Aye Aye

Unfinished painting of an interesting little creature called the Aye aye.

Letter of Agreement

As a freelancer, it is always good to get everything in writing up front. When dealing with clients, it is good to use your own boilerplate contract rather than theirs, at least initially. This allows you to make the terms clear and beneficial to your needs from the beginning, even if negotiation or transfer to their own contract is necessary afterwards. This is called a Letter of Agreement.

I have long used a variation of the sample that is provided through the Graphic Artists Guild. This is a printable version of their example.


In addition, they have a glossary of contract terms, as these are frequently used and can be misunderstood. The glossary can be found here.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm always available if anyone wants to discuss usage rights, Work-for-Hire issues or anything along the lines of what we deal with when we put our business hat on.

Sketching, warming up.

I've been doing roughs so long I think I've forgotten what color is. I just dropped 150 smackers at dickblick.com on some inks and various colored pencils to use with watercolor. Here goes nothing.

Hairdo in the tub.

I fluff my son's hair up when it's partially wet in the tub and then he (now annoyed) pats it down. However, he forgets to pat down the sides. 

Boom. Flock of Seagulls haircut. Works every time. 

Online Lite-Brite

Click here to play the online version of Lite-Brite®

World Record Blog Comments

I am accepting the personal challenge of breaking the world record for the number of comments in a blog post. Can it be done here ? The world record is 967. Piece of cake! To start out, let's comment on why everybody likes me so much better than Stacy and Wes.

A Question about Storage

In the Comments Section a few posts ago, Little Chin Burger asked: "But it got me to wondering, you create such a high volume of illustrations, as do Ted and Wes...how in the world do you guys keep track of all these works and how do you file them so you can keep track of them? I'm am curious to know."

Stacy's response:

I have a few methods of storage....

I store my screenprinted posters, large sheets of watercolor paper in a flat file cabinet like this:

I got the cabinet off Craigslist for $150, I think. They can run up to $250 or more.

I usually work several jobs at one time, something that a freelancer has got to do to pay the bills.
To keep track of those jobs, I store all sketches, print-outs, notes, etc. in a plastic cabinet like this:


Each drawer is labeled with the name of the project, so if I am looking for a sketch I did for my Meghan Rose project, I go to this storage unit and the sketch/e-mail print-out/paperwork is most likely located in the drawer labeled "Meghan Rose".

For finished paintings, larger sketches and finished artwork for books that have been published, I put them into drawers like this:



In my studio, I have around ten of these drawers stacked up against the wall.
Each drawer is labeled and right now I'm working on a project that has a large amount of paintings, sketches, etc. so the top drawer is dedicated to that one project.
I like that they are plastic, so in case my studio floods (I have a basement studio), the water will never reach the paper.
And for further protection, the bottom two drawers are (basically) empty.

Here's a photo of a corner of my studio from a while back (some things have changed):

As you can see I have more plastic drawer units to hold pads of paper, bristol board and sketches I want to come back to later.

I would love to have a fireproof safe with all my work in it, but they're hard to move because of their weight and they cost a lot.

Digitally, I save all my files in different versions....non-flattened Photoshop files, flattened Photoshop files, high-resolution files and low-resolution files all in folders and subfolders for each job. I save a back up of every job on a CD and DVD. Then I save a back-up on two external hard drives. Once a week, I save everything I've worked with on my computer to an external drive. And make a back-up. Just in case.

All of the storage units mentioned above can be found at:

Office Depot

Office Max

The Container Store

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Wes' response:

LCB,

Good question. It can get messy if you aren't on top of it. I've been forced to try and be better about it.

For the paper originals I have all these ikea wood shelves. Each shelf represents a current project and for the digital I keep everything for each project in a folder with various sub folders. It's nice to have it scanned in because then I can stash away the original. I then have a color system of labeling the files so I'm aware if files have been finished. Everything is instantly backed up into two external drives.

I have accidentally saved files when they were reduced for the web and that's a pain.

-W.

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Ted's response:

File??? Keep track??? I easily made a thousand drawings last year, and I'm really not sure where they are right now.

I'm terrible at organizing. Last year my hot babe wife spent some time making large envelopes out of brown paper to store my art, which has just been piled in boxes for years.


She also bought me this thing, which probably has a name, and it is excellent for keeping my jobs more organized.

That's about all I have to say about that.

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GIVE US SOME FEEDBACK!
Readers: Tell us about your storage methods in the Comments section.
We'd love to hear how you store your artwork, sketches, etc.!

Birthday Gift

I painted and framed this for my niece for her birthday.
I went with a thicker line style, since I wanted to frame it in a colorful frame that would look fun hanging on the wall in her room.
She loves soccer and got a new puppy, so I tried to work those into the drawing. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

She's always sending me drawings and things she's colored, so I thought I'd return the favor and give her something to hang in her room.

Happy Birthday, Kiddo!

Tomaters

More workbook stuff.

Shopkeeper

Hangin' Clothes

This is a piece I drew tonight while watching television.
I couldn't decide whether to paint it or not.

Sketch

Here's one of the sketches I was able to make while laying in front of the fireplace this past COLD weekend.

Editorial cartoon

Here's an editorial cartoon I had in Sunday's Chicago Tribune.
It's on a local topic: The Illinois governor attached a provision onto the last-minute public transportation funding package that allows all senior citizens to ride public transportation for free.

This maybe the first watercolored editorial cartoon I've ever done for a newspaper.
It would be interesting to see if I could pull that off five or six days a week.

Drawing

This is a little illo I did today for another SRA test. Inked with the good ol' Pocket Brush Pen.

TRON

We watched TRON tonight, my second time since seeing it in the theater twenty-five years ago. It actually held up really well. And my eight-year-old said it was the best movie he's EVER seen. Even better than The Incredibles. The only thing that could be better is if he actually got to zap inside a video game himself.

Apology to Tom Cruise

I've been feeling a little bad about my post making fun of Tom Cruise and his religion. I've fallen prey to the popular notion that it's okay to pick on Tom and Scientology. I should know better than that. Really, Scientology is no weirder than most religions; it's just a matter of the culture we grow up in that determines what is normal and what is not.

Sorry, Tom.

A couple pages.

I can't wait to be painting all the green grasshopper guts hitting the red car.

-W

Color

I love all the colors. What fun, but I can't imagine the pain in the tuckus it was to clean them all up!

This was a commercial for Bravia.
The song is "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzalez.

Some pranksters just pulled this same stunt by launching a half million rubber balls down the Spanish Steps by Holy Trinity in Rome.

Sketchbook Pro

I downloaded the trial version of sketchbook last year and had just about forgotten about it, since most of the features lock up after a short while. But I did a little sketching in it again today and remembered how really great it is for sketching. It has a very natural feel to it. So I'm mulling over the purchase again. Especially since I hate scanning.

You should really check out the program. It's designed for tablets specifically.

Tom Cruise - Scientology

Tom Cruise is touting himself and other Scientologists as "authorities on the mind" in a new video made for the religious group, while the theme for Mission: Impossible plays in the background. Hubbardian slip? I don't know. But it sure seems like it would balance out the United States presidential primaries if ol' Tom was running.