How to use this Page

Wow, its been as while since my last post! Looking back, its odd that my last post was about a lull in the workflow. I certainly don’t feel like things have been moving slowly! To start things off, I’ll talk about some “business” aspects of the past month.

Taking advantage of the downtime, I implemented an income/collections/taxes tracking system. Basically, now I know roughly what I’ll need to pay in terms of federal taxes come April. I am keeping this estimated amount in its own savings account. In conjunction, I’ve also revamped my deduction-tracking technique so that its a lot simpler and easier to process come April.

Another administrative task I’ve been tackling as of late is collecting on invoices. I have learned that the end of the job is never the end of the job. Its can get pretty hairy and confusing. I’ve learned that folks process invoices immediately, at the end of the week, at the end of the month, or after publication. As such, I never know what going on with the invoice after the job so I have to email to follow-up. With the new system, its been easier though. Upon invoicing, I’ll now simply ask the client when they process their invoices so I can project a rough estimate of when I should be looking for a check. Then I can contact clients as needed after the date passes. I don’t know how other people feel about this or how they work, but I can get spacey on these matters when I’m concentrating on artwork. So instead of randomly hoping for checks when I open my mailbox, I am being more active and organized in collecting. Working in this manner, I now know where every invoice I have out stands in terms of processing and delivery. Sadly, some payments have been sent to my old address (long story) so I assume they will be forwarded by the always-punctual postal service.

What else has come up these past weeks? Ah, another thing taken into account since the last post was communication i.e, talking with other artists and illustrators. With Aliyah starting her graduate classes, it has been a very difficult solitude. Having just moved to the town of Beacon, I barely know anyone. After exhausting my trips to coffee shops and running errands, I have started posting on blogs to meet other artists. This also exposes me to a lot of new art. Recently, I was featured on thelittlechimpsociety.com as the “Editor’s Pick:”
Pretty cool. Also, that feature bumped up web traffic at chris-whetzel.com for a bit. I have been told that a lot of the members of that site are art directors so I see it as free promotion. Thanks to the guys at The Little Chimp Society! I look forward to posting more, and I tend to check out the blog every day or so. Similarly, I was invited to join sugarfrostedgoodness.com this week. I know that none of this is a big deal in terms of moneymaking, but I really feel that posting on these blogs as well as chris-whetzel.blogspot.com and theautumnsociety.blogspot.com really keep me motivated. As lame as it sounds, it fends off the lonelys :) And the bonus is that links from these sites increase chris-whetzel.com’s search engine ranking. Cool.

And the final thing I would like to say about blogs is to simply mention a helpful one: cedricohnstadt.wordpress.com. This blog is awesome for anyone freelancing. Its basically years and years of one guy’s experiences in the field. He also posts so many links that are illustration-business related. Great blog! One gem I found (of many) was the freelanceswitch.com podcast. Very cool. If you like the ICONIC podcasts, you may enjoy these. However, the Freelance Switch panel focuses on the BUSINESS of illustration by discussing a show-specific topic and answering questions about everything from contracts to etiquette to networking. And its all handled in a fun and light-hearted manner! This podcast also comes in handy when working long days alone and you just want to hear human voices! Its like being in a roundtable discussion!

Ah, discussion. I am jealous to hear Aliyah talk about class discussions. I miss it. I’m kind of disappointed that my friends and I never really got a collective together. I tried to establish “drink and draws” patterned after Dave Johnson’s group, but it never really took off. Its cool that Philly has The Autumn Society, but I’m in New York! Granted, I had a great artistic talk with Joe Game last week, but its not the same as sitting around looking at each other art, having crits, etc (and he totally guilted me for not blogging). However, I’m finding out that the artists in Beacon do meet; I just have to find out how to get involved. I was working at a coffee shop last night when a group formed next to me. Not really paying attention (I listen to my ipod when working outside the apartment), I noticed they were discussing art in between songs. Turns out they meet to just talk art, tell what they are doing, and pass on opportunities. This is awesome. I wanted to talk to someone in the group after the meeting, but I had to leave before they disbanded.

But hopefully, an opportunity to chat will present itself as I have been asked to take part in a show at that very coffee shop! After speaking with Nate (the manager) today, it seems the show will be November-ish. He really liked my drawings enough to ask a price on one! So it will be my “artsy” drawings as opposed to digital prints. He said he is still looking for illustrators who specifically have drawings to show. If you would like to be considered, drop me a line and I'll give him your website.

Striking off on a tangent, I was recently asked to attend the Baltimore Comic Con as part of The Autumn Society Collective. This was a great honor as I really respect the art of the other collective artists taking the trip: Joseph Game, Peter Wonsowski, and Craig Parillo. Good guys who make good art. What sucks is that I can’t go. Financially, I just don’t feel comfortable spending a lot of money to travel, for space, etc to promote to a field that probably can’t use my artwork. Plus I'll have a big expense thi smonth that I'll discuss later. I REALLY tried to rationalize going as I am a hardcore comic fan and I just wanted to be a fanboy for a weekend, but logical-me won the battle. Best of luck to the guys attending! Wish I could be there!

