hour's worth of art jobs, you'll want to make sure your labour-per-hour charge actually covers an hour and a half worth of working-time.
Let's see if I can make this clearer...
Your income-per-hour as, say, a fast-food worker, is $X.
Eventually, you'll want your income-per-hour as an artist to be at least $X. Preferably $X+Y!
If you charge $X/hour labour for your art, you're not getting $X/hour income - because you're actually working half an hour of not-actually-art-stuff for each hour of art. So you need to charge $X+(half X)/hour labour, to get $X/hour.
Make sense?

Similarly, you have to average out the costs of tax preparation, accounting, business cards, etc etc, and include the costs of those in the 'supplies' part of your calculation.

And don't forget depreciation!



Also, here's some thoughts:
And you thought pro writing was easy

Underbilling doesn't do anyone any favours

Okay, now that I hadn't even thought of. Well, I did think about some of the things I would need to cover while determining how much I should get paid, but I hadn't thought about the non art stuff that's related to the project. I will definitely keep that in mind and work it in my prices somehow.