Freelance advice from a Freelance artist

This might be a bit old school for some of you as this was posted on a bunch of sites a few months ago. But I recently was going through some of my bookmarks and reread the article and I believe the information is extremely valuable.

Dave Roman is an amazingly talented artist who's work has appeared in such books as Flight, Agnes Quill, and Nickelodeon Magazine. Dave is also the associate editor, comics associate, and a writer for Nickelodeon Magazine. So in short, he has had more then a bit of experience in the illustration work and he knows his stuff.

The article itself is quite long and detailed but every word in the article is pure gold. Dave covers everything from portfolios to how to work with an art director, from media recommendations to how to advertise yourself online, and everything in between. And unlike many books out there which are years old, technophobic, or written from "old man" perspective/about the industry years ago, but Dave's article is about as current and relevant as possible.

So if you have a moment of free time then go and read the article. If you're busy at the moment then bookmark it and go back to it once you are free.

http://www.yaytime.com/guide_freelance.html

Free Friday Movies

Julia Breckenreid has started up Free Movie Fridays open to all illustration students. Each Friday the goal will be to show a classic or highly influential movie in B124 (up on the big screen, just like a theater).

Last week was ever classic Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. This week is to be determined but once Julia gets me the list of what's playing this/later weeks I will post it up here.

New Years Update

Sorry for the long time without an update. I was out of commission with getting my portfolio and site ready and then going out of the country for a bit.

Mighty wall should be up-to-date with links. Still up at school is the Zombies edition theme. I will keep it up for the first week back so if you did anything over the break you can pin it up. I will post the new theme as soon as I figure it out so you can spend the last week of your break working on it between all those personal projects you have the chance to do right now. Anyone else with links or news about upcoming shows, sites, or events, just comment here or drop me an e-mail at

To kill some time here's an interesting link I've found:
What the Font is a nice site that allows you to upload pictures and the site will figure out what font was used. Great tool in graphic design class for figuring out a logo font so you can use it in the body copy.

Mighty Wall Links

The Mighty Wall link list is growing wonderfully this year! But for those of you who haven't gotten on the list let me provide you with a place to comment or e-mail for me to get your information.

HERE

Comment to this post or e-mail me at Craig.Arndt@gmail.com
Please remember to post your first and last name (as you want it on the link list), your URL, and your year. If you have more then one link you want up (a blog and a website, or different types of blogs) then let me know of both of them and when the link list gets more organized I may be able to get both of them up in different categories.

For those of you without a blog or anything online I highly recommend getting something. It takes seconds to make and is an excellent way to promote yourself to an international client base. IF you are afraid of some of the sites Terms of Service and the rights you may be extending to them by posting your work then you may want to look into getting your own website (They can be as cheap as $3 a month) orDeviantart.com/Flickr.com. Both are very popular and many industry professionals have gone over the TOS with a fine tooth comb to make sure nothing sneaky is going on. Once you have a place to host your images then you can easily cross post your work onto more blogs such as LiveJournal, or even here on Blogger. All this takes maybe 30 minutes to set up, and a boring afternoon to check out the sites TOS to make sure you're happy with them.

Art Jam+ Free Admission = a Party!

Amanda Sheehan, Lauren Rowlands, and Tyrel McNicol have organized a massive FREE art jam for Friday, November 23rd, at the cage/conneXion. Open to all years the idea is to just have fun, jam, and mix with your fellow illustration students. Remember to bring your own supplies, but some surfaces will be provided to draw/paint upon (I'd recommend doing a value village run to grab some fun things to paint on). Here is the rundown quickly.
When:November 23rd, at 8pm
Where: At the cage/connexion
Who: Table of Elements, the breakdance group, will be performing.
and POSSIBLE attendees include: Joe, Clemente, and some big names from Conceptart.org/deviantart.com
Who else: Open to all years, and other artist are welcome too.
What (to eat/drink): It's the conneXion, so the bar will be in full swing, and the event is also a potluck so bring your own food to share but remember to label things with ingredients for safety (allergies) and courtesy (non-meat eaters).

Personally, I think this is one of the best ideas I've heard all year. It's a great chance for the younger years to see who's in the program, make some friends, and learn what's coming up in the future years ahead. And for the veterans it's a great chance to see the up and coming students, network, and meet your future competition/co-workers. Ask any teacher, Illustration is a small world, so why not do yourself a favour and have some fun while introducing yourself to our small part of it.

Mighty wall contest winner

The very talented 3rd year student Bryce Huffman is the winner of the "writting on the wall" contest. In the not too distant future you should see his awesome work up on the mightywall as our title bar.
Check out more of Bryce's work here. It's certainly worth the peek.

Mightywall Contest Extension

We're going to extend the "writing on the wall" contest till after reading week just to give everyone a chance to do something over the break. It just seemed a bit odd to end the contest right before everyone has some spare time to work on it.