And so, being proud of my willpower, I have decided to commit to an ispot portfolio this month. I am worried about spending the money but its deductible, and I really think I’ll get some work from it. Dave Tabler at the ispot has been very accommodating with my hesitancy. It turns out they have a payment plan so that assuaged the fear a bit. And as a bonus, it turns out that ispot and Adbase have a deal where ispot members get a discount at Adbase. Cool. Next year, I hope to take advantage of it!

Another reason I decided to go for the ispot portfolio was that work picked up. August has been a super-busy month. It was sad to leave a personal piece unfinished to start new jobs, but I hope to have it done next week. Anyway, on to new work!

Ok, so the first commission came via email from Houston Press. This paper was a new addition to the mailing list so that was a good sign that the new card wasn’t such a bad image choice after all! The job was four spot illustrations for their “Best Of” issue due in a little over aweek. The budget was lower than I could afford, but we negotiated a budget that worked for both of us. Awesome. I can’t discuss the subject matter or post images until after publication on the 25th of September. But these were a lot of fun, and I think they add a little diversity to the portfolio. I’ll post them, sketches and all after the 25th.

Although fun, the period of working on them was a little crazy as while sketching them, I got a call from the art director of Retail Traffic who needed a quarter page spot by that Tuesday! Awesome, but the tight deadline was a little intimidating. Nevertheless, I knew I could do it so I accepted (just sleep less). He sent me a version of the article titled “Taking On Water.” It was about the California budget crisis and how its affecting the housing economy. It was an odd subject matter, but I enjoyed the challenge. Pushing back the Houston Press sketches, I ripped out these three sketches:
I like them all for different reasons. I assumed they would go with the first one of the house sinking on the chart, but he surprised me by choosing the house with the life preserver. I also like the "stormy weather" one, but we both agreed its more of a full-page image as everything is so small. The final:
This isn’t my greatest piece, but I like that it shows I can think outside of figurative work. Originally, I left off the “S.S. California,” but I was really happy that they asked me to put it back on the life preserver. I took this piece a little farther in terms of color as I want to push for more color in this graphic style.

One interesting aspect of this commission was that Retail Traffic is a magazine published by Penton Media, the same folks that commissioned the 10 portraits for Registered Rep a few posts back. My first return customer! Sort of. I worked with two different art directors but whatever. I count it.

So anyway, I finished the piece up on Tuesday. Prior to this, while doing the finish for Retail Traffic, I also finished and submitted sketches for the “Best Of” article. The art director really liked them, and we were set. However, the day I finished the Retail Traffic piece, the Houston Press art director called and asked if I could provide a cover in addition to the spot illustrations! Whoa! I told here there was no way I could have both done in four days. Then she explained that the spots were not needed until later in September and that the cover was for that week’s weekly paper. Now that I can do! On a sidenote, I have been becoming more relaxed with art directors, and it makes things more fun and light-hearted on both ends. Everything has been very laidback with everyone this month aside from getting work done. Its really kind of cool. So anyway, the spots got pushed back a week so that I could do this cover.

It is a portrait of Gary Kubiak, coach of the Houston Texans (football team). The idea was pretty simple: parody the popular Obama campaign poster using Kubiak instead. I was hesitant to do this as I like coming up with my own concepts, but I like paying rent so I agreed to do it. I was little worried about plagiarism, but my good buddy, Scott Brundage, said its not as he has seen this issue dealt with at his dayjob. I won’t show the sketches for this as there were like four versions with both the art director and myself photoshopping things, and they are really just messy sketches (not my usual rendered drawings). So anyway, here is the finish:
I like it. Initially, I wasn’t going to put it in my portfolio, but it really opened me up to using a palette without black and white. So I’ll keep it in there and add more pieces like it. What I really like about is that it’s a pretty good likeness in a totally non-existent pose i.e, I didn’t have direct reference to work from so I was making up lighting. I like jobs that challenge me and make me work harder. This one was a real test of my abilities! I never really thought my likenesses were good enough to market, but people seem to like them. As such, I’m trying to draw more popular figures in my non-commissioned works to get better at capturing a likeness. I have a list to work from!

However, there was one downside of this commission. Less than eight hours after taking the cover job, the art director at SFWeekly emailed me with a job for a half-page calendar illustration about a JETPACK EVENT! Arrrgh! I was so bummed to turn this down, but there was no way I could do both pieces as the turn around on the calendar was less than two days. We have a good, jovial relationship and he understood. Still, I hate turning anyone away. I think I’m still gonna do a jetpack piece just for fun and send it to him. I told him I might work it up for the portfolio, and he said its inspired him to break out his acrylics. Cool stuff.

And that’s all I got, folks. I just finished up the “Best Of” spots today, and they were approved. So the next post will probably feature those as well as the personal piece I am getting back to after almost a month. I don’t even remember where I was on it…Plus I stil lwant to do a particlular portrait and new drawings for the coffee shop show.

And maybe I’ll do something with this sketch I did while watching the DNC last week:

I like Obama. Good guy.

So who knows what next week holds? I'm sure I'll find something to occupy my time :)

Enjoy the Day,
Chris
chris-whetzel.com